"I'm sorry"
-Part two-

Sasuke Uchiha had not remotely imagined that those "discoveries" could have a cost.

He was forced to pronounce the two magic words - "I'm sorry" - to all the ninjas of the Alliance, who just found out what was the tent where the two heroes - or the hero and a half - were recovering, began a slow and grueling procession.

Obviously, the Kage had taken precedence.

Tsunade was very severe with him, Sakura's insult was a compliment in comparison to the vulgarity of the blonde who had begun with idiot, ending with fucking bastard traitor, through epithets that is better not to relate.

The Hokage had concluded his speech by assuring them that they would have recovered the missing limbs, remembering to the Uchiha that he should be fortunate to still have his heads attached to his neck.

Sasuke had obviously responded: "I'm sorry." And his tone was quite persuasive.

With Raikage was even worse ... He was still furious for the severed arm in the Iron Land and the attempted murder of Killer Bee, who, however, had solved the problem with "Hey brother, war is finished, the villaines are vanished, you are for me a friend, but you can change your trend " Sasuke had raised an eyebrow and asked mentally to Naruto, his tent mate, if he had all his marbles. The blond smiled slyly, as if to say: "Look who's talking".

The deep voice of the Raikage had thundered for a nice half hour, demanding justice. For him it was unacceptable that Sasuke could be considered a hero after all he had done, finding support even in the Tsuchikage who was terrified he could become the new Madara Uchiha.

Mei, the Mizukage, had instead pointed out how the gene Uchiha, when combined well, could proliferate powerful ninjas and the others had watched her a little shocked, believing that she had ambitions in that way. Sasuke's eyes widened listening her words, although among his many purposes was also to restore the Clan, he needed a mother, not a grandmother for his children.

Gaara, until then had remained silent, scrutinizing the two ninjas who after many adventures and battles were there, side by side. He always knew in his heart Sasuke was not bad, it was the life to make him so, just as it had happened to himself. Although he and Naruto had in common the fact of being a jinchūriki that had alienated them from all he had always felt so close to Uchiha. He, too, had experienced the thrill of that darkness induced by survival instinct. Naruto had been crucial in the difficult path that led him to be what he was: the Kazekage of the Sand Land, a good brother and a man more peaceful. He was very grateful to Naruto and Sasuke had also definitely think that way : his attitude was not arrogant or conceited; He listened with his eyes down. From time to time he saw him holding in your fingers the sheet and refrain from uttering something.

Naruto often intervened in his defense, as he had always done, but it seemed as if both were hiding something.

"I demand that he be punished severely! He is a traitor! " The Raikage finally concluded.

"Yes, but without him it would not be possible to dissolve the Tsukuyomi and during the war helped us"

All turned towards Gaara.

"What do you propose, then?" Tsuchikage asked.

"Give him a chance to start over," replied briefly. The concept was very clear: he wanted to convince them to forgive his faults and let him choose the way forward.

"And if he should decide to attack us?" Continued the dwarf with red nose, stroking his long white mustache.

"I will stop him" Naruto replied resolutely.

That phrase reassured a bit 'all. After all he had already stopped him once.

Sakura had waited outside the tent that the "council of Kage" ended.

Since Sasuke and Naruto had taken up residence in the medical field, as well as medications, had not had the opportunity to be with them.

they were healing with unprecedented speed and soon they would be able to return to Konoha. Wherease on one hand she was relieved to return home on the other hand she was afraid that it would be difficult for Sasuke. The idea that he could decide to go away again was all too realistic.

And she would cry again. And she would be desperate again. And she would let him go, again.

She had not considered that he could - maybe - thinking to return her feelings for once. He had told her "I'm sorry for everything up till now," not "marry me and help me to restore my Clan." Moreover, in those days, they had had so little time to talk and except for a few fleeting glance and a few smiles (her smiles, because he had again forgotten how to do it), nothing more.

She not expected the clarification of the century and then, with Naruto always in the way, Sasuke would never say anything unbalanced.

And she raked her brain. She wanted to ask him many questions and, this time, he would have to answer. She was tired of living in uncertainty. She had to wait for him? Or forget him forever?

What was she to him? A woman with whom he could start a family? A friend? Or a sister?

The last option made her shiver. In that case she would have preferred not to know.

But everything suggested something like this: he considered Naruto like a brother, so she was the sister and Kakashi was his father?

She would have preferred to jump from the Mount of Hokage and splashed to the ground instead of hearing such nonsense.
Ino had told her to leave him alone for a while , so that "Where do you think he goes?" She had suggested to her to give him time to resume a normal life, not to press him, because Sasuke Uchiha was a bit as "A caged lion, a big hairy kitten looking for snuggles, but basically inclined to wild life." These comparisons of Ino, even if they could make her smile, made her even more angry, because she would have paid any amount to cuddle that beautiful big cat.

However, Ino had reason about whether to leave him with the long leash for a while, even if the murmur of girls in the medical field of "How good the nukenin was", created her some tingling of her hands and sooner or then, she knew, would break out, making a massacre.

Finally she came out of the Kage and slipped inside the tent, before anyone had the brilliant idea to require her presence elsewhere.

Naruto had a face like a funeral, Sasuke ... the usual face.

The most unlikely options began to tarnish her brain: they had sentenced him to death - she would follow him; they had exiled him - even then she would follow him; they imprisoned him for life - she would go to visit him every day - and his brain continued to draw apocalyptic scenarios, until Naruto explained the real reason of his pout.

"Kakashi is the new Hokage"

Sakura could not suppress a laugh, pulling a deep sigh of relief and mentally thinking "Who cares!"

"The dobe thought that his arm was worth the nomination" sharp as usual. How she loved him! And she was happy to hear his voice again, She did not care to know if one day he decided to return her feelings or not, she just wanted to hear his voice whenever she who were willing.
"Shut up, Teme! It's all your fault! "Naruto railed, crossing his arms and pouted.

It was so nice to see them bickering, but Sakura needed to know the decision of Kage about an issue that she was particularly interested.

"In the matter of you, Sasuke-kun?" She asked with the same hesitancy of a twelve year old, blushing like a pepper and putting a hand in front of her lips.

"They have yet to decide"

That mischievous fox had not even given him time to answer. If he had not been in a cot battered, she would have thought to pound him for good.

"But we have an ace in the hole, right Sas'ke? "He continued, giving him a cunning smile.

Sasuke nodded, becoming more serious than he already was not.

What they were referring? What they had in mind? Because she was always the last to know things?

She wanted to deepen the discussion but she had plenty to do and wanted to help Tsunade to create the two arts from the cells of Hashirama, so she let it go.

Surely those two knew what to do and she would not have to wait that long to find out what they had in mind.

"Now I have to go" she dismissed, smiling at both.

"Already! But Sakura-chan we are injured and you are our doctor, you can not ignore us! "

"I'll come back later and then if you have the strength to bicker you're not so bad"

"Ugh" Naruto muttered, throwing himself on the cot.

Sasuke lifted his eyes from the sheet and just for a moment, a brief moment, their eyes met and what Sakura saw inside them do not like at all to her.

She literally ran out of the tent and ran headlong for the medical field until hitting the last person she wanted to see at that moment: Ino Yamanaka.

The blonde immediately noticed the state of chronic paranoia in which the psyche of her friend was and plating her with her own body, she wanted to test how far the Uchiha-her obsession had arrived.

"He will go," she cried, "He will go," she repeated like a possessed.

"Front spacious, chill out!" she shook her with such force that almost pull her head, while an indolent Shikamaru, alongside her, uttered these words: "Here we go again!" with the most apathetic tone he could be capable.

"Sasuke, he, away, want to go, I ... I die!"

A few seconds it took to Ino to put in order the words rambling of her friend, and found that they had a complete sense, after all.

"But you stop saying stupid things! Where do you believe him to go? I have said this to you, Sakura, a million times at least: Naruto will not allow him to go away. "

Sakura kept repeating the same thing like a broken record and she was tired of reassuring her that the Uchiha, to their misfortune, he had no intention of going anywhere and she was not wrong ... ever.

But Ino had not looked him in the eyes, she had not seen that shadow, nor captured the aura of cosmic depression around him.

And she ... she was desperate, because what until then had been a simple doubt, it had turned into certainty. And if the trump card was talking about Naruto had been a strategic escape?

"I saw him!" She said with exasperation and Ino began to think seriously of closing her in the house of fools, if necessary with Sasuke - she was losing shots worse than him, maybe the war had serious repercussions.

"You have the crystal ball? You've become a prophet?" she asked, trying to mask her impatience, unlike Shikamaru who did nothing but snort and raise his eyes to heaven, trying to make up for that ballbusting, smoking a cigarette.
Ino, I tell you that I know, that I'm sure! "

"Did he tell you?" obvious question, then.

"N-no," he was afraid to answer her -. in the most optimistic hypothetis she would given her a drubbing.

"Then how the hell do you know it?" roared like a tenor, making her violet eyes sparkle.

After all that absurd conversation, Sakura, in fact, was not so convinced that she had read in the eyes of Sasuke the right thing - Ino also had this power.
Maybe she was conditioned by herself and had recognized her greatest fear in that sad look, because she thought that eventuality from morning to night. Maybe Sasuke was just sad for other reasons that had nothing to do with abandoning the village ... and her ... again.

"Now I do not have time to listen to your ravings. We have to finish to arrange the funeral. "Snapped the blonde, surpassing her.

What a fool she had been, she had not thought of Ino, nor of Shikamaru, nor to all those who had lost someone during that war, instead she had been lucky enough to meet again... Sasuke.
"I'm sorry, Ino "she hoped it was enough.

"It does not matter, at least your bullshit distract me a bit '. And anyway, I'm willing to bet a dinner, that the Uchiha – "Alas!", she wanted to add, but avoided - will remain between us and... for a long time "

Sakura smiled. It seemed to be an eternity since she and Ino were competing for his heart, which was not beating either for one or the other. But they did not care. He was the greatest, the most beautiful, the most cool and with time they would have discovered that he was also the most asshole, but loved him unconditionally.
When the Raikage had sentenced him to death, Ino had cried, less than she had certainly, but she had been crying and when he had arrived on the battlefield, if it was not for Shikamaru and Choji, she would jump at his neck. However, after waking up from Tsukuyomi, the interest of her seemed to have concentrated on ... someone else, someone unexpected that seemed incredibly return her attentions.

"So much the better!" Sakura had thought "A rival less"
With the heart a little lighter, she went to the tent of Tsunade who was collecting her things for the return to Konoha.

"Tsunade-sama"

"Ah, Sakura, are you?"

The woman looked really felt for the events of the war, a period of rest would surely helped her, though with the power of Byakugou, the cells will rejuvenate her fast and her beauty remained intact.

Sakura realized that she held the same power and then Sasuke would always seen her young and beautiful. She smiled like an idiot.

Because she could not think of nothing but Sasuke?

"I know what you're thinking," she surprised her enough to make her blush.

"For Real?"

Since Tsunade could read minds? Or was it so obvious that she thought Sasuke every second?

"The fact that I have decided to abdicate, it means that I can no longer be your teacher"

"Ah was that !" she thought, breathing a sigh of relief - a topic like that would be extremely awkward to deal with Tsunade.

"But I think that I can not teach you anything. You've become a sennin very powerful and you will be an excellent substitute "
The words of the Tsunade filled her heart with joy. When that day, many years before, she was presented to the sight of her, begging her to take her as a student, she had not planned to become a sennin strong as her.

Tsunade was a bit like a second mother, she had made her more confident and had taught her to be a ninja doctor of a certain level.

On the battlefield, fighting at her side she felt finally pleased with herself, and now, having to say goodbye to her, it would have been really hard.
"Thanks, Tsunade-sama "unnecessary ceremony were not needed with her and she preferred that short thanks to a long farewell speech that she would surely have stopped at the climax.

"I just want to assist you to regenerate Sasuke and Naruto's limbs"

"Forget it! You'll have other things to do when they get back to Konoha. Shizune will explain everything once there. "Categorical, peremptory ... in a word ... Tsunade.

"O-ok!" What else she could answer.

Practically all its unavoidable commitments were reduced to looking after those two, until, someone, probably Kakashi had given them the permission to return to the village.

After all, she was in no hurry to return home except to revise her parents, so she would have enjoyed those days with his two companions, trying to remove from her mind the fatal thoughts about Sasuke and why not, looking to obtain the clarification that she so craved.

Writer's corner

good night! 2:40 a.m. in Italy. During the night I am more focused. No sound, no phone ringing, me and my keyboard. This is the second and final part of the chapter. What will be the plan? What will happen in the next chapter? I advance to you that there will be a sweet scene. As always thank you all, especially the two brave people who have left me a review. I love it! And I hope that you continue to review because your comments are really important to me.

kisses