Her Time Alone: Chapter 2 They Return
Disclaimer:
Middi: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!!! Don't say I own him or many random anime characters will come after you and destroy your computer, or gaming consoles. Also
please don't flame me or my story. If you don't like don't read, or comment. Thankies!
8 Brave young men are seen are racing through the trees at top speed, they have a rendezvous with 3 beautiful girls. Shikamaru, the pineapple haired, jounin, shadow wielder, lazy bum was even running. All he wanted to do was get home and watch the clouds he envies so much. Kiba, Naruto, Neji, and Chouji, wanted to get back home to their girlfriends. While Shino, Shikamaru Rock Lee and Sai just wanted to get home to relax, finally! They were in the middle of Fire country fast approaching Konoha; they needed to meet up with Sakura, Hinata, and TenTen.
"SHIKAMARU!!! Are we there yet?" The annoyed blonde fox yelled to his team leader.
"Naruto if you ask me that ONE more time…" *insert eye twitch* Our pinapply haired hero threatened, but kept his calm, collected exterior. "We just have a few more kilometers to go till we meet up with the girls, just calm down. Mendoukuse."
"It's been 2 and a half WHOLE years since I haven't seen Sakura though! I miss her. If she's been seeing anyone behind my back…" Naruto growled menacingly.
The boys of the Konoha 12, plus Sai, were coming home. Sasuke the bastard was also coming home. In a seal of art, byakugan, shadows, bugs, dog, big boned, taijutsu, and fox chakra, Sasuke was being held in a box similar to one he was held in leaving the leaf village. They were running through trees they've seen so many times before, all of them had a small smile on their faces. As they enter a clearing, nothing but ear piercing screams were heard.
"Naruto-!"
"Neji-!"
"K-Kiba-kun-!"
All mentioned boys got glomped by Sakura, Hinata, and TenTen. With Sakura's strength, she could have killed him with the force of her hug. But Naruto didn't seem to mind, but embraced her as tightly as he could. As did the other boys before Hinata could faint from embarrassment, they let go.
Then the pink haired medic turned to Shikamaru. He gave Sakura a small smile and held out his hand. She gave him a smile in return, but gave him a hug instead of the hand shake Shikamaru had been expecting. Sakura was just happy all the boys were back, safe and sound. She still felt like Sasuke was an important member in her life, but didn't feel the love she had once bestowed upon him so adoringly.
Shikamaru, Shino, Kiba, Neji, Lee, Naruto, Chouji and Sai were tired and sweaty but that didn't seem to matter to any of the girls.
All the girls exhaled in relief as they jut stared at their comrades, friends, and lovers.
"Well, good work on successfully retrieving Uchiha Sasuke. Lady Tsunade will be very pleased to hear from you guys again. We should get going though; you guys need your rest." She gave Naruto a suggestive smirk and hugged his waist, while he grinned wolfishly, planning on giving his fiancée a kiss to make up being gone for so long.
He leaned in and closed his eyes, about to give her one when something had come flying out of the sky and landed on him. A huge dust cloud appeared and blocked the ninja's view of the attacker.
Everyone was in battle ready positions in case there were enemies lying about. Naruto also got up as quickly as he was felled, and grabbed a kunai from the weapons pouch on his thigh. It was a few seconds after when the dust cloud subsided and they could actually see who it was to distinguish that it was Lady Tsunade's slug. Lady Katsuya.
They all breathed a sigh as Naruto put back his kunai. They had been on high alert for months. And it wasn't just for the arrival of the boys. Treaty delegations with the Hidden Cloud village were waning and the Cloud nin were getting angsty. Things were going to be tumbling into war soon enough if the peace treaty wasn't signed soon.
Sakura gave a short bow to the white and blue slug, and fled to Naruto and gave him a quick peck on the cheeks.
"Awwwww Sakura! We haven't seen each other in years; shouldn't your fiancée get more than that?"
"No."
"Fine…but you still promise later, right?" His tone made Shikamaru want to gag.
"Lay off Naruto. Lady Katsuya is in our presence, and there must be a reason. Shisho* wouldn't send her without one. Now shut up!"
"Hai hai Sakura-chan" Then muttered something related to dattabayo!
Sakura then addressed the slug.
"Semimasen*, Naruto-kun. I'm just here to give a message to Sakura from Lady Tsunade. It's very urgent."
There was a letter strapped to her back, brandishing the Konoha symbol, there was also a red ring around the container holding the letter. It was an emergency if it needed red around it. There were different rings for different situations, green yellow and white were less severe, blue black and red were deadly emergencies.
"Red? Oh Kami let it not be that bad-"
Then everyone heard a gasp and Sakura fell to her knees, she put both her hands to her face, shock and hurt written everywhere on her face. The letter was addressed to Sakura, so no one could look except her. She quickly brought out a brush and painted on it her reply, then put it in Lady Katsuya's backpack, bowed and the slug left us. She got up and turned to everyone, eyes wide with worry.
Shikamaru then realized that someone was missing. And if Sakura was freaking out that either had to mean Kakashi sensei, Lady Tsunade, or Shizune. But he couldn't help the feeling like he was forgetting someone, someone important.
"Guys, I have extremely bad news."
Everyone was hanging on edge at this news, everyone thought about the treaty delegations with the Hidden Cloud, but they weren't more wrong, or, in a sense they were wrong.
"Sakura," Shikamaru said with urgent tone in his voice. "What happened? Is the village alright?"
"No. It's not the village. Guys…" Sakura said with almost tears in her eyes. This scared everyone.
Sakura was one of the toughest ninja's. She almost never showed her emotions other than outside of missions, and this was one, so what had her so spooked? Naruto went up to his fiancée and put his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She shook her head and walked toward Shikamaru and Chouji, she motioned for the two to come to an isolated spot in the clearing. The she told the rest of the gang to get a head start back to Konoha, everyone, reluctantly, agreed.
"Sakura what's the matter?" Chouji asked, carefully dreading the words that would come next.
"It's…" Sakura closed her eyes, regained composure, and punched a tree. Snapping in into hundreds of pieces instantly. And dropped her head.
"Sakura just tell us already!" Shikamaru was weary of the question, but he had to know what was up.
The pink haired medic lifted her head, looking straight into Shikamaru's brown eyes with her emerald green ones. Her expression expressionless.
"Lady Tsunade, my Shishou, just told me that Ino returned home almost dead, and she needs my help to keep her from slipping into death."
Shikamaru and Chouji froze.
"Ino's dying guys…"