Stumble [Rewrite]

Eleven (5)

Ibiki barely bat an eye when he walked home and saw a white board in his living room along with five small bodies invading the couches. Sakura had a marker in hand and currently pointed towards an anatomical body drawn beside the words Poisons 101. He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, hey, old man!" Sakura greeted. "You came just in time for Friday lessons! We just started if you wanted to sit in."

"No thanks," he said. Then paused. "Did you steal that whiteboard?"

She held her hand over her heart in deep offense.

"Why do you always think I'm doing something like that? Not everything I do is illegal," she pouted. Shino adjusted his glasses from his seat to her right.

"Only most of it," he commented. Akamaru yipped in agreement, causing Kiba to bark out a laugh.

"Come on, Sak. We all know you probably took it from the Academy when Iruka-sensei wasn't looking."

Sakura snatched a pillow from beside a giggling Hinata and half-heartedly smacked him in the face. Ino cried out a "HAH " in triumph from beside the heiress on the couch adjacent to the mess and pointed.

"That's karma, dog boy! You shouldn't have uprooted those flowers even after I told you not to!"

"And Iruka-sensei let me borrow the whiteboard, you doubters. Especially you, old man! Want me to get a permit for that too?"

"Stuff it, kid," Ibiki grunted. He pulled out the papers from under his arm and set it down on the counter with his gaze lingering on the two others on the third couch. Sasuke had a sketchbook in his lap and charcoal residue smearing his fingers, his attention on whatever he was working on. 

Drawing? He couldn't really remember a time when the boy even spared a thought at the art. Next to him was a girl he vaguely recognized as one of Maito Gai's new genin-- Tenten, if he recalled correctly, who was all smiles and chuckles despite being a new addition to the group.

He caught Sakura's eye from across the way and jerked his head towards the counter. She nodded as she tossed her marker in Sasuke's direction.

"I need the respiratory system next," she said. He stood.

"Hm. Colored?"

"If you want to."

Ibiki's gaze lingered on the group for a bit longer as the idle chatter raised in volume and Sasuke started drawing a pair of lungs in a frightening amount of detail. Sakura quietly slid up to his side as she scanned the papers splayed in front of her.

"Since when did the Uchiha brat get all artsy?" he murmured.

"Since he met Sai at the community center during one of his anger management sessions," she replied, equally as quiet. "Remember Sai? Pale skin, dark hair, can speak a million words without taking a breath-"

Ibiki involuntarily twitched. Danzo's civilian grand-nephew who didn't know how to shut the hell up. Right.

"-anyway, Sai goes a lot of different places to find scenes for his 'Daily Life' portfolio he started about a year ago. When he's not in school, he hangs out at every place he can think of to sketch people's, you know, daily lives. Long story short, Sasuke got angry because Sai unintentionally insulted him, they bantered a bit, and now Sai's teaching him how to draw. I think it's a good outlet for Sasuke's anger."

The interrogator let out a low hum. He'd heard about Sasuke's infamous anger issues. His outbursts didn't happen too often and always had a good reason stacked behind them, but the confrontations always ended in some form of physical assault or the appearance of his mangekyou. The kid obviously had some unsolved issues and it was good that he was finally getting around to fixing some of them.