Dreams of the Past

Separated but not Alone

Chapter 24

Separated but not Alone

Tenzō had taken almost an hour to settle after Kakashi left. He kept looking towards the door and whining for him. Eventually he fell back asleep in Sakura's arms after breakfast, and after a nap, spent the rest of the morning attached to her.

Leaving him with Ume so she could go to the hospital would have been a disaster if Kakashi-kun and Kusa hadn't been there too. He cried, clung to her, definitely said 'Mama' and had to be pried off of her by her grandmother. Kakashi-kun had taken him and they'd sat in the living room with Kusa and by the time she walked out the door he had stopped crying.

Now she stood in front of the hospital. The old hospital. When Pein had attacked, she had essentially been put in charge at fifteen. She had years more experience, now. She had kept Naruto alive by manually pumping his heart with her hand in his chest. Sakura was the protege of the Sannin Senju Tsunade and the best hope this hospital had.

Hopefully the director wouldn't try and get in her way.

Head held high, she strode through the front door.

Director Ryoshi, it turned out, was a woman. An older woman, around sixty. Ryoshi Asamida took one look at Sakura, nodded to herself, and herded her out of her office and down the hall to major surgery.

"If you disappear on me before this war's over I might kill you, girl. Tsunade has some damn nerve. We've lost four shinobi since she left, and a young Kunoichi just yesterday that she could have saved. I don't have anyone else anywhere near her skill." She side eyed her as they walked. "Hiruzen tells me Tsunade said you're as good as she is."

"At least."

She nodded sharply, clearly pleased. "He also tells me I only get you four days a week because you have two little ones at home that your husband thinks need you more than I do." She huffed. "I never had any myself because I always knew that was true. So I'm not going to waste any time I have with you. I've got someone in surgery right now, and I don't think my best will be up to it."

She had not expected to start working so suddenly. It had been ten months since she'd done any serious healing.

This is fine. I can handle this!

"What can you tell me?"

The older woman looked down at her clipboard. "How are you with poisons?"

Sakura, grinned.

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Sinking into the nearest chair, holding her hand out for the cup of coffee someone was handing her, Sakura sighed. She was exhausted but she felt so satisfied. She had saved a man's life. Some kind of poison jutsu that no one had ever seen before had been slowly destroying his internal organs. After analyzing the poison, she had formulated an antidote and then been able to regenerate the degraded tissue.

"Alright, I am impressed, Hatake Ayame. You can expect what I was paying Tsunade. I would like to have you scheduled for three days, and on call for emergencies the rest of the week. It will probably average out to thirty hours unless we have a particularly bad week. Would that be acceptable?"

Sakura nodded. "Of course, Ryoshi-sama."

The Director let her graying hair down, running her fingers through it. "Excellent. Go home to your children. I'll see you the day after tomorrow at seven. I'll send my summons to you if you're needed before then." Her tired blue eyes took Sakura in. "I'm thankful you're here, Hatake-san."