Good-Bye Salad Days

Hello, dear readers. Thank you kindly for clicking on this fic and joining me once again. As you may already know this is a very special request fic I'm writing for a certain someone ;D (having someone write a story just for you; lucky thing!). And it features a very special pairing; Inari & Sakura. You may remember Inari; he was the bridge-builder Tazuna's cute little grandson from the Land of Waves arc. (y'know, Team 7's first mission outside Konoha, they had to protect Tazuna from Zabuza & Haku, you get the picture) They also made an appearance during the 5 Kage Summit arc to help rebuild Konoha after the Invasion of Pain arc. I have high hopes for this fic, I hope you enjoy it! Light. Piercing white light invading the warm gloom. Seeping through her diaphanous eyelids. So that when she woke, before her eyes opened, she saw a ripe tangerine mist. And it was very intense. But in her groggy state she forgot the danger, and made a mistake. When she raised her lids, she was greeted by a hard, glaring beam of sun, penetrating her eyes. And in that moment, with only the silence as a witness, nature and divinity conspired to create a new magnum opus. Not the first, and far from the last, but surely the only of its kind to exist in that moment of time. And it was born in the sleek spill of rosy ringlets strewn across a flushed face. It was laced in the carelessly flung limbs tangled in a wad of pastel-coloured blankets. It shone in her green eyes, glassed over by the morning sunlight. She groaned and shielded her eyes from the glare, burying her face in her pillow. She could still see the after-image of that dazzling vertical sliver. It did nothing for her but make her mind strain. Her body felt heavy and a sick feeling had settled in her belly. She continued to lay face down until the darkness began to suffocate. She didn't want to get up and face the light, but she could not stay here either. The blankets felt like a hot, tightly wound rope. Chafing against her skin with a burning friction. And her body was damp. Sticky. So that her nightdress clung to her frame. And the warmth in her tent was stifling, fugging up her mind. So, groggily, reluctantly, Sakura emerged from her beddings to prepare for her day. She had chosen to sleep alone for the past few nights; not wanting to pass on her illness. She shuffled around the tent, somewhat unsteadily, gathering up her toiletries. With the absence of electricity, she had not been able to use a humidifier to alleviate her sickness. Thus she had spent three sweltering nights sleeping in a stuffy tent, sweating out her fever. And in the mornings she had trekked to a stream in the surrounding forest, and doused herself in the freezing water. There was a particularly virulent strain of the 'flu going around; most of the victims were children. The only remedy that worked was a mixture of herbs Yamanaka Ino had discovered by chance on day three of the outbreak. But the main ingredients were not native to Konoha, or even to the Fire Country, and the quantity available was dismally small. The medicinal plants had to be sourced from the Land of Waves; hundreds of miles and a small stretch of sea away. And until the shipment arrived, they had to ration what little they had, and try to find some alternative treatments. They hadn't been successful with that so far, despite their best efforts. And there were still dozens of wounded shinobi, as well as injured civilians to care for. Day and night the medical personell had slaved away. On the first day the staff-to-patient ratio had been twenty six to one. Sakura remembered that day well. Having to treat the patients outdoors under a makeshift marquee. She had been right in the thick of it, moiling in that oppressively hot mass of ailing people. Unzipping her red top and tying her yellow tee shirt in a knot above her belly. And even then her forearms had been slippery to the touch, her belly slicked with sweat. Despite her discomfort, she doggedly tended to her quota of patients. Dressing gashed limbs, rebreaking bones and setting them in casts. Sakura's most distressing charge had been an eight-year-old boy who had been impaled by a large splinter of wood. She would always remember the moist, tearing sound of his flesh as she had extracted the spike from his spinal cord. Picking out the remnants with a slender pair of forceps. Feeling her gut wrench as she heard his older sister's harsh, strangled sobs. They had made her eyes feel like they were shriveling up in their sockets. They had been irritating, they had been creepy; those screeching banshee cries. The sound of a weeping god. Her nasal passages had stung with the acrid stench of blood. And her throat had been dry as a blast oven; all her fluids had seemed to divert to her pores. Her generous brow had been dripping with her perspiration. Her legs, her body underneath her clothes, had been slick with it. But underneath her moist skin there had been a surface. A thin layer of desert sand, hot as fire sparks, stinging her. Teeming with hairy spiders and spiny scorpions and shards of animal skeleton. Baking underneath her moist skin. And beneath the desert, at her core, was a raw, windswept hollow where a sore heart throbbed. There had been little concious thought for her that day. Sakura had operated on autopilot . If she had thought; about the carnage, of what damage had been done, of how much toil was ahead of all of them; she would have grown weary. She would have stopped. And she couldn't stop, now more than ever before. For once people had been depending on her. For once she had been of use. For once she had been doing something of significance. It had finally been her turn to be the saviour. And at three in the morning she had flopped bonelessly onto her sleeping bag. Hair matted and plastered to her skull. Eyelids swollen. Chakra exhausted. And with a dizzying kalaedoscope of colours flashing behind her eyelids, she promptly sank into a solid, dreamless sleep. She would never forget that gorgeous, terrible day. And now Sakura was raising the opening flap of her tent. She was greeted by the pure, blazing light of day. Summer days were long in Konoha; dawn broke at four a.m. and dusk never fell before half-past eight in the evening. And she was the only one stirring in the large slumbering campsite. With her belongings gathered up in a wooden basin, and her clogs on her feet, Sakura set off into the forest. To her little crystal clear stream hidden deep in its leafy mass, near a grove of tall pines. It seemed to wink at her in greeting as she approached. She kicked off her clogs and submerged her feet in the cool water. Sighing in relief at the soothing feel of it, peeling off her nightdress. Then Sakura moved into the deeper waters, immersing herself. Sakura dunked her tacky curls into the water before working some shampoo into them. She scrubbed her body clean with a loofah and her gentle-smelling soap. And she donned her fresh clothes with the sound of the chuckling stream and twittering birds in her ears. This was her place, her getaway; and no one else came here as far as Sakura knew. At least, she hoped so. She didn't want to share it with someone else, she wouldn't willingly show it to anyone. Except, maybe with Naruto and...with him. If only that could be. But Sakura could not afford to spend her time thinking of such fanciful things. She needed to get back to the camp...to her real life. As she tramped back toward civilisation, she noted with some relief that she was feeling much better today. And that was a good thing; she would need all the strength she could muster. Tsunade-sama had awoken, but she was swamped with her duties as Hokage. Ordering supplies, negotiating with the Fire Country's Daimyo, trying to reestablish Konoha's strength and status. The remaining able-bodied ninja were also terribly busy carrying out missions. They had to keep the money flowing into the village's economy in order to faster facilitate repairs. And Konoha's medical nin were not being cut any slack either. With the combined impact of the numerous injured and the pathogen epidemic, they were overwhelmed. A few staff members had been unable to cope, and either keeled over from exhaustion or fell victim to the 'flu themselves. Shizune-senpai, as leader of the medical squad, was nearly at her wits' end. Sakura was eager to get back to the hospital and help out. The campsite was beginning to show signs of life as she arrived. A few cooking fires had been lit outside some of the larger tents. And a medley of aromas floated up from the huge cauldrons perched over the flames. To Sakura's delight, the smells made her tummy rumble; after four days with no appetite, it was good to actually feel hungry again. She quickly deposited her belongings inside her substantial rucksack and began to dismantle the her little green tent. She would be sleeping in the staff wing at the hospital tonight, and she would head straight there right after breakfast. Stepping into the mess hall fifteen minutes later, she heard someone shout her name. A very familiar someone. "Morning, Sakura-chan!" and green eyes met electric blue. Naruto was waving wildy at her, gesturing for her to join him. Accompanying him were Tenten, sitting beside him, with Ino and Sai seated across. Tenten smiled cheerfully, Sai made his attempt as well. It was becoming so much more natural these days, Sakura thought. After fetching hersef a steaming bowl of rice porridge, she made her way over to their spot on the long wooden table. And Naruto immediately began to protest when she sat down next to Sai. "Why does he get to sit next to Sakura-chan? I knew her first, y'know," he complained rather loudly. Ino looked somewhat put out as well, and shifted a bit closer to Sai. "Sai-kun, would you like some more tea?" she cooed sweetly, offering him the pot. Tenten giggled and Sakura rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's behaviour. But she would let it slide today. Instead she focussed her attention on Naruto. "Shut up, Naruto." Sakura blew on a spoonful of porridge before proferring it to her lips. "Besides, since when do you wake up before noon?" she asked curiously, eyeing the orange disaster with some suspicion. "Aaah, don't look at me like that, Sakura-chan. I swear I'm not up to anything," he began waving his hands in front of him. "Today's a special day, that's all," "Special?" "Yeah! Y'know how badly we need to rebuild the village, right? And Yamato-taicho's completely wasted from putting up all those buildings by himself, see..." Sakura quirks an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto beams and leans forward across the table, covering one side of his mouth with his hand and whispering conspitrationally. "Don't tell Baa-chan; but I overheard her talking about getting some builders and carpenters from another country. And they're gonna be here this morning!" his eyes twinkled merrily, but Sakura was baffled. Why the hell would Naruto be so interested in meeting some foreign builders? Seeing the expression on her face, Naruto elaborated. "They're from the Land of Waves, Sakura-chan. Baa-chan said she hired the guys who built the Naruto Ohashi..." he trailed off, waiting for her to catch on. And it was with great satisfaction that he watched a pair of emerald eyes widen . "You mean - Tazuna-san's company..." the memories of their first "real" misssion flooded her brain in a crazy, vivid jumble of images. The Demon Brothers, Zabuza and Haku, Naruto stabbing his own hand with a poisoned kunai. Snow on the bridge, Sasuke -kun's cold body... She was snapped back to the present by Naruto's heady laugh. "I don't know why, but I just can't wait to see that old geezer again," he said happily. "Who's Tazuna-san?" Tenten piped up curiously. "Aaah, you wouldn't know him would you Tenten. Team seven had just started out back then right? And those D-rank missions were super boring y'know. So I complained to old man Sandaime and he totally agreed to give us a more exciting one. He probably knew walking dogs and pulling weeds was waaay too easy for a super ninja like me, see. So he gave me this really dangerous A-rank mission to finally give me a challenge and..." Sakura did not bother to reprimend him for exaggerating about that mission, or even listen to what Naruto was saying. Because in that moment, Sakura was dazzled by this sunny boy. With his golden hair and tanned skin. His billion-watt smile and vulpine whisker marks. She felt his warm, laughing chakra carelessly bubble out of him. He seemed so pleased to see someone he had only met for a short while and hadn't seen for years. Everything about him was just so warm and inviting. He made her tingle, he made her feel safe. He made her happy. So why she was not madly in love with him already? Why did she still love another boy who did not seem to care for her at all? Who would never return her feelings. In the midst of the growing chatter in that large room, Sakura continued to bask in her young sunshine's radiance, still wondering. And that was how Haruno Sakura started off the day that began the rest of her life. Haaah, how's that for a beginning? This took me such a long time to write; I've been exhausted lately. Personally, I don't think it's up to my usual standard, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Let me know what you think below. Peace.