written as a commission for the lovely eien

notes: and before you start questioning the medical plausibility of this scenario, yes, I know that Naruto would probably have been triaged to ortho as the primary rather than internal medicine but also yes, I needed this little shuffle in the system so that the story works, damn it.

"What did I tell you about skiing?" Sakura exclaims, her voice raising again. "I told you not to be an idiot! I knew this was going to happen — you and Rock Lee literally go out of control trying to one-up each other all the time and now look what happened!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Naruto replies guiltily, sucking his teeth. "So… how long do you think it'll take me to heal?"

Sakura sighs, taking a breath. "I'm just worried about you," she tells him, crossing her arms and furrowing her eyebrows at him. She holds the print-out of the radiological impression out to re-read it. "Compression fracture… I mean, I'll be honest, I'm not completely sure. I'm not an expert on these sorts of things yet."

"What do you mean, you don't know? What the hell are you an expert on then, Doctor."

She feels her eye twitch but holds her temper back. "Nothing, apparently," she replies. "I'm still in training."

He groans, lying back into the hospital bed and taking his phone from the tray table to the left of him. "You've been in training for a really long time," he mutters.

"Okay, just because something is true doesn't mean you have to say it out loud, you know." She puts her hand back on her hip.

"Well… how much longer are you going to be training with Granny Tsunade?" he asks, scrolling up through his phone screen. He looks up at her. "Until you become a granny yourself?"

That did it.

"Naruto…" she growls, feeling a threatening rumble develop at the back of her throat. She rolls up the sleeve of her white coat and —

"Naruto Uzumaki?" A voice from behind her.

Fuck! Sakura quickly recovers, brushing down her sleeve and standing back straight.

"Oh, don't worry, we know each other—" is what she almost blurts. But her sense to not expose conflict of interest kicks in just in time. Sakura immediately turns around, cursing in her head and pretending like nothing is going on, seeing another doctor — this one she doesn't recognize. But black hair, sharp eyes, and a jawline like that reminds her of —

"Dr. Uchiha," the doctor introduces himself, nodding at Sakura as he passes her and stepping forward to the side of Naruto's bed, extending a hand.

Naruto takes it slowly, shaking his hand. Naruto's eyebrows also furrow as the Uchiha starts talking. He knows it. Sakura knows that he knows it. And he knows that Sakura knows that he knows it.

With a last name like Uchiha, it's got to be an Uchiha. And this Dr. Uchiha looks way too similar to Sasuke and Itachi for it to be any sort of a coincidence.

"I'm from Ortho," he says.

Sasuke was not joking when he was complaining about the family pressure to go into medicine. His dad and mom were doctors, his older brother is a doctor, this… cousin (?) of sorts is a doctor. No wonder Sasuke ended up dropping out of medical school to go work for a genetic start-up of some sort. Although the start-up company is… well, that's a different story.

Sakura clears her throat. "Oh, wow, perfect," Sakura says. "You got here so quick!" She glances at her watch. "Usually Ortho takes a half day since you all are busy in the OR. I literally just put in the consult order a few minutes ago."

In fact, just three minutes ago — right before she started yelling at Naruto about his idiocy. Even if this Ortho Uchiha literally ran from the OR, the elevators in the hospital were shit and added at least ten minutes to the commute across the hospital. He had to have pulled some magic in order to get to this wing this fast.

"Oh, I was in the area," he explains, giving her a smile and wink.

Okay, maybe she imaged the wink.

Fuck, why are all the Uchiha men so damn attractive? If Sakura has a type, that family's entire DNA set would be it. And she thought she would have learned after a terrible time dating Sasuke and Itachi.

Ortho Uchiha turns his attention back to Naruto, proceeding with a history and physical. As Naruto tells the Uchiha about what happened, Sakura decides to hang around. Technically, she could check up on the other patients in this wing before going back to the resident room, but why do that when she can take advantage of this learning experience in the form of eye candy. Emphasis on eye candy.

Sakura tries to steal a look at the name on his ID badge hanging off his pant waistband, but damn it, he's one of those people that wear their scrub top untucked and the hem of it keeps everything but the Uchiha last name covered. One thing is for sure though: She appreciates his muscled forearms and how tight the scrubs are around his ass as he stands next to Naruto's bed with one foot propped up on the leg of the IV drip next to him.

Right, the IV drip, Sakura suddenly remembers. She whips out the folded papers in her pocket, scribbling the note down and drawing a checkbox next to it. She needs to remember to take Naruto off the drip. He doesn't need the extra fluids, and honestly, he'd probably appreciate not needing to go to the bathroom all the damn time. Plus it would make discharge much faster so Naruto can get the hell out of this hospital and stop annoying her every other hour by asking the nurses to call her in to the room.

"Yeah, so if it's a compression fraction, that can take anywhere between six to eight weeks — maybe even a little more than that to heal," Ortho Uchiha tells Naruto. "Fortunately, you're a young and healthy person so unlike many of the older people that get compression fractures because of osteoporosis, you'll probably be able to get back to shape sooner than later."

"Oh, okay, cool, cool," Naruto replies, nodding and taking in the information. Unsurprisingly, Naruto is much more complacent listening to medical advice when it's not Sakura talking to him.

"But for now, I mean, you literally just broke your back, so I recommend you rest up, get some pain meds, some NSAIDS, and heal up at least a few more days. And then once you can get going again, you can start walking around and trying to do what you can manage. Better than staying inactive. However, I also don't want you to push yourself hard when you're first starting out because then you further injuring yourself and that's not good for anyone. Sound like a plan?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Ortho Uchiha reaches behind him into his back pocket, pulling out a business card and passing it to Naruto between two fingers. "Follow up with me at the clinic. Say like in two weeks?"

"Sounds good," Naruto says, taking the card and looking over it.

"Perfect," Ortho Uchiha looks back toward Sakura, stepping away from Naruto's bedside. "Thanks for the consult," he says, heading to the door.

"Oh, no, thank you for consult," Sakura says, feeling a sudden blush rise to her cheeks as he turns his body to scoot past her and out into the hallway — presumably off to another surgery. She gets a whiff of his cologne as he whizzes past her.

The delicious smell of it takes her to another world before Naruto interrupts her brief daydream.

"He's probably related to Sasuke, right?" Naruto asks her.

Sakura pretends not to be caught off guard. "Oh yeah, for sure," she agrees. "And his last name is Uchiha — that can't be a coincidence."

Naruto frowns. "Man, six weeks is a long time to be out," he says. "I planned to go on this cool hike with Iruka-sensei this weekend, too. I guess I'll have to call and tell him about this."

Sakura gives him a sympathetic smile. "I know," she replies. "But I know you — you'll heal up in no time with all that enthusiasm of yours. If anything, I'm more worried you're going to injure yourself before your back can handle it!"

Wait, that reminds her… Does Naruto need a brace?

Sakura clamors out the door, peeking her head left and right, up and down the hallway. Is Ortho Uchiha still here? He couldn't have gone far — it's only been a second! — but unfortunately, Ortho Uchiha is nowhere in sight.

"What?" Naruto asks, voice raised in alarm. "What happened?"

Sakura comes back into the room, waving off his concern. "Oh, no, I forgot to ask him if you need a brace or not," she explains. "I didn't think he'd go that far, but I don't see him." Instinctively, she glances at her watch.

Wait — oh shit, she's supposed to be meeting with a family member of a patient now!

"Okay, actually, I'll get back to you," she hurriedly tells Naruto. "I got to get going! I'll be back to see you!"

She waves a quick goodbye to him, not even waiting for his reply. She powerwalks down the hallway, practically at jogging speed — weaving her way past other rounding teams, the meal delivery carts, the custodial staff, and butt-naked patients taking a stroll — on her way to the elevator. All down her way, she sees absolutely no trace of Ortho Uchiha.

It was like he teleported out of there in a flash!

…

Once finished up with the family meeting, Sakura steps out of the patient room, taking a deep breath to clear her mind. The peace and emptiness in her head only clears out momentarily however, and the very first thing she suddenly remembers is — unironically — Ortho Uchiha.

Well, yes, he is on her mind, but also, she has to contact him to ask about Naruto's back brace. Well, okay, maybe not him specifically, but at least one of the orthopods.

Even with just the thought of him, her heart flutters. Ortho Uchiha looks a little older than Itachi, and that makes sense, since Itachi just started applying for GI fellowships and ortho residencies are like, what, four years? And Ortho Uchiha seems like he could have been an attending already. Compared to Sasuke and Itachi, Ortho Uchiha is definitely a lot more… socially comfortable? Confident? Attractive?

Whatever it is, it's clear that Itachi and Sasuke has been hiding Ortho Uchiha's existence from her — otherwise she would have without doubt already dropped those two losers for this one.

Sakura leans over the nurse station counter, flipping out her hospital phone and looking over the laminated directory on the wall. She pauses momentarily before dialing the ortho pager number — this sounds like such a silly thing to dial for, and she would hate to appear stupid.

But then again, she really doesn't know what to recommend for this kind of situation, and she really wants to get Naruto discharged sooner than later. She certainly doesn't want Naruto staying overnight — oh, right, the IV line!

Her thoughts interrupted, she ducks behind the nursing station to one of the extra computers, taking a seat and logging in to cancel the orders on Naruto's IV drip. As she waits for the EMR to load, the hourglass cursor flipping over itself, she sits back into the chair.

Maybe the ortho person holding the pager is also the person doing the consults? She doesn't recall seeing a pager on Ortho Uchiha — then again, her eyes were more focused on… other parts of him at the time, so she hadn't quite paid that much attention.

Just act normally, Sakura reminds herself. She's paging in order to get a question answered, that's all — don't think too hard about it.

Her order for cancelling Naruto's IV goes through, and she sits up in her chair again, flipping out her hospital phone and tapping in the numbers for the ortho pager.

Okay! That's it! She sits back into the chair, taking a quick moment of respite to gather her thoughts — but then her phone rings.

Her heart thumps so hard in her chest that Sakura can hear the blood pounding in her head. This is totally ortho calling back, and for how quick they got back to her… it has to be the Uchiha guy.

Sakura swallows, picking up her phone. "Team 3 Medicine," she greets.

"Hey, returning a page from urology?"

Sakura blinks. Urology?

"Uh… oh yeah!" Sakura recovers quickly, shuffling through her papers. "Yeah, so this is Room 2003. We put in a consult for you all. Mostly I wanted to know if it was possible to squeeze in lithotripsy for this kidney stone measuring about 15 mm."

The size of the stone is really all Sakura needs to mention. She hears a sigh from the other end of the line. "Okay, thanks. I'll go talk with the patient and see what we can do."

"Thanks!" she chirps, then hanging up the phone.

Damn. Get it together, Sakura! You are a professional, she reminds herself. There is more to the hospital than just Ortho Uchiha.

…

Sakura has more problems than just Ortho Uchiha on her mind, however.

She's also completely forgotten her lunch in her refrigerator at home. Groaning to herself as she pays for a protein bar in the cafeteria, she mentally mourns the veggie chili that she so painstakingly meal-prepped on Sunday. She intended to bring in lunch every day this week, but at this point, she's gotten too used to running out the door after sleeping in fourteen minutes too long to incorporate grabbing lunch on the way out into her routine.

At least she's had some cookies that the medical students brought into the resident room — bless their souls, Sakura wishes she still had that much energy and excitement about medicine — so she isn't ravenous. And cookies were calories and carbs and fats so… she just needs protein, right? Hence, protein bar. Bad nutritional math, but at least there's a rationale, right?

Easy.

She rips the wrapper open with her teeth, chomping down as she takes a quick seat at one of the tables. She flips out her personal phone, scrolling mindlessly through her notifications. Ino sent her about fifteen texts over the last hour — some kind of dramatic crisis at work.

Sakura holds the next bite of her protein bar in her mouth, freeing up her hand to quickly text Ino back.

"Medicine, right?" a voice from behind her.

She whirls her head around, following the sound, but the person sits down in front of her, giving her a smile.

Ortho Uchiha!

She quits typing her text, passing her phone to her right hand and embarrassingly removing the protein bar from her mouth, completing her bite.

Well, fuck, now she has food in her mouth.

He laughs. "Sorry. Caught you at the wrong time," he apologizes.

"No, no, that's alright," she says quickly, after chewing twice and swallowing hard. "Uchiha, right?"

"Shisui," he tells her, extending a hand.

She slips her phone back into her pocket, taking it. "Sakura," she replies, meeting his eyes.

Did he just happen to be here at the same time? And… he recognized her? And went out of his way to come introduce himself properly to her? And… christ, why are his eyes so mesmerizing? She could lose herself in them.

She forces herself to snap out of it. "Oh, um. Actually, I paged ortho again," she tells him. "I forgot to ask about back braces for that patient with the compression fracture after a ski accident. I wanted to get him discharged today and wanted to make sure our instructions were complete. Do you recommend back braces? Or are they necessary?"

He blinks a couple times, as if trying to recall. "Oh!" he says. "Yes. Technically, we recommend he have one, but he can probably heal well without it. The brace would just help him keep stable and decrease pain while he's standing, sitting, or walking for the first few weeks. Depends on his insurance or if he wants to go and buy it himself. So up to him, I'll put it in our note as a recommendation."

"Oh, okay, thanks!" Sakura says. "I really appreciate all your help today."

"Yeah, no problem."

Quickly, the silence becomes awkward. Or at least it feels that way to Sakura. She takes another hearty bite of her protein bar.

Shisui leans in, folding his hands together. He meets her eyes. "You know Sasuke, don't you?"

Her breath catches in her throat. Fuck.

Did Sasuke ever mention about her to his family? Shit, shit, shit.

"Yeah," she says, her voice dry. "How did you know?"

He leans back, shrugging. "Oh, okay, good," he tells her. "I didn't know if I was just mixing you up with someone. I just remember meeting you once…. maybe at one of his birthdays or something? I just remember you were one of his good friends."

Her heart rate significantly lowers. This conversation could have evolved into many different things, and she is very glad that this is how it ended up.

"Yeah," she replies. She admits she doesn't recall meeting Shisui in the past. Probably because she had been too focused on Sasuke at the time. She hesitates before adding, "And also actually the guy that you saw with the ski accident is also one of Sasuke's good friends. We all know each other pretty well. Friends since elementary school."

"Yeah?" Shisui remarks, raising an eyebrow. "Huh." He ponders for a moment. "Yeah, I don't remember seeing him at all. I just remember you. Your look is hard to come by."

Is… Is this flirting? Or is she just imagining things again?

"Oh yeah, pink hair," she replies with a nod. "I get it all the time."

"Actually, no," he says. "Your eyes. They're super green." He pauses for a moment, just staring at her. "You have really pretty eyes, you know?"

This is flirting. She is not imagining things.

"Thanks," she replies quickly, taking another bite of her protein bar.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. What does she say?

"Uh, well," he says, glancing up at her and putting his hands on his knees. "It was nice meeting you. Glad to recognize a familiar face and really glad to not have accidentally mixed you up with someone else."

He lifts himself up to be on his way, and Sakura suddenly sees her moment of opportunity close.

"Uh, maybe you want to catch up? Maybe get dinner tonight?" she blurts.

Shisui stops, turning around. "Uh…"

Wait, no, fuck — what is she doing? Tonight? Does she even have time tonight?

"Actually, I mean, I know they keep you in the OR for long hours, so if you're busy, I completely understand," she corrects, sputtering.

To this, he laughs softly, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Oh, don't worry about how busy I am," he replies. "For you? I'll make sure to clear my entire evening."

Then he gives her a quick onceover. "And night."

notes: don't ask me why Itachi is applying for GI fellowship. It was honestly just a feeling.

for all complaints, page me on twitter at napsbeforesleep