The doorbell rang the next morning much to my despise. Stupid jet lag is killing every living cell in my body to be waking up so flipping early, too.

Van took me around LA to get familiar with the streets after our little ice cream dinner. We didn't get to my new home until like midnight, and since the airport was running a little behind on luggage delivery, we had to wait up until two for them to arrive. We played random board games he managed to run and buy at the local Wal-mart not too far.

The apartment Neji picked out for me was on the outskirts of town where I can see the Hollywood sign from my bedroom balcony window. It isn't really an apartment since only one more person lives here and I heard she's always at her boyfriend's house so I don't really have to worry. Upon arriving, she wasn't there.

My apartment was almost the mirror version of my apartment in Korea which means I didn't have to learn so many new things except get use to how everything is in English instead of Korean.

The doorbell rang once again, making me groan even harder. I didn't finish unpacking, even with Van's help, until like four. It's only seven thirty now. Why would anybody be up and about so early in the morning anyway?!

Concluding it's probably somebody important, I grabbed a hoodie and made sure my shorts weren't to short. The doorbell rang again that my finger combing increased in speed.

Running down the dangerous spiral staircase, I made sure I didn't trip. Hint the dangerous part of all of this.

I swung the door open before the person could ring it once more. A man, smaller than Van is in structure, stood there in a black suit with the expression of having seen a ghost on his face.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," I apologized.

He didn't say anything. His mouth was wide open and his finger slowly raised; pointing directly at the bridge of my nose.

Do I look that bad?

"H-Hinata?!" he finally managed.

I blinked, "Yeah, that's me why?"

"You, I, uh, Van, uh, wait what?!" his eyes suddenly narrowed. "Y-you're the one that passed the test?! You're the one that's gonna be working with us for the next five months?!"

I nodded, "Not that I had a choice."

The man ran his fingers through his soft blonde hair and walked around in a circle as if cooling off steam. He is eerie familiar but I don't have time to place a name with his face. He is having issues of his own right now.

"Of all the doctors the Hyugas hire, they send you," he mumbled.

"I'm right here," I said, annoyed. "You're from the Uzumaki Hospitals, right? Well, give me half an hour and I'll go with you to meet your president."

I turned to close the door but his hand caught the door before I could, "No, wait Hinata!"

I looked at him surprised. This man's pretty bold.

"You can't go and meet our president yet," he quickly said. "He's going through a time of crisis right now. Seeing you is going to throw him off his access."

I narrowed my eyes at the guy, "Who are you and how do you know my appearance will throw your president off?"

"You seriously don't remember me?"

"No!"

"It's me, Jason! Remember now?"

Jason? As in Naruto's secretary and childish Jason I met at the funeral?! I looked him over once. Wow, I am terrible at recognizing people aren't I? If Van didn't have that scar of his, I'd never know who he was. Though he did prefer I didn't recognize him...

"Ah, yeah, hi Jason," I blinked. "You've been well, I see."

He sighed with relief, "You can't see Naruto right now, Hinata."

"How come?" I asked. "I'm just going to him, tell him I'll just be doing my job in the emergency room and he can continue living his perfect life where I never existed."

Jason shook his head, "You still have so much influence over him it's not even funny."

I laughed, "Influence of a squirrel he sees in the streets."

"You don't understand," Jason looked at me, his blue eyes emotionless, "Just the other day, his daughter brought you up as being her role model at the dinner table and he just threw a fit and went to bed."

I'm not going to let that get to me...

"Even though you're all the way in Japan or Korea," the man continued. "He keeps on CNN everyday in hopes of seeing you succeed in life."

Not letting that get to me...

"No matter what happened," Jason sighed. "He's atoning for his sins by not reaching out to you. He must stay where he is and do what's right for the mistakes he's made."

I bit my lip.

"Hina-"

"Yo, Jason!" that voice! "She doesn't want to hear anymore. Let it go."

I could hug him right now! Van, always rushing to my rescue.

Van was dressed in his professional clothing again. His suit fit him perfectly as he walked up the steps to my front door where Jason is still holding onto my door while I was half in and half out.

"We should go," he pointed over his shoulder. "It looks like Puppy's neighbor is home and you're parked in her place. She's gonna kill you."

Jason visibly flinched at Van's comment, "I'll go move it. But did you just call her 'Puppy'?"

"Yep," Van smiled at me. "Long story short, she said puppies were cute. She's cute therefore her name is puppy."

Jason looked from Van to a blushing me. I had to duck inside to not let him see.

"Whatever you say," Jason stuffed his hand in his pocket. "You can get ready for your first day of work. There's a group of interns picked out for you have already arrived about half an hour or so. You best hurry, Hinata."

~~~

"Ummm another word for 'donkey'?" I asked, juice box in hand.

Van's fingers drummed on his steering wheel, "How many spaces?"

"Seven."

"It's not ass so it's probably jackass," he replied, changing lanes to follow in behind Jason's black BMW.

"You're an ass," I replied but filled in the crossword blanks anyway.

I'm in the new doctor coat Van gave to me this morning with the Uzumaki crest along with my name spelled out in English letters. As I was getting ready, Jason's words kept replaying in my mind. Naruto is atoning for his sins by not talking to me. Is that why he had to break his promise of seeing me no matter what?

It doesn't matter anyway, in my eyes he still doesn't care about me enough to actually respect me.

"Here we are," Van pulled into the parking lot too soon.

I looked around, a giant glass like building stood proudly along with a whole bunch of human beings roaming to and fro.

Hopefully, Naruto isn't here today. Hopefully, he's in some kind of meeting that he doesn't have time to see the doctor that was just part of a contract violation.

The door to the passenger side suddenly opened with a worried Van crowding down at me, "You alright, Puppy? You don't have to go right now if you don't want to."

"If I don't then I never will," I drew a deep breath.

He held out his big hand, "And I'll be there with you."

I gave him a warm smile and accepted his hand without question. As I got out and he shut the door, Jason stood watching us with a cold look in his eyes.

He turned his back to us, "This way."

We walked through the emergency room entrance. Sick and injured people were swarming the area along with some doctors and nurses. Their eyes looked at us curiously as we walked by. Only a few took a few milliseconds to recognize me.

By that time, I realized we were heading straight towards the locker room when Jason stopped and turned to face both me and Van, "Here's the locker combination, number. Inside the locker, is an agenda book laid out with all the tasks you need to complete for the five months. From here on out, you're on your own, Hinata. Naruto will come and see you sometime in the week so don't expect to see him in the incoming days."

"And you," he turned to Van. "I have your next scouting location so come with me."

Van nodded his understanding, "Alright."

Jason turned again and walked away. Van gave me a reassuring smile, "It's fine. I'll try to hurry and come back. You won't be missing your ice cream buddy for too long, I promise."

"You better," I nodded.

He squeezed my hand before running after Jason.

I watched the two backs turn the corner before entering the women staff locker room. To my relief, nobody was there.

I looked at the paper Jason handed to me so coldly and found my locker. As I entered the combination, fingers crossed the interns I'm supposed to be showing around don't rat me out to their hospital director or anything.

Composing myself, I left the locker room and headed back the way I came. Only this time, a doctor was keeping a line of interns straight all the while walking back and forth. When he saw me approach him, he stopped in front of an intern before I could lay my eyes on her. The other three interns, two guys and one girl, are normal, good-looking or pretty and all older than I am. They looked at me in complete interest.

Perfect.

"Doctor, you're here!" the doctor himself tried to compose himself. "I am Dr. Hudson, resident here at the Emergency Room. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The man, in his mid-twenties with already silver hair, extends his hand for me to shake. Still being accustomed to the Korean ways, I shake his hand with a bow. He gives me a confused look but accepts my sign of respect anyway.

"I'm just making sure the interns were in line for you," he smiled. "You can take it from here." He handed me a clipboard with all the names of the interns on it and their profile.

"Thank you," I nodded.

He stood where he was as I cleared my throat, "Alright, I'll start calling your names now. Please respond with a strong 'here' to show that you're committed, agreed? I don't want or need any slackers on my team and since we're going to be together for the next five months, I expect the absolute best out from all of you, understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" the interns straightened their postures as they responded eagerly.

Dr. Hudson looked at me with complete respect.

I glanced at the two guys, one had a square jaw, silver eyes and buzzed cut black hair. The other one a little shorter than his fellow intern but their build was quite similar. He was a brunette with dark coffee eyes and the features of a little brother. Both eager to be where they are.

The girl looked less proud at herself or at the least, perhaps dreading the fact that for her first months of internships, she's dealing with a pretty strict doctor who will not tolerate mistakes in the most hectic place on Earth; the emergency room. Her dirty blonde hair tied in a low pony tail, her lips painted with a dark shade of red lipstick along with some light mascara.

After I finished examining the physical appearances of my students, I turned to the clipboard. Gotta remain as professional as possible.

The first profile that came up was the girl's, "Maemi Woods born on March 16th, are you here?"

"Yes I am here," she exclaimed, surprisingly strong. Maybe she does want to be here.

I met her eyes for a brief moment before flipping the page again to encounter the taller guy's profile picture and read his name, "Liam Crosser born on February 2nd, are you here?"

He got taller, "Yes ma'am I am here!"

I met his eye and nodded before flipping to the next page, "Fletcher Clayton born on February 3rd, are you here?"

"Yes ma'am!"

I glanced at Dr. Hudson but he quickly shuffled away. I looked down at my clipboard and flipped the page, only to gasp simultaneously with the final intern.

To confirm if the data was true, I looked up to make sure I saw her with my own eyes. Sure enough, there she is standing proud and tall only to have lost her structure thanks to her recognition of who I was.

My throat ran dry, my blood froze, my back nearly stopped supporting me as I looked at the intern who gasped upon the sight of me. I-I on the other hand... needed CPR right then and there.

The familiar pink hair, the emerald green eyes...

"Sakura-chan..." I barely managed.