Naruto Shippuden Fan Fiction ❯ Healing a pained heart ❯ A change in scenery ( Chapter 1 )

One more day has elapsed. I did it again.

          Sakura and Ino met at Ino's garden to pick some flowers for a floral arrangement for a wedding ceremony. Sakura is happy to see her friend because it's a distraction from her daily emotional struggles. The girls pick the colors according to the bride's choices. Of course Ino was smart to recommend flowers that are easy to grow in this time of year, no extra effort needed in taking care of the flowers had they been a different species. While talking, Sakura's eye catches a 10 year old boy running from a younger girl following him with a bucket. Sakura smiles, but then she sees him bending to pass under the branch of the tree. He stumbles and a sharp tip pierces his eye . Sakura's hands start trembling and she can hear Ino in the distance: "If you don't like these, we can pick others. There's no need to ruin this bouquet."

          "Ha? Oh...yes, I am sorry. " She looks again and the boy was lying on the ground laughing with the girl. This isn't the first time her imagination runs wild. More often than never, Sakura finds herself strolling through the village looking at its inhabitants. Out of the blue, dark thoughts cross her mind: "I hope he breaks his spine.", "I hope he dies.", "I think she'll break her leg ". They got her terrified. Nothing like this has ever happened to her before. These thoughts can't be hers. Someone must have put her under genjutsu. Someone must be messing with her brain, right? Every time she shakes her head in disapproval to all this darkness, she shuts her eyes tight and tries to think of something else.

          Sakura kept in under control until now because nobody noticed anything different about her. Relief washed her face. Except there was 1 person who was closer to Sakura than anyone else, who noticed there's something off about her student. Whenever Lady Tsunade and Sakura go to the hospital together for their joined shift, Sakura always makes up excuses to stay behind or stop walking. " I didn't know they brought new books at the library.", "That roof looks like it needs some fixing.". Lady Tsunade eyes her, but doesn't speak her mind about it. She puts Shizune in charge of keeping an eye over Sakura.

          Sakura is operating. A few minutes before the surgery is over, beads of sweat cover her forehead and she has a severe headache. After she finishes healing, she washes her hands in the sink and notices the yellow color of her face. She comes out of the bathroom and into the surgery room again and pain sharp like a dagger stabs her abdomen. Her right hand presses hard against the aching part of her body in an attempt to relieve the pain. But this doesn't go unnoticed by Shizune who watches everything from the outside through the glass of the window. A few minutes later, Sakura moves slowly towards the exit. Once outside, she walks normally as if nothing has ever happened.

          Shizune follows Sakura for a whole week and notices how Sakura is apathetic, doesn't leave the house when it's not absolutely necessary, she lies on the floor rather than on the bed. Shizune often saw Sakura hugging her knees while sitting on the sofa, staring at the walls for hours. Lady Tsunade also notices how Sakura takes twice longer to finish the books she borrows for her shishou.

          Shizune reports to Lady Tsunade and they both decide it's best to act sooner rather than later because something serious is going on with Sakura.

          Later that night, Sakura goes home after her usual shift at the hospital when she hears squeals. A bearded man has Tonton's tail in his left hand. "Let's make him stake. I'm starving" said the man. Sakura couldn't let Lady Tsunade's favorite pet be eaten by some stranger, so she ran to stop this. "Wait!". She grabbed him by the wrist  just when the man was trying to stab the pig. When she wanted to snap his face in 2, Sakura felt a slight pain in the back of her neck and her vision turned black. The man transformed into Lady Tsunade, who carried Sakura over her shoulder back into the hospital. Shizune and Tsunade thoroughly checked Sakura and they both sighed. "What should we do?" asked Shizune. "Let her sleep for now and let me know when she wakes up." replied Tsunade. "Hai, wakarimashita." Shizune covered Sakura's belly with boswellia serrata tree compresses which she changed every couple of hours.

          Sakura woke up in the middle on the night, agitated and very tired, like she woke up every morning now. She felt something cold on her belly and the ceiling didn't look like hers from home. She touches her abdomen and scratches a bit, then brings her fingers to her face and sees then covered in green. She smells to herbs to try to identify them, but fails to recognize their type. Tonton wiggles in Shizune's lap, happy that Sakura is awake. Shizune woke up from her sleep and quickly tries to find her words to apologize for abducting Sakura. But Sakura rushes to speak first: "I am sorry, I think I worked too much yesterday. Please don't tell shishou that I fainted on the street." A shadow fell over Shizune's black eyes, half closing her eyelids. Tsunade appeared from behind the door, looking her worried. Sakura's eyes widened for a moment, then she felt ashamed and looked to her hands in her lap. "You should have told me. I could have helped you." said the blonde woman. "I didn't want to worry you for nothing. It's not serious, I can handle it. I am sorry I made you worry." said Sakura faking a smile. "Don't say that." said Shizune. " You won't feel any better if you stay here. Your body associates Konoha and all the people here with stress. You need a change in scenery. Go to a place with new people, away from here for a while, until you recover. Then be back and you will be the old you again. You know, it's not unusual for a girl your age to suffer from this disease. It's because of stress that you..." said Tsunade, but Sakura interrupted her "Please don't say more". Tsunade saw tears in Sakura's eyes and decided to let the matter go.  "Ok. You can rest here for the night, I won't let anyone know about this. Please think about what I told you. " Tsunade stroked her hair with a soft look in her eyes, like looking at her own child, and left the room followed by a very happy Tonton and Shizune running to get him.

          Sakura wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and looked to the side at the dust particles dancing in the moonlight. "Would it be that bad if I left? But where? What would I tell Ino? What if things only get worse?" Dark thoughts enveloped her mind again and she shook her head in disapproval. She laid on the bed on her stomach. This was the only sleeping position she could use because it was the least painful. She put her hand between her stomach and the bed for additional pressure on the inside wound and tried to go back to sleep. Sakura tried to heal it many times, but failed because the pain came from the brain. How can you heal a hurting heart?

          The next day, when Sakura woke up, she went straight to her shoshou's office. " I thought about what you told me last night and I am willing to try." "I see, what do you think about going to Suna? It's close to us and at least you know Gaara, Kankurou and Temari. No place can be any more different from Konoha than the desert. They will help you and you will help them. " said Lady Tsunade. "Wakarimashita. How long will I stay there?" "I talked to the Kazekage and he agreed to keep you there for a period of 3 months to a year, if you agree. But this isn't a vacation. You will work there, so you won't have time to think about...." " And what will Naruto and the others think I am doing?" Sakura interrupted Tsunade. " We will tell them you left on a mission.", which wasn't a lie. Sakura didn't seem very happy about this, but nothing ever made her happy lately. At least now, that somebody actually saw through her defense, she didn't have to hide anymore.

          In Suna, Temari noticed ever since the hawk brought the news about a request from Lady Hokage, Gaara was happier than usual. He was smiling more often, which was weird. She didn't see him other than with that serious look on his face. He even started wearing his red robes like his hair, instead of the dark blue and black he always wore. Of course, the robes were his uniform, but they could be black, dark blue, brown or red. Kankuro didn't notice anything, he was as clueless as ever, much to his sister's disappointment: "Ugh...men"