Chapter 16:
The guests moved to the reception area for some appetizers and drinks while the wedding party had more photos taken, much to Sasuke's dismay. After the photos were finished, dinner would be served and followed with dancing under the large canopy adjacent to the lake. While the reception was outside, the decor was nothing short of immaculate. Starting with the entrance, a parted red curtain opened to the dining area. There were tables on one side, and the other had a wooden dance floor. Each silk navy covered table had six place settings of crystal china and an intricate center piece of red roses and navy ribbons. Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata found their table and sat to enjoy pork gyoza and some sake.
The blond was talking about their recent mission to the Land of Spring, so Sakura tuned him out in favor of searching for Sasuke. She had briefly seen him during the processional, but they hadn't spoken yet. Last night he told her that he would introduce her to the elders shortly before the dancing began. After seeing Itachi and Izumi happy together, she wasn't fearful of the elders. If they could do it, she and Sasuke could as well. She wanted to rip the band aid off and move on with her life.
Hearing a chair scuff the ground, Sakura turned and saw her former sensei in formal wear. His eyes crinkled upon seeing her as he sat down.
"Hello Sakura," he greeted.
"Kaka-sensei! I thought you were on a mission," she exclaimed in surprise. Naruto and Hinata were also alerted of the copy nin's presence.
"Kakashi sensei! What are you doing here?!" the blond asked with wide eyes.
"I was, but I finished early… due to extenuating circumstances." Sakura snorted at his vague response. Even after knowing him for over a decade, he never ceased to be cryptic. Members of the wedding party began to file into the dining area signaling the start of the formal dinner. Sakura caught a glimpse of her boyfriend who was talking to his mother. Sasuke was a handsome man, but him in formalwear practically put him on sex god level. His deep navy kimono wrapped around his broad shoulders and clung to his sturdy chest. With his arms crossed, the wide sleeves rode up to reveal muscled forearms and contracted biceps. At this moment, all Sakura wanted was to be pressed up against a wall and trapped by his body while he trailed kisses down her clavicle. He turned his head, and their gazes connected. He responded with a smirk, and her cheeks burned. Looking away, she felt as if she had been caught red handed. She also swore that she could hear Mikoto giggle.
"Sakura-chan? Are you ok? You're kind of red." Naruto stared inquisitively at her.
Laughing nervously, Sakura brushed it off. "I'm fine! I'm fine! Oh look, they're starting to serve dinner." With the interruption of food, Naruto and Hinata were distracted. Ever perceptive, the gray-haired nin glanced knowingly at Sakura. He had heard rumors, mostly from Naruto, but he didn't have any proof of his own that something was going on between two of his former students. Now, he might have to have a talk with the Uchiha about how to treat Sakura properly and ensure he wasn't taking advantage of her. She was a smart girl, but she tended to make irrational decisions when feelings of the heart got involved. As her former sensei and an older brother figure, Kakashi took it upon himself to protect Sakura from heartbreak; of course, he was more discreet than some of the other male members of Team Seven.
Following numerous toasts, dinner, and the cake cutting, the dancing finally began. After Itachi danced with his mother and Izumi with hers, the dance floor was open to everyone. Like clockwork, Sasuke appeared by Sakura's side.
"Sakura. Come with me," he ordered. The kunoichi arose from her seat and followed Sasuke leaving Naruto supremely confused.
"Ugh… what was that about?"
Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly and took out his Icha Icha book. It seemed that Sakura was about to be introduced to the elders. Having worked closely with many Uchiha, Kakashi had some understanding of the clan's traditions. They had to be pretty serious if Sasuke was introducing her. It would be very interesting to see how Naruto reacted to the news considering that he had been gunning for the two to get together.
The blond nin looked serious in thought over the matter until the DJ announced that the next song was for all of the couples attending. Being a wonderful boyfriend, he excitedly jumped up and pulled Hinata with him to the dance floor.
X
"Are you ready?" he asked. After whisking Sakura away from the canopy, Sasuke led her to the small fishing shed a few meters from the lake to talk privately before they spoke with the elders.
She nodded and sighed. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Plus, your parents and Itachi like me, so that's all that matters."
Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms. "All that matters is that I like you." His response elicited a peel of laughter from his girlfriend who pulled him by the shoulders towards her.
"Of course! I'm just joking, sheesh." He completed the embrace as he wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her chaste kiss. They pulled apart and set off to the courtyard to meet the elders.
"By the way," he added, "I like that dress on you, but I'll like it even better when I take it off you." Blushing and smacking his arm lightly, she took his hand and walked towards the courtyard where they would reveal their relationship to the elders.
X
Having gotten carried away with the music and his lovely girlfriend, the knucklehead almost forgot to confer with Shisui. Hinata had suggested a water break from dancing, so she retired to their table while Naruto tracked down Shisui. Unsurprisingly, he found the body flicker nin chatting up one of Kiba's female cousins.
"Shisui!" The man in question excused himself from his female companion and followed Naruto to an empty table.
"I need you to find Sakura-chan and ask her to dance while I find Sasuke, so he sees you dancing together." Naruto's last chance plan was to get Shisui to make Sasuke jealous by dancing with Sakura. However, the plan hinged on actually finding his two friends who had all but vanished after the first few songs.
"Sure, but where are they? Now that I think about it, I haven't seen either of them since the dinner."
The blond grinned and chuckled. "Well, I do happen to be dating one of the top tracker nin."
Shisui looked wary. "Are you sure that we should be entangling Hinata-san in one of your hair brained schemes? She's - you know - decent and a rule follower."
"Hey! My scheme is not hair-brained! And, we're not breaking any laws!" The Uchiha rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine, but you owe me for this one."
The pair found Hinata, and Naruto easily convinced the Hyuga to help them. She was apprehensive at first, but she agreed when Naruto used his puppy dog eyes. He tended to get a lot of things from her that way.
"Ok so the last time I saw them, they were headed to the shed." The purple haired girl nodded and discreetly activated her byakugan to search the area. Seeing nothing, she shook her head and deactivated her doujutsu.
"What about the main house? One of them could have gone there to freshen up." Shisui's suggestion seemed plausible, so Hinata employed her doujutsu again. She scanned the house from left to right and suddenly stopped. Her eyes widened, and her face grew as red as a tomato. Black dots populated her vision, and she fainted into Naruto's arms.
"Crap! Hinata-chan!" The jinchuriki tried to rouse her girlfriend to no avail.
"She must have overused her doujutsu." Shisui offered. Naruto groaned in frustration and presented his hypothesis to his Uchiha friend. "Last night, she came back from a mission, so she's probably still tired. I shouldn't have asked her to help us." Some boyfriend he was. She was nervous to help when he first asked her to do so, and he had to pressure her with the puppy dog eyes.
"Look, don't worry about Sasuke and Sakura. I'll figure something out. You need to take care of Hinata-san." Shisui patted him on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. He sighed and nodded.
"Ok. But you have to promise to call me tomorrow and fill me in!" Shisui agreed, and the blond teleported himself and his girlfriend to her home.
It struck Shisui odd that the Hyuga had fainted from a small use of her doujutsu, even given the information that she had recently returned from a mission. However, it was common knowledge that Hinata fainted upon becoming flustered. Maybe she saw something that wasn't meant to be seen by prying eyes. Thoroughly intrigued, Shisui headed towards the main house to investigate.
He passed through the courtyard and heard the clan elders complaining about something.
"What an outrage?!"
"I had higher hopes for Sasuke. It's a shame that he's making the same mistake as his brother."
The complaints weren't unusual as the elders were upset by anything that defied tradition, and Shisui was often a target of their criticism for his womanizing ways. It was technically Uchiha law that individuals waited until marriage to have sex. Obviously, it wasn't strictly followed nor enforced, but it didn't stop the elders from whining about it. However, once Itachi was installed as clan head, he would be making sweeping changes to Uchiha law.
Shisui sped to the door and ignored the disdainful looks from the elders. In order to expedite his search of the house, he activated his sharingan. He sensed the chakras of some of his relatives in the dining room and kitchen, but he didn't detect his cousin or his pink-haired teammate. He wandered to the bedrooms and scanned again, nothing. It was silent, and he didn't register any chakra signatures. Then, he heard footsteps and a creak coming from Itachi's room. He padded over and swung the door open to find Sasuke on top of Sakura, whose kimono had slipped from her shoulder. Her neck and chest were covered in small red marks. Her arms wrapped around her chest to cover herself. The older Uchiha could guess what they were up to. His little cousin gave him look of pure fury. He was clearly upset about being interrupted. What was it with his family members ruining his intimate moments with Sakura?
"What are you doing here?" the younger Uchiha ground out.
Shisui chuckled. "I came looking for Sakura-chan, so I could ask her to dance. Looks like she's doing something more interesting though." He flashed them a crooked smile and turned to leave.
"Wait! Please don't tell anyone about this Shisui! I don't want to get any more complaints from the elders." Sakura's jade orbs gleamed with worry.
The man sighed and gave her the classic Uchiha smirk. Suddenly, the elders' comments and the pair's disappearance made sense. Sasuke must have notified the elders of their courtship. "Anything for you Sakura-chan. I'm just glad that my little cousin has a sex drive." He bolted out of the room as Sasuke hurled obscenities and a pillow, which Shisui successfully dodged.
Before he could call Naruto, the Inuzuka girl who had been flirting with him earlier intercepted him for a night of heavy drinking and pleasure. He was out cold for the next twenty four hours, rendering him unable to contact his blond nin about recent developments.
The morning after the wedding, Hinata regained consciousness, and the blond nin apologized profusely for enlisting her for his cause.
"Hinata-chan, I'm so so so sorry! Please forgive me! I should have known better than to ask you to use your Byakugan right after you got back from your mission." Naruto felt like the worst boyfriend ever for endangering his precious lover's health.
"It's ok Naruto-kun! It's not your fault. It's strange that I fainted after using my Byakugan so little, but I suppose I didn't rest enough after my mission." Having little recollection of what she saw, which was Sasuke and Sakura making out, she was surprised that her exhaustion caused her to pass out.
"Thank you for being understanding Hinata-chan. I'm going to go run a few errands, but I'll be back in a couple of hours. Get some rest, and I'll have lunch waiting for you when you wake up." A smile graced the Hyuga's pale lips, and she laid back down on the bed to get some sleep.
Before he left, Naruto went to the kitchen to make three phone calls. At the end of last night and earlier this morning, before Hinata awoke, he tried to reach Sasuke, Sakura, or Shisui. Oddly enough, none of them picked up their phones. Frustrated with the silence and the fact that the bet deadline was tomorrow, he tried to call each of them again. Once more, he encountered answering machines. It had crossed his mind to call Itachi, but in a rare moment of social grace Naruto decided against disturbing the Anbu captain the morning after his wedding.
All that he could do now was wait, or he could stop by their residences. Being impatient, he chose the second option. Sakura and Shisui's apartments were empty. His last hope was the Uchiha compound. Since he didn't have much time to waste because he still needed to stop at the ramen stand, he opted to sneak into the main house compound. He tended to get distracted and waste time when en route to Sasuke's house with small talk with his relatives.
He teleported himself to the front porch and knocked. There was no answer, so he closed his eyes and attempted to find any chakra signatures. He hadn't completely lost hope because his antisocial best friend had a habit of concealing his chakra in order to avoid interruption of his "alone time". He located the window to Sasuke's bedroom and knocked.
"Hey bastard! Come out here! I have something to talk to you about!" No answer. Sasuke was probably feeling especially antisocial after a whole day of large group activities. Naruto had no choice but to bring out the big guns.
"If you don't come out here, I'll tell your dad who spilled tea on the downtown racketeering file!" There was still no answer, so the jinchuriki pried the window open. It was odd because his moody friend usually responded to anything related to his father. Even more odd, Sasuke's bedroom was devoid of Sasuke.
He huffed in frustration at his bad luck. He was screwed if he didn't figure out something soon. He only had one day left, and he had yet to confirm if his best friends were in a relationship. "You've got to be kidding me!" His time had run out, so he went to obtain ramen for lunch. Back at his apartment, he continued to call the three missing individuals periodically but continued to get voicemails until ten minutes before midnight. Finally, Shisui returned his thirty calls.
"You have a lot of explaining to do! Why haven't you been answering my calls?!" the blond interrogated.
"I got distracted last night by a very eager young lady, and I got black out drunk with her following some pretty dirty -" Before he could give more details, the blond cut him off.
"Ew! Whatever. Just tell me what happened after I left the wedding. Are Sasuke and Sakura officially together?"
"You wouldn't believe what I saw. I walked around the main house, and I found Sasuke -"
Knock. Knock.
"Wait! I gotta go. Someone's at the door. I'll call you in a couple minutes ok?"
"No Naruto you don't understand!" Naruto ended the call and opened the door. It was an Anbu.
"You've been summoned by lady Tsunade to come to her office immediately." Wanting to protest and call his friend back, Naruto smartly kept his mouth shut and followed the masked nin. He didn't want to risk the wrath of the Godaime when he might have lost the bet. During the journey to Hokage Tower, he feared the worst. He truly thought that his friends were officially together as Tsunade had put it, but he didn't have any proof other than flustered looks from his friends when he mentioned it. Maybe, Tsunade was in a good mood since Itachi would be the clan head soon, so she wouldn't have to argue with Fugaku at council meetings. Who was he kidding, this was Tsunade. The woman got angry at the slightest indiscretions whether it was Naruto asking for more missions or his teacher making a few lewd jokes.
He arrived at the top floor of the tower and approached her office. Gulping, he knocked.
"Come in," the Hokage's stern voice answered. He entered and prayed to Kami that Tsunade would be reasonable, just this once.
