For some reason 'FF . net' won't let me reply to the last chapter's reviews. So, to all the wonderful people who reviewed, many many thanks, this one is for you ;)
In this chapter Sasuke quotes the Lion King, can you spot it?
There are only so many times you can get flung into a wall before you feel as if your pride has been dealt a wound that might just never heal.
"Damn it!" Sakura growled as she bounced off the wall for the umpteenth time before sliding down to the floor and into a rather undignified heap.
"Damn it!" Naruto said as he too was flung.
"Hn," was Sasuke's comment after the humiliating landing.
The trio sat back leaning against the red brick wall that their trainers kept throwing them into.
This area of the anbu quarters was a huge, dirt floored, brick-walled space where recruits normally received their combat training.
Sakura sighed as she watched three more trainees step in to take their place in the ring. Said ring was nothing but a huge Sumo-style circle drawn on the ground. The recruits were told to just stay in the circle for as long as they could. And they really tried. However, the three masked anbu they were sparring against were relentless. Two men and a woman, who had rather small frames but were apparently unbeatable.
"All they need to do is get us to step over the white line," Sasuke commented. "Throwing us out by sheer force is overkill," he pushed on as he watched the three trainers fling the three recruits out at exactly the same time.
"They're showing off, Teme," Naruto piped up wiping a trail of blood from his forehead, "the bastards are playing with us. And why does it have to be hand to hand combat? If I could just use my Rasengan I could blast those idiots right off that circle."
Sakura nodded watching the next three unfortunate recruits step in, soon it would be their turn again, "this is the fifth time they have flung the three of us at this wall. At this point it's not even a fight. They're just practicing aiming every three students at a corner of the room."
"They're also practicing their timing. They throw us at the walls at almost exactly the same time," Sasuke concluded.
"Bastards are not taking us seriously at all," Naruto howled. "This next time I'm gonna knock one of them out."
"Says the guy who lasted all of three seconds this last round," Sakura remarked.
"Like you lasted any longer," the blonde shot back, "you were flung at the wall too Sakura-chan."
Sakura raised an eyebrow, "I did it with flair though," the girl said, futilely touching a hand to her messy hair.
"What does that even mean?" Naruto questioned.
The girl shrugged, "I have no idea."
The two of them laughed companionably.
"Ah, Sakura-chan, I kinda miss you," the future Hokage remarked earnestly, leaning back against the brick wall.
Sakura smiled mimicking his gesture and sitting back comfortably as if they were lounging there by choice and not because they were in too much pain to will their sore limbs to move before they absolutely have to. "Naruto, you have seen me every day of this week. For more than 8 hours a day."
"Yah, but I only get to talk to you for brief moments and we're normally both getting our asses kicked at the time."
Sakura snickered, "Yah, it's been a tough week, God am I glad it's Wednesday already. One more day and the strength and endurance week will be over and done with."
"Good riddance!" Naruto said, fist-bumping the air.
"You two know that the coming weeks will probably be harder; not to mention that we might have some sort of test tomorrow since it would be the last day of this component of the qualifiers," Sasuke said informatively.
Sakura and Naruto's heads snapped towards him in collective annoyance.
"Can't let us have even a single second of relief can you?" Sakura said with narrowed eyes.
"Damn you Teme,"
"He's gonna come back as a crow in his next life," Sakura declared.
"Nah, that'd be too good for him," Naruto pitched in.
"A slug?" Sakura suggested.
"Yes!" the ever-so excited blonde said excitedly, "definitely a slug."
Sasuke fought valiantly to prevent himself from banging his head against the wall behind him, "I am surrounded by idiots."
At that his teammates grinned, they always found it entertaining when their Uchiha teammate got exasperated with them.
"The slug's upset," Sakura pointed out and Naruto roared with laughter.
At that, the slug, aka Sasuke, narrowed his eyes, "Baka, didn't you have something you wanted to ask Sakura?" he suggested.
And just like that the allegiances within team 7 switched as Naruto's display of merriment ceased and much to Sakura's surprise, he started eyeing her with speculative eyes.
The trio were interrupted for a second as one of the recruits attempted to fling a Kunai at an instructor and was summarily subdued and brought to his knees.
Naruto ignored the fuss, as if completely uninteresting. He cleared his throat, "Ano, Sakura-chan," he started, "did you… I mean, do you, love him?"
Sakura eyed Naruto in silent surprise for a second, "why…why would you ask me something like that?"
Naruto knew that Sakura only married Itachi for the greater good, why would he possibly pose such a question.
Naruto inhaled deeply. The blonde was a man of action not words. And if he had to say words he always preferred for them to be fun words, not serious discussions. "Well, that scene at your house the other day…"
"The scene…" Sakura pondered. Even though she had not been married for long, a lot has happened in the past few weeks, she was finding it hard to keep up. "You mean…"
"In your bedroom… when we walked in with sensei and Mikoto-sama and you were…"
Naruto trailed off when Sakura's eyes widened: a mixture of shock and anger that he knew very well.
"That… that was…"
"It is quite obvious what that was," the young Uchiha said, now evidently hell bent on not being helpful to Sakura at all after having called him a slug and all.
"No… I mean…"
"It's not only that, Sakura-chan. Sasuke also told me that you seem to be getting along well."
"How could you possibly know that?" the girl said addressing Sasuke.
"Maids talk," he said enigmatically.
"They say you don't even leave the house without kissing him," Naruto said bluntly, too bluntly that he couldn't help raising his voice a bit which caused his own cheeks to flush.
"I…"
"How could you Sakura-chan!"
"Naruto, just calm down a bit," Sakura said waving a hand and looking around her to make sure that everyone was still busy either doing battle or dressing their battle wounds to even care about what they were saying, "it is not like that."
"First you try to take your pants off and then you kiss him every day…"
"Naruto…" she hissed threateningly. This was too serious of a topic to even be addressing with people around. Granted they were within anbu territory which meant that it was Itachi's territory, but still. The girl threw a venomous look Sasuke's way. "Happy now, slug?"
Sasuke glared, "you need to explain yourself," he deadpanned.
*The bastard,* she hissed mentally. "This is not the place…" she started, looking around her suspiciously.
"This might be the only place," Sasuke said, "To prevent us from using chakra they have used a chakra nullifying barrier, which means that no spying spells can be launched within these parameters. Not to mention that this area is not being monitored by anyone but the three instructors who are doing battle right now and because of the barrier they cannot use chakra either and no external spells will be of any use here."
Naruto nodded, "explain yourself Sakura-chan, I was about ready to storm the compound to rescue you from the Evil-Taicho but then you started acting like you liked him and all. Isn't this all supposed to be just for show?"
"It is, but…"
"But… Oh, Kami-sama, there's a but!" Naruto wailed causing a few eyes to turn their way. At that both Sakura and Sasuke gave him threatening looks.
"But what…" Sasuke said, picking up where Naruto left off. "You like him now?"
"What are you talking about? I mean…" Sakura inhaled deeply, better be honest about this, "listen he is my husband and I need to act like it. That is all."
"But…" Naruto started.
"There are no buts," Sakura said in finality, "I am committed to this."
"To the marriage or to the mission?" the young Uchiha questioned, seemingly more serious now.
"Both," she said matter of factly. "This is my assignment and I will see it through."
"So this is just work right? You don't like him or anything?" Naruto questioned. "It's just that when I saw you act like that with him I thought you might seriously…"
"He's just my husband," she declared.
Sasuke gave her a look.
"Yah, yah… you're right, that's not really an answer," she concurred. "I mean, things between me and him are not romantic or anything. So I can't say I like him. But I can't say I dislike him either. I have developed a lot of respect for him over the last few weeks."
This answer seemed to satisfy the young Uchiha whose admiration for his older brother was only surpassed by his unwillingness to admit that he admired his older brother.
"So just respect… no love?" Naruto asked again, just to make sure.
Sakura inhaled, feeling uncomfortable again for some reason. "Yes… just respect," she said, glad to put an end to this conversation.
"So… have you had sex?" Sasuke questioned and both Sakura and Naruto gawked at him.
"Wow!" Naruto said, "being a slug made you shameless, teme."
Sakura who was struggling to stop gaping at her teammate could only stutter, "no… no… no… I mean… no… we haven't… no…no… absolutely not."
Sasuke's eyes glinted with a bit of mischief and Sakura knew that despite wanting to know, he was partly messing with her.
"Are you going to?" the young Uchiha questioned evenly.
Naruto who was in awe of Sasuke kept eyeing him wonderingly for a second, but when he did not hear Sakura's reply he turned to face her with a questioning look in his eyes.
Sakura shook her head, "I don't know," she said honestly, her mind a whirlwind of thought.
"What?" her two teammates said in completely unintentional unison.
"You three… step up!" they heard one of the instructors yell their way.
And just like that the trio advanced towards their destiny, Sasuke's question still whizzing through their minds.
.
Sighing contentedly under the shower, Sakura closed her eyes.
"Such a long day," she murmured. Now all she had to do was dry up and go home to sleep.
Oh, wait, *I still have lessons with Shisui, Anko and Eri-san.*
Sighing again, this time more with agony than relief the girl leaned her head back and silently enjoyed the moment of peace.
Alas, her mind wouldn't stand for something so lame as peace.
*So you're gonna have sex, hah?* inner popped up.
*I didn't say that.*
*You didn't say you won't.*
*It's just that this is an assignment that could last for many years to come. What if I indeed had to give them an heir? It's not like I could hightail it out of here and make a run for it if that happened. I made a commitment to this.*
Having said that, the girl shuddered, *having sex though, and having a baby for the sake of a mission. I thought it would be different. I thought I would find a person to love first and then…*
*Oh come on,* inner weighed in. *You're talking about sex with the-uchiha Itachi, do you know how many people would kill to be in your place. Do you even remember that kiss or how good it feels when we're all cuddled up in bed with him?*
Sakura pondered her words for a second, *I always thought he was good looking. And fearsome: that day he saved us when we were kids I thought he might just be the coolest human being alive. But I am a grown up now, and I know better.*
*What do you mean, he is the coolest human being alive!* inner said fervently.
*Are you his fangirl or my inner self?*
*Definitely his fangirl.*
*I'm just saying: even if he is great and worthy of all this fawning you've been doing ever since we saw him, he still is doing this out of duty and so am I. There is nothing romantic here…*Sakura trailed off having heard the door to the showers open and close as someone exited. This was her cue to stop the onslaught of water and step out herself. Not like this conversation with her inner was giving her any comfort anyways.
Sakura dried herself and got dressed.
"So we get to go home early today?" Sakura heard Ino's voice as she made for the door.
"Yah, it seems so many recruits were rendered incapacitated by the training that not enough of us remain for the final task of the day. Apparently, it was gonna be some sort of group battle royale or something," Sakura said informatively.
"What kind of sadist designed this training," Ino complained, "I can barely walk. Those instructors are brutal."
Sakura nodded as the duo made their way towards the gates of the training grounds, "but we did get a bit better didn't we?" she pondered, "I mean every day we were made to face instructors who use a different approach to physical combat and fight them for an extended period of time. I feel like it hasn't only built up my stamina but it also introduced me to some great techniques that I didn't even know were out there. I had become so reliant on weapons and chakra attacks over the past few years."
"That doesn't make it any less brutal though," the blonde said miserably, "but I agree, it's scary how much we have come to rely on weapons. Back at the academy we were trained heavily in hand to hand combat but once we mastered weapons and chakra it became natural to rely on them… But man am I exhausted, I'm just gonna go home and go straight to bed. So Forehead, what's the plan for today? Gonna go home and spend some sexy time with the hubby?"
"Nope," came Sakura's ready reply, "he's not even home. He works very hard on weekdays that I barely even see him."
Ino gave her a sidelong look which paired with her raised eyebrow assured Sakura that her thoughts were anything but innocent at the moment. "Do you know what you should do?"
"No but I am sure you're gonna tell me."
"Of course I will… Alright listen, you need to go home early, cook him something good, slip into some sexy lingerie and wait for him in your bedroom and the second he comes in you just…"
"Jump out and yell surprise?"
Ino paused mid-step, "are you retarded. We're not trying to kill him, or get you killed," she paused in exasperation, "No, you just slink out…"
"I'm gonna stop you right there. How exactly does one slink?"
"You know… slink…"
"That was very informative. I'm just gonna go home and wait for him,"
"Wait, what about the slinking…"
"Good night Ino."
"Slink… Sakura Slink!"
*Help me, Kami-sama!*
.
Heading home three hours earlier than usual, Sakura made her way to the bedroom and crawled into bed. Even though she needed sleep she knew that she was tired to the point where if she slept she wouldn't be able to wake up for her lessons. So she begrudgingly decided to force her battered mind to read. Her choices of reading material included both Itachi's carefully prepared mission file and the one novel she found while browsing his library.
Laying them both on the bed in front of her, Sakura carefully weighed her options. "A Flower's Fate" was the name of the novel and it had a beautiful couple on the cover. The couple are standing in front of the sea, embracing at dusk, and the light is hitting them at just the right angle so you could only see their silhouettes and the woman's dress floating around her in the wind.
Sakura found it truly bizarre that Itachi would have such a sappy looking book in his collection. It piqued her curiosity the second she saw it, however, for the time being she decided to review some of the sections of Itachi's detailed mission file.
Sakura had read it four times already but being the honor student that she was she felt the need to study the whole thing till she memorized it by heart.
Opening it to a random page, she started reading. In this section Itachi detailed what is expected of her as the heir's wife.
You are expected to:
Attend all formal events
Co-host main family events with the clan matriarch
Host at least two formal events in the Heir's house every year
Attend all external formal events as a representative of the Uchiha
Establish amicable relationships with clan members
Attend events hosted by clan members and relay the heir's regards (ie, via tokens, gifts, or written letters)
Familiarize yourself with clan protocol
Produce future heirs to the clan
Sakura sighed putting the folder down, this list kept going for two more pages and every time the girl read it she had to pause at this point. It was a clear testament to her lack of preparedness. She walked in completely blindfolded and utterly unaware. In all fairness the girl was sure that at some level she knew what she would be expected to do but avoided thinking about it so as not to chicken out.
Still, this was such a huge commitment.
*I'll take it one step at a time,* she thought, attempting to psych herself up.
With that in mind she hopped off the bed and stalked out of the house.
She decided to get a head-start on one of the tasks listed in the folder.
*I'm supposed to get closer to clan members, so maybe I should start by actually meeting some of them. I've been cooped up in that house ever since the wedding. Maybe if I walk around the compound for a few minutes I'll run into someone.*
Sakura stepped out onto the vast Uchiha compound. After rounding a corner from Itachi's mansion she came into view of huge gardens interspersed with houses. The houses were almost identical. White and black were the two predominant colors, aside from the vast greenery.
The sun was setting, so many Uchiha were returning to their homes.
Sakura found her resolve, *I'm gonna look at them and smile!*
*Excellent plan boss!* inner mocked.
But Sakura couldn't care less. All her energy right now was being rerouted to her 'I will be the friendliest human being to ever live' plan.
And so she smiled, at a 20 something man in combat gear, at a 40 something year old lady who passed her by, at a couple of stunning Uchiha teenage girls who made her ponder if Uchiha even go through puberty, and at a group of men in police force uniforms who were walking by in complete silence as if they did not even know each other.
The girl even tried nodding and waving.
*Nothing,* was what she got. She stood, she waved, she smiled, she nodded and no one acknowledged her. Almost all of them avoided eye-contact and the ones who slipped and met her eyes just held them impassively for a second before moving on.
Sakura faltered, in her mind inner eyed her smugly as she crouched on the floor beneath a broken street light, *so harsh!*
*What else did you expect from the clan that spawned Sasuke?* inner said.
Picking herself up, the girl leaned back against a tree, *I can't really expect them to acknowledge me as Itachi's wife straightaway, but saying hi to me or even nodding when I wave at them that's just basic human decency.*
*Expecting human decency from a clan of robots are you? You need a new approach to this.*
*Yah, you're right,* Sakura pondered before slapping a hand to her mouth, *did I just think that you're right!*
*Mwahahahaha,* Inner roared as Sakura's eyes widened in horror.
"What are you doing lady?" Sakura heard a small voice call to her.
She straightened up quickly, "ahem, I… I was just… sorry, who are you?" she asked as her eyes took in the young girl with shoulder length raven hair and patented Uchiha eyes.
"I am Ena."
"How old are you Ena?"
"9. You wanna play?"
"Play?"
"Yah, we're missing a person and no one wants to play. If I don't find a person my team forfeits. You're a person aren't you Miss?"
Sakura blinked, "yah… I think."
"Good, let's go!" Ena said, grabbing Sakura's hand and dragging her along.
"So, what are we gonna be playing?"
"It's a contest."
"A contest?"
"Hm," Ena replied.
*Wow, this girl has been blessed with the Uchiha's unique capacity for concise speech.*
"What contest?"
"An eating contest."
"Oh, I'm great at those!" Sakura boasted. Having been part of a team that has Naruto in it, she quickly developed a deep appreciation for food. Not to mention that with Naruto if you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat at all.
The girl led Sakura past a few houses and down towards the river where two tables had been set up facing each other with three chairs on each side. And plates were set carefully in front of the chairs.
From a distance Sakura saw seven more people standing around. As they got closer the girl realized they were mostly kids, with 5 of them appearing to be right around Ena's age and two who seemed to be a bit older: five guys and two girls in total, standing around and talking.
*Well, winning an eating contest against kids won't be that hard,* the girl pondered. *Speaking of food…*
"Hey Ena, is that cotton on the plates?" Sakura questioned remarking upon the bizarre sight.
"Yah and cloth," the girl replied briefly, "Akira, Akemi, I got a person," she declared to her two friends: a young girl about her age but with her hair tied into a high bun and a young boy who looked every bit as a miniature Sasuke.
"Wohoo! We're not gonna lose after all… Did you hear that, losers!" the boy declared to the three other young kids who just gave him annoyed looks.
Akemi nudged him and he seemed a bit embarrassed at his bluntness, but he hid it quickly with a small cough, before looking at Sakura.
"Who are you?" he questioned.
"That's impolite, Akira," Akemi declared.
"Do you really not know who she is?" Ena asked, "she's Itachi sama's wife."
Sakura blinked, when they met the girl didn't act like she knew who she was or even cared to ask.
Akemi nodded, "hello, Sakura-sama, I am Akemi and this is my twin brother Akira. Thank you for agreeing to help us out with the contest. I was supposed to partake but I got injured while practicing."
"Oh, sure, no problem," Sakura said with a smile, "it's been a while since I did something for fun. So how was it that you got injured? I mean eating is quite harmless. Might just be the most harmless activity there is…"
Sakura's speech was interrupted when the two older boys straightened up and faced each other at a distance before nodding to each other and turning in unison to face the river.
"Katon! Goukakyuu No Jutsuu," they chorused and with that their hands launched into a quick succession of hand signals that Sakura knew too well.
A succession that she saw Sasuke use too many times that she could recite it in her sleep:
Serpent
Ram
Monkey
Boar
Horse
Tiger
At that the huge fireballs were launched to graze the surface of the river.
Granted they weren't as huge as those Sasuke launches but for 11 year olds the execution was quite impressive.
"Alright," one of the boys said and Sakura could tell that he was trying to make his voice sound deeper, "so this is the goal! Now you're gonna need a lot of practice to get there."
"To be able to breathe fire one day you have got to be comfortable with fire," the other boy who seemed a bit older declared, "so today's eating contest is the first step. Have a seat; you will have 5 minutes to deliberate and five minutes to make your plates. Then the contest will last five minutes. The team that manages to eat the most fire in that period of time will be victorious and will proceed to the next stage."
"Wh…what? Did he just say 'eat fire?'"
Ena nodded.
"Ena-chan, did you not tell her?" Akemi asked.
Ena shrugged.
"Seems like an important detail to leave out," Sakura said crossly.
"What's the big deal?" Akira questioned, "it's just fire eating."
"What's the big deal? Who eats fire? Why is this even a thing?"
Akira's eyes widened, "don't tell me… you've never eaten fire before?"
Sakura's eyebrow twitched, "of course I have never eaten fire before, why would I possibly do that?"
"You… You're Itachi-sama's wife right?" Ena asked with a raised eyebrow.
Sakura gave her a look, *this little girl is a handful,* she pondered, speechless. *Do all Uchiha kids do that? I know that the fire ball technique is something that they all do. I remember how excited Sasuke was when he first mastered it. He actually attempted to smile that day. If it's that important, it follows that at some point they would need to prepare like this. But God is this strange.*
"Take your places," the older boy said and the other team: two boys and a girl, did as instructed.
"Please Sakura-sama," Akemi said pleadingly, "I really wanted to compete but I hurt my mouth yesterday. My brother and Ena trained very hard but since we're facing three people they can't compete without a third. Please help us."
Akira gave Sakura an annoyed look before moving to take his place at the table, meanwhile Ena just walked to her seat without sparing Sakura a second thought.
The girl sighed before giving Akemi a smile and a nod, "I'll do my best."
Taking her seat between Ena and Akira Sakura eyed the plate wearily.
"There you go," the older boy said handing Sakura a satchel. He handed similar satchels to all the other contestants, "five minutes to deliberate."
"What are we supposed to deliberate about?" Sakura questioned.
"We need to come up with a strategy as to how we will eat our fire. See, this bag they gave us has metal rods, metal wires, different types of fuel, chopsticks, threads, straws, and wooden rods. We should come up with the best way to eat our fire. It needs to be fast too."
Sakura sighed, "the best way to eat our fire hah? Leave it to Uchiha children to replace candy with fire."
"You know nothing about this," Akira said, "just stay out of it," he added childishly. "Let's just do it the way we did it in practice. I'll just light the cloths up, tie them to the rod, dip them in fuel and swallow them."
"I use the cotton, it's more flammable," Ena added.
Sakura pondered the supplies.
"Cotton seems like the better choice," she declared.
"What do you know," Akira said dismissively.
Sakura gave him a look that she learned from her shishou, which caused the previously blunt boy to lean a bit away from her, "I'll have you know that I am a medic."
"So?"
"So, the thing that causes fire to burn and to go out is chemistry which is my domain."
"So we're using cotton?" Ena questioned.
"Yah," Sakura said, "we're also going to tie them to the metal rods, they will last longer and we'd get more use out of each rod since the wooden rods will quickly burn and we'd get splinters."
"That's what happened to Akemi!" Akira declared.
"Not surprising," Sakura concluded. "So what do you use to tie them to the rods?"
"Metal wires," Akira said.
Sakura shook her head, "thread is better, it won't burn your mouth. And we'll dip it in benzene it's easily flammable."
"So, metal rods, threads and cotton," Ena summarized.
Sakura nodded, "and when you put it in your mouth I am sure you know that you should purse your lips and close your throat so that no oxygen reaches the fire. Also make sure to stop using a rod the second the threads come undone, you don't want the cotton to fall in your mouth."
The two nodded.
"Time," the younger of the two supervisors said, "five minutes to make your plates."
And with that the trio embarked on their task.
The two young Uchiha were, as expected, very efficient.
They tied the cotton around the metal rods and fastened them securely with thread before setting the benzene containers on the table for easy dipping.
Sakura did the same, so that each of them had about twenty rods sitting in front of them. Once the two moderators give them the signal all it would take is a little ignition chakra spell to set the rods on fire and they would get to swallowing.
Sakura drew in a gulp of air.
In theory this was quite straightforward, smother the fire in your mouth and then swallow all the air so that it goes out.
But in practice, it was, well, it was swallowing fire.
She didn't want to let the kids down though, not to mention that she figured if the kids were brave enough to attempt this, as an anbu recruit she would never be able to live down her shame if she backed out now.
Swallowing fire really wasn't her thing though.
She exhaled.
"Alright guys, let's move fast, but be very careful not to burn yourself. We want to make the most use out of each rod, but as I said: discard it and go to the next rod once the thread comes undone," she instructed and much to her surprise the two kids nodded.
"Time up, now you have five minutes to eat as much fire as you could. Three, two, one, go!"
On that note the six contestants lit their sticks.
Sakura said a silent prayer, before shoving her fear away. The tiniest bit of hesitation could get her in a load of trouble. With that thought in mind she brought the flaming rod to her mouth. Opening wide and leaning her head back so that the fire on the rod became more contained, the girl shoved it in making sure to not let it touch her tongue and to close her mouth ever so gently so that the roof of her mouth does not touch the flaming cotton.
Sakura's pulse quickened and she felt her nerves kick into gear. However, her nervousness turned into relief which morphed into excitement as she swallowed her breath and felt the fire go out.
She pulled it off without a hitch and looked to her side at Akira who was grinning back at her.
With a nod, they both dipped the stick in benzene once more before lighting it and redoing the whole thing anew.
Casting her eyes at their opponents the girl could easily see that they were not moving at the same pace. For one they were using cloth rather than cotton and it was fastened with straw that easily came apart when the fire touched it even for the briefest of seconds.
Sakura wouldn't rely on chance though, so she picked up her speed and after lighting her third fire on that stick she moved onto her next stick.
If she swallowed them fast enough she could make the next rod last longer before the threads started to become undone.
*Yosh!* the girl mentally roared.
"Let's win this!" she declared between mouthfuls of flames and the two kids at her sides nodded excitedly.
.
"You…were… incredible!" Akemi exclaimed as the four of them walked away from the scene of the contest.
"I can't believe this was your first time doing this," Akira declared, now all traces of hostility drained from his features and replaced with awe and admiration.
"I knew she could do it," Ena said with ease.
Sakura gave her a look.
"Alright, I didn't know, but I was desperate," she admitted.
The other two giggled as Sakura smiled down at the troublesome little girl, "what kind of contest is that anyway? And how come they allowed me to participate even though I came last minute, not to mention that I am an adult?"
"It's the fire dragon contest!" Akira declared.
"Huh?"
"It's a contest that happens every three years. You don't have to be a kid to play, as long as you are an Uchiha you can play." Akemi said informatively.
"We go through a bunch of challenges and activities. Every round you do something fire related and you do a contest. This is the first round, so we did this as the fire challenge and we also did a 'capture the flag' contest. By the last round we're gonna have to do a fire ball jutsu and all our parents will be there to watch!" Ena said. "If you complete all the fire challenges you win."
"What do you win?"
"Pride!" Akira declared.
"Yah, everyone would know that you can do the fire-ball jutsu. Every Uchiha has to do it," Akemi said, a bit deflated.
"I'm sorry, Akemi," Akira said, adopting a brotherly air.
"Akemi skipped the fire challenge cuz she hurt her mouth, so she will have to wait three years to play again," Ena explained
"I am so sorry, Akemi-chan," Sakura said earnestly.
Akemi nodded, "I'm just glad Sakura-sama stepped in for me."
"It was no trouble at all, I had a couple of hours to kill today," the medic said with a smile.
"Great, how about next week?" Ena questioned.
"Next week?"
"Yah, for round two," Akira said.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Sakura-sama you're now part of the team. In my place."
"What, no! I only agreed to do this one contest. Actually, I didn't really agree, Ena here grabbed me before I even said yes."
"If you step out now then both me and Akira will get disqualified."
"Please Sakura-sama!" both Akira and Akemi pleaded.
Sakura was stunned.
"You're also an Uchiha," Ena said matter of factly, "you might be the oldest Uchiha who has not done the fire dragon challenge."
"Yah, everyone did it but you," Akira said jumping on the bandwagon.
"Everyone does that?"
"Yah, when they are kids everyone does it. You're not considered a proper adult if you don't," Ena said challengingly.
"Listen kid, you can't strong-arm me into doing this. I don't have the time; I already have a lot on my plate so…"
"You don't have to do the whole thing," Ena bargained, "you can only do the fire challenges, you can skip the activities, it's ok if you don't do them. So you only have to do two more challenges."
"Two more?"
"Yah, it's only three rounds, so two more fire challenges, the last one is the fire ball technique," Akemi said.
"I don't know…"
"Please…" the three children begged, stopping mid step and giving her puppy eyes. Big, round, onyx colored baby Uchiha eyes.
Who could possibly say no to that?
"Fine,"
"Wohoo!" Akira celebrated.
"Is it really Ok for me to only attend the fire challenges?"
"Sure, the challenges are important because people are cut from the contest when they lose. But the activities are just fun. If you win you get a prize and if you don't you don't get one but you get to keep playing. You see, they're not really important, even though I participated in the 'capture the flag' activity, because I could not play in the challenge, I got disqualified," Akemi explained.
"Alright, I'll do the challenges only then."
"Yaay!" the twins celebrated.
.
"Welcome home, master," Hana said as Itachi stepped through the door.
"Hn," he replied.
"Dinner is ready,"
"Hn,"
"Shall I inform my lady of your arrival?"
"She is home?"
"Yes, she has guests over,"
"Guests?"
"Yes, they are in the upstairs reception,"
"I see,"
.
"You're gonna break it Akira,"
"I'm fine Akemi, God, you're not my mom you know. I could hold onto a tea cup… oops."
The three females looked on in exasperation as they saw the young boy barely miss dropping his tea cup.
Sakura who was tending to the wound to Akemi's tongue, paused mid procedure to give him a stern look, "be more careful, Akira."
"I know, I know," he said, waving his free hand, "I wouldn't want to drop it… I wouldn't wanna do this…" he added getting to his feet and moving his cup to the side in a wave like motion, "or this," he added moving to the other side as the three girls gave him angry looks, "or this… oh!"
This time the cup did drop, for the young Uchiha turned around, cup in hand, only to see Itachi walk into the room.
The cup fell to the floor, spilling its contents but miraculously escaping unscathed. It was a narrow miss though, but fortunately cups have three lives. Not as lucky as cats but lucky nonetheless.
"Itachi-sama!" the three kids said, the two girls got to their feet, Akemi shooting up even with Sakura's hands surrounding her face.
Hana who was right behind Itachi rushed forward to wipe the floor and clear the mess.
"Good evening," the Uchiha heir said with a small nod to the kids, "Sakura," he added addressing his wife.
Taking his cue, the girl got up and walked towards him and just as she did the last few days since he instated the kissing decree, she got on tiptoes, heart thumping in her chest and gave him a peck on the cheek as he laced his arm around her waist and gave her a small squeeze.
"I…I am so sorry," Akira said, face slightly flushed.
"Hn," Itachi pardoned, "may I join you?" he added, addressing his wife.
"Sure," the girl said walking back to Akemi and resuming her treatment.
"Good evening Itachi-sama," Ena who had been uninterested in all interaction until Itachi appeared piped up.
"Good evening, Ena," the Uchiha-heir greeted as he moved to the couch and sat down.
"We met Sakura-sama near the gardens," she took it upon herself to explain, as Itachi watched Hana pour him a cup of tea, "she agreed to join us in the dragon quest."
At that Itachi and Sakura's eyes met and he gave her a raised eyebrow, "I see."
"They were short a member," Sakura explained.
"I got injured," Akemi said timidly, as Sakura continued to heal the wounds she sustained to the inside of her mouth.
"Sakura-sama is amazing!" Akira piped up, having quickly recovered from his embarrassment, "she swallowed forty flames in five minutes, she could've beaten the other team all by herself. And she hadn't done it before too," the young boy said getting back to his feet excitedly and walking over to Sakura who had just finished treating Akemi.
"Thank you Sakura-sama!" the little girl exclaimed and Sakura gave her a fond hair tousle.
Sakura walked over to Itachi, having been instructed to always sit next to him when they have company.
She sat down and Itachi was about to put a hand across her shoulder, when Akira promptly planted himself in the space between them.
"This has got to be a new record," the young boy said, snaking his arm around Sakura's and looking up at Itachi.
"You seem very fond of her," Itachi concluded.
"She's my teammate!" Akira explained with a huge smile, that he quickly withdrew upon remembering that he was talking to his heir.
"I figured it would be OK if I only partake in the challenges," Sakura said attempting to gauge what Itachi thought of this whole thing.
However, Itachi's eyes were now firmly planted on the young boy sitting between them arm in arm with her.
"I need sugar, Akira," the Uchiha heir said monotonously.
The boy immediately shot up and raced across the room to Hana who after handing Itachi his cup of tea returned to the room with a small wet mop to continue cleaning the spill.
Hana handed him the sugar silently, and Sakura watched as Itachi slyly scooted over, closing the distance between them before the boy returned.
Akira handed him the sugar.
"Thank you."
"Sure," the boy said with a bow before he realized that his seat was taken.
He looked from the place he was sitting to Itachi's face and Sakura watched them wonderingly as they eyed each other for a long moment.
"Ano…" Hana started, interrupting the whole scene. "Eri-sama has arrived."
"Oh, I'll have to go then guys, I'll see you on Friday so we could practice for our next event," Sakura said.
The girls got to their feet and the three kids gave Itachi a quick bow, before heading for the door, Hana followed suit to walk them out.
For her part Sakura remained seated so that she could have a quick word with Itachi.
"Is it OK for me to participate? You know, for my image as your wife," she questioned turning to face Itachi.
"This is a rite of passage for the Uchiha," he said calmly, "participating might help you assimilate better. You will be the oldest contestant but this is not very problematic."
Sakura smiled, "good! I was afraid I had messed up again."
"You're doing fine," he said evenly and for some reason that made her heart beat a bit oddly.
"Thanks," she said with another smile, "I'll go to my lesson then."
"Sakura," he said stopping her mid-step, "this is not particularly important, but Ena is Eri's sister."
"Oh… I didn't know that."
"You are late for your lesson."
"Ah, right… sorry," she said turning on her heel and walking to the door, before stopping once again and facing Itachi with a smile, "have a good day… or have a good night is more like it. I'm glad I got to see you tonight. I normally don't see you on weekdays."
Itachi gave her a look that she could not decipher, before his demeanor shifted back to normal, "how are the qualifiers going?" he questioned.
"Well, umm, they're going fine. Brutal, but I believe I am kicking ass," the girl said puffing her chest in an exaggerated display of fortitude.
Itachi tilted his head to the side slightly, "are you tracing mud into my room when I am not there?"
"No sir!" she said with a fake salute.
He gave her a small smile, "have a good night, Sakura!"
She smiled,
"same to you."
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