Empty-Spaces: I'm just full of unexpected twists for the story! Wait and see! =D
Kaydreams: I love the fan boy scene too! haha
KurenaiBara-Chan: Sasuke can be so dense sometimes...but maybe there was a reaction? Remember he's the master of blank faces.
Alayneni: Sasuke isn't much of a romantic hero who sweeps the girl away is he? Dolt. haha
TheBLOfSH: Yeah, an arranged marriage! SNAP! I know, what was I thinking? hehe
Animeartist17: Thank you! I try to make it slightly interesting without boring anyone.
Mistyfire: I don't know why I left it as a cliffy...just did. =D
Tiger Priestess: I hope you know you crack me up! And Protection duty my foot! Why would she need him to watch over her while she bathes? Why does he need a towel to watch over her? -__- NOPE! he's a pervert *laughs hysterically* Stick in the mud! SO true! *Watches Harumi walk right through Itachi* I hate to break it to you...but Itachi is dead...How can you hold him? And how can she steal him from you?
To Everyone: Happy Thanksgiving! (In the U.S.) And here you go! ENJOY!!!!
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Nothing existed in this world of memories that she'd entered into. Sakura knew nothing of the people watching her. Kiyoko, Shizune and Naruto all looked at each other with unsure expressions, Sasuke's face was blank. Then Kiyoko motioned for someone to pick her up, because she obviously wasn't about to move. Shizune shook her head and shrugged, Naruto stepped back shaking his head, he knew if she was surprised when awaking she'd probably break his face.
Finally everyone looked to Sasuke, rolling his eyes in annoyance, Sasuke moved to pick her up. Although he moved to pick her up readily enough, he mumbled as he did so, mumbling in more of a grumbling way. Something along the lines of 'still so annoying, even after she's grown up, weak and useless as always.' Whether he meant it, or wanted something to blame other than himself for doing this too her, was to be unanswered.
When Sakura felt arms lifting her she jolted. In her world of memories all she saw was the attacker and all she felt was pain. "I told you I'd kill you Hoshigaki. How dare you return! After what you did you'll regret not only killing my parents, but not killing me; you will plead for death and wish for it more than you wish for domination and power." With that she was out of his grasp and fighting like there was no tomorrow.
Thankfully with all the trials of the day and the trance-like state she was in, Sakura was slower and much less effective in her aim. After dodging around a bit with his unusual speed, keeping her away from the group and walls so she wouldn't hurt anything, Sasuke flashed up behind her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, with her arms held under his arms to keep her from hurting anyone, he spoke softly in her ear.
"Sakura, stop now, let the memories go. You need to come back to reality and leave the past for another day, take it from someone who knows." His voice, unheard by everyone else, was surprisingly gentle and calm. With him talking in her ear in such a reassuring tone, Sakura snapped back to reality, only to see again the pictures of her lost family smiling at her. Tired, hungry, and worn out from a trip to the past, Sakura let the tears flow again as her body trembled in exhaustion.
With a pounding headache and the mental drain, Sakura couldn't think straight. But Sasuke's voice was there, a voice she loved, one that rarely said more than a single syllable. The only thing Sakura could think was that she needed comfort, she wanted her mother and father. She needed them to be there to hold her. She needed them to provide the security, and comfort they had always given her.
She needed her father, with his strong reassuring arms to hold her close and make her feel protected. In the same way, she needed her mother's voice to whisper that she was going to be okay, that someone was there to care for her. But they were no longer living, and definitely not there to hold her, so she went with the only thing that was available and somewhat like what she wanted.
Turning in Sasuke's arms until she could press her face into her his well defined chest, she clutched his blue shirt in a death grip. Sakura felt as if her lungs were going to disintegrate inside her and she would never breath again, there was nothing to stop it, and she was afraid for a moment that she would suffocate. But as she recalled her earlier thoughts, and felt the strong, comforting arms around her, her body allowed shuttered gasps to give her air. She loved how he made her feel protected and safe, which was a stupid thing to feel with him, this was Sasuke, the one who had tried to kill her and Naruto years ago.
Finally the strain became too much on her already jumbled mind and her body ceased to respond to her commands. It relaxed into a limp slump into Sasuke's steady support. As all the daily issues pressed in on her, Sakura could no longer even hold herself up and her knees buckled. Sasuke, seeing that only her grip on his shirt and his arms were holding her up, took initiative and lifted her into his arms. Ignoring the twist in his stomach at seeing her tears, it bothered him that he still hated to see her cry.
Nodding to the others, who stood watching with wide eyes, to lead the way, Sasuke shifted Sakura around as much as he could. As all turned to head towards the council room no one notice the onyx eyes of Uchiha Sasuke as, for one split second, they held a tender light when looking at the exhausted form in his arms. Holding her tightly to his chest, Sasuke again shifted her until he had her head safely cradled in his neck, convinced that she deserved better than those memories.
And for a minute as they walked, Sasuke buried his face in her hair, he couldn't help but love how she smelled. Not to mention her soft hair and skin on his face concreted in his mind that this was all real, that he really held her, not stuck in some dream of returning home, but unable to do that as a missing-nin. Hearing her soft sobs again, Sasuke tried but failed, to resist the urge to cuddle her more closely.
Sakura, unable to do anything but cry in exhaustion and stay curled limply against his chest, clung to the Sasuke's shirt more tightly, if it were possible. His familiar smell worked to calm her frazzled and worn nerves. Doubting her sanity for a moment, Sakura felt Sasuke's face in her hair for a moment, then his arms cuddling her close in an uncharacteristic show of caring. Letting her mind go blank, Sakura fell into the depths of sleep, convinced that she had started dreaming before sleeping. And that was all that she had felt, a dream.
Not until they walked into the council room did anyone but Sasuke notice that Sakura had fallen into a restless sleep. Even if she didn't trust him, he was familiar in this crazy time, and so far he had protected her from everything that came her way. Or was there to take her to help at least. So he wasn't perfect, but he was still new to the stronger group. And she had told him to stay behind the two times she'd been attacked and he hadn't been there the exact second she needed him.
As much as Sasuke didn't want to admit it, seeing the halfwits mob Sakura and talk about making her bare their children, something inside him had snapped. Although he didn't want to admit it, he was softening. Not with anyone or anything else, only for Sakura, but softening none the less. At the moment of realization he was so angry at himself that he wanted to rip something to shreds, and the mob of boys were looking really good for practicing on.
Sure he could see why they wanted her, she was beautiful and talented, caring and helpful, and she looked like that. If anyone looked like a princess, it was Sakura. Of course, he knew from childhood that she was not supposed to look that womanly, she was Sakura for crying out loud! But the night at the river had taunted him, calling him every manner of idiot for thinking she would be the same if he ever came home.
She was all woman, and her body clad in only a towel had proved that to him, but he still wondered. When had this happened and where had he been?Stupid question! She wasn't going to marry anyone, and she wasn't going to be baring any children by them! If she was going to marry, Sasuke was going to approve of the guy. And in his mind, no one deserved her. She was too good for everyone!
Except him of course, he was an Uchiha! He had already decided that no one but him was good enough for her, and that if she was going to bare any man's children, they would be his! Once again, thoughts of Sakura as the Uchiha matriarch passed through his head. Surprising himself with the directions of his thoughts, images of pink haired, green eyed children running around, eyes turning red with the Sharingan, danced around in his mind.
An image of Sakura in a blue kimono with an Uchiha fan on her back instead of the Haruno circle taunted his mind's eye. He now realized two things, one: Sakura looked very good in blue, and two: Sakura with an Uchiha symbol on her back brought pleasure to him. Though his face remained unchanged, his thoughts ran with ways to make her love, or at least like, him again. Because it wouldn't do to have his wife hate him for the death of her parents.
Knowing that Naruto and Shizune would see that he wasn't acting like himself by not dropping Sakura on one of the couches as soon as they walked in the room, Sasuke sat down and settled the sleeping woman in his lap. He tried explaining to Shizune and Naruto when they looked at him in surprise, grateful that he could think quickly in time to answer with some semblance of practicality.
Of course his weak excuse was almost comical, but her hand holding his shirt in a death grip was good enough for him, even if both Shizune and Naruto gave him skeptical looks. With her strength even in sleep, trying to pry her hands off would have been a task, but with her head resting in the curve of his neck and her breathing tickling his collarbone, Sasuke wasn't about to let the comfort of her familiarity leave him.
As much as he wanted to deny it, the smell of cherry blossoms was comforting and spoke of gentler things. Holding her more tightly to his chest, Sasuke felt her head move to rest just over his heart. His ghost of a smile vanished almost instantly after it appeared, but her sigh told him that his heartbeat was comforting to her, and that's all he needed at the moment.
Her steady breathing filled the room as they all waited for whatever was coming. The breathing and softness of her skin on his arms as they held her close, made him wonder why he ever left, and why he'd disliked her for so long. She was a delicate blossom, who may not need protection all the time, but at times like these, that feeling of protection overwhelmed him. The mob after her had almost made him step in front of her and beat the boys into specks of dust.
Everyone needed help, he knew that better than anyone, how many times had he almost died because he had no back up, or trustworthy back up? And yet he'd denied his team the right that they had as his true team mates to help him. He wouldn't be denied the right to help her, team mate or ex team mate, he still deemed it his right to help her as any team mate had the right to do.
A couple walked in along with three other people. Their gazes landed on Sakura after a sweep of the room, and in reply Sasuke felt his arms automatically tightened protectively around her, and unknowingly, his eyes warned them about saying or doing anything wrong in her presence. Whether she was awake or not was irrelevant, she was to be treated like a Queen when he was present.
The couple that came in first held hands as they sat and smiled at Sasuke, where he held Sakura. Kiyoko was the one to make introductions, the couple was Sakura's cousin and his wife, the clan chief Takeshi and his wife Ayaka. Then the three older people, two men and one woman were introduced as council members Hideki and Kenshin, and the older woman was Akemi. As Sakura started to stir Ayaka smiled at the pink haired woman, and Sasuke watched as her hand dropped to her large stomach.
When she had walked in Sasuke had heard Naruto say something about Choji being proud. Although Naruto said that because he was dense, Sasuke could see that the woman was pregnant, probably close to her due date by her size, which was very large even for being in the last month. Feeling Sakura waking up and moving her head, probably to look around and see where she was, Sasuke gently pulled her back further into the security of his arms when she tried to move.
Looking up at Sasuke's immobile face Sakura knew she was dreaming, Sasuke would never do this in reality! But when she pinched herself, and it hurt, she looked back to his face and then around the room. She frowned at four things: the newcomers, the new location, why she was in Sasuke lap, and the fact that he hadn't dumped her on the floor yet. What world was she in?
Seeing the room she didn't remember getting to, and people staring at her that she'd never met, Sakura, still somewhat wary of everything after the trip down memory lane, involuntarily shrunk down into the protective ring of Sasuke's arms. Sasuke realized why she shrunk into him, and let his arms tighten around her after shifting her a little to a more comfortable position.
All Sakura could think at the moment was that someone had done something to his mind, or beaten him senseless, which wasn't very probable, for him to be acting this way. Still Sakura was confused about it all, until she found the eyes of the Ayaka. Ayaka, whose friendly eyes smiled at her, putting Sakura at ease, got a small hesitant smile in return.
Again introductions were made, this time for Sakura's sake. A book was produced that showed how a few families of the clan had gone to live in Konoha and as the generations on down until they established themselves as a Konoha clan. That was until almost all were somehow killed, explaining why her family was the last. It was when Sakura's father, the uncle of Takeshi, had gone as a young man to try to keep contact with the Hokage.
Assuring the clan's loyalty to Konoha, Sakura's father had stayed to keep contact, and be a liaison between the two villages. The village was told that Sakura's father was a 'child of a recently deceased cousin' of the Konoha Haruno clan, a simple farm boy. And he had come to live with them, also that the his 'family' had lived in a forest alone and that a team going by had found and brought the boy to stay with clan members in Konoha.
It was accepted. And before long it wasn't even thought on, he was a part of Konoha. There Sakura's father had continued in growing up and married one of the last Haruno clan girls living in Konoha, and became a father. But keeping to themselves the fact that they were well trained ninja the whole time.
It was also explained that no one from her clan in Konoha became ninja publically, because they didn't want anyone to question where they came from to possess such abilities. Only visits to Hanayo each summer as children had turned them into ninja, which they kept hidden from everyone in Konoha but the Hokage. By the time Sakura came along, it was assumed that she was an exception in the family.