"Kakashi dear, there you are," the woman said as she approached Kakashi and Sakura. "How long was the wait at the restaurant?" she asked as she wrapped both arms around him.
Dear? Who the hell is this woman? Sakura thought. She was taller than Sakura, with long dark hair and olive skin. She had brown eyes and a lot of curves to her body.
Her dress was easily worth one of Sakura's paychecks, and she had a manicure that Sakura would never be able to keep up with.
Kakashi felt his stomach knot. He could see the shock on Sakura's face. "Uh, it was too long to wait," he answered, shifting his weight in an uncomfortable manner.
"Oh, well we can go somewhere else. Will your friend be joining us?" she asked, staring up at him.
"Oh, no. I just ate and I need to get home," Sakura stammered. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on between Kakasji and this woman, but it was pretty obvious that she would be the third wheel in whatever they had planned. "Thank you though, umm..." Sakura stuttered, not knowing how to address the woman.
The dark-haired woman seemed to have realized this. "I'm so sorry. Kakashi dear, you didn't introduce us."
It wasn't often that Kakashi got flustered, but Sakura could tell that he was uncomfortable. He was staring at the ground when both women brought their attention to him. He shifted his weight again and cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Right. Tomi, this is Sakura. She was the medic on my team during the war. Sakura, this is Tomi."
The dark-haired woman giggled, wrapping her arms around Kakashi a little tighter. "I'm his fiancee," she explained.
"Fiancee," Sakura repeated the word as if she were trying to make sense of it.
Tomi nodded before peering up at Kakashi again. "I just arrived yesterday to officially live here in Konoha with Kakashi. I'm from Shiwa, and my father is Daimyo Sota Fujio," she explained proudly.
Well, that partially explained why Sakura had never met Kakashi's girlfriend before; she lived outside of the village. But it didn't explain why he had never told her that he had a girlfriend.
To say that Sakura was surprised by this was an understatement. She was downright shocked.
They had been very close for a few years now. Sakura felt like a serious relationship like an engagement would be something that Kakashi would tell her about. And yet Kakashi had never once mentioned it to her.
The flow of thoughts had Sakura confused. Had they not been as close as she had thought they were? Kakashi had shared many things with her that he didn't share with other people, but why had he not told her that he was in a serious relationship, much less engaged!
It hurt to think that she wasn't as important to him as he had made her feel she was. He hadn't even bothered to tell her about Tomi, about him proposing. Now she was moving here to their village, and he still didn't even bother introducing them properly.
He didn't even call her a friend when he introduced her to Tomi. He had called her his team medic!
But what hurt Sakura the most was the simple fact that Kakashi was marrying another woman! Sakura was all too aware of her crush on Kakashi; she often found herself imagining life with him as a real couple while they spent time together. Now she was quite literally standing face to face with the fact that it would never be possible.
The way that he spoke to her and the way that he looked at her and the way that he treated her sometimes made her think that it was possible, especially after what had happened between them a couple of nights ago. But this whole time he had been in a serious relationship with Tomi.
All of Sakura's other thoughts came to a halt. That night! That was the day before his fiancee showed up here in the village to live with him. That night, he had taken her to bed while Tomi was on her way here to fulfill their engagement. Sakura realized that Kakashi obviously had cheated on Tomi with her that night.
No wonder he regrets it, who wouldn't? Sakura thought to herself. That must be why he had been avoiding her until now. She could see the shame and guilt in his eyes, and Sakura immediately shared that shame and guilt. She assumed that Tomi was the reason why he left her in bed alone the morning after as well.
Kakashi watched Sakura as several emotions flickered across her face so fast that he would have missed it if he hadn't been paying attention. She was confused, hurt, and angry at the situation. He couldn't blame her. though.
Tomi gave a sympathetic look at Sakura's answer. "That's too bad. I wanted to get to know all of Kakashi's friends before the big day," she said before smiling brightly and adding, "We will have to make plans to spend some girl time together."
Kakashi stuttered for a moment before he cut in, "Eh, Sakura is very busy these days, and we are no longer on a team together." He hated pushing Sakura away, but nothing good would come from them continuing whatever they'd had between them now that he was engaged to Tomi. He needed to put distance between them.
Sakura picked up on Kakashi's discomfort at her and Tomi talking or spending time together. Maybe he was worried that she would tell Tomi about what they had done before she arrived. Sakura decided to go along with it, because Kakashi clearly didn't want her a part of his new life.
"Yeah, Kakashi and I are mostly just old teammates. I'm always busy at the hospital or with Lady Tsunade, and I don't have much free time."
"Lady Tsunade, as in the Hokage?" Tomi asked.
Sakura gave a nervous laugh. "Yes, I'm her apprentice. In addition to practically running the hospital, I also assist her in her duties," Sakura explained.
"Oh, does that mean that you will be assisting my Kakashi when he takes on the role of Hokage?" Tomi asked.
Hokage? Kakashi was going to be the Sixth Hokage? Another thing he didn't bother to mention to me, I suppose.
Kakashi cut in once again, "That hasn't really been decided yet. We still have a long way to go before I take in that title anyways."
"Hmm," was Tomi's only reply.
"Umm, speaking of Lady Tsunade, I'm late to meet with her." It was an outright lie; she just couldn't stand there making small talk with them any longer. "Please excuse me. It was nice to meet you, Tomi."
"Of course," Tomi said politely.
Sakura turned on her heel and headed towards the shopping district. She needed to get out of this awkward situation and find something to occupy her mind for a little while. Maybe she would see if anyone was at the training grounds and up for a spar.
Kakashi watched as Sakura walked away, noticing that she wasn't heading in the direction of the hospital.
Tomi had a scowl on her face, and her eyes fixed on Kakashi as he watched Sakura disappear from their sight. The awkward tension between Kakashi and Sakura did not go unnoticed. She had seen him walk straight up to her after making an excuse about checking the wait time for a table.
She had waited for a few minutes before intervening, but it's long enough for her to notice the blush that covered the other woman's face and the familiarity between the two of them. But she had also noticed the hesitation they both had, it seemed out of place. There was something new about their comfortable relationship that seemed to have them both a little unsure.
At first, Tomi thought that she was an ex-girlfriend of Kakashi's. But after watching how they talked to each other, she decided that she didn't think that that was the case, though the dynamic of their relationship was difficult to define. They were very familiar with each other, but at the same time it seemed like there was so much uncertainty between them, like there were boundaries they still hadn't figured out.
Tomi didn't like the idea of Kakashi being close to another woman like that, physically or emotionally. So she'd made her way to them to put a stop to the conversation. As soon as she reached the two of them, it hadn't taken long for them to confirm her suspicions.
Tomi didn't miss the display of emotions on the other woman's face when she had told her she was Kakashi's fiancee. There was something unspoken between them, Tomi realized. She needed to make it clear that Kakashi was hers now.
Now that she had made her point to the pink-haired brat, she needed to get Kakashi's attention back to her. She snaked her arms around one of his and softly called out his name. Kakashi snapped out of his daze and looked down at her.
"Sorry," he said as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "I got lost in thought."
She gave him a fake giggle. "It's alright, dear. Can we go eat now?" she asked with a pout.
Kakashi didn't think that it was very cute, but they were supposed to be getting lunch so reluctantly, he nodded his head and they were off.
"But daddy," Tomi whined.
Her father let out a sigh, he honestly didn't understand what the big deal was. His daughter had come to him a few hours before her engagement party insisting that the details of her relationship and the engagement to Kakashi Hatake needed to remain private.
"I don't understand why it even matters, sweetie." he said, "It's not uncommon for people of importance to still have arranged marriages."
I was true, though for the most part people nowadays married whomever they pleased, arranged marriages for business and/ or political reasons was still something that older clans and powerful people still did. It was an agreement of an alliance and a share of power. His daughter Tomi marrying the future Hokage was something that would greatly benefit his clan.
"Because it's embarrassing. I don't want everyone to know that you had to propose to a man for me!" She argued. It was partially true, she didn't want to be that woman. The other part was that she didn't want anyone else getting the idea that Kakashi wasn't a hundred percent devoted to her. That left too much room for another woman, (on with pink hair in particular) to take her trophy away from her.
Tomi wasn't the kind of woman who was accustomed to not getting her way. She always got what she wanted. Now she wants Kakashi Hatake and she wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of that.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Tomi. These arrangements happen all the time for important people like us."
He wasn't giving in as easily as she thought he would, "But what if someone tries to take him from me because they think that they think that he doesn't love me? If word gets around that our marriage is of convenience and not love then other people will see that as a weakness in our relationship and ruin everything." she argued, crossing her arms.
She had a point, the marriage may have been accepted by the elders but if Kakashi put up a good enough argument it could be overthrown, and it would be without a doubt if he found someone else who agreed to marry him before his wedding with Tomi took place. We can't have that!
"Alright Princess, Daddy will make sure that doesn't happen." he reassured her.
Sakura knocked on the large wooden door, still dressed in her doctor's coat. She had been doing her rounds at the hospital when she had received a summons to Tsunade's office. "Come in," came Tsunade's voice from the other side of the door.
Sakura opened the door and made her way to stand in front of her Shishou's desk. "You wanted to see me, Shishou?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm relieving you of your shift early today," Tsunade said.
Sakura was a bit surprised. She had just had her day off the day before, and Lady Tsunade never did anything without a reason. "Is there something else that you would like for me to handle instead?"
"You'll need to go home to get cleaned up before being at the reception hall at 6:00 pm. It's a formal event so dress accordingly," Tsunade explained.
"Umm, I'm sorry, Shishou. But I don't know…." Sakura's sentence was cut off by Tsunade's answer.
"Kakashi's engagement party is tonight at the reception hall."
"Oh." The last thing that Sakura wanted to do today was attend Kakashi and Tomi's engagement celebration. "Umm, do I have to go?" she asked tentatively.
Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at her, "You are the apprentice of the Hokage, Sakura. It is expected of you to attend events such as this. Do you have a problem with attending?" she asked.
Sakura was determined to keep what had happened between her and Kakashi a private matter. She would just have to suck it up. It was just one lousy party, right? "No, my Lady. There's no problem."
"Good. I'll see you there at 6:00 pm, then. Now go, I still have work to do before I leave."
Sakura bowed and left the office without another word, heading straight home to get ready for what might be the most awkward and uncomfortable night of her life. Great!
Kakashi stood in the back room attached to the event hall along with Daimyo Fujio, Lady Tsunade, and of course Tomi.
Kakashi sighed when Tomi once again began to hang all over him. He didn't like her public displays of affection, and he didn't feel they knew each other well enough for her to feel so comfortable around him.
It was the type of behavior other men might enjoy, but not Kakashi. He was a bit old-fashioned when it comes to relationships. He liked a woman with confidence, so in an abstract sense, he couldn't say that it was Tomi's forwardness alone that bothered him.
He just preferred that kind of confidence to be for his eyes only. He preferred his women to be modest while out in public and to be discreet about public affection.
He didn't want to feel like their relationship was a performance, which was exactly how he felt then,
Tomi's dress clung to her body like a second skin. It was a deep red color with a V- neck that went almost down to her navel. The back of it was open and she had a split in the skirt that went all the way to her hip bone, making it obvious that she wasn't wearing any panties underneath it.
They were waiting for all of their 'guests' to arrive before they entered the event hall themselves. It was customary for the 'couple of honor' to be introduced to their guests after everyone had arrived so that they could welcome them all at once.
After that, Tsunade's assistant had explained, they were expected to mingle with their guests, giving everyone the opportunity to congratulate them and ask nosey questions.
This is what brought up the current topic of discussion, much to Kakashi's dismay. He and Lady Tsunade were currently being informed by Daimyo Fujio that no one outside of the four of them were to know the details of Tomi and Kakashi's marriage arrangement. In other words, he didn't want anyone knowing that theirs was an arranged marriage and not a formal courtship for Tomi's hand.
"I'm sorry, but why does this matter? This marriage is an arranged one. One that you proposed, so I fail to see why that needs to be kept a secret," Kakashi stated matter of factly. Tsunade gave him a slight glare for his comment.
"There is no need to embarrass Tomi that way," Daimyo Fujio snapped back.
Embarrassed? She's the one who wanted this, why would she be the one who was embarrassed? When Kakashi opened his mouth to voice his thoughts, he was quickly cut off by Tsunade.
"Of course, we wouldn't want anyone looking down on Tomi for having her father arrange a marriage for her. We will be sure to keep those details between us," she reassured him. Kakashi didn't miss the tone in Tsunade's voice, though.
Her statement may have sounded polite and understanding, but it was anything but.
Who knew Tsunade could actually be passive aggressive as well?
Sakura looked herself over in her full-length mirror one last time. She had on a navy blue A-line dress that came to her mid-thighs with capped sleeves. She paired it with white heels and her shoulder-length hair was loose so it could frame her face.
"Well, I guess I can't stall any long huh?" she said to herself in the mirror. She grabbed her clutch and was walking out of her front door promptly at 5:30.
Twenty minutes later, she was standing out front of the event hall.
She could get through this. It was just a few hours. As long as she didn't have to speak with Kakashi or his fiancee for long, she could handle this. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and walked into the event hall.