Sakura sighed apprehensively as she stood outside of the door to her parent's house. Kakashi stood next to her, holding a stack of cardboard boxes. "Come one Sakura, let's get this done." He encouraged. She raised her fist to knock on the door, waiting thirty seconds before actually managed to touch her knuckles to the door. It created a sound so pitiful that Kakashi didn't even heart it. "Louder, harder, we're not leaving without your stuff." Sakura drew back her fist and brought it against the door hard enough to split the first layer of wood. She waited ten seconds then hit it again, causing the door to splinter more. Just as the pink haired girl was about to knock again, the door was snatched open by a slight brown haired woman.

"Mother, I've come to get my things." She announced. Her mother stepped back to allow her into the house. Sakura brushed past her, Kakashi following close behind her.

"Try to be out before your father returns." The small woman advised as she shut the front door and walked into the kitchen. Sakura nodded absently. Her and Kakashi headed up the stairs to her room, whose door had been closed and locked. Sakura just pushed it inward, overpowering the lock. The inside of the room looked worse than Sakura had expected. The dresser and closet had been turned out, drawers pulled out and ransacked, and pieces of loose flooring tore up. Most of her clothing now lay in a giant pile, crumpled as if they had been shaken out; pockets were turned out, as though someone was looking for something. Her vanity's mirror and lights had been smashed; the drawers and storage slides had been pulled out and were littered about the floor, makeup and hair products thrown everywhere. Her sheets, blankets, and pillow cases lay on one pile, and her pillows lay on top of the mattress, which had been flipped onto the floor. Her bedframe was pushed, at an angle, against the wall. Everything breakable had been smashed, picture frames, ceramic figurines, and the little glass novelties that she had picked up from different missions, all lay ruined across the floor. Burnt scraps of pictures were scattered around the floor, spread around by the wind currents that came through the broken window.

Kakashi dropped the boxes in a relatively clear spot and knelt by the frame of the picture that contained the members of squad seven. He sorted through the glass and other refuse until he found an unburned portion of the picture. I contained a large portion of Sasuke's face and the very bottom of his own hand. He slipped it into his vest pocket, rising to watch Sakura begin to pick up her belongings and arrange them into the three boxes he'd brought. He decided that he'd see if he could employ someone to reconstruct the photo using his copy and what remained to this one, and then give it to Sakura as a home warming gift.

"Can you hold your own here for an hour? I'm going to go fix up Azuma's extra room with Ino. Who knows what sort of things she'll find in there. If things look bad, I'll send Kurenai or Azuma over to supervise. Does that sound good?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah, that'll be fine." Sakura replied. "Thanks Sensei."

"Don't mention it." Kakashi opened the door onto the balcony and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Tsunade groaned petulantly as Shizune towed a bag of groceries into her living quarters. "Let's just go out, we're not going to be able to make a good meal in here."

"We're only making rice balls, and if you really don't want to cook. You can go take a nap; I'll wake you up when I'm done." Shizune offered. Tsunade pressed a peck to Shizune's cheek.

"You're too good to me." The blonde sighed. "Thank you." She continued through the kitchen area to her bed in the corner of the building. She stripped off her jacket and arranged her blanket on the bed. She got into the bed and pulled the blanket over herself.

Hinata sighed happily as she walked past Ichiraku's ramen shop, remembering the date that they had gone on two weeks before. Since that night, however, Naruto had been acting strangely. He refused to see her most nights, telling her that he had something he needed to work on. So she'd decided to surprise him at his apartment and see what he'd been working on. As she walked down the streets that lead to his apartment, Hinata squinted against the sun as it shone from its highest point in the sky. It took her a few minutes to reach the building and a few more to climb up the stairs to his apartment.

Hinata knocked on his door lightly, waiting a few minutes for some sort of reply. When none came she knocked harder and waited a moment before calling out. "Naruto-kun, I thought I'd drop by and see if you were busy." Still no reply came. Hinata shrugged and started to head down the hall when she heard a loud exhalation come from Naruto's apartment. She turned and silently walked back to the door. She activated her Byakugan and gazed through the door. From her vantage point she could see a person, and shaped like Naruto, hunched over with a hand moving up and down, stroking a smaller part of his chakra network. Hinata observed for a few more seconds before she processed what she was spying upon. She almost gasped, realizing at the last second, and then stopping herself. She stalked off, her face beet red.

Shizune smiled as she gazed upon Tsunade's sleeping form. She glanced between her lover and the plate of rice balls in her hand. She bit her lips indecisively. After a few seconds she set the plate down on the floor and snuggled up to Tsunade, nuzzling at her ears and neck. The blonde groaned and moved away from her. The brunette followed, wrapping her arms around her older lover's waist and continuing her annoying nuzzling until Tsunade finally sat up. Shizune smiled as the woman curled her lip up distastefully at her. "Dinner is ready."

The blonde held out her hand for a rice ball wordlessly. Shizune took the plate from the floor and sat on the bed. She set the plate between them and allowed Tsunade to take one. The Hokage took a small bite, tasting the flavor. Shizune took one herself and popped half of it into her mouth. She chewed it thoughtfully before swallowing, watching Tsunade's face as she savored the small bite she had taken. "It's good." Tsunade admonished after taking a few more. The brunette smiled.

"Thank you." Shizune replied graciously. They ate in silence, carefully picking around the well-made one so the other could have them, until only the best were left and it became a game of careful inspection to find the smallest flaws and selecting those rice balls. The two of them became so enraptured in their little game that they barely noticed how close they were moving to one another, until they bumped heads as they moved closer to the plate to inspect the last two rice balls. Shizune squinted, looking for the slightest malformations, the slightest crack or fission between grains. She put out her hand to hover over them, only to have it knocked away as Tsunade grabbed the flawed rice ball. She smiled victoriously as she raised the bit of rice to her lips. Shizune reluctantly claimed the best ball, popping the whole thing into her mouth and chewing slowly to savor the flavor. She noticed that this ball didn't taste too much different from the others.

Tsunade picked up the mostly clean plate and stood from the bed, carting it back to the sink and running water over the surface, dusting the food particles off.

"See, this was nice, it had an intimate feel to it." Shizune called from the bed. "I bet in a few weeks we could pull off a dinner at my house. That'll be a real treat; I have so much to cook with at my house."

"Yeah, that meal had a quiet intensity to it. I liked it; I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I can't wait to eat at your place. I think these secret dinners will be more fun than dining at restaurants. It's almost like being parts of a secret club, except without the pressure of worrying about the members you don't trust will spill your secret." Tsunade answered, walking back to and stopping in front of the bed.

"Except that a club doesn't have benefits like this." The brunette smiled, extending her hand to her blonde lover. The buxom woman took her hand, allowing herself to be pulled down onto the bed. Shizune smiled as she climbed on top of the other woman, and pressed her lips to her forehead.

"No, a club doesn't, does it?" Tsunade asked rhetorically.

Ino found herself looking about in wonderment at the room she had just cleaned with the help of Kakashi and Kurenai.

"It looks so much bigger now." She commented. "And so much healthier too."

"Yes, that happens when you spend a few hours cleaning up." Kakashi replied, dusting himself off.

"How long are you guys going to be staying?" Kurenai asked.

"A little over month, hopefully. Sakura and I put a security deposit down on the apartment we were looking at. Now we're going to start buying furniture and placing it in there. Between training and actually working to make money to buy it, it'll take a bit longer than either of us had hoped. I don't mean to offend Azuma, but we can't wait to have a place of our own."

"I doubt he'll find that offensive. He's not exactly adjusting well to having to young women in his house." Kurenai laughed. "You should hear the way he grumbles at me."

"I didn't realize that we were being so disruptive. We could just buy essentials like a bed and stove then move in within a week." Ino suggested.

"I wasn't suggesting that you do that at all." Kurenai clarified. "Don't worry about it, Azuma is a big boy, he can handle it. I just don't want you to feel like you're offending or displacing anyone."

Sakura and Azuma walked in, Azuma's arms loaded with boxes, as Ino was about to reply. Azuma staggered over to the girls' room and placed the stack on the floor.

"That should be it, then, right girls?" Azuma said. "Ino's things are already packed and ready to go, but you can pick them up without an escort. You know the rules, foods free, bathroom split as far as storage space, we're all set for as long as you two need a place to stay. Now if you'll excuse us, Kurenai and I have something urgent to discuss privately." He walked over and wrapped her arms around her waist, towing her backwards into the master bedroom. Ino and Sakura smiled at each other, linking hands and walking into the guest room together.

Naruto rubbed his head nervously as he stood in front of the door to Hinata's room. Her father had long since allowed him free access to the house when he wanted to surprise the girl. According to Hinabi, her older sister had been locked in her room since returning from her walk this morning. The blonde boy sighed and raised his fist to the door, knocking lightly. "It's Naruto. I came to see if you want to take a walk tonight? I know I've been distant for the last few weeks; I've been working on a project for Granny Tsunade. But now I'm done, and we can go out, that is if you want to." He called through the door.

He heard soft footsteps padding to the door. "What kind of project?" she asked.

"The secret kind, nothing special though. It's nothing amazing, not a weapon of mass destruction or anything." Naruto answered.

"You're done with it now. No more moodiness or deflections?"

"Yes, for now. We might get assigned another mission within a few months."

"We?"

"The team I was working with. That's also secret, sorry."

Hinata opened the door. "Okay, let's go out for a walk. I've been missing you."

"Alright, I've got a lot of things to talk to you about." Naruto said, reaching for her hand

END

Authors note: And so ends Killer Blow to the Heart. I hope you all enjoyed the tale I have spun as much as I have.