CCNote: So it's that time of year again. That point when I slowly slip into hiding under my kotatsu and feeling depressed. This holiday season will be especially rough since most of the ALTs that made last year bearable have returned to their home countries. I'm never one to not want a day off (why Japan has Thanksgiving in the first place is mind boggling) but I honestly would rather be working. I'd rather be chasing kids out of my holiday costume cabinet and tracking down my Uno cards than sitting at home alone when everyone is posting their holiday pics. While people are eating themselves into a coma I'm reminded that I hate Japanese food (Sugar is not a seasoning dammit!) and cooking anything here can be a chore at times since ovens aren't really a thing. Now I'm depressing myself even more... If this chapter is shit oh well. I just need to do something to distract myself.
Anyway...Enjoy
J is for Returns
Thursday, May 17, 2019, 10:25 am
Hokage Mansion- West Wing
...
"Wow!" Sakura cooed as she bounced the littlest Uzumaki on her knee. "He's even bigger than the pictures."
Ino nodded her head in agreement, a broad smile on her face as she entered the living room with a tray of snacks and juices. Behind her, an elderly maid fretted over her carrying such things but Ino insisted.
"I can carry a tray Gi." Ino said as she placed the tray on the low coffee table.
"But my lady!" Gi protested, clearly unhappy with Ino's insistence. "You have to allow us to do our work."
"I know, I know. I'll remember for next time Gi. Promise!" Ino smiled and cocked her head slightly to the side. Her friendly smile made Gi soften her own stance and she sighed in defeat before taking her leave of the room. Sakura shook her head as the woman left.
"Who would have thought you would be the one to end up with servants." Sakura sighed. Ino snorted and took Ito from the pink haired woman's lap.
"It's not as magical as they make it out to be in fairytales." She explained, adjusting Ito to a comfortable position on her hip. "They can be really overbearing."
"I heard that!" Gi called from hallway causing Ino and Sakura to laugh.
Once their giggles subsided Sakura leaned back into the plush couch and admired her surroundings. The Hokage mansion was not a place she'd ever imagined getting a peek into but here she was. Playing with her godson with a pile of fancy little sandwiches stacked on a glistening silver tray. This living room wasn't even the more formal one she'd first been brought in to. That apparently was where foreign dignitaries were greeted before being shown to their wings of the mansion. The more formal living room was pristine with cream-colored couches and crystal chandeliers. This room was much more intimate with lots of throw blankets, pillows, and rounded edges to keep Ito from hurting himself.
Sakura smiled as her happy godson sucked on the edge of his distracted mother's shirt. Ino had clearly gotten used to baby drool so it didn't even faze her to feel dampness on her clothing. The pinkette pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and sighed. Ino was a mother now, of course she would be used to that.
"Alright!" Tenten cheered as she entered the room and plopped down on the couch next to Sakura. "Hinata's almost here. Hiro and Haji must be giving her a hard time this morning."
"Mmmmm I wouldn't say they're the culprits. Sasuke can also be demanding in his own right." Ino smirked, finally removing her soaked shirt from Ito's mouth.
Sakura felt the tips of her ears turn red at the mention of her former boss but she tamped down that emotion. If Sasuke and Hinata were having troubles with their relationship it wasn't any of her business. Even if hearing juicy bits of gossip like this made her feel hopeful she would not allow that hope to grow. Hope only got people hurt.
"So Sakura." Tenten grinned, breaking the woman from her thoughts. "Meet any cute guys out there in parts unknown, ways unknown?"
"Ooo do tell!" Ino added eagerly as she took up residence on the arm of the couch. She shifted Ito to her lap, her blue eyes bright with anticipation. Sakura laughed at her friends' excitement. Her travels weren't that thrilling but it was nice to be the center of attention for once.
"Does becoming a wife make you desperate for the exploits of others?" She teased.
Ino snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Oh please. We just fucked on that very spot you're sitting on this morning."
Sakura shrieked and immediately jumped off of the couch. That was absolutely disgusting!
"I'm just kidding." Ino laughed but her blue eyes still held a mischievous glint to them.
Sakura would have thrown a pillow at her friend or at least pushed her but the woman was untouchable now that she had a baby shield. Ito was blissfully unaware of how evil his mom was and was content to remain in her arms for as long as possible. With a sigh of defeat, Sakura sank to the floor and prayed that Ino and Naruto hadn't desecrated that as well. Ino and Tenten laughed at her expense, fully enjoying the disgruntled look on her face.
"Anyway." Sakura said, cutting through their laughter. "My trip was not about finding a new guy in every city, although I very well could if I wanted too. A sabbatical is meant to take time off to clear the air and find yourself."
Tenten yawned and stretched out on the couch now that Sakura had taken up residence on the floor. She apparently had no qualms about whether the Uzumakis had fucked on the couch or not.
"Is that what they taught you in hippie school?" The brunette asked and Sakura wrinkled her nose.
"It's not 'hippie' it's holistic."
"Yea yea anyway."
"Anyway." Sakura reiterated, cutting her eyes at Tenten for the slight. "Now that I've got some experience under my belt I'm going to take part in the Leaf's new holistic medicine program. It's the first year they're doing this. In fact, they're one of the only facilities in Konoha that even offered this kind of program. The dean of medicine is going to be supervising it herself!"
"Wow." Ino whistled, removing another soaked piece of her shirt from Ito's mouth. "I bet that kind of program costs a lot of money. Did you get a scholarship or something? You haven't worked in nearly a year."
"Don't pry into other people's finances Ino." Tenten chided.
"It's not prying I'm just concerned!"
The former roommates continued to bicker back and forth while Sakura wanted nothing more than for a hole to appear on the mansion floor and swallow her up. Ino was absolutely correct in her assumptions. A program like this, especially a pilot program, was very very expensive. There was no way her parents would be able to help her afford the tuition and fees and none of the odd jobs she'd picked up over the year would even make a dent. No, the only reason she was able to afford to go was because the Uchihas had never stopped paying her...
Sakura kept her face blank and her shoulders back. Behind her, the other female workers for the Uchiha lamented the recent tragedy that had befallen one of their bosses. Hinata Hyuuga was expecting. The news had been spread throughout the office within twenty-four hours and it was all anyone could talk about. Money changed hands and girls were crying in the bathroom. A large portion of Uchiha employees had expected this outcome but Sakura thought they were full of shit. Sasuke and Hinata still behaved around each other the way they always had and, to her at least, it looked as though nothing was going on.
People claimed that it was inevitable that they'd get together but Sakura was skeptical. She'd worked closely with the two of them over the last few months. There had been nothing going on between them...yet...Hinata was still pregnant. Sakura tightened her grip on the thin envelope she held close to her chest. The door to the elevator dinged and she stepped out with the rest of the occupants.
Each step towards the office felt heavier than the last. People peaked over the walls of their cubicles and watched as she made her walk of shame. She had been the woman closest to Sasuke. She had been in first place in all of the office betting pools for who would be the one to claim his heart. She was the one who let him slip through her fingers. Sakura ignored their pitying looks with her head held high. She wouldn't have to deal with those stares for much longer.
The door to the office was already cracked open, inside she could hear the shuffling of papers and the clicking of keys. This was it. She looked down at the envelope clutched between her fingers. This was the day she walked away from the only man she'd ever loved. Before she talked herself out of it she pushed open the door to the office.
On the couch in the center of the room sat Sasuke and Hinata. Both of them had their laptops out and were distractedly typing away, neither one aware that Sakura had entered the room. Sakura wrinkled her nose with distaste that Hinata had stuck her feet under Sasuke's thigh. Just how comfortable were they?
'Comfortable enough to make a baby.' A nagging voice in the back of her head perked up but she swatted the thought away.
"Good morning." She said, praying the whole while that her voice didn't crack.
She'd applied her makeup carefully this morning and her outfit complimented all of her curves. A simple white blouse and soft pink pencil skirt, nothing fancy but she knew that she looked good. It was the least she could do on a day like this. Sasuke continued to type away at his computer as if he hadn't heard her but Hinata looked up from her work.
"Sa-Sakura!" She said, eyeing the envelope in her hands warily. "Goodmorning."
Sakura ignored her greeting and walked right up to Sasuke. It took a moment but he finally looked up at her with those obsidian eyes she'd been daydreaming about for years.
"Yes?" He asked and a shiver ran through her body.
God she was going to miss his voice. Reluctantly she handed him the envelope and waited for him to open it. His eyes quickly scanned the paper before returning it back into the envelope.
"So you're quitting." He said simply and Hinata gasped.
"Wait no...thats not..I meant-" The Hyuuga stammered but Sakura interrupted her.
"Yes, I am."
Sakura wanted nothing more than to punch something. What right did Hinata have to act surprised? She was the one who wanted her out of the picture anyway. After all, she'd 'recommended' she take a break from working and then be switched to another department. That was an option Sakura wouldn't stand for. She refused to be shuffled around like a jilted mistress to some backwater department. She would leave on her own terms. At least then she would still have her pride.
Sasuke placed the envelope on the coffee table and closed his laptop. He then leaned against the arm of the couch, resting his chin in his hand.
"Visit HR to have your passwords and authorizations removed from the system."
"Sasuke wait!" Hinata interjected. "Are you sure about this? Sakura...you don't have to quit. I'm sorry-"
"Hinata." Sasuke said warningly and the Hyuuga backed down from her protest.
Sakura wasn't quite sure how she made it out of that room without turning into a puddle of tears but she managed. The rest of the day passed by in a blur of well wishes from coworkers and shredding all of her personal files. She never even got to see Sasuke again as everyone waved goodbye to her one last time. Hinata was there, standing in the back as though she wanted to blend in with everyone else. Sakura refused to grant her more than a passing glance. Her pride wouldn't let her acknowledge the guilt written plainly across her face or the hurt in her eyes. All she cared about was getting as far away as possible from the woman who stole her future.
...After that day she'd spent an entire two months volunteering at a various children's hospital throughout the country until she'd run low on funds. Sakura couldn't, or more so wouldn't, ask her parents for help. They had enough to worry about without throwing her own problems into the mix. She was going to have to dip into her savings which was a sizable amount after working for the Uchiha for three years. However, when she called her bank to try to approve a transfer she discovered that she already had two months worth of salary sitting in her account untouched. At first, she thought it was a fluke. Someone had probably made a mistake in accounting and had forwarded her salary. She didn't touch any of the money and instead picked up a side job that same day as a waitress in a local diner.
The money still continued to show up, month after month, without fail. She even received her annual Christmas bonus which was more than it should have been. As the money amassed itself so did that pesky feeling of hope. Sasuke wouldn't keep paying her if on some level he didn't care about her. The money had stopped appearing a month ago around the time that she'd announced that she would be returning to Konoha. Perhaps that was a sign that he expected her to return to work?
Yet again she tried to tamp down that pesky feeling of hope. When she discovered the holistic healing program here in Konoha she knew immediately that she had to enroll. A year of untouched salary was more than enough to cover her first year on the program. If the Leaf were to prove the program sustainable and beneficial to the hospital money would be raised by donors for the pilot class to finish out their second year. Sakura knew that the program would be rigorous but after spending time in the children's hospital she knew that medicine was her calling. The fact that the program was in Konoha was also a plus because now she was back in an environment she was familiar with. Her mother and father were here. Her friends were here. Sasuke was here...
"Are you sure you have everything?" A deep voice grumbled from just beyond the archway that led into the living room.
Her heart hitched in her chest. Sasuke.
"Of course." A soft voice replied.
Her heart then sank into the pit of her stomach. Hinata.
"What about-"
"If she's missing anything she can just borrow Ito's." Ino called out to the disembodied voices.
There was a brief amount of shuffling but soon the new arrivals emerged into the living room. Sakura tried to look unfazed but that was proving to be difficult. She hadn't seen her former boss in over a year yet, somehow, he was even more handsome than before. How was that even possible? He wasn't even trying that hard! Currently, he wore a dark purple dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. She couldn't help but note that the dark color of the shirt complemented his flawless pale skin perfectly. His ebony locks were a bit longer now after a year and almost brushed against his shoulders. The old Sasuke she knew would have never let his hair get that long but it suited him more than she could have ever imagined. What would it feel like to run her fingers through it?
She prayed for him to look in her direction, for him to just acknowledge the fact that she was there. Did her absence have the same effect on him? Did he find her more appealing after being separated for a year? They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and they had been together for three years.
"They have everything, I double checked." Hinata reassured Ino, placing a light hand on Sasuke's forearm.
When the woman noticed Sakura sitting on the floor her face spread into a bright smile. Sakura couldn't help but hate how genuine she looked even though she was loaded down like a pack mule. On each shoulder, she carried two navy blue overnight bags and on her back was a small backpack. Tenten hopped off of the couch to help her unload and the petite woman breathed a sigh of relief once she was released from her burden.
"Welcome back!" She said with a sincerity that made Sakura feel sick.
"Yea...I'm back." Sakura replied.
Obsidian eyes passed over her briefly but she couldn't tell what he was thinking. She tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace. She could feel Ino's disapproving eyes on the back of her head but she ignored her friend for now. Instead, she focused on the identical black car seat carriers in each of Sasuke's hands. One was covered over with a red blanket and the other in blue. He set down the carrier near the coffee and table and without a word, he and Hinata started lifting the blankets and unbuckling the boys.
"Are you excited to see your friends?" Ino cooed to Ito and the baby boy babbled nonsense in return.
"Of course they are! It's been two whole days. They miss each other!" Hinata said sweetly to the baby in the red carrier.
A morbid sense of curiosity washed over Sakura. Part of her wanted to see the children that Sasuke had sired. She still had daydreams of children with dark hair and green eyes. However, as the child was lifted from the carrier into Hinata's arms, the eyes that the child possessed were not green. They were just as dark as his fathers and an unsettling feeling of satisfaction rose in her chest. Those eyes were Sasuke's eyes. That hair was Sasuke's. Those cheeks, that nose, those chubby little hands. They were all Sasuke's. The Uchiha could never deny the children if he wanted to but no one would be able to tell that Hinata was their mother.
"They did not miss anything." Sasuke said flatly as he removed the second child from his carrier. This one too looked like his spitting image.
"Oh please!" Ino snorted and walked up towards the Uchiha twins with Ito in her arms. "They're already best friends!"
Ito reached out towards the twin in Sasuke's arms but the baby huffed and buried his face into his father's chest. Undeterred Ino turned to Hinata where the same rejection was repeated. Sakura smirked, it appeared as though Sasuke's children were just as antisocial as he was.
"Don't be mean Haji." Hinata said as she tried to push the baby in her arms towards Ito. "You love your friend."
Haji whimpered and threw himself into Hinata's chest, unpersuaded by his mother's coaxing. With a sigh, Hinata placed him on the ground. Ino did the same with Ito who immediately crawled towards the Uchiha twin. He tried pulling on the sleeve of Haji's shirt but the little boy jerked his arm away. Ino turned back to Sakura with a big smile on her face, unfazed at the fact that neither one of the Uchiha twins appreciated their forced friendship.
"Just you watch, they're going to be inseparable in an hour!"
"Yea." Sakura said but she didn't quite see that happening.
She was too busy watching Hinata try to take the other twin from Sasuke's arms. The Uchiha seemed reluctant to part with his son even though his face remained flat. Hinata placed her hands on her hips and stared up at him intently, a wordless conversation passing between them. Sakura's heart skipped a beat. Sasuke had been giving Hinata a 'hard time' as Ino had so simply put it. She shouldn't feel hopeful that their relationship was on the rocks. That was wrong. However...there had to be a reason that he hadn't proposed to her yet. There had to be a reason that he continued to send her money.
Eventually, Sasuke's shoulders slumped and he put his son on the floor with the other two boys. The dark-haired child immediately scrunched up his face in protest and tried to pull himself up using Sasuke's pant leg as support.
"It's only for two days." Hinata said gently as she detached the little boy from wrinkling his father's pants leg further.
Two days? Sakura's curiosity was peaked. What could possibly separate them for two days? Was their relationship really that rocky? No. She shouldn't even be thinking these kinds of things. She pressed a hand against her treacherous heart.
"Two days? This feels like two weeks worth of stuff!" Tenten huffed as she dragged the bags off to the side of the room. "I'm absolutely positive you didn't forget anything."
Hinata smiled at her friend's assessment but Sasuke didn't seem to agree. He crouched down low to where his sons were huddled together in an effort to ignore Ito. Silently he pressed a heavy hand on each of their heads, smoothing down their messy locks. He then stood up and gave a stiff nod in the direction of the other occupants in the room.
He's leaving...
It took a second for it to register in her addled mind but when the realization hit her heart began to race. This was the first time she'd seen him in almost a year, he couldn't be leaving already! Who knows when the next opportunity to see him will come around? Desperately she took in a deep breath. If she could just see him for a few more moments she would be satisfied.
"Leaving so soon?" She asked, proud of the fact that her voice stayed even.
Dark eyes passed over her again, this time for just a bit longer as if he were trying to figure her out. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and willed herself to not nervously chew on her bottom lip. She wasn't supposed to be feeling like this!
"He's not leaving soon enough!" Ino chided. "Your flight will leave without you if you stick around much longer."
"Hn." Sasuke smirked and turned to Hinata.
There was a softness in his eyes when he looked at her. It was that same look she'd ignore when the three of them were working together in the office. That look was one she'd wished that one day he would bestow upon her. Like sand slipping through her fingers, her hope began to escape. She watched as Sasuke turned away from them, sparing one last glance towards his sons, and took his leave of the living room.
"Finally!" Ino sighed, plopping herself onto the couch. "You'd think he was going off to war or something!"
"It's his first trip away since the twins were born. Of course, he'd be a little anxious." Tenten defended with a smile. "What took you guys so long anyway?"
Hinata averted her gaze as she sat down on the floor next to the boys. Her long dark hair mostly kept her face from view, obscuring her true thoughts.
"He was giving you a hard time wasn't he?" Ino asked innocently and the Hyuuga's head sprung up.
Her entire face was flushed a deep red and her eyes were wide. She cautiously kept glancing at Sakura but the pink haired woman refused to hold her gaze.
"You shouldn't tease her like that Ino." Tenten laughed, a mischevious smile of her own playing at her lips. "How many are there today?"
"How many what?" Sakura asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Nothing!" The Hyuuga replied a bit too quickly to be believed.
"Nothing my ass! I'm going to be shocked if Haji and Hiro don't end up with a sibling soon."
"Ino!" Hinata groaned, covering her flushed face with her hands.
Sakura tried to laugh along with her friends but it just sounded hollow. The girls moved on to other topics, all of which had them in stitches for the rest of the morning. She tried to smile when appropriate. She nodded along with the conversation and spoke up when she didn't feel like her voice would betray her. Yet her eyes kept returning to Hinata more times than she cared to admit.
Hinata Hyuuga, former heiress to the prestigious Hyuuga clan was not one's standard opinion of beauty. That title belonged to Ino who's bright blue eyes and long legs had men drooling after her as soon as she walked into a room. Hinata's beauty was different, subtle even. Her pale eyes were startling the first few times they stared at you. The Hyuuga were the only people she'd come across with such unsettling eyes. When Ino had first introduced Hinata to her she thought that the Hyuuga's eyes were, in a word, creepy. She didn't speak much but her eyes soaked up everything in the room. Those eyes saw everything and beneath them held a mystery that kept most men at a distance.
'Those eyes didn't keep Sasuke away.' She thought bitterly as she watched Hinata pull her long hair up into a messy ponytail.
Once the hair was off of her neck Sakura could see the evidence of the 'hard time' Sasuke had been giving her that morning. A bright red hickey between the crook of her neck and shoulder marred her otherwise pale skin. The sight of it was...disturbing but she couldn't look away. What was it that Sasuke saw in her? Why was Hinata the one who'd been able to capture his elusive affection?
Sakura had asked herself these questions more times than she cared to admit but she always came up empty. There was no reason the two of them should work well together. She shook her head at the thought of them actually being happy. They were only together because of the twins. Sakura watched as the twins hoarded blocks away from Ito and a sharp pain pierced her heart. They were supposed to be friends but she'd stolen the only man she ever loved. She was the mother of his children.
"They could have been mine." She mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?" Hinata asked, that same bright smile returning to her face.
"Nothing. I was just thinking about um books I needed to buy. Yea books!"
"Oh!" Hinata replied as she clapped her hands together. "I almost forgot! When Ino told me you were going to end your sabbatical by going into holistic medicine I started looking through the Hyuuga library for books about it."
The Hyuuga got up and went to one of the large navy diaper bags. After a few minutes of rummaging around, she pulled out a rather hefty looking book. Hinata turned back to her with that genuine smile and handed her the book.
"This book is filled with old home remedies that the Hyuuga used to use for generations." She said. "Most of the recipes have fallen out of use but maybe some of them would be helpful to you."
"Thanks, Hinata." Sakura said distantly as she accepted the gift.
She ran her hands over the untitled maroon cover. When she flipped open the book she found the pages to be all handwritten in different styles by authors who'd added in their own medicinal recipes over the years. If these recipes actually worked a book like this would be invaluable to her work. As she continued to flip through the pages she reached the middle of the book where a small envelop3 had been shoved between the yellowed pages. No. Sakura looked up at Hinata who'd moved on to playing with the twins.
No.
Green eyes turned back to the book and stared at the perfectly neat script scrawled over the front of the envelope. Good Luck! She knew Sasuke's handwriting better than she knew her own. This wasn't his doing.
Why would she do this?
With trembling hands, she opened the envelope just enough to see the standard Uchiha letterhead typed over the top. This was her final check. Realization set in and with it came dull throbbing to the front of her head. This entire time it was likely that Sasuke hadn't thought twice about her. Did he even know what Hinata had been doing behind his back? Why? Why would she do this?
Sakura closed the book and looked back up to Hinata and her twins. It shouldn't hurt this much but she'd been lying to herself this entire time. She'd let hope creep in and just like she knew it would, it hurt. Didn't Hinata realize how much this hurt? How could she sit there and act as though everything was ok, as if she actually cared? Pale eyes caught her staring and smiled back at her, innocent to the knife she'd stabbed in Sakura's heart. Ignorant to just how much Sakura hated her.
"Sakura where are you going?" Ino asked worriedly.
The pink-haired woman hadn't even realized she'd stood up until Ino had said something. Tenten and Hinata stopped playing with the babies to look at her curiously, inadvertently making Sakura even more uncomfortable with their gaze. Without a word she grabbed her bag off of the couch and left the room. Faintly she could hear Ino calling out to her but she ignored the blonde's pleas. She had to get out of there. She thought that she'd be able to handle seeing Sasuke and Hinata but she was woefully mistaken. She'd lied to herself. She'd told herself that she was okay, that she could do this. The truth was that she couldn't.
"Sakura stop!" Ino shouted down the hallway just as she reached the front door of the mansion.
She would have kept going if it weren't for the fact that the doorman was standing in her way. He placed his hand on the doorknob, staring past Sakura with concerned eyes on his breathless mistress. When Ino emerged into the foyer she waved the doorman away for the sake of privacy before forcing Sakura to face her.
"What the hell are you doing? Are you okay?" She asked breathlessly. "What happened?"
"I can't do this." Sakura replied despondently.
"This?"
"That!" Sakura hissed, pointing her finger back in the direction they'd just run away from.
"Are you still on that?" Ino huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I thought you coming back meant you were over Sasuke."
"I thought I was but..."
Her voice caught in her throat. She would have been okay if Sasuke was unhappy. Secretly she'd wished that he would realize what a mistake he made, that he might not be satisfied with the life he had now.
"Sakura I told you in the beginning not to start having feelings for your boss. You didn't listen to me-"
"This is so not the time for 'I told you so's' Ino." Sakura snapped and moved to open the door.
"I'm not trying to rub it in. I'm just saying." Ino sighed but Sakura didn't turn around. "Please just stay. This is the first time you've seen Ito in person...surely you can get through an afternoon for our sake?"
"I'm sorry-"
"We're supposed to be friends Sakura!"
At that statement Sakura whirled around, her fists clutched tightly at her sides.
"Friends? Ha! You're still 'friends' with Hinata even though you know how much she hurt me. I wouldn't have sleepovers with the woman Naruto knocked up!" she yelled, her voice bouncing off of the cavernous foyer walls. Ino took a step back from her with eyes that no longer held their usual affection.
"It's not like that and you know it." She said calmly. "Hinata never meant to hurt you but she and Sasuke are happy together and-"
"Like that makes me feel any better." Sakura scoffed and turned back to the front door.
"It's the truth though. Hinata was really worried about you while you were gone. We all were. No one thought you'd disappear for nearly a year but you're here now-"
"Ino...I just can't."
Silence fell over them, one foot already out of the door. Ino let out an exasperated sigh and the sound of her pain registered just a bit over the anger Sakura felt inside of herself. She didn't want to disappoint Ino but she had no idea how she felt right now. Within the course of a year and a half, Ino had landed a loving husband, a cute kid, and a huge mansion staffed around the clock by servants. She was literally living in a fairytale so of course it was easier for her to be oblivious to her friend's hardship. Sakura shook her head, tightening her grip on the doorknob until her knuckles turned white.
"You're supposed to be Ito's godmother. If you can't stay for me. Please stay for him."
The plea tugged at her heart but she knew she couldn't do it. She couldn't go back into that room where the evidence of Sasuke and Hinata's relationship manifested itself within their twins. Within in children that could have been hers. She just couldn't do it.
"I'm sorry."
To be continued...
K is for Funerals
Flowers are meant for the living...