Chapter 12

Tears of joy filled up Sakura's eyes and there was just one word she kept murmuring but loud enough for the Hokage to hear.

"Yes yes yes yes…"

Naruto got up and held Sakura in his arms and Sakura nuzzled closer into his chest gripping his large white coat. A deep appeasing smile settled on Naruto's lips and he gently cupped her face and wiped her tears away. He knelt once again to level with her and stared into her wide watery emerald orbs.

Sakura knew what was coming after this. She felt her heart thumping against her chest and her stomach churned. She closed her eyes and all she wanted was the bliss of feeling Naruto's lips against her.

She was still waiting when she felt Naruto's lips on her forehead and her heart skipped a beat.

What the hell! She shot her eyes open and stared into a widely grinning Naruto, who had just kissed her forehead. With a little desperation and furious desire she clasped onto Naruto's collar and pulled him close to her face.

"BAKA! You're supposed to kiss a woman's lips when she agrees to your proposal." She pouted.

"I .. err.. Sakura-chan… I was..." he never got to complete his sentence when Sakura pulled him in and took his lips into her own.

Naruto's eyes grew wide open but the moments he felt her lips, all his doubts and insecurities vanished. He felt her soft pink lips and kissed her back, basking in her soft flowery essence. His hands cupped her face and their kiss deepened. The moment Sakura felt his hands on her cheeks, a deep comfort settled in her heart and all she could do was to keep kissing him, hoping that this moment never passes, hoping that they stay like this for ever. She knew that this was her salvation. This moment was the vindication of her love towards Naruto. She would never let go of him and he would never let go of her. They kept on kissing and slowly the years of emotions poured out of each other. Their unbounded desire grew with each passing moment of their enchantingly beautiful lip lock. After what seemed like eternity they broke off gasping for air. But his hands never left her face and she never let go off his collar. And they both leaned into each other's forehead. With gleeful smiles and with stars in their eyes they beamed into each other's eyes.

"About being your best man, I'll have to check my schedule."

Naruto and Sakura momentarily broke form trance and their eyes shot towards the familiar voice and there…. they were. Tsunade with a proud smile stood with her arms crossed below her chest, Kakashi wrapping his arm around Shizune's shoulders whilst smiling all along, Itachi with a small smile along with a much more gleaming Anko and lastly the speaker of the previous words- Sasuke with a stoic face along with his much more alive wife Karin.

"T…Te…Teme… w…who asked you anyway?" Naruto stammered while trying to fight off a certain deep red tinge off his face. "And why are you here anyway?" He added quickly hoping to change the subject.

"Hnh. I had been waiting for this day ever since the war ended and there was no way in hell that I was going to sit in the reception while you pop the question."

"NAAAANIII? When… why… how did you know that I was going to propose Sakura-chan?"

"C'mon gaki, we're not blind. Unlike you, all of us could see that Sakura was slowly falling head over heels for you since you came back from your training with Jiraiya all those years ago."

"SHISHOU!" Sakura cried out and tried not to blush anymore. She was already as red as a tomato when they caught them kissing. Desperately she tried to bury her face into her palms.

"And…" Tsunade continued acting like she didn't hear Sakura's desperate plea at all "…your heart had been the same like it was when you were 6 years old and last week, your anger confirmed it. So all of us deduced that both you lovebirds would finally be getting together, sooner or later."

"But still..." Naruto frowned.

"Ok, Hokage-Sama. I request you leave and start planning for your wedding, we have tons of things to discuss with Sakura here." Anko stated gleaming with excitement.

Even if Anko said that it was a request, something in her tone told Naruto that things won't be pretty if he did otherwise. Reluctantly he walked towards the door.

"Don't be so down Naruto. A few more days and she will be all yours." Kakashi said smiling behind his mask.

"Easy for you to say, you already have yours." Naruto replied scornfully beckoning Shizune with his eyes.

Sakura's face was burning with all the blood rushing up there. Even Kakashi-Sensei…

Despite Anko's elation and excitement, Itachi was a little worried about her. "Anko, should I stay beh…"

"NO! This goes for you too honey. And in fact, for all the males in the room too. Don't you think you should help Hokage-Sama with the preparations while we ladies help Sakura out?" Anko vehemently stated cutting Itachi in between. And within seconds all Kakashi, Itachi, Sasuke and the soon to be groom Naruto were chased out of the room.

"Females…" Sasuke tiredly exclaimed while rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

"PREGNANT females…" Itachi added with a sigh.

Naruto scratched his chin, a frown gradually settling on his face. Kakashi however noticed this and asked him what the matter was.

"I don't know the first thing about marriage."

"That's the funny part." He chuckled. "Neither do we."

XXX

A week later both Naruto and Sakura were sitting beside each other facing the former Godaime Hokage in her living quarters. The past week had been very eventful. Naruto had visited Sakura's parents and they were more than happy to have him as their son in law. And they there was their gang of friends. Ino had been ecstatic and so was Tenten, even Hinata was excited about the big news. Kiba and Konohamaru had been fussing Naruto about a bachelor party in spite of Naruto's numerous denials, the young Konohamaru and Kiba had been persistent and finally Naruto agreed. Ino and the rest of the girls along with a pregnant Tenten and Anko were determined on planning Sakura bridal shower. And all the agitation about the wedding date. Gosh! It had been a long week but neither Naruto nor Sakura minded or even cared. They were just too happy and lost in their own world about starting a life together. But still they had to finalize a date and so here they were to discuss the matter with the former Hokage.

"But baa-chan…"

"Urusai Gaki, you are the Hokage, there's simply no way your wedding can be just inconspicuous." Tsunade replied vehemently.

"But, I just want our friends to be there." Naruto replied with a hint of desperation.

The list of invitees Tsunade prepared had freaked out both the bride and groom. And certainly Naruto and already mentioned to Tsunade that he just wanted his friends and Sakura's parents. But the friends of Naruto held another complete dimension in his world. In other words Tsunade did just what he asked her to do, she had sent invited 'ALL OF NARUTO'S FRIENDS'.

"In that case pick someone out of the list who isn't your friend. " She replied sliding the list towards him.

"Well… err…" He picked it up frantically started to look through it over and over again. And all of them listed were good friends. No one was 'not a good friend' enough to be left out. Finally after several minutes of frenzied searching, he sighed and timidly looked towards Sakura.

"I knew this was going to happen. Nothing is simple with you." Sakura replied to his dainty face while rubbing the ridge of her nose. "Never mind that..." She began turning to look at Tsunade. "…Shishou, have you finalized the date yet."

"Yes yes, about that. Since this is the most high profile wedding in Konoha's history, I had to discuss this with the feudal lord and the council members as well. So all of us together have decided that the wedding shall take place on the 1st of next month, well but that is unless both of you agree."

"That gives us nearly precisely two weeks." Naruto said rubbing his chin. "That's fine with me, what about you Sakura-chan?"

"Yes, yes. It's ok. But who will be preparing on your behalf?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'll be taking care of everything on Naruto's behalf." Tsunade said quickly with a grin before Naruto could say anything.

"Haa… you?"

"YES. Me. Do you have a problem with that Naruto?" Hazel eyes were glaring at him.

"No, No. its fine. It's just that I was I thinking about asking you the favor myself. Baa-chan and Ero-sennin are my closest family after all." Naruto replied grinning while scratching the back of his head.

Both Tsunade and Sakura softened on the mention of Naruto's former mentor.

"Jiraiya… ha? Well, he would have been damn proud of you for scoring this hottie over here." Tsunade said with a smile pointing towards Sakura.

"SHISHOU…" Sakura retorted with a slight pink hue on her cheeks.

Naruto giggled and clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back and look into the ceiling. For once his giggles subsided and a sad look surfaced. "If he would have been here, I would have made him my best man."

"I know sweetheart. He would have been hitting on all the females at the wedding." Sakura leaned and soothed with a smile while rubbing his cheek with her palm. A soft smile curled up on his cheeks and turned to look at her. He took her hand and planted a soft kiss on it.

Tsunade leaned back and wiped a drop of tear which had managed to escape her eyes. He smiled looking at the young couple sitting in front of her. If you had come back, we too would have been like them. She let them have their moment.

After a few minutes, Tsunade wiped of the few stray drops of tears from her eyes and cleared her throat.

"Well, talking about Jiraiya, I have something he wanted you to have Naruto." She said gaining an amused look from him. She waited and thought for a second. "Well, to be precise, it's for both of you. Wait here for a minute; I'll be back in a while." She said standing up and left the room leaving a confused and amused couple behind.

"Do you know anything about this?" Sakura asked, her brows raised questioningly.

"Not a clue." He replied still confused about what Tsunade had just said.

"Well, let wait and watch then."

After about fifteen minutes, Tsunade entered the room with a blue colored scroll in her hand. She took her seat across the young couple. She then opened the scroll and laid it on the table between them.

"Baa-chan… what is this?" Naruto asked bemused while trying to figure out what's on the scroll.

"Well…" She settled in before continuing. "This is Jiraiya's will. You know that Jiraiya was your father's sensei and your godfather. So he had decided that once you get married, he would retire and settled down in the village. So in this will, he had stated that on your wedding day you and your wife would inherit all his fortune."

Both Naruto and Sakura stared at her in disbelief.

"Why? Why would he do that. If he was planning to retire, why would he give away all his money to me?"

"May be because he would have settled down with you in case I denied him his marriage proposal that he was about to make upon coming back."

"You two were about to get married?" Sakura asked, equally confused as Naruto.

"Yes, He said that he was joking but, I knew that fool better than anyone." Tsunade replied with a subtle smile on her face.

After a few moments, everything Tsunade had said settled in Naruto and Sakura and all their confusions were gone and soft smiles settled on their faces.

"So, what would you have said?" Naruto asked.

"I would have said yes, even if he had asked me before leaving." Tsunade replied, her voice getting a little shaky.

"Shishou…" Sakura got up from her place and moved across to take a seat beside her Shishou who now had a few tears rolling down her cheeks. She sat beside her and took Tsunade hands into her own. Tsunade sobs got slightly heavier as all the memories came back to her heart. She had kept all these things to herself for a really long time and now being with the two most precious people in the world she just couldn't keep those feelings to her anymore.

"I had lost all my loved ones. He was the only one remaining. Even if he had asked me much much much before, I would have said yes. I had loved him from the beginning. Dan happened only because he wasn't there. And I even lost him in the war. And after the war, when I was just about to confess my feelings to him, he disappeared again. I waited and waited and when I decided to go look for him, he came back to Konoha. And when I came back here, I learned that he had just come for the coronation of the Fourth Hokage. It was like fate was playing games with me. I decided to go look for him again. But time passed and I never heard from him. I came back to the village numerous times but he had never come back after the coronation of Minato's. And finally when I found out that I had lost all those I've loved, I decided to leave the village and that's when I found Shizune. Years passed and I stopped searching for him until that day when he had shown up at the bar with you Naruto. But by then I thought it was too late. But when he was gone again, I realized that it was never too late. And now I miss him so much, I so tired of staying alone. Everyone is gone…"

Sakura hugged her grieving Shishou. For once, she was the mother and her teacher was the child. Naruto looked at them with a slight dismal in his eyes. And you thought you were an expert with ladies. Dumb Ero-sennin. He cleared his throat to get their attention. Tsunade looked at him through her watery hazel eyes, shaking all the while with her slight sobs.

"I cannot agree to your to your last statement, Baa-chan."

"Wh… What do… do you me… mean?" She whispered from her sobs.

"Well, everything that Ero-sennin owned will be mine and Sakura-Chan's after the marriage. I guess we are free to do whatever we want with it." Sakura raised her eyebrows at him, but he nodded her indicating that it's all right. Reluctantly she kept quite. "So, after we get married, I'll write everything to you." Tsunade was about to protest but Naruto hushed her with his finger. "And after that you will move in with me and Sakura-chan. Just like Ero-sennin wanted."

Sakura for a moment was blank before Naruto's words sank in and when it did, her heart leapt up with joy, but somehow she managed to hide her elation. This was one of the million reasons why she loved the blond idiot so damn much.

Tsunade on the other hand stared at him with wide eyes, her sobs finally subsiding. Naruto smiled and leaned back into the chair with his arms crossed across his chest.

"But Naruto…" Tsunade was about to protest when Sakura gently squeezed her arm.

"Sshhh… Shishou, Hokage's orders." She whispered in her ears.

Tsunade for a moment was awed and stared at both of them in turns, wide eyed. Finally a smile settled in her face and she leaned into Sakura's embrace.

"Already taking advantage of being Hokage's wife ha?" She smirked.

"You know how sincere I'm with my duties, Shishou." Sakura replied with a smile.

"But Naruto…" Tsunade started turning to face him, finally pulling away gently from Sakura's embrace. "… can you be so sure that Jiraiya would have wanted that."

Naruto scratched his chin and pretended to think really hard. "Hmm let's see… Do you remember that journey I made along with Yamato-Taicho, Aoba-san and Gai-sensei to the giant turtle Island to meet Octo-pops?"

"Yes, what about it?" Tsunade and Sakura asked in unison. Even Sakura didn't know about much about his journey, so she was genuinely tempted.

"Well, I met a young Kunoichi on the way in a place know as Nadeshiko no sato. There I was asked to dwell with this Kunoichi for her hand in marriage. If I recall correctly her name was supposed to Shizuka…."

Naruto was so deep with his explanations that he failed to notice the slight inconspicuous twitching of Sakura's eye brow on the mention of marriage. When was he planning on telling me that? Sahnnaro! And who is this stupid Shizuka or whatever…

"…. So I had to defeat her so that In order to marry her…."

Despite herself, Sakura put a coercive smile on her and asked Naruto.

"So did you defeat this Kunoichi?"

"Yes, I did but I didn't marry her." He replied normally. Sakura kept the smile and nodded slowly implying him to continue.

"However, the reason I had to fight this Kunoichi was because Ero-sennin somehow for his perverted temptation went to this village and ended up fight Shizuka's mentor. With the same conditions though…"

And this time it was Tsunade's turn to get upset and her face hardened

"… but since Ero-sennin was obviously in love with Baa-chan here, they had to call their duel a tie and he recklessly agreed to her that their duel would be finished by their students. But while leaving he had mentioned to her that he was already in love with some and it was one sided but no matter what he would always keep looking upon her."

Tsunade's agitation immediately subsided and her face softened. Baka. She thought recalling her old teammate. His perverted attitude. The way he always used to hit on her and flirt with her. His undying love and passion for his village. Yes, he was certainly one of the best persons in my life.

"Baa-chan?" Tsunade jerked back from her musings with Naruto's voice.

"Hai, Naruto."

"Missing him, shishou?" Sakura asked pressing Tsunade's arm.

"A little." She replied with a smile.

"Well, it's decided then. You will move in with us after the marriage."

"After your honeymoon." She corrected with a grin. And both Naruto and Sakura avoided looking each other while turning red.

XXX

Naruto and Sakura were now walking towards Ichiraku for some ramen. And there was a buzz when they reached the market place. People constantly came and showered them with greetings and compliments for their upcoming marriage. Both of them solemnly thanked all of them for their best wishes. After about a half an hour (which previously took five minutes) of walk the reached their destination.

"Phew!" Naruto exclaimed wiping sweat off his forehead. "Being Hokage was hard enough, but I guess getting married to the Head medic is harder." He added with a grin.

"Likewise, being married to the Hokage seems harder than being the Head medic." She replied. They both chuckled and placed their orders. Ichiraku was always happy to have the Hokage visit them. In fact ever since Naruto had become the Hokage, the old man had to get a bigger place just to accumulate the crowds that followed after Naruto. And soon Ichiraku ramen stall became Konoha's largest restaurant.

"So, when were you exactly planning about telling me about you almost getting married?" Sakura asked with a little menacing voice once she had finished her meal and put her chop sticks away.

O ow! This is baaad. Naruto thought while desperately trying to come out with an answer.

"Sakura-chaaan, that was not a big deal, I_ I was about to tell you anyways." He replied with his grin plastered on his face. Seriously praying to get out of this alive.

"When?" She asked clutching her fist.

"I was planning to tell you very soon." He lied. The truth was that he had completely forgotten about that incident. It only came to his mind when he saw Tsunade's hesitation. Bay he had been too careless talking about getting marriage proposals in fro of his fiancée. And specially if the fiancée is Haruno Sakura.

"Really Naruto?" Now there was a nerve ticking out of her forehead.

Naruto was desperate. He didn't know what to do. No one in their good sense of mind would want to be punched by Sakura. It was a dire situation and as unpredictable as he could be, he did the first thing that came to his mind. He shot forward, cupped her cheeks and pulled her in for a heartwarming kiss. Sakura was momentarily surprised but soon melted into his kiss. All her anger and frustration just vanished into the thin air.

Ino and Shikamaru were walking down the streets when they were utterly confused by the sudden roars of laughter and cheers coming from the Ichiraku restaurant. They rushed and saw that the pandemonium of the crowd. However their jaws dropped open when the saw the Hokage lip locked with his soon to be wife in the middle of the room.

When Naruto broke the kiss, Sakura was blank. She couldn't hear the crowd nor could she see them jumping around with joy. All she could hear was her own heart thumping against her chest and all she could see were the beautiful blue orbs of the man sitting in front of her, the man who would be her husband in two weeks and the man she is so hopelessly in love with.

Great! Now he has a secret weapon against me.

Author's note: All right guys. I was originally planning their wedding in this chapter. But since I'm not a Christian, I don't know anything about Christian wedding and a since I'm not from Japan, a Japanese wedding is out of the pictures. So I need your help with the wedding part guys. And I apologize for the short length of this chapter. I'll try and make it up to you guys with the next chapter. But for that I need your help. Anyways read and review guys. Till then… Ja ne \/m