Chapter 6

Eventually, with a piece of stiff wire, she managed to pick open the lock on the back door and enter the empty structure. There had been a thick layer of dust on everything, showing that the house had remained untouched since its owner's leave-taking. Having never been inside the old house before, Sakura found herself drifting about the house, looking at the different things in the deserted rooms, but not laying a finger on anything.

It wasn't until that she found an old broom in the corner of the kitchen that she laid hands on any of Sasuke's belongings. Grabbing it slowly, she had begun to sweep out the thick layer of dusk from the kitchen.

'For when he comes back,' she had told herself silently, knowing that he would never return.

It was the broom that had started it—sweeping the kitchen had soon become sweeping out the whole house, and when she found an old rag hanging on the lip of a bucket, she proceeded to dust every shelf and object she found. When that task was finished, she washed all the dishes of dust, and cleaned out the cupboards, getting rid of the food that long since spoiled and sorting the non-perishables into canned and packaged groups. After that she came across the dusty sheets in the hall closet and promptly washed it all and even went as far as to remaking the beds.

After the whole house had been cleaned, Sakura hauled herself home and collapsed into her bed, exhausted. She had done it: she had cleaned the entire house. And it wasn't until she had fallen asleep yesterday night, that she had done the enormous chore for no one.

Kurenai hopped from tree to tree, making a rough perimeter around the area where she had left her two comrades lying around lazily. In all honesty, she couldn't believe them sometimes—sure they had completed their mission, but that gave them no reason to wander lazily back to Konoha, taking the time to smell the flowers along the way. Sometimes they reminded her of a couple of schoolboys.

Alighting neatly on a sturdy branch that was several feet above the ground, Kurenai surveyed the area. There was absolutely nothing to hint that there was a remote possibility that they'd be attacked by anything. Looking about she wondered dimly why she was even bothering—the setting was completely off for an attack, what with the sun shining brightly overhead, and the birds twittering cheerfully. Two butterflies had even fluttered by her while she scouted for an enemy that clearly didn't exist.

This was ridiculous; they should have just kept on going, Asuma's nicotine addiction or no.

Inhaling deeply in order to let out a heavy sigh, Kurenai caught the fragrances that hung in the air. There was a heavy scent of wildflowers, mixed with a splash of fresh green grass, containing the smell of new leaves on the trees. She paused in the middle of her sigh and simply smiled; how she enjoyed the season of spring—but unlike her two teammates, she was willing to ignore it until the mission was officially over.

About to leap into the air again, she halted briefly…they were still on break, and there was time left—there really was no point in continuing scouting, so she might as well do what Kakashi said: relax. If she had been made team leader, this never would have happened. Looking about the area again with her crimson orbs, she made sure they were not in any danger—though it was already obvious they weren't—before resting down on the branch, her legs dangling. She decided to let herself be pampered by the break, though she would never hear the end of it if she let Asuma and Kakashi find out.

Focusing the chakra in her nose like her pupil Kiba did, her sense of smell became enhanced, and she let the delicate scents wash over her like a perfume. It was the smell of spring and she marveled at the acuteness at which she could distinguish the smells. She was even able to pick out the names of a few individual based on the fragrances she smelled, and probably would have been able to name more if she had known what the flowers were called.

The cool breeze shifted slightly in direction and a new wave of smells washed over Kurenai—the smell of new leaves on the trees, a touch of moist earth, and faintly, the unmistakable smell of a flowering cherry tree. Slowly, a new odour wove its way into her chakra-enhanced nose—an unpleasant, metallic-like odour. It was so sharp in comparison to the other smells that she wondered why she had not noticed it earlier. A deep frown creased her brow, her crimson eyes narrowing. She knew that smell only too well. It was the stench of blood.

Sakura's night after the talk with Tsunade had been filled with nightmares from the Forest of Death during the chuunin exams. The next day, thankfully, had been entirely uneventful, allowing her tiredness not to interfere with any serious work that she would have maybe needed to tackle. Of the patients that came in that day to be seen, Sakura had only healed the scraped knee of a little boy, dealt with a sprained ankle and helped an old lady who had fallen and fractured her hip. As Sakura trudged home from the hospital she felt hardly tired. Her chakra hadn't even come close to running low, and she then understood the feeling that Naruto felt when was given a 'lame' mission to work on.

.

.

.

If you want to access advanced chapters, wait no more and subscribe to my Patreon, where you can buy books in completely downloadable PDF format.

🤩patreon.com/Shihao123🤩

🎉Take advantage of the price reduction on the "Special Offer" Subscription. Get several novels in PDF format and access upcoming ones that will be published this year.🎉

🤩Don't miss out, subscribe now!🤩