Chapter 38: Reuniting and Cutting Ties

                                    

                                          
"Shikamaru..." Sakura Haruno uttered. "Still alive, huh?" she said.
"Well, I'm not the type to use much of my chakra anyway... it's such a drag." Shikamaru answered. 
"Alive barely..."  Sakura added.
"Mind not my clothes, I've been out in the rain all night, achoo!" Shikamaru sneezed. He had his pants all muddy and so was his top white shirt. He's quite a mess.
"Let me..." Sakura offered to heal him.
"Save it." Shikamaru refused. "Better to use your healing skills on him." He tilts his head to point to Neji.
Neji came into sight, coming from behind Shikamaru. "I said I'm fine," he claimed, holding onto Shikamaru's shoulder, still blind.
Shikamaru frowned, tired of arguing in his thoughts. "You should've gone with them." A statement he's been mentioning over and over in his head and finally let out verbally.
"It doesn't make any difference." Neji firmly replied. "If I did go back with them to Konoha and survive, I'd die every single day, regretting leaving Hinata." 
Shikamaru gives up and sighed.
"Go back to Konoha-" That caught Sakura's ear, "Wait, so that means there was a way to get back, and you guys decided not to return!?" 
"More likely, we were obliged not to leave this world yet," Shikamaru answered. 
Sakura was silent, waiting for further explanation.
"We had a fixed date wherein all of us can go back together, and by all that includes you and the rest who are supposed to be gathered as a result of Hinata's broadcast in the UA's sports fest," Shikamaru continued. "You are here right after seeing Hinata live?" He asked, which was instantly answered by a nod from Sakura. "But things didn't go as planned and a conflict occurred, so we had no choice but to leave right then and there..." Shikamaru's face creased as he itched his head, "but we also couldn't just leave without everyone so they ordered us to stay." his voice dragged, burdened. His laziness kicked in. "Damn, I just wanted to be a cloud, but why did get sucked into that cloud and get here? What a drag..."  His trail of thoughts in the matter.
"So you guys stayed here to die with us left?" Sakura concluded.
"Possible." Shikamaru went with it, couldn't care less.
"We die if they fail to figure out a way to go back here and take us home," Neji stated, rising another confusion in Sakura's mind.
"Yes. As we've discussed before they went away back to Konoha, if ever they do manage to pull out that insane jutsu again that got us all warped here, but this time, with control without affecting everyone, and get back here to fetch us, then our problem is solved." Shikamaru finished.
"I see... so once they return... if ever they return, all of us left here should be gathered by then." Sakura surmised a hopeful thought. "And so basically, you stayed here to gather us and to inform us of the situation."
"Yeah," Shikamaru confirmed.
"Is it just the two of you left here? Besides Hinata," Sakura asked.
Neji's face frowned, troubled as he answers Sakura's question, "Unfortunately, Tenten insisted to stay, and Lee..."
A blaze of wind slapped their faces and blew their hair as Lee dashed and appeared in front of Sakura with sparkly-hearted eyes. "Sakura you're here!?! I missed you so much!" Lee shouted, pulling up his arms for a hug.
Sakura shrieks and instantly run away. "Oh, Sakura!!!" Lee tails her around.
"Hugh... Lee is such a headache..." Tenten sighed, approaching closer to the group.