Naruto met Sakura at training grounds at 7. They started with simple warm up and after that they began their sparring. Naruto knew that Sakura was propably the most powerful woman in all Konoha. Her punch could completly destroy whole tree and ground. Taking punch from her was nearly deadly for most people. She helped them a lot during the war not only as medic. But even with this kind of power she couldn't copare to his Sage mode with Kuramas chakra. There was only one person who could compare to him alone and that was Sasuke with his dojutsu. Although not using Sage mode during fight with Sakura was enough. She was capable of fighting him and sometimes bitting the crap out of him. She made her way through his clones and punched him straigt into face. He then called it her win.
'I'm leaving for a mission tommorrow. To Suna' he told her after drinking some water.
'Oh, who with?' she was suprised that Kakashi send Naruto on a mission without her and Sai. They were team after all.
'Shikamaru and team 8. Sasuke is still in town. You could try talking to him when we are gone' after years of chasing after Sakura, Naruto grew out of love for her (if you can call that affection love) and now cheered for her and Sasuke. He saw the way she looked when Sasukes name poped up in the conversation and wanted his friend to be happy, he also was sure that Sakura like no one else could make Sasuke quite happy. Uchicha cared for her even if he didn't admit it, he saw how powerful she was during the war. After their battle, after losing their arms, that was she who saved them from death. During that battle something in Sasuke have changed. He was no longer full of rage and hate as if it all was gone with their chakra.
'I was thinking about talking to him, you know. But I think it's time for him to do something. I'm not saying he's got to vow his love to me, but I DO need him to do something. Till this moment it was allways me talking, doing, worrying. Not anymore. I'd rather be alone than with someone who can't even come talk to me' She did put a lot of thought into it. Making this promise to herself wasn't easy and hurt but it was necessary.
'I understand' was all Naruto said to that. 'Do you want me to speak to him about it?' as soon as he imagined th conversation he felt uncomfortable.
'No Naruto. It has to be his idea' she smiled. 'But I'd like to see this. You two talking about feelings and all' their eyes locked and both started laughing.
Sasuke was up early. He stayed at some dirty motel away from centre of the city. Not because he had no money, but because he didn't like crowded places and wanted some privacy even if it meant staying in such an obscure room with even worst bathroom. Seeing his friends the other night was quite good. He've missed Naruto and his loud mouth. There was only one thing that bothered him. And frankly that was Sakura who didn't look him in the eye the whole time. During his last jouney he had spent some time thinking about her, them. He was aware of her feelings and knew that he hadn't been good for her. That was an understatment. He'd been quite awful towards her. And now he didn't know what to do with this. She clearly was masochistic to still love him afer all this shit. The only person he could talk to about this was Naruto but only a thought of this made his eye twitch. Maybe she will come to talk to him soon. Then he will improvise. He decided that it was it and started his morning routine which contained few excercises before shower and after that simple, small beakfast. He was quite accustomed to lack of his arm. He considered it his punishment and reminder. At first it was hard, but after some time he've learnt to do even complicated seals and now he nearly couldn't remember how it was before. For some time he thought about asking Sakra to replace his arm with the new one but he couldn't do that not after all he's done.
He needed to train. Alone. So he went to training grounds but there were peple already. Not only some people, this were his former teammates. They were laughing loudly about something. He stepped out of the wall of trees and was spotted immediately. Sakura instantly became silent and Naruto waved to him.
'How are you?' Naruto asked when he came to them.
'Ok.' he looked at him. 'Aren't you supposed to be training in here, not laughing your asses of?'
'Oh, we are done with our training for today. I'm leaving for mission tommorrow so you two can train together' Sakura glowered at him.
'Yeah, why not' she muffled. 'Only say when. I've got a lot of work at the hospital.'
'I'll be in toutch. Where are you going for that mission?'
'First Suna, then I don't really know' Sasuke knew what the mission was about as soon as he heard "Suna". 'Are you going to be here when I come back?'
'Probably' he responded.
'We'll let you train' Sakura got up and walked away. Naruto soon followed her.
Shikamaru was sitting at branch with his best friend Choji. Clouds were moving through the sky calmly. Some people thought that he looked at them to see some shapes but no. He just liked this stilness. They were talking about different types of fries. Choji recently grew to love them because of one particular kunoichi named Karui. After the war they kept in touch and sometimes visited each other. Shikamaru was trully happy for his friend. He didn't quite understand what he saw in her but that didn't matter. All woman were troublesome. Once he planned to marry untroublesome women but then he met Temari. She was from Suna and they were in charge of chunin exam once. With all his inteligence he couldn't undersant her, and most of all couldn't understand himself and his affection towards her. She was powerful, inteligent but mainly full of trouble. But it didn't matter once they met. He was never bored with her, never wanted her not to be. Ino was terified by the thought of them finding love before her. But now she spent more and more time with Sai who was so strange that even became funny for Shikamaru. When he compared relationships of his teammates he couldn't decide which was stranger. Probably Chojis.
'So when do you come back from this mission exactly?' Choji asked out of the blue.
'I don't know. It might take a while because of the lack of informations we were given. Maybe we will know something new once we get to Suna. What is strange is that there will be a lot of people assigned to this mission so it can't be easy or short' he sighed
'I thought that it would be over. You know. This whole Kabuto thing'
'We all did Choji but I don't think there will ever be complete peace' peace was hard matter. After the war every country claimed that there was peace but there always will be some people wanting more power and this led to war. One person could do so much destruction that it worried him.
'I wish it was possible, but i guess you're right Shikamaru' Choji always thought of his friend as of the most intelligent person on earth. Intelligent and kind. It wasn't as visible but Shikamaru never categorised anybody befor he got to know them and if asked he would always help someone in need. He was his idol to be honest.
'I must be going if I want to prepare for mission. We're leaving tommorrow at 8. When I come back we need to go to this barbecue place once again' he got up slowly and walked towards his home. He to did think highly of Choji. He has grew a lot since their academy times. He doubted himself but Shikamaru never did doubt him. Choji was more inteligent than everybody thought, more powerful and more sensitive. He was his best friend of all.
Hinata walked through the village with smile on her face. She stepped into flower shop which belonged to Yamanaka family. Currently Ino was in charge of it.
'Hi Hinata!' she was welcomed from entrance 'What brings you here today?'
'I'd like to buy bunch of sunflowers for Neji' she said smiling sadly. 'I won't be able to give him any flowers in a while'
'I've heard about you going on a mission with Shikamaru. I'm quite disappointed that I have to stay here. I havn't been on a mission since forever!' she said while taking 5 sunflowers from water and packing them for Hinata. 'You miss him, huh?'
'Yes, very much so' Hinata took a big breath.
'I know what you feel' Ino saddened. She lost her father in the war and was devastated by this. 'I think sunflowers would make him really happy. They look especially beautiful today I've just recieved them two hours ago. Here you go. This time it'll be on the house. Consider it good luck gift' she smiled at Hinata. They haven't been really close friends in the past but over the years all of the girls started meeting once a month and knew each other better now. Ino was sometimes angry at Hinata because of her shyness. Angry because she knew how she felt about Naruto and wanted her to be more confident of herself. But now it seemed as if this love was slowly disapearing. Maybe it only seemed like that but Ino was sure that something has changed in her friend recently.
'Oh, thank you very much. I owe you coffee than' she took flowers and said words of goodbye to Ino.
She didn't spend much time at the cemetery this time but promissed to herself that she will come here as soon as she gets back. There was one other thing to do before going back home. She needed new set of kunais and shurikens and knew exactly the person to visit.
TenTen've spent almost all of her days in her fathers shop. In the backyard there was place to train. That's what she was doing at that moment. War took her spirit away. Lee and Gai-sensei had been trying to cheer her up constantly but nothing could. She wasn't on any mission since they came back. She couldn't because medics wouldn't allow her. So all she was doing was selling weapons and train with weapons. She heard ring at the shop so she came inside. She saw Hinata picking something.
'Hi Hinata. What do you need' her voice was hallow. No emotions in her face. Nejis death had taken it's mark not only at Hinata.
'Hi TenTen. Just these' she put kunais and shurikens at the desk. 'I also wanted to go with you for icecreams if you'd like to' Hinata was one of very few people with who TenTen ever gone out. 'We could train sometime too. I don't know when I'll come back but I'll give you a message'
'We can go for icecreams now if you want to' TenTen was actually suprised of her own words. Hinata lightened up.
'Yes sure. That would be great' she smiled. So TenTen closed shop and they both wend to the centre. They sat outside and talked about small topics as new Hokage.
'Hinata how do you cope with this?' TenTen looked at her.
'I don't think Neji would like us not to be happy, you know. I try to be the best kind of myself for him and for me to. That's not easy and I didn't love him the way you did but I know you can come out of this emptiness' she really didn't know what to say. This topic was like mine field.
'I'll try. But I can't see how this could work.'
'We can work on this together. You know I'm here for you anytime... Well anytime but the time I'm on the mission' now she actually regretted that she was leaving.
'I need to do this alone for now. But I appreciate it. You and Lee are really only people who understand me. Sakura is analyzing everything I say like even outside the hospital she is still a doctor' she was angry at the memory of few times Sakura came to her. Hinata stood up and hugged her friend not knowing what to say.
'You can always come to me' she repeted herself. Few minutes later they separated and Hinata went home thinking about her friend. Maybe everythng will work out after all.
