[RP Log][Closed, Leigh+Sakurai][A Late White Day]
After securing her chest with some binding, Leigh did her morning stretches, then, after giving Risu a snack, stepped out of her apartment and locked the door. Her keys went into her pouch, and with an exuberant "Yosh!" she went onto her hands and swung her legs into the air, bending them at the knee to help with balance.
Beside her, Risu followed suit.
Leigh nodded at the little squirrel, then declared, "I will do five hundred laps walking on my hands around Konoha! And if I can't do that, I will do seven hundred laps by hopping on one leg, then seven hundred more on the other! Ossu!" Pleased with her goals, she walked down the stairs on her hands and the morning's regimen was on.
It was about on the four hundred and twelfth lap that Leigh met some resistance in her goal. A familiar pair of legs came into view in front of her to pause, then soon a familiar head topped with pink hair as Sakurai crouched down to peer curiously at the energetic ninja and her forest-born companion.
“…Leigh? What are you doing?”
"Ah! Sakurai-kun!" Leigh exclaimed, coming to a halt. "I'm training! I told myself I was going to do five hundred laps on my hands this morning. Risu's keeping me company, even though she's decided to walk normally." Indeed, the squirrel had lasted about fifty laps (incredible for a squirrel) before she had settled to just following Leigh around. And since they had stopped, Risu decided to sit and chitter politely at Sakurai in greeting.
Though Sakurai’s first instinct was to let fly a ‘what the hell!?’ he politely remained quiet instead while he tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t be taken offensively.
“Well... that’s... very sweet of her.” Sakurai said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. He worried that 500 laps was too long for Leigh to safely hold up, but then remembered this was likely not the first time she’d done it and he’d have to trust that this was not a self-endangering training of hers. “Are you going to be free afterwards?”
"Yeah! Sensei's on a mission, Tentsuke's doing his thing, and Nejiko...'s doing her thing." A good portion of her walking time had been pondering just where the Hyuuga had gone, because Leigh certainly hadn't seen her for a while. She was getting worried; she didn't like it when her friends just up and vanished. But she kept a smile on her face so as not to worry Sakurai-kun.
Unknowing of Leigh’s plight, Sakurai just smiled a little. “Ah, good. I don’t want to interrupt your training,” well, that was something of a lie, Sakurai worried that Leigh pushed herself too far, too often. “but I have a White Day present for you. Sorry about the lateness, I’ve been almost too busy to sleep.”
Leigh's grin threatened to split on her face. "It's all right! I'm just happy Sakurai-kun thought of giving me a present! I've only got eight-eight laps left. Ahh, where will you be in an hour? It shouldn't take me much longer than that to finish," she said.
Sakurai considered this. He was on a short break from work at the tower, but thought he could get away with staying out for longer than intended. It wasn’t like Tsurude didn’t ditch work all the time anyway, Shizuya would probably be too preoccupied chasing down the wayward Hokage to notice Sakurai was missing as well.
“I was going to get some lunch then sit at the Torifuma bridge to relax a little. I’ll wait for you there, sound good?” he asked
"Sure!" Leigh chirped. "One hour, Torifuma bridge. Yosh!" She brought a hand to give Sakurai-kun a nice-girl pose (though inverted) before nodding and continuing on her way, a bit more of a spring in her...step? than before.
A little over an hour later, Leigh came jogging over to the bridge, Risu snoozing on top of her head. The water looked so nice and cool... She promised herself to get a swim in later. A thousand laps before just relaxing for a bit. Spotting the pink-haired boy, Leigh gave a wave. "Sakurai-kun, hi!"
Sakurai waved back, mouth occupied with sipping the mango juice he’d gotten with his lunch - a nice sandwich from the bakery - so he was unable to call back. He lounged, relaxed in the shade as he leaned his back against the railing of the bridge. He liked this one specifically because it was covered, so the harsh sun was blocked out and allowed a peaceful shade.
Ahhh, shade. "How was lunch?" Leigh asked when she stopped next to Sakurai. She joined in the leaning on the railing, holding her hands together in front of her.
“It’s good.” Sakurai answered, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and setting the mango juice down for now. “The bakery is a favorite of mine. Your hands don’t hurt too much from your laps, do they?” Though Sakurai went to fetch something out of his shoulder-bag, he did glance critically at Leigh’s hands, unable to stop the med-nin instincts that were being trained into him.
Leigh looked at her hands. Her fingers were red, sore, and dirty. The bandages of the palms were very dirty and they'd moved a little, exposing strips of skin that matched the condition of her fingers. "Nah, no more than usual." Pain was a normal part of her training, so the ache was quite dull and easily ignored. Except blisters. Those always hurt, before and after they popped. At least after popping, they slowly became calluses.
Sakurai chewed at the inside of his lip as he took a small pink flower-print bag from his own, eyes not leaving Leigh's hands. "Are you sure? That doesn't look good. Though I guess seeing even slight injuries now makes me worry. Ah, here you go Leigh, sorry again that it's late." he said, holding out the bag for her. He still had two other White Day presents as well that had yet to be delivered, and had to get something for Inosuke or the other boy would no doubt throw a fit.
"Thank you, Sakurai-kun," Leigh smiled. She carefully opened the bag and took out hair ribbon. "Eee! Thank you very much, Sakurai-kun!" She stared at the shiny prettiness of the hair ribbon, resisting the urge to stroke it so she wouldn't get it dirty with her fingers. Carefully folding it, she placed it in the bag, and the bag in her hip pouch. The urge to glomp Sakurai was strong, but it probably wouldn't be taken well, and besides Sakurai wasn't used to the weights Leigh wore.
"I'm glad you like it." Sakurai said with a smile. "I tried to match it to your jumpsuit as much as I could." At least he knew one of his presents was well-received, it helped him feel less apprehensive about the other two.
Leigh beamed, then sombered a little. "Is everything okay? 'Cause you mentioned slight injuries were worrying you more than necessary..."
“OH! Yeah, everything is fine.” Sakurai lied. It wasn’t his place to tell Leigh that he was on his toes watching Sachiko for even the slightest sign her seal was acting up that it was making him jump at every little thing.
That he was still nervous about Inosuke’s ‘brush with death’ so long ago.
It was apparently what fate had in store for him. Everyone else went off and risked their lives being heroes while Sakurai waited back in Konoha, hoping they’d return.
Leigh could see Sakurai was unhappy about something and putting up a front, but it wasn't her place to push. Yet. "Well, I still don't think they're that hurt, but if you still want to take a look at my hands, you can," she said, offering a comforting smile.
“Well, I may as well. For practice, you know.” Sakurai said quickly, embarrassed but far more comforted that he was given the ability to mother-hen as much as he wanted. He took Leigh’s hands in his own, carefully examining them for any hidden injuries or infections that might prove troublesome. Mostly just reassuring to himself that his friends would be okay.
"Here, hold on one moment," Leigh said, pinking slightly in the face. Drawing her hands back, she quickly unwrapped her hands to the wrist, wrapping the excess around her forearm. "This way you see more than just my fingers," she added, not quite meeting Sakurai's eyes.
Sakurai just nodded, letting out a little 'mmm' of confirmation before going back to his work. Nothing serious, a few starting blisters, difficult to see with dirt from the road but Sakurai was trained to find wounds under those conditions. There truly was nothing to worry about, and Sakurai felt a little awkward at his own soft unmarred hands while holding Leigh's plainly marked from her hard work. It wasn't that Sakurai didn't work hard, but channeling chakra for healing through your hands frequently tended to have that side-effect.
Feeling like he should at least do something to put her through this, Sakurai healed the few beginnings of blisters on Leigh's hands before letting them go.
Leigh felt glad Sakurai didn't say anything about the old scars on her hands. It wasn't she wasn't proud of them as they were a mark of all her hard work, but she didn't want Sakurai worried. Leigh had long ago accepted she would never have hands as pretty as Nejiko's. Though, sometimes she wished there weren't the faint discolorations of skin scraped raw too many times to heal correctly because Leigh couldn't be bothered to see a mednin over something so trivial, or the crooked lines from healed stitches that traversed both the palms of her hands and the backs of her hands. Some were from trying to get fast enough to pluck Tentsuke's weapons from the air, and some from hitting posts and other things so hard the skin split. The bandages of her hands weren't just for performing Lotii, they were to provide some sort of protection that wouldn't get much air resistance.
"Thank you, Sakurai-kun," Leigh said, smiling. She smiled a lot around Sakurai-kun; she couldn't help it. He was so kind and handsome and capable...
Sakurai smiled back easily, his worry calming for the moment. "It's no problem really. Next time you get really injured, let me know. Then I can show you what I've really learned." he bent over, pulling up his bag from the ground with an easy grace and slinging it over his shoulder once more.
"I should get back to the tower before Shizuya starts freaking out about me being gone... see you around, Leigh." with a wave, Sakurai turned and departed, heading back to the downtown village and work once more.
"Heh. Don't work to hard!" Leigh called after him, waving.
"I'll do my best!" Sakurai called back with a laugh.