-It might be an unimportant chapter, but it leads somewhere. :3-

Chapter 2. Stress, stress, stress

Shizune's peaceful sleep was disrupted but the constant buzzing from her cell phone. She had forgotten that she used it as an alarm, since her old alarm clock's volume never woke her up until half an hour later—not very good when your in college.

Her eyes weakly flapped open as her sight turned out blurry when she tried to turn off the alarm. She rubbed her eyes to get it awake and peered over at Kabuto's bed. It was empty, and she noticed that he had returned her pillow. She eyed it as she wondered what he had done to it. Shizune set it aside at the foot of her bed. Being paranoid wasn't exactly nice, but Shizune wouldn't be the kind of person to emotionally embrace the pillow, especially after his touch.

Shizune headed to the bathroom to wash her face and change into plain yet formal clothes. She didn't want to come into med school dressed like an overly-obsessed-with-fashion high schooler. Shizune was appalled when she had looked into the mirror—she indeed hated bed-heads. She soaked her hands and ran in through her hair so it would stay put more and would be easier to comb.

Afterwards, she stepped out of the hall and into the kitchen. A yellow post-it note caught her eye from the fridge. A note from Kabuto? Likely. And maybe he left for the day. Rejoice, Shizune. Rejoice. Since it could have held important information, she walked over to the fridge and swiped off the note.

I woke early and found that we're sort of low on food, so I'm off to buy some. Don't wanna break rules number one again, heh? And, speaking of rule number one, since there's a food shortage, I thought I'd sorta break it again. There are some eggs in the microwave and bread you could toast up. Left over rice, if you want. Gotta get some good nutrition.

-Kabuto

Shizune sighed and folded the note and tossed it on the table. As much as hated giving in, she accommodated his wishes-on-post-its. Can't go to school without food for the brain right? Excuses, excuses.

It was less than twelve hours since he had come and she was already softening up her thoughts about it. She did feel the need to interrogate him, but thought not to. She though he'd find his way out.

He was probably better than she thought; perhaps she's finally seeing that not everyone is harmful. He was and she is, and Shizune knew that, but what could be more of a humiliation if she had kept this behavior for so long and just simply gave it up and looking like an idiot. "Yes I was wrong after all this time. I was merely being a paranoid freak." Hell no.

Shizune gave up her thoughts on him and tried to change the subject into something less agonizing.

Jobs. Her future occupation was of course a doctor, but she was sharing an apartment with this person now. She couldn't easily beg money off of Tsunade anymore. It's not polite to take advantage of people like that, especially since she didn't live under Tsunade anymore.

Shizune ended her thoughts with a sigh as she took the last bite of toast and left the dish on the sink for her to was later when she got back. She grabbed her reasonably sized tote bag and left.

Yay school.

(Because the writer is still very young and does not know what actually takes place during the first day or the rest of Medical School, she will not write what happens there. If there are any future inaccuracies about the subject, don't blame me. :D)

Shizune jabbed in the keys into the door, aggravated, annoyed, or perhaps both. She had absently applied too much force into her jab—she had hit her thumb. Wasn't so smart was that, Shizune?

She slightly banged the door shut and leaned against it after tossing her bag absently on the couch. First day didn't go so swimmingly, you could assume. She stood and listened for a second as she looked around. Kabuto was also not present—not that she cared or anything. Right? Right?! Wrong.

It was like a bad dream or Shizune. More than half of the things presented were terms and names that she had no clue about. Yeah that's why it's called school and all, but this is medical school. This kind of thing wasn't exactly very good when it came to med school, especially when most of the other students didn't have a problem answering the given warm-up questions. Looking for things to blame, Shizune came across Kabuto, her previous college, and herself.

Shizune sighed and sat down on the couch, slipping her notebook out of her bag and opening it to review the few but important notes she had managed to sneak. Not that it was against the rules to take them, it's just that Shizune was one of the very few people who needed to take more notes than others. Shizune hated humiliation. But it soon relieved her when she saw another former college classmate struggling as much as her. Blames for the college, one point.

But of course, she knew there was more at fault. Shizune always had trouble remembering or playing attention (though her notes required much) when there was something in her mind that was bugging her. And there was indeed something that was bothering her.

Her notes soon failed her and decided that she resorted to the almighty internet. She forgot not to abandon her bag and dragged it in and laid it beside her feet as she kept the notebook open on her lap. She looked up all the terms that was written down and got satisfyingly detailed and well-written results. As she read and wrote down, it all came back to her and she soon realized that she did know these, and it was merely just herself. I'm sorry I ever doubted you, college.

She filled in the blank space of her lined paper with the missing definitions and descriptions and soon she went from one page to three. Damn it all. She was doing a lot more work than necessary—heck, work wasn't even necessary on the first day—but she always wanted to come prepared and leave accomplished, if not leave dumbfounded and confused and come back on track.

It was nearly 6, and Kabuto was still nowhere in sight. Shizune got suspicious—and perhaps worried—but figured he should be okay. Her stomach lightly vibrated and is gave a gurgle that signaled Shizune's hunger. She set aside her things and briskly paced into the kitchen. She opened the fridge, hoping she'd find more than eggs and ham. Her prayers were answered with more ham, more eggs, lettuce, milk, juice, butter, and alas, she skipped everything else when she found sandwich spread. Shizune stopped to think a bit; Kabuto must've returned when she was away, but where was he now?

Shizune closed the fridge again to check for any of his post-its; none were found. Her suspicions grew bigger but she resisted thinking about him and decided to throw herself a sandwich. She could not eat a sandwich without lettuce and some kind of sauce.

She set her delicious piece of food down on the table, and before she took a bite the doorknob was jiggling itself open. Well finally. Shizune waited as the door creaked open and Kabuto slipped in and closed the door. After taking, chewing, and swallowing her piece she looked up at him.

"Where have you been?" Shizune tried to say as casually as possible. It failed—they all knew Shizune wasn't casual at all.

"Work," Kabuto said with even casualty.

"You didn't inform me," Shizune kept it up, taking a bite after.

"I assumed you knew," Kabuto smirked. Shizune rolled her eyes. He took a short, unnoticeable breath. "Why, were you worried about me?" Kabuto teased. Shizune glared.

Finished with her short meal, she got up to wash her dish. The plate that she had left in the morning was not there; Kabuto could not even leave her own duties alone. Assuming that Shizune was getting annoyed of his teasing, he decided to lift up another subject.

"So, how was your first day?"

Shizune turned off the sink and set stacked the plate with the others. She turned around and gave another glare and lightly shook her head.

"Aw, Shizune, don't be so stressed," Kabuto attempted to comfort. Shizune scoffed and sat back down, facing him.

"I'm not like normal, easy people, Kabuto," Shizune said openly. He blinked at her tone.

"I'm always uptight, paranoid, stressed, and I have problems trusting, problems concentrating, everything I need to fail becoming a doctor." Shizune took a deep breath and realized what she had just openly shout out. It wasn't just the first day, it wasn't just Kabuto, it was herself.

Kabuto smiled at her, but full of pity, not wit. "Hm," he started. "I thought you'd be the kind of person who'd be happy with yourself."

Shizune looked up at him, this time not glaring, but an expression that showed curiosity.

"I mean if you can't be you, why involve yourself in it?"

Her expression hardened into a glare once more. "Are you suggesting I give up now? Above all times, now?"

Kabuto backed up a little, startled. "N-no, it's just that—"

Shizune turned away from him with a sigh and went back into the room. He sighed moments later, disappointed in his choice of words. He decided to leave her alone for a while. Like she said, she wasn't very pleasant when she was unhappy.

Shizune changed into her pajamas and sat on her bed. She eyed the contents of her bag, forgetting the textbooks she was given. Rather thick, but it was worth the struggle of dragging it home, right? She flipped it open and started to skim, just to take a peek at what she was going to learn later on.

She soon grew tired of looking and yawned to herself as she climbed under her sheets. Shizune never knew why she got so sleepy so early. Too much sleep.

Kabuto entered the room, already dressed. He leaned on the wall perpendicular to her bed as she sat back up.

"Sorry," Shizune immediately said before he got a chance to even open his mouth. Kabuto smiled.

"For what?" Kabuto asked sweetly yet slyly. He was amused and surprised that Shizune would apologize. To him, too.

"I didn't have to yell."

Kabuto sat down beside her bed. "I'm sure you had reasons," he paused to look up at her. "And I'd like to hear them."

Shizune stiffened. "Why?"

"I might be able to help you at least a bit more." He sounded sincere this time; he didn't intend to tease anymore. Shizune lightly gripped at her blanket and stared at his glimmering, onyx eyes. He shared her eye color—except hers had no glimmer at all. She gave in to him. She couldn't believe it.

She looked straight at the wall and leaned her back against her pillow.

"I was born into a poor family," she started off. Kabuto listened attentively. "My father got sick when I was bout seven. The doctors couldn't help him quick enough. I was too young to know why he was sick, or why they couldn't do it fast. Soon after that mom killed herself—" She paused. Kabuto stared at her worriedly. She set her mouth to the side. "And I never really knew the reason why either."

"And I'm supposing that you don't want to hurt yourself thinking."

Shizune nodded. "That's right. I'm not going to hurt myself. I'm going to help others. Faster and better. I made up my mind when Tsunade took me as her own."

Kabuto nodded absently, still amazed that she was able to tell him all that.

Shizune eyed him. "So what's your 'reason?'"

Kabuto looked up at her and smirked. "I'm just a person who thinks people should do what they want to do. But since you really want it, I can't complain."

Shizune smirked. "I'm glad you understand."

Kabuto sighed a smile and went to get to his own bed. Shizune turned off the lights and tucked herself back in.

"Night."

"Night, sweety," Kabuto teased again, waiting for the pillow to come at him. It didn't come.

He grinned and tucked himself in more comfortable. Each day was going to get easier. Hopefully.

--

-Sorry it's not as interesting, but it leads somewhere. You will like where it leads. It's very citrus-y. XD-