Sakura has some thinking to do, poison to heal, and a sex genie to ignore!

As they sped through hardy scrubland and into the constantly shifting dunes of Wind Country proper, Sakura felt her thoughts racing even faster than her feet.

Naruto, kissing Anko so boldly... His strong hands gliding over the woman's curves...

Anko left with a vapid, silly, satisfied smile as her Master pulled away...

The sun shining on Naruto's hair, the toned muscles in his arms and shoulders, the thin band of tanned skin exposed as he stretched after their run.

The brilliant smile on his face when he first saw her after his training trip. The determination in his eyes when he heard about Gaara that morning.

He was so different from the annoying boy she knew, and there were so many things about him that hadn't changed at all. Before, almost all of Naruto's traits made her want to hit him, but now...

Sakura shook her head, growling with frustration, a cloud of sand exploding behind her as she sent too much chakra into her feet.

The trigger of her frustrations— and at least one half of the source —chuckled as she rushed to catch up with Sakura.

"Ryo for your thoughts?"

Sakura kept herself facing firmly forward.

"Am I meant to guess?" Far from being disappointed by Sakura refusing to respond, Anko simply smiled wider. "You know, of all the things I've taught him the last few days, I'd have to say Master's kissing is the most impressive. Did you know he wished to have a longer tongue just so he could give me pleasure~?"

Sakura nearly tripped while landing, the sand slipping from her feet in much same way she imagined a long tongue slipping over her lips. "Is it as long as— Nope! No, I am not asking that, I am not thinking that! I am ignoring you now."

Anko laughed and laughed, so much so that she lost concentration and had to slow down. Freeing Sakura from her irritating presence for several minutes in a row!

Except now, Sakura could think of nothing else but that time Sasuke and Naruto had accidentally kissed. It was an image that had brought teenaged her much frustration and envy, but now...

Sakura couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to see both her former teammates with long, dexterous tongues. Maybe they would turn and see her watching, then smile and beckon her to join in... Make a sandwich with Sakura-cream filling~!

The fantasy made Sakura skid to a stop so she could slap both her flaming cheeks to banish it forever. Of course, Anko could easily imagine why she had done that, and once again Sakura was followed by the genie's laughter.

Damnit Anko! This is too important a mission to be distracted! She raged in her mind, her cheeks stubbornly pink and a warm, squirmy feeling in her lower abdomen refusing to leave. The genie's words echoed in her mind, mixing with her own doubts. She was nineteen years old and a virgin, pining after a boy she hadn't seen in years after he'd betrayed the village.

Her memory of Sasuke was growing colder by the day, but Naruto was so very warm... What could it hurt to at least try things out? When Sasuke returns, he'll be even better by comparison! Magic Sex Genie or no!

She refused to think anything different. No way would Sasuke be worse than Naruto in anything like this!

It was a long few hours, for Sakura at least, but they made even more excellent time than expected!

As the sun touched the horizon and bathed the desert in orange and red, the two shinobi crested a final sand dune, coming into view of Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand.

Except, it wasn't very hidden at the moment. Smoke rose from several collapsed buildings, and workers swarmed the shattered walls of the village like agitated ants around an anthill. The Akatsuki hadn't been subtle with their ****.

It was sobering to Sakura, and — to her shame — somewhat cathartic to see the village that had helped Orochimaru **** Konoha years ago be damaged as well.

Anko was less ashamed of her schadenfreude, but even she didn't speak her thoughts. The civilian population had been hurt the worst, as it always was when ninja fought.

Together, Sakura and Anko pulsed their chakra in the standard pattern that meant 'friendly greeting'. Of course, that was dubious at best among paranoid ninja, but nothing better was available without some other way to message the suna shinobi.

Less than a minute later, three ninja leapt from the walls and dashed towards them, leaving behind no footprints or shifting sand that couldn't be attributed to the wind.

"Baki." Sakura greeted with a wary nod once the lead figure, a battle-weathered man with hard eyes, landed before her.

"The Hokage's apprentice." He responded coldly.

"And I'm Anko!" Anko struck a pose with arms flung to either side and sent her coat flapping dramatically, exposing her every luscious curve to whoever cared to glance in her general direction.

No one looked at her. Anko slumped into a pout.

Baki sniffed in disdain, eyes locked on Sakura. "State your purpose. We have no patience for tourists at this time."

Sakura continued as if nothing had happened. "I am here as part of a team sent to assist with the Akatsuki problem. We acquired intel that one of them was Sasori. I have with me an expert on poisons in addition to my own medical skills. The rest of my team is following the enemy's trail, along with Ambassador Temari, who we encountered at the border and insisted she join us."

Anko whistled silently, honestly impressed by the diplomatic speech Sakura came up with on the spot.

Even more impressive, Baki relaxed at hearing her words. Nothing a civilian or genin would notice as more than a miniscule softening of the man's expression, but to Sakura and Anko he might as well have sagged in relief crying tears of joy.

Out loud, Baki simply said. "Follow me. I'll escort you to the hospital."

Before she even entered the Suna Hospital, Sakura had to hold in a look of disgusted pity at the state of the facilities. The building was much too small to start with, barely a third the size of Konoha's main hospital. While Suna had a smaller population, it was still inadequate to Sakura's teachings, especially once she learned fully half of the hospital was dedicated solely to poisons, and civilian patients had to pay for all but the most vital treatment.

They seem to have a pair of nurses overseeing entire floors... How do they get anything done? She wondered as Baki opened the door to what appeared to be an archaic operating room. Kankuro lay **** on the central bed, surrounded by several medics and hooked up to an array of the museum pieces that passed for monitoring equipment.

The second her sandaled foot passed some invisible line, a diminutive old woman shot up from the center of the medic huddle and glared daggers at Baki.

"Boy!" The old woman barked. "What are you doing bringing people in here—" she took a double take at Sakura and Anko, her anger only rising as a trio of needles tipped with sickly green fluid appeared in her fist. "Foreign Shinobi? Did you fall and hit your head!?"

"Lady Chiyo." Baki began. "This is Sakura Haruno, the apprentice of Tsunade Senju and —"

Instead of calming Chiyo down, the introduction only served to light a fire in her eyes, her wrinkled face twisting into a snarl. "Oh? The Senju whore's apprentice is she?"

"Yes." Sakura gave the shallowest bow she could and still be mistaken for polite. "I have trained under Lady Tsunade for four years. I believe I have the expertise to assist with the poison Kankuro has been dosed with."

"Is that so?"

Things happened in a blur even to the eyes of those involved.

First, once she understood the glint in Chiyo's eyes, Sakura began circulating her chakra faster to enhance herself, specifically the toughness of her skin and the efficiency of her liver and kidneys.

Second, Chiyo flicked her wrist, launching the three needles at Sakura's neck, chest, and inner thigh, targeting her heart and two major arteries.

Third, Anko slid forward with a wild grin, her left hand lashing out like a snake's. Not to strike with her own venom, not yet, but to pluck the needles from the air. She got the two aimed for Sakura's chest and thigh, but the third she had to catch with her tongue.

"Hmm! Deathwind cobra venom? Mixed with blightweed? Vicious and delicious!" The room froze in place, watching as Anko licked all three needles clean one after the other, slowly and sensually. "You got any more? The poisons Suna uses have this dry spiciness I can't find back home." She said with a pleased hum.

Chiyo began to make a horrid, dry hacking sound that slowly shifted into something Sakura would generously call a witch's cackle.

"Well!" The old woman declared after her bout of terrifying laughter, grinning at Anko like a favorite grandchild. "At least one of you might be useful." She beckoned with a hand as she turned back to Kankuro. "Come, come! The boy has maybe two days before the Sandstalker venom dissolves his cardiac muscles! We must work quickly."

"You got it, Granny!" Anko chirped.

Sakura and Baki exchanged a commiserating look for a moment while Chiyo and Anko pushed aside the medical team.

"I suppose I should help." Sakura said, pulling back her hair and sterilizing her hands up to the elbow with a glow of pale green chakra. "Make sure they actually cure him of the poison..."

Baki nodded. "I'll leave you to it." Then he vanished in a cloud of sand.

With a final breath to prepare herself, Sakura marched forward, barking orders. "Alright! I need everything you have on the toxin's effects , the patient's vitals, and the treatments you've administered." Her hands glowed with the diagnostic technique, waves of her chakra coursing through Kankuro's comatose body. She quickly located the worst of the poison, the ravaging of his body made that perfectly clear.

But this was something Sakura had spent years training under the best medic for. She was confident of her abilities and those of Chiyo and Anko. Kankuro would survive this. Sakura would make sure of that.

I'm doing my job, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei... Hope yours goes well too...