A/N: Exactly as the title says, we'll finally get to cross paths with our intrepid friends this chapter! See you at the bottom.
Chapter 15: Reuniting With Old Friends
It was early evening when the quartet got to Morino. As they walked through the desolate town, Ino's eyes couldn't leave the devastation all around them.
"Are they- are they still rebuilding?" She choked out. "After the attack?"
"Yes." Pein answered with a curt nod. "Such a dreadful thing, anger can be. Especially in the wrong hands..."
She grew quiet again, staring at a father and his son who seemed to be picking up charred boards of wood from the wreckage of what once was a house, solemn looks on their grubby faces. The boy looked like he'd been injured, with the makeshift cloth bandage wrapped tightly around his arm.
"So many people suffered here..." she mourned silently, the unexpected guilt making her choke up a little. "And all the while, what was I doing?"
A memory resurfaced, one that made her turn away in shame as the little boy looked over with haunted, dull brown eyes. One of her father announcing the destruction of Morino, and her glee at that 'wretched town getting what it truly deserves'. In the moment, she was giddy that the king was going to 'avenge' Hyuuga's murder by killing innocent citizens, but now that she was seeing the scope of the aftermath, she felt too ashamed to look anyone in the eye.
"Shikamaru was so determined to get out of Konoha, and now I'm starting to see why." She glanced around, but all she saw were more people in the same, sometimes varying, conditions. Broken families, children wandering aimlessly, teenagers caring for their (presumed) infant siblings, the elderly just watching with sadness...
She thought of Sakura when they were younger, and how much she'd always envied the girl for being so close to Sasuke. "I purposefully made her my friend to make myself look better because she was always so pathetic, but... after she left, my heart gained this... this hole that couldn't be filled.
"Perhaps," she continued to muse, sparing a quick glance at Shikamaru, "perhaps I was more jealous of her more than anything. I guess she was right in the end; the royal family is too obsessed with keeping people in order. Maybe she was right to escape the carnage early."
She shook her head suddenly, a movement that made Shikamaru look at her out of the corner of his eye. "No, Ino, you are not going to think about suicide! It still hurts so bad to think about Sakura's death... I can't imagine ever going through with something like that right now."
"You're not having second thoughts, are you?" Shikamaru asked in a hushed tone.
"No, of course not," she replied weakly. "I just- I just feel so horrible for these poor people."
Shikamaru nodded slowly. "Yeah, what happened here is a grim reminder of the world we live in."
"And I'm... still feeling guilty about Sakura," she admitted with a sigh. "I wish I could've done something before she died. I was always a horrible 'friend' to her... maybe if I could've convinced her not to come to Morino during the same week as the king, then maybe she could've survived."
The brunet simply patted her shoulder. "While I can't speak for us both, I know that... we all cared about Sakura, maybe to the point that we would've, if we had the chance, let her go."
"What are you saying?" She hissed, her anger simmering. "You'd let a good friend die in order to be lonely for six whole years in the capital city? You'd really let her die for nothing?"
"I'm not saying her sacrifice was for nothing, I'm saying that maybe it had a purpose we can't understand." Shikamaru sighed harshly. "Think about it. Her death made the prince bitter, yes, but it also slowed him down. It slowed the whole royal family down for quite a while. There's a reason we didn't have so many clashes with Riot after the Castle Point battles for a month or two."
"They were... mourning?" Ino asked incredulously, raising a delicate blonde eyebrow.
"Both the prince and Naruto were good friends with her too, remember?" Shikamaru hinted with a pointed look. "Back when her father worked with the king, she always used to go on and on about her adventures with them both. Of course they'd mourn her passing."
"... Oh," she mumbled, sheepish now. "I hadn't thought about how close they were to her too..."
"Then again, directly after the mourning period passed, the king grew more intense with his hunting down Riot, so maybe it had a negative impact after all, but who knows." Shikamaru finished with a loose shrug. "Perhaps Iris-sama would know more than anyone, but unless we could see Sakura again, we'll never know."
Noh glanced up at the darkening sky with a heavy sigh. "Seven long years, my love... how I miss your embrace."
Tsunade came up and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, sending her a sympathetic frown. "Time doesn't make it any easier, does it?"
"No, never," the brunette replied, shaking her head. "Especially when I think of the family we could've had together."
"At least Arata is with a loving family," the blonde encouraged softly. "And when he comes of age, you'll get to see him again."
"I sure hope so," Noh sighed once more. "With the way the kingdom is ran, I fear that I'll never live to see his eighteenth year."
"Don't worry, Noh," Sakura chimed in as she walked up to them. "If there's one thing I remember about my parents, it's that they're stubborn. They won't stop at anything to let you see him again. Once they promise something, consider it set in stone."
The brunette cracked a wry smile and chuckled softly.
"Come, sit by the fire." Tsunade coaxed, leading the three of them towards the fire pit behind the house.
Under an awning was a deep fire pit, a small blaze already burning in the scraps of burnable wood they'd been able to pick up.
Hinata was already sitting there next to Karin, a soft smile on her lips. She glanced up and nodded in greeting.
"Good evening," she said, gesturing towards the ratty cushions they'd been given. "A day of hard work deserves a rest beside the fire. Would any of you like tea?"
"I'm good, thank you," Noh replied with a shake of her head. She sat down with a small groan. "My arms will be sore tomorrow."
"I'll second that," Tsunade grunted as she sat down as well. "There are just... so many wounds to heal. So many burn victims."
Karin winced at the mention. "Speaking of, my back feels a lot better today."
"In much thanks to your chakra, I'm not surprised." Noh made a twirling motion with her hand. "Let me see."
Karin turned and exposed her back, which, indeed, looked less tender than it had before. It was still pink and blistered in some spots, but thanks to both healing and her own chakra, it looked much, much closer to what it should look like.
"Good, good!" Sakura praised. "Your healing factor is impeccable."
Just then, a shadow appeared by the side of the house. Sakura beamed, jumping up from her spot to hug the person.
"Konan!" She cheered. "You're back already! Didja bring them?"
"Of course," she replied, an amused smile on her face.
When Sakura let go of her, Pein appeared with the two next to him.
Sakura's eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open in shock. "After all these years... it's them?"
"This is Ino, and my name's Shikamaru," the boy with the spiky brown hair introduced awkwardly. "Sorry to intrude."
Tears began to dot her eyes at the sight of her childhood friends, and especially Shikamaru. The boy had been so much more than a best friend to her while they were both growing up. He'd been her mentor, and she had been, in his words, 'the little sister he never knew he wanted, but definitely the little sister that would've drove his parents crazy'.
Silence set in between them as he caught her eye. His own brown eyes widened, but then they softened.
Tsunade got up, and the rosette sniffled quietly.
"Shikamaru!" She finally cried, lunging foward to embrace him tightly. The tears spilled over. "Oh Kami, it's you! It's really you! You're here!"
He patted her back, a genuine smile on his face. "It's me," he comforted softly. "You look good for all that you've gone through."
Ino blinked in confusion at the girl with the long pink hair hugging her friend. "Who's she? Somehow, she sounds familiar, but..."
An image of a thirteen-year-old pale little girl with strawberry-blonde hair and dull peridot eyes flashed by her mind's eye, and her breath caught in her throat when the girl looked up.
Sure, her eyes were a deep grass green, and her hair was mussed and a soft pink, but her face was nearly identical to that same thin little girl, just a little older.
Ino felt like she'd been punched.
For a few seconds, she couldn't say anything, but then she was able to stutter, "Sa... Sakura?"
Sakura turned to look at her, and a wry smile spread across her face.
"Surprise," she chuckled through her happy tears. "I lived."
After a long time of crying, questions, and hugging, Ino sat beside her next to the campfire, smoothing a few locks of her hair in her fingers.
"So that's what happened..." Shikamaru whistled lowly. "Damn, must've been quite a scare."
"It was awful," Noh nodded in agreement. "Thankfully Sasori and Deidara were tailing Tsunade's group, or else who knows what would've been happening to them now."
"I know what would've happened," Karin piped up. "Death for treason for me, death for crimes against the crown for Tsunade, and prison for everyone else."
Tsunade snorted. "As if I'd let them take me alive."
Sakura briefly shot her a concerned frown.
"And now that brings us to you." Shikamaru ended, gazing intently at Sakura. "Mind catching us up on what's happened since the attack on Morino six years ago? I mean, surely you had a reason for faking your death besides running away to join a rebel group."
She laughed nervously. "Oh, well, I wasn't really thinking that hard about it back then. My angsty twelve-year-old self just wanted to help bring down the crown at first, but then, well, then my cousin was murdered."
"Wait, cousin?" Ino asked.
"They killed Eiko." Sakura clarified with a frown. "After that, I guess all I wanted was to avenge her death doing whatever I could."
"So- so the attack on Morino, when the king was here-" Ino stuttered.
"That was partly me," Sakura answered with a sigh. "Man, sometimes I think I should just write a book or something."
"We all should," Hinata said with a chuckle. "But I do admit, I'm curious about that day as well. Was it the same death as I?"
"Explosion and poison?" She hummed in thought. "Nah, I don't... I don't think that's how I faked it."
"I can answer that," Noh piped up nonchalantly. "Death by poisoned kunai."
"Bingo, that was it!" Sakura exclaimed. "And then, to really sell it, I was going to fake drowning in the river."
"Well it certainly worked," Ino shivered, uncomfortable with the details all of a sudden. "Your death caused quite a stir in the capital city."
"Really?" She wrinkled her nose. "I mean, my family would've, of course, but..."
"The royal family mourned your death for two whole months," Shikamaru said gravely, "and once the mourning period was over, that only served as a reason for the king to hit Riot harder."
"Aw, geez," Sakura sighed heavily. "So that's why we got attacked so often that autumn. I'm really sorry about that, Mother."
"No harm, as long as you're safe."
Ino glanced between them in confusion. "You... you call Tsunade-sama... 'Mother'?"
"Long story, but yes." The pinkette nodded. "Basically, she became my mentor and mother-figure after I defected, so she just told me to call her Mother."
"What really made me do it was because you spent half your nights crying," Tsunade replied, raising an eyebrow. "You were so lonely, missing your parents, that you made me feel guilty."
Blushing in slight embarrassment, the girl coughed, "A- anyway, you wanted the full story of the attack in May, right?"
"The whole thing, please." Hinata nodded.
"It's gonna be a lengthy story, so strap in," she warned, before taking a deep breath.
"So it all began when my father took us there for a business trip."
A/N: To keep the chapter length okay, I'm gonna save Sakura's side for next chapter. Stay tuned!
Oh, and as a quick aside, I apologize for not making this clearer earlier, but this book is going to be a bit of a slow burn. It's planned to have at least 40-50 chapters, making it one of the longest books I've ever done (both from a wordcount standpoint and a chapter standpoint). Unfortunately, this means that SasuSaku won't meet for at least another 5-10 chapters. If this makes you give up on this book, I understand, but if you wanna stick around, then great! I hope you still enjoy. If I do end TCSD before this one (which is... unsurprisingly likely), I'll probably forsake the '1 chapter per week' thing in favor of updating every Fri/Sat/Sun. You'll have to, unfortunately, wait for that, though.
On a happier note, I think that you'll hopefully enjoy SasuSakuNaru's dynamic once they do meet and interact. Naruto is a ton of fun to write for!
Anyways, please tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate, and I'll see you guys next week.
