A/N – Over a hundred reviews!
Agh! Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed; I am now a very happy writer!
And huge love to WitchesRayne for Beta reading!
This chapter picks up right where the last one ended.
Chapter Ten!
It took three loads to finish once she decided to wash her sheets as well, and that was with the clothes crammed in as much as possible while getting them clean. She debated for several moments about whether to do the sheets in her parents' room before deciding against it. She would do them later, once she'd returned from her lesson. She didn't want to be late because she was hanging sopping wet flower patterned sheets onto the washing line.
She put on the black pumps again, this time with black denim shorts and a loose fitting white tank top that clung quite nicely once she'd tucked it in.
Well, they were practical for the lesson.
She left earlier than she needed to, simply because she was ready. She ambled, relaxing greatly in her warm surroundings. The sun was still high and bright; despite the cold breeze, there were no clouds. She stayed out of the shadows; though there were few at this time of day anyway, and basked in the warmth.
There were children milling around everywhere; most in friendship groups and a few proud genin in teams, their new headbands gleaming and pushing their hair upwards because of the tightness with which they were knotted. A little ways away, far enough not to be frightened, a pair of blue tits flitted around in a forest green bush, as if observing the crowd.
Or rather crowd. For once Sakura had drawn through the wisps of shinobi and civilians alike, she came to a group, larger than others that she had passed, which stood still, mainly filled with civilians but containing a couple or shinobi at the centre. She smiled and made her way forwards as one of them turned and smiled at her.
"Sakura!" Genma beckoned. "Come here a minute."
Beside him lay a boy, reclined backwards with his gaze focused on his leg, which Sakura could immediately see was swollen and held at a bizarre angle. He was obviously civilian, as the grimace of pain would likely be absent on a shinobi of her age; he seemed around eighteen.
"Don't worry, I'm a medic." She smiled as she reached for his damaged leg, gently sending her chakra through and evaluating it before emitting the blue, focused chakra indicative of her healing it.
She finished quickly and patted his leg, straightening her body out of the crouch that she had been in. "Just a fracture." She murmured. "Don't put any extreme amounts of weight on it and you should be fine."
"I-uh, thanks." The boy smiled sheepishly. "I'm Koji."
"Sakura." She replied, and gestured towards his freshly healed calf. "What did you do to it?"
"I tripped." He blushed furiously. "I mean, I just got my foot caught on something."
"And tripped." Sakura finished, mentally comparing him to the Naruto of her genin days. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she remembered that she was supposed to be at the academy and turned to leave, giving the boy one last grin. "I have to go. Try and stay on your feet Koji!"
Just before the bustle put her out of earshot, she heard his voice pipe up. "Goodbye Sakura-san!"
She held one hand up as a half wave without turning, and continued on the rest of her journey without event. When she arrived at the academy, the last few poles were being taken out and there was only one other girl who had not arrived yet.
Well, and Zoe. Sakura sighed. At least she hadn't been the last. The two vacant poles stood side by side with Ino on one side and Claire on the other, and so Sakura headed for the one beside Ino, cheering as a few moments later Akimi appeared beside her.
"Hey!" Sakura greeted warmly. "How're you?"
"I'm good!" The girl mumbled happily. "I've been training all morning though, so I'm a little worn out already!"
"Oh, really?" Claire butted in loudly. "What has dear old Iruka-sensei done to get you all worn out, eh?"
The girl blushed and Sakura took pity on her, ignoring Claire's rude question.
"This is my third lesson." She offered with a smile. "What number are you on?"
"Second." She mumbled. "I'm being specialized rather than broad subjected."
"Really?" Sakura asked, wondering what she could be. Surely she would be specifically suited for something, rather than shipped out for anything? Rescue missions perhaps? Something that may require her medical talent maybe? That was all she really had an edge with. "What are you going to specialize in? Are there many categories?"
"I don't know." Akimi glanced down at her hands as she picked off the remainders of some nail varnish. "But I'm specifically going to be a mistress, so I don't need to be able to dance or even, in some situations, seduce. Iruka says that I'll mostly be given tasks that could be carried out by a civilian if the need called. I'll be posting fake profiles on dating sites that cater to adultery so that I have a back-up story, and then just make sure that I'm in the right place at the right time. Did you know that some women will pay us an obscene amount of money just to prove that their husband is cheating?"
Sakura gaped in shock. "Seriously?" Mission fees, particularly for kunoichi, were not cheap.
"Yeah." Ino shook her head. "Looks like you're the lucky one! Are you doing the same amount of weeks here or less?"
"Less." Akimi responded with a small smile. "And I don't have to do any turns at the club either."
"Huh?" Sakura squeaked ineloquently. "Turns at what club?"
Akimi blushed. "You'll be told soon. Iruka let me know everything before I made up my mind. You'll each do at least one shift, as a kind of competition, to see how much money each kunoichi makes. The high scorers usually get the missions involving dancing."
Could she do that? Could she take her clothes off in front of people she knew, not for a mission but purely for practice?
Well, she would have to. And it was at least one. Maybe she could do more, she mused, so that she wouldn't react as she had just done by the end of it.
"Good afternoon ladies!" Zoe's voice called out as she strode quickly into the room to the pole that was set up for her, and Sakura's eyes narrowed. The woman probably only turned up late so that she wouldn't have to help.
A small spattering of replies met her and she hoisted herself up onto the stage that held her pole.
"Today shall be the last day for most of you to practice without any routines, so we shall begin by going over the moves that you have learned so far. You have by no means learned everything that you'll need to know, but I shall teach you anything new as and when we get to it. Got that?" She asked, daring anyone to speak up. "For the second half today we will be performing the moves to music, not in a specific sequence but to make sure that you have some semblance of what time means."
"I'd have thought that the focus would be on the body rather than the timing." Claire muttered, smiling sweetly when Zoe eyes rested on her.
"Anything that you would like to say to the class?"
"Nope. Sorry."
"Then do not talk while I am talking. You are not in the academy anymore."
Claire looked like she wanted to dispute that, but wisely kept her mouth shut.
"Right, we'll start with the 'sit' position. Would you like to demonstrate that?" She asked Claire, whose jaw tightened in response as she took up the challenge, quickly hoisting herself up and crossing her legs around the pole before precariously letting her arms stretch outwards. Zoe hopped off the stage and quickly circled the girl critically.
"Your elbows are bent." Zoe stated. "And how about straightening you back? You are a dancer, not a koala bear."
Taking a deep breath, Claire did so, and a smirk spread across her face when Zoe nodded in approval. "Better."
She then turned to Ino. "Yamanaka. Icon Splits."
Ino took a deep breath and quickly pushed her body into position, hooking her bottom foot around the pole and trying to keep her leg relatively straight as she held on, her hands clutching the pole where her higher calf lay. Not wanting to make the same mistake as Claire, she straightened her back and waited for Zoe's verdict.
"That's good. You can both get down now." Sighing in relief, Ino and Claire slid gracefully to the ground and turned to watch Zoe as the woman stood back in her place above the rest. Sakura sighed too, satisfied that she wouldn't be picked on for the time being, as did Akimi. Those who were quiet, it seemed, had a more comfortable place in Zoe's class.
"Eye opener." She ordered, and the class jumped to do as she said, Sakura's cheeks staining at the position she was in, her legs spread wide.
Gods, what if the club was actually in Konoha? What if Naruto saw her like this? Wrapped up in her thoughts as she was, she came back to herself to find that everyone else had moved into the Caterpillar position, and scrambled to follow.
She would need a lot more practice.
"Why didn't you bring your things with you?" Ino asked, infuriated. "Now we have to rush back to yours and wait for you to do Kami knows what before going out!"
"You could go without me," Sakura reminded her. "It's not like I'd mind."
"Well I would! We haven't talked it ages!"
"We just had a class together, Ino. The third this week. And we meet up on Mondays also."
"We can't really chat properly then, y'know? It all has to be about the lessons…"
"Right." Sakura murmured. And what exactly was Ino going to talk about this evening? Oh, yeah. Probably the teachers. She hid a smirk. "Well, I shall try and be quick then, ok?"
"Ok!"
Their walk to her home quickly evolved into a discussion about their lessons, or rather dancing at the club rather than sex this time.
"Do you think you'll do more than one shift?" Ino asked musingly. "And where do you think it is? I mean, I've never seen one around here."
All of the girls shrugged, looking contemplative, except for Akimi.
"I think that Iruka said that it was on the outskirts of Konoha. Apparently it is out of the way of the main village so as to not be distasteful."
Claire snorted. "So what? These super horny blokes just saunter miles out of the way to watch naked birds who they're not allowed to touch? Yeah, must have a ton of business!" She rolled her eyes, and it was a testament to their lessons that none of the other girls blushed; although Akimi averted her gaze to the floor.
"I don't think that it is just a strip club there. Iruka said that there is a spar and stuff too."
"Ooh, at least there's a spar!" Ino exclaimed.
"Who do you think will be there?" They wouldn't just tell everyone, surely? They couldn't possibly dance in front of the boys that they had played with as children, or the teachers that they had never thought of as anything other than what they were. She thought of Kakashi differently now for certain, she mused with a blush, and she'd become a little more comfortable with discussing Asuma and Kurenai, but… The others? How could she see them as anything else while she swung around a pole near-naked, bared to their critical gaze; compared to the other dancers?
She'd never felt shorter or flatter in her life.
Akimi worried her lip, her eyes cast down to watch the ground below her feet. "I don't know." She murmured. "I'm so glad that I'm not doing it; I think I would just die!"
Claire snorted. "You're too shy." She dismissed. "But you've got to come watch us, alright?"
The girl coloured, but nodded affirmatively. "Of course."
It was a relief for Sakura to hear those words. Now she knew that there would at least be someone who supported her, and would never heckle her flaws.
Well, if she couldn't get out of it.
"Do you think that I could specialize now, too?" She asked Akimi. "If I asked Kakashi about it, I mean?"
"I don't know. Most people will specialize later on unless they demonstrate a certain affinity for something, or in my case a fault, I guess. A couple of people have tried already, but I don't know if they've succeeded. If you're trying to get out of dancing though, then you're going to have to be careful about what you pick. Hinata, obviously specializing in women, still has to dance."
"Oh."
"What categories can you think of that would need it?" Ino mused. "I could always join Akimi… I mean, Asuma is married."
"Yeah, and I'll be he thinks of Kurenai when he fucks you." Claire sneered.
Ino coloured, her fists clenching with anger. "You're just jealous that I might get out of it, when your dancing is comparable to a sloth!" She hissed, the hurt in her voice picked up by her friends, who hung back with her as Claire stalked onwards, pausing when the leaf littered road forked.
After exchanging a look with Sakura, Akimi moved ahead, allowing the two to talk.
"You know she didn't mean that." Sakura told her bluntly, holding her eyes level. "Claire is just a bitch who is insecure because she wouldn't know the difference. How do you feel with him?" She asked, feeling a little like a psychologist, and paying minimal attention to the voice in the back of her head.
You don't wanna hear this, you don't wanna know, you don't want to hear this…
Still, she waited for the answer. To make sure that Ino was okay. To beat to death the idea that Claire might possible be right, not just about Asuma, but about the others as well.
Nobody could be that heartless, that… degrading, while teaching them to be whores, she thought bitterly, and mentally shook her thoughts away from memories; of a man who made her feel and a man who made her feel like nothing.
"I was happy with him." Ino whispered, indecision painted on her pale features. "I hadn't thought of it like that. I only thought that he was wonderful and caring-" Her voice broke with a sob, and her eyes closed, defeated, as she leant into the arm that Sakura wrapped around her as she finished.
"…But then, with her, he would be."
"Do you love him?" Sakura found herself asking, and Ino appeared shocked.
"No, of course not! I've never even thought of that!"
"But you still behave as if you do. Couldn't he do that same? Care about him, I mean!" She elaborated quickly. "You still behave in the way that you want him to behave with you."
She frowned, worrying her lip. "I suppose." She murmured doubtfully. "How does Kakashi-sensei act with you?"
How had he acted before…or after? There was such a distinction, and Ino had no clue. Should she tell her, and let her throw things truly into proportion? He had been so cold, so hurtful. He had been so loving.
He had been everything, in a way that made her feel that she knew better. She couldn't tell Ino this; Ino who was worried about the why without even considering the how. Instead, Sakura opened her lips and let out two single words.
"As expected."
They walked in silence, each girl caught up in her own thoughts as they kept pace with Akimi and Claire, walking together while walking alone.
The establishment had met their early evening buzz by the time that Sakura had gotten clean and dressed, in warmer items than before. She had put on a fluffy winter coat rather than a light jacket and found herself a little stifled while still wishing that she had put on her gloves. She wanted to feel entirely wrapped up. Her hair hung in uncharacteristic bunches (picked up off of Temari) that stuck out vividly when she raised her white hood.
Ichiraku's was at the heart, it's popularity greatly increased by Naruto's donations and fame. It had moved away from its old space several months ago. Now placed in a larger area with multiple tables surrounding the stall, Ichiraku's resembled a restaurant rather than a take-away although both options were kept open.
Out of necessity. Despite the enlargement, Naruto's loud endorsement made it difficult to get a table at peak times. Teuchi hadn't upped the prices yet though, bless him, despite the demand and his employing a couple of civilian girls who were desperate to serve the great Hero. And he always made room for his old customers; Iruka, Jiraiya and Team 7.
So long as there was room to be found. Sakura scowled as her eyes trailed over the packed tables looking for a space. Everywhere was full.
"Drat." Ino muttered. "Looks like the only hope we have is crashing Kaka-sensei's date."
"What?" Sakura's head swivelled quickly, draining of colour as she looked upon Kakashi with a woman, a short woman with long brunette hair. Short as in around Sakura's own height. With a lot more figure to show for it.
She sunk without moving, watching the woman. Replaying Claire's words, in Claire's tone. I'll bet he thinks of her when he fucks you.
"I didn't know that Kakashi-sensei had a girlfriend!" Ino shrieked, and grabbed Sakura. "Why did you not tell me this?! I mean, everyone had been starting to wonder if he was gay…"
"Still could be." Claire muttered, turning away murderously.
"… But how long has this been going on?!"
"I don't know." Sakura murmured. "This is the first I've seen of it."
I'll bet he thinks of her…. Did it coincide with his change of heart? Was it her who deserved his care and attention? Was she the reason that this man, this usually strong and level headed man, had turned his bedroom into a kind of sweet dream?
Had he been only seeing her the first times? The worst. The times that she had wanted to forget. Was it any of her business?
"Everywhere looks full…"Akimi murmured. "Maybe we should go elsewhere."
Sakura looked up to find the other girl staring at her intently before nodding and giving her a smile. She was about to reply when that dreaded sound resurfaced.
"Why don't we go ask if we can sit with them?" Claire suggested innocently. "It looks like their table still has a little space."
"No," Sakura replied with a smile, and scratched the back of her neck in a way that reminded her all too much of her teammates. "I think I feel like barbeque."
"Yeah, I know a great place! Choji makes us get barbeque all the time!" Ino sang.
"We can go there then, yeah?" Sakura asked cheerily. "If everyone is alright with that of course."
Claire looked as if she wished to dispute, but Akimi smiled happily. "I haven't had barbeque in ages! Let's go!"
A huge twist in her stomach hit her as she turned away, and Sakura stayed silent, begging herself not to turn around even as Ichiraku's moved out of sight. Did he love her? Why was he with her? Did they discuss herself; little Sakura who Kakashi had to teach how to be a woman? Maybe they laughed about her. Maybe he had never mentioned her at all. Maybe that woman didn't care to know.
If Sakura were her, she wouldn't feel particularly threatened either.
Claire was speaking again, but Sakura didn't hear her, because she didn't try to. The other girl had caused more trouble than she was worth. Her actions were born of spite. Her lip twisted when the waiter recognized Sakura and said hello, blushing as he thanked her again for healing his leg. She didn't check her tongue, but Sakura paid no mind to her comments.
She didn't care, and she ate in silence before leaving alone, waving at Koji as she left. She didn't know how she found her way home but she did, and sat beside her bedroom window she watched as the sky darkened and lightened, kept awake by thoughts of her sensei and his lover.
A/N – yeah, it's been too long! I completely forgot about this update… oops. I would like to thank the people who reviewed the last chapter by name :
MiMe, Rusala, Inume-blue, TcEm and Ninken ears. Hopefully people aren't losing interest! Clearly we have another problem…. O.O The chapters from now will probably not cover all the time, just events as the training progresses.
Thanks for reading!
Kashi-Cookie-Monster
Xxx
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