Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me.
When Sakura awakens from her nap, the first thing she does is check the time, yawning lazily while doing so. She doesn't see the raven haired Uchiha anywhere, so she assumes that he has gone out to eat, or to do something. The young Haruno convinces herself that she doesn't care, but deep down inside, somewhere, a small voice denies it, says that she does, says that she always will. Shaking her head clear, she runs a tired hand through her coral pink locks and rubs at her eyes, slowly shuffling into the small bathroom to brush her teeth and maybe find something to eat later on.
The pink haired woman strips out of her sleeping attire, changing into her normal clothing, except the sleeved red shirt was gone, replaced by a loose tank-top that was loose, but still covered everything that needed to be covered. The binding around her breasts was still in place, and could just be glanced through top of her arm-holes. The shirt was red, with white bordering and the signature white circle in the middle, and she slips on the black spandex shorts and medic-nin shirt, along with her shinobi boots and her village headband.
After a brief glance in the mirror to make sure she looks presentable, Sakura grabs the keys on the table and her wallet before heading out, giving the door an experimental twist to make sure it's locked. Instead of taking the traditional way downstairs, she climbs into the window at the end of the hallway and with a great leap, she propels herself into the air, and lands silently on the next roof over. The quiet chuckle that she hears surprises her, and looks around hesitantly before that it was her who had been making that…foreign sound. To her, smiling, laughing, or being positive at all seemed like a concept far too forgotten, far too strange, something that couldn't be afforded in her career and daily life.
Shaking her head for the second time that day, she bites her lip hard before leaping onto another building and spots a tea-shop that doesn't seem to have too many people crowding it, and leaps down, walking towards it slowly. She opens the heavy glass door, and steps inside, the wooden interior welcoming in its own quiet way. The nice brunette that greets her and leads her to her table is nice, her molten brown doe eyes soft, like she's experienced too much pain to be unkind, lost someone dear to her. She's seen the same look in Hinata's eyes, her pale lavender orbs always bright, positive, never looking back, just letting it all go. And truly, jade eyed Sakura envies her, being able to just be happy with what she had, be happy without being able to see Neji in the flesh anymore.
Sakura smiles at the girl, and orders jasmine tea with dango, before hesitantly asking the waitress for her name. "Itsuki," she waitress quietly replies, looking away with reddened cheeks. When Sakura asks if she's lost anyone important, her brown doe eyes, so kind, only closes momentarily, 'to compose herself,' the medic-nin thinks to herself, and she barely hears the reply.
"I lost my parents in the war, apparently the Jyuubi crushed them," Itsuki murmurs, her milk chocolate eyes glassy, and the Haruno woman can only reply with a silent apology, a sad smile carved into her face. "Your dango will be here shortly," the girl says and quickly walks away, to give her order. Lacing her hands together under her chin, she inhales and exhales deeply, suddenly feeling too burdened, too suffocated in this tiny little tea-shop, knowing that she couldn't save this girl's parents, even though she was supposed to save and mend her comrades.
Then a particular memory hits her hard, leaving her gasping, this girl, Itsuki, had been the daughter, no, still is, the daughter of Aori and Ryuuken Umikawa, a particle couple that had leapt in front of her during the war, casting a thick, mud wall in front of her, which had been broken with little difficulty by the Jyuubi, and had been hit, the sickening snap and crunch of all the bones in their body breaking and shattering still haunts her dreams these days, and she remembers the movement of their lips. "Tell my children I'm sorry, that we couldn't be better parents, that we love them and are proud for being able to be their mother and father, forever and always," had been the words Aori and Ryuuken had mouthed to her, a wide, proud smile stretching their lips and their eyes slowly snapping shut a half moment right before the tail had slapped them away, like flies.
When the girl returns with her sweets and pot of tea, she sets it down with practiced caution and turns away, only to have her wrist grasped by Sakura. "I-," her voice is hoarse and the saliva in her mouth seems too thick, too hard to swallow now, "I knew your parents, um…" she swallows with a great effort, and looks away, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from cascading over her eyes from the guilt and sorrow she feels for this teenage girl, too young to be supporting herself and whatever other siblings she had. "They shielded me from the Jyuubi's tail, in exchange for their own life. Uh…Aori and Ryuuken, they had smiled and told me to tell you guys, that- that they were proud to be your parents, and that they were sorry they couldn't be better parents, that they'll love you, forever and always," the pink haired woman's voice cracks at the end, a tear dripping from her eye.
The young Umikawa's eyes are wide, brimming over with too many tears, 'caused by me,' the green eyed woman can only think, and her hand is covering her mouth, muffling the sobs that were usually saved for the shower or at night time, under the safety of her covers where no one else could hear. "I-I'm sorry," the brown haired girl stutters before whipping around and running for the bathroom, where she could piece herself back together.
Silently, the emerald eyed woman devours her sweets, and drinks her tea before paying for her meal, and leaving. But once she's outside, a voice calls out to her, raw from cries too painful to hold back. "Wait…! There's something I'd like to tell you…" Itsuki says, her eyes blood shot, "my parents…they were proud to be able to fight in the war. They were proud of whom they were and…they would've done what they did over and over again if they had to, they were happy to be able to protect millions of other lives in exchange of their own because to them, it was a sacrifice that was worth it. They…they didn't want other parents to feel the pain of losing not only their children, or children to not be able to see their parents again, and they were content with that, and I know that they regretted not being able to give Karuno and I the proper good-bye, but I'm glad that-" she takes a shuddering breath that seems to take too much effort, "that I was still lucky enough to have the closure that I needed, that they died happy."
The Konoha ninja is speechless, the tears rolling down her cheeks are like waterfalls that are endless, dripping onto the asphalt beneath them that suddenly seemed too hollow and brittle, ready to send her careening into the endless black pit below. With hardened resolve, she embraces the teenage girl before her, this girl who had lost too much too young, and then Sakura Haruno promises not only herself, but to everyone who she is to meet in the future and has already met, that she will protect them and make it so that they can smile again with their family, make it so that no one ever has to feel the pain that Itsuki Umikawa was and still is feeling.
Note: So so so so so sorry for not having updating for a while, it's just I haven't had any decent ideas and school's been busy. But I wrote a longer(?) chapter to make up for it? You can message me regarding ideas and such! Criticism is always welcome! I also edited chapter 6 a little, just cut some stuff out, so check that out? :)
-cyanide