Chapter 157 The Angry Old Man

Kakashi smiled and stood up, ruffling their hair with his hands.

But despite their complaints and moans, Sasuke knew that they both cherished this kind of physical contact, which was so rare with their teacher.

Sakura patted them on the back as well, smiled, and turned to look for Ryouta.

As soon as Sakura saw the two boys leave, she turned sharply to the left and headed towards the stands where the medical ninjas were located, where the Chunin Exams were being supervised.

As expected, almost half of the people crowded to one side, deliberately avoiding the angry figure in the corner.

Sakura ignored their shocked looks and walked over, not taking the stairs but deftly climbing over the railing and landing lightly beside the former Special Jonin Medical Captain. Shiki sat next to her grumpy boss.

"Lord Ryouta." Sakura said in a sweet voice. She could feel the surprised eyes of the foreign ninjas behind her.

"Don't try that on me, girl." Ryota said through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowed into slits, full of anger.

She felt a tinge of guilt, mostly because the reason Ryouta was so angry was because he actually cared about Sasuke.

Her gaze softened, and she dropped the joking tone - both in tone and gesture - and sat down in front of Ryouta, her knees drawn to her chest.

The gesture was a bit childish, but it was indeed her way of expressing her sincerity.

"He's really sorry, you know," she said softly.

Ryouta studiously avoided her gaze, but Shiki smiled, and she didn't look up, just pushed up her glasses.

"He wouldn't do that if it wasn't something very important," Sakura continued and Ryouta sighed heavily.

After a while, he finally relaxed, uncrossing his arms and relaxing his shoulders a little.

"That's a poor excuse." He finally turned his head to look at her, his dark eyes narrowed, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened, "If Maki hadn't stopped him, he would have done something even more extreme."

Sakura looked at him with a wry smile.

"Didn't I say he was a bit dumb?"

Ryouta sighed heavily again, his shoulders relaxing completely.

"He has a problem in his brain, and I guess I shouldn't blame him for that."

Sakura's smile widened and she decided to take advantage of the situation.

She jumped up and threw herself on top of Ryouta, throwing her arms around his neck before he could react and hugging him tightly.

"Ugh!" He gasped, a hint of pain in his voice, "You girl."

She just hugged him tighter.

Ryouta's sigh was softer this time, and he finally gave in, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and hugging her back.

"Can't you little brats be more careful?"

Sakura giggled and buried her face in his shoulder, hugging him tighter.

"That won't work."

"You'll break my neck, little one."

"Shut up, old man."

Shiki chuckled and turned a page of the book.

******

Ryouta handed her a medical kit before letting her go.

"To that Uchiha brat," he said, "If he doesn't take good care of his injuries, I'll tell the Hokage and make him pay."

Her next stop was Shikamaru, and she found him and Ino in an open field not far from the arena.

Civilians began to leave and return to the streets, and the chatter became louder and louder. The game for the day was over.

Sakura could hear that many people's tones were filled with disappointment and confusion - the battle between Sasuke and Gaara was already difficult to understand, and even more so for civilians, because most of them probably didn't know why the match was paused, nor did they know why Maki forcibly interrupted Gaara's chakra.

Sakura herself didn't know what agreement Maki and Kakashi-sensei had reached, or rather, she shouldn't know.

Sakura didn't actually see much of the battle - because they were all blocked from view by the giant sand ball - but one thing was certain:

Sasuke did a stupid thing.

Sasuke wouldn't do stupid things for no reason.

He's not a fool. That means whatever he did was for Naruto.

This, no matter how necessary it was, made Sakura really angry, so much so that she wanted to kick something.

Sooner or later she would demand an explanation from them. She was sure she knew what had happened, but she wanted them to tell her.

---

Ino was the first to notice Sakura approaching and waved to her. She and Shikamaru stood in the shade of some birch trees, waiting for the crowd to disperse.

Shikamaru raised his head and put down the scroll in his hand. When Sakura came closer, he rolled up the scroll and stuffed it into the pocket of his ninja uniform.

"Hey, is everything okay?" he asked, his tone full of concern and curiosity.

Sakura nodded and exhaled.

"Sasuke is fine. He just can't move for a while. Naruto will need at least twelve hours for him to recover."

Shikamaru hummed in agreement, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment, adjusting his plans and organizing his thoughts to better suit the current situation.

Suddenly, Ino pushed Sakura's shoulder with such force that Sakura had to take a step to the side to stand firmly.

Sakura gave her a sidelong glance. "What's wrong?"

Ino pouted.

"You didn't even come over after the battle!" Ino complained, with a hint of anger in her tone, "I said I wanted to show you my perception jutsu, and you said you would teach me the basics of resonance!"

"I was planning on doing that!" Sakura retorted, a hint of desperation in her tone.

"But you didn't say anything after the battle!" She continued to complain, pulling at Sakura's clothes like a child.

"I was distracted by Sasuke's fight!"

"Excuse!"

---

Shikamaru listened to their quarrel while he was thinking in his mind. Now there was only one uncertainty left - Gaara was a variable, an obstacle to Shikamaru's plan.

He couldn't predict exactly what would happen to Naruto, Iroha, and Roro tomorrow, and there was a good chance that, no matter what happened, the twists and turns at the end of the exam would bring their opponents to the surface as well.

He needed to consider the worst-case scenario and make sure the nine-tailed fox had the upper hand.

When he cleared his mind, he looked up and saw his two teammates and the chaotic chakra between them.

They stood close to each other, arguing and laughing, their eyes bright and full of life, like the clear sky and the clear stream.

Shikamaru smiled, reaching out and gently patting Ino's shoulder, pulling her away from Sakura.

"Ino." He said softly, with a hint of gentle reproach in his tone, and Ino turned her head and looked at him intently. Sakura looked a little unhappy.

"Ok?"

"Ready to scout?"