Although it was past noon when Sakura awoke the following day, she still felt a little disappointed by Kakashi's absence. The feeling did not last long though, as it was soon drowned out by the unpleasant sensation of each and every cell in her body starving. Other than that she still felt numb, though a faint, dull pain in her knees indicated that her senses were slowly returning. She rolled to her side to find a bowl of water waiting for her next to the bed, as well as a package of instant-nutriments, a pink line along the edges for the artificial strawberry-flavour.
After she had drunk, able to taste a little and longing for something real to eat – even though she knew she should stick with liquids as long as she could not feel her own tongue – she wondered if she should try to take a shower, but soon came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't do much good anyway, as she had nothing to change.
Her gaze wandered to the foot of the bed where, leaning against the wall, she spotted a pair of crutches.

First Sakura made her way to the bathroom, washed her face, rinsed her mouth and searched for some kind of comb or brush, and a hand-mirror. She found neither, but did not dare to look too deep into the drawers.
After that she hobbled back to Kakashi's bed, sat down and evaluated her own level of exhaustion.
She was still feeling fine, she decided, picked up two packs of strawberry-flavoured nutriments and headed for Rin's hidden room.
She was nervous. Not only because she wasn't completely sure if she really could afford to use the ridiculously small amount of chakra needed to un- and reseal the door. Rin was awake. And from Kakashi's behaviour last night Sakura assumed she had not taken her new life too well. Which was the exact reason why she, Sakura, had to look after her. Maybe meeting someone she did not know from her old life was exactly what she needed.

The moment she had opened the door Sakura stopped. On the edge of her bed sat Rin, her lips pressed together in a thin line while she removed all cables and tubes that were still attached to her.
"You shouldn't...", Sakura hesitantly said. Rin looked up, took in Sakura's knotted hair, her pale face, dark rings under her eyes, took in the pyjamas she was wearing and the crutches she leaned on.
"I think I know very well what I'm doing, thank you", she then said with a smile.
"Right...", Sakura hobbled to her bed and – not waiting for the other girl's invitation – sat down next to her.
"I'm Sakura", she stretched out one hand, which Rin took with a surprised look on her face.
"I'm sorry", she mumbled "I.. I thought you'd be older."
She told Sakura that she had learned from Katsuyu, whom she had dismissed a few hours ago, as the slugs skin had been getting dry, about Tsunade-sama's return, and about her new apprentice.
"It must have been wonderful to train under her guidance", Rin mused while Sakura started to pour pink powder into a glass of water.
"I don't know", she shrugged, then handed the glass to Rin, who looked at the milky-rose liquid suspiciously. "Instant nutriments", Sakura explained.
"Strawberry-flavoured", she added. "It still tastes horrible, but not as bad as unflavoured."
"She had planned", Rin said between sips "to teach me... before she...", she made one vague gesture.
"I could have -", she broke off, glass sill half full and clutched in her hands, broke into tears, allowed Sakura to wrap her arms around her.

"Do you think-", Rin asked, once she had calmed down, "Do you think I could stay somewhere else?"
"Why?", Sakura gave her best not to sound too curious.
"I... I can't-", Rin bit her lip to hold back the tears.
"I mean – it's like.. he broke up with me two weeks ago – and, and I thought, once we're both back we could, maybe we could work thing out... and now", there Rin lost her fight against the tears, "now he's probably married with kids!"
For a second Sakura tried to imagine this. It seemed very much unimaginable to her. Then she inwardly shook her head at her own thickness. It had been all too obvious.
"Well, you are officially a murder-suspect", Sakura said after a while "but I'm sure, if we disguise you sufficiently... I'll talk with Kakashi. I'm sure he will understand."