“Mom, don't start.” Her father moans.

“Payback's a bitch and all that nonsense.” Kiriko drawls, waving a hand. "Look at this, will you?" She hands the paper she's been working on to Grandma Miri. "I know I've made a mistake somewhere but I'm damned if I can see it."

Miri looks it over two or three times, finally spotting the problem. "Here, you switched two numbers."

"Ahhh, thank you. This has been bugging me for a couple hours." Kiriko fixes the problem and nods, the damn answer is finally making sense. The cost of supplies shouldn't cost *that* damn much.

"*Do* we see the new system being used?" Her father asks at the next clan meeting.

"Not right away, the liquids used as a growing medium is the sticking point." The head of the farmers says. "It's not available commercially anywhere around here in the amounts we would need. The cost of bringing it in would be too much until we get the railroad in making frequent trips to bring the costs down." The others nod. "We made plans for double the new mouths when we added all the new fields, both ours and the village's." Everybody nods again. 

Sakura sighs as she walks from the hospital to her apartment after another quiet day at the hospital. Most of what she sees is common strains and sprains and overuse by the new graduates and while it keeps her busy, it's not the adventures she dreamed of as a new student at the academy.

She knows she is damn lucky though, she so easily could have lost her life or her leg thanks to Sasuke losing his damn mind. She can still serve the village as a medical nin and Tsunade herself had taken her on as a student while she is still in the village. She still looks off towards the distance every once in a while as if wanting to be elsewhere but swiftly turns her attention back to the here and now.

Which is what Sakura firmly tells herself to do as well. She walks down the streets of the village towards her apartment in the old Uchiha compound, stopping at shops along the way to get the few groceries she needs.

She'd been dismayed and a little upset that she hadn't been affected by the lust bomb that night, wondering how much of her schoolgirl crush on Sasuke had just been youthful fantasies. Most if not all of it she has decided in the cold light of day. She'd been talking to Ino and they're both dismayed at how they acted over him. Their friendship had recovered, thankfully. And she knows her parents are grateful she wasn't affected, they'd been looking at having to raise her child as well as their own since they *were* just young enough to still have children when it had happened. She was now the older sister of twin brothers.

"Oh hey, Miss Sakura." Konohamaru's voice breaks into her thoughts. "Have you seen the boss? He was going to teach us some new moves." Konohamaru's crew was now an official genin team but still looked up to Naruto. How had she missed everything hidden behind that goofy nature? She'd been too busy fawning over Sasuke trying to get him to notice her she thinks in disgust.

"I'm sorry Konohamaru, I haven't seen him today."

"He's with your grandfather and uncle." Kiriko's voice says from the sidewalk. "The last of the supplies are in the capital for the new arena and we're off tomorrow to go pick them up."

"Oh cool." He says. "So it's going to be at least a week?"

"Probably closer to two or three since we'll be bringing supplies back to feed and house the people building it when they arrive." She turns to look at Sakura. "Are you coming out this weekend for another training weekend?" Some of the others had taken her in and showed her how to stay in practice even with her limitations. She's happy she can still stay in shape.

"Yes, I'm off since I've covered the last three weekends. The other medical nin are returning from their leaves after they had the babies."

"Things are getting back to normal in the village." Kiriko sighs. Sakura looks around and nods, heading to her apartment. She looks around the room as she enters and takes off her shoes. She didn't realize how much she had depended on her parents before having to move out, how the hell had those students who were orphans and lived on their own did it? How fucking useless had she been as a genin? She had used to sneer at how Naruto and the others brought meals premade at Kiriko's shop, now she does it herself when she had been working ten to twelve hour days six days a week, first in training and then having to cover for so many other people. Walking into the kitchen she puts her purchases away. Looking at the refrigerator and cupboards and finding nothing that interests her, she pulls a meal scroll at random from the shelf and brings one out. It doesn't even matter what she's eating, just eating and washing the dish and silverware to put in a scroll to return to the shop when clean. Just like she's done too many nights before. How had her life turned out so unfulfilling? This isn't what she'd thought her life would be life when she was younger. 

The next day the others arrive at the farm, Kiriko using the bathroom before they take to the trees and arriving at the capital a few days later.

Three weeks later she delivers the supplies, including larger tents, cooking supplies, and food. The Hokage nods in thanks, silently waving the bank president into the room for the money from Kiriko's casino trip, Naruto's casino trip, and the purchases by the Daimyo's wife.

The workers arrive a couple days later and settle into the tents in the training ground that's been removed of all the dangers that would have been found there during a chunin exercise for the safety of the men building the new arena. Naruto had taken a mission to help with the work, opening scrolls of supplies as needed.

A month later the men are heading off with the bonuses from the Hokage burning holes in their pockets. Naruto working with them had cut the job to a fraction of the time they'd expected it to take and nobody is complaining, this way they can get home to their families so much sooner. 

"Is this it for the major renovations for a few years?" Kiriko asks her father when he returns from the council meeting.

"Yes, they're still trying to decide if both schools will handle all the students or they need to add onto the academy after the students graduate." Her father sighs. "With the book classes only taking part of the day, they might have morning and afternoon classes."

"They were talking about it before but that was when it was training classes too. With those gone they should easily be able to get in two sessions a day." The others nod. 

"Are you okay?" Kiriko asks a couple days later when Sakura brings the dishes back to the shop with the empty scrolls. Sakura starts making excuses then slumps. "No, no I'm not. I'm working ten, twelve hour days first when I was training and now with so many of the others being off. Things are getting better now but I keep asking myself how the hell did my life turn out this way. I had so many dreams and plans and they turned to dust around me. I'm a chunin, but not from proving myself to the village like I had wanted. I wanted Sasuke to notice me and nearly destroyed my relationship with my best friend over it. I used to look down on Naruto for buying pre-made meals, now I live on them myself because when I *am* home I have no interest in cooking for myself. I don't even care what I eat, it's just grab a scroll and start eating. And some days I have to force myself to do that. I'm beginning to feel as empty as the women we captured. And it scares the living hell out of me."

"Have you talked to anybody? No, not the medical nin." She says, holding up a hand. "Talk to Naruto, talk to Hinata, get together with your former classmates and *talk* about how things have gone over the past few years." She says firmly.

"Th. . .thank you." she says quietly a few days later. "Everybody else was feeling the same way and everybody thought it was just them. Things have been so different the last few years, it affected everybody."

"Yep, that's what happens when nobody talks about things that are bothering them. Maybe if they had and Sasuke had gotten the help he needed, he might not have turned out to be a psychopath. You are not mindless weapons no matter how the other villages saw their ninja, you have the right to be people. And people have needs. Companionship, even if it's just good friends, is one of them."

In the doorway unseen to Sakura Tsunade nods in agreement, walking away before she can see her.

"Thank you, I'd noticed she was acting stressed." Tsunade tells her granddaughter when she walks into the building after the other woman had left. "Everybody is wore out from the long hours, I didn't realize she was still dealing with the incident with Sasuke, not being an active kunoichi, and feeling alone since she moved out of her family home due to her mother's pregnancy."

"That's why so many clans live in compounds. You're still in your own home but you're surrounded by your family. Some people are not meant to live on their own, I think Sakura is one of them. Before this, she was living with her parents, she had meals prepared for her. She had her laundry done. . . She didn't need to take care of herself because she's the only one there. Now she is. And she can't handle it."

Her grandmother nods. "Of her year, only her and Naruto live on their own. The others live with family. Naruto has lived on his own for years, ever since he got kicked out of the orphanage. He's used to taking care of herself, she wasn't. All I can say is thank god she didn't get pregnant from that time."

"Even as a new genin, I could never see her making it as a kunoichi."

"No, me neither. She was one of those fools who only did it to get attention from the Uchiha." Kiriko's father snorts from the back room. "Meal scrolls? We're running low in the other building."

"Basket on the shelf over the dishwasher, I just toss them in there after I empty them so you need to sort them out."

"Thank you." He finds the basket and starts laying them out, a small item on them to keep them from rolling up and wrapping rubber bands around them when they're sorted out and putting them on the shelves in the other building. "We still need to make new ones." He says finally.

"Yeah." Kiriko sighs, looking at the partially full shallow baskets on the shelves and then the racks in the other room. "Especially if we have to start feeding kids in day care, or the schools." The others nod.

Three weeks later everybody looks around in satisfaction at the full shelves of scrolls ready to be filled and racks of scrolls ready to be purchased. More are upstairs in storage to be used later and Kiriko slides down the ladder from the upstairs, pushing it up until it clicks and then shoving up the trap door leading to the top floor. She turns around to find the Hokage walking into the building. She just gives him a look, the ANBU with him snickering softly.

"How are you on extra scrolls?"  

"I've been making them for the last three weeks, the baskets are full in the other building and there's more upstairs. Let me guess, this is where you tell me I need to be getting in more supplies when I go because I'm going to be supplying meals for the daycare centers and the schools?" She drawls. "For the next twenty years at least as clan raised people in the village work on projects. While they can get breakfast and dinner at home, they'll need lunch on the go."

The now audible sniggering from the ANBU is her answer. "Okay, do I at least have until next year to start getting in more supplies? And how many different meals are we looking at?" she asks in exasperation.

They calmly agree on prices, the meals, and the distribution of the scrolls, the Hokage handing over the deed for the building on the other side of the shop and the orders to have it cleaned, supplied, and linked to the shop.

"I take it you heard?" Kiriko asks dryly, leaning in the next room. "Copy these out." she hands the recipes to Neji. "And talk to anybody you know who will be looking at a semi-permanent job cooking. We start making meals in the other building summer next year. With delivery to the day care centers the first of the following year."

The mothers in the room nod. "Yes, by that time the children will be able to feed themselves."

The chunin start working with the younger genin when the crops start coming in, nobody is surprised when Konohamaru's team immediately gravitates towards Naruto as their leader. Three *long* months later for the genin the last of the crops are either put away in warehouses, sent out by wagon train to be processed in the capital and made into stuff, or put away at the farm.

The Daimyo's lips twitch as he looks at Kiriko when he summons her to the palace finding her buying extra supplies when she goes out for her end of the year trip.

"Oh go ahead and laugh, my father fell to the floor cackling like the idiot he is." Kiriko sighs after the story is told. "I felt like stepping on him somewhere painful but my mother would no doubt complain. At least the triplets are finally sleeping through the night now.." That sets him off howling. His wife pats her on the shoulder in a there, there gesture, her own lips twitching madly.

Three weeks later she returns to Konoha, shoving scrolls at Madi. "Cooking supplies, dishes, and silverware for the new meals." She nods and puts everything in storage until it's needed. "How's the work coming on the new building?"

"Cleaning is done, they're painting right now. Then the appliances and tables will be going in. The supplies will be the last thing going in before they start working."

"Supplies for the old building." Those are brought out and put away. "More supplies for here, including extra dishes and silverware." Those are brought out and put away until needed. "No orders for the store?"

"My first stop after the bank." The rest of the purchases are handed out over the next couple of days. She slumps into her seat at the clan meeting the night after everything's been delivered.

"Is that everything?"

"Until my next trip out next year." She sighs. "Now, I've been hearing rumors about a special demonstration at the arena for the final academy graduates next year?"

"Yes, I've been hearing the same thing. It's going to be a special event and the Hokage has invited the Daimyo and other dignitaries."

The night air is cool and Kiriko lights a fire in the fireplace when she gets back home with the special fuel from the land of snow. The cats immediately lay in front of it as she warms herself by the fire, adding extra blankets to the bed. She's always tired after these trips. At least she's got a fireplace in her home and not having to burn the dried animal droppings so many other people have to she's seen on her trips. The others who do any amount of traveling away from the village agree with her.

"Is it just me. . .?" Kiriko asks the next morning.

"No, if feels like a storm is blowing in. Everybody is cold this morning, everybody's got on long sleeves and pants." Her mother says quietly as she checks momentarily on the triplets to make sure they're not in a draft even though every window and door in the building is shut up tight.

The rain starts coming down a few hours after the sky gets dark and they hurry back to the homes with food from the main house to keep them fed until after the storm breaks.

It's a couple days later when she reopens the shop, unless you had to be out in that weather nobody had been. And unless you were a village guard, nobody had been outside. The sensors had agreed it had been a normal storm, not forced or influenced in any way.

The others start coming in a few minutes later, heat coming through the cracked open door as the stoves are turned on so they can start cooking. The bell rings over the door and she looks over to find Sakura shaking her waterproof cloak off before coming inside. She slides scrolls across the desk, grabbing new ones off the shelve and getting a scroll handed to her after she pays and walks back outside on her way to her shift at the hospital.

Tossing the now empty scrolls in the basket she finishes filling the dishwasher and starts it running.

A couple of weeks later is the end of the year celebration at the farm again, this time Sakura being invited along with the others. She shyly settles herself in a seat, Naruto wrapping an arm around her in an absent hug among friends as he talks with Neji who'd also been invited.

"Do you. . .I understand you're going to be offering meals for the children." Sakura asks a few days later.

"Yes, we start cooking them after the special graduation exercise for the Academy and will start delivering them next year. Are you looking for another job? Not getting enough time at the hospital? Or feeling burned out?"

"A bit of both. With so many people coming back my hours are being cut. And with the loss of the other villages there's not that big of a need for so many medical nin."

"Well, you can come to work for me whenever you need." Kiriko says calmly. "There will be enough workers that you can learn everything you need."