Chapter Text
“Good morning, Haruno-sensei,” one of the newer medic-nin in training, a genin named Sora, greets as she opens the door to Sakura’s office. Sakura smiles at her, a reply on her lips when her eyes fall to what the young girl is carrying. “Someone left this by the receptionist for you, Haruno-sensei,” the girl grins as she hops towards Sakura’s desk and gently places the bouquet of sunflowers. Sakura stares at the bouquet, easily recognizing the ribbon tied to it as the Yamanaka Flower Shop’s. She doesn’t recognize the name on the card, however.
“Did you see who left it there, Sora-chan?” Sakura asks the girl who’s busy staring at the flowers with the giddiness only a teenaged girl could possess. Sakura smiles at the girl, reminded of herself back at that age, only to cringe inwardly as she’s reminded of her single-minded fangirling over Sasuke.
The girl, finally noticing Sakura’s attention, shakes her head. “No, sensei. Mizuki-san from reception was the one who told me to give this to you.”
Sakura nods, idly touching the petals. “I see. Thank you, Sora-chan.”
Sora nods before bowing. She gives Sakura one last smile before leaving, the door closing softly behind her. Sakura sighs as she eyes the bouquet. It’s the eight one she’s received this week, all from different people. At first, she thought they came from an old patient or a family member but when she doesn’t recognize the name on the card, that thought is thrown away. Over half of the flowers came from the Yamanaka Flower Shop but when she went to ask Ino about them the other day, Ino had told her that she also didn’t know who had bought the flowers.
As if summoned by her thoughts alone, Ino opens the door to Sakura’s office, earning a glare from the pinkette. “You should knock. Do you not have manners?”
Ino rolls her eyes before her attention falls to the flowers on Sakura’s desk. “Sunflowers? Really Forehead? I can’t believe Inori allowed you to buy them.”
Sakura rolls her eyes, almost pitying Ino’s cousin who was currently handling the flower shop while Ino was busy with clan head duties. “I didn’t buy them. Someone gave them to me.”
“Oh,” Ino says as she takes the seat in front of Sakura’s desk. “From a different person?”
Sakura nods. “Yeah.”
“You know, you should feel flattered.”
“I am. But what use is flattery if it isn’t backed up by action?”
Ino’s eyes widened. “You mean none of the people who’ve sent you flowers have followed up on them? No one had approached you?”
“No!” Sakura groans, frustrated. “I’m flattered, really, but it’s becoming a bit annoying. I’m running out of space to keep these flowers.”
“These might be courtship flowers, y’know,” Ino says as she idly rubs a petal between her fingers. Sakura raises an eyebrow. “What? You haven’t considered that?”
“And why would anyone be interested in me?”
Ino raises an eyebrow. “Forehead, are you hiding air behind that huge forehead?”
Sakura splutters but before she could retort, Ino continues. “YOU are currently the most eligible bachelorette in the village! You’re drop dead gorgeous. You’ve got a hot body. You’re super strong, even without chakra. You’re the best medic in the village. AND YOU’RE UNATTACHED.”
“Aw, you think I’m hot, Pig?”
Ino rolls her eyes. “If you’re fishing for compliments, you’re looking at the wrong person.”
“Nah. You already told me you think I’m hot,” Sakura winks at Ino who rolls her eyes before reaching over Sakura’s desk and pinching the pinkette’s cheek. “Hey!”
“ANYWAYS! You should consider that maybe they’re courtship flowers, is all I’m saying.”
“What use would it be when no one has followed up or even attempted to meet me face to face? Also…,” Sakura trails off. Ino raises an eyebrow, urging her to continue. “Why now?”
The two are wrapped in silence when Ino suddenly exclaims. “Oh my Sage!”
“What? What is it?”
“You’re legal now!”
“What? I’ve been an adult since I graduated from the Academy, Pig, in case you forgot.”
Ino rolls her eyes. “No, that’s not it. Remember when Tsunade-sama named you her heir?”
“Well, yeah. How could I forget? I still get chills remembering it,” Sakura says, unable to stop herself from shivering.
―――――❀❀❀―――――
It was no secret that besides being her second apprentice, Sakura was Tsunade’s daughter in all but blood. When her parents kicked her out right after passing Kakashi-sensei’s Bell Test, Sakura didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have a lot of money. She didn’t know where to go. She wasn’t even going to be 12 years old until after a few more days.
Sakura could still remember that night, when she was mindlessly walking around the village, not knowing where to go.
Sakura could feel the cold starting to seep into the night. She tries to resist shivering as a breeze passes by. Her hand on her backpack is tight, her knuckles almost white. Her whole life, packed into a little backpack. Sakura resists the urge to sob, letting out a choked breath instead.
“Sakura-chan?” a low voice calls out to her, making her flinch. She looks up and sees Kakashi-sensei and a man who looks like an Uchiha. Probably Obito-san, his old teammate and the Yondaime’s successor, Sakura thinks to herself. “What are you doing out so late?”
Sakura fails to hide her flinching at Kakashi-sensei’s words. They weren’t even harsh! But she felt like a child being scolded for being caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to do, though, Sakura IS a child and she ISN’T supposed to be out so late. She hears Kakashi-sensei let out a soft sigh and Sakura curls further into herself.
Through blurry eyes, Sakura sees Kakashi-sensei kneeling in front of her so that they were eye-level. “What’s wrong, Sakura-chan? Do you want me to take you home?” Kakashi-sensei says, his hands warm on Sakura’s shoulders.
“Bakashi.”
Kakashi-sensei turns to Obito before returning his gaze on Sakura—or to be specific, on Sakura’s bag. “Sakura-chan, where are you going?”
“M-my parents…they k-kicked me out…,” Sakura manages to choke out as she sobs, her tears warm against her icy skin. Kakashi-sensei’s hands on her shoulders tighten as he takes a sharp breath.
“Fuckers.”
“Obito.”
“What?”
Kakashi-sensei sighs before returning his focus back to Sakura. “Let’s go to Minato-sensei,” Kakashi-sensei says. “He’ll know what to do,” he continues, addressing Obito.
“Yeah.”
Kakashi-sensei takes Sakura into his arms before handing Obito her bag. “Don’t worry, Sakura-chan,” he says, giving her a smile. “It’ll be okay.”
After hearing about Sakura’s situation, the Yondaime barely managed to rein in the collected anger of his wife and Kakashi-sensei. Even Naruto could not believe what her parents had done to her.
“Was this an isolated incident, Sakura-chan?” Minato-ojichan asked, his voice gentle as to not spook her.
Sakura curls into herself. “They’ve never hit me, Minato-ojichan.”
“That’s not true touchan! I saw it, ‘ttebayo! Her kacchan pulled her hair back in our first year when Sakura-chan stayed back to help me with my homework!” Naruto explains.
The temperature drops and Sakura shivers. “Why didn’t you tell anyone, Naruto?” his mom, Kushina-obachan asked.
“I did! I told Mizuki-sensei and he said he’ll handle it…but he obviously didn’t, the bastard!” Naruto growls.
Kushina-obachan slaps Naruto’s head. “What?!”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Sakura mutters to herself as she wraps her arms around her stomach.
Kushina-obachan’s hand gently pats Sakura’s head. “It’s not your fault, Sakura-chan. None of this is your fault,” she says as she tilts Sakura’s head up and wipes away her tears.
That night, Sakura falls asleep after crying herself to sleep, wrapped up in a warm blanket and sleeping beside the warmth Naruto’s body releases.
The following day, Sasuke hears about what happened and goes home to tell his parents who immediately open their home to Sakura. With a founding clan, the Hokage’s family and the last Hatake behind the case, Minato is able to punish the Harunos. Or rather, he would have been able to punish them, if it weren’t for the fact that they had escaped into the night, taking all of their money and valuables with them.
For the first few weeks, she had to rely on the kindness of not only the Yamanaka, but also the Yondaime’s family and the Uchiha main family. Even Kakashi-sensei allowed her to crash in his guest room for a couple of days.
A few weeks in and it was starting to take a toll on Sakura. Not that none of them would have denied her a home. Sakura knew she was welcome to stay with any of them for how long she needed but deep down, Sakura hated her situation, hated how she had become a burden not only to her team and best friend, but to their families. Not that any of them ever thought of her as such, but to the recently turned 12-year old girl, she couldn’t think of herself as anything but.
Two months of her basically couch hopping and the 3rd night in a row she was staying with Kakashi-sensei, Sakura is summoned to the Hokage’s office while training with her team. Kakashi-sensei takes one look at the anxious girl before accompanying her, Naruto and Sasuke hot on their heels because they didn’t want to be left behind.
What greets them inside the Hokage’s office is Minato-ojichan’s smiling face as well as two women, one of which Sakura knows from the history books-the last Senju, Senju Tsunade. The woman turns her amber eyes onto Sakura and hands her a sheet of paper. “Minato says you have good chakra control. Show me.”
With trembling hands, Sakura grabs the sheet and does as she’s told, lighting it all the way until only 2 is left dark. “Well, shit, 98%. What are your natures?”
“Um…earth and water, Tsunade-sama,”
The grin that appears on Tsunade’s face can only be called feral, sending a shiver through Sakura’s spine. “Want to learn how to heal, kid?”
The rest was history.
Tsunade takes in Sakura and starts living in the Senju compound. Sakura has a mother in Tsunade and an older sister in Shizune. When Tsunade hears about one of Danzo’s experiments, she also takes in Tenzo as a son, thus, their family grows in number.
One day, a year into the unofficial adoption of Sakura into the Senju and 10 months into her training under Tsunade, the woman hands Sakura a journal, old and clearly handwritten. “My grandfather, Hashirama, wrote everything he knew about the mokuton in that journal. Tenzo’s mokuton is smooth and polished due to experimentation, but you,” she pauses, staring straight into Sakura’s eyes. “-You can recreate it naturally. You don’t have to but it’ll give you an additional weapon in your arsenal.”
It takes Sakura a week to memorize and understand the journal. It takes her a month to find the perfect mixture of earth release and water release. Three months into her training, Sakura grows her first tree.
The following month, during the monthly meeting of the clan heads, Tsunade takes Sakura with her and announces in front of all the clan heads that she is naming Sakura as her heir.
Sakura almost fainted hearing her words. And if she were to be honest, she barely remembers Tsunade’s words after.
Almost two years after getting kicked out of her house, Haruno Sakura officially becomes Senju Sakura.
―――――❀❀❀―――――
“-hey, hey! Forehead!” Sakura blinks. “What’s got you so distracted?”
Sakura shakes her head to push away the memories. “Nothing. I was just thinking about everything that happened the past few years.”
“Anyways, I’m sure you blacked out during Tsunade’s speech so let me tell you. After she named you her heir, she told everybody that you were to be untouchable until you turn 20. You turned 20 last week which means you’re eligible now.”
“What? She didn’t tell me anything!”
Ino shrugged. “Well, she probably thought you knew.”
Sakura groans as she rubs her temples. “Well, what should I do?”
“What should you do? Enjoy it of course!” Ino wiggles her eyebrows. “So, do you have your eye on anyone, Forehead?”
“What? Of course not!”
“Aw, don’t be such a baby. You’re so hot they’re all going to be falling in front of you just to catch your attention!” Ino cackles. Sakura reaches over her desk and pulls Ino’s ponytail. Ino only cackles louder.
After a few more minutes filled with Ino teasing Sakura, the blonde finally leaves, saying something about having to attend a clan meeting. Sakura waves her off, absorbed in her reading.
―――――❀❀❀―――――
Only a few hours have passed until someone knocks on the window of Sakura’s office. She closes the tome she’s reading and turns to stare at the unwelcome guest bothering her. Sasuke rolls his eyes as he slides the window open. “Do you know what time it is?”
“It’s time for you to be annoying, obviously,” Sakura rolls her eyes.
Sasuke scoffs as he fully enters her office, impatiently waiting while she packs up her belongings. Just as she was about to place her tome inside her pack, Sasuke grabs her wrist. “What?” she asks, annoyed.
“No work.”
“This ain’t work.”
Sasuke raises an unimpressed brow. Sakura groans. “Ugh, fine. You’re so annoying.”
Sasuke smirks and Sakura barely manages to stop herself from punching the smugness out of his face. “Aren’t you even going to wash your face? You look like shit.”
“I’m going to tell Mikoto-obachan that you bullied me.”
Sasuke sputters. “What? I didn’t!”
It was now Sakura’s turn to smirk as she jumps off the window and into the night, Sasuke’s voice disappearing in the background.
When Sasuke finally catches up to her, she uses every control she has in her body to ignore the obviously pouting boy.
“You know, you used to be so cute, trailing after me, calling me Sasuke-nii.”
“First of all, I never did that. Second, you’re only a few months older than me.”
“That’s still a few months of wisdom.”
“Wisdom my ass.”
“You’ve been hanging out with Shisui too much. He’s not a good influence on you.”
“Say that again to my face, Sasu-chan,” a sing-song voice breaks the short silence before a hand makes its way to the top of Sasuke’s head, roughly ruffling the wind tussled locks. Sasuke groans. “Hi Cherry-chan,” Shisui winks at Sakura, earning a laugh from the girl.
“What are you even doing here, Shisui? Shouldn’t you be out there terrorizing kids, or something?”
Shisui feigns hurt as he grabs his heart. “Your words wound me, Sasu-chan! How dare you assume I terrorize children!”
“Don’t tease them, Shisui,” a calm voice interrupts. Sakura turns to the side and sees Itachi coming closer from behind Shisui. “Good evening, Sakura. It’s been a while.”
Sakura thanks the Sage for the darkness of the night as she feels her cheeks warm up; something that does not go unnoticed by Sasuke, if his smug grin was to be interpreted. “Good evening, Itachi-san. It has been a while. Did you just get back from your mission?”
Itachi sped up a bit so that they were side by side. “Yes. I just returned this afternoon,” he pauses as he rummages through his weapons pouch. “By the way, Sakura, I’d like to thank you for the soldier pills you gave me. They were a big help.”
Sakura grins. “You’re welcome! I’m happy they came in handy,” her smile dims into one of embarrassment. “Sorry they don’t taste so good though…,” she chuckles.
Itachi shakes his head. “They taste fine, Sakura.”
Sasuke, from ahead, makes a puking sound. “You don’t have to lie, nii-san. Sakura can’t cook to save a life.”
Before Itachi could call out his younger brother for teasing the girl, Sakura already made her way beside Sasuke, smacking the back of his head. The two teammates soon fall into the familiar banter between the two of them. Itachi feels Shisui make his way beside him. “What is it, Shisui?”
Shisui only grins before shaking his head.
It takes the group a few more minutes before the compound gates of the Uchiha Compound finally come into view. One by one, they land near the gates, right beside the wall bordering the Uchiha and Senju Compounds. “Do you want to drop by your house first, Sakura?” Sasuke asks her as he lands beside her.
Sakura shakes her head. “Kacchan and Shizune-nee aren’t around. They left last week to go to the Land of Hot Springs for a vacation.”
Shisui whistles from behind them. “Man, the Land of Hot Springs? What I wouldn’t give to be in their place.”
“We have hot springs in the compound, Shisui,” Itachi says.
Shisui rolls his eyes. “They’re not the same, Ita-chan. Like, they’re leagues and leagues different…”
Sakura and Sasuke are unable to hear the rest of Shisui’s rant as they start walking towards the gates, nodding their greetings to the pair of guards stationed by the gate. “Do you think your mom made those umeboshi onigiri? I’ve tried so many but nothing really compares to your mom’s cooking,” Sakura asks her teammate just as they reach the main family home.
“Hn.”
“That’s not an answer, Sasuke.”
Before they could reach to open the door, it suddenly opens, revealing their blonde teammate. “Teme! Sakura-chan! What took you so long?” Naruto asks as he takes both of his teammates in his arms. Being taller and bigger than her, Sakura simply resigns to being crushed by her two teammates, Sasuke a bit more reluctantly.
It was the one thing she hated, how she stayed at her 160cm height while both of her teammates shot out in height to reach a whole 184cm! They were even taller than Kakashi-sensei now!
“Is that you, Sasuke? Sakura-chan?”a feminine voice calls out from deeper into the home. Sakura untangles herself from the arms wrapping around her as she walks towards the kitchen.
“Mikoto-obachan!” Sakura greets the woman who gives her a soft smile. Even in her late fifties, Mikoto-obachan was the paragon of grace and elegance. She barely looked a day over 30, in Sakura’s opinion.
“Sakura-kun,” the Uchiha Clan Head, Fugaku, greets Sakura as he enters the kitchen.
“Fugaku-ojichan,” Sakura smiles at the older male who gives her a small smile in return. “Did the ointment I gave you work?”
Fugaku nods his head as he rolls his shoulder. “Like a charm, Sakura-kun. Thank you.”
Sakura shakes her head, happy to have been of help.
With pleasantries exchanged between everyone present, Mikoto ushers everyone to the dining room. Fugaku sits at the head of the table, Mikoto to his left and Itachi to his right. Sasuke sits beside his older brother while Sakura takes the spot beside Mikoto. Shisui sits next to Sasuke and Naruto sits next to her. They all say their thanks for the food.
Shisui, seemingly unable to bear the silence, speaks, a few minutes into the meal. “So, Sakura-chan. I heard you’ve been having a little flowery problem, these days,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows.
Sakura rolls her eyes. Of course Shisui would hear about it. No one could resist talking to the curly-haired Uchiha. It’s why he’s such a good source of gossip, on a regular day, or any day wherein the gossip isn’t about her. Sakura feels their eyes on her and she sends Shisui a glare he simply waves off.
Sakura clears her throat as she lowers her chopsticks. “Um, yes, that is correct. Numerous people have been sending bouquets of flowers to the hospital addressed to me.”
Fugaku nods. “I see. It must have been because Tsunade-hime’s supposed ban on your availability for courtship has been lifted.”
All the heads currently sitting on the table (except for Mikoto) turn to face Fugaku who raises an unimpressed brow. “What?”
“Ban?” it’s Sasuke who asks, a mixture of disbelief and curiosity in his voice.
Fugaku nods as he calmly sips his tea, ignoring the impatient look his youngest son is sending him. “Back when Tsunade-hime proclaimed Sakura-kun her heir, she also warned against anybody making attempts to court Sakura-kun. Part of it is to protect you,” he says, staring straight at Sakura. “You were young back then and even though you were an adult in the eyes of the village, you were still a child. A part of it was to make sure no one with unscrupulous intentions could approach you, especially when it was revealed you possess mokuton. Tenzo was an adult by then and his age and experience granted him protection against attempts to court him, even though he wasn’t Tsunade-hime’s named heir,” Fugaku explains.
Sasuke turns to stare at her. “So?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Has anyone courted you?”
Naruto squawks as he points his chopsticks towards Sasuke. “Teme! Have some tact!”
Inwardly, Sakura raises an eyebrow at Naruto’s usage of the word ‘tact.’ “Why are you even curious, anyway?” Naruto asks as he returns to slurping his noodles.
It was now Sasuke’s turn to stare at Naruto. “Dobe, do you not understand what’s happening? People are courting Sakura. They’re trying to take her away!”
Naruto drops his chopsticks as he slowly turns to Sakura. He grabs onto her, sobbing. “NO! THEY CAN’T TAKE YOU AWAY SAKURA-CHAN! I WON’T ALLOW IT!” he yells right into her ear. Sakura winces at the volume.
“I honestly don’t see the problem,” Mikoto says. “Sakura-chan is an accomplished shinobi. She’s strong and highly skilled. Not to mention, she’s a very beautiful woman. Anybody who manages to woo her is going to be a very lucky person,” she adds, her tone soft as she lowers her cup of tea.
Sasuke glares at his mother who simply shrugs off his staring. “Exactly. Why are you so overprotective, Sasu-chan?”
Sasuke groans as he grabs at his hair. “OF COURSE WE HAVE TO BE!” Sasuke stares straight at Sakura as he says his next words. “Men are all wolves, Sakura.”
Sakura raises an eyebrow, Naruto still sobbing on her shoulder. “You’re a guy. Naruto’s a guy. Kakashi-sensei’s a guy. Are you wolves?”
“We’re not included!” Sasuke scowls, frustration evident in his voice.
“You’re such an older brother, Sasuke,” Sakura shrugs off Naruto and turns to return her focus to her food when she feels someone staring at her. She looks up and sees Itachi turning his eyes away from staring at her. He had been quiet the whole exchange. Sakura shrugs and takes a bite of her onigiri, savoring the taste.
“I, for one, would love to welcome you to be an official part of our family, Sakura-chan,” Mikoto tells her. Sakura almost chokes on her food.
Sasuke grimaces. “Ew, kaa-san. Sakura’s my younger sister.”
“You’re only a few months older.”
“Yeah, but a few months in a whole different year!”
“Ugh.”
Mikoto just smiles knowingly before excusing herself to start clearing out the dinner table. Fugaku soon follows his wife into the kitchen.
―――――❀❀❀―――――
Sakura’s walk home was done with the indignant voices of Naruto and Sasuke in the background as they walked with her back to the Senju Compound, against Sakura’s protests. “You won’t be going away though, right, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asks her, looking at her with his bright, blue eyes, all big and round.
“Where would I go, Naruto?”
“How sure are you that whoever you pick won’t take you away? What if you fall for someone from outside the village?”
Sakura sighs as she takes Naruto and Sasuke’s arms. Naruto happily obliges, happy with the contact while Sasuke grumbles but allows it. “I’m the heiress to the Senju Clan. I won’t be going anywhere.”
“Holy shit. You’re right,” Sasuke mutters.
“Of course I am. When am I ever wrong? Anyone I pick will be marrying into the Senju.” For her words, Sakura gets a flick on the forehead from Sasuke. She chuckles before letting their arms go. She jogs the few remaining meters to the compound gates before turning back around to address them. “Besides, I’m an adult. I can pick out a good apple from the rotten ones.”
Sasuke sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “We know that, Sakura. It’s just-,”
“We just want to protect you, Sacchan. We know you don’t need it and that you can protect yourself, but we still want to do it. You deserve the best and we just want to make sure you do,” Naruto explains, his voice uncharacteristically serious. Sasuke nods by his side.
Sakura smiles. “I know that. And as much as it annoys me,” she chuckles. “I appreciate it. How about this? If I become interested in one of the people giving me flowers, you’ll be the first to know. Deal?” she asks, thrusting her fist towards the two boys.
Naruto and Sasuke glance at each other before doing the same. “Deal.”
―――――❀❀❀―――――
It’s a bright, chilly spring morning. A bit odd with summer just around the corner. It’s been weeks since the start of the bouquet deliveries and so far, Sakura has received a grand total of 34, some even coming from outside the village. No one has approached her after the delivery, except for one man, a tokubetsu jonin from the Barrier Corps. Sakura had tried to get to know the man but between his lack of interest in her as a person rather than an idea, and his, quite frankly, unpleasantness, it was a no brainer for Sakura to reject him. If she did it with a little less pleasant than she should have…well, nobody will know.
“What’s got you so serious, Sacchan?” a voice calls out from behind her. Sakura turns from her position on the couch and looks at her older brother walking towards her with a plate of dango in one hand and a tray with a pot and cups on the other.
Sakura pouts before rushing to help him. “Tenzo-nii! Let me help!” she says as she takes the tray. Tenzo chuckles and ruffles her hair, releasing strands from her messy bun. Sakura leans into it, happy with the gesture of affection from the older male.
“So,” Tenzo begins as they settle into the couch. Sakura drapes a blanket over both of their legs. “Food for your thoughts?”
Sakura blows out stray hair from her face. “It’s just, it’s been kind of annoying with all these bouquet deliveries, y’know? And none of them have even bothered finding out my favorite flower!”
Tenzo nods and Sakura continues with her rant. “I mean, I’m super flattered that a lot of them think highly of me, but I feel like they don’t really like me for who I am as a person, y’know? Sure, they like Senju Sakura. They like the clan heir of the Senju. They like Sakura, the member of Team Seven. They like the medic, future head of the hospital. But they don’t like Sakura as just Sakura.”
“I get that. I had quite a few courtship attempts myself, after Tsunade-sama took me in.”
Sakura’s eyes widened at his words. “Really?”
Tenzo nods. “There were some from ANBU though we’ve never been teamed up. They were a lot more accepting whenever I rejected them. It was the shinobi from the regular ranks that were a bit more…well, disagreeing.”
“What?!”
Tenzo chuckles. “They were quick to surrender whenever they saw just how mismatched we were. And well, when Kakashi made his intentions known…,” he trails off, a light hint of red on his cheeks.
Sakura’s eyes widen with glee and she grins. Kakashi-sensei and Tenzo have been together for years now, after getting together the moment Team 7 got promoted to chunin. She can still remember how red Tenzo’s face turned when Kakashi-sensei knocked on their door, a pot with a sapling of an oak tree in it. Now, that sapling has turned into the biggest tree in their yard.
“Are you planning on getting married anytime soon?” Sakura asked. It’s been years since they got together and Kakashi-sensei, although no longer taking ANBU missions, also haven’t returned to being a jonin-sensei. Instead, he captained their team whenever he wasn’t on a solo mission and whenever they were teamed together (which was pretty often, now that Sakura thought about it.)
“Probably not anytime soon.”
“Aww.”
Tenzo laughs as he ruffles Sakura’s hair. “I’m so happy you have each other, Tenzo-nii. Kakashi-sensei’s so lucky he has you,” Sakura says. Tenzo wraps his arm around Sakura’s shoulder and pulls her closer. Sakura leans into him as Tenzo kisses her temple.
“Thank you, Sacchan. I hope you find your own happiness soon.”
―――――❀❀❀―――――
“Ugh,” Sakura scowls as she wipes the sweat off of her forehead. She glares at the stacks of paperwork on her desk. The quarterly reports for the hospital were due the following week and usually, Sakura would have no problem working through them, except today, of all days, the air conditioning of the administrative sector of the hospital broke down and wouldn’t be fixed until the end of the week. “I guess it’s a good thing the AC broke down here rather than in the main hospital building.”
Deciding to just get through her stacks of paperworks rather than pushing it back to later, Sakura fixes her hair so that none of it is sticking on her forehead and starts writing, tuning out all the noise around her.
A few hours later, a quiet knock breaks Sakura’s concentration. Blinking to clear her sight, Sakura looks out of the window and notices that the sun has set. “Come in,” Sakura says, her voice slightly rough from disuse.
The first thing Sakura sees when the door opens was the huge bouquet of cosmos, wrapped in the distinct ribbon Yamanaka Flowers used. The next thing she sees is a face she didn’t expect.
“...Itachi-san?”
“Sakura-san,” Itachi says softly and Sakura barely manages to push down the warmth threatening to rise to her face at the tone he used. He walks into the room and gently closes the door behind him, his hand firm around the bouquet. “I hope I’m not intruding.”
Sakura straightens. “Is something wrong?”
Itachi walks forward until he’s stopping in front of Sakura’s desk, bouquet still in hand. Sakura’s barely out of her chair when he speaks. “Senju Sakura-san, my name is Uchiha Itachi,” Itachi offers the bouquet to her. “I would like to express my intention to court you.”
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