Disclaimer: Naruto is Kishimoto's toy, I'm just playing with it.

Warning: This story is purely made for feel-goods and laughter. I do not care one bit, not one bit, about your science, good sir. This story will have the occasional dash of angst, because it is a good seasoning to every story. This particular chapter shall add said seasoning.

Beta: SolarCupid (☞ ᐛ )☞

Guess whose POV is at the end of the chapter? :D

I also addressed Sakura's sexuality at the bottom.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

I took a long swig of my water, feeling increasingly more tired with every second that passed by. While healing the children, my Shōsen caught the attention of surrounding adults who then asked if I was a doctor. I told them I was training to become one, which seemed more than good enough for them. For an hour, I was pulled across town as people begged me to heal loved ones.

Then one of them suggested setting me up in a specific location and bringing people to me.

So, they set me up in the old clinic (the doctor had left towards the beginning of Gato's reign, and the place had been thoroughly ransacked since then for the precious medicine). Feeling in a particular mood, I took off my hoodie and pulled out a long white doctor coat I bought for such an occasion.

Granted, I had hoped to use it in another elaborate ploy to coax another amusing reaction from Kakashi, but given that I had chosen praise over such a thing, the plan would never come to fruition.

Villagers lined up outside, each with varying degrees of illness or injuries. Many villagers helped carry the more significantly injured towards the front of my line, and right off the bat I was greeted with ghastly infected cuts, and oozing orifices.

I had to consult my textbooks repeatedly to treat most of the cases brought to me. All broken bones I set (sometimes I had to rebreak which made me cringe the first few times) and put in a cast, knowing better than to try and heal them on my own. Illnesses, I did what I could to alleviate their symptoms, but I stressed they would have to visit a proper doctor for medication. I was able to diagnose a fair few cases, which seemed to help them as they knew "home remedies." Infected wounds, I siphoned off as much of the injection as I could and purged it with my chakra before closing the wound and prescribing bed rest and giving them what antibiotics I could spare. They would be feverish for a while, but with most of the infection "sucked out", and the wound closed there was a good chance they would recuperate on their own.

Unfortunately, that was not always the case. There were two men brought to me who had gangrene severe enough that the only way to save them was amputation.

Something of which I was really not qualified to do, so I sent a villager to go to Tazuna's home and tell them that I needed some kind of clone of Kakashi for a bit.

Half an hour later one shadow clone of Kakashi was at my side.

"Um," was all I said, gesturing towards the unconscious men. I had numbed and knocked them out. They rested side by side in the clinic, faint moans rising out of them occasionally.

Kakashi heaved out a sigh. "I probably should have anticipated this would happen."

"Apparently, they've been without a doctor for six months," I mumbled.

Kakashi scratched his cheek. "Tazuna mentioned something like that, yes." He made a hm. "You know this doesn't pertain to our mission, right?"

"These people need—"

"We need to guard Tazuna."

"You said I could—"

"I know what I said, Sakura, but you need to understand your priorities. Tomorrow you must guard Tazuna. You cannot be here to heal or play doctor, and judging from that line outside you didn't tell them that."

It honestly didn't cross my mind that I wouldn't be able to take care of them. I flushed. "I—"

Kakashi squatted down beside me, so his eyes were level with my own. "Do you think this all a game?"

I bit my tongue, glaring at him instead. "I asked you here for your help. If you don't want to help, then don't. I'll—I'll figure it out on my own."

"Will you now."

"Yes," I snapped irritably.

"Okay, then." Kakashi said, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

My hands quivered, and I clenched them into fists, fury churning inside of my stomach.

I took a deep breath.

I let it out slowly, shoving down my anger and all negative emotions. Slowly, I turned back towards the two men.

'I got this.'

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

I returned to Tazuna's home, covered in dried blood, after dusk. I didn't step inside the home though because I realized how I must have looked. Instead, I headed down to the water, cleaned myself up, and pulled my clean red hoodie over my dirty clothes.

Naruto and Sasuke had not returned, but I found Tazuna sitting by the kitchen table with Tsunami and Kakashi.

Tsunami smiled at me. "Welcome back, Sakura-chan."

My back stiffened, and for a moment the stench of blood and—

I forced a bright smile on my face, shoving everything far, far down inside of me. "Thanks! I got a lot of training done today."

Tsunami nodded. "I saw the line outside the clinic. Were you able to meet with everyone?"

"Everyone critical," came my response. "But I'll be guarding Tazuna tomorrow, so it'll be awhile before I can—I can play doctor again."

If anyone noticed how I stumbled over my words, they did not comment. Kakashi eyed me carefully, before he gave me an eye-smile. "I'm glad you were able to gain some practical experience, Sakura-chan."

Again, my back stiffened. I stretched my smile wider. "Yeah! Great day. Really fantastic day. I'm going to head to bed. What time do you want to leave, Tazuna?"

"Before sunrise," Tazuna grunted, offering me a faint smile.

"Great. Awesome."

I left the room.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

The next morning, I got up and ready well before the boys and met Tazuna in the kitchen. Tsunami offered us each a homemade lunch, her gaze lingering a moment or two on my face. "Sakura-chan, did you sleep alright?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"Your eyes look a little puf—"

I laughed, loudly. "Oh, it's just allergies. You see last night before I came home the Goggle Gods told me to smell some flowers on the way back. Being the loyal disciple I am, I smelled all the flowers I could find. I must have had a reaction to one of them."

She looked at me dubiously. "I... see."

I affectionately patted her arm. "Don't worry about me. I'm a happy person at heart. Nothing brings me down!"

That got a chortle from Tazuna. "I believe it! You laughed in the face of death the other day."

"Death is just the next great adventure."

Kakashi appeared at the doorway, although I wasn't sure how long he might have actually stood there, listening. "Heading out?"

I nodded my head, projecting a cheerful demeanor. "Yeah! Oh, here, Kakashi-sensei!" I handed him a bottle of chakra pills. "Those are chakra vitamins my Kaa-chan bought me a while ago. You're supposed to take some when you're chakra exhausted, and it'll promote a faster regeneration."

Kakashi deftly took the small glass bottle from my hands, his gaze lingering on the bright pink bow wrapped around it. He looked back up at me, an eye-smile on his face. "Maa, thank you, Sakura-chan."

I—

I smiled at honorific. "I'll see you later!"

"Remember to use your flares if you run into trouble."

"I know, I know."

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

Morning mist drifted on the water below the bridge. I watched Tazuna work, from where I stood on top of the water below.

I may not have been able to continue to play doctor, but that didn't mean I was going to stop training. Zabuza wouldn't be able to act for five more days, at least, and Haku was too kind to act with any kind of malicious intent without Zabuza's orders. It would be an exorbitant amount of wasted time to merely sit around watching people work.

So while I stood on top of the water, my fingers worked on a cross-stitch. It was a little awkward doing that standing up (I had to have the thread tucked under my armpit and my fingers were already getting tired after two hours). Still, I needed the sewing practice, and cross stitching was the best way to practice my sutures. Not to mention I had to learn how to sew if I wanted to remake all of my plushies. No Amazon or Cons here.

My stomach growled as I neared the end of my picture (Garfield, the original Grumpy Cat), and I knew it was time to eat lunch. Hastily, I climbed back up the nearest support beam and hopped over the railing onto the bridge. One of Tazuna's workers gave a startled surprise at that, to which I rewarded him with a saucy wink.

I headed over to where I had placed my backpack and lunch. I found Tazuna sitting on a stack of cement mix, eating his own lunch and chatting with some of his fellow workers.

With a bright, warm smile I sat on the ground with the group of people. They all returned my smile with grins of their own.

"You're Sakura-sensei, right?" one of the workers, Izu if I remembered correctly, asked.

"I'm not a certified doctor, yet," I told him, "but yes, I am Sakura."

Izu's grin stretched. "You were amazing yesterday. When the bridge is done, will you—?"

"If I have my sensei's permission, I would love to," I promised him. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to everyone, and about the amp—"

Izu shook his head. "We all know you did what you could, and you definitely saved a lot of people's lives yesterday."

That made me blush, because it was a bit of an exaggeration. The vast majority of them could have gone on well enough until a proper doctor could arrive at the village once the bridge was complete. "I wouldn't say that. I'm glad I could help though."

Kensuke, another worker (although he was older than Tazuna) grunted and waved me off. "Will you be guarding us until the bridge is finished, or will your teammates be joining you?"

"Most likely it'll just me for a while," I answered. "My teammates require some more training that I've already completed. Kakashi-sensei feels confident that Zabuza won't be able to attack us for a while, which is why he feels comfortable leaving me alone to guard. The main concern right now are low-level thugs, which I am more than capable of handling."

The others chuckled and Tazuna boasted, "We'll have this bridge finished before those brats even finish their training."

That elicited more laughter, and more workers came over to join us for their lunch.

All in all, it was a very relaxing and happy day.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

That pattern continued over the next few days. Sasuke and Naruto only finished their training very late one night, and the next morning Naruto was too tuckered out to wake up properly. We decided to leave him behind, while the three of us followed Tazuna towards the bridge.

I wasn't overly surprised when we found all of the unconscious (hopefully) workers at the bridge.

"I sense Zabuza in the mist," I told them, as I hurried over to the nearest body and checked for a pulse. I was relieved to find one. "THANK YOU FOR NOT KILLING THEM, ZABUZA."

There was a dry chuckle that echoed throughout the mist. "They weren't worth the effort. I hope you brats didn't miss me too much."

"I'm glad Mei's lover is okay," I mumbled out loud.

"I am not—" There was a pause. "Hand over the bridge builder, or I chop off that pretty little head of yours."

I giggled, covering my cheeks in a mock gesture to hide my nonexistent blush. "You think I'm pretty?"

Zabuza chose not to verbally respond, instead the mist began to thicken enough that I could no longer pick out his unique signature at a specific point. All I sensed and felt was his chakra around me, and once more I had to consciously and consistent purge my system of his chakra.

"Enough."

Kakashi moved in front of me. "I'll handle Zabuza, Sakura stay with Tazuna, and Sasuke—"

"I already know," Sasuke said, taking the first leap forwards. Haku moved in the same instant, appearing out of the mist and meeting Sasuke head on.

I grabbed Tazuna's hand. "Come on, let's try and grab all of the workers and move them out of the way."

"R-Right," Tazuna stammered, and the two of us grabbed the first worker and moved him off. I felt Zabuza's chakra spike, and there was a loud clanging noise. Kakashi had intercepted Zabuza's first attack on Tazuna, and the two were locked in battle soon afterwards.

I forced Tazuna to move quickly. I trusted Kakashi to keep Zabuza off us long enough that we could gather all of the workers. It didn't take long to accomplish such—perhaps three minutes? When I had everyone lined up together and to the side, I did a preliminary examination of each and determined that the worst case they would suffer would be a mild concussion.

Then I was right back in front of Tazuna, kunai in hand and I watched the battles unfold around us.

"GO KAKASHI-SENSEI!" I cheered happily, leaping up and down and using my kunai like pom-poms. "Gimme a B! Gimme an E! Gimme an S and T! What's that spell? BEST! Best, best, Kakashi's the best, if you don't believe me put him to the test!"

I finished with a whoop and another cheer.

Kakashi's chidori flared to life and he deftly sliced through Zabuza's latest water dragon. I tilted my head to the side, as I watched their entirely epic battle. Taking a deep breath, I bellowed out, "MEI AND ZABUZA SITTIN' IN A TREE—"

Suddenly there were four furious Zabuza water clones headed my way. I gave a gleeful shout that I was finally being included, and no longer being left out. Unfortunately the water clones only had 1/10 of Zabuza's power, and one good hit was all it would take to dispel them. Even as weak as I was (which was definitely stronger than canon!Sakura at the time considering I had actually been training and working hard), the clones didn't cause me too much of a hassle.

They did nick me good on the cheek, which made me inordinately happy that I got to put on a cute bandaid (it was pink and had puggies on it) on my cheek. It didn't take long for Haku to summon his ice mirrors, to which I had to briefly change up my cheer to cheer for Haku because the poor boy looked so depressed to be fighting others, and he deserved a little love.

Then it was right back to cheer for Kakashi because they're fight was starting to escalate and that shit was cool. They didn't fight nearly as over the top in the anime as they were at the moment (whereas the Haku and Sasuke fight was so canon it was almost boring to watch).

To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure if Haku would even have a chance to "die" for his mentor. Kakashi was pulling out some crazy shit in hopes of suppressing Zabuza fast enough that Zabuza wouldn't be a genuine danger to his students.

'A change brought on by my mere existence. Did I motivate Kakashi enough to try, or was the manga incorrect in saying that Kakashi half-assed and lazily fought Zabuza in the first place? Or perhaps, was Kakashi sincerely concerned that if he didn't try hard against Zabuza, I had successfully pissed off the missing-nin enough that he would murder me in a most horrendous fashion?'

Probably one of the first two. It simply never made any sense for Kakashi to not go entirely all out against Zabuza immediately. The man was traumatized from his past, enough so that he didn't allow a single to comrade to die since Rin while on a mission. There's no way Kakashi would trust his comrades to take care of themselves, so he has to be the one to kill all the enemies.

'If the manga wasn't canonical for this though, then what else might be wrong?'

Who knows? Might be fun to find out.

'I always loved a good mystery/thriller!'

You can't count this as a thriller when you aren't even a little scared. Hell, you're absolutely delighted to be put in a life or death situation, you masochist.

'This is true. I love my life so much right now. Like, this is friggin fantastic. Ahh, I need to hurry up and finish my Kisame plushie so I have something to hug whenever I want.'

Naruto showed up with all his grand cuteness, leaping straight into the fray with the Sasuke/Haku battle.

Since my future son had shown up, I knew it was time to cheer for him. "Go Naruto, go! You've got V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, so split that V and dot that I and bring Momma that C-T-O-R-Y!"

I waved my hands in the air like I just didn't care.

"Aren't you even a little concerned for your teammates?" Tazuna inquired incredulously.

I shook my head. "Na-uh. I have complete faith in them. Besides, doesn't it make you feel better having someone who is entirely nonchalant around?"

"A little," Tazuna admitted.

"Do you mind if we move closer to Naruto and Sasuke's battle with Haku? I have a feeling I'm about to get a chance to cover Sasuke in hot pink band aids."

"I don't mind at all," Tazuna said, and the two of us moved across the bridge for a front row seat into the teenage angst battle.

I half-heartedly listened to Haku's tragic backstory, having heard it well over a hundred times by now. I could even slightly mouth the words as Haku spoke them, I knew it that well. Once storytime was over, the trio began their battle once more, and I picked up my cheering.

My cheering respectfully died off when Sasuke activated his Sharingan, and Naruto was thoroughly covered in senbon. Naruto struggled with consciousness, and I itched to pull them out and cover him in bandages, but I knew I couldn't get to them as long as Haku's kekkei genkai was active. If I went to them, then Tazuna would be left entirely unguarded and all three of us would be trapped inside with Haku.

Instead, I patiently waited for Sasuke to properly pass out after taking numerous senbon (to the knee). I waited until Kurama of the Fluff made his grand appearance and Naruto destroyed the ice mirrors as he threw Haku away with one furious punch that in the process shattered his mask.

While Naruto began his Therapy-no-Jutsu, I heard Kakashi's and Zabuza's battle slowly begin to dwindle down into less extreme forms. I couldn't watch them however, as I had to dress Sasuke's wounds.

I kneeled beside my broody teammate, Tazuna nervously looking down at him beside me. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Of course he will be." I snorted, pulling one senbon at a time. Once a senbon was pulled out, I placed a doctored hot pink bandaid on it, and patted it down before moving onto the next one. Some of the senbon required very careful remove as they pierced awfully close to some vital spots and I didn't want to waste what precious chakra I had healing Sasuke when I would desperately need it later.

I was so absorbed in the meticulous process (I still had to use diagnostic tests to confirm none of his nervous were damaged, given the nature of senbon), that I was honestly surprised to hear the loud barking noises of Kakashi's pack.

My head immediately snapped out, eyes widening.

Then I realized that I sensed a whole bunch of small chakras gathering at the end of the bridge.

'Fate-no-Jutsu strikes again!'

Mirroring the manga, Zabuza was thoroughly trapped by Kakashi's pack. I shot up onto my feet, as Kakashi built up his Chidori. "Wait! Kakashi-sensei, don't—"

Of course my words came out too clumsily and slow to be processed fast enough to stop what was happening. I knew it was coming, of course, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do to prevent it. I couldn't very well ask Kakashi to spare Zabuza, or Haku, could I? Not until the whole Gato thing was cleared up, and I had no idea when in the hell he would be showing up exactly (and of course he would show up right around the same time shit would hit the fan, bastard). I wasn't strong enough to stall them myself.

No, no. I could not prevent it, but I could fix it.

And I would.

I felt Haku's chakra fluctuate beside me and one moment he was with Naruto, and the next he was in front of Zabuza, taking a Chidori straight through the chest.

"Naruto, guard Tazuna," I snapped out, sprinting full speed towards my future harem.

Naruto barely sputtered out a reply. Then I was there, and I tackled straight into Haku, twisting our bodies around so he landed on top of me. I didn't even look up to take note of the surprised expressions on Zabuza and Kakashi's face. Instead, I whipped out the single more expensive thing I had ever bought in my entire life.

A very special seal. One that was so ridiculously expensive, I was going to use all my cunning and wit to convince Naruto to become a seal master so he could make the damn seals for me himself, because sweet berry loving Mew that shit was outrageous. Six months of advance allowance, almost all of my missions savings, and it counted as my damn birthday gift from my parents!

Like.

Ugh.

If he wasn't so damn cute...

Nerves pricked at me, as I knew I had to move swiftly. Laying Haku on the ground, his head resting in my lap, I pulled out the one-time-use seal and placed it above the hole in his chest.

Pouring chakra into the seal, it lit up a pale green before dissolving into his skin, and Haku took a shuddering breath, his chest rising up and down despite there being a hole where his heart technically should have been.

The number seven glowed a pale green where the seal had been placed.

When I looked back up towards the two elite shinobi, Zabuza took the moment to maneuver out of Kakashi's summons and leap away to gain some distance.

"What are you doing, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, turning towards me.

"Before you guys continue with your death threats, and whatnot, I think you should pay attention to the end of thatta way," I said, pointing dramatically towards the end of the bridge.

Their eyes followed to where my finger was pointing, and I felt the mist clear up. I took a great breath of relief at that.

At the end of the bridge was Gato in all his hideous (nonexistent) glory.

"Gato?" Zabuza asked, incredulous. "What are you doing here? Why do you have those henchmen?"

"Our strategy has changed a little bit," Gato said in that whiny voice of his. "Since hiring shinobi are so expensive, I thought it would be best if you died here. I had hoped these brats would be able to finish you off, after you had killed Tazuna, but... It looks like my men and I will have the pleasure of killing you all."

"I vote that Zabuza joins our side and kills Gato and all those men," I put out there.

"If you don't make any more suggestions about Mei and myself, I suppose I'll join your shitty ass team for the moment to clean up this moron," Zabuza grumbled.

"Okay," I lied.

A cough wracked through Zabuza's body and he spat out some blood. "Fuck your Chidori, Kakashi."

"I could say the same thing about your damn sword," Kakashi muttered, clutching at a heavily bleeding arm.

"I've got left," Zabuza said. "And Gato."

"I'll take right, then."

And then they were gone, and heads began to fly off bodies and into the air.

I clapped my hands enthusiastically while Naruto and Tazuna joined beside me. Naruto then noticed Haku in my lap, and he gasped. "Is he...?"

"Shh," I shushed him. "This is a rare moment where we get to see how utterly powerless civilians are to shinobi. Even if the shinobi are almost out of chakra, bleeding profusely, and look about ready to pass out."

"Uh," was all Naruto could say in response to that.

When the massacre was over (and it barely lasted thirty seconds), Zabuza and Kakashi returned to us.

Then Zabuza's knees gave out and Zabuza fell to the ground, every inch of his body shaking and oozing blood. My gaze swept over to Kakashi, and I realized that he had relaxed. Knowing that was my chance, I leapt up from my spot, pulling out my first aid scroll. "Naruto, help me with Zabuza."

Naruto appeared surprised for a moment, then he noticed my scroll and without a word he appeared by my side the moment I reached Zabuza.

"What are you doing?" Zabuza wheezed out.

"Saving your life," came my response. I unsealed the supplies from the scroll, feeling Kakashi's presence behind me. His hand rested on my shoulder and he squatted beside me. He didn't say anything though, merely watched as I handed Naruto a bottle of blood pills. "Make him swallow five of these. I'm going to do a patch job on him because I need to conserve my chakra for the hardest part."

Naruto nodded, clumsily pouring out pills in his hand before shoving one in Zabuza's mouth.

Zabuza spat it out. "Stop it, you damn brats. I—"

"I don't want Haku to come out of this without a master," I impatiently snapped. "Either you cooperate, or I stick needles in places that you don't want needles stuck."

"H-Haku?" Naruto stumbled, his eyes wide. "He's really alive?"

"I have him on a bypass seal, and I think I can probably hopefully save his life, but I first have to make sure Zabuza lives because apparently Haku is suicidal without him."

Zabuza's eyes rested on me, unreadable. "You're not lying."

"Not in this case," I confirmed. "So will you cooperate?"

Zabuza closed his eyes. "Fine."

As Naruto fed the blood pills to Zabuza, I moved quickly to bandage what I could.

Kakashi's hand fell away from my shoulder, and I felt him move to my left. "Kakashi-sensei, Zabuza and Haku are my patients now," I told him, my tone brusque and firm. "As their doctor, I will do everything in my power to keep in alive. They are no longer a threat to us."

Kakashi eyed me, his thoughts unreadable for a solid minute. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

My gaze stayed even with his. "He's my patient now." My hands tightened into fists. "Either help me, or leave."

Kakashi's face was unreadable, a wall of apathy.

"Okay. I'll help."

Shock poured over me like ice water on a snowy winter day.

Through the corner of my eye, I saw him grab a needle and medical thread. Surprise fluttered through me again, along with a brief burst of happiness. Zabuza noticed what Kakashi was doing and mumbled, "Even you?"

"My cute students are working hard to save your life," he said quietly, "I don't want that to go to waste." Then he gave Zabuza that beautiful eye-smile. "Besides, it's not every day I get to save the life of someone after I so soundly defeat them."

Zabuza snorted, and choked out a laugh which made more blood pool out of his wounds and I slapped for that. "Stop that. You be a good patient and remain perfectly still."

The three of us worked quietly for several minutes (after Naruto was done feeding him the pills, he bandaged and disinfected the smaller wounds). We stopped the bleeding, and I was able to repair the largest of tendon tears in his arms. He would require more advanced healing than what I was capable of, but at the very least he had mobility in his arms again.

Satisfied that he was not going to die for a while, I nodded my head. "Okay, good. I'll see what else I can do for you after I take care of Haku."

"Take care of Haku?"

We all turned our eyes to a groggy Sasuke (who looked a little funny with all those hot pink bandages on him). He walked towards us, grimacing from his stiff muscles. Naruto beamed. "Sasuke! You had us worried."

He shrugged, looking uncomfortable.

Kakashi stood up, heading over to Sasuke. "You going to be okay?"

Sasuke nodded, looking over at me. I answered for him, "Haku missed all the vital spots. His tendons are going to be stiff for a while, but he'll make a full recovery. Only reason he passed out was because Haku hit a nerve cluster around his spine to induce a brief coma."

Zabuza grunted as he sat up—slowly, because my hand was on his chest and I wasn't allowing him to move any faster than necessary—then snorted upon seeing the bandaged Sasuke.

Sasuke glared and moved to remove the bandages, but I idly pointed out, "If you start bleeding and pass out again I'll dress you up into a cat girl."

That got him to stop.

I crawled over to where Haku was, doing another diagnostic examination. I looked around. "Well, he's going to need a new heart and there sure are a lot of hearts about to go to waste around here."

Naruto's face twisted in obvious disgust, while Zabuza nodded slowly. Kakashi and Sasuke remained impassive. Zabuza shifted his weight before he stood up shakily. "Alright. Tell me which one matches his blood type and I'll get it."

"Okay," I said easily, standing up, as well. "I'll, uh, need room to work. And some, ah, makeshift nurses. I've never ever done this before, so I'll need someone to turn pages in my textbook and whatnot."

"I-I can do that." Naruto looked uncomfortable at the idea of harvesting organs, but he clearly didn't want Haku to die.

"You can use our house," Tazuna offered. "We should—we should go ahead and prepare, then?"

At the question, I glanced over at Tazuna and nodded. "Yeah. As clean as you can make it, and, um, you'll probably want to lay down some trash bags around what you don't want to get bloodstained. Or something. I—I don't, um."

Kakashi interrupted me before I could start getting flustered, for which I was grateful. It was already nerve-wracking what I was about to, and having to become an impromptu leader made me surprisingly uncomfortable. "I'll set things up. When I return we'll move Haku."

About that time the army Naruto had Therapy-no-Jutsu'd for showed up.

I honestly almost forgot about that broody brat.

I turned to Naruto. "You started that, so you gotta make them leave and stay outta our way."

"Uh, right," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. He jogged over to where the men and women were, and I could hear their shouts of victory when he told them that Gato was dead.

"I'll be back shortly," Kakashi said bluntly, heading away.

I glanced slyly over at Zabuza. "You know, all those women are gonna wanna hug you to thank you for killing Gato."

"If anyone touches me I'll skin them alive," the missing-nin grouched.

I pointedly reached over and patted his shoulder.

The look I got of sheer irritation was positively delicious.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

"Okay," I said out loud. Tsunami had set us up with the spare room, and removed all the furniture inside except a large sturdy table, some chairs, and a waste basket. I noticed that there were seals drawn around the room and when I pointed them out Kakashi admitted he drew them.

I've had iryo-nin teammates before, was what he said, The seals are merely basic decontamination seals for emergency surgeries in the field.

Haku laid bare-chested on the table, while Naruto held up my medical textbook beside Zabuza. It was a how-to for field heart transplants (written by none other than Tsunade). Zabuza had a chair pulled up on the opposite side of the table, next to Naruto, staring down at Haku's hole. Kakashi was on my right, appearing entirely relaxed. Sasuke was on my left, watching everything with curious eyes.

"Okay," I repeated. "Zabuza, you have the heart?"

Zabuza grunted and pointed down towards the corpse. "I'll harvest it when we're ready."

"Right. Okay. First—" I squinted at the textbook. "—First thing is to make sure the patient is on bypass. The seal has another—" I glanced at the seal, reading the number it had burned into Haku's skin. "—six hours. That will keep Haku breathing, via directing his chakra system."

And wasn't that something interesting to learn. The chakra system was so tightly wound with all of the other systems, that when one of the systems failed it directly affected the other. So if, say, someone's lungs collapsed, with the proper know-how he/she could still breath through drawing in air into their chakra system and having their chakra regulate their body. Which made sense given how in the manga people blew out some justus that lasted way longer than what normal people could breathe. They had to be breathing somehow.

Chakra was friggin amazing.

"Next step, sanitation, which is already done. Now we have to o-open him up. And here's where it gets messy."

Chakra flared to life around my hand, becoming heavily dense. The Chakra Scalpel was one of the first techniques I was required to learn, and one of the hardest for myself. Creating chakra dense enough to slice through bone and skin was a skill that only the Hyūga and iryo-nin could boast about. Thankfully, Hinata was easily able to assist me (as the Hyūga also made their chakra significantly dense in order to block tenketsus).

And considering what happened to the last two patients I used it on, I felt extremely nervous.

Well, the whole shebang made me nervous as hell. I had never done that kind of thing before, and it was all very, very intense.

It wasn't a fight, but yet a life rested in my hands.

Moreover someone I happened to like very much depended on me.

Ugh.

I did not do well with that kind of pressure.

Relax. You aren't alone.

'Right.'

I made the incision as the picture showed, my hands trembling minutely. I knew I would have to have steady hands during the actual transplant and when I worked with the arteries and heart, so when I was done cutting Haku open properly I took a deep breath and waited until the shaking stopped before proceeding.

"Next is, uh..." I peered inside Haku's chest. "Um..."

"Is something wrong, Sakura?" Kakashi asked.

"I, uh, I can't tell which artery is the—um—it looks very different than the diagram."

"That would be because of my Chidori," Kakashi patiently said before he moved his hand and pointed towards a squishy lump. "That would be what you are looking for."

"Oh," was all I said before I tentatively began to urge the tissue to regrow around the damaged artery. I had to make sure all the surrounding organs and tissues were repaired and ready to receive the new heart before I made the swap. "Then—"

Zabuza's hand drifted above Haku and his finger pointed towards another lump. "That next."

Relief settled inside of me. It made sense that the two renowned assassins would know all the vital anatomy, and I was extremely grateful they were able to discern the important parts from the mess that was Haku's chest.

As I started to repair the arteries, the blood began to pump through them once more, and I had to "seal" (and by seal it was really a type of cauterizing) them off so Haku wouldn't start profusely bleeding out. Every time I seemed unsure of what to do next, either Kakashi or Zabuza would point me in the right direction.

When my reserves were starting to protest heavily, I quietly asked for someone to hand me a chakra pill. Sasuke was the first one to move, placing it in my mouth quickly (as I was elbow deep at the moment). I swallowed it dry, disliking the bitter taste in my mouth.

Once I had repaired as much as I reasonably could around Haku's surrounding organs, tissues, and other fun stuff, I knew it was time to make the transfer. Zabuza seemed to realize that, because he stiffly turned towards the corpse and pulled out a skinning knife.

My arms were starting to grow heavy as I carefully pulled out bits of Haku's heart and placed them in the nearby waste basket. Once that was done, I found that Zabuza was holding out the—ah—new heart.

Another shudder ran through me and I had to take another moment to recollect myself before I gently took the new heart. I couldn't honestly tell if it was a good heart, or not. It just felt like a lump of warm muscles in my hands, and another fit of anxiety hit me when I realize that I had reached the crucial moment.

I had to successfully transplant the new heart and incorporate it with all of his repaired arteries.

Swallowing roughly, I very slowly lowered the heart down. It fit a bit more snugly than Haku's previous heart, but a big heart was better than no heart.

Naruto turned the page for me and I began to painstakingly slowly reconnect and unseal the arteries. Like before, when I felt hesitant Kakashi or Zabuza would quietly point out where I had to go next and tell me what to do.

"O-Okay," I shakily said. "Now we have to restart his heart."

"Would you like me to do that, Sakura?" Kakashi gently asked.

I nodded jerkily, pulling my hands out and stumbling backwards. Kakashi readjusted his sterile gloves before placing them on either side of the heart. There was a moment of silence, and then I felt rather than saw his chakra release.

On the third try the new heart began to beat.

Zabuza let out a shaky chuckle. "Tenacious brat. I knew he would be too much of a coward to die."

My entire body shuddered and my knees gave out as relief crashed through me. I fell to the floor in a graceless lump. "Oh. My. Madara's. Sexiness."

Naruto grinned at me and set the book down before he went over to me. He looked like he was about ready to hug me, but then realized I was covered in blood and stopped. He nodded. "I'll hug you after you shower."

"Yay," I croaked. "I, uh, I can't seem to stand back up."

"I can sew him back up," Zabuza muttered. "Kakashi, you should probably get your little doctor some fresh air before she passes out."

Kakashi eyed Zabuza for a moment before he motioned for Sasuke and Naruto to follow him. "Come on, minions, Let's get Sakura outside."

I wheezed. "I feel like I'm going to throw up and pass out."

"You very well might," Kakashi agreed, picking me up with one arm and throwing me over his shoulder.

"I'll come back soon to visit Haku!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning brightly at Zabuza. Then he paused. "And I guess you, too. You're kind of alright."

Zabuza sneered at him in the same moment Sasuke walked out of the room.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

An hour later, and I still could not keep from trembling. At the very least I no longer felt like I was going to throw up.

Haku would have to see a proper doctor to finish repairing all of his internal injuries. I could only do a very thin patch job over the injuries—like a scab. Not to mention there was still the chance that the heart could be rejected by his body, or that I had forgotten something, or, or—

Enough. Worrying about it isn't going to help. Kakashi and Zabuza supervised you. I'm sure if you made any major errors, they would have pointed them out. You have done what you could, so stop worrying about it.

'You're right. I—I don't deal well with stress.'

I began to shove what I felt inside. I had always been damned good at repression, sometimes it simply took a bit longer than other times.

Naruto had gone to sit beside Haku (he would wake up after the bypass seal wore off), and I had no idea where Sasuke was. Zabuza was with Haku (asleep, last I saw, which was good since he was obviously still recovering) and Kakashi—

I had found Kakashi, actually.

He was on the roof of Tazuna's house, lazily leaning against the chimney as smoke curled up in the air. Tsunami was making a large meal in celebration of Wave's freedom from Gato.

I sat down beside Kakashi, my hands shaking and my heart still beating fast. Adrenaline was starting to leave my system, and I knew I would crash soon (and hopefully when I woke up, I would have successfully repressed all of my anxieties), but before I did I wanted to talk to him. "Um. Th-Thank you, Kakashi-sensei. Without you, I really wouldn't have been able to—I mean—I just—thank you."

Kakashi turned his head towards me, blessing me with an eye-smile. "Maa. Your intentions were good. It's not often our enemies can become our allies, and even less that we can save lives, and I'm not so cold-hearted as to make my student flounder on something clearly important to her."

"Th-Thank you," I mumbled, my eyes started to burn and a shudder ran through me.

Kakashi's eyes lingered on mine, then followed down to my cheek. He turned his gaze back towards the forest, not commenting. A heartbeat passed and he pulled out a small tattered cloth and handed it to me.

I gripped it tightly, shuddering out a choked back quiet cry.

"I heard about the men with gangrene," Kakashi said softly.

My back stiffened.

"I'm sorry."

Another shudder ran through me, that time out of grief.

I felt a hand rest on my head.

"Maa. I think I'll stay out here a while. The weather's nice."

"M-Mm-hmm."

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

I woke up on my sleeping bag in the living area. It was either late morning, or early evening because dull light filtered through the window. Slowly, I sat up. I grimaced when I realized I was essentially caked in dried blood.

'Ew. I need a shower, bad.'

I reached over to my backpack and pulled out my spare change of clothes, heavy-duty and odorless body wash, and shampoo/conditioner. As I headed out, I peeked in on Haku. Naruto was chattering amiably in a one-sided conversation with Zabuza while Haku slept (seemingly peacefully). I was relieved that Haku seemed to be stable.

Moving quickly, I headed out towards the water by Tazuna's house and plunged inside, still clothed.

After my impromptu wash, I laid the drying clothes by the rocky shore, changed into my fresh clean clothes and headed back to Tazuna's. It was around noon when I arrived, and I was greeted by a cheerful Tsunami who told me my team left to guard Tazuna while he finished work on the bridge.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

(Kakashi)

She had fallen asleep at his side, still covered in dried blood from trying to save Haku's life.

He had thought that Naruto would be the biggest handful on his team.

Kakashi was certainly surprised that it was the supposed Kunoichi of the Year that was surprising. Her academy reports indicated that she had a passionate personality, but Kakashi wouldn't have thought that that was they meant.

Everything—everything—she did, she did so with a huge smile on her face and a kind of gleam in her eyes. The world was a bright, beautiful and amusing place for her to enjoy, and a part of Kakashi was jealous of that kind of optimism. Kakashi could never, would never, think so highly of the world no matter the age.

He contributed it towards her own naïvete. She had never experienced real combat outside of the academy, and was a genuine sheltered civilian girl. Unlike Naruto, or Sasuke, she had no reason to see the ugly truth.

That small jealous part of Kakashi wanted her to see the world for what it was; to take it seriously because those who did not take it seriously enough suffered the most. He wanted her to learn quickly, and understand the brutal nature of their career, and that the world was not as bright as she seemed to think it was.

The rest of him though wanted her to remain that kind of sunny opposition that he hadn't seen since Rin and Obito—

Since before Rin and Obito had seen the frontlines for the first time.

But it was ridiculous. No one could keep that kind of light inside of them after they experienced death first hand.

Then she laughed with glee at Zabuza, genuinely happy to watch the battle unfold. She had trusted Kakashi enough so that she had absolute faith in his ability to protect them from Zabuza, despite knowing exactly who Zabuza was.

That, and her self-preservation seemed to be missing.

He thought, then, that perhaps she simply didn't understand death. Everyone had to have self-preservation, it was a basic human instinct, but maybe someone who didn't understand the fear of dying wouldn't.

But, she did understand death, or at least to a certain extent.

When she lost both of her patients after tying to amputate, she came home and cried quietly into her pillow. Her fellow teammates did not wake when she cried, but Kakashi did because he had been listening for it.

She cried well into the morning, then she got up, put that bright smile back on her face, and carried on.

Kakashi wondered if all her smiles were merely a mask for sadness, or if she sincerely still loved the world so much that she couldn't help but smile.

He found out that it was a little bit of both.

He watched her carefully after that night, measuring each of her actions and reactions. He found that she was not the kind to dwell on any kind of negativity. She strongly preferred not to deal with it all, and when confronted with it, her smile stretched so wide it almost hurt to look at.

But, that gleam in her eyes could not be faked. There were moments when she thought no one was looking, and she looked over at Naruto, or himself, or Sasuke, or even now Zabuza and Haku, that her eyes lit up. There was a kind of fierce, burning, bright pure love and affection in them that Kakashi certainly had no idea where it came from.

That gaze was undeniable though, it showed that Sakura sincerely adored those around her with a ferocious fervor.

And upon realizing that, it was hard not to notice all the little things she did for them. The jokes and smiles that even pulled out a reaction from the otherwise emotionless Sasuke; or tight hugs she would give to Naruto any time he seemed less-than-happy; or how she was the only one who woke Kakashi up (getting pinned a few more times in the process) and treated it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Like he didn't have PTSD, and he never nearly killed her every morning.

She let out a soft sigh in her sleep, and Kakashi twisted around and carefully took the cloth he leant her. He folded it neatly, and pulled out his water canteen before he wet out a little. He wiped away the dried blood around her face, then put the cloth away. With ease, he stood up and picked her up with him and began to carry her towards her sleeping bag.

He didn't fully understand her, and he wondered if he ever would.

He knew some things though.

And he knew the most important thing about her.

She was the kind of girl that would love and love, even as the whole world crumbled around her, with a smile that stretched a so wide it hurt to look at.

( ｡◕‿‿◕｡)

HAHA. I MADE THEM LIVE. HAHAHAHA. FUCK PLOT. I DO WHAT I WANT. *Blasts some vocaloid music while cartwheeling*

There is no way in hell that Zabuza and Kakashi do not have extensive anatomy knowledge. Trained assassins gotta know where to hit to make it hurt, and after the trauma Kakashi experienced I refuse to believe that he chose not to learn any life-saving emergency first aid. Na-uh. No way.

Answer: I dance to everything but redneck country. Ever since I was little when I hear Thousand Miles I friggin lose it in the car. Like the biggest dork ever.

Question: Who would you like to have as your private tutor? ;)

Reviews are love.

Side note on Sakura's sexuality: Sakura will always be pansexual. I didn't write her more openly in her first story because I myself didn't feel ready to admit my own sexuality to my mom so I skirted the edges for quite a while. But, yes, this Sakura does not give two shits about gender. It's all about what's underneath for her (and asses, of course).

This does mean that there will be females in the harem. There are, however, more men than women in the Narutoverse, so the harem will still be predominately male.

Side side note on the surgery: Yeah, the amputees didn't make it because she was alone and had no one to guide her. Surgery was a success because a.) I wanted Haku to live b.) Kakashi and Zabuza were there to guide her and c.) this is a feel-good parody, what the heck do you expect to happen, and d.) spoilers later on. It's my hope to embody Sakura with all the fangirl and fanboy dreams so people can live vicariously through her.