A/N: Kettobase is a great writer in general, because there's a second fanfic called Dragonfly, with an Uchiha OC called Rika, and she is hilarious. I have probably read that one just about five times. Also, an anon specifically requested I write something for that story, so I definitely made sure to have fun reading it again, now that it's finished, too.
"...Junichi, are you confessing to me?"
"No!" He denied quickly, insistingly. He knew full well what happened to people he did, and he didn't want to be part of the gossip network of the hospital, not even if it got a date with her. She was too young for him, even if she acted somewhat... Not-young. It was the only way he could explain that one. "I'm just saying we should hang out! As friends!"
"Then what do you want to do?" She was grinning, now, which seemed a prelude to many bad things, if their previous time out was any indication. "Because I have a few-"
"Lunch!" He blurts out, because her suggestions are weird and troublesome and not at all what a normal friend would suggest. It's like she enjoys making trouble, which he doesn't. Sort of. So. Lunch. "Let's have lunch at that new place?"
"That's boring, though," Rika complains. "Are you sure we can't instead just-"
"I-I don't have time for anything exciting?" It's a half-hearted try, and he's sure she's going to somehow get him to agree to something more exciting, but she deflates and then nods, with a grin.
"Lunch it is," It's weird, but sort of relieving, so he doesn't question it and mumbles out a good time for them to meet outside of the place. It's not like she's not allowed to act a little strange. Hadn't she lost someone recently? And wasn't she taking time off from the hospital? It was fine for her to act a little strange, expected really.
It was okay for her to seem a little sad and lost as she agreed to meet him in three days.
But Junichi never got to try to cheer her up and help her like she'd done for him in the first place. Because the day of their agreed upon meeting, the word of a massacre went around, and when he stood there waiting for her, the only part of her that reached him, was the connection of her last name to the deaths of many Konoha villagers.