A/N: "Finally! Another chapter!" is what I'm sure you guys are thinking, lolol. And I'm pretty sure you guys will hate me by the end of it *winks*.

Sakura let a breath out through her mouth noisily as she stood in front of the full-body mirror, staring at her reflection. Running her hands down her sides, feeling the soft, smooth material, she thought about how long it's been since she's dressed up for anything.

Five years? Since her college graduation?

She turned from side to side to inspect how she looked. It was a black, floor-length, crew-neck halter dress with a circular border of variously-shaped beads of many shades of gold and bronze around the neckline, leaving her shoulders bare with the sides of her collar bone exposed.

It wasn't like a traditional halter where the top half of her back was exposed, only the back of her shoulders were seen, an angular cut from the back of the collar to the armpit. The very tips of her tattoo were teasingly poking out from the top edges of her dress.

It was loose yet fitted in the right places, like her chest, her waist, and her hips, emphasizing her slim hourglass figure. A slit on the right ran right up to her thigh, allowing flashes of toned leg to be seen when she walked.

Her hair was done up into an elegant French twist, curled ringlets framed her face. Her eyes were intensified by bold, black eyeliner ringed around the entire eye, framed by shimmery eyeshadow in natural tones. Her eyelashes were fully curled with two coats of volumizing mascara instead of the usual one. Her cheeks were contoured lightly with a dash of light pink blush. Her lips were left natural to balance out her eyes, with a soft pink lipstick and a coat of clear lip gloss.

Accessory-wise, she had on a thick, gold bangle on her left hand and gold chandelier earrings. For once, she didn't have her necklace on as it clashed with the high neck of the dress. She felt empty without it, so she had it tucked into her gold clutch which held all the essentials.

Taking one last look in the mirror, she grabbed her sheer white shawl, wrapped it around her shoulders and went to put on her gold ankle-strap, 3½-inch, open-toed heels.

She locked the door behind her after she stepped out, pulling the shawl tighter against her bare shoulders to protect them from the crisp, December night air. She made her way down to the street where the taxi she had called for earlier was already by the curb waiting for her.

Rei was over at her parent's for the night, which she wanted to get over with as fast as possible because she was sure things were going to get complicated by the end of it.

She leaned her head lightly against the head rest, mindful of her hair, as she absentmindedly watched the lights of the city blur as the taxi passed by.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Sasuke stood in the circle of his usual company at these galas, a half-empty flute of champagne in one hand and his other stuffed in his pocket. It was one of the major events in the business world, what with the most important people invited from major companies and enterprises, as were all the employees of Uchiha Corp.

In his group were his childhood friend and sole dobe, Uzumaki Naruto, soon to be the CEO of the new Namikaze-Senju superpower, his wife, Hyuuga Hinata, a major shareholder of her family's company, Hyuuga Inc., Nara Shikamaru, one of Uchiha's senior attending attorneys and also the heir to Nara & Nara, LLC., a major law firm, his fiancee, Sabaku Temari, also a major shareholder of her family's company and the older sister of Sabaku Gaara, CEO to Sabaku Industries, who was the last person present in the group.

His wife, Karin, was usually part of the group reluctantly, but after their fallout a couple days ago, she was off with some other women. She had to attend and greet people with him just to keep up appearances, but other than that, they stayed as far away from each other as possible. And Sasuke was fine with that. He was actually relieved.

Kakashi was nowhere in sight either, and Sasuke was fine with that, too. More of Sakura to keep to himself.

His eyes kept flickering to the entrance as he kept one ear open to the conversation, she had yet to arrive and he was getting antsy. He'd been anticipating her appearance since he arrived at the venue himself, half-expecting her to already be there. But there was no luck and her head of pink was nowhere to be seen.

He finished off the champagne, throwing it back like a shot, deposited the empty flute on a tray of a passing waiter, and plucked a full one from another. He took two large gulps before his friends commented on it.

"Teme, are you okay?" Naruto asked, slightly worried. He knew what had happened between him and his wife (Itachi had told him) so Naruto was worried that he was affected by that. But he didn't know the reason for the fight, so he couldn't be too sure about it.

"I'm fine." Sasuke looked to the entrance again, impatiently waiting.

The rest of the group was getting mixed signals from him. They could see that he was relaxed but yet at the same time he was tense. They couldn't tell if the two matters were related or not. Right now, they could only wait. He was obviously waiting for someone, as he kept his eyes trained on the entrance.

They all looked to the entrance, trying to decipher who it was he was so eagerly waiting for. They saw the outer doors open before in walked someone they all knew. She walked through the open inner doors of the ballroom and paused as an usher took her shawl from her to check in, and then continued a little further into the ballroom but still stayed at the edge of the crowd.

Sasuke's breath hitched when he saw her. She was absolutely gorgeous in that simple black dress. Without saying anything to the slightly shocked group, he wordlessly made his way over to claim her as his.

"Sakura," he called out firmly but softly.

She looked up at her name. "Sasuke-senpai."

Sakura had to admit that he looked good, walking through the crowd in a sleek, tailored, three-piece black tuxedo. That was the only thing different about him but for some reason, tonight he looked extra handsome. She took his outstretched hand and let him kiss the top of it, never breaking eye contact. She blushed slightly, unused to such behavior. Then she let him lead to her his group. When they got there, she was pleasantly surprised that she knew everyone.

"Naruto-senpai, Hinata, it's nice seeing you two again," Sakura greeted as she walked up to them and gave each of them a hug.

"Wow, Sakura-chan, you look beautiful tonight," Naruto commented loudly as he held her at arm's length after their hug. Sakura laughed at him and replied with, "Why thank you, Naruto-senpai. And you look especially dashing tonight." Naruto laughed freely and let her continue her greetings.

"Temari-senpai, Shikamaru, I didn't expect to see you two here." She gave each of them a hug.

"Well, we weren't exactly expecting to see you here either, and with Sasuke at that," Temari commented as she looked back and forth between her kouhai and Sasuke.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well first of all, I'm an Uchiha employee so I'm automatically invited. But I wasn't planning to come until I got coerced into it."

Temari smirked. "Sucks for you, Sakura-kouhai." Who gave her a flat glare.

Shikamaru had nothing to say so she went onto the redhead, who she was still slightly cautious of. She greeted him with a formal handshake. They weren't close enough to hug and she knew for a fact from before that he didn't like any form of bodily-contact, and she wasn't sure if he ever changed. So to be safe, she stuck with the standard greeting.

After she made a full circle, she went back to her place next to Sasuke, but kept an appropriate distance between them,

She joined in their conversation effortlessly as she acquired a flute of champagne for herself from a passing waiter who broke out of character and gave her a slightly-longer-than-polite look over. She paid it no heed, but Sasuke seemed ticked off about it as he growled lightly at the lowly male who immediately disappeared from his sight.

Sakura let out a huff but didn't let it hinder her suddenly-good mood. She was here already, so might as well make the most out of it.

Dinner had been wonderful. The dishes started out Western and then slowly transitioned into traditional Japanese dishes. Sakura had slipped away from the group to sit with a couple of her co-workers from Accounting.

Why did she give them the slip?

Well, one, she wanted to keep away from Sasuke as much as possible because she was still uncomfortable around him.

And two, she didn't want to meet Sasuke's wife again who was sure to come over and sit with them. One hostile experience was enough.

Sure, when Sakura was back in the gang, she didn't hesitate at all to punch anyone who was even slightly hostile towards her. But she had calmed down since then and she really didn't want to make a scene at a joyous event like this.

After dinner was finished the music started and people got up to start dancing but she stayed at the table and continued talking to her co-workers and their dates until their gazes went past her. Turning to see who it was, she let out a giggle when she saw her ex standing behind her, one hand outstretched, politely asking for her hand, the other behind his back, slightly bowed.

"Milady, may I have this dance with you?" he asked in English.

Letting out a few more giggles, she demurely placed her hand in his, gathered the bottom of her dress in one hand, and stood up. "Good sir, I would love to honor you with this dance."

After he kissed the top of her hand, she pulled it back and playfully did a curtsy, revealing more of her legs. Then she tucked her hand in his bent arm as he led her to the middle of the dancing crowd. She giggled freely as Naruto kept up the posh attitude and asked for permission to "lay his hands" on her.

Sakura was tempted to refuse at first just to mess with him, but thought otherwise. She relaxed in his arms, one hand on her back, the other holding her hand out. They danced to the beat. Then halfway through, Naruto threw the posh attitude out the window and started spinning her excessively.

She laughed at first but then got annoyed when he didn't stop and put her foot down and forcibly stopped the spinning. Ugh, now she was dizzy. She fell against his chest when she lost balance. She growled lightly as his chest rumbled with a deep chuckle. Before she could look up at him and pin him with a glare, he dipped so that his lips were practically on her ear.

"Your legs are as beautiful as I remember them to be, wrapped tightly around my waist as I fu–."

Sakura pulled away quickly, a deep crimson blush splashed across her cheeks. "Naruto! Stop it! You're married now!" She whispered harshly but it was offset by her red face. "Your pregnant wife is right there!"

Sakura quickly looked over to the starting-to-show blunette and flashed her a friendly smile. Then she looked back up at Naruto and glared at him as his shoulders shook with mirth.

"I know, I know, Sakura-chan. Seeing them–," his hands ghosted over the top of her exposed thigh before returning to the safe zone of her waist, "–just brought back some pleasant memories."

She rolled her eyes. Inconspicuously, she ran her hands down his chest slowly, feeling the muscle underneath his tux, and smirked up at him. "And I see that you've been keeping your body in check."

"Of course, babe. I would love to stay and catch up on good times, but I've gotta run before the teme catches me." He placed a quick kiss on her check before disappearing into the crowd.

She was slightly disoriented by his sudden disappearance but snapped out of it when she spotted her kachou in the crowd looking for someone and quickly thrust herself into it in the opposite direction. When she deemed that she was far away enough, she saw another hand being offered to her. She looked up and saw that it was Sasuke. Inwardly sighing, she placed her hand in his. According to him, she was supposed to save him a dance. Well, here it was.

It was quiet between them as Sakura tried her best to ignore his intense gaze. Had he no shame? His wife was literally standing ten feet away, glaring holes into the side of her face. She prayed for someone to come save her.

"May I cut in?"

Sakura let out a silent sigh when her pleas were answered. She looked to see who her savior was and couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. Standing in front of them was Kakashi. But it didn't look like Kakashi at all. So how did she know it was him? His tell-tale gravity defying, silver hair.

Other than that, she wouldn't have been able to tell. Because the usual mask and eye-patch were nowhere in sight, exposing his handsome face and dichromatic eyes, one onyx and one red.

It seemed like Sasuke was also shocked because he didn't say or do anything as Sakura was led away from him by Kakashi.

"Kakashi-san?" she asked, still in shock as he led the dance.

"Yes, Haruno?" By kami, it really was him!

"Y-you! Your mask! And eye patch!"

Kakashi chuckled at her stupefied expression. "I felt like tonight was a special occasion so I did away with them. Just for the night." Then he leaned down and was the second one of the night to whisper intimately into her ear. "But I can keep it like this. If you tell me you like what you see."

Sakura couldn't stop the shiver going down her spine. But she was able to pull away and cross her arms. "Stop teasing me, Kakashi-san." She unfolded her arms and continued, "Well, that was the dance I owe you. Now I must see to it that my bladder doesn't burst. If you'll excuse me."

Sakura turned away and all but ran to the ladies' room. Once in there, she did her business and took a few breaths, trying to calm down from the intense atmosphere in the ballroom, before heading back.

Or that had been the plan.

When she came out of the bathroom, she was greeted by a semi-circle of people. Sasuke, his wife, Kakashi, Sai, who she didn't even know was at the gala, and the man from the other day who brought back memories of a past lover. Then there was Mikoto standing right in front of her, a not-so-pleased expression on her face.

"Sakura-san, there is something we must ask you."

Sakura took a step back, clearly threatened by the united front they were presenting.

"There is no point in dilly-dallying. Who is Rei-chan's father?"

Her eyes widened. She knew the night wasn't going to end well.

A/N: Aaaaaaaand cut! I sense there will be a major uprising in the reviews *sweatdrops*. Teehee. *Runs away*

Thanks for reading and please review!

Updated – 9/12/2015