A/N: Thank you to Cethron and SapphireRivulet, my betas.
Chapter 11
Sakura soon found that her new friends were really nice people. After their apparent initial shock, warm welcomes were exchanged, and they asked her a lot of questions. They also answered the onslaught of pent-up questions that Sakura had. The described Konoha, and what life was like for the people that lived there, as well as describing the friends that Sakura had no memory of.
With each passing moment, Sakura became more and more excited to get back to her home village.
The first question that escaped Tenten's – the girl with matching brunette buns – mouth after getting settled at an inn was, "How the hell did you end up marrying Uchiha!"
Sakura thought about it, her eyes glazing over as she delved into memories that refused to surface. "I don't remember. One day I woke up and I'd forgotten everything. He told that me I was his wife. I tried to ask him how we got married, but he never gave me a straight answer. Maybe I chased him all day and he just agreed out of annoyance," Sakura replied passively.
Tenten gawked at the girl, before pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, trying to recover from Sakura's complete ignorance. "Sakura Chan, do you know who Uchiha Sasuke is and what he has done?"
Sakura shook her head, confusion apparent in her eyes.
Tenten thought for a moment, resting her chin in the crevice of her palm. "I don't think I'm in any position to tell you. Naruto should be the one to tell you this, or Kakashi Sama."
"You mean the Hokage?" Sakura asked.
Tenten nodded. "I'm surprised you know that. Kakashi Sensei only became the Hokage a few months ago."
"You mean Tsunade Sama only died a recently?" Sakura questioned.
Tenten nodded again in assent.
"How?" Sakura demanded. "Wasn't she supposed to be strong?"
Tenten looked at her sadly and shook her head, her chocolate brown eyes shutting away secrets that she wouldn't give. "It doesn't matter. You're coming home now. That's what we want. That's all that matters."
Sakura wondered exactly what had happened to her old Sensei, but she didn't push the matter. There were far too many other questions plaguing her mind for her to be able to dwell on one of them.
Tenten was so excited the whole way back to Konoha, and she kept up a constant stream of talk the whole time.
"Is it really true that I chased Sasuke Kun around when I was young?" the roseate queried, tentative of disrupting Tenten's flurry of words.
Tenten frowned. "You've started calling him "Sasuke Kun" again."
"Why? What's wrong with that?" Sakura turned to her friend, fixing her bright green eyes on the brunette.
"Nothing really. You used to call him Sasuke Kun before you were sixteen. After that you just called him Sasuke."
"How do you know that?"
"Well, I don't know what Sasuke told you, but you did go after him... I'm a little unclear on the details. I don't know if it was you chasing after him, or him abducting you. It's just that you transplanted his eyes and he became even more powerful..." Tenten paused as she took a drink of her lemon flavored water. "I encountered you during the fourth great ninja war. Do you remember that?"
Sakura shook her head. "No."
Tenten sighed, not sure how to phrase the next words. "You looked absolutely horrible, as if you had been abused every single day. There were scars and wounds all over you. The old sunny Sakura was completely gone. I missed you so much."
Sakura blinked, her orbs spilling with shock. "Was I really that bad?"
Tenten thought back. "Yeah, but it was during the war. Everybody was very antsy and nervous. I didn't get a chance to talk to you. You were in sight one minute, gone the next. You were in a hurry to go to some place. Soon after, you disappeared. We sent in teams to search for you, but no one found you. Naruto was mad with worry, he was the one who was bugging Kakashi Sensei to keep on searching for you. Now he's bugging Kakashi Sensei to negotiate with the other nations about Sasuke..."
"Wait, what!" Sakura's head was pounding with unspoken questions. "Tenten, what are you talking about? I don't follow you at all..."
Tenten took a moment to answer, decided on how best to phrase her next question. "I guess that I should start at the beginning, but I don't know what I should tell you. It's so hard…"
Sakura slumped back into her chair, and jutted out her bottom lip into a firm pout. "Sasuke-kun wouldn't tell me anything, you won't tell me anything... I feel like a blank page. I feel like I'm the only one who is completely fooled in every single aspect of my life!"
Tenten winced. "Sakura, I am so sorry. If you ask me questions, I suppose that I could start talking."
A small smile etched it's way onto Sakura's lips, and she immediately started to fire questioned at the brunette. "I was born in Konoha?"
"Yes."
"What about Sasuke Kun's family? He said his family was extremely boring. Is that true?"
Tenten stared at the girl, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So Sakura didn't know about the massacre. Why wouldn't Sasuke have told her about that?
"Well..." Tenten started, "It's a family matter, I suppose. The Uchihas... They're about as boring as one could get, when you put it in a certain sense."
Sakura bobbed her head up and down, carefully filing away the new-found information, before she continued. "Where are they by the way? Are they back in Konoha? Did Sasuke-kun leave his family?"
"Not quite..." Tenten said.
"Oh my God, Tenten! Just tell me already!"
"I wish I could! But I don't know the whole story myself either!" she exclaimed. "You'll have to ask Naruto."
"Well, just tell me what you do know," Sakura compensated. "I'm not picky -"
"Oh, look at the time. Dinner is surely ready by now," Tenten piped, standing up and walking quickly towards the door.
"Tenten!"
Said girl sighed, and slowly made her way back to the chair, into which she fell.
"When I was really young, I heard from my father that the Uchiha family was massacred. Everyone had been murdered except for Sasuke."
Sakura stared at Tenten in horror, her mouth gaping. Tenten immediately stopped her flow of words, as Sakura had turned a frightening shade of green; she looked as if she was about to vomit.
"Sakura, it was a long time ago. That happened like... Oh god. Thirteen, fourteen years ago? I don't know. It was such a long time ago, and everybody knew about it." Tenten said as she tried to comfort the poor girl who she ran to the bathroom and started to empty the contents of her stomach.
Sakura continued to vomit until she was dry-heaving over the bowl, her stomach having been completely emptied. A glistening sheen of sweat coated her skin, turning it a pallid, green-tinged color. Anxiety and shock crashed down on her like a wave, and she felt incredibly disturbed by the fact that her in-laws had died in such a horrible way. If she'd but known! Nausea hit her like a hammer as she remembered how Sasuke had treated his guards. Her head was immediately back in the toilet bowl.
"Who massacred his family?" Sakura queried once her stomach had ceased it's horrid churning.
"His older brother, Uchiha Itachi," Tenten answered in the gentlest of ways.
Sakura went straight back to vomiting land.
(^x^~)
The sun had barely cleared the treetops when Tenten came in and roused Sakura from her sleep. Neji had decided that the sooner they get back to Konoha, the better.
Sakura didn't get to ask a lot of questions as they travelled at a blinding pace through the trees. They dodged the hanging foliage, desperately racing back to Konoha, pushing themselves to go as fast as they could. The sooner they got back to Konoha, the better. Apparently, it was a direct order from the Hokage.
Sakura imagined what her life in the village would be like. Her life before must have been a very happy one, full of laughter and good memories. Even though Sasuke had left her, she had found her way back home, and firmly believed that everyone would welcome her back.
She couldn't have been more wrong.
