Now Sakura picked her way through the living room already over flowing with presents and walked towards the glass sliding door and slide it open then froze in place as her gaze swept the garden and landed on the man that stood up...
TBC...
She stood with her mouth open for a full minute, emotion after emotion chasing each other fleetingly across her face, until she saw the man with long blackish-brown hair tied back in a low ponytail with bangs hanging down both sides of his face, smirked. Like a gavel pounding for the last time in court declaring a death sentence an angry mask slid into place on Sakura's face.
"Come take a seat dear." Suna called out to her daughter as she got up from her comfortable seat at the tinted green glass top, iron work table sheltered by a cream beach umbrella, blocking out the afternoon sun. Sakura watched as if in slow motion as her mother came towards her with her arms outstretched then her eyes slid slowly around the table taking in its occupants.
Mikoto sat near her husband, smiling broadly while she looked over in Sakura's direction while Fugaku sat with his face like a stone. Hiriki's eyes seemed to touch on everything around the garden except on his daughter. And Sasuke's face was a barely controlled fury that made Sakura wonder what his problem was. "You look so beautiful dear." She faintly heard her mother say over the pounding in her head.
Then she was being dragged in the direction that she had no desire at all to go in. It seemed like nothing was real, everything seemed surreal, then like a bomb exploding everything went back to normal. Her mother's chatter wasn't coming in slow motion any longer and Mikoto wasn't leaning slowly over to Itachi any longer, she was already there whispering something in his ear and he was nodding.
His eyes as serious as ever. This wasn't the playful man she had looked after a few weeks ago in the hospital. She felt something ran up her spine. Fear? Or was it anger? Her eyes drifted over to Sasuke and she saw that his mask of fury was still there but no one else seemed to notice but her. "Take a seat right here." Suna said cheerfully as she pulled out the empty chair beside Itachi.
Sakura sat numbly feeling like a puppet with her mother pulling the strings. "I can't believe its been twenty years since we made that agreement to marry your daughter to our son." Mikoto said to Suna and the red headed woman smiled brilliantly. "It seems like it was only yesterday when Sakura was taking her first baby steps now she's all grown up and marrying in a couple of weeks." Tears suddenly shone in her mothers eyes.
Great. 'Just great. I'm suppose to be the one crying not her.' Sakura thought angrily as she ignored that man that sat beside her. Mikoto sat next to her husband on one end of the table while Suna sat next to her husband on the other end of the table. Sasuke was the only one that sat alone. The normally peaceful garden that Sakura had spent almost all her childhood days in now felt over-populated.
"Don't look so angry." Itachi whispered in her ears and Sakura's head snapped in his direction and she glared at him, while he smirked. "Am I suppose to feel flattered that I'm to marry you?" Sakura asked in a furious whisper, plastering an automatic smile on her face when she looked up and saw Mikoto and Suna looking in their direction. She just couldn't believe that two weeks ago she had been a little jealous of the woman that Itachi was going to marry. And she couldn't believe that that woman was her.
"I wouldn't have liked to think that." He said then paused. "But you certainly haven't disappoint me one bit." He continued while leaning closer over to her. Sakura didn't meet his gaze -which she felt burning into her face -instead her eyes wondered around the table and they encountered Sasuke's angry gaze. It wasn't directed at her mind you, but at the man that sat beside her. But for all the fire that burned in his eyes she knew that Sasuke was infiltrated because his brother wasn't paying him any attention.
And Sakura was well as almost everyone in Konoha knew that Sasuke didn't take well to being ignored. "I know for sure that I'll always remember that expression that you had on your face when you saw me standing here." He said bring Sakura back to the matter at hand and as his words registered she came this close to emptying his glass of chilled water on him.
"You flatter yourself too much Uchiha. I'll bring your self-esteem down a notch or two." She promised him with a sweet smile. The arrogant swine. He thought he could get away with everything. 'Well he sure is getting away with you.' Inner Sakura whispered. 'The hell he is.' Sakura replied refusing to let him get that amount of power over her. She could throw a tantrum but she knew that it would only make her look bad. And even then she bet it still wouldn't change the marriage arrangement between them.
"No, I think it's you who needs a lesson or two on 'how to treat your fiance and his family when they are meeting the bride-to-be for the first time.'" Itachi said mockingly but Sakura could detect the anger coiled like a Cobra ready to strike with blinding speed. So instead of feeding her anger coals to bring up the heat she paid attention to her surroundings. The sun was sinking behind the clouds and with it the garden lights sprung on. Highlighting all the pains her parents had gone through to make the place look beautiful.
Normally the ground floor of her parents house was dark -making it impossible to see through the glass from to outside. Now lights were glowing from the inside leaving no dark shadows around. Sakura sat backing the garden, therefore giving her a clear view into the house. She could see the wooden stairs painted white with green trimmings leading up to the first floor. There were white ferry-lights curled around the banister. And she could see that her mom had tried to set order with the gifts in the living room, the way she'd set them.
"Sakura since you're starting your leave, you can help plan your wedding. I'm sure Itachi will be pleased to help." Suna said and Sakura's head snapped in her mother's direction like a stubborn rubber band recoiling to its original form. "Huh...mother, I-I'm not going on leave," Sakura lied refusing to look over at the man sitting beside her nor his brother whose gaze was burning on her forehead.
"But Tusnade-Sama sent the papers over confirming it." Weren't mother's suppose to cover for their daughters? Sakura thought hanging her head in guilty silence while she blushed furiously. "Trying to get away from me isn't going to help." Itachi told her quietly. "I hate you," she spat the words in his direction. "Careful," he said almost instantly as those words left her lips, "hat is the sister of love."
"Bite me." She told him out of the side of her mouth. "Trust me I've thought of that -and I've found it quiet an interesting thought." Itachi whispered in her ear and she felt a tingle that began from the tip of her toes and ended at the very top of her head. "Okay everyone its time for dinner." Suna said with a little clap of her hands as she rose to her feet but Hiriki was the one who reached the glass sliding doors first.
"Can Sakura and I have a minute. We'll be with you guys in a moment." Taking Sakura's elbow and staring her in the direction of the fountain before he could get a reply from the elders but as Itachi begun staring her away from the rest of the party Sakura caught the look of scorn that Sasuke threw in her direction as he got up and made his way indoors.
Holding her head as well as her dignity as high as possible, Sakura walked without reducing herself to the almost irresistible urge of stomping her feet. That was for little children and she wasn't a child any longer. So no matter how much dirty looks Sasuke threw at her she wasn't going to let them get to her. Because it wasn't her fault that she was marrying his brother, he would just have to learn how to share Itachi Uchiha with her, even if he didn't like it.
They walked in silence, -a furious one on her part -until he brought her to a stop in front of him and she barely kept herself from shifting her weight from foot to foot in an act of boredom. "What's wrong with you?" Sakura froze at his question. He just couldn't be real. How could he ask 'what was wrong with her' when the answer to was standing right in front of his arrogant nose or in truth the answer was him?
"I can't believe you just asked me that question Uchiha-San. I mean how can I marry you after spending almost half my life around your brother?" Sakura asked meeting his gaze head on and trying to ignore that very strong undercurrent that seemed to be charging out of his body and flowing into hers. His brows mushed together. "You have feelings for my brother?" He asked almost shocked and Sakura found herself wondering if the man in front of her was either dumb or stupid.
How had he became Konoha's most feared ninja? "You did not just say that. Look Itachi-San, what I'm trying to get at here is that, I can't marry you not after I've spent half of my life trying to cope with your arrogant, low down, emotionless, bastard-" "Are you done yet? Itachi cut across her. "Not quiet, but since you get the picture." She said with a gesture of her hands. "I don't think I can take on another Uchiha full time. That might just drive me insane." She said with a sigh.
He just stared at her then he broke out in a smile. He actually smiled, it wasn't a smirk or a phony fake smile, it was an actual smile and it made her heart stop them restart double time. Then he was holding her in his arms and she was smelling that sweet detergent that he used to wash his clothes and she almost buried her face in the front of his black and navy blue Hakama but caught herself before she embarrassed herself any further.
"What are you trying to do?" She demanded pulling away from his lovely smelling chest. "I'm not marrying you." She told him and was about to turn away but he didn't let her. "You have no choice." His voice was emotionless now and she realized yet again that she liked the funny Itachi better than the stone cold Itachi. "You can't tell me what to do or who to marry. 'M my own woman." She said shrugging off his hold on her.
Why had she never noticed before how muscular he was? She thought as she turned to walk away from him but her kimono only allowed her to go at a certain pace. "Someone needs to teach you a lesson or two." He told her while clutching her elbow. "I can walk, I'm not an invalid." She said while tugging her arm away from him but he clutched her elbow tighter and catching her as she stumbled over a stone in the rose lined footpath that led up the fountain.
Sakura could help but admire again her parents efforts to make the place look great. There were drooping white ferry-lights lining the end of the roof and some more pepper bulbs placed strategically in the well trimmed bushes. Hiriki had finally picked up the trimming machine without Suna having to take a stick to him. The pepper bulbs also ran the entire length of the rose lined footpath up to and around the splashing fountain. The garden looked bright in the fury red setting of the sun.
When they reached the end of the footpath where two well trimmed bushes stood filled with ferry-lights Itachi tugged her to a stop right in between the two bushes throwing them in the brightness of the florescent light spilling from the living room. She felt his gaze on her face as she fought hard to pretend that he wasn't there. Because he was -all muscles and hunky-ness, six foot three standing tall in front of her and his cologne which smelt like spice, if she might add, was so appealing that she wondered faintly how it was that she hadn't sprung on him yet.
Dear, Kami he was driving her insane and he wasn't even trying, she thought finally looking up chose that moment to dip his head to her five feet six inches height and caught her lips with his. Sakura felt a zing go through her entire body starting from the very top of her head down to the very tips of her toes and made them curl. Stars exploded in the dark and Sakura realized that she had her eyes closed but she didn't think to open them. Then as if her hands had a mind of their own they started moving up his chest palms pressed flat against his chest until they curved around his neck.
Bringing him closer to her as she kissed him back. Fireworks exploded along with the already falling stars behind her closed eyelids. She had never kissed anyone this way before. Maybe a peck on the cheek but this was different. Way different, she thought when she felt his tongue slip pass her lips and tangle with her own and wantonly she moaned clutching him closer for more and he gave her more.
Sakura felt his hands roamed over her back before one of them cupped her cheeks. Then they broke apart gasping for air but he still trailed tiny butterfly kisses along her jawline as well as her neck. Her heart rate was plummeting to the sky. What was Itachi Uchiha doing to her? Sakura thought frantically as the beating in her chest rose to her ears. His lips were trailing her neck as he was pausing momentarily to inhale her perfumed scented skin.
Sakura found that she couldn't think straight but with every pounding beat of her heart she realized what had just happened between her and Itachi Uchiha and felt as if a trap was closing in around her...There was no turning back now she realized and not because he always got his way but because she didn't want to let him go.
It had been a trial to sit at the dinner table with the man that had almost turned her into a simmering puddle at his feet and and his angry brother, that couldn't seemed to keep his angry glare from returning towards her. Her mother's food had been great and that had been her excuse of not having to talk because every time someone asked a question that needed a reply her mouth was filled with the pilaf rice her mother had made or stuffed with the delicious Nimono.
Now she stood at the door of her parents house between Suna and Hiriki Haruno to bid The Uchiha's Goodbye. "I'm so trilled that I'm having you you as my daughter-in-law." Mikoto said clasping her palms over Sakura's cheeks to bring her head down so she could kiss her. Sakura tried to smile as she thanked the woman then clasped the had of her soon-to-be-father-in-law. She paid Itachi as well as Sasuke no mind, ignoring them as much as possible.
It was amazing how calm she had stayed despite the whole situation but then again that was Sakura... well a part of her anyway. "I'll see you soon," he whispered in her ear as he kissed her on her cheek. Oh Sakura wanted so bad to stick her tongue out at him and tell him something bad him and his pig of a brother. But there were some pretty ancient ears around for those words so she bit her tongue and smiled at him.
The elder women hugged each other goodbye while the men shook hands and Sakura took that as her queue to and turned back into the house and head for the stairs. She walked slowly up the stairs then turned left, her room was the last door down the carpeted hallway. She always left clothes here encase she was staying a night or two in her parents home. And now her bedroom called to her like heaven calling to the good...