Cherry Blossoms and Bloody Fangs
Chapter 1
She put the tea leaves into the kettle of boiling water before putting the lid of the kettle back on. The pink haired medical ninja sighed to herself and quickly glanced at the clock on the wall in the kitchen. Why was she so worried? Maybe it was the fact that she had not gone out with a man in a very long time. Or was it because he was a widower with a five- year old son? She glanced at her nails. The green nail polish she had applied last week was beginning to chip off and years of practising medical ninjutsu had made her hands rough. These were not the hands of a woman meant to a mother but those of a fighter. She had been fighting her entire life. First to prove herself in the academy where she was one of the few students who came from a civilian background. Following that it was ten straight years of being Tsunade sama's disciple who was not an easy lady to please. Sakura touched the purple diamond mark on her forehead which was a sign of those years spent in meticulous training.
She removed the tea kettle from the stove sensing that the tea was ready from the smell that filled the kitchen. She opened the kitchen cupboard and removed two cups and poured the tea into the cups before setting them on a tray. Sakura bit her lip when she realized that she had no food to go with tea. The only food in her house was an old ramen packet which must have been expired by now. She looks at the clock again. There were still ten minutes left. She could rush down and get something before he arrived if she was quick with it.
She checked her pocket for her wallet and was relived to find that it was there before making her way out of her apartment to the busy civilian streets of Konoha. She walked briskly to the grocery mart and scanned the aisles for something she could offer her guest. She finally decided on a packet of salted snacks and once she had paid for it made her way back to her apartment.
Sakura placed the salted snacks into a bowl and put the bowl on the tray with tea. She glanced at the clock. There were still two minutes before his arrival. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the table and crossed and uncrossed her legs waiting for him to arrive.
He was late. Sakura had heard one his junior's complaining that he had a horrible habit of being tardy. It seemed that behaviour applied to his dates as well. The tea would go cold at this rate and would start tasting funny if he was any more late.
There was a rhythmic knock at her door and she got up from the couch to open the door. He wasn't young or dashing in any sense of the words. But he had a pleasing face with a warm smile which reminded her of bonfires on a cold winter morning. He had lines under his eyes which showed how little he managed to sleep. He was still in his gear and he a laid back smile on his face which amused her.
"Sakura, this is a nice place you have." He said when she let him in.
"I'm barely here to be frank. Most of the times, I either crash at the barracks in the medical division or at Kushina's." she said while offering him the tea and the snacks.
He studied the tea in his glass before continuing, "I am a good ten years older than you. I might die tomorrow in a mission. But that made me realize that I sit too much thinking about the future and the facts. You are a strong and beautiful woman Sakura and I was taken by you the moment you entered the village meeting. I was amazed that a civilian girl had so much courage to stand up to established clan heads. It is no wonder that Tsunade took you as her student."
"I don't think being a civilian should set me apart from the rest of them. You ninjas think us civilians to be helpless and in constant need of your protection but we learn to manage. During the wars, who do you think pays for those wars? When you are out on the filed, we civilians were toiling away on the fields trying to produce enough food to send on the frontlines all the while with the fear that the enemy might strike us at any moment."
He smiled at her and she for some reason smiled back.