Series Finale: Sensei

Recap: Ino Yamanaka finds herself in a odd love triangle between the Subaku brothers, but finds out that the Sensei that she had fallen in love with loved her back.

Tenten knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that a relationship with Neji isn't in her future. But how does she convince her Sensei that she'll settle for no less than forever from him?

Sakura Haruno is given a choice. Either marry one of the Uchiha brothers or be the reason that Naruto and Hinata don't get married. To Sakura the answer is a no-brainer, but the Sensei she loves doesn't agree with her choice. And what the heck was she going to do about Kiba?

Ino Yamanaka stepped through the gates of Konoha for the first time in a while. Surprisingly enough, a grin stretched across her lips as she crossed the threshold.

"It's good to be home!" She called out and a few people looked her way curiously as they moved over to the gate to sign in. Temari rolled her eyes at her antics wondering how long her optimism would last and hoping it would be for their entire stay. Otherwise, she'd have some angry little brothers on her hands and no one wanted that.

"So, are you going to tell them?" Ino asked and looked at her partner in crime expectantly. Temari grinned.

"Of course."

Temari bit her thumb causing it to bleed a little and slammed her hand to the ground allowing Kamatari to appear. And appear her little weasel friend did full of spunk and attitude.

"Kamatari, go tell them."

Before she could say anything further, he disappeared, causing Temari to look at Ino was grinning at her widely.

One would think marrying the most eligible bachelor in Konoha would be an easy thing. It would be an exciting one. However, this would never be the case if your last name was Hyuuga. Hinata sat in the gardens of the Hyuuga Compound trying to regain her composure after a recent meeting with the Hyuuga Elders. They were determined to make her life as difficult as possible in hopes that she would break off her engagement to Naruto and marry someone else. Someone that they had hand-picked personally for her.

While they Hyuuga admired strength in a ninja they didn't admire the Kyuubi. No one had bluntly said as much to her, but what other reason could there be for them not wanting her to marry Naruto of all people? She had tried talking to her father about it, but he had never been a man of many words and the truth was neither was she a woman of them. So she was left at an impasse as to what was going on and what she would do.

Hinata blinked back tears. She hadn't told Naruto what was going on, in fact, she hadn't told anyone because she didn't want them to worry. All of her friends had their own problems that they were working through and she didn't want to burden anyone. Hinata took a few deep breaths in order to compose herself before rising to her feet and continuing on with her day.

She hadn't taken a single step when she felt a strong gust of wind. Her eyes narrowed at first and then widened when she saw engraved on one of the trees in front of her a simple word. When Hinata read it, despite how she was feeling at the moment she couldn't do anything but smile because in the first time in a while she felt truly happy.

Tenten was looking for her teammate, Rock Lee, to see if he wanted to spar that afternoon. It wasn't something they did often. Team Gai always preferred to train together and strengthen their teamwork, but surprisingly every now and then the two of them broke off from the norm and trained together.

They had become closer because of it and being with Lee alone helped her get to know him and not that other persona that he wore. Some people called him an imitator of Gai, but Tenten always knew that wasn't the case. He was his own person without a doubt. It was just that no one ever really looked close enough to see who that person was.

When the gust of wind came through she still hadn't found Lee, but at that point she felt it could wait until later. There was only one person that could make a breeze feel like that. Tenten smiled brightly and let out a whoop. Especially after the leaves fell from the trees spelling one word.

:::

Sakura was tired. A chunnin team had just made it to Konoha with several of them barely alive. The surgery had been a long and complicated one, but somehow they all managed to pull through. Her shift was over as she had worked all night and into the early morning, but she wasn't quite ready to go home yet. She collapsed into her desk in her office and silently contemplated taking a mission, because she could really use a change of scenery. She felt like a caged animal that longed for freedom.

A strong wind came from nowhere, blowing the papers on her desk everywhere. A growl emerged from her throat as she only knew one person who would do something that annoying. When she saw the word engraved on her desk, she pushed her chair nearly toppling over in it in her haste to leave her office and give someone a piece of her mind about property damage. She stormed out of her office ready to raise hell because Temari felt the need to inscribe Gate on her desk.

Ino looked at Temari seeing the smile on her face and knew without a doubt that trouble was brewing. She rolled her eyes before smirking slightly. She was just glad that this time she was with Temari when she returned to Konoha.

Tenten showed up first. She let out a loud girlish squeal when she saw them and ran their way. Temari laughed out loud and grabbed Tenten in a hug and squeezed tightly. The two quickly separated and Tenten and Ino looked at each other. Tenten grinned at her and held open her arms and beckoned Ino into them. Ino sneered slightly, but hugged Tenten tightly.

"You missed me, didn't you?" Tenten inquired. Ino tossed her hair. "For the two seconds I thought about you."

Tenten pouted and Ino couldn't help but laugh. Their laughter was interrupted by a loud yell.

"Temari Subaku!" Temari arched a brow and Sakura stormed up to her. Sakura, when she was within reached punched Temari in the arm hard enough to show her irritation.

"Property damage is bad!" She scolded. Temari protruded her bottom lip and in a decidedly false voice said, "I'm sorry."

"You should be." Sakura replied, ignoring the lie in her friend's voice and then turned and looked at Ino. Sakura gave her a slow up and down and said, "Well, it looks like Suna agrees with you. You don't look like shit anymore."

"And you look like shit no matter where you are." Ino replied with a smile before the two girls threw their arms around each other and hugged each other fiercely.

Tenten then stated the obvious. "Hinata's not here."

The four women looked around, alarmed before turning to Temari. "I called her. She should be here shortly."

Out of the corner of Ino's eyes, she saw a blur rushing in their direction and apparently she wasn't the only one to see it as the four them suddenly turned their back toward each other facing outward. She grabbed a kunai and held herself ready.

That was when she saw pale eyes and long hair blowing in the wind rushing towards them. She relaxed slightly and smiled when she saw Hinata. When Ino saw the Hyuuga heiress she was actually surprised that she was happy to be home.