Chapter 13- Wheel of the World

The city was teeming with life. Buildings that were once patchwork nightmares now stood clean, straight and tall—the sign of a prospering, stable village. Merchants harked their wares on the main street, and the flow in and out of the hospital was thin; children played in the park by themselves, without parental supervision. Because it was alright that way.

This was Konohagakure, the Village Hiding in the Leaves.

The Hokage Mountain now had six faces carved upon its weathered surface, and it was upon the sixth that a lone figure sat and stared out over the city. His orange and black cloak rustled in the wind that moved through the unruly hair carved out of stone around him, and the sun washed down on him from the cloudless sky. Like that sky, his blue eyes watched the city that had blossomed beneath him.

"Hokage-sama." He grimaced.

"Please don't call me by title, Ino-chan. It's disturbing."

"Whatever you say, Naruto-sama." He face-faulted and growled, turning around to look at the blonde mind-walker behind him. Her face was dead serious, but he knew that impish light in her eyes. Soon enough, she broke and giggled beneath his glare, moving to sit beside him on the warm crag. "Sorry. I just have to sometimes, Naruto."

His eyes turned back to the village, as did hers. The silence around them was only disturbed by the sounds of life floating up from the streets beneath, and it was welcome.

"Tsunade-sama was looking for you. She said your paperwork was filed all screwy again."

"It's fine. I can find it, so who cares? At least it's all done." She sniggered.

"Yes. Who would've thought that the number one prankster in our year would have such a clean desk fetish?"

The stilted conversation ended there for a moment. Essentially, that'd been what she needed to tell him. Now that he knew there was no need for her to stay, and yet stay she did. Because there was something… on her mind.

"Four years is a long time, isn't it." He surprised her by saying it first, but she wasn't shocked that it was on his mind, too.

"Too long. Think we should pass around some bad rumors and see if we can flush her out?" She was only half-joking, but he smiled wryly at the thought.

"No. Wherever Sakura-chan is… I'm sure she's happy."

Four years. It was a long time. Their village was so different from when she'd left; he wondered what she would remember. Ichiraku was in the same place, but the little ramen stand had expanded into a full-blown restaurant now. The old yakiniku place had burned down, and in its place was a Mongolian barbecue place; the yakiniku place actually moved further down the main street. Her old apartment was still there; but of all things, Ino and Shikamaru—now about to come upon their third wedding anniversary—were living there, only a block from Ino's shop and a three-minute trip to the training grounds where Shika's genin team currently met daily.

The world was still turning. Like they'd never left. Or like they'd never been there.

He would never forget, though.

Like a carnival ride, they'd suffered the ups and downs together. They'd seen lives sacrificed and saved, birth and death, beginnings and endings all together. They'd suffered the same betrayals, and been rewarded with many of the same hard-won friendships. Her mark was in this city, in places people forgot to look—places like the hospital, with its specialized poison research lab, and the nurses who ran it so skillfully. It was evident in the craters still found in some of the old training grounds. It was evident in the empty Uchiha complex, where she had scrubbed away every fleck of blood, cleaning the place for years until Sasuke had died. And her name was still written in this place; from the books in the Academy to Kakashi's headstone, her presence remained in every path one could walk.

The wheel of the world turned and turned, never stopping and yet… at times, he could almost feel her walking beside him again.

"Chika! Musubi! Don't wander too close to the river!" The two youngsters glanced up from where they were, and promptly came closer to the house, tumbling through the golden wheat with laughter bubbling from their throats.

A beautiful woman in a brightly colored kimono smiled, and turned back to her pestle and mortar, carefully grinding the herbs inside into a fine powder. Her bright pink hair was piled elegantly atop her head, though a few strands escaped to frame her face. The young man before her was nearly awed in her presence, but she paid him little mind as she packaged the medicine, and slipped it in the bag with several other doses of the same strong stuff.

"Have her take one every morning before breakfast and one every night after dinner for the next week. No alcohol, no tobacco products, and only weak tea and water. If she shows any adverse effects such as difficulty breathing or rashes, or other ill symptoms, please come and consult me immediately."

"Ye-yes ma'am!" She nodded firmly, and he almost skittered off the porch, back towards the dirt road that led into the small town only 20 minutes' walk away. She watched him go with a bit of satisfaction, a smile on her face, before turning to gather her tools.

Her steps off the porch were light, and so quiet they were lost in the rustle of the wind in the wheat. She stood above the brook that bordered the front of their property in a matter of moments, and stooped carefully down to its clear, dark waters. It wasn't hard to clean her tools there, but she did risk dirtying the hem of her kimono with her actions. That was fine, though. She was a medicine maker, not a princess.

She looked up at the sky, and just as she did, sturdy hands wrapped around her waist, a pair of soft, gentle lips kissing her behind her ear. Her eyes gentled, but continued staring up.

Up, into the true blue sky that reminded her of a certain pair of eyes.

"Four years… really is a long time."

AN: AND THAT'S A WRAP! And what was the amazing trivia I promised you?

Well, I'm 40 minutes late, but I had originally intended on posting this yesterday... Which was the EXACT one-year anniversary of Carnival Ride's first post! *throws confetti*

It's kinda sad to see this story go, but at the same time, I'm so happy to have finished something! For anyone who's a DeiSaku fan, please note: my next focus will be my long-neglected DeiSaku fic, "Clay Penance"! I hope to see all you wonderful people reviewing that story, too; I got rave reviews when I was posting, and I'm going back and editing the first several chapters, so they can be read more realistically and with more pleasure than before. I hope all of you will continue to read my stories and review!

Next UP: Clay Penance