Chapter 5:  A new job

Sakura was lying on the couch reading a book when the door opened. She was surprised to see Sasuke already at home. She jumped up to welcome him. "Sasuke-kun, hi! Is something wrong? You are at home so early…"

He courtly greeted her while slipping out of his shoes and muttered, "I just came back to pack a few things. We'll leave this evening, I probably won't be back for a few days."

"What? Where are you going?"

"I am not allowed to talk about it," he replied. "It's an A-ranked mission." He pushed himself past her and entered the bedroom, where he opened his backpack and searched through his cabinet.

Sakura was taken by surprise. "And you stop along the way to tell me that you have to leave for a few days?"

"I was only informed a few minutes ago myself," he murmured. It was easy to tell that she was getting at his nerves.

"Why wasn't I informed about this important mission! I would have come with you!," she protested.

He stopped his packing to stare at her. "This is not child's play, Sakura. This mission is dangerous."

So this was how he saw her. She hadn't been aware that he thought so little of her. She was about to say something when her glance fell upon something in his open backpack. "What the…?" She reached for the wooden mask shaped like the face of an animal and showed it to her husband. "What does this mean?!"

"What do you think?" he hissed and pulled his shirt over his head.

"You are a member of the ANBU???" she screamed appalled.

He pulled a tight, black shirt out of the cabinet. "Yes."

She was horrified. The Anbu… she knew enough to know that this was NOT good news. "When did you plan to tell me about this?"

"I don't know!" he growled impatiently. "Tsunade asked me this morning if I wanted to become a member of the Anbu. Obviously they need my special abilities. Frankly, I didn't have much time to think about it." He slipped into the long pants jounin usually wear and sat down on the bed to tie white bandages around his ankles.

"And you just decide something like that without telling me?"

He threw her a derisive glance. "What's it to you? It's none of your concern." Frustrated, she bit her lower lip. He was such a bastard. When he was finished, he pulled a black mask similar to the one Kakashi always wore over his face.

Sakura once again tried to talk some sense into him. "I know that it's a privilege to become an Anbu, but do you know how dangerous this is? You're right, these missions are on a whole other level than mine or even your former missions as a jounin. You might get killed."

"That's the life of a ninja," he said simply.

Sullenly, she stared down at the mask which she still held in her hands. It was painted, showing the stylised head of a wolf. A sad smile formed itself on her lips. That fit him. Tsunade must have had a cynical moment.

When he was finished, he rose and approached her. "Listen, I have better things to do than discuss this with you." He took the mask from her hands and put it back in his backpack.

"Sasuke, I don't want you to get hurt," she whispered.

She expected him to ignore her words completely, but after a moment of silence he made up his mind. He pulled down the mask from his face, grabbed her shoulders and kissed her on the lips swiftly. She stared at him, surprised, and he pulled the mask back into its place. "This is what couples do, right?" he said. "You tell me to come back safely, and I kiss you good-bye and tell you not to worry."

She looked away, hurt. "We're not in public here. You don't have to act like a loving husband. In truth you don't give a fuck whether I worry about you or not."

Instead of agreeing, as she had expected him to, he untied his forehead protector and gave it to her. "Don't worry about me." Not bothering to wait for an answer, he turned away from her and walked over to the door to fetch his shoes.

She watched him and muttered sadly, "Come back safely."

***

Furiously, Sakura hit and kicked the exercise doll. After Sasuke had brought up all these decisions he had made without asking her and had proceeded to call her a worthless ninja, she had needed something to calm herself down, so she had come to the training hall in the ninja academy in order to train and dispell her anger somewhat.

He was right, she could not keep up with him or with Naruto. But she had improved. She had passed her Chuunin exam a while ago and had declared herself as a participant in the upcoming Jounin exam. He did not have the right to call her incompetent. And he definitely didn't have the right to become a member of the Anbu and put his life in danger. Not now that they were married. He would make her a widow, and even though he treated her this way, she would not be able to bear it if one day his team members came knocking on her door to tell her that Sasuke was dead. The thought was terrifying.

'YOU STUPID SASUKEEEE!!!', her inner voice screamed, while Sakura mauled the doll.

"Sakura?" The voice surprised her and she spun around. Much to her surprise, Kakashi was standing behind her. They had no seen each other for quite some time. "Sakura, is this called training? It looks more like you want to tear the doll apart…"

A little embarassed, she hung the doll back up straight and replied, "I just wanted to let off steam."

"Haha, just wait until you teach your first pupils," Kakashi scoffed. "I tell you, THAT is nerve-racking!"  

"As nerve-racking as a marriage with Sasuke?" she mumbled. "I doubt that."

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing!" she called quickly. She didn't want anyone to know about this marriage.

"Sakura, you don't need to have secrets! We'll soon be colleagues, right?" He put a hand onto her shoulder. "So what's bothering you? Are there any problems with Sasuke? There are some nasty rumors…" He bent down to her, his cheeks tainted in a faint red, and waited for her reply. Probably he hoped to hear intimate details about their sex-life. Pervert. He had no idea just how poor that sex-life was, too.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she shoved his hand away. "There is nothing to tell…." Click! "Wait a minute! Colleagues? We're going to be Colleagues? WHAT?" she asked wide-eyed.

He nodded. "I already learned the news, although no one else knows yet. No need to act surprised. I know you're going to start teaching at the academy in a few weeks."

Her head felt dizzy. "I… will… what?!?"

Slowly it dawned on him, that her surprise hadn't been an act after all. "Hm? Tsunade told me… Sasuke talked to her recently, he said that you no longer wanted to work as a ninja, because there's a chance you'll be pregnant soon…."

He grabbed her quickly, because otherwise she would have fainted. She lay in his arms and murmured: "He… did… WHAT??! Oh my god, I'm gonna be sick…"

"Sakura?! Hello?", Kakashi called.

She tried to calm down to some extent and got back to her feet with his help. "I'm sorry, I'm okay," she murmured. Kakashi had an unnaturally serious expression on his face and she quickly added, "I guess he wanted to surprise me. We have been talking about this but I wasn't entirely sure… ehehe…"

Kakashi must have noticed her forced smile, and also that inner Sakura was about to explode. "Well, whatever the case… I'll leave you to your training. We'll meet some other time... Ja, byebye!" With that, he withdrew in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura had to hold on to herself so she wouldn't start to scream. How could Sasuke DARE to decide this behind her back? Husband or not, he had absolutely no right to do that! For the first time since the marriage, she was fuming. She was so angry, she would have loved to tear his head off.

'So this is how it is, huh? If he joins the Anbu, it's his business! But he secretly talks to Tsunade and make you work in the academy! He has gone too far! HOW DARE HE?! As soon as he returns, we'll take care of this!', her inner voice rampaged.

With a wild cry, Sakura spun around and kicked the doll so hard that its head tore off and shot in a high arc through the hall. She was feeling a little better as she stomped out of the exercise hall.

…tbc…