Title: Read My Mind

Author: AppleL0V3R

Beta-reader: Terror-Of-The-Crimson-Night

Fandom: 07 Ghost and Naruto

Pairing: Ayanami and Haruno, Sakura

Rating: T

Type: One-shot – Complete

Summary: Sakura loved her boss, and she would also love it if he would just stay out of her head when she was having not so innocent thoughts about him.

Word Count: 3,460

Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.

Note: As a forewarning, I just wanted to say that I don't like the ending and it will most likely either be changed or made better depending on how I feel about it once I come back to it.

..:Xx0o0xX:..

Sakura hummed to herself, keeping it inside the confines of her mind because she was aware of the office setting that she was in. Her pen made a neat scrawl over her paperwork as she wrote line after line or signed her name on something. It was an almost thoughtless process for her, taking a moment to skim each report and respond accordingly. Deskwork, she had decided, was the most boring thing on the planet. And there plenty of other things that she could be doing, like sparring or finding something knew to pique her interest. But it was part of the job description and she knew that Ayanami was not going to let two of his subordinates weasel their way out of the task. Hyuuga was bad enough as it was about putting ink to paper.

Still she kept humming, it was the only thing to focus her mind so that she didn't doze off or glance too much at the window or the clock.

And definitely so that she didn't sneak glances as her very gorgeous superior.

Which was altogether not an easy task.

Sure, he came off as cold and very comfortable in his 'throne', but she knew better than that. Anyone in the Black Hawks new better than that. The rosette wouldn't go so far as to say he was a sweetheart or anything like it, but he did care in his own way. He looked out for them, made sure that no one else in the military or in the enemy forces could harm them, even verbally. But at the same time, she knew he had a whip at his hip that he held no reserves about using should any of them get too far out of line for his liking.

Green eyes glanced absently at the pile of paperwork to go, it wasn't as bad as it had been when she'd come in that morning but it still made her want to groan. It was all together too many documents. But that came with job description, so she shifted her eyes back to her task and watched her pen work its way across the page, leaving ink in its wake.

It didn't take long for her mind to wander and her humming to cease. She'd always been unable to focus on one task for long periods of time and she was still getting used to all the paperwork that came with being Ayanami's begleiter.

How she'd become the Chief of Staff's assistant and apprentice was quite the interesting story. Instead of simply being assigned to someone as per tradition, Ayanami cornered her after the final exam and simply told her that she was going to be his begleiter. Like it was just that simple, and to one of the most powerful men in Barsburg who needed an extra pair of hands – preferably ones of his choosing – it probably was.

Two Years Ago

Outside Academy Examination Room

Her body felt sore and she knew she'd have some nasty bruises come morning, but she also knew that it wouldn't be that hard to simply heal or numb them. Sakura had been a medic far too long for such a thing to not come naturally, so naturally in fact that her body would probably do the process on its own overnight anyway. But that didn't mean that as she stepped out of the room they'd put the ten students in, she didn't feel like simply letting her body collapse right then and there.

It had certainly been a while since she'd had to actually put effort and power into her punches. She was almost beginning to lose her edge, the rosette made a note to rectify that. After she got at least eight solid hours of rest to her neglected body.

But she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a white haired man at the end of the hall and a taller black haired one directly to his right, if a step or so behind. She'd been in Barsburg long enough that she knew both men on sight without ever once having actually seen them with her own two eyes. They were the Chief of Staff – and head of the Black Hawks – Ayanami and his right hand man, Major Hyuuga.

Neither one were anyone to trifle with and for a moment she wondered why they were there and not back where they had been when the exam had started. She knew there wasn't any reason for them to stay because a few of the students had been killed and all but one other were unconscious and even then the only one besides her that wasn't was on his knees, still in the room, shock keeping his body in place like a statue. But Sakura was familiar with the feeling of having taken a human being's life; she was accustomed to seeing the body fall dead as she severed the spinal cord and jugular.

And so she had watched the dead inmate simply fall to the ground before turning to the door, waiting for it to open because she didn't want to see the instructor's face, or those of her classmates. And she most certainly hadn't wanted to see the sharp lavender eyes that belonged to the Chief of Staff.

Clearly, it didn't matter what she wanted, because he was at the end of the hall, eyes lazily trained on her body. He was waiting for her to finish walking down the hallway.

She didn't close her eyes, didn't blink them and she didn't straighten her already squared shoulders or bother to pull her head up higher. She would not be proud of the fact that she'd killed someone. Again. But she wouldn't hide from the fact or shy away from her superior. Shinobi life still had too firm a grasp of her mentality for her to do anything else but keep walking, do as he expected her to.

So, she picked up one booted foot after the other, making sure that she didn't make her soreness known as she continued at a firm but easy gait. When she was a few feet before them, she saluted and then bowed her head slightly. Moving to the side she made to keep walking. Sakura knew they were there for her, but as a recently graduated academy student it made no sense that they would deliberately seek her out just after the end of her final exam.

She didn't even fully get her foot down before Major Hyuuga put himself directly in her path, his trademark grin in place. "Haruno, Sakura right?"

Resisting the urge to stiffen as hearing her full name by powerful people had a tendency to do to her nowadays; she nodded but didn't verbally confirm anything.

Ayanami shifted to be slightly in front of his subordinate and even closer to her, closer than her comfort zone liked. "Report to my office tomorrow morning at five AM. Don't be late." With that he turned on his heel and headed back the way he came. Hyuuga waved to her, telling her he'd see her tomorrow and congratulations on graduating, before he too was gone, back in step with the Chief.

Now she let her eyes close. Because she knew what that order meant. Instead of going to the meeting tomorrow at eight to be assigned an officer to work under, she was already going to be training under someone. She was going to be training under the Chief of Staff, iceberg extraordinaire and known for not keeping even the best of graduates for too long before they quit.

Freakin' lovely, she thought sourly, but if she had to be honest, she still felt a little numb from the knowledge of having taken someone's life and wanted to do nothing more than to take a hot shower and sleep. So she forced herself to start walking once more, heading for her dorm room. It was all she could do right then, anyway.

Four in the morning came early. Really early, but as a doctor she'd been used to getting up at all times of the night to either start a shift or take care of some emergency. Though it had started even before that, when Kakashi had team seven continually met up at five or six in the morning without coming until around noon.

When she got to the proper office a whole fifteen minutes early, she knocked politely on the door. She tried not to shift too much, the uniform was only slightly different from the one she'd worn through her classes, but it was different enough that she felt odd wearing it. Especially since she had to wear a skirt again, she'd gotten used to the slacks she'd worn not too long ago. At least she didn't have to wear a hat on top of everything else.

"Come in."

She wasn't even slightly surprised that he was already inside, and so she pushed open the door and padded inside. He was seated at a desk, one she presumed to be his, his hand busy with writing on a document, his lavender gaze focused on it as well. He didn't even glance at her when she entered and closed the door behind her.

But he did motion to the desk directly to his desk; it had a pile of papers on it, "Get to work."

Hello to you too, she thought dourly. She was about to start for it when a pot caught her eye from across the room. So did the empty cup on her superior's desk. Deciding that she would rather risk his wrath, she made a beeline for the counter with the pot, grabbing his cup as she went. She felt his eyes on her as soon as he looked up, but she didn't turn her head to acknowledge it, merely set to the task of refilling the cup.

A slight disappointment flooded her as she realized it was tea, she'd never been a fan of tea. After all the only person she knew that loved tea had been Itachi and she'd always preferred coffee even when she was making tea for the Uchiha. But that was a long time ago and definitely not something to be thinking about, turning on her heel she headed for the desk she was supposed to work on, setting his cup back where she'd found it on her way. As she did so, she felt his eyes leave her person and was silently thankful the scrutiny was over and any near death was avoided. Easily grabbing the back of the chair, she pulled it out slightly so as to make room and settled herself into it. She proceeded to grab a pin and the first document on top, intent on starting in because the sheer size of the stack told her it would take all day to get through.

Around eight, she'd managed to get nearly three-fourths of it done and was terribly resisting the urge to stretch her limbs. She'd been settled in the same position for so long that her butt was sore and her legs stiff, not to mention her cramping arm. Not even the small walks between her desk and the counter so as to get Ayanami more tea had helped her any. Inwardly she was cursing, irritated that her body was so unaccustomed to doing this when she used to do it for longer strands of time just over a year ago.

Her green eyes were brought to the door when it opened; a blonde haired man was on the other side. He looked to be more her age than Ayanami's and he was dragging Hyuuga in by the collar. The black haired man in turn was protesting with every excuse he could think up as he tried to get away, but the younger male didn't so much as falter as he shot down everything and kept tugging the Major along. He did stop however when he saw Sakura.

Letting go of the taller man he turned his attention to completely to her after bowing his greeting to the Chief of Staff. He smiled at her, his blue eyes full of cheer. "Hello, you must be Ayanami-sama's new begleiter. I'm Warren Konatsu, Major Hyuuga's begleiter." She nodded, offering him a small smile in turn to him. And another to the swordsman when he waved energetically.

"Nice to meet you, I am Haruno, Sakura."

This got her nodded back before Konatsu turned and headed for a desk directly opposite her. Hyuuga on the other hand bounded up to her, though stayed on the other side of the desk. His sunglasses slid down his nose as thumbed through the papers, "Wow. Aya-tan really put you to work, didn't he?"

She arched a pink eyebrow at him and shook her head slightly with a quiet laugh by way of not actually answering that. But it seemed to be enough as the tall man moved back and chose instead to pester his Chief of Staff.

Something told her working here wasn't going to be as bad as the rumors said. But then again, maybe that was just because of her background and her innate ability to get along with anyone and everyone.

Present Day

Black Hawk's Main Office

Sakura let her shoulders slump slightly when she finally finished the last document of that day and refused to think about how the pile would be back the next. Closing her eyes, she rolled her shoulders to get the tension out of them and then she stood. As she nudged her chair back so she could get out, she started humming again, though this time it was slightly out loud. No one paid her any mind as all of them were used to her tendencies in that department, but she did feel Ayanami's gaze settle on her. Like always, she ignored it in favor of grabbing his cup of tea and pouring more into it before returning it to him.

She still had yet to talk him into allowing her to have coffee in the room as well, but apparently her boss didn't like the caffeinated stuff or even the smell of it. Which left her at very tired in the mornings and almost crabby at nights because even two years after she'd been inducted into the Black Hawks, she was still going through coffee withdraw. It wouldn't be so bad if she could have it in her apartment, like before she left or after she got back, but Ayanami had managed to bar her from even that. It was a wonder she still made him tea several times a day. But then again, he was the Chief of Staff and still very much stronger than her and her superior to boot, so she wasn't about to go against him for something so trivial. That was Hyuuga's job.

When she'd gotten that back to his desk, she turned on her heel and headed for the exit. It was her habit to head for the sparring grounds once all the deskwork was out of the way.

She smiled and almost laughed when she heard footsteps echo hers after the door to the office clicked closed, the rosette didn't need to look back to know how it was. But she stopped anyway, and turned her upper body so that she could see his face, "Is something wrong, sir?"

Just as the words left her, she realized just how intensely his eyes were on her, pinning her own green ones when she turned to him. Even though she had stopped moving, he didn't stop until he was in her personal bubble. The man seemed to have an affinity for doing that ever since she first met him, though it had become more frequent as of late. And a lot more invasive. Not that she could say she minded, there was no way around the fact that Ayanami was beyond handsome, but he was also quite intelligent and strong too.

Lavender eyes narrowed and she blushed, realizing too late that she hadn't filtered her thoughts again. "Oops." She murmured, offering him a sheepish smile.

"If you don't figure out how to check them, I will do so for you."

She was tempted to say that such a prospect sounded more like a promise than a warning, and then she realized he heard that too. "Well, if you'd stay out of my head, we wouldn't have that problem."

He arched his eyebrow at her but didn't say anything, he didn't need to. They'd been over that particular subject enough for her to know his opinion on the matter. And her comeback was always that she was a perfectly healthy female and she couldn't help it if she was attracted to him, dangerous superior or not.

"Sakura."

She 'eep'ed and backed up a step. This time doing her damnedest to shut them all down because it never boded well when he said her given name. It meant if she didn't back off, he was going to go through with his warning and that usually left her dazed and looking like a fool. A love struck fool.

"Which you are." He informed her, his lavender eyes seeming amused as he said so.

She couldn't help but pout, in the back of her mind knowing that two years ago she never would have dared to. "Sorry, sir, I'm honestly trying, it's not that easy though."

He took a step forward and it was all she could do to keep her eyes on him.

"And you are definitely not helping."

"You are my subordinate, it's your job to help me, not the other way around."

Now she was sure he was laughing at her expense, but couldn't find it in her to take offense. Especially not when his next step closed the small space left between them and he leaned down to kiss her. Just a subtle weight since they weren't too far from the others. She'd learned a long time ago that he liked any and all affectionate actions behind closed doors with absolutely no prying eyes.

"It's more enjoyable that way."

Sakura tried her best to scowl at him, but she was far too used to him being in her head always. Sometimes it made her wonder how he kept her thoughts and his straight.

"Easily. Yours are more abstract and jumbled."

"Are you trying to tell me I'm still no good at organization?"

"Or staying focused."

"I can focus."

"On something other than me?"

She huffed, knowing she wasn't going to win that one, it was one of the many side effects to having an ever present superior. It didn't matter how much distance was between them, he was always privy to her thoughts. And the worst part was that she didn't even mind, she would have kicked anyone else out, built a huge, thick, circular wall and made sure there was no way in. But him? Free access even when she didn't want him to have it.

His chuckle was soft and music to her ears, it made her want to lean forward and kiss him again.

So of course, he leaned down and kissed her before she could.

"Not fair." She murmured, mirth tingeing her own voice.

He hummed, pulling back slightly. "Check your thoughts, Sakura."

Damn. She hadn't even realized they were straying that far again.

"They always are."

"So you've told me."

He took a step back, clearly intent on returning to his desk. But even after the door slipped closed she could feel his lips on hers and those lavender eyes staring so intensely into her own. Still, she eventually got her feet to turn back down the hall, knowing that she wasn't going to get much training done today, but she was still going to try anyway.

She had to push aside his chuckle that resounded in her head.

Working for the Black Hawks was not easy, but it was always enjoyable, something like her life as a shinobi, that she wouldn't trade for the world.