Chapter 7

Sakura ran through the rooftops. It felt good to be able to soar high in the sky. It made it seem like she could fly, could do anything even. As she looked around, she noted that Konoha's rebuilding seemed to be progressing very well, with most of the skeletons of structures destroyed from Pein's attack re-erected. Only some finishing touches were needed, and Konoha would look as if it had never been attacked.

"Yamato-taicho!" Sakura greeted the man sitting on the rooftop.

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Tenzo turned around to wave at her. Sakura's smile dropped immediately as her heart leapt to get throat.

"Taicho! You shouldn't work yourself to death like this. It was bad enough that Kakashi-sensei scares me half to death on a regular basis, I don't need you to do the same," she admonished as she immediately went to replenish his chakra supply.

"Well, it's an honour to be compared to senpai.." Tenzo began, but quickly shut his mouth at the deathly glare Sakura was giving. Tenzo was a smart man. So he knew that keeping quiet and nodding appropriately was the best option he had.

"Well, you're all done now, Taicho. Please refrain from overusing your chakra in the future. I know Naruto's running around, please just grab him and get him to transfer you some chakra."

"Noted, thank you, Sakura-chan," Tenzo said with a smile. "Are you going to a party? That's a lot of ice cream and goodies right there."

"Ah.. I'm just going to Ino's to keep her company. Her father's death still affected her really badly."

"Please send my condolences for her too. Inoichi-san was a great man."

"I will," Sakura replied. "By the way, I'm planning to have a gathering soon with team 7 members. You have to come along."

"But I'm not a part of team 7."

"You are. You and Sai both are," Sakura said firmly. "I haven't managed to track down Sai since I'm still busy at the hospital. But if you see him, would you please let him know too, Taicho?"

"Will do, Sakura-chan."

Sakura gave Tenzo one last smile as she leapt through another building. Ino first, and then she'll worry about dragging her teammates to sit down together through a meal.

...

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother greeted as Sakura landed in front of Ino's house.

"Oba-san," Sakura replied as she gave the older woman a hug. "How's Ino?"

"She hasn't came out of her room. And she barely eats," Ino's mother said as she shook her head sadly.

"I'll do my best to drag her out of bed," Sakura joked weakly. "How are you holding up?"

"It's hard, but I'm a kunoichi of Konohagakure. I have been prepared for this to happen the day I married Inoichi. I understood my duty to my family and the village."

"Yes, of course," Sakura replied. Although Ino's mom spoke with such poise, Sakura could see the sorrow in her eyes. She just lost her husband after all. "Well, my mom is in town for a while. I think she would be happy to have company over tea."

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother replied kindly as she drew Sakura into another hug. "I'll be on my way to the flower shop first. It's going to be a busy day as we are having the funeral procession tomorrow."

"I'll do my best to drag Ino to help you," Sakura promised. "But if she's still not up to it, I'll come along to help. I'll bring some friends over too."

"That would be lovely. Thank you, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother said as she released Sakura from the hug.

Sakura watched as Ino's mother disappeared from her line of sight as she quietly made her way into Ino's house. She set down grocery bag she brought on the coffee table before making her way up to Ino's room.

"Ino," Sakura called out softly as she stood in front of her door. There was no answer, but Sakura could hear the rustling of sheets. "I'm coming in, Ino," she tried once more. When there wasn't any answer, Sakura gently opened the door.

Ino was lying in bed, cocooned inside her blanket. Sakura made her way towards Ino's bed and sat on its edge as she gently ran her hand through her hair.

"It still hurts, Sakura," Ino rasped as tear began to trickle out of the corner of her eyes. Sakura's heart broke for her best friend. Sure, she did not know how it felt losing a parent, but when Sasuke left it had hurt her and left her numb for weeks. And at the time, she knew that he was still alive and that there was hope of him coming back. She couldn't even begin to imagine how Ino was feeling.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I really am, and I don't know what to say or do to make it better," Sakura admitted quietly as she knelt down beside Ino's bed to be at eye level with her.

"At least you're not telling me that it will get better with time," Ino said bitterly as she sat up. "I know it's true, Kami, I hope it's true. But it still hurt so fucking bad right now. I don't need to hear it!"

Sakura nodded her head, just listening to what the blonde had to say. Ino then drew her beloved bunny stuffed toy and hugged it close. It was the first stuffed toy Inoichi had gotten her, and Ino said that she had the bunny since before she could remember anything. As the silence stretched, Ino huffed and patted the space beside her. Sakura complied and sat beside her best friend as Ino laid her head on Sakura's shoulder.

"Can you believe that the elders came right after I got home, before I could cry in my mom's arms and demanded that I started the training to take over as the clan's head?" Ino said seethingly as she chewed on the ear of her bunny.

"Hmm. You can always give me their names and I'll work something out with Naruto, Sasuke and Sai," Sakura replied as she gently removed the poor bunny from the abuse of Ino's teeth.

"I'll give you the list. And I want to watch their faces when they suffer."

"That settled it then," Sakura said. "Your kaa-san is really worried about you, and I've brought lots of ice cream, chocolates and cookies. All your favorites. Could you try to eat something for us?" Sakura added quietly.

"Yeah. I'll eat. I haven't had anything for a while so all those calories shouldn't ruin my figure," Ino joked weakly.

"Good. Because we're stuffing ourselves with all of it and we're going to help your mom run the store," Sakura said as she got up from the bed. "I'll grab the food and you'll choose the movie?"

"Hmm." Ino nodded as she slowly crawled out of her cocoon. Before Sakura could exit the room, Ino called out to her. "Thank you, Sakura."

"This is what friends are for, pig."

"Forehead," Ino retorted back fondly.

...

5 pints of ice cream, 2 boxes of cookies and nth pieces of chocolates later, both Sakura and Ino were in sugar induced commas. With the latter swimming in so much more endorphins than she had been for the past week.

"This is a bad idea," Ino moaned as she stuffed yet another cookie into her mouth.

"I feel like I've gained 10kg," Sakura groaned as she lied down flat on the bed.

"Uh, I feel like I should join Team Gai's training session for a whole month just to lose everything I've gained today."

"Ah, you probably haven't heard, but Gai-sensei may never walk again," Sakura said soberly, as she sat back up in the bed.

"What, no way! What happened?" Ino asked, flabbergasted. Gai-sensei was one of the strongest jonin in the village. And he was posted in Kakashi-sensei's batallion. And if Gai-sensei was strong, Kakashi-sensei was straight up a monster. He was able to fight against two Akatsuki members, one an undead zombie and another, a creepy ragdoll who can split himself into what, 4 or 5 pieces of himself? While protecting both her and Chouji. And although Ino was not on Kakashi's battalion during the war, she was linked to another Yamanaka who was the sensor in his battalion. Her cousin had told her that he was glad that Kakashi was on their team because a rampaging copy-ninja carrying a massive cleaver was the most terrifying thing he had seen since the Yondaime Hokage's rampage on Kumo during the third war. So how could he let his best friend got hurt to that extent?

"Gai-sensei fought Madara and activated his eight's gate. He broke his leg kicking Madara."

"Now, that's a cool story on how you broke your leg."

"I know right?" Sakura laughed. "But I really wish that there is something we can do, to at last allow him to walk again."

"Me too. How's the team though?"

"Neji woke up for five minutes yesterday before going back to sleep. But otherwise he seemed fine. Tenten had been busy being the convoy guard for our rebuilding materials and I think Kakashi-sensei had been training with Lee."

"Hmm.. Chouji and Shika had been dropping by every day to check on me and shooing the elders." Ino mused. She would treat them to BBQ after the funeral, but she's only paying for 5 servings for Chouji. "How's your team? Any luck with Sa-su-ke-kun?" Ino asked as she wagged her eyebrow suggestively.

"I just saw Yamato-taicho this morning, and he asked me to pass you his condolences," Sakura said. "Taicho said that your dad was a good man."

"He was," Ino said as she took a deep breath. "I'll thank him tomorrow in the funeral procession if I see him." Ino said. "Well, enough of that. I want some tea on how your team is doing, especially with you and Sasuke-kun."

"Well, Taicho looked exhausted when I saw him. I think they worked him to the bone for the rebuilding effort."

"Hmm. I bet Naruto's roped in too?"

"Yep. He's surprisingly been more help than hindrance so far," Sakura commented fondly. "Oh, and before you asked about Sai," Sakura added conspiratorially. "I haven't seen a head nor tail about him. But I'll probably try to find him after the funeral. You're very welcomed to come along," Sakura said as it was her turn wagging her eyebrow at Ino.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer," Ino said with a giggle. "But how about Sasuke-kun?"

"I think Kakashi-sensei's roping him into something," Sakura said with a shudder, remembering the sadistic smile on Kakashi's face.

"It can't be that bad."

"Oh but Sensei caught him sneaking out of the compound."

"Do you think he'll be at the funeral tomorrow, as the fallen?"

"From the look on Kakashi-sensei's face I say that it's a pretty high probability," Sakura said with a cringe.

"You should help him then."

"Nah, whatever Sensei is doing to him, I figured it will not even be sufficient punishment for him leaving us years ago."

"Forehead?" Ino called with a surprising quietness in her voice. At Sakura's head tilt, Ino drew a deep breath. "You don't sound so.. enamoured with him any more."

Sakura sighed as she sagged back into Ino's bed. "I've started having this confusion about my feelings for him since the war ended."

"Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't there to listen to your love adventures," Ino commented idly, her exact words prompted Sakura to turn her head and groan into Ino's pillow.

"You know who I talked to about this instead?"

"Tsunade-sama? Shizune-san? Your mom? Tenten? Hinata?" Ino grew more and more puzzled as Sakura shook her head to every names Ino suggested. "Naruto?" Ino asked incredulously. While Naruto was a great friend, he was just too dense.

"It's worse than Naruto."

At Sakura's words, Ino's eyebrow furrowed. "You talked to Gai-sensei?"

"I think it's even worse than Gai-sensei," Sakura said grimly.

"Well, I'm running out of options here. I would start throwing in Ibiki-san and Anko-san just for the sake of it."

"Well, it's not that bad. It's not that he's a bad person to talk to, but it just felt so mortifying."

"Were you drunk?"

"I was completely sober," Sakura said dryly. At Ino's eyebrow cock, Sakura caved. "I somehow talked to Kakashi-sensei about my feelings for Sasuke."

Sakura shot Ino a scowl as the blonde howled in laughter. "You asked Konoha's number one most aloof bachelor for love advice?"

"We talked, and it just came up."

"So what did he say?"

"I have time to figure all this out, since Sasuke-kun's not going anywhere for a while."

"That is a surprisingly good answer."

"He's aloof and reclusive. He's not socially inept, Ino. Thats's Sai."

"I suppose he always have a knack to assure everyone that things are going to be okay," Ino replied nonchalantly to not bite into Sakura's bait.

"He does. And it's reassuring because we know that he will try his hardest to keep his promises."

"How is he though? I heard he lost his sharingan?"

"He managed to make me feel like a genin again from a taijutsu spar," Sakura replied with a pout.

"Well, it's Kakashi-sensei. The fact that he even spars with you means that he recognises your skills."

"I supposed so," Sakura said as a smile tugged on the corner of her lips. She may not be good enough now, but she could always train harder. After all, the thing she did best was playing catch-up, right? "By the way, I told your kaa-san that I would help her drag you out of bed to help in the shop. But if you're not feeling up to it, I'll grab Naruto in your stead to help?"

"I'll come. I know she's been suffering too," Ino said with a sad smile. "Besides, can't have my family business be ruined now, can we?"

At that, Sakura laughed as she exited Ino's room to give her some privacy to get ready.

...

A/N

1. Ino's mom's name has never been revealed, and I don't think she would come up again in my fic, so I don't think I need to create a name for her

2. She might sound a little cold from her interaction with Sakura, but I imagined Ino's mom as a sort of noble lady. The Yamanaka clan, although not as prominent as even the Akimichi (because there are 4 noble clans in Konoha: Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame and Akimichi) would still be an old clan along with Nara clan. So I expect the patriarch and matriarch to have a sort of noble air around them. Sooo for Ino's mom, since the Yamanaka are also florist, I imagine her to be someone gentle, but with a lot of inner strength. So she would not usually sound cold and detached, but in this circumstance, since her husband had just died and her daughter is still in a state of emotional turmoil, she have to be the strong one (cos that's also what moms do). So the 'detachment' is probably her way of coping.

3. Endorphin is a 'happy' hormone (basically an endogenous opioid/ opioid produced naturally by the body). There's some research that suggests that eating chocolates causes endorphin release because of the chemical compound found in chocolates. So, eat chocolates and stay happy! :)

4. In a lot of fics, Kakashi is often depicted as someone who's not very good with social interaction. But I think Kakashi, being a ninja, would know how to act and what to say, since acting the right way and saying the right stuff goes a long way in the shinobi world, especially when it helps you to not get killed in the job. I think he would no doubt be awkward in a setting where he is in a big crowd and is the centre of attention of said crowd. But if it's a smaller group of people, I think he would know how to position himself (especially literally positioning himself in a way where extricating himself from said situation would be easiest).