Chapter Two: Thoughts of Flowers
Feeling exhausted Sakura slowly made her way into the hospital, nodding a greeting at the two women sitting at the front desk – missing the looks that were exchanged between the two of them – as she continued on to her office. She had slept poorly the night before, or rather not at all. The pink haired kunoichi would have loved to have been able to blame a lumpy or unfamiliar mattress, too much caffeine or even a late night for her lack of sleep, unfortunately she knew better. She was well aware the reason she was feeling tired this morning was due to the fact that she had been kept up for most of the night by her mutinous mind or rather by her over active imagination. Try as she might she just couldn’t clear her mind enough to allow sleep to come to her.
The unusual events of the previous evening had played over and over in her mind, making sleep just plain impossible. For some strange reason she couldn’t quite get past Kakashi’s odd behavior. He actually let her into his apartment without any sort of fight, physical or verbal. He had surrendered himself to her care without any bullying whatsoever. And, though he was injured, it wasn’t life threatening so he didn’t have to allow her to heal him, he just did. When she had finished he had actually thanked her, using words! He never thanked his former student; generally if did do anything he would offer half hearted complaints or a scolding for bothering him as she prepared to leave. In his defense he would usually take her out for lunch a couple days later if he were able to catch up with her again before being sent out on another mission. Sakura usually counted his sporadic lunch invites as all the thanks she would ever get and was grateful for the time she was able to spend with him as a consequence.
But in his behavior the previous evening what she found to be the strangest of all had been the little impromptu massage he had cornered her into as she took her leave. It was something she had never seen him do before and would never have expected to have seen him do. He only rarely allowed his own personal space to be invaded, usually by her, never mind voluntarily invading someone else’s personal space outside of sparring and/or actual fighting.
His hands had expertly removed the kink in her neck she had developed while healing him. Sakura would never have thought her former sensei could be well versed at such a thing. Then again she had never really thought about it, or rather, him in that particular way. Yes, on some level she had been aware that he was a man, and after stepping away from thinking of him as her former sensei, quite an attractive one. But these sorts of thoughts were new uncharted territory and very, very dangerous. Therefore she avoided them like the plague.
The pink haired medic had always been more than careful to steer clear of such thoughts when someone or something inadvertently brought them to her mind. Unfortunately this had led to quite an epic quest for the perfect public bath, a quest in which she had ultimately failed. Each time she had found what she thought to be a perfect bath she would discover upon sinking down into the relaxing waters the conversations around her would eventually shift to someone she knew. Sasuke she could handle hearing about, Naruto not as well but doable unless those doing the talking realized she knew either of the two personally. Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji or even Shino weren’t all that bad, again as long as no one realized she actually knew them. Shinobi were a hot commodity amongst the civilians and most women found them absolutely irresistible. She had always chalked it up to the dangerous lifestyle living mission to mission and the peak physical condition practically required for the profession for the regular women of Konoha’s seeming fixation on all things ninja.
Hearing most of the older shinobi being discussed as objects of desire wasn’t all that bad so long as it was about men such as Izumo, Kotetsu or Raido. Asuma could be tricky depending on who was around. Granted since he had made the memorial he was no longer a current topic of conversation, but then again it had been quite a long time since she had last frequented a public bath. Iruka was right out embarrassing, but live-through-able as even Anko was hesitant to get too graphic in mentioning the academy instructor when too many of his young current students tended to be around. Heck, even Genma could be tolerable. Though she’d never tell him, he was a frequent topic in the baths and she could only imagine what such a boost to his already enormous ego would do to his already insufferable personality. Unfortunately she had managed to show up once or twice when the older women of Konoha were in the majority and she had been horrified to hear the conversation turn to the king of all perverts: Jiraiya.
But, the absolute last straw in most places had been when some of the slightly older civilians and kunoichi, amongst them Anko, Suzme, Shizune and Kurenai, had brought up the one person she didn’t need to hear women verbally fantasizing about – Kakashi. When she was his student it was awkward and down right embarrassing to say the least. Her presence never seemed to deter the occasionally over enthusiastic kunoichi and civilians, it actually tended to egg them on to new heights or rather lows. The first time it had happened she hadn’t been able to look at his face when he was speaking to her, never mind his eye, for a good two weeks. And, even after that she had blushed every time he had done one of the things the kunoichis had praised as bringing to light one or more of his physical assets, throwing a kunai, bending over or just plain walking away. She always inwardly cringed at what he must have thought about her actions and reactions to him after she’d had another embarrassing bathing experience. In the end she had given it up as a lost cause and settled for using her own bathtub and the occasional public bath or hot spring whenever she was out of the village.
Shaking her head of the embarrassing memories she pulled her mind back to the present only to have it wander off on her again. Once again her thoughts traveled down the well worn path of remembering the odd encounter and wondering. Over the years Kakashi had proved nothing if only to be a creature of habit – this is what allowed her to successfully track him down for medical treatment whenever he chose to hide. His patterns were complex, depending on many mitigating factors, but once learned were fairly easy for her to follow. She figured she was one of a select few who could, if he were in the village, find him whenever she wished.
His behavior from the previous evening had been completely out of pattern. It was as if something had happened during the course of the mission to knock him slightly off course and she found it unsettling. Or rather she found her own reactions to his actions unsettling. She had enjoyed the feeling of his surprisingly expert hands working on her tense shoulders. If he had been any other man… What she wouldn’t give to have a pair of hands like his at her disposal after her more stressful days…
Sighing audibly as she arrived at her office she shook her head to clear the troubling thoughts, moving her flower shaped marker from ‘Special’ to ‘On Duty’ before opening her office door. It was going to be an incredibly long day if she couldn’t shake her strangely troubling thoughts of her former sensei from her mind to concentrate on her medical work.
She stopped in her tracks upon noticing the beautiful arrangement of early spring wildflowers resting in her coffee mug on her desk. For a moment she stood there staring at them, not quite believing what she was seeing. Incredulously she moved closer, half expecting a green spandexed shinobi to materialize along with the flowers. When she reached them she noticed a tiny scrap of paper almost hidden amongst the flora. Carefully she pulled the scrap of paper from where it had been nestled in-between a couple of flowers she couldn’t name. One barely legible word was scrawled across the paper: ‘Thanks.’
Wrinkling her brow in confusion she made her way behind her desk to sit, still staring at the flowers. Her quiet contemplation was interrupted by the giggling she could hear outside her office door, preceding a knock. She sighed again – it was going to be an even longer day than she had anticipated. The delivery of flowers always made top topic of discussion in the hospital – so far she had been lucky enough not to be on the receiving end of the floral gossip starters. Rock Lee had occasionally given her flowers, but those were always left at her apartment – he had never ventured into the hospital for fear of Tsunade’s wrath. The Hokage didn’t like for Sakura to be distracted while at work and the delivery of flowers was one of the top items on her list of distractions.
The giggling girls outside her door knocked again and she shook her head, slipping the scrap of paper with his thanks into her desk of safekeeping. “Come in.”
Two young preteen apprentice medics rushed into her office, faces flushed with excitement. She cursed to herself realizing that though she knew the two girls, she had momentarily forgotten their names. One was tall and thin with heavy, long dark hair and dark brown almost black eyes and the other was her complete opposite – short, a bit plump, with short blonde hair and pale blue eyes.
“Miss Haruno, Miss Haruno!” the excited blonde cried. “You got flowers!” She pointed as if Sakura may have missed the beautiful bouquet sitting on her desk. “Who are they from?” She asked quite unabashed at posing such a personal question to one of her superiors.
The tall girl cuffed the shorter one gently upside her head, a slow blush coloring her face. “Mine! You can’t just come out and ask Miss Haruno that! You have to learn to be more subtle and less abrupt with these sorts of things!”
The shorter apprentice medic flushed and flashed an apologetic smile at her friend and then at the pink haired kunoichi who was currently trying to keep both her temper and amusement in check.
“I’m sorry Miss Haruno. It’s just that… well…” She trailed off scratching her head almost apologetically. “Um, we have a pool going… See, we’re all trying to guess who would be brave or foolish enough to send you flowers…”
The taller apprentice medic flushed with overwhelming embarrassment. “Mine!! Not like that!! No wonder you’re failing conversational tactics! You’ve no concept of subtlety!” She cuffed the shorter girl again, smiling apologetically at the pink haired medic. “Erm, I’m sorry about that Miss Haruno…We were trying to earn extra credit for class by utilizing subtlety to learn something everyone wants to know…” she trailed off realizing she too had perhaps said too much as well.
Barely able to keep herself from slapping her forehead in disgust she sighed instead. “I’m really very sorry girls, but your guess would probably be as good as if not better than mine.” She fibbed. For some reason she didn’t want it all over the village that her former sensei had brought her flowers, at least she was fairly certain it was him. Sakura hadn’t had too many opportunities to view his handwriting, but his messy scrawl was if anything fairly distinctive. Regardless, everyone would get the wrong idea, not to mention the problems Naruto and Sasuke would cause upon their return. Somehow she figured they wouldn’t approve – even if it was just an innocent thank you gift.
The two girls looked at her with wide-eyes for a moment in complete and perhaps dubious silence. As far as either of them knew no one had chosen secret admirer for the pool. This was unexpected and being still quite young neither of them had learned to control their emotions in sudden unexpected situations.
“You sure about that?” the over enthusiastic blonde questioned feeling greatly disappointed at not winning the pool and even more disappointed at not succeeding in being subtle.
“You really don’t know?” the slightly more suspicious dark haired girl asked, doubtfully. Clearly she suspected Sakura knew more than she was letting on, but she was in no position to demand an answer.
“Sorry. No idea.” The older woman shrugged, going for apologetic and hoping she could hit her mark. This was really the last sort of situation she wanted to have to deal with.
“Not even an inkling?” The blonde whined, clearly upset with the undesirable answer.
“Or just the tiniest idea?” The dark haired girl wheedled, her eyes narrowed with faint suspicion.
“Nope. Nothing. Sorry girls, this one will just have to remain a mystery for the time being. Or until the person who left the flowers should choose to reveal themselves.” She smiled, managing apologetic and hoped they would leave. “Guess you just have to wait and wonder like the rest of us.”
The two girls stood there for a moment longer, unsure of what their next course of action should be. As if on cue they both reached the same conclusion, turned to look at each other and squealed in unison “Miss Haruno’s got a secret admirer!” and dashed out of the office to spread the news.
Sakura groaned, not sure if she had just done the right thing or just made it much, much worse. It would be all over the hospital in an hour and through the village by the end of the day. This was going to be an extremely long day. She would have never guessed that her reluctant patient could cause her so much trouble simply by thanking her. Guiltily her mind returned to the previous evening and the feel of his hands on her shoulders but before her mind could wander too far away from her she hastily pushed such thoughts aside to concentrate on her work. Already she could tell that there would be a stream of ‘casual’ visitors – really curious shinobi wanting to see for themselves the proof that there seemed to be an idiot in the village who was enamored with her.
~*~*~*~
Casually Kakashi continued on his way down the street, heading as usual to the memorial. His mind reverted to the little detour he had made earlier just as the sun was cresting the horizon. It had been quite some time since he had last visited his old family home – too many ghosts of his painful past. But taking the advice of his former fellow prisoner he had gone to take another look with unbiased eyes to see the sad truth. Instead of the well maintained and forbidding complex he remembered from his childhood he saw the derelict and depressingly neglected remains of a once proud family home. The gate remained locked and the grounds and house appeared to be compromised only by time. The windows, though intact, were covered with the grime of the past couple decades and the house itself was in need of a new coat of paint at the very least. It wasn’t so much a house as the ghost of a place he had once lived.
Shaking his head he decided to avoid the building itself and take a look at the grounds; the few fond memories he still retained were all outside on the grounds. Walking around to the back, where he remembered once had been the most beautiful gardens in all of Konoha, he now found a wilderness instead. Weeds and brush ran rampant through the once meticulously kept flower beds. Upon closer inspection he was surprised to see that several of the hardier species had managed to survive the invasion of untamed nature and were valiantly blooming. It was the end of March and his eyes drifted to his mother’s favorite, the cherry orchard, and he was inordinately pleased to see that the trees were in fine health and beginning to blossom. The years of neglect had apparently had little adverse effect on them.
His mind drifted to another Sakura that had been neglected yet seemed none the worse for wear. Feeling guilty for his poor treatment of his only female student he wandered the remains of the garden aimlessly. Soft spot or not he knew he had unintentionally left her out of the loop where more intense training was concerned. And as far as he could see she had never held it against him or faulted him for it. She still came to him after every mission to make sure he was okay, whether he wanted her to or even thanked her or not. She still came, regardless of his actions.
Feeling impulsive he had taken the newly opening cherry blossoms as a sign and done something he had never felt the inclination to do. He had spent several moments collecting the few bravely blooming wildflowers and forming a bouquet. The silver haired jonin was known for his aversion to hospitals, but he thought he could make an exception – especially if no one saw him.
Thinking back on it he had to wonder what had possessed him to do it. It was all over the village now. Though, for reasons of her own, Sakura hadn’t divulged the origin of the flowers she had received making the situation far more interesting. Half the village was now convinced she had an idiot for an admirer and the other half thought she had a cunning coward for an admirer. Thinking on it he liked neither of the conclusions drawn by the villagers. He sighed, realizing that perhaps he shouldn’t have left the flowers for her – or that if he was going to do it he should have done it through the Yamanaka flower shop like a normal person so as to leave the furtive element out of a simple gesture of thanks. But, in doing that he would have had to deal with the all powerful Yamanaka gossip mill, which he felt would have blown a simple gesture of thanks completely out of proportion. Either way he would have ended up making a mess of it.
However he did have to admit that the aftereffects were more than amusing. His former student would have to deal with the entire village keeping tabs on her movements and interactions trying to discern the identity of her ‘secret admirer.’ A small smile found its way creeping cross his mask clad face as he wondered if the old man’s advice of allowing himself to enjoy the simple things in life could extend to teasing the green eyed medic.
Unless there was an emergency or he was specifically requested he would have the next couple days off as was the custom upon returning from a long term assignment. He might just have to take her out to lunch to see what her – and the rest of the village’s – reaction would be.
