Today, Sakura wasn't accompanying Naruto for his training. Since Jiraiya had taken over Naruto's training, she couldn't observe; after all, it wasn't really appropriate for an outsider to be present during the passing down of techniques between master and student, even if Jiraiya probably wouldn't mind.
Because Sakura had been eliminated, and her two teammates were participating in the third exam, her missions were temporarily suspended. This gave Sakura a rare month-long vacation.
"Morning, Auntie Misa!" Sakura greeted the owner of a small restaurant.
"Ah, Sakura... heh heh... What can I get for you today?" Misa, the restaurant owner, asked when she saw Sakura.
This restaurant wasn't far from Sakura's house. Because ninja activities required a huge amount of energy and were very taxing, and because Sakura was still growing, she'd been buying extra food here every morning after returning from training with Tsunade-sensei, even after eating the breakfast her mother made.
The restaurant had a truly extensive menu, offering all sorts of pastries and full meals. There were tables and chairs both inside and outside for customers to relax, and the service was exceptionally attentive.
"I'll take a cinnamon roll, Auntie Misa," Sakura told the owner. The cinnamon roll wasn't for her, of course. Today, Sakura was going to the hospital to visit Hinata. Although Sakura had healed Hinata the other day, Hinata's injuries were all internal, so she naturally needed a more thorough examination at the hospital.
Sakura had also learned from Hinata's teammates what Hinata liked to eat. Sakura had a lot of respect for Hinata's determination. If it were her, she probably wouldn't have pushed herself so hard just to avoid looking weak.
Leaving the restaurant, Sakura carried the cinnamon roll and turned into Ino's family flower shop. Since she was visiting someone in the hospital, it was only proper to bring a bouquet.
"Huh? Sakura!" Ino, also on a month-long break for the same reason, was a little surprised to see Sakura so early in the morning.
"Haha, morning, Ino!" Sakura greeted her. "I'm here to buy some flowers, for visiting someone in the hospital."
"Visiting someone?" Ino repeated to herself.
"Yeah, Hinata was injured in the preliminaries the other day, remember? I'm guessing her condition has stabilized by now, and I didn't have anything else to do today, so I thought I'd visit." Sakura explained.
"I see. What kind of flowers are you looking for?" Ino asked.
"Narcissus, I think." Sakura had noticed that narcissus were the most common flowers people brought for hospital visits, and since she didn't know much about flowers, she decided to follow the crowd.
"Narcissus, huh? That's quite fitting," Ino said as she began to arrange the bouquet.
"Ino, do you want to come with me to visit Hinata?" Sakura invited.
"I can't. I'm the only one at the shop today," Ino said, handing the finished bouquet to Sakura. "Give Hinata my best."
"I will, Ino." Sakura noticed that Ino seemed a little down, as if she had something on her mind, so she didn't press further. After paying, Sakura headed straight for the hospital.
Ino watched Sakura's retreating figure, feeling a little depressed. Among the genin who graduated in their year, even Hinata was stronger than her now. She'd always used Sakura as a goal, hoping to surpass her and catch Sasuke's attention. But the preliminaries had been a complete and utter blow. Ino had thought that even if she couldn't beat Sakura, the gap between them, as girls, shouldn't be that large, but... She needed to work harder. Ino silently cheered herself on.
Konoha Hospital
When Sakura arrived, she found the hospital quite crowded. There were not only injured from Konoha, but also ninja from other villages, all genin who had been eliminated in the second stage of the Chunin Exams.
That's right, only ten people were eliminated in the final, third round. It was impossible for those dozens of people in the Forest of Death to escape without any injuries. Now, the injured and the uninjured were all crammed into the hospital.
After asking for directions to Hinata's room, Sakura arrived with the pastries and flowers. There were already people in Hinata's room.
"Hi, Hinata!... You guys are really close, huh, Kiba, Shino." Sakura noticed that besides Kiba, who had been eliminated, Shino, who had made it to the finals, was also there.
"Oh, Sakura. You came to see Hinata?" Kiba greeted her.
"Yeah, I was a little worried about her." Sakura said, placing the narcissus in a vase and taking out the pastries. "Hinata, I brought your favorite cinnamon rolls."
"Th-Thank you, Sakura," Hinata said shyly.
"Haha, eat up! Are you feeling better?" Sakura made herself comfortable, plopping down on the edge of Hinata's bed.
"I'm much better," Hinata replied.
"Good. Let me check," Sakura said, her hands already coated in chakra as she reached for Hinata's chest.
Hinata didn't have time to react. Sakura's hand was already pressing against her chest, and her face instantly turned bright red.
"Sa...Sakura~~~" Hinata called out weakly, her face flushed.
"Hmm, you're recovering well. The injury to your heart is completely healed." Sakura's hand carefully sensed the condition of Hinata's heart. The heart injury was Hinata's most serious injury that day. Although Sakura's treatment had taken care of it, she wanted to check one more time.
Sakura didn't think there was anything wrong with her actions; she had simply reached out with the intention of examining her. But she suddenly felt Hinata's heart beating incredibly fast. Looking up at Hinata's increasingly red face, she realized her actions were incredibly inappropriate.
It seemed that even being groped by a girl would make someone shy, especially someone as inherently shy as Hinata.
"Haha, get plenty of rest. Don't train for a while," Sakura said with an awkward laugh, putting on a professional, doctor-like expression.
"O-Okay, thank you, Sakura," Hinata said, her face still red.
"Speaking of which, Shino, you made it to the finals, why are you relaxing here...? Shouldn't you be training hard?" Sakura changed the subject to Shino.
"Heh heh, Shino is really strong. I'm not even sure I could beat him," Kiba immediately chimed in, speaking up for Shino.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course you can't beat Shino. You can't even beat Naruto, how could you beat Shino?" To avoid any further awkwardness, Sakura started teasing Kiba again.
But unexpectedly, Hinata's face, which had just started to return to normal, turned red again upon hearing Naruto's name. She mustered her courage and asked, "Na...Naruto, is he training?"
"Yeah, you don't need to worry about him, Hinata." Sakura replied, seeing Hinata's concern about Naruto.
"I...I see...But...Na...Naruto is going to fight Neji-niisan... Neji-niisan is very strong..." Hinata said, her face full of worry. Clearly, Kiba and Shino had told her about the matchups for the third exam.
"Haha... It's okay, Hinata. Naruto is currently receiving training from a very powerful senior ninja from Konoha. He won't lose..." Sakura reassured her.
"I...I see..." Hinata still had a trace of nervousness on her face.
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