Alone Together...

All The Colors

"Yeah, he could probably fill us in on stuff we might have missed." Inner stated. I nodded and continued on with my search for a nurse.

Once I found one, I had to persuade her to get my clothes. I attempted an amateur version of Ino's and Naruto's ultimate weapon, which must have been decent enough to work, since she had complied. When she returned I told her I would be changing, and she left not knowing that I wouldn't stick around for her to return. It's not that I hated the hospital or anything, I just had questions that needed some answers.

Finally being changed into my regular clothes, I left the hospital. It was actually really easy to just walk out. Sure, I had to use as much stealth as I possibly possessed, because my appearance was anything but unnoticeable.

When I stepped out of the hospital and walked towards the tower, I couldn't help but feel something was off about the atmosphere. The streets weren't as noisy as every other morning...and then I realized that it was school hours.

'Whoops, we just skipped school.' I stated as I received curious glances from the adults as I passed by them.

"Well it's not really skipping when we where in the hospital due to yesterday's event. The hospital however, we did ditch." Inner stated proudly. I hummed in agreement and observed how different the streets felt without children. Somehow it didn't sit right with me. The ambience that had given the village its joyous outlook, seemed to be missing. The children who exuded the untroubled, and adventurous feelings, seemed to really have a big influence to a villages future.

Reaching the tower with no interruptions along the way was a new experience. I had always been in interrupted by one thing or another. I Knocked on the door and entered when he allowed to. I only knocked when I knew someone was inside; but when it was just him, he didn't care if I just went through. We had a pretty close relationship with each other. He trusted me because he knew if I wanted to betray them and possibly destroy the leaf, I had the means to do it. I already possessed enough knowledge of the future as well as past and present information to do so.

Knowing that I would never betray him due to my strong bond with a lot of people here; and believing that I could not lie to him, he allowed me a lot of freedom to do as I please.

"Sakura-chan, how are you feeling?" Hiruzen asked and I smiled up to him and then up to Shikaku in a silent greeting. It had been a while since I had last seen him. Shikaku along with other shinobi had been given frequent missions, and that made it hard to meet up and chat.

"I'm fine! Just a little tired is all." I informed truthfully, considering the people who were present had a wierd ability to sense my lies at odd times.

Normal POV

"That's good to hear. How about we meet up for our lessons later? Do you think you can attend school right now?" Hiruzen asked and Sakura nodded.

"I can. I'll see you later Hokage-sama. Bye Shikaku-sama, I'll come visit whenever we're both able too." Sakura said with a smile. Shikaku nodded in agreement and waved a lazy goodbye.

'I suppose I could kill a few more hours by going to school.' Sakura thought as she turned around and walked out.

"Did she get hurt during lessons?" Asked Shikaku after Sakura had exited the room. Hiruzen breathed out a puff of smoke he had refrained from doing earlier. He had known of Sakura's dislike to the smell and usually refrained from smoking in her presence.