Chapter 1

Sakura was holding a leave between her fingers while resting her chin in her arm over the rail of the bridge.

It has been just 3 days since her sensei, the best medical ninja of the continent and one of the legendary Sannins, Tsunade passed away and everyone in Konoha seems to have already forgotten about it. She came to the bridge to take some air and to be away from… from what?

What was she running from?

She hasn't an answer. She doesn't need it. She just wanted to be alone for a while.

Being Tsunade's only student left in the village has gotten Sakura a lot of new responsibilities after her sensei's death. That's the reason why she hadn't had a lot of time to really think about what happened some days ago.

After the war, Tsunade left the Hokage's position to Kakashi and then started helping out on the village in different ways. Then, it was known that some small countries had made an alliance to try to topple the bigger countries now that war was just over and they weren't at their best condition. Tsunade offered to go gather information for Konoha, but she encountered something more powerful than a little-countries-alliance. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to kill her.

They found Tsunade still breathing near a small village not too far away from Konoha. Tsunade was in a coma-like state but it was something pretty different from everything they had seen before. She went conscious again 2 days after that but still had many weird symptoms and couldn't even get up from bed. She started studying her case, trying to figure out a cure for her condition in case they needed it in the future if a confrontation with that unknown enemy occurred.

She couldn't remember how it happened or who did that to her, but she was certain that it was not caused by poison. She got a lot of answers that could be useful to save her.

Unfortunately, it was too late for her already.

She died at night 2 weeks after she was found.

Now, everyone seems to have forgotten about Tsunade. Sakura knows that life has to keep going, but for some reason watching the kids playing, her friends taking missions or even the birds singing as if anything had happened, made her mad.

While she's still turning the leave with her fingers she's thinking about how Naruto and Sasuke should've felt after losing a lot of important persons for them.

She was sure that Naruto hasn't forgotten about Tsunade yet. After all, they were very close too. She was like a grandma for him. He'd lost Jiraiya, his sensei, a few years ago and now Tsunade was gone too.

"Naruto…" she left out of her mouth with a sigh and slowly attempted to close her eyes for a while. She wanted to see him. He was probably the only one who would understand her pain right now.

"What is it, Sakura-chan?"

She jumped out of surprise before her upper eyelids could touch the lowers.

"Wha…ah..?! Naruto!?"

"Yes… what is it, Sakura-chan?" His big smile made her blush at first but then she felt a little angry with him because he was smiling like that even in a situation like this. And what made her really mad was that little and subtle smile that escaped from her mouth at the sight of his.

"Nothing…" she hid her face from him, turned away and said "it seems you don't understand it either". He wasn't supposed to be smiling. SHE wasn't supposed to be smiling.

"What is it, Sakura-chan?" She couldn't see him but his smile was gone too and his voice was full of pain and concern "is it about the old lady Tsunade?"

He waited for an answer that never came. Her breath rhythm made him know that she was about to cry. "I know how you feel. It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" his voice wasn't strong anymore but it kept its courage "I know it does, but I also know that no matter what I'll find the one who did this. We'll have answers and eventually that answers are gonna save a lot of lives and Tsunade's dead won't be a waste" he could now see her tilting her head down "that's a promise".

That words warmed her heart.

Now she was crying. She was crying for the first time since Tsunade's death.

When she turns again, Naruto is gone. He knows her so well that he knew that she wanted to be alone. That simple thought casts a tiny smile on her mouth again, even if tears were still rolling down her face.


Temari was amused. From all the people in this world he was the only one that could make her feel nervous and at the same time filled her with a very warm feeling on her chest. Just walking with him made her happy.

"It seems that meetings are gonna be like this from now on, don't you think? I mean, now that Tsunade's gone the medic-ninja-school's idea sounds almost impossible" That's him, with his this-is-so-troublesome-I'd-rather-quit thoughts. But he never quitted and that's what made Temari stay with him, what made her want to help him, to cheer him up.

"I'm sure that when that pink haired girl… Sakura?" she knew almost every Konoha's face but she was still trying to remember their names "I'm sure when she gets over her sensei's death she's gonna do her best to get that project done sooner or later".

When they got to the hotel, Shikamaru stopped, sighed and said "I guess so", looking at her with an expression that was impossible to read, even for her.

Temari didn't want to say goodbye yet. Next meeting would be in just 2 days, but something inside of her screamed that she wanted to spend more time with him. Of course, she couldn't let him or anyone else to know that, that'd be embarrassing. But it was something that she really wanted. The time they've spent together had turned precious for her.

"Thanks for escorting me here. See you next meeting!" She turned and opened the hotel's door before she heard his voice again.

"Oe!" she freezes, turned towards him holding the door and feeling her face warming more and more with every second that their eyes met. She even believed that her heart was about to explode. "Next meeting is in two more days. What are you planning to do till then?" She noticed how his face was a little blushed too, even when he tried to hide it avoiding looking in her direction.

"Why? Do you have something on mind?" she said with a big smile on her face and placing a hand on her waist.

"Well, maybe we could hang around… you know, kill some time together or something" He placed his hands behind his head to pretend he was completely calmed "I mean, if you have nothing else to do".

She was so happy and so nervous that she couldn't find the right words to answer to that proposition. She tried her best at hiding her nervousness, smiled again and said "see you tomorrow then". Then she felt the urge to run. She turned around and entered into the hotel with a bigger smile and her cheeks bright red, and just when the door closed completely, she could hear Shikamaru whistling happily while walking away and she felt relieved that he probably was feeling the same way as she did.


Sasuke was home. He had just returned from his one year travel and many things had changed since he left the village. First of all, the Hokage's position was still occupied by Tsunade and now she wasn't even alive anymore. That wasn't a big deal for him because he didn't really know her, but it surely was for his friends and his sensei that now was called the sixth Hokage.

On the second hand, Sasuke had had a lot of time during his travel to think about what he was going to do next. But he had just one thing decided for sure: he was going to restore his clan. He was sure he wanted that and he knew he would first need to find someone to… you know, help him. He wanted to find someone to form a family with. He wanted a family and he wanted it to be a good family like the one he once lost. But he hadn't really thought about who could possibly be that one person, the one who could be a good mother, a good wife and over all, a good partner for life.

When he surprises himself thinking about that, he stops himself. He knows he'll find that person eventually, but the priority now was to relax and clear his mind in order to be ready for his next mission.

He starts taking off his clothes to take a bath. As soon as the hot water touches his skin he takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and tries to remember everything that was said in his meeting with Kakashi this morning. He was told to go meet the sixth when he had just crossed the village's big gates.

First of all, Kakashi told him that he was glad he was back on the village and then told him everything that was known by the time about Tsunade and the smaller countries' conspiracy against the Ninja Alliance's countries. Then, when he thought it was over, Kakashi told him "…so you may want to have some rest as soon as possible because it is more than possible that we'll need you to go looking for information about who or what killed Tsunade-sama and it's connection to the smaller countries. And I'm not trusting anyone on such an important and dangerous mission other than Naruto or you."

He couldn't stop the subtle smile that appeared at his face with this thought. He may be put again in a mission with that usuratonkachi and that sounded interesting. It was hard for him to admit it but he really missed that dumbass. He felt like he owed him too much.

He opens his eyes again. It is almost 5 o'clock and he remembers he hadn't eaten anything since last night so he gets out of the tub, wraps a towel around his waist and walks to the kitchen. He knows there's anything eatable now but it is an old custom from that year he spent living here after the war.

He had completely forgotten about the bunch of letters on the kitchen's table. He found them all lying at his door. He walks towards them, takes some and starts reading and putting away what doesn't seem interesting for reading them later.

He keeps putting letters away till he reads who sent the first letter on the second bunch that he takes: Karin Uzumaki.