A/N-Thanks to those who have reviewed thusfar-sweet.serenity.crave, Pance, Rangerette, Hatake Sienna, KoeZ, vbdani and Nikki Hatake. Enjoy this chapter, and I apologize that it took so long. See, I have the whole thing written out but it moved too quickly for my liking so I made some modifications, and wrote this one to be inserted entirely from scratch. I'm also upping the rating to T to be safe.
REQUEST FOR HELP- I want to start a drabble series but I need a few prompts…so please, give me a pairing and a keyword. PLEASE!! (Sey-chan, I'm looking at you).
Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto or When I Said I Do.
Chapter 7
As she looked back on it in her hotel room with Kakashi, she regretted acting so biting towards Sasuke. He was her friend and after this was done she'd need all the friends she could get.
Sakura was still wearing her wedding dress, uncertain of what to do. Kakashi was in the bathroom, she assumed, changing. The door opened and light spilled into the darkened room as Sakura looked out over the village.
She turned around to look at him. He was wearing a tight t-shirt, and a pair of track pants, his silver hair tousled from wrestling out of his tux.
"The washroom's free if you want to change. Ino gave me some sleeping clothes to give you, I left them in there. I'll undo your corset if you want…" His voice trailed off and he just stared at her.
To him, she was the most beautiful thing in the world, and all throughout the day he had been thanking whatever God existed for allowing fate hand him this girl who would never have been his otherwise. Her body was framed by the moon rising over the forest behind her, gilding her ivory dress silver, and outlining tendrils of her cherry colored hair that had long since drifted free of her updo. Her eyes, when she first looked at him had been burdened and tired but sharpened into curiosity at his unwarranted scrutiny. This girl, now a woman who was so beautiful, and who could be lethal in a heartbeat. He loved her.
There was no way he was ever going to let her go.
She stepped forward breaking his trance. "I'd appreciate it if you did."
Her mind was in turmoil. This was her wedding night; this was the point in time where they were supposed to…she felt her cheeks burn as the thought crossed her mind. She had always been modest and hadn't expected this night to come for a very long time. Sakura knew Kakashi well enough to know that he would never make her do anything she didn't want to do but as his wife (inwardly cringing at the word) she felt obligated to allow what was naturally supposed to happen…happen.
As if sensing her fear, Kakashi reached out a comforting hand. "I'm not going to even consider this a wedding night Sakura. We're married but you should only be with someone like that who you love. I realize this is a marriage of convenience for you and we don't have to…"
Immediately she felt a rush of gratitude. Lunging forward in the dress (a difficult task at best), she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. He stroked her hair with one hand and rubbed her back with the other, attempting to relax her.
"Thank you Kakashi." With the hand rubbing her back, he undid the bowtie of the corset and pulled the strings loose.
He relaxed and allowed her out of his hold. "Go change."
She did as he said, changing into a tank top and track pants like his. When she went back out into the hotel room, he was sitting on the bed.
That night, she fell asleep in his arms. There was nothing romantic about it; it was instead a very gentle move, a protective, sheltering one.
She slept better than she had in weeks.
OoOoOoOoOo
Ino looked out at the moon, her hair still twisted up, and gown still on, knowing that under this sky, her best friend was experiencing her wedding night and she was probably terrified. Shikamaru stepped up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Are you okay love?"
She leaned back against his shoulder and sighed. "No. Sakura was terrified for this wedding, you know that." Although Sakura had sworn her to secrecy, she had felt obliged to tell her husband, as there was a distinct lack of secrets between them...Ino knew that Sakura trusted Shika.
Shikamaru frowned and breathed in his wife's scent, a mixture of citrus (her perfume) and floral (her shampoo). She turned her head and kissed his neck. "I know you're scared but what if she's happy in this union? I talked to Kakashi and he seemed content-if not happy. And besides, interfering is so..." His wife's sharp blue eyes drilled into him and he bit back the 'troublesome' that had almost slipped out.
The blonde bit her lip.
"You know how much he values his honor. He promised her that he would get her out of the engagement with Ryu-and he's done that. This wedding does that. He fulfills his end of the bargain. And he doesn't know….as a matter of fact I don't even think she has acknowledged it, but I think she loves him. And living in close quarters like that, she'll realize it but she's so certain that once everything's calmed down, that he's going to get an annulment. With that set in her head…when the Kuno envoy leaves she'll be two things- hurt and scared."
OoOoOoOoOo
A week had passed since she walked down the aisle and had taken Kakashi as her husband. They had gone on a honeymoon of sorts, to a resort about an hour outside Konoha, but if anything they were acting more as friends than as young newlyweds. Every night Sakura slept in the same bed as him, getting more and more adjusted to the feeling of heat radiating from the other side of the bed, or an arm slung over her while she slept.
She also got used to the snoring. The first night they had slept together, she slept like a baby because the day prior had been so exhaustive, but the second night together she had barely gotten any. The man sounded as though there was a thunderstorm happening in their bed. Fortunately it hadn't taken her long to adjust and now she slept soundly.
During they day Kakashi acted as he had before they married-her quietly supportive friend who was whatever she needed. He would act affectionate, putting an arm around her while sight seeing, kissing her on the forehead, and (only once though, and in a situation where it was a classic romantic scene and they couldn't not show some affection) he had kissed her softly on the lips. This had happened while they were on a night walk tour, with the moon and the stars both glittering silvery above their heads, in front of a waterfall.
True, there had been no one around, and no one to put a show on for but she appreciated the thought.
When Kakashi had turned to her, and then in the moonlight, for the first time, that one night Sakura felt something within her stir, something that scared her.
It scared her because she knew that Kakashi had only married her as a matter of conscience; because he had promised her that he would save her from marrying Ryu. He was going to leave her when Kuno lost interest in her, and she had no right to feel the way she did.
But God help her, when he kissed her tenderly under the moonlight that last night of the honeymoon, something had awoken within her, something that scared her out of her wits. Something that she had been forced to take several hours that night lying awake to examine before she realized what it was.
She was falling in love with him.
Really, she should've seen it coming. He was treating her in a way men had never treated her, had always done that, especially in the past few weeks. He had volunteered his dating freedom, his very name, to keep his word to her. And that ranked pretty high in her books.
Actually it was surprising that she had waited until she was bound to him in holy matrimony before she had fallen in love with him, considering all the time she had spent around him in the past year. She knew him, better than anyone else-there was nothing else to do while out on missions besides sitting around the fire and talking about things going on in their lives.
On their way home from their honeymoon-and Sakura was willing to gamble that she was the only woman in the village to ever return from this marital right of passage as a virgin-they had not said anything and had merely walked back hand in hand, his thumb absently stroking the inside of her palm, twisting her ring as he did.
This unconscious gesture of his both warmed and numbed her heart.
She told her self in no uncertain terms that no matter what she felt towards him it would have to stop. She would not allow herself to be hurt.
OoOoOoOoOo
Her first day in Kakashi's house, and already she was mad. It was dinner time, she was getting ready to cook and she had made an unpleasant discovery. "Kakashi. Honestly, can you tell me why there is not a crumb of food in this house besides," she grabbed her can and squinted at the label. "'Franks and Beans.'" She read it as though it was poison.
His arm was weighted down by the load of laundry he was taking to the machine from their honeymoon. "Because I can't cook."
"But you ALWAYS cook. On our missions, you always let me sleep and I always wake up to something smelling nice."
"And on missions, we always eat out of cans. I can cook thinks that require heating and re-heating but not actual cooking."
"Then how on earth are you so healthy-and don't lie, I've seen your medical record."
"Check the box freezer downstairs."
She slumped down the wooden steps to his basement and shoved the box freezer open. Stacked in neat little rows were hundreds upon hundreds of re-heatable TV dinners. Sakura tried to control her gag reflex as she pulled a box out and read what it was comprised of. "Freeze dried meat, veggies and chocolate." She hadn't realized that it was possible to freeze dry chocolate, but it sounded very very wrong.
Dropping the box back into the freezer, the pinkette slammed the lid shut and walked woodenly back up the staircase. Ignoring her husband who was just closing the lid on the washer, she grabbed a light jacket and slid into a pair of flats.
"Sakura," his voice had a cautionary tone in it. "What are you doing?" The look in her emerald eyes scared him. It was something akin to a drive he usually saw only on missions.
"Going to my house."
"Why?"
She turned and shot a glare at him. "You have no food fit for human consumption in this house. I, meanwhile, have plenty of food- nutritious food- at my house. I'm going to go get some, and come back to cook you a proper meal."
"Usually I just mix and match, that's why some of the boxes in the basement are open."
"When I get back Kakashi, I want that freezer to be empty and the house to be filled with nutritious food."
"Is it a good idea to go alone?"
"I'm a big girl, and now also, a married woman." She waved her ring finger in his face. "I can competently take care of myself."
The silver haired ninja grimaced but didn't argue- he'd see to her safety. He had kept meaning to learn how to cook, but it had always slipped his mind, or a mission had come up or something along those lines.
Sakura, on a mission, marched out of the house and turned towards her old apartment.
Kakashi, on a mission, leapt into action, grabbed the phone and dialed Naruto.
OoOoOoOoOo
She was maybe five minutes out of Kakashi's house, on her way across town when from out of nowhere Naruto dropped down beside her. She threw her head back and looked at the tree above her head to note that one of the branches was quivering slightly. Sighing with exasperation, she looked back at the blonde standing next to her, rubbing the back of his head and smiling.
"And you felt compelled to just suddenly walk me back to my house?"
"Yup!! I thought that with the Kuno guys still here, you shouldn't be alone-just in case."
"You mean Kakashi thought that."
Silence.
Sakura sighed and rolled her shoulders to relieve some tension. "Okay. I don't know what he's trying to play but I'll play along." She could feel her anger welling up and did her best to quell it.
"It's just, you know how Kuno people are. If they see you alone-as a newly married woman-they would find that insulting. They respect our customs when we're in their village…."
"Yup, sure. I'm only getting food from my house though."
They walked in silence. That fact alone told Sakura that the blonde wanted to say something but was mulling over in his head how to phrase it without blurting it straight out.
However, Naruto wasn't exactly known for his subtlety before too long, he burst out what he wanted to say. "Why were you so cruel to Sasuke?"
Sakura froze in her tracks and felt her stomach muscles clench as the blonde asked her the last possibly question that she had expected. "I don't know what you mean Naruto, I mean I don't see that I was unusually cruel to him."
"He was putting his feelings for you out in the air, hoping to be accepted."
"On my wedding day?? Even you, Naruto, would have more compassion, resignation and sheer tact than to do that. To confess to someone when it's public knowledge that they love someone else…"
Naruto looked away, seemed to struggle with something and then turned back. "Sakura, neither Sasuke nor I believe that you married Kakashi for love, regardless of what everyone else thinks. We've known you too long, like Ino- who, by the way, I know knows whatever the truth is. She kept giving you sympathetic looks last week on that day."
Sakura's insides turned to ice. She hadn't noticed Ino doing such a thing but the blonde very well could've done so. And it was true, Naruto and Sasuke did know her too well for them to even consider that she and Kakashi had been harboring a 'secret affair'. But still…
They continued the way on in silence until they reached her house and were inside. By then she had made up her mind.
"You can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you Naruto, not until this whole thing is over."
A/N-Is the loudmouth to be trusted? I hope so….Read and Review! (when I said I hope so, I don't know what happens in my stories, ie, her telling Naruto didn't exist until I wrote it just now.)
