Chapter Text
No one wants to say it out loud, 'if you want to gossip without getting caught by the doctors, you should always pretend to be searching through the file cabinets’.
It can’t be helped, since it’s taking Management forever to install the online filing system.
.
Rin watches as Obito nibbles on his food, even though he should be absolutely famished after going through his rounds and entertaining the sick kids under his care.
But nope, he was still nibbling on his potatoes, and pushing his carrots to the side, clearly not intending to eat them.
"Aren't you going to eat that?" Rin asks, and Obito startles a little, because he's a pathetic loser and Rin is a saint to put up with him.
"Wha- Oh."
"That's not an answer."
Obito shrugs, and just to prove how he's a little kid in a grown man's body, he nudges his carrots again, sending them rolling a little farther away. Rin has to hold back from hitting his head, only because she's wearing her coat and it'd look really bad if a doctor is smacking another doctor on the head.
Instead, she takes a deep breath, and tries again. She can do this. She's done numerous bypass surgeries and heart transplants and her college friend acting like a brat is nothing.
"You should set a good example for your kids, you know." She prods again, watching with sharp eyes as Obito freezes, stops nibbling his potato and looks at his carrots, then back at Rin, looking throughly torn.
"But... I'm eating my tomatoes?" He offers lamely, even as his fork inches closer to his carrots in a resigned manner. Unbelievable.
Rin watches the slowly approaching fork, and the continued nibbling of food that's driving her mad, because she didn't clear out her schedule just so she could watch her friend become a nibbling rat.
"It's about Dr. Hatake, isn't it," she states, watches as Obito magically chokes on the carrot that he was nibbling on. She sets down her fork, and rests her elbows on the table, watching as what's left of the carrot quickly disappear into Obito's mouth, his face frowning comically.
Rin smirks, smug. “Unbelievable. You know you can’t avoid my question forever, right?”
Obito pales, and stops chewing.
Rin stares back.
There's a loud sigh, and Obito groans, banging his head on the table, pushing away his half-eaten meal. "Nothing's wrong," he says, which no one believes, because if even Dr. Uchiha (the youngest one) and Head Nurse Konan had to approach her and ask her to, for lack of a better term, 'squeeze out the information from him', it would mean Obito was thinking about something majorly stupid again.
Rin didn’t even have to ‘squeeze' anything out. She already had an (now proven to be) accurate guess.
Dr. Hatake has only been at the hospital for a grand total of one day.
Which is approximately how long it took foreveryone to figure out something was wrong with Dr. Uchiha (the crybaby one, the one that refused to eat his carrots even though he kept telling his patients to eat their veggies).
Obito let's out another wailing noise, whining pathetically against the table even as Rin sighs. "He's only been here for a day, Obito. Is it really such a big deal?"
“It’s one day too many,"Obito sulks. Rin rolls her eyes as she sips her strawberry milk, already knowing what kind of half-baked, desperate ideas were brewing in her friend's head.
“No, you can't avoid him for the rest of your career here. There's a general meeting next week, and it's mandatory for all departments."
Obito whines, even as Rin stands up and waves him goodbye. She has another bypass surgery in an hour, and she's done her job of pinpointing the exact reason as to what's causing Dr. Uchiha (the one wailing about horrible best friends that were also excellent cardiologists) to act strangely.
.
Dr. Haruno greets her as she's walking to Building A, where the Cardiology Department is at.
"Dr. Nohara! Is Obito alright?" She asks, green eyes a little worried even as Rin just shakes her head, amused smirk on her face.
"Please, Sakura. Just call me Rin. And he's fine. He's just being a drama queen as usual." Rin says, sighing a little.
Immediately, Sakura drops the worried frown, and her shoulders drop. "Oh." She says, utterly unimpressed and monotonous. "So, it's the usual?"
'I won't exactly say this is the ‘usual’,' Rin thinks to herself, even as she nods.
Sakura groans, and Rin smirks at the young doctor whose in her first year of residency, and hence completely unused to Obito’s different brands of drama. "He's all yours now," she cheers her on, and waves her goodbye as she makes her way back to Building A.
.
Konan raises an eyebrow as she spots Obito back in his office after lunch. That was... fast. Like he came back straight to his office after lunch, instead of running of to the playground or some other department's office like the problem child he was.
"Dr. Uchiha," she calls out, and watches with amusement and worry as the man jumps, clinging on to the large bear plushie in his room like a lifeline.
"Y-yes, Konan?" Obito stutters out. Konan clears her throat, and places a few folders in front of him. "We've got a girl, aged 6, that came in during lunch. Could you look over her as soon as possible?"
Obito lets out a sigh, and slowly releases his grip on the plush. "R-right. Let's go."
Konan watches as he shrugs on his white coat, and catches Dr. Haruno waving at her. "I'll wait for you outside, then."
"Ah. Yeah," Obito mumbles, engrossed in the file. Konan slips out, and immediately heads to where Dr. Haruno is pretending to search for files.
"Dr. Haruno." Konan greets, and they stand side-by-side, rifling through the file cabinet over and over again.
"Konan." Dr. Haruno greets, taking out a file at random and pretending to flip through it, before Konan grabs it and places it back to it's rightful place. "How was lunch?" She asks, keeping an eye on Dr. Uchiha's office door.
Dr. Haruno huffs, finally giving up on rifling through the files and slams it shut, resting her hands on her hips. "I don't understand why we have to do this."
"It's more fun this way," Konan replies. "Did you see Dr. Nohara?"
Dr. Haruno nods, and tucks her hands in the pocket of her white coat. "Yeah. I caught her after she had lunch with Obito."
Konan nods, but motions her to lower her voice. "What'd she say?"
"What'd who say?" A third voice joins them, and Dr. Haruno freezes a little. Konan sighs, frowning a little at Obito's timely entrance.
"Just in time, Dr. Uchiha. Let's go." she says, ushering Obito away, giving Dr. Haruno a look. See? This is why we need to do that ridiculous display, ‘searching' through files.
" 'It's nothing'. " Dr. Haruno says, in reply to her previous question. Obito turns around, confused but still grinning brightly.
Konan nods, and her face frowns, all traces of worry gone.
"Let's get going, Dr. Uchiha,"
"Wait! I forgot to take some of those candy!"
"Those are for the patients, Dr. Uchiha."
.
Little Mai-chan is feeling dizzy and sluggish when Obito enters the room she's resting in. He gives them a bright smile, introducing himself to the worried couple that he assumes are her parents.
"I"m Dr. Uchiha Obito," he says, nodding at them once before directing his attention to Mai-chan, crouching down to her level. “Hey, Mai-chan, right? I'm Obito, but you can call me Obi. Is that okay?"
Mai-chan nods, and Obito smiles. "That's great. I'm going to take your temperature now, okay?" Another nod, and Obito takes the thermometer from Konan's hands.
"Alright-y." Obito hums, and shares a smile with the little girl. He’s great like this, able to connect with children from the first meeting. Even the timid ones aren’t afraid of him. Maybe they see a fellow comrade instead of an adult.
The thermometer beeps, and he has to hold back a wince when he sees the numbers. “ Ouch. That’s a very high fever you have there," he mumbles, resting a hand on the feverish forehead, feeling it burn under his hands. “Hot!” he says after awhile, waving his hands and exaggeratedly blowing his hand. Mai-chan follows, and the two proceed to blow hot air on a ‘burnt’ hand for a while.
Kids.
Obito grins, declaring he’s ‘healed’, then turns to Mai's parents. "Other than a fever, has she been suffering from any other symptoms?"
Mai's Mother nods, resting a cool hand on her daughter's forehead. She doesn’t go ‘ah! I’m burnt!’ like their resident doctor did earlier.
"Ah, yes. She's been complaining about having headaches last night, but I thought it was due to her fever."
Obito nods, and asks Mai-chan to open her mouth. "Her throat is all sore. She's been like this since yesterday?"
They nod.
Obito hums, and flashes a grin when Mai-chan looks up at him in curiosity. "Mai-chan. Are there any itchy, red spots on your body? Itchy itchy scratch?”
Mai nods once, and shows him the crook of his arm, where there are three small, red bumps. There are some on the inside of her wrist as well. It looks a little like an insect bite, and Obito looks closely, before blowing a little at it, getting a little squeal from the little girl.
"It's a case of chicken pox. It's very common for children her age, so there isn't much to worry about," he informs her parents, and watches as they let out a sigh of relief.
"It's highly contagious, though, so it would be good to keep her at home until it's completely healed."
The two nod, and Obito takes the file from Konan. "For now, I'll prescribe some medicine for the fever and sore throat. I'll also give her one week's MC."
"Um. Actually, Mai-chan has a little brother at home, and we're abit worried since you said it's contagious."
Obito stops, and hums, handing the prescription list to Konan for her to key in the data. "How old is he?"
"He's about ten months old."
Obito hums again, "unless you can rearrange something, I would suggest Mai stay in the hospital."
Her worried parents nod, a little relieved. "I'm sure she would be in good hands."
Mai-chan has other ideas. She hears about staying in the white building with the nice Mister Doctor for a week while Mama goes home to take care of baby brother, andwails.
Obito groans internally even as he crouches down, praying that his knees will survive this because it's obvious that his ears won't.
.
Obito is thoroughly exhausted when he enters his office again, shedding his white coat as he plops onto the comfy couch, lying on his side and curling up.
Sakura knocks on his door, and pops in. "She's asleep now, and her dad's going to stay the night here."
Obito let's out a groan that's muffled from beneath his pillows, raising an arm tiredly and waving Sakura away.
Sakura frowns, worried, before thinking about Rin's words of Obito having a flair for drama. She stops herself and sighs. "I'll finish up the rest of the patients," she says instead, because drama queen or not, even she heard Mai-chan screaming and bawling and she had to give him that.
"Mmfs." Obito thanks her, not even bothering to lift up his head. He's not even sure if she's gone or not, but three seconds after thanking her, he lets out a loud yell into his pillow, smothering himself before letting out another groan.
Sakura is done with her front row seat of her mentor's drama show and just rolls her eyes, slips out and closes the door behind her.
.
Konan approaches her when she's rifling through the cabinet, looking for an actual file. "Where's Obito?"
Sakura shrugs, taking out the file and flipping it open, scanning through the contents. "Moping, maybe. I don't know. Has Yuuko-chan finished her antibiotics course?"
The blue-haired nurse nods. "He'smoping? Like, curled on the couch, acting like a half-zombie, half-frustrated teenage girl? And yes, she's finished her course this morning.”
Sakura tucks the file underneath her arm, snagging a piece of candy from the counter on her way out. "Yeah, screaming into the pillow and everything."
Konan rolls her eyes, and decides to take her break.
.
Obito is half-dead when he stumbles into the cafeteria at eleven at night. He's has a new bruise at the base of his chin, because children at age nine are incredibly hard-headed in both the literal and figurative sense, and Rin carefully pries away the coffee in his hands, placing some chocolates instead.
She sips her newly acquired coffee, waiting in silence as Obito munches on the chocolates, frowning a little at the peanut crunch.
"Don't you like peanut crunch?"
Obito gives her a tired stare, motioning at himself - he's changed his shirt, and his coat is absent. “Nine year old boy. Peanut Allergy. Vomit all over."
Rin winces, and tries not to make it obvious as she shifts a little away from Obito. "Tell me you took a shower."
"I did." Obito says, a little more awake, and crunching on his chocolates a little more viciously. "Seriously, he's twelve, and he knows he has a peanut allergy."
Rin pats his back consolingly, before going back to her coffee.
"All because he wanted to eat peanut crunch!" Obito wails, wrappers dropping onto the floor as he buries his face in his hands. "He nearly killed himself!"
"Kids," Rin says, nodding like she's a veteran mother of twelve and not a single cardiologist that has a preference for twelve bottles of red wine in the span of two weeks instead. It's a default response to Obito crying over the troublesome children in his ward.
"Kids," he repeats after her brokenly, and digs into his pockets, taking out another bar of chocolate and munching on it.
"Are you going home tonight?" Rin finally asks, adjusting her bag as she throws away the empty styrofoam cup.
Obito shakes his head.
"Please remember to drink some water." Rin sighs, reminding him. He's ridiculously pig-headedand dedicated to his job, so this is one thing that Rin can't talk him out of.
Obito shrugs. "This is a hospital. I'm sure Konan or Sakura can find a IV bag or two for their doctor."
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should," Rin mutters, and it's ridiculous how this is still their mantra after ten years.
.
Sakura and Konan are standing in front of the file cabinet, searching through files as they talk to each other in hushed whispers, rolling their eyes every so often.
"Have you seen Dr. Hatake?" Sakura asks suddenly.
Konan looks at her curiously. "No. Who's that?"
"Who's what?" A voice asks from behind them, and the two of them jump, turning around to see Naruto's timely entrance. "You scared me." Sakura glares, and the blonde just grins.
"Sorry. Who were you talking about?" Naruto asks again, even as Sakura and Konan turn back and continue to search through perfectly alphabetised files.
"Get over here, dork!" Sakura hisses, making space for Naruto in front of the cabinet.
"Dr. Uzumaki. You have to at leastpretend you're looking for something." Konan chides, and Naruto doesn’t even look confused. He just does as he’s told, complete with a 'frustrated because it’s been hours and I still can’t find the damn file, why hasn’t management implemented the online filing system yet’ expression on his face. He was in the drama club.
"So who are you guys talking about?" Naruto asks, about to pull out a folder when both Konan and Sakura stop him from messing up the order.
"Dr. Hatake." Sakura answers, fingers at the 'H' section. "He's the new professor, right?"
"Ohhh. You mean Kaka-sensei. He's my mentor." Naruto says, dropping the expression, grinning brightly as he plays with the files.
Sakura stops. "Right. I keep forgetting you're in the Neurology Department." She shakes her head, slapping a tan hand from pulling out another folder.
"Yeah. It's fun there too. Just the other day there was this huge awake surgery, and it was amazing. Kaka-sensei was the one who led the team."
"Awake surgery?"
"Yep. The patient's awake, and he prods certain parts of the brain to see what's wrong." Naruto explains briefly. "It was really cool."
Sakura winces. "Uhm. Too much information. Let's get back to the topic, please."
"Dr. Hatake?" Konan prompts, when she sees Naruto's confused look. "How's he like, as a person?"
"He's really cool. Apparently he's good friends with Dr. Nohara from Cardio." Naruto says, before pulling out his phone. "Ah. I need to go. See you guys around!"
"Dr. Nohara?" Sakura echoes, wheels turning in her head.
"What about Rin?" Obito asks, and Sakura jumps, before deflating. "Gosh! Stop sneaking up on people!"
"Uh. I need a file from the cabinet. You guys got what you need?" Obito points at the cabinet where the two of them have been standing in front of for about half an hour. Goddamn management where is the online filing system????
Konan nods, and slinks away, opening her phone to play Candy Crush. Sakura takes a random folder, breathing a sigh of relief when, luckily, it's one of her patients. "Yeap."
"Right. So what about Rin?"
"She's single, right?" Sakura asks, curiosity getting the better of her.
Obito hums affirmative, looking through 'M'.
"Is she dating anyone?"
Obito looks at her weirdly, but shrugs. "Not that I know of." He look's through 'O', and pulls out a file. "Gotcha."
Sakura watches as her mentor walks and read his file at the same time, and resists the urge to yell at him when he absently grabs on to a handful sweets when he passes the counter.
.
“Good morning, Oda-kun,” Obito greets cheerfully as he walks into the little boy’s room. His grin stretches when the boy perks up, looking much more energetic and healthy than he did days ago.
“Obi!” Oda-kun greets happily, sitting up in his bed. He giggles a little when his doctor reaches over to tousle his hair.
“Morning, sleepy-head. How are you feeling?”
“Better. Um, better-er? Can’t wait to go out and play again!”
Obito nods as he listens to the little boy talk excitedly about wanting to go out and play and meet his friends, all while checking through the boy’s file, writing little remarks here and there.
Finally, the young boy exhausts himself, unable to think of anymore things he want to do once he’s out of the hospital (he has, Obito notes, conveniently left out wanting to go to school on Monday, and the doctor guesses must be because of what he overheard when the boy’s friends came to visit him - something about a spelling test?) and instead just sits there, sticking his tongue out, as though pondering what else he could possibly do.
Chuckling, the doctor closes the file, and digs into his pockets, about to give the boy some candy when he realises that he’s forgotten to wear his coat again.
Well. It’s alright. Obito digs into the pockets of his jeans instead, and is pleased to find that he still has some stash of candy there.
“Alright.” Obito starts, and Oda sits straight, knowing the drill. “You can only pick one,” he says firmly, though still grinning as he opens his palm to reveal an assortment of chocolates, gummies, candy and even the occasional biscuit, that has been reduced to crumbs after a long residency in Obito’s jeans.
He grins as Oda’s tiny hand slowly go forward, wavering left and right. There’s a look of pure concentration on his face, and he frowns his brow when he nears a marshmallow that Obito managed to nick from Ophthalmology when Dr. Uchiha (the one with really bad eyes despite being a literal ‘eye doctor’.) wasn’t looking (the irony never fails to crack him up).
This goes on for about five minutes, and Obito waits patiently, hands still spread open, watching with a grin as Oda nearly tears himself into two, trying to decide which was more worth it - marshmallow, or gummy bears.
Konan comes in to see Oda-kun frowning in utmost concentration, both hands hovering over the two candies and just sighs, exasperated and fond, shaking her head.
“Morning, Oda-kun. Dr. Uchiha,” she greets as she enters the room, and the two boys greet her half-heartedly, eyes never leaving the pile of treats in Obito’s hands.
Obito nods, and the blue-haired nurse rolls her eyes as she opens the boy’s file, reading through the comments and mentally noting what she needed to do.
Oda finally picks the marshmallow, but still not willing to pull back his hand yet.
“You sure?” Obito asks, and Oda bites his lips, obviously unsure. “You really, really sure?"
Konan sighs, resting a hand on her hip as the young boy frowns again, before smacking at Obito’s back, where the boy can’t see. “Stop stressing him."
Oda looks relieved, and sends a grateful look to Konan, and she smiles back. “Are you feeling better, Oda-kun?” she asks, and Oda nods, holding his treat close to him.
Obito laughs, pocketing the remaining treats into his pocket, standing up to pat Oda’s head again. “Enjoy your treat, kiddo.” He winks, and the two fist bump as a goodbye.
“Thank you, Obi!” Oda calls out, and Obito nods politely in greeting when he sees Oda’s mother walking towards them.
“He’s doing great, and I think he can be discharged by tomorrow morning,” he informs her, and smiles when the mother is beyond relief.
“Thank you, Dr. Uchiha.”
“No problem."
Once out of earshot, Konan sighs, looking pointedly at Obito’s attire. “I’m not going to say anything about your choice of clothing, but can’t you at least wear your coat?"
Obito pouts, even as he tugs at his shirt. “What’s wrong with my hoodie? I’ll have you know I waited in line for three hours to get this!”
Konan sighs, pointing to his office. “Please. Just take your coat.”
The doctor pouts, slinking to his office as Sakura joins her. “What was that?”
“That,” Konan replies, “Is just one of the numerous hideous hoodies that Dr. Obito Uchiha owns. We don’t talk about them anymore.”
Sakura gives her a look of understanding. "Ah. As much as we don’t talk about your addiction to Candy Crush?"
The nurse bristles. “I’m not addicted. It’s just a convenient way to pass time. Besides, I’m not the only one."
“What, do all the nurses play Candy Crush? You guys competing or something?"
“We just need to pass time, though I won’t deny that I’m the one holding the highest score at the moment,” Konan says, waving it off dismissively, and Sakura snorts.
.
After eight hours, Rin finally exits the operating theatre, pleased that the surgery was successful. She’s a little tired, and completely on auto-pilot mode as she takes out her gloves and washes her hands.
“The surgery was successful,” she informs the concerned family members that had been outside the operating theatre the entire time. “It might take awhile until he makes a full recovery, but as of now, he’s out of the danger zone."
Once that’s done, Rin completely shuts down, walking to her office fuelled only by pure will-power.
“Dr. Nohara?” Someone is calling her, and Rin is going to pretend that she didn’t hear it, because she was a human before she was a doctor and hence had the right to ignore people.
“Dr. Nohara.” Oh god, the person did not get the hint, still calling her. And was he following her?
“Rin.” Okay. Hearing her name, Rin blinks, a little more awake, and turns around. She’s not really sure what she was expecting.
She blinks again, taking in the man before her - he was standing a whole head and a half taller than her, with his pristine white coat and black tie tucked in the chest pocket.
“Oh my god.” Rin breathes out, and she’s not sure if it’s real or she’s hallucinating because, she does not have enough brain juice to deal with either one anyway.
“Rin.” He calls out again, and Rin is two-hundred million billion trillion quadrillion percent sure that she is definitely not ready to take on this person in a conversation and hence is definitely going to make a conscious effort not do so.
“Okay. Nope, nope, go away.” She says, looking upwards even as she knows she’s being really dramatic and that meant she no longer had the right to roll her eyes at Obito’s drama-queen antics.
The doctor in front of her chuckles even as Rin grins, knowing she’s lost the battle the moment he called her by her first name. She sighs, grinning as she takes a step forward into open arms.
“Hello to you too, Dr. Hatake,” she laughs into the hug, feeling warmth in her chest as Kakashi chuckles, deep rumbles in his chest.
Then she stops, and pushes him away. Kakashi looks at her, confused.
“Ok wait. We shouldn’t be hugging.” She says, and Kakashi frowns, confused.
“I didn’t know you cared about rumours, Dr. Nohara.”
“Not that!” Rin rolls her eyes, even though now that Kakashi mentioned it, she hoped that no one saw them hugging and laughing. Instead, she motioned to herself. “I’m still in my scrubs! I just got out of an eight hour surgery! I really should not be hugging anyone right now!”
Kakashi took one look at her, and laughed, pulling her into another hug that was extremely uncharacteristic of the Kakashi ten years ago. “The blood has dried, its fine."
Rin lets herself be pulled along, and together they walk to her office, smiling and laughing and Rin is so, so happy, because finally it’s the three of them again - Rin, Kakashi and Obito -
Oh.
Sometimes, Rin’s brain does the thing where it becomes mush, blended halfway to oblivion by an extremely gruelling surgery, leaving her weak and un-intelligent. Which would explain how she forgot about caring about appearances and hugging Kakashi and Obito on his life-long mission to avoid Kakashi for life.
The three of us together again, my foot.
.
Sakura has given up on jumping every time someone speaks over her shoulder when she’s searching through perfectly alphabetised and organised folders at the file cabinet. Management and their empty promises.
“Yes, Sasuke, I know it sounds stupid. But get your ass over here anyway,” she glares, and Dr. Uchiha (youngest Uchiha, first year of residency in the Cardiology Department) sulks as he makes his way around the counter to stand beside her in front of the file cabinet.
“This is not even my department.” Sasuke mutters, but still pretends to search for files anyway when Sakura gives him another Look. “How have you not traumatised any kids yet, with that look?” He continues.
“Because kids are not losers and they think my pink hair is pretty.” Sakura replies without missing a beat.
“You’re such a fraud,” Sasuke says, though he does not mention anything about Sakura indirectly calling him a loser.
Sakura raises an eyebrow. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“Dr. Nohara told me to come over to check on Dr. Uchiha."
“Sasuke. You are Dr. Uchiha.”
Sasuke shoots her an annoyed look. “Obviously, I meant the other Dr. Uchiha."
“Itachi is operating in Theatre 3, Shisui has an off-day, and Obito is not here."
“How do you know where Itachi-nii and Shit-sui are exactly, but not your own mentor?"
Sakura shrugs, and looks at him like he’s an idiot. “Obito runs off whenever he can. You see that net there? The only reason it’s there is because it does it's job, unlike Dr. Uchiha Obito."
Sasuke looks to see that, indeed, there is a net there, hung on a hook beside some coats and aprons and regularly maintained. “To capture Dr. Uchiha Obito?”
“Yes. That’s its job."
Sasuke groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Should have known. We used to have a net like that at home, too."
Sakura blinks. “What. Are you serious?"
“Yes."
“I can’t believe he’s the best paediatrician our hospital can offer."
Sasuke looks at her like she’s an idiot. “Obviously its because he’s like a little kid?"
“Okay that makes sense. That also answers my question as to why I suddenly feel like a mother of twelve."
Sasuke decides he has enough of this conversation. “If Obito-nii is not here, I am leaving."
“Wait. What did Dr. Nohara want? I can help pass the message along, if it’s urgent."
“Dr. Nohara wants to cancel lunch with Obito. She has another appointment."
Sakura raises her eyebrow. “Alright. I’ll keep that in mind."
.
Konan wordlessly passes her a bottle of disinfectant and Sakura takes it without question, spraying it at Obito when he finally returns from wherever the hell he had been since he disappeared an hour ago.
He’s covered in mud stains, and there are three children with him.
“Dr. Uchiha!” Sakura gasps, horrified. She crouches down, both Konan and her quickly wipe of the mud on the children’s face. “They’re patients!"
“They had fun!” Obito defends himself, accepting a towel from another nurse and immediately cleaning up the last child. “And they’re pretty much fine."
“Obi, Obi! Can we go out again?” One of the boys ask. Immediately, the other two perk up, turning to Obito with puppy eyes on at full-force.
“Pleeeeease?” They beg, looking up at Obito pleadingly, still sporting mud on their cheeks.
Sakura and Konan share a look, fond and amused. “Alright, let’s get you guys cleaned up.” They usher them away to the toilets. Obito laughs even as Konan points at him. “And you too, Dr. Uchiha. Shower and clean up!”
“Yes Ma’am!” He winks playfully at the children before going to his office.
Sakura watches her mentor go into his office, about to pass him Sasuke’s message when one of the children tugs on her coat. “Dr. Sakura?”
“Hm? Yes, let’s clean you up, then afterwards, I’ll read you a story, okay?"
“Kayyyyy!” The children answer in unison, and allow themselves to be herded to the bathroom.
Konan gives Sakura a questioning glance, but the doctor just shrugs. “It’s nothing."
.
(Turns out, it’s not 'nothing', not that Sakura knows.)
Rin is halfway through her pasta, nodding at something Kakashi said when she spots Obito walking into the cafeteria, and the only reason she spotted him when he was so far away was because he was wearing his orange hoodie, even though he had been wearing a Doreamon hoodie this morning. (Sakura had sent her a picture of it, with a lot of question marks as to how he got it. It was kind of cute, to be honest, but Obito had been texting and bothering her the entire three hours while he was in line for that thing, so he wasn’t going to hear that from her.)
Another thing that made her hyper aware of Obito: her current lunch partner.
“What’s wrong?” Kakashi asks, and Rin thanked all the gods that his back was facing the cafeteria entrance, because Rin was not mentally ready to see everything fall apart in such a close proximity.
“No, nothing's wrong…” Rin mumbles, even as she caught Obito’s eye, and tried to tell him to flee with only her eyes. Kakashi looked at her strangely.
“You’re acting like there’s something wrong, though,” he muses.
“No, no…” Rin mumbles, more nervous than she had been in her first surgery. Not today, she was definitely not going to be present when Obito and Kakashi looked at each other in the eye and dragged out ten years worth of… whatever that had been going on between them.
“Just, saw a doctor wearing orange hoodie,” she laughs nervously. The hospital was big enough that it had its share of weird doctors, so there was bound to have one or two doctors with a love for orange hoodies, right? Besides, Kakashi has only been here for what, three days? He shouldn’t have heard any rumours about the ‘Dr Uchiha that liked outrageous hoodies’ yet, right?
Kakashi chuckles. “Oh. Must be Naruto. Comes in everyday wearing something orange."
Rin laughs in undisguised relief, taking another scoop of pasta while looking at the orange behind Kakashi’s head. “Sorry, it’s just, very distracting,” she lies, catching Obito’s eye and glares when the man is about to greet her.
She feels extremely guilty when he drops his hand, grin turning upside down, looking like a kicked puppy. Rin feels like she’s kicked a puppy, and tries to convey the messages of ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘Fuck off’ through her eyes, at the same time.
Confusion shows on Obito’s face and Rin glances down at Kakashi, who’s scrolling through his phone, and back up again, at Obito, then at the door.
‘What?’ Obito mouths, even as he takes a step closer to the exit. Rin nods minutely, and looks at the person sitting opposite her again.
‘Go away!’ She mouths, eyes going back and forth from Kakashi and Obito.
“Rin?” Kakashi calls out, having caught on to her strange eye movement. “What are you doing?” He asks, slightly suspicious.
“Nothing.” Comes the immediate answer, and she stares back, poker faced as Kakashi looks at her closely.
“You’re awfully distracted by something as trivial as an orange hoodie.” Please don’t turn around. Please don’t turn around.
“I’m not.” Rin replies, short and curt, even thought she’s having a minor breakdown inside. She gives Obito another glare, and watches with a mix of worry and amusement at the emotions on Obito’s face the moment he catches on - his face goes pale, mouth opening to let out a little distressed sound before quickly slamming a hand on his mouth, backing out slowly, disbelief in his eyes.
‘Oh my god,’ Obito finally mouths, eyes darting around crazily before dashing out, looking horrified and frightened all at once.
Rin finally relaxes. Well, as much as she can, anyway. She still has to be on guard, in case Kakashi brings up someone (Dr. Uchiha) into their conversation. Then she’d be able to immediately change the topic, minimising the harm done to her fragile mental state.
Kakashi finally turns around, but sees nothing. “Huh. Must have went out for ramen,” he mutters to himself, obviously thinking that it was Naruto she saw. Well. She could live with that.
“Maybe.” Rin mutters, and the two go back to their former topic of discussion until the end of their lunch break.
.
Sakura rolls her eyes when she walks by Obito’s office, hearing muffled screams coming from inside. It was obvious he was trying to suffocate himself with the pillow again, though this time it wasn’t just limited to screaming and groaning.
“Oh my god! Oh my god Rin what the actual fuck?"
Sakura raises and eyebrow at the curse word, and Konan huffs irritably, walking up to the office quickly even as Obito is obviously having some sort of mid-life crisis. At least he was considerate enough to have it during lunch time.
"Shit shit shit I am never leaving this office, fuck!"
Konan knocks on the door, uncaring about the obvious breakdown Obito was having. “Dr. Uchiha.” she calls out in annoyance.
“Go away Konan. I was this close to death just now, so I will now break down and die and never wake up."
“Okay,” Konan answers readily, used to this sort of thing, "but please stop cursing. The children can hear you."
“‘Kay. Sorry.” Comes the dejected reply. Konan nods even though she’s outside and walks away, apparently pleased with that answer.
Ten minutes later, Sakura is done with her review of the patients in her care, and walks straight to the file cabinet.
“Do you know what happened? He said he was going for lunch with Dr. Nohara but came straight back as though as he had saw a ghost.” Konan asks as she opens the drawer, arranging some files and adding new records.
“Maybe he got scolded by Rin?” Sakura wonders out loud, before blinking. “Wait. I forgot to pass on a message from Dr. Nohara. She cancelled lunch with him."
“So maybe he got scolded. It’s not the first time,” Konan sighs, finally done with the filing work. “Though it is strange that she would give such a last minute notice."
“What’s last minute?” Naruto asks, already standing beside Sakura and looking at them curiously. “And why’s Obito crying in his office?"
“It’s nothing to worry about, Dr. Uzumaki. Obito is always crying in his office.” Konan reassures him.
Naruto shrugs. “Lunch, Sakura?” he asks instead. “I have some free time, and so does Sasuke."
Sakura hums a little, and nods. “At the cafeteria? I want to go do some snooping.”
There’s a quiet groan, and Sakura turns around to see Sasuke waiting at the counter. “Again?”
“Yes again. Obito’s crying in there over something and I want to know what."
“You aren’t actually concerned. You’re just curious."
“If you want to continue this conversation, you’ll have to be standing here, Uchiha.”
“This is ridiculous. Are we having lunch or not? I have to assist in a bypass surgery in two hours."
“Yes, let’s lunch, please.” Naruto nods, and leaves Sakura to join Sasuke behind the counter.
Konan takes out a Mai-chan’s file. “You should go for lunch. I want to know what happened too."
“Yes. Also, please prepare Mona-chan’s discharge papers."
.
Sakura grins happily as Naruto launches into a story about the Awake surgery that he still thinks is amazingly cool. It’s like listening to a little boy babble, except the boy is a neurosurgeon and is talking in terms that Sakura hardly hears off, even in the hospital. She turns to look at Sasuke, and sees that he’s half-listening, half-tuning him out as well.
“I honestly do not care.” Sasuke finally says, after listening for about twenty minutes, nodding at all the right places.
“Can you stop being boring for once, Sasuke?” Naruto grumbles. “Is there nothing interesting in your life?"
Sakura and Naruto both glance at Sasuke, obviously wanting to hear about his experience. Naruto, because he’s bored and really wants to know more about Cardiology and Sakura because she does not want to listen about awake surgery anymore.
“I did an Artificial Heart Valve Surgery.”
Naruto ‘oohs’, and even Sakura is curious.
“…"
“What? That’s it?” Sakura asks, incredulous, when Sasuke stops talking.
Naruto ‘boos’ and Sakura rolls her eyes. “You’re horrible at story telling. Never come near my kids. You’ll suck the fun out of them.” She says, and Naruto laughs as Sasuke grumbles.
After much bickering and talking, they enter the cafeteria, splitting to order their food and rejoining to sit at the same table.
“Wait. Isn’t that…” Sakura frowns as she sits down, Naruto naturally sliding away to make space. Sasuke takes the seat opposite them.
“Which one are you talking about?” Sasuke asks, looking at the same direction as Sakura.
“Uhm. Dr. Nohara? And the other guy?” Sakura mumbles, and Sasuke scans until he finds his mentor. “Ah yeah. That’s Dr. Nohara. The other guy…"
“Oh. That’s Kaka-sensei.” Naruto supplies helpfully, finally comfortable and looking at their mentors that were sitting a few tables away.
“That’s Dr. Hatake?” Sakura asks.
“Yeah.”
Sakura turns to Sasuke. “Did you know they were this close?”
Sasuke looks at her, raising an eyebrow. “No.” Having lost interest, he turns back to his food, eating his rice quietly even as Naruto immediately talks about something or the other.
“No but seriously. They look super close?” Sakura prods them again. “Do you think they’re dating?"
“What?” Naruto and Sasuke look at her.
“Well, maybe.” Sasuke says, after thinking about it. “It’s possible."
“I always thought Dr. Nohara and Obito were gonna date or something.” Sakura mumbles.
“They’re just college friends, they don’t see each other that way." Sasuke states on behalf of his cousin.
Naruto finishes his noodles. “Want me to ask? Though I don’t think that they’re like that."
Sakura ponders as she munches on her meatball. “Maybe."
“Seriously? Are we seriously going with Naruto’s gut feeling on this?” Sasuke rolls his eyes.
“Oh. Did you know someone saw them hugging outside the operating theatre? Rin was in scrubs.” Naruto says again.
“Didn’t you just say they weren’t like that?” Sakura asks.
“Seriously, we should just leave it alone,” Sasuke advises.
“No.” Sakura shoots back.
“Do you just want me to go ask?” Naruto offers again, standing up.
“You can’t just ask, idiot.” Sasuke says. Sakura agrees.
“But you want to know, right?”
Sakura and Sasuke groan at Naruto’s logic. “It’s a sensitive topic.” Sakura tries.
Naruto still walks away, anyway.
When he comes back, he has another tray of noodles with him.
“Please tell me you didn’t ask.” Sakura mumbles.
Naruto looks at them in confusion. “No. I went to buy a bowl of noodles."
Sasuke looks like he wants to smack something but he just pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can’t we just stop talking about this?”
Sakura rolls her eyes. Sasuke was being more dramatic than she remembered. Was it an Uchiha thing?
.
Kakashi and Rin finally stand up to return their trays, still laughing about their conversation.
“I’m honestly still curious as to why there are nurses at the file cabinet all the time.” Kakashi mumbles, and Rin shrugs. “We have the same thing going on at Cardio, too."
“I guess when management installs the online filing system, things will get easier for them,” Kakashi shrugs.
Rin doesn’t reply, paling when she sees who was at the 'Tray Return Station'.
“Oh. Naruto. Thought you went out for Ramen?” Kakashi asks, a little confused. Thankfully he doesn’t notice how Naruto is not wearing an orange hoodie.
Naruto just grins. “Nah, I went to find my friends. These are my college friends, Sakura and Sasuke.”
Kakashi turns to Sasuke. “Ah. Rin’s mentee. I’m surprised you went into Cardio. I’ve heard that most Uchiha’s either go to Ophthalmology or General Surgery.” He, thankfully, does not mention the Uchiha That Broke His Heart, Back In College. Sasuke nods politely, and Kakashi directs his gaze to Sakura.
Sakura smiles sweetly as she introduces herself. “I’m Haruno Sakura, from the Paediatrics Department. I’m Dr. Uch-"
“Sakura!” Rin suddenly speaks, raising her voice over Sakura’s. It comes out as a terrified squeak. “I um, need to speak with you. It’s urgent!"
Sakura blinks, confused. “Yes?"
“Privately.” Rin tacks on hastily. “Sorry, Kakashi. We’ll catch up another time?”
Kakashi looks at her weirdly, then back at Sakura, not sure what’s going on, and Rin’s heart goes into overdrive, beating wildly.
Thanfully, Sasuke, her cute little mentee, steps in, dragging Naruto along with him. “Let’s just go,” he says, and gives Sakura a look.
Rin looks on in envy as the three of them seem to converse with each other naturally, with just gestures and gazes, and Sakura nods. “Right, you said you wanted to speak to me, Dr. Nohara?"
Kakashi waves as he watches them leave, and smiles in amusement when Naruto frees himself and says his goodbyes. “I forgot I have a meeting after lunch!” He yells, running back to his mentor.
“What was that about?” Kakashi asked.
Naruto shrugs, opening a sweet and popping into his mouth. “We were just wondering if the two of you were dating.” He offers some of the same sweet to Kakashi. “Want some?"
Kakashi freezes for a while, before shaking his head. “We’re not dating.” He says, picking up a sweet even as his gut churns uncomfortably at the mention of 'Rin' and ‘dating’.
“Yet?” Naruto asks, blue eyes looking at his mentor carefully. Kakashi schools his expression so that it’s his default ‘polite poker face’, careful not to reveal too much to his surprisingly sharp mentee.
“No 'yet'. We’re just friends.” Deciding to change the topic, he motions to the sweet wrapper in his hands. “Where’d you get this? Tastes pretty good."
“Got it from Paediatrics. They have all sorts of candy there."
Kakashi raises an eyebrow. “Is that where you keep going during breaks? To get candy?”
“Nah. The little kids there are always hyped to play with me, and Sakura and the head nurse are pretty chill. Also, the head is always crying in his office. It’s pretty fun."
.
END