#54 – Polaroid
Neji sighed. He still wasn't used to all the free time he had in his hands. Sakura was at the Academy teaching some healing jutsus to the new ANBU members, their eldest son Hiroshi being one of them. Their daughter Hitomi was out on a mission, and their youngest son Hideki was on guard duty. The house was empty and he was bored.
"How did Sakura get to convince me to retire from work?" he asked no one in particular, and looked at the clock. He would still have a few hours to do nothing. He thought about reading a book, but he had already read everything in their library – he was a bookworm only rivaled by his wife. He thought about gardening, but he knew his back would kill him. "Agh, getting old sucks." It was when he remembered that, long ago, he promised Sakura he would organize their polaroids. "Maybe it's a good time to start. Bah, I am getting old; I'm talking to myself now."
They had a storage room in the back of their house. Neji assumed it was the most probable place where he could find the old polaroids box. He opened the door, trying not to inhale too much dust. That place was more cramped than he remembered. Luckily his bloodline limit was still as good as ever. "Byakugan!" Soon enough, he found the box he was looking for; it was hidden among old silverware he didn't remember they had, and if it wasn't for his eyes, he would have never found the polaroids.
Since it was a pleasant mid-spring morning, he went to the veranda facing their backyard. The retired ANBU captain sat down in a comfy chair and opened the box. What would he find inside it? His fingers rummaged through the photos, the newest of them being at least 15 years old. The most recent he found was a polaroid from Hideki's first birthday party. He looked at his family and then at their friends, trying to suppress the thought that some of them weren't there anymore. The next picture he saw portrayed a pregnant Sakura playing with Hiroshi. As the polaroids got older and older, Neji noticed the colors were weaker and weaker, until their photos from their teenage years were only a yellowish blur. But one of those caught his eye. The colors were perfect, as if the picture had been taken earlier that day. He picked it up – it was him and Sakura, smiling and looking at each other tenderly. He remembered that day; they were spending a few pleasant days in the mountains. The caption, written by Sakura, was simple and direct: Neji and I in the mountains. But it wasn't enough to describe the moment depicted in colors in that tiny piece of paper. Smiling fondly at the memory, he grabbed a pen and added a few comments of his own.
Later that day, Sakura entered their house, knowing that she wouldn't found any of her family there. Hiroshi was at the ANBU quarters, Hitomi was on a mission, Hideki was on guard duty and Neji went out to visit his uncle Hiashi, as he did every day. After a long and refreshing shower, she went to their bed, planning on reading some scrolls Shizune gave her earlier. But there was something over her pillow. It was a red rose and a picture underneath it. She grabbed her glasses and looked at the polaroid, and a smile quickly found its way to her lips.
Under the picture, miraculously colored despite all the years it went through, she read in her husband's charming handwriting:
It was the first time I said I love you (and I still mean it)
A/N: You can see the aforementioned polaroid at h t t p : / / n a n b e i n o h a n a . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / a r t / P o l a r o i d - 8 8 4 8 9 4 9 2 (minus the spaces).