They are back.

Lifes little ironys, all of them.

Naruto – the boy who tried so hard to win

(but at what, Sakura never knew, life had stopped being a game for her when her mother sat at the table crying over a picture of her father, and there was a ninja at the door dressed in black)

the boy who was golden, and sunshine, and everything happy personified. The one who overcame all of the odds, despite what the world threw at him. The demon. The one with anger and hate personified inside him

(did he act so happy because if he didn't the darkness would have overwhelmed him? Life is all about balances)

the boy who followed his best friend in to the heart of the snakes den, only, he never came out. The boy who followed and learned from the toad, only to leave him at the first sign of the friend who had left him all those years ago

(the friend who had promised to never leave, Sakura got confused, who was he promising? When his back had faded into the darkness, she knew)

Sasuke – the dark one, the brooder of their little group. He who tried so hard to grow and train

(Sakura finds it funny how she grew the most and never left the place where she was from, Home was enough for her, but not for him. Was she never reaching to the stars like they were?)

His one goal in life to kill his brother

(Sakura had never understood his drive. What would he have left when he had acomplished it? What would he do?)

The little boy who lost himself on the day that his brother took away his family

(It's sad, sakura thinks, because his brother took away so much more that day)

The boy who had been consumed with one thing, and yet was still protective and slightly sweet to her.

(Sakura had cherished those moments, not his looks or anything like that, but they had left after a while, and she was left running after something that she had lost long ago)

Kakashi – the man -child who dispensed fake smiles like raindrops. The one who hid behind the mask

(Only they were all hiding behind masks then. His was the only one she could see though)

The mentor who had forgotten her, the one who had left her in favor of the two boys who had their dreams to shout to the world at the top of their lungs.

(Night and day, dark and light. She wonders if they had ever noticed how much they had in common, despite their differences)

The one who had smiled at her and patted her once, twice on the head before following the sun into the darkness, slipping in like the shadow that he was

(Brushed off without so much of a word. When Sakura could work up the nerve to remember them, she was insulted slightly. But not much, because it was mostly sadness at the fact that she had never been important enough for his time, and she can remember making him rice balls every Monday.)

Lifes little ironys, like she said. They were the ones she thought about when she hadn't trained hard enough, hadn't reached that state of mind numbing exhaustion. When she was alone in her room, and no one to talk to her. Doubts collecting up like the medic scrolls and training poster cluttered amongst her room.

She doesn't talk about the photograph at the bottom of her bed collecting dust with her old toys and lost dreams with the cracked glass and broken frame. Cracked and broken, just like her. Only she had been lovingly repaired with the kind words and small gestures her friends made.

Ino, who on the day she heard about Sasuke, had shown up at her door with a tub of chocolate ice cream, tears in her eyes, and an apology.

Shikamaru and Chouji, who had followed Ino when she had heard about Naruto and then Kakashi. They had sat on Sakuras floor while Ino had held her as she shook with sobs, but no tears escaped. Shikamaru coughing awkwardly and Chouji trying vainly to offer her chips. They had gotten up and carefully wrapped their arms around her, with a small 'troublesome' and a smell of barbeque chips.

The next Sunday it was the anniversary of Asuma's death, and they cried together for the ones they had lost.

They had formed their own little family, and when Temari had tried to join their group, Sakura had held Ino as the blonde cried into her shoulder, about missed opportunities and broken promises.

Two weeks later, Temari had left in a huff after some well chosen words from sakura and chouji. No, she was not allowed to come to dinner on Monday night. That was their time.

And Shikamaru had accepted it with a small 'troublesome' and worried glance at the silent – too silent – Ino.

Hinata joined eventually, after Sakura and Ino had found her crying just outside of konohas gates, covered in blood that was hers and yet not and clutching a torn shredded orange shirt that made Sakura's heart clench because she had one stuffed under he bed next to the faded blue wrist bands and grey mask. Hinata had been introduced to their family, where they depended on no one but themselves.

And who would have known that she and Chouji would have hit it off so well?

Two years later, she moved on (so she thinks) changed, Forest green and lazy sighs has replaced navy blue and brooding silence, chips for ramen, White gentle eyes for a singular, hard red one and of course, the fresh air that Ino brings everywhere to clean out the stale absence left by the people who left them behind. They live together, in companiable silences and cheerful laughs, a family, the one Sakura was deprived of so long ago when the Hokage made that decision.

(And life becomes a game again, when she accepts her position as head medic, and in the front row her family cheers, mother no where to be seen, but then again, her mother had never understood, had decided to waste away in the dust filled house with the yellow curtains that Sakura had despised)

But, life moves on and they come back. And silence – heavy silence- fills the little house that they own, and Sakura is left once again to close the door in the face of the messenger, five years older, yet being called once more to meet her team. Only, they aren't, not any more.

(Funny how history repeats itself)

and naruto still burns as bright as the sun

(only now she can see the shadows he leaves behind him. She should know, she was one, and so was Hinata )

And Sasuke seems to have found what he was looking for

(Such a shame he lost himself in the process)

And Kakashi is there with his stupid, disgusting book

(Does he think he can hide forever from his mistakes?)

Sakura smiles at her Hokage (the older other one never was really. Had thought her mediocre and silly, in the back of his mind. Tsunade had trained and given Sakura strength, and a place to run to) Places down the files she's been meaning to give to her since Monday. There is a sudden gasp from the boys side of the room, and a loud shout soon follows. Sakura very carefully shakes off the man attached to her shoulder (It's not Naruto. Naruto died long ago to her when he closed the gates on her. This is just a stranger who wears his face), and walks out the door, ignoring the yells from Naruto and the shaken glances from the two quieter ones. She closes it with a quiet click, and sets off on her day – after all, she was going to meet Lee for lunch (As just a friend, but Lee had grown up, and more importantly, so had she)

They are back, but she is gone.