CHAPTER 15

"Lookin' good, Blossom."

Sakura looked up from her desk, recognizing the familiar voice as well as the nickname and flirting.

"Shiranui." She said curtly.

The teasing, confident smile Genma had been wearing a second before faltered slightly at Sakura's tone. "Something wrong?"

Not one to play games, Sakura decided to get straight to the point. "What did your bunshin tell Sasuke the other night?"

"Oh, that." The smile was now back on full-force Genma's face. "It was nothing, really. I didn't say anything that wasn't true."

Sakura regarded the jonin dryly. "It's your version of the 'truth' that's worrying me."

Genma let out laughter. "Come on, Blossom. I thought we're friends now. You did sleep in my bed, after all."

"Okay, see, it's those kinds of comments that get misconstrued." She sighed. "Please, Genma. What did you say to Sasuke?"

The jonin walked over to Sakura's desk, in front of which she was sitting on a chair. He put his left hand on her desk, supporting himself as he leaned his face in closer to the medic's. "All I said was that you wouldn't be able to make it that night."

Sakura looked up at his face skeptically. "That's it?"

"That's it." He repeated. Then the mischievous twinkle in his eyes returned. "Oh, and I guess I might have told him that I would be taking good care of you that night. I just didn't want him to worry – you know me; always being considerate of others' feelings."

"Genma," Sakura let out exasperatedly, "the way you say things makes it totally not like what it really was."

Genma grinned. "Hey, I can't help it if other people's interpretational skills are greater than what I suppose them to be. I'm clearly a victim here." He wiped his grin off and tried to look more repentant. "Why, did Uchiha give you a hard time about it?"

"You could say that, I guess. Though, since he's the one who ended up with a broken hand, so it would seem that he got the worse end of it."

The brown-haired jonin barked with laughter. "Only you, Blossom." He said fondly. "You should come drinking with me more often; you were fun."

"Oh, shut up. I really should've quit a long time ago."

"Quit… drinking?!" Genma gasped in mock horror, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh at him. As peeved as she had been at him for causing trouble, he really was not the type of person at whom anyone could be mad for long.

Damn him.

"Why on earth would you ever even thinking about doing that, Blossom?"

"I am a medic, you know. Health is a thing for me." She said dryly.

Genma regarded her for a moment in silence. His expression grew serious as he leaned in even closer to Sakura. "I think you're lying." He whispered into her ear quietly. "I think you're just afraid – afraid to let loose, to have fun, to be yourself."

When he pulled his face back slightly to look into her eyes, Sakura could see that the twinkle had returned in Genma's eyes as he said, "You're only nineteen once."

Sakura was about to open her mouth to protest Genma's theory when an unamused voice came behind the two of them from the window.

"Am I interrupting something?"

A silver-haired, lanky jonin sat perched atop the windowsill of Sakura's office.

Sakura sensed Genma move away from her instinctively.

"Hey, Kakashi," Genma greeted his comrade cheerfully, "no, not interrupting at all. I was just in the process of corrupting your cutest student."

"I think she's good, but thanks."

Silence ensued. Genma continued to grin at Kakashi while the latter man didn't draw his intense gaze from the former.

"Okay, wow," Sakura broke in, "I now know the true meaning of the phrase 'cutting the tension in the room with a kunai. Is it me, or did this room just become suffocating with a weird amount of testosterone all of a sudden?"

"Sorry, Blossom, it's me. You wouldn't believe how much testosterone gets built up in my – "

"The Hokage would like to see you, Sakura." Kakashi cut in emphatically, his expression unreadable. "Now."

Sakura blinked. "Shishou? Oh. Um. Okay." This took her by surprise; she hadn't been summoned to the Hokage's office in quite a while.

She got up from her chair and looked at Genma and Kakashi uncertainly. "Well. Wouldn't want to keep her waiting – she's the Hokage and all. But, uh, are you guys going to leave my office with me, or what?"

Before Genma could respond, Kakashi cut in once more. "You can go ahead – I'd like a word with our, uh, friend, Genma."

The pink-haired kunoichi considered insisting that they both leave – and leave separately – but took one look at Kakashi's firm expression and realized that it was a lost battle.

She sighed.

"Okay. Later, guys."

Kakashi waited until Sakura's footsteps couldn't be heard anymore before turning his attention back to Genma.

The brown-haired jonin continued to wear a light smile on his face.

"So. Felt like having a chat with an old comrade, huh?" Genma's voice remained airy.

Kakashi's expression was dark. "What are you doing hanging around a girl who's sixteen years younger than you, Shiranui?"

Genma chuckled. "Somehow, I think it'd be more fun to hear what you think I'm doing with her."

The Copy Nin merely continued to glower at him. "This isn't a game."

"Never thought it was." Genma replied easily. He then put up both of his hands, palms out. "Hey, man, I'm just teasing here. You know I wouldn't touch her; I'm not stupid. It's interesting, though," he added thoughtfully, "I wonder, you know. Would you act this scarily toward, say, Shizune, if you thought she was hitting on Naruto or Sasuke?"

"Shizune – or anyone else in the village, for that matter – doesn't have the reputation that you do when it comes to interacting with the opposite sex," reminded Kakashi quietly.

Genma pretended to pout. "Well, you're just hurting my feelings now."

"She's not your next plaything, Shiranui."

"Has it ever occurred to you," Genma said slowly, his gaze as intense as Kakashi's now, "that maybe I think that she's the one who will change my hedonist ways and that she's 'the one' for me? You know, the woman who changes me for the better? The reason I get up in the morning?" The brown-haired man couldn't help his face breaking into a grin as he said these words.

"Don't make me laugh."

Genma chuckled. "Kakashi, I'm telling you – I won't taint your precious student. She's nineteen; what kind of man do you even take me for?"

Kakashi didn't miss a beat. "A wholly depraved one," he deadpanned.

Laughing loudly, and knowing Kakashi enough to recognize that this conversation had now concluded, Genma turned to leave – but not before he had his last words.

"I would like you to ask yourself, though, Hatake," he kept his tone casual, "would I really be worse for Sakura than, oh, I don't know, Sasuke Uchiha would be?"

Satisfied that Kakashi didn't – or perhaps couldn't – answer, Genma waved as he walked out.

"You wanted to see me, shishou?"

The blonde-haired woman spun around in her chair to face her younger disciple.

She didn't much like what she saw in Sakura at the moment. The girl looked tired; worn out. The Hokage found herself wishing, not for the first time, that life could afford to be kinder toward Sakura Haruno.

"I know you've been busy with the hospital, especially since coming back from Suna," Tsunade began, "but I'm sending you on a mission."

Sakura was completely taken aback. Tsunade knew the state of Konoha Hospital and its needs right now.

For Tsunade to send Sakura away at this time, there must have been an incredibly urgent issue.

"There's an epidemic of some kind going on over at the border patrol camps. I've gotten reports of the description of the disease, but it's nothing I've ever seen before." Tsunade continued, her expression grave. "Shizune's currently combing through the list of medics available and assembling a team – which will include Shizune herself. You are all to leave tonight."

Now Sakura was really surprised. Shizune and Sakura were both to leave within a few short hours? Tsunade would never send Shizune, her right hand, away unless something was seriously wrong. This epidemic must be serious, thought Sakura.

She suddenly felt overwhelmed. She was so, so tired – and the border camps were a day and a half's worth of journey. They could maybe push themselves to try to make the trip to be a little over a day long, but that would require even more energy.

She knew she didn't have a choice, though. Moreover, she wanted to go. Leaf lives were in danger, and she would never turn down a chance to be of help to her fellow villagers. She couldn't help that her body was involuntarily recoiling at the thought of a day and a half long journey, though.

Suck it up, Sakura. Get it together, she told herself mentally.

"Hey, look who answered the door this time!" Said Sakura with a grin.

Sasuke shot her a dangerous look, but as he opened the door further and took in Sakura's appearance, he noticed that she was dressed in her green vest and had a full backpack with her.

Noticing his questioning glance, she said, "Yeah, I've been called away for a mission. I'm really sorry, Sasuke, but looks like I have to bail… again." She smiled ruefully. "I wanted to tell you this in person myself this time – you know, to make up for last time."

Sasuke didn't quite know what to say. The question, "Where are you headed to," was at the top of his throat, but he couldn't quite get himself to say the words.

Luckily, Sakura offered details without being asked.

"There's some sort of epidemic going on at the border patrol camps, so a few medics are needed. Please tell Naruto that I went on a mission; I didn't have time to stop by to say bye to him – or anyone, really. Naruto can tell everyone else. And, hey," she added, her gaze lowering to Sasuke's arm, "is your arm healing okay?"

The raven-haired Uchiha nodded gruffly.

"Good." Sakura flashed him a bright smile. "Go to the hospital if it bothers you at any point, alright? Wouldn't want the great Sasuke Uchiha to lose an arm."

She took a step back. "Okay, I've got to go meet the team now. Bye, Sasuke. Try not to be too annoyed with Naruto while I'm gone."

"When will you come back?"

Sakura blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected him to ask such a question – or any question, for that matter. "I'm not sure, honestly. Could be two days or two weeks… or maybe more, who knows. It depends on how fast we can get a cure going." She didn't bother mentioning that the epidemic seemed serious, for she was holding on to a small attitude of denial about the whole issue. Perhaps if she didn't make it out to be a big deal, it wouldn't turn out to be one.

She could dream, couldn't she?

With one last smile at the boy, Sakura took off into the night, leaving Sasuke alone in his doorway.

Author's Note: Hey, guys! Wow, the story's been getting a lot of views - I've broken the 11,000 view mark! So happy that more people can be exposed to my imagination :D As always, thank you SO much to everyone who has reviewed - and if you haven't left reviews yet, I hope you do in the future, because I really can't explain how meaningful it is to get positive and encouraging words on your own creation. Special shout-out to pedocat pat for your very thorough review, and I wanted you to know that I appreciated your critique! I wanted to bring attention to something you said, which was that the story can get confusing with all the time skips and different POV's - that's totally my bad, as I didn't know that there was a linebreak function on this site for the first few chapters. When I wrote the stories on Word Document, I formatted the story so that it would clearly show when a section of the story ended, but when I uploaded it to , it would somehow undo it all D: Sad, sad. I hope it got less confusing as you kept reading, though, since I've discovered the magical linebreak button a few chapters in, haha.

Keep the reviews coming for faster updates, folks! Love you all!