"Well, well, well! Is that Sakura-chan I see? Sakura-chan~! Look at who's found you~!"

   Sakura turned around curiously to see two shinobi leap down from the branches above. The one who called her out walked up to her with open arms.

   "Sakura-chan~! Come here and give me a really big hug!" he exclaimed, "Actually, no. Give me a HUGE hug!"

   "No."

   "Sakura-chan~!" he pouted.

   "No. What are you doing here Shisui-san?" she questioned. She looked over at the man behind the Uchiha and gave him a small wave, which he returned readily.

   "Sai and I here are on a mission, simple stuff. Oh yeah! Sai, this is Sakura Haruno, the one who went on leave for five years. Sakura-chan, this is Sai. He's the one who goes on all the missions with your old team. Y'know, Team 7." Shisui explained. Sakura approached Sai and shook his hand in greeting.

   "I've heard many good things about you." Sai said, a smile on his pale face, "Naruto talks about you all the time. You have... two years until you have to return to Konoha, correct? I'm sure that they'll be happy when you come back. Is there anything you'd like me to say to them for you?"

   "Or for me to say to Itachi!" Shisui interrupted.

   Sakura shook her head.

   "There's nothing, really. I'll be home soon enough. And don't mention meeting me, would you?"

~

   The Drapturn flower. It was said to only bloom at midnight on July 16th in the hot sands of Wind Country. All of them would bloom at the same time in an enormous meadow. Not many people knew the exact date it would bloom, and hell, not many people knew the Drapturn existed, but good remedy maker would jump at the chance. By the time Sakura got there, a Sunagakure shinobi was already sitting near the field.

   "I take it that you're here for the Drapturn." he commented leisurely. Sakura took a seat beside him. It was currently 11:55.

   "Yeah. How long have you been waiting here?"

   "Ten minutes, just about. I'm starting to get irritated by how long I have to wait. It was my own idiocy to arrive so early." he grumbled. His half-lidded eyes stared boredly at the field. Sakura chuckled.

   "Rather impatient, aren't you?"

   "Can it, brat."

   "Whatever you say, old man. And I bet you are old judging by how young you look."

   "Where's the logic in that sentiment?"

   A full minute passed, and at the stroke of midnight, the entire field blossomed, creating a sea of deep maroon. Both of them stood, slipped on their latex gloves, and began to harvest the flowers. This species was similar but stronger to its cousin, the Autumn Crocus. Both were one of the most endangered plants in the world and could cause reduced blood pressure and cardiac arrest. Plus, there was no antidote for the poisonous plants.

   "I fail to see a hitai-ate on your person, brat, and you're definitely not a civilian. Any specific reason for that?" he questioned. Sakura opened a jar and placed the Drapturn inside.

   "I'm not a missing-nin, if that's what your implying. I just have permission to leave my village for a few years. Actually, I've got a couple of years before I've got to head back. And 'brat' is not my name, old man. It's Sakura Haruno." she introduced.

   "Sakura." he mused, "I suppose that it fits that ridiculous hair of yours."

   "It's natural!"

   "Sure it is. I'm Sasori Akasuna. I am older than I look, but don't think you'll be getting a specific age out of me."

   They spent the rest of the harvesting engaging in small talk. Sasori worked at the hospital, but wasn't a healer. He specialized in poisons and antidotes, a useful set of skills to have. He even put some of his home made poisons in the puppets he used for battle. His grandmother had taught him everything he needed to know about those puppets and had gotten him interested in poisons.

   "She's a poison expert as well?" she asked.

   "Yes. Though she's having some trouble with... nevermind."

   "Nevermind? No way. You started saying something, and you're going to finish that sentence." Sakura stated firmly. All the Drapturn had been harvested and they were packing all the specimens away.

   "My father... he was poisoned and none of the medics in the village could help him. Chiyo-baa-san is trying to make an antidote, but I don't know how much longer he'll last. There is so much poison in his system that only a poison extraction technique could take it out. To my knowledge, only Tsunade knows the technique, but no one knows where she is and it would be useless to find her." murmured Sasori. 

   Kami, he did not know how lucky he was to encounter her at that time.

   "I know the technique."

   Sasori looked up at Sakura in surprise.

   "You do?"

   "Take me to your father and I'll do all I can to help him."

~

   Chiyo was shocked when her grandson brought this young girl to the hospital with him. She was shocked even further when she introduced herself as the medic who would help her poisoned son. Heavy doubt settled in her stomach as she watched the teenager approach her son and the medics clustered around him.

   "Excuse me." Sakura murmured softly. She walked up to the bedridden man and shone a flashlight into both of his eyes.

   "Who are you?" one of the Suna medics questioned incredulously. Sakura smiled and pocketed the small flashlight.

   "A medic that'll be able to help this patient." she replied smoothly. She ran her eyes over his chart at the end of his bed. Saburo Akasuna, age 56, and for now, in stable condition. She pressed an ear to his chest and listened to his breathing and heartbeat.

   "The poison used on him was refined from heavy metals. It's the type that gets into his muscles and destroys the cells." explained Sakura. Chiyo narrowed her eyes. She could tell that much from a brief examination? Including the type of poison? That was a feat only Tsunade was capable of. The medics and Saburo's wife looked at her with wide-eyed wonder.

   "Do you have the poison's composition?"

   "Y-Yes." one of them said, handing her a clipboard, "There are some blanks, though."

   "Don't worry. I'll have those filled in." she assured. Her eyes turned to Saburo. "His heart muscles are being destroyed as we speak, so it could stop functioning any time now. Creating the antidote would take too much time up, as I have been informed, so please get me all the materials I ask for. It's a drastic measure, but I can take most of the poison from him."

   From outside the room, Sasori and Chiyo spoke to each other quietly.

   "Where did you find her?" asked Chiyo, "Her skills are in a completely different league. I find her a bit suspicious, but I'm glad she's here."

   "I only found her because she was gathering Drapturns. She told me she knew the technique to help him, but I had no idea she was this skilled." he replied. Footsteps sounded behind him and up came a short-haired blonde. A young Iwagakure shinobi sent to go on a joint mission with Sasori. He proved himself to be very irritating to the red-head.

   "Oi, what are you doing in the hospital, un? We're due to leave in an hour. You already went picking your flowers, didn't you, hm?"

   "Be quiet, Deidara. I found a suitable medic to help my father- I'm here to see how good she truly is." Sasori answered. Deidara looked into the room curiously and brightened up at the person he saw inside.

   "Sakura-chan's the capable medic you found? I'm glad you stumbled upon her when you needed her, un!" he grinned.

   "You... know her?"

    "'Course I do, hm. She's kicked my ass upwards and sideways in every spar we've ever had over the years-"

   "Like it's hard to beat you." Sasori interrupted. Deidara scowled.

   "-and I was close to beating her sometimes, un! But it only got worse when she started training with that one sannin, Tsunade. Now she has that bizarre inhuman strength, the ability to heal..."

   As he rambled on and on to Sasori, Chiyo watched Sakura work. They had pinned down Saburo and she was now extracting the poison by pulsing this liquid through the left side of his chest with one hand and extracting the poison through a slit on the right side of his chest with the other. 

   "Tsunade's student, huh...?" she muttered.

*The technique Sakura used on Sasori's father was the one she used on Kankuro in the actual series