Important:

read Author's Note at the bottom after reading

do not skip it please


Chapter Twenty-Nine

There was something missing when Sasuke woke up. Something soft and small and usually having stolen all of the blankets. He sat up and looked around the room in the ryokan. His brows furrowed in slight annoyance at the lack of pink.

Sasuke and Sakura were in the middle of their honeymoon in Yugakure. A trip to a hot spring resort his mother had planned out as a romantic getaway.

The destination was a good choice for the couple. It was relaxing which Sakura needed after being so busy with the hospital and the hot springs were known to have medicinal qualities which fascinated her.

Sakura had spent their first week spending time with Sasuke but it seemed as they rounded to their final few days, the need to research was so strong that she refused to relax any longer.

"Have you seen my wife?" Sasuke asked a nakai that had come in to put away the futon and set up the table for lunch.

"Not since breakfast, sir," she replied with a giggle.

Sasuke nodded and when she left changed into a fresh yukata. He meandered to the front hall and approached the elderly front desk clerk when he didn't spot Sakura.

"Did my wife leave me a message?"

"Yes, she did." The front desk clerk giggled and then reached into a cubby behind her marked with Sasuke's room number. She handed him a note with one last giggle that caused Sasuke to frown.

It was on his way out that he heard a chorus of giggles behind him and squeals.

"They're so young and cute. He keeps saying 'my wife'. I just want to pinch his cheeks!"

Sasuke walked away even faster.


Sasuke found Sakura along the paths to the different hot springs surrounding the ryokan. She had been walking toward him, carrying a wide basket full of glass vials.

"You're not bringing water back to Konoha are you?"

"Not water specifically but the mineral content. I'm going to examine them and find out what's in them."

"Workaholic."

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him. He and the rest of Team Kakashi were always teasing her about that.

Sasuke grabbed the basket to help her carry them. She didn't need his help but she still accepted it. She found it cute when he attempted to do anything chivalrous in public. He would get all flustered and his ears would turn red. She would never comment on it because then he would scowl, which would come out as a pout, and then she would just think he was cute again and Sasuke usually knew that she was thinking that.

Sakura's stomach let out a loud growl. She had a very light breakfast hours ago and had been so preoccupied with talking to local healers about the springs that she forgot about eating. Sasuke snorted through his nose at the sound and Sakura pouted, cheeks turning hot pink.

"Let's go have lunch."

"Sounds like a good idea," Sakura mumbled. "We should go shopping for everyone's souvenirs later. I wonder how they're all doing…"


"Shisui is pretty good with a camera, huh?"

Izumi was helping her mother-in-law with framing photos to hang up for the newlyweds. They were hoping to surprise them when they came back from their honeymoon.

"He's okay." Mikoto shrugged. She secretly thought she was a lot better even without the advantage of modern technology. "I prefer my photos."

"Yours?"

Mikoto opened up an album and started to flip through pages. Izumi quickly looked around trying to figure out where she pulled it out from. One of these days someone was going to have to figure out how Mikoto was doing that.

"Oh! This one is good. They were so cute when they were thirteen."

Izumi looked at a photo that Mikoto was pointing at. Naruto was spread eagle on the ground, mouth gaped open in his sleep. Sakura was leaning against a tree reading a book. Sasuke was leaning against the same tree fiddling with a kunai. She gushed when she noticed Mikoto captured the moment Sasuke was sneaking a glance at Sakura and her book.

"How did you even get this one?"

It was a photo of Sakura and Sasuke under another tree. They must have been fourteen because Sakura appeared to be healing him. The reason Izumi was so shocked was because it taken from above. As if the photographer was sitting in the tree.

"Candid photos are the best."

Note to self: talk to Mikoto about how excitable she gets before Ita-kun and I have kids.

"I miss when they were small and cute!" Mikoto squealed. "I wish we gave them their own camera before their honeymoon."

"I think they would be too busy to be taking photos." Itachi had just come in with lunch, Shisui trailing after him.

"Or they would take photos we wouldn't want to see," Shisui joked prompting Izumi to pinch his arm for the crude implication.

"What are you even doing here Shi-chan?"

"Free food, duh." Shisui snatched up a container from the bag Itachi had been carrying.

"It's lunch time? I should get going then. I told your father I would be dropping off lunch."

"Go ahead. These two can help me finish up." Izumi hesitated in handing back the album to Mikoto. She wanted to look through it more. Mikoto smiled at her knowingly and pushed it gently back, giving permission for Izumi to keep it for a while.

"What's that?" Shisui reached for the album but Izumi kept it out of the reach of his grubby hands.

"You're going to dirty it. Look with your eyes not your hands."

"Okay, mom."

Izumi shot Shisui a glare and opened up the album for him to view the photos.

"Hey, that's us!"

At the excited statement, Itachi took a seat by his wife, curious as to what they were looking at.

The photograph was of the three of them sitting on the dock. Izumi was offering Itachi a piece of dango and Shisui had taken the opportunity to eat the offering straight from the stick. Izumi had her mouth wide open in shock.

Itachi remembered that day. He and Izumi were only 16 at the time. It wasn't easy to pinpoint when exactly his relationship with Izumi had changed to one with a romantic nature but he was sure that there had been a silent agreement at that point that they were together.

"Do you think your mother still has the negatives? I would love copies of some of these for our house."

Itachi shrugged but made a mental note to ask his mother later.

"Oh this was a good day," Shisui snickered and pointed at a photo in the lower corner of the page. "Your brother's eyes looked like they were about to burst out of his head that day."

Itachi tilted his head and examined the photo Shisui had pointed out. Team Seven were waiting for Kakashi at their usual waiting spot. It must have been summer since Naruto wasn't wearing his usual orange sweats and Sasuke was wearing a sleeveless version of his usual high neck shirt.

He had his face buried in the high collar but the tips of his ears were red. The obvious culprit for his embarrassment was a younger Sakura wearing a midriff bearing outfit.

"That was one of her cutest outfits!" Izumi squealed. "I need a copy of this one. I always forget that Naruto use to be the shortest. But then again it was kind of obvious that Sakura would eventually be overtaken in the height department."

"Didn't he walk around with his chin up for a while thinking it would make him look taller?"

"Yeah until he ran into Sasuke way too many times and they got into a fight about it."

"That's one kid I didn't see getting so tall." Shisui shivered in discomfort. "I keep expecting him to come up to my waist still but then I'll see him and he's taller than me and married now."

"Speaking of marriage…" Izumi's voice took on a coy tone. "When are you thinking about setting down, Shi-chan?"

"What, are you trying to get rid of me?" Shisui narrowed his eyes playfully at her. "You're not trying to set me up with one of your friends are you? I like being a bachelor so no thanks."

"Told you so." Itachi flashed a small triumphant smirk at Izumi who puffed out her cheeks in frustration. It wasn't fun being wrong.

"But what about kids? Don't you want any?"

"Not really? And come on, can you really picture me with kids? There's so much I could fuck up."

"True…" Izumi tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I think I'll have to see how you do with any of Sasuke's kids before letting you near any of mine."

"Okay I'm not that bad. And there's no way I would do anything to one of his kids and risk their mother breaking me apart and putting me back together again just to break me apart again."

"Is that what she threatened you with before?" Itachi raised an eyebrow at his cousin. The memory of Shisui's fear was still fresh on his mind. It was highly amusing considering Shisui was an Anbu.

"She's a medic-nin. She can do that."

Izumi rolled her eyes and excused herself from the table. She wandered down the hall toward Sasuke and Sakura's bedroom, curious as to how much of their stuff was still boxed up.

It appeared that Mikoto and possibly Mebuki had used some of their free time to unpack some of the more necessary items. Izumi crossed her arms in front of her chest and nodded to herself as she counted up all of the unopened boxes.

"Hey, guys?" She called out to her favorite people as she made her way back to the kitchen. "What are you doing today?"


Sasuke had to hold back from laughing at his exhausted wife. As soon as they stepped through their entrance way she collapsed on the first couch she saw.

"My parents probably expects us to go see them and tell them we're back."

Sakura lifted her face from the couch cushions and glared at him.

"Well, my parents were kind enough to tell us we could wait to see them the next day."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and took their bags to their room. He frowned when he noticed their unpacked boxes were missing. He opened up a few drawers and saw that everything had been put away.

"Sakura, did you give our mothers keys?" Sasuke went back into the living room to talk to her and found her staring at the wall. "What are you looking at?"

Sasuke stood behind her and looked over her head at the brand new frames on the wall. Sakura was standing in front of a photo from their wedding of their immediate families and Naruto.

"I feel very loved," Sakura murmured. "Don't you?"

Sasuke glanced at the other photos. They were all scenes from their childhood and some from when they were older with their friends and family.

"Aa," he agreed.

Very loved indeed.


Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay. I have been busy because of work and I have fallen ill. I wasn't sure why I was feeling so shitty all of last month but seems like my health took a dive again (I was even in the ER three times already this month if that's any indication of how fucked up my life has been lately).

So...some things have come up regarding this fic and I must address them. So it has come to my attention that there are people stealing my fics. As a heads up you will only ever find my fics on FF unless I say otherwise which will probably never change.

I almost deleted this fic because of that incident. If you see my fics anywhere else please report it and find a way to take them down. I will refuse to write chapters if my fics keep getting stolen.

Another thing that will make me refuse to write are demands for updates. Guys, I love when you guys get excited for updates but, come on, can you please be decent people? There's a proper way to ask and quite a few of you are rude and it's discouraging. If I can't update I can't update…

Please remember that I am a person and you should treat me as one. My health is more important than fanfic and it would be nice if you guys shared the same sentiment.

To my new readers: welcome! I'm so glad you found my fic and are enjoying it. I hope you continue to enjoy TPOAM despite its new crazy update schedule.

I know this chapter is severely short but I wanted to get something done as we now transition to the marriage life portion of TPOAM.

See you guys next time.