Chapter 4: The Smiles, the nods, the walks
Studying and working under Tsunade was not as fun and exciting as Sakura had imagined it would be. It was, infact, quite painful at times, like today.
Sakura was standing in front of a desk, behind which sat the legend herself, the giant in the medical world, the person who has as many books written on her life story as the number of text books a first year medical student has to read. .
Lady Tsunade, Dean of one of the most presitigous medical institutions of the country.
Hung over and asleep on her desk in broad daylight.
"Tsunade-sama", Sakura tried to wake up the lady sleeping on top of a huge pile of papers on her desk, knowing full well that a simple call was NOT going to do any good.
The blonde head on the desk only stirred a little bit at Sakura's calling.
Normally, Sakura would have tried to wake her teacher/boss up just by calling her name for a few more times before banging her fist on the desk, the way Shizune-sama had taught her to do in this type of situations. But today, she was too eager to follow courtesy. So she walked around the huge secretariat desk and knocked heavily right in front of the beautiful face lying on it.
"Hmm…" mumbled Tsunade, still not ready to wake up.
"Tsunade-sama" Sakura tried again, "You need to wake up now."
"Ahh….why?" the addressed lady finally raised her head and yawned.
"You have a meeting with the board in less than an hour, remember? Here's the paperwork you asked me to sort out." Sakura said, handing over a thick file to her boss, "You'll have to sign them."
Tsunade took the file and glanced at them tiredly. She really shouldn't have drunk so much sake last night. It was 3 in the afternoon and yet the headache was just as terrible as it was in the morning.
"Hand me some Tylenol, will you?" Tsunade asked her student/part-time employee. "I'm gonna need it to 'chat' with those boring board members."
Sakura smiled as she complied to the order. Tsunade gulped the medication with a glass of water before looking at Sakura, who was still standing by the desk, hands folded neatly behind her back. The blonde raised an eyebrow in question.
"Sensei..I mean, Tsunade-sama," Sensei at the hospital, 'sama' in the office, that was the first lesson Tsunade had given Sakura on her first day as a temporary replacement for Shizune. "I was wondering if it'd be okay if I didn't stay until after the meeting. It hadn't been fixed until this morning and I sort of made plans. . .I'm not allowed to be in there anyways. . ." Sakura trailed off hesitantly. "I mean I can totally stay if you have any work you want me to do but-"
"You want the afternoon off today?" Tsunade finished for her.
Sakura nodded hopefully, "If it's okay with you, Tsunade-sama."
Tsunade thought for a few seconds about the request. It wasn't like she'd need Sakura after the meeting. The meeting was just a simple formality anyways, even if there were any paperwork to be done, it was nothing that couldn't wait until the next morning.
Truth be told, Tsunade admired Sakura quite a lot. She had not only gained the scholarship, but also proven to everyone that she deserved it more than anybody else. She was hard-working, and a quick learner, something that made Tsunade pick her as a temporary assistant until Shizune came back from her special training.
"Fine," Tsunade finally declared, "You can go leave after I get into the meeting."
"Thank you so much, Tsunade-sama!" Sakura said with a big grin on her face.
After an hour, Sakura came out of the hospital and took a deep breath in the fresh air. Great day to meet old friends, Sakura thought as she started a brisk walk towards the center market, beside which stood the only ramen shop of this city.
It was going to be a great afternoon.
"Dobe, ..Arm. Now." Hissed a very indignant Sasuke while being dragged by his best friend to God knew where.
Said dobe was not at all affected by the warning, but he let go of the arm anyway. Sasuke halted right where he was, turning towards Naruto with a deep frown of anger etched across his handsome face.
'What the hell do you think you're doing, you dumbass?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto's foxy grin widened before he replied, "We're going to Niran's ramen shop, Teme!"
"Suit yourself," Sasuke turned back to the room he'd just been dragged out of, "I'm not coming."
"Aw. . teme!" Naruto whined, "Why?"
"Because I have to work on my year final project and because I don't like ramen." Sasuke replied while making his way back to their room.
"Don't talk so disrespectfully about ramen, you!" The blonde always took it personal when it came to his most favorite food.
"Hn." Sasuke didn't even bother to glance at his friend as he reached the door and fished the key out of his pocket.
Seeing that Sasuke really was going to ditch him, Naruto tried one last time. "But we have a special guest today!"
A guest? "Who?" the question automatically slipped Sasuke's mouth before he could stop it, the door half open in front of him.
"You'll know when you see. Now c'mon Teme! You have to come out for dinner anyway. We'll grab an early supper tonight!" Naruto was practically radiating excitement.
After a moment of consideration, Sasuke realized that the dobe was right. He had to take a break for meal, why not now? His concentration had already been broken by his loud roommate, and besides, he'd started to wonder who the 'guest' could be, although he'd never say it out loud.
"Fine." Sasuke sighed and locked the door back before walking past Naruto along the corridor towards the exit, "But I'll only stay as long as it takes to finish the meal."
Naruto's grin returned as he caught up with him.
"You got it."
Sakura had almost given up on waiting and ordered for herself when she discovered a very familiar fox-like face and a head full of sunshine hair looking at her from the entrance of the small homely ramen shop, grinning like crazy.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice boomed all over the place, reminding her just how loud the blonde had always been.
Sakura stood up slowly as a big grin of her own emerged and within a moment, found herself engulfed in a warm, bear hug, which she returned just as warmly.
"Oh my God it's been so LONG Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled out in excitement, "but you're just the same as before!"
"So are you, Naruto," Sakura replied as she gave a shake to her head to get rid of the ringing in her ears, "Only louder."
Naruto winked at the pink haired girl wickedly, "I keep practice."
Sakura smiled. "So how are you? How've you been?"
"I'm good, but I've been better." Naruto sighed before adding, "Finals are coming up and you have no freaking idea how much pressure we're in right now."
"Huh" someone snorted behind Naruto. "Like you do."
A bit startled, Sakura looked at Sasuke who'd just emerged from behind Naruto and was looking right back at her with something akin to cautioun.
"Hey teme!" Naruto took it upon himself to handle introductions, "Meet Sakura-chan!"
Sakura was a bit confused, hadn't Sasuke told Naruto that they'd already met the day before?
"Sakura-chan, meet Teme!" Naruto said before hastily correcting himself, "I mean, Sasuke!"
Sasuke nodded at Sakura, who was still staring at him with a puzzled expression. Why wasn't he saying anything yet? And suddenly, it occurred to her that Naruto didn't know about that corner of the park or Sasuke's alone time and Sasuke didn't want him to. She gave Sasuke a meaningful look, to which he replied with a nod.
Naruto, unaware of the silent conversation, put a hand on Sakura's shoulder, "Sakura-chan, you remember Sasuke, right? He was in school with us? The so called brilliant nerd with a huge stick up his ass?"
Sakura laughed out and took a brief glance at Sasuke's frowning face, "Well now that you've told me, he does look familiar."
Oblivious to the smirk on Sasuke's face," Naruto sighed dramatically, "The poor bastard was almost invisible at school, he wouldn't have survived without me."
Sasuke smacked the blonde head, "Don't push your luck, dobe." Then he settled down on a seat against the counter.
Naruto would've smacked him back hadn't the waitress showed up with a menu, "Would you like to order?"
"Yes! I'm starving!" Naruto yelled before he also took a seat beside Sasuke.
Sakura sat on Naruto's other side, wondering if the guys were always like this.
Something in her head said that they were.
Dinner was good. Sakura enjoyed not only the meal which was delicious ('divine' was the word used by Naruto), but also the constant bickering of the two boys (loud yells and cries from Naruto's part, grunts/insulting remarks from Sasuke's), occasionally intervening as a middle man. They seemed so different from each other, and yet whenever she looked at them, she was reminded of two brothers, their bonding just as deep as their rivalry.
The trio were walking down the street towards Sakura's hostel when Naruto asked her, "Hey Sakura-chan, I totally forgot to ask, when actually did you move to Sound? You just called me yesterday."
"Not long, really." Sakura replied, suddenly nervous. "Um. . a month?"
Naruto halted. "A MONTH?" He sounded shocked. "You've been here for a month and you called me just yesterday?"
Sakura blushed, halting herself. "Well. . you know. . in the rush of it all, moving and stuff. . I'd totally forgotten you live here, Naruto. Until yesterday when . ." she stopped, taking a quick look at Sasuke, who was standing beside Naruto impassively. "When I . .bumped into a guy from your university in the . . hospital." She finished hastily.
Naruto was still looking at her with accusing eyes. Sakura gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Naruto."
It was a genuine apology and so Naruto smiled back at her before resuming the walk. "It's ok Sakura-chan. Important thing is, we're together now and we're gonna have a BLAST living in the same city!"
Naruto's foxy grin made Sakura happy enough to wink and add, "Hell yeah!"
Sasuke, obviously didn't join in the chatter. He hadn't even wanted to come for the walk. Straight back to Dorm after dinner, he'd told Naruto. But the blonde had evidently broke the promise with "Aw c'mon man, it's not nice to let a lady walk back home alone at this hour!"
Sakura had protested, saying she didn't need them to drop her home, but Naruto wouldn't pay any heed to her. In the end Sasuke had to come along, just so the dobe would shut up.
It was almost 9 when they reached the ladies hostel where Sakura lived. Sakura opened the gate and turned back to her escorts.
"Good night,guys."
Naruto gave her a hug. "Good night, Sakura-chan. See you soon!"
Sasuke nodded at her.
Sakura smiled at both of them before getting in and closing the gate behind herself.
On their way back, Naruto said cheerfully, "It was fun, eh Teme? We should see her again soon!"
Sasuke didn't say anything in protest like Naruto had expected him to.
Probably worried about the exams. Naruto figured and started whistling merrily as they walked down the road towards the dorm.
He didn't know that Sasuke was quite sure about seeing her again soon.
True to his suspicion, Sakura was already sitting there next afternoon when he reached the corner of the park, her back leaned against the tree, absently looking at a heavy book on her lap.
At the sound of Sasuke's footsteps, she looked up and smiled at him. Sasuke nodded before sitting down on the platform.
"Naruto doesn't know about this place, does he?" Sakura asked him casually.
"I thought you weren't supposed to bug me?" Sasuke said, looking at the horizon which was soon to turn crimson.
"Yeah well. ." Sakura said, blushing a bit. Damn it. "I was just curious. It's ok. You don't have to answer. Sorry." She turned back to her book and flipped a page, trying to act nonchalant. She really shouldn't have asked. So what if she had lied to Naruto for him? That didn't mean she could expect to get a decent answer from him, right? How could she bother him with a question? It was her fault, period.
Sasuke saw the girl beside him flipping through pages, evidently hurt and angry, and sighed.
"No he doesn't know. Now you can stop jabbing at your book, unless you want to tear it apart for some reason."
Sasuke's tired voice halted Sakura's hand mid air abruptly. As she focused down on the book, she realized he was quite right and her face heated up even more.
Keeping her face concealed behind her pink bangs, Sakura closed the tortured book and put it in her bag. Then she turned her head towards Sasuke, silently demanding further explanation.
Sasuke sighed again. "If you haven't noticed yet, Naruto's a pretty loud guy."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "So?"
"So, after a day of attending long lectures of boring professors, and working my ass off on projects, and hiding from fangirls, I think I'm allotted to a little peace in my life before I can go back to dorm and face the dobe in all his energetic glory. Happy?"
A few moments passed as Sasuke scowled at the horizon and Sakura gaped at him.
And then Sakura started giggling.
"What?" Sasuke said, a bit indignant.
"Oh." Sakura managed to calm down, although her eyes were still laughing. "You poor guy. Tortured by the world, seeking happiness." And she gave into giggles again.
Sasuke snorted. "You make me sound pathetic." Although he could mentally admit that he did sound a bit pathetic. But he wasn't going to tell her that.
"Relax." Sakura said mirthfully, "I'd already guessed it. Just didn't know about your inner turmoil!" She couldn't resist adding the last part, and Sasuke's deadly glare somehow made it funnier.
As the laughter died down, Sakura remembered something from his earlier speech. "What was that bit about hiding from fangirls?"
"Nothing." Sasuke replied quickly, a little too quickly, perhaps. This time he was the one drifting behind black bangs.
Suddenly Sakura realized, and broke out into another fit of laughter, "Oh. . my. . God. .! You got admirers here too?" She got the question out between gasps of giggles.
"None of your business." Sasuke growled.
With great effort, Sakura became normal again. "Sorry."
She smiled sheepishly. "I understand. Sometimes you just gotta take a break from everything to be by yourself. I know the feeling. Trust me, I do." Her face had turned serious, understanding.
"Is that why you moved to Sound?" the question seemed to have slipped from Sasuke and he immediately turned impassive, but Sakura replied anyway.
"Sort of." She smiled again. Then added absently "I always wanted to. . be on my own."
Sasuke regarded Sakura for a brief second, her eyes were unreadable, fixed on the crimson horizon. Then he followed her gaze as well.
After a couple of minutes, Sakura sighed and got up on her feet, brushing off the dust from her back.
"You gonna stay longer?"
Sasuke didn't answer, but brought himself up and got down from the platform before looking back at her silently.
Smiling, Sakura followed him.
That was the first of many times that Sasuke walked with Sakura to her hostel, on the way back to his dorm.
A/N: Happy New Year everyone! um...yeah...i know it's almost too late to say that...but i was sorta kinda busy with stuff and i was hoping maybe you could forgive me..? And if you don't, then scold me all you want through reviews. I'll endure your wrath.. *sighs dramatically*