Transition

Sakura is perceived from the perspectives of others as she changes during the years into something else entirely. The people near her follows her transition closely and when she starts abandoning everything she held dear - she gets closer and closer to her goal.
/Non-Canon

Chapter 3

Through the eyes of a Prodigy, a Cloud Watching Boy and a Flower Girl

The Prodigy Hyuuga Neji

They sat inside a dimly lit room of the Library of Konoha in the early morning, the birds chirped enthusiastically outside the windows and the sun slowly crept up from the horizon. Sakura sat opposite him and there were stacks of books surrounding her space on the table near the window. She went through several medical scrolls as if her life depended on it, chewing absentmindedly on her pencil. A white cup of steaming black coffee was at her hand, in near proximity to aid the fight against her morning tiredness. He had noted that the dark circles underneath her eyes had deepened, but he didn't ask her about it. It was something the pinkette had to take care of herself and he had no place in meddling with her sleeping habits. Neji had his own very thick and withered book which was about sword-related lore of Fire Country, dating the lore back to one thousand years. He hadn't found anything of interest yet.

As he looked up from the old words and sentences he watched her fast eyes take in the information of the scroll in her hand, then she quickly scribbled something down on her notebook. The weights on her wrists and ankles were still there, sometimes reminding her of the heaviness when she lifted her arm with strained muscles. She had stubbornly been wearing them for two weeks now, but she had somehow gotten used to them. But she still had a far way to go to be able to keep up with Lee's training schedule, Neji knew. His team mate was somewhat of a training obsessed lunatic and always had such ridiculous antics going on he didn't even know how to react to them anymore. But Sakura seemed to be comfortable in Lee's company.

The Haruno's bandages were so many it was almost to the point of overdoing it, covering almost every part of her body except for her face which was adorned with a gauze at her cheek. Her hair was the only thing that hadn't taken too much damage, as it fell over her shoulders in pink waves. She had probably worn her hair inside a bandana, he considered. It had grown longer. He had heard about the explosion incident from overhearing the maids at the Hyuuga compound; Sakura had accidentally set off several bombs a few days ago and she had been in the middle of it. The rumours came from the nurses at the General Hospital, where Sakura had explained what had happened. Neji had much difficulty seeing the Haruno making that stupid mistake, and he wondered how the Hokage had been so luckily near training area seven to heal her wounds directly. He had seen the Hokage just outside the library before he had met up with Sakura in the morning. The Godaime seemed to have been really mad about something, grumbling 'that idiot' when the busty blond passed him. He had left it at that.

As he watched her over the pages of his book, he noticed something. Something out of place in her eyes as she took in the medical information. Disinterest. Why was that? He couldn't get the question out of his mind, so he decided to break the morning silence of the library.

"Why are you aspiring to be a Medic?" He asked, his opalescent eyes on her. The pinkette flinched and looked up at him from her scroll, the pencil still in her open mouth. As if she had been caught doing something un-allowed.

"What? Why are you asking?" She blurted, trying to hide her surprise as she took out the pencil from her mouth. Neji noted with a slightly wrinkled nose that the pencil had almost been chewed to the core.

"You don't seem so interested." He stated as he looked down on the page, continuing to read about an ancient katana absentmindedly. It was a warrior lord's katana and was described as the colour of red because of the blood stains. He turned the page.

"Well... These books are incredibly boring, but full of useful information." She said, still not answering his question. He frowned and his gaze went back to her petite bandaged form in front of him. His gaze promptly told her to answer him and she slumped in defeat on the chair with the coffee cup in her hand.

"You need to understand two things. I believe the medic profession to be one of the more important aspects as part of shinobi community. However, I also believe that the medical training should be offered to every single shinobi hence it would be more useful that way in battle, and a shinobi should not be determined for the ability to use chakra control for the medic profession. I have recently learned that there are a lot of jutsus and medical treatments that doesn't require perfect chakra control. Second of all, my parents are very... protective. I am their only daughter and offspring so I can theoretically understand their concern, but since I am a shinobi of Konoha I can't be stuffed in an ironclad box filled with cotton for the rest of my life. So my parents decided that the most safe way for me to be a ninja is to be a Medic. Instead of standing at the front lines I will be in the back and treat the wounded, out of harm's way." She finished, sighed, and sipped from her coffee. Neji drew an almost unnoticeable deep breath in realisation.

"You don't want to be a Medic." He concluded and Sakura almost coughed up her coffee.

"That's- uh." Was all she could say since she knew she couldn't lie to him. None could. Haruno blushed as her eyes looked everywhere but at his own. "Don't tell anyone." She almost whispered to him, clenching the coffee cup in her hands.

"What do you wish to be, if not a Medic?"

Her eyes flashed pale green as they locked on his own. He almost shivered at the recollection of her white eyes, but he didn't shiver since he was a Hyuuga. A Hyuuga doesn't show emotions of weakness or emotional distress. He would never admit it to anyone, but to himself - that he was afraid of those eyes and it wasn't because of that demon goddess Izanami, even though she also made him feel terror as he'd never felt before. It was because the Haruno had seemed so true to herself in those moments of blood and those white eyes. As if she belonged in the carnage. This time, the prodigy actually shuddered. And then the girl answered him.

"Strong. I want to be in the front lines and face the enemy head on, together with my team mates - to be at their side. Strong enough to be at their side. I want to prevent them from dying instead of simply praying for their safety in the back. I have just had enough... of watching their backs."

He knew which people she was talking about. The Kyuubi container and the Uchiha bastard who had left her here. Left her, to obediently wait for them. Neji felt a vein throb on his forehead and he didn't know why he was angry.

"That's where you guys are different." She suddenly smiled and he saw lights reflect in her verdant eyes in the dim library.

"You don't show me your back. You believe in me. You don't insist on protecting me and most of all, you believe that I will be strong one day. That I will be able to protect myself, and even those around me. And I can't express in words just how grateful I am for that trust in me." Her voice was clear and in the humid atmosphere of the library, Neji felt something iron hard clench his heart.

He had wanted to protect her, somehow. From Izanami mostly. He felt guilty but didn't understand why. As he watched her again, her smile could overthrow one of Naruto's obnoxious grins of pleasantness. He decided, right then and there, that he wouldn't protect her. He would only help her in getting stronger and by doing so, he knew, he was protecting her in a different way. Since he would not always be by her side, he couldn't physically help her. She would have to defend herself.

Neji frowned. Where was this sudden protectiveness coming from? This wasn't like him at all. Nothing like how a Hyuuga should be. Maybe... he needed some time away from the Haruno. She was only confusing him. But he knew he couldn't stay away from her. What with the possible threat of that cursed katana, he couldn't let her go.

However, he had a hard time understanding the Haruno as she continued to read the medical literature with a soft quirk of her lips. Her personality before, when they were Genin, had been so easy to discern. She had been so fluffy and bubbly, incredibly shallow, lax yet hard working in her textbook studies, intelligent, not very self confident, angry at times, lonely but loved by her parents, narcissistic, love-struck by the Uchiha, and most of all - annoying.

Almost none of these personality traits could be seen in her anymore. It confused him and unknowingly actually irritated him. He had always been able to see through people's facades and deep into their core personality. But she was somewhat more than that and it perplexed him. At times he'd see her bubbly and easy going side show, but it was gone in an instant. She was not so annoying anymore. She was calculated, a trait which had been visible before but had been suppressed. She was complex. She trained until she was exhausted to the point of over doing it, but she wasn't strong. Just yet, maybe? Her steps were light and silent. Her eyes were hard, but changeable. Like the tidal waves of the ocean, she was ever changing.

Like an evolutionary aspect of life she had transitioned, he stated to himself as he turned the page in his book of swords. He focused on the words about a silver coloured katana's greatness which was now long forgotten.

The Cloud Watching Boy Nara Shikamaru

He invited her over at least twice a week to play shogi with him at the Nara compound's veranda, which overlooked the flourishing green garden. He had heard of the explosion incident the other day, so he wasn't surprised that there were bandages all over her body underneath her red tight top and beige skirt, and there was a large gauze on her cheek. This time, however, when she had been let in and offered tea, he had seen it. It was so obvious, yet hard to understand.

"Why aren't you sleeping, Sakura?" He drawled, making his next calculated move on the shogi board. She watched his fingers move the piece with heavy-lidded eyes. The score was 10-11, in his favour. He never cared much about winning, even though he had without effort always won in board games for the exception of his father, but this troublesome girl had proven to be more intelligent than he had at first thought and he actually wanted to win over her. She had surprised him the first time of shogi playing by winning and he wouldn't let her do it again.

"I do. Sometimes." She answered simply as she sipped from her hot tea, regarding the board in front of her. Shikamaru could see her mind working, searching for possibilities, trying to predict his goal and plotting her next move.

"Seems like 'sometimes' isn't enough. You look like crap." He sighed and folded his arms across each other. The girl looked up at him, squinting with her green eyes.

"Thanks. One could say the same for you." She smiled sardonically and moved a piece. Shikamaru was naturally sleazy eyed and so didn't take the insult to heart, he simply followed her movements with his eyes and couldn't help but feel satisfaction settle in his chest. It had been the right move and it would be difficult to overthrow her now. A perfect challenge.

"Really, Sakura. Sleeping is nice. Why won't you?" He coaxed and sipped his tea. It was hot and burned his tongue, but he didn't say anything.

"It's... I have nightmares." She looked down on her hands which held the dark blue tea cup. Her knuckles whitened and Shikamaru feared that the exquisite porcelain his family had passed down for generations would break and then his mother would break him.

"I see, that's unpleasant. Would you like to talk about it?" He tried to show concern and he found it easily. He had grown to have some kind of friendship with the girl, it seemed.

"I'd rather not." The pinkette said quietly. Shikamaru sighed, but acknowledged her.

"Alright."

Shikamaru then regarded the board and moved a piece. He had been playing this game all of his life with his father, so it was really easy for him with already many strategies in the back of his head. He wondered when the Haruno girl had had time to practice shogi, and with whom.

"Where did you learn shogi?" He asked with a wave of his hand towards the board game.

"At the library." The pinkette sipped her tea, her gaze wandering outside to the lush Nara garden.

"Someone taught you?" He continued to press with arms folded. A librarian perhaps?

"Analysis of and Strategies in Shogi playing by Hisama Gaki did."
"A book?" He heaved. He would've been baffled, but this troublesome girl had turned out to be so full of surprises lately that he didn't find it in him to be astonished by her anymore. As the Haruno bent over to move a piece, one of the bandages fell slightly from her arm when the clip fell from the movement. It revealed a few healed burns on her pale skin of her arm, but there were a few scars as well, thinly crescent shaped scars on the side of her arm. They should have been healed away, the medics at Konoha General always did, leaving the skin perfectly unscarred. This piqued his interest.

"Are those scars?" He pointed out, one eye brow raised.
"Yes?" She looked at him as if he was stupid, and that was a very rare look directed at a Nara. His ears flushed warm.

"Why haven't you healed them? I mean, polished them away?" He explained and wondered as she started to fasten the bandages with a monotonous movement. Her green eyes then met his, and there was almost an electric current passed between the two shinobi. Shikamaru almost backed down, but he continued to stare at her. Those eyes were so... deep.

"Scars defines a person. If you are weak enough to gain them, then they should stay as blunt marks of reminisce. It also shows your determination to live as a shinobi."

He pondered her answer and found that she was right; they did define a person. Like Hatake Kakashi's famous scar, or Iruka's scar going horizontally on the bridge of his nose. But she was a girl, wasn't she? Wasn't scars a girl's worst nightmare? He regarded her many bandages, the dark circles beneath her heavy lidded eyes, her outrageous pink hair that had ground a bit beneath her shoulders, her petite form that had gained impressively slender muscles since the start of the 'Youthful Training' sessions. Maybe he had preconceived ideas about girls, he found himself realising.

"Tsunade-sama healed most of them on the spot, but I decided that the more shallow scars were to stay." She said as she moved another piece, earning a look from Shikamaru. That textbook she had learnt from seemed to have explained most of the strategies he already knew, so he needed to be innovative in the game, however troublesome that was.

When they neared the end of the game and Shikamaru was the obvious winner, she opened her mouth. Shikamaru eyed her and couldn't help but flinch at the pain visible in her heavy-lidded yet sharp emerald eyes. She was going to tell him about her nightmares, and there was some kind of appreciation settling in his chest when he realised. She trusted him.

"Sleep deprivation isn't all fun and games." She breathed and locked her hands together. "I can't sleep because I am afraid. Izanami-sama deems me insufficient in my current condition. She has decided to train me in my dreams, to widen my perspectives and to strengthen my mental state. And I... can't take it." The pinkette almost broke into a high-pitched sound at the end of her sentence, yet remained tearless. Shikamaru frowned and helped himself up to sit beside her. A comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Why is that demon doing that? How?" Shikamaru asked, trying to compose himself. She had told him one week ago about the truth of the katana during a shogi game, as he had predicted she would. The Hyuuga knew about it already and had accompanied her while on one of her weekly visits. Shikamaru had known, somewhat, that there was some kind of spirit inside the cursed katana. Nothing else could have explained the happenings of the Tajima mission a month ago. The sword, he had learned, was called Izanami. And it was a demon of some sort, maybe a fallen goddess according to Neji, and she had a contract with Sakura. But what Shikamaru couldn't see was if it had been a contract deliberately formed by Sakura, or if she had been forced to agree to it. He didn't dare ask her since he was afraid of what she would tell him.

"We share a connection, a bond. She can whisper words to me nowadays, even if I don't touch her. She's almost always whispering. And because of our contract, she can invade my mind when I'm asleep and my mental state lets go of all the barriers. She can just waltz inside my head. And Izanami-sama is training me because if I'm not strong enough, I'm not worthy of bearing her. The contract states that she is to see... blood at my hands, but if I die too soon because I'm too weak- She won't be satisfied with just that." Sakura explained and bit her lip. Shikamaru massaged his thumb gently on her shoulder, comforting.

"What kind of training?" He tried to get her to look at him, but her eyes stayed frozen at the hands she had folded in her lap.

"You don't want to know." She bit off and now finally looked him in his eyes. Focusing on him and solely him. Green, pale eyes offered him nothing to give in regard of emotions.
"I do." He sniffed and stretched his hand for the ceramic cup. He thought he did at least.

"Well. My dreams... It's a battlefield. Always a battlefield, a thousand of years old. It's during the day, with a cloudless blue sky and the sun shines on a wide field landscape, but it's still... dark. The sky is hidden at times by scavenger crows. There is red stains on the muddy grass fields. Mutilated rotting corpses cover the green grass in heaps and broken bones and it smells. It really smells. The stench is almost the worst, it stings my eyes and is sour." She looked down again, defeated by her own emotions and memories, clenching her fist.

"That's horrible." Shikamaru tried, but then her eyes flashed angrily at him. Had they been white, for just a moment?

"That is nothing!" She growled. "It's when she appears. With an army of blank faced soldiers behind her, strictly walking towards me from the horizon. She puts me in the lowest ranks with only one kunai and a light harness. She then vanishes and sits in the middle of the battlefield, in a small throne of sorts. The enemy army and my army only passes her by, as if she doesn't exist. And her black eyes are always on me, following my every move. I always end up in the front lines to be sacrificed as the first plunge at the enemy army, with my one kunai. I die in every dream session. She is able to change slight things in each dream sequence, sometimes I'm facing shinobi of Sunagakure or Mizu no Kuni in the enemy army, sometimes faces I don't recognise, sometimes even shinobi warriors from Konoha. Sometimes, my own fucking family dons the enemy armours." She squeezed her eyes shut, ashamed. Shikamaru could only guess what she had done in her dream.

"She hasn't put the faces of my friends there yet. Not you nor Neji, Lee, Hinata, Tenten or Tsunade. Not... Naruto. Or Sasuke for that matter. I don't know what she's planning to do. The worst is... it feels so real. I can feel the metallic bloody taste on my tongue, I can feel my wounds, I can hear their dying screams as clear as day, the ringing of metal against metal and the orders directed to the ranks by the captains hitched voices. She has started giving me different weapons. And then one time a broken katana, but not her. Even worse is that I get better. Each time, I claw my way through metal, flesh and bones and I reach further and further into the depths of the enemy army."

Shikamaru took a deep breath. This was far off more than what he had imagined.

"And so, lately, she has started to appoint higher positions to me. A few nights ago I was Strategist in Command for the the second division in the west flank. We sat for what seemed to me in the dream to be hours in a war tent together with blank-faced commanders, planning and discussing the best way to attack the enemy army with papers of information everywhere and a board with the armies pointed out with wooden pieces. We went through formations, the different skills of the divisions; and which ones we were to sacrifice. I couldn't do it, so I was punished." She stared, unseeing, out into the garden.

"You were punished? But it's just a dream. It's not real."

"Izanami-sama can make it real. She can make me feel it. And when I was punished by having them first hammer spikes into my body, setting candles on top of them to make the stearine drip into my blood stream and in doing so, numbing my body and then it got to my heart, and then they cut off my parts of my body and then set me on fire, I screamed so loudly my parents and neighbours woke. I wake them every night." Shikamaru shivered involuntarily.

"It-that... I don't understand how that is even part of training. To punish you for a moral and must justified thought process is wrong. She might be testing your tolerance of pain, but that is just ridiculous. Since it's just a dream, Sakura."

"I know, but truthfully, it really isn't just a dream to me. It's too real, too fresh in my mind. I kind of understand how war veterans must feel. I feel too old, ancient almost. Like I'm not supposed to live, when so many others have died. I have died as well, just so many times in my dreams, the lines between reality and dream has become blurred."

Shikamaru couldn't find the right words to say, so he said nothing. Only squeezed her shoulder.

"I think I'm going to move out from my parent's house." Sakura slipped the words out of her mouth before she had even realised it to be true, and then drank the last of the now cold tea liquid. As she put the ceramic tea cup on the low table, she moved to draw the last piece of the shogi game and Shikamaru's eyes widened as she put it in its position. How? With all the odds against her - she had won?

"See you next week, Shikamaru."

She stood and left him there, all wide eyes and mouth slightly agape. He decided to watch clouds the rest of the day, having abandoned the board game, which he didn't touch. The pink haired girl was just so damn intriguingly troublesome.

The next day he wandered through the garden and appreciated the view of the flowers and the trees growing as domes above his head, letting shafts of sun lights stream through the canopy on the green grass below. Training with Asuma-sensei had been appointed later that day since Ino's schedule at the hospital was quite hectic. They were going to prepare for a B-class mission soon and Asuma-sensei had told them he needed to re-evaluate their skills since he had noted some improvements in the team.

Shadows played on the ground and he knew that this place was where he felt most at home, where he belonged, in the shadows. He silently walked, lounging and looked up through the canopy to find parts of the blue sky visible. A tap on his shoulder made his heart stop for a second, he hadn't felt a presence nor heard any steps towards him. As he turned around only to see pink hair, he relaxed. But a question nagged in the back of his mind; when had Sakura learnt to mask her chakra presence to this extent?

"Sakura. I thought you'd come back next week. Up for another shogi game?" He smirked.

"Yes, but I need to talk to you. No shogi this time." Her eyes were clear and the dark circles around her eyes seemed to have faded somewhat. He felt something tingle in his chest; she needed him?

"You slept last night?" He asked as it dawned on him and they started to walk through the alley, closely beside each other.

"I did. But the training session this time was different. It has always been the same battlefield scenery, so I don't know what to make of it; it's really confusing. It almost seemed like Izanami-sama had no control over last night's dream sequence."

"How was it different?"

"When I came to, I was in a tea house. It was a really old tea house, everything - the furniture, the house, the tables, should have been withering, but it seemed like they were newly made. I found myself sitting behind a small table and in front of me... Izanami-sama sat there. She was different this time. It seemed like she couldn't control the dream and she growled. I was afraid and couldn't move; Izanami-sama has that kind of impact on me still. All she eats is blood and flesh through the katana. But I couldn't turn away, her face was younger somewhat and that ruby adorning her forehead had changed into a sapphire. She was so beautiful, even when she scowled as she couldn't move up from her sitting position. Her black hair fell around her in waves, her white yukata was the colour of the moon. She was so different. Then that man came in and settled besides me."

Sakura viewed the alley and her pale eyes glistened, just like the sapphire she had described on Izanami's forehead. Shikamaru couldn't look away.

"He presented himself as Izanagi and made tea for us, in a traditional way. He was really graceful, beautiful and had the same kind of hair style as Izanami and he just seemed to emanate power in his every move. Then I saw anger and hatred and maybe even sadness and regret flare in Izanami's eyes as she silently sat on the other side of the table. She didn't receive tea from him. Izanagi was kind to me but he looked at Izanami with disgust, almost as if she was rotting and had bugs creeping over her body. He never talked to her once. Izanagi left then, gallantly, but as if running away from Izanami's piercing hatred. Then Izanami looked at me and spoke without that freezing coldness in her voice."

Sakura breathed deeply and collected her memories of the dream. She closed her eyes with fluttering pink eye lashes, like the batting of wings.

"I loved him once. Izanami confessed, her sapphire glinting. Her eyes black. He loved me once, too. Until the day he saw what I had become. Then my world fell apart and yours was created."

Sakura said and quoted the demon's confession, her eyes opened and far away into the distance, somewhere Shikamaru couldn't see. He didn't know what to comment on in this dream sequence.

"We need to investigate Izanami. This can't go on. If this continues, you will seriously die from sleep deprivation. Or she will kill you. Or you'll go insane because of those whispers. Whatever." Shikamaru said simply then as they neared the Nara mansion at the end of the alley.

"I know, thank you very much. Me and Neji are working on it. She won't kill me though, just make me suffer. She needs me but I don't know why."

"I can help you guys out, if you want. But I won't do it if it's too much work." He said and kicked a stone with his foot. The stone crashed hard into a tree a few yards away and was stuck in the bark, the vibrations from the stone made the canopy of the tree let go of a bundle of leaves to scatter in the wind of spring. Sakura smiled, then her countenance stiffened and she stopped walking.

"Oh." Was all she said. Shikamaru raised one eyebrow in question. She looked at him, wide-eyed, her cheeks flushed, a hand covering her open mouth.

"That... The dream sequences. All of them. They are the echoes of her memories."

The Flower Girl Yamanaka Ino

She had had enough. It was about time for them to have a one-on-one girl talk. She had swiftly looked up the forehead's schedule in secret. So when the blond girl showed up in front of Sakura's new apartment that late Saturday evening, surprise was visible in her green eyes.

"You. Me. Girl's night." She growled and irritably flicked her now long pony tail behind her back. A perfectly manicured finger pointed accusatorially towards the baffled pinkette who hung at the opened door in the shadows of the lights behind her.

"You're so deep in this training shit I haven't even seen your pink cheap bubblegum hair around the hospital for weeks! Friends meet and talk. You seem to have forgotten this worldly fact so I'm here to remind you that I exist as well. There are things outside of your ridiculous weights and training!" She hissed as she stomped inside the apartment. Boxes laid in structured stacks everywhere she looked with her squinting disapproving eyes. She would decorate this mess into a beautiful apartment none the matter what that girl said.

"Ino..." Sakura mumbled. "I'm sorry. I have been busy. Do you want some tea?" The Haruno girl asked as she scurried inside after Ino, shutting the door after her. Ino turned to answer the pinkette that it was saké that they were going to consume tonight, but then she got a real good look at the pinkette's face in the light of the hallway.

"Oh, god, Forehead. You look like Choji landed on your face and farted." Ino blinked and said without thinking; she saw the pinkette snort, then burst out laughing until there were tears in her eyes. Ino saw how the tension in her shoulders disappeared.

"Ino, I missed you more than I thought." Sakura dried the tears in her eyes and Ino acted offended and sniffed.

"You stinking billboard brow. You always miss me."

"I stand corrected, Ino-pig." Sakura huffed with a grin and went into the living room followed by Ino.

"I should change your nickname, by the way." Ino chirped and swung with her arms in some kind of dance. "You have changed so much since our early rivalling years. I mean, you train all the time and so on. Even though your forehead is as large as ever, I think it's time for a change."

"Oh? And what do you have in mind?" Sakura called as she slowly went into the kitchen.

"Fartface." Ino gleefully declared and she heard a loud snort from the kitchen. Ino bounced into the other room triumphantly to find Sakura's head inside one of the cupboards and loud clinking noises was made. In the light of the kitchen the blond saw that there was something fastened at Sakura's hip. She recognised it as a scabbard, a black and sleek scabbard containing an old katana.

"What's that?" Ino wrinkled her nose and pointed to the sword. Sakura flinched and turned towards Ino with two ceramic cups in her hand and closing the cupboard with the other.

"Oh, this? It's... just a sword I bought a few weeks ago." Sakura explained sheepishly and gently grazed the exquisite sword-hilt seemingly unconsciously with her fingers.

"That's one ugly katana. I didn't know you had an interest in sword fighting, forehea- fartface." Ino stated and went to the fridge to ravage Sakura's alcohol stash. She cracked her knuckles in preparation.

"I guess I've just taken a liking to it. Swords are handy." Sakura shrugged her shoulders as she put down the cups on the floor and sat down with her legs crossed. "I'm sorry, but I don't have any tables or chairs yet. We'll just have to sit on the floor. I think I have a few pillows somewhere..."

Ino found a large saké bottle with a squeal of delight and forgot all about that unbecoming katana thingy. This bottle would definitely do for the night, she thought happily.

"It's a gift from Tsunade." Sakura explained as she eyed the blond when she poured the cups up to the edge. With a graceful movement, Ino picked the cup up without spilling a single drop. She saw amazement show in the Haruno's eyes when she sipped from the cup. God, this is some strong stuff, Ino thought as she gulped the alcohol down.

"Seems like you're used to this kind of stuff." The pinkette giggled and tried to pick up the cup without spilling. She didn't succeed, as saké spilled slightly over the cup's edge when she brought it to her mouth with a lot of effort. It was then that Ino was reminded of the weights on the Haruno's wrists and ankles.

"It takes practice, my dear fartface. Some sunny day you will learn." Ino cheered and squinted her eyes as she held her own cup gallantly. The Haruno balanced her own cup in her hands, trying not to spill some more.

"You're just fifteen, Ino. You shouldn't know how to drink." Sakura scoffed as she drank from the cup. Her cheeks flushed immediately as the pinkette noted how strong the alcohol was but she didn't cough; Ino was silently proud of her.

"Don't tell me this is the first time you're drinking?" Ino almost shrieked as she realised, and dramatically brought her hand over her heart as if in shock.

"Shut up, Ino-pig." Sakura grumbled as she took another sip from her cup.

"Fartface."

"You're childish."

"And you have a fartface, so we're even." Ino pointed out and changed her position to lie down on the floor on her stomach with the help of a pillow Sakura had produced from one of the many boxes. It was way more comfortable.

"How does that even make any sense?" Sakura laughed and sipped some more of the saké. It seemed like the Haruno had come to like the burning sensation of the strong saké, and Ino grinned.

"What doesn't make sense is your face. What have you been doing lately? Or maybe I should rephrase since I know of that little threesome you have going on, who have you been doing?" Ino smirked as the pink haired girl sputtered saké on the floor.

"Ino! I haven't been 'doing' anyone!" Sakura growled, wiping her mouth with a faint blush on her cheeks. Adorable, Ino thought smugly.

"I know. I just wanted to see your reaction. Wait, are those scars?" Ino's attention got caught as Sakura's sweater had slid down her arm and in the process revealing a few burn marks and bandages. There were about three half moon shaped pink scars visible on the side of her arms, not covered by the bandages. Ino reached out to poke on one of them. Sakura didn't flinch.

"They suit you." She stated as she slid back on the soft pillow.

"That is completely not something I expected coming from your mouth." Sakura stared at Ino as if she was an entirely different person and she slid the sweater up on her shoulders.

"I myself would never leave scars on my own perfect skin, but somehow, they suit you. They give you more of a presence, I think." Ino only grinned and sipped from her cup. It was getting easier and easier to consume the strong saké.

"Thank you, I guess." Sakura said with a smile, as if looking at Ino in a new light.

"Oh shut it." Ino wailed. "No sentimental stuff, thank you very much. It's so out of character it's disgusting, fartface. Or maybe it's scarface now?" Ino rolled away on the floor to avoid a pillow flung at her.

"So, how's it going with those wrist-ankle weights? Heard about your procession through town in a rather unladylike fashion a couple of weeks ago. I hope crawling isn't a new habit of yours." Ino asked and rolled back onto her claimed pillow, with glinting cerulean eyes. Sakura smiled widely and sipped some more from her cup. It seemed like the cup was now forever glued to the pinkette's hands. Ino wondered if she should be worried or not.

"Well, three days ago I raced with Lee and I succeeded in keeping up with him, finally. He's going to train me seriously now, together with Gai-sensei who said it would be more youthful with two teachers. They really make time for me outside of their missions, and I'm so damn glad that they're sacrificing their time to help me get stronger. We changed the weights to heavier ones today so that's why I've been working and training in my apartment. I can't really move far yet." She pointed to the black sleek weights on her wrists. Ino couldn't really imagine that they were that heavy.

"I can see that." Ino muttered as she took in the medical scrolls covering the floor, jutsu scrolls and other scrolls she didn't want to know what they were about. There were other weights as well on the floor, really heavy looking ugly ones, and different instructions on large papers of katas to perform. A few books on sword fighting lay in one looming pile at the corner of the kitchen room.

"You really take this whole thing seriously, don't you?" Ino muttered softly.

"Yeah." Sakura's green eyes glittered and Ino simply saw how much the girl was enjoying the harsh training.

"You're insane, you know that? Off-the-grids insane." Ino smirked and played with her blond hair, swirling it around her finger. The pinkette only nodded at this and continued to drink.

"You had guests over today?" Ino looked up at the three used cups on the counter which she just noticed. Sakura looked at the cups and grimaced.

"Yeah, that pestering Hyuuga boy and that lazy-ass Nara decided on a whim to come by. We played shogi for an hour or so, until I had enough of their bickering and kicked them out." Sakura wheezed but her voice suggested gentle feelings rather than irritation.

"So you have time for those asscracks but not me? Double standards, double standards I tell you!" Ino flung her pillow at Sakura who only swayed with her head to avoid the pillow which smashed the wall behind her in a flurry of white feathers.

"I'm not very good at taking initiatives to meet up with people. But I'm sorry, Ino-pig, if I hurt your feelings. Please accept my humble apology." Sakura bowed deeply with her head, her pink shiny hair falling gently over her shoulder in the process. Ino scowled as she saw a sarcastic grin displayed but hidden underneath the curtain of pastel hair.

"Pah, you didn't 'hurt my feelings'! Just get your shit together and come visit me at the hospital sometimes, and not only when you have been setting off bombs on yourself. I call for a meeting every once a week. At least. And that's final."

The Haruno grinned as she looked down at her former rival who was sprawled on her kitchen floor, with her blond head supported by her hands, elbows on the pillow.

"I promise."

"Good. Now that we've cleared that mess, we need to get on to the next subject."

"Which is?"

"Your ex-teammates. I know you don't want to talk about it because it's painful, but you need to get that shit out." Ino said, her voice suddenly soothingly warm even though she cussed. Sakura frowned and looked down on her hands.

"What do you want to bring up? That Naruto is out on an adventure with the pervert Jiraya? That Sasuke-kun is brooding and getting stronger in a dark place god-knows-where with that slithering snake pedophile Orochimaru? That they left me?" Sakura asked with emotions overflowing in her voice and she gritted her teeth.

"Yeah. Exactly about that. That blond idiot and that wrecked handsome manpain." Ino quirked and only looked at Sakura who didn't say anything more than that.

"You miss them, don't you?" Ino didn't need an answer as Sakura's eyes filled with tears which streamed silently down her cheeks in currents. She didn't wail or snivel or anything, with a cold face she only let the salty tears run their course. Ino got up and hugged the pinkette who pried her head into the blond's shoulder. Ino felt how her violet top got soaked in tears. She actually didn't care.

"Hush, don't cry."

A moment passed, then a croaky muffled voice was heard from the depths of Ino's top.

"I'm not crying. I'm leaking."

Author's Note

Hello!

I wrote this chapter solely because of my reviewers. I was supposed to study my ass off today, but I just couldn't stop thinking about the reviews I received and I just had to do another chapter today. So I dedicate this chapter to my lovely reviewers. And fudge you, university exams. Fudge you very much.

Answers to a few reviewer's adorable questions:
- I'm still not sure who I am going to pair off Sakura with. The candidates are still many, but you might convince me for one of your own choices if you give me the right feel with a little description.

- The two idiots (the foxy boy and mr. manpain) is to show up later! They're not ready yet though. Naruto is after all gone for about two and a half years I think from the time Sakura was accepted as an apprentice of Tsunade, so at that time they will appear. Some more characters will appear at that time as well which you must have noticed are missing, so don't give up your hopes!

- To LadyofReincarnation: Wow, I mean, just wow. I don't know how to express my gratitude with words only. But I'll try. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the kind of reviewer that makes me want to think it's worth spending hours after hours on my ramblings of a fanfiction. And I don't care that much about recognition of my work, as long as people like you review and make me feel like a god of fanfiction. But recognition wouldn't hurt, really. Haha. As humble as I am.

Till next time! Be awesome out there you guys, (and tell me what you think)!

xx fascalia