The Next Step 6

Love in Life and Death



3 months later...


"Do you have his IV ready yet, Ino?" Sakura called to her partner.

"Right behind you, Sakura.  Yuki, hurry up with those bandages!" Ino's voice could carry three floors if she wanted it to.

"Right!" Yuki could hear her senpai from several rooms over.  She had to apply her skilled footwork from her days on the front line in order to dodge the numerous patients that seemed to be overthrowing the hospital.

She managed to enter the room only a few seconds after Ino called for her with her arms full of fresh bandages for their latest patient.  There had been a caravan of people only a few miles from the village when numerous exploding tags went off.  Since Konoha was the closest, the village had no choice but to hospitalize nearly the entire caravan, though there were still a lot more people back at the site because they were too injured to be transported.  That's where they sent most of their medical ninja, leaving Sakura, Ino, Yuki, and Mai the only experienced medical ninja left in Konoha.

"Alright, Ino, I'm leaving this guy to you.  I have to see how Mai's doing." Sakura was the one left in charge since she was the most experienced, not counting Mai since she had only been apart of the village for the past three months.

"Yuki, go see the next patient.  I can handle the rest from here." Ino barked.

The redhead simply nodded and left the room to find her next patient.  Sakura would've told Ino not to bark out orders on her own, but she had to agree with the blonde's decision.  Since they were low on medical-nin, every person who could properly address a wound was welcome to help.  Sakura knew that Tsunade and Shizune would've been on call as well if they weren't held up back at the office filling out piles upon piles of paperwork.

Usually, Yuki wasn't the most coordinated person on call, but whenever her adrenaline started to flow rapidly through her veins and her breathing got caught in her throat, it was like she transformed into an entirely new person.  Not a single thing could destroy her focus—

"Lemme go!"

—Well, almost anything.  She ducked her head into the room where she heard the voice from.  Yuki would've known the sound of Kiba's voice from anywhere and as she peered into his room, she saw that he was trying to break free from both Shino's and Hinata's hold.

"Kiba-kun, you have to stay down." Hinata told her old teammate.

"I agree.  It's not wise to be struggling right now." Shino agreed.

"Hinata-san and Shino-kun, what's wrong with Kiba-kun?" Yuki asked.

"We were assigned to escort the caravan and Kiba had taken a considerable amount of damage." Shino explained.

"Shut up, Shino!  I'm fine!" Kiba snarled.

Yuki could see that he was far from fine.  From her point of view at the moment, she could see that he had at least fractured his right arm, probably broken a few ribs, and dislocated his left leg from its socket besides all of the cuts and bruises that were clearly visible.  And that was only what she could see from the outside.  He most likely also had internal injuries and would require a few stitches.  Though he was this battered, Yuki had trouble containing her cheeks from flaring up into a scorching blush.

"Y-You should l-let me take a l-look." She stammered uncontrollably.

"I don't need any help!  Akamaru's the one who needs attention!" He yelled.

"Akamaru?  W-Where is he?" She asked.

"We couldn't carry both Kiba-kun and Akamaru-kun back, and Akamaru-kun wouldn't budge from his spot.  So we ended up taking Kiba-kun only." Hinata admitted sheepishly.

"S-So Akamaru is still out there?" It was a stupid question—she knew that—but the question had came out of her mouth before she could think about what she had said.

"Yes, goddammit!" Kiba had broken through Hinata's hold while she was distracted and abruptly sat up.  He let out another shout of pain but kept on moving as he swung his feet over the side of the bed.

Yuki had finally snapped back into her previous mode, and as a medical ninja, she wouldn't let a sick or injured patient leave her care so recklessly.  "Hyoton: Furizu," she stuck her palm out as if she was blowing a kiss to Kiba and blew especially cold air on him.  Because he had open wounds, her kekkei genkai took a greater affect on him than usual as it froze him in place.  After restraining him, Yuki simply applied a bit of pressure on his chest and pushed him back down on his bed.

She turned to face Shino and Hinata, "Go back and fetch Akamaru.  I'm afraid that there aren't any veterinarians here, but I've mended a few fractures in nin-ken before."

"Understood," nodded Shino.

"Take care of Kiba-kun, Yuki-san." Hinata said before following Shino out of the room.

Yuki turned back around to face Kiba who still remained frozen, though she didn't hit him hard enough with the jutsu's full effect.  She placed her hands on her hips and shot him a nasty look.  He flinched, though insignificantly, and it nearly caused her to lose control of her more confident self because of how funny the situation was.  Though she knew that the situation wasn't really funny, the fact that she could cause Kiba to flinch because of her was the funny part.

"Inuzuka Kiba," she tried to speak authoritatively, "as your caretaker, I swear if you don't lay back down, I'll have no choice but to force you into cooperation."

He gulped and tried his best to lay back down.  She could see that he was trying to move back, and because of her jutsu he was having a hard time, so she decided to help him out.  After letting out a much needed sigh, she walked over and gently pressed the palm of her hand on his chest.  By applying a bit of force, she easily unfroze his body which allowed him to move a bit more freely.

"Now, let me have a look at your wounds while we wait for Akamaru, shall we?" She gave him a slight smile to redeem herself from her previous harshness.  "Does any of this give you pain?" She asked as she flexed his right arm.

"Yeow!" He cried.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!  Don't worry, I can handle that." After putting that arm in a splint, she got to work on his chest.  She wasn't sure if he had any internal damage and decided that that was the most important thing right now.  By concentrating her chakra in her palms, she was able cast the familiar greenish glow around her hands and hovered them over his chest.  She slowly moved them down from his upper torso all the way down to his hips.

Yuki was relieved to find that he didn't have any internal injuries, but even though that was a relief, there were still his other injuries.  After her scan of his torso, she found out that he did have a few broken ribs which could be sustained by painkillers but it'll take some time for those wounds to heal on their own.  For the moment, though, Kiba's dislocated leg gave her the most concern.

"Kiba-kun, you have a dislocated leg." She told him.

"Okay.  So what?" He was completely clueless even though he's been a ninja for nearly his entire life.

"So that means I'm gonna have to put it back into place.  It's not going to be very enjoyable." She bit her lip out of sympathy.  Yuki, as a ninja herself, has had many dislocations in her career and understood the pain of relocating limbs.  It was true that it was going to be painful.

"I don't care just hurry up.  Akamaru needs me." He mumbled.  It was clear in his eyes that he knew how painful it was going to be.

She nodded.  He was right after all.  Shino and Hinata were on their way with Akamaru and she knew that Kiba wasn't going to cooperate if he was here, so she had to get all of his injuries done with while she still had a chance.  Yuki made sure that she had a good hold on his left thigh as she prepared herself to relocate his leg back into its socket.  Without any warning, she lifted his leg, pulled out, and then pushed it in as far as she could—all the while Kiba was screaming and cursing.

"I'm so sorry, Kiba-kun." Yuki told him as she performed her basic medical ninjutsu over his leg—making sure that it was securely in place.

"Don't worry about it." He grunted.  "Is that all?"

She shook her head and he closed his eyes out of pain, though he didn't pass out.  Yuki made her way over to his head so that she could stitch up the big gash in his cheek and smaller cuts on his forehead.  She enjoyed sewing in her free time and because of this, whenever she would stitch up a patient the wound would look nearly invisible since she used chakra thread and the wound would be closed up pretty cleanly.  Because of this skill, she was usually recommended to do all the stitching in the hospital which would make her feel more needed.  She loved being needed.

"Alright, sit up." She told him.

He carefully brought himself into a sitting position as his hand immediately went to where his broken ribs were.  That was a definite sign that those ribs were broken.

"It's okay.  I'm going to take care of all of those." She gave him a reassuring smile in order to take his mind off all of what was going on.  "Here, let me help you with your sh-shirt."

She unzipped his jacket and saw the mesh shirt underneath.  Though it was another layer of clothing, she could still see his bare torso because of the material but she still needed to remove that layer as well.  Yuki could see faint scars all over his chest, shoulders, and sides which were clear signs of his shinobi career and easily detected the fresher wounds on his body.  She ran her palms over those and they closed easily, but the broken ribs inside his body were the ones that had attracted her attention.  After she bandaged his torso—to keep him from moving around too much—she applied as much medical ninjutsu as possible to his ribs.  They wouldn't heal as easily as the small cuts and bruises, but at least it'll speed up the healing process.

"There," she said a bit proudly.  "That should do it.  Alright, you can lay back down now."

After he did what he was told, he softly said, "Thank you."

"Huh?"

"Thank you." He repeated, though she felt that he was reluctant to do so.

"Oh, uh, um, K-Kiba-kun...i-it w-was nothing.  I w-was only d-doing my j-job." She stammered, her once confident self evaporated from her body.  Now she was reduced to her usual blubbering self whenever in his presence.

"No, not that.  I wanted to thank you for agreeing to help Akamaru.  If anything were to happen to him, I don't think I could ever forgive myself." He admitted.  Yuki could tell that he was exhausted because right after that he managed to doze off.

"Don't say that Kiba-kun." She whispered to herself.  "I would've helped Akamaru even if I wasn't a medical ninja."

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Sakura was completely stunned at how many people had been injured during that attack on the caravan.  She was supposed be helping Mai, but on her way to help her new friend, she had gotten distracted with helping out all of the sick and injured that still needed to be attended.  After delay upon delay because of more incoming patients, she had finally reached the room where Mai was working on patients and like always she was amazed by the woman.

The day Mai had told her she wanted to be apart of Konoha had surprised her.  She would've thought that she would've missed her family and friends back at home, but it wasn't until recently—she had guessed—that it was probably because of those people it gave her the reason to drive her away.  In fact, since she's joined the ranks of Konoha, Sakura had seen a different side of her.  She was starting to open up to the people in the village, mostly Shikamaru and herself though besides Ziom of course.  Mai was an amazing medical ninja and since she's joined the hospital staff, there had been very minimal problems and more cures distributed.

"What are you doing standing there, Sakura?  I could use some help with this one." Mai's voice broke through her thoughts and snapped her back into action.

"Right, what can I help you with?" She asked.

"I need more bandages, his IV needs to be changed, she needs stitching, and I need those three vials over there." She pointed to three bottles of pinkish liquid that were on the other side of the room while she stitched up another patient.  It looked as though she'd been caring for five patients at once which meant that Sakura had chosen the right decision on coming to her aid.

"Alright, leave it to me." Sakura began to work her magic.

With both Mai and Sakura working on all of these patients, it was faster and a lot easier than when it was only one person.  Though if this had happened a few months ago, Sakura wouldn't have been able to admit that it was mostly because of Mai that these patients survived that awful attack.  She had the stamina of ten men when it came to her position as a medical-nin which would astound Sakura at some points, though in Mai's own medical condition she shouldn't be putting herself in this kind of situation much longer.

Sakura was bandaging her last patient when she spoke to the white haired woman beside her, "How are you doing since you found out?"

Mai remained silent, causing Sakura to look over at her.  Her complexion had paled and her violet eyes lost their once radiant tint.  These signs were either because of her disease or her newfound condition.  "I...don't know how...to handle it." She choked out.

"Well, have you told anyone besides me?  I mean, I know why you told me first but don't you think you should have told someone more important?"

"I don't know how to tell him though, Sakura." She seemed frantic as she her breath began to pour out rapidly from her mouth.  "What if this happened between you and Sasuke?  How would he handle it?"

That was a hard question to answer for Sakura.  Her new relationship with Sasuke was a bit strange and the most they'd do would kiss but in private.  Sometimes she'd sense that he'd want more from her, but every time that she'd make up her mind about the topic, he wouldn't seem interested.  He was definitely still bothered by something and though she was trying to give him some space, she was a bit anxious to find out what was on his mind.  But this wasn't about her.  This time she was talking to Mai about her friend's problems and not hers so she had be as supportive as possible.

"I don't know how Sasuke would handle it, but I do know how Ziom would handle it." She replied, trying to get Sasuke out of her mind for now.

"Oh really...and how do you think he'd handle it?" Mai asked with her arms across her chest.

Sakura was finished with the man's bandages and walked over to the sink to wash off.  She was trying to think of something to say when someone had entered the room.

"Shikamaru?" Mai sounded surprise as her recent agitation seemed to have vanished.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but..." He started.

"But there's going to be more people coming in." Sakura finished for him.

He simply closed his eyes and sighed.  "Yeah, but luckily it won't be as many as the last bunch.  Hokage-sama told me that you four could return home to get rest, but if you wanted to stay and help that would be appreciated."

"Thanks, Shikamaru." Mai smiled.

"Yeah, well, whatever..." He turned around to leave.

Sakura leaned in toward her friend and whispered, "You should tell him.  Maybe he'll give you the reaction you want."

Mai looked nervous and scared but sighed.  She couldn't argue against her friend's judgment, so she mustered all of the courage that she had and walked over to the shinobi.  "Um, Shikamaru...?  Can I tell you something?"

He turned around at his name, and since it was Mai who had spoken, he remained in place as he awaited for whatever she had to say.

She didn't have the courage to say it aloud so she tried to reach his ear on her tip-toes, but seeing her struggle, he had to bend down for her to reach.  As she was whispering what she had to say, Sakura noticed how wide his eyes were.  She'd never seen them get that wide unless he was either truly bothersome by the mission he was assigned or there was immediate danger attacking what he treasured most.  This look of his was not a good sign.

Mai looked at him after she was done speaking and caught the last glimpse of his look before he tried to hide his surprise.  She bit her lip and clenched her hands together.  "Well?"

Shikamaru gave a lazy sigh before speaking, his composure regained, "Well, I'd tell him.  This is not a matter I'd keep to myself if I was in your position." He told her.

"I thought you'd say that." She mumbled.

"See, Mai, even Shikamaru agrees with me that you should tell him.  You two have been together since you've been here, and I don't think something like this is going to tear you apart." Sakura reassured her.

"Thank you, Sakura...Shikamaru.  I think I'll do that." She gave a faint smile.  "But before I do, Shikamaru, could I take a look at the Nara encyclopedia again?  I thought I saw something yesterday, but you had to leave early." Mai asked.

He rolled his eyes but didn't refuse.  She waved goodbye before leaving with the young Nara head.  Because Mai was new to the village, she wasn't allowed to all of the best medical books yet but as long as she had someone from the Nara clan with her she was allowed to read their family encyclopedia which contained many herbal remedies and cures.  Mai was on a major breakthrough lately with the cure of her clan's disease, Ketsueki Doku, so whenever she could she was reading that book.

Sakura felt completely exhausted, though she knew there were more people to treat.  She decided that taking five minutes to sit wouldn't hurt, so she did just that.  Today had gone like it normally did without any hint of a disaster like this, but that's how it was sometimes.  In fact, it was because of days like this that reminded her of how human she was.  It had been a long time since a disaster like this had happened and as the memories started to pour in, her five minute rest had turned into a three hour nap.

"Sakura...Sakura..." A soft voice whispered to her.

She awoke suddenly, her dream a blur of colors and various voices.  "Who...?" She began as her eyes adjusted to the light of the room.

"Are you awake?"

Her heart had dropped a small bit as she realized it wasn't the person she'd hoped it'd be, but in any case she was still happy to see this person.  Yuki was leaning over her—her auburn hair strewn out of her bun from the crazy day and her jade green eyes were a bit duller than usual, most likely caused from fatigue.  There was blood splattered on her once white clothes and a few bruises could be seen along her arms and even on her cheeks.  She was the essence of tired.

Sakura simply nodded as she stretched her aching body.  "Thanks for waking me up.  I'm sorry I left you alone with no help."

"It's fine.  Shizune-sensei and Hokage-sama came to help out and we just finished with the last patient.  Now they're night shift's problem." She smiled but it was clear that the action was too much for her.

"I'm glad to hear that.  I guess I'll go home then." She gave one last stretch before getting back on her feet.  A stinging pain struck her as she nearly fell back down in the chair, but it numbed down the longer she remained on her feet.

"You alright?" Yuki asked, concern coating her tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine.  Guess I overdid myself today." She tried to laugh it off but she knew she had to get off her feet for them to work in the morning.  "Good night, Yuki-chan."

"Night."

After changing out of her nurse's outfit, Sakura left the hospital feeling a bit refreshed and relieved.  She had done her job to the best of her abilities today, but there were still casualties which left a heavy burden on her heart.  One patient's death was especially hard on her as it filled her mind now.  A woman about her age had been hit hard during the explosion.  She was alive when she entered the hospital and she was about eight months pregnant.  A large piece of timber had struck her in her stomach, she was losing the baby fast, and the only thing the woman was saying was, "Save my child!"

After an hour of surgery, Sakura and Ino were able to save the baby.  It was a healthy baby boy with no damage from explosion, and she remembered the look of love and relief on the mother's face.  She had named her son Ace and cried as the boy lay in her arms.  As soon as she had her new son in her arms, the mother died of blood loss and massive internal injuries.

Sakura stopped walking to lean against a nearby building.  The memory from today was too powerful to drive away and it was so saddening she was being brought to tears all over again.  That poor boy would now grow up without a mother and possibly a father since no one had claimed to have been with the unnamed mother.  She sank down to the ground and held her knees close to herself.

"Sakura?"

She immediately snapped her head up to see a familiar figure standing over her.  She also tried to wipe away her tears so that Sasuke wouldn't see her crying, but it was all in vain since he simply grabbed her wrist.  He pulled her to her feet and she snagged him in a tight embrace.  Even though she knew he didn't like the public display of affection, she didn't care at this point.  Her sorrow was too great to be overcome by herself and she needed to feel his strength in his hold now more than ever.

He didn't say anything as he let her cry.  He patted her hair and after the tears had stopped and became slow silent sobs, he pulled her away from him to see her more clearly.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, another sob starting to form in her throat.

He sighed and placed his hand under her chin to bring her eyes to meet his.  Before he said anything, he stared deeply into her eyes.  It was like he was trying to read her thoughts to assess the problem.  "You were late coming home, so I went to the hospital." He told her, though she felt the sense he was trying to hide his emotions from her again.

"You were...worried about me?" She blinked back tears and the sobbing sensation stopped.

He remained silent, not wanting to admit the emotion.

"You were worried about me." A light smile came to her face.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and stretched up on her toes to meet his face.  Pressing her lips to his, she caused him a brief period of surprise as he understood what was happening.

He quickly took control of the situation as he placed his hands on her hips and lifted her in the air, allowing for her slim legs to latch around his waist.  He then held her with one arm while the other trailed up her spine for his hand to soon rest behind her head.  Sasuke could also feel that she was more passionate in this kiss than usual as she started to bite his lip, causing small droplets of blood to trickle back into his mouth and stain her taste of rustic metal.  She also took in gasps of air every thirty seconds or so as her chest rose up and down heavily.  He could sense her erratic behavior in every slight movement she made, which caused him to worry about her—though he'd never admit it.

"Sas...uke..." She panted.

His breathing had matched hers as their chests bounced off of each other with each gasp of air.  Sasuke slowly released his grip on her and started to bring her back down to her feet, though her arms never left their death grip around his neck.  She stared up at him and he stared down at her.  He took noticed that her eyes had something within them that caught his interest and curiosity.

"Sasuke...come home with me." She whispered, though they were the only people in the street and most likely awake.

He was expecting something else but this had potential as well.  He touched his forehead to hers so that he could let a tiny smirk spread across his face for only her eyes to see.  "What about Mai?" He asked, though he had his suspicions that she wasn't even a factor.

"She's not coming home tonight, so there's no problem." She imitated his tone.

"You sure about this?"

"I'm inviting you.  Does that answer your ques—?"

He pressed his lips to hers to shut her up.  Though he couldn't use ninjutsu anymore that didn't mean he wasn't still skilled with his physical abilities.  While he distracted her with his kiss, he managed to scoop her up bridal style and was already running on top of the roofs in the village at top speed.  The more he ran the more he could feel her smile against his lips.

As he continued to run on the rooftops, she moved her lips away from his for just a few seconds to whisper in his ear, "I love you, Sasuke."

He'd heard her say this many times before but for a strange reason—to him—this time hearing it aloud felt different.  Though he didn't say anything in return, she didn't mind.  It had felt like weight had been released from her chest, so she was fine for now if he didn't return the feelings, though she knew that he really cared for her deep down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shikamaru had offered to walk her home since she was carrying many medical books, notes, and ingredients but she declined his offer.  It wasn't much of a load and he was most likely offering his help because of her current condition.  She didn't want any special treatment because of her situation which must've been her stubbornness coming out of her.

"There you are Mai," a very familiar sounded from behind her.

She turned around at the sound of her name, but because of the pile of stuff she was carrying, she couldn't see anyway.  "Who's there?  I can't see."

"Now how can you forget my voice that easily?" He was definitely who she thought he was.

Ziom took the top layer of the things she was carrying so that she could see over her pile of stuff.  His hair was as dark as the night sky, but his eyes were the strangest color she'd ever seen.  She knew of his clan's ability but never had she encountered the color burning in his eyes tonight.  They were a bright radiant shade of pink, like gemstones, and the smile he wore only enhanced their sparkle.

"Hey, Ziom, what does the color pink mean to you?" She asked.

His smile quickly vanished and the longer they stood there, the more her arms started to hurt.  "I...uh, didn't tell you that?" He tried to hide something because his tone had risen a few octaves.

"No, but could you while we walk?  These things are kinda heavy." She grumbled as she started to walk.

"Here, let me get them." He offered, though his hands were already full of half of her stuff.

She had declined Shikamaru's help because he knew of her condition, but Ziom didn't.  Maybe she could get away with letting him take the weight before he found out and started offering his help because of the information that he would know.  She nodded and he took the weight off her hands, allowing her to walk beside him a lot easier.

"So, what does the color pink mean?" She asked, trying to bring up a conversation starter.

Ziom stopped walking and put the boxes of ingredients, the books, and Mai's notes down on the ground and walked right up to her.  He cupped the back of her neck and pulled her forward so that she didn't have time to think about what was happening.  After he took her by surprise, he pressed his lips to hers and completely silenced her.  Her shock was felt through the kiss but after she realized what he was doing, she had softened and started to return the affection.  The kiss was sweet and tender, almost gentle, and he was in complete control until he needed to breathe and released her from his hold.

"What...was that...for?" She panted, nearly breathless.  It wasn't as if they'd never kissed before.  In fact two months ago, Ziom had made the exact same move on her and that was that.

"The color pink can symbolize many things, but in my clan, it's the color of love." He told her.

Her head was still clouded from the surprise attack, so it took her a few seconds to put his words together.  "You're not saying..." She trailed off.

"Mai," he took an intake of breath, "I love you."

She was nearly overwhelmed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back down to her for a returning kiss.  This kiss was more deep and passionate than before but just as enjoyable.  She could taste the broth of ramen on his lips from his previous meal that he must've just had.  She could also smell metal from all those years working as a shinobi and the scent of pork from his ramen meal.  Everything about him was warm and inviting, and if she didn't have to breathe, she'd remain like this forever.

She was the first to release as her breathing was audible along with his.  Their gasps were the only sounds on the deserted street.  "I...love you...too, Ziom." She said between gasps.

He closed their gap again but this time it was only an embrace.  Easily, he picked her up into the air and carefully brought her back down, but she latched her legs around his waist instead.  She couldn't help but to let a small smile spread across her face as Ziom mocked her expression.  Mai also noticed that the tips of his hair was beginning to turn a faint pink in the moonlight.

"I have something else to tell you." She spoke softly again, hoping that he heard her.

He simply wrapped his arms around her waist and brought their bodies even closer together.  The patient glow in his eyes told her that he was listening.

"I'm pregnant."