do not gots the ownerships of narutos...
Chapter Seven
Tsunade stared down at her young apprentice, Sakura was playing with a small necklace around her neck that Naruto had given her. Temari was sitting uncomfortably in the chair next to her, looking around Tsunade's office. A new leaf headband was tied around her forehead, displaying it proudly for all to see.
"I don't want you to go. I recommended Shizune, but their Council requests you." Tsunade shifted on her feet, uncharacteristically coherent. The stress of rebuilding after the War was about the same was when it was going on. Sakura half frowned, she understood but she had such an important role rebuilding in Konoha.
"I have to go to finish up my relocation to Konoha. Gaara has timed it so we are both done with our missions in only five months." Temari spoke up, subconsciously a hand darted to adjust the headband on her brow. Now Sakura was thinking about all the reasons to go, she would see Sasuke there for a while, plus get access to Suna's archives and top clearance in the village. Of course that's what she would get all jazzed up about, the Uchiha and books. She pushed the bit about the strange disease killing tribes out in the boonies, it probably wouldn't matter any way.
All she could think of was Naruto, a bright blue eyed anchor keeping her there. Like he would care, she thought a little sourly, he was as always thrown into the thick of his own little world.
"I'll go. Five months will fly by, besides, I love the nightlife in Suna." Sakura turned and beamed at Temari, they both laughed as they remembered the last time such activities occurred. Tsunade looked a little dismayed, but didn't say anything in disapproval.
She remembered leaving the office, feeling elated. Sky high even. Finally, a chance to really start striking out on her own.
The sky was blue and black that night.
Sakura shook her head, this was not a time to go prancing down memory lane. Such a strange and random thing to recall too, of all times.
The patient below her gasped for air, the lesions pulsing black and red on their skin started to scab over. The fact that they were awake, and staring up at her, was throwing her off a little bit. Only a little bit, she was concentrating on keeping the technique steady. She was half sure of what she was doing, and half sure she was pretty much winging it as she was going.
"Heart rate stable, lungs clearing." Ino next to her scribbled on the clipboard in her hands, watching the monitors like a hawk. Two doctors stood ready at Sakura's side to assist, but for the moment they were just watching like they knew what she was doing. She literally arrived back from her house call, speeding like she had five cups of coffee, and told them all to meet her in the quarantined wing. So, five minutes later there they all stood in thick padded robes to combat any airborne contagion. Sakura herself was wearing her regular close, telling them what they were afraid of was not in the air.
"I'm going directly for the chakra system now. Stand ready, men. Here goes nothing." Sakura concentrated the flow of her own healing chakra to flood through the patient's. Picturing the diagram from the academy in her head and wishing she was a Hyuuga, her own chakra spread out like a blanket of snow across the infected chakra. As if she had just added a layer, nothing was done and the disease still lingered. In one split second her healing chakra switched from dainty green to bright ocean blue.
And that's when the patient started screaming.
"Hold him steady!" It was chaos as the doctors scrambled to hold down his flailing limbs, a natural reaction against the painful procedure. The infected chakra fought back ferociously, the disease strain of its components in action. Like white blood vessels battling a contagion, and Sakura would be the vaccine.
"Steady now." Sakura's voice was on edge, the whole room was waiting on baited breath.
It only took ten seconds, but that ten seconds lasted an eternity. Sakura's chakra attacked right back, overwhelming the infected chakra until it was suffocated, eaten up and eradicated. Calling her chakra back to her palms, the patients screams of agony dwindled to painful moaning until he was silently gasping. She lifted her hands from his chest in silence, not even Ino was watching the monitors any more.
How many seconds passed? It did not matter.
His eyes fluttered open and he raised his head to look at them all, blinking and confused as if he had woken up from a long nap. The doctors scrambled to observe him, already calling over nurses and making plans to move him to a private room.
Sakura almost threw her fist in the air, almost. She felt exhausted but triumphant, leaning against a beam for support she let out a long breath of air.
"How did you do that? He looks perfectly healthy now!" Ino approached her, awe written all over her face.
"I'll show you, c'mon, we have this entire ward and more to heal. You'll know how to do it in no time." Sakura clicked her nails together, and set out moving to the next afflicted patient.
For the rest of the day and well into the night, Sakura acted as a teacher. Doctors and professionals scrambled into the ward from all over the village, she was pretty sure a few journalists snuck in with awestruck medical students. By then she really didn't care, she had been explaining the disease and her sort of 'break through' that was already being hailed as a cure for almost five hours. Some one even wheeled in the chalkboard.
By the time Sakura was finally alone, she was standing in her darkened office with a stack of paperwork and journals in her hands. She looked around in a daze, wondering how she had gotten there. Last thing she remembered an intern was getting her coffee? Oh well, the couch in the corner did look very comfortable.
With a heavy sigh, Sakura plopped down behind her desk, grabbed a pen, and started chipping away on the paperwork. Now she understood why Tsunade used to get hammered or just make someone else do it. She sipped on a day old cup of coffee in the meantime, trying to ignore the clock and her lack there-of sleep.
"There you are." This time Sakura did not jump when Sasuke waltzed into the room like he owned it.
"You know, I have a door." Sakura glanced over her shoulder and pointed with annoyance at the door to her office. He just looked at her like the very idea was ridiculous.
"Apparently you've already cured the disease, so I guess you are still competent enough." He observed the chaotic mess that was her research, glancing through a few pages. Sakura wondered what he wanted already, she had work to finish. He did just compliment her though, to anyone else it sounded like a half handed insult, but he might as well have called her the most talented medical ninja in Konoha. Sakura felt a little giddy, it wasn't everyday the Uchiha handed out praise.
"Yes, apparently. We still have to wait and see if my method is fool proof. Now, what do you want? I have paperwork to do." Sakura grumbled, scratching out a mistake and wishing she could just throw the pile into the incinerator already.
"You should get a secretary, or just make Ino do it." Now she was starting to get a little freaked out, that was something she would expect from Naruto. Why was Sasuke Uchiha in her office at damn near one in the morning, being all chatty? Slowly, Sakura put her pen down and folded her hands over each other, fixing Sasuke with her best doctor-like smile.
"You really expect me to just high tail it out of here over night? Like, that's it folks, goodbye?"
He just shrugged. Sakura groaned, running her fingers through her tangled hair as she put her head on the desk. Life was so much simpler when she wasn't in Konoha.
"You're taking your job as Naruto's errand boy a little to seriously." Sakura shot right back up, a twisted glint in her eye. Best way to make an Uchiha disappear, insult their ego.
"I'm not the Dobe-Hokage's errand boy." Sasuke sneered right back but wasn't moved. He just crossed his arms and stood there, glaring ice at her. First a compliment and now this? Sakura didn't think she liked sharing hour. If Sasuke was checking up on her on his own accord, then why the hell was he? Did he expect her to crack under all this pressure? Did he have any idea what the War had been like? This 'epidemic' had been a cake walk compared to that.
"Whatever you say, errand boy," Sakura clasped her hands together as she got to her feet, tossing her pen on the desk top, "I'm not in the mood to do paperwork any more, so I'm going to go home and go to sleep." She bustled around him, grabbing her jacket from the hook and her bag.
"Good." He smirked that infamous smirk, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Sakura stared out of the open window for a few quiet seconds before shutting it, watching the way the curtains danced in the breeze.
She was still finding sand in her shoes.
Sakura glowered as she shook out her sandals for the millionth time. Next to her, Temari mumbled something in her sleep before turning over. It was eerily calm that night, just on the outskirts of Konoha. They'd reach the Village Hidden in Leaves tomorrow, they could have just travelled through the night, but there was no rush. Konoha wasn't going anywhere.
Out of the darkness, Sasuke seemed to materialize. Her breath hitched in her throat, some part of Sakura still expected him to lunge at her with a blade in his hand. Old habits die hard. It took her a second to smile at him.
Sasuke must have seen this to, he stopped for a split second before slowly making his way opposite her. The only sound between them for a while was the chirping of the insects. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, or a strange one, but one that was needed.
Sakura looked up through the canopy of trees and could just make out the color of the night sky. It was deep purple.
edited 7/15/2015
for those who stuck around for the first one, you will notice this is where the plot starts to change heavily from the orignal