The Tale Of Sakura Haruno | My Elysium, My Warmth <3 |

Cupcakes, E-ranks and Dinner

25th May 1616
↬'𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑡... 𝐼 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢.' 𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 2 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑠ℎ 𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑, 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑓. 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑎 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑, 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑚. 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟, ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑡, 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦𝑎𝑙, 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙... 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑. 𝐴𝑠 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠, 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑡𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑒. 𝐵𝑢𝑡, 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑜𝑛. 𝑀𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠, 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑠, ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒, 𝑘𝑜𝑛𝑜ℎ𝑎 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑚𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑. 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑎 ℎ𝑢𝑔𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑠ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦, 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑠. 𝐼 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠, 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠...↫

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10th April, 1616...

Today was the day we finally arrived back in Konoha. Kakashi-sensei was carrying Sakuke-kun on his back. Naruto was in front of Kakashi-sensei while I was on his right. We had to maintain this formation since Sasuke-kun was still injured from the senbon needles. As we arrived at the main gate of Konoha, Kakashi-sensei sent some weird handsigns at the two guards. Maybe it was some secret code... I would probably learn this when I become jounin. The two guards nodded at Kakashi-sensei. Naruto didn't notice the signs...? Well, he is an idiot when it comes to noticing his surroundings, so he might not have noticed. Sasuke-kun was passed out on Kakashi-sensei's back from exhaustion. When Kakashi-sensei started moving forward, me and Naruto started moving forward, too. Naruto was rambling about ramen again. I guess Naruto is still Naruto despite fighting like that in the mission... Ugh, I always badmouth him, but somehow, I'm always the useless one... I should probably study more since Kakashi-sensei won't teach me things. Like, begging him to teach me something new, for an hour, he still didn't give in. He just watched Sasuke-kun and Naruto try to walk on trees from afar. I had literally wasted so much time on the mission. Maybe if he taught me something, I might have been useful...

Oh, Sakura! You shouldn't blame someone for your uselessness. Ugh... but I guess relying on someone else is not going to be the way to learn, at least for me. I should just study things myself! Yeah, Sakura! You can do it!.... Well, let's save that energy for tomorrow. I am too tired to do something physical today. I'll just head to the library for a few hours after freshening up. Kakashi-sensei headed to the hospital to drop off Sasuke-kun, and in the meanwhile, he handed Naruto the mission scroll to submit at the Hokage tower.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! Do you wanna go on a date with me? We can eat tasty ramen, you know!" Naruto said with enthusiasm. I can't believe that he still has that much energy after traveling on foot for 5 hours. "No, Naruto. We have to submit the scroll at the Mission desk in the Hokage Tower! It's our duty." I tried to reason with him... Stupid idea, but it worked in the end somehow...? "Aww man,you are so strict, Sakura-chan! If you just don't want to go on a date with me, then you just submit this. I am eating ramen first." Naruto said in a persistent way. "Fine, give it here. Go eat your ramen, idiot." I said as I held out my hand for the scroll. He handed the scroll to me while thanking me and running off to his favorite ramen stand. I then made my way to the mission desk in the Hokage Tower.

I arrived there in just a few minutes. I handed the scroll to the ninja who was at the Mission desk. I decided to look around for a few moments since I didn't want to walk all the way back to my house since it was a bit far away. I looked at the missions plastered on the walls. There are some bandits on some roads, grain theft in the local market, missing pets, and some missions for carrying heavy items from one place to another. I looked around some more and found a very peculiar chart on the wall. It explained the levels and ranks of missions. There were E-rank missions, too...? It read,'E-rank missions are for any ninja. You can do them solo. If you are part of a genin team, you won't have to ask your sensei for permission to complete this missions. The permission for these is already provided, so feel free to pick any E-rank mission. The maximum no. of E-rank missions per week is 7.' Wow! These are perfect for earning money. I should go check out the ranks of the missions. Maybe I can do one every day and then have enough money to buy some good ninja gear...

Well, I should go home now. That's enough procrastinating... I start walking to my home, taking the shortest route. I arrived home after 20 minutes. I had stopped in the middle of my route when I saw a new bakery. I went inside and bought some chocolate chip muffins. I had met a weird guy in the shop. He was a redhead with thick eyeliner, who was eating a cupcake with a spoon. Like, what!? That's a violation. I decided to watch him for a minute while standing in the line for the register. He was weird also because he had a big gourd next to him, which was shaking. Maybe he had a violent pet in there since the gourd had stopped shaking when a piece of cake was dropped inside it... Weird, right? Well, whatever.

As soon as I entered my home, my dad rushed out of his study to see me. Since my mom didn't come right now, maybe she went out to do something. "Sakura! Tou-chan missed you a lot!" My dad said as he hugged me tightly, slightly suffocating me, but I was used to it. "Yeah, tou-san, I missed you a lot too. Where is Oka-san?" I asked my dad about my mother's whereabouts. My dad then let me go and ushered me to the dining table. Lunch was set out for 2 people. I guess my dad was cooking lunch today. It was stir-fried vegetables, girlled chicken, and rice. There was also a jug of cold lemon tea with ice. My dad made me sit on my seat and pushed his plate in front of me. "Sakura, you must be hungry, eat first." My dad said while handing me a spoon and a pair of chopsticks. "Tou-san... this is your plate. I can just eat something else. It's your food, I don't want to take it..." I complained about him handing his food to me. I could just make something else. He should just eat his food. "Nonsense! How can I eat when my lovely daughter is hungry? Plus, we have more food. I was just gonna put it in the fridge for later, but I can eat it now. Now, eat first." He persisted, and I gave up. "Itadakimasu!" I smiled at him and then started eating. My dad started to serve himself a new plate.

In a minute or two, my mother came home. As soon as she saw me, she rushed to hug me. I had almost choked on a spoonful of rice... hahaha... Well, they both missed me a lot. "I missed you a lot, Ka-san!" I said to her as she was hugging me. "I missed you too, Sakura. Look at you, you lost so much weight. You should have eaten more. I swear, if your sensei starved you, I would!" I interrupted her, "No Ka-chan, he didn't starve me. I just exercised a lot." She lightly scanned me for any injuries but couldn't see any, so she just scoffed, "Well, he still isn't a good sensei. Making you leave home so early in the morning and making you return after 5 o'clock pm... You come home in scratches each day." I just laughed awkwardly. I wouldn't fight my mother, even if it's Kakashi-sensei.

"Well, come on, let's eat! Tou-chan made a delicious lunch. Plus, I bought some treats from the new bakery for desert." I ushered her to sit down next to me to eat lunch. My dad also sat down at the table. "Itadakimasu." My parents said and they started eating. I missed this, eating together and having normal conversations. That mission in the Wave had really made me question a lot of things, but going home made me feel so much better. I still, however, felt a bit on edge...

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