Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or anything that come's with it.
Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
-Robert Schuller
She dreamed of white lilacs and soft tulips, of light roses and baby breaths opening to the warm sunny shine. Her hair would be held in a messy tail, her nose smudged with the dirt of her grassy paradise. Overalls slightly damp from her watering can, she would sing along to the melody in the air.
She imagined that there was no brick wall blocking her window, and that her backyard had green grass and all the torn tires would be gone by tomorrow. If only for today, her dry sheets would be made of the finest Egyptian cotton.
Her unsavory coffee would be an unlimited order of freshly ground beans directly from Colombia and she would sit on her leather couch watching her flowers grow.
Her teal nurse outfit would be a white coat of importance and her patients would be little blond girls with small colds, rather than her usual gunshot wounds. There would be no need for her to carry a pocketknife around, which would only be for carving her dolls.
There would be no reason for her to fumble to enter her home, because the looks the men outside gave her were of pure innocence. She decided that the only reason her colleagues touched her shoulder and snaked their arms around her small waist was to gain her attention, and could have never been because of the length of her skirt.
"Are you sure I'm getting this job? I can't rely on a maybe."
"I spoke with him this morning Sakura, there's no reason to fret. They're ready for you." The stress was evident on the face of the young Sakura Haruno, her financial troubles clearly affecting her state of being.
"I'll need to meet with him first right, Tsunade? I don't want to be a bother from the start."
The sigh was not forced, "You need to relax, too much stress can make you relapse. And since you're helping people with something you've gone through, I'd think it necessary for you to try as hard as you can on not doing it again. You're a strong girl, you can do this."
"Thank you Tsunade-", she noticed the hour and decided it was time, "well, I'm off, I'll see you."
From the first view, it could seem like a simple family abode. It would have been considered a fairy-tale home, its white-picket fence adding to the charm, however, the iron bards over the clear windows erased it's innocence.
The young girl coming out of her car released a breath of surprise, her awe evident on her face.
A short frog-like man came out of the large white doors she drove up to, and he looked at her for a moment before greeting her. "These your suitcases?"
She nodded, her curiosity showing at his small stubby figure.
He seemed impatient, "And you're an inpatient? Visiting?"
She was surprised, still lost in his unique form, "Oh! Pardon…I'm here for a new job, I think I need to meet with a…Jiraiya?" He eyed her suspiciously as if this happened often, "Tsunade, his old colleague, sent me."
It was a moment before he nodded, and she felt uncomfortable under his stare, "Very well, this way."
He led her inside, and she was welcomed into a comforting room. It was a soft peach color with small potted plants growing all around. It was cold in the room, and she regretted not wearing her sweater, but it seemed like a room that just screamed 'warm milk and cookies' all over. There was a crystal opening in the wall, where a young man with a circular black hair cut and over-grown eyebrows greeted them, absolute glee written over his features. "Hello there!"
She did not notice that it had been directed at her, but the young man did not seem to mind her unawareness. Finally, she responded to the grinning boy, "…hello…?"
The man sighs, catching Sakura's attention, "Lee, is Jiraiya available? Miss…-" he looked at her, raising his eyebrows, "Sakura Haruno."
He looks back at the so called Lee, "Yes, Miss Sakura is here to see Jiraiya. Ask him for further instructions if possible."
Lee keeps grinning and softly shaking his head, "He's gone away for a moment, and I was told very strictly that Miss Sakura be taken to her room, and that he would attend to her when he arrived."
There weren't many places Sakura had been to. She'd experienced limited vacations and adventures, and her childhood had been calm. However, she had experience with Psychiatric Hospitals, and this was like something she had never seen before.
Her room was simple, and very tidy. It had a small bed, with it's common accessories being a small pillow and blanket, both of which looked uncomfortable.
She frowned at the lack of locks on the doorknobs, but was satisfied that she had a small private bathroom to use. There were no sharp objects in the room, and the posts on the bed were missing their decorations, as if they had been emptied.
This was to be called home for a while.
The thing that had stunned her however, was the walk to the room in the first place.
There was stiff way in which the man walked that made Sakura think. He was walking slowly, as if inspecting the hallways as he walked her to the room.
She took the opportunity to study her surroundings. All the doors were open, to her advantage, and she glanced inside each of them. They had simple decorations, but they had pictures and posters, as she noticed in the first room. There were drawings on the wall, from what she could see, and a young boy was sitting down, cross-legged on the floor, sketching something. He did not raise his head to acknowledge the sounds, but smiled at them when the man directly called his name, "Sai, enjoying your day?"
He turned back to his drawings, "No."
Sakura smiled but recovered when Sai looked at her, "Aren't you supposed to be in your room? I'd be nuts too, if I had a face like yours." Sakura look at him with shock, "Oh? Are you surprised to hear this? Sheesh, and you'd think people would be more truthful."
The man ignored him, and motioned for her to move along, "I'll be taking you room to room, just to get you introduced to everyone. Don't worry, not everyone's so…blunt, and don't take it personal, he speaks the opposite of everything he means."
They had stopped at another room, with a soft purple painted room, and a small girl was brushing her hair. "Hinata, this is Sakura, she'll be your new monitor from now on."
The girl looked at her and blushed, but nodded. "H-hello." This caused Sakura to smile, "Hello."
They moved along, and passed a room with a man resting on his bed, a pineapple-like hairstyle making him look odd. "That's Shikamaru's room. Don't even bother, he won't answer back."
A room adjacent to Shikamaru's held a young blond girl tending to white daffodils. She seemed to work with great detail, but a soft-hesitation was evident in her movements. He glanced at the pair outside her door softly, "Hello." She had blue eyes, and a small but curvy figure to her. A small thing about her though, was the dryness of her lips, and the paleness of her skin. "Hello, Ino. This is Sakura. She won't be monitoring you but I thought you'd like to meet her."
She looked at Sakura suddenly, and smiled a wide grin, "Of course. Always a pleasure." There was a fake-ness to her words, and it reminded her of the first boy she had seen, Sai.
Sakura waved goodbye to her anyway, and the man stopped her at a door. "We're here. You'll meet your patients later on today, or tomorrow. First, obviously, you'll need to meet with Jiraiya when he gets here." He looked around the hallway, "The only one you'll be dealing with from the one's you met is Hinata. She's sweet, so she won't be much of a bother. You'll get the file on her from Jiraiya."
Sakura nodded, "I understand. Do I need to go anywhere in the mean time?"
He shock his head, "If we need you, there's a phone inside that calls to every room in the building. Neji is going to be the one to take you to the office when Jiraiya arrives, so don't worry about getting lost. Anyway, I'm Gamabunta, and you probably won't see me all that much, this isn't my enviroment anyway, so, I'll see when I see you." With that said, he turned around and began walking away at a quick pace, different from how he had just been with Sakura.
She took that as a cue to enter the room, and went inside.
Tell me what you think.
Until next time,
Darkofthenight.