Hey guys! I'm not sure if any original readers of this story are still around, but if so, good on you! And sorry for the hiatus. I'm editing the story and will continue the chapters, so I will be able to post new chapters soon.

The young doctor looked over at the raven-haired man sitting in the examination room, waiting for someone to tend to his wounds. She looked down at the file in her hands—the one he had filled out when he arrived earlier—noting that his injuries were caused from a fist fight. Sakura shook her head. She didn't understand men and their need to hash things out with their fists. Didn't they realize how dangerous fighting was?

The pink haired doctor opened the door of the examination room, her heels clacking on the ground. Her patient glanced up from his place on the table, his features a mask of indifference, undeterred by the wounds marring his face. Despite her need for professionalism, her breath hitched in her throat at the sight of him—and not just because of the cuts and bruises on his face. He was beautiful. His dark eyes felt as if they could penetrate right into her soul and the piercing at his eyebrow gave him an unobtainable feel. His whole presence felt dark and mysterious, and Sakura knew right away this was the kind of person that parents warn their little girls about.

Taking a deep breath—and hoping the man in front of her hadn't noticed her staring—Sakura started forward towards her patient. She looked down at the clipboard in her hand, resuming her I'm a professional here and I am completely unruffled by your handsomeness countenance. She glanced once more at the name on the clipboard. "Sasuke, it says here that you got into a brawl with two other men at a bar earlier this evening." She stated, bringing her eyes up to meet his again. Her gaze landed on his split lip before she moved her eyes to examine the bruise around his eye. "Looks like they did a number on you." She observed.

"Hn, you should see the other guys." He replied, his pierced eyebrow quirking at the pinkette.

Sakura rolled her eyes in response to his words. She walked over to the cabinet to retrieve some alcohol wipes to clean around the broken lip and assess if anything more needed to be done. After retrieving the items needed, she returned to his side and stood in front of him, bending over slightly to get a closer look. The young doctor carefully cleaned the cut on his lip, taking care not to apply too much pressure.

"The cut doesn't look too bad now that it's cleaned up." She observed thankfully, her eyes lifting to look at her patient.

Sasuke's eyes were preoccupied by the doctor's cleavage and Sakura had the sudden urge to slap him for his blatant staring. Instead, she pressed the alcohol wipe firmly against his swollen lip, causing the raven-haired man to wince with surprise, his eyes lifting to meet hers.

"Ouch," he said with a glare.

"That'll teach you to stare at a woman's assets without permission." Sakura replied haughtily. She leant back and, satisfied that the patient didn't need any more tending to, turned to throw the wipe in the bin.

"Not that you have much to stare at." He countered.

It was all Sakura could do from turning around and stabbing him with the biggest needle she kept in the room, despite her sudden desire to. Instead, she turned slowly to face him, her face set in stone as she stared at her patient with sudden loathing. "Excuse me?" She asked, her voice low but dangerous as she glared hotly at the man in front of her.

She was about to take a menacing step forward when she noticed the blood growing on his shirt, just below his ribs. "You're bleeding!" She stated, all thoughts of anger fleeing her mind as she once again looked at him as a patient.

"It's nothing." He answered and stood up to leave, suddenly done with this check-up.

"It's not 'nothing'." Sakura responded, walking forward to put her hand on his shoulder and push him back onto the examination table. "The blood stain on your shirt is growing by the second. Let me see."

When Sasuke realized he wouldn't be able to escape, he sent the doctor a glare. "I told you it's nothing. I'm fine."

"You aren't going anywhere until you lift your shirt. I'm taking a look at what's under there, whether you like it or not."

This time, a growl accompanied his glare, but Sasuke finally complied and lifted his shirt over his head, baring his—very well developed, Sakura admitted to herself—torso to her.

"You've been stabbed?" Sakura asked incredulously. "And you didn't think to inform me of this?"

"No, because it's not important. I've already cleaned it up." He snapped.

"Well, congratulations. Your patch up job was so bad that you would have eventually passed out from blood loss if I hadn't noticed." Sakura replied.

After peeling off the horrible attempt of a bandage, Sakura went back to the desk to retrieve some more alcohol wipes. "You're an idiot. You know that, right?" She said as she started cleaning up around the wound. When he didn't answer her, she lifted her eyes to his face, a frown on her lips. "Why would you come to the hospital for a split lip but fail to mention a stab wound? I would think that's much more important. Especially since it needs stitches!" She added once she had cleaned up the wound, taking note of the gaping hole in his stomach.

"Hn," was his only reply. After a few minutes of silence in which the pinkette didn't think he was going to say any more, he finally added, "If I told you, I would have to fill out a report. I didn't want the hassle."

The words caused a storm within the young doctor and Sakura levelled a scathing glare at her patient. "You didn't want the hassle? You could have died! Oh, but who cares about that? Better not tell the doctor about my near-death experience because I don't want to be hassled into writing a statement." Sakura was beyond mad and she didn't even realize why. Who cared if this idiot wanted to get himself stabbed and keep quiet about it? He wasn't hurting anyone except himself.

Unless...

"How are the other two guys?" Sakura asked almost hesitantly. "The ones you fought with. Are they...? You didn't?" Sakura was unable to finish her sentence, her voice suddenly failing her at the thought that he might have really hurt them. Or worse...

Her raven-haired patient rolled his eyes at her worried face. "I didn't kill them, if that's what you were trying to ask." He stated coldly.

Sakura's cheeks turned a bright shade of pink at his accusation. "N-no, that's not what I meant." She said defensively, although the thought had, in fact, crossed her mind. "I was just wondering if the other two guys were even worse off than you."

Sasuke snorted humourlessly but she refused to look at his face again, instead concentrating on closing his wound up with her neat stitching skills. "I doubt it." He said. "They were the ones with the knife. It was an ambush, after all."

This story just keeps on getting better. Sakura thought to herself with a shake of her head. "Look," she said aloud, her hands never stopping from their diligent stitch work. "I really don't want to hear more of this incident. Although I would suggest you write a statement about it, especially if you were the victim." She swore she could hear his eye roll and she couldn't help but roll her own in response. "I know I can't make you write one, but I'd strongly recommend it. Those guys should be punished for their actions."

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders, looking unfazed by her concern. "It's nothing I can't handle." It wasn't a boast, just a simple statement of facts.

Sakura finally stepped back from her patient, having finished stitching his wound and applying a dressing over the top of it. Her green eyes met his onyx ones and she placed her hands on her hips, giving her patient a stern look. "As long as that 'handling' doesn't include violence." She stated. The start of a smirk pulled at Sasuke's lips and Sakura once again felt the desire to roll her eyes. What was it with bad boys that thought they were the toughest person around?

Turning around, Sakura once again walked over to her desk and pulled a drawer open, grabbing more bandages for the wound. "Here," she said, holding out her hand to give them to him. "You'll have to change your dressing every day to make sure it doesn't get infected. And I want you to come back here in two weeks so that I can take the stitches out and make sure everything is okay." She shot the raven-haired man another stern look so he knew she was deadly serious. "I don't care if you don't feel like coming, I want to see you here to make sure you're healing fine."

Sasuke took the offered bandages with barely a nod in her direction. After throwing his bloodied shirt back over his bare chest, he left the room with a barely audible "see ya."

Sakura was so caught up in her anger that the raven-haired man didn't even say 'thank you' that she almost missed the helmet and leather jacket he retrieved from the floor before he exited the room. When she did though, she found that she wasn't at all surprised. Of course he rides a motorbike. She thought to herself. What kind of bad boy doesn't?

A knock at the door surprised Sakura out of her musings and she glanced up to see her close friend and work colleague, Ino Yamanaka, standing in the doorway. The blonde's long hair was thrown up into a professional bun so it wouldn't interfere with her rounds and Sakura wondered how her friend could make wearing scrubs look stylish. Ino threw her thumb over her shoulder and stared at the pinkette, her eyes wide with appreciation. "Who was that hottie?"

"Forget it Ino. You are way too good for a jerk like that." She replied, though a smile graced her lips at her friend's words. "That being said," she added. "Remind me never to fall for a bad boy."

The two doctors began making their way to the hospital's cafeteria for a quick lunch break. Ino laughed at her pink haired friend. "But you know the bad boys are the most fun." She grinned wickedly. "If I wasn't currently tied down, I would be all over that hunky piece of deliciousness."

Sakura snorted a laugh. "Seriously? I honestly don't think I could see you apart from your new man. You adore him."

"Yeah, I suppose I do." The blonde doctor replied, sighing happily at the thought of her boyfriend. "He's weird as hell though, I'll tell you that. I mean, his best friend is a dog for crying out loud! How ridiculous is that?"

"I think it's kind of cute, actually." Sakura replied with a shrug, an easy smile on her lips. "You're just jealous that he spends more time with his dog then he does with you."

Ino groaned at the thought, knowing it was the truth. "I just wish he would show me even half of the affection he gives to Akamaru."

Sakura patted her blonde friend on the back comfortingly. "Men are stupid, that's for sure." She said. "How about after work tonight we go out and get a couple of drinks? Or you can come over to my place and we can watch a movie."

Ino smiled at her. "Actually, after tonight I think I'll definitely be in need of a drink or two." Ino suddenly snapped her fingers, her eyes lighting up as an idea came to her. "Kiba's friend Kankuro is throwing a party tonight. We can always go hang out there for a few hours to unwind."

Sakura's eyes closed blissfully in anticipation. "That sounds great. I just wish we didn't have to get up early for work in the morning so we could really let loose and have fun."

Ino raised an impressed eyebrow at her long-time friend. "Wow, this is new. Since when did you become the wild one?"

"Since you decided to settle down with your dog loving cowboy." Sakura replied with a cheeky grin.

The two women reached the cafeteria and stood in line to get their food. After picking a table to sit down at, the pair sat back with their coffee's, glad to finally be off their feet. It wasn't long before they were laughing together, their boy troubles gladly forgotten for the time being as they excitedly discussed what they would wear to the party that evening.

For any new readers, welcome and thank you. I will be editing the next chapters soon, and then will start on the new chapters. Stay tuned. :3