All In The Name Of A One Sided Love
Ino watched Sakura, trying to figure out how Sakura was supposed to act. Seeing her like this… was strange. She seemed to be part little kid, but then would turn around and act very responsible. Really, it was as if she was basically bi-polar, in Ino's eyes, except she knew how to act and when. For instance, while she was training, she drew on the determination from 'Saku' and the focus from 'Ra'. When she was studying or reading, she just completely used Ra's focus, and when she was trying to get her way, Saku's determination was all of what she used.
Ino felt somewhat confused after thinking about it, and seemingly trying to reunderstand her friend. It was strange, 'getting to know' Sakura after having known her for years upon years.
Sakura, herself, was also getting used to adjusting. It wasn't a bad adjustment, but she had picked up the habit of talking to herself mentally, due to the fact that she was in withdrawal from not having voices in her head.
Ino would joke and say that, because she missed the voices, she was definitely insane. Sakura promptly hit her shoulder—hard—and pretended to be mad.
Also, Kabuto and Takara were interested in the way Sakura was acting. Kabuto thought that, after the combination of her two personalities, she'd never randomly flirt with him. But, to his chagrin, she had begun to do it more and more. Ino comforted him by telling him that, had there been more men around, she'd be flirting with them constantly as well, just for the sake of flirting. Sakura was like that.
Kabuto even tested it out by hiring a young man to 'clean the floors'. Surely enough, Sakura flirted with him. Quite a bit. And when Kabuto got angry because of it, Takara and Ino simply gave him a look, one he couldn't read, and probably didn't want to, before snickering and returning to their work.
Another side effect of no more meditation was that Sakura had more free time than usual. Ino and Takara were constantly busy, and somehow, Ino had convinced Takara to stay longer than actually necessary. So, Kabuto and Sakura were left completely alone, both having very little to do but train.
And this led to Kabuto basically becoming her teacher as well.
He decided he'd work on her medicine/poison making skills. She was lacking in that department, but her skills in using chakra were amazing. He knew he didn't have to work on that. In fact, she was probably better at chakra precision than he, himself was. Not that he'd ever tell her that.
He stood behind her, watching with a vigilant gaze as she put together the medicine. He watched as she did exactly as the book told her to do, and didn't make a single mistake. After she made the cream, bottled it, and held it up for his observation, he took the jar gently from her hands.
He put a finger in the jar, and rubbed it in between his thumb and forefinger to make sure it had the right consistency. He smelled it, stirred it, and observed it from every angle.
"Perfect," he commented, not really complimenting her, but rather simply stating it. He put a top on the jar and set it to the side. He took the book, closed it shut, and said, "Now, do it without the book," he informed her slyly.
"I can't," Sakura replied, her voice matter-of-fact.
"Oh? Why not?" he asked, surprised she wasn't even trying.
"I don't have the hydrangea root needed for the second step."
Kabuto's smirk fell. Was she able to do it, even without the book, already? That would defeat the purpose of his lecture… He sighed and went to the shelf, reached up, and pulled a large jar containing the roots she needed and sat them in front of her.
He watched in amazement, still staring at her actions to see if she would make a single mistake. Somehow, she managed to make the potion once again, using the same exact motions she used before. This time, when she handed him the potion, he made less of a show in observing it.
"Perfect. Again," he replied, still somewhat shocked.
"Surprised?" Sakura asked, a small smirk playing on her lips. Yes, she had fun toying with Kabuto.
"Yeah," he replied. "How did you do that?"
"Well… I guess my hands are just good at re-doing what they've done before…" Sakura replied with a sigh. "That's part of the reason why, well, my chakra precision is so good… My hands have excellent memory, as Tsunade says," Sakura explained. Kabuto could hear no self-satisfaction, no haughtiness at all in her tone. She was simply explaining her talent, which was extremely useful.
"Heh… You're going to be good at this. I thought we'd do a few medicines a week before moving onto poisons, but you're going to move much faster than that… Well, anyways, let's continue. This potion is a basic cream for scratches and disinfecting. It is commonly made, and very easy to find the recipe for. Many other creams and medicines are used for disinfection, but this one is most basic. You make the creams based on what resources you have, and, provided you have adequate resources, how bad, deep, or how infected the wound is," Kabuto explained.
Sakura nodded, taking in all of the information. She'd need it, later on. She still wasn't sure if she really wanted to be there, but for as long as she was, she'd try and get something out of it.
----
In reality, a few weeks was six months, and this was before Kabuto subtracted time from his estimate due to Sakura's amazing memorization ability. He did not want to rush her into poisons, due to the fact that he still couldn't be entirely certain that she didn't want to poison him.
In the end, in that first day, she was able to make two different potions—the original, and another more stronger version of the original. Kabuto told her to practice those two, over and over, and to memorize the properties. The next day, he'd test her completely on the two potions, about all of their properties, ingredients, recipes, and even odd things like their scent and their thickness. She'd have to be able to tell them apart, and be able to tell when and when not to use them.
Basically, she'd have to be an expert on both of the potions to move onto something new.
Sakura spent the rest of the night studying the two medicines, learning and memorizing everything about each potion. She really had nothing better to do, and Kabuto was gone. He had left for some obscure reason, one which he wouldn't tell her. Ino and Takara, as was their norm, were working into the night. As Ino briefly explained to Sakura, Takara was attempting to quickly have Ino master the information, for Takara had already stayed longer than she had planned.
----
"Which has a minty smell?" Kabuto asked.
"The stronger one," Sakura replied tonelessly, obviously bored.
"Okay… Which requires ground tree bark?"
"The weaker one."
"Which is greener?"
"The weaker one."
"Which is can be used to absorb pus?"
"The stronger one."
"Which one is runnier?"
"The weaker one."
"Which is made to have lumps in it?"
"The… hey, neither of them are supposed to have lumps…" Sakura replied, almost slipping up by saying the stronger one.
"Okay. You pass. You can now work on this next medicine, which is used for lacerations," Kabuto said, flipping to a page in the book, and showing her a light pink potion.
Sakura nodded in response and began gathering the ingredients needed. Kabuto had given her full (almost) access to the resources on his shelves, so he didn't always have to get them, and so that she'd acquire an eye for them.
"Hey, 'Buto?" she asked, using his nickname. Oh god—this meant that she was going to be casual. Which meant flirting. Which meant Kabuto doing his best not to panic.
"Yeah?" he asked, pretending to be uninterested. Really, he was almost addicted to her conversations. She always said interesting things, or asked intriguing questions. Usually, when she began conversations that way, she seemed as if she'd pull something straight out of thin air, and talk about it, just for the sake of talking.
"Did you know there's a word called 'fustigate'? It means to beat someone with a cudgel or a club," Sakura explained. Kabuto chuckled at the obscure, widely unknown word. No, he hadn't ever heard of it.
"Really? Can I test that?" he asked, making his way to the dictionary. It wasn't that he didn't believe that such a word existed—no, really, he was just checking for procedure.
He flipped through the dictionary to the 'g' section, and then flipped backwards to find the 'fu's. Surely enough, fustigate was in the dictionary.
"Huh. That'd be an interesting word to use in a fight as a threat—'Shut up, or I'll fustigate you!' The person would freeze, and then you could move in for the kill…" Kabuto mused. Sakura felt a shudder go through her body, the same way it did any time he casually mentioned murder like that. Even with her friends, who had committed many more assassinations than herself, they never could mention it as casually as Kabuto did. And that freaked her out. But, she was growing used to it, albeit reluctantly.
So, she changed the subject, "So, 'Buto, when are you going to take me out on a real date? I like this whole apothecary setting as much as the next girl, but I want a real date. As in makeup, heels, nice clothes over a candlelight dinner…" Sakura mused with a smirk, knowing that Kabuto had done a double take.
"Ch. I wouldn't want to have you cheat on your boyfriend in Konoha," Kabuto joked. Like Sakura with his casual references to death and murder, he was slowly getting used to her random flirting.
"Oh, there's no boyfriend," Sakura said, her tone somewhat… odd to Kabuto.
"Girlfriend, then?" Kabuto asked with a smirk. And automatically ducked. Sakura had thrown a clove at him, just as he expected. He was just glad she wasn't reaching for the knife… She'd have actually thrown it!
"Yeah, right. I'm as straight as you are gay," Sakura commented off-handedly.
"Oh, so you have a harem of girls?" Kabuto asked with a chuckle. And ducked. Sakura, however, had gotten adjusted to the timing of his ducking. She had waited exactly three and a half seconds before throwing the closest thing to her hand—which, ironically, just happened to be the knife. And hit him squarely in the shoulder.
Sakura gasped and froze. Kabuto was breathing funny, which was the minimum of reactions to having a knife in your shoulder. "Well?" he asked, motioning towards the knife. Sakura hurried to him and pull the knife out gently, pulling it out in such a way that it wouldn't hurt as much. She folded her hands over the wound and closed her eyes in concentration. Green chakra glowed around her hands, and Kabuto felt the slight pricking sensation of the chakra needle going in and out of the wound, closing it.
When Sakura pulled away, Kabuto admired the work through the hole in his shirt. "Huh… there will only be a scar, now… I'm never going to infuriate you when you've got pointy objects around. Your punishment is that you don't have any more knife privileges for the week—I have to do it all," Kabuto told her with a smirk on his face.
----
Sakura was annoyed. While brewing medicine, Kabuto had to cut everything for her. When she ate meat, Kabuto had to cut it for her. She wasn't allowed to do target practice, an area she needed a lot of work on. She wasn't allowed to handle anything pointy.
And Kabuto was amused. He wondered how long, during the course of the week, it would be before Sakura threatened to fustigate—yes, he had picked up use of that word—him into a bloody pulp until he allowed the use of knives, even if it was only supervised.
Sakura didn't complain. This surprised him immensely.
When the week was up, she looked at Kabuto expectantly. "Well?" she asked him, when he made no move to say anything.
"Well what? Oh, yes. I'm planning on extending your…" he began. Only to test her reaction—really. He only wanted to threaten to elongate the punishment to mess with her.
"I put up with it for a week. That was fair. If you're being serious, I hope you know that I will fustigate you, and continue the fustigation until you allow me to use knives. In the end, if you end up as a bloody, pulpy mass, I'll feel no guilt whatsoever on my conscience because I'll know you deserved it," Sakura growled. She had a very scary look on her face, and Kabuto would not have been embarresed at all to admit he was scared.
He let her have the knife.
A/N: It's going to get sort of off the point for a little while, up until the real start of the plot comes up. The next chapter will be basically relationship building, kind of like this one was, and the one after that will probably be the beginning of the real plot. Sorry if you don't like it going off-topic.
Review, please!