Chapter 11 || Progress

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Dear Sakura-san,

I'm sorry that it took me so long to get in touch – Mei-sama has decided that I should try my hand at the next Jounin Exams so I've been training for that for the last couple of months. Nevertheless, I hope to find you well. I am pleased to announce that I can already see improvements after Konoha merchants were allowed on our land, so I'd like to thank you for this as well. How have you been since leaving Kiri? Is your guardian well?

Please find enclosed the official emblem of our Village, which will indicate that you are an Ambassador. Mei-sama was going to send it to your Hokage but I requested to send it to you personally. I hope you don't mind.

P.S. I expect that this letter will reach you around the time of your birthday, in which case I would like to wish you a very happy birthday and I hope that you enjoy the gift attached.

I hope to see you again soon,

Yours,

Chōjūrō

Sakura stared at the letter for a few more seconds as the tears that threatened to fall stung her eyes. She handed the letter over to Genma who had been looking curiously over her shoulder as she shuffled through the other contents of the envelope. True to Choujuro's word, underneath the Kirigakure insignia she found a small drawstring bag and a rolled up piece of paper poking out of it.

She shook out the contents of the bag onto her hand and was surprised to find an intricate headdress, with delicate silver bells and thin threads which formed a net that connected it all to a small hair clip. It was truly a wonderful piece of jewellery but Sakura wondered what the bluenette was thinking of, gifting something so beautiful and fragile to kunoichi. Curiously, she unrolled the piece of paper attached to the gift and couldn't stop the amused chuckle that escaped her.

I realize this may be seen as a stereotypical gift, or largely impractical for a shinobi, which is why I wrote this as well: the bells will not ring unless you touch them and channel chakra into the metal, in which case they will produce a low-rank auditory genjutsu. I tried to find a compromise between beauty and usefulness. I hope you like what I came up with.

Sakura smiled, unable to believe how thoughtful her friend was. She turned to Genma, an excited grin on her face, only to see that he was scowling at the letter.

"Genma? You alright?" she asked carefully, snapping him out of his daze.

"I don't like you interacting with a boy, not from Konoha." The tokujo announced, startling the rosette so much she snorted. Genma glared at her for the reaction then his scowl deepened. "Actually, I don't like you interacting with any boy at all."

The absurdity of the declaration made Sakura blink owlishly at the man, then burst out laughing. It took Genma a moment but then the reality of what he'd just said caught up to him and he flushed a bright red, covering his face in embarrassment. "Oh, Kami, Aoba was right I'm turning into an actual mother what the fuck." He moaned, which only served to send the rosette into a renewed laughing fit.

With tears coming out of her eyes and her cheeks flushed a bright pink from her laughter, Sakura calmed down enough to pat his arm reassuringly and grin cheekily.

"I have yet to meet this 'Aoba' you're talking about, but if I ever do I assure you, he'll be the first to know about this incident." She giggled, snorting when Genma shot her a baleful glare through the spaces between his fingers. "Oh, quit your pity party, I've got a job for you, c'mon." She dragged the brunet over to the sofa and sat him down, then disappeared into her bedroom. She came out with a brush and her hair free of its usual ponytail, then sat down on the floor in front of Genma and held out the brush and the hairpin from Choujuro. "Make yourself useful and put this in for me please?"

She felt Genma hesitate. When he took the brush from her, his fingers were unsure, gentle. "Are you sure?" he murmured, and Sakura felt completely reassured that she made the right decision.

"Yeah," she replied quietly, and then, because their relationship wasn't their workout some snark, she added, "it's been forever since someone brushed my hair for me, I'm bored of doing it myself."

And Genma chuckled quietly but obligingly set to combing out the kinks in her hair. Sakura closed her eyes, allowing herself to enjoy this rare commodity; she couldn't remember when the last time she'd experienced it had been. Logically, she knew it was back when her parents had been alive, but it must've been even before her Academy Graduation. She pried her eyes open when she felt a familiar tugging at the side of her scalp. "Genma, are you... braiding my hair?" she asked incredulously, trying to twist round to look him in the eye.

The tokujo urged her still, then sighed. "Sorry, I should've asked. I thought you'd fallen asleep is all." He explained, and even without seeing him, Sakura knew he'd shrugged.

"No, no, it's not that. I was merely surprised you knew how to braid hair." She replied teasingly, and was wholly unprepared when the brunet snorted and shot back;

"Would you believe me if I said I once had longer hair than now?"

Sakura tried to imagine it, but she couldn't muster a response more coherent than, "What."

Luckily, Genma didn't begrudge her poor imagination and merely laughed. "I lost a bet when I was around seventeen, and obviously I was too damn cocky to forfeit it. So, I ended up growing my hair out for six months. Had it down to the top of my shoulder blades before Rai took mercy on me." He lightly tugged at her hair. "I still dunno how kunoichi manages it. Long hair is a pain in the ass for a ninja."

Sakura shrugged, but there was a grin on her face. "Back at the Academy, Ino used to swing her ponytail and smack people in the face with it. It was quite fun to watch." She divulged, and they lapsed into momentary silence before they both burst out laughing at the mental image.

"Alright, alright, stop distracting me, I gotta finish this." Genma grouched and went back to work. A few minutes later, he let out a satisfied sigh and clapped. "There you go." Curious, Sakura was about to run a hand through her hair to get a feel for her new hairstyle, but Genma tutted. "No touching! I'm not redoing it!"

The rosette shot him an annoyed glare but obligingly got up in search of a mirror. She had to admit, Genma wasn't half bad; he'd separated her bangs down the middle and platted them loosely with the hair at the side, giving the braids an appearance of a crown. He'd then gathered the rest into her usual ponytail and gently pushed the hairpin under the base of the ponytail, letting the bells cascade down to her shoulder blades though managing to largely hide them from view.

Sakura had to admit, she was impressed.

And then, she just couldn't resist. "Now all you need is an apron and you'll be a perfect kaa-san!" she called back into the lounge teasingly, then shrieked as one of the couch cushions smacked into the wall just above her head. "Sofa cushions aren't throwing weapons, damn it!" she screeched, then peaked into the lounge when it went suspiciously silent.

"Put that kunai down or I swear to god-!"

Dear Chōjūrō-kun,

Don't worry about the delay! I've been busy as well so I don't mind! J And wow, jounin exams! That's incredible! You're amazingly talented so I'm sure you will do just fine.

I've been good! I've had to do a month of D-Ranks as punishment by Tsunade-sama, but against all odds, it was beneficial. I'm so so glad you're already seeing improvements; that shows the treaty is working, right? I wonder when we'll be able to see something here. Mei-sama did mention something about a graduate exchange program while we were there, or did I make that up?

My guardian was the reason I got the month of D-Ranks, but that's a story for another time. I officially live with him now! Yay~! (I'm looking into selling my old parents' house right now – did you know how many stupid forms I have to fill out?)

Of course, I don't mind you sending me the headband – if anything, I'm flattered. That brings me to my question – are you going to be an Ambassador to Konoha, or where you really just our escort? If you are, did you get your Konoha headband already? I'd feel a bit cheated if you did – I wanted to send you yours with a present as well.

That brings me to your present! I honestly cannot thank you enough! It's beautiful and practical, and I can't stop playing with the bells; I have yet to test the genjutsu, but you'll be the first to know when I do. (it got to me a week before my birthday – thank you for the wishes though!)

As I was writing this I realized that I don't know when your birthday is. Or what your favourite food is. Somehow, that seemed like a gaping hole in my knowledge, so enlighten me, pretty please?

I hope you're well,

Sakura

When Sakura made her way over to the hospital the next morning, a spring in her step, notebook under her arm and a happy smile on her face, she was not expecting to be met outside by the Godaime's assistant.

"It's good to see you again, Sakura-san, especially now that we're in far less pressing circumstances." Shizune greeted and offered her a friendly smile, which Sakura could not help reciprocating.

"I couldn't agree more," she replied, walking over to stand next to the brunette. "Thank you for coming to meet me, I was worried I'd get hopelessly lost," she added jokingly and decided not to mention how that had been one of her genuine concerns the previous night.

Shizune merely laughed. "It was per Tsunade-sama's instruction. She wants to conduct a 'quick quiz' I believe she called it before you get started."

Sakura paled. "Quiz? But I haven't even started learning yet!" she exclaimed, but Shizune merely shot her a sympathetic smile.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-san, even I don't know what she has planned."

It turned out that what Tsunade had planned was an on-the-spot test of Sakura's existing medical knowledge. A test was conducted by Tsunade herself.

"If you've got a patient who's bleeding out the chest and head, which do you stop first?"

"I don't know, Tsunade-sama," Sakura responded meekly.

"Guess!" the blonde barked.

"Uh, the head? That seems more dangerous."

"Wrong! What good is a healed external head wound if your patient has just drowned in their blood?"

"What's a more dangerous break for an active shinobi – the patella or the lumbar vertebrae?"

"I don't know."

"Who do you treat first – a burn victim or a near-drowning victim?"

"I don't know."

And so it went on and on for about five minutes. Every once in a while, Sakura would try to work out an answer, or she'd recall something from the Academy and answer correctly, but for the most part, the rosette was getting progressively more frustrated while Tsunade was all the smugger. Until-

"If your patient isn't breathing, but there's nothing wrong with his lungs, what do you need to focus on?"

"Their brain," Sakura replied, mind going back to the medical texts she'd devoured just after Wave when she was working out how to better cast her illusions.

Tsunade seemed surprised, but she masked it quickly. "And what part?"

"The brain stem." The rosette recalled, confidence surging. "The medulla, in particular, I believe."

Tsunade blinked slowly. "Correct." She mumbled, her eyes narrowing. "And if you've fixed up every wound, but they're slurring their words?"

"Stimulate the temporal lobe."

"A patient came to you from the battlefield. You've patched him up, sent him off home for rest and given him a week to report back. He comes back a completely different person, and shows evidence of impaired judgement and substance abuse. What did you miss?"

Sakura paused, then stared at her Hokage incredulously. Mood-swings. She's asking about the cause of mood swings. "There's probably damage to the frontal lobe. In that case... unseen blunt force trauma to the head?"

Slowly, Tsunade nodded. And then, the questions resumed.

When they were finally done, Sakura was very tempted to hang her head and forget about being a med-nin, she felt so embarrassed. But then, Tsunade walked up to her and lightly patted her head.

"Not bad, kid." She declared with a smirk, and Sakura shot her an incredulous look, at which she scowled. "Don't give me that look! You owned up when you didn't know something instead of trying to bullshit an answer, you got a couple of basic ones right and you aced the part about the brain. Which is curious, 'cause most greenies get it the other way round – ace the physical, visible problems and cures and completely flunk the part about the brain." in Sakura's mind, that was code for 'what makes you different?'

She shrugged, uncomfortable with the attention. "I'm a genjutsu-type. I read about the brain when I was first looking into illusions. Guess that some of what I read stayed with me."

Tsunade gave her a measuring look, then smirked. "In any case, here's a reading list." She handed Sakura a list of books and scrolls with over thirty titles on them. "I expect you to be ready for a pop quiz by the end of the month. Then I'll give you the next one."

This is... insane.

"Now kid, are you ready for the real deal?"

Sakura went home that day smelling of fish guts and frustrated as all hell. She didn't even get to work with medical chakra! Tsunade had just pawned her off on a nurse and told her to 'observe and do chakra exercises'. The nurse took mercy on her after about an hour, when she saw Sakura essentially fly through the exercises and set her on the basics of a chakra scalpel.

Needless to say, the rosette had struggled, but according to the Shimizu-san, she was making good progress.

And so a week went by, mornings spent in the hospital while late afternoons were spent poring over medical texts, and the evenings with Genma in what had become 'their' time. By the end of the week, Sakura hadn't felt like she'd made much progress – Tsunade had stopped her work on the chakra scalpel and got her started on trying to summon medical chakra. While by the sixth day Sakura's hand had the right shade of green chakra around it, the moment she'd let her hand hover over the fish she'd been tasked with operating on, steam rose and the fish stopped moving, dead, its internal organs boiled. Sakura had been stumped while Tsunade amused; the blonde then proceeded to lecture her on the importance of modulating chakra to the body temperature of the organism she was working on, as well as trying to sync up the 'wavelengths' of her chakra to that of her patient's system, or else she'd do more harm than good, as demonstrated with the fish. Tsunade then revealed that this was what took medics the longest time to learn and was precisely why nothing short of perfect chakra control was required if one wanted to become a successful med-nin. Most people weren't even aware that their chakra ran on a wavelength, much less knew how to manipulate it. Feeling dejected and only just realizing that the six months she'd set herself might have been idiotically optimistic, Sakura had nodded and promised to carry on with her reading to hopefully augment her practical work.

Then, on the seventh day, Tsunade had grinned.

"You get tomorrow off – happy birthday, brat."

The morning of her thirteenth birthday dawned quietly. Sakura crawled out of bed, as usual, only to snap awake at a familiar sweet smell coming from the kitchen. She stumbled out into the lounge and peered into the room, a smile growing on her face at the scene that greeted her: Genma was standing by the stove which was splattered with pancake batter, still in his pyjamas and with a navy apron tied around his waist, hair pulled back with an elastic band, signature bandana absent. The entire scene was domestic and Sakura could feel her smile grow.

"Morning," Genma called, turning away from the stove to shoot her a cheerful grin and the rosette giggled when she noted that he had pancake batter on his forehead. "there's dango on the table for you." He told her, and Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Dango for breakfast?" she questioned curiously, and a look at the table showed her that, indeed, there was a stick of mitarashi dango on a plate, waiting for her.

Genma shrugged. "It's your birthday – you're allowed sweets for breakfast once a year." He teased and Sakura laughed.

"I don't think Tsunade-sama would agree." She replied, thinking about the woman's surprisingly strict attitude toward a proper diet.

This time, the tokujo shot her a mischievous grin. "What Tsunade-sama doesn't see doesn't hurt her." He said, then added, "Though I am glad that she gave you a day off. Makes it easier to do what I had planned."

At this, Sakura's other eyebrow rose to meet the first. "You had something planned?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah. I wasn't sure what to get you for a present so I decided that we'd just spend the day doing whatever you want. Though, we do that every day anyway." He added teasingly, but Sakura couldn't help feeling touched.

Then, an idea came to mind.

"I... I have an idea of what I would like from you." She admitted hesitantly, and Genma turned to her with a curious 'hm?' "It would be better if you stepped away from the stove though... it's- it's quite serious." The glance Genma shot her was wary, but he obediently flipped the last pancake and switched off the stove, pulling off the apron before he came to sit down on the sofa, twisting his head up to look Sakura in the eye.

"Go on?"

The rosette took a deep breath. "I have a question for you before I tell you about the thing." When the brunet nodded his acquiesce, she barrelled on. "What's going to happen to you now that Namiashi-san is on paternity leave?"

Genma looked surprised. "I, uh, I don't know, kid, what brought this on?" but when Sakura shot him a look, he frowned but tried to answer. "As far as I know, I'll still be sent on the missions I used to be sent on after the Yondaime- well. Before Radio became my partner." He amended quickly, and Sakura knew what that meant. "I'll probably deal with more high-profile targets now since I'm likely to get pulled back into ANBU as assassination is not the most popular branch of the shinobi arts, surprisingly. Why do you ask?"

But Sakura had to get something clear before she could answer. "So, more frequent, more dangerous assassination missions?" and at Genma's 'essentially, yeah' she sighed and bit her lip. "And... what would happen if you got a new partner?"

She knew she'd pushed too far when the brunet's eyes narrowed. Damn him and his intuition. "Kid, whatever you're sitting on, just come out and say it. This 'beating around the bush' deal you've got going on is making me nervous."

Sakura snorted at the statement then resigned herself to simply telling him what had been nagging at her.

"What if I became your partner?" she forced out quickly, knowing Genma had understood by the widening of his eyes, but she cut him off before he could say anything. "I mean, I know I'd have to become a jounin first, I've realized that, and I know that I'd have essentially no experience compared to you and I know that it's arrogant of me to even suggest it, but I just

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