Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

I sat before the card reader. Somehow I found myself here alone, waiting to learn what my future held. We had been on a mission and were on our way back, Naruto, Sai and I, when we came across this place. Our mission had been a particularly taxing one. Not in a physical sense, but emotional. There were whispers of a certain Uchiha being spotted not far from where we were. But with Paku here, in Kakashi's place as he was on a mission of his own, we couldn't abandon our place. Sai even caught Naruto trying to sneak off late last night.

I completely understood why he tried to, still it hurt knowing he was going to leave me behind, again.

So this morning we were walking through the forest, towards home, when the tell-tale signs of a village appeared. Paku's nose was twitching long before we could see it on the horizon. Smoke from chimneys blew their heated breaths up into the morning air. Smells of food got caught on the breeze, igniting our hunger and making our stomachs growl with want. Naruto and I looked at each other with a smile, both plotting the same thing, hoping for a chance to explore the village for those delicious smells.

We somehow convinced Sai and Paku was quick to agree. Maybe he was as hungry as we were. It had only been granola and meager watery soup that we'd eaten the past two days. That's what happens when a C-grade escort mission goes past its seven day allotted time, I suppose. With a quick warning from Paku that he would smell us if we tried to run off, we each went off our way.

And somehow, when we all decided to split for an hour, after grabbing some of that delicious smelling soba, I found myself here, standing before a fortune-teller.

"Is this your first time having a reading, child?"

"Um, mmhm, yes," I said as I looked around her small shop. There were books and trinkets, all for sale, scattered around, lining the walls or in piles on tables and such. Paintings of dragons and other legendary animals also adorned the woman's shop.

"Please… This way," she told me. I continued to let her lead me through the cramped maze, until we were pushing through a curtain… some kind of tapestry.

We sat down on a pillow each, separated only by a low wooden table. The woman watched me from directly across the table, picking up a stack of cards. I was surprised by how young she appeared, but after apprenticing under Tsunade, I knew looks could be deceiving, especially among the powerful. It had crossed my mind that she could have been a ninja at some point, but I was confident she didn't mean me harm. It was in the way she smiled to me as I helped her pick up the broken shards from a gardening pot she had dropped on the front steps to her shop.

Eyes lit with generosity, kindness, and gratitude. She was beautiful. Now, as I watched her prepare the cards, I could see her long dark hair and how it fell like a river down her back. Her dark eyes, when back on my own, were piercing, captivating.

"Shuffle the cards for me, Sakura-chan."

I took the bundle of cards with a nod and did as she asked, shuffling the large patterned cards. I handed them back to her, and she began right away to flip cards over in a strange formation, covering some, crossing others. I sat patiently, waiting for the dark-haired woman's words on what everything meant.

Honestly, I didn't really know why I was here. I was hungry, I bought food, then I started to wander… I think there was a part of me that thought, maybe, just maybe… Sasuke would be somewhere around. Blinking away that thought, I focused my attention back on the woman who smiled at me.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

She pointed to the middle card and told me, "You've come a long way from the person you used to be, yes?"

I nodded, that much was true.

"But, you are not happy. Something has kept you back," she said with a frown looking at the cards.

"Yes," I said softly.

The woman held up a hand and then turned up a card in front of her. "There is war… death… loss… and heartache either for you or someone close to you."

I felt my stomach drop. "Yes," I said again. "Yes, you're right."

"This is what the spirits tell me…" the woman spoke.

"You can talk to spirits?" I asked curiously.

"Through the cards."

"Oh, of course."

"And this card," she turned another up, "It says, that your greatest love…" she gasped and looked sadly at me, curling her lips with a frown.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," she spoke with finality and swiped the cards from the low table.

"Is he? Is he going to… He'll be fine, right? He's so strong. He'll be fine…" I asked frantically as she tied the cards together. "Right? Of course he will… Right?"

I was starting to talk, just to myself now. I was trying to convince myself, and it was obvious to the both of us. One because she trusted the cards fully, and I, well, I was beginning to think that this wasn't just a simple game.

"I shouldn't have interfered," she said to herself. And I watched as she picked herself up from the ground.

"Please!" I shouted and grabbed at her arm. It was cold and I let go immediately as she recoiled back in shock. "Please," I said again softer. "Will Sasuke-kun be alright?"

She looked at me and her eyes softened. I could see the hint of a smile in her eyes, but something kept her from truly letting it out. "Yes. Your Sasuke-kun will be fine."

"Mine?" I said in wonder. "I mean, he will?" I spoke louder with eyes wide and full of hope.

"Yes, but…"

I smiled. "Will he come back?" I asked, hoping he would.

She didn't answer. She only watched me. Why wasn't she saying anything?

"Please, will he come back? To our village? Will he come back home?"

The woman's mouth closed and she sighed with regret. I waited for her answer. She knew I would continue to wait too. The one hour time limit was quickly approaching, but I didn't care. I needed to hear this answer, if only to have another opinion, another guess I could weigh against my own failing optimism.

The woman's voice finally rang out into the silence of the dark room, "Yes."

Please let this be true! Please let this be true!

"But…"

… what?

"He is not your greatest love."

Those words didn't make any sense to me. Of course he was. I felt like the wind was knocked right out of me. I had loved Sasuke since I was little. Nothing could compare to the love I felt for him. What does she mean… Surely not Naruto. And other than those two, there was no one else. I would become like Tsunade, wrapped up in work for all time, or lost in a bottle over the woes of my past. What did this woman mean, not my greatest love?

Sasuke was my greatest love. That was not a question, not at all.

"I believe you think he is, and I trust that you do indeed love him… are in fact, in love with him…"

I looked at the woman who stood across the room as I still sat on the pillow, then swiftly stood and dusted myself off. I didn't want to be in love with him anyway, right? I tried to remember that I didn't care. I was glad that this woman thought he would come home, but that was it. He wasn't mine. I didn't love him. That was that.

"But he was never meant to be yours, though he will be, if all goes as it is now meant to. Things were adjusted, you see. You were meant to be with another, but things don't always go according to plan, do they?" she smiled at me, almost smirked really, and for a second, I saw the eyes of the boy I once loved reflected back at me, long before he started off on the road to revenge.

"Naruto then? Is that who you mean? I may not love him like he'd want, but I do love him. Please tell me, he will be okay. Kono… my village needs him. So many people need him. You don't mean that something terrible will happen to him, do you?" Please don't mean that…

"No. Your friend… He will at first have much trouble, but I see him completing his goals… His is a sad beginning as well, but what a bright future he has." She looks wistful as she walks back to the other side of the tapestry and I follow her to the main side of the store. "For him, I see peace, happiness, and," she paused. "Five children," she said with a decisive nod.

"Five?" I blinked my eyes as I wondered if I heard her correct. Please tell me that had nothing to do with me, except for possibly being the doctor to deliver those children. That much I can handle.

I heard the woman's bell of a laugh filter through my mind. Then, as I spotted her, she placed one finger to her temple and said with closed eyes, "Hmm? Let me see. It's a girl… with long dark hair, shy as well, too shy really." Then she smiled with a new found knowledge. "He loves her," she said to me with those piercing eyes.

I felt myself smile too. Hinata… I tried to swipe the one tear from my eye without her seeing. I had hoped he was just being responsible and all that in taking his time to consider her. Now knowing he did love her, I'm certain he had a good reason why he hadn't given the Hyuuga heiress a chance yet. He must be waiting for things in the village to calm down before he makes his move on the shy girl.

And then, we were back to square one. "Who did you mean, then? Who was my greatest love supposed to be? And why did you freak out when you turned over those cards?"

The woman walked over to the door of the shop and said, "Please, I'm sorry to cut your session short, but I think you should leave."

"No. No, you must tell me. Please, I beg you. At least tell me why you were so upset."

She breathed out heavily between her teeth and her dark bangs moved slightly from the action. "He will be killed. Very soon. "

...

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and it will be by his own brother."

…

"No…"

"Yes."

...

...

"No, it can't be."

"Yes, Sakura."

"But he... he's a criminal."

"Things are not always as they seem," she said and it sounded so distant that I looked up to see if she was there still. What I saw seemed more like a vision, an angel, an apparition.

She glowed and the light was so bright I shielded my eyes, before looking directly at her.

"What are you? Who are you?" I asked in awe and a bit fearful of what I had gotten myself into.

"My name… is Mikoto, and I think I would know my own son, Sakura-chan. Don't worry, we will still be family. Instead of Itachi as your husband though, as it was first planned, now you will marry my Sasuke. You will be good for the future of our clan. Just as long as you don't let that boy push you around. He will take some time to come around and soften to the goodness of the world again. Please, take care of him, and the little ones. They'll be here sooner than you think."

And just like that, she was gone. Evaporating into the stillness like a dream. I was left staring out the glass door of the shop we had been in. I stood there a moment and walked outside, letting the door fall back behind me.

The air was cold and the wind blew harshly. I couldn't find it in me to move a muscle though, not even to warm myself.

An older woman with gray hair walked up the steps a few minutes later and found me there, still in a daze. I felt her shake me awake from that mindless place I was traveling in, back and forth, trying to make sense of things.

Then, she asked me, "Are you okay, child? I open soon, but you must really need my guidance if you've been waiting here for so long. Would you like a reading now? No charge for such a lost soul… What do you say, young one?"

"No thank you," I forced my voice to say. "I've had enough insight for one day, thank you," I found my legs and pushed off startling the old woman with my speed, and somewhere far away, two brothers prepared for a fight that neither of them would be able to say they had truly won.

A/N: Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review.