Sometimes it is what is learned after the fact that makes an evening memorable.

An Unexpected Visitor

~*~*~*~

He sauntered as fast as he could without drawing undue attention to himself, mumbling as he went, “First phase or second? Was it the first or the second? Which one was it, first or second? Think…”

After a few moments of unsatisfactorily minimal progress he cursed aloud and took to the rooftops where he could increase his speed and decrease his visibility. Darkness had fallen several hours previous and the likelihood of someone spotting him racing along the rooftops was practically nonexistent.

Finally and not a moment too soon for him he landed in front of one of the more modern apartment buildings in the village. Anxiously he looked for a light in a particular window. Upon finding it dark the icy hand of fear he had been desperately keeping at bay with his muttered mantra of uncertainty threatened to overwhelm him. Through supreme self-control he forced himself to retain his outwardly calm appearance and make his way casually through the front door; the lock was ridiculously easy for a jonin with his skills to pick. Dread formed a painful knot that tightened with each step he took closer to his destination. The uncertainty was killing him.

When at last he came to his objective he raised his hand slowly, knocked and waited with his heart pounding. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a couple of minutes, and just as he was debating the prudence of knocking again the door slowly opened to reveal a casually dressed pink haired kunoichi.

The weight immediately lifted from his shoulders and the icy hand of fear released his heart. He wanted to heave the largest sigh of relief possible, but that particular action would cause her to inquire further into his little impromptu visit than he really wanted for her to.

Instead he smiled and raised his hand giving her his usual greeting, “Yo.”

~*~*~*~

Feeling thoroughly confused she shook her head as she closed the door behind her departing visitor. It had been one of the strangest visits she had ever had and knowing her friends, that was saying a lot.

Restlessly she made her way back to her living room to clean up the glasses and popcorn bowls. She had been planning on spending a pleasant quiet evening at home with a nice bottle of champagne, a large bowl of popcorn and a couple old movies she had been meaning to watch for ages when her former sensei had shown up completely unexpectedly on her doorstep.

Feeling slightly confused she had welcomed him in and offered him a glass of her champagne figuring he wouldn’t accept but would rather get to the point of why he was there. To her surprise he had graciously accepted and made himself at home with her on couch for what had been a remarkably enjoyable evening.

As she washed the champagne flutes she realized with some annoyance that he hadn’t ever gotten around to telling her why he had stopped by. Though, she had to admit that she had still had a lovely, if faintly confusing, evening with him. Deciding she was too tired to deal with wondering about the inner workings for her former sensei’s mind she finished tidying up and sank into bed with the full intentions of working the whole thing out in the morning.

The next morning her leisurely breakfast was interrupted by a horrendous pounding on her door. Sighing in annoyance, she knew that particular knock anywhere; she reluctantly left her hot pot of tea and omelet to answer her door.

Upon opening the door she was completely bowled over by her energetic former teammate.

“Sakura!” he cried as he pulled her into a bear hug she couldn’t have escaped if she had tried. “You’re alive!!” His arms loosened enough for her to slip out of his almost suffocating grasp.

“Naruto, what are you talking about? Of course I’m alive. Why wouldn’t I be?”

The blonde man’s eyes widened in surprise, “You mean you haven’t heard?”

She furrowed her brow in confusion, “Heard what?”

“Oh, it’s just awful Sakura! You know the tsunami relief effort Konoha is sending to the Land of Water?”

She nodded, up until two days previous she had been scheduled to go with the first of two waves of medics and aid. Unfortunately Shizune had come down with a cold. She had to come down with the only thing that wasn’t readily curable, and Tsunade had pulled her from the mission faster than Kakashi drank his sake while wearing his mask.

The exuberant blonde lost some of his energy. “Well some time yesterday afternoon, once the ship carrying everyone from Leaf had left the dock but was still on the horizon a sudden storm blew in from nowhere. Before anyone on the shore could think twice about it a waterspout formed and completely destroyed the ship…literally pulled it apart…”

She gasped, realizing that it had almost been her on that ship. “Were, were…” she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask, her mind reeling over the enormity of what had happened.

Sadly he shook his head, “There were no survivors.”

Suddenly she found herself in serious need of a seat. “How did you hear about this so quickly?”

He scratched his head, “Funny thing that. By chance I ran across Kakashi this morning and he happened to mention an old friend from his days in ANBU telling him about it last night…”