"speaking"

thoughts

Ino would simply not shut up while she and Sakura shopped for food for the baby shower. The blonde was just so giddy about the fact that Sakura had agreed to going on a second date with Itachi.

"Kami Ino shut up about it already!" Sakura groaned. Ino was amused by her best friend's annoyance, but since Sakura was already stressed enough with the babies and her baby daddy issues, so instead of continuing to annoy the pinket; Ino returned her attention to the baby shower preparations.

Sakura was happy she'd put Ino and Hinata in charge of the baby shower, watching them hurry about and go over lists for two days helped her finish another chapter of her book about being pregnant. And watching all of her female friends fight over who was going to be the god mother added a bit of humor to the whole thing.

"I'm going to be the grandmother" Tsunade said downing her fourth drink.
"Then I'll be grandpa!" Jiraiya grinned.

Sakura had merely rolled her eyes. At her friends and surrogate family members as they all enjoyed the party.

Itachi, Sakura, and all of their friends entered Sakura's backyard. Ino had invited them to the party so that everyone could meet and get used to each other. Though everyone already knew Neji since he was Hinata's cousin.

"How are you feeling today?" Itachi asked Sakura bringing her some punch and a plate of food.
"I'm good...Ino has been forcing me to relax, everything is pretty much going great." She said. "I've gotten much more of my book done as well."

"Glad to hear it." Itachi said.

"So you helped plan this?" Naruto asked Hinata. He hadn't been aware that Neji even had a cousin especially not one that was so cute.

"Yes, Ino and I wanted to throw a big party for our nieces and nephews." Hinata said blushing a bit. She, Ino, and Sakura may not have shared blood, but they were really close like sisters.

"Yep." Naruto said, "you guys sure did a really good job."
"Thank you." She said.

Sasuke had brought his girlfriend Karin. She was really excited about being an aunt and wanted to be really good friends with all of the girls since she didn't have very many female friends for some reason.

Ino spent quite a while talking and getting to know Shikamaru. Tenten had an obvious interest in Neji; and Lee had come with his wife Temari and her brothers to offer his his congrats to his cousin. Kakashi and Anko were Sakura's foster family and were in attendance as well. Shizune who was still behaving as a jealous sister was also there, standing by the punch bowl and glaring at Sakura (its always the quite ones).

"Kabuto! What information has been gathered about the eldest Uchiha?" Orochimaru demanded.

"None sir." Kabuto said flinching at the look he was given.
"You have thirty seconds to give me a good reason as to why." Orochimaru said.

"The girl isn't in any systems, she's not wealthy or well known...we have no types of leads to follow...we don't know her name." Kabuto explained not stopping to breath until he was done.

This was a conundrum indeed, but Orochimaru wasn't going to be giving up anytime soon. "Just keep working on it." He commanded dismissing Kabuto who was more than happy to leave the room.

"Soon I will defeat Itachi, and have Sasuke's body." He chuckled.

Meanwhile across town Sasuke was once again sneezing.

Sorry for the long wait.

R&R Please