Genma flashed an unimpressed look at his long time friend. Sukea? What kind of dumb ass name was that? But most importantly, why was he introducing himself under a fake name? He doubted Mizuho was that much of a threat considering her lack of muscles and an almost non-existent chakra pool. Plus the pink hair? Definitely nonthreatening as it was such as impractical hair color. Like seriously, what kind of ninja would have pink hair? And judging by how glossy it looked, she paid a good amount of attention to her hair. That was another point down in being a threat.
If he were honest with himself, which he usually was, she was just a wannabe genin whom he was entertaining because he thought she was easy on the eyes and passed off well enough as eye candy. If Kakashi had any reason to believe that the girl was any indication to impending danger on Konoha then he'd believe him if he said that she was going to break a lot of hearts because she was dangerously pretty. Her age was hard to guess especially with the makeup but she was probably in her late teens or something, albeit a very short teen who hadn't reached her growth spurt yet judging by the lack of curves.
It wasn't like Kakashi's identity was a secret considering he had entered the Bingo book at the tender age of 16 and has since been known as Copy Cat Kakashi for over a decade. Surely, he couldn't think telling a measly genin like her his name would tip off Orochimaru any useful information against the village.
He could see that Mizuho wasn't comfortable around Kakashi, despite trying to put up a tough front. Well, he couldn't blame her. The man's entire existence could set just about anyone on edge.
A pair of green eyes were looking at him, a single pink eyebrow raised as if expecting an explanation. "This is Sukea, my best friend since we were in diapers," he said as he flashed her a smirk.
Mizuho looked back at Sukea and his outstretched hand which was still waiting to be shaken. "Can you hold your liquor?" she asked, ignoring the hand gesture. Whoever dolled up her face knew her shit, Genma noted. "Can you?" Kakashi asked in return, his lone eye curled up in a smile as he withdrew his hand. Mizuho rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I'll take that as a yes," she muttered in annoyance as she stood up and headed to the bartender.
Before he knew it, their table was full of different assortments of alcohol that would bankrupt his wallet.
"You're officially my new best friend," Genma grinned at her as he chugged down a particularly strong whiskey. Mizuho laughed, he could tell it was genuine because of the way her eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth which stretched a little too widely. Being in T under Ibiki for a year made you notice some things. "I can buy your friendship with just a few drinks?" she asked in a slightly incredulous tone. "Yes, even Sukea here. He just won't admit it," the senbon user commented as he eyed Kakashi sipping on a tequila. "Hmmm, that's interesting," she hummed.
"Why aren't you drinking?" Kakashi asked, eyeing Mizuho over the rim of his glass. "I didn't say I was buying for myself," she grumbled as she nursed her glass of water. "I just thought a shinobi of your kind would be onto something more stronger than a glass of water," he stated. Every shinobi knew that they had to be able to hold their liquor, even for a little bit. It did good for relaxing after a particularly long mission. It wouldn't do well to pass out before beginning the first round or drinking something tame whilst the others were drunk shits. "Well, some of us care about our health a lot more than you," she replied with an indignant huff. "What are you, a medic?" Genma snickered. "Something like that," the pinkette replied offhandedly. "You should stick around more so that I can drag my idiot friend's ass to the hospital after a mission. He acts as if the hospital is plague," the brown haired shinobi spoke.
"Who wouldn't want to go to the hospital? Does he wanna die?" Mizuho questioned. "Apparently he does," Genma replied. "The hospital smells like shit and the food is just as bad. Not to mention that the nurses aren't very polite and lack common sense in general on how to perform their duties," Kakashi's voice cut through with a hint of annoyance. "I had to rewrap my bandages because one of the nurses forgot a pin on my bandage. I would've died from an infection," the silver haired ninja told them.
Genma was surprised to find a thoughtful expression on Mizuho's face. He wondered what was going on in her mind and if her large forehead housed a brain as big. As if sensing eyes on her, Mizuho turned to look at him and smiled at him, just a tad bit sheepishly as if she had been caught doing something bad.
"I've started my internship at the hospital recently so I haven't had much exposure. Are you saying most of our medics aren't competent enough to do their jobs?" she asked the masked figure sitting across her. Kakashi's lone eye rolled in annoyance. "Not just most of them but all of them," he bit out. "Please forgive my friend. He's just being a pain in the ass as usual. What he means to say is that ever since our best medic left the village, the hospital has been in shambles," Genma cut in as he chewed on his senbon. "I know only of the Slug Sannin, Senju Tsunade-hime," she supplied.
"Well, the books didn't tell you about Shizune, her apprentice. She's almost as good as Tsunade," the older nin replied. "But that doesn't explain how the medics are bad? I mean, I've only just begun so I can't say I see anything bad," she poked again. Genma wondered why the hell she was so bent on knowing exactly how the medics were incompetent. Since she was an intern at the hospital, she could just observe for herself. But perhaps the pinkette needed another set of eyes. "I hope to change the hospital for the good. So I need to know how different people view the hospital so that I know how I'm going to change it," Mizuho told him, her eyes having an eagerness that was more than normal, despite trying to conceal it by carefully studying her nails.
"Well, for starters, they really need to improve on hospitality. I mean, the receptionist is cranky as hell. Second, hygiene. Even though the hospital will be crowded most of the times, that doesn't mean it has to be a pig sty. The floors won't be cleaned most of the times, they don't change the bedding, some of the dishes won't be washed and don't get me started on the bathrooms. Thirdly, food. We need food that is both tasty and healthy. I don't care what no one else says, healthy food doesn't necessarily have to taste bad. Fourth, the most of the medicine is always out of stock and sometimes there won't be enough bandages and shit. Because most of our medics are incompetent, they rely on medical instruments rather than chakra so I'm pretty sure you have a decent ideas of how bad that shit can be when the materials aren't enough..."
If Mizuho had a notebook, he could see her probably writing down everything that he was saying. The way she was nodding along to his words, her brows pinched in concentration was certainly something. Kakashi shared the same sentiment with him as he eyed her in a new light. No doubt, he was thinking about Rin. And so, the jounin continued to babble on any nonsense he might deem useful to the pink-haired woman-child.
When Sakura woke up in the morning, she was practically beaming with excitement.
She was grateful for Gemma's observations and suggestions on how to improve the hospital. Even Sukea piped in and gave his own two ryo. She had been so giddy with the information acquired that she gave a quick hurried goodbye to the duo and ran to her house to begin writing down everything she had heard as well as to implement ideas of her own.
Sukea had offered to walk her home but she had refused, saying that she could protect herself and he was probably too drunk that he would be the one needing someone to accompany him home. Genma had laughed at that and she took it as her que to leave. She left the two men discussing who was more sober between the two of them. She hoped she could meet them again to ask about her ideas.
Today, she was going to pay a visit to the library to read about Tsunade-hime and her apprentice before going to apply to the hospital for an internship.
With that thought in mind, the pinkette hurriedly took a bath and was out of her house by five a.m. Her parents were still asleep when she left.
She walked leisurely and took the longer route to the library, watching as the shinobi bounced from rooftop to rooftop in groups of threes and fours. The thirteen-year allowed her mind to drift and wondered how she would've fared if she had chosen to become a shinobi. She most likely would've passed the written exams but horribly fail the practicals, her lack of stamina said as much. Maybe she would've been stuck as a genin if she had at least managed to graduate from the Ninja Academy.
Shaking the useless thoughts of what could've been, she continued on her way to the library. In a matter of minutes, she had arrived.
Sakura was confident to say she knew all about Tsunade-hime and her apprentice as much as books could provide. What she hadn't understood was why she left Konoha, the books only stating that after the death of her lover and younger brother in the Third Great Ninja War, she had left. Luckily, she had come across some of her personal notes in a book the medic had written on how she would reform the hospital. Too bad, she left before she could implement any of it. For example, having a medic on every team to minimize the death count of shinobi. Or having combat medics as long as they mastered the Byakugou no In jutsu or something similar. Would she have mastered it if she became a medic? Probably not.
The civilian headed to the hospital to apply for an internship as a nurse. Sadly to say, Genma had been right and Sakura was too happy to let an ugly receptionist ruin her mood by declining her the right to apply thus she left the hospital and decided to stop by Ichiraku's before going to see her parents if they could help her find a part time job.
Sakura was surprised to find another customer in her usual spot. He was a jounin, judging by his frame and the standard gear he worn. What caught her attention was the shock of silver hair atop of head, defying all laws of gravity that she had learned at school. How was that even possible?
He reminded her of Sukea. She took a seat beside him and ordered a miso ramen from Ayame who gladly took her order. The brunette was writing down a bunch of stuff in a notebook and left Sakura to her devices, to which the pinkette was eternally grateful for.
Casting a side glance at the jounin beside her, she noticed him reading a book with an orange cover which was way too familiar. Ahh, the Icha Icha series. He was wearing a mask, just like Sukea, and his headband covered the left side of his eye. Sukea hadn't worn a headband though and wore a sleeveless fitted tank top which left his arms exposed. Sukea also had a red swirl tattooed on his bicep, the exact one she had seen in a book written by Tobirama Senju as the mark of an Anbu operative. This jounin, however, wore long sleeves so she didn't know if he had the tattoo just like Sukea.
She continued to look at the book before she recognized which edition of the series it was, Icha Icha Paradise written by Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin. Why was he reading porn in public? Her eyes trailed from the book to find the man staring at her, a single eyebrow raised in question. She blurted the first thing that came to her mind.
"Icha Icha Paradise is much better than Icha Icha Scandal!"
Immediately, her face burned in embarrassment. Did she just admit to reading porn to a grown man she had never met before?!
"I'm sorry! That was- I didn't mean to- It was the first thing that came to my mind. Honestly, I don't read those disgusting books but my neighbor does and she's praising them and I have an eidetic memory and so it just kinda stuck! I'm so sorry!" she rambled as she bowed her head, her hair falling over and covering her face. She cringed at herself. 'Really Sakura? You can do better than that!'
When she raised her head, she found the jounin looking at her with an amused expression. "You don't have to apologize. Besides, I like these books, they're first class literature," he said as his single eye crinkled into a half moon, no doubt he was smiling. Sakura couldn't help but eye roll, he sounded exactly like her neighbor. "Of course they're," she muttered under her breath as she turned back to her bowl.
She stole another quick glance at him. He looked like Sukea but didn't act or sound like him. Whilst Sukea gave off bad boy vibes, this jounin was kinda friendly. She couldn't explain the feeling but she did feel comfortable around him so it had to count as something. "You can ask if you want," he spoke without turning to look at her, his eye trained on the page he was reading. "I'm not so subtle, aren't I?" she said sheepishly. He nodded automatically.
"Well, it's just that you remind me of someone. I thought maybe he's your relative because you look the same but you don't act or sound the same," she stated as she gave him her full attention. "What does this friend of yours look like? Perhaps I might know him," the jounin asked kindly. Sakura put her chopsticks down. "He has silver hair like you, and wears a mask too but he doesn't wear a headband. Also he wears a tank top and has a red tattoo on his bicep. You have the same eye color, well, his other eye is red and I don't know if it's an eye problem or genetic disorder," she told him. He hummed in understand and turned to look at her.
Whilst she felt intimidated by Sukea, she felt comfortable in the presence of this unknown jounin. "What about attitude?" he asked. Immediately, her face scrunched up in distaste. "Oh please, don't get me started on his attitude. I met him only once but I didn't like him. I'm not usually the type of person to dislike someone on our first interaction but believe me when I say this, he left a bad taste in my mouth. He acted as if I was below him. He didn't say but he certainly acted like it. He just gave off these weird vibes," she rambled as she glared at an imaginary Sukea.
The jounin was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and Sakura finally felt the weight of her words. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that, I just got caught up in my head. He might be your relative for all I know and here I am insulting him," she apologized profusely. 'Baka!' she could see Inner cheering her on about speaking her mind whilst she hit her head repeatedly. "It's okay. I know who you're talking about. He's a close relative of mine. His name is Sukea, right?" Sakura nodded in agreement. "An odd fella, he is. Our fathers were brothers, we made an agreement to always wear masks back when we were kids," he told her.
"Really? But why do you seem so opposite?" she asked. "Opposite? We're hardly opposite, people say we're the same, looks aside," he retorted. "You're a thousand times way better than he could ever be!" she nearly snarled as she jabbed at the ramen in her bowl. "Wow, he must've done something to anger you this much," the jounin commented. Sakura blushed to the roots of her hair.
"What's your name?" he asked. The pinkette contemplated if she should tell him her name. Though she had a rule to stay as far away from shinobi as possible, she didn't find it within her to avoid the man if the situation arose where she had to converse with him, or if she wanted to. Besides, it couldn't hurt to have at least one shinobi acquaintance who was normal. Genma and Sukea didn't count, they were pretty unhinged in some parts of their brain.
"Sakura Haruno. What's yours?" she asked in return. "You can call me Hatake-senpai," he replied with another eye smile. Sounded good to her.
It was late in the afternoon that Sakura finally made her way to her parents' shop. She had ended up talking to the jounin for a lot longer than she had assumed. But the man had said he had finished reading the book before and didn't have anything to do until well past noon. He'd be lonely if she left. Being the ever polite girl she was, she couldn't find the energy to refuse him especially when he pleaded her to stay with him a bit and tell him a bit about herself. She agreed on the condition that he would, in turn, tell her about himself.
"Sakura Haruno. What's yours?" she asked in return. "You can call me Hatake-senpai," he replied with another eye smile. Sounded good to her.
"Okaa-san! Otou-san! Are you here?!"
She shouted as she entered the shop.
"I told you not to shout, young lady! It's improper for a lady to shout," Mebuki berated sternly as she turned around the counter. Sakura wanted to roll her eyes but she didn't want to start another shouting match, at least not when she wanted something from her parents.
"Sorry," she apologized.
"Good afternoon munchkins," her father, Kizashi, with hair shaped like a sakura blossom in a faded lilac color, greeted as he came up just behind his wife. "I told you not to call me that," she muttered, unheard to both her parents. Whilst Sakura loved her parents, sometimes, they were just too much. Between her mother, for instance, with her stern rebukes on being a proper lady and her father's ridiculous dad jokes, she could only handle so much before she finally gave in to Inner Sakura and blew up resulting in a heated argument.
Which more or less happened everyday.
But today was not the day.
"How's been your day?" she asked as she put her bag on the counter top. "Just the usual. Although, more and more shinobi are coming day by day for basic things like bandages and aspirin. It seems that the hospital is lacking basic stuff as required in it. I wonder if it's because of lack of medicine or lack of money," her mother replied as she brought out a new notebook and a pen. Genma's words from last night came back to her. So what he had been saying was true then.
"I noticed that you seem to be pretty busy with researching whatever has been taking your interest these days. I bought you a new notepad and pen, you might need it sooner or later," Mebuki spoke as she slid the things over to her.
Sakura's throat constricted involuntarily and her eyes watered a bit. Despite their many arguments, Mebuki never failed to remind Sakura that she was still very much her daughter. She always made sure to surprise Sakura with little things like a new scroll when she was out of reading material at home, a new pair of shoes when she didn't notice that they had broken soles or let her sleep late watching tv whenever she had a bad day. And Sakura was too much of sentimental little shit to just let this not affect her. "Thanks okaa-san," she croaked out, hoping her voice didn't crack. The older Haruno seemed to see her struggle and smiled as she patted her daughter's head.
"So, what has gotten you here this early? You usually come here near nightfall," Mebuki asked. Sakura cleared her throat to remove whatever had clogged there during her 'moment'. "I'm looking for a part time job," she told them. "Any reason why?" her mother asked. "You rarely one to work for anything unless it's for your insatiable hunger for books," Mebuki added. "Okaa-san, please. I'm trying to do something on my own, you don't have to make me feel bad for it," Sakura said with a frown. "Just stating the obvious," Mebuki replied as she raised her palms and shoulders to solidify her statement.
Whatever sentimental shit she was feeling went down the drain. Leave it to her mother to ruin the mood.
"I have a friend of mine who's looking for an assistant. He does a lot of things but it has to do with cinematography. But he'll be moving away from Konoha. Perhaps you can assist him and learn some things before he leaves for good. It'll be good for you," Kizashi suggested.
Sakura had wanted to argue but knowing her father, it was better to listen to him. Not that he'd do something to her or was forceful but he somehow had a way of knowing good things that were about to happen. He was the one who initially urged to visit the library often since she had so much difficult making friends. And books have helped her a decent amount of making the measly amount of friends who were only Ayame and a few colleagues at school who weren't weirded out by her hair color. "Can you ask him if he can give me a job?" Sakura asked as she reached her decision. She would work with her father's friend and gain extra cash and skills.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Hanami-san mentioned that she needs a pair of helping hands three times a week at her fashion store. It's better for her to do something more ladylike than aquire a skill she won't have much use of," Mebuki spoke with a frown. "Okaa-san," Sakura groaned out. As long as her mother didn't agree, she knew couldn't do anything apart from what Mebuki had suggested, especially if her father stayed quiet about it. She didn't want to sew and Hanami-obaasan was too much of a prick most of the times. She could imagine how disastrous working with her could be, especially with her temper.
"Why don't you let Sakura choose what she wants? It's not like it's the end of the world if she learns a bit of cinematography. Besides, she has to learn more about the outside world apart from your friends," her father stated. Though he was smiling, Sakura knew that look too well to know that what he was saying was final, no room for arguments. Mebuki pouted a little at that and turned to Sakura who was looking at her smugly.
"Well, since your father says it's a good idea then we'll go ahead with the cinematography whatnot," she replied begrudgingly. "Thank you so much!" she cheered as she high fived with Kizashi.