New Beginnings NOW COMPLETE

When they arrived at the hospital everyone had been kicked out of Nico’s room so that all of her cuts could be treated and wrapped. The entire family was waiting out in the corridor with Iruka and Dan.
When Iruka saw them arrive he joined them and gave Kakashi a quick hug.
“So what happened?” he asked quietly.

Naruto quickly told him their side of the story before Sakura said what had happened on their end.
Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other and started laughing.
“Thanks Sakura,” they said, giving her a group hug from the pair of them.

The relief was plain on all the faces, there had been so much to lose, so much that could have gone badly wrong, so much that already had.

“Ria, how is she?” Sasuke asked the woman as they joined the group.

“Whinging, whining and complaining,” she smiled.

“So basically normal.”

“Yup,” Kae grinned, “Back to normal.”

The doctor came out to speak to them all, “Nico will be fine, all of you may go in and see her now.”

“Thank you doctor,” Ria gave the woman a hug and followed everyone into the room.

Nico looked at them tiredly from the bed, “Hey guys.”

“Darling sister, I would have thought after all our training you should have been able to handle anything,” Kani raised an eyebrow, “Exactly what the fuck happened?”

“Kani, language,” Ria said scoldingly.

“He cheated,” she pouted, “He attacked me while I was asleep and used a weapon, so not fair. Bastard.”
For the first time she actually paid attention to the clothes of Team 7.
“You know for a bunch of gay guys you really have no taste,” she commented.

“I could say the same for you,” Sasuke said lazily raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” she blushed, “At least I know better now. So what’s with the outfits?”

“Work clothes,” Naruto shrugged.

Sakura looked around at all of them, “Idiots, we are ninja, we were sent here undercover to solve the mystery of the disappearances.”

“So does that mean you guys are going to be leaving soon?” Nico asked quietly.

Kakashi looked at all of the pleading faces, “Well we couldn’t leave before the memorial service, and we should probably make sure things go back to normal before we go, wouldn’t want to have to come straight back.”

Iruka grinned and gave him a big hug, the others all grinned at the girl on the bed.
“Sap,” Iruka whispered to him.

“It’s your fault,” the jounin muttered back at him.

Naruto flopped onto the shared bed grinning. Sasuke closed the door and smiled at him.
“What’re you grinning at dobe?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“It’s all over, nothing more to worry about. It feels good,” he closed his eyes with a relaxed smile.

He felt the lips cover his and he ran his hands up the sides of the boy leaning over him. He opened his mouth to let his boyfriend’s tongue re-explore his mouth before he pushed his way back into the Uchiha’s mouth. Sasuke moaned a little before he collapsed softly on the blonde’s chest.

Naruto opened his eyes, “You know, you never said what Torya talked to you about,” he said cheekily.

“Would you like to know Naru-chan?” the raven growled.

“Not if you’re going to call me that,” the blonde poked his tongue out and rolled out from under the Uchiha.

“And you call me a bastard,” he muttered darkly.

Nico was confined to a wheelchair until the backs of her legs healed, about which she was extremely pissed, especially seeing as Torya had given himself the job of pushing her around, whether she wanted to be or not. It wasn’t strange for him to just decide to randomly wheel her into another room, just because he felt like it. He particularly liked wheeling her out of the lounge room just before the end of a TV show.
For once she was actually happy to go to school, it meant no Torya.

The school held a memorial service for everyone killed by Diran’s insanity and a special garden area had been landscaped to remember everyone.

The altar had been destroyed and the cave and passages had been filled, apart from the statue chamber which had been left alone, isolated and unreachable. Diran had been put in a maximum security prison on the other side of the country where his mother had said the bond would be unable to reach the demon. She had destroyed all documents with any information on the ‘family demon’ and swore that no more generations would learn of the debt which had long been paid.

And so all they were waiting on was Nico to get better before they would leave, going back to normal life. With their secret out in the open their daily training sessions had restarted, occasionally even allowing spectators.

Most of the female body had been devastated to learn of the two boy’s unavailability, although the price for the locker room peephole had gone up exponentially until Sasuke had found and covered it form the inside.

And Sakura had been avoiding Ryo.
As much as she wanted to believe Iruka she was sure that things could never be the same. Not now that things were out in the open.

“Sasuke?” Sakura called into the seemingly empty classroom, “What did you need to talk to me about?”

“It’s not Sasuke,” a soft voice answered from behind her.

“Ryo,” Sakura breathed taking a step back.

“Sakura we need to talk,” he said hesitantly.

“Oh of course, I understand,” she said sadly fighting back her tears.

“What’s wrong?” he asked reaching out for her.

“Nothing, just hurry up and get it over with,” se said lifting her chin, daring the tears to fall.

“I’ve been trying to find you all week. Have you been avoiding me?”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Why would you do that?” he asked in confusion.

“Because I didn’t want to hear this, I thought maybe if I didn’t see you before I left I wouldn’t have to hear this and it would be like it never happened.”

“You wish this never happened?” he asked, hurt, “But I thought things were going well…”

“So did I so can you just say what you wanted to say and get it over with?” she asked, the tears finally falling.

“I just, I wanted to give you something before you left,” he said softly, “I mean, if you want it, you don’t have to.”

She looked up at him, “You what?”

“I, um, I bought this for you,” he walked around behind her and reached to fasten a necklace around her neck.

It was a silver Sakura blossom on a intricate silver chain, she held up to look at and a gasp fell from her lips.
Ryo looked embarrassed, “I know it’s a bit delicate and you probably won’t be able to wear it most of the time but I figured you should be able to when you’re not on missions and stuff.”

“It’s beautiful,” she wrapped him in a tight hug, “Thank you.”

“Why didn’t you want to see me?” he asked softly.

“I thought you would break up with me, I mean I’ve been keeping it from you this whole time and lying to you about all the little things. How could you possibly still like me after that? Plus with me having to go home I figured it’d be easier for you if you just told me you didn’t want to see me ever again,” she sniffled into his shoulder.

“Sakura, I would never do that, you mean way too much for me to do that. I… I’ve never felt this way about anyone before,” he took a deep breath, “I love you.”

She pulled away to look at him with wide eyes, “You do?”

“Yes,” he smiled giving her a light kiss, “More than anything.”

She laughed, “I’m sorry for being so silly. So, what happens now?”

“Well, first off we go eat lunch before the bell goes, and then I am fairly sure we both have classes,” he told her seriously.

“Idiot,” she said hitting him lightly, “I meant us, what do we do? I have to go back soon…”

“Well, I have to finish this last year of school, you have to complete your training. Would you mind if I come and visit you sometimes?” he asked watching her.

“I would love you to, and I’ll come visit whenever I can,” she gave him another quick kiss.

“And of course you still have my mobile number for whenever you need to talk,” he hugged her and then pulled her to the door.

“My parents are going to kill me when they see the bill,” she muttered.