I Do Not Own Naruto

Chapter 10

Sakura walked with Sasuke to the abandoned district of the village and stared at the tattered police tape screaming that this was a crime scene. Uneasy with the abandoned, overgrown sight of his old home she shifted her bag from shoulder to shoulder. Sasuke also seemed uneasy with being here, she had a bad feeling about this entire experience as they walked into the old compound.

"So… this is the Uchiha compound," she said as they looked around uneasily.

"Aa," was the answer she received.

"This is going to take a long time," she sighed.

"Aa," he nodded.

"Well, where are we staying?" she prompted and they started walking towards a house. The door protested when Sasuke yanked it open, but she coughed when they were assaulted by musty air, and dust. Sasuke paled, but he walked into the house, she followed him, then she stopped beside him when they stared at two faded outlines, and the dark stains on the wood. She looked up to her friend and nudged him softly before placing a hand on his shoulder. She felt the tremor from him as he stared at the spot.

"We don't have to stay here," she murmured.

"This is the Head of the Clan's home, this is where I will live if I have to marry Hinata," he snarled and she sighed.

"Yes, but you're living with me right now, you don't need to live here if you don't want to," she murmured to him. an onyx eye looked at her through his bangs and he looked back at the old stains. Sakura's heart broke for him, for now she remembered the broken boy who had shown up at her family's home with her mother behind him firmly telling her father and her that her shinobi friend had passed and they were taking in her son. The eight year old boy had needed a family and her family had welcomed him in, he had needed friends and she had been his friend, he had needed a pain in ass to get him up, and she had been his pain in the ass. She had kicked him upwards and shoved him forward, she had never sugar coated anything for him though there had been times she wanted to.

Looking at the stains and the outlines, all faded and covered in dust from time, she knew she had done the right thing by being what he needed and not what he wanted.

"We're staying here," Sasuke murmured miserably.

"Whatever you want, but I'm cleaning those up if we're living here," she stated.

"Aa," he nodded and slowly they walked through the house, up towards the rooms. He slid a door of a musty room open and she poked her head in, it was a guest room and she silently slipped into it. She was about to thank him for the room but he was gone when she turned around. She shuddered in being creeped out by this house as she dropped her bags.

Sasuke walked to his old room's door, it was across the hall from Itachi's room, and he tensed as he reached for the door. Sliding it open he looked at it, exactly how he had left it thirteen years ago. Quietly he walked in, the first thing to catch his eye was a dusty photo of him and Itachi, part of him wanted to rip that picture into little itty bitty pieces then burn it into ash. But he couldn't, because that had been the good days.

The days before his brother had turned into a dangerous killer who had betrayed the village, attacked his best friends and slaughtered the entire Uchiha Clan to join the Akatsuki.

This was the last good memory he had of his brother, and though he hated his brother, he wanted to remember his brother before the massacre.

Instead he laid it down on it's face before he exited the room and slid it shut to hide it from his memories again. Then he walked to another guest quarters. Dropping his bags in the abandoned room he looked around and decided he'd do anything to not live here ever again. He would rather sleep in the apartment or over the bakery, or… anywhere else.

A yelp with a thudding crash had him darting out of the room.

"Sakura!" he shouted.

"Sorry," he looked at the stairs and rounded the corner then and found her at the bottom of them. "Spider web," she huffed out. he shook his head then as he walked down the stairs down to her. he offered her a hand, which she took out of reflex as he hoisted her up, she pulled the spider web out of her pink hair.

"You are annoying," he informed her as he tugged at her hair to help her out.

"I know," she sighed.

"Good," he informed her. Part of him would almost rathe take her up on her offer of marrying her instead of the painfully shy Hinata, but he didn't say that as he finished pulling the last of her spiderweb out of her hair.

"Alright, well, since we're here, we might as well start cleaning the place, it would be good to at least in a clean environment," she huffed.

"You're a walking wreck," Sasuke pointed out because she was never the one cleaning their apartment as it was.

"Hush on that!" she ordered.

"It's true," he stated flatly.

"I'm not that bad!" she argued as they walked out of the compound towards the market for supplies.

"Aa, you are," he assured her and poked the seal on her brow. She glared at him.

"Well then, I'll leave all the cleaning to you," she snapped.

"Just uproot the overgrown garden," he ordered.

"As if, I'm not some super girl or something," she snapped.

"Strength of a hundred," he poked again, she swatted at his hand as they walked and he smirked at how comfortable they were even when they walked into the haunted compound of the Uchiha family.

Hinata saw Sasuke and Sakura walking together through the village and she stopped when she saw Sasuke smile as he poked Sakura's brow. The entire world slowed for her at the sight of that look in his eye. The sucker punch of guilt and relief at the sight of them together had her hiding behind a pole as she tried to steady her heart.

She had to get out of this marriage, she had to do it before they got hurt.

She looked around the pole again and she saw the way Sakura lightly nudged Sasuke and the way the Uchiha pushed her back as they chatted and she smiled.

They didn't know it yet, she doubted they would've noticed it until it was gone or until they were apart from each other.

Uchiha Sasuke was in love with Haruno Sakura, and Haruno Sakura was in love with Uchiha Sasuke.

They were in love and from what she had seen just now they didn't even know it. A secret smile tugged at her lips as she walked alone in the village. All she'd have to do was get Sasuke to elope with Sakura and then she wouldn't have to marry the Uchiha. The only problem was she didn't know how to get out of this marriage which had her walking to the only girl she knew who would be able to help her get out of this marriage.

She walked straight to the apartment of Yamanaka Ino and knocked on the door without really thinking about what she was going to ask of the blonde. The door opened and Hinata smiled shyly.

"Hey Hinata! What's up? Come in!" Ino ushered her in and shut the door.

"Um…" Hinata bit her lip nervously and looked at Ino then.

"Well?" Ino prompted.

"I need some help," Hinata mumbled.

"Oh? And what do you need help with?" Ino asked then.

"How do you set two people up to… fall in love?" Hinata asked then.

"Um… why?" Ino asked.

"Well, Sasuke's in love with Sakura," Hinata admitted which had Ino blinking then as she leaned on the counter.

"He is?" Ino asked.

"Yes," Hinata nodded shyly. She hadn't been seeing things, or seeing something that wasn't there, or even been delusional. She had seen it, that look, the look of love and affection, she had seen it with how he was treating Sakura, and she had seen it in Sakura when she had seen how the pinkette smiled back at the Uchiha. It was all there, it was so quiet though it was easy to overlook, it was easy to miss, she was even certain they were missing it right now and she didn't want them to miss what they had.

Love, real love, it was real, it was rare, and it was special when it was found and she didn't want them to miss it.

"Well… that's new," Ino mumbled.

"It is?"

"Well, yeah, and yes I'll help you if this is the case," Ino said. "So what's the plan?"

Kakashi had sent a missive to Jiraiya on the way back to the Leaf, after a week of traveling with his moping ward, Sai and Yamato Kakashi was almost ready to endure Guy's antics for a month if only to get out of this stifling environment. He didn't think it had been that bad until he tried to talk about the wedding with Naruto. Innocently asking if Naruto was going to be Sasuke's best man or not.

That had put the dark cloud over Naruto's head and Kakashi wanted nothing more than to be away from the moping Naruto for a moment. It was hard to be around Naruto when he was like this.

But there was hope, hope for things to turn out how Kakashi was planning, he hadn't received a reply from Jiraiya yet but he was certain that Naruto's godfather would be eager to help set the Uchiha up with Sakura and Naruto up with Hinata. It would make for a great bit of inspiration no doubt for the writer and it would no doubt be a wonderful bit of entertainment.

Which was why Kakashi was eagr to return to the village.

He was thinking of unleashing his plans at the summer festival, nothing too dramatic, just… subtle. He was a shinobi, subtle was something he did well. He was certain he could subtly point his students in the right direction to getting their lives on track again.

That's all for now folks!

Enjoy Rid of the Monsters! =)