Ballerina at Sea

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Cha3hree

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Sakura woke with a massive hangover.

Ino had often joked that she couldn’t handle her liquor very well, and the kunoichi had been right. She couldn’t. Most times when she had more than a small shot her entire system shut down, her chakra concentration fizzled to almost nothing.

She still remembered her sixteenth birthday where she had her first drink. She was out like a light in less than an hour. Of course Ino dragged her sorry ass home… after she finished partying and discovered Sakura three hours afterward.

Ino wasn’t a bad friend, Sakura would give her that. But off the battlefield she dropped her guard faster than anyone she knew, especially when she was among friends in a bar. Sakura didn’t blame her though. Most of the guys she picked up weren’t ninja and she could easily handle them drunker than hell. But she was so distracted off the battlefield it was hard to get through her even when she was sober.

Knowing her healing would do nothing for her hangover Sakura made her way over to the medicine cabinet, plucking out a bottle of pills to soothe her aching head.

She could still taste the bile in her throat.

Though Sakura’s memories were hazy she could tell that last night had not been a goodnight. She could recall drowning her woes in a drink, Ino pissed off, and... Kakashi?

That last one she really couldn’t understand. Kakashi appeared randomly without reason all the time, but never on off chance. He always had a purpose. The bar she was hanging out in was not a hotspot for Kakashi, that she knew. It was more popular with the younger ninja crowd since few bars sold drinks to the underage… even the ninja.

Sakura could remember being in the bar with Ino when he came around. What had they been talking about? She could only imagine him trying to cure his curiosity. Sakura had left a lot hanging when she left Tsunade‘s office.

Oh… Sakura gloomed. What if he knows?

There were a few things in regards to the classes that Sakura did not like. Aside from the classes themselves was anyone knowing about her taking them.

Her own mother didn‘t know, and Sakura shared everything there was to be personal with that woman. Heck, as soon as Sakura was on her period she ran down to her parent‘s complex to share with her the terrible news.

The fact that Kakashi knew something so private, so personal… something she wouldn‘t even dream of telling her mother twenty years later was a dimming notion. She could only hope that he hadn‘t picked it up.

But he wasn‘t like Ino. Even off the battlefield he was observant. If he didn‘t know already she‘d be surprised.

She‘d be shocked.

She‘d be disappointed.

It wasn‘t that Sakura wanted him to know, quite the opposite. But with so many close calls of meetings with him recently she‘d be insulted if he didn‘t care to investigate.

Sakura cursed at it all, preparing herself for a long day at the hospital.

Which she was late for.

The kunoichi had overslept nearly four hours into her shift. She ran over to her answering machine only to find six messages waiting for her. Four were from the hospital. One from Ino that was mostly a threat to meet her later that night. The other one…

Well, Sakura didn’t want to hear from that bureau of learning.

Without hesitation she deleted the message as soon as Anko’s disgustingly cheery voice came over the speaker, reminding her of the date and time of the lessons. The last thing Sakura wanted was to be reminded of the very thing she wanted to forget.

The very thing she wasn‘t going to take part in.

Sakura found it ridiculously unfair that she had the take the class, or that anyone had to. She thought it would be all fine and dandy if a person consented to it, but not otherwise.

Of course, it was a law. A law that none of her younger male comrades knew existed. A class they didn‘t have to take. The council was sexist, and everyone knew it. The fact that there was female Hokage put a damper into everything. As soon as Tsunade gained the role she did make a few changes.

Just not this one.

Sakura figured Tsunade had been outvoted. Change couldn’t happen overnight. Apparently not in four years either.

A soft knock came at the door and Sakura’s attention was pulled to the present.

“Sakura-kun?” Her mother, at that.

The kunoichi quickly grabbed her bag and made her way to the door, knowing she couldn‘t delay her shift any longer. She opened the door and was greeted by her mother who held the pleasant smile she always had.

But this morning it was a rather stern smile. She knew something was up.

“Aaah~” Sakura laughed nervously. “Err, what are you doing here so early in the morning Okaa-chan?”

Her mother pushed her aside from the doorway and walked straight into her apartment. Her smile fell at the sight of her loft. Her frown was almost ghastly.

“Just what happened here?” Sakura‘s mother paced around frantically. “I know you are busy Sakura-kun, but this is madness.”

Sakura only inched further towards the door, glad she hadn‘t stepped into the bathroom. “I pay rent…”

“Dear, you pay a fifth of what a Hyuuga does in their own sector!” She responded, tracing a silly poem about a cockroach into a dusty table. “You needn‘t act as so highly like they do.”

Without waiting for a response she looked her daughter up and down, disapproval present on her features. “You‘re going outside like that?”

“Eh? What‘s wrong with how I look?” Sakura examined her own features carefully. She thought she looked fine, pretty even. “I love this scrub and my hair is brushed. Besides, you made this scrub!”

Without a word Sakura‘s mother walked to her closet and pulled out a jacket. “You didn‘t notice?” She squeaked, walking over and draping the knit sweater over her daughter.

Sakura‘s eyes only popped. “Notice what?”

Her mother stepped forward again and breathed in, taking note of the smell on her daughter‘s breath.

“Figures…” She chuckled, her eyes bright with glee. “My grown up daughter threw caution to the wind and went out partying.”

With a wink, she added “That a girl, bring home the grandkids!”

Sakura blushed.

Ninja normally didn‘t get married. One night stands or casual relationships ruled most of their lives, if even that.

“It’s snowing, you know?” Her mother pointed at the window. “Are you that hung over? Maybe you should call in.”

The kunoichi smiled. “I can’t, I’m already four hours late to work.”

Her mother nearly fell to the floor. “Four? Your rent is cheap… but not that cheap.”

“Alright, Alright. I get it.” Sakura finished, leaving the apartment with her mother close behind, still whispering her distaste over the state of the loft.

They said their goodbyes and Sakura made her way out of the Haruno Complex. Though her family wasn’t a ninja clan they did consist of at least thirty members all busy with their own lives. Sakura was the only ninja. Her family specialized in making and tailoring clothes for local businesses and their own shop.

Of course Sakura didn‘t learn how to sew dresses until after she learned how to sew wounds. The irony.

Like every time she left she stood in front of family‘s complex. It was made of just a small store and three separate housing buildings. She could hear the glee in her cousin‘s voices from the backyard. With a smile and a good tiding she left, making her way to the hospital.

When Sakura arrived one of her fellow nurses rushed her into the emergency room, saying there had been a terrible accident during one of the missions. Without even stopping to put her things away in the locker room she threw it over the counter into the Nurses‘ station and ran into the ER.

It was bad.

There were at least six ninja sprawled out on the operating tables, one in the corner nursing a broken arm, and one already had a blanket pulled over their body. From the looks of things Sakura could say at least one other wouldn‘t make it, what with their heartbeats as it was. Upon further inquiry she discovered two had died on the field.

“What happened?” Sakura asked cautiously. It was probably a very classified mission. But she couldn‘t pin that one down. Most of the ninja in the operating room weren‘t higher than chunin level.

“What happened, you asked?” An attendant filling in the mission report saddled up beside her, a dirty smirk present on his face.

Sakura looked at him curiously as he pointed at the girl in the corner.

“You see that woman over there? The girl with the broken arm?”

Sakura nodded, still not fully understanding. The girl looked the same age as Sakura and there was sadness around her. There was a aura of gloom and chill emitting from her that Sakura could feel from the other side of the room.


The attendant began scribbling at the mission report furiously. “She seriously fucked up an entire outpost.”

The kunoichi did a double take. “That’s not possible, there are at least six to ten ninja at an outpost in a single moment.”

The attendant’s eyebrows rose, and Sakura took notice of the number of ninja in the room.

“Well, believe it. There was a rather low class attack on the outpost and Miss Bravery over there decided to jump in without caution or orders.”

From across the room the girl winced, obviously hearing the attendant

He paid no mind to her woes and only found it to be an incentive to continue. “Three people died. Her captain and team mate perished on the field trying to sorry ass and they were taken over by the enemy nin. They just barely escaped. I had to go in there with a team and pick up the pieces of her mistake.”

“What happened to the outpost?” Sakura asked, gathering her supplies quickly and made her way over to one of the men in critical condition.

There was nothing she could do, only to let him die peacefully in his comatose state. Two of his organs were down, effectively knocking him off the transplant list.

“It’s gone, burned down to the ground.” The attendant responded. There isn’t even a salvageable board, seeing as how it was bombed to kingdom come.”

A nurse attending the girl only whispered softly. “Why did you act so recklessly?”

The girl burst into tears.

“Why she did it? Get this…” The attendant chuckled. “She wanted to be unavailable for the kunoichi classes the next few weeks. I‘ll tell you what‘ll happen to her… she‘ll be going to jail for what she did.”

Hearing those words Sakura collapsed.

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A Rotten Word With Biscuit
Again, thanks Lemon Drops for the wonderful critique. I’ll be certain to pay more attention to little errors and OOC-ness for my characters in the future. (Though it may be a chapter late since I try to have a backlog of chapters).
I decided very early on that Sakura was going to have a very close, casual, and open relationship with her family… especially her mother. In some stories she has no family at all (they are dead) or they are not on good terms. I figure Sakura might have a close relationship with her family so I decided to go for it in this story. They also have very informal suffixes for each other.

Her family is also going to come into play a lot in this story do to the nature of it. I would like to think the Haruno’s are nice, rather than bitchy and broken like they sometimes are. I don’t have anything to back them up having a business, but I figure a small clan with an icon would explain why she would have a family symbol on her clothes since she doesn‘t come from a ninja background, apparently. It’s really just her family’s business logo.

I figure with how I am pacing this story it‘s going to be a lot longer than I anticipated, but I don‘t want to rush things. Anyway, I hope to see you next chapter! Please review and critique!