Ichigeki Hissatsu

Spring Dragon Roll

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom that spring. Sakura had been washing bed sheets for the hospital when Lee approached her, giving her reason to question him when he walked up in a manner not like him. He was nervous, blushing, hands twisting in front of him as Sakura studied him.

“Lee?” Sakura asked, head tilting.

“Ah, yes! Sakura-chan, would you like to have dinner tonight? With me, of course.”

Lee was trying so hard not to make a bad impression. Sakura could see that. She turned away so the young man couldn’t see her blush and worked more furiously on the sheets.

“I’d love to, Lee, but I’m really busy. Some other time.” Sakura said, lying her ass right off. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Lee – she did – she just didn’t like him in the same way he liked her. Sakura was still waiting for Sasuke, her affections toward Naruto had changed, and now she was at an impasse. She heard Lee shuffle his feet and sigh.

“All right.” Lee replied. “Some other time.”

Sakura tried to tell herself she wasn’t cruel when Lee vanished with only a soft breeze passing in his wake. Sakura gathered the washed sheets to hang them to dry and returned to the hospital to fold the sheets she’d washed earlier. When her duties were finished, she had plenty of time on her hands to practice what Tsunade had given her before she searched out the Godaime for her lessons. Her mind, then, after her lessons, was on Rock Lee and his offer.

She needed to talk to someone. Her chosen victim was one Hyuuga Hinata, the girl just leaving the Academy with her arms full of books. Sakura moved over to her and offered help and ended up carrying half the books back to the Hyuuga mansion. The books were set in Hinata’s room before Sakura was led to the kitchen, Hinata offering tea.

“I don’t know what to do, Hinata,” Sakura said, her fingers wrapping around the porcelain of the teacup.

“About what, Sakura-chan?” Hinata asked, setting down the tray of teacups and the teapot on the table before sitting down herself.

“Lee. I mean, I like him, but I don’t like, like him you know?” Sakura sipped her tea, “I love Sasuke, and I think I love Naruto, so,”

Hinata smiled, cupping her chin in her hands. “I’m not sure you should ask me about love, Sakura-chan.”

“You’re the only one I can trust!”

Hinata smiled a bit, her head tilting as she looked down at the tea in her cup. “I’m flattered, Sakura-chan, really, but I’m not the one you should ask about love. The one you should ask is yourself.”

“What?”

“You need to ask yourself who it is you really love. You say you love Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun and that you like Lee-kun, but you don’t know.” Hinata lifted her teacup for a tiny sip and winced a bit, blowing on the hot liquid to cool it. Blow. Sip. Blow. Sip. Finally she set the cup down and rose, moving over to Sakura to set her hand on her shoulder. “You need to ask your heart what it wants, Sakura-chan. Sasuke-kun is gone, that’s a wound we all feel. Naruto-kun is here, but he hardly pays any attention to you now, right? So who’s left? And really, it’s not like Lee-kun’s going to propose to you.”

“He’s done so before.” Sakura said, pouting a little bit.

“What makes you so sure he will now?” Hinata replied. “And it’s just a date, Sakura-chan. What’s the harm in that?”

Sakura stared after the dark-haired girl as she was led from the kitchen after a few moments of silence, released back onto the streets of Konoha with her mind full of questions and her heart sore. She knew everyone missed Sasuke. His personality was abrasive, true, and still he had left a gaping wound in his place ever since his defection, a wound that everyone was fighting to heal by getting him back. She had loved Sasuke with all her heart and would have done anything to be with him. But as soon as Sasuke had gone, she’d turned her attention to Naruto. She’d always liked Naruto, even if she abused him every day just for being an idiot. She’d begun to love him, as much as she loved Sasuke. Naruto, though, hardly looked at her with the puppy dog eyes and the lovesick gaze anymore. He was solely focused on getting Sasuke back.

Her eyes went wide in realization then and her hand went to her mouth as her tears stung her eyes. She had to lean against the wall to steady herself as she fought not to sob like a baby.

She hadn’t seen it before, had she? She’d been too focused on Sasuke to see that Naruto had liked her, but he’d only done it to gauge Sasuke’s reaction. And the moment Sasuke had defected Naruto had led the charge to get him back and was still fighting to do so. Naruto had never loved her; his heart had been set on Sasuke and so he had been vying with her for Sasuke’s attention. Attention that Sasuke had returned, but she’d always seen that affection as for her.

Sakura made it to her house somehow, to her room to lock herself inside and cry into her pillow. She’d given her heart to Sasuke and he had refused it, and so she had turned to Naruto, but he had refused it as well. She dried her tears, fighting to rationalize it all. She’d seen the clues for what they were, after all, so it was her fault she’d ignored it and had continued to flit around between three boys that she liked. When one had gone, she had changed her attentions, and always ignored the one boy who had always stood beside her.

When Sasuke had left and Naruto had gone away, Lee had been there, maybe not by her side, but he had been there for her. He claimed constantly that he loved her, out loud and in person, every chance he got. But from Sasuke and Naruto, nothing. Maybe Naruto had proclaimed that he liked her once or twice, but Sasuke had never said anything. Sakura took a deep breath and settled back against the wall of her room, staring out the window. She felt like a fool, spending the last few years pining over a boy who wouldn’t come back nor a boy that wouldn’t give her the time of day anymore when she had someone who would love her no matter what she did.

She remembered Hinata’s words. Her speech.

“Ask myself, huh?” Sakura whispered to the nothingness of her bedroom. “I loved Sasuke. I like Naruto and I like Lee.”

Sakura gave a little shriek and tugged at her hair. This wasn’t helping! She jumped off her bed and moved to the bathroom, washing her face free of the evidence of tears. It didn’t seem like enough, to ask herself what she wanted. She wanted to talk to someone, to ask them what she should do. She left her house yet again for the afternoon, wandering the streets and trying to figure out what she wanted. She had no idea. The rose-haired girl looked up at a shout then and saw Iruka running after Kakashi, the silver-haired jounin’s eye turned up in a grin as he stayed one step ahead of the poor chuunin. Iruka’s hair was unbound and free, and for once, he wasn’t wearing his vest. Sakura was rooted to her place as she watched the two horse around before her, before Kakashi noticed she was there and skidded to a stop before her, leaving Iruka to crash into him, a Kakashi-wall that stood his ground to keep Sakura from being crushed by about 295 collective pounds of jounin and chuunin.

“Sakura-chan!” Iruka gasped out in his best out-of-breath admonishing voice. Sakura smiled sheepishly, having heard that voice before when she was much smaller. Kakashi stepped back and put an arm around Iruka’s shoulders to steady him. Sakura fought to keep her surprise off her face, but at the smile that bloomed on Kakashi’s hidden face and the blush on Iruka’s they knew she’d just figured it out.

Sakura put her hands on her hips and tried for her best angry look, the look that had cowed Naruto and had even made Sasuke a little edgy of her. But she couldn’t hold it for long, not with Iruka watching her. Instead she flung her arms around the chuunin’s waist and held on tight to him, eyes squeezed shut.

“Sakura-chan, what’s the matter?” Iruka asked, hugging her back and giving an apologetic look to Kakashi. The silver haired jounin put a hand on his former student’s shoulder, head tilting to look at the girl.

“Sakura-chan?” Kakashi repeated.

“I don’t know what to do, Iruka-sensei!” Sakura wailed into the chuunin’s shirt. “I don’t know what to do at all.”

Iruka and Kakashi managed to pull Sakura away from the chuunin and together the three of them moved down the street to the park, Kakashi settling the chuunin and Sakura down on a bench before he went to go find some vending machine that gave something cold to drink. Iruka hooked his hair behind his ears and looked at the girl, sighing quietly.

“What’s the matter, Sakura? What don’t you know?”

“First of all,” Sakura said, “how long have you and Kaka-sensei been going out, huh?”

Iruka blushed and smiled, rubbing his cheek. “A few months after your chuunin exams. But your problems hardly concern me or Kakashi or our relationship, do they?”

Sakura felt her cheeks heat and shook her head. She looked up when a cold can of apple juice was handed to her, Kakashi moving to settle beside Iruka, both he and the chuunin holding their own can of a cold juice drink. They sat in silence for a long while before Sakura finally sighed, a heavy sort of dejected sigh.

“Lee asked me to have dinner with him, but…”

“But?” Iruka asked, head tilting as he looked at the girl. Sakura pursed her lips and sighed again, rubbing the condensation on the can away with her fingers.

“I don’t know if I should.” Sakura said. “I mean… I loved Sasuke… and Naruto, but they… They didn’t want me.”

“It’s not that they didn’t want you, Sakura,” Kakashi replied as he put an arm around Iruka’s shoulders, hugging him close. “It’s that they had found their precious person in each other.”

“There’s no doubt that you’re still very important to both of them,” Iruka began. “But they see you as a friend, Sakura, not as a potential lover. Everyone has their precious person, someone they love unconditionally, no matter what they do, or what happens. You may not find them right away, or maybe you will. Maybe you won’t recognize it right away, but, you don’t know until you spend time with that person.”

“Like you and Kakashi?” Sakura said a little smugly, watching the elder pair glance at each other and then look back at her.

“Maybe not.” Iruka said. “Kakashi and I grew up on different levels and the only things we had in common was that we taught you three. At times, it seemed like it would never work out, but we made it through. You’ll have to do the same.”

Kakashi pulled Iruka up then, the brunette tapping his chest to push him away, smiling as he tilted his head, turning back to Sakura with a smile. Kakashi stepped away by a few paces, nose in that stupid book of his but his attention on Iruka, Sakura noticed, her eyes falling away from her former sensei to her former, former sensei, watching as Iruka knelt down in front of her, taking her hands in his.

“Sakura, you have many friends, and you have someone who really does love you, like you’ve said. You’ve said the two people you love the most don’t return your feelings, so maybe instead of pining for the past, live for the future.”

Iruka rose then, patting her hands as he released them, moving toward Kakashi and taking hold of his hand as he forced the silver haired jounin to put away his book, the pair walking away, leaving Sakura alone to her thoughts. She rose a moment later, slowly walking home, her mind turning. She lay in bed that night, arms crossed over her stomach, eyes staring at her ceiling until she closed them to the dark, falling asleep with her mind going a mile a minute. She woke feeling uneasy, but she was sure the uneasiness was only due to the way her heart trembled with her decision. Sakura took a quick shower and dressed as soon as she was dry, fixing her hitai-ate in her hair as usual before she slipped on her sandals and moved to leave her house to get started on her daily chores.

The uneasiness didn’t fade away until mid-afternoon, when she was just finishing up her tasks for the day, giving a heartfelt sigh to dissipate the feeling. She hadn’t seen Lee all day, not even a glimpse of him. She wondered if he’d gone off on a mission and was almost tempted to go to the mission office to find out for sure. She folded the last sheet and set it in the closet, closing the door and walking slowly down the hall to clock out of the hospital and head home. She felt almost dejected and supposed this was how Lee felt the other day when she rejected his offer of dinner. She rubbed the back of her neck as she stood outside, looking up at the cloudless sky for a long while before she began to walk home, wishing Ino was around so she could just hang out with her. But Ino wasn’t around, off on a mission with Shikamaru and Choji, and so Sakura felt very alone and foolish. A heavy sigh escaped her then and she realized she was standing outside her home, hand on the door. She slid it open and walked up the stairs to the landing, her eyes going wide at the sight of her mother and Lee sitting at the kitchen table, talking so easily over tea.

“Mom?” Sakura ventured, coming to stand just outside of the kitchen, staring more at Lee than her mother. Haruno-san rose from her seat, taking her daughter by her shoulder and leading her out of earshot from Lee, leaving Sakura very confused.

“Sakura, Lee-kun just wanted to talk to you. I told him that you were at the hospital but he wanted to stay and wait for you.”

Sakura looked over at Lee from around her mother and fought back the blush that wanted to come and burn her cheeks. She looked at her mother then, smiling and leaning to give the elder woman a peck on the cheek.

“Thanks for keeping him company, mom. I think I can handle it from here.”

Sakura stepped around her mother and approached Lee, knowing her mom wouldn’t be far but she wouldn’t be able to be seen. Sakura knelt across from Lee and put her chin in her hands, watching the black-haired boy as he watched her. They were silent for the longest while before Sakura shifted and smiled at Lee.

“So…”

Lee jerked a bit, blushing as he finally looked away from her, looking back only after he’d gotten his blush under control. “So?”

“You’re here for a reason right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Lee fumbled for a moment, trying to look Sakura in the eye and failing. “I just… wanted to see if you’d like to go out tonight. For dinner. Maybe a movie?”

Sakura swallowed, leaned over the table and put her fingers under Lee’s chin, forcing him to look at her. She sat back then, properly, hands in her lap, eyes locked onto the boy’s.

“Ask me again. And look me in the eyes this time.”

Lee was silent, swallowing the nervous lump in his throat and stared right into Sakura’s pretty eyes. He could feel the sweat rolling down his forehead but he knew there wasn’t any. He was being stupid, a nervous wreck. What’s the worst that could happen? Sakura could only say no.

“Ah, Sakura-chan?”

“Yes, Lee-kun?”

She called him Lee-kun! Maybe he had a chance after all! “Would you like to go out tonight, with me, for dinner and maybe a movie?”

Sakura smiled at him, really smiled at –him– . “I’d love to, Lee.”