Otokage

May

Day 3

Haruno Sakura was shorter than he expected her to be. And younger. Kisame had thought that if she was someone Orochimaru chose to take his place, she'd be someone just as creepy and intimidating as the snake proved himself to be. But he was proved completely wrong, severely, when he first met her face to face.

She was a young woman whose height barely brushed the top of his shoulders, her eyes were bright green, and her absurdly colored hair was cut short to just about to brush against her chin. Sakura first welcomed him with a wide grin and a firm handshake before she had to report to the hospital for some sort of business, and Kisame was left floored at her friendliness and the contrasting image of his expectations that he sought her out two days later, determined to figure out what Orochimaru could have seen in her.

The first place he decided to look for her, of course, was at her office. As he walked down the hall to get there, he passed by an orange haired kunoichi.

"If you're looking for Sakura-sama, she's not in at the moment," she said. Kisame turned around.

"Oh. Where is she, then?"

She motioned him over to the window and pointed to an area just outside the village. "Sakura-sama trains there once every two weeks. Careful where you step, though. If she's practicing taijutsu, you might fall into one of the fissures in the ground."

His face scrunched up in confusion. Fissures?

::

Yeah. Fissures.

The moment he stepped onto the training grounds, he saw that craters, split earth, and broken trees littered every square foot of the place. Kisame whistled, impressed at the level of damage the young leader could inflict. With only taijutsu, nonetheless. When he journeyed further, he saw that her taijutsu wasn't the only impressive thing about her.

Sakura was in the midst of the destruction performing one-armed push ups with Kabuto sitting cross-legged on a towel on her back. Sweat drenched every part he could see of her and even flowed down her chin a great deal, creating a small puddle beneath her face. Her muscles rippled with every dip.

"You also have a meeting with Shizuka-sama in Nadeshiko Village next week," Kabuto said, staring down at his little notebook. "You'll need to select someone to go with you. Shall I list available ANBU?"

"No... I can... look myself... la... ter... What... number am I... on?"

"One hundred fifty-two. Four hundred forty-eight more on your left arm and you'll be finished," he informed. Sakura sighed, but didn't complain. She raised her eyes to the side and saw Kisame making his way over.

"Hoshi... gaki-san... what can I... do for you?"

Kabuto cut him off before he could reply. "Hoshigaki-san, how much do you weigh?" he asked. Sakura groaned while Kisame merely raised an eyebrow.

"...Around eighty-three kg, I think."

"How wonderful, Sakura-sama," he mused as he stood up. "You can gain an additional eighteen kg for your training. Now Hoshigaki-san, please sit on her."

"You sound like an idiot," she grumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Kisame came up to her and awkwardly positioned himself to sit cross-legged on her back. Kabuto sat down beside them as he continued to read off Sakura's schedule and inform her of any problem or changes that may have arisen. Kisame kept quiet the entire time, mostly drawn into his own thoughts. He could see why the people liked her so much. She didn't seem careless at all and made decisions based purely on the people's and village's benefit rather than her own. She wasn't half bad. Really.