Iron Blossoms
As great as it was having Tsunade-sama as her mentor, Sakura Haruno was often lonely. After all, Sasuke was gone, Naruto was off training, Ino was just too busy, and most of the visitors to the Hokage's mansion were either creepily old or just there on business. In order to keep herself from going crazy, she'd picked up the habit of talking to herself, and it was in this very context that she met him.
"Ugh, you are so stupid," she said aloud, having realized she'd made another mistake in calculating the dosage of a new patient.
"Pardon?"
Sakura jumped a little as a voice from behind startled her. Turning around, she saw a ninja with spiky blue hair and a bandage across his nose carrying a load of papers with a bottle of sake on top. She'd seem him around quite a bit, usually doing gopher work for Tsunade.
"Mind telling me why exactly I'm stupid," he asked, raising his eyebrows.
""Oh, sorry! I wasn't talking to you," she replied, flushing a pink to match her hair as she realized she was staring.
Setting the papers down on Tsunade's desk, he turned around to face her. "Name's Kotetsu, Hagane," he introduced himself, giving her an easy smile.
"Nice to meet you," she smiled back setting down her pen and turning around as well.
"Well are you going to tell me your name, or should I just call you Pinky?" His grin widened, and for a moment, he reminded her of Naruto.
"Sakura, Haruno." There was a fleeting instant where her smile and blush made her look her age again, wiping away the worry lines on her forehead that had taken root long ago when Sasuke disappeared.
"Kotetsu! Get your paws off my desk!" Tsunade's voice boomed from the doorway. The two's eyes sparkled as they shared a knowing look as they got back to work.
"Yes ma'am. Just trying to help Ms. Haruno here."
"Go try and get into someone else's pants. She's my apprentice, and she hits as hard as I do," Tsunade shot, winking at Sakura. It was Kotetsu's turn to blush as he hurried out of the room.
Both Tsunade and Sakura sat doing paper work in silence for a few minutes before Tsunade started cracking up, and the two dissolved into laughter.
And then again, there were times when Sakura didn't feel lonely at all.
