I hereby swear that I do not own Naruto. All rights belong to Kishi (otherwise known as Masashi Kishimoto). Love ya Kishi.
Also note that I am off in terms of my Narutoverse knowledge and medical knowledge and I will also be rusty in terms of my writing style and explanations.
Importance of A Support
Prologue: Another Day, Another Potion
It took a few hours for the sleeping draught to settle, weeks to grow sage herbs, and years, potentially centuries, for a cereus to bloom. Pre-teen Tsubasa took their time measurements with great seriousness and noted her observations with great detail. Her mother, already in her early thirties and smiling in amusement at her daughter's dedication, gently brushed her shoulder and squeezed it.
"You can rest now my dear, I can take care of them myself," Natsuki, her mother, planted a kiss on Tsubasa's cheek as she brushed away the light-blue locks covering her daughter's face. Tsubasa muttured a sleepy, "5 more minutes oka-san..." for the third time as Natsuki chuckled.
"Normally teenagers plead for extra sleep, not extra time to work," Natsuki added with an eye roll, opening up a cardboard package with: FRAGILE taped over the flaps. Inside were tiny glass vials, tightly packed in fluffy bubble wrap. Expensive they were, however essential for their business. They were typically used for storing powdered herbs and acted as measurement cups for infusing the herbs to make antidotes.
"We need to stock up on migraine pills for the Hyugas' weekly order, so I'll drop by the shipment company to get some feverfew. The Inuzukas' barged in yesterday for military pills but since it was my day off I told them we would deliver today. And don't forget Oka-san that I'll be sorted in a genin team in three hours..." Tsubasa trailed off with a tired yawn. It was six am. Technically she would be wide awake but she pulled an all-nighter babysitting her latest pet project and had not slept for the past 14 hours.
Natsuki quirked an eyebrow at her. Normally a just-graduated genin would be happily celebrating with sake and sushi with their irresponsible friends, their hitai-ate (forehead protector) strapped firmly around their foreheads and arrogantly boasting to their families that they had passed. Not working like her life depended on it on boring and smelly medicine. In all honesty, Natsuki had to doll-drag Tsubasa out of the pharmacy's workshop after skipping the Academy for four consecutive days working on a strong antidote for fatigue. Tsubasa would have instantly failed her Genin exams without her mother's intervention.
A timid ring of the store's bell broke Natsuki out of her thoughts.
"Come in!" Natsuki called out, pleasantly surprised at the appearance of her hardworking employee, Kanzaki Yukine. Yukine was short in stature, but petite with pure-white skin that a girl could die for, with the fluffiest white-blonde hair Natsuki had ever felt, and overall an important member of their non-blooded family. He was also quick and prompt when it came to delivery, wasting no time and unnecessary detours in making sure the medicine was delivered on time, secured with their written prescription and a handy wallet of change in his pocket.
"I'm sorry for intruding, I know it's early but I wanted to give Tsubasa-chan something," Yukine explained politely to the older Asami, the latter returning the smile with equal pleasantness. Tsubasa paused her work and fixed the black-rimmed glasses on her nose before looking at her childhood friend indifferently. Yukine didn't react negatively though. This was his 'cute' childhood friend's blatant poker face that he eventually got used to it over the years. It was cute, honestly, her cold blue eyes glimmering through her spectacles, her calloused fingers slowly stirring a beaker of bluish liquid and a scroll about chakra control on her lap.
"Hehe~ how are you Tsubasa-chan?" Yukine asked shyly, as a surge of warmth hugged his freezing body, the homely atmosphere and the trademark earth-like scent of the Asami Pharmacy wafting into his nostrils. The hardness in her eyes softened, lowering her guard slightly, "I'm alright, Yukine. Thanks."
She smiled! Kyaaaah! So cute! Yukine fanboyed, his heart palpitating at the sight of her rare smile. She must be in a good mood, had finished a project or was genuinely happy to see him. Either way his heart was still racing and that 'glasses-girl' disguise gave her a new height of cuteness. The blue-haired girl however, was thinking on how to get Yukine to strip for her...for medical training, obviously.
Meanwhile in the background Natsuki was sweatdropping.
To cut a typical lengthy love story short, Yukine had a 'fated encounter' crush with Tsubasa ever since he got himself caught by some cocky Academy students, blah blah blah, his wonderful heroine Asami Tsubasa arrived just in time to save his civilian butt, giving her three opponents a cold glare before completely crushing their morale by LITERALLY LECTURING THEM TO DEATH. It might also possibly have been the sleep-inducing, highly concentrated jasmine 'perfume' she was wearing at that time to maximize the 'death lecture' effects...but winning by lecturing alone sounded way cooler.
However, her dedication to herbs and medical ninjutsu completely overpowered her basic girl knowledge of love and how to recognize it, thus giving her the inability to even process the meaning of 'I like you' or 'please be my girlfriend'. Medical ninjutsu, chakra control, and an acceptable grade for taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu was all she had to focus on to get to the rank of a worthy medic nin that was qualified for better access to more medical training, medical jutsus, scrolls and herbs. She had to learn everything so she could find a way to cure her mother's condition where other doctors or medics couldn't. That was all she was aiming for after all.
It was noble of her though, working hard on something she wanted, and for an honorable cause.
Though, with a tinge of regret, Natsuki wished that her daughter could have experienced a less burdening, carefree future path. Initially, Young Tsubasa's dream was not to take even one step into the Ninja Academy, and instead take over the family business and live a life without fear of war or death, and Yukine would still have parents if it weren't for that horrible, unfortunate incident two years ago. One that completely destroyed Tsubasa's and Yukine's ability to trust others and made Natsuki unable to use chakra.
However, that will be a story for another day, as another lively and surprisingly energetic customer burst through the pharmacy door. (Seriously, it said "CLOSED" on the sign. Did ANYONE read that thing!?)
Long, well-conditioned bright pink hair adorned with a red hitai-te were the first things the Asami clan saw as the customer briefly inspected her surroundings before greeting the owners with a bright 'Good morning!' and a cute quirk of her head.
"Morning," they replied in unison, almost on instinct.
Sakura chuckled brightly and she went straight to glomp her bewildered friend, squealing excitedly, pretty sure she just destroyed some of Tsubasa's eardrums.
"TSUBASA-CHAN! WE'RE GONNA BECOME OFFICIAL GENIN TODAY! AREN'T YOU EXCITED? I'M SUPER EXCITED!" Sakura shrieked, driving on like a machine gun as her slack-jawed friend nodded mindlessly, slightly surprised as Sakura's actions mirrored Naruto's. Indeed, behind her indifferent and distrustful exterior, she was mildly excited about her team arrangement, with a tiny ray of hope that she would not be paired with an annoying Sasuke fangirl, seeing as those fangirls accumulated half the class (or the real thing himself), or an incompetent good-for-nothing jonin instructor.
And of course, teaming up with friends was always a nice plus. Competent friends a really nice plus.
Naruto, Kiba, Choji and Hinata were amongst those nice friends to be with, but Shikamaru and Sakura would be critically beneficial. Aside from Sakura's natural book smarts and quick memory, Shikamaru was a tactical genius who - till this day - never lost a shogi match and whose clan had an extensive encyclopedia of sacred Nara clan-only herbs (though constantly refused to show it to the blue-haired medic-in-training). Sure both had their faults, Sakura being completely and utterly useless when it came to the physical stuff, and Shikamaru being a lazy ass who thought everything was 'troublesome', but the rest of students were either average if not didn't stick out much.
Tsubasa smiled wryly at the thought that she might be one of those 'average' students. Though she had to admit to herself that she was possibly the only genin in the Academy so far with any knowledge or ability on medical ninjutsu. This also sparked a question whether she would be placed normally in a typical genin team. Being a rarity of shinobi who had exceptional chakra control and years-long training of dedication and experience on medical ninjutsu itself should bring upon the question whether she should be placed in a normal genin team or not. She grinned at the self-flattery.
"Anyways, I was thinking we should do something before we get to the Academy," Sakura suggested, with a touch of slyness in her tone, "I found out that Sasuke-kun -"
"You do know I'm gonna refuse the second you mention that Uchiha right?" Tsubasa sweatdropped at the obviousness of her friend, earning her an amused glare from Natsuki and a tug from her shirt from an attention-seeking Yukine.
Sakura pouted in retort and tugged her arm, looking upon the blue-haired girl with large puppy-dog eyes, "Please~ this one time? Tsubasa-chaaan?"
Feeling her resistance slacken, Tsubasa sighed and lay her head on Yukine's shoulder (Yukine: "Ehhh...ahhh...wha...*supermegablush*...hee...!"), "Fine. What do you need?"
Sakura's eyes shone with victory before her smile turned into a sly, creepy smile, "Natsuki-san...do you mind helping me with it? It's not dangerous, I promise."
Natsuki eyed the pink-haired girl warily, knowing the girl she would most likely ask to use their medicinal kitchen, which was staffed to the brim with not only herbs, kitchen equipment and food, but also deadly poisons and extremely delicate potions that were set to evaporate into healing powder in a few hours. The medicinal kitchen was probably the second most deadliest place to mess around in, next to the pharmacy workshop and the Asami greenhouse.
The Asami clan waited in bated breath as the pink-haired family friend made her request.
"Please make me a love potion."
Tsubasa took a sharp intake of breath at this request. And then all-out face-faulted into a wooden table (Yukine: "Ts-Tsu-Tsubasa-chan! Are you okay!?"). Natsuki laughed quietly, slightly relieved that the girl wouldn't be needing their kitchen and the client herself was completely oblivious to the range of reactions in front of her, ranging from disbelief, exhaustion and gratitude.
"Urgh...just a love potion, eh?" Tsubasa groaned, recovering.
"Yes~! I don't need anything else!" Sakura nodded, excited as it seemed Tsubasa and Natsuki had no other choice but to make her one. Family friend or not, Sakura was technically a client, though she previously needed the permission to receive one, which she had already succeeded in it.
"But love potions are really dangerous!" Yukine interrupted the pinkie's train of thoughts, "love-obsessed girls shouldn't be using them..." he recoiled at Sakura's terrifying glare that screamed 'Don't Ruin My Plan!'
Sakura shot back angrily, "I just need a small dosage!"
"You're forcing the person you love to love you back!" Yukine retorted, clenching onto his love interest's shirt tighter and tighter as the pinkie glared at holes into him.
"He'll just feel more inclined to like me, that's all!" Sakura curled her fists, all signs of her good mood slowly disappearing.
Natsuki sighed, watching the two polar opposites bicker as she silently motioned for Tsubasa to split them apart.
"Alright you two, Yukine, it's fine, we'll get the potion. Sakura, would you like it in a powdered, pill or liquid form?" Tsubasa loudly announced, slamming the table to bring her point across.
Sakura turned to her friend and switched from 'Angry Inner Sakura' mode to 'Nice Girl'. She smiled cheerily and answered, "The most convenient and the most potent, if you please, Tsubasa-chan!"
Tsubasa nodded and leapt over the counter as Yukine sighed in defeat.
Tsubasa searched through the lower drawers of the counter, carefully pushing away jars of cream and setting aside the cash change, brushing off dust from the top of the counter before humming softly to herself, unaware of the pairs of eyes watching her as she went into 'shopgirl mode'.
"Tsubasa-chan is so reliable, ne?" Yukine smiled brightly, feeling the warmth of the rising sun behind him, giving the pharmacy a nice, earthly glow.
"She's like a real shopgirl~" Sakura grinned, tiptoeing slightly to see what her friend was doing. Suddenly the room went quiet, and Tsubasa stopped moving. The shuffling of the medic girl's feet were completely silenced and they couldn't hear a single sound coming behind the counter.
"Need help, Tsubasa-chan?" Natsuki called, worried after a moment of silence.
Seconds ticked by as the atmosphere grew tense. Sakura tried to peek over the counter, only to be met by a small, oh-so-completely suspicious blue ball rolling into her direction.
BOOM!
Tsubasa perked up to realize she had accidentally set off an old sound bomb. Well, she knew she did, seeing the pale still bodies of her family collapsed on the floor.
"Err...sorry?"
It took exactly 5 minutes of shoving smelling salts under their noses and 5 more minutes of slapping them after the smelling salts didn't work to stir everyone up from unconsciousness. That also included Sakura's surprising ninja reaction when she strangled Tsubasa after being awoken before slamming the girl into a wrestling position, and Natsuki's even more surprising reaction when she kneed her daughter in the solar plexus.
"You guys...are terrible people," Tsubasa complained as she administered her wounds with soothing cream, feeling the cream burn slightly on her bruises.
"Who told you to set that off anyway?" Sakura retorted.
"That was an alarm actually. If any robbers try to rob us...?" Natsuki scratched her head, an unsure smirk on her face.
"I'm pretty sure that just woke up half of Konoha and it's not even eight," Yukine sweatdropped, gently patting his crush's stomach with bandages, a cute blush on his face. He suddenly recalled his present he had for Tsubasa in his jacket pocket.
"Um...Tsubasa-chan...I have something -"
"So do you have the potion yet?"
Tsubasa sprang in action and completely left Yukine in the dust, gaping at her quick disappearance. The blue-haired girl quickly dashed into the store's warehouse and came back in a span of a few minutes with a test tube rack, beakers ranging from large to small substances ranging from a deep red silkiness to a light pink, transparent solution. She carefully placed it on the counter, motioning her mother to briefly inspect them.
"Ahh yes, this should be our only stock on liquid 'love potions'. Technically they're not love potions but drinking them induces a strong hormonal reaction from the drinker, which forces them to feel attracted to the person who they're in closest range to."
Sakura squealed and cheered, "Yes! This is what I'm looking for!"
Natsuki chuckled and calmly told the girl, "It won't last long though, depending on the dosage. Also it's mainly acidic, so drinking too much of it can screw up your digestive system. And depending on the color, the potency of the potion."
Yukine quirked an eyebrow, "The potency?"
"Otherwise the 'strength' of the potion," Tsubasa took over, motioning her audience to the tube rack.
"As you can see, the sizes indicate the amount of solution there is in each tube, where that light pink transparent solution is by far the least acidic and has the most in terms of dosage, however it is less concentrated, making it not as effective as the others, where it triggers more of a 'happy' reaction from the drinker, making the drinker otherwise more friendly and nice towards you. However, it's opposite, this red, silky solution over here - "
Tsubasa tapped the smallest test tube with a spoon, indicating it's existence, "- is the most potent from the rest, but it's hard to brew so it comes in a smaller dosage. It is also very acidic, ranging at probably a low ph 2 to a high ph 3 in my rating. This dangerous solution will induce an extremely strong hormonal reaction from the drinker, screwing up his or her emotions and field of vision, as well as produce a heightened sense of sexual and romantic attraction to the first person in the drinker's line of vision. You might as well call it aphrodisiac, but the effects mainly focus on more of the romantic attraction side than the drinker's lust. However if taken in a large dosage you might get a more aggressive and sexual reaction from the person you're feeding it to, if that is what you desire."
Tsubasa couldn't help sending a mischievous smirk at her friend, who was now blushing so hard that her face nearly matched her hair color.
"Don't think of it that way! Even I have my own limitations and self-awareness..." Sakura stammered, her blush dark enough to rival Hinata's.
"Do you, actually?" Yukine gave a very un-Yukine snort.
Sakura glared daggers at him.
"So I presume you'll be taking the least concentrated one then?" Natsuki smiled.
Sakura nodded, "Yeah! Just a question, will stirring the potion with water affect it's potency?"
"As long as the drinker drinks the entire solution with the water stirred with it the effects should remain the same," Tsubasa shrugged, slightly unsure, seeing as she was too wary to try the solution out herself.
"Alright, I'll take it! Can you put it in a small container or something and mix it so it looks nice to drink? I want Sasuke-kun to drink all of it!" Sakura giggled fangirlishly.
Somewhere in Konoha
Uchiha Sasuke woke up from his comfortable, warm bed with a start, feeling a stream of shivers cascade up his spine.
He was pretty sure somebody, or some fangirl, was going to do something horrible to him and the probability was that they might succeed doing it.
Then he looked in his full body mirror and smirked haughtily.
He was the Uchiha Sasuke, and nobody was going to force him to do something he wouldn't want to do.
With a self-assured sigh of relief, he slipped on his frilly pink night mask and went back to sleep.
"Off to go for breakfast? Tsubasa-chan?" Sakura called out from the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes shut up I'm here," Tsubasa 'poofed' in an instant behind Sakura, who screamed loudly before falling forward a few steps.
Tsubasa was dressed in a light-green linen shirt with short sleeves, covered by her favorite white hoodie, her arms protected with worn out armguards. She had on plain dark-brown shorts with a kunai holder strapped on each leg and a medical pouch strapped around her waist, carrying some fast-reacting antidotes, a small variety of rare herbs for absolute emergencies, bandages, military rations pills, specially made chakra-triggered sound/smoke bombs and gloves. Her cropped light-blue hair was pinned back by a pair of simple-looking hairclips, which were designed to look like glass bauble pins when they were actually...something else entirely. On her forehead was her hitai-ate, being shown off proudly by it's less excited owner and her showy black-framed glasses on her nose.
"Overkill much?" Sakura sweatdropped.
"You can never get too prepared," Tsubasa lectured, "are we ready now? I want to get my dumplings before Yanna-obasan sells them all out."
"Yes, yes," Sakura sighed half-heartedly, knowing her blue-haired friend's love for dumplings and was at best the most excited emotional reaction she had ever gotten out of the girl.
"Got your potion?"
"Yes."
"Have you left anything behind?"
"No."
"Did you pay for the test tube you broke?"
"Yes, ka-chan."
"Don't call me that, I'm not your mother."
"You're acting like one, including the voice and glasses to boot," Sakura replied.
"I'M HUNGRY, FEED."
"Yes yes you dumpling brat. Bye Natsuki-san! Bye Yukine-ahou!"
The two laughed (well mainly Natsuki, Yukine was affronted to be called an idiot), at the scene where Tsubasa was 'happily' dragging an exhausted Sakura through the door, before slamming it behind them, not forgetting to shout a quick "See ya!" before running from sight.
Natsuki sighed as Yukine carefully placed a shipment of herbs on the workbench, glancing at the lovely tired woman with worry.
"Natsuki-san, are you alright?" Yukine asked, rubbing the woman's shoulder reassuringly, implying that he was here existing and if something was bothering her she might as well admit it.
"I remember the day I became a Genin, running off with my friends, waiting for what would be in store for us, dreaming," Natsuki looked down on her hands, reminiscing that painful evening, her shock and realization hours later that she was unable to accumulate chakra to heal herself, or was able to even use chakra at all.
Yukine looked away, shame-faced, due to the fact he would never be able to understand how she felt, seeing as how he never once thought of being a shinobi, being out there risking his life while many of his companions died around him. No...he didn't want that, he didn't want to make ties and letting fate shatter them. He was a coward, he admitted. He just wanted to avoid the pain of forging relationships and trusting others in fear of hurting himself even more.
Yukine jumped a few feet as he felt a hand touch his shoulder.
Natsuki smiled warmly at him, her gentle grey grey orbs beckoning the boy closer, as he did, long arms curled around his shoulders, hugging the smaller boy closer as his head settled on a comfortable position on her shoulder. A faint blush crossed his cheeks as he snuggled in the familiar scent the two Asami clan members held - both Tsubasa and Natsuki -, that tingly, homely herbal scent from hanging around plants every day. It was odd-smelling yet refreshing at the same time.
"You're like a son to me, Yukine-kun," Natsuki whispered softly, "you're like our morality chain, for both me and my daughter. Something to hold us back from losing our humanity." The boy felt Natsuki convulse as tears trickled down her cheek. At this, Yukine consciously hugged the broken woman tighter, holding his own emotions back to support his only motherly figure.
"You're like my mother, Natsuki-san," Yukine breathed heavily, his tone shaking at his words, "even more so than my own, sometimes. I was lucky enough to be taken in by you, Natsuki-san...I am very grateful for that. Thank you."
"You've always...always been a nice boy," Natsuki sniffed, her body relaxing as Yukine drew soothing circles on her back, "always defending my Tsubasa-chan whenever those brats from the Academy made fun of her or insulted her. Even though you got beat up afterwards...I think you're brave. Really, Yukine-kun."
If only you knew the extent of my 'bravery', Natsuki-san, Yukine thought grudgingly, literally self-inflicting mental words of discouragement to his head, reprimanding himself for his cowardice.
Eventually both of them calmed down after their painful moment together, and that was when Yukine realized the test tube rack on the counter. The deep red, silky solution that was supposed to be in the smallest test tube was now gone.
Yukine felt the older woman chuckle above him.
"Natsuki-san...you couldn't possibly - "
Natsuki placed a finger to her lips, winking at him, "We need to teach Sakura-chan one way or another not to mess with love, ne?"
Yukine chuckled in defeat. His retired ninja mom was still impressive after all these years.
"You're amazing, Natsuki-san."
"I know myself."
"Baka."
Shirayuki's Notes:
This took a really long time and planning for me to do! I hope all of you enjoy it (by the way poor Yukine-chan didn't manage to give his present after all)! As this story goes...it will probably go along the lines of NaruHina, SasuSaku, and OCxOC. Who knows? Be a nice reviewer and drop a review, kay? Please Follow and Favorite me! All flames will go to the trash can! All CONSTRUCTIVE criticism will remain whilst all you OMGHATERs can go read some other fanfic.
Shirayuki signing out.