Kaika Saisei

Chapter 10: Fire & Rebirth

After Hinata finished her speech, everyone headed towards their lanterns which were already brimming with light.

A small stone kept them tied to the ground until they were ready to fly.

Every member present at the memorial took theirs into their hands, closing their eyes, keeping a moment of silence for Neji's memory.

Before launching them to the sky, Hinata spoke a few more words.

"May these light your path to better destinies, wherever you are, brother Neji." She then lifted the lantern to the sky and released it. After her, Naruto, Sakura, Kiba and Shino along with Lee, Tenten and Ino-Shika-Cho team released theirs.

Soon after, when all the lanterns were up in the sky, Lee went to Hinata to pay his respect for Neji's memory once again.

They both thanked each other for the work of bringing everyone together, at the end, both agreeing that Sakura's help had been an undeniable factor in all of this.

Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji came to where Hinata was to excuse themselves for they planned to head home immediately.

Their day had been pretty full already and each had important things to take care of the next day.

Before leaving, Hinata, Ino and Shikamaru exchanged a few words of encouragement for each other as they were the ones who suffered the most losses in the war that had just passed.

"If you ever need someone to just talk and hang around, you can always come to me," Ino said. "After all, our clan compounds are pretty close to each other," she added.

Hinata bowed in respect and thanked Ino for the offer, saying that she'll definitely take her offer into consideration.

"Off we go now," Ino said while all the team paid their respects once more to Neji's memory.

As they headed towards the exit, Ino looked back once more towards Hinata's place.

'I wonder if she's really caught-up in all that mess, too?' she asked herself.

But tonight, wasn't the time to think about that.

Before leaving the premises for good, Ino didn't forget to go to Sakura to say her goodbyes.

Seated next to Naruto and Sai, Sakura felt Ino immediately approaching. She turned towards her friend.

"I'm just here to say goodbye, not to nag you," Ino quickly said before Sakura could interject in any way.

"Just... take better care of yourself too, okay?" She said. Looking then towards her teammates, Ino added "You two boys should keep an eye on her for me, okay?" She said, tilting her head towards Sakura.

"Ino!" Sakura said immediately, in a slightly irritated tone. She was a big girl who could handle herself. Didn't need anyone else to take care of her.

At least in her opinion.

"Well, off I go. You all take care of yourselves, okay?"

Naruto and Sai nodded in agreement while Sakura was still slightly pouting. But then she just let it go, as she realized that at the end of the day, all that Ino wanted was for her to be well.

And looking in perspective, she would've done the exact same thing.

After Ino left towards her teammates, Team 7 waved at Shikamaru and Chouji as well, who were waiting for Ino somewhere further away.

Naruto looked longingly at Shikamaru who seemed to be a bit out of his usual ways.

He was never too sociable anyway, but for the past few days he had been quite closed off.