"In my recovery
I'm a soldier at war
I have broken down walls
I defined
I designed"
•••
Standing behind the wooden table together with the other members of the temporary group, Sakura observed the plants carefully.
"Wait a minute." She said, moving over to the large monitor, her fingers clicking quickly on the keyboard. Technology had certainly improved, and one of the latest additions to this facility were the computers.
Opening up a map of the area on the big screen, her eyes scanned over the various villages. "This, this village here."
Hoshigakure.
"What of it?" Rukia asked, confused. "I had been through this village a week or so ago, there was something strange about it. I couldn't place anything odd but now it all makes sense!"
The group members shared looks of confusion as the pinkette tried explaining what she has discovered.
"You think this is the root cause?" Jin, one of the analysts asked, taking the pen from behind his ear to scribble something onto his clipboard.
"We shouldn't rule out other possibilities but I'm almost certain this one's it."
Sakura recalled what she had seen when going through Hoshigakure, the 'vast array of subsidising vegetation.' Of course logically, barren land and lack of vegetation could just be due to the arid climate and potential negligence from poor farming practices-but there seemed to be a link here that the Konoha Medic simply couldn't overlook.
"There isn't much information available about this place. Figuring out anything is going to be a mission." Added one of the members.
"This might be the reason for slowing down or rather overall decline of plant life. This type just isn't natural!"
"Artificial?" The pinkette shook her head at the question being asked. Jin began to answer as if piecing the situation together. "Not artificial, but definitely man-made or tampered." He frowned running a hand over his forehead. This drew attention to the small piercing near the edge of his right eyebrow, that had been covered by his brown bangs.
The team worked diligently through the hours, making the most of what they had, despite not having much information or sources to begin with in the first place!
•••
'What a long day.' she thought while sitting on the edge of the leather seat, elbows resting on her knees. "Knock knock." A voice came from the side causing Sakura to look up.
There stood Jin with a small tray, on top of it a container of food and bottled water. "You're here late." The pinkette said, watching as he walked over.
"I could say the same for you. I bet you haven't even ate yet." He said with a smile, offering her the tray.
She raised an eyebrow at him, but the brown haired boy only laughed softly at her expression. "We all went to grab a bite, but you're still in the same place as we left you! Just thought you might be hungry."
Sakura found herself returning his smile, grateful at his innocent gesture. "Thank you, but you really shouldn't have worried."
"It's not a problem." He placed the tray on the seat next to her, as she shifted to make space, thinking he was going to sit down aswell.
"I actually just came to drop this off. I have to get home now." Jin said, straightening his back as turned to leave.
"Hey...Did someone tell you to do this?" Sakura questioned shyly, motioning to the food. She didn't want anyone to have to go out of their way to make sure she ate or was taken care of.
It was always her doing the taking care of. And the last thing she wanted was to worry the Sand people for no reason.
"No, not at all." He reassured, smile still present as he closed the door on his way out.
"Thanks again!" She called out.
The Konoha Medic looked back down, opening the container to be met with the strong aroma of the Shichimi.
Just as she broke the chopsticks apart to start eating, her phone began vibrating on the table.
'Eh, it'll go off.' Sakura thought, watching her phone ring as she took a bite of her food- until it rang for a third time. With a groan, she walked over and picked it up.
•••••••••••
Back in Konoha~
Looking at his wife, laying comfortably on their beige couch after falling asleep while watching a movie together, he couldn't help but let out a sigh in contentment.
Quietly, careful not to wake up Hinata in the process, he slipped out of the door with a notebook in hand. It was late into the evening, but the streets of the village was lit up so brightly that it was almost hard to decipher it was night time.
Sat on a concrete bench, he took out the book he had brought, pulling off the cap from a pen with his mouth despite his now two working limbs.
Recalling the conversation he had over two hours ago with the only female of Team 7, he leaned back onto the hard bench.
The blonde couldn't deny that he was missing his friends. More so, Sasuke and Sakura, who seemed to be on their own little missions out of the village. Sure he was also busy, doing missions every so often, but nothing major or soul searching-like.
So after helping to put away the dishes from supper, he reached into his back pocket to retrieve a sleek black phone. With a mischievous face, he found Sakura's contact, and clicked call.
After some time of waiting, she didn't pick up. So of course, he called the second time. The impatient tapping of his foot against the hardwood floor didn't go unnoticed by the once Hyūga Heiress as she shot him a curious glance.
He mouthed 'Sakura-chan' back to her and she smiled at the mention of her friend, but it quickly turned to a frown as she saw the time.
"Will she not be sleeping now, Naruto-kun?"
He looked like he thought about it for a second, but then quickly brushed it off. "Eh. I wanna talk to her, she'll wake up."
On the third attempt he was met with her voice, very low and he could almost see her narrowing her eyes at him in annoyance. "Naruto?"
"Hiiiii!!!" His voice boomed.
"Is everything okay?" Sakura asked slightly worried at his sudden call.
"Oh yeah everything's good. How's things with you? How is the Sand? How is Gaara?" He questioned excitedly.
They spoke for longer than anticipated, sharing information about what was going on with and around them.
He pulled the phone away and pressed it against his chest quickly, "She says to tell you, 'hi"!" He conveyed to his wife before putting back to his ear.
After talking to the pinkette, he found himself sitting on a cold bench, writing a letter to the famous Uchiha. He didn't know how the whole hawk thing worked that well so he wasn't sure if it would even come this late at night or not.
His writing was messy, but he tried to jot down everything he remembered that happened over the while his raven friend was gone.
One point that he included was about what Sakura had told him. They had just been talking casually, and while comparing Sasuke's life, slipped in something she remembered about his old dream.
The blonde was surprised to hear of it for the first time, but smiled as he realized it made perfect sense and decided to tell the Uchiha about it.
If by luck, the reliable hawk had managed to make it's appearance at Naruto's behest. He rolled up the page he tore from his book, making sure to properly secure it onto the bird.
He watched as it flew away with the letter, unknowing to the push he was giving to the future of two individuals lives...
_______________________________
Hey guys!
Hope you're all good and safe. I'm sorry for the delays in the updates, I write whenever I get the chance to, but I'm pretty busy with studying now😭 Can someone please tell me how to balance my life because it's clearly a mess😂
Anyway, I just want to thank EVERYONE for reading and leaving such nice feedback 😭 I try to personally thank each one of you, but it's kinda hard so I'm sorry if I didn't!
Also, I'd love to know my readers better! So please write something about yourself, literally anything! in the comments section!
Thanks for reading :))
~LiEmerald
Posted 14 April 2020
1:11pm