Chapter 3
Sasuke's POV
The next morning Sasuke woke up feeling utterly exhausted. He and Naruto had a long spar which normally wouldn't have been too bad, but his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of the pinkette. It caused him to let his guard down and get hit a few times. After their session, he and Naruto called it a day and he returned to Kakashi.
Until he found his own place, he would be staying with Kakashi in the hokage quarters. However, he was mistaken when he thought he would have some time to think in silence because that man had strange habits and visitors. He was kept up all night with Kakashi's antics and it left him drowsy.
He sluggishly got out of bed and made his way to the kitchen for some tea. This proved to be unsuccessful as Kakashi was lying face down on the counter in what looked to be tight purple velvet shorts and handcuffs. Now with his appetite thoroughly ruined, he decided to just skip breakfast all together and head to the hokage tower.
Kakashi had told him yesterday that he would be assisting him with hokage paperwork and other missions within the village. He walked into the office to see Shikamaru already sitting at a desk working. He looked up and gave Sasuke an almost disappointed look.
"I was hoping you would be Kakashi. I need him to sign off on all these documents."
"I don't think Kakashi will be in for a while." His mind flashed back to those velvet shorts and he shuttered in disgust.
"Figures." Shikamaru sighed. "Okay, over there are all missions that need to be categorized into different ranks. Once you finish, you can give out only the D rank missions to any of the genin teams; the rest need to be assigned by the Hokage. If there are any leftover D ranks, then you'll have to finish them off."
"Why do I have to do them?" He asked slightly annoyed.
"Because technically you're still a genin." Shikamaru said with a grin as he left the office.
Fuck my life. This morning was not going how he wanted. At this rate, he would probably be stuck with chasing that goddamn cat again. He sat down and grabbed a scroll from the pile.
Hours later, all the missions had been organized, and he had given out all but two missions to the genin teams. He had waited a while just in case any of the teams came back but no luck. He picked up the last two scrolls to see what he was working with.
Scroll 1: Helper needed to rake leaves from Mr. Nakamura's yard.
Scroll 2: Helper needed to move medical equipment within hospital.
His eyes scanned the rest of the second scroll until he came to the bottom where it read:
Report to Dr. Sakura Haruno
Well, that settled that. He wrote a note to Kakashi and Shikamaru and headed towards the hospital. Thankfully Naruto had shown him how to get to her office yesterday or else he would have been completely lost. The hospital was like a huge maze.
He stopped outside her door and knocked firmly and waited. No answer. He knocked louder. Still no answer. He opened the door and peaked inside but it was empty. Letting himself in, he got a better chance to actually look at her office.
Both sides of the walls were bookshelves neatly organized with different medical books. Her desk was in the back stacked with different files. On the right side of the room was a couch and on the left side was an examination table. There were no pictures, no decorations, or anything indicating Sakura's new personality. She was becoming very difficult to read.
He made his way to the bookshelves when the door burst open and the pinkette came rushing in. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she was yelling at someone through her earpiece.
She grabbed a red file from her desk and flipped through its pages. "NO I SPECIFICALLY SAID NOT TO GIVE HIM ANY ANTIBIOTICS WITH SULFONAMIDES. HE'S ALLERGIC!" A pause. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I'M LOOKING AT HIS CHART RIGHT NOW!" Another pause. "GIVE HIM A CORTICOSTEROID BEFORE HE GOES INTO ANAPHLACTIC SHOCK AND DIES!"
She turned off the earpiece and groaned. "Imbeciles. I told them three times." She muttered to herself.
Sasuke just watched in amusement. He waited but she still hadn't noticed he was in the room. He cleared his throat loudly.
Sakura screamed and threw her clipboard and file at him. "Sasuke! You scared the shit out of me!"
"I just cleared my throat." He said struggling to hold in his laughter.
She rolled her eyes and starting picking up the fallen papers. "Anyways, what can I do for you?"
He handed her the scroll. "I'm here to move a bunch of medical equipment."
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't ask."
"Okay, well follow me." She led him down a few hallways and to a large supply closet. "Okay, all of these boxes have our new medical equipment for the new building. It just finished construction so we need you to move them all over there."
He nodded and grabbed a box. He was hoping to talk to her a little bit on their walk over to the building, but this was utterly impossible because anyone that saw her would try and talk to her. It was all "Good morning, Dr. Haruno" or "Can you look at this Dr. Haruno?". They finally made to the new building and he hadn't said one word yet.
"Okay you'll set all of the boxes in this room here. You don't have to worry about unpacking anything, just leave them here."
He nodded. "So—" he started.
"Hey Sak!" said another man walking into the room.
What the fuck? Sak? He thought to himself.
"Hey Kenji!" Sakura said with a smile. "Sasuke, this is Kenji. He's one of the respiratory doctors. Kenji, this is Sasuke. He's my pack mule for the day."
He shot the pinkette a glare.
"Nice to meet you." He said with a smirk. Sasuke hated him already.
He was a decently good-looking guy. He had light brown hair and golden eyes. They had to be close if he had a given her a nick-name, and that just made him hate the man even more.
"Anyways, when you finish Sasuke, just come back to my office." Sakura said.
He nodded back.
She and Kenji started walking out when he heard them talking again.
"So, what are you doing after your shift today?" the man asked.
Sasuke nearly dropped the box. He listened for her answer but they were too far to hear anything.
Shit. He's going to ask her on a date. He started working quickly to move the boxes. He needed to get back to her office and talk to her once and for all.
About two hours later, he finally finished moving all the boxes. He must have looked like a lunatic running back and forth but he didn't care. He made his way back to her office and entered. She was sitting at her desk going through paperwork as he came in.
"There you are! You took forever, I thought you might have gotten lost in the hospital." She said standing up.
"What do you mean?! The storage closet was filled with boxes; it took forever to go back and forth." He said exasperated.
"You didn't use any shadow clones?" she said cocking her head to the side.
". . ."
Sakura started to laugh.
Goddamn it Sasuke. Think for once. He pinched the bridge of his nose and went and sat down on the couch. He was so exhausted and he still had to finish his other mission.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" Sakura called out.
A nurse came in carrying a large bag. "These were delivered for you Haruno-san."
"Thank you, Yuki!" Sakura collected the bags and the nurse left. She set the bag down and started pulling out containers of food.
He caught a scent of something and his stomach decided to betray him and growl. Sakura looked at him and laughed. He could feel his face heating up. "Sorry, I haven't eaten."
"I know. Kakashi said you left without breakfast so I got some lunch for the both of us." She said handing him a container and chopsticks.
"Thanks." he said accepting the food.
She sat on the ledge of the desk and they began to eat. He looked up and decided to finally talk to her.
"So, how are you?" he said.
"Fine." She replied taking another bite.
"…That's it? That's all you're gonna give me?"
She grinned. "I'm just giving you a taste of your own medicine."
He scowled at her.
"If you really wanna know, you're going to have to tell me about you too."
"Fine."
"Fine." She echoed back.
"Tch. You're annoying."
She laughed. "I'm glad to see that your insults haven't changed."
God. She's impossible.
"Okay I'll start since I know you're shy."
His eye twitched.
"Since you've left, I decided to take measures to reform the hospital. I opened different departments so that patients can get specialized care. Then I took on the medical director position and it's been work non-stop. There are a lot of little details that I didn't realize went on behind the scenes but it's all been worth it."
He nodded. "This place is so much bigger than what I remember. It's impressive that you're in charge of it all."
She grinned. "What about you?"
Where to even begin? "My journey was…difficult." He started. "It took me a long time to process the severity of what I had actually done. I looked back and I couldn't even believe how revenge driven I was. And when I finally got my revenge, it didn't even matter. Everything I knew was a lie. I didn't belong anywhere, I felt so lost, and there was nothing driving me anymore. I traveled to so many different villages, and the people that did recognize me, hated me. And all I could think was that I deserved it."
He looked up and met her eyes. They didn't speak for a second. She looked like she was hesitating on asking him something.
"How do you feel being back in Konoha?" she asked finally.
"It's…different. But nice. I feel like I have a home."
She smiled and nodded satisfied with his answer.
"Can I ask you something?" he said.
"Go for it." She said putting down her empty container.
"How did—" he was cut off.
Two nurses burst into the room. "Haruno-san, we need you for emergency surgery!"
She jumped off the desk and grabbed her coat. "I'm sorry Sasuke! We'll have to continue later!"
He nodded. "Don't worry, go ahead."
She left the room with the two nurses leaving him alone in her office again. He finished his food and disposed of both of their containers. Once he was satisfied that her office was clean again, he wrote a note saying 'Thanks for the food.' and left.
Although it wasn't much, he was glad they talked. She seemed so different from before; at first, he thought it might be bad, but now he was realizing that wasn't the case. She was so much more confident now. It was attractive, but he wasn't going to lie that he was a little intimidated. She made him nervous, but that just intrigued him more. He needed to know more about new Sakura.