Restoration: Book 2/3

Chapter 11

-Sakura's POV-

I suppose I should've considered us lucky that we'd been able to travel by vehicle at all, but it was hard to keep my thoughts positive as we trekked on foot for the second day in a row. It was almost nighttime, and if we kept this pace when we woke up in the morning, we'd reach Hinata around midday.

Naruto's previous irritable personality had finally disappeared, allowing him to revert to his usual friendly self. It was unspoken, but all of us were relieved. I know that I personally was worried he'd never be the same. Things had gotten bad for him over the past two months, and there wasn't anything any of us could say or do to help. Only Hinata could cheer him up, and she finally did.

When we were all captured during the final trial, I was surprised by how strong his loyalty to our Hyuuga friend was, but now that I'd had time to think about it, I realized he was sort of like that during the last half of The Program as well. He may have forced himself to tone it down so he wouldn't make her uncomfortable.

Now, my worry was transferred to my introverted friend, whom we were on the way to rescue. Every morning after we first set out, he'd wake up a walking ball of anxiety because our separated friend was slowly starving to death.

That was until two days ago when he woke up with a big grin and tackled Kiba, who happened to be the closest to him then, into a tight hug as he informed us all that the Hyuuga girl had somehow broken out of her room and found food. After that, our mission became a retrieval rather than a race against the clock.

Was she really okay, though? From how Naruto described it, she, too, had been in solitary confinement this whole time. Even I was affected by that, but she was already a timid and anxious person before all this. She proved time and time again during The Program that she was stronger than any of us thought, so I just had to convince myself that was the case this time around, too.

The only sounds were our footsteps on the pavement and the wind blowing as we traveled. Otogakure was just a few miles away now. Dreary clouds in the sky proved it. My elementary school once took a field trip to Oto because they have a giant children's museum, and the weather was exactly like this the whole time. That's why it was often called "The Land of Rain".

Oto was in a similar state to Konoha, which only concerned us all further. The explosions and abandoned towns were terrifying enough, but after our encounter with that strange orange-haired man, none of us knew what to think.

Naruto told us that he read a book in school where aliens would take over human bodies via entry at the back of the neck and that Hinata told him Madara teaches a class about aliens and believes they're real, which is why he did what he did. We were more surprised that he'd read a book than anything else.

After experiencing the odd M.A.T. technology, realizing Naruto could somehow communicate with Hinata, and witnessing Orochimaru's bizarre experiments forced on us: Why wouldn't aliens be real? It was kind of exhausting, all the traumatic things happening to our group of misfits. Of course, there'd be aliens added to the mix.

Rather than set up tents and risk being caught in freezing rain, we traveled a bit later into the night until we reached the outskirts of town and found an abandoned house. Since they were all empty anyway, we chose the biggest, fanciest one.

Once indoors at the miniature mansion, we realized the electricity and water were somehow still working and took advantage of the opportunity to bathe while we had a chance.

Neji and Kankuro found the generator in the basement. They confirmed it was what the house was running off of, but they couldn't figure out how much juice it had left in it, so we agreed to swallow our pride and bathe in pairs in an attempt to ensure everyone got a chance before the hot water ran out.