Chapter 5

--Friday

"Expect the Unexpected. Or really, don't expect anything."

All Sakura could say was TGI freaking F. The week had been harder a/nd more stressful than usual, and she was definitely ready to hunker down on her sofa and gorge herself on popcorn, watching crap romantic comedies. Maybe she could bring herself to get her console up and running and then play some DDR, burn off some carbs from unhealthy, buttery deliciousness.

Today should be a considerably easier day than yesterday. A lot of the patients from the car crash were still in the hospital, but they were stable now so there should be no problems. Maybe she would even have time to go talk to Ino at the reception desk, no doubt chatting up some remotely handsome guy…

Yep, she was sure glad it was Friday. Friday meant freedom. See, it even alliterated. Freedom for two entire days of no blood, no scrubs and no subway! (hopefully. Sometimes situations came up.) Even though she had to admit that her subway rides had been getting better, they were still a total pain and hassle. She could talk to all of these cool subway people over IM. Or something except for the greasy, dirty, pervert-filled, gross, ridiculously blue-plastic SUBWAY!

Taking off her tote bag, she pulled out a mirror and a brush, doing her hair in a French braid that would prevent any weird situations with patients. ("Excuse me, your hair is in my face" etc.) Then she applied a little bit of waterproof mascara (the patients really knew how to load on the sob stories) and stuffed the mirror back into her all-purpose bag. This morning she had opted to take a shower, brush her teeth and bolt straight out of the door. When choosing between good hair and Starbucks, Starbucks always, always prevailed.

While getting her double latte, she had caught a glimpse of Hinata, and told Kiba, her daily coffee-fixer, to remind the blue-haired girl about their meeting tomorrow. The brunette had seemed slightly puzzled, but gave her her coffee with a smile, like usual. She should date that boy, he definitely knew how to make coffee. And be optimistic. Though she had to admit, it always seemed like the tattoo-ed employee had a thing for Hinata. But then you never knew.

The subway doors were still open, she had arrived a little bit early. The people were filing in and taking up the seats, some of them opening papers and others nodding off to sleep, their hair 'cleaning' the dirty, smudged windows. Gross.

Her phone rang, still on volume 3 from her daily wake up call.

"I've got a closet filled up to the brim with the ghosts of my past and the skeletons—"

"Hello?"

"Sakura-chan, where are you? You're not in car number 3!" a whiny voice that somehow conveyed a sense of orange told her. Sakura held the phone 3 inches away from her ear.

"Yeah I am…You're probably the one in the wrong car."

"Nuh-uh! The great Naruto-sama doesn't fail on things like this!"

"The great-Naruto sama probably confused 3 for 30."

"No way! Oh, wait."

A brief silence.

"Hehehehe," the voice said, sounding sheepish. Sakura imagined the blonde grinning widely and rubbing the back of his head.

"Told you so, idiot. And seriously, is there even a car number 30?"

"Yeah, there totally is!"

"Well, it obviously correlates to your IQ then."

"HEY! You're so mean, Sakura-chan!"

"Not my fault that you're stupid, Naruto." Sakura giggled. "Hurry up and get over here, I'm bored hearing people snoring."

"Okay okay. So I should go…this way." Naruto muttered to himself as he puzzled over the direction that he should go.

"So Doujutsu going well then? You're almost done with your first week, congrats."

"Yeah..but really, I'm surprised. Hyuuga is pretty notorious for being a jerk about efficiency, but he's not making any threats to me or Tenten…"

"Oh yeah well. Tenten is his girlfriend. Not like he's gonna fire her. She probably kick his ass. And dump him."

"But he shouldn't have any qualms about throwing me out. In fact, he has reasons to back it up…I mean, he hates my guts since I'm dating Hinata-chan, I haven't done any work, our office has like scars and scratches everywhere, and Sasuke-teme constantly complains about me."

"Maybe Neji isn't such a bad guy." Sakura mused, thinking back to her prior conversation with him on the subway. "Maybe he feels sorry for Hinata-san and therefore won't fire you."

"He never felt sorry for Hina-chan before!"

"But then before she wasn't disowned and he wasn't a multimillionaire."

"Good point, Sakura-chan. I can see why you're a doctor." Sakura looked up and saw Naruto with a comical expression on his face, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Your thinking process involves interesting facial expressions, Uzumaki."

Naruto flipped off his phone. "Ehhh. Well, you snore when you sleep."

Sakura thought back quickly. She's never fallen asleep on the subway…"You've never even seen me sleep!"

"I know these things."

"Uh-huh. Riiight" she drawled, lazily reaching up and flicking the blonde on the nose.

"So, Sakura-chan, any plans for this weekend?"

"I'm totally booked Saturday. Are you and Hinata doing anything?"

"Yeah, movies tonight. But apparently she's doing something tomorrow…"

"She didn't tell you what?"

"No, do you know?"

"Well, we're going to a singles mixer!" exclaimed Sakura, a mischievous look crossing her face for a split second before she calmly composed her features, smiling brightly up at the blonde.

"WHAAT?"

"Well, me, Tenten, Ino, and Hinata decided that our love lives are….lack luster right now. And there's a nice singles mixer tomorrow! There's definitely gonna be a lot of hot guys. Like, Grey's Anatomy hot." Sakura giggled inwardly, but managed to suppress it and sound earnest.

Naruto's jaw fell further and further. "Wh-What's wrong with MEEEE?"

"Well, I don't know. You're lazy, you confuse 3 for 30, and you wear orange on a regular basis."

"Hinata told me she liked it when I wear orange."

"Well she was lying. Orange and blue clash, dobe."

"NOOO--Sakura-chan has become just like Sasuke-teme!"

"How dare you call me a man!" she bantered back.

A grey-haired man looked up. "Kids, could you be quiet?" Sakura flamed red and looked at the ground, embarrassed for being referred to as a kid AND being told off.

"Who are you to tell us what we should do??" Naruto's voice somehow, somehow managed to cut through the din of the subway. He now definitely had the attention of all the people in car 3.

A group of kids (actual kids. 7th, 8th graders?) started chanting "Fight, fight, fight, fight" and Sakura resisted the urge to go over there and bonk all of them on their heads. Their little, not-yet-fully grown skulls probably had a soft spot somewhere...Instead she focused her attention on the speaker.

"Ehhhh? It's you Kakashi-senpai?" Sakura was incredulous. Did Naruto not remember this guy?

"Sakura-chan, you know him? Tell him to stop bothering us!"

"Umm..Naruto, I think we're the ones bothering…the entire subway…" she sweated. "And also…you know him too. We met him here on um. Tuesday? Wednesday? He's the pervert, remember?"

The passengers' eyes widened and the 8th grade girls covered their skirts with schoolbags. Naruto finally got it. "Ohhhhh! I remember now! Hi scarecrow-san!"

"Haruno-chan." Kakashi said in a sing-song voice, shooting a dagger-glance at Naruto. "Way to mess up my data-collecting."

"You can go do data collecting somewhere else. Like, another city?"

The silver-haired man smiled. "I'm still here from promotional purposes! I'm really popular you know. Or should I say, Jiraiya-sama is very popular."

"Ew ew ew. With who, old pedos like yourself? Or maybe Hugh Hefner? Oh wait. He is an old pedo."

"You'd be surprised. I think Doujutsu is actually a major sponsor…They give us money, we give them dumb secretaries when we're done collecting data from them. So Naruto-kun, if you ever are interested, here's my card."

Sakura was in shock. "Ah--Um--UCHIHA SASUKE YOU ARE SO DEAD! LIARRRR!" her hands clenched in fists. Naruto stepped away. Sakura wondered why she even cared what the Uchiha was up to with his secretaries. Maybe she just didn't like being blatantly, totally lied to…maybe…

The subway car shook. The whispers came up, poorly concealed to Sakura's trained ear. "Eh? You think she's Uchiha-san's girlfriend? Really? What is he thinking?" The 8th-grade girls looked her up and down, and apparently found her lacking. Their eyes lingered on her unglamorous hairstyle and ordinary clothes.

"Haruno-chan, you brought that upon yourself. Prepare to be mobbed." Sakura frowned as Kakashi waved a goodbye, completely not believing his prediction. Naruto struck a pose, and Sakura faintly saw a superhero cape swaying the non-existent wind. She shook her head and blinked her eyes. "Don't worry, I will protect Sakura-chan!"

As the screaming girls converged on her (how was the car not tipping over? Ugh, damnit, why was Pedo-san right?), Kakashi shuddered as he heard, "KAKASHI, YOU BASTARD, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

He smirked. "All the better to collect data with."

After about 5 minutes, Sakura managed to extricate herself from the dogpile and stood up on one of the seats.

"Listen everyone. Me and Uchiha Sasuke are nothing! Nada! The one who knows him is -- Kakashi! Yep, that freak over there! They're…first cousins! Go ask him!" The pink-haired girl smirked. For some reason, she really enjoyed redrawing family trees to bring doom onto the silver-haired publicist.

Naruto sighed. "Sakura-chan, you're scary, you know that? And a revenge-monster. Like Sasuke-teme." At this, his eyes widened, and Sakura faintly heard him curse under his breath.

"What?" her demeanor calmed down. "What does he want revenge for?" Her mind was struggling to make the connections.

Naruto looked flustered "ahh….um…Yesterday I took away his tomato and he docked half my pay!" he said rapidly. Then he looked away. "Look Sakura-chan it's my stop see you tomorrow! Or tonight! Or whatever! Have fun talking to Kaka-sen! Ja!"

Sakura looked up, puzzled at Naruto's actions and slowly linking his flusteredness with Sasuke and revenge and the Uchiha's request to see her Saturday. She looked up again. The subway had It wasn't Madara stop yet…What were Naruto-- and Sasuke --hiding?

By now Kakashi had fended off the schoolgirls/boys, who had gotten off at the same stop as Naruto (the middle school was around there somewhere) and magically reappeared near her.

"Evil."

"You were evil first, so ha!" the roseate girl stuck her tongue out childishly. Kakashi's eyebrows raised.

"Ahh. So you and Sasuke-kun aren't going out…or maybe you were just bluffing to get revenge?"

"No, we're not. I've only known him for a week! Less than, even. But you seem to know him pretty well."

"Not really, he doesn't do any business with Jiraiya-sama. I've only really heard about him."

"So it's Hyuuga then. Tenten will be pissed."

"Actually neither of those two like using secretaries, I think."

"Makes sense, I guess." Sakura pouted. If it wasn't those two head honchos, then it could be…no way.

"It's not Nara Shikamaru, is it?"

Kakashi's eyes widened and then crinkled into an n shape. "I'm not at liberty to disclose our clients."

"You had no qualms when I asked you about Sasuke-san or Hyuuga."

"Logic is going to get you no where, Sa-ku-ra-chan. I'm in a business where there's smoke and mirrors."

Sakura pouted, realizing that the silver-haired man was going to give up nothing. "Jerk."

"Indeed."

"How did your parents stand you?" the young woman teased.

There was a silence. "My father didn't have to, at least." She had hit a nerve and now she was regretting. And then she was saved by the bell. Or robotic voice. Or whatever.

She was just glad that that particular awkwardness was over.

Snapshots

A silver haired man on the phone.

A blonde, a rosette, and a stranger talking animatedly.

A navy-haired young man sitting behind the desk, his finger tangled around a cord.

A rosette again, waiting in a line.

Sakura had picked up a novel on her way to the subway stop. Even though she had very little time to read anymore, what with her almost-position as a resident (YES!) and the TV shows she followed and friends' problems and singles mixers and whatnot. (Well, maybe not the singles mixers. She wasn't desperate enough to go mingle with 40 year olds.)

But she had spotted this novel in the discount bin, beaten up and dog-eared; some pages were even torn. She would normally have looked over it, caring only for the newspaper rack on the right side of the door. (Keeping up with global news was a must.) But that book evoked vague ideas of sophomore year of high school and football and something or another that made her reach out, grab it, walk into the store, and pay for it, waiting in a long line that made her at risk for missing the subway.

She hadn't actually looked at this novel yet, really really looked at it and studied it and read the back cover. She had been in too much of a hurry, dashing from the book store at a fast walk (not running because only high school freshmen ran with heavy bags. And they looked like turtles because of it).

Now, she sat down, and retrieved the book, and sat down, staring intently at its cover. The paperback front depicted a boy with thick glasses on, with pale skin and an intense gaze. The book was titled "Tangerine", and Sakura vaguely remembered it from high school. She had been an avid reader back then, since her high school didn't offer the most rigorous of courses and she needed some way to occupy her time.

She flipped through the book quickly, to find quirky large-ish font and simple vocabulary. Hardly the right reading material for a girl used to reading medical textbooks and in her spare time, The Art of War. But there was something magnetic about the book. She read quickly, managing to make it through a couple of pages before the first stop.

Vague recollections of the book filtered through, as she read the story of a middle school soccer player, Paul, forever stuck in the shadow of his truly evil older brother Erik, a football star that everyone idolized and no one really knew about. She found herself engrossed in the story, not even noticing when a shadow obscured the fluorescent light.

"Haruno-chan, fancy seeing you here again. It must be fate, don't you think?"

Sakura looked up, her back aching from bending over both all day and while she was reading.

"You again, Kakashi-sempai?"

"You don't seem pleased to see me." The man drawled.

"Eh. The question is, are you pleased to see me?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. I'm quite intrigued by you, you know." Kakashi's voice carried a hint of interest, and he fiddled with his black turtleneck. "Not every girl can speak so freely about 2 of the world's most famous men."

Sakura was listening with one ear, quickly tearing through the pages of the novel. "Hm? Who's that?"

"Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke, obviously."

"Umhmm…And why are you so interested?"

"Personal…and financial reasons, you might say."

Absentmindedly, Sakura said, "I'm sure you make enough money embezzling off of Jiraiya-san."

Sounding shocked, Kakashi said, "How could you think of me like that, Haruno-chan? Jiraiya-sama trusts me completely and I have never abused that trust."

"Umhm. Right. So really, why do you concern yourself so much with Sasuke-san and Hyuuga-san?"

"Like I said, I need money. And someone pays for information."

"Someone like who."

"I'll tell you if you tell me everything you know about Uchiha Sasuke, his past, and everything else."

"Seems like I'm getting the short end of the deal, for some reason." Sakura had set the book down to her right, and was now giving the man her full attention, staring up at him through strands of pink hair.

"You're not."

"Oh really?" her voice was laced with sarcasm. "You get information about Sasuke-san for…the Mafia or whatever…and I get a name?"

"You get the name and the opportunity to wikipedia it. And…a Starbucks gift card?"

She was defeated. "50 bucks. And how do you know that I like Starbucks?"

"Every girl does. You're pre-dict-a-ble, Haruno-chan."

Somehow she didn't believe him. Short girls (of which she was one, unfortunately), usually didn't like Starbucks because coffee stunts growth. He knew something that he definitely was not letting on. And she was only going to find out what by telling him everything she knew about Uchiha Sasuke.

It was betrayal. But at least it was betrayal for a cause.

"Ask away, Kakashi-sempai."

"Okay, glad to know that you're willing to cooperate. First of all, then. When was the first time you met Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Sometime this week. Err. Monday. Naruto introduced me to him."

"And you are absolutely certain that you had never seen him before?"

"Yeah, completely."

"Do you know anything about his past?"

"Not really, just hints that Naruto slipped out. Something about revenge or something."

"Have you ever heard of Uchiha Itachi?"

"No. Who is he? Sasuke-san's father?" She was completely bewildered by now.

Kakashi chuckled. "No. But he might have something to do with something to do with Sasuke-san's father. And mother. And uncle."

"Whaaat? What are you talking about?"

"I've said more than I should have. Continuing. Uchiha asked you to meet him tomorrow, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why he would do this? Is it a date, or something more…secretive?"

Sakura laughed loudly. "Kakashi, have you looked at him? The best words for a date that he could probably come up with would be 'Me. You. Dinner. Tonight. 7:30.' Or worse." She giggled and pushed back her stray hairs. "Nah, it has something to do with my work at the hospital."

Okay. Now she was getting into murky waters. Even though Sasuke had not told her explicitly to not mention the meeting, his request definitely had the 'secret' edge.

But the inner sinner (oh look rhyming) in her really couldn't help herself.

But she promised that when she found out who this…interrogator in the shadows, hiring Kakashi, was..she would tell Sasuke immediately.

He deserved to know who was semi-stalking him. And she managed to convince herself that she was helping him. And so she continued.

"What is your position at the hospital?"

"I'm an intern, but hopefully I will become a resident soon."

"Considering that Uchiha has never really had an interest in the medical field, why do you think that he is interested?"

"It has something to do with his mother."

"Do you know anything about her?"

"No."

"Her name was Mikoto."

At this, Sakura's eyes widened. She flipped open her phone, and looked at the background. "Was his father's name Fugaku?"

"Yes…how did you know? Did Sasuke-kun tell you?"

"No, I found this." Sakura handed over her phone. "It's in one of the cars here, in fact."

"This is interesting then. I hope you don't mind if I send this picture to myself."

"Yeah, it's fine. I have unlimited."

"Okay then. I think that's all. My employer will be very happy to know this."

"You're creepy, you know. And so is your employer." She saw Kakashi gathering his things. "And don't you dare leave without keeping up your end of the bargain. Starbuck's giftcard. And the name."

Kakashi handed Sakura her phone back, and flipped his phone closed. Sakura saw a glimpse of text. "Video: Sakura". He had been videotaping her words. A true spy.

"Okay, Haruno-chan, are you ready for this?" The man stood up.

"Yes, yes, what's the name?" Sakura had her phone out and ready, prepared to whip out a text to the Uchiha.

"Uchiha Sasuke." And then he stepped out of the subway.

A/N: Cliffhanger. It's been a while, so here's a long chapter for you. The longest one to date, in fact. Sorry I've been taking so long, but my life is pretty hectic and stressful, what with AP Testing coming up and all. Boo that.

Check out my new-ish story, Blink and You'll Miss It!