A/N: why do i write so fast? i don't. really. this chapter was half finished already (i just tweaked it a bit)

and thank you to the guests who told me what a multi-saku is. haahaha. im so bad at fanfic lingo. and no, this isn't a multi-saku. she'll be paired with sasuke. eventually. i still dont know how on earth im going to do that. thank you for reading!

list of their ranks because im too lazy to explain in the actual story ugh

Ranks:

PRIVATE (new recruits for the war with no military background are automatically Privates)

Sakura (new recruit; Haruno clan isn't affiliated with the military)

Shikamaru (new recruit; Nara clan is affiliated with military but he was too lazy to work his way up a few ranks; was too lazy in military school and dropped out eventually)

Naruto (new recruit; Minato is part of the military but the clan itself is not affiliated; Naruto was too busy playing around and didn't like the idea of going to military school)

Kiba (new recruit; family not affiliated with the military; takes veterinary courses)

SERGEANT

Choji (Akimichi clan is affiliated with the military; was forced to go to military school)

Shino (clan is not affiliated with the military; went to military school for personal reasons)

SECOND LIEUTENANT

Lee (commoner; went to military school for personal reasons)

FIRST LIEUTENANT

Sasuke (Uchiha clan practically runs the military; he's Sasuke what do you expect)

Neji (Hyuga clan partly controls the military; he's Neji what do you expect)

MAJOR

Itachi (it's rumoured he actually has a different role in the military and has a higher rank but for everyone else, he's a Major; he's Itachi what do you expect)

03 sand rats

The first raid happened two weeks after all the Privates have settled in camp. It was on the night of a particularly sore day of training, at around eleven-fifty six. The whole camp was put on alert, and the situation was dire enough that even the rookies had to be dispatched to the chase. So at twelve in the morning, with sore backs and aching muscles, they were all running through the forest holding guns, hearts thumping madly, adrenaline and fear dulling the fatigue.

It rained heavily too, just to make things worse.

"Akira!"

"Kiba's got my gun!" Sakura yelled back over the din of the storm. She'd tossed her pistol to Kiba after she'd saved his neck from the Sand rats near the forest border. He had lost his weapon and she couldn't bring herself to leave it at that. She had two small knives tucked in her boots. The larger one, a serrated combat knife, was grasped firmly in one hand.

"Stand, hands up," Shikamaru growled at the soldier that lay sprawled on the ground.

The soldier in the Sand military issue uniform stood up slowly, hands raised to ear level. Sakura's quick, calculating eyes took in everything she could about the soldier. The uniform he donned was different from the ones the Sand patrollers wore.

This guy's a higher ranking soldier, Sakura thought.

He was shorter than Shikamaru and taller than Sakura. He wasn't very tall, but he was obviously strongly built. He had dirty brown hair, cut short to his scalp, and a broad, square shaped jaw.

A strong hand pushed Sakura's head down and she felt her body slam against the ground just as a gun fired from the side. Sakura turned sharply to the source of the gunshot and saw a pale boy with brick red hair. He was flanked by five other soldiers.

"Bad, bad, bad," Sakura mumbled under her breath, looking desperately around for some kind of cover.

"Doomed," Shikamaru sighed, more out of exasperation than fear, really.

Almost on cue, a gun from somewhere on Sakura's side fired and the soldiers scattered.

"The hero of the Hidden Leaf, here to save the day!"

"Ah, that idiot, he could have hidden his presence," Shikamaru shook his head, though a characteristic smirk made its way to his face.

Sakura pulled herself and, with one hand, Shikamaru, back on their feet and tackled the soldier they were attempting to hold hostage before. Not surprisingly, he was stronger than anyone she'd encountered but he was without a weapon and something about a knife to one's throat makes a person much more obedient. Within seconds, with Shikamaru's help, the Sand soldier lay on the ground, his hands behind his back. She pressed the knife firmly on his neck, careful to avoid the jugular vein. They needed to bring this one back to camp.

"Bloody brilliant work, Haruno, Nara," A Specialist that came with Naruto grinned.

Then a very dense cloud covered them all of a sudden, getting into Sakura's eyes and nose.

There was a brief scuffle around her. Her prisoner was clearly struggling to escape, but stopped when Sakura pressed the knife to his neck, drawing blood.

"Stop—" She coughed violently, dust seeping into her nose. Her eyes watered, "—stop resisting! I'll kill you, I really will!"

"Sir Kankuro!"

The prisoner suddenly twisted and before she could react delivered a punch to her face that she wasn't able to avoid and sent her sprawling to the ground. She immediately got to her feet with arms raised to block impending blows, but the prisoner seemed to have taken off. When the strange cloud cleared, the Sand soldiers were gone, Naruto looked extremely pissed and was kicking a rock, and Shikamaru looked the same, although his normally neat hair was in disarray and he looked more alert than usual.

"Sand bomb," Shikamaru said when she limped over to him. He eyed her foot, "You alright?"

"Twisted, but nothing that can't be fixed," She sat on a rock, pulled her right foot over her left knee and jerked it in one direction with her hands. A sickening crack, like something being put back into place, and a small hiss of pain from Sakura, made Shikamaru's face twist in disgust.

"It's a shame we didn't get the hostage," The Nara genius drawled, "Would've earned us points back at camp,"

Sakura nodded, looking at Naruto who was still kicking a rock. A bunch of other soldiers he had brought with him looked disheartened, too.

"Kankuro, Kankuro—"

Shikamaru eyed her, "What?"

"Ever heard of the name Kankuro?" Sakura asked, bunching a piece of cloth and pressing it against her bleeding mouth, "It's familiar,"

"Never heard of him," Shikamaru grumbled, "And your mouth is bleeding. Quite heavily,"

"It'll be okay," Sakura winced as she pressed the cloth even firmer, "That soldier we almost got, his name is Kankuro. I've read about him. I'm sure about it. That means he's some sort of big-shot in the Sand,"

"Imagine if we actually got him!" Naruto groaned, falling dramatically to his knees.

"Get up, idiot," Shikamaru sighed, and with the help of other Privates, pulled him to his feet.

The rain was finally letting up, and the moon was starting to peek through the thick clouds, heavy with rainfall. They were standing at the edge of the forest, right near the borders that separate the Leaf's vast territory from Waterfall and Grass. Sakura knelt down to inspect the ground, squinting. A Private handed her a lamp and she smiled gratefully. She held it up.

"What'cha looking for, Akira?" Naruto asked, hovering above her.

"Footprints. Lots of them," Sakura gestured to the freshly turned earth in front of them, "They're overlapping on top of each other so it's difficult at first glance to recognize them, but if you look closely—these really are footprints. Of a large band of soldiers. I bet this is where our Sand friends came through,"

"From here?" Naruto raised a brow, "What are they doing way out here?"

"They came from Sound village," Shikamaru remarked. Naruto turned to him, "What? How would you know?"

"It's obvious," The Nara shrugged lazily.

"Transparent," Sakura agreed with a nod,

Naruto looked back and forth between them, completely lost and annoyed. "Why don't you guys stop being smartasses and tell me exactly what's going on?"

Sakura ignored him, "But they're on our side, aren't they?"

"Officially," Shikamaru nodded, "It's on the papers. But what would a few written vows on paper mean if they aren't really into it?"

"Who was in charge of the peace treaty between Sound and Leaf again?" Sakura asked. Her knowledge on the going ins of the village was limited.

"Orochimaru," Shikamaru replied.

"That makes things more obvious," Sakura frowned.

"What? What's obvious?" Naruto exclaimed, looking furiously at his two friends.

Again, he was ignored.

"Why would the Land of Wind, then, send a hundred band army to Sound, if not to attack them?" Sakura frowned, her eyebrows creasing together, "But if they were attacked, why didn't the Leaf receive a call for reinforcements? No, they weren't attacked,"

"They weren't," Shikamaru nodded, "It was a nice little state visit,"

"And Orochimaru was in charge of the peace treaty. And he was the one the Leaf sent as an ambassador to Sound almost every year,"

"That's right,"

Sakura looked troubled, "That doesn't sound too good, does it?"

"Definitely not," Shikamaru agreed.

Naruto was ready to bash their heads in, "Hey! If you assholes would kindly tell me what the he—"

"Kiba!" Sakura exclaimed as the Inuzuka burst through the thick foliage behind them. "Anything wrong?"

"Lost contact with Shino's team," He said, frowning at the transmitter in his hand, "They ran after the Sand guys that were heading to the Land of Rivers. Dunno what the hell they're going there for but—"

"There's a cave there that runs under a mountain and opens up to the other side of the border, right near the Land of Wind. A few miles and you'll be in the deserts. That's probably why the hundred band passed through the Land of Fire without alerting the patrollers," Sakura said quickly.

They all stared at her in awe.

"But if their objective really is the Sound, why'd they bother to stir up trouble in the camp?" A random Private that came with Naruto before asked.

"Because they didn't want the Leaf to suspect. They probably went to the Sound, unnoticed, and when they got back, they were spotted by a patroller from the Leaf. And of course, seeing a big band of soldiers skulking about the borders is bound to rouse suspicious, and they knew that, and everyone knows Grass and Waterfall are long time affiliates of the Leaf, and they're part of the Land of Fire. So what else lies in that direction? Sound, of course; a secretive little village with shaky ties to the Leaf. Their loyalties are questionable. So the Sand soldiers decided to stir up trouble in camp to make it look like they were crawling around the borders to assault us in the middle of the night, when they were, in fact, using the darkness as a cover to make their way back to Sand from Sound unnoticed," Shikamaru said all this with the same bored, languid expression never leaving his face.

"You guys are bloody brilliant," Kiba said, looking like it took a lot of pride to swallow for him to say that, "Haruno, why didn't you stay and go to military school?"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Naruto squinted at her, "Instead you went to Waterfall to become some bumpkin country boy,"

"And Shikamaru, the other smartass, did go to military school but dropped out after like a year," Kiba remarked, frowning at Shikamaru's direction. "You guys are weird,"

"Anyway," Sakura interrupted before the conversation took a turn for the worse, "We better go to that cave I mentioned. I bet that's where we'll find the other team!"

They rushed directly to the direction of the Land of Rivers. Kiba held the map, consulted Shikamaru, and pointed them in the right direction. Eventually they came upon the foot of a mountain. The mouth of the cave was wide and jagged, and was partly submerged in a shallow, little lake. The cave itself was dry though, because the ground was slightly elevated. Shino Aburame's team stood in front of the cave, weapons raised.

One of the Privates with them spotted Kiba's group, and couldn't help looking disappointed, "They only sent six Privates as reinforcements? Damn,"

"We're not reinforcements," Shikamaru informed them, "Kiba told us you were communicating anymore and we—sort of deduced—that you were here. What's the problem?"

Shino Aburame, the Sergeant in charge of the team, stepped forward. He was a tall guy wearing dark shades (even in the dead of the night) and spoke in a calm, steady voice, "The Sand soldiers passed through here. We rushed after them but they waited inside, and for some reason, knew exactly where each of us were even in the dark. We were forced to go back. But when we got out, we realized Sir Uchiha wasn't with us anymore,"

Naruto looked shocked, and furious. "And you left him?!"

"We have already lost four Privates," Shino said. He gestured behind him. Four bodies lay side by side at the edge of the lake. "We had to drag them out. Three got stabbed at the chest, one got his throat slashed. We called for reinforcements just now,"

"We have to go in and look for that sour faced Uchiha!" Naruto said, balling his fists.

"I can't risk all of us for one guy,"

"What did you say?" Naruto stepped forward, as if to challenge him, but Kiba held him in check.

"Stop, Naruto," Sakura said, thought she felt sick to the stomach herself.

"Screw it! I can't wait for the reinforcements!" Naruto broke away from Kiba's grip and rushed inside the dark, forbidding cave. He was swallowed up by darkness and shadows in seconds and it seemed like not even their yells could reach him. Shikamaru groaned and clutched his head with his hands, looking worn out and tired. Kiba looked like was about dash in after Naruto at any second but the darkness and possibility of dozens of Sand assassins lying wait in the dark stilled his legs.

"And he's got the lamp with him!" Kiba exclaimed.

Sakura thought of Naruto, of his sunny blond hair and bright blue eyes, and the way he whined like a kid and the way he easily trusted people even though they were stuck in an impending war. She couldn't help it, she ran in, too, yelling an apology at the slack-jawed people she left behind.

The cave was dark, without even a trickle of light to form a shadow, and the ground was uneven. She stumbled a few times as she ran. She wanted to call out to Naruto but the possibility of hidden assassins made her sweat profusely. It felt like an eternity before she finally saw the faint light from the dying light of the lantern.

"Naruto!" She finally called out, her heart thudding violently in her chest.

"Akira!" He was there, sitting safe and well, but she could see, even in the dim light, his pale face.

She was about to ask why he looked so pale, but then she saw why. He was crouching beside a body decked in dark military clothes; dark hair and ivory skin that seemed to glow in the dark.

Sakura rushed to her superior's side, inspecting his pulse.

He's okay. Though possibly not for long

Tearing out the scarf tied to her neck, she pressed it to his side to stop the blood. The Uchiha's face was pale, even more so than usual. In comparison to this, his usual icy face seemed warm and welcoming. Much to her chagrin, Sakura decided she preferred him alive, well, and sneering at potential marriage candidates. With her six years experience working in the Leaf's medical facilities, Sakura realized she didn't like looking at dying people, no matter how loathsome or selfish or cruel they were.

On her third year as a medical volunteer, an old childhood enemy was admitted in. She was suffering from some malignant cold, probably something more serious than that, and Sakura had stayed vigilantly by her side. Ami, the bully, recovered after nearly a month. She'd asked Sakura if she could forgive her and if they could be friends. Sakura had refused, obviously. She'd sniffed disdainfully, gathered her medical supplies and strode swiftly out of the room without a glance back.

Three years later, she found herself pressing a blood soaked scarf against the gunshot wound of a person who'd been horrible to her.

She turned to see Naruto, unexpectedly, clenching and unclenching his trembling hands, "Will he be fine Akira? Akira?"

It bothered her to see him, an annoying ball of high-strung energy, looking so unsure and nervous and afraid. She put on her best, calming expression, hoping the dim light hid the sudden pallor she was sure was visible on her face. "We need to carry him out of here!"

"Bloody hell, you two!" They both turned to see Kiba, Shikamaru the other Privates and what looked like the reinforcements materializing from the shadows. Sakura almost fainted in relief. Kiba was red-faced, and furious, "See?! The reinforcements arrived just seconds after you two ran in like a pair of idiots! What if there were sa—Kami!"

Kiba stopped in his tracks.

Shikamaru was pale faced, "Carry him! Quick! Let's do this quick!"

"Anticoagulant. They coated their blades and bullets with it," A stern looking medic said, frowning at Uchiha Sasuke's wound.

"With poison, too," Sakura added. She'd seen very few poison wounds but she saw enough to recognize one. And she barely did, too. The poison wounds she saw in the Leaf were caused by plant based poisons (usually the Wolfsbane, from the Yamanaka boys fooling around with it) but judging from the looks of the Uchiha's wounds, the Sand used metal based ones.

The medic look pained as he fought to get words out through gritted teeth. It must've stung much of his pride to do so, "It's a different poison. I doubt our antidotes will do much,"

Sakura gave him an incredulous stare, "Surely you could make one—?"

"Look, boy," The way he said it seemed like an intentional jab at Sakura's height and small build, "You're a privileged little clan member who knows less about medicine than I do about holding a gun. You did well bringing Sir Uchiha here, but let's leave each other to do our respective jobs, shall we?"

A vein ticked on Sakura's forehead.

"You can't make one, can you?" She announced, feeling bolder now that she was in her element. If there was something she was sure about, it was her medic skills. She pointed a figure at Sasuke's wound, "This was caused by a metal based poison, a type of poison utterly unfamiliar to the Hidden Leaf. You don't have an antidote for this, do you?"

"O-Of course not!" The medic spluttered, looking utterly dismayed, "It's to be expected! We brought along antidotes for metal poisons but this is different! Nothing we've ever seen before! But we'll get to the bottom of this," Then in a sudden surge of inspiration, he regained his footing, "I suggest, soldier boy, that you refrain from underestimating the Leaf's medic team. We weren't assigned to attend to this camp if they thought that—hey—hey! What are you doing?—hey—!"

Sakura was already flinging her cap to the side and fitting up a pair of disposable gloves, ignoring the shocked medics around her. Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba looked equally shocked as they watched her shove the stern medic out of the way so she could properly examine the wound. At this point, she couldn't care less. She'd been holding back before, scared of what everyone would think. Medicine is a field often picked up by women, and even back in the Leaf, the white-clad people in hospitals were composed mostly of women. Here in camp, all ten medics were men, only because woman normally aren't sent to war.

Sakura prided herself for her reading skills, something that came in handy when she started training for the field. One time as a younger girl, she snuck inside the Hokage's private library (because despite her violent tendencies, the Hokage was a brilliant doctor) and spent a whole afternoon reading medical texts that were otherwise forbidden to a medic student of her age. She was so engrossed in one particularly thick book about the Land of Wind's most potent poisons that she didn't hear the door open and the Hokage walk in.

Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, was amused rather than pissed and after talking a bit with her (Sakura was shaking the entire time) she decided to take her in as an apprentice. Though only after she told her off for sneaking inside restricted areas and touching stuff belonging to the most powerful woman in the country.

Four chapters of that thick medical text was dedicated to a poison called Red Sand. Sakura could still envision the small prints floating inside her eyelids when she closed them.

..a potent poison infused with heavy metals—

..work of an ingenious weapons maker born to a wealthy family of puppeteers—

..mechanism of action involves destruction of the muscles and slow deterioration of cells—

..travels via the bloodstream—

..blackening around infected area with possible edema—

She straightened up and turned to face the stern medic who seemed to grow paler and paler as the Uchiha's face got more contorted with pain.

"Take me to the medicine greenhouse," Sakura demanded, fetching three sterile vials from a drawer.

Shikamaru, Naruto and Kiba watched, amazed, as the medics all led Sakura out of the tent.

Sakura stared stonily ahead, not in the mood for false niceties. She'd saved his ass. Surely he couldn't report her for showing rudeness just this once. As a normal human being, he just couldn't. He seemed to know this too, and shifted his gaze towards the pallid, gray sky.

From the corner of her eye, she observed him. No jerky movements, eyes not twitching, skin colour back to normal—

It was a habit of hers to keenly observe previous patients even after they've healed up.

It has been a week since they found him sprawled on the ground of the cave near the Land of Wind's border. Sasuke was a tall, lean, boy of nineteen who radiated strength and confidence, though he had a sickening personality to go with it. It was strange, seeing him lying so helpless in the dark, almost as strange as seeing the sunny, happy Naruto crouching beside his body, pale as a sheet. The war hasn't even begun yet, and there were already images in her head that she couldn't possibly forget.

Sasuke stopped a few paces from her, and turned his gaze to the direction she was staring at. The silence stretched on for a while, until she felt like breaking it herself.

"You might want to inquire back in the Leaf about the Sound village," She said, still staring ahead. "We think—Nara, Namikaze, and I—that they're going to side with the Land of Wind,"

"I know," He said shortly, "Namikaze barged into the medic's tent when I was finally allowed to receive visitors. And we've been suspecting Sound's loyalties for a while now,"

A bout silence, then—

"You made the antidote,"

"Yes,"

Is he going to say thank you? She thought. She suddenly felt uncomfortable.

But he didn't. Instead, he handed her an envelope. It was plain white, made of a special stationary, with the Uchiha crest stamped on the back.

"For your cousin," He said, still not looking at her, "My mother owns hundreds of those. I asked her to send me some last week,"

She was in awe. Could he mean—"My cousin? You mean—"

"The Lady Sakura," He confirmed, flicking some microscopic leaf off of his dark uniform.

"Sir—"

"Uchiha," A voice suddenly said. They both turned, and to Sakura's horror, Hyuga Neji was standing a few meters away from them by the Captain's tent, looking intimidating in his dark, military garb. His long brown hair was tied back, his face smooth and his expression controlled. Sakura quickly turned back and started determinedly at her mud-caked boots. Sasuke left her side and walked towards the Hyuga. They both went off to the direction of the Espionage Specialists' tent.

Sakura rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. Hyuga Neji. The one boy who'd seen her frequently without makeup and up close was in the camp and she felt like her insides were being churned violently.

Suddenly remembering the envelope Sasuke gave her, she rushed to their tent and smiled with relief when she found it empty. She huddled at a corner and stared at it like a kid with a new doll. Should I open it? I mean, it's for me, isn't it. Giving in to curiosity, she carefully pried open the envelope so she could reseal it and send it to the Leaf later.

Inside the envelope were five little gift cards, each worth a 4000 Ryo kimono from a popular couturier in the Leaf. Almost all of Hinata's kimonos were made there. The fortunate ladies of the Hyuga and Uchiha frequented that shop, and Sakura could only look longingly at the shop windows whenever she passed it. Even Ino herself had only six kimonos made there, and she only took them out for extra special occasions.

Sakura turned each card around in her hands. She couldn't believe they were real! And why did he have his mother send it to him instead of just having her give the cards to Sakura back in the Leaf personally? Did he want to give it to her himself?

Of course he doesn't know you're Sakura. Don't be so flattered

But she couldn't help feeling happy about it. She sat at the corner of the tent for almost half an hour, and when they were finally dismissed for the day, she laid down on her sleeping bag, wide awake, clutching the envelope with the cards, as if they were going to dissolve into dust the moment she lets go.

.

TBC