Tests of Heart

🌸 Chapter 2: Birthdays

Sakura smiled as she made her way down the hallways to the children's ward. The day was busy but she now had a small break. The hospital in Ame was fairly quiet, then again it normally was. Konoha hospital was crazy compared to how quiet Ame's was.

People of all kinds popped in and out seeing friends or families, getting out from their stay, or even coming in for various injuries. There was never a dull moment, but it was still oddly quiet. It was comforting in a way. It was a sense of peace in a life that kept pushing on and on. She was always traveling nowadays, from Ame to Konoha and even to Suna. She helped Ino with the business in Konoha, helped in training medics at Suna's hospital, and was the head of Ame's hospital.

Sakura sighed but still smiled brightly as she looked at her charts. Sure there was a lot on her plate, but she didn't take on more than she could handle. It was the busy days that Sakura was happy Deidara's girlfriend Momoko was her second in command. The girl could handle herself well and could take on any project that Sakura couldn't handle at the moment.

Suddenly Sakura was almost knocked into the ground. She caught herself and her assailant just in time, but that didn't save her things from being strewn across the floor. Sakura laughed as the teen erupted in apologies and helped pick up her papers and the flowers the girl dropped in her haste.

"Hello Leoko," Sakura greeted as she handed the fourteen year old the bouquet of blue roses.

Before the girl could get anything out her blonde haired teammate rounded the corner and yelled at her.

"You weren't watching where you were going again, right Leoko?" Doda asked as he grabbed a stray rose from the floor.

Leoko shuffled her feet and took the rose from him to add it to the other roses. Her cheeks were puffed out in displeasure as he nailed the situation on his first guess. Sakura just laughed and ruffled Leoko's hair.

"She's fine Doda," Sakura assured, "we're both fine. I promise."

She made a cross over her heart with her fingers as she smiled. The normally stiff-faced teen couldn't help but smile at her childish antics and nodded.

"Alright then," he said and grabbed Leoko's wrist. "I'll take your word for it sensei, but we need to get to room 313."

"Oh?" Sakura asked and looked at Leoko as she scoffed.

"Shouka hurt herself again..." she muttered out with a roll of her eyes.

Sakura's face lit up once again and she giggled. The blue roses clicked in her mind now. Roses were Shouka's favorite flowers and blue was her favorite color. "I'll join you then!"

Doda shrugged his shoulders. Being only fifteen, he was oddly about as tall as Sakura herself, though she wasn't the tallest girl around. Leoko was still small for fourteen but Shouka was tall. The girl was well on her way to being as tall as Kakuzu, maybe as tall as Kisame one day. Sakura couldn't help but smile at that. To think one of Kisame's students could be about as tall as the man himself.

They passed many doors before they all made it to the teen's room. There she was with her left leg in a cast, hands on the floor and right foot on the bed doing elevated push ups. Sakura couldn't help but laugh and think of Rock Lee in Konoha. The two would get along with how well they handle bedrest.

Immediately Shouka slipped and fell on her face hearing the laugh. Leoko hurried to the girl's side as Doda shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a feeling she would do something like it, but he still couldn't believe it.

"Bored Shouka?" Sakura asked as Leoko helped Shouka into a position to sit comfortably on the floor.

She gave a slight chuckle and scratched the back of her head with a sheepish grin. Reminds me of Naruto, Sakura thought to herself.