Sara had been let out of the hospital in a wheelchair. She had argued with the doctors over this, but they adamently refused to let her go with crutches, and Shika was eventually called to convince her. They had made a compromise of her having a pair of crutches, but moving mainly by a wheelchair. Now she was sitting stoicly as Sakura pushed her out the door.

"I hate feeling like I'm invalid." Sara grumbled grumpily.

She could hear the smile in Sakura's voice when the girl replied. "Well Sara, it will only be for a while. You'll heal soon enough."

Sakura had no idea that Sara had no use of her leg. By now there was absolutely no feeling in Sara's leg, or if there was any, it was dulled to the point of a slight prickling. She wasn't able to move anything beyond her hip, not even her toes. What Sara had told most people was that her leg was simply broken and would heal within months, others who were closer, like Takeo and Ryota, Hitomi, Kakashi, and Shika, knew the full extent of the damage. Lee knew as well, in fact while they had both been in the hospital, they had spent quite a bit of time together. They easily related because of what happened to them, but Sara knew that Lee's sadness was infinitely deeper.

Sara's attention snapped back to the present as Sakura passed by her house. She turned slightly to face Sakura. "Um... Sakura, my house it back there. Where are you taking me?"

"Well you just got out of the hospital, so I won't take you home just to have you work. You are being forced to celebrate." Sara's eyes widened at this and she went to reach for the brake. Sakura saw the movement and with a chilling voice, spoke. "You wouldn't dare blow me off, would you Sara?"

The cold anger in Sakura's voice made Sara's stop dead. All the times Sakura had punched Naruto flashed through her mind in an instant and her hand retracted. There was a little 'hmph' from Sakura in satisfaction.

"You know I don't like to be the center of attention Sakura. Can we please not do this?" Sara sat facing forward, but she knew that her plea was useless.

"You never hang out with us girls! You need to stop being so reclusive, the only people you really talk to are Shikamaru or Choji after all." Sakura took Sara's silence as agreement and continued to push her down the street.

They eventually ended up in front of a sushi joint. Sakura didn't hesitate at all, pushing the door aside and entering the nearly empty store. There was a man behind the bar to the side with various ingredients surrounding him, the sushi chef. The two went to a table in the back corner where all the other genin girls their age were gathered.

"Sara, it's so good to see you!" Ino shouted, standing up slightly. Hinata, who was to her left, waved slightly in greeting.

Tenten jumped up and rushed over, "Sara, I heard what happened! Sorry I haven't been to visit, but Gai has had Neji and I training like crazy!"

"I can imagine Tenten, I know how Gai gets." We both smiled at the memory of when I was training with her team.

"We'll have to go on a mission together again sometime soon!" Tenten enthused.

Sakura and Ino had gone a pace off, and were now arguing, but you could tell it was friendly and for old times sake. At the mention of a mission, both perked up and looked over.

Sakura spoke first, "I would love to go on a mission with you too Sara! You haven't been with the team in forever!"

"Same with our team! I know Shikamaru misses working with you as well." Ino said with a sly wink.

"U-us too S-sara-chan..." Hinata said shyly. Sara didn't quite pay attention to Hinata's remark as she was trying to fight down a blush at Ino's words.

"Anyways, help me from this stupid chair. I hate this thing." Tenten and Ino both grabbed an arm and helped Sara to sit at the table.

The sushi chef came out from behind the counter to take their orders. There ended up being a feast of sushi, and the girls happily fell into eating. They chatted idly for a few minutes before Ino turned to Sara.

"So Sara, why do you still wear your mask if everyone has seen you without it?"

Sara fingered the fabric that now hung loosely around her neck. "I suppose... It's something that you just make a habit of? I don't really know why, but I feel odd when I don't wear it. It also helps to filter poison in battle, so why not?" Sara shrugged at the end.

"But Sara, you're so pretty without your mask!" Sakura joined in. A deep pink flushed onto Sara's face, though she tried to fight it off.

"Ah, be quiet..." Sara looked down slightly embarrassed. and shoved another piece of sushi into her mouth.

Sakura lifted Sara's chin with a finger. "It's a good thing, I mean a lot of guys are sure to be attracted to you!"

When Sakura had lifted Sara's chin, all the girls saw the paleness of her scar against the deepening red that was her blush. They grew silent and when Sara had noticed a hand went up to her cheek. She shrugged and went back to her food.

All four of the other girls made a huddle, all except Hinata peeking over once in a while. Finally the four returned to their spots at the table.

"Sara..." Ino was cut off however.

"You want to know about my scar," Sara stated more than asked. All the girls nodded and Sara huffed a little sigh. "I'll tell you I suppose... on one condition." Sara leaned back, resting on her hands.

"What's the condition?" Tenten looked over interestedly.

"You have to agree that if you don't meet it you have to drop the question then." Sara looked over them and saw nothing but agreement and determination on all their faces. "Good." Turning, Sara waved over the sushi chef. He came up and Sara whispered something in his ear. The man smiled and walked off.

"Will you tell us your mysterious condition now?"

Sara's smile was joyous, but they all knew it probably wasn't a good thing. "You have to eat an entire plate of the sushi that's brought out, but in under two minutes. Don't worry, there will only be six pieces of sushi per person."

"So if one person finishes their plate, do we all get to hear?" Hinata chimed out lowly.

"Hmm... I'll only tell the people that finish their plates. They aren't allowed to tell the others anything either." Sara folded her arms and nodded her head in finality.

The plates were placed in front of them all, including Sara. The man stood to the side with a timer in hand. He looked over them all, Sara already eating. "Ready? Set." All four raised their chopsticks. "Go." The man intoned.

Four chopsticks descended, four pieces of sushi went into four mouthes, four mouthes chewed, four sets of eyes widened, and three voices cried out in pain.

Sakura turned to Sara, who was happily eating a plate of the same sushi. "What's in this?" Sakura's face was streaked with tears.

"It's wasabi, pickled ginger, pepper seeds, with a certain rather spicy sauce on the top." Sara smiled devilishly. "I'll be honest, it's one of my favorites." Three of them stared at her incrudiously as she put another piece into her mouth.

"One minute left," The man said. They turned back to their last five pieces and each picked up another, eating it. There were more crys of pain, and now snot flowed from their noses and tears streamed down their faces. They got another two pieces in before finally they gave up. "Time." A bell chimed and they just sat there chugging down milk for all they were worth.

"So I guess only Hinata gets to know." Sara said, stroking an imaginary beard she wished she had.

All eyes turned on Hinata as she sat there twiddling her thumbs with an empty plate in front of her. "How!?" All three of the other girls chorused.

"W-well you see... I r-really like spicy f-food... T-this tasted really good..." A blush found its way to her face and she looked down.

Sara patted her on the back, "It's good to know someone can share my food interests."

Once Sakura was done soothing her flaming mouth, she turned on Sara. "That was completely rigged against us."

"Never agree to conditions I set. You should be used to me by now." There were sweatdrops all around, even from the sushi chef. "Anyways, come with me Hinata, as I share the secret of my life with you." Hinata blushed, but nodded and followed Sara to the corner of the restaurant, helping Sara walk as well.

Soon after, they were all walking down the street that led to the market, talking about clothes and jewlery. It seemed all of them were content in forcing Sara to come along with them, no matter her pleas. Then Gai ran by. All eyes followed him, and when they did, the black hair of Sasuke caught all their eyes. The conversation died then and there as the five took this in.

Ino and Sakura looked at eachother. Both shared their crush on Sasuke, so when they did it was almost as if they were asking for permission. Sara sighed a little.

"You know that you want to follow, so get going. Gai is probably headed to the hospital from the look of it." The gratitude that shone in the two fangirls' eyes couldn't be described, so they took off running after them.

"Do you want to head over as well Sara? He is your former teammate after all," Tenten looked down at Sara.

Sara thought it over a little. "There really isn't anything I can do to help, and I have no close personal ties, so I'd rather not. Anyways, I've had just about enough of that devilish place." Tenten chuckled at that, as did Hinata. They were both well aware of Sara's fear of hospitals, though it had somewhat abated in her time there.

"Well then, where do you want to go now Sara?"

"Home," Sara's eyes turned serious as she stared at Tenten.

"Denied," Tenten returned the stare. For a while they just stayed like that, staring eachother down. Hinata stood in the background, looking like she would try to dissolve the situation. The staring contest was broken however when something crashed down onto the earth in front of the three.

The dust cleared and Ryota lay face down in the dust. He started to sit up rather grogilly, then turned to look at the three girls who were looking at him with dumbfound expressions. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Who did you hit on this time?" Sara finally asked.

Ryota recoiled as if he were shocked. "Why do you always assume I was hitting on a girl!?" He complained rather loudly.

"Because you're Ryota." Sara's blank face made it seem like that was common knowledge.

"Actually, he was following Hitomi-sensei around," Takeo turned the corner, one hand placed lazily in his pocket, the other holding a multi-colored lolipop.

Sara blinked, "Why were you following her around?"

Ryota perked up from the pout that had found its way to his face. "Because I saw her leave a resturant with a guy! I thought they might be dating." He glanced evilly at Takeo. "I wouldn't have been caught if he had been helping. Instead he just bought candy from this random stall."

"I hold no interest in the romantic affairs of our teacher." Takeo said around the candy.

The two turned from their glares at eachother when there was a slight snort behind them. Soon all the girls were laughing. Ryota stood there slightly shocked while Takeo just rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, we'd better get going!" Tenten cheered out. "What do you say we swing by that new boutique?"

Sara looked paniced before shooting a pleading look at her two teammates. Ryota smiled evilly. "Well I hope you ha-" He was cut off when Takeo walked up and hit him on the head. There was now a pile of Ryota in the middle of the street.

"Before I was able to leave, Hitomi told me that she wanted to see us soon. We should head over." Sara's eyes had never held more gratitude in them.

When she turned though there was a perfect mask of apology in her face as she spoke to Tenten. "Maybe another time then?"

"Fine. I'm going to go find Neji then, I haven't seen him for a while." She waved and began to walk away.

"I-I'll go then as well... It w-was nice to see you Sara-chan." Hinata waved a little as she walked over to her family's compound.

Sara turned back to her two teammates, one of which was slung over the others shoulder. "Thank you so much Takeo."

Takeo, for his part, just nodded. He would have spoken if he didn't have the entire lolipop shoved into his mouth. His cheeks bulged and Sara had a hard time keeping her laughter in. Takeo started walking and Sara wheeled herself after him.

"Were you serious about Hitomi wanting to meet us?" Takeo nodded. "Are you going to take that out of your mouth anytime soon?" A shake of the head. "Do you have any more candy?" Takeo fished in his pockets and pulled out another lolipop like his own. After a moment regarding it, Sara shrugged and popped it in her mouth like Takeo had his. The two got strange looks as they traveled down the road towards the training grounds.