Disclaimer: Naruto's not mine.

Warnings: Just some language.

Moving On

Chapter Seven

By Michiru's Mirror

Sakura managed to get Momoko to her feet, though the girl was shaking like a leaf and crying uncontrollably. Gently maneuvering her over to the upright chair that Sasuke had sat in, Sakura set the girl down and walked over to the cabinet where her coffee maker was.

She reached behind it to the small bottle of sake she kept hidden behind a stack of files. There were times when coffee just wasn't enough.

Taking out two small sake cups, Sakura poured a small amount of the heady liquid into them and handed one to Momoko before sitting down.

Momoko sniffed and stared confusedly at the cups. "What's this?"

"Sake," said Sakura patiently. "Go ahead, it'll help you relax."

Momoko frowned. "I'm…I've never been drunk."

"And you won't start now," said Sakura, grinning. This is just one cup to help you loosen up. I'm not planning on giving you any more."

"Oh," said Momoko in a tiny voice. She stared at the sake cup as though it might attack her before slowly picking it up and lining it up with her mouth. She took a deep breath, as though steeling herself for something, and then gulped the liquid very quickly.

The expected amount of coughing and blushing followed. Sakura couldn't help but grin, since she remembered having the same reaction the first (and second and third) time she'd imbibed sake. "Give it a minute."

Momoko stared at the sake bottle as though it had indeed attacked her. "Why do people drink this…oh, that's why." Momoko visibly slumped in her seat, a small grin stretching across her face.

Sakura drank her own and leaned back in her chair, letting the wonderful effect wash over her tense and tired body. Although Sakura heartily disapproved of using alcohol to avoid problems, there were times when just giving yourself a break was the best thing you could do for your health, right?

Besides, she could hardly talk to Momoko if the poor girl was so wound up.

"Now then," Sakura said once Momoko had melded fully with her chair. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you for some help."

Momoko looked apprehensive, but nodded her head. "I certainly owe you after all the work you did for my…husband."

Sakura fought to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

"…Right. Anyway, I'm hoping you can do a little work for me. I'm afraid I'm completely bogged down by all the work I have here at the Hospital. Haven't had a moment to myself in about a year. I am in desperate need of some help, and I was hopeful that you might be willing to take up a job as my secretary."

Momoko's eyes narrowed, though not in any hostile way. Instead she seemed pensive; Sakura supposed it had been too much to hope for that a very obvious act of charity could be mistaken for anything else.

"Thank you for the offer, Haruno-sensei, but I'm sure you can find more suitable candidates then myself."

Sakura cursed internally. Not only had Momoko not been fooled into thinking that Sakura was asking for help instead of giving it, she wasn't even pretending to misunderstand. Oh, that Hyuuga pride—it wasn't as bad as Uchiha pride, apparently, but what the hell was Momoko going to do to live if she wasn't taking any of Sasuke's money in the divorce and refused to take the job Sakura was offering? She didn't have the skills to get a job anywhere at this point.

"Well, I'm not sure if I can," Sakura lied. "I heard you had a real eye for details, and frankly, most candidates are busy with their other ninja duties."

Momoko flinched at that and Sakura regretted saying it, but it was definitely one qualification that Momoko had: She was free in a way no active ninja could be.

"Besides," Sakura continued before Momoko could refuse her again. "I really need the help, and I plan to make you work. Just look at this mess!" Sakura gestured around the office and let the state of it speak for itself with its person-sized stacks of papers and files flowing out of their cabinets.

Momoko gave another tiny smile at that, and Sakura was struck by what a pretty girl she was. "Well…"

"Come on," Sakura cajoled. "I need help and you need a job. I'm not saying you have to stay here forever, but why can't we help each other out for a few months while we try and get a handle on the giant mess masquerading as our lives?"

She got a giggle for that, and felt absurdly proud of herself.

Momoko was more than a little frightened of going home that night, but there was no alternative. The Hyuuga elders would kick her out if she dared to show her face around the compound

You're a married woman! Are you trying to shame yourself and us by running away from your duties as a wife?

but she refused to compromise her pride any further by asking Sakura to take her in, and she didn't have money to find her own place.

Yet there was no need to worry, for Sasuke did not return home that evening, nor the next. Momoko was relieved but couldn't help but wonder where he was—she didn't think he had any friends to stay with.

She would have been shocked to see him. Sasuke wandered the streets of Konoha, heedless of the people and buildings around him. Without food, water or rest he walked the streets until his feet swelled, sweat coated his body and his eyes grew wide and bloodshot.

Everything you do is because you're miserable, and you can't be satisfied until everyone is as miserable as you.

Sasuke's head jerked as though he had been struck. Those near him exchanged glances of confusion.

Even if he was still alive, you still wouldn't be good enough for your father.

The head jerk was more violent this time, a physical representation of Sasuke's denial of the cruelly true statements that had been forced upon him.

How dare they? How dare they speak to him that way? He was Uchiha Sasuke, heir to the greatest clan of Konoha that had once policed the entire village.

But were they necessary? The Uchiha police have been gone for almost three decades and Konoha is thriving now—

No! The Uchiha had a great and burning sense of duty that gave purpose to their lives and the lives of everyone around them!

He didn't understand people like Naruto and Chouji who gave up all dignity as men by choosing their own pleasure over their responsibilities as ninja. Why, Chouji had given up active duty as a ninja to teach at the Konoha Academy—imagine a jounin, a clan leader at that, teaching snot-nosed little brats at a school! How could he show his face around Konoha, let alone do it with the idiotic smile that he always had?

He had to endure an amount of good-natured ribbing from his friends, of course, but Chouji had put up with the teasing in good humor. Whenever he'd had enough, he usually pointed out that he was currently big enough to force the one teasing him to the ground and fart on their faces until they passed out. This ended any bullying well enough.

Sasuke, however, felt too offended that a clan leader would make such an undignified and improper choice to back down. He had one day asked Chouji why he had chosen the path he had.

"I like kids," Chouji had said, shrugging and unashamed.

"So? Don't you want more for yourself then playing house with an insipid woman and a handful of brats?"

Chouji put up with barbs aimed at his job well enough but a jab at his family was worse then one aimed at his weight. All one hundred and ninety inches of him was abruptly in Sasuke's face and turning red.

"More?" he'd yelled, making the people around the two jounin turn around in alarm. "Only a person like you would think that there's more then what I have!

"If my country or my village needed my services, don't you dare suggest that I don't know my responsibilities as a jounin! But Hi no Kuni does not need me right now, and Konoha is not at war with any other villages, so what's wrong with taking proper care of my family and guiding the next generation of ninja into becoming good people as well as talented fighters?

"There is nothing "more" than being a father to my children and a husband to my wife. My family will know me—I won't raise boys who only know their parents as abstract figures in history textbooks!

"You go ahead and fool yourself into thinking you're more than a cog in the machine if you want to. But don't you put your mentality on me, and don't you ever tell me how to raise my family or run my life, especially not when your own is nothing but a disaster!"

Sasuke had bristled but before he could say a thing Sakura had come bustling over with a white face and calming words. Chouji's outburst, and the growing rage on both men's faces, had been enough to scare some onlookers into going and fetching her.

Sasuke had thought nothing of Chouji's words that day—the other man was obviously deluding himself about how much pride he'd abandoned when he'd chosen the path he'd had.

But now those words came back to him. It was one thing when Chouji spoke against him. But combined with Sakura and Momoko—and the self-doubts in his own head—they were suddenly harder to ignore.

Sasuke's mind was muddled beyond comprehension. It was speeding forward in a jumble of memories and thoughts and fears…

Your life is nothing but a disaster!

Everything you do is because you're miserable, and you can't be satisfied until everyone is as miserable as you.

He snapped to himself that it wasn't true, that his life hadn't been a waste or a bog of misery or a disaster but somehow he just didn't believe it anymore…

What have you accomplished? What in your life have you done other then take decades to kill one man, fail to replenish your bloodline and hurt everyone who trusted you in the process?

But I'm doing everything right! Sasuke yelled to that niggling little voice in his head. I'm doing my duty, I'm following the proper Uchiha way. I'm a good Uchiha and a good ninja God damn it! I'm correct!

Every time he told himself this it felt less true. His mind flew faster and faster until he could barely see the road in front of him.

It was two days later that Naruto made his way back to Konoha with an embarrassed Akimichi Shotaro in his arms.

Naruto had been less then amused to find out that the important mission he was to be sent on was just finding one of Chouji and Ino's missing sons. Shotaro had an independent streak a mile wide and was often running off by himself—one would think that his parents would stop getting so hysterical by now.

But no. And Chouji wasn't too prideful to pull the strings his position as a clan leader provided him to get an available ANBU or jounin on the boy's tail.

Naruto had looked in total disbelief at the page Shizune handed him that morning two days ago and said, "Oh come on Shizune-neesan, this is just stupid. The kid is probably hiding in a cupboard laughing at all the fuss he's making."

Shizune smiled sweetly, and Naruto had the distinct impression that she was enjoying herself. It seemed he was paying for ruining her kitchen.

"Now Naruto-san, don't say such unkind things. Isn't the heir to the Akimichi clan an important resource to all of Konoha? Not that it doesn't pain me to make you postpone your vacation but village resources just have to come first."

Naruto left plotting Shizune's painful death. No, Chouji's. If that ass just went and found his OWN kid like every other parent had to he wouldn't be in this mess!

Though to be fair, he and Ino were both out looking too.

But as a day came and went Naruto realized he was getting a little worried himself. Ino had told him that Shotaro went out into the woods just outside Konoha on a little hunting expedition—how far out had he gone? If he'd run into any bandits or wild animals he could be in real trouble. As kind and patient as his father, Shotaru had unfortunately also inherited his parent's and "uncle" Shikamaru's very average abilities. At age ten he was barely passing Academy exams, and wouldn't stand a chance if forced into serious combat.

It was the morning of the second day when Naruto found the boy. He had indeed run into trouble, a hungry wolf far out of its territory in search of game. To escape, Shotaru had had to climb his way high into the forest branches…and wait for rescue. One look at him convinced Naruto to skip the lecture he had planned: The boy had clearly learned his lesson already.

Returning him to his parents was quite a spectacle. Naruto wisely took Shotaro to Konoha Hospital for malnutrition treatment before contacting them, and the way Ino and Chouji came bursting into the ward screaming and panicked convinced him that they wouldn't have been much use had he brought him to them first. Still, Naruto felt a pang in his chest at the way the two poured attention onto their son. It was rare that he felt the loneliness that he had once been plagued with as a child, but there were some things that still brought those old feelings out in him. What if he'd had parents as loving and attentive as that?

I have Sakura-chan and Iruka-sensei and Baa-chan and sometimes Sasuke. I'm as blessed as any man has ever been, so there's no point in getting greedy, is there?

Lost in his thoughts, it took Naruto a moment to realize that Chouji was calling him.

"Yeah, man?"

"Listen, can I ask you a favor? Are you free tonight?"

Naruto blinked. "I…guess so. What's up?"

"Poker," said Chouji, grinning wanly. "I meet with Hinata and Neji and Shikamaru every week, but it looks like tonight I won't make it…can you fill in for me?"

Naruto thought about that for a minute. It was a perfect chance to hang out with Hinata. He could corner her after the game and ask her for advice about Sakura. With luck, he'd be able to figure out what to do to apologize properly by the next day so he'd be sleeping in his own bed again.

So he agreed.

When he made his way to the Hyuuga compound for the second time in a week, Naruto wondered if he wasn't taking advantage of his friendship with his former classmate just a bit. He'd have to buy her ramen as a thank-you after this. All problems could be solved with ramen.

Having no idea of how to call the lady of the household—he'd simply stumbled on her last time—Naruto just knocked on the door to the compound and hoped someone would answer.

It was Neji who opened with a, "Chouji, where the hell have you—my, Chouji, you've lost some weight."

Naruto grinned. Neji was still as duty-bound and devoted to work as he'd ever been, but he'd lightened up through the years to the point where he could make (droll) jokes. He had never been obsessed with his looks, and so over the years nature's blessings had faded a bit. Light scars crossed much of his visible skin, and more defined muscles ruined the "beautifully slender" (Sakura's words) body he'd once had. Never bothering to protect himself from the sun meant Neji had fine lines around his eyes, and skin with a rougher and darker cast then it had once had.

The fact that he was still better looking then most of the male Konoha jounin combined made him the object of some envy, of course.

"I'm the stand-in," said Naruto.

Neji rolled his eyes but stepped back to let his friend in. "Where is Chouji, then?"

"Watching over his child," said Naruto with a grimace. "The poor kid went off into the woods by himself and almost got killed. It's just you, me, Hinata and Shikamaru."

"No, Shikamaru's a no-show too. He's not coming back from Sunagakure anytime soon."

Naruto looked at Neji in surprise. "Really? I thought he and Temari were getting a divorce. Why does he wanna be there?"

"The divorce is the problem," Neji said. "She's trying to get full custody of the kids—if she has her way he'll never see them again, so he's kind of on constant watch so she can't barricade the door against him."

Naruto felt a twinge of real sympathy. Shikamaru's courtship of Temari had been a disaster from the very beginning, based on passion and sex rather then any ability to get along. It wasn't long before the two had begun fighting about everything, and when children entered the picture the fighting had turned vicious.

The divorce had been put off for years but by now it was inevitable. Both were having affairs and their fights often involved property destruction and screaming that could be heard blocks away. Gaara finally pointed out that they were going to scar their children for life if they continued.

Shikamaru had asked Chouji once why the hell he couldn't fall for a normal woman. He'd tried. Every affair he'd had on Temari had been with the type of girl he'd always thought he'd like to marry: average, soft-spoken and feminine. But none of those women held his attention in the end. Without exception he'd always found himself wanting Temari again, wanting the fire she stoked in him, and he'd go back to her—unless she returned to him first from her latest tryst.

Then they'd have amazing sex for a week before the fighting started again.

Naruto remembered thinking that Iruka and Shizune's passionless relationship was incomprehensible to him. He could better understand Shikamaru's feelings of addiction to his wife, but still it seemed that too much passion was as bad as too little. Shikamaru was romantically screwed; he was miserable with Temari but he was going to be just as unhappy when she was gone.

If he ever managed to get away from her.

Neji lead Naruto down a hallway, past many shut doorways until they reached the very end.

Neji knocked. "Hinata-sama? We have a surprise guest."

The door opened and Hinata's surprised face popped out. For just a second, Naruto saw the adorable little girl she had once been.

"Good to see you, but where's Chouji?" she said.

Neji explained while the three seated themselves around the small table right inside. It was easy to see from the large bed and nightstand across the room that this was a bedroom, probably Hinata's.

"So how long has this been going on?" Naruto asked as Hinata began to deal cards.

"Oh, awhile. I was about to have a mental breakdown from not seeing the sun for years, and Chouji said I needed a regular night out. So he set it up." Hinata grinned. "That man is the sweetest person born onto earth. Never met a happier family than him and Ino."

"Yeah…" Naruto leaned back into his seat. This was as good an opening as any. "But sometimes I think they're the only ones. It's like most marriages die out or turn nasty."

Neji threw out two cards. "That's not a marriage problem, it's a relationship problem. That's why I never bother with them. My duty to my family is the only connection I need."

Naruto knew his surprise showed on his face. "Isn't that a little empty?"

"What, not bothering to deal with burdensome kids and never-satisfied women? I don't think so."

Hinata threw Neji a glare. Naruto had the feeling that if she'd been anything other then a noblewoman, she would have thrown a chair instead. "Not all women have trouble being satisfied. No more then men, anyway."

"Yeah," said Naruto, even though he disagreed. "And besides, isn't getting married just something you're s'pposed to do when you grow up?"

"There are people in certain noble families that have a duty to bear heirs," Neji said as Hinata threw out some poker chips. "I, however, am a lowly member of my clan and have no such responsibility. This is good, because on a scale of one to ten my interest in failing to be patient with a crying wife is negative two."

Hinata scowled again. "Just for that, I call."

Naruto marveled at the amazing luck the men of Konoha had; the two richest and most handsome men in the whole village might as well have been dead fish.

Hinata won, of course, causing Neji to declare that both she and Naruto had to shut up for the next round so that he could concentrate properly.

Naruto decided to acquiesce for the moment. It would be easier to get advice out of Hinata if Neji wasn't brooding and sending out sarcastic jabs all evening.

The Hyuuga compound was designed to be separate from the rest of Konoha, and had always been well insulated from the outside. Naruto, Neji and Hinata counted poker chips for the rest of the evening without seeing the fifteen jounin who returned to Konoha with seven bodies in their arms, Tsunade's and Jiraiya's among them. They were blissfully unaware that Tsunade's limp body was being pulled into an embrace by a sobbing Shizune or that Jiraiya's fans and friends were surrounding his body, all stricken with grief. And though Naruto felt a pang in his heart when Sakura was told the news by a young medic, he did not know why he felt it.

The first clue that something was wrong came in the form of raised voices outside Hinata's door. Hinata said she was used to the occasional minor emergency rushing by her room before dying down but for some reason the voices only grew louder and more numerous as moments passed.

Hinata and Neji exchanged frowns. In a clan as controlled and rule-bound as the Hyuuga, such an emotional display from so many was exceedingly rare.

"…isn't true, is it?"

"Don't know, but…"

"I saw her, she—"

"…can't be…"

"…under attack?"

The snippets of conversation that cut through the babble outside and came through Hinata's door only confused the trio further. Abandoning their game (to Naruto's relief; his hand was terrible) Neji walked to the door and opened it.

"What on earth is going on out here?"

Hinata and Neji moved to flank him, peering out into the hallway which had been so calm only moments before. It was filled with Hyuuga now, Main and Branch members mingling in a shocking breach of etiquette. All heads turned at the sound of Neji's voice, and identical expressions of relief appeared on most of the faces. Here were people who could offer answers and orders.

"Oh, Hinata-sama!" a very young boy rushed forward and offered a deep bow. "It isn't true, is it? About the Godaime…"

Naruto felt his insides clench. The question hadn't been aimed at him but he spoke anyway: "What? Isn't what true?"

"That…that she…was taken from us."

Those same clenching insides turned to ice. Naruto reached out a hand to grip the doorframe beside him, squeezing until he made bruises on his fingers.

"What are you talking about?" asked Hinata sharply. "Taken?"

A woman, perhaps the boy's mother, came rushing forward and gripped her boy by the shoulders. "Forgive him, he's just a child—"

Naruto had no patience for her waffling. "What was he talking about, damn it?"

The woman, already bowing low and pushing the boy to do the same, froze. "They say…they say her body is being held at the Hokage tower…"

Naruto was off, pushing his way through the crowd and leaping into the air once he reached the door. Neji and Hinata were behind him but neither could keep up with Naruto's pace, fueled as it was by chakra and desperation.

No, no, Baa-chan, you're not allowed to—

There's no one stronger then you, there never was—

It would take every jounin in Iwagakure to take you down, what do you think you're doing trying to fool me into thinking that you're…

It isn't possible!

They had spent so much time arguing in the last few years. He had said such harsh things to her, called her names and insulted her decisions. He had never thought twice about doing so, because he'd never once thought that those words could be the last things he'd say to her. Tough old bitches like Tsunade lived forever.

Naruto reached the Hokage tower, and the crowd around it made his innards twist yet again.

You shouldn't be here, none of you, you'll disrupt Baa-chan when she's working and she'll be so pissed off!

He leapt right over them, not bothering to ask anyone's permission or answer anyone's questions. He knew he was welcome here.

It took eternity to run up the stairs, even skipping several at a time. He did not see the guards alongside the stairwell, nor even where he was going; familiarity alone propelled him to Tsunade's office where again a crowd barred his way.

Naruto got past the throng with few problems. As soon as they saw who he was everyone moved, parting as though they had been compelled.

The scene opened up like one from a nightmare. Tsunade had been laid out upon her desk, hair and clothes perfectly composed. The peaceful effect, however, was ruined by Sakura who had wrapped her own body around her shishou's and was sobbing brokenheartedly into her chest.

Next to the desk was Shizune, pale but composed, talking to two of the village elders in quiet tones about burial arrangements.

"Should her ashes be buried next to Jiraiya-sama? I think she might prefer to be near Dan—"

"Jiraiya-sama?" Naruto echoed, his voice shrill and loud. Shizune and the elders jerked in surprise at his voice. Sakura didn't even look up. "What about Jiraiya? Where is he?"

Shizune's face was so compassionate that Naruto knew the answer to his question immediately.

"Naruto-san…"

"NO!" Naruto roared so loudly that everyone around him took a step back. "Don't you Naruto-san me with that patronizing look! What the hell is wrong with you? You're not allowed to be so calm about this!"

She wasn't. Shizune's eyes were filling with tears as he spoke, and Naruto knew that she was only just holding on to her composure.

But somehow, he couldn't stop yelling.

"And you people!" he yelled, rounding on the crowds around the door. Neji and Hinata had only just joined it. "What are you doing staring? What is this, a goddamn circus? An event attraction? Fuck off!"

"Naruto."

Sakura's voice was so quiet that Naruto couldn't possibly have heard it over the sound of his own yelling…but somehow, he did.

"Please…not now…"

Naruto turned slowly around. Sakura had pulled her face from Tsunade's chest, and though she wasn't looking at him he could clearly see her face, twisted with misery and covered with tears.

Naruto stood frozen for a moment, a million different urges warring within him. But though his brain was moving rather slower then usual, the sight of Sakura's face brought it through to his heart that he was not the only one suffering.

Naruto crossed Tsunade's office and moved around behind his lover, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her trembling body to his own. With an audible sob she turned her face into his chest, gripping handfuls of his shirt for support and biting her lip until it almost drew blood.

And Naruto realized that he too was crying, though perhaps not as heavily. Tears and snot had been running down his face for some time now, obscuring his vision. Not looking at Tsunade, not being able to bear looking at her, Naruto closed his eyes, held Sakura, and cried, and cried, and cried.

A/N

I am seriously bowled over by the reception the last chapter got. A huge and heartfelt thank you to every one of you who took the time to review and tell me what you thought, good or bad. I am, as ever, open to more comments and criticisms.

Chouji as a teacher: Seriously, can anyone think of any better person in the Naruto universe (except Iruka, obviously) to work with kids?

I know that Momoko got drunk too fast, but the image was funny to me, so I figured I'd try it out. Lemmie know if it worked or just came out silly.

Next: Tsunade's funeral, Naruto's first official meeting, and Sasuke's inner demons.