-We Will Never Part-
Summary: It was a summer that changed our lives. In some ways for the better. In some ways for the worse. But when we look back on those sixty days, we all agree that they were the most memorable.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the plot of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
-Prologue-
-From Diapers to Deathbeds-
Have you ever felt a bond so strong that it threatens to pull you apart if you were ever to think of breaking it? A bond so strong that it's formation seems almost mythical?
I have. It was the bond between my friends and I, so close that we referred to each other as sisters, one entity residing in four separate bodies. We were 'The SHIT' (Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, and Ryuu Tenten) an inside joke we created when we were twelve. It wasn't really funny, but to our twelve-year-old minds, it was the most genius thing we had ever come up with.
From the first time we met I could tell that our friendship would be one of legends. We just seemed to click. Our personalities moulded together perfectly, even though they were so different. Tenten was the brawn, Ino, the beauty, and Sakura, the brains.
Finally there was me, Hinata. The only way I could think to describe me would be to say that I'm the quiet, sensitive one.
But as strong as our bond seemed to be, it also seemed so fragile. We were so worried that one small event would rip what we had to shreds so tiny that even the magical powers of crazy glue couldn't fix them.
It was with this fear that we spent every moment we had in each other's presence. We hoped that if the bond were broken, we would have had enough of each other to last us until we could build another bond.
We met before our second year came to pass, at the Sunny Mommies Spa. Our mothers had all felt the call of a spa day, and, after finding the only spa in all of Konoha that had a program where children over the age of three months would be cared for while their mothers relaxed, they brought us together.
At such a young age, we didn't really realize that we were in the presence of others like us (as opposed to the adults we were constantly surrounded by). We were simply more concerned with what we were doing at that moment. But it was with this one meeting, created by our mothers' need to get some time to themselves, that our friendship bloomed.
As fate would have it, our mothers all finished at the same time and came to retrieve us. They met and realised they each had daughters around the same age. In the half an hour that followed, names and numbers were swapped and play-dates were set up.
We grew up together. From diapers, to pull-ups, to the ever-coveted big girl panties, we were together for it all. In fact, there was rarely a moment after those first few years of toddler-hood when we weren't together. Summers especially, were our time. They were the only time when schoolwork and extra-curriculars couldn't keep us from enjoying every moment together. From early childhood, at least ¾ of our summers were spent together, whether it was in kiddie-pools in each other's backyard, or the public pool, or the mall.
However, just like everything good in the world, our constant togetherness had to come to an end.
It was the summer before our junior year of high school, a big step in our lives as it was our second to last year of the dreaded halls of education. Our constant summer togetherness had created a routine of sorts; every morning we would wake up, get brunch at a local café and spend the rest of the day in each other's presence, usually wandering around the mall or hanging out at a nearby park or pool.
It was a cumulative affect. With our impending educational freedom, our boring summer routines, and a need to be free of our small town for a while, be free of our world (for Konoha was all we truly knew of the world), we decided to spend the summer apart.
Tenten had enrolled herself in a soccer camp in Sunagakure. We all thought it was an amazing step, considering she hadn't touched a soccer ball since the death of her mother, seven years earlier. She was excited about going, but also worried about leaving the three of us (because at that time we hadn't made our summer decisions yet).
In May, a month after Tenten's self-enrolment in soccer camp, I received a letter from my mother, an event that hadn't happened in about five years. She and my father had separated (much against the advisement of the Hyuuga elders) and my mom had moved from Konoha to Kusagakure. About a year after the divorce, she stopped writing. So when her letter had arrived, I was utterly surprised. Of course, the contents surprised me even more.
She was writing to invite my younger sister, Hanabi, and me to her house for the summer. Apparently, there had been some big change in her life and she absolutely needed to see us. With that, my summer plans were set.
Sakura was the next to feel the need to escape. Her parents had begun talking about possible futures for their daughter over dinner one night. The Harunos were known for their extensive involvement in the medical field. Her father, Haruno Toshiro was a world-renowned neurosurgeon. Her mother, Haruno Misaki, was one of the best veterinarians in all of Konoha. Even her grandparents (on her father's side) were big into medicine. It was a joint venture between Haruno Zurui and his wife Haruno Chikara that brought the largest chain of pharmacies (Haruno Medical) to the world.
With a family full of people in the medical career, it was expected that Sakura would also become some form of doctor. However, during their dinnertime discussion of futures, Toshiro and Misaki began to fear that their daughter was thinking of pursuing other interests, namely her art. Sakura had immediately assured her parents that she would be attending medical school.
However, her parents were still unsure of their daughter's conviction and, just to be sure that their daughter wasn't possibly looking outside of the medical profession for a career, they were sending her to Kirigakure to spend the summer with her grandmother.
Ino seemed to be the only one unaffected by the need for something outside of Konoha. For the past three years, since our breakthrough into the world of teenagers, she had worked a part-time shift at her parent's small flower shop.
The flower shop had been started by her grandmother on her father's side and inherited by the blonde haired male and his wife after his mother died. However, neither had a very large interest in flowers, instead choosing to pursue legal careers.
So, they hired local teens and those who were simply looking to occupy time to work at the shop. Ino had taken the main summer job ever since she was old enough to, having a larger interest in flowers than her parents. And she once again was taking up the job, but in a more full time, manager position, something she was greatly looking forward to.
And then, in June, Ino received her report card and her summer plans were even more set. The young blonde had all but failed her math course and was therefore forced to take a summer course if she wanted to continue on with math (which she did).
And just like that, our constant togetherness was broken. But as we all departed on our summer escapades, I couldn't help but hope that the famous adage, 'Distance makes the heart grow stronger' would apply to us four as well.
-To Be Continued-
