All you need is love (Love Triangle)

Chapter 5

After a rather interesting lunch (she had to admit Gai was quite a storyteller, or rather a tall tale teller), Kaori returned to her desk. She thought little of the strange man in green but instead her thoughts dwelled on his eternal rival. 'How irritating it must be to have someone like Gai in your face all the time. I wonder how Kakashi can stand it. He must have the patience of a saint.' She added that to the growing list of Kakashi's superior attributes.

Kaori settled down to her stack of reports to update before her afternoon rounds. She was actually in a good mood for once. Tomorrow was her day off. She had her usual errands to run such as going to the market and paying her bills, but she actually had something else to look forward to - her reading sessions. It was not exactly like having a man in her life, but it was something she could talk about to her family whom she would have to see for dinner tomorrow. But then Otoha came back from wherever she was loitering (probably the men's locker room) with a sinister smile on her too red lips.

"So I hear you've been hanging with Gai-sensei," Otoha teased.

"What? Where did you hear that?" Kaori blushed furiously.

"Oh word gets around. I didn't think he was your type."

'Damn, it must be the cafeteria workers.' "He's not," Kaori stated coldly.

"He's not that bad. Nothing in the looks department but the body's solid and it's all done in the dark anyway. He looks like he could be fun." The buxom brunette was trying hard not to laugh.

"You can have him." With that Kaori abruptly stood up, grabbed her medical bag, and left for her afternoon rounds. She could hear giggles in the background.

'Damn! Now everyone's going to think Gai and I are involved. I'm going to kill her! Damn, wish I knew a lethal jutsu that can't be traced back to me.'

But then Kaori thought of how Lee and Gai were driven by their rivals. She decided that Otoha would not be her nemesis, her thorn in the side, but rather a rival. Not that she was much of one really. Otoha was not better in anything except attracting men. Why she could exceed her merely by getting breast implants.

With that thought Kaori decided to be each patient's favorite nurse and smiled extra brightly as she checked their monitors, took their temperature and blood pressure, and changed their bandages. She decided to furtively skip Lee for now and continued to Sasuke's room.

The pink haired girl was back and reading to her obsession. "Good afternoon Sakura-san," Kaori greeted. She noticed that Sakura had brought a yellow and white daffodil to place in the little hospital provided vase, just as she did during Sasuke's last stay.

Sakura smiled up at her. She also seemed to be in a better mood. After all, the sleeping Sasuke was the nicest he'd ever been to her and he was all hers now (Ino had to pull double shifts at the flower shop). "Good afternoon Kaori-san. Has there been any change?" she asked hopefully as Kaori checked the monitors.

Kaori shook her head. "Not really but...see this blip on the brainwave monitor? It looks like he's responding to your reading." Not exactly the truth but it couldn't hurt to make her feel better. Then Kaori had another thought.

"So I've been reading to your sensei. It's a romance book, the new one on the Konoha Times bestseller list, 'Gone with the Wind.' Is that the type of book he likes?"

Sakura turned a bit red. 'How could anyone in Konoha not know?' she wondered. "Er...not exactly. Umm...more like Icha Icha Violence."

'So it's true,' Kaori thought in disappointment. "So what kind of person is your sensei? Is he really a pervert? I mean has he ever...made any inappropriate moves on you that...didn't seem like it was part of a jutsu?"