Clashes of metal stung against each other as the masked shinobi threw themselves at each other with wrath. Silver moonlight danced across their forms as they continued their deadly dance in the tall grass of meadow. The burly man swung the katana ruthlessly at the slim, black figure in a desperate attempt to push back the mysterious mute ninja. The only expression present on them was the black leering Hannya theater mask, a tacky trinket that Jian-yu scoffed at.

"Who do ya fookin work for?!" His gruff accent was a characteristic of many mist ninja. "Yer a looney for runnin around in my turf this late at night. No one insults-" a tanto made swift work of his sword arm and the man howled to the night, dropping to his knees and snapping his head to face the stoic Hannya mask ninja before him. "No one even believes in you, they-" hacks erupted from the paling form of the man, blood trailing down his chin. "-they said the Onryō was a story to scare children into behaving and threaten nukenin. But my men, they'll catch ya, when yer alone without your precious sword-"

The Hannya's tanto thrust forward into the man's heart and twisted with a sickening squelch, but the reaper had claimed him before the tanto could be removed. Jian-yu was no more and would no longer wreak havoc on the villages he raped and pillaged.

The Hannya leered as it snapped the tanto clean across his neck and pulled its prize from the body. His head would serve as a marker for his men to find, staked and placed in front of the village of his latest crime spree.

"Silly dead man, my sword is only a sharp piece of steel in a useful shape." The Hannya firmly grasped the matted, black hair on Jian-yu's head and pulled it taunt "It's me your men should fear, you stupid dead man."

Every village had its own problems and every country had its own wars, however, the climate in Konoha was tenser than usual now days. Plagues bombards the outskirts of fire country, sweeping across the smaller towns and diminishing whole communities in only a few weeks.

Sakura huffed at her office desk and threw the newest manilla folder down in a fit. The Medic corps she and Shizune put together had a success rate of 61%, depressing numbers for Konoha's finest medical ninjas. To add insult to injury it seemed that the newest round of vaccinations was ineffective against the influenza strain that mutated again for the third time in a year. Her temper rose as she saw the mortality rates in the town's clinic census, eyes sharpening with irritation. 300 people from a 60-mile radius wiped out of the total 1000 in population? What on earth was this new bug?

She sat defeated as she continued to read through the reports and attempt to piece together a clue or symptom that perhaps Shizune and herself missed. Anything at all to end this plague would be helpful, but the research and data never lied. It was just a bug, a terrible one at that, and it targeted a specific genetic marker that unfortunately most fire country citizens had. Previous attempts to isolate and destroy it had failed and vaccines proved ineffective, so just what was this?

A nimble hand tucked a stray pastel lock behind her ear as emerald eyes reread the report from Ino a week prior. She was stationed closer to the ocean boarder, a two-day journey if ANBU traveled in a rush. There she reported lower case numbers and less lethal variants of the disease. It was theorized that the humidity crippled the disease, but to make this an option for the arid land of fire in the middle of summer was impossible.

Sakura's pager ring startled her as it screamed aggressively for her attention. The young women jumped and spilling her hot coffee over the documents.

"Code red, OR 3. Haruno. Team 4 surgery tech-"

An ambush surgery? At this time of day? Sakura glanced at her watch in dismay and quickly wiped off the documents stained brown. It was noon for heaven's sake, who attacked at noon?

With long strides Sakura rushed down the hall to the nurses' station to get gowned for surgery. A long white coat trailing behind her as she tied up long rose hair. No one crossed paths with the hurried medical ninja, but then again, the floor seemed to be entirely void of all signs of the usual chaos, a curious note Sakura filed away for later.

Upon turning a final corner Sakura nearly stalled, her breath hitching in her throat. Never, in all her years of being a medical ninja, had ANBU cleared her hospital floor and removed all personnel. It was simply not done.

"Haruno-sama." A tall man in a wolf mask strode forward "Stabilize the patient in OR 3, Shizune is currently accomplishing her task in OR 1 should you need assistance."

Another ANBU held up the operating gown and Sakura took it grateful for the help. "What is my case?"

"Aortic dissection. Male mid 20's. ANBU will be stationed within the OR."

Sakura scrubbed in and chewed on her lip over the description. An aortic dissection for a young man was extremely rare and never a natural case. The automatic sliding doors opened for her as she was gloved and entered the OR, its sterile air and cool temperature reminding her of her place. Save a life, clean up a mess, send them back out to die, repeat. It was not her duty to question ANBU and she knew better than to challenge their authority, even her in her hospital.

Vitals pinged in the monitor over his head and Sakura set to work on her newest patient, authoritatively taking the scrub technician's scalpel and beginning the operation with a confident incision on his torso.

"Suction-" She had hardly needed to say a thing, this surgery team knew her preferences and methods better than even Sakura knew them. They worked like a well-oiled machine and it wasn't until Sakura healed the dissection that she paused, taking care to note the abnormality of the man's right torso wall.

"Haruno-sama?"

" …Tweezers." Her tone left little room for argument and the scrub tech only blinked in confusion. "Leave the room."

"Haruno-"

"We have a potential bioterrorism case, leave now and alert Shizune. Tell the ANBU I need this entire unit on lockdown with quarantine air cycles on ASAP."

Her team left and Sakura took a deep breath, preparing herself and creating a chakra shield between herself and the patient. Green mist sealed her body and wrapped lovingly around herself as a second skin. For someone to go this far out of their way to attack Konoha like this…. The suspect list was long, but it certainly confirmed her fears that the plague raging across the countryside was not a coincidence. Someone was deliberately sabotaging her country, her people. Anger coursed through her lithe body as she lifted a section of muscle and found a gel like package within the tissue.

"What on earth….Computer! Dictate," Sakura began with a steady voice "pink gel package, 1 centimeter cubic volume approximately 3 centimeter deep in thoracic wall of patient in OR 3. Prior aortic dissection brought in by ANBU. No attachments noted-"

A loud eruption from nearby startled Sakura and with a flash of light her patient evaporated before her. The pinkette was thrown back violently into the glass viewing window and the quarantine alarm sounded. She picked herself up, appreciative for the chakra shield surrounding her body as it was covered in unidentifiable red mush and gore.

"Haruno-sama!"

Sakura whipped her head toward the doors in panic "NO! I'm ok, check on Shizune! I have enough chakra to remain shielded for a few hours." Red lights and alarms blared while emergency lights flickered onto the scene before the medical ninja. Dense red organic matter littered the room, the densest of it where the operating table lay over turned. This had been a declaration of war.

But from who?

Sakura sat in the quarantine unit dressed in a scratchy hospital gown as her clothes were incinerated. No entertainment, no books, and certainly no communication to the outside world. The last thing this hospital needed was a knuckle head ninja breaking down each secure door to rescue her and contaminate the entire village in the process of doing so.

Doors slammed shut and Sakura stood from her seat on the ground abruptly. Two ANBU followed the brisk pace of her shishou as she strode forward with a purpose, portfolio in hand.

"Tsunade-shishou." Sakura bowed deeply waiting for the verbal abuse sure to follow. How could she miss a simple bioterrorist threat? It was a rookie mistake that nearly cost her life.

"Any injuries? Anything worrisome?" The blonde's honey eyes held fire, but the worry in her voice was forgiving and Sakura felt as though she was no longer in trouble.

"No Shishou. A small scrape from impact on the wall, but nothing was exposed to a contaminant. I ran diagnostics and have been checking for hours. How is OR 1? Is shizune-san ok?" Sakura brushed the bandage on her forehead. A trivial thing to worry about.

The Hokage took a deep breath and leaned against the glass wall in between her and Sakura. "Shizune's was a much more…reactive patient. Two on her team were dead when we finally got to them. I just finished Shizune's operation. She will recover, however, not for a few weeks." The age was showing on Tsunade's face and it only just now occurred to Sakura that perhaps the operation did not go as planned initially.

"I've called Kakashi and Sai to chase down the ones responsible for this. They will partner with team nine and leave within the hour. Jiraiya has been told to stall Naruto's return for the time being."

Sakura knit her delicate eyebrows together. "What about my participation on this mission Tsunade-shishou?"

With a sigh Tsunade opened the portfolio "You are needed here more than anything else, I need a diplomat to calm the people and take care of the triage cases that are sent to us. I can't do it without you and Shizune's out of commission for at least a week, maybe more."

Sakura wanted to be angry at being left behind, but this was where she was needed. The field had many ninjas, the hospital had less than a dozen and most were at outreach clinics healing the land of fire like Ino was currently doing.

"You are dismissed, please get some rest tonight and we will coordinate tomorrow. Report to the hospital at 0500, you have patients to round on." And with that Tsunade released Sakura from her entrapment and left the pinkette to find her way home.

Sakura walked the dark halls of the third floor to her office, feeling uneasy about the silence in the normally buzzing hospital. Today was a disaster, well beyond the scope of any disasters she had faced previously. A careless overlook of an already sketchy situation…..honestly it was reckless and it put not only herself in danger, but easily a dozen other people as well.

Sakura continued to rebuke herself and her actions, hoping Shizune would recover soon and be able to comfort her. Lazy feet shuffled to the desk where she hid extra clothing for days when Naruto would insist on dragging her to ramen in bloody scrubs and she messily pulled the hospital gown off her thin, weary body.

Her apartment was only a five-minute walk from the hospital in an industrialized district of Konoha, but Sakura dreaded the walk alone at night. It wasn't too late, but late enough for her to catch couples draping themselves off of each other and making out on the many benches that led up to her apartment building. To be loved intimately was a task most ninja never accomplished and those who did risked losing their lover to war and death.

Exiting the final doors Sakura allowed the brisk spring air to engulf her as she hugged her arms across her torso and began the brief walk home. Long tendrils of pink danced in the gentle wind as she focused her gaze ahead. Never let yourself be caught off guard, she mentally chastised herself again as she narrowed her eyes. Tsk.

Gentle hands rubbed against the goosebumps on her toned biceps and she glanced behind her momentarily. What if the attackers who planted the biothreat had successfully entered Konoha? The quiet night was doing nothing to calm her nerves and Sakura jumped to the rooftops preferring to see all that was around instead of taking the long way home like a civilian.

A glance down and she saw a couple leaning against the streetlight, completely lost in their own tender world. A bitter huff of air left Sakura's nose and she sped up. Would she have continued to become a kunoichi if Sasuke had stayed? If, somehow, he wasn't so consumed in darkness and managed to focus on love instead of hatred?

The night air whipped past her as she sped up. What a stupid idea, Sakura thought with distaste disappointed in her weakness. What of the patients she had or the countless times she healed her friends on the front line? This was for the better of Konoha and its people. She hopped down from the last building and landed on the third floor of her apartment building, making her way to the familiar worn door of 304. Tired hands fished out the tangle of keys in a small pocket of her pants and she opened her door with a twist and a push. The tired kunoichi ignored the homey little living room and kitchen in favor for her bed. If she fell asleep right now she could get just under 5 hours of sleep before needing to be at the hospital in full gear.

Sakura tossed the keys on her bed and flopped down ungracefully, enjoying the comfort that surrounded her senses. The moonlight shown through her sliding glass balcony door only feet away, but Sakura couldn't be bothered to close the curtains. At least the silver light casting on her face would keep her company in her lonely apartment.

A new story yay! I promise I'll update my other one soon as well, this has just been festering in my mind for a while and I needed to get it loaded up on FF! Like, comment, follow, or favorite and I'll be more encouraged to continue updating!