Hey you guys probably haven't heard from me in a while...yeah, I've been concentrating on this fic that I've kinda neglected my other one sad neh, but I'll pick it back up I just have to send it to my beta and then it'll be up and active so hold your horses people it's coming.
Carrying the large stack of books that rose teeteringly high above her head, she walked carefully down the hallway, putting each foot down solidly before lifting her other. The weighted down her arms with how many there were, but it wasn't that difficult maneuvering, the inability to see what was in front of her was the problem.
Grimacing as the book on the top slid a bit to the left with a rasp of old book cover against book cover, shifting her weight on the wooden floor, she glanced at the various doors she passed on her continued way down the hallway. The Hokage wanted some old treaties studied and had sent her young protégée off to get the required material for the information, meaning she had to get all of it.
Sakura hadn't thought the stack would be so high, but as the books kept piling up one on top of another, she was hard-pressed not to say that the whole thing would be higher than her head, if she helped out the Hokage though then that'd leave more time for training between them.
Various bits of white paper stuck out of the different colored tomes, some were strips of paper; bookmarks to hold a specific place for an easy flip through others were just scraps, ripped carelessly to save a place, besides the whole sheets that poked out of each side in between the pages. She'd also taken notes and just tucked them into the appropriate books, some had been there for a while already testament to the fact was the faint yellow discoloration creeping up from the edges of certain pages, the musty smell wafting from them.
Resisting an urge to sneeze, it'd been dusty in the files room disturbing old books, scrolls, etc. had unleashed a wave of dust, that hung in the air, little bits could be seen when they floated leisurely in the rays of sunlight coming through the window like jellyfish on an incoming tide.
Luckily, the hallway was empty so she didn't have to worry about dodging other nin thankful for small favors. Now if only the Hokage's door was open so all she had to do was slip in set the books down and not bother with trying her luck with both holding her stack of literature in one hand and open the door with the other.
No such luck, sighing at her misfortune, Sakura precariously shifted her books to one arm making sure they'd stay without sliding off to the side, on to the floor, or on top of her; she didn't want to be standing in a pile of books. Having the doorknob in sight, and reaching a hand for it.
It opened.
She could only stare as the door swung away from her, it didn't register that someone had just walked straight into her until she landed with an "umph" on the ground joining her carefully set stack in disarray on the floor, heavy tomes landed with thumps and bangs around her and on he papers and bits of papers floated through the air, settling on the ground with slight crinkles and sighs. Blinking as she looked at the hoard scattered around her, eyeing the scattered literature with confusion and interest that maybe they would have the answer of what happened just then.
A groaned "Itai" snapped her out of her stupor
"Sorry, sorry!" she said frantically, ignoring the new thumps of more books hitting the floor as she stood, she hadn't realized the door would open before her, she'd been startled when the door had opened up beneath her hand with any prompting from her.
"Ah…" she paused perusing the floor to see who had knocked her over, very spiky out-of-control black hair that fell around his face, a standard jôunin shirt and vest, along with the familiar white bandage that trailed over the bridge of his nose across his face.
"Sorry Kotetsu-san" she picked her way through the mess to help him up, he was sprawled on the floor among the books with his eyes closed. Toeing some books to the side to make a path to him without stepping on anything important, she nudged a particularly large volume away from him and leaned over his form.
"Kotetsu-san?" his eyes were still closed had he hurt himself, casting a cursory glance along his form to see if he was alright before coming back to his face, opening his eyes into thin slits he looked at her for a second,
"Sakura-san, have it out for me?" he teased with a raised eyebrow and a quirk at the corner of his mouth.
Sakura scowled furrowing her forehead and drawing her eyebrows together, but couldn't help the twitch at the corner of her mouth that threatened to break into a smile. Obviously he was fine if he could joke around,
"If I did, you'd be nothing but a smear on the bottom of a crater" she continued his teasing, letting the smile grow over her face
"Then I'd be the one to put you back together" her smile grew wider at his look of mock horror.
"Better listen to her Kotetsu" another male voice trailed over to them.
Kotetsu's constant companion and friend Izumo came through the doorway with his own small tilt of lips, short black hair with bangs swept over and covering his right eye. Attached at the hip you'd never see one without the other, Izumo and Kotetsu, Kotetsu and Izumo. Unbreakable they had a solid friendship that had withstood the test of time, they worked well together, and really you can't imagine seeing one without the other.
"Izumo-san" Sakura gave a bow to him nearly falling over a book with the action
"Sakura-san" he responded cordially with his own slight bow. A mutter of quiet words with a clatter and thump as books were shifted around so Kotetsu could regain his footing, what he was mumbling was unidentifiable to both Sakura and Izumo not that they tried to really understand what he was saying.
The spiky-haired Jôunin rose to his feet, scratching the back of his head and casting a disgruntled look at his friend
"Whose side are you on Izumo" he asked with a false tone of hurtfulness
"The side where I don't become a 'smear on the bottom of a crater'" he quoted Sakura's words with a larger shift of his lips.
"Alright, fine if you're both done planning my death, we've got a mission to go on" Kotetsu retorted at a loss on what to say on a comeback,
"We're not planning your death, we're predicting it" Izumo drawled having no trouble teasing his friend.
Sakura chuckled as she listened to their joking and teasing, at a particularly funny
"You'll probably get us both killed accidentally" from Izumo to Kotetsu she couldn't keep back her hysterical laughter and promptly dropped all the books she had collected, they scattered on the floor once again as Sakura clutched her stomach from the body-aching laughter.
"See even Sakura-san's laughing at you" she faintly heard Izumo say
"Obviously you're blind, she's laughing at you" Sakura had managed to partly calm down but burst into fresh peals with the new comment, forgetting the materials scattered around their feet in favor of keeping herself standing upright and not joining them on the floor.
Her laughter bubbled down as no new comments sprang forth from the two jôunin, her eyes had shut with the amount of amusement that was spouted forth, and tears at the edge of her eyes clung to her eyelashes dripping partly down, wiping her hand along the right eye while containing her diminishing chuckles. Both Kotetsu and Izumo were looking down at her from their taller height, amusement at her own inability to stop her laughter. Suppressing a groan from the back of her throat, she gingerly stood straight up her stomach was aching from the laughter.
She felt light, airy and in a pleasant mood from the unexpected comedy relief,
"You're laughing quite hard, is the Hokage-sama corrupting her young apprentice with sake" Kotetsu gave an innocent smile, too innocent to have come from any nice out-of-the-gutter-thoughts, Izumo only grinned at her.
They enjoyed teasing her, all three worked constantly close to each other joined by the common thread of being employed by the Hokage, Sakura as her student and Izumo & Kotetsu as messengers or assistants. They'd run in to each other constantly, have their lunch breaks together and so on, she was also there when they had passed their jôunin exam and stayed behind to patch both of them up in the hospital. Occurrences like this weren't rare to see, plenty of times they'd just stop and chat over whimsical things to pass a bit of time and take a break from working it was always pleasant, today they seemed to be in a joking mood though and she was bearing some of the brunt of it.
"If I have?" she let it hang in the air with a mischievous smile
Any reply they would have been spouted off no doubt dirty was left unsaid as a sharper voice signaled the arrival of Sakura's Shishou, the Godaime of Konohagakure.
"You two, distracting my student from work" Sakura tried to hide smile, it was always fun to see her Shishou cow full-grown men.
"Of course not" sprung from Izumo's mouth at the same time as Kotetsu's outraged
"You hurt us with your false accusations Hokage-sama" they both sounded hurt that they would ever do such a thing. Sakura found it harder to conceal her smile as it threatened to grow wider at their denials.
"We were just on our way to get ready for our mission" Kotetsu got the last word in.
"Move it than" Tsunde leveled a hard gaze at them
"Hai, hai" sounded from both, the picture of obedience, Sakura snorted at the thought, they both waved goodbye to her and Tsunde before heading down the hallway, already in another argument.
"Those two" Sakura lightly chuckled. The Hokage shook her head at their retreating backs, Kotetsu reaching out to punch Izumo on the upper arm over some comment.
Tsunde turned her attention to her student viewing her through critical eyes
"Sakura have you been sneaking into my saké cabinet" she asked with glee that her protégée was actually getting into her drinking habits. Sakura gaped at her, before delightfully laughing again having to lean against the wall and clutch her stomach. Suffice to say it took quite a while to pick up all the scattered books and papers that were spilled out on the floor, by that time they looked like they'd been through a war from all the shuffling they'd been through.
So there we go, the pairing was in this first chapter, if you can guess it I'll congragulate you for having a brain if not I'll recommend that you keep trying or get some help. The pairings a bit different but really when you think about it is it that odd because they all have interaction with one another since they're shinobi andddd they hang around working for the Hokage.
There isn't much info on Izumo and Kotetsu but I got what I could from the anime and manga and researching on the web, ahh research the worst habit that I've picked up since I've started college.
Ahh well I'll be posting chapters fairly quickly since I have the whole fic planned out and mostly written, mostly.