A/N: Let's stir things up a bit, shall we?

Sakura walked alongside Shikamaru as they walked from the parking lot where Shikamaru parked his car. She wrinkled her nose at the second-hand smoke coming from the cancer stick between Shikamaru's fingers that he started as soon as he got into the car earlier.

Though she probably wasn't really one to talk since she, too, had smoked before when she was in the gang. But she's long since quit the habit and now the smell burned her nostrils.

"I don't know why Temari-senpai lets you smoke those things," she spoke up.

Shikamaru looked down at her from the corner of his eye before taking one last drag and then threw it onto the ground, grinding his heel against it without breaking his stride. He stuffed his hands in his pocket and shrugged. "Sometimes she takes a drag, too."

Sakura gasped with indignation. She told her she quit! Ooooooh, now she was going to tell on both of them!

She crossed her arms, pouted, and turned her nose up into the air, "Hmph!"

He only chuckled and shook his head as he led them to the restaurant where he was meeting Naruto and his wife. "Come on, it's here." He stopped and opened the door for her.

Still with her pout on, she walked through the open door before pausing, not knowing what Shikamaru's friend looked like. He spotted them immediately, "Over here."

He led them to a booth in the corner by the window. As they walked up to the table, Sakura could see the backs of the two people they were going to eat with. One had short, wild blond hair atop broad shoulders that were covered by an obviously expensive dark blue suit. The one next to him, sitting next to the window, had long, shiny, midnight-blue hair that Sakura couldn't tell where it ended because of the booth.

Sakura was a little nervous about disrupting their little get-together with her sudden presence. What if they didn't want her there? Well, it was all Shikamaru's fault, so she got ready to blame everything on him if they were to ask what she was doing here.

Then she froze as Shikarmaru called out to his friend. "Ey! Naruto, we're here. I brought a friend along, is that alright?"

Sakura stopped walking, waiting for the suddenly-familiar head of blond to turn their way. She needed to see his face. Was it really her Naruto?

As soon as the man turned, his bright blue eyes widened along with Sakura's. It really was him.

Shikamaru, who had also stopped walking over when he noticed how Sakura reacted to Naruto's name, quietly watched the two as they saw each other for the first time in so many years. Eight years? Nine years?

As soon as her mind registered that it really was her Naruto that was getting up from the booth, his tell-tale whisker marks making it impossible for him to not be her Naruto, all apprehension flew out the window and she squealed and ran up to him excitedly. He caught her with the same amount of enthusiasm.

His arms wrapped around the familiar waist as he spun her around a few times before setting her back onto her feet. His eyes sparkled as he looked down at her. "Sakura-chan, is that really you?"

Sakura laughed and nodded. Then without a second thought, she reached up, took a hold of his face and pulled it down to hers, placing a chaste kiss on the familiar pair of lips. She smiled against his and pulled back. Running a hand through his bangs, she said lovingly, "You really haven't changed, have you?"

But before he could say anything, she amended her statement. "No, wait, you've gotten more handsome, right?"

To which Naruto chortled. "And you've gotten even more beautiful since the last time I saw you." Then suddenly remembering that there were others with them, he turned and introduced Sakura to last person of the group since she obviously knew Shikamaru. He can only guess at their connection.

"Sakura-chan, meet Hinata-chan." He still had an arm casually wrapped around her waist as he walked them to the table. Sakura stuck out her hand and greeted. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sakura."

Then she noticed the slight pain in the other woman's eyes as she shyly and almost reluctantly reached her hand out to shake hers. "Hi, I'm Hinata."

Then Sakura turned to look up at Naruto. "Naruto, who is Hinata to you?" she asked bluntly as Hinata meeped.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, suddenly bashful. "She's my wife."

Sakura immediately realized the source of Hinata's pain as she, faster than lightning, conked Naruto on the head, despite him being over a head taller than her. "Baka! You should've told me that earlier! Then I wouldn't have kissed you out of reflex! Now look at what we've done! Your wife is hurt because of our mistake!"

Then she turned to the other woman and said softly, her hands clasps together in an apology. "I am so sorry about that, I didn't know. It was out of reflex. There was absolutely no meaning it. Please forgive me." Then she turned to Naruto and conked him on the head again. "Apologize to your wife!" she scolded.

Naruto also clasped his hands together. "Maa, maa, Hinata-chan. Sorry, it didn't mean anything. It was really out of habit."

Hinata couldn't do anything but blush severely and nod shyly, easily accepting their honest apology.

"Now that that's done, can we eat?" Shikamaru said almost boredly, though he was clearly amused at the situation. Who knew? Sakura and Naruto had some history together.

As Sakura settled into her seat next to the window and across from Hinata, she asked, "So, what do they have here?"

"Eh, Sakura-chan? You don't remember?" Naruto asked, slightly hurt.

Sakura gave him a look that showed that she clearly wasn't following.

"Ichiraku," he whined. And that made Sakura flip back to the front of the menu to read the restaurant's name printed across the top. She wasn't really paying attention when they came in because she was more worried about intruding than anything else.

And surely enough, "Ichiraku" was printed across the top in an arch. "Oh." Then she looked up and around the restaurant. The Ichiraku she remembered Naruto being obsessed with and constantly suggested as a place for their dates, was a small ramen stand on the side of the street in not-so-nice part of town. She rose an eyebrow at the cozy, medium-sized restaurant. They sure expanded since the last time she was here.

Sakura giggled. "It's not my fault that they metamorphosed from a small little stand to an actual establishment. Of course I remember it now that I think about it." She eyes looked over the menu, even though she already knew what she wanted, "It's been too long since I've come here."

Naruto grinned, proud of the success of his favorite restaurant. Then the waitress came over to take their orders. Now Sakura was only slightly surprised to find that it was the same girl that took their orders from behind the bar. "Ayame-san!" she greeted.

The brunette immediately recognized her. With her pink hair, who wouldn't?

"Sakura-san! Wow, it's been so long since We've last seen each other. Eight years? Nine years?"

Sakura giggled as she nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Still the usual?" Ayame asked even though she was already jotting down Sakura's order before taking everyone else's. As she walked away, Sakura couldn't help but let out a low whistle. "Damn, Ayame-san still looks so good, she hasn't changed one bit."

Naruto nodded approvingly. "You'd never be able to tell that she's had two kids since we were in high school."

"Eh?! Two?!" Then she looked back over at Ayame again and was even more in awe. "Damn, then she looks really good." Even when she had Rei, no matter how good her metabolism was before, it still took her a while to get back into shape.

Soon, their food came and Shikamaru and Naruto started talking business as Sakura enjoyed her ramen and shared small talk to her ex's wife. And that was when Sakura found out that Naruto was not only married now but he was about to be the head of possibly one of the largest mergers of the century. It was then that Naruto explained that Namikaze was his dad's last name and that Uzumaki was his mom's, and that the only reason he had his mom's last name was because his dad lost a bet before he was born.

Sakura sweatdropped at that, Kushina-san and Minato-san really would make a bet on whose family name their son would take.

After gracefully slurping up some more ramen, it struck her that Naruto was married to the Hyuuga Heiress, which would promote a stronger partnership between the new Namikaze-Senju super power and the already strong Hyuuga. She let out an appreciative whistle in her head. That was a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention that Sabaku and Nara were also partnering up with Shikamaru and Temari's marriage. She was kinda scared for her own company. How was Uchiha going to fare against that? Did they have anything planned?

Sakura did have an idea and she had submitted a report about it maybe a month ago but she doubted that they'd even humor her idea, much less take her suggestions. It was written based on her research and past knowledge of the company and its past endeavors and slight misfortunes.

After the men were done talking business, Naruto asked more about how Sakura was doing, to which she responded, "Really well."

She leaned against her folded arms on the table. "I'm an accountant at Uchiha Corps."

"Ehhhh?! You work for teme? What a waste of talent! Come over to Namikaze! Or Senju! Or at least Hyuuga!"

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered.

Sakura laughed and shook her head, she was expecting such a reaction since she had a feeling that Naruto's and Sasuke's rivalry was still as strong as ever. "I have my reasons for being at Uchiha." She took a sip of her tea.

"Also, Naruto, when were you going to tell me that Hinata was your pregnant wife?"

That got even Shikamaru to raise any eyebrow and show interest in the subject.

Hinata blushed and eeped like a little mouse as Naruto rubbed at the back of his neck bashfully. "Sakura-chan, we didn't really mean to hide it. It's just that not that many people know about it yet."

Hinata asked quietly as she pushed her pointers together, her head bowed, "Sakura-san, how did you know?"

Shikamaru shrugged and leaned back against the back of the booth, he already knew the answer.

Sakura propped her chin up on her hand, "I know the signs," she said mysteriously. "You've got a mother's glow already."

Hinata's shy smile widened. "Thank you, Sakura-san."

Sakura waved it off. "It's nothing." Then the two women continued their conversation on motherhood until Shikamaru interrupted them. "Sakura, isn't your break almost over?"

She looked up at the clock on the wall and almost jumped out of her seat. There was ten minutes left to her lunch break and she still needed to get back to the company. "Yes, it is. Shikarmaru, pay and let's go."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and threw down enough for the both of them and slid out of the booth. After a quick affirmation that Naruto's email and number were still the same, she hurried Shikamaru back to his car and made him drive a bit faster than normal to get her back to the company in time.

Sakura made it back with probably a second to spare and she plopped down in her chair and let out a breath. Whew. Who knew she was going to see her high school sweetheart today?

It must be the fact that she saw Naruto today that her bad memories with Sasuke were plaguing her mind. Though, she wasn't letting those thoughts affect her work as she efficiently went through a couple externals without skipping a beat, it was still really driving her sorta mad.

After stapling the latest report that she finished, she pushed away from her desk and concluded that she needed to take a break to clear her mind. Taking her mug with her and pulling out a jar of tea leaves from a drawer, she made her way over to the break room and proceeded to steep a mug of her favorite jasmine green tea. It always helped her calm down.

She took a seat at the table in the break room before going over her thoughts.

It probably also didn't help that she was caught on Friday. She leaned back in the chair and let out a quiet groan. She didn't want to be thinking about this right now.

She didn't want to think about how she cheated on Naruto with Sasuke at their graduation.

To her credit, it had been Sasuke who forced himself onto her. But to her discredit, she had been the one who pulled him in closer and continued the kiss.

Sakura leaned forward on her elbows and rubbed her temples.

Naruto and her didn't break up until the end of his first semester in college. They broke up because they didn't want to maintain a long-distance relationship since he had moved to Kyoto to attend college there. She couldn't help but feel relieved after they broke up because she was still really guilty about what happened at Naruto's and Sasuke's graduation. She hadn't seen or talked to Sasuke since then but they were roommates as Sasuke also moved to Kyoto for college.

Don't get her wrong though, she still loved Naruto very much, but she realized that it turned into more of a love between friends. And she didn't have feelings for Sasuke. Sure, she couldn't deny that she was attracted to the dark beauty, but that was all it was. Physical attraction.

So now that Sasuke caught her and she saw him again, the guilt came back. And since she saw Naruto again today, the guilt multiplied ten-fold.

She let out an exasperated sigh. She didn't want to be dealing with this right now.

Sakura finished the last of her tea before steeping one more mugful to bring to her desk to sip as she worked. Yeah, that's all she needed. Her tea.

Tea doesn't ask questions. Tea doesn't cause trouble. Tea soothes and calms.

Or at least until it burns your tongue, but that's a different story. A very painful story that leads to a few days of tastelessness. Sad, isn't it?

She grabbed her mug and jar of tea leaves and went back to her cubicle to go back to work.

Ah, she loved her tea.

A/N: Ooooooo, scandalous, don't you think? The ball has started rolling again and now let's see where it'll go!

Thanks for reading and please review!

Updated – 2/21/2015