"That's all for today." Iruka finished up his lesson, "Don't forget to practice your hand seals tonight, you will be quizzed on your proficiency tomorrow."
"Okay, Iruka-sensei!" The class chorused back at the man. Shino kept his mouth shut, not bothering to join in as he knew that nobody would hear his relatively soft voice among the multitude of his peers. And besides, his attention was focused elsewhere at the moment.
The Aburame turned his head to the side, gazing at the frazzled nest of bright pink currently occupying the space in the desk next to him. Once again, it seemed that Sakura had failed to properly secure her ponytail, as the majority of her hair had slipped free of her hair tie as she shifted during her nap.
As the rest of his classmates began to file out of the room, Shino reached over and gently grabbed his friend's shoulder. The moment that his fingers grazed her, Sakura shot up from her slouch, her eyes wide yet not at all alert, "Huh! Wha-I'm paying attention, Iruka-sensei! I promise!"
A few heads turned towards them, but most of their classmates didn't give them more than a passing glance as they continued out the door. Iruka himself gave Sakura an amused glance before turning to clean the chalkboard, not bothering to respond to her outburst.
Sakura blinked, apparently just realizing what was going on. She turned towards Shino and he frowned lightly as he noticed her flushed face and the deep bags underneath her eyes, "It's already time to go?"
"It is." Shino nodded, "You've been sleeping all class. I believe you missed lunch as well."
Sakura stared blankly at him, before she nodded slowly, "Huh, okay. I meant to only sleep for a few minutes but I guess I was more tired than I realized."
Before Shino could say anything, she stood up, giving him a tired smile, "Thanks for waking me up, Shino. I'm pretty sure Iruka-sensei would have just let me sleep all day but I have stuff I need to do at home."
As she stood, she paused for a moment, leaning against her desk as she blinked slowly, "Woah… I stood up way too fast. Gimme a second." She, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"Maybe you should take a moment to wake up?" Shino suggested, only to frown as she shook her head tiredly.
"I can't. I have so much stuff to do when I get home. I can't waste a single second or I might fall behind!"
Once again, she didn't give him the chance to respond as she turned and began making her way down the stairs towards the entrance as she hurried away from him. Shino eyed her as she went, twitching lightly as she nearly tripped over her own feet and took a tumble down the stairs. Luckily, she managed to recover just in time, bracing her hands on a nearby desk before she fell over. She took a deep breath, wiping her sweat-soaked forehead with a shaky hand, before continuing out of the room in silence.
Shino watched her leave, a deep frown under his high collar as she disappeared from view.
Sakura's behavior wasn't anything new and in fact, she had been like this for months now but even so it was beginning to make Shino concerned. He wasn't one-hundred-percent sure what was going on with his friend but he had a theory that it had something to do with her training.
She had confided in him that with graduation soon approaching, she felt the need to increase her already strict training regimen even further so that she could be prepared for becoming a genin. That was around the time that the shift had occurred. And that shift was drastic.
Her constant lateness was one part of that shift. Before, Sakura was late maybe once or twice a month and almost always had a reasonable excuse for it. Now though, she was late more often than not and for seemingly no reason at all. Their sensei had expressed some concern and so had Shino, but she simply waved them off with some excuse like she had been having trouble sleeping or something of that nature.
As ninjas-in-training, Academy students were expected to be able to handle their own issues and as such, the rules regarding sleeping in class were much less stringent. You were more than welcome to sleep through a lesson or two so long as you knew that the consequences of such an action would be your own. A sink or swim scenario.
Sakura was as brilliant as she always was despite her degrading condition; her grades hadn't dipped in the slightest and as such, her parent's hadn't been contacted at all since everything was technically fine, at least on an academic level. Understandably, that did nothing to alleviate Shino's concerns.
He wasn't the only one who could tell something was going on with her, either. Practically every student was able to tell that Sakura was far from one hundred percent, even Naruto. It was that easy to see.
For one, she almost constantly looked like she was in a constant state of sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion. Her skin was paler than usual, her eyes were baggy and bloodshot, and even her usually bright hair had lost some of its luster. She tripped over herself during spars and almost lost to Naruto of all people when he managed to catch her off guard.
Shino wasn't disparaging the blonde's skills of course; Naruto was at least in the top six students when it came to taijutsu and the Aburame himself certainly had no chance against him, but Sakura was in the top four, only having recently been surpassed by In. She should have been able to deal with him easily.
Most concerningly of all to Shino though, was that his friend almost was always suffering from some sort of physical ailment. As heir to the Aburame clan, he had been taught to recognize and detect more poisons than most even knew about. His kikaichu were among some of the best when it came to their sensory capabilities.
Out of the thirty-seven potential poisons that he had tested for, Sakura had shown symptoms of at least twenty. Apparently her resistance training had reached new heights along with the rest of it.
Combined with everything else that she was suffering from, it was clear that Sakura was pushing herself too hard. If this continue, she was going to hurt herself
As Sakura left the room, Shino turned his eyes towards the other person who had their eyes on the pinkette, her face a mix of concern and annoyance.
As if she could feel his gaze on her, Ino almost immediately turned to look at him as well. Her eyes widened in slight surprise as they met his, before an odd look crossed her face and she stood, making her way up to where he was sitting.
Shino wasn't given much time to process the girl's sudden movement beyond a twitch of surprise before she was suddenly in front of him, staring down at him with piercing blue eyes.
"You're Sakura's best friend, right?" She demanded. Shino was shocked by the question, but nodded anyway, "So you know what's going on with her?"
Another nod, and her expression somehow became even more severe, "Tell me."
Shino had no reason not to comply with the blonde's demand. He adjusted his goggles, "Though I am not entirely sure as she hasn't explicitly told me, I believe her training is to blame for her current state."
Ino's expression shifted into one of annoyance, "I should have guessed. She's been a training nut since that Suna woman started teaching her. I'm honestly surprised she hasn't ended up in the hospital yet."
Shino frowned but didn't disagree with the blonde's sentiment. "Just a few months ago, she informed me that she would be increasing the intensity of her training. The timeframe lines up with the gradual degradation of both her appearance and behavior." His frown became more severe, as did Ino's, "It is my belief that she had begun to prioritize her training over her own well-being."
Ino took in what he said, nodding slowly, before her eyes narrowed at him, "And why haven't you done anything? You knew what was going on right?"
Shino looked away, "I… am unsure how to approach the topic without angering her. I do not wish to lose my only friend to an avoidable argument."
It was a fear he had possessed for a while now. Being an Aburame made it difficult to make friends outside of his clan. Sakura was one of the only people outside of his family that he could interact with and feel like a normal person. He didn't want to lose that.
Ino scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Sakura? Get angry at you? Please, the most she's capable of is sarcasm and maybe some angry mumbling. Believe me, I've annoyed her enough to figure that out by now."
That was true. Sakura may have been a bit hot-headed at times when she got particularly excited, but she was rarely truly angry. However…
"Normally, I would agree, but she is particularly touchy about anything pertaining to her training or her goal. Have you forgotten what happened to Ami?"
Ino immediately winced, which Shino could understand. That incident had been particularly painful to watch, not in the least because of the girl's ear splitting shrieks of pain.
It had occurred only a few months ago, when sakura's physical health was just starting to degrade. Ami, apparently fed up with Sakura constantly refusing to respond to her childish taunts, had decided to strike her somewhere much more close to home, and in doing so, made a terrible mistake, though nobody knew it at the time.
She, in all of her infinite wisdom, decided to insult the art that Sakura had proudly proclaimed that she had dedicated her life to. Shino didn't remember the exact words and phrases she had used to insult the art of puppetry, but 'cowardly' and 'useless' were among them.
Needless to say, Sakura had taken exception to that. And given the fact that they had been sparring at the time, was free to enact her retribution in practically any way she desired.
Shino had no idea that chakra strings could be used like that and clearly their sensei hadn't either. It had taken him much longer than usual to call an end to the match and intervene to help Ami before Sakura caused the girl some sort of permanent damage. Though truthfully, she was extremely lucky that medical ninjutsu existed or that might have been a foregone conclusion. Knees were not supposed to bend that way.
Needless to say, nobody had imagined that someone like Sakura of all people had it in her to do something like that. Many of them began treating her much more respectfully, wary of arousing the pinkette's hidden temper.
"I'm surprised she came back, honestly." Ino commented idly, "Most people wouldn't want to after getting their knee inverted like that."
"I imagine that Saskue's presence played a large factor in her return. His fangirls tend to put their obsession before their own well-being at times."
Ino's eyes narrowed at his words, but she didn't argue with him, instead turning to look at where Sakura had been sleeping. She didn't say anything, just staring at the desk with an odd look on her face, thinking intently.
Eventually, she nodded, reaching a decision that Shino himself was not privy to. She turned to him, her eyes questioning, "Alright. I'm going over to her house to knock some sense into her. Do you want to come with me?"
Shino froze, surprised that she had offered him the option to join her. Ino noticed this and rolled her eyes, "You're her friend too, and she's learned how to tune me out by now. Maybe you'll be able to help me put her head on straight."
Shino didn't have to think too hard about it before coming to a decision. He had already sat by long enough while his friend hurt herself with her training.
"Alright." He said quietly, trying not to imagine the ways that this could go wrong, "I'll come with you."
Ino gave him a thankful look before immediately turning away to march out of the room, steely determination in her every step as she followed after their wayward friend. Shino was left sitting there in surprise for a moment before he stood and trailed after her, following along silently down the stairs towards the classroom door.
Iruka gave them a smile as they passed his desk, their sensei easily reading their intentions and apparently approving of what they were about to do. Ino ignored him in favor of following after Sakura while Shino gave the man a small nod as he passed him by.
"Come on." Ino said as they exited the building, "She's probably at home. She likes to check in with her family before going off to train."
Shino nodded, "If she isn't there, I believe I know where her preferred training ground is. She's mentioned it in conversation once or twice. Training Ground 23."
"Perfect. We'll check there afterwards." She smiled, before her grin turned sharp, "And when we find her, I'm going to give her more than just a piece of my mind. I'd say deserves it for making me worry like this, wouldn't you?"
Shino didn't object to her words, which she apparently took as an agreement. She gave him another sharp grin, before beginning to walk in the direction of Sakura's house. Shino was half a step behind her, listening silently as she muttered angrily to herself about what she was going to do to Sakura for worrying her.
The Aburame could tell that her heart wasn't in it, though. Ino was just as worried about Sakura as he was, if not more, and it made Shino happy to know that he wasn't alone in his concern for the girl.
They may not have been friends themselves, but neither of them were going to continue to sit by while Sakura withered away under her own training regime.