Author's Note: Since it was first published in 2013, the circumstances of this fanfiction haven't adapted to the current revelations in the Manga. For the supporters of this fic I let down by removing this and abandoning the sequel, I'm making it up to you by reposting this new version and polishing it for the sequel. Thanks guys!

Characters are not mine.

My Toes, My Knees, My Shoulders, My Head

Prologue

Shikamaru: Mother didn't have to, but she woke up at three in the morning to set the table and make breakfast for me. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate her effort; she had stayed up all night waiting for dad to come home from an inspection at a prison outside of Konoha, and the fruits of her exhaustion etched on her face like charcoal scratched on a newly made canvas. She didn't have to bother with me too.

"Still sleepy?" Mum coughed and chortled. "Same here."

I tore the toast bread in half and nibbled on the burnt piece. Mum excelled in burning bread. "How was dad's inspection? Bet he got himself drunk afterwards."

"Not last night, no." She offered me a plate of scrambled eggs and sat next to me on dad's chair. "He was tired – didn't really say if there was trouble in the prison. I could guess, though -" leaning forward to whisper "- that he got what he needed from the prisoner he interrogated."

"I thought it was an inspection?"

"You know he only says that when he's been tasked to hurt someone to get answers." She winked. "Twenty years of marriage makes it easy to hear what's true and what's not. Aren't you impressed with your mother? You must have inherited your cleverness from me!"

I tossed the sausage into my mouth and nodded. Mom had done everything to catch up with the Nara intellect, she deserved some credit. "You sure aren't freaked out that dad just came home from beating a prisoner into a bloody pulp."

The door slid aside and dad entered the kitchen, yawning without covering his mouth. "I was already a jounin when I met your mother, Shikamaru. She's used to it."

"You're up early," I said.

Suddenly, and all too unusually, Shikaku stopped to stare at me. His eyes lingered on my flak jacket, which hung on the backrest of mum's chair. "Going out on a mission again, huh?"

"Yeah, dad. You make me pay the water bill." I gulped down my coffee. "It's troublesome but I gotta work."

"Hey, come here."

I arched my eyebrow. Shikaku arched his eyebrow, too. I stood and approached him, hands on my waist. He flicked his forefinger on my forehead.

"Ow!"

"Come home," he said.

Sakura: I squinted in the gloom and pushed Naruto out of the way of a descending staircase. "Hey, you volunteered to walk me to the gates, so do you mind keeping yourself awake enough to stay out of manholes? I need to preserve my chakra, you know."

Naruto circled his hand over his stomach; his neck jutted forward, his steps slow. "I'm sorry, Sakura. It's just that I'm dizzy from all the medicines you gave me." He winced when he glanced at me. "Are those tablets really for indigestion, or are you mad at me for something I did? 'Cause if I got you mad, you can tell me and I can just apologize. You don't have to poison me."

"I'm not trying to poison you!" I hissed. "You've got to take care of yourself more, do you understand? I'll be gone for at least a week and if you don't like going to pharmacies to buy your medicines, read the expiration date on the instant noodles you stock in your apartment!"

Naruto halted. His back straightened. His eyelids scrolled up.

I followed his gaze and saw the entrance of Konoha. The pavement leading out to the forest hid behind the black and blue of the early morning mist. Dark, I thought.

Looking again at Naruto, I marveled at how his eyes shone more vibrant than any color in our surroundings. They were beautiful. His light could bring Sasuke back; he could bring me back even while my feet were but inches from his now. Naruto was a different kind of home I could always return to.

"I'm here first," I said, adjusting my travel bag behind me. "As always. Sai must be arriving soon."

"Sakura?"

"Yes?"

Naruto turned to face me, and he said, "Come home, okay?"

I gaped, and then I snickered. "Naruto, you're too paranoid."

Sai: Shikamaru was the last to arrive. The mist was already lifting. Sakura and Shikamaru walked ahead on the path cemented by our ancestors, the original inhabitants of Konoha, to guide us, the new generation of ninjas, out of our homeland safely.

In the silence of the dawn, I looked back at the village we vowed to protect, and thought that if this path vanished, had anyone made another route leading home?