Friday 10th Of April – Gossip and Glamour

"Itachi, please forgive me!" Minako cried, "It was a foolish mistake that will not happen again!"

It was no use; he said nothing and left her standing there in the cold on her own. Not once did she think that he could be so cruel regardless of what she had done. Minako sunk down to her knees slowly amongst the flowers of her garden. There was only one light that shone and it was to the left of her. Anger flooded through her and she picked up a stone and threw it at the light. It smashed into small glass shards and Minako didn't try to avoid them. She looked up at the glass and one headed straight for her eye…

Mina woke up drenched in her own sweat. That was the fifth night in a row when that nightmare occurred. She assumed it was part of her telling herself that she was guilty and that she needed to tell Itachi what she had done. After flinging the duvet off of herself, Mina dressed on her own, without her maid, brushed her hair quickly and refreshed herself in the bathroom. Once she was satisfied with her appearance, Minako headed straight for Sakura's room. Her sister was still sound asleep in her bed, but that did not last. Mina gently shook Sakura until she awoke.

"Mina?" Sakura slurred slightly as she rubbed her eyes and sat up. The sight of her sister scared her; she instantly put her arms around Minako and rocked her softly. "Tell me everything." She said softly.

The older Haruno sister let out everything that had been bothering her since Sakura's birthday. Which mainly consisted of Sakura catching her with a man who she didn't really know who he was and of course the recurring nightmare. Sakura sighed, she couldn't stay mad with her sister now, especially since all of this was eating away at her. Without a second thought, she had decided then and there that she was going to help Mina. "This is how I see it, you can either tell Itachi and hope for the best, or you will just have to keep it a secret."

"The latter is not helping me at all Sakura. I guess I have no other choice then." Mina mumbled, "I'll tell him tonight."

"At the opera?"

"Afterward, there is no point in ruining something if it can't wait that little while longer." She replied and wriggled out of her younger sister's grasp. "Talking to you about it made me feel a lot better… That must mean that telling Itachi will make the guilt go away. Fabulous! I will definitely do it tonight!" With that, Minako flounced out the room and back into hers.

-

It had become a regular thing to find Sakura in the garden, just sitting on a bench and just generally thinking. No one bothered her during this time, not even Tyra. But that was about to change when Ino Yamanaka burst through the back door and into the garden. She paraded herself, even though there was no one around to be impressed by it, until she reached Sakura and sat down beside her. The thing that Sakura was interested in was the newspaper Ino had in her hand. "You are front news Sakura!" The blonde exclaimed excitedly.

Dumbfounded, Sakura took the newspaper that Ino held out for her and read the article. It was from a high society gossip paper, so all ready Sakura was not impressed.

It has come to our attention that not only is the older Haruno heiress engaged to the Uchiha heir, Itachi, but it is her younger sister we should be looking out for as well. Sakura Haruno has been spotted with the dashing Kakashi Hatake on numerous occasions! Is another proposal going to come out of this relationship? And what of Sasuke Uchiha who was supposedly interested in her? If Sasuke had any sense, he would surely back away from her now and find someone else. Such as Ino Yamanaka. Are we going to see a fight for the lovely pink haired maiden?Sakura couldn't read anymore. She threw the paper behind her, picked up her parasol and walked away. It was unusual of the Haruno family to have an article written about them, but Sakura had never had one written about her like that before. Needless to say, she did not know how to react to it, or what she was going to do about it. What did Kakashi think of it? That was of course if he read things like that which he surely didn't. "Sakura! Come back!" Ino yelled from the bench. But Sakura did no such thing.

She carried on walking until she found her way to the kitchen. There, she found Tyra and a few other maids and cooks busy preparing an exquisite lunch. Sakura sat down on one of the chairs and watched them work without alerting them to her presence. What she really wanted to do was forget who she was, for at least and hour and help them with their arrangements. Sakura was no cook, but she couldn't see the harm in laying out the table at least. But then if her mother caught her doing such things then Tyra would get into trouble because straight away Mrs Haruno would assume that Tyra asked for help.

Instead, Sakura took and apple from the glass bowl it was in and ate that. This however caused most of the staff in the kitchen to turn around and see whom it was. After the same polite greeting repeated over a dozen times, Sakura casually waved to them and carried on eating her apple. Tyra stopped whatever she was doing and walked over to Sakura. "Miss Haruno, may I ask what you are doing here in the kitchen?"

"Is it not obvious?" Sakura retorted, "I'm eating an apple." After that article, she was in no mood for silly questions.

"My apologies," Tyra said softly. "Is something bothering you?" She added in a whisper.

"I'll tell you later."

-

Kakashi Hatake, Anko Mitarashi and Genma Shiranui were all sat in one of the many rooms in the Hatake estate. It wasn't an oddity for Kakashi to have Anko and Genma come over on a regular basis. In fact, he got quite worried if they did not show up. "You know Genma, I think you owe me some money." Anko said with a smirk.

"Only if they actually marry Anko, that was the wager." He replied smugly.

"Only if who marry?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

"You and Miss Haruno of course." Genma said.

"What has Sakura go to do with anything?"

"You haven't read it have you!" Anko said and then picked out something form her bag. Then she waved it in Kakashi's face until he grabbed it from her.

A few moments later, the silver haired man sighed and put the newspaper on the table. Now that one paper had printed the story, it wouldn't be soon before long until other joined the trend. This meant no peace for Kakashi or for Sakura herself. In fact, he was surprised by the fact that it hadn't been labelled as scandalous because of the age gap and how Sakura should find someone her own age. Like the Uchiha boy… Now he was someone that annoyed Kakashi. A lot.

If it weren't for him always hanging around the Haruno girl, then there wouldn't be a problem. But as he did, constantly, and with his friend Naruto, it was definitely a problem. For now it seemed that he would have to play the waiting game and so would Sakura. "You do know these are just rumours." Kakashi brushed off the article as if it didn't bother him, but it did. "Just gossips with nothing better to do."

"Err… isn't that what we are?" Anko asked rhetorically, "You do know that's why we come here don't you Hatake. You may think that we come here to keep you company, but actually we're here to talk about everyone and anyone."

"Anko!" Genma barked, "You were not supposed to tell him that!"

Kakashi rubbed his temples and sighed in defeat. So instead he decided to change the subject. "Are you two going to the opera tonight?"

"Yes!" They both replied simultaneously.

"I take it you are both going together then."

A furious blush started to spread over Anko's face and a smug overcame Genma's face. "How did you know?!" Anko asked sheepishly.

"You're not the only people I gossip to."

-

"HINATA! ARE YOU READY YET?" Tenten yelled up the stairs in the Hyuga estate.

"Do you have to yell Tenten?" Neji asked his wife.

"Of course I do, I am not going to stroll all the way to the top to her bedroom just so I can get the answer no. I do actually have some common sense Neji!" She snapped and then smiled. "I just want to go to this opera so I can see Sakura. We were not there for her twenty-first birthday, so I feel terrible. And so should you!"

"It is not our fault that we were away…" He trailed off, thinking it was better for his health that he didn't say anymore.

The day before Sakura's party, Neji and Tenten had to go and oversee some business within the family in a different city. It was only supposed to be a one-day thing for them, but one day turned into one week. Tenten had relentlessly complained at Neji constantly telling him that it was his fault. So when they got back, she was not happy that she had missed out on all the fun there. Ino had caught her up with everything, but it still wasn't the same for her.

Hinata finally walked down the winding staircase half and hour later, her hair had been loosely curled and she was wearing the most elegant purple and blue dress Tenten had ever seen. She smiled at her and then ushered her and Neji out of the house. "If we are late, I'm blaming you Hinata!" Tenten mumbled.

She sighed and got into the coach first and once everyone was ready to go, the coachman prepared his horses and they were off. It was a silent journey and the only person that was making it awkward was the brunette, who was fidgeting anxiously. Not once had Hinata seen her like that, but there was always a first for everything. She looked toward her cousin and gave him a sympathetic look. He lowered his head and it stayed there until they had arrived.

-

One of the first coaches to arrive was the Uchiha one, Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto all left it and walked into the Opera House. Itachi stayed in the foyer to wait for Mina Haruno and the two boys went off to the special both reserved to the Uchiha family exclusively. Once they had sat down, Sasuke started to look for Sakura in the Haruno booth. But she was not there just yet. However, he did see Kakashi Hatake with Anko and Genma. This meant that he would probably see Sakura later on. His fists started to clench in anger. Just the mere thought of those two together infuriated him.

Sasuke took a deep breath and dismissed any more thought of the older silver haired man. Jealously was not a becoming emotion and certainly one Sasuke did not want to show. He looked over to his blonde companion to see that he was sat up straight in a tense position, which was completely out of the ordinary. Naruto's hands were clasped together and he looked nervous. Sasuke wondered what on earth could have gotten Naruto in this state of mind, as the normality would be him talking relentlessly. Then the Uchiha had noticed why, the Hyugas had just arrived.

Neji Hyuga was one of the few people that scared Naruto, purely because of the fact that Naruto expressed an interest in his cousin. Hinata. Obviously the blonde had no idea that he would see Neji so soon, Naruto had heard rumours that his business trip would last over a month. They were clearly wrong. Tonight was the night that he was going to approach Hinata and ask her to accompany him to the Yamanaka ball. His plans had now changed, there was no way he could ask her now, Neji had a strong disliking for Naruto and everyone knew it. No, he would wait until Hinata was on her own. To him, it was the only way.

However, whilst Naruto was looking around the Opera House, he had noticed that another outstanding family had arrived. The Yamanakas. This caused a grin to overcome his face and he then nudged Sasuke in the ribs. As being the best friend of the younger Uchiha brother, Naruto everything. That included his fling with Ino. Not once had he let Sasuke forget it either. This had made Naruto forget about his own problems and to tease Sasuke with his. "I would not go near Ino tonight," Naruto said, sniggering, "Her father is there with her and you know he holds his precious little girl in the highest regards. That means no sex before marriage!" This made Naruto burst into a loud laugh, which made everyone in the auditorium draw his or her attention to him.

"You idiot Naruto!" Sasuke mumbled, "You just do not know when to keep your mouth shut do you!"

He definitely stopped laughing when he noticed Neji was glaring at him intently. "Stupid acoustics." Naruto grumbled, but then detected bright pink hair in the corner of his eye. "Oh look, Sakura is here. Play fair now Sasuke."

"I don't play fair."

-

Sakura Haruno was sat in one of the highest booths with her mother. Now that Naomi Haruno was getting older, it was not as easy as walking up the stairs as it was for her younger daughter. All the way up, she had expressed her opinion of getting a lower booth quiet vehemently. But there were no doubts that it was the best. Sakura could see her sister sitting with the Uchihas, she prayed that Itachi would forgive Minako and everything would go back to normal. For some reason though, there was a feeling at the pit of her stomach that he would not accept what her sister had done.

"I cannot remember the last time since it was just the two of us Sakura." Naomi said, feeling sorry for herself. As she wasn't getting any younger and both of her daughters had a full life ahead of them.
"That is because it has never been just the two of us Mother." Sakura replied dryly.

"Ah yes, I guess we shall have to get used to it then. Unless you will be disappearing as well?" Her mother inquired, looking straight at Sakura.

"No, you cannot get rid of me that easily."

"Oh, before I forget. Your Grandmother and your cousin will be visiting soon. They did not give me a specific date so you shall have to be prepared any time next week." Naomi announced.

"Grandma Tsunade is coming?" Sakura asked excitedly. She loved her Grandmother like no other person and she missed her terribly. Ever since her Grandfather had died, she had not been the same woman ever since. So Tsunade had left, not wanting to cause anyone else grief. That had been over five years ago. Her cousin, however, was not her favourite person in the world. Although Karin did get a long with Mina just fine. It was just Sakura she had a problem with and Sakura herself could never understand why.

The first half of the opera had almost bored Sakura to tears, but Naomi enjoyed every second of it. It never was clear why everyone turned up to events that they had no interest in and it puzzled Sakura frequently. When the interval came, the pink haired woman nearly jumped for joy. She left her mother and went to find other people to socialise with. It wasn't soon before long until she bumped into Tenten, Neji and Hinata. "Sakura!" And then greeted her with a hug. "It is so lovely to see you. How have you been? We are so sorry that we could not make it to your twenty-first. Neji completely agrees, don't you." She added and then jabbed him in the stomach. And he let out a strange noise that sounded like a yes.

Sakura gave a nervous laugh and gave an apologetic look to Neji. "It is fine Tenten, I received your telegram, don't worry about it!" Tenten walked over to Sakura and linked her arm with hers, and started to pull her to the refreshment bar. Until Naruto and Sasuke came walking down the stairs. This caused both women to stop and see what would occur.

Naruto walked straight over to Hinata and started talking to her normally. Anyone could see that he was a bundle of confidence, but inside he was shaking like a leaf. Hinata admired him for doing so, Neji had often complained about the Uzumaki boy at home to her. Sakura started to worry about Naruto, but Tenten just smiled. She personally thought that Neji should not get involved with Hinata's love life and leave Naruto to it. But then again, the Hyuga would be just as hostile to any other man as well.

Just as Sakura thought that he was going to leave then alone, Neji walked over to Naruto and started telling him that he was not good enough for his cousin and that he would not live up to Hyuga standards. Hinata pleaded with him to stop, but he didn't. "Naruto, just leave Hinata alone. I don't want you anywhere near her again!" Neji snarled, "You are not even worthy enough to look at her!"

Neji grabbed Hinata's hand and started to pull her away, but before he could go any further, Naruto turned him around and punched him straight in the jaw. This caused Neji to let go of Hinata and fall to the floor. "I am more worthy that you will ever know!" Naruto spat angrily. Hinata was torn, did she go to her cousin or go to Naruto. Tenten unhooked herself from Sakura and walked over to her husband. She would have rushed over he hadn't deserved it, but he had so she took her time. It took all she had from not laughing at him.

As Neji lay there on the floor, dazed, a newfound respect was there for the blonde Uzumaki boy. Something he never thought would happen. Perhaps he had misjudged Naruto completely. Hinata kissed Naruto on the cheek before she disappeared off to be by her cousin's side. She couldn't help but smile at what Naruto had done for her.

Sakura stood there with shock written all over her face, but then she had noticed Sasuke looking at her. If he came over to her, then she would talk to him. But if he didn't then she wasn't going to engage in a conversation with him. She estimated that she had about five minuets before the opera would resume. So Sakura walked over to the refreshment bar and got herself a glass of water. Neji was still on the floor, so she had to resist the temptation of pouring the water all over him. Even the thought of it made her giggle.

After five minuets were up, she left her glass on the bar and started to go back to her booth. By then everyone started to clear out of the foyer and Naruto and Neji were quite happily talking about everything and anything. It pleased Sakura to know that things did not turn out badly for them. As she was walking up, she wondered where Ino had got to. Not once did she see a flash of long blonde hair. Which was odd because Ino was someone who liked to be the centre of attention. Whatever the reason was for not being there, Sakura was sure she would find out later on.

Just as she was about to enter her booth, an arm grabbed Sakura and pulled her to what could only be described as a supply cupboard. Sakura opened her mouth for a ear-splitting scream, but a hand covered her mouth preventing her from doing. She bit a couple of fingers and the hand immediately sprung away from her mouth. "Sakura! Was it really necessary to bite me that hard?"

The pink haired woman recognised that voice straight away. "Was is really a necessity to drag me into a cupboard Kakashi?" Sakura inquired, now amused by his actions.

"Well yes actually, otherwise I wouldn't have a chance to speak to you let alone see you." Kakashi replied sheepishly.

"I take it playing ninja is not enough for you. I assume this is more exciting for your tastes." Whether Sakura knew it or not, she was flirting with him. Now that she knew it was Kakashi, her body had already moved closer toward him without her even realising it. "If we get caught in here together, I am placing the blame onto you. Without hesitation." She added, teasing him.

"I should not have expected anything differently." He said, smirking and noticing the heat from Sakura's body. This was not how he had planned everything out. All they were supposed to do was talk, but now Kakashi seemed that would not be the case. He bravely started placing small kisses along her neck and there was no disapproval from Sakura. Her arms had now wrapped around his neck and she had pulled herself closer to him.

Kakashi stopped for a moment and stared into her innocent green eyes. There was a flicker of doubt as if he should actually be doing this but that was gone very swiftly. He captured her lips with his and their kiss was not chaste at all. It was fiery, passionate and everything Sakura had dreamt of. Both of their hands began to wonder each other's bodies and Kakashi had deepened the kiss as much as could. She tasted just divinely and he did not want to let her go. They separated to breath and Sakura's face a red tinge to it and Kakashi smiled. As much as both of them wanted to stay in each other's company, suspicions would arise as the opera had surely resumed and people would notice that they were not back yet.

Sakura straightened her dress out as much as possible and tried to make her hair presentable again. Kakashi did nothing to sort himself out, but he kissed Sakura again, said his goodbyes and left. The pink haired woman sighed, she was sure that her mother would know that something had gone on. But whether she knew exactly what she had done was something she was not sure on. Sakura left the supply cupboard and closed the door behind her. She then sauntered up the next flight of stairs to her booth. As much was she would have liked to sneak in quietly, her mother noticed her presence straight away. Naomi said nothing and ushered her daughter to sit down as quickly as possible.

Her mother was no fool, but nor was she one to ask Sakura about what had just transpired. Although she took a guess when five minuets later when Kakashi Hatake arrived in his booth and was the last person to do so. A small smile crept on her lips. Everything was going exactly how she planned it. Sakura's attention was focused on Kakashi that she had not noticed the smile on her mother's lips. But there was something else Naomi had spotted. The distinct frown of the young Uchiha.

A/N: I am so sorry... I was ment to get this out yesterday but I kept getting distracted. Then again, this should have been posted months ago. I'm reallly sorry. I'll try and post regular updates but I can't promise anything. Thank you all for putting up with me.

I know a girl with the golden touch
She's got enough, she's got too much
But I know, you wouldn't mind
You could have it all if you wanted
You could have it all if it mattered so much

Razorlight - Golden Touch