The Power to Heal and Destroy by Phoenixsun

Chapter 40: I'll See You Before I Go

Laughter exploded among the young ninjas sitting in front of Ichiraku Ramen as Chouji finished telling a funny anecdote from one of Team 8's missions. "Geez, I wish you would just forget that story already..." A slightly embarrassed Ino commented, being the only one that was not laughing.

"Yeah... I'll make sure that never happens." Shikamaru stated with a smirk, sending the others into another bout of laughter.

Kiba placed the ramen bowl he was eating on the table and gave a big grin. "It's nice to see that other teams can screw up that bad as well." He mockingly said.

"I agree... Misery loves company." Shino simply added as he drank some tea.

"What's that suppose to mean?!" The Inuzuka yelled as he suddenly stood up and accidentally caused his ramen to fall off and almost hit Akamaru, who proceeded to bark at his partner in reprimand.

Sakura sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry, Kiba. As far as dysfunctional teams go, you are not beating us." The pink haired girl stated.

Slurping up some noodles Naruto nodded. "Talk to us when Hinata finally has enough of you losers and decides to run away from the village." He said with a chuckle that everyone joined in.

"Do not worry Kiba-kun, I will never abandon you." The Hyuuga heiress reassured his teammate. "After all, Akamaru is too cute to leave behind." She added as she picked up the small dog from the floor who happily snuggled on her lap.

Lee put his chopsticks down and pondered for a second. "If someone from our team were to run away it would probably be Tenten." The taijutsu user said.

"What?!" The brown haired kunoichi exclaimed. "Why do you think I would leave?!"

The green clad genin gave a couple of blinks as if to say that the answer was obvious. "Well, Neji physically can't leave and I would never do that to Gai-sensei... That leaves only you." He pointed out.

Calmly sipping his tea, Neji chimed in. "He is not wrong."

The taijutsu user continued. "Also, you are always getting mad at us for every little thing." He added. "Still, I'm not saying that you will defect... It's just that, out of the three of us, you are the likeliest." The genin quickly explained himself.

"He is still not wrong." The Hyuuga prodigy added in between sips.

By now, a throbbing vein could almost be seen in the weapon expert's forehead. "You guys..." She growled, setting off a third round of laughter.

The group continued to eat merrily, sharing small conversations here and there amongst each other, truly relaxing after all the grueling events of the past and before the ominous day that the future could bring. It had been three weeks since half of the group had returned from Demon Country and this had been the first time they had all managed to get together.

Finishing up his tenth bowl, Chouji put it on the stack and looked up at the sun which was beginning to set. "I guess it's almost time now..." He softly pointed out with a sigh.

Naruto looked down at his fifth bowl of ramen as he pushed a couple of noodles around. "Yeah..." The blond answered heavily and returned to finish his last bowl of Ichiraku Ramen before leaving the Hidden Leaf village.

Flashback

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked out of the Hokage's window. "So you are telling me that... Everything he said was true...?" The Jinchuuriki asked as he turned to face the village leader after several minutes of charged silence.

Tsunade sighed as she leaned back on her chair. "Yes... I was briefed about it when I became the Hokage." She confirmed.

The genin made a sharp intake of air. "An entire clan almost completely wiped out... And the Third was ok with this decision?!" The young man asked as his emotions started to get the better of him.