Labyrinth

~Uh oh, I'm falling in love~

Sakura Haruno was tired. A 56-hour shift at the Konoha Hospital was not easy— even for a world-renowned medic such as herself. Sakura had taken over the mantle of the head of the hospital two months ago, and she was still getting used to the workload. Tsunade had given her charge and then left the village for what she called "Tsunade Time", but in all actuality, she wanted to explore the nations and be free of her shackles. Sort of like when she was on the run from the village—but without the rougeness.

Sakura sighed and stepped into her office. She shut the door closed behind her before leaning back and sliding down to the ground. 

Geez. I'm so tired. She thought to herself. She was starting to daydream about her comfortable bed back at her home. She hadn't had a good rest in a while—only quick naps—but those weren't enough to satisfy her drowsiness. 

She grumbled and pulled herself back up. Walking to her desk, she spotted something that wasn't there in the morning—a coffee cup and a white paper bag.

Once at her table, she lifted up the cup, where she noticed a yellow sticky note attached to the cup.

"Eat up! - N

P.S: It tastes wayyy better when hot

P.P.S: N stands for Naruto"

She groggily giggled. As if she couldn't recognize Naruto's messy handwriting from a mile away. She smiled before taking a sip and sitting down. The taste of mocha assaulted her tongue as she looked around her office. It was neater than when she originally had seen it 20-something hours ago. She knew it had to be no one other than Naruto. After all, she didn't let anyone touch her office. She had a very strict setup and wanted everything to be in an exact place. Her discerning eye could instantly tell when something had been moved just an inch whenever she walked into a room and that simple inch would drive her crazy. That's why she didn't have any cleaners to help her out. It would drive Sakura ballistic.

But Naruto... He had known how she liked her things. He was there when Tsunade had given up her position, and in fact, as soon as Tsunade had left to pack for her trip, Naruto was the one helping her settle in.

She smiled quietly at the memory of Naruto and Sakura fighting over where the medical journals should be placed on the shelf, and her smile grew even bigger when she remembered how she had punched the shit out of him for suggesting a different setup.

What an Idiot

She rolled her eyes, huffing, before digging into the paper bag she had almost forgotten.

It was one of her usuals—two toasted Wanpaku sandwiches with onigiri balls on the side. 

The crispy toast felt like the warm hug she so desperately needed after a long day.

Naruto had always known what to get. Every morning, when she'd come to her office, there would always be food waiting for her. It all started when Naruto noticed her skipping meals in exchange for doing more work and had thrown a fit.

When she kept on forgetting to eat, he had made a promise to her to always feed her, and she guessed he took it pretty seriously. 

For the Seventh Hogake, he sure does have a lot of free time.

She cleaned up her mess, before getting out more patient files to make sure her patients were still stable after the surgeries— smiling as she got back to work.

She moaned before getting back to work.

✦~~~~~✦

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice rang out.

Sakura had stopped by the Hogake's office to drop off some medical paperwork about a diplomat from the Land of Waves who came for specific treatment. She smiled as she walked into his office and stood in front of him.

She took a moment to examine him.

Naruto had grown tremendously since they were kids. She could remember making fun of how he was shorter than her like it was yesterday, and yet, even while sitting down, one could tell just how tall his frame actually was. His hair had grown out— now the embodiment of the 4th Hogake. He beamed up at her from his chair before going on about his boring day.

"...And Shikamaru keeps pestering me to fill out the papers for the Weapons Shipments even though I complained and said I was tired." She took a seat on his desk, listening to his rambles and adding commentary when needed. 

"But Sakura-chan, ehh, what do you think I should do about this manuscript?" He asked, unrolling a document that had been on the bottom of his paper files that were sitting on the right side of his desk.

"Hmm, maybe...." She went on. They continued like this— Naruto asked for her input on certain topics and Sakura adding on and suggesting things.

Sakura was now leaning over Naruto, reading what the new file had said. It seemed like they were in their own little world— filled with documents, treaties, and mission reports— before a cough interrupted them.

"Naruto-Sama! You must not discuss such private matters with her!" His secretary warned.

They had both looked up at the intrusion. His Secretary, Sato-san had come in with a form requiring the Hogake's signature when he walked in on the scene.

Sakura stilled, worried that she had gotten him in trouble.

"Oh, I didn't mean to be a bother-"

He cut her off with a lecture. " What had she done to gain such an important honor such as assisting you? Such classified matters are reserved for only the highest trusted officials. Sakura looked down at the ground silently.

"Those such as—" He didn't get to continue.

"Whatttt" Naruto scoffed with a smile. "This is Sakura-Chan we're talking about! I trust her with my life. There's no one in the world that I trust more than her! And besides, haven't you seen how much she's contributed to the village? It wouldn't be standing without her!" He waved his secretary off." Give me the papers, and I'll have them signed by tonight. Kage's Honour!" He grinned, white teeth fully on display.

Sato-san sighed, knowing it was useless to get through to him when it came to Sakura and walked over to them to place the forms on his desk. Once he left, Naruto hmphed.

"Geez, They're so strict here! I'm the Hogake! It's my choice who sees what" He grumbled to himself, re-starting to read over files.

Sakura stood there frozen, unsure of what to do next.

Naruto— noticing how she hadn't made so much as a peep— looked over at her worriedly.

"Don't listen to him. I need your advice and opinion on this! You're the smartest person I know! You out of anyone deserve to be here." He gleamed at her. She stood in her place before nodding her head hesitantly and they both got back to his work.

Her focus didn't come back though. No, she couldn't put her undivided attention to what Naruto was saying. What her mind was concentrated on was willing her heart to stop doing summersaults.

✦~~~~~✦

Sakura's ears were ringing.

"YOU KILLED MY SON!"

Sakura was shaking at this point. Now it was inevitable. As a medic, there were of course going to be some casualties, but not like this one. His name was Shoto- a 5-year-old and he had been one of her patients since he was born. He was a sickly kid, but Sakura had practically seen him grow up. 

And Now he was dead.

"HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A MEDIC?!" His mother's voice rang. "YOU'RE A MURDERER! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!" She had her hands on both of Sakura's shoulders—shaking her relentlessly as she cried. Sakura had no words. No words of comfort. No words of relief. No words of anything.

She stood there shaking.

She had let him down.

She had let his whole family down.

They trusted her with his life and she—

She killed him.

Sakura was spiraling. Sato's mother's voice was nothing more than an echo to her and Sakura's breath moved faster. She could feel herself hyperventilating. She needed to breathe. She needed to stop.

Stop 

Stop Sakura.

SAKURA STO—

"HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING LADY?"

Sakura was brought back.

She felt herself being pulled out of her spiral and into a concave of warmth. Her face was pushed into a chest as arms wrapped around her— almost as if to shield her from the outside world.

She stilled.

"HOW DARE YOU?"

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO SAKURA? SHE'S THE BEST MEDIC THE NATIONS HAVE EVER SEEEN! IF SHE COULDN'T SAVE HIM, THEN NO ONE COULD HAVE!" Naruto's voice rang.

Naruto's voice was slightly muffled. She tried to pull away to face Shoto's mother. Her yells. Her cries. Her accusations. It's what she deserved anyway. But as she tried to move away, his arms only grew firmer.

Smooshing her back into her station within his arms— with her head directly on his chest, she listened to the vibrations of his shouting.

Two nurses soon rushed to the scene, escorting Shoto's mother to his room.

As the three grew farther away and the shouts grew fainter, Naruto let go of his tight embrace and pulled her arm in the direction of her office. Sakura's gaze stayed on the ground, counting the tiles one by one mentally as she walked— unable to focus on anything else.

Once in the safe haven that was her office, Naruto shut the door and turned to her with a hesitant look on his face— as if waiting. Sakura looked up from the ground. She finally made eye contact with him. His eyes were as blue as ever—searching into hers.

But she couldn't hold it anymore. The dam broke and Sakura let her tears rush loose.

"How could I do this?" She cried. Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she stared at her hands which were now shaking. "I'm a failure."

"What are you talking about Sakura-chan? Don't say those kinds of things" Naruto badgered, walking towards her worriedly.

"I killed him. That Sweet boy! Naruto, how could I do this?" She couldn't think of anything else. The image of Sato's still figure was all that replayed in her mind.

She was now incoherent— words all jumbled together being stringed together with hiccups and tears.

Naruto had tried to grab her arms to lift her up, but she wouldn't budge. How could she when she had just ruined a family? And not just any family, one that she had been with for five years.

He gave up, not wanting to pull too hard, and instead quietly sat down beside her.

His right hand came up behind her and patted her back— making her lean into him as she cried.

Sakura soon found herself back in his comforting presence as she cried. Now thinking about all the lives she had lost.

"Naruto... Maybe I'm truly just not a good medic. Maybe I should just quit-"

"Don't finish that sentence." His lowly voice came flowing through her ears. "Sakura please stop talking." The drop of honorific and serious tone was not left unheard.

"What are you-?" Sakura spoke up questioningly through her tears.

"How can I sit here and watch you pick apart the strongest person I know?" Naruto quietly finished. Sakura had no words, and while her tears did not cease, her cries did.

The two sat together in silence. Naruto— in a strange act of un-Naruto-ness— stayed silent. He waited until Sakura was no longer in tears. He watched her as he patted her back, willing her tears to cease.

As her tears grew fainter and fainter, the last thing she thought about was how he stayed by her side even though she knew for a fact he had more important things to do. What Hogake doesn't? And yet— here he was.

With her.

Her eyes slowly closed as sleep overcame her.

✦~~~~~✦

The Bar bell jingled as the door was slowly pushed open. It was a rare day for Sakura. It was one of her needed off days. Tsunade had made it a rule for Sakura to not exceed 80-hour work weeks and she was honoring that code—even if Tsunade wasn't around to berate her. She smiled as she spotted her friends.

"Sakura! Over here!" Ino's voice rang out. She walked closer to the girls and sat down. Ino, Tenten, Hinata, and her would meet up whenever all of them were free. It had been quite a while since they had their schedules lined up and Sakura was ecstatic to get a chance to catch up finally.

"Hey, girls!"

"Finally! It's been so long since we girls got to get together! We need to catch up, I've got something to tell you all!" Tenten excitedly said.

"Ooooo! Spill!" 

"So... You know how Neji and I had a mission to the Land of Waves last month?" She began.

The girls leaned in, waiting to see what had come out of it. They watched her excitedly— holding their breaths.

But instead of getting the intimate details they were expecting, TenTen raised her hand. Her left hand.

All eyes were instantly encaptured by the rock on her ring finger.

...

"WHATTTTTTT!!!"

"OH MY GOSH! NO WAY!"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!"

" GIVE ME AN UP CLOSE OF THAT ROCK!"

Shouts of joy and disbelief came from all of the girls. Sakura in particular stood in awe. Out of their little gang of girls, TenTen was the first out of them to get into an official relationship. Sure, Sakura had dated Sasuake. But only for about two weeks until he went for one of his "redemption trips" and she broke it off.

Looking back now, Sakura should have known it was never going to work. I mean, what idiot gets into a relationship with a guy who says that the only thing he's focused on is restoring his clan? Back then, Sakura had no problem with that—  being his wife and starting a family was something younger her fantasized about after all—  but after seeing all her friends get into such heartfelt relationships, her young dream was squashed with every piece of good news her friends brought her. 

Not that she wasn't happy for her friends, it's just that with Sasuke, it never felt like they were actually dating. It didn't even feel like they were close friends, to be honest. After being back in Konoha, he was way more closed off than he was when he left. When Sakura met him at the hospital after he and Naruto were admitted after their fight, after she confessed she still had feelings for him, he jumped at the opportunity to start dating. And that was weird, even for Sasuke.

She inwardly sighed just thinking of the awkwardness she started feeling when they were "together". It felt more like an act. They didn't do any of the couple things she saw in almost every other relationship. They didn't hold hands, show many public displays of affection, didn't cuddle, or spend much time alone— just the two of them.

How embarrassing. It's like he doesn't care about me.

She still remembers the tears streaming down her face as she begged Sasuke to just act like a normal boyfriend for once, and how he looked at her silently before announcing that he had to go on his trip. She couldn't take it anymore and broke it off hastily before turning around and running home. She didn't even see him off on his journey like Naruto and Kakashi did. She was pretty sure they didn't know what had transpired between them because an hour after his departure, Naruto had come over and asked if she was okay.

She inwardly sighed just thinking about her only real (and failed) relationship. 

As she lifted TenTen's hand to get a better look at the ring, she took a breath and asked a question. 

A question she'd thought she'd have an answer to at her current age. 

"How'd you know he was the one?"

The girls stopped ogling the ring and looked back at TenTen— intrigued as to how she was going to answer.

Tenten looked up for a split second before glancing down at her ring happily.

"Oh, Sakura. He was always the one." She giggled. "He's the one who's been with me all these years"

After her proclamation came a burst of cheers and laughter. They celebrated TenTen's engagement with sweets and lots and lots of shots.

It wasn't long before Tenten's boyf- Fiance came to get her. And after him- came the rest.

Kiba was the one who showed up next, picking up Hinata into a princess hold before bidding her and Ino goodbye. The two of them continued talking and drinking until Sai came to pick her up. It was after he lifted her up over his shoulder and turned to her before he asked.

"What about you Ugly? Are you going to stay here, or is anyone coming for you?" That stung. 

No, it wasn't the nickname. She had been Sai's teammate for years and she knew he didn't mean harm and even called him nicknames back— it was how they joked. No, it was the question he had asked after. Because no.

No one was coming for her.

She waved him off and plastered a smile on her face.

"You can take her back home, don't worry about me." He raised an eyebrow and shrugged, making sure his sleeping girlfriend was secure before waving goodbye.

Sakura sat at their booth for about 20 minutes. Well, she thinks. She lost count of the time after her 13th shot. As a medic-nin, her chakra could filter alcohol out of her blood and basically, it made her immune to being drunk. But, when she tried, she could temporarily turn that quirk off and this was just one of the days when she really needed to get drunk.

Leaning her head down on the table, she thought back to the words TenTen had spoken.

"He's the one who's been with me all these years" 

She sighed.

I wish. Why couldn't Sasuke just love me the way I loved him? 

Ugh, she was moping again. She thought she had gotten over these feelings, but just in typical Sasuke fashion, it just had to haunt her.

Black dots encompassed her vision, but at this point, Sakura just didn't care. She was in and out of focus, it felt as if every time she blinked and opened her eyes again, an hour seemed to have passed by.

She stopped counting her shots.

Just as she was about to take her 20th? 30th? 50th? shot, a hand grasped hers— stopping her flow of alcohol.

"HEy, WhAt ar Ya doi-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence when she was picked up. Now, this should have activated Sakura's fight or flight reflexes. She could have quickly sobered up by expelling the alcohol in her system and it's what she would have done if she sensed danger. But in a way she couldn't explain it, she felt oddly safe.

Snuggling into the somewhat familiar embrace, she didn't care who it was at the moment, and just let the drowsiness take her away.

✦~~~~~✦

Sakura slowly blinked her eyes opened. Moaning as the rays of light from her cracked window blinds hit her face— she covered her eyes with her arm. Her head was pounding and she knew this was an unfortunate side effect of the drinking and constant work of keeping the alcohol in her system long enough to feel the drunken effects. She groaned before sitting up, scratching her head in confusion.

How'd she even get home? As she rolled out of bed, she tried to remember the contents of last night. The last she remembered was she was taking shot after shot before someone had taken her drink.

But then what happened next? She wondered as she stepped outside of her bedroom door.

But that was when she saw it.

Or rather Him.

She stood in place; confusion being replaced with shock.

There stood Naruto Uzumaki— her apron on— in her kitchen.

He didn't notice her at first. No, he stood at the stove whistling. He was scrambling eggs and as she looked to her left, towards her dining table, there lay a tray of pancakes and her coffee mug.

She stood in silence, taking in the scene with no words.

He eventually looked up though, and smiled.

"G'd morning Sakura-chan!" He slid the pan off the fire and tilted it so the eggs would fall right onto a plate.

This snapped her out of her shocked stupor.

"What- what are you doing here?" She asked, walking forward.

He hummed as he turned the stove off, heading towards the dining table where the rest of the food was.

She hesitantly took a seat as Naruto removed the apron and sat down next to her.

"Heh, hope ya don't mind, but I slept over last night," Naruto said like it was the simplest thing in the world. "Itadakimasu." He smiled before digging in, immediately going for the syrup to drown his pancakes.

Sakura said nothing as she looked on at him in slight confusion, still trying to recall the events from last night.

In a blink of clarity, she hurriedly looked down.

She sighed in relief as she noticed she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday.

Naruto glanced up at her before answering her unspoken question.

"Last night, Sai told me that you were still at the bar after your friends left, so I came to get you."

"But- weren't you in the Hokage's office? And don't you have to be there today too?" She pressed.

He shoved another pancake into his mouth before answering.

"Well, yeah, but when Sai came to my office and told me you were alone, I couldn't just leave ya there Sakura-chan! And don't worry about today, I had Shikamaru cover me." He grinned.

"Well, don't you have really important things you still have to do? I remember the last time I was in your office! What about the treaty of the snow-"

"Come on! Nothing's more important than you Sakura-Chan!" 

The way with which he said it with such ease struck Sakura.

He glanced back up at her once he noticed he was the only one eating and once they made eye contact.

Sky Blue clashed with Vermillion Green, and he smiled.

He smiled his big wide gummy Naruto smiled and she didn't know how it happened or why it happened. She just knew that it did.

Uh oh.