Chapter Text
Sakura knew she was being watched. That much was obvious. The two Uchiha that had tried to genjutsu her into forgetting their interaction have been keeping an eye on her since she saw them for a second time at the academy. Obviously, she had messed up somewhere and they somehow knew her memory hadn’t been whiped as they had intended. There wasn’t much she could do about that though. Playing dumb and sticking close to Shikamaru has worked as a deterrent for the two Uchiha so far, but it also meant that she couldn’t get in any extra training on her own, because of the risk that the Uchiha could be waiting at her usual, abandoned, training ground. Which means that more often than not, when she had to leave Shikamaru’s side, Sakura was stuck cooped up in her room.
It wasn’t all bad as it meant that Sakura got to spend more time reading through her textbooks and attempting to figure out how the technique that had failed and injured something was supposed to be done. The ones on fuinjustsu were by far the most confusing. In fact, Sakura had spent far too long just trying to figure out what type of jutsu had created the chakra burns described in the text before stumbling across a singular mention of an overloaded seal and finally figuring out that the cause had been fuinjustsu. Sadly there weren’t any books on fuinjustu available to the civilian population, only the vague knowledge of their existence.
Sighing, Sakura collapsed backwards onto her bed. She would much rather be doing something physical right now, and not stuck in her room until tomorrow but there wasn’t anything to be done about that. Hopefully tomorrow's classes are more physically intensive then the memorisation and strategy games they had been taught today, but knowing her luck, it was unlikely. At least Shikamaru said that she could come over to the Nara compound tomorrow.
“Sakura-chan!” Her mom called through the door. Not bothering to knock as she pushed the door open rather immediately after announcing her presence.
“Okasan?” Sakura offered in return. Head tilting to the side in a silent question.
“Your paperwork finally got approved so we shall be heading to the capital the day after tomorrow.” Her mom explained vaguely. “Make sure to pack appropriately for a meeting with a few other merchant families! You never know who you will meet!”
“We’re going to the capital?” Sakura inquired with furrowed brows. “Wait- what paperwork?”
Mebuki turned her head to look back at her daughter as she blindly pulled out the dresses she had selected from Sakura’s closet.
“Yes, yes. We’re going to the capital for a guild meeting. And just some leave of absence paperwork with the academy. For some reason we couldn’t just pull you out, despite being your parents! How outrageous is that!” Mebuki huffed. “But they let us put you on temporary leave to fulfill family duties, so that will have to do for now.”
Sakura bolted upright, staring at her mom in complete shock.
“You tried to pull me out of the academy?!?” Sakura gasped.
“Of course we did.” Mebuki stated as she held up a dress against her daughter before adding it to the evergrowing pile. “Honestly, it’s ridiculous that they’re still making you attend! The Sato family got their second born son back from the academy after the first year of it. I don’t see why they wouldn’t give you back as not only are you a daughter, but also as the sole heiress of our family business.”
Sakura found herself speakless, opening her mouth to protest only for nothing to come out.
“Are you going to help your poor mother pack or are you going to make me do all the work for you?”
“Sorry, Okasan.” Sakura murmured, taking a dress from the pile to fold into the bag her mother had taken out for her to pack with.
Mebuki hummed dismissively as she moved onto hairpins and jewelry, carefully packing the ornament in their proper cloth pouches so as to not allow them to rub against each other and cause scratches or other damage.
“Don’t worry Sakura-chan. We’ll get you out of that dreadful school for killers and into a respectable apprenticeship in no time. Who knows, maybe one of the merchant clans we’re meeting up with will have a son near your age? Hmm?” Mebuki teased, a smile slipping onto her lips as she caught her daughter staring, her cheeks burning bright red.
Packing didn’t take long after that. Her mother spent more time teasing about boys than anything else, and Sakura found herself wishing for the conversation to turn back into the nitpicking about her wardrobe choices it usually was before guild trips. Once she was all packed, her mom disappeared back down the hall, presumably to pack her own supplies or double check that she had everything, leaving Sakura all alone in her room once more. Burying her head in her pillows, Sakura screamed, long and drawn out before switching to punching the cotton stuffed fabric over and over again until she was too tired to continue. Flopping back down onto the bed, Sakura snuggled under the sheet with a frown pulling at her lips. For once she didn’t find herself all that excited for a trip to the capital.
Waking up the next day found Sakura dragging her feet to get ready. Her dad handed her a scroll with strict instructions to give it to her teacher as soon as she arrived at the academy. She obeyed with ease despite not wanting to after reading over the content of the scroll, but it wasn’t like not giving her teacher notice of her future absence would do anything. All of the proper paperwork had been filed with the administrative office already, so this was really more of a courtesy for her teacher than a necessity.
“Ohayou.” Sakura grumbled as she sank into the seat beside her best friend. Her tone earned a raised eyebrow from the Nara.
“Ohayou?” Shikamaru mimicked watching as the pink girl buried her face in her folded arms. An action not dissimilar to what Shikamaru usually does, but that’s the thing, it was usually Shikamaru who grumbled and slouched in the mornings as if being awake was an inconvenience. “Sakura-chan?”
“Hm?”
“...Are you alright?” Shikamaru asked in concern.
“Mmm- technically?” Sakura settled on. “My parents pulled me out of the academy.”
“What!?!” Shikamaru barked, drawing far more attention than needed. “What?” he repeated at a more reasonable volume.
“Aparently we’re going to the capital for a merchant guild meeting or something so they pulled me out for an unspecified amount of time- well, unspecified to me, they had to tell the academy instructors when to expect me back. Obviously.” Sakura explained, causing Shikamaru to relax slightly.
“Obviously.” The Nara echoed with a roll of his eyes, leaning forward on his own crossed arms so that his eyes were level with Sakura’s. “So you’ll be back?”
“Mhm. Apparently I haven’t been released from the academy’s list of genin hopefuls so my parents can’t pull me out of the academy for good without proper justification such as a physical or mental medical diagnosis or something along those lines.” Sakura explained.
“Ah.” Well that was something at least. If the academy instructors thought that Sakura had the potential to stay on as a genin hopeful then they thought that she could potentially be put in the jonin track or at least make it to chunin. That was good to know, just to reassure his mind that Sakura could still come over to train and hangout without a line being drawn to divide them as shinobi and civilian. Not that he wouldn’t make an effort to keep Sakura even if she was put back into the role of a civilian, but it would make everything about their friendship infidelity more difficult and create a bunch of social rules for them to follow. No it was better for them both if Sakura remained firmly in the category of shinobi hopeful. He’ll have to look into the laws regarding what qualified civilian borns to be removed from the academy besides the vague knowledge of being dismissed by the instructors and pulled out by family after meeting the qualifications to be removed.
“Can you still come over today?” Shikamaru asked, earning a tired smile from his friend before she nuzzled deeper into her arms for a nap. Apparently she really was planning to sleep through class today.
“I should be able to. My mom had me pack yesterday.” Sakura explained. Though her voice was slightly muffled by her arms and hard to hear. He was still able to understand her just fine. Probably due to her prim and proper articulation of words. A habit she picked up in the civilian world that will serve her well when she has to give reports later on.
Sighing, Shikamaru sat up, pulling out some parchment and a pen as the classroom door opened for the last time and the instructor walked in.
Taking notes was a pain, and something he mentally swears to never do again, but then he catches a glimpse of his exhausted friend who was sound asleep at her desk instead of taking her usual meticulous notes and has to resign himself to taking the occasion notes, especially with Sakura being removed from class for a bit. At least those calligraphy lessons that his mother made him do were useful for something. He’s well aware that his hands would have cramped up if he had to all of a sudden start writing down hours of lecture after never having done it, but he has done it before, in the sense of writing for hours, not in taking class notes. Actually, Shikamaru was pretty sure this was the first time he had ever taken notes. Even at home when he’s shadowing the medics, he usually just memorises the information.
Thankfully they move on from note taking and lectures to the physical aspect of learning and Shikamaru was once again free to laze around after waking Sakura up, and, okay, he can see what she means when she claims that his mannerisms after napping through class remind her of a cat.
“Are you planning to participate?” Shikamarua inquires as they walk side by side to the training field that was reserved for second years.
Sakura hummed as she chose a spot for them to begin their stretches.
“I should.” Sakura points out. “Who knows when I’ll get to train again.” She states with a frown.
“Do your accommodations in the capital not have anywhere for you to run though our usual exercises?” Shikamaru asked while attempting to fold himself in half as his hands were pulled forward over his legs by his friend.
“That’s the thing. I’m not quite sure.” Sakura huffs, and oh, yeah, that’s a pout. With her cheeks all puffed up like that and her bottom lip caught between her teeth. She definitely reminds him of the little critters that can be found in the forest. “The last few times my parents took me to the capital with them I didn’t have anything to do that would require a lot of space. I would just find a book and sit quietly in a corner while my parents networked with other merchants. Switch.”
“Thank kami.” Shikamaru groaned as he pulled back his hands until it was Sakura who was folded in half. She has better flexibility then him so he was able to pull her farther than she had been able to pull him. “If you want something small to do in case there isn’t any space I’m sure we can find something at home.”
“I don’t know.” Sakura mumbles as she breathes through the stretch. “There’s a chance that whatever I bring will be confiscated if it doesn’t look civilian since this is a networking thing for my parents so appearances are important.”
“Then we’ll find you something sufficiently civilian looking to do so you don’t fall too far behind.” Shikamaru states with a shrug as he releases Sakura from her stretch and they move onto the next part of their warm up. “You’ll need to recondition yourself when you get back from being stationary for so long but if we can find something for you to work on that either keeps you in the same range or slightly ahead of the class in some aspect then you should be fine.”
“Thank you, Shikamaru. It means a lot that you care.” Sakura whispered as a call to attention had them ditching their spot to line up for sparring matches.
Shikamaru hummed, bumping his shoulder to hers as they watched the first round of spars commence.