21. Women…
It was a rather mild day for early autumn and the sun was bathing the deserted streets of the still sleepy Konoha in a soft orange light. Everything would have been perfectly peaceful, if it wasn't for the two arguing Shinobi that didn't really seem to fit into that harmonious scene.
"Stop pushing me." The brown haired boy looked at the blonde girl, tugging him along with her, in annoyance.
It was such a drag.
He had just been about to linger around somewhere, when she came up to him fussing around like a furious chicken, asking him – no ordering him to come with her. He had tried to explain that he didn't really want to, but she just hadn't cared and now he was here.
"How about moving your feet a little, instead of just complaining about me dragging you?" Ino grumbled grimacing, but her face soon lit up, as she caught sight of another blonde girl she hadn't seen for quite a while.
"Hey, Temari-san!" she called out waving her arms in delight.
The Suna-nin turned around and was first shocked at the sight of Shikamaru and Ino holding hands, but she soon got hold of herself again and greeted them back politely, trying to behave as casual as possible.
"So you two… what are you doing here so early in the morning? Not really your time of day Shikamaru, hn?" she teased the brown haired boy who looked up at her with an annoyed expression.
"Well, it's not thaaat early and it's not like I'm here voluntary – Ino forced me."
"What?! – I didn't force you, I asked you - and being the nice and decent guy you are, you decided on not letting me go to the Uchiha-mansion on my own, right Shika?" She threw a bitter-sweet smile at him, making sure his answer was just the one she wanted to hear.
"If you say so…" he mumbled rolling his eyes, causing Temari to smile in relief.
"I see – so what are you doing in the Uchiha-mansion, anyway, Ino-san?"
"Oh haven't you heard?" Ino asked while a bright grin appeared on her face – her gossip-radar had just started to strike out. "Rumours have it – well actually it's proven already, but anyway; Sasuke-kun has returned to Konoha and at the moment his old team is living with him in the Uchiha-mansion. That's why we're heading there, because Tsunade is concerned about Sayuri's health and since Sakura is on a mission at the moment, she asked me to look after her. But I didn't really want to go there alone – would be kind of weird, I guess… and so I asked Shikamaru to come with me." Ino took a deep breath after having rattled through her whole speech in just a few seconds – she was just always so excited when gossiping, she could hardly hold back…
After a moment or two, Temari seemed to have finally grasped the contents of Ino's words and asked concernedly: "Sayuri is sick and alone with the Uchiha?"
"Seems so…" Ino affirmed, "That's why we should hurry now."
"Mind if I come with you?"
"Of course not – the more the merrier, right Shika-san?"
The Chunin whose mind had wandered to some far away place, as soon as Ino had started to talk, looked up in puzzlement at the mentioning of his name. "Huh?"
"Nara did you listen to me at all?!" Ino barked at him, the veins on her forehead throbbing violently - ready to explode.
"Of course, yeah you're right Ino." The brown haired boy speculated and the soothing of Ino's features confirmed that his guess had been right, so he breathed out in relief of having averted an impending disaster and they finally started moving again.
On their way to their destination, they chatted a lot about the oncoming Chunin-exams and even though that topic mainly concerned Shikamaru and Temari and you should guess that they would have the most to say to it, Ino was the one leading and dominating the conversation.
…
…
As they finally reached the place at which their sick friend was supposed to be, they kept standing in front of the closed door for quite a while, no one daring to knock.
"You go first." Ino turned to Shikamaru and pushed him to the front.
"Why me?"
"Well maybe because you're the only guy here, so how about standing your ground and acting manly for a change?"
'Women…' he thought rolling his eyes – it was such a drag, no matter what you do, in the end it's not good enough anyway. He sighed in annoyance and finally knocked at the door.
The three Ninjas stared at it expectantly, holding their breath in anticipation, everything was so quiet, you could have heard a feather drop, but nothing happened.
After a few minutes of waiting, Ino grew impatient, so she pushed Shikamaru back and was now right in front of the door.
"You're good for nothing – can't even knock a door properly." Ino grumbled at Shikamaru and knocked at the door hardly, feeling slightly uneasy that there had been no reaction yet, neither by Sasuke nor by Sayuri, but then about a few moments later, the door was finally opened a crack.
"Hn?" The man, who answered the door, was left completely in shadows, giving him a gloomy and kind of dangerous air, making the three shinobi swallow hard.
"S-Sasuke-kun." Ino stumbled, smiling sheepishly, before letting her eyes wander over his half-hidden silhouette, to make out if it was really him and whether he had changed or not.
The Uchiha merely glared at them, since they were just standing there, staring at him, but not doing anything, until Shikamaru poked Ino in the rips, waking her from her temporary trance.
"Ah right, um Sasuke-kun we are supposed to look after Sayuri, is she here?"
"Hn." He merely stated, scrutinizing them again, before turning back inside and leaving the door slightly ajar behind him.
"Seems like he is still the arrogant bastard he used to be…" Shikamaru mumbled under his breath as soon as the Uchiha was gone, earning him gestures of approval from the girls to his side. After exchanging a short glance, the three Shinobi nodded at each other and decided to go after Sasuke, at last.
When they entered the corridor, they could scarcely see him vanish in one of the numerous rooms, belonging to this large hallway, so they went after him.
As soon as they had entered the room, they could see the trembling, heavily breathing girl, who was apparently asleep and the Uchiha, leaning at a wall on the opposite side of the room, who had his eyes fixed firmly on his team mate and didn't even so much as look up as they entered the room.
'Man he sure hasn't changed, he was and still is an asshole… but a hot one', Ino thought to herself blushing slightly before she turned to the girl on the floor, a worried expression rising on her face.
"This doesn't look good" she stated and started a brief examination.
"What is it?" Temari asked her in concern, seating herself next to Ino.
"She has a high temperature – and her breathing doesn't sound well, too." Ino mused before she stroked the cheek of the whimpering girl and tried to wake her up gently, but without any success.
"Help me lift her up and hold her in a sitting position." The medic-nin directed at Temari before turning to the two male-beings in the room.
"Everyone with a penis, please turn around or leave the room." She ordered, causing the two men to frown simultaneously at her choice of words.
Shikamaru obeyed at once, he left the room and took a seat in the corridor in front of it. Sasuke however didn't even move so much as the fragment of an inch and still had his eyes rested on the sick girl.
"No penis?" Ino asked with a leer appearing on her face, sizing the Uchiha up.
"Tze." The clan-heir grunted before he turned around and directed his gaze out of the window like he so often did.
"Allright." Ino grinned at Temari who couldn't help but to smirk as well.
"Lift up her shirt." The Iryonin demanded and rested her head on the girl's heart, checking her heartbeat for irregularities, before walking around her to auscultate her back too.
"Her lung is congested with phlegm…" she stated, before forming a few finger-signs and resting her now green glowing hands on the girl's chest.
"Sasuke-kun, do you know anything about the course of her disease?"
"Like what?" The raven haired man said after a moment of silence – the first real words this day, Ino thought to herself, before answering his question.
"Like did it spread gradually or rapidly?"
"…gradually." He merely stated not going into details, causing Ino to roll her eyes in annoyance.
"Soo… how did it start?"
He sighed irritated; he didn't really like wasting so much time on answering their stupid questions. "Don't know."
The blonde girl was quite furious about his attitude, but she figured that asking him wouldn't bring them any further, so she just let it be, deciding that the information she had already gained, would be enough for an accurate analysis, so she checked Sayuri's pharynx again, before finally making her diagnosis, with a serious look on her face.
"She has an acute bronchitis – it must have started with a cold, that got worse over the time and then her bronchial mucosa inflamed, leading to the fever. I'll perform a jutsu to reduce the phlegm and lower the fever a bit – that's all I can do for her at the moment. She'll have to take antibiotics, but then she should be fine soon."
Ino sighed before performing the Jutsus she had spoken of before.
As soon as she was done, she turned to Sasuke and explained: "Sasuke-kun? Since you are the only one here, you have to take care that she takes her medicine three times a day. Can you do that? At least until the others come back?"
"Hn." He just stated, still not turning around.
"I take that as a yes. I'll come around later and drop off the medicine. That's about it then – let's go Temari."
The Suna-nin, who had all the time been holding her friend absentmindedly, flinched as she heard her name and let down the girl in her arms. She stroked a last time across her forehead, before she got up and walked out of the room with Ino, meeting up with Shikamaru, who sat rested against the wall, apparently asleep.
With a malicious sneer on her face Ino poked the boy with her foot, causing him to start up in surprise.
"Huh?!" He snorted, looking at the two girls.
"We're leaving." Temari grinned at his befuddled facial expression.
…
…
"So, how is she doing?" Shikamaru enquired as soon as they were outside again.
"Pretty bad, but she'll make it." Ino replied with a concerned expression. "I'll go and get her some medicine from the hospital; she should be fine then in about four days or something."
"That's good…" Shikamaru said, as he walked through the streets with his arms crossed behind his head, observing the clouds as was his habit, until he was again interrupted in his thinking by some fingers, being waved in front of his face.
"Spacing out again?" Temari asked him with an impish grin on her face.
"Huh?" He merely stumbled flabbergasted.
"I asked you twice already when we meet to start the preparations for the Chunin exams?"
"Ah… I don't care – whenever you like." He said indifferently, not seeing the girl next to him frown, due to his I-don't-give-a-damn--attitude.
"Fine then" she replied with a diabolical sneer, "Then I suggest we meet tomorrow 6.00 a.m. in front of my hotel. Okay?"
"What? No!"
"But you said whenever I like." She reminded him, her grin growing wider each passing second and no matter how much he was begging, she wouldn't grant him that favour and stayed obstinately to her words; reminding the Nara of how annoying disgruntled women could be.
…
…