Exams are killing me. Please send love.
Sakura Haruno
"What doesn't kill you will try again. "
"Sakura it's a spider," said Shikamaru in a deadpan having looked up from his light snooze at Sakura's shrill scream.
"You're point?" She hissed back at him. In her hand she held an elongated ruler and was trying to push a dark and rather hairy looking spider off her seat. She stood at the farthest end of the desk without falling back and continued to poke at the harmless insect.
"Um, c-can I?"
Sakura raised an eyebrow at Hinata, her expression still showing her displeasure of having combed out a spider from her hair. This seemed like a bad move though as the Hyuga heiress shrunk away. Sakura frowned, not understanding her reaction.
"If you wanna move it go for it," she said while forcing her features to relax. It looked like she may have by accident intimidated Hinata.
The short haired girl moved up to the spider and scooped it into her cupped hand before moving deftly to a window. She clasped open the window and let the insect scuttle away from her.
"I think I'm in love," whispered Sakura to Shikamaru rather loudly.
"Already forgetting Sasuke?" His muffled voice came from the crook of his arm as he lay his head on the desk.
Sakura shrugged her shoulders--her irritation from before coming back full force at the reminder that she can't be with the one she loves--and motioned for Hinata to come join herself and Shikamaru at their desk instead of sitting behind them. "We graduated early so I won't be seeing him around until after he graduates."
It was mid year and spring was upon them. As the trio sat fanning themselves and mildly cursing the tardiness of their sensei and Konoha's humid weather, Shikamaru decided to ask the question that was gnawing at the back of their minds.
"Why us?"
"We w-weren't the only ones though..." trailed off Hinata, referring back to the other team that had left with their sensei thirty four minutes ago.
Sakura clapped her hands once and stood. She squeezed past Hinata and made her way down to the front of the class. Both the Nara and Hyuga watched her intently as she picked up a piece of white chalk and began scribbling at the board.
"Okay so we graduate a semester before our class along with another team. It's mid year. They'll be doing their end of the year exams at the end of the school year as usual. They won't be sorted into their genin teams until after the summer holidays." Sakura stood back from the mess on the board which was a mix of words and diagrams. She turned to face them with her hands on her hips, an expectant look on her face. "So what does this mean then?"
Hinata raised her hand timidly before answering. "We w-were given a head start t-to our classmates." Her face burned red after what she said and everyone understood the implications behind her words.
"Or it's something else. Graduating a semester or even a whole year early isn't exactly unheard of. It happens." Even though Shikamaru was seen as lazying on the desk he was also worried. Shikamaru's words help diffuse the shame they had felt moments ago.
"Yeah, I think Shikamaru's right." And when Sakura nodded her head, it was more so to convince herself than anything else.
:and then:
They waited another fifteen minutes before Sakura's temper finally snapped.
"That's it. Heads are about to role."
She stood up and began to march towards the exist.
Shikamaru woke up, startled, while Hinata flinched. Both quickly followed her suit as she exited the class.
"You do know," he let out a jaw cracking yawn, "that we're supposed to wait for our sensei, right?"
"We're not running away. We're finding Iruka sensei".
Hinata's eyes widened. "Are...Are you going to...snitch?"
"Maybe. But that's not the main reason."
Sakura's face was still murderous when she stopped in her tracks. She rapped her knuckles on the door of the staff room and just as the door opened her teammates witnessed her pull a one eighty.
"Oh! Iruka sensei!" Shikamaru already knew that she probably had her eyes widened and face as innocent as a child's.
"Sakura?" He looked behind her and noticed Shikamaru and Hinata. "Has Kakashi still not come?" And even though this was said quietly, the children still heard it.
This was Shikamaru's turn to be surprised. 'She had planned this, hadn't she?' He then berated himself. She wasn't the top Kunoichi of her year for nothing, of course she had planned this. Just because she acted ridiculous at times should not mean anything.
"Ah, sensei, sorry for disturbing you but do you have any spare water bottles here? We've been waiting for an hour in the class and it's really really hot." Sakura wrung her hands in front of her and looked up at Iruka with pleading eyes.
A guilt stricken face was what Iruka showed before he hurried inside to fetch some water for them.
Hinata moved up to Sakura and tugged at her sleeve shyly. "That was very...smart"
Sakura looked at her in surprise. How was she able to see through that? She then looked back at Shikamaru and noticed that he supported a smirk. Both of them caught on to what she was doing? Immediately she pushed down on her worries. Of course. After all, Shikamaru was a genius, albeit a lazy one and Hinata did come second to her in all academic aspects and neither was the girl dull.
Not a second later, Iruka appeared with three water bottles and his most sincere apologies.
:and then:
"You could've just asked him who was are sensei, pretty sure he would've told you no problem."
"Why, cause I'm teacher's pet?"
"Yeah- I mean what no-." He got no further when Sakura had struck his head with her fist and had him in a deadlock as she dug her knuckles into his head. Honestly Shikamaru thought that Sakura's temper was something specifically kept for Naruto but apparently no. Apparently she exercised it a lot when Sasuke wasn't around.
Hinata on the other hand thought that she was finally beginning to pick up a pattern in the behaviour of her teammates. For example while Sakura did just mess with Shikamaru's head, she was currently helping him fix it into his usual pony tail. She then swiftly swapped her water bottle with his since his was nearly finished.
"Where are we going?" Hinata had once again moved closer to Sakura so that she could hear her quiet voice.
"There's a bar two streets away from my mom's favourite dinner place and most of them are Shinobi." With Shikamaru in one piece, they continued their trekking, all the while pulling at the heavy clothes they had on. The beginnings of spring in Konoha were always a nightmare. You wake up with it snowing outside but by the time midday's around, it was as hot as Suna.
"You think he'll be there."
"Probably not."
"But...?" Because there was definitely a but.
"But there's probably someone in there who knows him. It's a Shinobi get together place. If he's our sensei then he's a Jonin right? Someone should know him."
:and then:
"These kids are fucking vindictive," a woman crowed over three mismatched kids. She clutched her stomach as she laughed, her pinned up hair falling loose from its place with all her movement.
"Hey, hey, Genma look!" She shouted across the bar, pointing at the children excitedly. Sakura put her hands around Hinata shoulders and moved her one step to the side in case the woman poked her in the eye.
"You stole them?" A man, presumably Genma, came sauntering in. "Disappointed but not surprised," he told the woman while casually gnawing at a senbon. He looked down at them in disinterest, eyes boring into the children. The kids shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. They felt as if they were being judged.
"No, no!" She was too excited to really register his words. "Guess who owns them?" She was positively vibrating in her spot. Her tinted green hair had finally come loose from its place and was shoulder length.
"Humour me."
"Kakashi." The man choked on the silver of wood he had been playing with. The woman on the other hand was laughing hysterically now.
"Oh this is gold," her grin was feral as she rounded the children and looked down at them. "So you're telling me, you left the academy and spot you're meant to meet him and came here searching for him?"
Sakura was the one to answer. "Um, yeah..." Shikamaru frowned at her weak reply, where was her fire?
"Hmm," the humour that was present in the lady just a second ago wasn't there anymore. If anything she looked disappointed at them. Sakura in particular. She bent down a bit. "I dunno. You twigs sure don't look like much to me. They makin' these genin weaker by the year, ay Genma?" The man in question had finally spit out the wood but was still finding it hard to breath.
From behind his teammate, Shikamaru saw Sakura's frame shaking. "Listen I don't give a shit about what you think on the development of genin. Do you or do you not know where he is?" Shikamaru smirked at that. There was the fire.
The Kunoichi chuckled. "That's more like it. Put some spirit into it. My name is Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your lead today!" She pointed at the door of the bar and began to march dramatically towards it. The three of them trailed after her like ducklings.
Without a warning she suddenly stopped. This caused them to hit off her back and come to a skidding halt. She turned around, bent down so she was eye level and squinted at Hinata.
"Is that Hiashi's kid I see," she asked cryptically.
"Yes?" Was Hinata's reply. The fact that her answer was phrased like a question did not bother Anko.
"This just got so much fucking better."
:and then:
Kakashi had never been so confused and relieved all at once. It looked like he wasn't getting a genin team this year. Not when they'd left after presumably having got tired of waiting for him. This was new though. He was usually left genin-less after the bell test, not before. Anyways, there was always a first.
Kakashi should've known, he really should've, that something was wrong starting with the genin team incident. It was only when he touched the door to his house did he understand that things were about to go downhill. Starting with the news that someone had broken into his house. 'What idiot would...' With an irritated sigh he used his chakra to sense out the intruder. He picked out three measly chakra signals. Oh.
Kakashi was not impressed.
Okay so that was sort of a lie because Kakashi was real fucking impressed.
Closing the door behind him silently Kakashi made his way to his living room where he could sense three little nuisances. He loomed over them until the dark haired girl noticed his presence and let out an undignified squeak, falling into their little circle. They broke away from their huddle to stare at him.
"My first impression of you guys? Hmm. I hate you."