This one's for sayaka uzumaaki, y'alls. Enjoy C:

The Helper

The black-haired ninja smiled as she pulled the popsicles from the freezer. Yesterday, she had gone and bought some juice, meaning to merely drink them how they were, until she decided she wanted to make a popsicle, thanks to the hot day. She'd brought a few to the Hokage's office with the intention to give some to Tsunade. Turns out, Shizune didn't have a big sweet tooth, and she had added a little bit too much sugar. It had been spontaneous, but she had also added some alcohol to a few of them, which she knew Tsuande would like.

Said blonde and her new "apprentice" Sakura were currently training in the back yard. Work was slow, so Tsunade had demanded that Shizune hold the house down while she made Sakura do various exercises, showing them herself when necessary. Shizune knew what Tsunade did- she had experienced it all through her own training with the blonde. She didn't envy Sakura in that regard- Tsunade was like a drill sergeant, yelling included.

Closing the freezer, Shizune went out to the back to give Sakura and Tsunade the popsicles. She noted which ones had alcohol or not, before opening the door, TonTon following behind her. "Tsunade-sama! I made popsicles. You'll need to come in soon." She said, waving them over. Sakura drug her feet behind her, whilst Tsunade bounced over, a big smile on her face. "These ones have alcohol in them, and these don't," Shizune explained, giving one to Tsunade. Sakura smiled and took one politely. "Please come in soon- you can't let the paperwork gather up so much."

The woman put a hand on her hip and waved the raven off. "Yeah, yeah. I won't-mmm, this is delicious. Just what I needed! Why don't you eat one, huh?" She demanded.

Shizune shrugged. "I'm trying to organize a new mission to-huh?"

A hassled-looking man in a white jacket came rushing up to the group. Panting, he managed to get out, "Hokage-sama! Leiro's injured, badly! Can you assist with the surgery?"

"What happened?" Tsunade asked, suddenly all business.

"He fell off the roof…he's bleeding out, and we think his spine had damage in it, but we can't tell. He broke a leg and has many minor lacerations. He didn't hit his head, thank god, but he does have scrapes."

Sakura raised her hand, jumping up and down like an eager student. "Tsunade-sama, may I help?"

She regarded the pink-haired girl.

"Go with Shizune, and watch her. I'll go back and do...paperwork." Tsunade demanded, pointing Shizune to the man. Giving the woman the popsicles, Shizune followed him as he neatly navigated the city.

While they did so, Shizune made some small talk with Sakura. "How's your training going?"

"Oh...it's well! Tsunade works me a lot, but she says I'm improving. She said I may end up surpassing her someday! Although, it's kind of hard to imagine...she is the Hokage, after all."

Shizune laughed. "I'm sure you'll get there. All of her students have ended up as great healing ninja."

"Weren't you one of her students?" Sakura inquired.

"For a time." Shizune replied, deciding to shut down the conversation, first because they had reached the hospital, second because...that was kind of a sore topic for her. Especially around Sakura.

Half-running through the halls, they reached Leiro's room. It was true, the man was a wreck. As Shizune prepared to help stop the bleeding, while another doctor switched to taking out the little pieces of glass in his arm, she thought.

In all truth, although Shizune was a full ninja already, having passed all three of her exams with flying colors, she was technically still Tsunade's student. The blonde would, when she had the time and wasn't drinking or gambling, teach her various things, such as different fighting techniques and ways to heal and examine dead bodies to get more information on them. Although they could only do the last one when there was a dead body, which wasn't super often. However, recently she felt kind of lonely. She didn't have anyone who lived with her, unless you counted Tonton, which she didn't. Tsunade recently had mostly ignored her, or only regarded her when needed. Shizune wondered what that meant.

The more she thought about it, the less she could remember the last time she and Tsunade had hung out together, like how they used to after training, or just on a normal day. Now, she was brushed off as though she was just another annoyance. Was that what she was to the blonde? She hoped not, but if it was what she was, then so be it. The good of the villiage was important- Tsunade needed to do her work, even if she didn't want to. Still, though, it felt like a divide had been drawn. On one side of it, Tsunade stood, her back turned to Shizune. At first, she had thought the divide had only Tsunade there, drawn because of all her duties, not out of want but of necessity. Now, though, she was wondering if Tsunade wanted it there.

And she knew, on the other side, mocking her even though she didn't mean to, was Sakura.

The "prodigy" who seemed to take up all of Tsunade's time.

The "excellent shinobi" whose opinion seemed to outweigh Shizune's at times.

The bubble-gum girl who slowly eclipsed Shizune in Tsuande's eyes. She knew it was wrong to be jealous of Sakura, but the girl had everything Shizune wanted. Sakura was pretty, she was talented, and she had Tsunade's attention.

Was it wrong of her to want her friend back? Was it wrong for her to want to hang out just once in a while, even if it wasn't how it used to be?

She tried to suppress the small tear that slipped down her face, throwing herself into her task with a new vigor. But the thought has lodged in her mind. She really was lonely. Her only friend that she talked to often was Tsunade, and even then, the blonde was slipping away.

As she stitched the hurt Leiro back up, her hands shook. Sakura seemed to notice this, putting her hand on Shizune's shoulder gently. Angry, Shizune pushed the girl's hand off, focusing on the surgery.

Once it was done, she went back to the office, feeling a little bit drained. She might've ignored Tsunade, had the woman talked to her. But she didn't. Shizune merely dropped off the papers Tsunade needed to sign and left without a word. She noticed, though, as she left, only one popsicle remained. A small smile made it's way onto her face as she closed the door behind her. Even if Tsuande didn't want her, then she could still care for her. She was the Hokage, after all. If that wasn't enough reason, Shizune wasn't sure how much. Resuming her duties, brushing her hair away from her eyes, she tried to keep her mind on the small things.

Once the sky was starting to get dark, streaked with the red of the morning, Shizune started to pack up her things, ready to go to bed after a meal.

A tentative knock. "Hello?" Tsunade asked, leaning her head into Shizune's office. "Shizune! Thank god you're still here." the blonde exclaimed.

Shizune gestured to a seat. "Yeah, I am. What's up?"

Collapsing into the seat, Tsunade let out a sigh.

"Ugh, don't get me started. Missions to approve, papers to sign. Although…" She sighed again.

"What?" Shizune asked, trying not to snap at the blonde.

"Sakura seemed kind of down this morning. Sasuke leaving's really affected her." She explained.

"Ah." Shizune replied shortly. "Hey, hoped you liked the popsicles. I'm going to go." With that, she left Tsunade behind, for the first time.

She tried to keep in her tears. She wasn't sure the exact reason they fell, but she knew that she really didn't feel all that well. Sniffling, she found her way to her apartment, before flopping on her bed. She really didn't want to lose her friend. But she doubted her efforts to restore their friendship would be appreciated. Maybe tommorow when she woke up, everything would be okay again. She did have random bouts of depression sometimes, a product of a constant-work sort of attitude, but normally Tsunade would pick up on it and be able to pull Shizune out of her thoughts with an offer to go get drinks or something similar. Maybe she was just blowning everything out of perspective.

Closing her eyes, she hoped tommorow would be different…