Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"Sasuukee-kun?" Sakura slurred as she stumbled her way towards Sasuke, tripping on her own two feet. Sasuke caught her before her drunken head hit the bar. Ino and Naruto had organized an 'outing' to what Sasuke had thought was going to be a normal annoying get together at the park. But no, they went that extra mile and went to a night club.

Sasuke grinded his teeth, the noise was unbearable, a mixture of earsplitting base sounds with over excessive chatter. The smell was ridiculous, and he felt like the aroma was literally burning holes through his nostrils. And most of all, Sakura had lost her freaking mind.

"HAHAHA!" She laughed hysterically, her hair drooping in front her face. She clumsily climbed on the stool next to him and placed her head on the ice cold bar. "Hi Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her and then quickly scanned the crowd for Ino or Shikamaru, who had come as Ino's date. He didn't want them to notice Sakura's sudden proximity to him.

"Sakura, I told you not to drink too much." Sasuke hissed staring at his shot in front of him. Sakura hiccupped.

"I-I know!" Her dazed eyes stared back at him, and she carelessly used her hand to brush his hair out of his eyes. Sasuke grabbed her wrist and held it roughly.

"We're in public." Sasuke's jaw clenched as he tossed her arm onto the bar. He hated seeing her drunk, she always so vulnerable, and stupid.

"Yo! That's not how you treat my new boo!" Sasuke turned around to see some overly muscled civilian standing behind him. His red disheveled hair was dripping wet with sweat.

"Who the hell-" Sasuke started, but was cut off when the guy wrapped his large arm around Sakura's shoulder.

"Hello Yuri!" She half hiccupped half giggled. Even in her drunken state she could still recognize Sasuke's irritated face. "Sasuke-kun, this is Yuri-kun! I'm his boo!"

Sasuke blinked.

"Yo, yeah she ma boo. Why you holding her like that, man? You got an issue with her?" Yuri used his free hand to brush through Sakura's lovely pink locks and Sasuke felt his arm twitch. He was trying so hard not to rip Yuri's arm right out off his sockets.

"You're mistaken." Sasuke said through clenched jaws. His fingers itched to pull Sakura to his side. He had warned Naruto to keep an eye on her on the dance floor, but clearly Naruto had ran off with Hinata and disappeared into that erotic crowd. "She's not yours."

"Sasuke-kunnn!" Sakura giggled. "You didn't want to dance, so I got someone new."

"Yeah, you ain't satisfying your girl. So now I got her and she's my mine, homie. Sorry bro, but you-"

Sasuke quickly dashed the nearest bottle of sake at his face, the bottle completely shattering to pieces. Sakura let out a squeal, while the people around them instantly stopped dancing when they heard the loud piercing noise over the obnoxious pop music.

"Oh no, you did not just do that!" Yuri shouted wiping the blood from his face. Sasuke shrugged, grabbing Sakura's arm, but Yuri quickly grabbed the other one. "Who the fuck do you think you're messing with? You ain't met nothing like me!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his inexperienced brain. Did he not know who Sasuke was?

Yuri swung his arm at Sasuke, but Sasuke managed to pull Sakura out of his grasp, and slightly step to the side, causing Yuri to miss completely and slam his hand into a glass table, breaking it.

"BAR FIGHT!" Someone screamed. The crowd suddenly started getting rowdy, and Sasuke heard something else crash that had nothing to do with this situation. Suddenly the once calm crowd, turned into a fucking riot. People were screaming and shouting, meanwhile Sasuke held Sakura close to his chest, shielding her.

"Look at what you did!" She yelled at him, seeming to have sobered up. Sasuke grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the night club, leaving that mad mob behind them. Once they hit the fresh air, Sasuke felt like he could finally breathe after all that time he'd been suffocating in that place. He looked down at Sakura whose hair was now damp with sweat and her black shorts and purple low cut top hung awkwardly on her body, stuck to her body because of sweat. "Ugh! Sasuke-kun, why the hell did you throw that bottle?"

Sasuke glared at her, "Weren't you the one who wanted to be fucking laid by some random gang member?"

"No I didn't! I was just having fun! You said we shouldn't make it obvious we were together!" She shouted back. Sasuke looked over his shoulder and to make sure no one was coming, it was three morning. Most of Konoha would be asleep by now, but who knows what other odd idiots are running around like Yuri with blabber mouths.

"I did not mean 'fun' in that extent." Sasuke growled at her under his breath.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "So did you expect me to play Solitaire?" She crossed her arms and faced away from him. "Sometimes this can be so difficult." She whispered. Sasuke sighed, sensing that she was going to burst into tears any moment, and gently grabbed her hand towards a more secluded area where they wouldn't be noticed as easily.

"What is?" Sasuke asked once they were hidden safely under the shadows of the tree. Her eyes were becoming teary, sparkling under the moonlight. "Sakura?"

"This!" She shouted. "I'm so sick of pretending, Sasuke-kun!" Sasuke's eyes opened, slightly startled. "I want to be like Hinata and Naruto, openly in love and everything! They don't need to hide anything, and Naruto's the fucking nine tails fox! Don't you think he has enemies too!" She barely got the last words out, a sob escaping her lips. For all this time she'd kept this stored inside of her. She didn't want to hide that she was in love with Sasuke, or that he loved her. If Naruto or any other ninja that all have crazy enemies after their asses could express their love, why couldn't Sasuke? Was he embarrassed of her? Did he think she was too weak to protect herself from those enemies?

"…" Sasuke didn't say anything, his fist clenched.

Sakura lowered her eyes, "If you can't deal with us being us for everyone to see…then I don't think we should even be-"

"Don't you fucking say that," Sasuke warned, but his warning lacked its usual aggressiveness. He sounded grim. Sakura reached for his hand.

"Sasuke-kun, what else do you want me to do? I love you, but I can't keep hiding this I-"

"If something were to happen to you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself." Sasuke interrupted. He removed his hands from hers, and leaned against the tree, his eyes casting down as if he were in deep thought.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke continued, "I've said this a thousand times. Naruto's never had anyone to begin with, so he doesn't know what it's like to have everything taken away from you at once." Sasuke looked up at her, "But I do."

Sakura sighed and leaned her back against his chest, letting him wrap his arms around her waist and he dropped his head into her pink hair. "If something where to happen to you because of the people associated with me, not only would I not be able to forgive myself, but I wouldn't know what to do."

"Don't you think Naruto's worried that his enemies would use Hinata to their advantage as well?" Sakura said it so softly, that her voice was almost carried away with the breeze. Sasuke hesitated before he responded.

"Then I suppose Naruto's braver than me."

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"…I want the world to see you be with me…"

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CHAPTER 19.

"OKAY!" Naruto shouted, pumping his fist in the air. Sasuke and Sakura groaned monotonously. "That's the spirit!"

"Just stop being a fucking cheerleader and push the stroller." Sasuke snapped. Naruto's dumb plan was surprisingly coming into action.

Naruto narrowed crystalline blue eyes, "Don't curse in front of the kids." He covered Kaori's ear for emphasis, who was in the double seated stroller with Hisoka. Sakura laughed at Naruto's childish behavior. It was always so refreshing to be around him.

Naruto grinned at Sakura, "Okay! Well if you guys are going to convince anyone your together you got to stand a bit closer." Naruto ordered using his fingers to show the minimum space between them. Sasuke groaned, and grabbed Sakura by the waist, quite harshly.

"Happy?" He hissed.

"Well, if you're going to do it like that…" Naruto shook his head disapprovingly. Sasuke ignored him and said some bitter words under his breath.

Sakura blushed awkwardly, under his grasp. It wasn't like it was the first time Sasuke's ever held her, but…in public? She wasn't used to that. Even so, it wasn't like he wanted to, he was bloody forced to.

A few early villagers stared as they walked through town, some even stopping completely to point and stare.

"Well, isn't that rude?" Sakura commented.

Naruto snorted, "Welcome to the first 12 years of my life." Sakura bit the inside of her mouth. She didn't want people pointing and staring at Hisoka as he grew older, just because he was 'Sasuke's' son.

"Don't worry."

Sakura looked up and saw Sasuke staring at her intently.

"Once we pull this off, then he won't live a pathetic childhood like Naruto's." Sasuke said the last part for Naruto to hear, which earned another loud snort. Sakura felt her worries wash away; Sasuke always knew how to make a situation better.

"WELL!" Naruto interrupted. "You can't just think standing side by side, is going to convince anyone you're truly happy!"

Sasuke turned around to glare at him bitterly.

"It's true. There are plenty of dysfunctional families that can walk side by side! We got to have a nice family breakfast!"

"You're not part of this family unit." Sasuke mumbled under his breath. Sakura pinched his arm gently, as a warning.

"Sure Naruto. Where should we go?" Naruto's smile grew.

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"And every time she asks me if she looks okay, I say…"

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"I don't consider Ramen romantic." Sasuke teased, once the old man placed a bowl in front of his face. The spoon headed towards Kaori's mouth paused, as Naruto looked at Sasuke like that was the dumbest thing he's ever heard him say.

"Wow. I didn't know you were an expert in Romance. But FYI, I proposed to Hinata here."

Sasuke raised a single eyebrow, a smirk appearing on his face. "Of course you did."

Sakura rolled her eyes at their childish banter, as she attempted to feed a bottle of warm milk to Hisoka, but once again he was refusing it. "Come on, Hisoka." She cooed. But he was as stubborn as his fake father.

"Let me try." Sasuke said, pushing his steaming bowl of ramen away from him, it was too early for it anyways.

Sakura hesitated. It wasn't like she didn't trust Sasuke to feed Hisoka, but ever since Sasuke held Hisoka for the first time, he refused to take a bottle from her. She knew it was nothing personal, but it just felt as if it were.

"Sakura, just hand the kid over before it starves." Sasuke said sarcastically, Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. Naruto's finger rose in the air.

"Yeah! That's perfect! Sasuke acting like he cares for the kid will have the villagers drooling with happiness!" He whispered, so the man next to him wouldn't hear.

"Che, acting." Sasuke snarled, as Sakura handed him Hisoka. The minute Sasuke placed the bottle into Hisoka mouth he sucked on it greedily. Sasuke rose a single eyebrow at Sakura, who crossed her arms angrily and placed her chopsticks in her ramen taking in a large mouth full.

Naruto smiled to himself, quickly turning his face away so they wouldn't see him getting so much pleasure out of this. He honestly had no idea whether the villagers would accept Sasuke and Sakura if they showed them how happy they were. He was just bullshitting the whole thing. He just wanted Sasuke to come to his senses that he's nothing without out Sakura.

But with Sasuke sometimes you just needed a little shove, so today Naruto gave himself the title of the match maker.

"Sakura-chan!" A snarly voice called out from behind them.

Naruto's ears twitched at the sound of Lee's perkiness.

'Ugh not fuzzy brows…'

"Oh, hi Lee!" Sakura greeted with half a mouth full of ramen. She quickly swallowed it. "How are you?"

"I am fine." Lee said awkwardly using his eyes to kind of sneakily look at the child. "I see the baby is doing well."

"Hisoka." Sasuke blurted.

"Excuse me, Sasuke-san?"

"He has a name Lee. It's Hisoka." Sasuke repeated this time with a bit more venom than he intended.

Lee bowed, "Of course. You are his father." Lee looked at Sasuke cautiously, but then looked at Sakura. "I am glad that you are healthy, Sakura-chan. You are looking like the cherry blossom I fell in love with. I see that love has restored the light in your eyes."

"Uh…sure…" Sakura looked at Sasuke carefully. Sasuke shrugged. Lee waved good-bye and headed out the ramen store. Naruto waited to make sure that he was a good arms length away before he spoke.

" 'Uh…sure!'" He scolded at Sakura. "Are you serious! Sakura-chan! That's not what you say when you're in love!"

Sakura looked taken back. "I'm sorry I forgot!"

"Ugh! I have so much to teach you!" Naruto exasperated. "Stop feeding that baby! He's finished with the bottle!" Naruto pointed out at Sasuke, who seemed to be in his own little world. And to his surprise when he looked down, Hisoka was just staring at him with the same identical onyx eyes.

"Shit…" Sasuke cursed under his breath. It kind of gave him the chills that Hisoka never cries, or makes any sounds.

"Okay!" Naruto declared, pounding his fist on the table. "On to the next stop!"

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"And that was the day I promised that I would never sing of love if it does not exist…"

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"It was nice for Naruto to leave as alone for some time," Sakura commented as she sat on the freshly cut grass. Sasuke nodded in agreement. Naruto had volunteered to take Hisoka off their arms as Sakura and Sasuke had a 'one on one public display of affection'. Sakura yawned sweetly as she started to pick the green grass.

"You're tired." Sasuke more or less stated than asked. It hadn't really occurred to him, but Sakura really hasn't rested since she gave birth.

Sakura looked up at him, and smiled with her eyes. "Not really, I'm fine."

Sasuke snorted. "This is what you do, and then you get sick." Sasuke motioned with his hand for her to come closer. Sakura looked at him blankly, and then he sighed in frustration. "Just fucking lay your head on my lap."

"…What?" Sakura's face heated up, a bit astonished that Sasuke was offering this to her. Sasuke looked away from her, his eyes narrowing.

He cleared his throat. "You're exhausted, and we have to act like we're…together. To kill two birds with one stone, just take a nap and rest your head on my lap, shit it's not brain surgery."

Sakura hesitated; she brushed her hand through her hair, "Are you sure? I don't want-"

"Sakura, I hate repeating myself."

Sakura swallowed and gently crawled herself towards him, poking his thigh as if she were testing it out. Then she slowly and carefully placed her head on his thigh.

"Hmmm, it's comfy. Though a bit tougher than I remembered…" Sakura mumbled into his thigh. Sasuke gently tugged her hair in order for her to shut up, and surprisingly she did. In fact it wasn't too long before her breathing became soft and labored.

Sasuke brushed her delicate hair to the side just to make sure that she was indeed sleeping, before he could let his rigid body relax. It was so weird. It wasn't like he's never had her in such close proximity to him before, but it had been some time. It's nearly been a year, and still she smelt the same exact way, the little dimple in her right cheek faintly appears whenever she smiles, and she still has exactly twelve freckles sprinkled on her nose (not that he's counted…).

And she still had that hold over him. That hold that always made him conscious of her well being, that hold that made him feel the need to protect her. Even if it wasn't that big of a deal, like her not getting enough sleep.

Sasuke grinded his teeth, he needed to get over that fast and quick, but how. How was he-

"Oh, no. Look whose here."

Sasuke inwardly grunted when he looked up to see a familiar female with blonde hair standing over him.

"Ino."

"Sasuke." She nearly spat. She placed her hands on her hips, her purple jumper slightly crinkling. "Haven't seen you around lately."

"Aa," Sasuke muttered, slightly annoyed that he couldn't stand up and peer over her instead of the other way around. Thanks to a now slumbering Sakura on his lap, he felt inferior to this noisy blonde.

Ino was silent for a moment, her eyes lingering on Sakura. "She looks comfortable."

"She is."

"Huh, and what about you?"

"I am."

"Interesting," Ino spitefully remarked. "It's funny how you used me though just to get to her…and yet it all worked out for you, didn't it?"

Sasuke blinked, "Used you? What the hell are you talking about Yamanaka?"

"That day when you came to me at my shop, saying you wanted 'help' because you just happened to of fallen in love?" Ino reminded him, her porcelain blue eyes darkening. "If I had known you just wanted to buy her a ring so you could fucking sleep with her, then I wouldn't have bothered!"

A light bulb went off in Sasuke's head. He remembered that day he had gone to her for help almost 10 months ago. Ino had taken it as he used her, just to get Sakura laid.

"Fuck," Sasuke cursed, unconsciously running his hands through Sakura's hair. It was something he had done in the past to help him think when they used to share a bed at night.

How was he going to get himself out of this one? There was no way Ino knew at that time he was already dating Sakura…so it wasn't like he just bought her something to deceive her. She didn't even accept that ring. "Look, it's not what you think."

"Of course it isn't. That's what all the assholes say." Ino rolled her perfect eyes. "You're such a fucking loser, seriously! I had all this respect for you, and you've just thrown that in the drain. You could have at least stayed with her when she was pregnant, but no, you abandoned her. And now that your child is the spitting image of you, you can't deny it anymore, can you? So you're just going to crawl back into her life! That's despicable. What is she going to do the next time you leave, huh? I am just so fucking sick of picking up the pieces after you break her heart."

Sasuke's jaw clenched as he could feel Sakura stirring underneath his touch. Ino's eyes saddened.

"The minute I saw that little boy…I just knew I couldn't do it anymore," Ino whispered. "I can't keep fixing her heart just for you to break it again. I know that as long as you're in the picture, there can't be a friendship between me and her. It hurts me too much to see her like that, so I can't. I can't." Ino looked up towards the sky in order to suppress her tears from escaping. It was taking a lot of strength, but there couldn't be a friendship if Sakura kept running back to Sasuke, or easily falling for his cheap tricks that always ended up with her hurt.

A nice breeze filled in the awkward silence, and the warm spring weather suddenly had a slight chill to it. Sasuke blew out a long hot breath, his chest collapsing.

"I get it," he started, his voice husky. "I'm not going to make excuses for my past, nor for whatever I may do in the future. You may hate me all you want, but don't use that anger against Sakura." Sasuke could literally hear his brain tell him to 'shut-up, you shouldn't care!' but he continued. "You two have a great friendship and if something does happen, and I'm out of the picture, I do want her to have someone to fall back on. Other then the dobe." Sasuke ended his short speech with a small half apologetic smirk that he knew he was known to be irresistible for. And it worked.

Ino bit her bottom lip, fighting of a smile. A lone tear escaped her lids, as she quickly wiped away. "Okay," she croaked. She gently used the tip of her shoe to kick his arm. "But don't be a douche, Sasuke-kun. It gets really annoying." Ino laughed while using Sasuke's trademark expression against him. She clapped her hand loudly, which earned another small stir from Sakura, and she bowed her head regretfully. "I'll see you two later!" She whispered and then she ran off into the distance.

Sasuke watched her disappear over the horizon, and suddenly retracted his hand from Sakura' hair almost as if were on fire and it had just burned him. Had he really been rubbing her hair the entire time?

"Damn it," he cursed softly, his heart feeling heavy.

"Oh my!" Naruto suddenly popped out from the bushes, a binocular around his neck and Kaori's. "That was so touching! You don't even need my help to be her knight of shining armor!"

Sasuke's left brow twitched. "Were you in that bush the entire time?"

"Maybe." Naruto grinned, relieving Kaori from the two seated stroller, and allowing him to stretch his legs. "I wanted to see you in your natural environment."

"You're an idiot," Sasuke scoffed, if he had the ability to blush, he probably would have. "How can you hide in a bush with a new born and your one year old son?"

Naruto shrugged it off carelessly, "Don't worry about it, Hisoka barely complained." Sasuke thought about saying something completely derogatory back, but decided against it. "Besides, you seem to be enjoying that." Naruto commented, his eyebrows rising annoyingly. Kaori had scrambled to his feet and started sprinting towards Sakura.

"Awww! She sleeping!" He exclaimed clapping his hands excitedly. Then, unpredictably he grabbed a chunk hold of Sakura's hair, and yanked it with monstrous baby strength. Sasuke instantly reached down to Kaori's grasp and tried to release it, but it was too late.

"OWWWWWWWWWW!" Sakura shot up, her fist flying towards Sasuke's chin, almost reflexively. Sasuke tumbled backwards a few meters grasping his jaw.

"Shit, Sakura!" He cursed angrily, blood seeping through his mouth. Kaori blew a bubble and ran around in circles with pink hair in his tiny tan palms.

"Daddy, look! Pwetty hair!" Kaori exclaimed, stopping in front of his father to show his findings. Naruto snatched the hair from his hands, and poked him on his head.

"No Kaori, that's bad! Very bad!" Naruto scolded, throwing Sakura's hair on the floor. Naruto smiled at Sasuke nervously. "Sorry about that!"

"Sorry? You dipshit, you should slap that child across the fucking face!" he spewed, clearly angry. Naruto used his hands to cover Kaori's ears.

"Seriously, someone should wash your mouth out with soap!"

Sakura, who was completely dazed, felt the top of her head. Though she felt like she had two severe bald spots in her hair, in reality she had none. And then she noticed the damage she did to Sasuke's face.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, I am so sorry!" Sakura quickly scrambled on all fours towards Sasuke, who was looking at her like she was a deluded criminal. "Here let me help," She pleaded, her hands glowing pale green. Sasuke recoiled from her touch.

"Don't."

"Sasuke-kun, it'll help I promise." She said sincerely leaning forwards more.

Sasuke, his mouth completely pouring out blood (which Kaori now had just screamed "icky!"), glared with her with such intensity, that she actually froze. "Do not come near me."

But Sakura, as a medic-nin, could not just let a patient bleed. Especially when she was the one that inflicted the pain. She quickly got on top of him, pinning him to the ground. Sasuke completely caught off guard by this random attack, did little to defend himself. She straddled him by his waist and placed her cool pale green hands on his jaw.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he struggled underneath her superhuman strength. "Sakura, get off!" He nearly shouted, the tone of his usually cool voice sounded oddly strained. But Sakura refused to get off, until…she noticed the black swirls that had slowly appeared on his jaw, engraving into his skin. She quickly stopped the process, but then she knew it was too late. Sasuke's recognizable midnight blue eyes faded away into snake like golden eyes, and his mouth quickly curved upwards into a sinister smile.

"Oh, no…" Sakura murmured, her bottom lip quivering. She swiftly glanced over at Naruto, who looked just as shocked as she was at how quick the transformation had happened.

Sasuke easily removed himself from underneath her and grabbed her face so that she would face him, her eyes forced to meet his sadistic own.

"Hello, Sakura-chan."

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"I told ya baby… uh-oh…"
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Haha believe it or not…that last lyric quote thing is actually a song…haha, it's the first few lines in the Rockstar by Rihanna. Well what do you think! Drop a Review to let me know…AND…have you guys read the new manga.

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Theres gonna be some EPIC battle scenes coming up! XD

REVIEWS MAKE MY WORLD GO ROUND

xooreoxo