Chapter Text
"And yes, we dissected cadavers which I had been looking forward to for a whole week. Also studied in advance– did lots of research– which explains my hectic schedule, so anyway, we started by —" Sakura pressed pause and scrutinized the video, checking for any errors. The tapping on the mousepad is evident and serves as a lulling background noise as she focuses on editing, inspecting the lighting, audio quality, and the content. Feeling stuck, she gently pushes the desk, not before stretching her hunched over back— oh that felt good — from sitting over a long period of time. Moving backward with her office chair, she looks toward Ino laying on her bed with her phone in hand.
"Ino." Sakura calls out, eyes not leaving the monitor. Maybe Ino can help her out with her editing problem.
"What?" Her friend grunts, without taking her eyes off the phone, then laughs.
Ino repeatedly slaps the used to be neat bed, calling her attention, she just folded those– "Sakura, wait– wait look at this meme." she giggles and crawls towards Sakura, now facing her, "This is so true." Shoving her purple phone to her unamused face.
She squints her eyes, "When your friend texts…" she groans and grabs the phone from Ino's shaking hand, who's still laughing. "I don't get it."
Ino scoffs, "Of course you don't, it's a reference to the concert I went to last week that I invited -" she sends an accusing look, "you to."
"Oh so that's what it was."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, you know it's exam week." is the only excuse she can offer.
Ino rolls her eyes, like she's heard that excuse before, she did. "You always have exams, Sakura," She retorts.
Sakura sighs, feeling only slightly guilty. Hopefully Ino does understand. She can make it up to her another time, she hopes, mentally checking her schedule. The day after tomorrow, she has less things that need to be done, Sakura notes, so I can take her to the new dessert shop we saw last week.
"Tch, whatever." Ino flops down again on the bed, "Now what were you going to say earlier?"
"Oh!" She forgot she asked for her input. She faces towards the desk and the laptop towards Ino– who slightly raises her head– playing the video clip and watches for her friend's reaction.
"Yeah— no , I don't think one needs to know the step by step details on how you cut open a corpse, Sakura."
"What? They like me talking about my med school experience." She places the laptop back, and sulks, "This is what my channel mostly is about." She closes the editing software and opens the tab of her youtube channel.
Her youtube channel, with her name garnering over 500k subscribers. She scrolls through it and carefully looks at her different videos.
"Different ways to study during a test."
"What to expect in Medical School."
"A Day in Medical School: Vlog"
It started off as a joke, recording herself studying and explaining the lessons and posting it on the website for herself and some of her friends but gained a slow steady following, her first 8 videos accumulated over 100 subscribers which was honestly surprising considering the camera and audio quality. Still, the viewers then wanted to know about her which took quite a time since she's a bit off about putting much information out there.
After encouragement from Ino and a few of their friends, she recorded more, not just study videos, but guides, all about medical school, her life.
It was scary to put herself out there, the constant scrutiny of the public, not just anywhere near her, but from all around the globe watching her like a wolf to a deer, waiting for a single mishap and pouncing at her unsuspectingly.
It was tempting to just stop and disappear and continue medical school.
But seeing comments on how she inspires them and how much they relate and encourage them to move forward was rewarding, the fact that she helped make their day even just a bit brighter still puts a smile on her face.
The fact that she read that she inspired them to pursue medicine still makes her insides warm.
And the paycheck's a bit of a bonus, Medical school is no joke.
"Let me see." Ino begrudgingly falls off the bed and hovers over her. Sakura quickly opens up the video and plays over 15 minutes of footage, half of the footage still unedited and uncut.
"I mean you know— it's not that boring." Sakura trails off, seeing Ino's point and looks defeatedly at the monitor realizing she spent half of the video explaining in details what she's learned.
"Fine." She admits
Ino laughs.
"Hey, in your defense, you didn't make it that boring." She watches the clip of Sakura, animatedly explaining things she couldn't afford to understand. "I think people will like this," Ino offers.
"You thinks so?"
"Yeah, it's nice to see you talk so lively, and I think your viewers like that about you."
"You sure?"
"Of course!" Ino places a hand over her shoulder, "You might not believe it but, I scrolled through your comment section once. You need to be careful cause I saw some questionable comments here and there–" Sakura chokes on air, "They'll watch what you upload even when it's you digging up the trash."
Sakura scoffs, albeit without annoyance, "Better than a surgery vlog."
"No please no," Sakura laughs and Ino snickers, "but wait until you finish med school, then you can film any blood and gore you like."
"Monetization Ino, monetization." She can't lose her major source of income.
"Look at you, so well-read about internet culture, who are you and what have you done to my best friend." Sakura rolls her eyes and continues to edit the rest of the footage. Ino watches on.
"Of course, I have to have some way to pay for my expenses."
"But you might have to maybe tone the details a bit down no?"
...
"Yeah you're right."
The day passes by quicker than Sakura would've thought. She finds herself walking through the busy streets of Konoha, arm locked with Ino, chatting away about what happened earlier at work.
The sidewalk is somewhat crowded as people of all ages pass by, all with different stories to tell. Elderly couples going out for a stroll on the lovely weather, not quite hot yet not quite cold, comfortable to walk, as she's doing with Ino, business men who seem to be late as they repeatedly check their watches, and Sakura notes some kids happily skipping down with their school bags in hand, too busy to care for the world.
She truly envies them.
She quickly buries the thought, she's grateful for what she's had of course! She's far away from home, standing up on her own two feet, a stable source of income, and of course, studying under the greatest doctor in all of Japan!
Sakura smiles, but,
She can probably use a break, Tsunade was more unbearable yesterday— probably hungover — she didn't get much sleep but, Sakura sighs, this is the only day she's available. She'll probably be busy again on the following days.
A snapping sound startles her and sees Ino's hand in front of her face. Ino raises a brow.
"You're about to walk to a pole you forehead. We don't need it to be bigger, I think I can see two airplanes about to land." Ino teases.
Okay then.
"Ow, you little." Ino rubs the spot where she just pinched her "Sakura–!"
"We're here you pig!" Her cheery voice cuts off Ino's.
"I think you're supposed to make it up to me!"
Sakura laughs, unable to keep it in anymore, "I can make it up to you later," she says as she holds open the door for them.
"Har har, very funny." Ino sits down at a table for two near a window and motions Sakura to hurry up.
"Sai isn't coming?" Sakura asks as she sits down, placing her purse on her lap and fishing out for her phone.
"Not really, figure we can gossip as much as we like without the both of you biting each other's heads off."
"Not my fault your boyfriend's rude." raising her hands in defense.
"Are you kidding me? He's such an angel." Ino swoons, "He just bought me flowers yesterday, too."
"Ino, he calls me ugly." Like, what did she even do? It's not her fault if she always has this urge to punt Sai into the ground! Sai always starts first!
"He calls everybody ugly, except for me. Anyway, congrats on the video. You left your fans starving for two months, Sakura. I wonder how they stay so loyal." Ino trails off.
"Because I have the brains Ino—" "More like the head—" " Very funny , but yeah I wonder about that too." Sakura tilts her head in thought, it's always a wonder how her fanbase is always there to welcome her back even with her sporadic uploads, still as kind and encouraging. She might even be lenient and finally give them the Q and A they're asking for.
"Maybe because they're a bit of a simp."
"Ino!" Sakura yells, appalled.
"And what can I get you ladies on this fine day?" A waiter, Ren, Sakura reads off his name tag, a cute guy with an easy going smile, braces showing.
"I'll take a matcha swiss roll please, and a chocolate milkshake too." Ino smiles.
"And you miss?" The waiter turns to her, smile widening.
"Oh, I'll have a... Sakuramochi please–" "How cute." " Quiet Ino — and just some Iced tea please."
"Alright." The waiter writes down their orders and then looks at Sakura, "I'll be back with your orders in a minute, thank you." And he gives one last smile to Sakura before walking away.
Ino's eyes follow the guy before turning towards Sakura, "So we have a lover boy in our hands."
Sakura smacks a palm to her forehead, this surely can't be happening, "Ino."
"What? He seems nice. Cute and can probably treat a girl right, golden retriever energy you know?"
Like she could forget the last time Ino had set her up, the guy smells like a dog, who hadn’t bathed in weeks and asked for cab money which the guy still hasn’t paid for yet.
"What's that even supposed to mean?"
"It means that there is a counter and there is now waiter in this shop Sakura," Ino states and gestures towards the place, "Look around, there's a line in the counter where we should've taken our order. There is supposed to be no waiters and probably a guy manning the second register." Ino gestures to said counter and smiles, like she's answered a problem that Sakura was supposed to know first, and Sakura decides she doesn't like where this is going, "He fancies you." And just like that.
She says it like it's final, there's no room for arguments, and Sakura almost believes her, almost.
"Yeah, not really interested though, busy and all that, I can barely keep you."
"What am I, a dog?"
"I won't be able to stay in a relationship." Even if I wanted too
It was sad really, everyone will get tired eventually, to her not being able to see her potential lover all the time and being too focused on her career.
She wants someone to understand her,
"Fine," Ino says in defeat, before giving Sakura a teasing look, "He's not your type anyway."
"My type?" This should be interesting. It has been a while since she’s last daydreamed and what not, medical textbooks the only thing in her mind for the time being.
"Yep, you're more like sunshine so, you're best suited for someone cool, someone dark."
Sakura laughs, what? "How can you even come to that conclusion?" She asks, somewhat interested.
"I mean– you're outgoing, wear your heart on your sleeves, sunshine and rainbows, all that jazz. You need someone to balance it out. Someone who’s calm but like, you can bring out their soft side."
“Then why did you set me up with this Kiba guy then?”
“Will you ever let that go?”
Sakura laughs, hand in her face, "Like I can find someone like that," she mutters and sighs, finally giving up on finding the love of her life.
"Maybe it can be one of your simps on your comment section?"
"Goodness Ino, can you please shut up ."
“I didn’t want to have to say this, Sakura, you are pretty but you’re viewers are—” Sakura clamps her hand on Ino’s mouth, earning herself a glare but thinks she’s too tired for this and accept the situation as it is, she’s dealt with worse situations in the hospital before than Ino licking her hand.