Chapter 2: Nostalgia

A/N: So, set up may take a few chapters. As inexperienced as I am, I do feel like character development is relatively important. I'm trying to make it relevant, at least.

Life without Sasuke was surprisingly easy to adjust to, as she had lived without his presence for most of their teenage and adult lives.

Since the last war, Sakura had found a place as the head of the hospital. At this point in her career, she found herself managing shifts, assigning medical shinobi here and there, confirming inventory or signing off orders for more supplies. To her, this task seemed mundane in comparison to her old exploits, and so she even arranged to be the primary medical practitioner for her friends.

Even then, given their skill set, they wouldn't usually come in with more than a few bumps, or a few shallow cuts here and there. It did serve as good company, though, and she did get to maintain some semblance of a relationship with those who were on the active mission roster.

Likewise, Sarada had easily readjusted to her father's absence. She would always leave to train with her team or depart for some short mission. Sakura thought that it must've been nice to have such a fun, but also dangerous distraction.

Despite that, Sakura understood as she was a shinobi herself, and even found herself pining for those excursions again.

Medical life, after all, did not bear the same satisfactory rewards as completing missions did.

That life, she thought, must be resigned to the younger generations.

Today, however, she found herself feeling much more nostalgic than usual. With that nostalgia, she decided that she'd like to spend time with her teammates, even if that meant one was missing.

With that decision, Sakura resolved to finish her paperwork swiftly so that she could ask them to join her for dinner that night.

"Naruto!" Sakura melodically called from behind the door of the Hokage's office, and knocked briefly before entering the room. She found him staring pensively out of the window, eyes and mouth stretched into a thin line, lips poking out slightly.

"Ridden with stress today?"

"Ehh," he replied in an annoyed tone. "Nothing more than the usual."

Sakura followed his eyesight toward Hokage Mountain to see the words "Baka Hokage!" sprawled across Naruto's stone replica.

He crossed his arms, exhaling a quick huff, and said, "That baka Boruto! I thought we were past this since we've fought together."

Sakura stood beside him and chuckled, "Just like his father, huh? Baka."

Naruto turned to Sakura with a large goofy grin and asked, "Well, what's up?"

"I was just thinking about our old missions together, and I felt like spending some quality time with my team."

Naruto's began to rub his chin after Sakura's request, and Sakura suddenly felt silly.

"That's if you're not too busy of course!"

She put her hands up and wagged them in his direction, dismissing her own invitation.

He continued to hold his thinking face, sputtering small hmms while holding Sakura in anticipation for a little longer than she would have liked.

She was seconds away from apologizing and excusing herself, until suddenly Naruto exclaimed, "Sakura-chan! I have an idea. I can't have dinner today, but tomorrow, I can have Hinata cook. Let's invite Sai and Ino, bring Sarada-chan, and we will have a family dinner, dattebayo!"

Family dinner? She thought, the emptiness returning while envisioning Naruto laughing with his complete family at the dinner table. What is a family dinner without Sasuke?

Naruto noticed a change in her expression and softened his tone, "I'm sorry that teme isn't here… He asked to change his status to active, you know. I tried to insist that he spend more-"

"Naruto-kun, it's alright. It's better that we know where he is and that we at least know that he will come home."

She forced a smile, ignoring the growing yet oh-so-familiar hollowness in her chest. He smiled at her with concern, rubbing the back of his head.

"Tomorrow night? Sarada-chan is due back from her mission then, ne?"

"Yes, she is. Tomorrow is perfect, dattebayo! I'll tell Hinata and Sai and even Kakashi-sensei!"

Any concern dropped from his face then, and was replaced by pure childish excitement.

Sakura couldn't help but reflect the same smile and enthusiasm. Naruto would never change, even if he was the Hokage.

"Don't exert yourself. You're busy enough. I'll find Kakashi and Sai," Sakura said.

"Sai is coming in to turn in his latest mission report, so I've got him covered. You tell Kakashi-sensei."

"Hai, mission accepted!"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled from beside the wooden posts on training grounds.

She had come here because Kakashi continued to train, or sleep, once Naruto inherited the Hokage position from him. His rationale was that retirement shouldn't mean living like a sloth, which was quite ironic given that Kakashi lounged around before and after he became the Hokage anyway. Such was the humor of the Rokudaime Hokage.

When Kakashi didn't appear from his hiding, she decided to approach the trees whose boughs he frequented. When she found him, she began yelling again.

"Kakashi-sensei! Hey!"

He simply grunted from his perch with the classic Icha Icha Tactics resting over his face. His right arm was resting behind his head and his left leg was bent toward his body. Since his retirement, he no longer wore his olive flak jacket and opted to wear his navy blue long sleeve. Of course, he continued to wear his mask, but no longer covered his eye since losing the sharingan.

Kakashi remained unmoving and so Sakura channeled her chakra to her feet to walk up the tree, until finally she swung her leg over the branch and sat by his foot.

In a calm and collected demeanor, Sakura said, "If you keep ignoring me, Kakashi-sensei, I might have to start throwing punches."

"Well," he said, finally removing his book from his face, peering at her with one heavily lidded eye, "if you stopped calling me 'sensei' like I asked, I might be more inclined to respond."

Sakura gave a heavy sigh, "It's just a habit. I don't say it out of spite for your request, you know."

She looked out toward the setting sun from underneath the leaves and began swinging her legs from where she sat. She remembered how often he had asked Shizune-san to stop with referring to him as Kakashi-sama.

Kakashi waved his hand in the air and responded, "I know, I know. But it won't stop me from insisting. I haven't been your sensei for years. You're a jonin now. We've been the same rank for a long time."

"True, but only one of us has the title of being the famous copy ninja and a Hokage."

"And only one of us is known to be the medical ninja protege equipped with Tsunade's fists-of-doom." With that Kakashi leaned forward and rested his arm on his knee. "So what do you need?"

"Well, Sasuke and Sarada are out on missions and in my solitude," she emphasized with a joking tone, "I started thinking about our days together as team 7." She heard him hum quietly. "Naruto and I want to have a team dinner tomorrow at the Uzumaki house. What do you think?"

Kakashi leaned back on the tree, "Solitude, huh?"

Sakura looked at him slightly confused. She was about to repeat herself about Sasuke and Sarada being out on missions, but Kakashi continued.

"He asked to be placed back at on the active roster, eh?"

Sakura looked down to her lap and said nothing, admitting this was true with her silence.

"I know a thing or two about a life of solitude," he said.

Sakura rolled her eyes and added sarcastically, "Solitude my ass. All the girls fall at your feet when you walk by. There's no way you haven't been with a few of them, given the type of books you like to read in public."

Kakashi hopped down from the tree and landed gracefully on his feet. He stuffed his hands in his pocket, and began to stroll slowly.

He echoed Sakura's words, "All the girls, huh? Well, it's an interesting read. You should try it one of these days. You know, since you're living solitary life and all."

Sakura ignored his suggestion and followed shortly behind. "Hey, you didn't answer me. Will you come to Naruto's tomorrow for dinner?"

Kakashi waved his hand in approval and kept walking.

As he walked away she pondered on what she would do next. All of her paperwork was done and Sarada wasn't coming home tonight so she wouldn't need to cook dinner. Surely Ino and Hinata were cooking for their families already.

The thought made her quite sad.

While her friends had settled into their roles, she was moving in and out of hers. She was a mother when Sarada was home, a wife when Sasuke was home, and a medic when she herself wasn't home. But when she wasn't any of those things, she wondered, who am I exactly?