Waiting Room

Naruto headed to the hospital. He needed to check in on Sakura. The plan was to get her away from work for a while so they could talk like they always had. He knew she worried about Sasuke but there was more to her strange behavior lately. That was what he thought anyhow.

"Hey, Otoha is Sakura-chan here," Naruto asked the nurse behind the counter.

Otoha finished stacking charts and smiled at Naruto his own grin was highly contagious so who could bother to be annoyed. Besides Sakura, between Kaori and herself they saw the future Hokage in the hospital the most.

"Sakura is in the lab," Otoha said pleasantly while pushing her black bangs under her hat.

"Oh do you know which one," Naruto asked a bit impatient. His blue eyes darted around the room but saw no sign of Sakura.

"She told everyone in earshot that if you show up to have you wait," Otoha pointed to the waiting room adding, "over there in the waiting room. You know the drill already."

"Fine, I can be patient," Naruto said defiantly sitting on the bench in the waiting room.

He couldn't sit still for long and he started tapping his feet and squirming. The hospital was one of the places the other four nations loved to send representatives to. Everyone wanted to replicate what Tsunade managed to create in Konoha. Sakura was always telling Naruto her stories of spending lunch with a foreign medic nin from one country or the other. Naruto was happy to hear these stories and swapped his own tales about the people he would meet in his road to become Hokage.

The waiting room at the hospital was nothing out of the ordinary. It was a place that was comfortable but not where you wanted to be necessarily. There were two potted plants placed in between a benched row of chairs and tables. Two of the tables had vases with bright sunny yellow flowers inside.

Naruto stood up and admired the picture hanging along the backside of the row of chairs. It was a painting of a mountain and lake below. He could automatically picture fishing in that mountain and put that on his mental to do list.

Buzzing and beeping continued in the background along with light chatter of the nurses at the nurse's station. Naruto wanted to go up to the counter to check again if Sakura were ready but thought the better of it and sat back down.

Naruto resigned himself to the fact that he would be in this place a lot in the coming weeks. He went over the list of things in his head like a mental shopping list. Shikamaru's child would be born soon in this very hospital. The machines that Sakura knew so well would show him the very first images of his own child. There were plenty of reasons to get excited over the hospital and yet it was the last place most people wanted to be.

Naruto almost reached out to start a conversation with a random guy before the guy jumped up to meet his friends down the hall. Bored he counted the chairs and prayed that someone he knew would come by so he would have someone to talk with. It was strange but it seemed that it was everyone's protocol to be quite and stare off at nothing in the waiting room.

000

Sakura finished writing her lab results down and turned over her research to Mitate another capable medic nin.

"You're leaving for the day," Mitate asked.

"Yeah. I think Naruto is out there waiting," Sakura replied. She knew her husband wouldn't last too long waiting out there in the waiting room.

"I won't mess with your work Sakura," Mitate said.

"Thank you Mitate," Sakura said.

Sakura said her goodbyes to the staff and as she rounded the corner she practically ran into Ami.

"Ami, you scared me," she said surprised. Meeting the woman was a bit of a shock for Sakura.

"I came to talk to you about Lee," Ami said raking a hand through her shoulder length purple locks and getting right to the point.

"Oh. Well I haven't seen him. If you'll excuse me someone is waiting for me," Sakura said moving her way around the woman.

"Wait," Ami grabbed her arm. Her brown eyes grew large with alarm.

"I don't have time to fight you Ami. Let go of my arm-

"Sakura I need you to talk to Lee for me. You're not the only one who worries about their man. You know how Sasuke can be," Ami said dropping Sakura's arm with a malicious grin.

So they are dating.

Sakura only knew that Ami was trouble. It hurt her that she would bring up Sasuke when it was clear to everyone that she was married to Naruto now. Sakura waited a beat and replied, "I don't need to explain myself to you but my man is not-

"Sasuke. Please I already know. Look I know it is you and Blondie until death do you part but you have to admit it is funny the way you used to drool over the dark one," Ami said.

"So what of it," Sakura said and started to walk again.

"Just wait please I just need help with Lee," Ami begged.

A genuine look of worry spread across Ami's face and Sakura turned toward the woman. The two of them never got along well in the past or present for that matter. Ami bullied Sakura as far back as the Academy days. Ami was on a short list of people that Sakura did not want to be bothered with.

"How did you know about Sasuke," Sakura asked. She was sure that her emotions were in check but the nightmares and everything were starting to really rattle her.

"I don't know about Sasuke. Look, it is ANBU. We had a mission a while back. Sunagakure sent a group to accompany us. You know that Suna-nin Matsuri was with us," Ami said and waited.

"Yeah I know her," Sakura said nodding.

"So yeah I figure whatever they are trying to do about Gaara is related to what you are doing with Naruto," Ami said.

"Gaara," Sakura questioned, "Matsuri never said anything to me."

Gaara isn't even a jinchuriki anymore. More importantly when did she become ANBU?

"Rokudaime most likely knows all about it," Ami added in Sakura's silence.

"And Lee, what does he have to do with any of this," Sakura asked.

"Lee is willing to sacrifice his health to protect those he loves. I think he's hiding his injuries. He won't talk to me about it. Things are getting worse and you see what happened to his precious mentor Gai," Ami said.

"You went on a mission together. Is that when it happened," Sakura asked.

Sakura took more time away from work to focus on her pregnancy. She didn't have the opportunity to spend time with her friends lately. She felt bad that she was out of contact with so many.

"Yes," Ami answered, "we were in the grasslands on the mission to recover this herb. By us I mean my ANBU team. Lee wasn't supposed to be there. He isn't supposed to know I'm ANBU. A group attacked us," Ami said continuing.

Sakura was puzzled by Ami's claim to be ANBU. How this girl could surpass so many of their peers in rank, she thought to herself.

"You were with Matsuri when it happened," Sakura asked.

"I am only telling you her name because I know that Naruto knows she is ANBU and you are so close it doesn't mater," Ami said.

"Ami that is not true. You can't just tell me classified information because you shared it with Naruto," Sakura said.

"Oh come on Sakura. You are practically the stand in for Tsunade-sama and Naruto is almost Hokage. This information would have come to you anyway," Ami said.

"It is still classified information," Sakura argued. After all if she were the stand in for Tsunade she'd be Hokage at some point.

"Anyhow we were over taken. It was a six on two struggle and my team fell. There are two in the hospital but I can't tell you who they are," Ami said.

"Of course. And the Suna side," Sakura asked.

"We retreated from the fight. Both groups gathered the injured two on the Konoha side and one of the Suna. Rokudaime sent back up in to rendezvous with a member of our team and bring the herb back to Konoha for analysis.

I wasn't supposed to go back and meet the Team Lee was part of. I was supposed to continue on with a classified mission," Ami said.

"So Lee met up with you there," Sakura asked.

"TenTen called for backup and a medical squad took the injured. We saw others approaching our group a whole cluster of Shinobi," Ami said.

"Kushagakure-nin," Sakura guessed.

"They were rouge nin different villages crossed out and some no band at all," Ami said.

"Like the Akatsuki," Sakura said.

"A much greater number. So we started to retreat. A group attacked us from underground," Ami said.

"Tokuma didn't see them using Byakugan, impossible," Sakura said remembering the Hyuuga member working with Team Gai.

"That's what we thought then. Lee jumped in to save me from a surprise attack and that's when it happened," Ami said.

"The injury," Sakura said.

"I heard the fight it was awful the sound. We were a while away from the others. The enemy tried to separate us spread out the teams. Lee kept attacking. Finally we escaped. Lee refused medical treatment but I know his injuries are bad," Ami said.

"Tsunade-sama saved him back then why wouldn't he trust us now," Sakura asked.

"I don't know," Ami said.

"And what about his team," Sakura asked.

"That is why I'm asking you. The two of you share a past. I feel guilty seeing him in pain because of me. I'm sure he knows I was the one behind the mask. Team Gai never excelled when it came to medical skills…I mean to say his teammates don't have the medical skills so I come to you," Ami said.

"Everyone thought you quit the program. Why would Lee think you were behind the mask? He would have sacrificed himself for any comrade knowing Lee," Sakura said.

"Not like that. You weren't there, he knew. I know we haven't been friends and you see me as a threat somehow but please help him," Ami pleaded.

"First I don't see you as a threat. Second I want to help because Lee is a friend. Finally I wont give up the secret of where I got my intelligence so don't worry," Sakura said.

"Thank you, Sakura," Ami said.

"Let's just throw out the rivalry on this one for now," Sakura said.

"Sure," Ami agreed.

The two walked down the hall in silence. Sakura was glad to have her long shift be over so she could go home and unwind. The halls were busy with the usual amount of traffic. Nurses and doctors all making rounds though the hospital. This was the environment that Sakura was used to.