Disclaimer: The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of Naruto.
To The Heart
By Rikayu
Chapter Three: Late
His eyebrow twitched.
She was late.
It wasn't uncommon for his training partner... but the sun had already sunken below the horizon and the stars were starting to poke out of the darkness of the sky. By then, Neji had been waiting there for four hours. Even Hatake Kakashi wasn't this late.
An hour or so passes and he decides that Sakura was not going to show up. Neji then heads home.
This same process, however, continues on for another couple of days until it becomes obvious that something strange is up. A quick visit to Konoha's hospital reveals that the pink-haired kunoichi hasn't showed up to work for several days. Even the Godaime hasn't heard from the girl at all.
Neji dismissed it and continued on with his afternoon exercises alone. Until that is, he drops by at the infirmary for a routine check-up to find that a shy, black-haired girl had replaced his usual medic. Later that day, Neji found himself blinking down at a pink tuft of hair sticking out of a mass white blankets.
A terrible cough resounded in the air as the pink strands disappeared under the blankets. Slowly, two legs poked out and swung to the side of the bed. As the tips of toes touched the wooded surface of the floor, the bundle of blankets rose to reveal a very sick looking Sakura. Her hair was in utter disarray, sticking in all directions. Her skin was pale and cheeks were flushed with fever.
"H-Hyuuga?" The girl blinked groggily, dark circles marking the bottoms of her eyes.
"What are you doing here?" she jumped up, pointing a finger towards him while to other hand held the blankets tightly around her body. But the disbelief and shock in her eyes all too quickly waned as her exhaustion took hold of her. Her knees buckled and Sakura fell forward.
Neji immediately caught her and felt as her body sagged heavily into his arms. Kicking the blankets away from his feet so he could get a better grip on her, he hoisted her up and laid her down in the bed. He then disappeared into another room of the apartment and returned moments later with a clean blanket, a small basin of water, and a hand towel.
She was shivering and tiny beads of sweat lined her face and neck. And as Neji moved to cover her with the new blanket, Sakura turned in her bed and buried her face in her pillow, releasing hard coughs one after the other. After her coughs subsided, Neji pulled a chair towards her bed and sat down.
The next day, Neji Hyuuga, surprisingly, didn't show up for his ANBU meeting at all.
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