"As you can see the village isn't the same from when Gato was here." Inari starts. "Thanks to you guys, we were able to trade with more commerce with the people from The Land of Fire." The teenage boy stops in front of a fruit stand and points, "I personally think this is the best stand in the market."
Sasuke takes a quick glance at the stand, his eyes focusing at the ripe tomatoes the young woman had on display. It's been a while since he last bit into a good tomato, and he makes a mental note to stop by this stand as well before his departure. He notices that Inari is very well known to the villagers as he waves to people as they walk by.
They reach the end of the square and onto a trail path. "This leads to the residential homes. Do you have anywhere to stay?"
"Ah."
They walk in silence together with Sasuke just enjoying the fresh air. It was a small pleasure that he allowed himself whenever he was traveling, just being one with nature, not thinking about his past demons and being far away from whatever may be suffocating him. His guard is always up though, years of solitude and living with dangerous company gave way to that discipline, but it didn't mean he enjoyed the scenery around him any less.
"My grandfather passed away a few months ago." Inari suddenly blurts.
Onyx eyes look towards the boy. He remembers Tazuna somewhat. He'd been a middle aged man when he was twelve so it's no wonder.
"He never forgot about you or what your team did for us. For the village." The brown haired boy smiles at Sasuke, a smile much too innocent to ever know hardship. "I know what happened to you. Or at least, somewhat."
This causes Sasuke to stop in his tracks and stare at the teen. Inari stops as well and shakes a hand in dismissal. "Word travels. I don't know the exact details, but you had a hand in the war."
"What's your point?"
Inari shrugs. "Everything got pretty fucked up, huh?" He pauses and gives him a serious stare. "Whatever your reasons were, I think what matters is that you never abandoned them."
Sasuke raises a dark eyebrow in question.
"Naruto, Sakura and your sensei." The boy says mattarfactly.
For some reason this irritates Sasuke. "You don't know what you're saying."
He shrugs again. "Maybe. But you know what I think?" Pause. "Anyone who sacrifices themselves like you did for their comrades back then - that feeling never goes away - you're a good person, even if you don't see it."
The dark haired shinobi semi glares at the teenage boy. "Tch." He begins to walk away and back to the main square.
"When do you leave?" Inari asks.
"Tomorrow afternoon."
"I'd like to give you something before you leave, if you don't mind. I'll see you on the bridge at noon."
Sasuke doesn't respond. Instead he continues on his way with his hands balled up into fists under his cloak. He reaches a small semi open field, mostly surrounded by trees, but it'll due for him. The past avenger unclips his cloak from around himself and hangs it on a low hanging branch. He then flexes his hands and begins to practice his Kata. To him, it was the best stress reliever.
He trains until the sun dives under the mountains and the stars begin to twinkle in the purple sky and until the surrounding trees look like they've been mauled by an animal.
Sakura sits at her dinner table fiercely writing on the piece of paper before her. 'It's important that the children know that they aren't alone.' She writes. 'To save funds, we will pull some of the interns from the hospital and bring them to the clinic. They will go through a month long training program in grief counseling, with myself as their immediate supervisor.' Sakura looksout her window and watches as the sky slowly turns a light pink to violet color. Her heart aches at the thought of the village children who aren't able to curl up next to their loved ones. She thinks about the children who don't understand why things are changing in the village, and she thinks about the kids that are plagued by nightmares.
Her thoughts consume her until she finally notices that it's nine o'clock at night, and all she's done is write but a few paragraphs for her proposal. She lets out a small sigh in mild exhaustion. Sakura had been working diligently for months on end now, tending to injured shinobi and aiding them with recovery with physical therapy. She doesn't protest against her workload, in fact she relishes it as it had been a while since she was able to flex her mind in terms of her medical practice.
Standing, Sakura makes her way towards her pantry and pulls out a box of tea followed by grabbing a pot on the dry wrack and filling it with lukewarm water and places it on the burning fire from her stove. She stands with the left side of her hip against the counter as she waits for the water to come to a boil. Tapping her chin with delicate fingers, she recites tomorrow's schedule out loud to herself. Her well trained ears hear the water coming to a boil, taking it off the stove, she pours the hot liquid into a cup and places the tea bag within it.
She suddenly thinks about her brief meeting with Kakashi and the fact that Sasuke told him what happened. The rosette couldn't understand why he would disclose that with the Hokage, but then she assumes that it was probably because he thought it was necessary to include in his report. Sakura found it funny that even though he was not a Konoha shinobi, he still acted like one with being so thorough with something mundane like a mission report.
'Whatever. I'm putting too much thought in it.'
Finishing her tea, Sakura puts the used cup in the sink, grabbing her proposal from the table and bringing it into the bedroom. She tucks herself into the cool sheets, the window letting in a soft breeze, propping herself on a pillow, she looks over the brief one last time before turning off the lights and having yet another restless sleep.
It was a shame that Sasuke couldn't purchase the leather gloves that he was eyeing the day before. When he asked the old man for the price, he wasn't expecting it to be so much, but then again he was low on funds. He had no village to pay him for going out on missions. He wasn't a hired assassin. He had no ties anything.
Uchiha Sasuke was a wanderer.
He never had a problem handling his sword without gloves, but it was just a preference in the sense that he was able to grip it better, and was able to maneuver it as he pleased. As a shinobi he was used to the callousness of his hands, the cuts in between his fingers, and the soreness of his joints. 'It is what it is.'
The dark haired man walks to the bridge, gloveless, but a small plastic bag of tomatoes are stuffed inside his satchel. He waits for Inari for a few minutes, his tendency to always be earlier than usual was still a trait that Sasuke could never get rid of. The people of the village pass by him, seemingly paying him no mind. He's invisible to these people, a faceless person in a sea of humans and for a moment, he feels like he can breathe easy. As a person whom was worldly known, Sasuke had received his fair share of insults, spits, and almost scuffles at the other villages he'd visited since he left Konoha.
"You came! I was a little worried that you wouldn't show up."
Dark eyes shift to his right as he sees Inari come to a halt next to him. His body tenses a little at the invasion of his personal space, but nods to the teen nonetheless.
"Here," Inari says as he hands Sasuke a small square box.
The shinobi is hesitant at first, but takes it nonetheless. "My grandfather had this commissioned, but he never got the chance to give it to any of you." Sasuke opens the box and what he finds is three different colored chains. A red, yellow and black one clasped as one. He looks up at Inari, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Grandfather said that it represents you, Naruto and Sakura. Here, in the land of Waves, it's custom to give a gift to those whom have helped you dramatically in life. I thought it was a little corny, but he'd want you to have it."
"I can't accept this."
"Why not?"
"We helped you years ago. Send this to Naruto or Sakura."
"But you're here now. Plus ... "Inari scratches the back of his head meekly and laughs."I'm kinda forgetful."
When he was a genin, Team Seven had stayed with Inari's family for no more than three days and the, now teen, had been so incredibly young back then. Sasuke doesn't understand why he'd want to give him this gift, to him of all people. He'd been a brat to the boy and was disrespectful in his own home. He'd barely payed any sort of attention to him and was rude to him as well. All Sasuke had cared about at the time was figuring out how Sakura managed to get to the top of the tree on her first try and beating Naruto at the same task afterwards.
"Please take it. You can use it to keep your cloak fastened much more securely as you're running."
Not wanting to waste any more time, Sasuke nods his head and places the gift in his satchel. "Take care, Uchiha Sasuke. Send my regards to Sakura and Naruto when you see them!" Inari waves his goodbye and runs the opposite direction into the waves of pedestrians. The dark haired shinobi blinks a few times slowly, gathering his thoughts he makes his way down to the port for his next departure.
It takes about two weeks for Sakura to hear a response from Kakashi concerning the children's clinic, luckily the Kage's thought that it was a good idea and approved of her plan. She finds herself only getting about four hours of sleep for about a month as she was overseeing the construction. It isn't until Ino points out the bags under her now almost pale skin that Sakura takes a day for herself to "catch up" on sleep.
When she wakes up twelve hours later, it's already eight o'clock in the evening. Her stomach growls, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since the morning prior. Not being able to stay away from her project for too long, Sakura decides that she'll go to Ichiraku to get something quick so she could see whatever little progress was made in her absence. When she arrives to the infamous hangout spot, she's not that surprised to see Naruto sitting in the middle of the long chef table. Taking a seat next to her friend, she orders her usual bowl of ramen.
"Hey stranger," Naruto slurps in between bites.
The pinkettes eye twitches at her friend's lack of table manners, "Hi."
"What's up?" He responds after another mouthful of broth.
"Busy with the construction."
Blue eyes meet with green and Naruto frowns a little. "You look exhausted. Have you slept?"
"I just woke up from a ... nap."
Her friend seems skeptical. "I know that you want to help, but you won't be able to if you don't take care of yourself first."
"Says the guy that practically only eats ramen," she scoffs.
"Hey! There's tons of vitamins and nutrition in this!"
"Sure." Sakura rolls her eyes. "Just like there's tons of vitamins and nutrition in sake."
Naruto shrugs. "Maybe there is."
The medic nin lightly slaps her bestfriends shoulder playfully causing him to smirk a little and for a second it reminds her so much of Sasuke. 'Idiot.'
Wanting to divert from her thoughts of dark hair and dark eyes, she asks Naruto about the supposed rumor that he was going to begin teaching at the academy.
"Not permanently," he begins. "Just a few pop up lectures every now and then."
"That's pretty cool. I'm sure the students will love you."
Tan skin turns to red. "Nah! Hey, you should give a lecture, too."
"Maybe."
"I heard you're getting promoted to Jounin. Congrats! You deserve it."
"It's not written in stone yet. I still need to take the exams. I'm not even sure I have time for it."
Naruto's blue eyes widen. "Are you crazy!?" He yells almost spilling the rest of his broth. "You better take the exam!"
"But the clinic -"
"Will be constructed. Come on, Sakura you have to become a Jounin! Do it for Team Seven!"
Could she really do it? Could the girl who once wore a red bow in her hair, grew her hair out for a boy, cared about diets and her wardrobe; could the naive girl that thought that the shinobi life was just spending days and nights out the village under the stars was that simple, really become a Jounin?
Sakura thinks it over briefly to herself. She looks at her friend as he watches her with a passion in his eyes and her stomach flutters a little. Yes. Yes, she could. The girl with pink hair now proudly wears a chunin headband, she cares little for her now mid length hair, she'd fought an Akatsuki member, fought in a war and the once scared girl that would shut her eyes at an oncoming attack has inherited her mentors fierce battle instincts and medical prowess.
"Okay," she says with a grin.
Naruto beams her the brightest smile.
Another month later, Sakura is promoted to Jounin.
A/N So Gaiden is over. What do I do with my life now? I can't deal with the last chapter of Gaiden. All the SSS family moments were so beautiful. I could talk forever about it lol any way, thank you to everyone who has followed/favorited this story thus far, and thank you to everyone for your patience. Please leave a review letting me know your thoughts!
P.S the chains that Inari gave Sasuke are the ones that we see him wearing on his poncho during The Last.
