The Return (Book 2 of It's Not Forever) COMPLETE

Chapter 22

    When we reach the house I don't bother to knock and choose to just barge in like Ino and I have always done. Gaara sighs and follows behind me. I run into someone's chest and look up to find a pale man with dark hair and matching eyes staring down at me with a confused look.
"Ino! There's a creepy man in your house! Can I kill him?" I call out.
I hear laughter behind him and push the man out of the way and tackle the blonde to the floor. She hugs me back and she starts to cry while I do the same. I roll away from her a few minutes later and Gaara helps me to my feet.
"Really though, who is the creepy guy?"
"That's my husband, Sai."
"Everyone is married and I'm over here like, hey I like coffee... I missed everything! Shika-kun and Temari have a kid! It's crazy!"
She coughs awkwardly and looks away. "Well..."
"Wait, you have one too?"
"So does Choji. And Naruto and Hinata have one together."
"WHAT? Too many babies! Gaara! When can I have a baby?"
I turn to face him and Ino and I both fall over laughing at his red face and shocked expression. When we recover, she leads me to the other room where a small blonde haired boy who looks like Ino just with his father's skin tone is sitting on the floor. He looks up at me momentarily before turning back to scribbling on a piece of paper.
"What's his name?" I ask.
"Inojin."
"Of course."
She sticks her tongue out at me. "So, tell me about you and Gaara! Also, before you do: I told you so!"
"Well, to be technical, Temari told me so first because you were back and forth."
We sit down on the couch together and catch up like old times while Gaara and Sai sit in the other room and talk. That or Gaara hadn't recovered yet and is still frozen in their kitchen. As we talk, she tells me everything I'd missed over the past two years in Konoha, including the deaths of her father and Shikamaru's. She then asks me about what I saw when I died and what happened to me since then. As expected, she ooh's and ahh's over mine and Gaara's relationship, though it isn't anything overly sweet. We're just who we are. Gaara finally walks in with Sai and sits next to me on the couch, his thumb lightly rubbing my hand. I lean my head onto his shoulder and Ino squeals over that. I look at Sai who is sitting on the floor with his son and sigh.
"You married that, do you realize that?"
"Yes I do. Sometimes I wonder..."
Ino starts to yell at him and tosses a pillow at him, causing me to laugh.
"So, Gaara, when are you going to marry this pretty little lady?" Ino asks.
I hear Gaara make a choked noise and shrugs. Ino laughs and scolds him, telling him that I'm too pretty to wait forever and someone could 'snatch me up' if he didn't act fast. I smack her arm and scold her for being annoying.