A/N: Life happened. Got a degree and a job and a fiancee. Life's good.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But if I did, my student loans would have been paid off by now.

SUMMARY:

Five long years of having my nose stuck in the books, memorizing every part of the human anatomy, grasping the concepts of chemistry and pathology, and putting up with the most critical and rigorous program this country has to offer. Here's a view of life status-post nursing school.

The real world. Give me a break. So what if I graduated at the top of my class on a full scholarship? So what if I scored the best possible job working at the number one trauma hospital in Tokyo? And so what if the country's number one cardiologist wants to wine me, dine me, and possibly 69-me after being there for only a few months?

FUCK MY LIFE.

Rumor Has It

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I should just seriously turn him in for sexual harassment and have him fork over his millions to pay for my student loans. Why haven't I done so already? Maybe there's just a teeny-weeny part of me that loves the attention. What can I say? He IS a hot piece of ass and is the subject of every nurse in Tokyo Medical Center's sexual fantasy… But I'm sure the banter that goes on in surgery is far from appropriate bedside manner, even if the patient being worked on is completely unconscious. That's beside the fact. I've got big dreams and high hopes for myself, and fucking the cardiologist wasn't the way to get there.

It's 7am and time for another 16-hour shift. Why can't this hospital have adequate staffing? Not that I'm complaining because the overtime pay is ridiculous, but I would love to have a morning where my phone doesn't show 'Tokyo Medical Staffing' on the caller ID. I wait to get report from the night shift and quietly eavesdrop on the annoying gossip and giggling coming from the nurse's station.

"So I heard Dr. Uchiha is dating someone from the neurology department. Some redhead hospitalist that prides herself in wearing way too short skirts to work. How she became a doctor at all is a mystery to me."

"Tch, she probably aced her way through med school giving blow jobs to old men. Oh and let's not forget, it is her family that owns this beautiful place we work at and puts money in our pockets."

I don't know how much more I could stand listening to them, so I shot them a 'shut the fuck up' glare their way. I refuse to start my day in a foul mood; my patients definitely don't deserve it after all.

"Sakura-san, don't act as if it doesn't bother you just a little bit."

"Oh trust me Ino, it really doesn't bother me. What he does in his free time is none of my concern," I snapped back a little too quickly. Why do these bitches give a damn anyway?

"Hmm, are you sure Sakura-san? Dr. Uchiha has been paying you a lot of attention lately… And he just dropped you like a bad habit to go off with-"

"Michiko!" I practically shouted. I was seeing red, my pulse was racing, and I could feel the heat emanating off my cheeks.

"Woah woah, I was just kidding girl. No need to get your panties in a bunch. Kiss and make up?"

"Ugh whatever," I said as I turned on my heel and stomped off to begin my patient rounds. Gosh, sometimes I wish there were more male nurses around to balance out the abundance of estrogen in this department. If there was one thing that I couldn't stand were rumors and gossip. I mean, hello! We're in a critical cardiac unit; shouldn't we be worrying about things like say, saving lives perhaps?

"Excuse me Miss, I'm looking for Minato Namikaze's room. Could you tell me where I may be able to find him?"

"And your relation to the patient sir?" Oh God, am I drooling? Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a business suit. Seeing that is like a breath of fresh air being that all that everyone here wears the standard issue white coat or light blue surgical scrubs.

Yummy.

"He's my father."

"Sure sir, I was headed that way to check on him. My name is Sakura and I'll be the nurse taking care of him today."

"Nice to meet you Sakura, my name is Naruto."

We walked quietly to the private room at the end of the hall where Mr. Namikaze was located. Were the hairs on the back of my neck starting to stand? Think professionalism.

"Good morning, Mr. Namikaze. My name is Sakura Haruno and I will be your nurse today until about 11:30 this evening. It seems you have a visitor at the moment. Is it alright with you if he comes in?"

With a nod from the patient, I waved the gentleman over to come in.

"I have to do some assessments to make sure that you're progressing well after your surgery, Mr. Namikaze."

"I can come back later-"

"No you're fine. There's a chair right next to the bed if you want to have a seat. Just don't touch anything okay?" Ugh, joke FAIL. Hearing a chuckle come from the patient kept my nerves in check. All right, it wasn't a total fail.

"Will do. Hey by the way who is the doctor overseeing my father's care?"

Glancing at the whiteboard in the room, my jaw clenched when I saw the name…

"Dr. Uchiha is his primary care provider and also the surgeon that performed the bypass."

Putting on my stethoscope I proceeded with my assessment. Lung sounds clear. Apical pulse within normal limits. Bowel sounds normoactive in all quadrants. Mr. Namikaze was well on the way to recovery.

"You're progressing well Mr. Namikaze. I'll be back in two hours with your antibiotics. Is there anything I can do for you at this time?"

"Yeah, help me find a cute nurse for this knucklehead son of mine and bring her back here with my antibiotics in a couple hours."

My eyes went wide and I'm sure my mouth dropped. Heat rushed to my cheeks to let me know that I was for sure blushing. How embarrassing. But I couldn't help but look at the blonde's reaction to his father's unusual request.

"Heh heh, umm…" I said while scratching the back of my head. "I'll see what I can do about that, Mr. Namikaze. See you in a few hours," I said as I reached out for the door.

"Dad, that wasn't very nice. Sakura is plenty cute enough already. Maybe the surgery messed up your eyes a bit."

I need to get out of here; it was getting awkward by the second. Reaching for the doorknob, my fingers felt something much different than that cold piece of metal that I was searching for.

"Oh hello Dr. Uchiha. I just completed my assessment of Mr. Namikaze. Nothing is out of the ordinary and he seems to be recovering from the surgery appropriately. Now if you'll excuse me-"

"I need you in here Sakura-chan to document my findings while I perform my assessment."

"But I told you I just-"

Feeling a warm hand on my shoulder, Dr. Uchiha pushed me back into the room and it lingered many seconds more than it should have. Squirming out of his grasp, I walked to the computer located at the far corner of the room.

"Good morning Mr. Namikaze. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Pretty good actually. It doesn't feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest anymore and I have you to thank for it."

Fighting the urge to gag at the compliment Dr. Dumbass received, I tried to tune out the irrelevant jibber jabber and only focused on the objective facts.

"When can my father be discharged doctor?"

"And you are?"

"I apologize sir. My name is Naruto and I'm his son."

"Hn. If all goes well, he can be out of here in 3 days. We will do our best to get him out on schedule."

A small smile crept to my lips as I thought of how genuinely concerned he was about his father. They must be very close I suppose.

"Now Mr. Namikaze, there will are a few lifestyle changes you will need to consider so that something like this won't happen again. I understand you are the president of Konoha Incorporated, correct?"

"That is correct, Dr. Uchiha."

"What induced this heart attack was a combination of high blood pressure and stress. I understand in your line of work stress is almost impossible to avoid.

"I understand Dr. Uchiha. That's why my son here will be taking over the company after I get the paperwork drawn up. I'm looking forward to retirement actually. It's unfortunate that I had to retire due to this though, but again, I am thankful to be alive thanks to you and your team."

"Excuse me Sakura, patient in 712 is requesting pain meds. Did you want me to take care of it or-"

YES! There was a God out there and he was definitely looking out for me right about now. I can finally get out of this stuffy room and go on with my day. There was really no purpose in me being here anyway. Ino for once had done me some good.

"No I'll take care of it, thank you Ino. Excuse me while I tend to my other patients. I'll see you in two hours Mr. Namikaze."

"Don't forget to come back with a cute nurse friend for my son!"

"Did you see that delicious looking hunk of a man in the suit? I nearly fainted when I opened that door looking for Sakura earlier."

"I heard that his father is some big time business man."

"Wow good looking and rich? What a combination!"

There they go again, gossiping like a bunch of harpies waiting to pounce on anything that has a heartbeat and walks. Rolling my eyes, I continued to catch up with charting my assessments for the day.

"I wonder if he has a girlfriend…"

"Are you kidding me? I'm sure girls on the street literally throw their panties at him when he walks by."

Hitting the 'File' key and breathing slowly to keep my irritation and bay, I made my way to the medication room. The further I got, the sounds of their senseless squabbling slowly disappeared. Thank goodness, I don't know how much more of this day I could possibly take.

"Stupid bitches."

"Hn."

"Dr. Uchiha, I didn't see you there."

"Obviously."

Asshole.

"Excuse me, I need to get through to get medication for my patients."

"And if I don't?"

"What?"

What is he doing? Did he just take a step closer?

"I said, what if I don't get out of your way Sakura. What are you going to do?"

"Then I'll tell my patients their meds are running late because their doctor was sexually harassing me in a corner of a-"

"Corner of a what, Sakura?"

His lips brushed lightly against my earlobe and my breath hitched in my throat. I was literally frozen on the spot. But something snapped inside of me and I roughly shoved the pompous doctor off. A smirk grew on his devilish face as he straightened his white coat and my knees went weak immediately.

"Hn. See you later, Sakura-chan."

With that, he walked away from me acting as if nothing happened. What is a girl to do? I mean I love my job… Hell this is my dream job and I'm not going to let some jackass like that get away with treating me like his play toy. Who does he think he's fucking with? I hope he knows, this means war.

Lunch, my favorite time of the day. No call lights, no phones, no gossip. Just me and my somen salad from home and big cup of coffee. It was a nice day out; the sun was shining with a soft breeze blowing about. I don't understand why someone would rather sit in that awfully cold cafeteria when the hospital grounds looked like a lavish resort and spa on the outside. Sitting on a bench under my favorite shady tree brought back some sense of peace to my hectic day. Tilting my head back, I looked up at the rays of sunlight that peeked through the branches and leaves.

"Sakura?"

"Oh hey Naruto. How can I help you?"

Yummy blue-eyes is back.

"Sorry if I'm bothering you. There weren't any seats in the cafeteria. Mind sharing your bench with me?"

"Of course! Please sit. Hey, your dad is looking really good. He might even be discharged earlier than expected. Thought I'd share the news with you."

"That is great news! I didn't get a chance to thank you earlier for taking care of my dad and to apologize for that comment he made in the room. He gets a kick out of embarrassing me in front of people."

"No harm done. He's a joker that dad of yours. I've enjoyed taking care of him. Are you going to spend the rest of the day here at the hospital?"

"Unfortunately not. I have to get back to the office to take care of things. It's been crazy without my dad around, but we've been managing. It'll be even more difficult when he retires…"

"But you understand that stress is what made his heart kind of go into overload right? Besides, he's going to leave the company in good hands I'm sure."

We sat and talked about nonsensical things while we ate our lunch. He reminded me so much of a friend I had back in med school and I found it easy to be myself around him. There was something about him that made me feel comfortable and I liked it. He was telling me a story about some weirdo he works with at the office with an obsession with bugs and my sides were nearly splitting as I laughed my ass off.

"Ahem. Sakura-chan?"

Oh God no, not now…

"Dr. Uchiha," I mumbled a half-ass acknowledgment.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm on my lunch break. Obviously."

"Hn. Mind if I sit here and have my lunch as well? The cafeteria was crowded."

There was more than enough room next to Naruto but Dr. RiDICKulous plopped his butt down on what little space there was on my side of the bench. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I scooted over to make room for him making sure there was quite a bit of distance between the both of us.

"Thanks for hanging out Sakura, but I gotta run. What are you doing later tonight? Maybe we can go out and have a drink or something."

"Hmm, I don't know. I'm working pretty late tonight…"

"Well if you change your mind, call me."

"Uzumaki is your last name?" I asked while looking at the fancy calligraphy written on his business card.

"Long story. But I'll save that for when we have drinks sometime."

After waving goodbye, I stuffed his business card into my pocket and began to clean up my waste from lunch.

"So are you going?"

I had completely forgotten about the now brooding doctor that was sitting beside me.

"Yeah I'm going back to the unit now."

"I mean, are you going to meet that dobe for drinks later tonight?"

"I don't think that's any of your business, Dr. Uchiha."

"Sasuke."

"Excuse me?"

"We're outside of the hospital so you can call me Sasuke."

Bail now!

"Ooookay, well my lunch break is almost over so I'm gonna head back."

As I was about to sit up from the bench, his arm shot out to pull me back down to the which resulted in a loud thud when my behind met hard wood suddenly.

"Itai… What's the big idea, Dr. Uchiha?"

"Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

"Ugh, no!"

"I told you to call me Sasuke, Sakura-chan."

"I gotta go, Dr. Uchiha. My patients are waiting for me."

"Answer my question."

"What question?"

"Are you going to have drinks with the dobe later?"

"I don't see why it's a big deal and I don't see why you need to know. There's your answer."

He leaned closer and looked me right in the eyes. It was the first time I'd ever seen him up close. His black textured bangs blew gently away from his face when a gentle breeze passed through which revealed his eyes. His dark brown eyes almost looked black, which hid behind a pair of dark framed glasses. I held my breath. This jerk was beautiful.

"Because I don't think it's a good idea for you to be going on dates with family members of patients in our hospital. It is an integrity issue after all."

"Is that so? I believe it is also a so-called 'integrity issue' when people date in the workplace as well. Is it not, Dr. Uchiha? Oops, I meant Sasuke."

"Tch. Whatever are you talking about? Unless you are implying that you would want to go on a date with me. I'm flattered, Sakura-chan.

"Dr. Takahashi."

"Pardon?"

"Don't play dumb with me, sir. Everyone is practically talking all about your date with Dr. Karin Takahashi… Which so conveniently happens to be the daughter of the owner of Tokyo Medical Center. If that isn't an integrity issue I don't know what is. I'm sure you've got some big plans cooking up in that big brain of yours. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm already running late."

The emotions that flickered through his eyes indicated that the rumor with him and Dr. Takahashi were true. I even hit the nail on the head assuming that Dr. Jerkface was indeed an ambitious man, and his date was part of some master plan that quite frankly I wanted no part in it.

"You're jealous, aren't you Sakura-chan."

"What would lead you to believe such a ridiculous thing?"

"Admit it."

"Dr. Uchiha, I am not jealous nor care about your personal matters. Unlike you, I do have a date tonight. Have a good day."

Lemme know what you think :)

This will probably be a 3-shot, but we'll see. Thanks for reading!