Here are some quick notes for this story. This is my favorite OT4 and it will become a pole-endgame. Every chapter will always be 1,000 words (minus the Author comments). The ANBU Teams are as follows:

Team Bear:
Shiranui Genma - Bear
Nara Shikamaru - Raven
Yamato - Boar
Haruno Sakura - Crane

Team Deer:
Nohara Rin - Deer
Uzu Menma - Fox (Menma from The Last movie, but here he's not an Uzumaki or a jinjuriki)
Hyuga Neji - Cobra
Sai - Panther

Team Tortoise:
Shin - Tortoise (Shin, as in Sai's brother)
Inuzuka Hana - Racoon
Yamanaka Fu - Rabbit
Hyuga Hinata - Otter

Other Konoha 12 Characters:
Hyuga Tenten is a jounin sensei (yes, she and Neji married!)
Aburame Shino is a chunin who teaches at the academy
Inuzuka Kiba is a chunin who's taking the jounin test soon
Lee is a chunin who also teaches at the academy. He married a girl named Masako and they have a baby boy (Metal Lee) on the way
Ino is a jounin who is apprenticing at T&I under Ibiki

Friday, July '19

Whenever Haruno Sakura wasn't on an ANBU mission or any mission really, she liked to work herself silly at the hospital. Her ANBU team had a much different word than "silly" for her work-life, mind you. They would always just much harsher language. But ever since her parents had passed during the invasion of Sound and Sand at that fateful chunin exam, Sakura simply wasn't the same. It only got worse, as four days later, the rest of Team 7 had left the village to get stronger- leaving her utterly and completely alone. Ultimately, it taught her that teams and familial ties weren't meant to last forever. Thankfully, her ANBU Team Bear, Tsunade, Shizune, and Ino were dead set on proving her wrong.

Shaking her head to rid herself of those dark thoughts, Sakura leaned back on the couch she kept in her office. She had been working a triple shift and was only now feeling the exhaustion of it. 36 hours, was that how long she had worked? It was surgery, after surgery, after ANBU check-ups, after time in the pediatric ward. Had she had a break during that time? She must have, it was stupid to think she hadn't. But did she eat? It didn't matter at this point; she had patient files and more paperwork to complete.

But she was tired, almost too tired to complete her task. When had her couch gotten this comfy? Maybe, if she just closed her eyes for a short while, she'll be well rested enough to able to walk home safely. She was ANBU after all, and she knew that she could be attacked at any time. Just a short nap, she reasoned with herself, an hour or two at most.

XOXOXO

It was precisely five hours later that one, Shiranui Genma, showed up at her office with a bag of take-out food in his hand. He tsk'ed at her sleeping form, draped across her office couch in what looked like the most uncomfortable position one could ever be in. Her scattered papers littered the floor, and he could've sworn that he saw a red ink stain on the corner of her lip.

It wasn't her go-to lipstick (Honey Berry from that store in the red light district; not that he noticed or anything!) and it definitely wasn't her tinted, strawberry-mint lip balm (again, not that he cared!) so it definitely was from the red pen that was hidden underneath a few of the papers. Although, now that you mention it, he had always wondered what her lips would feel like against his- ah! He needed to purge these feelings he held for her. They were rapidly growing and being alone with her at any time wasn't helping.

He looked at the still warm food in his right hand. It was a Friday night, meaning that it was ANBU Team Bear's weekly dinner get-together. Every Friday the ANBU team would meet together for dinner at one of the member's choices of establishments. Of course, if someone was busy or couldn't make it, the rest of the team would meet together and try to accommodate for the missing member. Lately, that member was the unconscious pink-haired doctor. One of them would always bring her usual to her office, knowing that she was probably swamped with work.

They knew it was getting to around that time of the year. The time of the chunin exams, where her parents' died, when her old team abandoned her, and the destruction of her family home. There's a saying that bad things happen in threes, and by god, that was true. Their hearts always broke for their blossom, but each year that passed, they knew she was getting better. They all faced rough times at one point or another, but Sakura's roughest three happened all within the span of a week.

July 21st wasn't that far away and they knew they had to act quick before she dug herself into an early grave. He brushed a few stray hairs out of her face and his dark eyes softened at her sleeping form. She always looked so damn peaceful and calm when she slept. She could look like some sort of ethereal goddess who had blessed this Earth with her presence. He was sure he wasn't the only one who saw her that way, and by the flowers that sat in a vase on her desk, he was sure he was right. They were probably just harmless admirers, the boys of their team always joked.

The food in his hand was still radiating a slight warmth by the time he forced to stop staring at her, like some creep, and gently picked her up, careful not to jostle her. He quickly shushined themselves back into her small, one-bedroom apartment. The steady flow of her chakra sealed walls never once damaged their Team or Yamanaka Ino, who all had a hard time not showing up unannounced. They told her they did it because they loved her- although she could disagree at times with their train of thought. More often than not, Sakura found Ino bursting into her apartment claiming that they needed a girls' day in a wild storm, but compared to the calmness of her boys, Shikamaru believed that she preferred them there instead. Even if that meant they were varying degrees of injured.

He did, however, notice that her two black cats were mysteriously missing. Those ninkin loved being petty but were quite protective of the last Haruno they would ever serve. He pulled back the sheets on her bed and laid her down so her feet were dangling off the side. One by one, he slowly slipped off her heeled shinobi sandals, doctor's coat, and headband. He nudged her fully onto the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.

She truly looked like a goddess in his eyes. Maybe one day they could be together, but something in his gut told him that he might not be the only one of their friends with those intentions. It would be three months later when Genma would learn that he was completely right.

Well hello everyone! Thanks for tuning into another one of my wild stories! This has been my favorite OT4 for quite some time and after seeing a new story of the romantic group I've decided to give it a go! Now, I love you all very, very much. But updates are getting harder and harder to post as my job is going to become full-time soon and that's going to drive me insane for a while. I love you all! Every chapter will be 1,000 words!

Please read and review as always!

-Tiny