.

.

.

AN- So, I know I have NO business starting anything else but I'm in need of some lighter things to write.
This will be less angsty than my other fics I've got going on...though there will be some angst. It'll just be nicely wrapped in a fluffy cocoon of KakaSaku deliciousness!

It wasn't a rare occasion for Sakura to be pulled out of bed in the middle of the night by a call from the hospital. She was the top medic in Konoha, after all and had been for the past ten years. Midnight wakeup calls were a part of her every day life. But, the call that came in fifteen minutes ago, interrupting her alone time, was unusual. It had been the Hokage knocking on her door in the darkness.

Having to get out of bed after taking time to get cozy, turn on some music and ready herself for a bit of self-love, already put her in a foul mood. She had been ready to snap at whoever the hell had the death wish to disturb her after midnight. When she threw open her front door to see Naruto, however, she quickly held back the stream of curses she had ready.

"Naruto," she said with a frown, pinching the front of her dressing robe closed across her chest. "Is everything alright? Is it Sasuke—"

"No, it isn't Sasuke. I need your help at the hospital. It's urgent and confidential." The exhaustion written across his face made Sakura frown. She knew how hard he was working these days and it was worrying how little sleep he was getting.

Shaking the hair from her face, she nodded. "Okay, just let me get dressed. I'll meet you there." Naruto turned on her doorstep and was gone with a quick leap to the nearest rooftop. For just a moment, she hesitated, staring into the darkness where he had just stood as she wracked her brain for any possible explanation for what could have happened.

Above the village, thunder rumbled, and she could smell the threat of rain in the air. Sakura quickly hurried to her bedroom and pulled out the first shirt she could grab. It was a plain, white tunic that fell to her thighs and she slipped on a pair of black leggings underneath it. Just as she slipped her feet into her sandals, the rain began to fall. It pelted off the windowpanes faster and faster until it was coming down in sheets.

Great, she thought, gathering her hair into a bun at the back of her head. At least the cold rain would get rid of the last shred of arousal she had summoned before the knock at her door.

The hospital was bustling for an ordinary Tuesday night. It wasn't too unusual, though. The start of the winter season always brought in people who had missed their flu vaccines and were now suffering from high fevers. A handful of miserable people sat in the Emergency Department waiting room, their loved ones filling out paper work.

As Sakura strolled in through the sliding doors, the admittance nurse looked up at her in surprise. "Sakura-sensei! I thought you had left for the night." The young nurse said, quickly pushing away the fashion magazine she had been reading at her work station. Any other night, Sakura would have given her an earful for it, but not tonight. She was already so done with tonight.

"I just," she shook her head with a purse of her lips. "I forgot something." Without a backward glance, Sakura moved through the department and swiped her badge at the locked doors that led to the main entrance of the hospital.

It was typically locked at night, with only the ED open for admittance. The lights had been cut off in the main waiting area and Sakura made sure things weren't left in a mess by the last shift to work with a quick glance. Satisfied that her hospital was at least decent in her absence, she swung by her office and snatched her lab coat off the peg just inside the door.

The coat did little to warm her after being caught in the sudden downpour, but it did manage to cover her chest. White shirts and buckets of rain didn't exactly mix. She may not have been as well endowed as her best friend in the breast department, but she didn't need to be showing everyone what little she did have. Fastening the middle button on the coat, she grabbed her medical bag beside her desk and hurried to the elevators around the corner.

To the casual observer and most of the medical staff around the hospital, the third floor was reserved for private matters. Those who knew what this meant knew not to offer any further explanations and those who didn't know, were told the third floor was closed for updates. In reality, it was much like the ED two floors down. Except, there was no lengthy paperwork and the confidentiality protocols were ten times more intense.

It was on this floor where the elevator doors opened, and Sakura stepped out. She adjusted the medical bag on her shoulder and made her way through the halls. Only a few of the rooms were currently occupied, which was a good thing. The less shinobi that came through here meant more out there, protecting the village.

The last door at the end of the hallway was where she and Naruto would always bring the wounded first. It was a large space, set up to resemble an ordinary doctor's office. There were four examination beds set up with curtains hanging for privacy and a counter that ran along the back wall that held all the supplies. Beside the last bed in the room, Sakura could see Naruto standing with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He lifted his head as she moved into the room.

"Sakura," he said with a breath of relief. "Thank you for coming. I know it's late." He ran a palm across his face and took a step back to give her room near the bed.

Sakura hooked her fingers beneath a rolling table and pulled it along behind her, dropping her bag on top of it. She could see a pair of feet, the heels hanging off the edge of the bed, and with a quick glance noticed the familiar grey vest. Another Anbu shinobi. They were the majority of the patients that came in to the third floor of the hospital. They never listened to her medical advice, always jumping back into their duties weeks too soon. She knew Naruto had a little bit of influence with that, but it was still mildly infuriating.

She was only the top medic in the village. Why take her advice?

Pursing her lips, she tossed the flap of her bag back and began taking out the usual supplies; gauze, antiseptic wipes, bandages. Glancing over her shoulder to her friend, she nodded to the patient laying on the bed. He held his left arm against his chest and even from a quick look, she could tell he was badly burned. "What happened?"

"It was an explosion," the Anbu shinobi answered, making her finally turn to look at him. Sakura slowly slipped her gloves onto her hands, pulling them around the sleeve of her lab coat. Her eyes scanned the damp, silvery hair on top of his head, falling to the strands that clung to the side of his ash covered face. The strip of fabric across his face was torn just a bit on the side and she could see that some of the explosion caught his jaw. His left arm, from his elbow up to his shoulder had been hit. The top layer of his skin had been stripped away, leaving an angry streak of red marks and blisters in its place. Luckily, his Anbu tattoo had been spared.

Pursing her lips, she turned to the bed and slid the table closer to her, eyeing Naruto as he watched her closely. She slid her hand beneath the shinobi's elbow and inspected the burn. Up close, it was worse than she had thought, potentially damaging the inner layers of his flesh. She snatched the antiseptic wipes from the table and peeled them open, meeting the masked shinobi's eyes. He didn't seem to be in too much pain…yet.

She swiped the towel over the edge of the burn, gripping his arm tight as he gave a flinch at the sudden sting. Though he didn't react much, she could tell he was in pain. A wound like this would have made a lesser man cry like a baby. Glancing back at Naruto, she sighed. "It's a pretty bad burn."

"Can you heal him?"

Could she heal him? Ugh. Did he not know her at all? Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Sakura took a deep breath instead and turned back to the patient's arm. "Of course, I can-" she didn't try to hide the annoyance in her voice. "That's not the point. I can repair most of the damage, but he'll still need at least two weeks to recover—"

"I'm fine," the shinobi said through clenched teeth. Sakura ignored him as she tossed the wipes into a biohazard container. She kicked a rolling stool toward her and sat down on it, blowing the hair from her face.

"Two weeks is out of the question, Sakura—"

"I said, at least two weeks. You know," she scoffed, shaking the loose strand of hair away from her eyes. "You always do this. These shinobi may be Anbu, but they're still human, Naruto." The tight clench of his jaw as she addressed him so informally in front of his subordinate was satisfying. "If you make him go back out there after a wound like this, he's going to either tear it open again, or get it infected." Not waiting for him to respond, she turned back to the arm in her hand and dragged in a deep breath. Luckily, Naruto didn't try to argue with her.

Her eyes only momentarily flickered up to the shinobi's face but as she did, she caught sight of him staring at her with quite a curious expression. There was a strange glint in his dark eyes and though she couldn't be too sure, what with his mask covering his face and all, she could have sworn he was smiling at her. Apparently, the way she had handled their Hokage so easily impressed him.

There was no reason why that should cause her to become a bit flushed.

Shaking her head, she placed her arm over his elbow and gathered her chakra from deep within her, sending it to cover the tips of her fingers down to her palm. The familiar rush of cool energy flowed calmly around her hand like a pool of water. With just a bit of a push, Sakura let it glide over the shinobi's wound and into the damaged layers of skin. He was lucky it hadn't caused more harm than it had.

It was deep, but nothing that she couldn't handle. As she worked her way up to his bicep, one hand hovering over it while she slipped her other hand beneath to keep him steady, her eyes flickered up to him once more. "Any pain?"

"I told you, I'm fine."

"You say that now. In the morning, you'll be singing a different tune." Her chakra moved around the blisters, cooling them and repairing the damage. Though the cool press of chakra felt good to the burns now, he'd be sore as absolute fuck in the morning. She knew that if Naruto gave him the all clear to return to the mission, he'd run the risk of an infection. It was a bit hard to remember to take your antibiotics when you were out on a mission for days on end.

Reaching the tops of his shoulder, Sakura stood to her feet and guided the shinobi to sit up from the bed. She unhooked the straps of his vest and inspected the skin beneath it. Luckily, his tactical vest had taken most of the heat from the explosion and the muscle along the top of his shoulder had been spared. The mark along his jaw didn't seem to be nothing more than a minor first-degree burn, and she reached for another antiseptic wipe.

"I need to—"

He reached up and pulled the edge of the mask down just enough that she could see the bottom point of the scar running down the left side of his face. Gently, she rubbed the wipe across the wound and tossed it into the bin at her feet.

And as she straightened her back, his eyes once again moved to her. This time, much lower than her face. She hadn't quite noticed that her coat button had come loose, and now her tunic was fully exposed. The fabric was still a bit damp and far too see through for her liking beneath the bright lights overhead. This time, her entire face burned bright. Was he checking her out? What a little perv!

She clenched her jacket across her chest and quickly buttoned it back, whirling to face Naruto. She channeled the agitation from his stares into trying to convince the Hokage that her medical advice shouldn't be ignored. "Two weeks—"

"Three days—" he countered, holding up three fingers.

"Naruto!"

"Fine…One week."

Sakura threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "Why do I even bother? Fine, in a week, he'll be medically cleared to return to the field," she paused, letting Naruto's mouth stretch into a grin. "If he returns in two days for a follow up. I will be checking to see if he's been over exerting himself in anyway." With an arch of her eyebrow, she stripped her gloves off with a loud, rubbery pop.

As she stashed her supplies back into her bag, she could hear Naruto discussing something with the shinobi in hushed tones. A few times, she caught the young Anbu insisting that he was fine, but he didn't try to argue once Naruto put his foot down. Sakura moved to one of the large cabinets along the back wall of the room and pulled the door open.

The six shelves inside where stocked with various medications and she plucked a bottle of antibiotics from the top shelf before moving to the lower one to grab some medicated ointment for his blisters. Upon turning to face the two men, they quickly snapped their mouths shut and watched her with innocent faces. If they thought they'd be able to convince her to change her mind, they were dead wrong. Maybe she would be a bit more lenient if she had been able to keep her date with her vibrator half an hour ago.

She crossed back to the bed and held the medicine out to the shinobi, forcing a tight-lipped smile. "Take two pills every day, with food, until the bottle is empty. Rub the ointment on your blisters, carefully, in the morning and evenings before bed. No over exertion," as she spoke, she turned to Naruto and put her hands on her hips. "And no missions for one week. Come see me Thursday morning for your follow up exam." Without another word, she turned to her bag and slipped the strap over her shoulder.

Naruto followed her to the door, stopping her steps with a hand around her elbow. "Thank you. I know it's late and you already worked all day. I owe you."

"Yes, you do. I'm free for lunch tomorrow around noon. You can repay me with some ramen." She looked over his shoulder to the bed at the back of the room. The Anbu shinobi was sitting up and setting his feet down on the floor in their absence. For a brief moment, a look of pain flashed across his face as he stood, and Sakura frowned. He must have been hiding his pain from her.

"Okay, fine. Listen," Naruto glanced back quickly before pulling her closer to him. "You can't keep talking to me like that in front of them. I know we've been friends for two decades, but if you keep treating me like I'm twelve still, they won't take me seriously."

"Oh, please," she said with a roll of her eyes. "You do the exact same to me. How do you think it looks to my subordinates when I give my orders and you go behind my back and tell the patients to blatantly ignore them?"

She could tell by the look on his face that he had never seen it that way before. It figured. Naruto was never known to be astute when it came to things like this. He blinked and pursed his lips in a slight pout. "I see your point. Alright, from now on, I will take your orders seriously if you promise not to talk to me like we're kids."

She couldn't help the smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "I just can't help it sometimes." Sakura reached up and pinched his cheek, wiggling it a few times as he narrowed his eyes into a glare. "You'll always be the immature little prick you were when we were kids to me. But, I promise to work on it." Dropping her hand from his face, she looked pointedly at the shinobi making his way toward them. He was much taller than she had suspected and though his mask was covering his face, she suspected a small smile was hiding behind it. "I'll see you Thursday."

"I'll be looking forward to it."