The Starting of the Lotus Legend

22- Going to the Sand village

Flashback...

3rd Hokage's POV:

I was drowning in paperwork and there's no end! How does Minato do this?! Every time I visit him in the office, there's no demons called paperwork on his desk! Later on I went to visit Himeko to see how she was faring against paperwork and how she was doing as the head of the hospital. I was about to knock on the door to see her sipping on tea with a scroll in her hands through the little window. Then I see no paperwork on her desk at all! Does she not have any paperwork? Or did she finish them all?

"Uehara-san, is there anymore paperwork to do?" she asked. Her assistant, Uehara shook her head. "Alright, you're free to do whatever you want as long as you tell me if there's anything going on." Uehara nodded and out of the office. She bowed to me immediately while I waved her off before I went inside the office. She looked up to me and said, "Greetings Lord Hokage" while lowering her head a little. "May I ask why you're here?" she asked while looking up at me from her seat.

"I'm here to see how you're doing as the head of the hospital, seems like you're doing well." I smiled before continuing, "But I must ask..." while looking into her eyes. She rolled her scroll up and returned the look, sensing that what I'm about to say is serious and it is serious.

"How do you finish paperwork so fast?" Her face dropped from a serious look to a blank one that asked, 'Are-you-serious?' She blinked before opening her mouth. This is my chance to know the secrets to finishing paperwork!! I must use this chance to implant the secrets into my brain!

"It's a secret, Lord Hokage."

My face dropped while I fell backward, not expecting this answer. I can tell she was secretly laughing at me and she knew I could tell since she was being so shameless and obvious about it! I'll teach her!

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Seraphina's POV:

And... that's how I became one of the proctors for the chunin exam. Hooray. I hate this. On the bright side, Itachi and Shisui are also one of the proctors! At least I'll have someone to talk to! I packed some clothes, kunais, senbon needles, some bentos, snacks, a pillow and a dozen of scrolls. I walked towards the gates with Seviper-chan and Cindrix-chan on my shoulders where some genins, some jonins and anbu were waiting.

We waited until the rest of the genins arrived and headed out. The chunin exams were going to be held in the sand village which meant that it's going to be so hot since the village is in a desert. We were leaping from tree to tree when I sensed some chakra signatures about 250 meters away. "I sense about 10 people coming, 250 meters away," I announced, everyone was on guard immediately. "They'll here in about 3 seconds." I said.

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They appeared in front of all of us and surrounded us from all sides. They all fired a jutsu towards us while I quickly weaved some hand signs. "Ice style: Dome of the Arctic," I said while keeping everyone close to me. An ice sphere encased us all, protecting everyone from the jutsus while I weaved more hand signs, "Ice style: Glaciers' Meadow" and stomped on the ground. From under the soles of my heels, ice came, spreading across the field with an ice meadow growing and spread out in a 500 meter radius. This resulted with many of the ninjas outside the dome to slip while I used that opportunity to use Freezing Confinement. This froze half the ninjas in place before my dome shattered but the jounin and anbu were ready to take care of the rest while I stayed back to protect the genin.

Shortly after, all the intruders were tied up for questioning while I sat down, unsealing some mochi and started eating them while the others watched me. They were clearly hungry so I asked, "Want some?" while holding up another box of mochi. They all nodded immediately while I gave them all a piece. Their eyes lit up immediately, it's like watching cats play with toys for the first time. I silently giggled at the thought while imagining cat ears on their heads. We all decided to rest for the night while the 3 of us stayed up to watch over the others and those 3 were me, Itachi, and Shisui. 

"Himeko-chan, why aren't you sleeping? You're still a child!" Shisui whisper shouted while we all stood on the tree trunks, leaning against the tree. 

"I'm not sleepy also, I'm considered an adult now since I'm a shinobi, jounin rank as well." I responded while petting Cindrix-chan. 

Shisui was about to say something but Itachi stomped on his foot to get him to shut up before turning to me. "How's Sasuke's training?" he asked.

"Not too bad, we're going over katas and taijutsu. During the past month, I've been teaching him the basics of chakra control, chakra training exercises and some basic lightning jutsus." I replied, "I must say, he's a pretty fast learner. He's very determined to become as strong as you." I said while looking at Itachi where he had a smile on his face.

"He really looks up to you, Itachi," Shisui remarked while grinning at him and turned to me. "We don't even see you anymore due to your duties as the head of the hospital, you should come to the compound more often!" 

"I come during Wednesdays and Thursdays, I have no work on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Once I finish perfecting my special clone then I'll be free from dealing with patients personally so do expect to see me more often in the future." I gave a closed eye smile while not realizing that they might or might not have blushed at the sight. They quickly squashed down the blush and quickly returned to their normal demeanors.

We chatted for a bit longer until Shisui popped in a question for me. "Himeko-chan?" I hummed in response to let him know he had my attention, I watched him inhale and exhale deeply before asking. "Do you like anyone?" 

My eyes widened and without realizing I was blushing. Do I like anyone? I...

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I shook my head while calming myself down immediately, "I don't think so... in all honesty, I haven't had many time to myself to think about it so it never came up in my mind." I observed their reactions to see none. Dammit! Anbus just had to be trained to keep a emotionless facade! They obviously care for me as a friend, hell, they let their guards down when I first met them but why do they have those faces up now? 

Do they perhaps... like me? Yeah, no. I'm not that close with them. I've only been to the Uchiha district for a few times and those times were only to train Sasuke. During those times, they're both busy due to their anbu duties. So we've never hang out or spend time together. So what could the reason be? I didn't bother to ask why since I'll get a vague answer that won't help at all.

Of course, I didn't expect to be correct. Did I become dense? Perhaps, I'm not sure myself! But that's another person added to the harem and it'll only just grow bigger and bigger.

After a few hours, the sun rised. We all continued our trip to the sand village while both boys subtly glanced at me ever once in a while in which I ignored.

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