Neighbours

Eight hour shifts were awfully short when twelve hour shifts were the norm.

Konoha at 01500 was quite lively. The villagers were shopping in the marketplace and it was berry season, evident by the dyed-lips of the children. Purple, red and pink.

The warmth of the sunlight brought in a wave of endorphins when the rosette's eyes glittered in light.

It sure seemed like a good day to train.

Making her way down to the training grounds, reminiscent of all those years building her strengths with team seven, had her peering to the trees knowingly. The scratches in the bark and smashed boulders had her flooded with nostalgia. The jade eyes softened as the pads of her fingers spanned across the scars upon the rocks.

Slowly she reached into her pocket compartment and found her gloves. Pulling them on, she focused her chakra. Jade eyes narrowed at the lop-sided boulder. Her core tightened, breath slow and deep. Heel grinding into the dirt, Sakura grew into her battle stance.

Bursting into a sprint, the rosette leapt into the warm breeze and released a burst of chakra that shattered the boulder and split the ground. Landing briskly, Sakura sprinted to her left and threw another punch to a large tree branch. Splitting the bark from the rest of the tree, Sakura round house kicked the tree trunk and skidded to a stop.

A slight grin made its way onto her face and she took refuge beneath another tree and began slow breathing.

She was blessed with amazing chakra control. With a mere twitch of her eyebrow, she sent chakra vibrations into the ground, making selected pebbles roll off into a puddle. The satisfying ker-plunk of rock to water had her smiling.

However, not for long.

The hidden presence of an ANBU ninja had faltered for only a split second and she caught it.

Eyes fluttering open, she knew it could narrow it down to a few things...

A blur of blue flashed across the field. ANBU often followed Sasuke during his time of 'freedom.' It was, indeed between 1000 and 2300—Sasuke's grace period.

She thought about it. Sakura could greet him, ask him about his day, maybe gloat in his face about being able to de-clog his drain a few days ago when he couldn't but she knew Sasuke. And he probably thought she was going to get in the way of his training. Usually she would fight for her time because technically she was there first and it was her right to use the grounds... then she thought about water training at the lake and settled on the fact that rock smashing could wait for another day.

Spinning on her heel Sakura proceeded toward the forest opening. Not a second later a low monotone voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Sakura!"

Hm.

Turning around once again, Sakura greeted the boy that flashed a meter before her. She blinked clearing the dust from her eyes.

"Sasuke, hey. I didn't notice you here!" Voice flooded with bad lying, the Uchiha's eye brow rose in skeptical manner.

I'm such a genius.

"Right." Sasuke was frank, "a few days ago, you managed to drain the water from my apartment. Tell me how you did that."

"Did what?"

"Mold the pipe with your hand... and how you unclogged my drain." Imagining back a few days, dislodging the dense drain plug had been a simple feat for the rosette, but now that she looked back upon the incident, it must have looked like she honed some sort of super power.

She hypothesized that he made it to the grounds just as she finished blowing things up.

"Sakura, the drain clog and filter weighed as much as you."

"I'm not that heavy!" Sakura held her weight on her left hip the way Tsunade does and grinned, "Looking for pointers are we?"

She never thought she'd see the day. Sasuke was looking to her for technique advice? Praise all the Ninja Gods, Hallelujah, Sasuke wanted help from her!

Sasuke scowled. It probably hurt his pride coming to her for an answer. Looking for a way to around the question, Sasuke thought hard about detouring his response without teetering his pride.

"I don't teach for free, you know."

"I was only curious," Sasuke then decided to say, "I didn't expect that from you."

Taken aback slightly, Sakura hid her growing annoyance, "So what did you expect?"

He seemed to sigh, "Don't get defensive. I just wanted to know what trick you pulled."

Trick?

"Magic tricks aren't really my specialty, Sasuke. If you wanted a joke go find Naruto; he's full of 'em."

"That's not what I meant. How could I believe that you molded a metal pipe in your hand. I didn't see any hand signs nor did you didn't say anything."

She could indeed show him. With her fist. Full of chakra. In his face.

Okay, relax.

Releasing the air in her lungs, she exhaled and calmed her anger. This was fine. She could cope. Sasuke didn't know any better. His social IQ was probably negative something after escaping and killing Orochimaru.

"We'll just leave that to your imagination then."

Sasuke backed away. "Whatever."

There was an odd silence. Both awkward and defiant where the one who spoke first was the weaker one, but the one who didn't had not enough courage. This game was a sensitive one and Sakura peered from under her lashes, lips pursed as if the next thing she was going to say was a swear word.

Sasuke looked cool, aloof. Despite stepping back he seemed to have no intention of walking away.

The silence was deafening. Not even the wind came to offer them a sound.

"When-will-you-be-home?" Both lips moving, they suddenly spoke quickly in unison.

Sakura flinched as Sasuke's eyebrow rose.

"Yeah," Sakura started again, "just be home before dark. You have a meeting with the council in the morning.

"And you," Sasuke stalled, "It's dangerous after dark."

Sakura nodded tersely, "Right. I'll try not to bring any serial killers home with me... If I can help it. See you at home."

She hadn't even let him say anything before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Frowning slightly, Sasuke stared at the spot where Sakura had just stood.

Sakura was once again at the village market. Biting her lips, she knew she needed water therapy. Slinking passed the villagers, the rosette started in a bee-line to the lake near Naruto's home.

The hair on the back of her neck started to horripilate.

As if a cloud of thunder clouds were rolling in above her head, she felt a looming presence of force she did not want to reckon with.

"Hey forehead! Stop right there!"

Sakura felt the shock run its course through her body before she turned around to greet Ino with an innocent smile. "Yes, Ino. Can I help you?"

Ino circled Sakura like a vulture. Her smug face full of disbelief had Sakura awaiting her punishment for a reason she didn't know.

"Why am I hearing from my customers that you're seeing someone? Why haven't I heard it from you?"

Ah, shit.

Hands up in a defensive gesture Sakura tried to reason back, "Hey, I get it. I should have told you about Ryuu as soon as he asked me out. I broke girl rule number one: chicks before di—"

Ino's eyes widened suddenly. "Ryuu, huh? Cute brown haired hunk? The one from the ANBU squad?"

"You know him?"

Ino dropped her scary facade and threw an arm around her best friend, "Duh. I know all the hotties in this village. It hurt a little bit when you didn't come gushing to me about him. What gives?"

"I've been busy! I mean I haven't seen anyone except...my patients and Sasuke, really."

"Ah. Sasuke eh? How's being his nurse and neighbour, hm? Been fooling around after curfew?"

"Ino you're crazy. Personal space, please!"

"As if!" Ino released her hold on Sakura and turned to scold, "Girl rule number two: if you ain't speaking, I'm prying!"

Ino pulled Sakura beneath the banner of Ichiraku's noodle hut.

"I was on my way to train! Ino!"

"You and I both know training was the second thing on your mind. If you actually did want to train you would have held your own and fought for your right to use those training grounds. But you ran away. Why?"

"But Ino! How did you know I was there?"

"Hush, hush. I know everything. Impromptu lunch is happening. You, my friend, are going to spill!"

Now, what Sakura didn't know was that Ino was especially keen to the woes of romance. Ever since Sasuke came barging into the Yamanaka flower shop asking harshly about the whereabouts of the rosette, Ino knew for a fact the ice cube of an Uchiha was going to get thawed in the name of love.

"You spill first. That's creepy, Ino. I didn't even know I was getting off early today..."

"Relax. You can take the rest of the day off. I'm pretty sure those nice rocks want to live to see another day. And don't even think about going to the lake; the village is building a new port and for the mean time, that body of water is outta commission."

"You're attention to detail is out of this world, Pig." Letting out a sigh of defeat, Sakura agreed to the date with Ino. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

After ordering, Ino spun a gold lock around her finger, "For starters, did he send you chocolates or flowers?"

"Flowers."

"Ah, good!" Ino squealed, "What kind?"

"How should I know? I would have preferred the chocolates, "Sakura deadpanned.

"Hm..." Putting a thoughtful finger to her chin, Ino pursed her lips. "Something bothering you? You do like Ryuu, right?"

"Well of course I like him. He's sweet, thoughtful, considerate, funny. He talks, need I say more?"

"Opposite of Sasuke, eh. Tell me more."

"It's only been one date! I'm not sure how I feel about him yet. I just know that I don't mind him."

Ino dropped her chopsticks into the bowl. "You don't mind him? What is he, your hamster? Okay, okay, rewind. Where was your first date?"

The more Ino pushed, the more Sakura didn't want to answer. Was it possible that she didn't want to talk about Ryuu as if saying the very words would continue to make her relationship with Ryuu even more evident in the world?

Sure, she wasn't hiding anything but she didn't want to make it a bigger show than it was.

"The grill house." Sakura replied hesitantly, "We talked, had a few drinks. It was fun."

"What else?"

"Well when Sasuke and Naruto showed up, he did offer to buy us all drinks. That was nice of him."

As if choking, Ino spit out the water that she had been drinking.

Making a face, Sakura commented with, "Girl, you're gross."

"Sasuke was there?"

Sakura's eyes were wide, "Why? What's wrong."

Ino picked her chopsticks and resumed eating. "Nothing, nothing. There was just a fly in my glass. Mister! I need a new glass of water!" Ino called.

"You're acting weird, Pig. Don't tell me you've finally made a move on Shikamaru."

"Hah! I'm coming over tonight and I'll spill. Down?"

A smirk crept up the rosette's face. "Ah, so I wasn't the only one hiding something. You owe me a juicy story later."

"I'll bring the wine!"


Sakura ended up at the library that afternoon. Her readings were starting to build up on her so she got straight to work reading up on electrolyte imbalances and acute kidney failures.

She might as well. Ino finished her shift at the flower shop at 2200 which meant a good five or so hours until her friend was going to meet her at her house.

In the grand space of the Tsunade's library, Sakura occupied the main desk in the middle of room and was quite satisfied with the amount of work she did do today. Her mind was in for a push. Only a hundred more pages until she was done this chapter and she couldn't wait. Reading up on signs and symptoms of hypernatremia, hyperkalemia, hypercalcemia was getting pretty tedious.

Eventually her mind started to venture.

How did she really feel about being in a relationship with Ryuu?

Ino's interrogation had her actually putting her relationship with Ryuu into perspective... and it scared her.

After all, it had only been the first date; who knows maybe he wouldn't call her back.

Wait—was she wanting him to not call her?

Shaking her head, Sakura hissed at the page, "Damn it! Everything puts you in a coma! No more salt for anyone!" Turning the page over, Sakura's jade eyes scanned the surface of the paper, taking in every word, comma, every use of the word hyperglycemia.

No matter how hard she tried, the focus wouldn't let off the thought of Ryuu.

I do like him.

He has a nice smile.

He bought me beer?

Do I love him?

Maybe not yet.

Will I ever?

Okay, this isn't working. What would Ino say?

"Quit throwing a hissy fit! Do you want him in your life for the next few years or not?"

"Well..." Sakura said out loud, resting her face against her fist.

He'd be good as a friend...

There she said it. The dreaded F-word.

Slamming the book shut, Sakura stood up abruptly and headed for the flower shop.


Heart racing, hair bouncing in a frenzy as her hurried steps took her closer and closer to her best friend, the rosette hoped Ino had already gotten the wine.

The darkening sky, turning a deep purple had a deepening response on her mood. Could she be rejecting the thought of him already? Was she just being an emotional girly-girl—high strung, viciously attacking her relationship at all angles before it even started?

She needed answers and Ino always had them.

Reaching the window of the shop, Ino had to squint at the silhouette pressed up the glass of her shop window. Ino raised an eyebrow and motioned for the rosette to enter.

"Thank you for shopping with us today! Come again soon for your fun floral needs!" Ino rang the last customer out and then turned her attention to the sweat drenched kunoichi.

"You missed me that bad, you had to come running?" Raising an eyebrow questioningly, Ino moved the blonde fringe from her eyes.

"Ino!" Sakura exclaimed, "I said it! I said the F-word!"

Without missing a beat, Ino gasped, "Friends? Are you sure?"

A hurried nod set Ino into throwing the label maker into the drawer. "I'm closing the shop." Throwing soil into the pots and locking up the register, Sakura confided in the fact that Ino was doing all this for her.

"You're closing early? Ino, you shouldn't!"

"Nonsense," Ino grabbed Sakura by the arm—her other hand carrying a fancy wine bag, "flowers can wait. And besides, girl, you need a major life intervention."


;I have a soft spot for mushy girl-friend relationships. Skin me, I don't care.

Let me know how you like it or not! Any thoughts, feelings, sensations?

Autumn Letter