Sakura was having yet another very long day. She had been on call the night before and had to come in for an emergency surgery when one of her patients went into cardiac arrest. That had been at 2am. After that surgery which was rife with complications, though ultimately successful thanks to her immense skill and calm, she went to finish the paper work for the patient and by the time that was complete her shift had officially started. The day had been fairly calm until 11am when the ER filled up with severely wounded car crash victims. There was barely anytime to breathe as she hurried around checking patients, issuing orders, prescribing medications and bouncing from one operating room to another.

It was just after completing the operation to remove and stitch up shrapnel from a patient's liver, that she was informed Tsunade wanted to see her at the Police Department. The day had been fine up until that point. Long but fine. Sakura never minded when it was busy. It made her feel useful. Knowing she was actively saving lives made hers feel a little less lonely and incomplete. It wasn't the fact that Tsunade wanted to see her that sent her day spiraling downward. She and her mentor were very close and she actually very much enjoyed her interactions with the older woman. The problem was that she was being called to the police department, the place she had been actively avoiding for the past four months.

She stopped in her office to grab her coat and bag but her attention suddenly caught on the picture at her desk. Picking it up, she stared into the annoyed faces of twenty-two-year-old Naruto and Sasuke. Her heart clenched as she stared at the picture. She knew she missed them both. Naruto was the sibling she never had and she felt guilty that she rarely saw him in the past four months, but that was because he was always either with Hinata or Sasuke. She didn't want to be a third wheel or pull Naruto away from Hinata, given how long her shy friend had waited for him to notice her. Naruto had a lot of lost time to make up for. And she wasn't ready to face Sasuke yet. While she missed him so much that part of her felt incomplete, every thought of him brought forth a wave of pain so strong it actually translated into physical hurt. Setting the picture down and taking a deep breath, she marched out her office door.

The Hospital, police department, and city hall were all within one block of each other, and long before she was ready, Sakura found herself standing in front of the building she had worked so hard to avoid. Resignedly, she started up the steps, hell bent on walking in with as much pride as possible, but fully aware of the embarrassing lengths she would go to avoid running into the top pair from violent crimes.

"No way! Sakura actually set foot outside the hospital, huh?" A loud voice barked the second she came through the doors. She couldn't help the smile that made it way to her face as Kiba came running up to her as if to confirm the unbelievable. Akamaru reached her first, jumping up and licking her face happily.

"Whoa! You got big, Akamaru!" She laughed, petting his head.

"Really? I Hadn't noticed, since he's always with me." Kiba said, as Akamaru resumed his place at his side like the good police dog he was. "So what brings you here Sakura? Finally gonna take me up on my offer for drinks?"

The look she gave him was enough of an answer, but he took the rejection in stride—it certainly wasn't the first time Sakura had turned him or any other guy down. All Konoha men knew the infinitesimal chance they had with Sakura had vanished the second Sasuke came back. So Kiba simply shrugged at his long time friend. "Can't fault a guy for trying."

Sakura laughed. She had missed him and everyone else a lot. Almost all of them worked at the police station. When she had left the force to study medicine, she had left all of her friends behind as well. She used to try and get together with them more, but in the four months Sasuke had been back, avoiding him meant avoiding everyone else as well.

"So what brings you here?"

"Lady Tsunade wanted to see me…Hey Kiba, Sasuke isn't at his desk, is he?"

That was a large source of her anxiety. To reach Lady Tsunade's office, you had to go through the bull pen, the open space where all the detectives in every unit had their desks and everyone could see everything. There would be no way to hide and if he saw her, she'd have to confront him and she wasn't ready for that.

Kiba sighed, "How long are you gonna avoid him? You'll have to see him eventually. And what's the big deal? I know you liked him and all but you two were just friends. We've all forgiven him so why can't you?

For the second time that day Sakura felt lungs tighten so hard they burned. She wasn't sure which was worse, the sudden swell of rage she felt towards Sasuke and Kiba, or the pain that pulsed through her with every heartbeat. Kiba could tell he'd made a mistake the second the words were out of his mouth. "Uh…I mean—"

"Is he at his desk or not."
Kiba scanned around the corner quickly, before returning to Sakura with a "No, he's not there." Akamaru barked in confirmation.

"Thanks." Sakura said, turning the corner and making her way through the maze of desks she once knew so well.

Sakura didn't knock when she reached her mentor's large wooden door. She didn't have to. Tsunade and her were close enough to drop that kind of formality, especially if Tsunade had asked her to come. "You wanted to speak to me M'Lady?"

The only reason the words had come out so calmly were because she hadn't processed the scene in front of her. There, in front of her mentor's desk stood Naruto and Sasuke, whose eyes immediately locked on to hers.

"Ah Sakura. Glad you're finally here."

Sakura ripped her green eyes away from Sasuke and on to the open file that lay on Tsunade's desk. A sinking feeling in her stomach told her that her day was about to go from pretty bad to downright terrible.

"Sakura Haruno, you're here by removed from active hospital duty. You will be serving as the Medical Examiner for this case as well as an active medical and forensic consultant."

She could feel Sasuke's eyes boring deep into her but she refused to look at him.

"But M'Lady, what about the hospital? We're so busy I couldn't possibly step away now. Besides another doctor could—"

"No Sakura. This case is…it's something else. Whoever is doing this, especially if it's who I suspect, has immense medical and scientific knowledge that we'll need to match on our side if we have any chance of bringing him down. You were trained as a detective first, have experience in the field, and have firearm and hand to hand combat training. You're also an extremely skilled field medic, which given the nature of this case, will probably become necessary far more than I'd like. You're the only one who can do this. Shizune and I will take care of the hospital."

There was no point in arguing, Tsunade's orders were final. And Sakura knew her mentor loved her like a daughter and was not a fan of Sasuke. She would never force the two of them on to a team unless it was absolutely necessary.

"I…Yes M'Lady I understand."

"This won't be a problem will it?" The question was vague and could have been about the job on the whole, but Sakura could tell that Tsunade was referring to her and Sasuke from the way Tsunade's honey colored eyes flicked briefly to him before settling back on her.

"No Ma'am." Sakura was a professional. She took her responsibility as a doctor and civil servant very seriously. No personal issues would get in the way of that. She determined that no matter what she felt or how complicated things were with Sasuke, She'd do her job well.

"Good. Then there's nothing more to talk about. You're all dismissed. Get to work."