Chapter 9

Sasuke's POV

When Sasuke got to the tower that morning, he expected there to be mountains of paperwork waiting for him, but he was pleasantly surprised. He walked in to find Naruto organizing files into cabinets.

"You're here early." He announced to the blond.

Naruto jumped. "Geez. You scared the shit out of me."

Looking closer, he could see that Naruto had dark circles under his eyes.

"I got here super early to do some paperwork."

He raised his eyebrow.

Naruto sighed. "I want Kakashi to take me seriously about being Hokage. Sometimes I think he thinks I'm still that immature kid from academy. I just want to show him that I can do even the boring stuff."

"You're worrying too much. Everyone, including Kakashi, knows you're going to be the next Hokage." He reassured.

Naruto just nodded. "Also, I'm sorry about taking all your work, but I think I'm just going to start doing it, if that's fine with you."

"That's fine. That's less I'll have to do." He turned to leave. "If you do need me, I'll be on the training grounds."

"Are you learning a new jutsu?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Aa, some medical ninjutsu. Sakura's training me later."

A giant grin rose on the blonde's face.

"What?" he questioned.

"Is there something going on between you and Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked raising his eyebrows up and down.

Sasuke didn't even know what to say to that. He opened his mouth to speak but Kakashi and Shikamaru walked into the office. While Naruto proudly showed his finished work to them, he took that opportunity to silently leave; however, he couldn't help but think of what Naruto had asked him.

Sasuke spent the rest of the morning training and then made his way to the hospital a few minutes before noon.

He first checked Sakura's office, but she wasn't there. He quickly made a mental reminder to return her office key back. He was walking to the training room when he saw Ichiro.

"Hey Ichiro." He called out.

The young medic stopped. "Oh hello there. You're Dr. Haruno's um …"

"Friend." Sasuke finished.

"Right. Sorry I didn't know if you two were…um…ah nevermind." He said scratching his head in embarrassment.

First Naruto and now him.

"How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Sakura was?" he asked.

"I last saw her with Shoto and Mai in the children's hospital."

"Thank you." He said and turned to leave. On the walk over, he wondered if his and Sakura's interactions had changed. It couldn't be a coincidence that both Naruto and Ichiro asked about their relationship. He just hoped no one was asking her questions.

Entering the hallway, he saw Shoto and Mai's room door slightly open. He peaked his head in and the two kids looked up from their game. Sakura was nowhere to been seen.

"Hey mister! Can you teach me how to throw this?!" Shoto said running over to him. In his hand was a plastic shuriken.

Sasuke entered the room and saw the extent of their game set up. Pillows were located in all corners of the room with coloring pages taped on. The pages had "evil" faces scribbled on, and they were using them as target practice.

"Okay, first show me what you got." He said crossing his arms. He could play along with their games.

Shoto picked up a plastic shuriken and weakly threw it at a pillow target. It didn't even reach halfway before hitting the ground. He turned towards Sasuke with a frustrated look.

Something was wrong. He knew Shoto was putting all his might into the throw, but he had no strength. Sasuke had expected him to at least hit in the vicinity of the target. Looking at the little boy, he saw that his face was slightly paler than last time he had saw him. Sasuke looked at Mai and she looked worse.

He looked around their room and saw that their food was sitting untouched on their trays.

"I know what's the problem." He said to both of them.

"What is it?! What is it?" both of them shouted.

"You guys need to eat your food so you can have enough energy to throw the shuriken." He said simply.

They looked at each other unsure.

"Food will keep you nourished and healthy. That's the only way you'll be able to hit the target." He said hoping they would just believe him and eat.

Mai whispered something into Shoto's ear and he nodded.

"Okay fine." He said. They both climbed into bed and Sasuke pulled their trays closer to them.

Sasuke could tell they were basically forcing themselves to eat, especially Mai. She was picking around her plate. He sat down next to her.

"You have to eat a little bit." He said gently.

"I'm not hungry." She said not looking up at him.

He thought for a second. "How about this? If you eat half of your plate, I'll teach you guys one of my special ninja skills."

She looked up at him, this time with a hint of excitement in her eyes. She nodded and took a big bite off her spoon.

Sasuke couldn't help but smile at the two children. They were so innocent and pure.

Shoto had just finished his plate when Sakura walked in. She looked at Sasuke sitting in between the two children and gave him a confused look at first, but then saw their plates.

"You got them to eat!" she said excitedly.

"Aa." He said with a smile.

"How'd you do it? I've been trying all afternoon." She asked.

"We came to an agreement." He shrugged.

"What agreement?"

"That's top secret." He said getting up and ruffling both of their heads.

They giggled and gave Sakura a mischievous look. She looked back and forth between all of them.

"I suppose I'll let it go this time, but I'll be watching you guys." She said making a silly face and squinting at them hard.

She would be such a great mother.

They laughed at her and started playing with the shuriken again.

Sasuke and her quietly left the room and shut the door.

"I don't know what you did, but thank you. I've been really worried about them." She said as they walked to the training room.

"Still no improvement?"

She shook her head. "We gave them a new treatment this morning, so I'm hoping it will have a better outcome. But one of the side effects is loss of appetite, and that's why they weren't eating."

"I'm sure they'll get better in no time." He said reassuring her.

She didn't say anything. "I just…I haven't felt like this in a long time. I'm usually very confident about what to do and how to treat patients. But their case is just so unusual."

"Is there any research we can do?" he asked.

"That's what I've been doing in the training room."

They entered the room and he understood what she meant. There were books open on the tables and floor, she had a chalk board filled with chemical structures, and random herbs and liquids set in different vials.

"Sorry it's so messy. Usually I'm not like this." She said slightly embarrassed.

"It's no big deal."

He could see this was really eating at her; he knew she was the one to always have answers to everything. He also didn't like seeing her so upset and unsure. His Sakura was always bright and confident.

"You should take a break and clear your mind for a little bit." He suggested.

"I'm not sure I can." She said staring away at her chalk board.

"Hmm. Maybe you should cut my hair now."

She whipped her head towards him. "Oh yeah!" Before he could say anything else, she ran and pulled a chair and dragged it behind him. Then she pushed him back onto the chair.

He fell back almost tipping the chair over. "Geez Sakura, just ask."

She grinned. "Okay, how should I cut it?"

"I'm not sure. I'm giving you free reign."

Her grin widened.

"Wait, wait, wait. Just promise you won't do anything stupid."

"Well duh." She walked around him in a circle inspecting his hair.

He felt her behind him and then a moment later, her hands were running through his hair. He would be absolutely lying if he said he didn't enjoy every second of it.

She walked to the front and tipped his chin up with her finger so that they were staring eye to eye.

Sasuke bit his tongue to stop the heat from rising to his face. With her hand still under his chin, she bent down and got eye level to him. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Now her face was just inches away from his, but she was still staring. He could feel his hands start to sweat. With her free hand, she moved the hair covering his eye. He couldn't help it this time; there was a light dusting of pink that appeared on his face.

She dropped her hands and the hair fell back.

"I think it would be good if you cut it short and not cover your face." She finally said.

"That's fine with me, but I don't want to scare anyone with my rinnegan." He said trying not to think about how close she just was.

"Hm. Maybe you could use a genjutsu over it. You wouldn't have to in front of me or Naruto or Kakashi, but just when you wanted."

He thought about it for a minute. "Let's do it."

"Really?! I thought you were going to say no." she said excitedly.

"If you pull out a kunai to cut my hair, I will leave."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'll go get actual supplies." She left the training room and then returned with scissors, a towel, a comb, and a small handheld mirror.

She draped the towel over his shoulder to catch any hair and started combing. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Aa."

"Okay close your eyes." She instructed.

He did as she asked. He felt her comb out a section of hair and then heard the soft 'snip' of the shears. Small hairs brushed his face as they fell down. She continued to comb out sections and cut. Soon he felt his face exposed.

A few 'snips' later, she stopped. "Alright I think I'm done." She said brushing loose hairs off of his face.

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. She handed him a mirror.

It was definitely a change. His hair was much shorter now. There was still enough to run his fingers through, but nothing was covering his face now. He felt like he looked younger and less frightening.

"I like it."

Sakura let out a breath. "Do you really or are you just saying that?"

"No I really do."

She broke out into a smile. "I'm glad. I like it too; I think you look handsome." She said ruffling his hair.

He felt his heart jump. He was so used to her and so many others fawning over him when they were younger; but after the war, people started calling him a monster. When Sakura stopped reacting to him, he had a small doubt that she felt that way about him too. But that was completely gone now that she had said he was handsome. He didn't know why, but he needed to hear that.

"Have you been training?" she asked after they cleaned up all the hair and put away the supplies.

He nodded. He held out his hand and produced a green glow from his palm. It was considerably better than last time, but it took a lot of his concentration.

"Wow! You've improved a lot in just one day. I wasn't expecting that." She said impressed.

It felt great to have her approval. "I can just keep training while you finish your research."

She nodded. "I'm sorry we can't move onto the next step today." She lifted up her hand and produced a ball of green chakra. "If you can gather about this much chakra, you'll be able to heal some cuts."

He took note of the size. It would take a lot of practice, but he felt confident in himself. Deep down, he also wanted to impress her even more.

Sakura took a seat on the couch with a couple of books and he began training. One constraint he also had was that he was only able to control a large amount of chakra if he had absolutely silence to concentrate. He knew in real life situations there would be many distractions, but that was something he was going to have to focus on later.

Every so often he would take a break and look at Sakura. She would be biting the end of her pen while deeply immersed in a book. She was so beautiful to him. He could remember when she used to try so hard to impress him, but now she could just read a book and he was obsessed.

He looked back down and continued his training, determined to control his chakra.

Ino's POV

I swear I'm going to kill her. The ABSOLUTE nerve of that woman.

Ino stomped into the hospital with a mission. She was fuming. The day hadn't started out like this; she was actually having a great afternoon. She was just minding her own business and bringing Shikamaru some food when Naruto had mentioned that Sasuke and Sakura were training together.

Sakura was the most busiest, unavailable best friend she had ever had. She truly couldn't understand why the pinkette refused to take a break. There had been numerous times when she had walked into Sakura's office and found her passed out on her desk. When it came to work and the hospital, Sakura had no limits.

I've asked so many times to hang out! She never has time to do anything, but the ONE TIME she's free, she doesn't hang out with me?! HELL TO THE NO!

She stomped over to the reception desk and grabbed Ichiro by the lab coat.

"Where's Sakura?!" she yelled.

"Um…um…umm" he stammered.

"ANSWER ME DAMMIT!" She pounded her fist on the table.

"She's…she's in the training room." He finally spit out.

Ino released the young medic and continued stomping down the hall. She knew she was being dramatic, but she didn't care one bit.

She was ready to rip down the training room doors and make a huge scene, but to her disappointment, the door was already open.

She looked inside and saw a tall, dark-haired man standing in front of Sakura. It took her a moment to realize it was Sasuke. Holy hot damn. He looked completely different. His long hair was now gone and replaced with short messy waves. She didn't know when this happened, but she wasn't going to complain. He was sexy as hell.

She quietly eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"I think I've got it." He said to Sakura.

"You think? That's unacceptable. Come back when you know you've got it." She said not looking up from her book.

"Tch. You're so annoying woman. I know I've got it."

Sakura looked up at him, then shut her book and stood up. Without wasting a second, she reached into her pouch, grabbed a kunai, and made a cut across her palm.

"SAKURA, WHAT THE FUCK?!" Sasuke yelled out slapping the kunai out of her hand.

"Hey! What was that for?!" She yelled back.

"You just cut yourself!"

"You're the one who said you've got it. I wanted to test you." She said simply.

"There's other ways of testing me without hurting yourself!"

"That was just the easiest way!"

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. "Are you dumb?"

Ino could feel Sakura about to explode.

"DID YOU JUST CALL ME DUMB?!"

They broke out into an argument and started yelling at each other.

What the actual fuck am I watching?

"YOU'RE GETTING BLOOD ON THE CARPET!" Sakura screamed.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO FUCKING CUT YOURSELF!" Sasuke screamed back. His hand was placed over hers and was emitting a small amount of green light.

I can't believe this is how they flirt. She needed to talk to Sakura about this whole situation immediately.

Before they could start yelling again, she decided to make an entrance.

"FOREHEAD!" she said stomping in.

Sakura looked up in surprise. "Pig? What are you doing here?"

"You don't get to ask me questions. How is it that this is your second day off and you haven't come to see me once?!" she questioned.

Sakura sighed. "I'm not technically off Ino. Some people just took over some of my duties."

"Still." She huffed. "I'm upset you haven't made time to see me."

The pinkette opened her mouth to apologize when Sasuke cut in.

"That's my fault. I asked her to train me." He said still healing Sakura's hand.

Interesting. He took the blame. She had so much she wanted to ask, but held back.

"Well you have to make it up to me." She said crossing her arms.

"What do you want pig?" Sakura sighed.

"I'm going to plan a fun night out with everyone and you have to come." She said. "The both of you." She quickly added.

"Fine." They both responded.

Ino smiled. "Excellent. I'll plan everything and you just show up."

Before either of them could say anything else, she turned around and left the room. She needed to find out what the hell was going on between the two of them, and there was only one way to make that happen. Alcohol.