The birds chirped loud and clear here in Konoha. Haruhi had always known that, with the ample amount of trees for them to make their homes in, but it was only now she could really appreciate the beauty.
She sat outside the hokage tower at the beginning of Konoha's gardens and overlooked the village waiting for Kakashi to get done with the debriefing. The other Commons were coming along nicely. Inari and Ami had taken over the swimming complex, training others and opening new pools to the public. Ami was shouldering more as Inari took time off to prepare for delivery. Shisui was undergoing intensive care under Tsunade and Ino, and they had plenty of work to do-but nothing impossible.
Perhaps Danzo felt the jaws closing around him, because he didn't appear in public often anymore.
Konoha was alive and vibrant, rebuilt stronger than before, it's citizens healthy and getting better everyday as they cracked open a newspaper or book they couldn't have read just a couple months ago.
She had done well. It was time to go.
She felt someone next to her and expecting Kakashi, she turned.
Only to gasp. Then to smile.
"You know, since I'm going home now, it's only fair you let me know who you really are."
The mystery person chuckles lowly, voice carefully not to reveal gender as they lounged next to the tired form of Haruhi.
"You'll find out eventually."
Haruhi frowned carefully.
"I won't be here much longer."
The person tilted their head.
"You won't be. But you will be remembered. This place and the people here won't forget you. You will be gone, but your impact will resonate. Even now, the idea of the commons and literacy spread throughout firecountry, and beyond into places like Wave."
Haruhi swallows thickly.
"You make it sound like I'm dying." She meant to say it jokingly, but her voice cracks. She was sleeping more and more. They put off her going as long as they could, but if she waited any longer she'd fall asleep and not get up, and she needed to be conscious when going back to the seal.
A gloved hand takes hers in theirs and Haruhi cries with gratitude.
"Thank you. For everything."
The person inclined their head once again, with a solemn and for some reason a faintly amused air.
"It's hard to say goodbye." Haruhi whispered. She had already said goodbye to team seven just moments before. The kids wouldn't be allowed in the room during the sealing process. Naruto's teary face squashed against her stomach, and Sakura's teary eyes becoming red enough to match her dress was something she wouldn't forget in a hurry.
"It is. But consider this a new beginning for you as well. It's not often you get a second chance."
"I'm going to miss them."
"And they will miss you. You will all be okay in the end."
"Yes, but I need to feel this. I..don't know who I would talk to when I get back."
"Why not your mother?"
"We hardly talked after dad died. We only just started to again."
"Talk to her. About how you miss your father and what separates you from him. It's not going to be much different from what's happening here isn't it."
"..."
"You did miss your mother though too, haven't you."
"I've been missing her since dad died."
"And now you have your chance to find her again. Do you have more family?"
Haruhi sniffled.
"My mom is engaged to a guy with two daughters. And I have lots of extended family."
"Are you excited to see them?"
"Yes." Haruhi whispered, and the dread that had sat so heavily on her chest for the past few weeks lightened, and finally, cleared.
The mystery person laughed deep in their throat, and patted Haruhi's tired arm as the droopy woman smiled down at her feet dressed with sparkly sandals.
"This journey you had will have its place, and so will you. It will work out."
Haruhi smiled and looked up to say thank you again. Only to be met with a poof of smoke and the sight of Kakashi opening the door into the tower.
"Haruhi?"
She smiled at him, with more energy than she had had in awhile, and he gathered her into his arms and hugged her back.
"Are you ready?" He asks her quietly.
She smiles softly.
"I don't think I'll ever be ready to leave you and everyone behind." She cups his pinkening face. "...But I am excited to see my family again."
He helped her to the stairs when she made it clear she wanted to walk up them one last time, and before they opened the door to the hokages office she lowered his mask and kissed him.
A "goodbye","I love you", and a "thank you" all in one.
The doors opened, and Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Koharu all observed, their faces solemn, even Koharu who had liked Haruhi the least.
Tsunade walked around the desk and to Haruhi's surprise, shook her hand.
"Don't look so surprised kid. You've done a great service to the people here and I'd be a fool to ignore it." And then, more tenderly, "Thank you."
Haruhi just nods, not trusting her voice. It wasn't often that words failed her silver tongue.
"Place your hands on the seal Haruhi."
She did.
"I'm going to activate it now."
Jiraiya went through a few sharp motions, and then quickly, almost too fast to be believed and in a poof of smoke, she was gone.
Jiriaya said nothing as he watched Kakashi slump against the wall and as Tsunade put a comforting arm around him. He had written a new manuscript, nearly complete except for the ending and had sent it to his editors, who had promptly begun raving about it.
The increase in literacy meant that books were flying off the shelves, and they asked (demanded) a new Icha Icha from him.
They loved the manuscript. Couldn't get enough. His editor said it made her cry in a sad but happy way. Bittersweet, one could say. It was about a man and a woman of two different worlds, forced together due to hard circumstances, and falling in love despite it. The ending for now was uncertain, but it had the woman departing with a kiss from her lover and a promise of remembrance.
He turned and left.
Something was kneading her face.
With a jolt, Haruhi sat up with speeds she hadn't reached in weeks. Her cat Patches Meowed in surprise, sitting back on his haunches. With a shaking hand, she pet his head. As she looked around, the clock changed from 2:34 to 2:35. The book slumps onto the floor.
Her hand snakes over to her phone charging in the wall and calls her mother. As it rings, Patches rubs his little chin against hers. It connects.
"...Harper?"
Hearing her name after getting used to Haruhi for so long startled her. Haruhi sounded similar to Harper, because she had chosen it to fit in as much as she could among Konoha's eastern inspired culture, but even with that it was still shocking.
"...Yes."
"...Is everything alright?"
God. It was so awkward, even though she wanted to call her mom in the first place.
"No. Actually. It's uh..pretty boring here by myself. I was wondering if I could tag along with you and Robert? Hang out with the girls for a bit."
Surprise.
"What happened to your studies? I thought you were busy? Are you okay?"
Her mother, despite being awkward too, was concerned. She cared. And just like that, Harper knew everything was going to be alright.
She laughs.
"Yeah I'm fine. And it's winter break. I think I can take a couple days off."
Her mother audibly perked up.
"Oh, well great! We were planning to go ice skating tomorrow, I'll tell them. They'll be so happy. We'll come pick you up."
"Awesome."
"And Harper?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
She blinked on tears.
"Love you too."
The phone disconnected. Haruhi lay on the carpet for two hours before getting up, sealing away all the Naruto books in leftover storage from moving to college and back and then getting out her skates for tomorrow.
She didn't know how she was going to move on, but ice skating in Chicago seemed like a good place to start.
Time marched on. Haruhi went back to college for her final semester and got her degrees, and walked across the stage with her mother and new step-father and step-sisters watching her with pride, along with her extensive extended family and friends. She began working in the forest preserve outreach programs, and played often with her little sisters, who were in middle school. Life was good.
She often wondered if she imagined the whole trip. Maybe too much caffeine and not enough sleep? It felt so real, and so long. How could you mourn what didn't happen?
During the fall, she was driving her little sisters home from a pumpkin farm, where they chose some to carve and make pies out of, and so they could try their hand at the corn maze.
On the way back, one of them spoke.
"What's with the manga you got?"
"Hm? You can be more specific." There were still many down on the bookshelf downstairs.
"That self insert manga you have up in the attic! I've never seen it anywhere else and I go to the store and the library all the time! The main character even looks like you!"
She nearly crashed.
"What?!"
"Yeah! It's up in the attic!"
"...It's a college thing, for one of my art classics. Maybe you'll understand when you're older."
The kids run inside, and that night when everyone is sleeping, she creeps up into the attic. She approached the container with no small sense of trepidation, and as she opens the lid the smell of ink and paper greets her, and she sets the bold orange cover of the Naruto series. It looks normal.
Until she looks closer.
Because on the very first chapter on the cover is Kakashi, with what appears to be a tiny woman hanging out of his breast pocket.
Hands shaking, breath caught in her throat, and a sense of deja vu permeating through her, she cracks open the book. Immediately, the day of winter break when she had first pulled the seal from the shelf it revealed to her, entirely drawn in 2d form. In a state of utmost shock, she watched and read her journey she had thought she had dreamed almost a full year prior, and watched herself go through these adventures.
She had just gotten to the bell test when she gasped, and leaned closer, remembering all that time ago how Pakkun had reported someone watching them. Was it Kabuto?
She pressed close to see, too close, and before she could even gasp, a jolt behind her navel and a puff of smoke signaled her exit from this world.
OH?! 0.o
What has happened here? You will find out next chapter! Which will be the second to last chapter in this fic. Thats right people, only two chapters left after this! Can you believe?
Please wear masks! Stay home from college if you can!