"Hmm," Yumika mused while she flipped through her book. She was reading a manual on how to teach genin, which Kakashi had lent to her. "Sakura!"
"What?!" Sakura called out confused.
"Ah..sorry. I'm not used to the whole Sensei thing.." Yumika held her forehead in her palm. "Nevermind...focus!"
Sakura closed her eyes and pressed her hands together, trying to concentrate hard. "CHAAA!"
Sakura finally gave in, collapsing to her knees. She had been training on controlling her Chakra for over two hours already and she was already exhausted. Yumika hurried towards Sakura, holding up her head in her lap.
Sakura was breathing very hard. "H..how did I do, Yumika Sensei?"
Yumika pressed her hand against Sakura's beating chest. She closed her eyes. "Sakura...I can sense that you are out of focus. Care to talk about it?"
Sakura sat up shakily, as she wiped her mouth. "No, i-it's n-nothing. I'm fine."
"You can tell me anything..." Yumika repeated, remembering the section in her manual that encouraged making a close bond with the student.
"Alright!" Sakura sighed. "It's just that...Sasuke thinks I'm useless! Whenever I ask for his help, he never comes! He always ignores me! How am I supposed to express my feelings if he doesn't even notice me! It's like he doesn't even know I exist! It's just not fair!"
Yumika pursed her lips as she looked down at the girl. She didn't know her training would turn into a therapy session.
"Was this holding you back from your training?"
Sakura nodded while taking a shaky breath.
"Well, you can take this as a challenge for yourself," Yumika said. "you can use this thought to make you stronger so you can overpower the ones who looked down at you before."
"And protect the ones I love? Even Sasuke?"
Yumika nodded, encouragingly.
"I g-guess you're right..." Sakura gave a small smile, but then frowned, "Can I call you Yumi-Sensei instead?"
Yumika felt her cheeks heat up when Sakura said 'Yumi', remembering that Kakashi called her that too.
"Mm, sure thing.." She smiled. "Now, I'll go take you out for some food, alright?" She stood up, helping Sakura to her feet as well. "And we can talk more about your 'love life', because now you definitely got me interested."
Sakura gave a small giggle, as they walked off back into the village.
~~~
"What would you like to have?" Yumika asked, looking at the girl from the top of her menu.
"Uhm, Sensei..." she said awkwardly. "I'm kinda on this new diet...so I---!"
"Diet?" Yumika said, knitting her eyebrows.
Sakura didn't respond.
"How about you forget about that diet, hm?"
"Ermm...oh, alright. Could I have number three and four, with a rice ball! Hmm, make that two rice balls!"
Yumika smiled, as she repeated the order to the waiter, who happily obliged. He returned back to their table with the steaming hot food, and the two started their meals.
"Sorry about today, being a teacher isn't my thing," Yumika spoke first.
"It's alright, you did okay for a newbie anyways!" Sakura replied happily, but suddenly frowned, "So..where exactly did you come from? What are you?"
"Well, I'm actually from Kirigakure, but lived here for some time in my childhood. My mother lived there while my father lived here, yeah.." she started. "And uh..instead of becoming a jonin right away like the others, I became a Hunter-Nin.."
Sakura's eyes widened, "That's horrible! Why would you do that?"
"I didn't really have much of a choice then. My mother was going out of business and needed money. A portion of my savings still goes to her till this day..." Yumika ended off. "Well, that's about it. Now tell me about your life!"
"Um, are you sure? We can talk about--!"
"I wouldn't want to bore you." she smiled. "Please, talk."
Sakura seemed confused for a moment but then smiled as she filled in Yumika about her story with Sasuke and her friendship with Ino.
"I mean, she and I used to be the best of friends...no wonder she also fell for Sasuke!" Sakura said after gulping down her mouthful of soup.
"Have you even seen him? He's soo handsome! But, he acts so calmly and cool, so I can't tell for sure if he has feelings for anybody. His raven colored hair, his dark eyes: he's just too dreamy! I'm so lucky to have him on my team! And get this: I heard he likes girls with long hair, and so I grew my hair long too! The only girl who's kept her hair short is Hinata, because she wants to make sure that Naruto knows she doesn't like Sasuke. It makes sense since she likes him."
"That is adorable."
"I know, right! Ugh, but the blind idiot can't tell how in love she is... Boys can be so dumb."
"Agreed." Yumika laughed; the two were growing a bit of a bond, considering that they only met properly a few hours ago.
The sun began to sink when the two of them left the shop.
Sakura bowed in front of Yumika. "I'd like to thank you for the meal, Yumi Sensei!"
"You're welcome, Sakura." Yumika smiled. "I enjoyed this day with you, but remember that I went easy on you today. Tomorrow I have higher expectations from you, alright?" She looked down and rubbed her chin, "I think that's what teachers do..right?"
"Yup! You can count on...!" Sakura started when she collapsed to the ground.
"H-hey!" Yumika reached forwards, grabbing Sakura into her arms. "Sakura!"
----
A/N: Just to clarify, Sakura still gets trained by Tsunade in this story and stuff. So Yumika's training happens before Sakura becomes Tsunade's disciple. dw dw B)
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