A/N: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Three years have passed since Sakura Haruno accepted the title of Mizukage. Kirigakure went through a lot of changes, but no one seemed to really mind since they made the village more prosperous and give them less of a bad reputation. It would still be a while before Kirigakure would be acknowledged as anything but the "Bloody Mist Village", but Sakura was willing to work to get rid of that name.

Sakura's two closest friends, Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga, were helping out Sakura in their own unique way during her reign. Hinata helped establish a new style of teaching at Kirigakure's Ninja Academy so that every applicant could graduate based on his or her own merits without having to kill anyone. Naruto in the meantime established himself as a liaison among the other four ninja villages so as to keep Sakura in the loop of what was going on outside Kirigakure.

Mei Terumi helped Sakura make her decisions from inside Sakura's mind. She knew how certain decisions had been made in the past and told Sakura how certain affairs in Kirigakure should be handled. Sometimes Sakura adhered to custom, but most often she would change the rules a bit. Mei would usually worry about such actions, but after seeing a lot of content faces from the villagers, she was happy Sakura was independent.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when she signed the last of the papers that were piled on her desk this morning. Mei appeared in the mirror on her desk and asked, "All done?"

"Finally! Now I can relax at that new hot spring I've been hearing so much about."

"Well, about that, I have some things I'd like to take care of, so do you think it would be possible for you to take a little nap and let me take over your body instead?"

Despite the friendship they had forged since they merged souls, Sakura was still uneasy about letting Mei take control of her body. She would often do some crazy things. The last time she took over a year ago, she ended up marrying Naruto, and convinced Hinata to do the same. Now all three lived in the Mizukage's mansion and Hinata was expecting a baby for Naruto soon.

"I don't know, Mei. Last time you took over my body, I woke up in the honeymoon suite of a hotel with Naruto and Hinata on top of me. How do I know I can trust you to take over again?"

"Sakura, I swear this is strictly business. There'll be no surprise marriages or anything like that involved. Please? I've been planning this for a long time."

"Well…I could use a little more sleep. All right, Mei. Just make sure you keep your word that my life won't change any more than it has, and I want to be able to wake up by the end of the day."

"I promise," Mei said as her image disappeared from the mirror.

Mei blinked a few times before she confirmed that she had taken over. Not wasting any time, Mei went to the door and opened it. She saw Chojuro standing outside the door, protecting it from being broken into.

Chojuro saw Sakura and bowed. "Hello, Lady Mizukage. Checking out early?"

Mei put her hand on Chojuro's shoulder and said, "Chojuro, this is Mei talking. Have all the preparations been made?"

"Well, Naruto and Hinata are still working on decorations, but I think that in an hour, we should be ready, Lady Terumi."

"Perfect. That'll give me enough time to prepare my own little surprise for Sakura. Thanks, Chojuro. Now help Naruto and Hinata with whatever they need your help with."

As Chojuro went to help Naruto and Hinata, Mei went to a little patch of land just outside the Mizukage's mansion. She then used her Lava Style: Lava Globs jutsu to cover the land with hardened lava. She followed up with her Boil Style: Skilled Mist jutsu to slightly melt the lava into healthy soil suitable for planting all kinds of herbs. Mei then pulled out a bunch of seeds from her pocket and planted them in the soil.

After admiring her work, Mei checked the time. An hour had passed since she had taken over. "I think I've kept her waiting long enough. Sakura, you can wake up now."

Sakura blinked as she regained control of her body. She looked at the garden at her feet and asked, "Mei, is this what you were working on?"

"Yes," Mei said in Sakura's mind. "I remembered how troubling you found having to ask other villages for herbs to make medicine, so I decided to help alleviate the problem. The garden may not be big, but now you can grow your very own medicinal herbs."

"Thanks, Mei. I'll still have to borrow a few herbs, but I can borrow a lot less now. That was actually very thoughtful of you."

"I can be generous at times."

Sakura then went in the mansion to get herself cleaned up before going anywhere else. When she came to her mansion's main room, she found the lights were off. She didn't like fumbling around in the dark, so she turned on the lights.

"SURPRISE!"

Sakura jumped a little after seeing Naruto, Hinata and Chojuro surprise her. She then looked around the room to see a lot of her friends from Konohagakure gathered there as well. Kakashi, Ino, Tenten, Lee, Sai, the other Konoha 11 and their senseis, even Shizune and Tsunade were there.

"What's going on here?" was all Sakura could say after seeing everyone.

Naruto smiled. "Well, it's been three years since you became Mizukage, and Hinata, Mei and I felt that there needed to be something special for the occasion."

Hinata stepped forward, carrying her baby belly, and said, "I…I thought it'd be a good idea to get our old friends together so we could catch up on a more personal level."

Sakura smiled and breathed a sigh of content. She then spoke to Mei in her mind. "You planted that garden to buy time for this, didn't you?"

Mei laughed. "Well, partly. I was serious about giving you your own medicinal garden, but I figured that catching up with old friends was more important."

Sakura wiped away tears from her eyes. "Thank you all, so very much. This means a lot to me."

Naruto went up and hugged Sakura. "This is all for you. I've even arranged it so that you can talk to our friends at least once a month from now on."

Sakura hugged Naruto back and cried. "This is the happiest moment of my life," she whispered to Naruto. She then looked to her friends and said, "All right, who wants to talk to me first?"

As Sakura talked with her friends, Mei smiled. "The future remains uncertain, but it's important to never forget the bonds of your past. You never forgot your friends, and you've shown your devotion to their memories through your decisions that made Kirigakure a friendlier place. Enjoy today, Sakura. You've earned it."

The End.