"Please come back Uchiha-san. You need to lie down! Your injuries are not fully healed!"

A young medic looked dejectedly at the escaping form of a young man barely limping his way through the hospital halls desperately trying to leave. She had heard the stories about him being very unreasonable when it came to staying in the hospital but she never thought it would be this bad. The man was willing to risk his own health to get out of the building! But she couldn't allow it. Her job was to heal and save lives and she was going to do it one way or the other.

As she turned around the next corner, the young medic gasped. Her patient was unconscious lying limp in a woman's arms. The medic moved closer before she finally recognized the woman.

"You're…"

The woman placed her finger on her lips and shook her head. The medic nodded.

"Uchiha Sasuke correct." The woman asked. The medic nodded. The woman easily threw him over her shoulders and directed for the medic to show her his room.

The medic shivered. This seemed unbelievable that such a petit woman could easily throw a man of that size over her shoulders with such ease. She didn't even seem to be bothered by his weight as if she wasn't even holding a grown man over her shoulders.

"This way please." The young medic instructed. As they reached the halls where the young Uchiha's room was, the medic was met with another surprise.

The woman had already walked ahead of her as if she knew that was the patient's room and stopped to watch the male standing to the side of the door.

"Your darling baby brother is a pain in the ass with his weird phobia." The woman told him. The male chuckled and replied. "As least you found him before he did something stupid."

The woman entered the room sighing dramatically. "As if. This little screw ball was two seconds away from leaping off the third floor window."

"I apologized." The male replied following the woman into the room.

The woman rested the young unconscious male down and quickly performed some seals. The female medic, who was still standing outside, peaked in to see the woman creating charka strings to hold down the body and prevent him from escaping again.

"You own me big time weasel. I am not letting this one go at all." The woman replied. The male smirked before bowing, "I am at your service cherry blossom."

The woman gave him a disgusted looked before she began to examine the patient before her, "I thought so. Some of his nerves were damaged. So wonder the idiot was walking like he had two left feet." She muttered softly to herself.

"Will he be okay?" the male asked. The woman ignored him and looked for the young medic.

"Get me specialize group C right away." The woman commanded. The young medic nodded and ran off. The male looked at the sight and laughed.

"You scared her Sakura." He remarked. The woman looked him and narrowed her eyes, "It's not like I meant to Itachi." She replied.

Itachi grabbed her by the elbow and smirked, "You really are something. I have to get you to work on your social skills."

Sakura pushed him off, "Forget about that." She muttered, "I have the papers for Minato-sama you I am heading up to his office. We will be called in later for the full re-cap about that mission." Her eyes narrowed at him before she left the room.

Itachi quickly pulled up a chair and linked his fingers together resting his elbows on his knees. "You can open your eyes now Sasuke." Itachi remarked.

The supposed unconscious patient eyes fluttered open as he stared his older brother. "Nii-sama." Sasuke said, "Who was that woman? She reeked of lavender."

Itachi arched his eyebrow at that comment. Sasuke could smell that. Now that was surprising.

"You must have imagined that baka brother." Itachi replied crossing his legs, "After all you were trying to escape the hospital again."

Sasuke snorted as he tried to push himself up only to feel the charka strong tighten forcing him back down. "I hate this place." Sasuke replied almost dejectedly.

Itachi laughed. "I know but I would have hoped you got over that already."

Sasuke glared at his older brother. This was not a laughing matter!

"I can assure you Sasuke." Itachi said seriously, "That will never happen again so please stop giving everyone else a hard time."

Sasuke snorted before turning his face away from his brother, "Whatever." He muttered softly.

Itachi stood up causing Sasuke to turn back to look at him. "You're leaving?!" Sasuke asked his eyes slightly widening as his brother began to step back.

"A medical team is coming to treat you. I will be in the way." Itachi replied casually.

Sasuke began to move uncomfortably glancing back his brother only to find the traitor gone.

"Itachi you freaking asshole get back here!"

But it was already too late. The elder Uchiha was already in the Hokage's office for a sudden meeting.

Sasuke sighed deeply before slamming his head into the pillow that was far too soft. His whole head was sinking into it and that annoyed him. He really didn't care that everyone found his irrational fear stupid or bothersome. In his eighteen years of living, Sasuke learnt the hard way that he shouldn't be bothered by other's opinions of him. He was who he was and he was going to life his own damn life how he saw fit.

However the woman earlier was very mysterious. Sasuke couldn't get her out of his mind. He didn't even get a good look at but he knew that she was very fast and high skilled. He didn't even sense her while he was making his escape. She was silent and quick and that pissed him off even more. Who the hell was she?!

Suddenly the door slid open and the team of medics his brother spoke off walked in. They didn't seem the least intimated by his as they surrounded him like a trapped prey. One pulled out a sharp needle and nodded to their team to hold Sasuke down.

"Get that fucking thing away from me!" Sasuke snapped at them but the medics already had him held down and was shoving that damn needle in his right arm. His eyes grew heavy again as his body grew limp.

The medics nodded to each other as the head of the team remarked, "Now we can finally begin."

In the Hokage's personal office, the current forth kage, Namikaze Minato sat down at his table skimming through his paper work waiting to start his meeting. One member was already here to her credit and was seated patiently mediating.

"Sakura can you please go and find Itachi." Minato asked. Sakura opened her eyes and sighed.

"He's already here." She replied. A puff of smoke appeared and there was the person they were waiting on.

"Itachi you're late." Minato remarked disapprovingly.

Itachi bowed, "I apologized. My brother was a bit of a handful." Minato nodded understanding the situation, "Of course. The ANBU exams just finished. How is he?"

Itachi took his seat and nodded, "In the best health I suppose." He replied.

Minato cleared his throat. "Well now we can begin."

He picked up the first files and looked at Sakura, "This is the data of everyone you examined?" Sakura nodded, "The bodies are sealed and prepared to be transported to their necessary locations." Minato nodded how monotone her voice was but nodded never the less.

"And this file." Minato continued picking up the next one, "It the results of the ANBU exams thus far." Both individuals in front of him nodded. Minato opened the file and quickly looked through the names, "I see your brother made it through Itachi." Mianto remarked offhandedly.

Itachi nodded, "So did your son."

Minato chuckled, "His Okaa-sama wouldn't be all too happy. Kushina didn't want him taking part this year." He paused and flipped through a few pages again, "The Hyuuga heiress is here as well and her teammate Aburame Shino as well." Minato nodded approvingly as he flipped through some more pages, "And the one with the top marks is…NARA SHIKAMARU!"

Itachi and Sakura tried to hold back their smirks at their kage's reaction. Minato, suddenly realize that he had stepped out of character quickly straightened his papers and nodded, "Well that's that." The young kage replied.

"Nara will make an excellent addition to the strategic squad." Itachi remarked casually. Sakura barked out a laugh beside him, "Don't talk as if they have all passed and are suddenly ANBUs now." She remarked, "These little pests still have to go through my tests before I even let them become ANBUs."

Minato felt an involuntary shiver slider down his spine, "Sakura please go easy on them." He asked kindly. Sakura laughed again.

"Either way." Minato continued, "The real reason I called both of you here."

The young kage stood up and stepped away from his desk to stand in front of the two ninjas before bowing.

"Thank you Uchiha Itachi and Haruno Sakura for your services towards Konoha in eliminating a very powerful band of S-ranks ninjas. I am happy that both of you could have returned to the village alive."

Itachi and Sakura were very surprised by Minato's actions. Both of them looked at each other before nodding and stood up. They got down on their knees and bowed to Minato.

"Thank you Minato-sama for your kind words and it is our honour to serve this village- our home and our happiness."

Minato looked up and smiled at them, "Well now…you're dismissed."

The two of them nodded and got to their feet and exited the room.

As the door closed, Sakura linked her arms with Itachi as they walked side by side. "So what should be my first chore for you to start replaying me for today's favour?" Sakura asked. Itachi smirked, "I could walk you to your apartment." He suggested. Sakura huffed. "That's too easy even for you." She replied annoyed. "I am still going to do it." Itachi said firmly, "You have a nasty habit of running into trouble." Sakura rolled her eyes at his suggestion, "You should just hurry back to the hospital before your brother throws another tantrum." She replied.

Itachi stopped, "We're here." He replied staring at the apartment complex where Sakura lived. She unlinked their arms and nodded, "Thanks." She muttered softly before leaping up to the fourth floor where her room was. Itachi watched her until she opened and closed the door before leaving.

Inside her apartment smelt mouldy as if that stupid landlord of hers had forgotten to come every now and then and open her windows. Sakura walked towards her cramped laundry room and stripped off her clothes before shoving them in a basket. She opened her small cupboard and pulled out a fluffy blue towel and wrapped it around her frame. She began to make her way to her personal bathroom turning on the steaming water and full blast before dropping the towel and stepping into her shower.

The steam fogged up her glass but it felt amazing on her muscles and it had been so long since she had a good steamy shower. She ran her fingers through her pink locks pulling out small knots before grabbing her shampoo still sitting on the corner as she left it. Sakura squeezed of a generous amount in her hands and started to wash her hair. This was heaven!

Twenty minutes later, she stepped out of her bathroom wrapped in her towel and headed towards her room. Sakura opened the door realizing that the squeak she had complained about before she left was still there. Sighing, she dug around in her dresser for some clothes and threw out some old shorts and a tank top once she had properly dried herself off.

Sakura set down at her vanity and began to towel dry her hair while watching herself in the mirror. The task was enough to keep her body busy but not her mind.

Her thoughts were drifting back to earlier in the hospital and to the younger Uchiha. The brat had a strange fear for someone of his age but that wasn't the most surprising thing Sakura had discovered. He had smelt it. Even after she had caught him and knocked him unconscious, the brat had muttered it under his breathe.

'…lavender…'

Sakura touched her neck and rubbed into a knot she felt. Very few people could smell the lavender in her personally blended cream. They had to have very heightened senses to even pick up the scent of the cream alone but to realize clearly that there was lavender in it, well that would take a miracle. It annoyed her slightly because beyond that there was nothing special about him but it was still worth remembering.

Sakura got up and dropped her towel into her basket and leapt onto her bed. She curled up slowly before closing her eyes and falling asleep.

(TBC)