12They'd come such a long way from the place they used to call home; a place amidst lush wild forests that told stories of innocent aspirations and adolescent dreams; of flower garlands and fields; of lazy afternoons under tufts of the whitest clouds across blue skies; of friendships and promises made beside never ending rivers.
Nothing had changed, yet everything had.
They were the same buildings that once held their laughter; they now made way for a new generation of hope and ambition.
Sakura looked at the little 13 year olds eager to demonstrate their superior combat skills. She smiled softly as she remembered her days at the academy. On those very grounds she'd been teased and then befriended by a pretty blond girl, and then she had fallen in love and then been betrayed, she'd learnt the meaning of a team and she'd learnt how to let go. So much had happened since then. She lingered for a bit before making her way back home.
"Tadaima," she called out as she walked into her home. Her mansion, artfully carved with wooden doors, and windows adorned with ancestral tapestry that looked like war beaten soldiers who still held their honor. Rooms that were not too large not to small but regal in their bearing held a certain quality that spoke of long gone clansmen gatherings.
"Okaeri," was the soft reply. He was home today. Smiling softly she walked into the study, where she knew he'd be on his days off.
"No mission?" she asked before bending down to the seated man and kissing his cheek.
"hmmm….actually I have to sort out all the intel we've received on the past few missions," said the man not looking up as he intensely poured down on the papers before him.
Sakura plopped herself on the couch sighing in relief as she did so.
"Dinner?" he asked looking up at his exhausted wife, "I made some miso shiru and soba noodles"
Sakura's face brightened infinitely, "oh that would be great," but she made no move to get up.
He walked up to her and kissed her softly, looking at her intently, "I missed you."
She smiled, "I missed you too. Sometimes I wish you didn't have to go for missions and worked at the hospital like me," she said, standing up.
"I'm ANBU chief, Sakura, you know I can't do that," he said walking into the dining area
"I know Sasuke, I'm just saying I wish it weren't so sometimes…"
Sasuke held her gaze for a bit, not saying anything, before turning away making his way into the kitchen.
Sakura's eyes followed him. She loved him. After all these years she honestly still loved him. And as much of a shock as it had first been to her, she knew he loved her too. So why wasn't it enough?
They had their dinner seated at the foot high table on the floor and then went to bed, like they always did, every single day of the two years that they had been married.
The war had been a quick affair, twice as brutal as its predecessors, but over before anyone had the time to comprehend the absolute futility of war. It lasted all of three months, ending with an unprecedented camaraderie between the five countries. The Akatsuki were eliminated, the body of the legendary Uchiha Madara was incinerated so as to eliminate all possibilities of rebirth or resurrection known to mankind, and even then his lifeless ashes were preserved under high security in case of any unforeseen events that might occur in the future. Uchiha Sasuke had cleared the clan name by defeating his seemingly invincible uncle and pledging his allegiance to Konoha stating manipulation of information breeding misunderstanding as the cause of his misplaced hostility towards the country. He had since proved his indispensability to the nation and had been swiftly promoted to ANBU chief.
Life had become peaceful since. All the palpable tension that had existed during the brief impasse before the war had been resolved. That is not to say that there weren't boundaries or cultural differences between the nations, but they had significantly diminished.
With the war out of the way Shinobi across Konoha had to deal with a far more challenging task of their personal lives. A lot of them had felt the necessity to assert their existence and therefore had been married. A good number of them exercised their freedom in promiscuity. The rest had just been glad to get back to their old lives. And then there was Sasuke.
When Sasuke had returned Sakura hadn't known how to behave around him so she had chosen to avoid him instead. Amongst the three, Naruto and Sasuke had gone right back to what they had before Sasuke had chosen to defect. It was easy for them seeing as they fought alongside each other to defeat Madara. But Sasuke had last tried to stab her when they had met, so she just didn't know how to begin any sort of interaction with him. However, they were awkwardly placed one evening when the rest of their friends had abandoned them at Ichiraku's. Sasuke had broken the silence asking her if she still loved him. She's been thrown completely off kilter by the question and hadn't been able to give any answer at all at that point. He had then asked her to think about it and left her to mull over the chaos in her mind.
A few days later he'd cornered her once again and asked her the same question. She's thrown the question right back at him. After a moment of thought he'd answered that it didn't matter anyways because he'd always got what he wanted, and then he'd walked away. In the days to come he'd pursued Sakura incessantly until she conceded defeat and within months of their confession they were married in one of Konoha's biggest wedding ceremonies. Naruto had been best man, grinning like an idiot all though the proceedings.
Back then she had been ecstatic at being married to the love of her life. Now, however, while she lay in bed watching him fall asleep curled around her, she wondered if there was something more to life.
"Ah, ouch, yah, Sakura chan, can't you be a bit gentler?"
Sakura glared at the blond seated in front of her and added more pressure to the wound she was cleaning up.
"atatatat…that huuuurts!" whined the blond
"maybe you'll remember that next time you wanna run head long into an ambush, Naruto. Just coz you can heal fast does not mean you cant get hurt at all. I have better things to do that heal your cuts every time you go out on a mission just because you cant be more careful! You're ANBU captain now, grow up."
"atatatatat….ok ok Sakura chan I get it already now can you go easy on me!" Naruto grinned shamefacedly at Sakura.
Sakura tried to hide a smile. He got on her nerves all the time but the truth was that she adored the blond. Sometimes she wondered what it would have been like if she'd chosen him over Sasuke. While Sasuke was enigma personified, Naruto was like the spring breeze, fresh and innocent no matter how many years go by. With Naruto she always felt years younger, even if he was a little too childish for her sometimes. She healed his last gash and let him go.
Naruto watched Sakura leave the room. He still loved her. But strangely it didn't bother him that she was married to his best friend. May be he had come to terms with it?
"Naruto! You're back here!" an alarmed voice called out. Naruto turned to find a worried looking Hinata striding towards him. She examined him with a concerned from on her face.
"It's nothing, Hinata, Sakura's already healed me" Naruto scratched his head sheepishly, but Hinata's frown remained in place.
Naruto smiled softly. "Hinata, seriously, I'm fine" he said taking her face in his hands.
Hinata looked lake she was about to cry. "You never take care of yourself," she mumbled.
Naruto felt guilty for making her worry. She was such a gentle soul and he was such a brash boy. "I'm sorry, Hinata, I'll try to be careful next time," he said softly and her face lightened up immediately. He kissed her lightly on the lips and she blushed furiously.
"I-I h- have to go, I'm the medic on call today," Hinata said softly and Naruto let go of her. She gave him a small smile and left.
He couldn't help grinning at Hinata's shyness. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her. It had been a year since they were dating and she was still just as shy as she was back then. It was refreshing to be with a girl that innocent even after all this time. He'd gotten lucky with Hinata; that was for sure.
Wondering what he should do next he decided to pay a visit to the teme.
"Oooooiiii, teme."
Sasuke's eyebrow developed a tick as he heard Naruto's bellow from down the corridor. Even so, his mouth couldn't help make an upward twitch. He could hear Naruto lumber around other rooms looking for him.
"Here you are your holy temeness!"
Sasuke's tick just got bigger. Naruto walked into the study and plopped himself on the couch.
"so whatcha doin?"
Sasuke didn't bother replying and continued with this work.
"do you wanna go out? Maybe grab some lunch?" still no reply. That didn't bother Naruto though. He continued like he's just been having a long conversation with Sasuke.
"hmmm maybe I should go get it for the both of us," Naruto contemplated. "Or better yet maybe I should cook!" Naruto's face brightened with the brilliant idea.
At this point Sasuke just had to say something. He remembered the last time Naruto had decided to cook at their place. He's managed to set the curtains on fire somehow and Sasuke'd had to deal with an irate Sakura for a whole week.
"hn, dobe, can you not go annoy someone else every day?" he enquired choosing to acquiesce to Naruto's first request. Naruto grinned knowing he'd won. "Awww teme you know you can't live without me. You'd miss the Naruto lurvin too much." Sasuke snorted at the statement but followed him out of the house nonetheless.
It still amazed Sasuke how Naruto could literally absorb ramen like a sponge after all these years. He watched his best friend with mild disgust as he elegantly picked small portions of sushi and put it in his mouth. Well every cloud had a silver lining or in other words every Naruto would shut up while stuffing his face which meant Sasuke could eat his meal in peace.
Naruto patted his over full stomach as Sasuke paid for the both of them and they strolled down towards the river like always.
"che, you look like a pregnant chick," Sasuke commented as Naruto patted his tummy for the 5th time.
"yet you're the one pmsing," Naruto grinned, "well it's gonna be like this until I poop so deal with it."
Sasuke didn't bother giving any reaction.
"Speaking of babies, when are you planning to repopulate Konoha with widdle 'chiha babies," Naruto asked as they settled under a tree next to a river.
"Probably when you have the guts to ask Hinata to marry you, dobe," Sasuke replied easily.
"Ahhhh, that would take some time then," Naruto grinned sheepishly.
Sasuke frowned. He'd been thinking about it for a while as well. Sasuke had wanted to have kids as soon as he'd married Sakura. However, Sakura had pleaded with him for some time, especially considering her hectic timings at the hospital. Sasuke had grudgingly conceded. A year later they had begun to try but hadn't had any success. Sasuke had then had Tsunade check them up. She had told them that there was nothing wrong with them and that sometimes with shinobi this could happen. Especially with Sakura being used to taking anti pregnancy potions, once they stop, it might take her a while to conceive. It had been a year since then and Sasuke had begun to get impatient.
"I'm actually not sure I'll even ask her to marry me," Naruto's voice broke Sasuke out of his thoughts. Sasuke was actually mildly surprised at Naruto's proclamation. After all he had always known Naruto to be the kind to want to find a girl, fall in love and get married as soon as age would allow it.
"It's not that I don't love her. It's just…I don't know if it's enough," Naruto continued.
Sasuke couldn't claim to understand what Naruto meant by that. "What more do you want?"
Naruto sighed, "I don't know."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, giving him a look that clearly said 'AAHO'.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah well you have the perfect relationship with Sakura chan, so how would you know."
Sasuke looked at Naruto, annoyed, "it isn't about how perfect it is, dobe, every relationship needs to be worked on. Do you think everything just fell into place once I married Sakura? We had our differences and we had to work through it."
Naruto cocked his head a strange look flashing through his eyes as he stared at Sasuke. "Are you happy?" he asked softly.
"Che, of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" Sasuke was getting more impatient with this conversation. "We better head home. It's getting late and I still have reports to finish," he stated getting up.
Taking the cue, Naruto got up as well, "Yeah, I gotta meet Hinata too."
Hinata walked out of the hospital looking at the time. It was 9.30. Ever since she'd been promoted to second in command after Sakura, she'd had full days of work. The administrative side of the hospital was something she'd not been sure she could handle, but she'd found herself managing quite nicely.
She looked up to find Naruto leaning against a tree waiting for her. "Oh, Naruto you didn't have to come all the way to get me!" She gently reprimanded.
"Aww, Hinata chan it's getting late. You shouldn't be walking home all alone." Naruto stated
Hinata made an annoyed sound. She didn't like the fact that people still treated her like the fragile thirteen she had been when she'd thought she'd proved her abilities well enough during the war. Nevertheless she thought Naruto looking out for her like that was kind of endearing so she let it go.
They walked together in comfortable silence.
"Are they over working you at the hospital?" Naruto asked.
"Not really. Besides I like what I do. I feel I can really make a difference."
Naruto smiled at her softly, "you always make a difference Hinata chan, you're adorable that ways." He grinned cheekily at her and she blushed.
"Can we sit down for bit in the park? I'm a little worn out" Hinata asked with her big pleading eyes.
Naruto laughed a little, "yeah sure."
They sat down at the park bench and talked about the little mundane on-goings of their lives like lovers do.
"I made you something," Hinata said, pulling out a flat, rectangular wooden slab with signs engraved on it and a red thread tied to the top.
"It's a charm. It'll keep you from getting into trouble so often," she said looking away shyly.
"That's so sweet, thank you." Naruto gave his trademark goofy grin while scratching his head and taking the charm from her.
Their moment, however, was interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Looking up they found Neji standing next to them, looking away awkwardly.
"Erm, I'm sorry, but it's quite late and Hinata Sama should be getting back home." he declared.
"Oh sorry Neji nii san, I was just a bit tired so I asked Naruto if we could rest for a while." Hinata justified hastily.
"If you don't mind can we return now?" Neji asked stiffly.
Hinata threw a glance at Naruto, who got up too. "Neji's right, it is late Hinata. I'll see you tomorrow,ok?" Naruto said holding Hinata's face intimately. Both were oblivious to Neji stiffening further, next to them.
"Bye," Naruto said as he turned to leave.
"Naruto! The charm!" HInata reminded him of the charm he'd left on the bench.
"Aah! Sorry." He grinned, "What would I do without you Hinata chan." He winked at her and walked away.
Hinata smiled a bit and walked the opposite direction with Neji.
"He does not love you Hinata sama," Neji stated.
Hinata looked up a little startled both at his statement as well as the fact that Neji had actually commented on her personal life. Usually he felt himself far above such trivialties.
Neji continued to look ahead, "he will break your heart. It would be wise to break it off before you get hurt."
"Y. don't know a thing about our relationship," Hinata retaliated, nervous but stubborn.
"Hinata sama, you are kind and gentle hearted." Neji made yet another statement.
Hinata looked away, not sure how to take his statement.
"He cares about you. But he does not love you."
They walked into the Hyuuga home, a massive, palace like structure, formidable in the dark of the night. They stopped in front of the stairs, the point from where their paths separated.
"It is my job to protect you Hinata sama. In every way I can. And I intend to do so." With that declaration he turned to leave.
"Neji nii san….." Hinata stopped him before he climbed the stairs, "I…um…I m-made this charm….for you" she said utterly shyly looking down all the time while stealing glances at him. She handed him a charm similar to the one she'd given Naruto. "It is to protect you from danger."
Neji took the charm and looked at it long and hard, "charms do not protect you from danger Hinata sama, experience and skill do." With that he left a thoroughly disheartened Hinata and walked up to his room. He then took his ninja supply bag out and tied the charm securely to it.