Part One:
Sea Boy and Desert Girl
Chapter One
Under the Lemon Tree: A House
"If I were to imagine me alive, and our future together, the three of us as a family. . . I can't see us having anything but a happy life".
-Kushina, Naruto
Perhaps it was because of the passing of time, or because of the constant fatigue that being a medic-nin entailed. But for Sakura Haruno, home no longer was the small room in the second-story house her parents had raised her in. Home was no longer the place with the fading orange walls and fleeting smiles her parents bestowed on her during the mornings before her shift. Home no longer meant warm meals and warmer eyes. Home no longer meant a place to fall back into when the stress from her work became too much to deal with on her own.
It had not been her parents' fault. The blame could not fall on anyone other than herself, for the moment she chose her career path also became the moment all of the parents' future struggles grew. It was as if her decision had been the seed that set the flowers of guilt and remorse to grow. Guilt because of the blood under her nails she would return home with. Remorse for the dark circles under her eyes after long nights of constant healing and no sleep.
No, it had not been her parents' fault that the place she'd always called her home became everything but. No, that fault should only be contributed to her. Even though every time her hands would glow green as she brought a person back from death's greedy hands the guilt from that decision faded little by little until only a small pebble remained.
A year after Sakura's apprenticeship started, and with twelve months of saved pay checks she was finally able to move out of her parents' house and into a place of her own.
It had been difficult. Explaining to them her reasons behind moving (closer to the hospital, closer to the Hokage office, closer to where her comrades needed her), but at the end they had understood. With tired eyes and fleeting smiles, but they'd understood and helped her pack what little she had decided to leave with.
However, it wasn't until a month after announcing her decision that she found a place to call her new home. Naruto would have been ecstatic, since the small house was also ridiculously close to the old apartment complex he'd been staying at before he left on his own apprenticeship trip.
A house with a set of stairs marked green and red by potted plants that lead to a small black metal gate before a wooden door. Round and sharp stones glue together by cement to form pillars and surround the bottom of the house's walls.
Sakura had gazed at the white walls, orange tiled roof, and sky blue window panes and fallen absolutely in love.
It was small, it was picturesque, and it was a place she could learn to call home.