Drunk In Vegas

© by almondeyes97

Chapter 19

Hello! I got a lot of mixed reviews concerning the last chapter and I am happy to have seen some criticism, because it makes me aware that my writing is not perfect and needs a lot of work – I am really thankful for that! Another thing is that some of you said it was not possible for Minato to fire Naruto just like that. Okay, maybe that's not possible._. But please don't forget that I am just sixteen and that this is a FICTION! It is NOT real! I know that things would be rather different in real-life, BUT this is my story and it just fits the story line better, so I made it like that!

I hope I do not offend you and you will keep reading my story, because I think it would be sad, if you would stop because of me being a little naive… Others said that Minato's and Kushina's reasoning was so extreme it almost bordered on being funny. Yeah, I probably overdid it a bit there, but anyone who knows me knows that I am a SUCKER for drama! I just love it – as I like to watch Bollywood movies too – and it may or may not have an effect on my story. I am sorry, if it seems a little unrealistic AND I already apologized for making Minato and Kushina badasses! I need them to be like this for this storyline, I am sorry TT_TT

Please forgive me for this AND taking so long to upload a chapter AND for writing too much of an Author's Note. As a treat, I will try to make this chapter a little bit longer, huh? Doesn't that sound much better? ;)

See you at the end of the chapter and I hope you enjoy it!

Naruto could not believe what had just happened. He knew that they would not accept the situation that easily, but to freak out like this? He turned to Sakura and saw how she was paler than usual and staring at nothing in particular – it was like she couldn't grasp the entire situation either. He gently took her hand into his own and staring leading her out of the house, when a voice rang behind them.

"Oh and Naruto? Make sure, nobody hears about… this. Have I made myself clear enough?" Minato said with an icy voice. Naruto just continued walking with Sakura by his side and it was not until the main door closed behind their backs, Sakura let her feelings flow freely.

A quiet sob escaped her mouth which she had formed to a thin line and she wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Her vision blurred because of the tears that had been forming in her eyes.

Naruto turned to her and bit his lips. He had known this would happen. It all would have been too good to be true – his parents accepting this? Just like that? Right. He hugged her and whispered sweet nothings into her ear. "Sakura, please stop crying… Deep down we knew we would meet rejection." "I-I know…" Sakura peered up at him with green eyes swimming in tears. "B-But you know I just hoped that they would be understanding like my parents, just a bit. I am so naïve – what was I thinking?" Naruto just shook his head and swallowed hard. "Sakura it is not your fault! Stop blaming yourself, please it is killing me to see you like this." He took her head gently in his hands and gently pecked her lips. "We can do this, yeah?" Not trusting her voice at this point she just nodded and wrapped her arms around his midsection, while they slowly made their way to the car.

Minato sighed deeply while rubbing his temples, hearing his wife throwing one tantrum after the other.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? AFTER ALL WE HAVE DONE FOR HIM!" Kushina was still angry because of what had happened previously and anger was radiating from her frame. "Kushina…", Minato muttered, but his wife did not answer him – she was far too busy with making the entire household know that she was angry at Naruto by shouting it out loudly.

"Kushina!" "WHAT?" She turned around to face him with angered eyes and Minato better have a good excuse to interrupt her rumbling, or he would suffer. Why had he married her again?

"Kushina, I think I have a solution to this… 'Problem'." One of Kushina's perfectly made eyebrows rose at hearing this making him known that she would intently listen to whatever he had to say. "Okay, so here is my plan and I am sure it has a nighty-nine percent rate of being successful!"

"Spill it."

Sakura had taken her keys of her old apartment from Naruto saying that she needed some 'time alone'. He understood what she meant and readily gave them to her and even dismissed her from work early, because her mind had not even been on it to begin with. Her apartment had been anything but dusty, when she opened the door and she decided that a good cleaning would not hurt – maybe it could get her mind off… stuff. After about an hour she lied down on her couch and stared at the ceiling deep in thought. That was why the ringing startled her a little bit and she jumped up a little bit disoriented. Noticing that it came from the door she frowned and thought who that could be? Nobody except Naruto knew that she was at her apartment. Getting up, she walked towards the door and opened it just to come face to face with Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke's trademark smirk greeted her as she opened her mouth ready to shout his name. "SASUKE!" Like on their former meeting she jumped on him and he laughed, while struggling to keep standing with Sakura's entire weight on his body.

He smiled down at her gleeful face and his expression softened. He had really missed her lots. Her addictive smell made its way to his nose and he snuggled into her bubblegum-colored hair while tightening his hold on her. "I can't believe you are here! I did not expect you back for another month or two!" She was right. His business meeting indeed should have taken longer, but he could not hold back his feelings anymore, and begged his superiors to let him do the job from New York. They had been very difficult to convince, but in the end they let him go.

"I could not stay away from you so long. I missed you, you know?" He wiped her hair away from her green eyes and a soft smile was present on her face. "Aww you are too sweet sometimes. Come in!" She led him into her apartment and he looked around noticing that it looked rather empty – like she had not been there for a while.

"What's up with your apartment? It looks weird…", he said while sitting down on the couch and resting his back on one of the pillows there. Sakura stopped dead in her tracks and bit her lip. She kept her back turned to him and her brain starting working fast, trying to decide if she should tell him or lie. "Sakura?" His worried voice reached her ears and she turned around to him defeated. She went to the couch and sat down beside him with a considerate distance between them - Sasuke noticed. That never happened before as she was a rather cuddly person.

"Sakura, what is wrong? What are you hiding from me?" Sasuke knew Sakura could never lie to him – her eyes never could. It was like he could see right through her lie and that was why she never bothered to try.

"Nothing! What makes you thing something is wrong, silly?" She laughed nervously while waving him off. His eyes narrowed and he turned so that he was facing Sakura completely with his entire body. "Sakura, stop hiding stuff from me – tell me what is wrong, or do I have to force it out of you?"

Sakura's eyes widened and her shoulders tensed, while she was contemplating what to say, what to do at that particular moment.

"Sakura…"

She turned to him and as she saw the serious expression on his face she realized that he won't be taking anything but the truth. She had doubts if he would even believe that… Sakura took a deep breath.

"When you went to Japan for the business meeting, I went on one with my boss in Las Vegas. It went smoothly and everything was a success…"

Sasuke raised a perfect black eyebrow. "So where lies the problem?"

"Wait, I am getting to it… Well, we kind of had an After Party to celebrate it and there was a lot of alcohol so…"

Sasuke shook her shoulders. "You didn't do something stupid, did you? Did you sleep with a random guy you don't know and are pregnant?!" Sakura shook his hands off and glared at him.

"No moron, I didn't!" Her angry expression faded. "Though… I guess you could call what I did stupid…" She took another deep breath – she seemed to be doing that a lot lately – and stared into his eyes dead serious.

"I got drunk at the party and… well… apparently got married…" Sasuke's eyes got big at this point and his mouth fell open. "I… I got married to my boss." She did not dare look at Sasuke at this point. How was he going to react? Was he going to get mad like Naruto's parents? When she finally gathered the courage to raise her head she saw that his bangs covered his eyes so that she could not see his expression. That was why when his voice interrupted the silence surrounding them she almost jumped up from the couch.

"Why… What are you saying? Y-You cannot be serious…?" Sakura's eyes saddened. This had been what she had feared the most. She did not want him to be disappointed in her. She would not be able to take it that her best friend since childhood years was disappointed in her. "I-I am sorry, I wish it weren't like this either…" She tried to choose her words wisely, because she was not sure it would be good to dump all the news on him right away. She had no idea how he would react, when he realized she wasn't planning on getting an annulment.

"Th-Then get a divorce already! What is this stupid thing? You cannot stay married to a person you can't stand and hate!" At this point his bangs had been brushed away and she could clearly see the angry expression on his face. Not good. That was bad very bad.

"U-Uhm that is not exactly possible…", Sakura managed to say. That just seemed to fuel his anger even more. "You see, we were told that we have to wait a while in order to get an annulment and well both of us realized that…that…"

Sasuke's anger disappeared and he stopped breathing for a moment. She-She wasn't going to say…?

"…we both realized that we loved each other."

Sasuke felt like the time had stopped. He saw Sakura blushing, while she said those words and everything suddenly turned grey. He saw himself in kindergarten, where he first met Sakura. Kids had been making fun of her forehead, but he stepped in and defended her, comforting her while she had been crying. He had felt like superman on that day. Then in middle school too she had not been able to make any friends, but she had him. He would always be there for her and if she was sick, he'd take notes for her during the lessons and bring them to her home and study with her. Also as she got together with her first boyfriend he had been there, painfully watching her falling in love and when one day she appeared in front of his door with tears streaming down her face, because her boyfriend had cheated on her, he had had two conflicting emotions in him. On the one hand he was mad that someone could ever cheat on someone like Sakura. For him, she was the perfect girl every guy wanted. But on the other hand that meant she was single and he had a chance again.

If he could only get out of the friendzone…

Over all those years he had kept quiet and kept his distance, when it came to romance, because he never had the guts to say something – anything. And now when he finally decided to confess his true feelings, she is married? This had to be a bad joke.

"Sasuke? S-Sasuke? Please say something!"

When she told him that she and Naruto loved each other, Sasuke had started spacing out and that made her nervous since she couldn't read what he was thinking about.

Sasuke blinked and seemed to realize that she was waiting for him to say something. He could only bite his lip angrily and clench his fists, his fingernails cutting deep into the flesh of his palm. Again his hair fell over his face so that Sakura could not read his expressions.

"You know, this situation is so pathetic I can't help but laugh." With that he let out a bitter laugh and he grinned. "I've waited, waited for so long. Waiting for you to realize it and maybe say you felt the same way. Because I was a coward and couldn't say a word. I was afraid you'd break off our friendship and I'd rather be the best friend that sticks around than somebody that you used to know. I guess that was the biggest mistake I have ever made. We could be so happy together and I… I really really wanted to tell you my feelings, but I guess I was too late. Again. And this time you are even married! Like life is laughing at me! Anytime I decided that I could not keep it in any longer, something came in between! This can't be it… It can't all be over like that!"

All this time Sakura had just stared at him and her skin had visibly paled. "Wh-What are you talking about? What do you mean Sasuke? I don't understand…"

This time he stared into her eyes and he took hold of her shoulders to make sure they had eye-contact while he said the following words.

"Sakura, I love you. I have loved you for so long, I cannot even remember! All this time I have kept my feelings concealed because I did not want to ruin our friendship, but I can't take it any longer!"

At first it seemed like Sakura could not – did not want to – believe anything he said. But then her own anger and frustration came to the surface.

"Why didn't you say anything? You could have- We could have-… Oh my god I can't believe this. So all this years you kept quiet because you did not want to ruin our friendship? I have never ever heard something this stupid before!" Now it was Sasuke's turn to look shocked.

"Don't give me that look Sasuke! Don't tell me you never noticed! I loved you back in high school! But you never showed any interest in me or any other girls so I gave up! You were always so focused on your studies and it seemed that it was your only priority, so I just…" Sasuke's eyes widened and he his grip on Sakura's shoulders tightened as he started shaking. He bowed his head and his lips started quivering. "So…so you are telling me that you loved me and did not say anything because you thought I…?" Even though Sasuke probably could not see her, Sakura nodded on the verge of tears. "I can't believe this… No…" Sasuke shook his head, like he did not want to accept it.

"I'm sorry…" Sakura said, trying her best to hold back her tears. Instead of answering Sasuke just took her into his arms and hugged her. After a second of hesitating, Sakura returned the embrace with tears running down her face, as the both of them slowly sank to the floor with Sasuke desperately clutching onto Sakura.

I'm sorry.

Of course she was. But these words were not enough to heal the wound that had formed in his heart even though he knew that it wasn't Sakura's fault. He alone was to blame. He alone was to blame for his heartache. If he had just reacted sooner… Well, his life had been full of 'if's' and they will continue to be if he keeps on acting like a coward. He wiped his face and faced Sakura again. Upon seeing her flushed face, he started chuckling as he wiped her face.

"Why are you crying too, silly?"

Sakura angrily shoved his hand away and hid her face behind her hair. "This is not funny. And you know that I can't hold back my tears, when you are sad."

"It's fine Sakura. I had my chance and I did not take it. If you really love him then I guess there is nothing I can do about it. I just hope he treats you right, though…"

A smile grazed her face again she chuckled. "He does, don't worry! And… I am sorry for causing you so much heartache all these years… If I had just known-"

Sasuke cut her off before she could finish the sentence. "I thought we already came to the conclusion that it was – is – my fault? Stop blaming yourself, okay?"

Sakura sighed.

"Okay."

"Good evening Mr. Namikaze. I came here as soon as my schedule allowed."

"Ahh yes, hello. I am glad that you could make it. Please take a seat."

Minato and his guest sat down on one of the many chairs in the living room of the Namikaze household.

"So, were you serious concerning what you told me on the phone? Because you know, this is serious. There will be no butting out." Minato nodded, while furrowing his eyebrows. "Yes I was and still am dead serious concerning the matter. It will bring fruitful results on both sides, don't you think so?"

The mysterious man nodded and stretched out his arm. Without hesitation Minato shook the unknown man's hand with his own and his eyes showed a kind of satisfaction.

Okay and here is the end!

I am so sorry for taking ages! You know I was studying for finals and then during vacation I got busy and school started on Monday again! I am really sorry – I hope you can forgive me. And I also hope you liked the chapter, because I did hear some criticism concerning the last one. Remember, Minato and Kushina are just like this for the storyline!

Well, I hope you leave a review and we see at the next chapter (which hopefully won't take that long too)

Love,

almondeyes97 =)