Her Haven

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am just borrowing the world and a few characters.
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Her Haven
Chapter 2

Finally, she was out of the hospital at last. After three weeks in the hospital, she was finally out. Rengyou was given three months of no missions outside the village. The Hokage believed that Rengyou needed tome to grieve and time to recover from her injuries, both mental and physical. Rengyou still had a long road to complete recovery. She knew she would never get over the loss of her teammates, and her team leader was still missing.

Morino Ibiki was in charge of her mental recovery. He knew what she had gone through, had even gone through most of it himself, and he was the one who could help her cope with the horrors of her torture. She was scheduled to see him for her first appointment the next morning. She was not looking forward to it, because that man still instilled fear in her. It had been years since she participated in the Chuunin exams, but he still scared her. At the same time, it was comforting to know that she was not the only person to go through something this horrible and live.

Rengyou went to home to her small apartment. She lived in a section of apartments specifically kept for single ninjas. Her apartment was a small studio with just her bed pushed against one wall next to the window, a tall stool next to the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the room, a couch, a small desk, and a small stereo system. There were pictures of her team, family, and friends on her wall. It was not much but this place was home to her. Her family was gone and her family was gone. Her friends consisted of one civilian and now two other ninjas. She looked around her apartment and felt her heart constrict, knowing that she would never see her team again. She quickly walked out of her apartment.

She wandered the streets for hours just remembering things that she had done with her team. She stopped and stared down the alley where they had finally caught that stupid cat. She remembered how Koi had been scratched by it when he grabbed it by the tail. She giggled a little when she remembered that. She wandered down to the training ground where they had their first meeting, and first became Genin. She sat down and remembered all the training they had done, the pranks they had played on their team leader. She remembered one prank in particular when she, Koi, and Isamu played on their team leader. His red hair had been purple for a week, and they ran many, many laps around the training area, not to mention the extra nighttime training they did. Then the images of her teammates’ deaths came back to her, and she started to run. She could not get the look of utter shock on Koi’s face as he slid to the floor or the look in Isamu’s eyes as he turned to her only to gasp as his last breath. She had no particular destination in mind, but she ended up at the monument. She placed her hands on their names cried as she remembered them. She let her sorrow for their loss wash over her. She silently apologized to them. She didn’t know if she was apologizing for living when they had, for not being able to save them, of maybe she was apologizing for not being the one to kill their killers.

She did not know how long she knelt there by the monument when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Startled out of her memories and regrets, she turned. She saw Hatake Kakashi.
“The pain of losing team members and friends never goes away. You will eventually learn to go on with your life, but you will always remember them.” That was all he said before he vanished in a puff of smoke. She suddenly knew without a doubt what she needed to do.