The pale blue walls that lined the hall provided a cheery atmosphere but by thirteen year old Haruno Sakura's standards, they could have been steeped in blood and raging with the very fires of hell from the turmoil contained within her slight frame.

She fought down the vicious urge to change directions and make an escape from one of the windows of the twelve storey building, an impulse that at present was demanding most of her attention.

With a desperate moan and a few of the half running steps required to keep pace with her Sensei's long strides, she quickly scanned (or re-analysed by medic's terms) the clipboard. It had been shoved forcefully into her hands when she had been peacefully organising the paperclips earlier that morning by the grinning Hokage who had yanked her out of the seat before she could protest. Not that she would dare protest to one of Tsunade's decisions, she valued her life too much.

Sakura looked at the first sentence glaring up at her from the papers for what seemed like the millionth time already during their journey through the foyer, up the stairs and finally along this damned corridor. 'Hyuuga Neji: Minor injuries and mild concussion.'

Maybe today it would be worth her life to protest after all. As far as she could see it was a lose lose situation in all directions. Not even jumping from the window was looking like a pleasing prospect.

"Tsunade Sensei?" She asked in the most 'politely inquiring' voice she could muster with knowledge of the trials that lay before her and the panic it created.

This earned her a feminine hum in response from the blonde who was charging along the passage at an alarming pace, forcing nurses to throw themselves against the walls in an effort to avoid being trampled.

"Are you quite, quite sure I'm ready for my first patient?"

"Of course I am. You're already one of the most competent medics I have here."

"But how can you be sure? I've been an assistant only."

"A good assistant."

"I dropped a scalpel last week"

"So did I."

"Tsunade Sensei, with respect, you threw it at the man, I wouldn't call that exactly the same as dropping it," Sakura implored carefully.

The older woman shrugged seeming completely unfazed continuing to speak over her shoulder.

"You don't have to be nervous Sakura, try to have a little self confidence. I'm sure you'll manage perfectly well on your own."

"I really have no idea what I'm doing," Sakura pleaded twisting her hands about the clipboard and crumpling the paper.

"Of course you do. I trained you after all. I'm not going to have your skill wasted by having you follow me around, sending Shizune to an early retirement, when I could use another good medic around here or on the field."

Sakura struggled to respond as a new wave of panic ensued with the mention of field work. Surely only a years worth of training wasn't enough to be considering field work!

Tsunade stopped suddenly outside of a door that appeared to be radiating evil from her young apprentice's point of view. The polished brass number and fresh white paint were definitely something to inspire fear indeed the girl concluded solemnly.

"Here we are," Tsunade told her with a flourishing gesture of her hand before surveying the young pink haired medic's un-restrained horror "You're overreacting. I don't think you're used to being told you are able to do something after all these years of working to prove yourself."

Her Sensei's words were washing past Sakura as she dug for a new argument and any opportunity to save herself from this situation and what she was sure to provide her impromptu death.

"I've always thought the Hyuuga's were very supercilious," Sakura told the Hokage whispering the last word as discretely as she could in case Neji had happened upon some sort of enhanced hearing technique or had honed his skills of lip reading through the Byakugan "Surely they would prefer a more experienced medic serving them."

"I've already warned him-" The Hokage cut herself off and opted for a hasty correction "I've already explained the situation to him and he was surprisingly happy to help."

Sakura quickly filtered through the small amount of information she had collected concerning the white eyed jerk…genius. The words 'happy' and 'help' didn't even seem to fall under the vocabulary she had listed for him.

"Sadistic bastard," She muttered under her breath already imagining the arrogant laughter.

"Pardon?"

Sakura coughed quickly.

"Nothing," She lied unconvincingly.

"I thought you'd be more comfortable with someone of your own age group that might be more understanding. You can go in now," She finished her comment by using a thumb to indicate the door.

"He's a year older than me," Sakura countered quickly "And from what I know he is no more understanding than a brick."

Tsunade waved an idle hand.

"A year is hardly going to make a difference."

"What about the brick part?"

Her sensei ignored the comment which Sakura found incredibly discouraging, forcing her back into the nervous habit of crumpling and re-flattening the papers on the clipboard again. A few seconds later she almost tore the front page in half when Tsunade opened the door and shoved her forwards.

Sakura spun around and stared in apprehensive dismay as the figure of her teacher was slowly obscured behind the closing door before she disappeared completely with a resonant click and a few final inspirational words of comfort.

"Make me proud."

Needless to say, Sakura did not feel inspired or comforted in the least. Instead she stood staring at the door with wide eyes wondering if the Hokage would go so far as to lock it in an effort to keep her from escaping her medic duty.

"Damn, damn, damn," She muttered, repeating the sentiment with increased ferocity every time.

"If I may interrupt," The somewhat haughty voice came from behind her making her jump several feet into the air "In future, it could serve you well to first confirm whether or not your patient is awake before you begin your…tirade."

Sakura spun around to face the room trying to regain the little composure she had as she observed Hyuuga Neji sitting idly on the bed looking entirely uninterested in his surroundings and consequently, her.

"You're supposed to be concussed!" She hissed at him taking a few wary steps backwards until she hit the wall.

"Mild concussion is hardly enough to alleviate me of my consciousness however if you would care to hand me that lamp I will gladly attempt to render myself into a comatose for your benefit," He told her wryly.

"No no," She managed to choke out from her panic. None of her training had involved anything like this. Her answer made Neji smile…or smirk, it was difficult to determine any sort of difference between the two.

She gave him a nervous glance trying to establish exactly what injury he had sustained having been too preoccupied to register what the clipboard pages had said past the first line. Unfortunately, he seemed to have realised what she was trying to do and raised one leg slightly from the edge of the bed.

"Profuse bleeding from kunai wound on leg," He told her bluntly and she cursed her lack of scrutiny.

"R…Right. What exactly happened?"

"Shouldn't it tell you on your records sheet?" He asked pointing at the accursed clipboard she still clutched.

"I like to hear it from my patients," She snapped at him but truthfully the papers she had were so crinkled from her panicked ministrations that it was impossible to read through the creases and smudged ink.

She got the distinct and uncomfortable impression Neji knew she was lying despite his impassive, opaque gaze. It was not the veiled stare Shino had or the puppy stare Naruto would adopt at the mention of Ramen but entirely calculating and analytical without a hint of emotion. All in all, it was making her nervous.

"We were taking a charge to Suna when we were ambushed a days travel from here. The man being transported has since been delivered safely while I was chosen to convey another injured comrade home having sustained a wound myself," He recited in a monotone making her think of Iruka reading from a textbook when she was still at the academy.

"Okay," She began feeling a bit more confident now he had stopped making sarcastic taunts "Any indications of poisoning on the weapon blade?"

"None at all."

"There doesn't appear to be any signs of infection either."

"No."

"A clean cut."

"Indeed. Are there any other thoughts you would like to share at present?"

Her mouth snapped shut. She hadn't even realised she had been rambling. Shaking her head in answer she made her way cautiously around the bed to the kit laid out for her. Picking out the things she needed to clean the gash she took a moment to compose herself again, pretending to read the label of the bottle she required.

He was just like one of the fish she had practiced healing very early on in her training. A very egotistical and outspoken salmon. Nothing to worry about at all. She struggled to convince herself but the mere thought of Neji as an aquatic animal gave her enough confidence to turn back around and crouch to examine the limb still dangling quaintly off the bed.

"The other leg," Neji corrected her quickly before she had so much as a chance to figure that out herself which she was certain she would have eventually.

With a scowl she turned to his other leg and inspected the cut carefully happy to finally be doing something he wouldn't need to help her with. She almost hit him with the bottle and cotton balls in fright when he spoke again startling her.

"I assume you will not require assistance for this task at least?"

She looked up at him from her squatting position in irritation. Was he reading her freaking mind?

"No, I assure you I am quite well equipped for the task of dabbing on the betadine. You won't even need stitches but if you're lucky I'll give you a bandaid. We might still have some in pink," She hissed angrily forcefully slapping the antiseptic soaked cotton ball against his leg in what she hoped was a remotely painful manner before easily closing it with chakra.

He was mercifully silent for a few minutes.

"You're going to need to do something about the concussion too. I can't fight like this," He told her with a strained voice as though it pained him to admit it.

"I'm getting to it!" She roared at him rising so she could shout at his face rather than his ankle. He winced slightly and her eyes widened in panic as she recalled he had probably taken a blow to his head and didn't need her shouting next to him.

"I'm sorry!" She slapped her hand to her mouth as he winced again before continuing in a whisper "I'm sorry," She told him and patted his head in what she considered a comforting manner.

"It's fine," He told her slapping the hand away with the air of swatting a fly. She clutched it to her chest looking worriedly at him "It's fine Haruno," He repeated.

"O…Okay. I'll deal with that now then."

He inclined his head in a dignified nod.

She placed a finger carefully over his temples so the glowing green chakra just brushed against him.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" He asked, breaking her concentration. She angrily released the equivalent of a chakra poke to one side of his head making him grimace.

"Yes," she muttered vehemently.

It was an easy procedure she had practiced before and only took her a few minutes to successfully complete the task. Neji had sat with his eyes closed and didn't risk saying anything else.

"Done. How do you feel?" She asked him eventually as she straightened and tried to remove a crick from her back.

"Considerably better," He told her cracking open an eye again as though to see if it was safe.

She sighed with relief and leaned against the wall again.

"Sorry about the shouting and poking and…" She trailed off.

"It's fine," He told her and rose experimentally.

"You can go then. I'm going to stay here and find something to hit my head against."

He gave her a quizzical look but exited without comment. When the door had shut she turned and flattened her palms against the wall before thwacking her forehead against it with a groan.

Tsunade had been wrong; it would be much safer if she spent her life opening bottles and mopping floors. So much for her medical training, she had almost done him more damage than healing.

"Sakura?"

She flung herself upright and away from the wall as Tsunade entered.

"I told you I couldn't do it. I failed," She whimpered.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm hopeless."

"The healing looked perfectly fine Sakura."

"But Neji-"

"Did nothing but commend your work," Tsunade interrupted.

Sakura understandably, gagged in surprise.

"What?"

"Yes, so I really don't see what you're worrying about. I told you would do fine," She told the shocked girl patting her on the shoulder.

"He didn't mention anything about shouting…or poking…general patient abuse?"

"Should he have?" Tsunade asked with narrowed eyes.

Sakura smiled for the first time that day since she had been contently squished in the office chair colour coordinating the paperclips that morning.

"Of course not."

A/N: (Nut2 from 'The Cashew Nuts') I'm not sure about this, whether it will be a oneshot or not. If it isn't and turns chaptery it will be a disjointed collection of bits and pieces mainly dredged up from a 40ish page oneshot that I wrote a while back then decided I didn't like /headdesk/. I hope to salvage some useable bits from it.

I'm here in this new account mainly to prevent the overcrowding of 'The Cashew Nuts' and making it easier for watchers who are only looking for Nut1's fics not mine etc. I still love Nut1 and all her nutty goodness of course and I'll still be snooping around the other account (and updating 'New Confrontations' from it) :D

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and those of you in the Nth Hemisphere are looking forward or are already enjoying school/work. /cough/bwhahahahah/cough/ I suppose people working in the Sth are back now too anyway…bwhahahahah/cough/ (lazy student enjoying chance to…laze)

And if anyone is going to see the Eragon movie, don't. /cries with disappointment/ Anyway, now that these notes have taken up half the fic…

Thank you for your time and for reading! Bye!

EDIT: This will now be continued. I have made my resolute decision the suffering will continue for another few chapters ;p