Chapter Ten: Holiday
Lost in her own thoughts Sakura finished getting ready. Pausing at the mirror over her dresser to frown at her hair she pulled on the ribbon she had been using to keep her short tresses out of her eyes with a sigh of annoyance. The kunoichi missed her forehead protector. Glancing down at the top of the dresser she smiled and picked up the combs Kakashi had given her and quickly slipped them into her hair. She had been finding more and more excuses to wear them when he wasn’t around. Absently she wondered if it could possibly be because she actually missed the old man before shoving the thought aside as nonsense.
Her mind flicked back to her former sensei and she was surprised to find how annoyed she still was at her friends for having brought him up while in the hot spring earlier, though she had forgiven them so they could spend the afternoon shopping in the village. Besides, when all was said and done she did know what he looked like under the layers, aside from his mask of course, and had for years. Kakashi was exactly what she had said he was: a shinobi of leaf and he looked like one – in other words well built and clearly well maintained with only a number of scars to tell the tale of his many years in service to the village. Yet, for some strange reason she just didn’t quite want to share that information. Silently she explained it away as just her desire to allow a private man to keep his privacy. Granted she had on occasion gossiped about some of the other male shinobi who had at some point or other needed her medical services and may have preferred that she protect their privacy. Regardless she just didn’t feel right talking about the silver haired jonin under such circumstances.
Absently she shook her head, resolving to figure it all out later, thinking that she had plenty of time before she actually saw the man again. Sakura gave her hair one last pat and made her way from the suite to meet her friends who were probably already waiting for her outside for their shopping expedition. As she entered the lobby of the resort she paused upon catching sight of a familiar figure limping ever so slightly as he entered the lobby from the other direction. Her eyes widened in shock; he would have been one of the last people she would expect to see at the hot spring. He caught sight of her and nonchalantly changed his direction to make his way across the room to her before she could call out to or otherwise acknowledge him. For a moment she panicked before realizing that there was no way for the Copy Ninja to know what she and her friends had been talking about just a few short hours previous and catching hold of herself she firmly pushed the inappropriate thoughts from her mind.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the eyes of the woman at the front desk widen and her hand reach for the phone. She had to grin to herself, Kakashi was hardly attired as the kind of person the resort may like to have grace their lobby where he could all too easily scare some of the less adventurous guests away or offend some of the wealthier ones. He definitely did not appear to be the sort of person to associate socially with her or her friends. They had decided on posing as four wealthy – reserving the private hot spring was costly – daughters of somewhat shady but still classy and mostly aboveboard businessmen. Allowing the resort employees to believe that they probably came from high class families deep into organized crime pretty much ensured polite, courteous and above all incurious service from the staff and a wide berth from the other guests which was exactly what they wanted while on holiday.
“What are you doing here?” Sakura asked with confusion and surprise clear in her voice, though not loud enough to catch any one’s attention in the spacious public area.
He smiled as he noticed she was wearing the hair combs he had given her and took her arm in his to steer her out of the reception area. Dumbly she complied, knowing he would tell her once they were in a more private place. Absently she figured he must be on a mission and didn’t particularly want to blow whatever he was doing by talking to her out in plain sight, though what sort of mission could possibly bring him to the resort she couldn’t even begin to imagine.
One of the male resort employees on duty hastily entered the lobby and quickly intercepted them before they could exit. He stopped the two shinobi by putting a firm hand on the pink haired woman’s arm, causing them to turn back questioningly to him.
“Everything all right here?” the man asked, eyeing Kakashi. It was clear in his stance, demeanor, and tone that he expected to hear that things were not fine. The silver haired man as he appeared, slightly scruffy, travel weary, and obviously dangerous, apparently clashed with his conception of the sort of man who he would consider to be appropriate company for the younger pink haired woman. The resort employee of course had no idea that Sakura was also a shinobi and that he had just insulted her former sensei.
Quickly before the clearly irked man next to her could react unfavorably, Sakura smiled at the concerned but misguided man. “Everything is fine.” She gestured to her companion who chose that moment to pull her a little closer to him so he could drape the arm that had been holding hers across her shoulders and in the process remove the offending man’s hand from her arm. “He is my f…”
The resort employee stepped back at her clear unconcern of the dodgy man’s actions and cut her off before she could finish in hopes of salvaging the situation as quickly as possible. “Oh!! He must be one of your father’s men! Of course, of course, we are more than happy to welcome your… er, um bodyguard? here at the resort… Er, shall I arrange a room for him close to yours? Perhaps a bath and a change of clothing as well?” The hotel employee asked hopefully. If he was going to be stuck with such an unsavory appearing man in his hotel, he would be darned if he wouldn’t at least try to get the offensive man to dress appropriately.
Sakura stifled a giggle at the waves of annoyance she could feel radiating from the usually stoic man. Hastily before the situation could get worse she smiled again at the clearly embarrassed employee. “Actually he’s my friend. I suspect he will be staying for at least a little while, though I don’t know just how long. I will be sure to let you know if we should need additional accommodations.” She paused hoping she had managed to convince the poor man to leave Kakashi alone. “Please, excuse us.”
Once the hotel employee had backed off a little she started forward, pulling the obviously irritated jonin along with her. Once they were out of sight and on their way to her suite the pink haired woman giggled at the grumpy man, her giggles turning into outright laughter when he shot her a dirty look.
Once Sakura was able to control her mirth she grinned up at him. “You’re in rare form today.” She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, wondering what had gotten into the usually unemotional man. The pink haired woman could understand his aggravation at the suspicious hotel employee’s assumption, but the medic wasn’t sure why he had felt the need to make it clear to the man that he wasn’t her bodyguard. In times past when the mistake had been made due to the difference in age and because he appeared to be a much more skilled shinobi than she, he usually went with it rather than take the time to make the correction. A very small part of her was irrationally pleased at his irritation.
He declined to comment and continued on with her to her hotel suite, his limp becoming even more apparent to her at their close proximity. As they walked he seemed to almost inadvertently lean a little more and more on her shoulder – for support she could only guess – as his limp steadily became worse. She wondered what sort of an injury he had this time since he seemed to be using her as a crutch which was unusual for him, though not the first time he had done it.
Upon reaching and entering the girls’ suite she turned to him with an eyebrow raised as his arm dropped almost hastily from her shoulders.
“Okay, what on earth are you doing here?” She looked him over, taking in the plain, but still clearly shinobi clothes minus his forehead protector, a band of leather having been substituted for the telling accessory. “Scratch that, I can see that you’re on a mission and probably can’t tell me…”
He nodded. “Genma and I are just passing through and will be leaving in a day or two. Genma stopped to chat with your friends outside, they’ll probably be coming back in before long.”
She sighed, knowing that with the two jonin around she would probably get little peace from either her friends or the lecherous senbon wielding man, especially taking into consideration the all too embarrassing conversation that had occurred a scant few hours previous. Though, as she thought about it, her blonde friend had been quite happily reminiscing about her time spent with Genma. If circumstances were right it was entirely possible Ino may end up in bed with him again distracting the blonde from inquiring into her love life and the shaggy brown haired man from trying to maneuver her into bed with him. With the ringleader so to speak distracted she figured the remaining girls, with their own crushes back in the village, would leave her former sensei alone and things could possibly go fairly smoothly for her even with the two apparently sought-after men around.
“Come on then. Since you’re here I might as well heal whatever it is that ails you…” She looked him up and down quickly, looking for obvious signs of injury other than his uneven gait. “That’s one nasty limp you seem to have picked up…”
He opened his mouth to say nothing was wrong, knowing full well he was injured, but not wanting to give in to her so easily. Before he could vocalize his thoughts she beat him to it.
“And don’t even think to tell me that you’re not injured. I know you too well not to know when you’re in pain. Now…” she trailed off realizing that she was in the main area of the suite and anyone could just walk in on them. Thinking a little about it told her it would be worse if someone were to walk in on the two of them in her room. Regardless she found herself irrationally displeased with the prospect of her friends possibly learning something she already knew about her silver haired boy, especially since she had made such a fuss about it earlier that day in the hot spring – under all those layers, he was very much the physically attractive man they were convinced he could be. Shaking her head to clear the faint blush that had formed on her cheeks, and missing the amused grin from her silver haired companion as he correctly guessed what she was thinking, she gestured for him to take a seat on the coffee table rather than the couch hoping it would somehow seem more professional if her friends were to return while she was healing him. “You know the drill, take a seat and I’ll fix whatever’s wrong.”
Kakashi sighed and eased himself down to sit on the low coffee table, knowing he could use her help. He was pleased that he had chosen to wear one of his undershirts she had already split into two garments, mask and shirt. The elite shinobi shrugged his vest off and managed to pull both his shirts up and over his head keeping his mask in place exposing a patchwork of angry bruises before leaning over to remove one of his sandals, unwrapped and rolled up his pant leg revealing a grossly swollen ankle. She hissed in sympathy at the clearly painful injury.
“Geeze Kakashi, how did you manage that?!” Sakura asked unable to keep the incredulity from her voice. The older man was a lot of things but he was neither clumsy nor inattentive, this sort of injury had no place on him.
Her former sensei shrugged noncommittally, not wanting to talk about his moment of supreme inattention that had managed to damage both his ribs and his ankle, especially since it had been at least partially the fault of one of his favorite little orange covered books and an off color comment made by the author of said little orange book about a particular pink haired medic.
She frowned. “What, was it something phenomenally stupid?” She asked trying to elicit some sort of a response from the quiet but still painfully injured man. Sakura didn’t think someone such as her former sensei could be capable of doing something phenomenally stupid, he was just too smart for it. Kakashi was a master of control and even a sort of grace when fighting. Hastily she pushed such thoughts from her mind, realizing that the all too disconcerting discussion earlier had done more than just embarrass her. It had wedged open a door in her mind, one she had always kept firmly closed, just enough for her to find the thoughts she usually kept locked away to slip to the forefront of her mind at odd and inappropriate moments.
Sakura waited for an acknowledgement, but all he seemed inclined to grant her was a flat, disinterested glare.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, guessing he was probably irritable because of the pain from his injuries. “Let me guess, you were walking along minding your own business, with your nose firmly buried in one of your prized little orange books, when out of nowhere a rock burst through the ground and tripped you?” The medic laughed at the ridiculousness of his continued refusal to tell her what had happened. “Well regardless, I’ll tend your ribs first and then sort out your ankle. I should think that despite appearances they may be more uncomfortable than your ankle at the moment…”
She knelt down on the floor before him and gently ran her hand over the ugly bruising, realizing not for the first time that though he appeared to be outwardly lazy his well defined chest and abdomen told another story. Upon checking the damage she was pleased to see that he had only cracked a couple ribs. As quickly as she could she mended the cracks, making sure to strengthen his ribs as much as she could before healing the ugly bruises. Once Sakura was done she leaned back and handed him his shirts. Almost absently he pulled the undershirt on, leaving the baggy over shirt off for the time being. Irrationally she found herself pleased with the fact that he was now at least semi clad so that when her friends did stumble upon them, they wouldn’t get much more of a look than Ino had back in the village. For some strange reason the pink haired woman found that she didn’t particularly want to share him with her female friends. It never occurred to her that she may have been incredibly lucky up to that point that none of them had developed an interest in her former sensei.
As focused on her work as she was, she missed the slight smirk of amusement her patient sported after he had donned the form fitting undershirt. Kakashi would never have thought that his former student may have been so determined to protect his sense of privacy, if he didn’t know any better he might have thought that she didn’t want to ‘share’ him with her friends. It was vaguely troubling that he didn’t particularly find it to be a troubling thought to ponder.
Once he was settled again she lifted his leg a little to get a better look, making sure to support his ankle as best she could without causing him more pain. Sakura winced a bit in sympathy and as gently as she could ran her hand over the worst of the swelling. With a sharp intake of breath she glanced up at the silent man in surprise, feeling her cheeks tint a little upon finding him watching her intently.
“Kakashi! How the hell did you manage to walk on this?” She exclaimed with clear displeasure mixed with concern. “You’ve just about broken it!!”
He shrugged. “Pakkun said he had located someone who could heal it not too far from where we were… So we just sort of came here. Genma helped me get here, but I couldn’t come into the resort obviously needing medical attention, I might have been forced to get some from a concerned citizen. Not exactly part of the plan for the mission…”
She continued to look at him incredulously for a moment before shaking her head and sighing. “What am I going to do with you Kakashi?” A slight smile hovered on her lips belying her words. Without waiting for a response Sakura focused her attention and energy on mending his ankle in hopes he wouldn’t notice the hint of amusement she found in his situation.
Before he could ask what she meant by her comment they were interrupted as the main door to the suite opened and the pink haired medic’s three friends entered with his partner in tow. As nonchalantly as he could he pulled his baggy jonin shirt over his head – knowing that the action probably frustrated the blonde woman currently trying to get a good look at him to no end.
Sakura heard them enter but chose not to acknowledge their presence, focusing instead on finishing her task at hand, though a small part of her was inordinately pleased to sense her patient pull his other shirt on as the girls entered. Once she had finished mending the Copy Ninja’s ankle she quickly scanned the rest of him, making sure she had gotten everything before letting him go.
“All set Kakashi.” Sakura smiled up at him as she patted his ankle absently. “If your mission allows it, I would prescribe a good long soak in one of the hot springs before you leave.” The medic glanced at her friends for a moment before continuing looking for some sort of confirmation.
“Fine with me.” Tenten shrugged.
“I-I’m okay with it too.” Hinata agreed.
“Be my guest.” Ino grinned at the two men almost predatorily. The pink haired medic had no trouble guessing what was on her mind and almost felt bad for the lecherous shaggy brown haired man.
“Well that settles it then. You can use the private one – we’ve reserved it for our exclusive use while we’re here and I think we’re done for the time being… Probably won’t be looking to use it until after dinner at the earliest…”
He smiled and ruffled her hair, knowing she hated it whenever he did, but enjoying it and her faint blush nonetheless. “Thanks Sakura, my ankle feels as good as new. That soak also sounds like a very good idea. You ladies going to let us crash here too while you’re feeling so hospitable?” Their expenses were covered to an extent by Jiraiya’s publishers, but he had a feeling that they wouldn’t spring to reimburse them for a stay at such a fancy resort. Or rather he rationalized his desire to stay with the kunoichi by assuming the publishers wouldn’t pay for their stay at the hot spring.
She batted his hand away from her hair playfully, noticing that he had carefully avoided pulling out her hair combs. “Kakashi!”
He laughed and rose to his feet, offering her a hand up, which she took. She was surprised to find herself actually being pulled to her feet rather than just being allowed to use his hand as leverage for her to stand on her own. Faintly confused the medic found herself momentarily pulled up against him before catching her balance once on her feet – a sensation she found to be much more pleasant than she would have expected.
Hurriedly controlling an embarrassing blush she smiled at her former sensei. “Yes, yes, might as well. You two can have my room. I’ll bunk with Hinata or Tenten.” She glanced at her friends again noting that both women were nodding their agreement. Sakura had no intention of even trying to bunk with her former rival since she figured the senbon wielding man would probably find himself invited into the bold woman’s room sometime during the night.
The green eyed woman took that moment to turn from her patient to actually greet her friends. Her eyes settled on the shaggy brown haired man and she sighed to herself as she realized she should out of fairness check him out as well.
“Nice to see you Genma, are you also in need of my services?”
The lecherous man grinned, seeing an opportunity for a bit of overt flirting, and forgetting who he was standing next to. “Well now that depends on just what sort of services you may be offering…” He was cut off by a quick slap upside the back of his head by the clearly unimpressed blonde woman at his side.
Sakura shook her head, realizing she had set herself up for that one and really shouldn’t have expected anything less from the notorious womanizer. “Medical services Genma, medical…”
Undaunted, Genma sighed dramatically and moved away from the women standing in the doorway. “Well now that you mention it I’ve got this little bit of tightness…” As he walked and talked, to the complete astonishment of the female occupants of the room and faint amusement quickly turning to disgust from the other male, he shed his sandals, vest and shirt with his hands heading toward the draw string of his pants. “Right here in my…” He was, once again, cut off suddenly. This time by an arm around his neck belonging to the dark eyed man, before the girls could think to react to the entertaining, if nothing else, strip tease they were being granted. The arm he had been moving to gesture to his ‘afflicted’ area froze before it could gesture to any particular part of his anatomy, though by his actions and general personality just where he was going to gesture was abundantly clear.
The silver haired shinobi had his partner in a deceptively friendly headlock. “He’s fine Sakura, nothing a nice long soak won’t take care of… Which is your room? We’ll leave our stuff and head outside and out of your hair for the afternoon.”
Still a little wide eyed she pointed to her room and watched as the younger man dragged the letch from the common area of the suite, paying his weak almost inaudible protests no heed.
~*~*~*~
Happily the four women chatted amongst themselves as they made their way back into their suite. They had just had a fantastic dinner in the resort’s main restaurant and had thought that a nice soak seemed to be the best most relaxing way to end their day.
The shy Hyuga woman, who had been in front, stopped abruptly, causing the other three kunoichi to hastily stop in order to avoid trampling the poor woman.
“Hey Hinata! What gives?” the occasionally loud blonde woman asked as she brushed past the motionless woman only to stop herself.
“What is it?” Tenten asked as she impatiently pushed through as well. “Kami,” she almost whispered.
Having a feeling that she may know what had stopped her friends in their tracks the pink haired woman stepped into the room, finding her assumption to be correct. All three women were gazing out the large sliding glass doors that exited directly onto the path to the private hot spring. On the path were their two male visitors clad only in towels loosely fastened around their waists and a much smaller one around the lower portion of the silver haired man’s face.
Sakura felt her stomach sink as all the fancy footwork she had done earlier to prevent her friends from elevating her former sensei from not particularly interesting pervert to object worthy of pursuit had just been rendered moot. As she watched the two men casually make their way back to the suite she felt the briefest little tug of irrational jealousy before she was able to dismiss it as just a student not wanting to share her teacher with others.
~*~*~*~
The Copy Ninja sighed as he and his friend exited the hot water, each grabbing their towel to wrap around their waists as they made their way back into the private suite. They had soaked for quite a while, neither of them having had the opportunity to make use of a hot spring for a good couple months. Being men without any particular hang-ups about their bodies they had forgone the use of the little changing house, finding it easier to wrap towels around themselves in Sakura’s room and head directly to the spring.
About halfway down the path back toward the suite they saw the light turn on. The dark eyed man frowned to himself as his companion let out a low chuckle of complete enjoyment at suddenly finding himself on display in his best element. One by one the girls appeared in the doorway and froze, Sakura entering last. If he wasn’t so determined to keep his amusement to himself the Copy Ninja might have laughed at her reaction – a large sigh of annoyance followed by resting her forehead in her hand as a sign of her lack of patience for the situation – though from between her fingers Kakashi could make out the flush of clear embarrassment.
Calmly he continued along with his friend, not particularly worried about it, but still justifying it away as only fair since he and the brown haired man had caught them in a similar state without their knowledge.
“Evening ladies.” The younger man smiled at the still somewhat awestruck and blushing women standing in the doorway. “Just on our way to getting dressed, please excuse us.” Their expressions were too priceless and he found himself to giving in, not bothering to hide the amusement from his voice. Even Ino seemed to be at a complete loss of words, which was almost unheard of for the bold blonde woman – she always had something to say.
“Good to see that a couple old timers like us haven’t lost it when it comes to the ladies eh Kakashi?” The lecherous man smirked with clear pleasure as he started toward the four surprised women. He was stopped abruptly by his younger friend.
“Clothes first Genma, then you can flirt as much as you like.” He grabbed his friend’s arm before the situation got out of hand to drag him bodily from the room, chuckling as they made their exit.
~*~*~*~
As soon as the partially clad men had made their way from the room the three women converged on the pink haired woman.
“I can’t believe you!” Sakura’s blonde friend exclaimed. “You’ve been sitting on that all these years?”
The long suffering medic sighed, knowing defeat when she felt it though still determined to put up something of a fight. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sakura, your former sensei is hot!” Tenten turned to her green eyed friend. “Damn, why didn’t you tell us?”
The medic shook her head. “Kakashi is Kakashi… He’s built like any number of other shinobi…” All of whom were also extremely attractive, she mentally added to herself. “Besides, he’s my former sensei…” she tried feeling as though she were grasping at straws – this was not a conversation she had intended on having, ever.
The three women looked at her in askance, unable to understand how she couldn’t see the qualities they could in her former sensei. After a few moments of incredulous silence the three exchanged glances, deciding that if she couldn’t see what they could so clearly, she probably wouldn’t so long as she kept thinking of him as her former sensei.
Silently she heaved a sigh of relief as the three other women made themselves comfortable while chatting quietly together about what they had just seen, having given up for the time being in getting Sakura to join them in evaluating the physical attributes of the generally elusive Copy Ninja.
~*~*~*~
The four women took their seats in one of the larger booths in the somewhat dingy diner, not the first place any of them would have chosen from its appearance. However, it had been so highly recommended by the concierge at their resort for having the absolute best breakfast, they had shrugged and decided to give it a try.
“So Sakura, are you going to tell us any more about this mystery man of yours?” Ino friend asked as she reached for the sugar for her coffee.
The pink haired medic’s head shot up in surprise. “Huh?”
The three other women exchanged glances; apparently the medic didn’t realize the karaoke they had sung the evening before seemed to confirm their suspicions that she had a new man in her life. Granted they had thought he might be her secret admirer before arriving at the hot spring but going by her music selection, once she had a couple drinks in her, her feelings were unrequited, leading them to believe it was someone other than her secret admirer.
Before leaving Konoha the three had gotten together to discuss the medic’s recent strange behavior. The most notable change in her actions they had found was that she had stopped dressing up and going out obviously looking for a man. This had concerned her friends as they knew how discouraging dating could be when your teammates intimidated or beat the shit out of any man they got close to. Though their teammate’s behavior had not discouraged the three of them, their male counterparts had not quite gone to the same extent that Naruto and Sasuke did in their ‘protective’ watch over their kunoichi’s love lives. And, to be quite honest the other girls’ teammates weren’t quite as scary or intimidating as Sakura’s since they had never actually seriously injured anyone. Whereas Naruto and Sasuke routinely sent people to the hospital for as little as speaking to Sakura without what they considered to be a valid reason.
“C’mon Sakura!” Tenten cajoled. “We aren’t stupid! Clearly there’s someone you’re pining over… I know that feeling all too well myself.”
The usually shy Hyuga woman spoke up with a bit more insight than the other two kunoichi. “W-we promise not to let N-Naruto and Sasuke know…”
The confused medic shook her head. “What on earth are you three talking about? I thought I already told you I don’t know who my secret admirer is…”
“Oh no, not him… The other man in your life…” Ino eyed her suspiciously.
“I’m sorry I really have no idea what you’re talking about…” Sakura was interrupted by the entrance of perhaps the second to last pair of men she would like to see while having this particular conversation, the first being of course Naruto and Sasuke, but Kakashi and Genma followed as a close second.
Quietly she sighed to herself as they spotted the four girls and made their way over to the almost full table. Before the two men reached the booth the four kunoichi had already scooted over to make room for them.
Casually the silver haired man seated himself next to the currently annoyed medic while his shaggy brown haired companion slid next to the blonde woman he had undoubtedly spent the night with. Both men ignored the glares they received from several of the male occupants at the diner who had been eyeing the table full of what they had thought to be single women.
“So what are we talking about?” The senbon wielding shinobi asked as he not so subtlety slipped his arm around the woman next to him and pulled her a little closer.
“Sakura’s new man.” Tenten answered as she poured herself another cup of coffee from the communal pot.
“I-I do not…” the green eyed woman started before being interrupted.
The lecherous man raised an eyebrow. “Ah, her secret admirer?”
The woman next to him waved her hand dismissively. “No, not him. She won’t talk about him anyway. Now we’re trying to wheedle the identity of the man she was singing about last night…”
The pink haired woman felt her face heat even more as she realized the song selections she had made after having a couple drinks could possibly have led her friends to believe she was indeed interested in someone. Unfortunately she had just selected the same songs she had when she was younger… and completely head over heels for the ever unattainable Uchiha.
“Oh! Oh that!” the medic exclaimed, still clearly flustered, but slowly recovering as she realized why her friends had decided she must have someone she was admiring from afar. “That was just an old habit.”
“Y-you singing all those songs of unrequited l-love was habit?” The shy dark haired woman inquired felt a little confused but as she thought back to their younger days she did remember Sakura quite often singing the same songs as she had the previous evening.
Sakura scratched the back of her neck almost apologetically. “I haven’t sung karaoke in ages… Guess when I picked songs I just picked the same ones I always used to sing without really thinking too much about it…” Honestly she couldn’t really say that it was a fib as she was fairly certain that she had just chosen the familiar songs she had sung when she was younger, though a small part of her wondered.
Her blonde friend eyed her dubiously. “I don’t know Sakura… I still think you’ve got a thing for someone… Why else would you have stopped trolling for men?”
“Hmm… I don’t know… Guess I just haven’t been interested lately, that’s all.” She shrugged, hoping her friends would buy her partial truth. The last thing she really wanted to get into with the lot of them was her reasons for deciding to avoid dating for a while.
The blonde’s eyes sparkled. “Well then why don’t you forget your unattainable man and let us find you some one who could get you interested?”
“Oh, no, no seriously no. Not me. Perfectly happy single… Unlike some people, I don’t have to have a man in my life to make it worth living.”
“I think the lady doth protest too much,” the Tenten murmured as she sipped her cup of coffee and eyed her pink haired friend speculatively.
Almost desperate enough to ask her former teacher, who currently had his nose buried in one of his ever present orange books, to corroborate her story she mentally flailed about looking for some sort of argument to get her friends to let the subject drop. Sakura knew from experience that this sort of conversation just could not end well.
“Really, I’m fine…” She desperately searched for something to discourage her friends. “I-I have my secret admirer remember?” she tried, having a feeling that regardless of what she said her friends would go through with their plans of setting her up with some poor unfortunate sap.
As she spoke she missed the amused but faintly calculating sidelong glance from the man sitting beside her.
“Yeah, yeah… You’re not interested in him though…” Tenten waved her absently as she thought. “It has to be someone who either is not interested or too inhibited to ever do anything about being interested otherwise you wouldn’t be pining over him…”
“I-I wonder about that really shy guy… y-you know the one…” Hinata suggested surprising everyone at her observation and momentarily forgetting the name of the man she had seen watching Sakura from afar for quite some time. “Might he be the guy she is after?”
“Which one was that Hinata?” Genma asked with some interest, noticing that his mission partner seemed to have become just the slightest bit more alert. “There seem to have been several…” He let the statement hang wondering a little about his friend’s sudden interest in their conversation.
Sakura’s face, which had started to revert to a normal color returned to its flushed status. Surprise and complete embarrassment prevented her from opening her mouth to stop the train-wreck the conversation had quickly become. She suspected she knew just who Hinata was talking about, and absolutely nothing could be further than the truth. The man made her feel positively uneasy in his presence. He may have feelings for her, but she was positive she would never return them.
“Th-the shy man with glasses we see occasionally hanging around the hospital and all the time at Sakura’s apartment building… Y-you know the one…” she trailed off unable to remember the fairly unremarkable man’s name. “I-I don’t think he would quite be able to work up the courage to ask Sakura out…”
The blonde’s eyes widened. “Oh! That’s right! Hideki!” She turned to her former rival. “Are you pining over that bespectacled landlord of yours? It’s obvious he’s got the hots for you, but is way too timid to ever do anything about it.”
“Oh it’s so obvious now!” The brunette weapons mistress exclaimed, remembering the price break on rent Sakura was given for ‘being a medic,’ since it was apparently desirable to have someone in the building with medical skills. Granted the other male medic in the building hadn’t been given the same discount and he had been living there longer than Sakura. There was also the fact that she had somehow managed to secure one of the very few apartments with a balcony and that he put up with the complaints about her friends showing up at all hours, occasionally loud and disruptive to the other tenants. When she stopped to really look at it, it was quite obvious that the pink haired medic’s landlord did have something of a crush on her.
“Oh Sakura! You should have told us!” Ino eyed her eagerly. “He’s not to my taste, but I suppose he seems nice enough…”
“I’m, I’m not…” The green eyed woman tried to interrupt her friend’s growing excited chatter, chagrined upon finding her friends not particularly willing to listen to her once they had decided that she was yearning for her landlord.
“We could, you know try to work something out for you two if you like…” The weapons mistress suggested helpfully – ignoring the fact that Sakura was doing her best to convince her friends not to try and ‘help’ her.
“No!” She took a deep breath to calm the flush that worked its way across her face as all occupants sat up a little straighter and actually paid complete attention to what she was saying for once. “Uh, no, no thank you. I’m single and would like to stay that way. To set the record straight once and for all I’m not pining for anyone. Now can we just order please? Our server has been around three times already and I’m sure she’s tired of waiting…”
~*~*~*~
Quietly Sakura heaved a sigh of relief. Finally she was home. She had had a wonderful time at the hot spring, but was nevertheless still glad to be back. Quickly she made a detour to her mailbox to collect her mail, making sure to avoid her now doubly creepy land lord after her friend’s all too eager ideas of setting her up with him returned to her mind, before heading up to her apartment. The teasing about Hideki had not stopped once the two jonin had taken their leave of the girls after eating with them the morning in question. It had continued for the next several days while they were enjoying themselves at the resort and now he was very much the last person she wanted to see.
Once she had unpacked and started a load of laundry Sakura settled herself at her kitchen table with her stack of mail and a nice pot of tea, noticing she seemed to have collected quite bit while she was away. As she sorted through her heart almost stopped. The medic blinked in surprise at the plain white envelope addressed to her in curious block lettering and without a return address. Dropping the remaining stack of mail the pink haired woman carefully opened the mysterious envelope, almost afraid of what she would find.
Carefully Sakura pulled a Polaroid from the envelope and a quick check assured her there was nothing else inside. Dread forming a knot in her stomach she held the photograph up to examine it. Sure enough it was of her dream guardian; this time he was propped up in front of an absolutely gorgeous garden in full bloom. She squinted at it looking for some sort of identifying feature: though the garden was lovely, the medic hadn’t the least idea as to where it was. It could be in Konoha, part of a private residence or one of the old family clan complexes or even one of the lesser known public parks, but then again it could just as easily be somewhere in the Land of Water or Rain or any number of the other countries.
Once she had firmly established that she had no clue as to where her dream guardian was, Sakura turned the picture over.
‘Sakura
Am having a great time traveling! Should have done this a long time ago. Saw this garden and thought of you.
Yours,
Kakashi’
