Oh my god, I did not realize that I had not updated in so long! I am so sorry everyone! I have had some trouble with deciding what to put in this chapter and the next one. I had to redo this chapter several times until I got something I was happy with... It is longer than my usual chapters... Anyway, I would like to thank Cadyn Brewer-Sidelia Miller, Mei fa-chan, Azu-susi-chan, I love pusa, nejiten 3, Uchiha Misaki, 1412, .Didi, sakuraseeker2792, cumidodol, and H189 for reviewing and following this fanfiction. Without any more delay, chapter 8! Enjoy!

Chapter 8: the Uchiha mansion

Sakura had awakened at dawn that morning and swiftly left the suite to clear her mind. Coming back felt… unreal. She found that many things had changed: the evil smirk on Naruto's face before he 'attacked' Hinata, Kurenai and Asuma's second child, Shizune and Kakashi together... Other things had not: Gai-sensei and Lee's youthful spirits, her master's drinking habits, Sasuke's attitude… The cherry blossom felt her heart miss a beat as she thought of him. He had hardly talked to her. And yet, she had felt his stare, like he was watching her every move. He had been constantly by her side from the moment they met in the base to when she left to see Akari. She did not know what to make of his behavior. 'Damn that Uchiha' she thought 'Make up your mind Sasuke! It's already hard enough for me to deal with my feelings, stop sending confusing signals!'

The kunoichi thoughtfully strolled down the streets of Konoha, her eyes wandering on the new buildings. Tsunade had informed them that the village had been attack two years ago on the order of Orochimaru to steal a scroll of forbidden technics. Although the Leaf had successfully prevented the theft, most of the east part of the village had been destroyed, including her old house and Tenten's apartment. Sakura felt bad that she had not been there when her village needed her but distracted herself from the guilt by looking around for houses. She knew they would not find anything like the large manor they had back in Taki, but she still needed a place to fit the twelve of them, at least for the time being. They had gotten used to living together and were reluctant to separate, especially with those ninjas hunting them. Also as Tokiko was going to live in her old apartment, she wanted to find a place nearby.

"Sakura!"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a shout. The cherry blossom turned to the voice and saw Iruka running toward her.

"Good morning Iruka-sensei" greeted the kunoichi.

"Good morning Sakura" answered the shinobi. "So you really are back. I heard from Naruto that you guys were here but I had to see you with my own eyes to believe it."

"Did you not believe him?"

"Well… You see…I thought it was another drinking night where the boys end up completely hum… drunk and say that you girls are back… Or that they are going to look for you …Or that once they find they will never let you go again… And other things like that… So yeah, I was not sure I should believe him."

"We have caused a lot of trouble to everyone, haven't we?" murmured the young woman.

"It does not matter anymore. You are here" comforted the teacher "Welcome back."

"Thank you Sensei."

"By the way, he also said something about children…"

"Yes, the six of us have children."

"I see. Well, I guess I will see them at the Academy."

"About that… At what age can they enroll?" asked the cherry blossom.

"It's usually six. Why?"

"Our children are very bright and capable, and it feels like a waste to wait three years. So we were wondering if we could enroll them now."

"Well, three years old is a little young… I can probably test them to see if they are ready… Would all six of them enroll?"

"Yes, but two only temporarily for now."

"Temari and Matsuri, right?"

"Yes."

"I will see what I can do. Maybe we can test them the day after the party; how does that sound?"

"That would be great! Thank you Sensei!"

"Well, I need to go if I don't want to be late for class. See you at the party Sakura!" exclaimed the shinobi as he started running toward the Academy.

"See you!" answered the medic.


The kunoichi continued looking around for a few hours. She had seen several houses for sell, but none of them were big enough, or would require much renovation in order to make them habitable, or belonged to the Hyuuga clan. Sakura sighed; it was much harder than she thought. Deciding it was time to take a break, she made her way to the dango store where she was greeted by a rather unusual sight: Neji and Sasuke sharing dango! 'Calm down Sakura, don't make hasty judgments' inwardly screamed the cherry blossom. 'There might be a perfectly logical explanation. Wait, could it be why Sasuke did not talk to me!? Maybe he just slept with me to see whether or not he was attracted to female! He was drunk after all... Oh God, was I that bad that he turned the other way!? Why did I do to the world?! And the Uchiha clan!? Well that part might be safe, Akari is here after all…' Completely lost in her delirious thoughts, the young woman had not heard her teammate calling for her.

"OI!" shouted the Uchiha, in a last attempt to get her attention. "What are you doing crouching on the floor?"

The kunoichi slowly raised her head before realizing that she was indeed squatting in a corner of the shop. She got up with a nervous smile, looking anywhere but at her teammate.

"Nothing really. I thought I saw something that's all" she lied. "And you? What are you doing here?"

"Taking a break from our training" answered Neji. "… … Would you like to join us?"

"Sure!" she exclaimed as the three of them went back to the boys' table.

Sakura ordered a couple of dango brochettes before looking back at the two shinobis.

"So, do you guys often train together?"

"Hn" answered the Sharingan bearer.

"Kakashi-sensei told me that the two of you were Anbu now, congratulations!"

"Thank you" said the Hyuuga.

Silence fell on the table. Sakura was starting to feel uncomfortable. Was she interrupting something? Were they really…

"No" suddenly said Sasuke, attracting the cherry blossom's attention.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"What you are thinking about. The answer is no."

"How do you know what…?"

"It's written all over your face." answered the Uchiha with a smirk.

The kunoichi felt her face burning from embarrassment. She did not know what embarrassed her more: the fact that she thought they were together, she still remembered Konohamaru's transformation in Sai and Sasuke, or that Sasuke could read her that easily.

"I see" she said, resuming eating in an effort to hide her blush.

"Do you girls know where you are going to stay?" asked Neji.

"Not yet, I was actually out looking for houses but it did not go very well."

Sasuke rapidly stood up.

"Come" he demanded before exiting the shop.

"What? I am not done eating!" exclaimed the cherry blossom.

"I will go back to training" said Neji. "Join me when you are done Uchiha."

"Hn" answered the shinobi, fully aware of the small sly smirk the Hyuuga was sending him.

Sakura quickly grabbed the last of her dango before waiving Neji good bye and running after her teammate.

"Sasuke-kun, where are we going?" asked the kunoichi.

Sasuke had led her to a part of the village she was not as familiar with, nearer the Hokage Mountain. It looked older, with several large houses. Maybe one of them was for sell? She was so busy looking around that she noticed Sasuke had stopped a second too late and bumped in his back.

"Sorry Sasuke-kun. I…"

"How about this one?" asked Sasuke pointing a large mansion.

It was an elegant modern mansion with three stories. Sakura thought about it. It looked very nice and certainly big enough. The neighborhood seemed safe. And the location was great: she had passed Tokiko's apartment about fifteen minutes ago, she could see the hospital from here and the academy was just half an hour from there. Yes, this house would be perfect.

"I would have to visit to make sure, but it looks great." she answered. "Do you know…"

She was interrupted by Kakashi.

"Yo!" greeted the silver haired man. "What are you two doing here?"

"Good afternoon, Sensei. I was looking for a house and Sasuke was showing me this one." answered the cherry blossom.

Kakashi turned to see the mansion Sakura was pointing at and smirked under his mask. "Is that so?" he said, throwing a knowing glance at Sasuke. "What do you think then?"

"It looks great, but I would need to visit it to make sure it can fit everyone." answered the kunoichi.

"You are lucky, I think Sasuke has the keys!" exclaimed the older man.

"Really? But why would Sasuke-kun…? began to ask the young woman watching as his teammate was opening the door.

"Are you coming?" interrupted the said teammate, holding the door.

Sakura quickly followed him inside, trailed by Kakashi. As she entered the large living room, she could not help but appreciate the décor. Beige and brown tones with touches of deep red gave the room a warm feeling. It was different from their old house, but she could see herself and her friends living here.

"The kitchen is on the left," said Sasuke indicating a door at their left, "and the door to the veranda behind the stairs."

Sakura took a quick look at the spotless kitchen before following Sasuke upstairs. The second floor had four rooms and two bathrooms.

"The rooms are rather large so it would be easy to put three children in one." explained Kakashi. "And two of you girls could share the two other rooms on this floor."

"You mean three, right?" asked the cherry blossom. "There is only four room and 12 of us."

"There is a master suite upstairs" replied the silver haired man pointing at the stairs next to where Sasuke was. "It is fairly large, and it has its own bathroom and study room."

"You sure know a lot about this house, Sensei." said Sakura as she looked around the floor.

"You can say that." he chuckled eyeing discreetly Sasuke. "So, what do you think?"

"It is perfect! I love it! Do you know if it is for rent? Or for sale? You never said for owned this house…"

"You." stated Sasuke.

"What? What do you mean me?" replied the kunoichi. Sakura was getting confused. As far as she knew, no one is her family ever owned such as house. She turned her questioning gaze to her sensei as Sasuke climbed the stairs leading to the master suite. He came down a few seconds later with a couple of pieces of paper in his hand and hand it to her. It was the property act of the house as well as the declaration form for property ownership transfer. It was this particular piece of paper that got her attention. The document indeed declared her owner of the house. But what stunned her was the name of the previous proprietor…

"Sasuke-kun" she whispered. "Sasuke-kun" she repeated louder, looking at him. "What does this mean? This is your house! What are you…?!"

"It's your house." replied firmly the young shinobi.

"What are you talking about!? It is your family house!" she shouted, waving the documents.

"I gave it to you."

"Gave it to… What… Why would you do something like that?!"

As he was not replying, the kunoichi sighed. "I can't accept this, Sasuke-kun. It is your family heritage. You really should not give it away like that. Let me at least buy it from you or…

"It's your house, Sakura!" shouted the young man, interrupting her, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Silence fell in the room as the cherry blossom was too stunned by his outburst to say anything.

"What… What's going on, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked.

"Like he said, Sakura, it is your house." He answered.

"But Sensei, he can't do that! His family heritage…!"

"Listen, Sakura. Sasuke has decided to give this house to you, can't you just accept it?"

"Of course I can't! Nothing is more important to Sasuke than his family! I can't let him do something like that, it is not right!"

The older shinobi sighed.

"Do you know whose house it was?" he asked.

"Sasuke's?"

"Yes, but it was built by his mother. She wanted a house outside of the Uchiha compound, for her family to "escape" from the clan's expectations and rules from time to time. As such, it is the only house where nobody died in."

"All the more reason for Sasuke-kun to…"

"Sasuke started renovating the house after Orochimaru's attack. His apartment had also been destroyed and we thought that he had decided to live here. There are some crazy stories about the renovation, all the boys ended up helping. The Hokage and I were rather glad; we took it as a sign that he was moving on… We were surprised when he bought a new apartment nearby. At first, I thought he had enough of living with Naruto and that it was temporary until he was done with the mansion… When I asked him about it, do you know what he answered?"

"That he could not bear living of instant ramen anymore?"

"Funny, most likely the case, but no. He said: 'She will need a place when she comes back.'"

"'She'? Who was he talking about?"

"Can't you guess? He was talking about you. And a few months later, when everything was done, he went to the Hokage, filled the transfer of ownership form, and made you the new owner of the Uchiha mansion." As Sakura stayed silent, he continued. "Do you understand now? He has always meant this mansion to be yours. If you want the absolute proof that it is your house, go see the master suite. He has already put your old things there, waiting for you."

Kakashi waited a few seconds for her reply but as she stayed silent, made a few hand signs before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

It took Sakura a few minutes to realize her sensei was gone. Her mind was full of thoughts as she slowly climb the stairs to the master suite. The room was luminous and on her right, she could see a balcony with a beautiful view of the Hokage Mountain. She let her eyes wander around the room until she caught a glimpse of two picture frames on one of the bedpost. The frames were different, probably broken when her house was destroyed, but the pictures were the same. Her team. A tear escaped her eye and landed on the glass protecting her precious souvenirs. Kakashi was right. Sasuke had made sure that she would have everything she needed to feel at home. She still felt confused by his actions, but she let out a smile before exiting the house to look for her teammate.


It did not take long for Sakura to find the young shinobi; he was practicing on their training ground. He had his back to her but she knew he knew she was here.

"Are you really, really serious about giving me this mansion?" asked the cherry blossom.

"Hn" he replied, turning to face her.

"You are not going to let it go no matter what I say, are you?"

"Hn"

"You are so confusing and infuriating, you know that!?"

"Hn"

"Is 'hn' the only thing you can say?"

"Welcome home" he murmured as his deep onyx eyes met her bright green ones.

"I'm home" she answered with a small smile. Yes, she was finally home.

They two stayed silent for a few minutes before Sakura let out a sigh.

"I got it. Well, I better go tell the girls so we can start moving in. My old stuff is already there, but do you know where are Ino's and Tenten's by any chance?"

"Her family's house and the Hyuuga mansion."

"Figures. Ino's parents will most likely help her with that, but Hinata won't go anywhere near the Hyuuga's and that might be too much for Tenten by herself."

"Hyuuga can help."

"I am sure Naruto will be glad to help too. That should be enough between the three of them. We can have Tokiko and Matsuri watch over the kids while we move in and get them to the house once we are done…" Sakura interrupted herself when she noticed that look on Sasuke's face. "What is it?"

"Why are you trying so hard to hide them?" demanded the shinobi. "You don't trust us?"

Sakura adverted her eyes from him and did not reply.

"You don't trust us." stated the Sharingan bearer.

"It's not like that!" shouted the cherry blossom. "It's… It's something this guy said. He said that we would never be safe, not even in Konoha."

"This guy? The one we brought back?"

"Yes. And it scares me. Their organization is powerful and they have agents in many places… But this is home, the place we should always be safe. To think that they could be here too… That they could try to take them away… I…"

"That won't happen" sighed Sasuke.

"What?"

"You said it yourself; this is home. Your home, and therefore that of your children. Do you seriously think we will let anything happen to them?"

"No, but…"

"Besides, you have been doing a good job protecting them before, right?"

"Yes, but…"

"And you know that we have gotten stronger while you were gone, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Have some faith in us." murmured the young shinobi.

Silence fell on the two.

"You're right." said Sakura with a small smile. "Thank you Sasuke-kun…Well, I should get going. We still have to move! See you later!" exclaimed the kunoichi with a wave of her hand as she starting running toward the Hokage tower.

Sasuke allowed himself a small smile before running toward Kakashi's home to let him know there was a chance that the girls' attackers were in the village. They did not really talk about them yet, so the information they have about this organization were limited but if they were strong enough to scare his cherry blossom this much, they were not to be treated lightly. 'A good thing that the house already has several protection jutsus' he thought. 'But we might have to place it under Anbu's surveillance too, just in case.'


So how was the Sasusaku? Next chapter, the meeting! See you in two weeks! (Hopefully I have school projects and finals to do, argh!)