note: T-T-T-TIME SKIP! Thanks for all the feedback as usual! (And I am working on my longer fics. :) )

The sunlight blinds Sakura when she tilts her head up to the sky, but she finds that she doesn't mind. It is only seven in the morning and the normally harsh Suna sun is still in the middle of rising. Everything is a soft white and gold and the warmth suffuses her bones.

She smiles, stretching and reaching up towards the sky. Her entire body is a collection of tired aches, and she's still wearing her hospital scrubs. She's just gotten out of a twelve hour surgery, and is scheduled to make some rounds in about thirty minutes.

Sakura is very, very tired, but her smile is genuine and the sigh that escapes is one born of a job well done.

Underneath the sunshine, she nearly glows. The past two and a half years have definitely treated Haruno Sakura really, very well.

"Dr. Haruno?"

"I'll be right in, Mayuri." Sakura takes one last, long look at the sunrise before turning to follow the nurse back into the hospital.

Up until this very moment, she hasn't thought of him in weeks and weeks.

They used to watch the sun rise together.

Later, Sakura sits around a table at the local bar, surrounded by a collection of doctors she's become acquainted with at work. Temari sits immediately to her left, invited even though she isn't a doctor. Being Gaara's sister pretty much means you know just about everybody.

There is laughter and beer and comfortable banter between friends. Sakura sips at her drink in silence, a constant smile on her face, content to listen to the others talk.

"Sakura-san, isn't you program ending in a couple of months?" Dr. Tanaka's question catches her by surprise. She hadn't really planned that far, to be honest.

"I suppose I might apply for a permanent position and stay," she answers slowly. Then a grin steals over her face, "Scared, Tanaka-san?"

The man laughs good naturedly, "I know at least a couple of guys who'd be happy you were staying for the long term."

Temari looks at her strangely, a quirk in her eyebrow, "You're not going back to Konoha?"

Sakura shrugs, eyes watching the dim flicker of the light fixture hanging over their table.

"I don't see any reason why I should. Not so soon anyways." Her smile dies by slow degrees with every word she says. The rest of the small table is silent now, intrigued. She's aware of every pair of eyes and suddenly, Sakura wishes she was back in her small apartment. Alone, yes, but at least she's never been cruel enough to want any explanations from herself.

"That's right, Sakura-chan. You're from Konoha! Got any boyfriends stashed back home?" Yoshida Miu punctuates each of her sentence with a giggle. The normally calm and competent doctor is, for the lack of a better word, smashed. Her fingers are loosely curled around a shot glass full of vodka. At least three empty glasses surround her.

Sakura presses her lips into a thin line, deliberately setting her glass down and standing, "No. No boyfriends. Sorry guys, I have to head in early tonight."

She's about to push back her chair when Dr. Tanaka grabs her arm. Immediately stiffening, she regards the tanned fingers splayed against her skin with distaste. Back in Konoha, she'd been a physically affectionate girl. Here in Suna, she detests anybody touching her.

"Come on Sakura-san, stay! I heard you used to be acquainted with Uchiha Sasuke-san. Tell us what it's like to be friends with a billionaire, eh?" The man's voice is jovial and his grip is light, but the touch, that name-

It's been two and a half years, and Sakura does not lose control.

Unwrapping Tanaka's fingers from her arm, she says very calmly, "We were never really that close."

And as Sakura leaves the bar-the smoke the haze the drink-behind, she pretends not to notice Temari's speculative gaze on her back.