Riding Waves

Interlude

Omake 1: Team Seven and Trauma

Two weeks have passed since the incident at the bridge. Zabuza and Haku were able to mostly recover and flee before the hunter nin got there thanks to Sarah. Team Seven was finally able to head back to Konoha once Tazuna completed the bridge, naming it 'The Great Team Seven Bridge'. Sarah thought the name was tacky, but Naruto seemed to enjoy it so she wasn't really going to say anything.

She did end up getting a verbal reprimand from Kakashi about her reckless actions and Hiruzen forced her to have mandated therapy sessions with Inoichi Yamanaka twice a week as well as 1,000 hours of community service and 25 D-ranked missions. Kakashi said that she was lucky to not have her rank stripped from her; Sarah really couldn't care less if she did as long as the village was once again at peace.

Naruto ended up dragging her to the hospital and the nurses there were horrified at how bad her arm was. Sarah just lied and said she was bitten by a snake on her mission and wasn't able to get any medical treatment. The nurses didn't believe her, so needless to say she was stuck in the hospital for three days under observation before getting released.

When Sarah did come back to her apartment she found that all of her stuff was gone, including her previous experiments. Kakashi appeared at her doorway and explained that the Hokage didn't trust her to live by herself so he offered to take her in. So now she lived in an apartment with her deadbeat pervy sensei and his weird ass animal summon, Pakkun.

Sarah moped for a while as she stared at her new surroundings. This was the consequences of her actions: no apartment, no experiments, mandated therapy that she doesn't even need, and community service on top of that. At least nobody died in the end, so that's a bonus...she guessed.

Naruto came flying into her room, dragging Sasuke by the neck with him.

"Sarah-chan! You're back from the hospital!" Naruto said as he let go of Sasuke.

Sarah grumbled, "Yeah but my apartment was taken from me by the Hokage along with my experiments."

Naruto grimaced, "Experiments?!?"

"Well that explains the markings on your arm," Sasuke pointed out.

"Eh, let's just say snakes can be quite venomous. Still, most of my experiments were relatively harmless..I guess? I mean..I couldn't exactly practice healing in a hospital at the time.." Sarah explained, choosing to leave out some unnecessary details.

"Harmless? Your whole arm is bandaged up! You spent three days in the hospital recovering from being poisoned!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That may have been the case, but I was able to create antidotes from it that we could use on future missions." Sarah pointed over towards a nearby bookshelf, "Not all of my stuff has been confiscated you know. I kept all of my research data in those books right there as well as antidotes to the poisons I was testing on myself."

"Still pretty reckless of you to willingly poison yourself," Sasuke said.

Sarah rolled her eyes, "I've already heard that lecture enough times these last couple of days."

"And you're probably going to hear it again for a while," Sasuke responded as he walked over towards her bookshelf, "So...you're interested in medicine?"

Sarah nodded.

"Yeah, Sarah-chan's the coolest when it comes to healing people. Didn't you hear what Kakashi-sensei said about her at the bridge? She's a talented medical ninja! Even more talented than those old hags at the hospital!" Naruto said.

"Now I wouldn't say that I was more talented than the staff at the hospital.." Sarah paused for a few seconds before continuing, "I'm just self-taught. I didn't exactly grow up here in the village like you two. I had to figure things out on my own: how to cook, how to clean, how to read, all that stuff..."