CHAPTER 12

Uchiha Sasuke had a lot of things he disliked.

One of those things was waiting. Patience had never been his strong suit.

And by now, he had been kept waiting for over half an hour. Where is she, he growled to himself as he tried to focus on the scroll in front of him that he was supposed to be reading.

Sakura was a punctual person. What was keeping her tonight? Had something happened?

When the thought of something happening to Sakura flashed through his head, Sasuke caught himself picturing various scenarios in which the girl could've been accosted on the way to his place.

He quickly shook that thought out. She was a kunoichi, for kami's sake. If she couldn't even defend herself –

But she uses a lot of chakra at the hospital sometimes, doesn't she? She could be too drained to fight back… Sasuke caught himself from advancing further in his thoughts. He felt – annoyed. He was annoyed that he had been waiting for half an hour.

And he was annoyed that he was actually worried about her. What the hell is going on right now? he thought, almost angry at himself.

Suddenly, his attention snapped to his living room window. There was someone there.

"Oy, Uchiha. Long time no see. Don't hit me or anything; I'm only a bunshin."

Genma, his name was, wasn't it? Sasuke vaguely recalled the senbon-chewing jonin from his chunin exam seven years ago. True to his fashion, Sasuke offered no greeting. Was Genma here with a message from the Hokage?

"Sakura told me she was supposed to meet you at ten." At the mention of Sakura's name, Sasuke's gaze – which had been regarding the bunshin Genma with cool disinterest – blazed up for a second. Interesting, Genma noted. He then continued on with the rest of the message. "She's incredibly sorry, but she's – ah, unable to come tonight. She said she'll find you some time tomorrow." Ever the troublemaker, Genma decided to add another sentence before departing. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her tonight. Ja ne."

With a puff of smoke, the bunshin was gone, and Sasuke was left to stare at the spot Genma had been.

"Ay, ay, Blossom. Slow down."

Sakura laughed. Her own laughter sounded strange to herself; she sounded… young. "I'm already drunk, Genma. Might as well go all the way." She set down the bottle of alcohol she had just emptied, and opened a new one. "Cheers."

Genma shook his head, though smiling. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Sakura look so uninhibited. Whenever he had managed to catch her in the hospital or the Hokage Tower, she always looked stressed and busy. Genma had always thought that Sakura didn't really look like a teenager; she looked too weighed down.

But now, as her green eyes shone brightly and her chimes of laughter rang out constantly, Genma could see that Sakura was still just a girl. Whatever she had been bogged down by in the past, whatever she had accomplished as a kunoichi, she was, at the end of the day, still just a nineteen year old girl who wanted to be carefree and young.

He liked this Sakura.

An hour later, he was supporting Sakura with his arm around her waist and holding up her arm by draping it across his shoulders. "Blossom, I have no idea where you live."

Genma wasn't entirely sure, for Sakura was slurring pretty hard by now, but he thought he heard her mumble, "I don't really live anywhere."

"What does that even mean? You gotta go somewhere after your dreadful shifts at the hospital, kid."

Sakura looked up hazily into Genma's brown eyes. "Drop me off in my office, please."

Okay, I guess she doesn't go anywhere after her shifts? Genma stared at her. "Blossom, you're crazy if you think this is the kind of night you can spend on your desk. You need a bed, and probably an entire bottle of aspirin and a gallon of water in the morning."

"I slept on the bed in the basement morgue once…"

Now Genma stopped walking altogether. Was she serious? He was definitely not dropping her off in that hospital tonight.

When Sakura woke up, she briefly contemplated killing herself to dull the pain in her head.

"Fucking hell," she murmured to herself without even opening her eyes. She didn't want the light to attack her, anyway.

"For a such a pretty girl, you sure do curse like a sailor, Blossom."

Her eyes shot open at Genma's voice – only to promptly be shielded back into blindness with Sakura's hand. She had been right in not opening her eyes before – the rays of light that shone throughout the room felt like kunais stabbing into her eyes.

Stabbing… eyes… Sakura remembered with a jolt that she had blown Sasuke off last night. What the hell was last night, anyway?

And was she in Genma's bed right now?

"Genma." she called to the jonin who casually sat himself down on the edge of the bed near her torso. "Please tell me I didn't sleep with you last night."

Genma burst out laughing. Sakura groaned at the volume. Her headache was going to be the death of her. "Don't worry, Blossom, I don't sleep with women when they're not really conscious. I like them to enjoy what's going on." He gently guided Sakura so that she could sit up. "Here, aspirin and water. You look like you need it."

Sakura gratefully took the glass of water and two pills from Genma. The water felt refreshing and cool to her parched throat. It was then that she finally opened her eyes again, only to come face to face with Genma.

He looked decidedly amused at Sakura's hangover. Much to her chagrin, he didn't seem to be affected by the drinking last night at all.

"Why aren't you in as much pain as I am?" Sakura groaned.

Genma laughed again. "Maybe because I didn't drink nearly as much as you did, kid. You really went to town with it last night. You're lucky I'm such a gentleman, Blossom – it wouldn't have been hard to take advantage of you when you're that drunk." His eyes, which had been twinkling mischievously, suddenly turned serious. "You should be more careful."

Sakura would've responded that she could take care of herself, but then she remembered that she didn't exactly have the best recollection of the previous night. So, biting back her will to argue, she resigned, instead. "I know, I know, I shouldn't have drunk so much." She paused. "The part about you being a gentleman's new to me, though. I'm surprised, Shiranui."

Genma's playful grin returned. "Don't tell anyone that you slept on my bed without me – my reputation will be ruined."

"I'm sure." Sakura rolled her eyes. "But really, Genma, you didn't have to give me the bed. I would've been fine on the couch – I'm sorry I ran you out of your own bed." The pink-haired girl smiled ruefully at the jonin. She really was grateful that he had taken such good care of her last night – grateful and surprised. Sakura knew that Genma wasn't a bad person by any means, but she hadn't pegged him to be so responsible.

He waved away her thanks. "It was nothing. Seriously. You've saved my life before, for kami's sake. Besides," he added, "I liked hanging out with you. You're entertaining when you're that drunk, Blossom."

Sakura laughed. "Well, you probably won't be seeing drunk Sakura again for a very, very long time. I feel terrible." She suddenly realized that she had no idea what time it was. "Shit, what time is it? I'm probably late as all hell."

"It's almost nine in the morning." Genma informed her. She really has a hell of a sailor's mouth, he thought amusedly. Mini Tsunade, indeed.

"Fucking hell," cursed Sakura again as she leapt out of the bed, "I'm gonna borrow your shower, Genma! If you come into the bathroom at any time, I will punch you."

Genma heaved out a dramatic sigh. "You're no fun, Blossom."

Sakura vowed never to drink again as she lay slumped over her desk that afternoon. Not only did she have a ton of work to catch up on – she was behind schedule on everything – but she also felt like absolute crap.

"Kill… me…." She mumbled to herself as she half-heartedly looked over her patient briefing files.

"As a friend, am I obligated to fulfill that request?"

Sakura shot up and wheeled her chair to face the window, where the voice had come from. Her tired – and hung over – face broke out into a big smile. "Sai!"

She ran over to her pasty friend whom she had not seen in months and embraced him in a tight hug. To his credit, the boy didn't hesitate in returning the hug.

Sakura thought fondly that he had come a long way in the four years that she had known him.

"I'm so happy you're finally home," said Sakura as she ruffled his black hair, "I missed you, you emotionally stunted idiot!"

Sai thought for a moment. "I think I missed you too, Ugly. I thought about you and Naruto while I was away."

"Have you seen Naruto yet? He'll be happy to have you back too – even though I'm sure you two will start arguing the moment you see each other." Sakura laughed. Even though she still had a migraine, she temporarily ignored the pain. She was just too excited about having Sai back.

"I did see him – and he did seem to have some angry reaction to my usual name for him. Strange, as you have adapted to the nickname 'Ugly' so well." At Sai's confused expression, Sakura only laughed harder. Her increased laughter only seemed to perplex the boy more, but he decided to plow through his narrative. "He was with Uchiha Sasuke. Tsunade-sama has briefed me on his return."

Sakura stopped laughing and regarded Sai with some wariness. "Dear kami, Sai. Please don't tell me you gave Sasuke one of your, uh, 'nicknames.'"

Sai blinked at her. "I didn't call him anything other than his given name. I wasn't sure that it'd be appropriate to give him a name based on a characteristic, as I wasn't sure that we would be friends in the future."

A frown appeared on Sakura's forehead. "What? Why aren't you sure?"

"Because he had betrayed the village and left years ago." Sai cocked his head at Sakura, as if uncertain as to why she even asked that question. "And he's made you and Naruto sad."

Sakura regarded her ex-ROOT friend in silence for a second before engulfing him in another hug. She didn't let go of him as she spoke. "Sai," she murmured into his chest, "here's another important lesson in friendship: friends forgive each other. But thank you for thinking of our feelings." Sakura let the boy go with one last squeeze around his middle.

"Friends forgive each other…" Sai repeated thoughtfully as he looked down at the pink-haired kunoichi. "I see. But I'm not sure that Sasuke and I will be friends. We have no bond together."

"You have Naruto and me." Sakura answered firmly. "You're our friend, right?" Sai nodded immediately. "So, transitively, the bond you share with us should mean that you share a bond with Sasuke, too, because he's also a friend of Naruto and mine."

The kunoichi watched as Sai tried to wrap his head around his new aspect of friendship. After a moment, he began nodding his head slowly. "Okay, I suppose that could make sense. I'll evaluate how I feel about Sasuke when I see him again with your explanation in mind."

Sakura smiled. "Good." She then looked toward her pile of work that was mounted atop her desk, then made a decision. Nothing wrong with quitting while behind, she thought exasperatedly to herself. "Come on, let's go eat something. You can tell me all about your missions and all the awkward encounters that happened while I haven't seen you."

Sakura and Sai were just walking out of a café near the hospital when she heard a delighted voice that cried out her name.

"Sakura-chan!" In a second, Naruto had wrapped his arm around Sakura's neck to draw her into a hug from the back. "Why does Sai get to eat with you but not me?" He pouted.

"Perhaps it signifies her penchant for my company instead of yours." Sai threw in nonchalantly.

Naruto scoffed. "As if! Everyone knows Sakura-chan likes me the best."

"Or maybe I don't like either of you idiots," Sakura suggested.

"Sakura-chan…" whined Naruto, feigning hurt. Then he let go of Sakura and yelled loudly, "Oy, teme! Get over here!"

Sasuke? Sakura hadn't seen Sasuke yet that day to explain why she had to cancel their session last night. Well, I guess now's my chance, she thought as she saw his long, lean figure walk over toward them. Naruto must have been walking with him, but Sasuke hadn't picked up his pace like Naruto had when the blonde saw the pink-haired kunoichi and Sai.

"Sasuke-teme and I were just about to go get some ramen! But looks like you and Sai already ate, Sakura-chan." Naruto pouted again.

"We weren't going to get ramen, dobe. I'm not going to eat that stuff everyday like you," came Sasuke's voice. His eyes brushed over Sakura, but he looked away so quickly that Sakura wondered if she'd imagined him looking at her.

"Hi, Sasuke." She offered her standard greeting. "Um, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Sai looked from Sakura to Sasuke, then back at Sakura. He then turned to Naruto. "Come on, Dickless. In situations like these, I've been told that we are to move away several feet in order to give people privacy." He then dragged away an enraged and confused Naruto.

And then there were two.

A/N: As usual, thank you so so so much to everyone who has reviewed and left encouraging words! And a special thanks goes out to Jeanette - thank you for reviewing each chapter! It was really nice to read feedback on the individual plots :)

I have some really great romance and dramatic plots in store, but it's just taking a while to get there - and it's really hard to write if you guys don't review and show your support! more reviews = faster updates :) please leave a review if you are reading this!