ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

The Final Entry

Chapter Fifty-Five

The Final Entry

June 14, 2010

Here she was.

Bright and early.

Heart racing.

Pulse thrumming, stomach queasy.

She had stalled long enough, this was the forth time she'd marched down to her best friend's apartment only to get cold feet each and every time. There wasn't going to be fifth. She was doing this today. After talking with Naruto, getting his perspective on friend's that committed heinous acts, the pinkette had had no choice but to confront her own cowardice.

That's what her stalling was.

Pure cowardice.

She had to accept the truth, Ino wasn't at fault.

Ino had held the blade, Ino had delivered each killing blow but...Ino wasn't responsible for that poor child's death.

The Otsutsuki were.

She wanted someone to take responsibility for it, she wanted justice for that innocent little girl, but Ino wasn't the culprit. She was the convenient scapegoat Sakura's emotional mind was fighting to blame, logic be damned. It wasn't unreasonable, she knew that; what human being wouldn't be traumatized by that horrendous scene, what human wouldn't feel apprehensive towards the aggressor in that violent act? Being a shinobi, you trained for the horrors this world had to offer, yet underneath that steel armor lay a human heart.

But...

It was time to put that armor back on and pull her rooted feet from the muck that held her still.

She had to move forward.

Ino needed her support, but she needed the Yamanaka's support too.

With that hardened resolve beating in her chest, Sakura chugged her coffee, dressed for the day, and marched to the apartment she dreaded most.

Now she was here, ready to face her demons.

She refused to bitch out again.

And if she was ever going to get dogged, well meaning, blonde haired, big hearted teammate off her case, she had to start making strides to tackle this roadblock between her and peace.

Knees shaky, spine straight, Sakura rapped on a familiar door. She swallowed as she waited, willing the incessant urge to vomit pass before her knock was answered.

No such luck.

However, her frozen lungs could finally exhale the breath she'd been holding as Sai opened the door.

He paused, eyes weary, assessing.

He knew what his girlfriend had done in his absence...of course he knew. She didn't know for sure what his actual position was, but she knew, whatever it was, very little light reached it. He worked within the shadows. Ino's dark deed was destined to cross his awareness. Agonizing as she had over what happened, she could only imagine Sai's heartache.

Her tense shoulders relaxed, her panicked gaze softening with sympathy.

"I'm here to make peace with it," she admitted quietly, "I'm not here to hurt her."

"I know," he replied, his own tone soft with something else.

"How...how are you?"

She had to ask. Her normally emotionally stunted friend seemed moments from cracking beneath the turmoil she saw in his dark eyes.