With Time

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Maybe she'll ask another time. But Sakura strictly reminded herself that there wasn't going to be another time. This was going to be their first and last encounter. And deep inside, she wondered if she really wanted it to be like that.

*

Chapter One: Travels

The peak of winter was just approaching as snow showered upon the earth in heavy blankets. The wind had a biting sting to it and the setting darkness provided an eerie mood for the forest upon which Haruno Sakura was traveling. Feeling her limbs tear at each leap she made, Sakura mentally cursed the weather and Tsunade for assigning her this task.

'She could've sent any other of her hundreds of assistant medics but she just had to choose me.' Sakura thought dryly. She was sure there were plenty of chunin ranks that would love to go and retrieve her medical supplies for her. She, herself, could've been on that ANBU mission with Naruto and Kakashi just about now. Muttering curses under her breath, she pushed the last few miles to the Cloud village. Passing the gates safely, Sakura located the herb shop that Tsunade was extremely picky for and entered.

She was instantly greeted by the scent of medicinal herbs and an old fragile man.

"Hello there Miss, what can I get for you?" His raspy voice held warmth and years of experience in it.

Smiling softly, Sakura held out her shishou's list.

"Um, these are the items that I need if it doesn't trouble you too much." Sakura smiled.

"Nonsense, I'll have them ready in just a few minutes."

The room was filled with hundreds of jars haphazardly strewn across various along with dusty old scrolls. Looking out the front window display, the snow seemed to fall even heavier if possible. Sakura was certain she would have to wait out the storm and spend her time in this village before making her way back to Konoha.

Paying for her supplies, Sakura quickly thanked the old man and exited the shop, hearing the tinkling bell as the door shut behind her. Aside from a few occasional civilians and shinobi, the streets were generally empty as the shops were beginning to close.

Walking towards the nearest inn, Sakura was already imagining a warm bath and snug bed awaiting her. But all of those thoughts vanished when a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Turning around, her eyes widened when she saw a man trudging limply through the cold snow. His clothes were extremely tattered and his body looked so mangled that Sakura flinched at the sight of him. He must be a shinobi. But who would he be up against that could deform him to such an extent?

Rushing to his aid immediately, Sakura jumped slightly in a startled manner when the man hissed under his breath at her touch.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to get you to a hospital." Sakura assured softly.

It seemed like the man was too exhausted and chakra depleted to even care. Knowing that he would die if he didn't receive immediate medical care, the pink-haired kunoichi rushed him to the village's medical center.

Upon entered the center, Sakura had absent mindedly given the other medics a flash of her authoritative badge that allowed her access to any hospital regardless of the situation. Afterwards, she had quickly set up a room and spent the next three hours healing the severely injured man. Once stabilizing his body, she glanced down at his dark brown hair and could've sworn it was light brown before allowing herself to be convinced it was just a trick of the light.

Closing the door softly, she had intended to locate maybe a nice soft chair and lay down until a voice rang out.

"Haruno Sakura!" Mentally groaning, Sakura put on a tired smile and turned around.

"Keiko! It's so nice to see you again."

Now don't get her wrong. She really loved Keiko and admired her for her skills, but after two days of nonstop traveling, all she wanted to do was sleep.

Making small conversation about the past years of their lives, Keiko brought up another task.

"Actually Sakura-san, my team has been trying to make an antidote for the past three months and we still haven't figured it out."

"Three months?" Sakura questioned with her face crinkled.

"Yes, it's for a patient that arrived her long time ago. It seems like the poison is slowly eating at his organs, but he disappeared a few weeks ago. A stubborn one, he is."

"…antidotes should only take one month at most to discover…and you said he just left?"

"Yes, he refused help from any of our doctors and refused to give us any information about himself."

For some reason, Sakura's mind jumped immediately to the patient that she had just helped.

'So that was the flickering chakra in his system.'

"Excuse me for a bit Keiko-san…." Sakura murmured, biting her lip.

Turning back around, mind already spinning, Sakura started down the long hallway.

"Ah…wait! Does that mean you'll help us!?" Keiko shouted to her from the end of the hall.

"Yea!" Sakura quickly returned before jogging up the stairs.

Flickering chakra throughout the body, missing internal weight, no chakra signature in parts of the body…

Thought trailing off, the medic nin reached her destination and swiftly entered, not bothering to open up the lights: the moonlight provided enough sight for her. Her patient, much to her relief, appeared to be sleeping soundly just as she had left him. Approaching to stand beside his bed, Sakura lit her hands with a soft green glow and began to scan the shinobi's body.

Through the short processing scan, Sakura was pulled out of her thoughts when a rough hand enclosed over her wrist painfully, making her intake a sharp gasp of breath. And then suddenly, she was staring into bright, blood red crimson eyes.

Uchiha.

On instincts, Sakura pushed away and landed in a crouch across the room, kunai out in defense. Eyes focusing, the kunoichi found Uchiha Itachi against the opposite wall of hers, shuriken in hand.

'Where the hell did he get that…' Sakura's eyes quickly darted to her holster on her thigh and glared back at the Uchiha when she found one slot empty.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, impressed but slightly scared at the speed of the shinobi even without chakra to aid him. They stared at each other in a tense position for what seemed like hours until one of them decided to break the silence.

"What are you doing kunoichi." The Uchiha demanded quietly. This further narrowed Sakura's eyes. Hadn't he caught a glimpse of her when he had stumbled into the village? But a sharp gust of wind quickly brought Sakura to remember she had been wearing heavy winter apparel for him to see her combat outfit.

"I was the one that healed you Uchiha." Sakura said in a low voice, relieved her voice had not wavered. Continuing to intense staring session, Sakura sighed and straightened.

"I'm not here for a fight, ok? I was just going to see what was wrong with you."

"There is nothing wrong with me." Itachi spoke in a low and dangerous voice.

"Right, so you were just born with chakra eaten organs?" Sakura noticed the w Itachi spoke in a low and dangerous voice.

"Right, so you were just born with chakra eaten organs?" Sakura noticed the way how the dangerous shinobi slightly bent over and how his breathing seemed a bit labored. If he hadn't been in his current condition, Sakura wouldn't have even though of saying a witty remark.

"That is none of your concern." How could he seem so calm? He was dying for kami's sake!

"Fine. Maybe it isn't, but I can tell you that if you don't get healed soon, you'll die." He noticed the slight stress in her voice on the last word.

Not knowing what was running through his head, Sakura bit her lip.

"How about you just let me heal you and we can both pretend like this encounter never even happened." Sakura re-sheathed her weapon but still tensed in a coiled position.

"You will be a traitor to your village for aiding a S-ranked missing shinobi." Sakura noticed how he didn't deny her offer.

Contemplating for a minute, the two stilled completely. The breeze sent through the window served as the only reminder that they were still in a breathing world. Echoing footsteps outside the dark room were calm and rythmetic, completely unaware of the danger less than 300 meters away. The moonlight provided merely a small portion of light, casting a slight shadow on their two figures.

Finally, Sakura came up with a legit reason. The only doubt was whether she was really doing it for a friend and not to soothe her own conscience.

"Sasuke…", Sakura struggled for the words, "Sasuke…has grown up his entire life with only one mindset. His only goal has even been to defeat you. He's worked his entire life around you and that one goal only. If he discovered that you had died from a disease…a sickness and that I could have done something about it…" Sakura didn't finish as she glanced up at him. His face was a perfect mask, completely devoid of all emotion.

"So you offer your skills for my brother." It was more of a statement than a question.

"…Yes." Sakura opened her mouth again before the Uchiha could.

"I'm sure that you've heard of my past…emotions towards Sasuke, but I was twelve at that time. I've moved on. I only offer what I am offering right now because I understand. If I was in his position, I'd be furious if I realized that my life's hard work was all for nothing."

The room had fallen silent once again as Sakura tried to look everywhere but at him. Everything seemed so small and cramped in the room suddenly. And thought the window was letting in a cool breeze, Sakura still felt slight warm and stuffy. It was only after she had mentally counted to eighty before Itachi spoke again, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Well. For her at least.

"I accept your offer kunoichi." Itachi had some difficulty saying the sentence, as if those words rarely passed his lips ever.

Sakura shifted slightly from foot to foot, mouth opening and closing as she fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

"Oh-ah, good…then we can start anytime, I guess." She motioned awkwardly towards the bed.

Watching the missing nin carefully (when did he ever not?) stride to the bed, her mind ran around in circles.

'This isn't betraying your village. It's helping Sasuke so he can finally kill this sick bastard-and when he does, he'll be a hero in our village.' Sakura desperately attempted to brainwash her own mind into thinking that.

Once returned to reality only to find the Uchiha speculating her, she flushed and cleared her throat.

"So, one of the doctors here was talking about a poisoned patient, and I think that's you."

Itachi merely returned her statement with a blank look.

Man can he make the smartest people feel like idiots.

"....And they've been working on the antidote for three months already. They don't seem to be familiar with poisons that much."

"Does this imply that you are not capable of healing my symptoms kunoichi?" Sakura's temper boiled at the Uchiha's calm gaze. Being the weakest link in her genin team back when she was young, skill level was a very sensitive subject to her.

"For you information Uchiha ", Sakura hissed furiously, "I have a name. Sa-ku-ra. I'm sure you've heard of me. And as the Godaime's apprentice for six years already, yea. I would say that I'm more than capable of healing a poisoned patient." Ending her angry rant, she clenched her fists, glaring at said-shinobi's forehead.

"Forgive my reckless speech Sakura, I am perfectly aware of your…standings in the shinobi world." Sakura could tell the hint of amusement masked in that smooth voice of his.

Glaring for a second longer, Sakura sighed and ran a hand tiredly through her tangled pink locks.

"Lucky for you, I brought some of the antidote with me from my village." Sakura mumbled, rummaging through her bag of medical supplies.

"And you just so happen to carry this type of antidote in your bag all the time?" This was the first he had spoken without provocation. It was either a question of amusement or suspicion. Glancing into those familiar crimson eyes, Sakura saw a flicker of plain curiosity.

"The mist shinobi specialize in these types of attacks. One of my comrades in another village had gotten inflicted with this poison and I had traveled to heal him just a few days ago."

"And the medics there can not heal him?"

"Sand shinobi aren't all that skilled in poison uses." Sakura knew Itachi wouldn't have asked such a question if he had known her comrade was from the Sand village. She was actually interested on who had inflicted his wounds in the first place. The shinobi that had injured Gaara was most likely the same person as Itachi's enemy.

Maybe she'll ask another time.

But Sakura strictly reminded herself that there wasn't going to be another time. This was going to be their first and last encounter.

Dripping a few droplets of the antidote into a small plastic cup, she held out the liquid as Itachi eyes it warily.

"It's just a bit bitter. Sooner you drink it, sooner I can start healing you." With that said, Itachi downed the cup's contents without a flinch. But the way he kept swallowing even after there was no longer any liquid in his mouth, Sakura had a slight guess that he was a candy type of guy.

The thought of that felt strange though, trying to think of this S-ranked shinobi as even close to being humane. Shaking the weird feeling away, Sakura's hands glowed a soft green before beginning the long process.

____

Sakura's bones ached everywhere in which she stretched. The four hour long healing session had taken a toll on the small kunoichi as she leaned back in her chair, rolling her neck in wide soothing circles. Halfway through when she had noticed Itachi's still attentive gaze on her, Sakura had murmured for him to go to sleep. When he had silently refused, Sakura had reasoned with him.

"I won't do anything to you. If I wanted to, I would have already done it." Sakura had said.

Going back to the present, the exhausted medic packed up all her supplies before curling onto the couch across the room from the bed in which a now sleeping Itachi lay.

Like every day, Sakura ran through her schedule of the completed day. Mission 1 and 2 successful. Oh, and in the process, healed Konoha's number one sought after missing nin. Splendid.

'Kami, what have I just done….' Sakura thought with a mental groan, lying on her side so she faced the infamous Uchiha.

After this healing session, she would have to keep constant checks on her patient to make sure he's stabilized. Once Itachi had fallen asleep, Sakura had healed the rest of his superficial injuries, including an eight-inch long gash through his collarbone to his opposite hip. Thank god Tsunade had given her a three week long infiltration mission. Already having completed the infiltration, Sakura's mentor had given her an extra two weeks to concoct the herbinal medicines outside of the village. The aroma would have overwhelmed the sensitive village patients, the Godaime had said.

The next hour was spent with uncomfortable turning while the medic's mind tried to soothe her irrational heart beat. Finally feeling somewhat content, Sakura fell asleep to the cool midnight breeze and the comforting sounds of footsteps padding here and there.

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There you have it! My first chapter to my first story submitted! I hope you all enjoyed reading this and please leave comments on what you think and anything to help me improve with the plot line! I'll desperatley try getting the next chapter out within a week, but until then!

3 chicken