Chapter TWENTY SIX

Sakura had obligations towards her clan, but she had obligations towards her village too, and she could not spend every waking moment working on her project. She attended training like a good girl and worked on the problems and issues Kakashi pointed out regarding her form and kata. She practised the things he made them do during the day even after he had dismissed them and diligently sparred her teammates when asked.

Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have forgotten about her outburst during their initial introduction altogether, or they were doing a very good job of pretending it never happened, and occasionally invited her over to have lunch with them. It was a week or so into their training when Naruto brought up a team dinner.

"Kaa-chan wants to meet you, Sakura-chan," he said. "Teme's been over many times but she's never met you."

Sakura froze, chopsticks halfway to her mouth. She slowly lowered it. "Oh."

Naruto nodded. "When're you free? She wants the team over for dinner, dattebayo."

"Any time outside training is fine," she said hesitantly.

"Tonight?"

Sasuke scoffed. "Isn't that rather abrupt?"

Sakura raised her hands in an effort to placate both boys before they broke into an argument. The last one had just ended, a wordlessly agreed on truce while they ate lunch, and she would rather not have it start when she was sitting in between them at the counter. "I'm fine with that if your parents are okay with it," she said quickly. "We eat dinner as a clan, so me slipping out wouldn't be a problem."

Naruto brightened. "Great!" He said. "I was supposed to tell you about today yesterday, but I forgot."

Sasuke huffed in amusement and Sakura tried to hide a smile of her own. That really did sound like the Naruto she had come to know during their time together. "It's okay," she said. She looked around, wondering if anyone was nearby.

'I heard him,' Rin said, from where she had been sitting on the counter. 'Want me to go inform your parents?'

Sakura nodded, smiling. "Yeah," she said. "Sorry, thanks."

Rin smiled back. 'No worries!' She said, hopping to her feet. 'It's great that you're making normal friends.'

Sakura bit her lip but could not help her own simple from widening. "Speaking of abnormal, where are the others?"

'Tobirama-sama and I have come to the joint agreement that their distraction is not good for you when you're trying to train,' Rin told her. 'We managed to send them away for a while.'

Sakura did not want to know how exactly they had done that. Instead, she simply nodded. "Thanks." Because they were distracting, no matter how helpful they were trying to be.

'Any time, Sakura-chan.' Rin floated over towards the exit of the ramen stand. 'I'll be right back.'

Sakura waved at the girl before turning back to her bowl of ramen, suddenly realizing the look her teammates were sending her as she did. She wondered if she should pretend to not notice, when Naruto made the decision for her.

"So, who was that?"

Sakura blinked and looked at the blond. "What?"

Naruto grinned. "The person you were just talking to. Who was it?"

"Oh." Sakura looked down at her ramen bowl. "Her name's Rin," she said. "She's the most reasonable, most sensible of the group of spirits who usually follow me around. She went to tell my parents I'll be eating out tonight."

"Must be useful," Sasuke said offhandedly, and Sakura felt a surge of annoyance.

"They have free will," she said, more sharply than she had planned.

At the same time, Naruto scoffed. "This Rin person is clearly helping Sakura-chan because she likes her," he said. "If I were a spirit, I'd help Sakura-chan, but I'd definitely not help you!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Like I'd help you," he retorted. He frowned, then turned to her. "I didn't mean to, uh, objectify them," he said awkwardly. "It just came out that way."

Naruto leaned in behind her. "He's saying sorry," he whispered, loud enough for Sasuke to hear. The tip of the Uchiha's ears instantly turned red and he looked away without another word.

Sakura nodded slowly. "It's okay," she said. "Sorry, I just forget you can't see them."

"Must be really cool," Naruto said. "I'd love to be able to meet them. How does it feel to be haunted?"

Sakura bit her tongue to stop herself from telling the boy that he would know the answer, seeing as he had a spirit attached to him. Currently, Asura and Indra were sitting as far away as possible from one another in the rather cramped ramen stand. They both looked up when the blond said this like they had thought the same thing, and Sakura was careful not to meet either one of their gazes.

"I wonder what it's like to not be," she said carefully instead.

Naruto thoughtfully hummed. He sipped the last of his soup and put down the bowl with a satisfied look on his face. "Done!" He said. "Well, Sakura-chan, we're off early today and there's still time until dinner. Kaa-chan'll surely make a lot of food so we should do something to become hungry again!"

Sasuke neatly placed his chopsticks on to his bowl a second later. "You'd be hungry regardless," he said.

Sakura quickly ate the last few noodles and drained her cup of tea. "We all had problems with the form Kakashi-sensei taught us today," she said. "Maybe we can work on that?"

Hours later, Sakura realized that training until they were sweaty and covered in dirt was probably not the best idea. She'd actually wanted to go back to the compound to change, but Naruto had reassured her that his parents wouldn't mind.

Sakura wasn't too sure, even as she hesitantly allowed her teammates to lead the way to the blond's home. This was the Hokage's home she would be intruding upon.

The two boys, however, appeared to have no such qualms as they dashed ahead. Finally, they found themselves at the doorsteps to a house. Naruto confidently strode up to it and threw it open. "Welcome, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura peeked in and heard rapid footsteps approaching. She quickly stepped through just as a smiling red-haired woman appeared at the entrance. "Hi! You must be Sakura-chan!"

Sakura assumed this was her blond teammate's mother; they exerted the same energy. She politely bowed. "My name is Haruno Sakura, I am a teammate of your son. Thank you for having me."

"So polite, so cute," Kushina laughed warmly. "Come in, come in."

Sakura found herself smiling back. "Thank-"

'This is the Hokage's house? I never had something like this. Tobi, did you have something like this?'

'No. In case you'd forgotten, there were lots of wars and fighting at that time.'

'This is nothing compared to the Uchiha compound.'

'No one cares, Uchiha.'

'That woman is an Uzumaki, is she not?'

'What do you think the Hokage nowadays eat?'

'I'm sorry Sakura-chan, I tried-'

Slamming the door in the face of a spirit was close to ineffective as could be, but it was satisfying.

They're back.

Also, I have no idea where this is going.

Also also, sorry about the long wait. I was in hospital, I dropped out of uni, stuff like that. I am okay now though, and I got into a different Uni, so things are looking better! Hopefully...:)

I'm working on a BNHA fanfic, so here's the summary if anyone's interested:

In a crueller world, Ochako realizes that hoping will never get her anywhere. She willingly takes her first step into villainy and is unknowingly led the rest of the way in by a man who buys her loyalty. Years too late she realizes the truth, and she can only hope that if she cannot be a hero in all senses of the word, maybe she can at least be one for those she cares for.

Thanks for reading, please consider leaving a reivew~