Good afternoon to all (at least here it's afternoon...)
thank you so much for reading and reviewing :)
here is a relaxing chapter before the story gets a bit intenser - my best friend was my inspiration for this one (hahaha!)
HAVE FUN!!
The sun was about to set when Sakura got out of the shower. She dried her hair with an orange towel and watched the golden sky darken as the night was about to arrive.
Sakura stared at the light and felt beautiful, like the golden rays were giving her all of their glow and magnificent beauty. The entire universe seemed to have been aligned in a way for destiny to finally be nice with Sakura. Everything settled perfectly.
She couldn't wait to see all of her friends again. After having gone over the hardest part, which was to face Naruto, she didn't fear about anything no more.
The clouds had a dark pink tint and they floated in the sky like sails, and the trees beneath them waved their branches to bid their farewells to the sun. The birds were singing their goodnight song as the Village Hidden in the Leaves grew louder and louder.
The chuunin exams were about to begin the following morning, as a result all the guests and participants had decided to enjoy their final free evening. Sakura could hear screaming and laughing of young ninjas.
She remembered the day before her chuunin exams. She hadn't slept at all that night. But she had stayed home, as she was too nervous to even enjoy herself like the rest of the kids did.
Sakura filled a glass with water and drank it feeling the fresh sensation of the pure liquid running through her system.
She walked to the extra room of Tsunade's and Shizune's apartment, where she would be staying. It was the smallest room in the house. But she liked the huge window that lay above a simple mattress on the floor. The red curtains gave a dark, but unique light in the room. There was one shelf next to the door with different stuff of Tsunade, like old clothes and a pair of black heels covered with dust.
Sakura had to clean the place a bit before she could actually use it. Probably Shizune never entered, she thought. Sakura dropped the towel on the bed and grabbed some fresh underwear and put on a dress she had. The only dress she had. It was a simple one in the colour of the calm sea. She liked this tint of blue on her skin. Her complex was rather light and she could hardly wear dark colours without looking too white. But that dress was her favorite.
She felt a huge burden abandon her as she imagined Sasuke looking at her dressed like that. He would probably smile, he has never seen me like that, simple, she thought and smiled.
Sakura wandered in Tsunade's and Shizune's home as she was brushing her hair and then her teeth, staring at every little detail. She had never been in their house before. It lay at the far west of the village with a fantastic view to the mountains that lay inland. The main room, a kitchen and living room was obviously arranged by Shizune. Her favorite colour, purple, was everywhere. In the curtains, in the glasses and dishes, in the pillows on the couches, in the vases.
Sakura loved the comfortable atmosphere the living room gave out. There were pillows all over the floor – all a different tint of purple – and the couches were quite low height. The massive windows made you imagine you were flying above the woods of Konoha that extended up to the mountains.
Sakura grabbed a small bag and was about to leave when she noticed a picture of Tsunade and Shizune standing in front of the entrance of this house with Tonton in Tsunade's lap. They were all smiling and looking satisfied. Sakura remembered how long Tsunade was looking for an apartment when she was assigned as the new Hokage. Tsunade had told her how Jiraya insisted on having them both under his roof. That would be weird, she thought and chuckled.
Sakura turned off the lights and shut the door behind her.
________
Naruto, Sai and Sakura met at the crossroad where they parted a few hours ago.
Naruto was smiling broadly when he noticed Sakura arriving.
"Hey, you look, ehm, nice!" he said scratching the back of his head.
Sai was smiling also.
"Well, let's go. The others will be waiting." he said simply.
"Well, we're Kakashi-sensei's students!" Naruto laughed with his joke.
"I think we stopped being anyone's students for quite a long time now." Sakura commented. She didn't want to sound so arrogant, but she was in a phase now, where she actually thought herself almost equal to the most jonins.
"Maybe you did, but I'm still training with Ero-sennin every now and then." Naruto said folding his arms behind his head.
He was wearing a t-shirt in orange and a pair of jeans, and Sai was dressed more formally, with a black jacket over his white shirt.
"Is he in the village?" Sakura asked.
The night was beautiful, not too warm, not too cold. The perfect temperature for a night out.
"Pervy-sage? I don't know." Naruto said indifferently.
They reached the main market street which was buzzing. Groups of young ninjas, jonins, even parents were gathered all over the place. Sakura, Naruto and Sai would meet with Shikamaru, Choji and, to Sakura's disappointment, Ino at Jo's bar. It was a popular one to the jonins, and ever since they were all grownups by now, they thought it would be cool to meet there.
It was on the main street hidden behind red curtains. Sakura had never been there before. No wonder why. It looked too adult-like from the outside. The music that echoed was slow rhythmic and only grownups came in and out. Sakura thought it quite strange for a bunch of eighteen year olds to meet here, but she liked it. Somehow, looking at Naruto, she thought they were all still fifteen.
The moment they entered, Sakura heard a pitch loud scream and fell on the ground as an unknown figure had fallen on her. She hurt all over her back and felt dizzy.
"Oh dear, who …!" she had to blink several times to distinguish the dark features of the young man on top of her.
"Lee!" Sakura gasped.
Lee wore the broadest smile she had ever seen on a person. He stood up in a marvelous jump and offered his hand to help her stand up.
Sakura grabbed it with all her force and Lee was shocked as Sakura was back on her feet.
"Wow, what have you been taking these years? Spinach?" Lee joked.
Sakura laughed with Lee and hugged him. She could feel his heartbeat racing and, when she broke, his cheeks were on fire.
"Oh, Lee, calm down! It's nice to see you! You look great!" she said meaning it.
Lee did look different. His hair was much shorter and the t-shirt he was wearing showed off his muscles of his arms and shoulders. His face was no longer a teen's face, but looked rather man-like. She liked him.
Lee blushed with her compliment.
"Oh, ehm, thanks!" he said putting his hands in his pockets.
Sakura walked with him to the table where all of her friends were sitting. She smiled broadly noticing everybody. They were all there. All her friends, all the ninjas with whom she has fought so many fights. All the ninjas who stood by her, who fought by her side, when Sasuke died.
If only you were here, she wished.
Sakura sat next to Lee, who sat next to Naruto. Naruto looked obviously annoyed with Lee and tried to push him away in order to win the place next to Sakura.
Across her was Neji, who looked unchanged. She only was surprised by how good the non-ninja clothes looked on him. His gaze was the same as always, too mysterious to avoid, but too dangerous to drown in them by looking too long in them.
Next to him was Choji, who was the tallest of them all. His long hair was tied in a ponytail and he was eating with pleasure a piece of stake.
By his side was Shikamaru, Choji's best friend and, without doubt, the best ninja on this table. He looked rather pleased and was playing with his pitch black hair, that was standing in the air.
Ino and Ten Ten were staring at Sakura. It was the first time Sakura saw Ten Ten with her hair loose and she looked really good. She also wore a dress a tint of green with flowery pattern. Ino looked gorgeous as always, this time blue eye-shadow surrounding her eyelids matching her eyes colour.
Sai was sitting beside Ino staring at Choji looking bored.
"Welcome back Sakura!" Shikamaru greeted her. Choji and Neji actually stood up and shook hands with her.
Ten Ten also stood up and had to force everyone to make room for her to go and kiss Sakura on the cheeks.
"Where have you been? Tell us everything!" Ten Ten demanded sitting back next to Ino.
All eyes turned towards Sakura. She felt strange. Where should she begin with?
"Well, I traveled across the Fire Country, to the Land of Snow, to the Cape of Thunders, well all around the vicinity." she told them not sure what to tell exactly without saying details that needn't be told.
"Vicinity?" Lee laughed. "You were on the other side of the world!" he continued sipping his beer.
"Of the continent, but not of the world." Ten Ten corrected him.
Lee glanced at her irritated.
"So, are there stronger ninjas than me?" said Shikamaru lifting one eyebrow.
Choji, Naruto and Lee laughed ironically at Shikamaru.
"You're kidding me? Nobody's stronger than me!" Naruto cocked leaning on his back stroking his spiky hair.
"No, Shikamaru, you're the smartest and strongest ninja in the entire ninja world!" Sakura said and couldn't help but start laughing.
Naruto followed her example, as did Lee.
Neji looked at them indifferently.
"Oh man, and they've only had two beers!" he commented frowning.
"Tell us, who did you meet?" Ten Ten continued emptying her own beer.
Sakura, Sai and Naruto ordered beers as well.
"Well, I guess most of them you don't know. I met many who used to work for Orochimaru-san, others were acquainted with Tsunade. There was this guy, who somehow knew I knew the Hokage and forced me in playing cards with him in order to avenge his loss to Tsunade. It must have happened a hundred years ago. Anyway, we were playing like for four hours straight, when an earthquake occurred. I know nothing of cards so I took the chance to cheat. I did and, well, I won the bet!"
Shikamaru, Lee, Naruto and Ten Ten looked amazed.
Sakura noticed Sai ordering his second beer already.
"Wow, don't become like granny-Tsunade, I beg you!" cried Naruto looking serious.
Sakura laughed and sipped her beer.
"Did you fight any cool ninjas?" Choji spoke eating a new stake.
Sakura looked at him and tried to remember any fight that would sound cool.
She smiled at the memory of one.
"What?" asked Ten Ten impatiently.
"It was a group of former sand ninjas, they were expelled from the Sand Village and they had become robbers and rapists. I was traveling with another ninja from the Land of Snow when we met. They were an awful bunch of people. They used strange jutsus I'd never seen before. The one was a genjustu specialist, he was water-natured and could make you feel like drowning while seeing all your life passing in front of your eyes. I really felt like; this is it, I'm about to die. But then he would free me and start again. Every time it felt so real, like I hadn't experienced it already. I got through this three times before I freed myself. It was terrible. Luckily Chei defeated him."
Everybody was staring at her. Some of them feeling the terror, some amazed by the power of that genjutsu.
Sakura noticed three empty glasses in front of Sai.
"What kind of powers does this Chei gal have?" wondered Shikamaru really interested to find out.
"She's wind-natured. She can summon wind ghosts. They feel like you're stuck in a snow avalanche!"
Shikamaru's eyes were about to fall out of his head.
"Wow!" he said simply and leaned back emptying his third beer.
Naruto was staring at the nothingness.
Lee ordered his third beer.
The waitress, a tall and attractive young woman looked too cheerful every time she came to their table. The tenth time she approached them, Sakura noticed that she had eyes only for Naruto.
Sakura looked at Naruto who was whispering something at Sai.
Well well Naruto, Sakura thought and in a swallow emptied her first beer.
The night flowed like this for half an hour. Sakura told funny stories of Chei and herself and the rest told her hilarious scenes that had occurred during her absence. Most of them were about Naruto of course.
The bar was crowded up to that point, people were even sitting outside with drinks in their hands laughing, discussing, and having fun.
The DJ was in a good mood as he had put on louder tracks. Two jonins, still dressed in their usual uniforms, were singing loudly and dancing wherever there was space.
Sakura noticed three tall and familiar figures entering the red curtains. She immediately recognized Kiba, Hinata and Shino. Sakura looked at them and smiled.
"Hey guys! Here we are!" shouted Naruto who stood up on his seat to wave at the three newcomers.
Kiba was smiling broadly when he noticed Sakura.
"Hey there! There is someone we haven't seen for a while!" the young man said shaking hands with Sakura.
"Hey Kiba!" she said, ready to explode of happiness.
Now everybody was here.
Hinata was standing behind Shino, blushing.
Shino was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a scarf that was covering his half face. He also wore his usual black round glasses, like it wasn't dark enough in the bar. But Sakura could tell he was smiling. She was used to guessing someone's features, thanks to the time she's spend with her sensei.
Sakura remembered the day, many years ago, when Naruto, Sasuke and she had been plotting to find out what's beneath Kakashi-sensei's mask. She chuckled with the thought as she greeted Shino.
"H-Hi Sakura-chan!" said Hinata fidgeting.
Sakura smiled at Hinata and stood next to her to kiss her on the cheeks.
Hinata was moving nervously, but looked extremely happy to see her.
"How are you, Hinata?"
"Oh, good! H-How about you?" Hinata asked politely.
Her pearl grey eyes seemed like a dead's gaze in the twilight darkness of the bar. But she looked great with the dark blouse and the jeans. Her hair was tied in a ponytail showing off the beautiful angles of her face. Anyone who didn't know her would guess the red light coming from the curtains gave this blushing colour on her cheeks.
"I'm great, thanks! It's so nice to be with you all again. I missed it!" Sakura admitted.
"Well, don't stand, take a seat!" Naruto shouted in the buzzing and the loud music of the bar. He jumped above the table landing clumsily next to Sakura and Hinata.
"Hey, Hinata-chan!" he greeted passing next to Hinata and run towards the other end of the bar. Sakura noticed the red tint on Hinata's cheeks increasing tremendously.
He was as he always was, so Sakura guessed they were not together…yet.
Naruto came back holding one chair in each hand.
"Oh man, what a gentleman am I!" Naruto commented looking so satisfied with himself.
"How troublesome!" Shikamaru commented, but Naruto didn't hear a thing.
Lee stood up to let Sakura sit next to her. Kiba sat next to her leaving Naruto standing with his mouth wide open.
"Hey, that was my seat! I didn't bring the fucking chairs for me!" Naruto complained shouting with all his might to Kiba.
"Oh shut up!" he said simply searching with his gaze the waitress.
Naruto grunted and sat on the chair next to Hinata.
Sakura couldn't help but smile with Hinata's look.
"Where were you?" Shikamaru wondered looking at Shino and Kiba.
"Well we bumped on these sand ninjas, the blonde chick and her brother, the one who uses puppets, you know! Well the blonde chick started gossipin' with Hinata and, well, we got held up!" said Kiba looking jokingly annoyed at Hinata.
Hinata blushed even more when many eyes turned to look at her.
"W-we weren't gossiping, Kiba-kun!" she tried to explain. Her voice hardly echoed with the music.
"Anyways she was telling you surely somethin' reeeaaally shockin'!" Kiba went on grabbing the beer the waitress brought him.
Hinata hid her face in her own beer, hoping to disappear.
"So, Shika, are you together with the sand ninja chick?" Naruto laughed folding his arms behind his head.
Shikamaru's glance, if it was a riffle, it would have shot Naruto a million times in a second.
"Don't call me like that again." His voice sounded calm but threatening.
Choji even turned to look at his friend.
"Haha, Shika has a girlfriend! I mean, man, it's about time. I mean you had a crush on her for –what- a hundred years. You look soooo good toge-!"
Shikamaru was on his feet punching Naruto on his face lying on the floor.
Hinata was standing and tried to push Shikamaru away from Naruto.
Naruto, for a strange reason, was laughing endlessly.
"Kiba! Well could you at least try to stop them?" Sakura told him harshly. He was drinking his beer staring at something ahead of him.
Sakura grunted and stood up, jumping above Kiba.
"You're both idiots!" she shouted grabbing Shikamaru from his shirt and lifting him up with a small effort.
"Stop it, you at least are supposed to be more mature than him!" she told him silently shooting him a glance.
Shikamaru lifted his shoulders boringly and went outside calmly with his hands in his pockets.
"Oh, Sakura-chan! You saved me!" Naruto said happily rubbing his jaw.
"You haven't changed a bit!" she said harshly and sat next to Kiba.
"Well, you must have been working out quite a lot!" Kiba commented.
Sakura didn't listen to him, as at that moment Iruka-sensei appeared in the bar, pushing away the red curtains from his face. The former teacher of hers was dressed in a blue t-shirt and jeans. His hair was tied in his usual ponytail and his scar, which ran across his one cheek above his nose to the other cheek, was less visible under the dim light of the bar.
He was staring at their table and Sakura decided to wave at him.
Iruka-sensei was smiling when he reached their table.
"Ah, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted and jumped as the waitress came holding another bunch of beers.
Sakura saw the waitress blinking one eye to Naruto and how the blonde boy blushed and looked away from her.
"Iruka-sensei!" Sakura greeted him and Iruka shook her hand.
"Dear, Sakura! How are you? I heard you were back!" he said happily.
"Yes, I arrived this morning."
"Yeah, Kakashi told me. It was quite a shock you put us through, you know!" he said looking more serious.
"But don't worry, we knew you would do it. You're a strong ninja! At least the Hokage was sure! I was quite worried all the way, as was Kakashi! But now you're back, and you look great!" he said scratching the back of his head.
Sakura felt somehow satisfied with the fact that Kakashi-sensei was worried about her all this time. Maybe not all the time, but he was. Although he hadn't shown her a clue during their trip back to Konoha from the Sand Village.
"Thank you!" she said in a low tone.
Iruka-sensei looked at her looking proud.
"Well, we'll talk again. I'll go look for Turo and the rest." He said and waved as he left them.
It was probably the best night Sakura had in a long time. She enjoyed herself, feeling finally like an eighteen year old should feel. Free, independent, no worries swirling in her mind, no concerns about the future, no sad and painful flashbacks of the past. There was only the now. Only the second she was living. And being with the best friends in the world, she felt complete.
