4

Wedding

Izumi walked out of the men's changing room with her arms wrapped around Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto was talking about how weird it would be to have Kakashi as his step-dad and Sasuke looked like he really didn't want to be there. She thought she saw a blush, but it might've just been her imagination. Probably was. It was. Izumi convinced herself of that. Sasuke didn't blush, he was emotion-less. Even if he did show emotion, it would be nowhere close to blushing. Izumi looked down, and swallowed. The palm of the arm that was around Sasuke's neck started to sweat as he and Naruto carried her out into the main room. She could hear all the girls surrounding her on every side talking about her. Sometimes she just wanted to burn all their pretty little hair-do's and crush their brains corrupted by ideas of feminineness.

Izumi looked at all of them in such disgust, they seemed scared when she looked at them. Sakura ran up to them and started talking to Sasuke. Izumi chose to ignore her. Sakura, ah, Sakura. She was the one she hated the most, next to that blond one. She felt her anger rise for some reason, the blood pumped dangerously fast in her head. Beat...beat..beat, beat,beat,beat-beat-beatbeat. Her hands clenched into fists, her right one (on Sasuke's shoulder) close enough to punch Sakura with enough force to give her a bruise on that pretty face of hers. But she sustained herself, plus, Sakura's teammates would probably be mad at her. Sasuke seemed to have explained why he was carrying Izumi, because soon, they had stopped and Sakura was behind her, healing Izumi's tail-bone.

Izumi unwrapped her arms from around the boys' necks. A part of her wanted to punch her, and the other wanted to thank her.

"Thank you," she said, trying to make it as real as she could.

"No prob," said Sakura, cheerfully. Anger, jealousy. Those were the two feelings she had at the moment. Oh, and of course, there was also relief.

"Hiding won't help," Izumi said in a firm voice, channeling all the meaning she could into those three words. Sakura looked clueless, as did almost everyone else. Sasuke looked at her as if she were an antique statue, something to be examined and analyzed. He seemed to be the only one here who understood what she meant. She walked away from the small hall, leaving the air full of wondering. Izumi, she was headstrong. She would be determined, stubborn, no matter what. Sasuke could see that. She reminded him of...Naruto, in a female form without the cheerfulness, but instead, with a strange, hyper calmness and...anger. Sasuke realized at that point, she was just as angry as he was, but she just hid it well. A little too well. But they weren't mad at the same things, he was mad at his brother and she...she was mad at...he wasn't sure. She was just a big paradox, he realized. Something just changed in him, once she came into his life, just a day ago, she started to affect him. And now, he was changing, changing in a way he couldn't describe. A way that felt good to him.

A small inkling of guilt fell into Izumi's heart, weighing it down. She wasn't quite sure what the guilt was about, but it was there, no matter how much she tried to deny it. Izumi stopped her fast-paced walk and turned around. 'I'm acting like I hate every one of them,' she thought. But in truth, she was just jealous. She slid on the wall until she reached the ground. And she just sat there. Just there. People looked at her with sympathy, or maybe it was hatred, but did nothing. Suddenly, someone stopped in front of her. She saw two pairs of black sandals and the edges of an orange kimono along with a dark blue one. Izumi looked up to see the smiling face of Naruto and cold, yet caring, face of Sasuke. They both held out a hand. She took both hands and they pulled her up. She staggered a little bit, but then stood up straight. She suddenly couldn't help but smile. She had only known the two boys for a day, and yet, they had both touched her heart.

The three of them went to the main room. They finally got there, without any drama in between. Everyone turned to look at the girl dressed as a guy, the clown of Konoha, and the guy every girl wanted. Izumi grinned. This would be an interesting wedding.

The ceremony started, it was a western ceremony. Naruto and Sasuke were the best men, along with Iruka; Izumi, Sakura, and the rest of her sisters were the Maid of Honors, even though there was only supposed to be one of each. The priest kept babbling on about holy matrimony and so on...Then, Kakashi kissed Saki, at which one of her sisters screamed "Woo!". Izumi laughed lightly at that and also screamed, "The old man's married!"

"Okay, we have a game for you!" said Saki through a microphone. "We're going to pick out an invitation of a girl and then one of a guy. Then, after all have been paired, they will dance to a slow song."

All of the girls started whispering and giggling, but the guys looked so bored, it made Izumi want to go to sleep. Most people were already chosen, except Choji, Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Sakura, and Izumi. Sakura and Ino were glaring at each other, Naruto had heart eyes, Choji looked sheepish, Sasuke had his regular expression on, and Izumi was pretty much the same as Sasuke.

"Choji and Ino!" Ino put a disgusted face on at this announcement.

"Naruto and Sakura!" Sakura did the same as Ino, but added a small glare at Izumi.

"And last but not least, Sasuke and Izumi!" Izumi and Sasuke looked at each other sheepishly and Izumi blushed just a little. She felt as if every eye in the whole room was on them when she walked up to the dark-haired boy. Izumi put on a small, sweet smile, and Sasuke looked away in embarrassment but put out his hand for her to hold. The music started and people danced, except the couple everyone had been staring at. To Izumi's surprise, Sasuke had no idea how to dance. People snickered at them as Izumi tried to teach Sasuke, while laughing herself at his childish face as he sincerely tried to learn.

"My feet are gonna be all trampled after we're through with this," Izumi joked.

"Shut up," Sasuke replied, pouting.

Izumi laughed lightly and loosened her grip on his hand and shoulder when a faster song played. "Just let yourself go." After a few more tries, Sasuke said that he gives up and left. Izumi followed him, and grabbed his hand and tried to bring him back. But he wouldn't budge. He was staring at something. Izumi walked right in front of him and tried to look where he was looking. She stared directly at the person she truly didn't want to see right now.

She stared into the face of Itachi.