Pre-Timeskip
It was such a hopeless cause. Sakura sighed, and went back to practice. Not only would she always be the weakest of Team Seven, but she would be the one everyone forgot. It was inevitable. She knew it, but it was a harsh reality.
When she got home from practice, she went straight up to her room and laid down on her bed, looking at the ceiling. It was already dark out, but it wasn't yet dark enough to see the stars from her sky-light.
"Will my own team even remember?" she asked herself, sighing.
It was a question she was often forced to ask. Now that her teammates were all growing up and evolving from their original characters, she realized she would have to soon as well. But no matter what she tried, Sakura was always the weak kunoichi on Team Seven with good chakra control.
Her mother knocked on the door and walked in. "Sakura? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Okaasan," she replied. "Is Otousan on another mission again?"
Sakura's father, Ryoma, was a great medic-nin, and even a skilled ANBU. He was the best, Sakura was told, and it should be an honor he went on missions all the time.
To her, it was more of a disappointment and loneliness that she felt.
"Yeah. He said it's supposed to be three weeks. But you know as soon as he gets back, Sakura, he's going to train with you. He loves you."
"Hn. I know that."
"I promise, Sak, I'll train with you when I get back from my next mission. But I'm tired, and I have to go on another mission in two days. Please?" her dad asked when he got home one day.
Sakura remembered the day well.
Just before her father left, she had been accepted to the academy at the age of eight, and wanted her father to help train her so she would be noticed as a good shinobi and a strong kunoichi.
He had promised to help her, then left for a six-week mission. She waited and counted down the days, but Ryoma Haruno hadn't come home. Another week passed, and there was word the mission had become serious and would take longer.
The academy had since started, and Sakura had come to the realization that her father would never be hers. She would always have to share him with his work, and his work would win out over her. If he had the option, he would even choose work over her.
This conclusion made her come to the conclusion that her father didn't love her, and with that she hardened her resolve to earn his love. But at the same time, it broke her apart. Sakura became indifferent to her father.
Now her father's hurting words didn't hurt as much. The pain of rejection didn't hurt as much. She just didn't care about her father. She didn't care about the love she was deprived by him, or the love her mother deprived her to give her father.
Sakura shrugged and walked out of the room. "Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter."
Team Seven had just returned from protecting the bridge-maker when her father came home from another mission.
Sakura's nerves were frazzled from the thought of losing Sasuke still, and she was sullen. When she saw her parents, she smiled and welcomed her father home and went to her room.
Not long after a knock came at her door, and her father walked in with her mother behind him. They sat down on either side of her and looked at each other over Sakura. "Honey, are you okay?" her dad asked.
"Hai, Otousan. Daijoubu desuka," she replied, smiling so faintly it looked like a grimace. "Was your mission good?"
"That's what I need to talk to you about, Sakura," he said, looking at her.
"Are you going on another one?"
"Well, yes. But it's not about that. I heard you went to Mist on a mission," her father said, sounding happy. "Did you like it there?"
"No. Sasuke-kun almost died. And the bridge-maker was almost killed. I was the weakling of the group again," she replied, indifferent. She shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "The only good thing for me was that I had the best chakra control, but that was only to be expected since I'm not trying to outdo the other two."
Sakura's mother Hitomi looked up in surprise. "You're not trying to impress the two men on your team?"
"No. There'd be no point. Sasuke-kun is unimpressed with everything, and Naruto would only be impressed if it had something to do with ramen. Can I go to bed now? I'm really tired from my mission," she lied.
Her parents nodded, and left. She lay down on her bed and put something on her side table. Sakura sighed, and picked up the pendent by its tether, and sighed again out of frustration.
She ran her finger around the grooves and stared at the picture before putting it down and laying her head level with it on a pillow. Ever since she could remember, Sakura had that pendent.
And she had yet to understand it.
It was a picture of a cherry blossom, with two toads and two slugs in four of the petals. There were also two snakes, and the entire pendent was cut like the Uzumaki's symbol¾a spiral. But the shape of the pendent was like the Uchiha fan, but upside-down because the piece of the fan was tied to the tether.
On the back was a Sharingan eye, and a seal. The seal transfixed Sakura, and when she was younger she would spend hours trying to figure out what it was for and what it did. But now the magic seemed gone, and it was the average pendent.
No matter what, the pendent would be near her. It was part of the magic. Almost like a superstition. Whenever she went away, it was tethered around her neck, and wherever she went, it was in arm's reach.
Sakura sighed and tied it back on.
"Sakura, we need to talk," Hitomi said, stopping her daughter as she went to bed that night. "It's important. Sit."
Sakura nodded and sat down on a couch in the front room. Her father was again on a mission, and due back any moment. There had been whispers around that the mission went wrong, and someone had died. But Sakura didn't believe that.
Though, now that she saw her mother's face maybe she should.
"Otousan died, didn't he?" Sakura asked.
"Hai. Demo...Anou...Sakura...There's something else you need to know," her mother said. "Your father and I were going to tell you when he got back, but we can't so...you're adopted."
To say Sakura was shocked would be an understatement. She didn't react outwardly except for her eyes bulging, but on the inside she was bursting, her head spinning, every evidence to prove her mother's words true rushing in her head.
"Is this real?" she asked.
"Yes. That pendent? Was a gift from your parents when you were adopted¾they had left you on our doorstep, and we took you in. I could have met your parents a thousand times, but I wouldn't know them."
"Do you have any idea who they could have been?" Sakura asked.
She looked strong, but really she was heartbroken and torn. First her real parents rejected her, then her adoptive parents. Was she that horrible a child that everyone hated her? What did she do? Inside she was crying, and nothing could stop it.
Though on the outside she was still as indifferent as possible. She had become emotionally fierce over the years, and the wall hiding them from people had grown strong with constant rejection and disappointment.
"They had to have been powerful. When we got you, the pendent was tethered to your neck and there was a note saying to keep it near you always. We went to the sandaime, and he told us that it was sealing in your powers, and you needed it until you could control them."
Sakura thought to her pendent. A toad, a slug, and a snake? What could they help ward off?
"Do you know my real name?"
"No. We were asked to call you Sakura because that was the picture on the pendent. And as for your birthday, the sandaime said to celebrate it on March 28, the first day of the Sakura festival."
Sakura nodded, and let it process. "I need some time to think...I'm going to go out for a little bit," she said, getting up and going to her room. She picked up the pendent and walked outside.
Post-Timeskip
At the time, Sakura didn't know why she had been out at the same time Sasuke was leaving Konoha. Sometimes she thought it was fate, sometimes she thought it was pure chance.
Never once did she see it as luck, as Ino came to refer to it as. Because what was so lucky about losing the one link to your parents? If anything, Sakura wanted to kill Sasuke for taking her pendent away.
But at least she learned what it meant. At first she was unable to control this surge of power, but Tsunade took her in, and made it one of her duties to teach Sakura to control them. She became another mother-figure to Sakura, and she was grateful for it.Especially when her adoptive mother died.
"Hey, Sakura, when does your shift end?" Shizune asked, TonTon in hand. "I want to take you and Ino out for the night. Girl's Night Out. Come on, you look like you need one."
Sakura smiled. "Aa. Just give me a few minutes." Sakura took off her coat and walked towards Tsunade's office. "Tsunade-sama?" she asked, knocking on the door before walking in. "Shizune and I are leaving now. My shift end...ed."
She trailed off, staring at the man in Tsunade's office. It had been ten years since Sasuke ran away from Konoha, but Sakura would recognize him anywhere. He was taller now, more slender, and even more handsome than when he was a kid, if that was even possible.
"Ah, Sakura-chan! Just who I wanted to see," Tsunade greeted, getting up and moving towards her. "Sasuke just came back to Konoha, and I have previous engagements that are extremely important. Can you watch him? I promise I'll be right back."
"Tsunade-sama, I can't! I have plans with Shizune," Sakura said.
"Please Sakura? These plans are important. And what did I tell you was the seventh lesson of all apprentices?"
Sakura sighed. "The apprentice must always be willing to forfeit their own plans if the sensei needs them to perform a task for them."
"Consider your task baby-sitting the Uchiha. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can. But I've had these plans for months. I'll tell Shizune you have to reschedule with her."
As Sakura watched Tsunade leave, she glared at the Uchiha. "Sit and stay silent. I don't have the patience right now," she ordered, sitting down in Tsunade's Hokage chair. She crossed her legs and rested an elbow on the armrest, her head rested on her hand. "Why are you back, anyways?"
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked. "Tsunade said I don't have to answer to anyone but her."
"Fine with me," Sakura muttered, closing her eyes and looking Sasuke dead in the eye. "Just remember that I can hold grudges. And don't try anything stupid."
"No, really. Who are you? You look familiar and all, but who are you?" Sasuke asked, looking really confused.
Sakura dropped her arm and her head hit the table, smacking her dropped jaw back into her teeth. "Ow!" she yelled, holding her face. Not the smoothest thing to do when she was trying to prove how much she matured.
And boy had she matured. Sasuke knew exactly who she was--who could forget the pink-haired girl that almost made him turn around? But she changed so much, he needed to hear her say she was still Sakura.
In place of an awkward-sized girl with a flat chest was a girl with a washboard stomach, curves, and well-proportioned breasts. Her hair changed from bubblegum pink to a silvery pink that complimented her ivory skin, and made her viridian eyes light up with a spark. For the first time Sasuke realized the eyes had flecks of blue in them.
"Are you okay? You sure are klutzy," he commented, sitting down in the seat across from Tsunade's desk. "When will Tsunade-sama be back, do you think?"
Sakura snorted. "Knowing her, not until tomorrow afternoon. She thinks nobody sees her come in late¾she'll no doubt have another round with Jiraiya-sama and then work on the hangover...or maybe in reverse...Why am I thinking about two horny old people?" she asked herself, slapping her forehead on the desk twice.
"How old are you?" Sasuke asked, not sure. Did Sakura turn twenty-two yet?
"I don't know. I think I'm twenty-one. I celebrate it on the first day of the Sakura festival if it helps," she said, shrugging.
"And what's your name?" he asked, confused. Sakura's birthday was March 28. He knew that. But why didn't she? Was this some imposter?
"I'm called Sakura Haruno, but I honestly don't know. If you had stayed in Konoha you would know what I was talking about," she shot, turning the chair and throwing her legs over one of the armrests, while her back rested against the other.
"How do you not know for sure?" he asked.
Was this twenty questions or something? Sakura stared at him like talking to an idiot. "If you stayed in Konha, you would have known, Sasuke-kun."
The way she said his name, once out of love and affection, now turned into malice and ice. Sasuke shivered and looked her dead in the eye. "You were the weak one on my team," he said, trying to get a rise.
Sakura "che'd" and picked a ball up off Tsunade's desk. "No shit, genius. And I believe you took something from me when you left Konoha. I want it back now. As in, right now."
So the little pendent was precious. Sasuke smiled. Bargaining chip. "I don't know what you mean. Would your mother know about your name and birthday if I asked her?"
"Have fun trying. I don't even know where she is. My other mother died the same day I woke up after you knocked me out and put me on a bench. Could you have at least left me somewhere comfy?"
"I'm so sorry it wasn't comfortable. What do you mean, other mother? You had two mothers? Like, lesbians?"
"No! Is that all guys think about?" she asked, mad. She started to toss the ball up and catch it, and sighed. "I was adopted. My other mother, Hitomi Haruno, died some time after I left the house to process what she said, to when I walked back in the house that afternoon."
Sasuke now dropped his jaw. Sakura was adopted? "So you have no idea about your family?"
The cherry blossom shrugged. "I know they were powerful, and they gave me that pendent to hold in my power. When you took away, I almost destroyed Konoha without meaning to. Tsunade stopped it though. she wanted to know where my pendent went."
Okay, so he almost felt bad for taking it. Almost. But he needed something to remember her by. What he got was something to remember everyone with¾his cherry blossom, Naruto, Kakashi...
"How did your parents know you'd be with Naruto and me and Kakashi?" Sasuke asked.
Sakura sighed and put the ball down. She had enough already. "I don't know. But that was precious to me, and you took it away. I offered to go, so don't say it was a memory of us or whatever the hell bullshit is in your head. I want my pendent back."
Sasuke shrugged and took it out of his pocket. "I'll give it to you if you give me something in return."
Great. He was bargaining with her. Were they two years old forcrying out loud? Had they started some kind of childish feud over a toy? This seemed like something the children in the hospital would do¾actually, because they had done it when she went to check up on Naruto and Hinata's daughter one day.
TenTen and Neji's daughter had gotten in a fight with her cousin, Kushina, and Konami offered to give Kushina back her toy if Konami could spend the day with Naruto. The children were both two now, and Konami had already come to idolize her uncle Naruto.
"What, Sasuke? What could possibly be worth my pendent?" she asked, annoyed.
"You," he replied simply. "I want you."
Sakura snorted, and blew him a kiss. At least, he thought she did until the pendent started to glow and flew from his hand straight to the waiting hand of Sakura. It glowed a deep pink, and Sakura nodded.
"This isn't the academy anymore, Sasuke-kun," she said, looking at the pendent and running her finger of the patterns, as was her routine since she was young. "I'm not as week as I was, nor will I be."
"I never thought you were that weak," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. "You weren't memorable, but you weren't weak. What did you just do?"
"Called it back to me," she replied, shrugging. All she had to do was use enough chakra that it seemed she no longer had control of her powers. Whoever made it was ingenious, and whoever her parents were must have known about this.
Actually, Tsuande and Jiraiya knew too. Tsunade was the one who taught her to call it back, but she never had the chance to try it out.
A few minutes passed, and all Sakura did was trace the patterns. Two sets of a toad, a slug, and a snake on a total of six cherry blossom petals. the Uzumaki symbol and the Uchiha symbol. She turned it over and traced the seal and the Sharingan eye, smiling faintly.
Suddenly a whirl came into the room and Sakura sighed, holding down a pile of papers she helped Tsunade with earlier that day. "Naruto!" Sakura yelled.
Naruto stopped spinning and laughed sheepishly at Sakura. "Gomen, Sakura-chan. I heard Sasuke was back, so I had to come see if it was true. Teme!" he yelled, seeing Sasuke. "But Sakura shouldn't be baby-sitting you¾where's Tsunade-baachan?"
Sakura sighed, putting the pendent in front of her and watching it twirl. "I really wish I knew¾I had pans to go out with Shizune. Ino, she and I were going to have a Girl's Night Out."
"Yeah! You three should have¾you haven't done anything like that since the baby started to show," Naruto agreed. "It's a few months now¾it should be fine¾take Hinata. She worries I'm corrupting the kid."
"Because knowing you, you probably are corrupting my niece!" she said. "Kenichi's a whole year old now. I wish I could go out."
"Sakura-chan, you had a kid?" Sasuke asked.
He was shocked, and felt a little more than betrayed. She was supposed to bear the Uchiha heir, and be his wife. It had always been her dream¾what changed? Who was she with now? Who dared to fuck with his girl and get her pregnant? Who the fuck dared to destroy his image of a family with some other kid?
"Please," Sakura snorted, putting the pendent down. "Ino and Shikamaru had a son. Kawaii-desu! Naruto, where is Kushina-chan? I want to see Kushina-chan!"
Naruto laughed. "You're just as bad as Konami, you know. I went to see the Hyuuga family before coming here¾she almost knocked me out because I didn't bring Kushina."
He got a sad look, that Sakura knew all too well. Sasuke noticed it two, and without meaning to they both came to Naruto and gave him a huge group hug. It was loneliness, and remembering his family long passed.
"You miss your mom, huh?" Sakura asked softly, not minding how Sasuke's arms felt around hers as she hugged Naruto with him. It almost felt right. "Do you know anything more about her?"
He shook his head. "Iie. All I know now is what Jiraiya told me. He's a pretty cool godfather. I just wish we at least knew who your parents were, Sakura-chan."
She shrugged, going to the desk and picking up the pendent.
Sasuke felt different now that Sakura was out of his grasp, and he knew why. Over the past two years he had done a lot of thinking, mostly about her. He had come to the conclusion that he was in love with Sakura, and always had been.
The pendent was passed to Naruto and he stared at it for a moment. He flipped it over, and then flipped it back to the side with the cherry blossom again. He looked at Sakura, then Sasuke, and then pointed to himself, muttering something.
Sakura couldn't take the silence. "It's the pendent I told you about¾that Sasuke took. That's all I know about my parents."
He looked at the group again, then looked like it dawned on him. "Why did they use these exact symbols?" he asked.
The cherry blossom sighed and shrugged. "I don't know. If I did, then it would be a lot less of a mystery who my parents were."
In all the years Sasuke had it, he never studied it. But it dawned on him as well that something was off. He looked at it, and thought hard.
A toad, a slug, and a snake. Three symbols in three petals¾in and order, not just randomly. The pattern was a snake, a toad, and then a slug on one set of petals. But at the bottom it was a slug and a toad, then a snake.
"Sakura-chan, what's Tsunade-sama in charge of?" Sasuke asked, looking closely.
A snake, Orochimaru. A toad...that was Naruto's sannin, wasn't it?
"She's in charge of Konoha," Sakura told him, as if talking to a slow child. "That's the village you left to be with the snake-man."
As if her words slapped her, Sakura stared shocked. Orochimaru was a snake! Naruto had always talked to her about ero-sannin controlling frogs, and she knew that Tsunade was the princess of slug magic.
Naruto nodded, and pointed them out. "Here are the sannin¾they could represent us in a few years. We were all taught by them, and we can control the same animal they can¾it would make sense. This order, Orochimaru, Ero-sannin, and Tsunade-baachan? That was the way you met them, ne Sakura-chan?"
She nodded, hearing steps outside the door. She was horrified to see Tsunade walk in attached to Jiraiya by the lips. And not just by the lips. What the¾
"How the hell can you guys fuck with clothes on?" Sakura asked. "And why are you guys fucking each other all around Konoha? Tsunade, you knew the Uchiha and I were in here waiting. A little decency for my young virgin eyes, please?" she snapped.
"Sakura!" Jiraiya gasped, stopping what he was doing with Tsunade and pulling his pants back up completely. She hadn't seen that, she hadn't seen that. "I thought you said Sakura took the Uchiha home already!" Jiraiya whined.
"I thought she would have. What's Naruto doing here?" Tsunade asked, smoothing out her clothes. "Sak, that's why our clothes are still on. Difficult, annoying, but nobody in Konoha noticed. Except for you, but you're just too perceptive for a kid."
"I'm here, just being just as creeped out as the other two," Naruto replied, shrugging as his face contorted. Then he showed them the pendent. "Do either of you two know what the symbols all mean?" he asked.
Tsunade paled and Jiraiya's eyes bugged-out. It couldn't be...
Tsunade said the girl had disappeared, died¾that damn thing came back to haunt him! Just like the memories of what could've been.
"Where did you get that?" Jiraiya asked, whispering as he stood transfixed by it.
Naruto shrugged. "Ask those two¾it was here when I got here."
"I took it from Sakura when I was leaving Konoha," Sasuke said, a little ashamed of what he did, a little embarrassed to admit it, and disturbed by catching two of the sannin going at it.
"I got it from my parents," Sakura said, taking it from Naruto. She gripped it tightly and felt it warm up. Something was definitely up. "My real parents. Tsunade, can you tell me about it? You promised you would help me find my parents someday."
Tsunade sighed and took her seat. She motioned for Sakura to give her the pendent, and Sakura gave it up reluctantly. The elder lady looked at it and a soft smiled graced her lips.
Still it was so precious to Sakura after so many years. How could it not warm her heart that the young kunoichi still cared so much? She still cared to know her true family.
"It was forged after speaking to a prophet," Tsunade said, never looking up. "At first it wasn't intended for you, but it became yours. Jiraiya and I were there with Orochimaru and the sandaime when it was forged."
"The prophet would forge by hand pendants of all his seeings," Jiraiya said, understanding what Tsunade was trying. Until she was ready to tell Sakura, he wouldn't either. He was content to know who she was at least¾to have peace with himself. "We were there when he saw a future."
"A cherry blossom will grow, but biologically it must be dead. It will grow great and strong, despite the struggles¾not the last on the tree, but one that will bloom to be the envy of all others," Tsunade started to recite.
She remembered the scene perfectly, from the smoky haze and intense heat of the fire he melted and molded the metal from, to the choking smell of sulfur and burning metal, to the clinking of tools shaping new pieces together. And over all that, the booming and deep voice of the prophet, Miyavi.
Two that stand before me will become one. They shall conceive a child, and another before me will be the godfather to her. But the two shall be torn apart by another love, and the love for their daughter," Miyavi said.
Tsunade whined, stomping her foot. "I'm the only girl here though! Do I have to have a girl? Besides, why would I procreate with any of them?" she asked, annoyed.
"Ah, come on, Nade-chan," Orochimaru said, rolling his eyes. "Neither you or Jiraiya hide very well that you're in love."
"We are not!" Jiraiya protested. Well, she wasn't. He had always loved Tsunade, and always would. But he was a bit perverted, and as he grew older he knew the perverseness would increase.
She humphed again, and listened on to Miyavi.
"To save their child, the two part from the cherry blossom. Over time, she will blossom and be strong, too strong to control, and if not sealed away her powers shall consume her and those around her. Until she matures and harnesses them, she may never know of them.
"The parents keep hidden, though never too far away, to protect her when she needs protection. She grows with another family, named for the spring field and the cherry blossom knows nothing of her biology until the father dies."
"Oh, lovely," Jiraiya said, frowning and rolling his eyes. "One of us will die. I have things to do¾can I not die young? Sorry Nade-chan, I'm not going to sleep with you, as much as you always wanted me to.""Technically you can s-s-s-still s-s-s-s-sleep with Nade-chan," Orochimaru pointed out, blushing that he was hissing. Damn, he hated being a snake-like person. It was so mortifying. "The kid wouldn't know you're the father--maybe he meant the father that adopts-s-s-s-s her."
"She will join the ranks of the ninja, and be teamed with a man with the eye of another as their trainer. A loud blonde boy with evil residing within him, and a powerful legacy he is ignorant to, an orphan. Then there will be a stoic one, but a powerful one nonetheless, with a legacy and a horrific past.
"One by one, those standing before me shall appear in her life as figures. First shall be the hokage. Next will be the godfather at a crucial point in both lives, and imposing himself upon her companion."
"Hey! I don't rape people!" Jiraiya whined at the same time as Orochimaru.
Miyavi ignored them, though Sarutobi could have sworn he saw the prophet roll his eyes at the young men's shenanigans. "The next shall be her true father, teaching another of her companions."
"I told you that you wouldn't die," Orochimaru said, whispering to Jiraiya. "Now go bang Nade-chan."
The girl looked at them with a death glare and they shut up.
"Then finally her mother, who shall take her on as an apprentice. The daughter will far surpass the mother, and it will stay concealed until the girl reacquaints herself with a companion¾the one forced by her godfather, and her true love."
Tsunade snapped back to attention at the sound of Sakura snapping her fingers.
"Tsunade-sama, do you know her my parents are?" she asked.
It broke her heart to have to hide it from Sakura, but it was for her best. She didn't cover her trails for nothing.
Jiraiya knew he couldn't tell Sakura¾him and Tsunade. But Tsunade had been torn from him by Dan, and when Sakura was still young Tsunade had told him their child had died, making Miyavi wrong.
And now he knew that Miyavi had been right the whole time. He had known since their childhood what would go on. Their futures.
"Sakura-chan?" Sasuke asked, looking concerned at her and Tsunade. He hugged her and patted her head. "I don't think Tsuande knows. But it's okay. You have a family still¾you have Naruto and me."
"And you know, maybe you should have gone home with Sasuke¾in a strictly platonic way to patch up your friendship and looking towards a romantic future, not to screw him," Naruto said, avoiding kunai Sakura slyly threw at him.
Jiraiya laughed and smiled at the cherry blossom before looking at Tsunade. "I bet Miyavi's laughing at us right now," Jiraiya said. "And Orochimaru would be right there beside him."
Tsunade laughed softly and looked at the scene. Was it okay to tell Sakura yet? In her heart, she knew it was.
"Sakura, I know who your parents are," Tsuande said, making the whole room turn to face her. "And I'm sorry you have to see them earlier. Next time I won't listen to Jiraiya when he's feeling so kinky and wants to try it on my des¾"
"You're my parents?" Sakura asked, shocked.
It all made sense. The slug, the toad, the snake. Orochimaru was her godfather, as Naruto was her godbrother. Her name matched with the symbol, but the others were still a mystery.
"When's my real birthday, then," she said.
"March 28. Sarutobi would have known that¾he was there when I gave birth," she said, rolling her eyes. "As was a very ecstatic Jiraiya."
"You were having my daughter...was I supposed to be sad we created a life?" he countered, hugging Sakura as she rushed into his arms. He kissed her forehead and smiled. "A wonderful, beautiful life." And then he glared at Tsunade. "That someone told me had died in the hospital."
"What's with the Sharingan, then? And the clan symbols?" Sasuke asked.
"Come here," Tsunade ordered, pointing to each symbol. "The Sharingan for Kakashi with his one eye, the three symbols of us to represent her team's future sannin status."
"The top two for when we would come back to Sakura's life," Jiraiya said, assisting Tsunade with Sakura still tucked under his arm in a hug. "The one's below to represent parenthood--mother, father, godfather. The Uzumaki symbol to represent long-lasting ties and surrogate family."
Sasuke nodded, then waited to hear about the Uchiha fan. Jiraiya merely handed him Sakura and came to stand beside Tsunade and put a hand on her shoulder. Tsunade smiled and put her hand over his, and Sakura smiled at them.
Sasuke wrapped his arms around Sakura protectively, then braced for the last answer. He kissed Sakura's neck, making her gasp in surprise, then rested his chin in the apex of her neck and shoulder. "And the Uchiha fan? Why is it shaped like the fan?" he asked.
The grown-ups shared a smiled, and replied in unison, "True love and marriage."
Jiraiya added, "Family and life. It's because your futures will be together. You love each other."
Sakura turned bright red, and Sasuke whispered to her. "I do love you."
"Is this real, or open to interpretation?" Sakura asked. "Because, I do love Sasuke-kun, but I'm not forcing him into a marriage."
"You don't have to¾when we gave birth to you we made a deal with Fugaku. You two have been engaged since birth."
"And as much as you want to, you can't fight destiny," Jiraiya teased.
"No, but you can be pissed at people for not telling you they already decided your future," Sakura replied, looking at her parents with rolled eyes. "Did I get any say in this arrangement? How about Sasuke? What if we didn't love each other? What if¾"
"Sakura?" Sasuke asked.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up and just kiss me. I've been waiting too long for this moment to let your blabbing ruin it," he told her, not even waiting for her protest.