A/N: Content warning: Graphic depiction of surgery, child death.
Fusuma are solid sliding panels made out of wood that function as walls or doors. Shoji are similar to fusuma but are made out of paper and wood and are designed to let in light as well as function as partitions. A futon is a traditional Japanese bed made up of a mattress and a blanket. Both are pliable enough to be folded up and stored so that the "bedroom" can serve other purposes during the day.
After being returned to the human world by Miyabi the Lioness following her surprisingly encouraging yet simultaneously discouraging journey into the land of the cat summons, Sakura decided to ease her stress with a warm meal. When she left her room with the intention of seeking out dinner, she was surprised to find that a man had been asking for her at the front desk of the inn.
The man, a simple farmer, had explained he was in need of her medical prowess, having heard of her magical skills from Dai, the guard whose life she had saved. Sakura followed the man to his simple home and healed a young girl with a compound fracture in her femur. The child had been ran over by a runaway cart and the bone had not only shattered but had punctured the skin, something that would have been a death sentence during this time. The injury had been similar to the injury that Ryota, the son and nephew of the merchant brothers, had suffered but only far more progressed and life threatening.
Thus began Sakura's work as what felt like the city healer. Wherever the kunoichi found herself, she found people begging for her assistance. Whether she was in her room at an inn, relaxing at an onsen, or eating a meal at a restaurant, people asked for her help.
Some of her patrons were rich and offered rewards which kept her money pouch heavy. Some were wealthy in the sense of their possessions and their payments were often free meals or supplies which kept her sated. The majority, however, were people that were incredibly poor but paid her in something that she considered just as valuable as money and supplies: favors.
For three long months, as the weather slowly cooled as the summer season made way for autumn, Sakura accumulated a supply of money that allowed her to stay in one of the nicer inns in the massive trade city of Kiso while simultaneously having runners and summoned cats such as Kurumi gathering rumors and information around the town.
She amassed a substantial amount of blackmail on various citizens, all of which was useless to her as she had no want to blackmail another person no matter how depraved their secrets were. She was most interested in tales of what sounded like space-time jutsu, but all of the leads she had turned up were duds.
Sakura heard a few fascinating rumors about an Uchiha who could set an entire forest ablaze with a single jutsu and a Senju who could raise an entire forest at will but didn't bother investigating them. Not only did they have nothing to do with space-time jutsu but doing such would go against the vow she had made to herself.
She would avoid the major clans as much as possible, especially the families who would one day form Konoha. While she knew that she would one day have to interact with a clan in order to find information on space-time jutsu (as jutsus were "ninja clan business"), she hoped to avoid the Uchiha and the Senju entirely. Especially if the two men she had been hearing so many rumors about lately were the men that she suspected they were.
Sakura also came up with a solid backstory for herself in case the need presented itself, merging fact and fiction in a way that sounded believable.
She took on a couple dozen jobs acting as a guard for caravans and traveling between a few of the smaller trading cities in search for more information or to follow leads. These jobs became monumentally easier with the help of Kuro the panther, a summons who Sakura quickly discovered was an incredibly poor conversationalist. The placid big cat was, however, an intimidating fighter and a courteous companion.
The kunoichi had yet to call upon any summon larger than Kuro, having found that with her and the panther working together that they had yet to face anyone she would consider a challenge.
Her reputation soon became enough to turn away even the bravest of warriors, some taking one look at her pink hair or Kuro's sleek form and fleeing with cries of "Oh gods, it's her! Retreat!"
Sakura would be lying if she said her growing reputation didn't feed her confidence.
Everywhere she went, her reputation as not only an indomitable kunoichi but as a miracle healer followed her. People would instantly pick her out in a crowd not just by the number of various cat summons who would trail in her wake, gathering information in the cities, but because of her conspicuous hair.
Some had taken to calling her The Angel of Kiso, a title she wished people would refrain from using. She never thought that she would plead with someone to call her by the lofty title of 'Lady Sakura' but, when people began to drop at her feet and praise her as a deity, she began to.
Sakura would always have people accosting her for her help as a healer and she had yet to lose a patient, something she was proud of. Even if her assistance could lead to an alteration in the timeline, she could not bring herself to allow another person to die or suffer when she could fix them. It went too far against her moral code to allow an innocent to die.
While some had tried to take advantage of her kindness to lure her into traps, people quickly learned how poor of a mistake that was and the ambushes became few and far between. Even without Kuro by her side, she was not a woman to be trifled with.
Despite all of her travels, Sakura always wound up back in the city of Kiso, the massive trade city that sat in the north western corner of what would one day be Fire Country. None of the smaller cities ever turned up anything useful and Kiso had traders coming and going constantly, something that made information easier to come across.
When Sakura wasn't working or studying, she spent her time training in the forest with Kuro and recharging the seal on her forehead. While the seal wasn't even close to as full as it had been in her time, it was now at a level where she could actually use it to some effect. The return of her stores brought with it a sense of comfort, the kunoichi knowing that she once again had a trump card to fall back on if the time came.
During her training sessions in the forest, she specifically focused on improving her sensory perception. She was ambushed far too often during her stints as a guard to not, the increase in her observation skills being something that could mean the difference between her (or her clients) living or dying.
Despite her determination, she was not a sensor type ninja by any stretch of the imagination. It was grueling work but, by training with the elusive and stealth-focused pather, she had honed her sensory skills immensely. Not just that but Kuro had challenged her to improve her combat skills, something that was beginning to dull after so long without proper sparring partners.
Even with her days being constantly filled, a sense of despair set in quickly. She may be surrounded by people, even surrounded by her feline companions, but she felt overwhelmingly alone. She hadn't seen or spoken to her friends in what felt like years and, despite her commitment to finding her way home, she had yet to come up with any solution to her daunting struggle.
The feeling of despair only increased when October reared it's frigid head and the first snow of the year coated the streets in white.
When October tenth, Naruto's seventeenth birthday, finally came, despite Sakura willing it away, she was overwhelmed with melancholy.
Another day alone while surrounded by people. Another day struggling to return to the time where she belonged. Another day of hopelessness clawing at her insides and reminding her that, no matter how much she had improved herself, she was still too useless to find her way home.
Sakura dragged herself to a nearby bar, walking through the now filthy brown snow and not even caring that her toes were so cold they burned. The bar was warm and her fingers and toes hurt as they defrosted, but she couldn't find it in herself to feel anything but empty.
She drank sake for the second time in her life (the first being with Lady Tsunade when she was promoted to chunin), hoping to dull the pain of being separated from everyone she loved with little hope of ever returning home. While she longed to see everyone of her time, she longed to see the man whose birth would fall on this day the most of all.
She missed Naruto like an amputee missed their severed limb. She missed her teammate like a prisoner missed the warmth of the sun. She missed her best friend like a starving woman missed the taste of food.
Sakura was grateful that the other patrons at the bar at least left her alone and that the bartender kept her drinks coming. She wasn't sure if she could keep herself from sobbing if anyone dared to speak to her for any other reason than asking if she wanted another drink. She felt as if she would break if anyone even so dared to look at her for too long.
After downing six full carafes of rice wine and noticing that she could no longer read the kanji painting the ceramic before her, she knew she needed to return to her room. She couldn't bear to call her room at the inn home because it was the farthest thing from.
Home was Konoha. Home was her parents and Naruto and Ino and Kakashi-sensei and Lady Tsunade. Home was the smell of her mother's cooking, the sight of the early morning sun shining through her bedroom window at daybreak, the sound of ninja's footsteps on her roof…
Home was not the room at the inn she was currently struggling to return to.
As Sakura tripped over trashcans, struggling to stand on the icy walkway, and hugged the walls of shops in an attempt to return to her bed, she could no longer abate the tears. It was as if the alcohol had only masked her despair for a few hours, compounding it to an unbearable level, before releasing it upon her all at once. Like kinking a garden hose until one looked into the spout only to have the kink straighten out and getting blasted in the face with water.
When Sakura finally made it to the inn she was staying at, she had collapsed on the floor in an agonized, sobbing mess. The kind inn keeper, a wide set woman with a warm smile and strong arms from tending to children, had gathered Sakura up like one of her own and taken her to her room.
She struggled to fall asleep, sprawled out on her futon with her shoes still on. Her growing bangs were stuck to the tear tracks coating her face and the scroll tucked into her obi dug into her stomach painfully. The world spun around her and sickness clawed at her throat, making her mouth water. In her state, she wasn't even capable of utilizing her chakra to burn off the alcohol, further compounding her misery.
She was grateful that, at least after passing out, her sleep was nothing but darkness.
That morning, Sakura left a hefty tip on her front desk before stumbling back into the world, painfully hungover and in search for breakfast… Lunch… Whatever time it was.
Just a few days later, as Sakura meditated in her room, gathering chakra in the seal on her forehead, a frantic pounding sounded at her door. Sakura shot to her feet, knowing that such a greeting could only mean immediate trouble, and swung open her door.
"Lady Sakura! Please, you must come quick!" the young, dark haired woman on the other side of the door, perhaps only fifteen years old, immediately beseeched.
"What's wrong?" the medic demanded, already grabbing her storage scroll and stuffing it into her obi.
"My name is Kiyoko and I'm a midwife. I have a woman who is only six months pregnant but who has been in labor for the past seven hours. There is so much blood and I-I don't know what to do. I fear she may die," Kiyoko explained hurriedly, tripping over her words in her panic, "Please hurry!"
"Show me where she is," Sakura instructed and the young woman took off like a shot.
The dark haired girl made a rapid right turn between two businesses and the pair ran across the street to where a small house laid, moving quickly despite the frost that coated the world around them. She was barely able to get the fusuma open in her haste, the sliding door shooting open and closing half way under her force, before the young girl was running inside, leading Sakura down a hallway. Neither bothered to remove their shoes in their rush.
Kiyoko slowly opened one of the few doors in the hallway, revealing a scene to the medic that immediately had her lurching forward to assist.
A woman with long, dark brown hair, possibly in her twenties, laid on a futon that was soaked in blood. She was bare from the waist down, her skirts pulled up high to reveal her thin legs spread wide. Her pale skin was covered in cold sweat and bloody handprints covered her thighs.
The woman looked up at Sakura with half lidded, hazel eyes, her face pinched in an expression of agony. She barely registering the medic falling to her knees next to her and placing hands glowing green with chakra on her swollen stomach.
"You're… Lady Sakura…" the woman whispered blearily, her eyes sliding shut once again as she continued to pant.
"That's me. What's your name?" Sakura asked, already assessing the woman's condition.
"Yoshima…" the brunette muttered, her eyes not opening again.
"Yoshima. Do you want to tell me what's happening? How did this start?" the medic continued, trying to keep the woman conscious and alert while she did her diagnostic.
From the looks of what she felt through her medical ninjutsu… It wasn't good.
Yoshima didn't answer, her head lolling to the side as she lost consciousness. Kiyoko came forward immediately to explain, her hands trembling at her sides.
"She's only six months pregnant. She came to me late last night and said that she had started bleeding heavily and that she was getting sharp pains. I know that she has lost the child somehow and that she must give birth, but… The baby is stuck…"
Sakura nodded in understanding, the scenario Kiyoko described fitting the situation she sensed through her diagnostic.
The medic immediate used her medical ninjutsu to numb the nerves in Yoshima's abdomen, knowing what needed to be done and refusing to feel the dread behind the realization.
Kiyoko hovered near Sakura anxiously, wringing her hands, as Sakura began mending the torn flesh inside of Yoshima, staunching the immediate bleeding. Once she was done, she formed a chakra scalpel.
"I'm going to perform what's called a cesarean section to remove the baby. I know you're a midwife, but this may look disturbing to you," Sakura explained calmly, looking to the young woman to make sure she understood.
While the woman had a ghastly look of her face, her eyes locked onto the chakra blade, she nodded in understanding.
Sakura leaned in to make a careful incision along Yoshima's lower abdomen, flesh, fat, muscle, and finally her peritoneum parting underneath the blade of chakra. She pressed further, making another cut along the wall of the woman's uterus.
Fluid from the already ruptured amniotic sac leaked from the open incision as Sakura reached in and parted her uterus. Spotting the leg of the deceased baby within, the medic frowned deeply as she reached into the organ. Pulling gently but firmly and using her other hand to manuever the vicera, she carefully removed the tiny babe.
Sakura reverently passed the unmoving, blood-coated baby to Kiyoko who took it with a broken expression and shaking hands. Using the umbilical cord as a guide, the medic reached into the woman's uterus to remove the placenta. She passed the organ to the midwife who openly cried, silent tears slipping down her cheeks as she cradled the deceased babe.
As the medic rapidly began knitting Yoshima's uterus, muscles, and flesh back together, desparately keeping her roiling emotions in check, the elder woman regained consciousness.
"S… Sakura… M-my baby…" Yoshima whispered, her eyebrows coming together as she felt the odd sensation of numbed flesh melding back together.
"I'm so sorry... Your…" Sakura responded quietly, struggling for the right words, "Your baby didn't make it…"
Yoshima was silent for a long moment and when Sakura finally looked up at her, she found that the woman was crying. Sakura finished mending her surgical incision and repaired the remainder of the internal damage from Yoshima's unsuccessful labor, giving the woman a moment of silence as she vented her sorrows.
Kiyoko entered the room once again on silent feet, the deceased but now cleaned baby wrapped up in a dark gray blanket. As Sakura finished the surgery by double checking that no invasive bacterial had entered the woman's body during the operation, the midwife handed the bundle to the mourning mother.
Sakura pulled down Yoshima's dress, covering the woman's legs, and she immediately rolled onto her side to clutch the bundle to her chest, crying harder. The young midwife stood and left as silently as she came, leaving Sakura and Yoshima alone.
Just as Sakura stood to leave, feeling as if she were intruding on the grieving mother's private moment of agony, the brunette began to speak.
"I thought… I thought that this time I would finally have my baby…"
Sakura kneeled back down on the ground, knowing that the mourning woman needed someone to speak to, despite Sakura not knowing what to say in response. She folded her hands in her lap, waiting patiently for the brunette to continue.
Yoshima sniffled before continuing in a broken voice. "This is my sixth pregnancy. Every one failed. I lost my baby every time… But no matter what, my husband and I kept trying."
She sobbed harder for a moment, her voice breaking as she was overwhelmed by her sorrow. She held the bundle tighter, her body shaking with the force of her agony.
"This was the last chance I had! My husband… He died five months ago… It was so sudden. I-I don't even know why. I had hoped I would make it through this time so I could finally have the baby we always wanted. I wanted to have a piece of him forever. I got farther than I ever had, but…" she explained through her tears before her sobs stole her words and her body trembled.
Sakura placed a gentle hand on the grieving woman's shoulder, not knowing what to say in the face of such anguish. Her comfort seemed to be enough, the woman's clammy, trembling hand reached up to tightly grasp Sakura's blood stained fingers.
They stayed there for what felt like hours, Yoshima crying uncontrollably as Sakura offered her her silent comfort. She struggled to keep her own tears in check, heat building behind her eyes as her heart clenching in her chest.
While she knew that it couldn't have been more than ten minutes, it felt like a lifetime in the face of such suffering.
The door quietly slid open as Kiyoko entered once again, this time holding a wicker basket and wearing a sullen, tear streaked face.
Sakura gave the mourning woman's hand a tight squeeze before impulsively leaning down to hug her. Yoshima sniffled loudly as her free arm came up to grasp Sakura's shoulder as she returned the hug weakly.
"Thank y-you…" the grieving mother whispered, tears finally escaping the medic's careful control as she stood to leave.
As Sakura left the makeshift delivery room and entered the frigid night air, she wiped away the tears that slipped down her cheeks with trembling, bloody hands.
From the time Sakura took a shower to wash off all the blood to the time she finally fell into a restless slumber, Sakura sobbed. She had never in her life been faced with such sorrow. For Yoshima to lose her husband and her baby… Sakura couldn't even imagine such agony. She would rather lose a limb than face such a fate.
While Sakura clinically suspected that the baby had passed away before Yoshima had even began bleeding and gone into labor, and even more than that knew that the baby wouldn't have been able to survive outside of the womb at such a young age, she couldn't shake the feeling of guilt. The feeling that she could have done more. That if she had just been there sooner, she could have saved that baby's life.
The feeling that she had failed yet again.
That morning, at the brink of dawn, Sakura crawled out of bed, a heaviness weighing on her heart. She still felt overwhelmed by that woman's anguish and by the fact that she felt as if she had finally lost her first patient: Yoshima's baby.
Despite knowing that she had made a mistake by drinking on Naruto's birthday, she decided she'd make the mistake again just for a few hours of numbness.
Sakura dressed herself in fresh clothes, tossing the blood stained yukata from the night before in the trash. She took the short and frigid walk down to a different, but closer, bar than the one she had gone to last. She still wasn't sure if she could face the bartender from the bar she had gone to last time...
The ratty establishment she found was empty of patrons, minus a man passed out in a booth, snoring loudly, who she was sure remained from the night previous. She bleakly strolled passed him, taking a seat at the sticky bar.
The gruff bartender gave her an odd stare but luckily didn't ask any questions when Sakura laid down a stack of bills and asked for a carafe of sake. He took the stack of money before laying out a questionably clean dish and a bottle of warm rice wine.
As Sakura eyed the stained dish numbly, she briefly considered drinking straight from the bottle. Not finding it in herself to care about the cleanliness of this rundown bar, she poured herself a dish and downed it immediately. A shiver ran down her spine at the bitter taste but she ignored it as she poured herself another.
She distantly wondered if this was how her mentor Tsunade had began her drinking habits but squashed the thought as quickly as it came. She couldn't add the sorrow of being separated from the ones she loved on top of her mourning.
She was halfway through her bottle and a quarter of the way to her desired state of intoxication when a man with dirty blond hair, pale skin, and rounded cheeks approached her cautiously.
"Lady Sakura?" the stranger inquired politely, standing off to her side instead of taking a seat at the bar.
"What?" Sakura replied rudely before downing another shot, too numb to care about her harsh tone.
"Please, I… I've been searching for you for the past two weeks. My name is Nobu Nakano. I heard about you from a woman in the nearby village of Ine-cho. She said you can work miracles. I… I need you to heal my sister," he beseeched, bowing deeply.
Sakura didn't even turn to acknowledge him as she poured herself another dish. "I'm not taking patients right now. Come back another day."
The sound of Nobu falling the the ground in a bow of complete supplication caused Sakura to whip around to stare at him.
"Please, I'm desperate! My sister, she's dying. I don't even know if she still lives! When I last left, her illness was so great she couldn't even get out of bed. I'm begging you, please come save her!" the man begged from the ground, his voice muffled as he pleaded into the filthy floor.
"I-I…" Sakura stuttered, embarrassment flooding her as the stranger begged at her feet.
"Please! We're a family of wealthy merchants and she is our leader as well as my sister. I can offer you two hundred thousand ryo if you save her. We'd do anything to have her back!" the blond implored, the sound of the beginning of tears straining his words.
Sakura was silent for a long moment, glancing over at her half finished bottle for a moment before returning to the man with his forehead pressed into the floor.
"F-fine. I'll come..." she sighed, turning away from the scene before her to stare at her bottle, "Just… Please get up…"
Nobu shot to his feet instantly, quicker than a puppet pulled up by it's strings. He wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands, trying to hide the fact he had been about to cry.
"Truly?" he asked breathlessly, a hesitant smile growing on his face.
"Yes, just… Just help me finish this and let me gather my things."
A/N: Yoshima means "good luck girl" even though the grieving mother has had just about the opposite of good luck. Kiyoko means "pure child". I named her this because she is a midwife. Nobu means "hope". Nakano means "middle" and "field, wilderness".
Ine-cho is another tourist destination in Japan. Also, 200,000 ryo is about $2,000 USD.