Guess who's back with a brand-spanking-new chapter! Me!
"So what place is this that we're going to again?" Maigo said as he and Suto trekked their way through the forest they arrived in an hour before.
"It's a cabin that belonged to this old couple I knew. Those two were the ones who found me right after my accident. They saved my life and nursed me back to health. Well, my body anyway," Suto explained.
"Knew?" the blonde asked.
"Yes," Suto confirmed with sorrow in his voice. "I knew them because they died. It's why I left that place. I didn't want to stay after that. It felt like I was intruding since it wasn't my home," That and I would always be reminded of the fact that they were gone, the raven thought to himself.
"Oh," Maigo said sadly. "I'm sorry," he apologized with a look of guilt on his face.
"It's ok, you couldn't have known," Suto said. As Maigo and Suto got closer to the cabin, they walked on in silence. The blonde kept thinking how devastating it was to experience such a loss.
You don't know what it's like to lose family, you were alone from the start!
That voice again. It was a voice Maigo heard in his head before. The past few times a phrase would linger in his head, clues presented to him. He had a gut feeling that it was someone from his past. Someone important. That person was the key to his past and to recovering his identity.
That special person...it was an expression the blonde heard once.
Eventually the two approached a clearing, revealing a path to a cabin down the road. It looked the way Suto had left it in the two months since. The morning light of the sun cascaded upon the area in a wonderfully inviting gleam.
"Wow, this place looks beautiful," said Maigo in awe. His attention was caught by a pair of crosses on the ground a couple yards away from the cabin.
"So this was them?" he asked somberly, gesturing to the graves before them.
"Yes," the raven confirmed sadly.
"What were they like?" Maigo asked. He wanted Suto to cheer up and hoped that by talking about who these people were, he'd feel just a little bit better.
Sasuke took some moments to respond to that question, thinking of Misuto and Makoto. "They were kind," he answered gently. He spoke no more of them than that. Maigo assumed that it was just too painful. The wound hadn't healed yet. But the blonde wouldn't push further on the subject. The two went into the cabin to settle in. They stepped through the wooden door into the cabin and took in everything. The table set against the wall, the counter with the sink and the window just above it, and the rooms along the hallway.
"You can take their room, it the one at the end," Suto said, pointing to the door at the end of the short hallway.
"Oh, uh, sure thanks," said Maigo. The raven-haired youth went over to his former room and put his bag on the bed.
Maigo sat at the table, looking out the small window that revealed only sky from his current line of sight. There were barely any clouds to be seen in the heavens, something the blonde had yet to witness before. Perhaps it meant a good omen. Just maybe, everything would work out for a change.
The more she thought about it, the less any of it made sense. It may have been unhealthy but went over everything that happened repeatedly in her head. Pakkun, Kakashi's nin-ken summon said Naruto and Sasuke couldn't be found because there was no scent. Everyone spent weeks searching the area where the explosion occurred and the surroundings leading up to several miles. No one found a trace of either ninja, though there was one location where there was great devastation of an unknown force. Reported intel suggested it was an unrelated incident as the locals ranted frantically about a demon lurked in the lands.
No scent, the phrase lingered in her mind tortuously. Even the dead would have a scent. Corpses rot, emitting the foulest of odors, the kind anyone could find. Sakura combed through as many files as she could, not one for a KIA, MIA or other case described a single person matching Naruto or Sasuke in appearance or trait.
The others weren't so great either. Hinata hadn't left the Hyuga compound since the funeral, with her cousin keeping her company. Sai put on a brave face; fake smile plastered upon like a mask. His eyes were swimming with agony. Kakashi and Yamato were struggling, as you do when one mourns. Yamato was managing better than his senpai, as the white-haired copy ninja was devasted. He would haunt the graveyard as if he were a phantom himself. None of the remaining members of Team 7 were expected to work for several days. Tsunade was quiet and disturbingly sober. Shizune was at a loss of what to do for her mistress.
Shikamaru and the others kept their distance, but the loss of Naruto weighed heavily on everyone. It was heard that the Kazekage held a vigil in their village to recognize the upsetting loss.
Sakura felt as if she was the only one left in the world who dared to dream. Who wondered, what if? What if the pair of them were both still alive, some way, somehow? But then she remembered the length of time that passed. If they were dead...if.
She was really starting to resent that word. If. The sliver of doubt and hope prevented her from sleeping. There was only one thing left to do, to give her peace.
Sakura will try to look for them herself.
Suto and Maigo went off into the neighboring woods, making their way to the nearby streams. They spent the afternoon fishing and got a bountiful amount over time. Maigo felt an odd familiarity while swimming in the water for fish. As if he had done it before with Suto. Years before. He kept getting flashes of a younger version of himself, with a raven-haired boy and a pink-haired girl in an area very similar to the one he and Suto were in at the moment. Meanwhile Suto was feeling the same bizarre sensation, getting glimpses of fishing with a small blonde boy and a young girl sitting by a fire in another forest from his past.
Suto and Maigo went back to the cabin, each in their own confused daze. Neither wanted to communicate what the other was feeling, fearing that each would be perceived as insane or ailing. When entering the cabin, each man set their catch down. The blonde sat down at the nearby table as Sasuke went towards the sink, resting his hands as he looked through the window before him. The raven took a nearby knife and began to skin and gut the fish before him.
"Are you alright?" asked Suto, addressing his friend. It prompted Maigo to stumble out of his stupor.
"Uh, yeah," the blonde denied weakly. Maigo then shook his head. "Actually no, I'm not okay. I keep having these flashes. A lot lately. They've been more and more frequent, and for the past couple weeks, it's gotten worse."
"Flashes?" questioned the raven, a look of concern on his face. He turned to face his friend.
"I keep seeing people, people from my past. Some kid with..." the blonde paused, his face forming an expression of shock.
"With what?" Sasuke inquired.
"A boy with raven-colored hair, li-like yours," Maigo finished lamely.
"That's strange. I keep getting flashes too," Suto said, "with a small blonde boy, with hair and whisker marks like yours." He gestured to the marks on Maigo's face.
"Wow," Maigo said quietly. "What a crazy coincidence."
"I don't believe I coincidences," said the raven-haired youth.
"You don't mean – that you and I could have somehow know each other?" the blonde sputtered.
"That depends on what you've seen so far. Tell me as much as you can," Suto said.
Maigo began to explain in detail about all the flashes he experienced from the time he first awoke in the forest. However, the blonde neglected to mention the run-ins with the angry mobs and his encounters with the unknown entity living inside him.
"You know, it's funny. I couldn't get any flashes or insight to my past at all but after meeting up with you, I suddenly get a bunch at random," Maigo observed verbally.
He noted that after meeting Suto, the flashbacks began to come more frequently, almost as if something was triggering them in the first place. Unbeknownst to the blonde, Suto felt likewise. Before meeting his traveling companion, flashbacks were far and few in between. Ever since he began traveling with Maigo however, the raven experienced constant flashbacks seemingly from his past. The supposed "coincidences" as the blonde phrased it, were getting harder to dismiss.
"Perhaps our minds are trying to tell us something," Suto pondered out loud, once again hinting at the possibility that he and Maigo knew each other previously.
"But the chance we could have known each other before. The odds are just," Maigo said, cutting himself off to make a gesture with his arms, expanding them far apart from one another as if to demonstrate the improbability of such a suggestion.
"Even so, there is the chance that we may in fact know each other. Who knows?" argued Suto.
"Yeah, who knows?" repeated the blonde, lost in thought.
"There's nothing I can say to change your mind is there?" said Tsunade.
"No ma'am," said Sakura, fully equipped in her gear and pack ready to go.
"I can't in good conscience let you go alone." The fifth Hokage looked upon her disciple with worry etched on her brow.
"If I may my lady," interjected Shizune, always at Tsunade's right hand, "perhaps Kakashi can go with her?"
The Legendary Sannin made a face, brow furrowed as her gaze remained on her young pupil. She sympathized with what Sakura must be feeling, as she once had with Orochimaru and Jiraiya during times of war. Even now, living with the fact that she was the last one of her original squad, was a somber reality she woke up to in her old age.
"Kakashi is otherwise preoccupied at the moment, but I can get word to him. He can meet Sakura on the way there."
Tsunade focused her eyes on her pink-haired student, who maintained eye contact. Sakura did not speak out of turn because of her urgent desire to find her teammates and bring them back home. She did not think on the alternative. Sakura already decided that if indeed Naruto and Sasuke were no longer among the living, she could at least recover their bodies and bury them. Then, she could move on. Then she could let go.
Tsunade's eyelids closed as the woman inhaled deeply, mentally deciding. "Alright, you can go."
Sakura's green irises brimmed with gratitude. "Only, because I am trusting your judgement. Don't make me regret this Sakura."
"Never my lady Hokage," said Sakura at once.
"You keep me posted constantly," ordered the blonde woman, wagging her finger.
"Of course," Sakura bowed her head.
"And if you have any problems. Any at all, you get somewhere safe and reach out for help," Tsunade said sternly.
"Always," Sakura said with conviction. She turned away and exited the Hokage's office, marching out to go home and gather her supplies and belongings. The kunoichi had much to prepare for.
It was time to bring her boys home.
Sorry for the delay, but I'm back. I hate work! It takes away from precious writing fanfic time. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!