Alone Together...

Better Days

Sakura's POV

~August~

Our departure from Konoha went better than I had expected. Madoka and Kioshi had gotten up early and said their goodbyes to their friends while I had slept. It seems that the people who knew me wanted to personally see me off on my first trip.

Marianne and Yashiro came to see me off along with Chouko. They all gave me something to remember them by, which I thought was silly since we weren't leaving permanently. But Inner said to just accept it politely, which I was going to do so anyways.

Yashiro gave me sweets. A bag filled with candy that he had made for my journey. That was very nice and I knew I would enjoy his gift. Marianne was next, she gave me a cute dress, that she had made. It was a dark blue dress with silver butterflies on it. She went on and on about how I would just love to travel. Her dark brown hair and cheerful personality reminded me a lot of one of my friends from my world, while her hazel eyes were just like my cousin's.

Chouko was the last one and she indeed surprised me with her gift. Instead of a dress or shawl that I thought she would give me, she gave me lots of books and scrolls. The books were on the history of the villages and the scrolls were the forms of the traditional dances from the villages. I really liked the gift and I promptly ignored Inner's remark of me being a bookworm. I insisted on carrying my own gifts, so Kioshi made it easier by sealing them in a scroll so I could place them inside my bag.

After our hugs and farewells we began our journey to reach the land of water. Our first stop was to the Land of Valleys. Since Madoka and I were not as skilled as ninjas we had to walk for a long time. I didn't mind much since I enjoyed seeing the scenery and the exercise would be worth it.

It took us about a week to arrive at the Land of Valleys. This place wasn't that well known to me since they didn't talk much about it in the anime/manga. The Land of Valley was surprisingly a beautiful place. It was like its name suggested, filled with valleys. The landscape here was breath taking and sadly we didn't stay for long and started walking to the Land of Tea; which Madoka was very excited about.

The Land of Tea was a small country but also very beautiful and relaxing in its own right. My training with Kioshi had been picked up where we last left it; and I could now move my chakra a bit more comfortably without losing it every five seconds. The Land of Tea was very famous for its tea-houses; which we had stopped at for quite a number of times. Madoka had even bought a few tea herbs that her father would like on our journey there. Thus far the trip was going great and I could only imagine what the other places were like.

~September~

On the first week of September we had made it to the Land of Udon. We traveled by water to get there which was a fun experience. The Land of Udon, famous for its noodles was a small island that had its own unique beauty to it. Madoka who was still teaching me about etiquette took the time to properly show me the correct way of eating noodles and other meals. It seems that on this trip she had taken it upon herself to teach me about eating correctly. Which shocked me considering all the formal steps one needed to take during certain gatherings.

The second week was spent by crossing the distance by boat to get to the Land of Water. There really wasn't anything to do, so Madoka and Kioshi took this time to teach me. Madoka's lessons were the usual strict yet informative ones; while Kioshi's were proficient but tiring. By the middle of the third week I was still working on my chakra, trying to familiarize myself with the other chakra producing organs.