Twiceborn: Second Bloom | Alternate

Chapter Seventeen: Academy Tests

Sakura swallowed audibly, ignoring the glance it earnt her from the chunin next to her as she stared at the door to the office. It was a plain door – professional, and the large silver plaque across it proclaimed 'Senju Tobirama'. His office. The same one she'd been called up to all of a sudden. She lifted her hand, knocking loudly, the set of three knocks seeming to echo in the silence that fell for a few moments.

"You can come in, Sakura-chan," Tobirama called, and the chunin at her side vanished back to wherever they were supposed to be.

Dimly she wondered how Tobirama had known it was her, but then her brain decided to start working again. Sensor, duh. She wet her lips, praying none of her secrets had been unearthed as she opened the door, the handle awfully high up for her short five-year-old self. The damned chunin hadn't even bothered to help before buggering off, and Tobirama was no doubt sitting on his comfy office chair. Scowling, she wrenched the door open, pulling it to when she entered. His office was surprisingly neat, considering how much of everything there was. Scrolls full of jutsu – blank scrolls for more jutsu notes, all lining up a bookshelf spanning one side of the long office. It was more a rectangular shape than anything else, the paint alternating on each wall between a clinical white and a deep dark blue. Like the depths of the ocean, or maybe a slightly bluer midnight sky.

"Take a seat," Tobirama ordered, tapping on the—Sakura blinked. He had a hospital bed and a miniature medical station set up in the corner of his office. Blindly, she stumbled forwards, taking a seat where he'd indicated. Her glare was firm and fixed, her frown only growing when she realised exactly what was going on as he held up a pair of medical scissors. Her stitches were coming out. "This won't take long."

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course it wouldn't. She'd done the same procedure many a times. Sighing, she pulled off her hoodie and shirt, revealing the bandages underneath, uncaring as the Senju unwrapped them. He was a medic, as was she, so nudity didn't faze either of them. Plus she was tiny, and there wasn't anything she needed to hide, unfortunately. She pouted, staring at the wall as she felt the gentle tugging sensation in her shoulder.

"I'm glad to see you've been following orders," he said, seated behind her as he worked. "Even if you have been exercising at home a little more than you should."

Her eye twitched. "Stalker," she grumbled.

"Hardly," he muttered. "I'm just making sure idiotic little brats don't go making their injuries worse. Izuna's been helping too, the idiot."

"Goodie?"

"You should be fine to head back to those morning exercises you do, but please ensure you're getting enough sleep." He peered at her, and Sakura finally blinked in surprise. He wore reading glasses? "You look pale enough as it is... though you should be having your physical soon and that will tell us if there's anything wrong."

Sakura blanched. Since when were physicals a thing? She'd only had one or two in her later years, and more often than not they'd been optional. She blinked, staring at the white-haired Senju. Surely any signs of her cough wouldn't be too noticeable, right?

"Physicals aren't anything to be scared of," Tobirama said, staring levelly at her, hands radiating medical chakra as the last of her stitches was removed.

She glared at him mulishly. "I'm not scared. Hn." She looked away from him, staring at his ridiculously large bookshelf. There probably wasn't a single book he didn't own on jutsu theory. In fact, Sakura was fairly certain he'd written most of them. She'd read plenty of his works in her last life, and they'd been great. Super informative. As if he was teaching it to her in person. Never would she have thought there might be an opportunity for him to teach her in person. He was in charge of the academy. She only prayed he wouldn't be doing any physicals himself. Knowing him, he'd be horribly thorough, and Sakura had secrets that he had no place to be uncovering so soon.