Sakura growled, scaring the interns who were unlucky enough to be in a five meter radius of her, as she stormed down the corridor. She highlighted every step she took with a loud stomp of her foot, hoping that in this way she would be able to create an intimidating figure, which would immediately warn everyone that coming near wasn't wise; that is, unless they had a specific wish which involved seeing what their head would look like if it was detached from their body.
Unfortunately, in true keeping with the general crappiness of the day, as Sakura stomped around the corner, hoping that she was personifying anger, she came face to face with the one person who seemed immune to such tactics.
Ino smirked at Sakura's angry look, probably enjoying the fact that she wasn't the cause of it. It had to be said that taking her anger out on somebody other than her infuriating roommate would be a nice change.
"Hey, Forehead, what's up with you? You haven't looked this mad since, well, this morning when I woke you up to the sweet sound of music." Ino smiled, a clear look of false innocence implanted on her face.
The 'music' Ino was referring to would be the whistle which she had blown right in Sakura's ear, at five that morning. Sakura had thought that the black eye she had given Ino had been perfectly justified, and was disappointed to learn that Ino's healing skills had apparently developed enough to allow the kunoichi to remove the evidence of a well placed right hook.
However compared to what Sakura had been through in, what she no longer regarded as therapy sessions, but rather a specific circle of hell, the whistle incident of that morning seemed like a minor annoyance. Something that was barely worth a reaction.
Sakura had been put on shifts at the hospital that had left her more worn out than a weeks worth of training sessions, hell she'd even been given the job of sponge bathing the elderly, which was every bit as cringe worthy as everyone imagined it to be, but never before had anything tested her patience like this.
Kakashi knew exactly how to push her buttons. More than that, he seemed to have made in his own personal mission to embarrass and anger her in as many ways as possible.
And he was damn good at it.
"Out of the way, Pig," Sakura snarled, trying to sidestep around Ino.
"Now, now Forehead, don't be like that. You know you can tell your most trusted roommate anything." Ino grinned, stepping to the side so she was in front of Sakura again.
"I'm warning you, Pig, I really had been hoping to get to Tsunade's office without bloodshed, but if you don't move out of my way, I swear to God-"
"Okay, Forehead, have it your own way." Ino replied, holding her hands up in a mocking 'I surrender' gesture, before moving out of her way again. "Luckily for you I'm hear to visit someone, and don't really have time for your temper. Just make sure you fill me in on how Tsunade kicks your ass. After all, that is what inevitably will happen when you take your temper out on someone whose anger and strength outclass yours, by a margin that isn't exactly small."
Sakura would have punched her there and then, although unfortunately it seemed that Ino had suddenly seen sense, and had evacuated the immediate area.
"I'll get the ice pack ready." Ino smirked, giving a happy wave before rounding the corner quickly.
Sakura gritted her teeth, hating the fact that Ino was right. Nothing would be achieved by storming into Tsunade's office apart from a year on midnight shifts. Tsunade's short temper mixed with her seemingly unscrupulous mind set Sakura wouldn't even put it past her to prolong her sessions with Kakashi. Sakura instead chose to take all her pent up anger and frustration out on the unsuspecting coffee machine in the staff common room.
She veered off to the right, the thought of a nice sit down and coffee lifting her mood slightly. That was what she needed; company with something that didn't make her feel as if she was turning as red as it was humanly possible to turn. However, it appeared that once again fate was against anything that would allow her blood pressure to drop to normal levels, and she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Sakura snarled, hoping that whoever had dared to interrupt her mental ramblings either had a nice, steaming cup of coffee, or Kakashi's head on a pitchfork.
"S-Sakura? Tsunade asked me to remind you that she needs your notes on today's session with K-Kakashi written up and handed in before lunch," Stuttered a nervous intern, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Apparently thinking about coffee had lifted her bad mood enough to render her "stay five meters away from me or I'll kill you" circle useless.
"And why would she possibly need those notes in today?" Sakura snapped, taking a step towards the unfortunate intern whose job it had been to deliver such news to her.
The intern gave a soft squeal and jumped back.
"T-Tsunade said you would ask this, a-and she told me to tell you that…" The intern gulped, taking another careful step back.
"Go on," Sakura said, quietly.
"She-, she, said to tell you that it's none of your damned business why she needs that report in before you go to lunch, and that she strongly suggests you waste less time arguing and more time completing the task that was given to you."
Sakura grabbed the pencil that she has been storing behind her ear and gripped it until it was nothing more than a pile of splinters, before continuing on her way to the coffee room. She heard the intern exhale, in a way that suggested she counted herself lucky to still be conscious, and then glanced down at her watch. Great, twelve forty-five. That gave her forty-five minutes to whip up a report that would satisfy her teacher.
She entered the coffee room and slammed the door. If she was going to relive the mornings trauma she wanted to get it done as quickly as possible, which meant no interruptions.
Sakura grabbed at the nearest mug and placed it under the tap that would give her, her much needed coffee. When it had filled she grabbed it, a pen and some paper and sat down at the nearest table. Taking the lid off of her pen, she began to relive the experience she had very much been hoping to forget.
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This, was what she had needed.
Sakura gave a contented sigh and allowed herself to sink even deeper into the piece of heaven that was her sofa.
It was easy to feel detached from hospital life in the comfort of her own home. Before becoming a medic Sakura had often struggled to comprehend how they managed to juggle what seemed like a constantly juxtaposing existence. They balanced using the same skills to harm as they did to heal almost daily. Although many argued that both worked towards the greater good, Sakura couldn't help but think that if they really wanted to work towards the greater good, they would share some of their healing knowledge with Suna, or Iwa. Not only could they be helping an even greater number of people, but they may even get knowledge in return, it would be mutually beneficial to all involved. It could even be a last attempt at strengthening a failing friendship.
It seemed that the alliance was unravelling. Inevitably, said some. Sakura wasn't too worried, after all, every once in a while you would hear war speculations sweep the village, most of the time with very little evidence to back them up.
It seemed that this time, however, the rumours were, at the very least, logically thought out. The higher frequency of highly skilled shinobi heading out of the village hadn't passed unnoticed by the civilians, nor had the fact that they left in groups of three or more, without any normal civilian. That, the people said, had eliminated any chance that they were simply guarding some sort of high ranking villager. Of course, Sakura had reasoned, it was always possible that they were meeting the client elsewhere.
But that didn't explain why six jounin level shinobi were being sent out per week. Although guard missions were a fairly frequent line of work for shinobi, it was very rare to get more than one Class A mission per month, not one per week. What job was requiring six of Konoha's finest man strength per week?
Sakura shook her head, causing her pink bangs to fall into her eyes. She should use her night off to relax, not reflect on rumours that would probably be forgotten by this time next week. After all, if Konoha was going to be thrown into war it was very unlikely that one of the top shinobi in the village would be sacrificed in order to attend unneeded counselling sessions.
She reached for one of Ino's trashy magazines that had been left on the coffee table. She decided, as she swept her bangs out of her face, that she would lose herself in the trivialities of whatever poor sap had been caught in some embarrassing situation in this week's issue of Gossip.
"I thought you said you didn't like my trashy magazines, Forehead." Ino walked in and plopped herself down onto the sofa next to Sakura, hot chocolate in hand.
"I don't," Sakura replied, thanking her as she handed one of the mugs over. "But you need to be reminded that there's always someone in a worse position than you are. See, like this person for example"
Sakura pointed.
"Yeah, I see what you mean," Ino said, over Sakura's shoulder. "That colour hair was not a good move on her part. Makes her look sort of washed out, don't you think?"
"I was talking about the fact that her house and all her possessions were ruined in some freak flood."
"Equally as tragic." Ino frowned. "Anyway, what's so bad about your life that you have to read about floods to put it into perspective?"
Sakura grimanced. "Tsunade decided that counselling would add to my medical experience."
Ino frowned at Sakura's obvious lack of enthusiasm. "Surely a medical geek like you would be happy to add to their knowledge whenever possible."
Sakura looked Ino in the eye. She slowly sipped her hot chocolate, never once breaking eye contact, before mumbling, "The sessions are with Kakashi."
"You are having counselling sessions with Kakashi?"
Ino let out a roar of laughter. "Wow, that really does suck. I mean, you have to be trapped in a confined space with the Hatake Kakashi for an hour a week? There has got to be a better way to spend that hour than talking."
Sakura felt her cheeks reddening at Ino's suggestive wink.
"Shut the hell up Pig. He's my former teacher. I'm not going to… seduce him when I'm meant to be healing him."
"Hey, it's only natural to connect perverted activities with Kakashi. Didn't he always tell you to look beneath the beneath? See, even that always sounded like an innuendo to me, only I could never quite work out ho- Hey, don't storm off in a mood Forehead!"
"M'not, just got something I need to do." Sakura called back over her shoulder, already in her room and shutting the door on what sounded like a muffled reply of 'It's someone's time of the month then'
Beneath the beneath…
There had to be some reason that Tsunade had assigned Kakashi to her, some sort of logic. There had to be something. Why would Tsunade force one of Konoha's elite shinobi into therapy sessions with an apprentice when there were surely thousands of other things that Kakashi could be doing to help the village? Was it simple revenge? Some sort of test? Did Kakashi really need help?
Sakura dismissed the last idea with a frown; sure the guy needed help but nothing that required counselling.
She immediatly dove under her bed, rummaging around until she had found what she was looking for.
Sakura liked to document all her medical reports for future reference, often taking the time to look back and jot down any ideas that could help solve the problem quicker or more efficiently if the same difficulty was experienced in the future. Tonight, however, Sakura wasn't playing the part of enthusiastic medical student. Tonight, if Sakura had to classify her position, she would say she was playing the part of detective.
It was easy to find the report she was looking for, it was her latest and so was on the top.
If she was going to get to the bottom of what Tsunade really meant by assigning Kakashi to her she had to start somewhere. At the very least perhaps Kakashi may have let slip something which would clue her in as to whether he knew the reason behind Tsunade's decision, or was merely a victim.
Sakura climbed onto her bed, and began to carefully reread her report; hoping that it would offer at least one clue.
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"I mean, it's really not my fault that I missed, there's a lot of pressure on when you do it for the first time," Kakashi said happily, staring up at the ceiling.
Sakura knew that she should be listening; she knew it was her duty to listen, but she just couldn't bring herself to sacrifice her poor innocent ears for the sake of, of… well, for the sake of a pervert.
"… and then some voice is screaming at you, and you don't know whether it's your subconscious telling you to try again, or the girl screaming 'are you a freakin' retard?'"
"Great, so now you hear voices as well?" Sakura deadpanned. "Isn't that the first sign of madness?"
Kakashi sat up and kneeled into a crouch, so his eye was level with hers. He then cocked his head to the side and gave an exaggerated sigh.
"They give me a councilor who can't even remember that the first sign of madness is talking to yourself."
"Perhaps you should ask for someone less incompetent then." Sakura smiled.
"And risk this beautiful bonding experience? That would be bordering on insanity"
"And God knows we need no more of that," Sakura responded, exasperated.
"Sakura-chan, was that a joke at my expense? Surely the fact that I am here has alerted you to my less than stable mental state, and yet you use this information to take advantage of your poor sensei?"
"Ex-sensei," Sakura corrected, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"And on top of all that you disown me?" Kakashi fell back so he was once again lying on her carpet
Sakura had prided herself on being the level headed member of team seven, the one who wasn't driven by any emotion she happened to be feeling that day, the one who wasn't motivated by revenge. But at that exact moment all she wanted to do was ram her fist through Kakashi's eye.
"Well, I think we've made sufficient progress…" Kakashi stood up and began to trudge towards the door.
That was the last straw in Sakura's opinion. It was bad enough she was being subjected to this joke of a session, but there was no way she was taking the blame for Kakashi's premature departure. It was at this point where her shinobi reflexes took over and she immediately found herself reaching to her left.
The stapler made a dull 'thunk' against the back of Kakashi's head, before falling to the floor.
Sakura personally found it odd that a man who could dodge fists and kunai easily was rendered practically defenseless against items of stationary. She had suspected as much the first time they had met and Naruto had dropped a board rubber on the poor man's head. She guessed that she should just be thankful that the Akatsuki weren't armed with pritt sticks and fountain pens. Though when she thought about it, kunai knives were basically hyped up fountain pen nibs.
"We still have half an hour left of this 'beautiful bonding experience.'" Sakura smiled. "Sit back down Kakashi-sensei."
Once again Kakashi held her gaze for a while before resigning to her wishes.
With a sigh and a murmur which sounded like 'ex-sensei,' he took his place on the floor again.
"So, what's your diagnosis?" he asked, his back against the wall and his eye closed, as if making a show of saying to Sakura the only reason he had stayed was for lack of anywhere else to be.
"That you're an emotionally retarded bastard who prefers porn to real human company."
After a moments thought she added, "Combined with a stationary phobia."
Kakashi lazily opened one eye, before asking, "There's actually a medical condition with those exact symptoms?"
"Yup," Sakura replied, nodding her head.
"What's it called?"
Damn…
"… Stationary-itis."
Kakashi cocked his head, "Never heard of it."
"Well of course you haven't." Sakura snapped, "Otherwise you would have presumably searched for medical help."
His response was simply to close his one eye again.
"I thought I taught you that people were predictable. Surely you haven't forgotten my lessons so soon. I have a history of refusing to seek medical attention when I have a fist through my kidney, why the hell would I seek medical attention for a condition that doesn't even exist."
"I knew you wouldn't take these sessions seriously," Sakura hissed. "Here I am with a genuine desire to help cure your illness, and you just sit there making smart arse remarks; which might I add is a side effect to your condition. And then there's your flawed argument that contradicts itself, if you don't seek medical attention for a fist through your kidney, why would you seek medical attention for a 'condition that doesn't even exist?'"
"Because it was either seek medical attention for a condition that doesn't exist, or seek medical attention for the hole Tsunade's fist would undoubtably create when she learnt that I neglected her wishes."
Sakura growled.
"Obviously," he added with a smile.
Sakura closed her eyes and counted to ten, which didn't help at all. Seeing as this was Kakashi she was dealing with she supposed a more suitable idea would be to just keep counting until the end of the session.
She couldn't help but think that these therapy sessions would lead to her spending the majority of her time in this very wing of the hospital. The time not spend with Kakashi would be spent with a shrink she would undoubtedly need to hire, purely to stop this particular pitfall in her career from leading to a premature suicide. Alternately she would end up in jail for murdering a fellow colleague.
Sakura decided she would keep her eyes closed until Kakashi decided to say something. It was the best way of ensuring her paycheck wasn't used to clean blood off of the carpet. After all she still had her half of the rent to pay, medical textbooks to pick up, a new kunai... Oh and that now much needed shrink to pay for.
It wasn't fair.
Naruto was off training with Jiraiya probably learning some amazing new techniques that he would be showcasing whenever it was that he decided to show up again, and she was stuck in a room with Kakashi talking about fake mental conditions.
Sakura mentally sighed, she had reached three hundred before her financial worries had troubled her. It looked like it would have to be her that broke the silence.
"So, I'm thinking we should deal with the phobia first, it seems the more pressing of the two. Don't get me wrong, your sexual addictions are, um, worrying but we can't have you running every time an enemy comes at you carrying a pen-"
Sakura had been slowly opening her eyes whilst talking, and the first thing that caught her attention once they were fully open was a piece of paper on he desk, where her stapler had been. It simply read,
'Finders, keepers' followed by a smiley face.
Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. He had ditched her with twenty minutes still left
She scrunched up the note and threw it into her bin
"Bastard," she hissed.
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Author's Note: Okay, so first off I'm really, really sorry about my ridiculously slow writing speed. I know, I know, there are turtles that run marathons faster than I have updated… I hope that those of you who did read last time have overlooked this incredibly irritating quality, however, and have enjoyed the second chapter. Hell, I had a whale of a time writing it XD
Secondly, a MASSIVE, MASSIVE thank you to anyone who reviewed, commented or favorited this story. If you also write on you will know how moving, and just down right awesome, it is to receive recognition for your piece of work. As always reviews are appreciated, but not compulsory.
Thirdly, I got a review from Kagomaru last chapter about chapter length. Just to say I listened to your concrit and this chapter is 1,500 words longer XD Not a huge amount longer I appreciate, but baby steps right?
Lastly, as always I am looking to improve my writing. If anyone would like to, or can recommend somebody to beta my story, I would love to hear from you. Just drop me a PM or something.
Anyway, thanks again to all you readers out there.
Smell ya later,
Sakura-L
