Sakura sat with Ino, the blond who had introduced herself as her best friend. As she quickly found out, Ino loved to talk. A lot. She talked about her husband who was also her teammate, Sai and their son, Inojin. She gushed about her wedding, providing photos and everything.

"Ino, how much do I love Sasuke?" She asked, cutting Ino's rant about the next generation continuing the Ino-Shika-Cho combination.

Ino stopped and blinked, looking at the pinkette in surprise.

"W-What? You want to know how much you love him?"

Sakura nodded.

"Well, as kids, we were crazy about him," she explained. "We heard he liked girls with long hair so we grew long hair. Then one day, you ended our friendship so that we could be rivals for his affection."

Disgusted would be an understatement about the face that she was pulling.

"I ended our friendship...over a guy?" Sakura hissed.

Ino dropped her eyes.

"There was a lot more to it than that, you told me when we became friends again. You felt like you were always in my shadow and with us both liking Sasuke-kun, you didn't want to stay in my shadow again. To show him, everyone and yourself that you were more than a bud and you felt like that couldn't happen if you were always with me, being compared to me. At the time, it really hurt me but after you explained everything to me, I was angry."

"Ino, I'm sor-"

"No, I was angry at myself."

Sakura closed her mouth, looking at her in confusion.

"I was angry that I never thought to consider your feelings. I loved being compared to you. I felt good because I helped Sakura-chan. I made you who you were and I was happy to tell people that. I never thought about how that made you feel, as if you were my property, my project and for that, I'm just as much to blame for the end of our friendship."

A silence fell over the two friends and the pinkette soaked up the information.

"I'm thinking about getting a divorce," she finally spoke after a while.

Ino's eyes bulged.

"You what!?"

Sakura nodded and took a sip of her iced tea that was brought to them.

"That's crazy, Sakura! What about when you get your memories back!? You don't really want a-"

"But that's just it, Ino," Sakura chimed up, cutting off the blond. "What if I don't want my memories back?"

"Don't want...your memories back?" Ino murmured, surprised.

"Have you ever wondered about what the Sakura you know might want? She most likely went through monstrous, terrible things and you want to make her remember all that simply so you could have the woman you knew back?"

"It isn't like that! Sakura would want to remember!"

"How can you say that for sure!? You don't know what she went through! If you imagine yourself being at the mercy of some psycho, would you want to remember the hell he put you through!?"

"No, but I-"

"Then how can you ask me to risk that!?"

"Because I'm not you!" Ino screamed. "Sakura is stronger than I. I wouldn't have lasted as long as she did, as you did."

"Even so, you have no idea what it's like for me," Sakura spoke coldly. "I am constantly compared to a woman I don't even know and yet everyone expects me to be just like her. Everyone just expects me to regain my memories and be this woman that everyone adores. What about me? What will happen to me once the memories return? Will I just vanish in the place of the Sakura you know? Will I no longer be me?"

"Sakura-"

"And how do you know that the woman you want back won't hate you? She could despise you all and if you force her to remember, you-"

SLAP.

Sakura touched her abused cheek in shock before looking up at the blond who now stood. Those around them watched with interest as the Yamanaka glared daggers at the pinkette.

"Sakura would never hate her friends!" She hissed.

"You don't know that-"

"I do know that!" Ino growled. "Sakura is one of the strongest and most loving people and she wouldn't hate us for not reaching her faster! There is a reason everyone wants her back and that's because she means so much to us as we do to her and if any of us were taken like her, she would have fought to the death for us! And you don't even know! A friend of ours did die for you and by choosing not to remember, you are choosing to forsake her memory, her sacrifice! Tenten died so that we could save you, could save Sakura and you don't even know how much she meant! We want Sakura back because you are nothing like her and will never compare!"

With that, Ino grabbed her bag and stormed off, leaving the pinkette to watch her go.

Sakura approached silently, a white rose in hand. Upon reaching the graveyard, she noticed several people silently paying their respects to their deceased loved once.

"Sakura-san, what a surprise."

Sakura turned to see a man dressed in green spandex.

"Oh. Um, hello..."

"Lee," he spoke, smiling weakly.

"Lee-san," Sakura nodded.

"Who are you here to see? I can help you considering you wouldn't remember."

"Someone named Tenten?"

Lee's eyes turned sorrowful and he nodded, silently leading her to two graves under the shade of a tree.

"You know Tenten then, I take it?" Sakura asked.

"She's my- was- my teammate. As was Neji beside her."

Sakura turned to see that there was indeed a Hyuga Neji buried beside Tenten.

"Neji died during the war. It was Tenten's idea to bury him by the tree. It seemed only fitting that she rest in peace beside him."

"Were they lovers?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," Lee nodded. "But only our team knew. Neji had expectations to marry within his clan but his heart belonged with Tenten. They hid their relationship but several of our friends suspected. You included."

"Was I close to you three?"

Lee nodded. "You and I had the most history, going back to our genin days when I protected you during the Chunin Exams, but you and Tenten bonded like sisters while your teammates were away. You would often join our team's training when you were not in the hospital or training with Tsunade-sama."

"What was she like?"

By now, Lee could feel his throat beginning to close as he became choked up.

"She was a headstrong woman," Lee began. "She had a lot of patience, dealing with Gai-sensei, Neji and I, but she took it all in stride. She didn't have a family of her own, like me, so we were the closest thing to a family she'd ever had. She never spent much time alone, choosing to be by us all the time and encouraging our progression, even when sometimes that meant that her own was put on hold. She wanted to be strong but she put us first every time."

Sakura finally removed her gaze from the grief stricken man to gaze at the cold grave before her.

"How did...how did she die?"

Lee was silent for a moment and at the corner of her eye she saw him wipe away a few tears.

"I'm sorry. You don't need to answer that."

"No, it...it's fine," Lee replied. "She died giving her life for me. We had been fighting a large wave of enemy-nin during our rescue mission, to get you. We didn't have Neji's Byakugan to watch our backs so we did it ourselves. I saw a kunai aimed for Tenten and intercepted it but it was a trap. By the time I realised it, Tenten had taken a kunai to the chest. It pierced her lung because she kept coughing up blood. She was choking on it. There was nothing I could do after taking out the rest of our enemies. All I could do was try to calm her. She was terrified. I showed her the sky that had began to change colour due to the setting sun. She held onto me, rubbing my arm to comfort me as she died. She whispered Neji's name and she...she..."

Lee wiped away more tears as he grit his teeth in sorrow.

"She died with a smile on her face."

Sakura shuddered as her shoulders hunched. A hand covered her mouth as she silently sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

'I'm so sorry, Tenten. Thank you for saving me and I'm so sorry!'

This was missing when I was going over the story again. This chapter was meant to be here and I'm sorry that you guys had to miss out on it to begin with.