Useless Test

Description: Yuhi Kurenai was never one to ignore a young girl crying, especially if she is a Kunoichi. Haruno Sakura is said girl, and gets some interesting advice (If it could be called advice...) from the women. OneShot. No pairings.

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Yuhi Kurenai was late for her Jonin sensei meeting.

She was fully aware of this, and under normal circumstances she would have been worried. She also would not be at the local tea shop waiting for a bunch of Dangos, had these been normal situations. But these were not normal situations, or circumstances and the young female Jonin was nonchalantly waiting in the nice tea shop, as if she wasn't late.

Most of her Jonin (And some Chunin) co-workers knew what her situation was. Hatake Kakashi, who had a tendency for being a little late. If tendency was a nicer way of saying hobby, and a little was another way of saying a lot.

Which it wasn't.

She wasn't going to wait three hours for her tardy Jonin coworker without breakfast, she had learnt that lesson already the first few times. Kurenai scowled a little as she heard the grumbling of her stomach.

The aroma of the small tea shops baked goods only made her hunger more obvious to her, and she regretted rushing out of her house, thinking she was late... As Kurenai tried to keep her self control and not stare at all the food in the shop as if she were a child, her trained ears heard something not belonging in the tea shop.

Soft sobbing.

Kurenai wondered how long the noise had been going on for as she looked for the source of it. Maybe she would need to train her ears more...

Her red eyes locked on a young girl with pink hair, in a red dress, with a leaf headband. She quickly recognized her as Kakashis student, Haruno Sakura. The young girl appeared to be sad, as she well hid her tears. (But not well enough for a trained ninja to not notice)

Feeling empathy toward Sakura, as she remembered the difficulty of becoming a Kunoichi, she decided she had enough of watching the girl cry and approached the pinkette with a "Hello."

Sakura seemed surprised at the new comer's voice, as she looked for the owner of the voice. When Sakura saw Kurenai, it actually took her a minute or two to remember who Kurenai was, and her name. It slightly offended Kurenai (since she had taken the time to remember her name) but at the same time couldn't blame her, since they saw each other very few times.

"Hello, Kurenai-Sensei." Sakura squawked finally, then she realized her cheeks were tear stained, and quickly wiped her tears. Her eyes were red rimmed showing that she had been crying seconds ago, but they weren't swollen from tears telling the Jonin that she hadn't been there for too long.

"May I sit?" Kurenai asked politely, gesturing toward the empty chair next to her. The table in front of Sakura was empty save for a glass of green tea.

"Yes. You can." Sakura said with a small smile, but it was obvious from her facial expression that she was only saying it to be polite, and did not want the young women with her in her discomfort. Nontheless, the Jounin settled into the seat, then gave Sakura a few minutes to compose herself.

When Sakura looked just about ready, Kurenai decided to say, "Are you okay?" And Sakura was going to smile and tell her everything was fine. The look Kurenai gave her told her she wouldn't believe it, and suddenly she felt silly for making such an obvious lie. But she also felt silly for the reason she was crying.

As if reading her mind, Kurenai says, "You know you can tell me. I won't think anything of it."

Sakura looked as if she wanted to tell the female Jonin.

After another few minutes, Sakura finally did, "Yesterday, Kakashi was late again for training, so, like we always do, we started training without him." Kurenai probably shouldn't have been surprised with Kakashi, but she commended them for being responsible. "When I say 'training', I mean I watch Naruto and Sasuke fist fight, hoping that they don't hurt each other too badly. By the end Naruto lost a tooth, and Sasuke was bleeding from his head. I couldn't help but scold them." Kurenai nodded. Boys often did take sparring too far.

"I guess Sasuke doesn't like being scolded or maybe I was too harsh, because he became really angry with me. He said that I shouldn't be scolding them and I should focus on trying to become less useless than I already am. Then Naruto punched him, and Kakashi finally came. I was surprised by Sasuke's words, but I didn't think too much about it. Then today I saw Sasuke on the street, so I decided I should apologize for scolding him. I did, but instead all he said to me is that he meant everything he said yesterday and that I was very useless and not worth his time."

Kurenai waited for her to continue but when she didn't Kurenai said, "I see..." She could understand how such a situation would be frustrating.

"I know I can be very useful when I need to be, but Sasuke seems to think otherwise." Sakura said sadly.

"Oh I'm sure Sasuke is wrong." Kurenai told her, and Sakura gave her a grateful look.

"I wish there was a way to prove I'm not useless." A sigh left her lips, not seeming better than she was a few minutes ago.

After a few seconds of looking at the young girls frown, Kurenai decided to say, "You know, there is a Useless test."

"Huh?" Sakura says, looking at the woman in front of her in question.

"There is a Useless Test." Kurenai says again, "It is a way to prove you are not Useless."

Sakuras attention stayed on the Jonin, wanting to know more. She had always been good with tests, studying had always come easy for her.

"Mostly everyone has taken it, many times even." Kurenai continued. The young girl had never heard about such a thing...

"Where can I take this test?" Sakura asked skeptically (She didn't quite believe there was something like that) and wanted the Jonin to stop beating around the bush.

Kurenai gave her a look, "The way one can take the test is by being told he or she is useless." Sakura soaked in this new information, as Kurenai continued without a pause. "You can do three things. The first is to pity yourself and do nothing." Sakura felt her cheeks burn as she realized that was exactly what she was doing.

Kurenai smiled knowing Sakura caught on, "The second is to admit the person was right, and do nothing about it." Sakura nodded, waiting for the final option. "The third and last, is to prove the person wrong."

Sakura was mow in thought with what Kuenai said, as a waiter approached them, letting them know that the dangos were ready. Kurenai gave a smile as she thanked the waiter, and took her bag.

"Well I have to go now." Kurenai said with a wave, and Sakura gave a small smile and nodded, still looking to be in thought, "Goodbye."

And she quickly left, forgetting that she was hungry in the first place.

Kami forbid Kakashi being there before she was.

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The End

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Hello kind people, thank you for taking the time to read. This piece of work has been edited quite a few times, and I thank CuriousReader for being so kind as to pointing out some mistakes and helping me improve my work. I would also like to thank RoastPigeon for beta-ing.

Thank you to everyone that favorites and reviews.