1552 words in this chapter
Back to Surreality
Chapter 12- Nothing to spill
Tsunade looked over at Sakura, who stood at the edge of her office sorting papers with a chunin from the academy, and frowned. She still wasn't showing any sign to anyone that she was affected at all by last week's events. Damn her professionalism. I should have just locked her in there, rather than tell her it's a mission.
She hadn't been at work for days but she still came in to assist with paper work, seen as Shizune had taken the week off in revenge for them all leaving her alone on Thursday.
It had been a week since Tsunade had asked the four participants to come to her office in real time, and the entire affair was not over yet. Yesterday morning, Yoshino Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka had burst into her office to give her an earful about what their children had said the night before.
She was thankful that they had come fairly early, before anyone else could hear, although the fact that they had come screeching into her hangover time had left her somewhat in a bad mood. It was none of her business whether the two nin (who she had only put together because she thought they were good for each other and because she knew what their parents had planned for them) got together or not.
Admittedly, Yoshino may have had good reason to be frustrated, considering that she was left out of the loop. She had apparently told them all, that she was ill, not to have to deal with Ino's screaming when they were told to get married, only to find that her husband and his friends had told them not to and it didn't make any difference as they had wanted to anyway.
So she wouldn't have had to put up with Ino's screaming anyway, and she didn't get to scold her husband when she wanted to, and everyone else knew things about her son that she didn't. Not to mention the fact that she had missed a chance to experience the only act of selflessness and non- laziness Shikamaru had ever displayed out side of missions. The woman was not happy.
Tsunade tried to put the whole event out of her mind. She watched on as the chunin Sakura was working with left the room for a while, and waited until he was out of hearing range.
"Sakura?" she called awkwardly
"Hai Tsunade-sama." Sakura turned and stood facing her.
"Come here?"
"Hai Tsunade-sama." she walked over and sat on one of the chairs beside her desk, resting her hands politely in her lap and looking Tsunade directly in the eyes.
"There are some things I need to talk with you about, regarding last Thursday."
"The mission? We never had a proper de-briefing."
"Bloody hell Sakura, I don't believe for a second that you are really that naïve. You must know there was no mission."
"Gomen. I forgot. You said it was a test of our skills, right? Not a real mission."
"Sakura…"
"I really don't know what you mean"
"Ok, let me spell this out to you. It was not in any shape or form a mission, or a training exercise, or an examination. It was an attempt to amuse myself on my birthday by trying to set up my two most obviously lonely shinobi. The idea was that I'd tell you to seduce Kakashi and it would actually work for both of you. You can't tell me you are stupid enough to believe otherwise."
Sakura merely nodded. "I suspected as much. That's why when you discounted Tenten and Hinata, you didn't say "because they are married". That would have raised our suspicions too soon."
"So my intentions weren't lost on you. Why then were you denying it?"
"I sincerely hoped, for the sake of my own sanity and yours that it wasn't the case and I was just being paranoid."
"Why for mine?"
"Setting me up with Kakashi? Me? Why did that seem a good idea to you? He was my sensei."
"Not for a long time."
"That's not the point. It's weird. Not to mention the fact that I can never hold down a relationship. It's not in my nature. He needs someone who will stick by him."
"Why shouldn't that be you? You always cared for him when you were a team."
"You talk like you're aiming for me to become a housewife or something."
"That's the way you were behaving."
"Well I'm not exactly going to flirt with him am I?"
"Sakura, can't you just do as you're told for once?"
"Not when it's my future you're dictating. You aren't my mother"
Just then, the chunin from before came back into the office with more scrolls in his hand. "Haruno-san? Is everything alright?"
Sakura turned around and gave him a weak smile. "Sure it is. Did you get them?"
She promptly went back to work, kicking her anger under the carpet as she strode away from Tsunade as though they had never spoken two words to each other.
Damn her…
"Oh, and Sakura?"
"Hai?" she answered without looking up at her.
"I got a message from Suna. There has been a change of plans."
"What is it?"
"Tamari's birthday is in a few weeks and she has asked if she could come and visit Konoha. She says there is someone she wants to see. So a number of the sand Nin will be coming with her. Your presentation has been moved to then so you don't have to leave the village. It is the best way seen as we need your skills here."
"Alright. When is the date?"
"August 20th they will arrive, for her birthday on the 23rd. There will be a celebration on that date, which I expect you to attend."
Sakura sighed. "Hai Tsunade-sama."
She grinned back, loving her new plan. "With a date"
Sakura came out of work feeling tired again, but it was only midday. She had started earlier so she could escape before the jonin meeting in the afternoon.
It wasn't to avoid Kakashi because he never turned up to those meetings, but rather to avoid the tedium of talking missions with the big headed jerks that earned that rank.
Because of this, she hadn't got her full five hours worth of sleep and so her brain functioning was slow compared to usual.
She strolled through an area of forest, secluded from the rest of the village to gather her thoughts. People often came here, and it was informally known as Konoha Park, but it was unlikely to run into anyone.
Nevertheless, Sakura managed it. She began to feel the approaching chakra signal, shortly before the voice reached her. "Sakura? Hey, forehead girl!"
She turned to see Ino running towards her, in her training outfit. "Hey Ino-pig"
"What are you doing out here? In daylight?" she stopped running, putting a hand behind her back.
She shrugged "Jonin meeting. I skipped out. Why aren't you there?"
"Why do you think? Shikamaru threatened Tsunade until she gave us the afternoon off. I'm just out for a jog and then we've got a date."
"A date?"
Ino grinned "Hai"
"In public?"
"We told our parents on Monday. We're public now."
"I bet that went down well." Sakura smiled.
"It was so much fun. You should have been there. Talking of which, have you got the money yet?"
"What money?"
"I told the parents to give you and Kakashi any money they earned off you on bets."
"Oh, right. Thanks Ino, but no, nothing yet."
"They must have given it to Kakashi then"
"Kakashi?" Sakura's eyes went wide and she stopped walking.
"Hai. Why?" she stopped beside her friend.
"Ino, he doesn't know about the cameras." She told her timidly.
"Kuso"
"Well, I guess he had to find out anyway." She moved over to sit against a nearby tree, her legs feeling weak.
"Hai. I don't understand why you didn't tell him though" Ino sat on a low branch nearby.
"Why me? I didn't think that was in the job description"
Ino just smirked teasingly, leaving a little pause for Sakura to think before she dropped the bomb. "So what was this I heard about… a little black jewelry box?"
"What?!" Sakura looked shocked, snapping her head around to face her. The only people who knew about that were…
As though reading her thoughts, Ino replied quickly "I didn't hear it from anyone in particular but I still heard it, so spill."
"There's nothing to spill." She protested, returning her gaze ahead.
Ino rolled her eyes "of course not…"
"There isn't. Honestly. I gave it back."
"You aren't serious" Ino shot her a horrified glare
"I am." She sighed "It was stupid and frivolous so I gave it back."
"And what did Kakashi say about this?"
She looked down and started to fiddle with the edge of her top "A little more than I wanted to hear to be honest. How did you know it was him?"
"I have my sources…"
"How much more did Chouji tell you?"
"Hey!"
"Come off it Ino. I'm not stupid."
"Ok. Pretty much everything." She giggled. "Tongues and Hands?"
"Dear Kami." Sakura blushed "It wasn't on my part, honest."
"Sure it wasn't" she looked doubtful.
"Not much of it anyway."
AN: he he made me giggle the end of this one did. The conversation doesn't stop here. It's continued in the next chapter but it is a really long one so I spilt it up. In fact, the next two chapters are all the same scene, so enjoy…
The first part of this is just filler really, but some parts of it are important, so yeah… I'm submitting a lot today so I won't say much.
Show the luff
XX Belizma-chan XX