Naruto Tales: The Next Uchiha | SasuSaku, NaruHina, InoShikaTema, NejiTen +

XXIV: Forgive My Thoughts When I'm Asleep

QOTC:

Ino: He's hoping it to become a girl. I said I want a boy.

TenTen: Sai?

Ino: Shika.

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Chapter 24: Forgive My Thoughts When I'm Asleep

Laconic by nature, TenTen stared uptightly in the mirror, as a twenty-year-old kunoichi with frizzy dark hair stood in front of her. 

Three years she hadn't spoken of Konoha.

Three years she hasn't heard from her village.

Yesterday Tsunade had delivered a message proclaiming Hiashi's death. It didn't really digesst to her that the old man would have died living a consequential life, now that he—of all people, had taught his own children not only to succeed in their destiny but to believe that life is not hard as long as you do prevail. He taught her that too, only difference is that sometimes to pursue your own path you're gonna have to eliminate those who stand before it. 

On her way to the Fire Country, she ran into a couple of ninjas she assumed to have sprung from Suna. Temari was there too, sunning and foxy as usual. And when TenTen asked how she and Shikamaru were doing, she was dismissed by Gaara who no longer wore his eyeliner rather he'd grown up to be a very fine young man. She wondered what his problem was but he apologized for his rudeness later on, and that they have more important affairs to dispute on their way to the land of Stone. What an odd thing it is—she thought, they say the passage of time will resolve into a new evolution, yet why do they feel like deep scars that desist to propagate? But before she was able to react, Gaara was already dragging his sister away. 

She wondered if it was his natural mental outlook, or the fact that becoming Kage had changed him. Speaking of, she hadn't heard of any official announcements that the blonde jinchuuriki would get annointed as Hokage yet. Now that he, the hero of the Hidden Leaf is now formally married to Haruno Sakura the past several weeks. Konoha had changed. Too many deaths to pay, and a lot of surprises to be prepared for. Another thing she'd discovered was the Ino's gestation.

"He's hoping it to become a girl. I said I want a boy." Ino slid her hand on her belly then, like she'd hidden a watermellon underneathe it.

"Sai?"

"Shika."

"O-oh," she looked downcastingly for a moment. "I'm so sorry...."

"Don't be. After all, this is what they wanted, didn't they? They could all shove our children into their faces, but I'm not keeping the baby."

"Ino, you have to. It's what you're meant for."

She chuckled, her blonde hair no longer that gold and shiny, rather it was a reminiscence of what she'd done back when she'd cut it at the preliminaries. "When I was little, I promised myself that when I get pregnant, I'd be the most happiest woman on the entire universe. Now, I can't think of anything much more miserable on earth." She turned to TenTen, as if all that crippled anger she'd earned had been bulldozed to her face. "Where were you during the uprising?"

"What are you talking about?" 

Ino laughed harshly and stood up. "Everyone was there. Naruto, Sakura, Kiba, us Konoha 11. There was already war at the village, and Neji and the boys were the ones who led the army of us people. People who have been abused by their own free will; and before we were even given the chance to make a rally, the ANBUs turned their backs against us and reported as to the Hokage. The Feudal Lords have gone mad, and instead of granting us the freedom we've always wanted, they've even banished the leaders of our society and carried on the arranged marriage." She looked like she was about to blow up upon frustration, and it seems that the child she's carrying was the only thing stopping her from doing so. "After that, we were permitted to have a debate against our own parents on choosing what's right for us. Maybe... If only you were there then we might have stood a chance and wouldn't end up like this!"