Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden and I would be very sad if anyone stole this adorable plot bunny. Also, this story is a Modern AU, so no complaining.

Title: Of Puppets and Paw Prints

Rating: T

Genre: Humor/Romance

Summary: It had always been her calling to help those in need, human or otherwise. So, he really shouldn't have been too surprised, but... wasn't this all a bit too cliché? A wintery SasoSaku story in which there is a kitten rescued before a snowstorm, a jealous house-husband-to-be Sasori, and plenty of fluff and feels to go around. Modern AU.

Posted: 10/19/2019

Ponytail whipping wildly behind her, Dr. Haruno Sakura burst through the employee entrance of Konoha General's Emergency Department and hastily scanned the room. It was barely 2am on the day before Christmas Eve, but the ED was already overflowing with medical providers and assistants, alike - twice the amount she was accustomed to seeing during any regular shift. Something big had happened.

Making a beeline for the nurse's station, Sakura continued to survey the crowd of bustling nightshift workers for a familiar face. There was only one person she knew who could keep this level of chaos contained. She had to be some-

"Haruno!"

Narrowly avoiding a collision with one of the nightshift nurses who was rushing past her with a crash cart, Sakura turned in the direction of the booming voice. A second later, she locked eyes with the hospital director, Senju Tsunade. Then, the former cardiothoracic surgeon beckoned Sakura over with one hand before turning her attention back to the grim-faced paramedic standing beside her.

'That's strange,' Sakura thought as she hastily side-stepped around another ED tech as he hurried by with an armful of IV bags, 'EMS doesn't typically stick around after handing-off their patients...'

Sakura suddenly felt her stomach drop and she quickened her advance across the room.

'...Unless they know the patient.'

Taking a deep breath, Sakura steeled herself as she approached her honey-eyed mentor and the lumbering paramedic standing beside her. The paramedic, whom she immediately recognized as Hoshigaki Kisame, one of Central Konoha Fire Department's finest, offered her a small wave and a tight smile; neither of which were reassuring.

"Tsunade-sama, Hoshigaki-san," she greeted respectfully, bowing briefly to her former mentor and nodding to the paramedic before getting straight to the point. "What happened?"

Kisame sighed tiredly, "Car accident. Drunk driver ran a red light and struck a sedan in intersection and pushed it into another car..."

Sakura frowned, multiple vehicle accidents were never pleasant cases. However, Kisame's next words chilled her to the bone.

"... all university students on their way home for Christmas."

Teeth clenched, emerald eyes flickered up to meet a hardened amber gaze before Sakura asked, "Konohamaru and Moegi?"

Tsunade shook her head and Sakura nodded, grateful that she wouldn't be seeing either half of Konoha University's cutest freshman couple in her operating room. However, the young lovebirds were not the only university students on her mind.

"What about Udon and Hanabi?"

"No."

"And Haru? Gaara?"

When the blonde director shook her head again, Sakura felt a wave of relief wash over her.

"Thank Kami."

Tsunade nodded in agreement before returning their focus to the situation at hand.

After all, there was a reason she had paged Sakura on her day off.

They had a job to do. And Tsunade needed her best staff to be on-duty to get it done.

"So, what can I do to help?"

Smiling faintly from his place beside the previous ED director, Kisame watched as Tsunade's stern gaze softened slightly at the sight of her former apprentice's determination.

"Shizune has been in OR 2 for the past two hours, Ino is currently circulating for her, she can brief you and get you scrubbed-in to assist." Tsunade answered as she glanced at the clipboard in her hands and the list of surgeons currently scheduled in the operating rooms.

"Shizune, OR 2, find Ino, anything else?" Sakura asked. When Tsunade shook her head, Sakura nodded and set off.

Watching the young woman stride away with purpose, Tsunade sighed tiredly, "I miss having that energy."

Beside her, the blue-haired paramedic chortled softly before lifting his disposable coffee cup to his lips and taking a large sip, "Feeling old, Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade shot the man, and his coffee, a baleful look before responding tersely, "You can either stay and make yourself useful or you can leave, Hoshigaki. Your shift ended two hours ago."

Clicking his tongue, Kisame downed the last of his cold coffee and tossed the empty cup in a nearby trashbin. He then turned towards the staff exit and unclipped a silver carabiner from his belt. Heading for the door, he raised his arm jingled his car keys as he called over his shoulder, "I'll be back an hour with more coffee; Chief would kill me if I left you alone right now."

Pretending not to be secretly touched by the truth behind the medic's statement, Tsunade scowled half-heartedly at Kisame's retreating figure before lowering her gaze to the diamond ring on her left ring finger. She sighed to herself, "Jiraiya, you idiot."

Thirteen hours, eight surgeons, twelve residents, fourteen surgical technicians, and countless nurses and medical assistants later, they had six stable patients.

"I'm think I'm about ready to pass out," Ino moaned quietly as they trudged slowly towards Sakura's office.

Sakura smiled at her best friend.

"You did a great job, Ino. Thank you."

Yawning loudly, Ino casually waved away Sakura's gratitude. Instead, she slung an arm over the pink-haired physician's shoulders and leaned tiredly against her. When Sakura obligingly wrapped an arm around Ino's waist, the blonde leaned in closer and awkwardly rested her head on Sakura's shoulder.

Laughing softly, Sakura jostled the blonde with her shoulder, "Come on, Ino. Can't you at least wait until we get to my office to fall asleep?"

"Hmmm, but Sa-ku-raaaa, I've been awake for the past 26 hours. I just wanna sleeeeeeep."

Rolling her eyes at the dramatic blonde, Sakura shifted the weight of Ino's head on her shoulder again. "We're almost there," she said gently, "If you can stay awake until then, I'll buy you lunch."

Predictably, Ino lifted her head off of Sakura's shoulder and made a conscious effort to pick up her dragging feet. The exhausted nurse even made an attempt to stifle another monstrous yawn as they drew closer to their destination. Her determination made Sakura smile. After all, it was a little-known fact that Ino, despite how vocal she was about dieting and her near-religious commitment to HIIT workouts and hot yoga, was a food-motivated individual. As such, it wasn't unusual for Sakura to use Ino's love of food to her advantage; because, even though Ino was an expensive date, Sakura knew that she would end with a new favorite restaurant or café by the end of it.

"Sakuraaaaa," Ino complained again, the adrenaline-boost from the idea of a free lunch having already worn off. "Aren't we there yet?"

Letting out a small sigh, Sakura grabbed Ino by the hand and pulled the blonde around the nearest corner and about halfway down the hallway before stopping in front of a cherry-stained door. Pulling her ID badge from the breast pocket of her coat, Sakura unlocked the door and quickly pushed it open before dragging her zombie of a best friend inside the office. Shutting the door behind them, Sakura carefully guided Ino around her desk and over to the small loveseat situated below the window on the far wall.

"Now just lay there and sleep," Sakura commanded gently as she placed her hands on the blonde's shoulders and forced her to lay down. "I still have some patients to see, but you can stay here and sleep until you're feeling well enough to eat and head home, okay?"

When Ino nodded, Sakura pulled the light throw blanket off the back of the sofa and draped it over the semi-conscious blonde. She then sat down on the edge of the small couch and carefully freed the nurse's long hair from its tight ponytail. Running her fingers gently through the slightly tangled tresses, Sakura smiled down at Ino and asked, "Do you need anything before I go? Do you want me to call Choji?"

"No," Ino replied softly, yawning wide as her eyes started to drift shut. "He doesn't get off work until six."

"All right, Ino." With that, Sakura stood and carefully gathered her paperwork off of her desk before heading towards the door. Opening the door as quietly as possible, she called over her shoulder before slipping out, "I'll be back in an hour."

Yawning softly, Sakura glanced at her watch as she turned down the hallway and strode away from the last room on her list of patient rounds.

04:02pm

She sighed.

The incident from this morning was one of the biggest emergencies to hit Konoha General's Emergency Department in the six years that she'd been working there. It truly was a miracle that they had managed to stabilize all six victims.

Nevertheless she was exhausted.

Actually, everyone was exhausted. After all, in addition to the large number of night float staff whom had stayed to help, several of the daytime staff members and off-duty providers had also been called in throughout the early morning to help fill the gaps and take over patient rounds for the providers that were working the trauma cases.

"If it were up to me, I'd give the whole lot of you the week off."

Startled by the sudden voice, Sakura looked up to find the Commissioner of Konoha's Fire Department leaning against the wall outside of her office. She offered him a tired smile and was about to ask what he was doing there when he raised a steaming cup of coffee into view. Her smile widened.

"Thank you, Jiraiya-sama" she said thankfully, taking the proffered coffee and tucking her clipboard under her arm. Holding a finger to her lips, she added, "If Ino is awake, we can chat inside. Hang on."

Quietly opening the door with her badge, Sakura took a quick peek inside, half-expecting the blonde to still be out cold. Instead, she was surprised to see Ino awake and nursing her own cup of coffee. Noticing the door open, Ino looked up and smiled as Sakura entered with Jiraiya in tow.

"Sakura, this man is a saint, where did you find him?" Ino asked before taking another sip of the luxurious caffeinated beverage.

Sakura and Jiraiya both chuckled as one made himself comfortable in the nearest chair while the other made her way over to the desk to kick off her shoes and set her coffee and patient files. Then, moving over to sit on the edge of the settee, Sakura pressed the back of her hand to Ino's forehead.

"You'll have to ask Tsunade-shishou where she found him," she replied with another small laugh, "because he was nothing more than a freeloader when I met him."

"Hey!" shouted the older man in fake indignation, "That's not true! I was recovering from a work-related injury!"

The two younger women laughed at the small pout on the man's face, before Sakura finally chose to address the elephant in the room.

"Have you spoken to Tsunade-sama, yet?"

The white-maned man let out a heavy sigh, his gaze full of concern for his stubborn but sensitive significant other.

"I hardly got a word in before those big-wigs sulked into her office like it was a funeral procession," he grumbled, taking a sip of his coffee before looking at the two girls sitting on the small sofa. "I'm not sure how or when I'll be able to check-in on her."

Sakura frowned slightly, before standing to grab her coffee and pull her desk chair around to sit near the older man. After spending most of her time in residency living with and working under Tsunade, Sakura had come to learn a great deal about the man before her. And so she knew better than most how hard this day must have been for him. After all, on one hand, he was the fire commissioner to a system that serviced the entire city, meaning he was also heavily involved with the Emergency Medical Services that operated in tandem with the Konoha General Emergency Department. Meanwhile, on the other, he was a loving, caring husband to the woman who had the responsibility of running the largest hospital in the city.

Reaching over, Sakura placed a hand over his and gave it a small, encouraging squeeze. Jiraiya replied with a grateful smile.

Ino, however, whether due to fatigue or caffeine, watched the exchange for a moment before setting her coffee cup on the floor, jumping to her feet and marching over to seat herself criss-crossed in the other chair beside Jiraiya. Then, leaning forward with her elbows propped on her knees and a scheming twinkle in her eyes, she said, "I might have an idea."

After listening for an hour to Ino and Jiraiya discuss various ways to distract the hospital sponsors and kidnap Tsunade to an exotic getaway for some much needed R&R, Sakura had decided that her blonde friend was healthy enough to leave. And so, after expressing much gratitude to the fire commissioner for her coffee and promising Ino a free lunch date, Sakura shut the door to her office and collapsed into her swivel chair.

Then, eyeing the pile of patient files, provider reviews and performance evaluation forms on her desk, Sakura groaned. Reaching for her coffee, the pinkette rested her elbow on the oak desk and propped her cheek in the palm of her hand before grabbing the first stack of papers and a ball-point pen.

It wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder and someone gently shaking her that she realized she had fallen asleep.

Eyes suddenly wide, Sakura sat up straight and cast a panicked look down at the official document in front of her, praying to kami that she hadn't accidentally drawn a line across it before falling asleep. After several seconds passed of her scrutinizing the document for any stray ink marks, Sakura was relieved to find that none existed and that her pen was, in fact, still capped.

Sighing in relief, Sakura lifted her head to look at her unlikely companion.

"Why are you still here?" Sasuke grouched, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared unhappily down his nose at her.

Glancing at the clock, Sakura deflated slightly.

05:25pm

If she was going to fall asleep at work, she had at least hoped she would have woken up closer to the end of her shift.

"You and I both know that Tsunade-sama ordered all the surgeons who operated on the trauma patients this morning to go home and rest, Sakura."

Peering up at the nephrologist, Sakura stuck out her tongue childishly. She was far too tired to take him seriously today.

Nevertheless, the physician stared at her for another few seconds before heaving a sigh and surrendering. Raising a hand, Uchiha Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Let me guess, you also probably haven't eaten lunch, right?"

"...or breakfast..."

"Sakura!"

After seeing the look of surprise, followed by concern and then annoyance, that flickered across the normally grumpy man's face Sakura almost regretted speaking. However, even though she could already feel the impending lecture she was about to receive about the importance of self-care and eating, she couldn't help appreciate that he'd gone out of his way to check on her. Mostly because, while Sasuke had a wonderful bedside manner with his patients, he usually looked rather bored by all other conversations and social interactions. It was only after years of knowing the closet mother-hen of their mutual friend group that Sakura could see the true hints of genuine concern in his eyes.

It was sweet of him and, just as she was about to thank him for his concern, her phone rang.

Recognizing the caller by his personalized ringtone, Sakura shot Sasuke a hesitant glance. The dark-haired man grunted and leaned his back against the wall, "Answer it. He'll probably just call again if you don't."

Smiling slightly and thanking her lucky stars for Sasuke's rare patience, Sakura snatched up her phone and quickly answered the call before it could get sent to her voicemail.

"Hey."

"Hey, yourself." Sakura replied, tucking the phone between her ear and shoulder as she shut the open file on her desk and moved it back on top the small pile of paperwork.

"I wanted to check on you since you were called in so early this morning. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Sakura smiled softly, he always so straight to the point. Glancing over at Sasuke as he moved over towards the door, Sakura paused. Thankfully, Sasuke was one step ahead of her and mouthed that he would be back later before slipping out of her office and quietly closing the door behind him. "Sakura?"

"Yes! Hi! Sorry, I was just talking to Sasuke about something," she replied.

"Ah, should I call back later?"

Sakura shook her head, "No, no. We just finished. What's up?"

"I just got off work and it looks like it might storm. Do you want me to pick you up?" Smiling at his thoughtfulness, Sakura moved over towards the window. Sure enough, dark clouds were beginning to gather in the sky and she could see people on the streets below heading towards shelter.

"That's weird, the weather report from this morning wasn't predicting any snow," she mumbled absently to herself.

"What time does your shift end?" Eying the wall clock grumpily, Sakura sighed.

"Technically...six."

"Technically? Sakura, your pager went off at 1:30 this morning and you weren't even supposed to be working today. They don't actually expect you to work a full sixteen-hour shift, do they?" She could hear the irritation in his voice, he always hated it when she was forced to work for several hours outside of her scheduled surgical shifts.

"I know, but this morning was really serious and the night staff had to pull overtime and most of the day staff came in early like me... I couldn't just leave. What if one of my patients needed me during my normal shift hours and I wasn't here?"

"Sakura, did Tsunade-sama tell you to stay to cover your normal shift?" Dammit.

Sakura grumbled her defeat, "No..."

"Come home, Sakura."

Sakura groaned softly. If he hadn't fallen in love with engineering prosthetics, Sasori would have made a damn good lawyer. "Babe, I want to, I really really do, but I have so much paperwork to do now because of this morning's incident."

"And you can't bring any of it home."

Sakura sighed and reached for her cold coffee. She took a small sip before responding, "No, I'm sorry."

Sakura heard Sasori sigh over the phone, "What do you want for dinner?"

Sakura chuckled. 'Smart man.'

"Tempura?" she asked hopefully, already knowing what he was going to say in response.

"Don't blame me if you break-out or get fat." Sakura rolled her eyes at his jab.

"Excuse me?" She responded, taking mock offense to his comment.

"You heard me. Shrimp?" Crafty bastard.

"Yes."

"Okay. Let me know if you want a ride."

"Okay. I'll see you at home."

"Be safe."

Grinning like an idiot, Sakura tapped the "end call" icon on her phone and placed the device back in her desk drawer. A moment later, the door opened and Sakura found herself face-to-face with a smug-looking Sasuke.

"Stop smiling like a lovesick fool, it's gross." Sasuke scolded teasingly as he sauntered into the small office and reclaimed his spot leaning against the wall beside Sakura's desk.

Scowling playfully at the man, Sakura retorted, "Oh, no need to be jealous, Sasuke-kun, I'm sure you could talk Naruto into calling you during the day to whisper sweet nothings in your ear."

Sakura grinned as she watched the proud man's cheeks turn red, enjoying the sight of the thoroughly flustered Uchiha before continuing, "Indeed, I wonder what Gai-sensei would say about such 'young love', ne, Sasuke-kun?"

This time, Sasuke glared at her for a moment before pushing himself off the wall and advancing towards her. Raising a pink eyebrow, Sakura watched carefully as Sasuke rounded her desk and grabbed the back of her office chair. A second later, Sakura yelped when the man pulled her away from her desk and reached down to open the drawer where she kept her laptop bag. Withdrawing the bag, he set it on smooth wooden surface and spoke.

"I'd say he'd be heartbroken by the thought of paperwork keeping two lovebirds apart, don't you?"

"Sasuke, just what do you think you're doing?" Sakura demanded angrily, watching as her friend lifted the pile of provider reviews and performance evaluations off her desk. "That's confidential!"

Sending her a bland look, Sasuke waved the stack of blank papers in the air tauntingly, taking great joy in her ire, before speaking.

"Tsunade just sent out an email saying that she doesn't give a shit about the reviews and performance evaluations of anyone involved in this morning's incident. You guys basically pulled off a miracle; so, unless someone really royally messed-up, you don't have to fill any of these out, Sakura." Sasuke said, before briefly paging through the empty sheets and adding, "Besides, these are all empty, so there's no way this would be breaking any confidentiality policies."

Deflating slightly, especially since she now had only a fraction of the initial amount of paperwork to do, Sakura casted a weary glance at the remaining patient files on her desk. Catching her gaze, Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Shizune was the other cardiothoracic surgeon operating this morning, but since you were the one to run your rounds as the dayshift surgeon, assuming you have your notes from your rounds written down in your charts, she said that you can leave the files for the patients that she operated on on her desk."

Sakura gasped, "That would cut my workload in half!"

"Indeed, it would," Sasuke said as he picked Sakura's coat off the back of her chair and held it open expectantly. "It also means that you can go home to your fiancé."

Smiling at him gratefully, Sakura wheeled herself over to the wall and unplugged her laptop charger before gathering up the wires and carefully packing away her laptop. She then stood and moved over to her desk, tucking away her half of the patient files in a locked drawer. After letting Sasuke help her into her coat, Sakura grabbed her bag, keys, phone, and Shizune's half of the patient files before flicking off the lights and following Sasuke out of her office.

"I have to admit," Sakura began, waving politely to a few of the passing nurses as they made their way towards the nurse's station, "I'm surprised to see you working today. Isn't this your and Naruto's traveling day?"

Hands in the pockets of his white coat, Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly. "With Itachi living in Konoha again, my parents said that they wanted to spend the holidays here instead of having us travel to see them."

Shooting a glance at the thin, rose-gold engagement ring on Sakura's left hand, Sasuke then asked, "Do you and Sasori have any special plans for the holidays?"

Shaking her head, Sakura smiled. "We had plans to fly out to Suna this morning, but now..." Sasuke offered her a sympathetic smile. He even reached over and gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder as they neared the nurse's station.

Sakura chuckled at her friend's attempt to comfort her before handing over Shizune's half of the files to Shizune's nurse with the instructions to have them put on the older surgeon's desk. Then, leaning over the counter, Sakura snatched one of the shared Santa hats off the her nurse's desk and turned back towards Sasuke. Grinning evilly, Sakura reached up and carefully positioned the red cap over the man's spiky hair, cheerfully flipping the white pom-pom over his shoulder as she smiled. "Perfect."

Frowning at her childishness, Sasuke sighed in frustration, "GO HOME, Sakura."

Laughing merrily at his Scrooge-ness, Sakura poked the faux fur that lined Sasuke's forehead before turning towards the staff exit.

"Thank you, Sasuke," she said gently, her green eyes softening when the stoic man gave her a small smile in return, "and have a wonderful holiday."

Sasuke raised a hand in farewell before turning his attention to his own fast-approaching resident. Heaving a sigh at the sight of the large stack of files clutched against the younger man's chest, Sasuke resigned himself to yet another long day at Konoha General Hospital.

~So, initially, I had this planned to be all in one large post, but I've been dying to post it (and it's not completely finished), so I've decided to break it up into smaller sections and post one (occasionally two) chapters at a time. Just because I want to get this out there and not have most of it sitting around while I try to finish the story.

~Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know what y'all think!

~Smash