"Teme, have you seen Sakura-chan lately?" Naruto asked Sasuke when he came to Sasuke's door at six in the morning.
He blinked and opened his eyes wider, trying to stay awake. "Do you know what time it is, Naruto?" he asked, yawning. He had been up all night trying to find Sakura. And now he was being woken up at five, three hours later, to find where Sakura was. "She's out on a mission."
Naruto nodded his head in recognition of his words and shrugged. "Has she come to see you lately? She said she would come talk to you. Did she?"
"Iie. She's been avoiding me since she got back. Do you why?" Sasuke asked.
It was driving him mad that the girl he liked was avoiding him. Almost as mad as when he first admitted he liked her.
"Well...no. I know she's been really into her work since you got back, and she's been asking Tsunade-baachan for a lot of missions away from Konoha. Sakura-chan said she just needed to get away. I knew she was avoiding you, but she never said why."
Sasuke smirked quickly and then shut the door softly on Naruto. He had noticed that too. Sakura was finding reasons to avoid him for a year now, and he was getting really mad. He went to find her because he realized she wouldn't come to him.
His first hint was when she was assigned to be his doctor during house-arrest. She had other nurses come check on him while she went on other missions and worked at the hospital.
The door knocked, and he opened it to reveal Kakashi. "Yo," he greeted.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, annoyed.
"We have a mission. Naruto and you are coming with Neji and me to meet with Sakura and assist her. Tsunade thinks she may have gotten hurt, and needs us."
Sasuke nodded silently and packed his things while Kakashi waited in the living room.
This was it. His chance to be with Sakura, and force her back into his life.
Sakura choked on blood again, and waited until she had enough strength to heal her chest. She leaned against a tree, and sighed. She looked to Sai and grimaced to him.
"Does it still hurt?" he asked, lying against a tree across from her and a bit to the side.
"Yeah. It's not that easy to just stop hurting, no matter how good I get. Can you hold my torso straight?" she asked. "I want to heal it, but I'd be crooked for life if I healed it back wrong."
Sai nodded and lifted her to her feet. True enough, her body slumped to the until Sai held her waist and felt for where her ribs were supposed to meet. They had cracked straight through and the only reason Sakura's upper and lower halves were connected was because her spine had not cracked.
The girl healed it, and winced. "Sai, a little looser. That hurts, you ass!"
"Sorry," he apologized.
At the age of eighteen, Sai was able to earn back all his emotions, and remembered his past. Now, at the age of twenty-one, he remembered that he and Sakura were cousins, and he finally realized why he called her ugly and a hag--he always had.
She was younger than him by three years, and sometimes she acted it. They had grown close, and even shared a house together. They kept each other's secrets, and treated each other as brother and sister. But sometimes, Sakura acted like they were the same age, and Sai believed she was older than him.
There was a noise in the bushes and Sai acted quickly. He threw a kunai in the bushes, and heard a strangled noise that sounded oddly like a certain dickless kyuubi vessel he knew. "Hey, Hag? Are you okay if I go check that out?" he asked, still holding her.
She glared at him and took his hands from her waist. "Yes. Now stop squishing my ribs! I told you to hold me looser--that hurts, hurts, hurts! I don't care if they're healed, that still hurts like shit!"
Sai smiled apologetically and walked towards the bushes, kunai raised. He went to stab them, only to stop and straightened up.
He looked back and Sakura and laughed. "It's White-Eye, Mask-Face, Dickless and Emo Kid," he said, referring to them by nickname. "They're harmless. False alarm."
Sakura's jaw dropped. Sasuke was there? She knew, somehow, that Tsunade would be sending reinforcements just because of the mission, but damn. She was trying to avoid him.
Sasuke walked out of the bushes last, glaring at Sai. He saw that. Was Sai the reason Sakura was avoiding him? Because she was in love with Sai now?
Sakura smiled at the group, and Neji asked why she was injured. She replied it wasn't nearly as bad as it was and not to worry, and Sai snorted and told Neji she went kamikaze. They got in a fight, and Sasuke had to wonder if they really were in love if they fought this way.
"People!" Kakashi yelled, making them stop. Sakura was just starting to strangle Sai, and Kakashi sighed. "Sai, she's obviously better now. Sakura, stop strangling him. As entertaining as family feuds are, can we find out the game-plan?" he yelled.
Sakura shrugged, letting go of Sai so he could gasp for air. "The mission's simple. I have to kill my brother, my adoptive brother, and two of my cousins. Family feuds on steroids! It's going to be sick!" she said. She high-fived Sai and the boy laughed.
Neji sighed and shook his head. "Can we have some kind of plan? Any details about who we're fighting?"
Finally something Sasuke understood. What about family feuds? Sakura and Sai fighting wasn't a family feud. They would have to be family to have a family feud, and he didn't hang out with Sai much, but he was pretty sure the dark-haired boy wasn't related to Sakura, pink-hair extraordinaire.
"We don't really have much of a game-plan. They're more powerful than we thought at first. Maybe we should start with a run-through about them and their abilities before we start planning."
"By all means," Kakashi said, sitting on a stump. "How did you get this hurt so early? Sai, are any of them your brothers?"
"Hardly," he replied, leaning up against a tree. "Kisa-kun used to act like one. He sure is a hell of a bitch-ass, ne Hag?"
She snorted and looked at him like he grew bat wings. "Don't look at me. You're just pissy-ass at him 'cause he beat you back down when you two fought. I told you I would handle it."
Sai shrugged, and they all sat down in a circle. As it got late, Naruto and Sai went out to get firewood, and Neji listened to Sakura as she informed them about the men. Sasuke sat silently next to Sakura, and somehow she felt it was right, despite the awkwardness between them as well.
"We had an early run-in with them," she started, looking at the fire as it burned away after an hour of being lit. Her legs were bent, and she held her knees for comfort. "It wasn't expected, and we had no plan--we were supposed to be still another day and a half behind them."
They knew who the men were, but Sakura had yet to explain the skills they possessed¾her brother, Yuki, and her cousins Kisame and Kabuto. Then their was her adoptive brother, Pein. Sasuke hadn't known Sakura had a brother, or an adopted brother.
He would have to ask her later.
"Even as a child I was stronger than Yuki. I came from the Kazama clan originally, as I think all here know. From all the elements the Kazama reside over, Yuki had only fifty-eight of the hundred and seventy-two kekkei genkai, while I had all of them."
Sasuke's eyes bulged, and he looked at Sakura. Sakura had always been a Haruno, for as long as he had known her. And for her to have so many kekkei genkai she wouldn't be so weak. Why hadn't she used any?
"Ne, Saku-chan?" Naruto asked. "How many do the other members have?"
She shrugged, sighing. "Of who there was, and the few left, the numbers are unsure. But the only one to rival my kekkei genkai was my grandfather, and he had only a hundred and twenty-six. Kisame has only two, and Kabuto has sixteen."
Sai glared into the fire, and Sasuke wondered why. Kisa-kun used to act like one. That's right. Sai felt Sakura's cousin was like his brother. Did it hurt to hear her talk of him?
Naruto smirked at Sai, and turned to Sakura. "How many does Sai have?"
So that's where this was going. Sakura knew she should be mad at Naruto, but she couldn't be. She was still fazed by the earlier battle, and she wanted so much to break down and cry. But Sasuke was here, so she had to be strong.
Her emotions had been strong and confusing when she fought with her family. The last time she saw them, they had turned away from her and done something she could never forget.
All but Kabuto had committed murder, and he had instead committed treason.
"Sai has either none, or one. I feel one's presence, but it would be a new kekkei genkai, because I can't identify it. We only knew there were so many because some families didn't have one single kekkei genkai the same. Like Gaara-niichan's family. Tema-neechan, Kuro-kun...none of them have a single kekkei genkai the same, and they each have forty-odd."
Sasuke's head snapped up. She was related to the kazekage? Wait, why should Sai have a kekkei genkai for Sakura's clan?
"Oi, what about our ancestor?" Sai asked.
Sakura shrugged. "Okay, so two reasons. The founder of the clan, Kanon Kazama, had all hundred and seventy-two. He married a prophet, and they had sixteen or so kids, but none had the same number of kekkei genkai. It was recorded all those years ago that there would one day be a descendent with them all again."
Sai smiled. "Hag was the prophecy. Everyone knew it. It was almost her grandfather and I think he was pissed about it."
"Sai, not now," Naruto said, looking at Sakura.
She was lost in her own world, caught within the fire. He knew that feeling well. Like she was lost, confused, and there was no set way in her mind. Like up was down and down was up. And if she didn't figure things out, she would burn, all the time it seemed like death was coming closer and closer to the point of suffocation.
"Saku-chan, go on," Naruto told her.
"I went for Yuki first, but he fought me back. I tried all seven oto-genkai, and he blocked them all with his own. He beat me, and tore me in half...I have never been beaten by my brother, and I was shamed mercilessly by being beaten so easily."
Neji spoke up. "So Yuki trained hard? He wants to beat you--he's older than you by several years, maybe he wanted to win more to prove to you that he's your elder."
She nodded and murmured, "Seven years older."
"We have to keep a strong eye on Yuki, but how about the others?"
Sai shrugged and walked closer to the fire from his spot at a tree. "We don't know. I can say watch your back for Kabuto, and be quick on your feet 'cause he throws the senbon around, but the other two stayed back. Saku-chan was literally torn in two. That's what she was healing when you guys snuck up on us. Her ribs were cut straight through her chest to the point they disconnected from her lower body."
Sasuke looked at Sakura, who was silent. So that's what they were doing.
He couldn't believe her. To bear such excruciating pain, and go on...He wasn't sure he could do it. And yet, here was the weakling of Team Seven. She had been broken in half, and was now planning to fight again.
They all agreed it was late enough, and would head to bed. Sakura got up, and started to go in the opposite direction of the men, but Sasuke grabbed her wrist and asked her to wait.
She nodded, and moved to lean on a tree and survey her body. What was considered minor, she hadn't treated. She took the time now to heal it, and waited for the men to go to sleep. Sasuke wanted to talk in private.
When they did finally start to sleep, Sakura spoke up. "What did you want?" she asked.
"For a damn explanation," he replied, standing up and facing her. "You've been avoiding me since I came back. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I've just...been busy."
"Che," he replied, looming in front of her. "Too busy to visit me when I was stuck in the hospital? Too busy to come yourself and check on me when you were ordered to? Why? Were you afraid or something?"
She cast her eyes down. Damn it, he shouldn't be here! He was wrecking the perfect layer of normalcy she created. "Yes. I was afraid. I've been afraid since I was a child. Ask Sai, and he'd say I was afraid since I was born."
He punched the tree behind her and she gasped. "Sai this, Sai that. What is he to you? Why is he so important?" he asked. He leaned in closer to her and breathed on her lips. "Is he more important to you than me?"
She looked him in the eye and saw things she never thought she'd see. Love, pain, hope, betrayal, sadness. For some reason, in that second she acted on an immense feeling of love, and kissed him, long and hard.
She back away and licked her lips, savoring the taste of Sasuke. "No. No one could mean more to me than you. He might come close, but not the same way I feel for you. I love you."
He was almost happy, but he wasn't a fool. "What do you mean he comes close?"
She laughed softly. "Sai's my cousin. I still love him, but not the same way I love you. I love Sai like a cousin, but you like--"
The sentence trailed off, as Sasuke kissed her deeply. He pushed her hard against the tree, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as instinct. They broke apart and Sasuke smiled. genuinely, honestly smiled.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear that," he told her. "But why did you avoid me if you love me?"
"Avoiding the inevitable, just like I've done with Yuki. I knew if I saw you, I'd have to admit that I still love you fully and with my whole being. Just like I knew when I met with Yuki again I'd have to fight him."
"Why are you fighting your brother?" Sasuke asked. "I never knew you had a brother--and this Kazama thing? Tell me what's going on."
She nodded and unwrapped her legs, bringing him with her to her sleeping bag. He left for a second, and returned with his and laid it next to hers. She smiled, and dug herself deep into it.
"I was adopted by the Haruno when I was young. Before then, I had lived in the Village of the Mist with the Kazama clan, my clan. Have you heard of them?"
Sasuke nodded. "I heard they were annihilated like mine. They were just destroyed before my clan, though. Only a few survived, but none would be able to revive the clan. Was it--"
"Yuki did it," she replied, looking at a patch of grass. "My brother killed everyone on the compound, but me. Kisame and Kabuto helped, and I thought it was some kind of nightmare at first. When they went to leave, I chase after them..."
Sasuke stayed silent as she trailed off, and waited for her to continue.
"Yuki was the only one that turned around. He told me to grow strong in hatred for them so I could be a challenge to him, and said thank you. He poofed behind me, and I thought he'd kill me, but instead he said thank you again and knocked me out. I guess someone put me back in my room, because I woke up in it.
"I came downstairs yelling to my mother about a nightmare I had, and found my parents murdered at the dinner table--my dad was still eating some beef while he was bloody and slumped over the table. I screamed and ran into the rest of the compound, but no one was there. Only corpses...
"I went and traveled to Suna, where Gaara-niichan and his family lived. Sai had been living with them for about two years, and Gaara-niichan's mother was my father's sister. A reason the clan can't be revived. Both Sai and the Subaku Three have different surnames. All the surnames of the survivors were something other than Kazama, except Yuki and me.
"Sai was sent away to recover from ROOT because the Subaku could do no more for him. I was sent to Konoha to live with Jiraiya, an old family-friend. But the Haruno had asked him adamantly to let them adopt me, and I came to be their daughter."
Sasuke stayed silent for a moment. "You were almost raised by ero-sannin?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I did for a year, as a Haruno. They had already adopted a son, Nagato when I came to live with them. He's the leader of the Akatsuki now. Pein. At the time, he was my older brother and I idolized him as much as I did my own. And in the end, he killed the Haruno and turned to be just the same as Yuki."
Sasuke stayed silent and looked at Sakura. How had he missed in all those years her suffering? She had faced so much, and so much like him, but turned the way she viewed it.
While he saw it as a reason to turn cold and distant, she was positive and hid away the thoughts.
Sakura looked at him and laughed softly. "That was the year I was raised by Jiraiya. He taught me a lot, and he was really important to me. I would have gone after Yuki and Pein then, if Jiraiya hadn't taught me. That's what they wanted me to do--be like you."
"What's wrong with being like me?" he asked, slightly offended. "When Itachi killed everybody I devoted myself to be strong enough to beat him."
"Yeah, but how much fun did you have? You have to forget everything but your hatred for them, and anything that could distract you from reaching that goal as young as you can. That'd suck."
He looked horrified, and Sakura laughed. She kissed him softly and then went on.
"Jiraiya said there were two things to do: act accordingly, or act adverse. I went for adverse. Their attempt was to alienate me from my peers and lock myself into myself, which would lead to my destruction in a battle because I had no one willing to back me up."
"And I fell right into what they wanted," Sasuke said, banging his head into the dirt.
"No. I didn't let you. I saw that coming, so I was there for you. You didn't notice that? Naruto and I both held onto you so you wouldn't lose it. Of course, the only time I ever did save you, you were unconscious, so that doesn't count."
Sasuke laughed, and hugged Sakura. "I love you," he told her.
She smiled and leaned into him, hugging him back and resting her head on his shoulder. "I love you too. I always have...and I always will."
The next morning, everyone woke up to see Sasuke and Sakura in their sleeping bags cuddling. Instead of getting all gooey like the rest of the group, Sai sighed and whacked both of them awake.
"Wake up, love birds!" he yelled.
In response, he was punched by Sakura with some of her chakra. "Fuck you, Sai," she mumbled.
Nevertheless, they did get up and ready. It was decided they would meet up with the men and fight them again. Sasuke looked over to Sakura to see her expression and if she was okay. His response was a stiff jaw and a serious look with determination, and Sakura pulling on her fingerless gloves.
She tightened the straps, and nodded to move on. She wasn't going to be a sweet little girl¾what they were all used to seeing. It was her time to prove herself, and break them all down.
The group from Konoha started to move, and Sai would ask every so often if Sakura could feel their patterns nearby.
"Sai, they might be concealing them!" Sasuke said.
"Which I would be able to detect," Sakura replied, next to him. "I told you, I have a hundred and seventy-two kekkei genkai. I can sense the chakra-patterns of masking just as well as chakra. This is like cat and mouse right now. There's only a matter of time now before we pick it up and the chase begins," she said.
"Sasuke, you would be amazed at what Sakura can do," Neji said. "This girl bested the byaakugan and gentle-fist. Her chakra levels are impeccable."
"Bottomless," she replied, smiling. "I've been told I have really sucky chakra control and the only reason I don't die of chakra exhaustion is because it doesn't exist in me. But I can still feel pulls of it sometimes. Chakra exhaustion is like drinking. It occurs to me when I use large amounts in under an hour."
"Can we focus on the mission?" Kakashi asked.
"No. Saku-chan's a funner topic. Teme, Sakura has a kekkei genkai for bottomless chakra, and a kekkei genkai to align her chakra system into her blood-stream. It's impossible to stop her blood flow because her chakra automatically heals her, and you can't stop her chakra unless you stop her blood flow. It's so cool!" Naruto replied.
In an instant, Sakura jumped back in the air and missed a kunai thrown in the spot she just was. "I sense them. They're coming fast," she replied, staying in the air.
Suddenly there was a rain of senbon, and Sakura spun in the air, causing an electric field and sending them back. Sasuke took out his ninjato and readied to fight.
"I call Kisame if Sai helps," he said, thinking it the best. Sai knew how Kisame fought, but he was the better combat-fighter.
"I have Kabuto," Kakashi replied, uncovering his Sharingan eye. "Naruto, help me out."
"Dattebayo!" he replied, smiling when it made annoyed look cross everyone's face.
"Neji?" Kakashi asked. "What about you?"
"I'll distract Pein, but I don't know how well I'll fight him," Neji replied. "If I fail to beat him, Sakura do you have my back?"
"I have all your backs. But I call killing Yuki," she replied, ending the field and rushing forward, still in air.
When she got about seven feet from the ground, she put her hands out engulfed in red chakra and hit a barrier straight on, turning it from invisible to blue. The barrier shattered, and the targets sprang out.
Yuki and Sakura were quick to act, and started throwing kicks and punches at each other as soon as the barrier was down. Kisame started out for Sai, but Sasuke blocked for him and fought back with all he was worth. Kabuto went straight for Kakashi, and Neji watched as Pein stayed back and watched the men fight.
"You're the one I'm supposed to fight," Pein said to Neji.
"Hn."
"Do you want me to attack first?" he asked, apathetic. "I'd prefer to watch the siblings fight, but I can fight you if you want."
Neji frowned. What the hell? "Are you proposing--"
"A temporary truce. Neither of us fight, until one of the Kazama dies. Do you agree?" he asked, only to get his head chopped off by Sasuke when he got kicked back by Kisame.
"Oh, sorry, Neji," he said when he saw what he had done. "I didn't mean to take your fight. Do you want mine now?"
The Hyuuga looked in awe. Pein was killed, just like that? He didn't even get to hit him! He huffed and leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing to watch the fighting. So the great leader of the Akatsuki was defeated that easily. Damn!
Not long after, Kakashi sighed and leaned next to Neji. "So you didn't even get to fight?" he asked. "Damn, that sucks."
Neji scowled and went to watch Kisame fight the two Konoha ninja. Then something hit him. "Where did Naruto go?"
Kakashi shrugged. "He finished Kabuto off, but then I think he went to the bushes to alleviate himself. That's why he finished it so quickly--he kept complaining he had to."
"Oh," Neji replied.
Sasuke and Sai soon finished Kisame, but it seemed the bluish-man was holding on long enough to give his cousins one last message. "Sai?" Kisame whispered as he leaned on his sword. He was spurting blood from his chest and bleeding out his mouth, but he stood strong. "Come here."
The young man did as he was told, and walked close, having a painting he had drawn take Kisame's sword away. "Kisa-kun," he greeted.
"Arigatou," he said. "I'm sorry it had to end like this. Tell Sakura I love her still. I just couldn't see the way they treated her anymore. Not the kidoko. She means too much to all of us."
Sasuke froze and turned. "What did you say?" he demanded.
"Oi. You're Itachi's little brother...Sakura was the prophetic child. Everyone knew someone would come that held on the kekkei genkai. And when they found Sakura, they practically tortured her."
What? Sasuke could feel his blood rising and the need to kill someone. "How?" he asked, his grip on the ninjato tightening.
"Training day in and day out, forcing her to miss meals to listen in on the elders' meetings, having her go without sleep to hear from masters about the different kekkei genkai, taking her away from the other children and not allowing her to act as a child so that she could grow up and lead the clan. Do you remember?" he asked Sai.
Sai nodded. "The plan was that she would lead the clan by the age of ten. I had to watch her dwindle into a husk of what she was. Men would come to court her, and...and the three of you would try ad save her."
Kisame nodded. "We figured we were losing when she was arranged to marry some old geezer when she took the lead. So...we were poor losers. But tell me she was better¾" Kisame choked, coughing up blood.
He couldn't finish, as he bled too much. He let out a blood curdling scream, and collapsed. Sai froze, then screamed and ran to his dead cousin. "Kisa-kun? Kisa-kun! Kisa-kun!" he yelled, crying.
"Does it hurt Sakura?" Yuki taunted, missing then dodging her again. "Kisame just died. I'm the last thing you have. Do you want to stop while you still have family?"
She closed her eyes as she blocked a hit. Everyone is leaving. So few are left. Can I kill my own brother? I idolized him for years. I still love him, no matter what he did. Can I kill him?
Sakura blocked another punch and went reeling back. "Oto wo genkai!" Yuki yelled.
Yes, she thought, breathing in deep. Yes, I can kill him. "Oto wo genkai!" she yelled as well, opening her eyes.
In a burst of light and power, the area was surrounded in a blast of dust. The men in the area were thrown back, and when it cleared Sakura was standing strong against Yuki.
"Face it, Sakura, you listened to the old pervert and you lost everything you needed to fight me. I will win, and you will die for being weak!"
"I hate you!" she yelled, reverberating around the area. "I loved you, idolized you¾held you above everything else. I would have done anything for you. And then you killed everyone else. I hate you!" she yelled.
They went on to fight, and used their sound-limits to fight through the air. "Rythmically moving, emotions are rising," Sakura sang, the music haunting Yuki into his spot.
While she sang hers, Yuki was singing another. "You ready? Let's go!" he yelled, breaking up the haunting and forcing Sakura to go into the song to the power of it.
"Life's real, when angels and serpents dance," she sang four times. Every time, she threw a fire ball at Yuki, and was countered by one of his own. Every time he threw one to her, she would block it with water. "Who's leading? Leading you?"
Suddenly, something hit Yuki. Something hit him hard enough that he was cut down to his legs and gasped for air. Sakura froze, panting as she watched her brother convulse, ready for a lash out at her.
After a few seconds, he stared her in the eye and she gasped.
There was her idol again.
The brother she loved and would have done anything for. She ended it by taking his life. But there in his eyes was the love and hope he once showered her with, and a happiness that shone through all the pain.
"I'd see you in a crowd, a million people out. You try hide, but something made you call out. I got you fallin' hard, you make me drop my guard. We try to fight it, but something's written in the stars," he started to sing, smiling softly at her as he started to bleed from thousands of tiny cuts Sakura inflicted.
So she would kill him in the end. Sasuke thought of what Kisame had said, and he agreed. Sakura was much happier growing up, and acted as any other child. But what now? Now she would be sad, and even more sad than ever.
"I just can't shake this feeling, it's just like a bullet, and it's killing, killing me. Two hearts that needs some healing, don't know what you do to, do to me."
"Yuki-niichan," she whispered, a tear falling down her cheek. She knew what he meant. He was telling her she won and to stay strong, but she couldn't. No matter what the words were, he was talking to her in her head.
"It's time to surrender, cuz I can't remember, a love that was strong enough, to not to run away, yeah. It's time to surrender. I'm giving in to ya, you're giving in to me, so give it away, yeah," he gasped out, it getting harder for him to sing.
He gasped a few more times, and died. Sasuke looked at Sakura, and went to comfort her. As he held her, he heard her sing the next verse in whispers.
"Everybody needs somebody, reaching out so take it from me. Everybody, take this from me, find the one surrender, give it away," she ended, sobbing and clinging to Sasuke.
A Week Later
"Hey, Saku-chan," Naruto greeted, Hinata on his arm. "How are you?"
"Good," she replied, smiling as she leaned into her boyfriend. "A little out of it still, but good."
Naruto shrugged. "That'll go away in time, ne Sasuke?"
"Hn. Maybe you will too," Sasuke replied, holding Sakura closer.
"What did you say?" he yelled, making Hinata sigh and Sakura laugh.
Kakashi and Anko soon joined them, followed by Jiraiya and Tsunade, and Iruka and Shizune. "All right, who's missing still?" Tsunade asked.
Ino and Shikamaru laughed as they ran in with TenTen and Neji, and the Sand Siblings smiled as they walked in. Lee and Gai hurried in after, and Asuma and Kurenai walked in with their daughter, Amaya. Chouji, Shino and Kiba walked in, and Sakura counted.
"Sai! Get your ugly ass down here! Everyone else is waiting!" she yelled upstairs.
Sai came down, and smiled at Amaya before playing with her. The girl was twelve now after having hid her from Asuma and Kurenai's teams for so many years, and everyone secretly believed Sai was in love with her. He swore it was just because she was like a young Sakura, but he had admitted to Sakura he loved the girl.
It would be fun to watch their future.
"So, is everyone here?" Sasuke asked.
Tsunade sighed and Sakura laughed. "Yes. We can all sit for dinner now. It's all set up in the dining room," she said, smiling.
Once they were all seated and eating, Tsunade asked what they were all thinking. "Why are we all here tonight?"
Sasuke smirked and stood up from his seat at the head of the table. "You all are a part of our lives, and have helped either Sakura or I in some way or another growing up."
Gaara "che'd" and crossed his arms, looking in the other direction.
Sakura smiled and stood up next to Sasuke, holding his hand. "Some of you are just family of mine, or family-figures," she said, smiling brightly at the elder couple at the table. As of last month, they officially started to date. "And I wanted you all here to know about the happiest moment of my life."
"Sakura, you already nabbed the Uchiha--" Ino started.
"And avenged the Kazama--" Shikamaru added.
"And the Haruno. You did a lot lately, actually," Temari added, looking confused. "So what's left? What family name are you keeping now? Haruno or Kazama?"
Sasuke smirked. "Neither. Sakura has agreed to take the family name Uchiha. We've been trying to tell you, but everyone's been interrupting. Sakura and I are getting married."
Everyone gasped and looked at Sakura. She smiled and nodded, showing the ring.
The girls crowded around her, and gushed over the ring. Sasuke received many congratulations and "take care of her or I'll kill you" by the protective godaime, Naruto, Sai, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Gaara and Kankuro.
Ino smiled at Sakura and hugged her. "So you finally have the man of your dreams, ne Sakura?"
"Hn," she replied, smiling and hugging her best friend back. "And soon enough I'll have the family of my dreams, too."
Temari looked deviously at TenTen and Hinata, and all three girls nodded, surprising the two in a giant group hug. "Forget the future," Tsunade said, clasping a hand over her apprentice and daughter-like figure's shoulder. "You already have a family you belong to."
Sakura looked at Shizune, Anko, and Tsunade and smiled. "You're right. I didn't need Yuki to make a family--I have one right now."
Sakura separated from the girls and smiled at Sasuke. He smiled back and came to her, enveloping her in a kiss and a hug. Then he picked her up and she laughed. Finally, she felt the love around her, and knew what the love of a family was.