Chapter two time. Still don't own Naruto. Other than that, enjoy.
Chapter Two
...
"Hi Sasuke-kun," said a beautiful pink haired woman. "How are you? It has been a rough week for me, but I made it through. Tsunade-shishō got drunk again before an important meeting, so as normal I had to do damage control with Shizune." A smile appeared on her face at the memory of the event. "It wasn't easy but it was funny and better then dealing with a drunken Lee-kun."
Her smile widens as she starts on her next topic, "Takura is improving it seems every day. She is not the top of her class like you were but she is close. Next year I know she will be though and pass the genin exam without trouble. She has my smarts and daddy's..." Her smile soon fades as the thoughts she tried to suppress rises to the surface.
"Damnit, I miss him so much Sasuke." Sakura whispers, as the tears she been fighting fell from her eyes. "Every time I look into her eyes, see her smile or hear her beg me for ramen for dinner, I can't help but think about him." The more she thinks about the events of how her daughter's father left, the sadder, and angrier she get.
She then yells to her friend, "Things shouldn't be like this. You suppose to be alive with me watching Naruto rule as the best Hokage ever. You should be trying to revive your clan with someone who loves you. You're supposed to be Takura's uncle and have her play with your children. And…and…," a drained Sakura then whispers the thing that really should be reality, "and myself and Naruto should be happy and married, raising Takura with her other sibling."
Dreams, which never will be, suddenly mix with reality of the past and present, halt her tears and harden her resolve. "He ran from the pain and possibly still believes this is his fault. It is not and I will not give up in finding him and proving his thoughts wrong. I will show him that I still love him, that he has a family and a home. It is the least I can do for the man I love who did for much for me when I was able to do so little for him."
She looks up at the sky, wondering if he is looking at the same clouds as her. "He didn't give up on you or on my heart. I will bring him home for Shishou, Shizune, Karin-chan, Kaka-sensei, and all others that care for him for that matter and most of all for you, me, and Takura." She walks up a tombstone and kisses it gently saying, "Bye Sasuke-kun, I love you my brother."
She steps back and speaks into the wind "Yes Kaka-sensei?"
The copycat nin jumps down next to his former student. "Just coming to say hello to Sasuke." Smiling, he then says "I thought I would visit before I go to see Tsunada-sama to return in my last mission report. But you were here before me, so I decided to wait until you were done."
"Thank you" she said as she looked back up at the clouds with Kakashi joining her in comfortable silence.
Their quiet remembrance is soon broken by a swirl of leaf, presenting an ANBU. The masked nin calmly speaks, "The Hokage requests your presents Hatake-san and Haruno-san immediately. She also said to stress 'immediately' to you Hatake-san." With his message delivered the ANBU disappeared the same way he had come.
"Well I guess I will see you in 35 to 45 minutes, eh Kaka-sensei?" said a grinning Sakura looking at her former teacher.
"I did see a cat that was stuck in a tree on my way here. I guess I should go back to see if it is okay." he replies with his famous smiling eye.
Sakura couldn't help but laugh at his comment. 'At least he is kind of still the same' she thought while still laughing, as she made her way to the Hokage Tower.
…...
Sakura arrives at the Hokage office to see not only Kakashi there already with Yamato, Karin, Anko, and Sai, but other famailar faces. She spotted the other members of the Rookie 9 and Team Gai, the Sand siblings, and the Raikage, along with Team Samui. She knew instantly that if A and Gaara were their best nin, then the meeting about to take place was very serious. To add to the confirmation that she was right, among the old faces, she spots two unfamiliar ones.
Sizing up the two guests, a man and a woman, she felt them ooze a thick air of powerful charka, signaling they were no pushovers. On the outside they both appeared to be in their mid-to late 30's.
The man had wild red hair to go with his evenly health pale skin. He had had gentle eyes with his angular face. He has a body frame similar to Kakashi, weak looking, but she knows that if he had his robes and shirt off now, he would possible be equally or more muscular than Kakashi.
The woman has purple hair similar in length to her own. It complimented her tan skin and round face well. She can also see she possibly had a sizeable bust, perhaps bigger then Ino. But the thing that caught her attention most about the woman was the power in her charka. She may look small and fragile like a typical royal lady but may have the strength of Tsunade. Log this information into her mind for future references, she looks at Kakashi.
"What happen to that cat in the tree?" Sakura asked with a smirk.
Before he could say anything Tsunade told the story, "I sent an ANBU after you left him and to tell him if he wasn't here before you, then I would make a law banning Icha-Icha franchise." She them motioned to an empty seat, "Now if you would please Sakura, we have guest."
Seeing Sakura take her seat, Tsunade introduced the two unknown guest. "I would like you all to meet Itō Haruki and Akemi, The king and queen of Shi Country."
This earns a gasp, look of shock or confusion from all in the room except the king, queen and kages. Continuing without pause, she said, "And at this time it is at war again. I will let Itō-denka explain farther. You may have the floor now sir."
Seeing all eyes turn to him at full attention, Itō Haruki, the king of Shi Country, spoke. "Thank you Tsunade-dono. I will give a brief history of my country for those of you who do not know of my country or think what you may know of my country." Closing his eyes to concentrate on what he about to say, he speaks, "Our land name comes from the number of wars fought in and for land. The main reasons for those wars were natural for our rich land and fear because of one man, the Rikudō Sennin."
At the mention of the sennin started whisper among the people in the room, only to be stopped by Tsunade's yelling, allowing Haruki to continue. "He was born in our land, and was said to be a member of the royal family, which was a rumor." He opens his eyes, pressing on, "It didn't matter in the end if it was a rumor, fear of another person controlling power equal to the Rikudō Sennin and greed for our land pushed neighboring countries into attacking us. Soon they were fighting not only our country but each other and all of that fighting was done on our land."
He looked to his queen, Akemi, and nodded to her, to finish their tale. "The fighting soon turned into a stalemate, yet Shi still had no peace until a new nation, Nikkō, appeared and helped Shi. They help us drive out the other nations and returned out country to us for a simple reason. They felt it was the right thing to do. Nikkō also worked with the other nations to bring stability to the area. War would once in awhile break out but never again Shi or on Shi soil. That was until six years ago." She stops and looks down.
People in the room see she is trembling, evidently trying not to break down. She gains some amount of control over her emotions when Hakuri slips his hand into hers. She then looks back up misty eyed, with a look of pure disgust and said, "That is when the daimyō of Nikkō, my father, accused Hakuri of killing my mother and his parents. He then demanded I turn over Hakuri to him. I refused, so he disowned me then declared war on Shi."
This time the murmurs in the room included the kages themselves. It was only stop when Gaara asked question. "How has Shi and Nikkō relationship been before you two were married and before the war."
Haruki answered him, "Wonderful. Akemi and I not only married out of our friendship and love for each other, we and our parents believe this marriage would help unify Shi and Nikkō into something better."
"Maybe close family members are trying to create a rift, to cease power in the chaos" spoke Tsunade.
"That is impossible. We are our parents' only children and there are plans to shift control and power if the all royal family members die. The shift is also designed in a way, so there will not be once person with all the power." enlightened Akemi.
With a bored look Shikamaru added his two cents in, "Well since you put it like that, you are right in guessing he is behind all of this. The real question though is what he is really up to and after. It's troublesome for him to attack Shi if his daughter is a princess there and next in line to ruler. Even if he wanted to rule and did, he possibly wouldn't live long to fully rule and that power would go to you regardless after your mother dies." He sighs, "And I thought my family was troublesome." This earned him a slap to the back of his head from one Nara Temari.
"So this rules out internal parties benefiting in the deaths of any royal family member. But want about other nations?" asked A.
"Possibly but that is not likely either" said Akemi.
Hakuri added on, "We have allies who are friends and former foes. In fact, the one that we thought would have been behind this is now our ally. They could have join Nikkō and finished us off but their daimyō sided with us."
"Well, let ask the big question now which should have been first," asked Kakashi. "Who in fact, killed Itō-kokuō's parents and Itō-joō's mother? Because I believe I speak for the Hokage when I say that you two have a good clue on who did it.
Hakuri was about to confront Kakashi on his accusation until Akemi speak up, "My father killed his parents and I killed my mother."
The room then went quiet until Shika looked towards his wife and said "Told you, more troublesome then our family."
Assuming her Hokage pose, Tsunade looks to the couple. "Explain...NOW.
I was going to add the story in this chapter but decided to do it for the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Chapter 3 coming fast, so look out.
Japanese lesson time:
Shi = Death
Nikkō = Sunlight
Kokuō = King
Joō = Queen
Denka = Royal Highness (of a foreign land)
Takura = Treasure (you will see why she is named this later and its not because it rhymes with Sakura)