Chapter 33: Reunion
Ninja Academy
A girl with cream-blonde hair sat with her cheek propped on her hand, staring out the window at the blue sky, her thoughts drifting.
It's been two years since Sakura graduated...
It's been so long since I last saw her...
What's Sakura even doing right now...?
Honestly. Doesn't Sakura know she's supposed to come visit me...
Sakura's the worst...
...Sasuke is pretty cool though...
"Ino. Answer the question I just asked you."
Iruka's voice cut in from the front of the classroom. Ino blinked.
Question? What question?
Ino stared at Iruka with her best innocent and slightly stupid expression.
Watching Ino's absolutely blank face, Iruka's eye twitched.
"Out! Go stand in the hall!"
"Haaai~~"
Ino trudged out into the corridor — where she was greeted by four grinning faces.
Naruto, Kiba, Chōji, and Shikamaru.
Looking at the four heartless idiots, Ino's mouth twitched. I can't believe this is the crowd I've ended up stuck with.
She finally survived until the end of the day. As Ino stepped out of the academy gate, like she did every afternoon—
"Ino. Over here."
A voice, familiar and strange at the same time, called out to her.
Ino went still for half a second. A flash of pink lit up her field of view like someone had turned up the brightness on the world.
Sakura?
Sakura came to pick me up from school?
Ino was just about to launch herself into a flying tackle when someone beat her to it.
A blonde streak, trailing a small hurricane in its wake, came rocketing past her from behind, shouting at the top of its lungs:
"SAKURA-CHAAAAN!"
AAAAAAAHHHH—!
You little gremlin, Naruto! Get AWAY from MY Sakura, IDIOT—!
"Sakura!" Ino wailed. "You haven't come to see me in FOREVER!"
Sakura, meanwhile, had one hand planted firmly on Naruto's forehead. No matter how hard the boy pumped his little legs, he couldn't advance so much as a single inch.
Head-blocked out of his tackle, Naruto looked up at her with the enormous pleading eyes of an abandoned puppy.
Sakura sighed.
"Sorry about that, Naruto. These last few months have been really busy. I should have more free time from here on out, though."
She reached up and ruffled his blonde mop.
"Heh heh! Then Sakura has to come find me!" Naruto beamed. "I learned a new recipe! It's really good! Even Chōji couldn't stop complimenting it!"
Chōji? Doesn't Chōji eat literally anything that doesn't actively bite him back?
But looking at Naruto's face, lit up like a kid showing off a prize, Sakura couldn't help the way her own expression softened.
"I will, Naruto."
"SAKURA!"
Before Naruto could even react, another figure slammed into Sakura's arms.
"Sakura's a jerk! Not coming to see me for this long!"
Ino had her arms locked around Sakura's waist and was nuzzling into her like an aggrieved cat.
"How come Ino gets to hug her but I don't..."
Naruto's bottom lip pushed out as he watched Ino cling.
"Hah?"
Ino turned her head and gave him a look of absolute withering contempt.
"Me and Sakura are both girls, you dummy. Why on earth would Sakura let you hug her?"
Without waiting for Naruto to respond, Ino pressed her cheek back against Sakura and started complaining again.
"You were gone for so long. I started to think you'd forgotten about me."
Sakura ruffled her hair.
"I was just busy. Being a ninja comes with a lot of responsibilities. I couldn't get away."
Training. ANBU missions. Helping Hiruzen draft strategy documents. Sakura honestly wished she could stretch one day into three. She'd had zero bandwidth left for visiting friends.
But now that things had finally stabilized, she had a little time to call her own again.
"...All right, fine~~"
Ino pouted but accepted the apology.
Truthfully, Sakura had always been like this. Even back in the academy, Ino had never seen her have any real personal time. It was either a book in her hand or a training session. Apparently becoming a ninja hadn't changed that at all.
Then Ino noticed it — the pink ponytail now hanging past Sakura's shoulder was tied with a plain black ribbon.
The red ribbon she had given her was gone.
"Where's the ribbon I gave you?"
A flicker of apology crossed Sakura's face.
"Sorry, Ino. It got torn on a mission."
She wasn't lying. It had genuinely gotten shredded during a mission with Tenzō and the others.
"Then I'll get you a new one. What color do you want?"
Sakura tilted her head and thought about it.
"Black."
Red was too visible. Black was better for concealment. Even if her hair kind of torpedoed the whole stealth angle.
"Huh? Black again?"
Ino let go of Sakura's waist and took a proper look at her outfit.
Compared to the Sakura from the academy days, this Sakura was in head-to-toe black. Her outfit was pared down to the absolute minimum — standard black shinobi gear, the kind real working ninja wore, and black tabi-style boots on her feet.
She looked, honestly, like a boy.
"Me too! Me too!"
Naruto bounced in place, thoroughly reminding everyone he was still here.
"Hah? What about you, Naruto?"
Ino put her hands on her hips, giving him a deeply skeptical look. Was he expecting her to give him something too? Absolutely not. Unless he said something very, very sweet, in which case maybe she could be convinced.
"I want to give Sakura a present too!"
Naruto was just cranking up to continue when several more figures approached.
Shikamaru, Kiba, Chōji — and, hanging back shyly and watching the group with undisguised longing, Hinata. And — oh — tucked off to the side, Shino. Sakura would have missed him if she hadn't been paying attention.
"What a drag. You're way too loud, idiot."
Shikamaru gave Naruto his usual long-suffering look — but his eyes drifted, almost involuntarily, toward Sakura. More specifically, toward what she was wearing.
That was the kind of uniform a clan chūnin wore.
Meaning: at some point in the last stretch, Sakura had already been promoted from genin to chūnin.
"Look at that, the whole gang's here. Let me treat everyone to dinner."
Sakura smiled at them.
"Hot pot. How's that sound?"
"YESSS! Sakura's the BEST!"
Chōji, mid-bag of chips, let out a genuine cheer.
"Arf!"
On top of Kiba's head, Akamaru chimed in.
"Hinata? You coming with us?"
Sakura turned to the girl still half-hidden behind everyone else and beckoned her over.
"Eh? I-is it really okay?"
Hinata's cheeks flushed pink. She could barely make eye contact.
"Of course."
Without hesitation, Sakura reached over and took her hand, then led the whole crew off toward the neighborhood hot pot place.
ANBU benefits weren't bad. Pay-wise, she sat comfortably in what you'd call the high-income bracket.
On the way, Sakura asked about Sasuke — but Kiba told her he'd gone straight home right after class ended, which killed her idea of inviting him along.
From Sakura's perspective, after all, this counted as a pretty rare class reunion.