Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Curative Career of Kaori the Ninja Nurse ❯ Double Date ( Chapter 23 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Double Date

`I hate you! Hatake Kakashi, I hate you more than anyone I've ever hated in my entire life! You knew how much I liked you, but you didn't have the guts to turn me down. You purposely set me up for a fall. How could I be so blind and stupid? Stupid, stupid, stupid! May you roast in frog oil. May you die a thousand and one deaths by Itachi's genjutsu. May you break all 206 bones in your body, and any extra ones. May the deserts of the Sand entomb you… '

Kaori struggled to think of more curses, but after days of crying and cursing, she no longer had any more original ones.

Since that day, Kaori threw herself into work, clocking four hours of overtime everyday. It was better than being alone at home where all she did was dwell on what happened. She managed to put up a brave front at work and told people her red eyes were due to allergies, but home alone, with nary a pet to confide in, all she could do was cry and curse the man responsible for her heartache.

`I am sooooo over him!' Kaori would say, but she knew it wasn't true. Broken hearts often took longer to mend than broken legs. And sometimes they never mended at all.

`Kakashi had some nerve to come to me apologizing and expecting me to forgive him. And then what? Allow him to continue to date that ramen waitress at the same time?!' Yet if he had come crawling back to her, she would have seriously thought about it, though she would not admit that to herself.

It seemed she had little success in love. Was it her own fault for letting the good ones get away? Like Gai sensei. If she had given him an honest chance, if she had taken the time to mold him into the man she wanted. Look at him now with Otoha. Gai would come by whenever he could and he always brought something. At first it was something weird like household cleaning products and insect repellent, but then Otoha instructed him to bring flowers and candy, which she ate with exaggerated relish, smacking her too red lips in front of her superior. Kaori enviously hoped that her rude subordinate would gain lots of weight for her transgressions.

Otoha also had Gai in normal clothes when he wasn't on duty, and with his hair slicked back, he wasn't bad looking at all. He had a strong rugged look, not refined like Kakashi, but rather attractive in some respect. But that was all artificial, just the exterior of a man. Kaori knew she was being shallow, but no matter what anyone said, looks were important. She didn't need a man to be as handsome as Kakashi, just one she could look at without wincing.

What was important, as she always agreed, was what was on the inside. And it seemed she had misjudged Kakashi. He was not the man of integrity she thought he was. She had given him the benefit of a doubt for months, claiming he wasn't a pervert, though he read those books, not believing Otoha's claim that he was involved with the ramen girl, sticking up for him each time. His mysterious persona did not hide any deeper feelings as she had romantically thought. He was just another skirt-chasing pervert! He must have been playing hard to get with her, knowing that she was the type of woman who wanted a man more when he showed less interest. Maybe that was her real problem - she only wanted things she couldn't have.

After much introspection, Kaori resolved to go for the next guy she dated - no matter who it was, how he looked, how much money he had, or his status in life, as long as he was not married.

These were Kaori's thoughts as she stared at the blank computer screen at work, which had timed out again after ten minutes. With Tsunade's return, her workload had decreased. Or rather the number of patients staying longer than overnight had decreased, but for some reason paperwork still increased. She heard someone coughing slightly to get her attention so Kaori returned to professional mode, smiled and looked up.

But it was just Shizune who had dropped by the hospital to see her old friend. “Kaori-san,” she said in her deferential way, “can you do me a favor?”

Kaori was even more wary of doing favors after what happened with Kakashi, so she said rather curtly, “Maybe. What is it?”

“Well, umm, if you're not seeing anyone right now…how would you like to go on a double date?”

“Double date? With you?”

“Yes, er, Shiranui Genma sort of asked me out the other day, but I was so flustered I asked if I could bring a friend and he said no problem. Then he said he'd bring his friend, too. But then I couldn't think of anyone appropriate who was still unattached except you.”

Kaori did not know whether to be flattered or insulted. But maybe this was what she needed - a no pressure, no stress date, with some normal people, not someone who wore a mask even while in a coma.

“What are you guys planning?” asked Kaori.

“There's a traveling exhibit of ancient weapons from Hidden Sand Village at the Konoha museum. We plan to go Saturday late afternoon, around five, and then dinner afterwards. Can you make it?”

“Well, I should be able to leave an hour early and meet you at the museum.” Kaori became depressed again as she recalled how she took last Saturday off in preparation for her date with Kakashi. This time she would just go after work.

“Thanks Kaori-san, you're a life-saver. I haven't been on a date in years. I wouldn't know what to say or how to act since it's not a mission. I'm not even sure it's a real date. We just sort of agreed to go to the exhibit together,” Shizune said excitedly. “Well, I know you're busy so I'll leave you alone. Let me know if anything changes, okay?”

Kaori was hardly listening. All she could think about was how neither of the men was likely to be anywhere near as handsome as Kakashi, but she had to jump back into the dating scene and she was determined to make the next relationship work out.

As head nurse, she coerced one of her subordinates to come in earlier on Saturday so she could leave early. She even had enough time to run home and change into a simple blue blouse and black pants before heading over to the museum. Since she was in “test date mode” she did not do much with her hair, which was pinned up in her characteristic bun, or make-up, and left those untouched.

The Shinobi Museum was a relatively small three story building of stone rather than wood like the other buildings of Konoha, and stood at the foot of the Hokage monument. It mostly housed shinobi artifacts for posterity, but also contained a number of works of fine art - sculptures and paintings of famous or infamous shinobi. Once in a while, in the name of friendship and trade relations, there was a traveling exhibit from an allied country.

Kaori easily found Shizune and company after a quick scan of the museum foyer. They were huddled around one of the airtight boxes which held a few examples of ancient weaponry. Luckily, the museum was free as it was subsidized by not only the village itself, but also the feudal lords of Fire Country, so she did not have to buy a ticket to join them. She walked over to Shizune who was talking to a shinobi in uniform with straight light brown hair that reached the nape of his neck. The other shinobi, whom she could only see from the back, was also in uniform, but his brown hair was short and spiky.

Shizune turned to greet her friend. “Kaori-san, I'm so glad you could join us. I'd like to introduce you to Shiranui Genma-san and Namiashi Raidou-san.”

The two men bowed simultaneously in greeting.

Kaori smiled and bowed to Genma and then turned to face Raidou and…

She stopped mid bow and stared at him. The left side of his face was hideously scarred. She caught herself staring and quickly finished her bow.

“I'm please to meet you Kaori-san. I believe I've seen you at the hospital. You look much better out of uniform, er, I mean in civilian clothes,” said Raidou. He frowned at his own slip of the tongue.

“Thank you, I think.” Kaori was not happy. Shizune got to be with Genma, who Kaori noticed had eyes like Kakashi's. He wasn't as cool or handsome, but he was quite a good looking man, while Raidou…

Kaori then reminded herself she would no longer go by looks and she was going to be open to a relationship with Raidou. She just had to stand on his right side, so the left side wouldn't seem as bad. So she forced a smile and took her place on Raidou's right side and looked into the exhibition showcase.

“That's a bronze kunai from three thousand years ago, before they developed iron and steel,” Raidou explained.

Kaori nodded and pretended that was the most interesting thing she had ever seen.

Raidou went on and pointed out some unusual ancient weapons. “See these? They originated from farmers' tools. Did you know that the original shinobi were from an agrarian society?”

Kaori almost said, “Yes, I know. I was at the academy,” but instead she smiled vacantly and said, “How interesting.”

“Isn't it? Genma and I are big history buffs, but he's more into the art and literature, while I prefer anthropology and archeology...”

Kaori stifled a yawn and continued to smile. She glanced over at Shizune and Genma. It seemed Genma was giving Shizune a history lesson as well. Men liked to believe they were smarter and stronger. The latter was usually true, except in Tsunade-sama's case. The former…well, it depended on what one meant by smart. Kaori did not have the analytical ability of a shinobi, or the knowledge of a historian, but she prided herself as having street smarts and common sense.

“You're wondering about my face,” Raidou suddenly said, interrupting her random thoughts when he noticed her spacing out.

“Huh, no I'm not,” Kaori immediately denied. But then she admitted, “Well, actually the thought did cross my mind.”

“I obtained this,” he pointed at the heavy scars, “during Kyuubi's attack. A stray flame scorched my face. There were so many people with more serious injuries that the medics couldn't get to me in time to prevent the scarring.”

“That's terrible.” The nurse side of Kaori had great sympathy for him while the non-professional Kaori could not get over the how the scarred skin looked red, ragged, and raw. Still, she forced herself to look at him and even moved in a bit to stand closer to him.

He shrugged. “No big deal, considering I'm still alive, but it has killed my social life. I'll understand if you want out of this date,” he said seriously.

Apparently the serious minded Raidou was one of those people, like cripples, or rather the physically challenged, or rather the specially abled, who preyed on the sympathies of others to get what they wanted. He found the perfect victim in Kaori, a compassionate nurse.

“Of course not. Don't be silly. Looks don't matter to me at all. It's what's on the inside that counts,” Kaori smiled, though the smile wavered a bit.

Raidou did not smile back. He continued to look dour. He had had enough experience with women to know that that wasn't true at all.

The group of four moved further into the museum and into the special exhibit. To Kaori's surprise, she saw Kakashi standing guard by the special exhibit room. Actually, he was supposed to be standing guard, but he was just leaning against the wall while reading a book.

Shizune greeted him with, “Hello, Kakashi-sempai.”

Raidou nodded and simply said, “Kakashi-san.”

Genma casually commented, “I'm surprised Godaime assigned you to this.”

“I worked a theft case for the museum the other day so they wanted to keep me on for a while.” Kakashi looked impassively at Kaori and nodded.

Kaori could feel herself blush. She simply nodded back without a word.

“So, you four double dating? With the mixed company, it's not a shinobi meeting.” Kakashi cocked his right eyebrow in amusement.

“Oh no, I mean, not really. We're all here to see the exhibit,” Shizune quickly denied, then retracted her denial. She was also blushing.

The two men were too cool to respond to Kakashi's taunt. They just shrugged and continued into the room.

Kaori said nothing either. She did not look at Kakashi as she followed the others, but she could feel her heart speed up. But was that because she still wanted him or because she was still furious with him? She shook off any further thought of Kakashi and boldly gripped Raidou by his right arm.

With her back to him, she could not see the look of profound disappointment in Kakashi's single exposed eye.

-…-…-…-