Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto.

Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter! I hope you remember to write a review for me at the end! I really appreciate them. Also how have your summers been? This will by my last chapter for a while cause I got to get a ton of summer assignments done. I still have an entire book with and assignment along with it and a math packet. I've only read one of my books for honor's bit lit, my book for AP gov/econ, and half my math packet. School starts on August 13th for me T^T I have orientation on the 8th… fml! Enjoy your youth while you got it those of you who are younger than me! I'm going to be a Sr. in high school and I started writing this when I was freshman! Being a Sr. doesn't feel too fabulous :/ I'm not excited really. Cause I'm still over weight, still not pretty, still get picked on. It's basically been freshman year all through high school for me. I guess college will be better cause you don't have "class participation" a.k.a "let me please humiliate you because I know you don't like to speak out in class."

SR. YEAR WITH NO DRIVER'S LICENSE HERE I COME! ^(-.-")^

"What was she thinking?" he mumbled to himself as he hurried down the crowded street hoping as best he could that no one would recognize the weapon on his lower back he was carrying.

He searched several back alleys as well since it would be easy for her to conceal herself in one of those. He even tried to use his chakra to focus it into the ring to find her, but she had inadvertently blocked his reaches. He was frustrated beyond belief. She was in her second trimester, soon to be her 3rd, and she was at an unbelievably high stress rate as well as physical activity, prime conditions for a miscarriage, or for Madara to kidnap her. At this point Sasuke didn't think he could avoid both. He was hoping with every fiber of his being that he could sure as hell try.

"I found her" Shikamaru walked up to him down an alley.

Sasuke spun around frantically, "where?"

"Well I didn't, my wife did."

Sasuke was relieved that she was with someone. The chances of her now being taken were much slimmer.

"But I think it best if you stay away from her" he said unbiased.

Sasuke gave him a quizzical glance before asking, "why? She's my wife."

Shikamaru scowled and gave him a harsh look as he said, "I heard what happened form Ino. That kind of emotional stress will trigger a miscarriage. You literally struck her with so much fear she felt she had to fight or flight. She's terrified of you. Ino can hardly get her to talk, even when she insults her, she just sits there and takes it. You need to keep your distance until she's doing better…"

Sasuke looked down at his sandals. Had he really been that awful? He supposed he had to break a spirit as strong as Sakura's. One command, one anger derived word, had ruined a completely happy relationship. He understood what Shikamaru was proposing and he agreed. Sasuke already assumed she would be staying at his and Ino's house seeing that Ino always took her in, in circumstances similar to the current one.

"Tell her I won't be home for a few hours if she wants to go ahead and get some cloths."

Shikamaru shrugged then asked, "Is Kakashi still staying with you?"

"I don't have much of a choice" he answered, "That's the whole reason Sakura and I were fighting. It'd be pointless now to kick him and the others out. I will if they get in the way though."

Sakura quickly ran into the house and grabbed a medium sized duffel bag out of the hall closet and ran into their room quickly throwing open drawers and stuffing in her bags as much as she could. Clean underwear, socks, bras, shirts, pants, and she was just going to keep the same sandals on that she'd been wearing. She grabbed some light makeup, threw it in a pouch, then into her bag. She was out the door in less than five minutes. Kakashi watched dismayed from the shadows. While Sasuke deserved the loneliness he was about to endure, he couldn't help but feel just a little bit sorry. His student's unfeeling, emotional constipation habit had always caused him a world of trouble with people and friends.

Sasuke had walked into the door about an hour later with bags in his hands. He set them all on the counter and started putting some of it in the fridge.

"Cook for yourselves, but clean up" were the words that left his mouth as he went back up the stairs and back into his bedroom.

It was obvious by the hullabaloo of disarranged, opened drawers that Sakura had already come to pick up her cloths. Sasuke was relieved that she'd at least gotten her basics that she needed. He was about to just go to sleep and hope that this was all a bad dream when he heard the ruffling of fabric. He stood back up and saw that he was sitting on a yukata lying out on the bed. Tonight was the festival and it was probably already starting. He felt bad that she probably wouldn't want to go because she didn't have this dress anymore. He gently put it over his arm and decided to walk across the street and ring the doorbell. The door opened and he caught a glimpse of pink hair and part of a green eye before the door slammed back into his face. He scowled wondering why she hadn't just decided to get someone else to answer the door instead of slamming it on him.

A few moments later Ino was at the door and asked, "What do you want?"

Sasuke picked up on her snarky attitude and held out his arm with Sakura's dress on it.

"Oh my!" Ino gasped, "Sakura!" she looked over her shoulder, "How could you forget to get this?"

Ino handed it to Sakura and Sasuke could hear the footsteps just inches from where he was standing on the backside of the door. He tried to forcefully push it open a littler, but Ino's foot behind it wouldn't let it budge. She was scowling at the failed attempt and then closed the door completely.

"Please leave Uchiha" were her last words before she strode off with Sakura into the bathroom to help her get dressed for the festival.

Sasuke didn't have anything to do that night so be was planning on just messing around with some strategy plans and possibly collaborating with Shikamaru, but then realized that he was probably going to take Ino to the festival as well. Hopefully Sakura could tag along with someone, probably Ino and pineapple-head.

"I should go too…" he though aloud to himself, not realizing a second presence.

"Should what? Go to the festival? And do what? Stalk Sakura?" Kakashi asked sarcastically pushing himself off the doorway and making his way over to Sasuke.

The Uchiha gave his teacher ran icy glare as he replied, "I can't just sit here not knowing if she's safe. If she doesn't want to see me that's fine, but I have to at least be able to see her."

Kakashi shook his head as he asked, "What happens if she sees you? If she detects her chakra signature? Or even worse, what if Ino finds you?"

Sasuke shrugged then went over to the closet to see if he had any festival cloths. He didn't. He decided on a plane old white t-shirt and dark black denim jeans.

"I can't just stay here feeling sorry for myself."

Kakashi didn't try to stop him because in a way he was right, however that didn't fix the fact that Sakura was still afraid of him. Watching her from a distance wouldn't fix much, Kakashi understood that much. It was important for now that Sasuke have a minimal appearance in Sakura's life until this business with the ring was over.

"Take it off" Kakashi said sternly.

Sasuke turned around with a quizzical expression asking, "Take what off?"

"The ring."

"What about it?"

"Take it off."

"We're married, I can't do that."

"That's a sacrament to marriage then."

"How?"

"No man should hold the power to control his wife with a simple command. Why on earth would you do that?"

Sasuke sat on his window seal looking out towards the amassed crowd of people. He wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to reveal his reasoning with Kakashi. Knowing the gasbag he'd just go try and bargain with Sakura for Sasuke's unspoken forgiveness.

"I did it because if push came to shove she would never leave me behind."

Kakashi scratched his head then asked, "Why would you want her to?"

"Because when it comes down to it it's very possible I might die, and Sakura won't leave me behind. If I have to lay down my life I won't think twice, but I already know she won't accept my sacrifice and both her and my child would die because of it. The ring is infused with my will. If I tell her to run away and out of danger, she'll have no choice. I wasn't intending on the ring to do that to her earlier, I need to learn to control it better."

Kakashi sighed a little inside but kept a stoic face on the exterior as he analyzed what his student was saying. If what Sasuke said was true then he really did have a huge problem on his hands. The Uchiha never ever doubted his abilities. Kakashi looked out the same window as Sasuke as they saw the pinkette and Ino leaving the house with Shikamaru in toll.

Sasuke put on his sandals then turned around to Kakashi and said, "That's my queue to go."

Kakashi nodded as Sasuke leaped out the window and out of sight. He was a master at concealing his chakra, however he doubted that he would be able to stay out of sight the whole night. He just went downstairs to see Naruto playing cards with Yamato and Sai. Kakashi took the liberty of making dinner, but put the rest of them on clean up duty. Eventually the grey haired man felt compelled to go to the festival himself just to make sure nothing was going to go down between Sasuke and Sakura. The boy was a bit possessive.

Sasuke watched Sakura while he was sitting up in a tree. He watched her trying to catch a fish with a paper paddle hoping it wouldn't break. The fish proceeded to flop off the paddle ripping the paper and splashing her yukata in the process. Sasuke let a smirk show on his face. These things just always seemed to unfortunately happen to the pinkette. He then decided that she was eased enough for him to scootch up closer for a better view. He put the hood of his hoodie up and jumped down from the tree and trailed along side them but behind the stands. Sakura was much too focused on the commotion and her friends to realize the hooded figure behind the stands. Eventually Sasuke had to stop and lean himself up against a Takoyaki stand while Sakura tried to win a mask from one of the vendors in charge of the game where the rings are thrown at the glass bottles. Sakura was out of luck though and didn't win anything, but she didn't seem to mind as far as Sasuke could tell however he almost lost his cool when she turned around and he had to hoof it behind the wooden stand on the other side. He wasn't sure if she had seen him, but if she had he might get into an even worse mess. Luckily Sasuke turned the other corner to see the copy ninja walking down the dirty path with Sakura and reading one of his raunchy novels at the same time. Sasuke wasn't sure what his former sensei was getting at but Kakashi's company was not at all relaxing when he realized that Kakashi might explain the situation to Sakura that he had earlier.

Eventually Sasuke tailed them and when he was deep in the brush he threw a local nut that grows in the trees at Kakashi. The grey haired man knew Sasuke was there long before the nut was thrown but Sakura just looked mysteriously where Sakura had previously stood but dismissed it as an 'it fell from the tree' coincidence. Kakashi was going to ignore Sasuke's presence but the thrown object was going to be the first of many if he didn't go talk to Sasuke. He politely excused himself from Sakura as he turned the corner and walked into the brush where Sasuke jumped down from the tree and landed right in front of him. Kakashi didn't even flinch but looked up from his book rather uninterested.

"What did you tell her?" He hissed grinding his teeth while clenching his fists in his pockets.

Kakashi closed his book and returned it to a pouch on his waistband before looking up at his former pupil and asking, "Whatever do you mean Sasuke?"

"Stop talking shit."

Kakashi scowled as he replied, "I didn't tell her any of what you had told me earlier if that's what you were referring to. I was covering your ass because she was heading towards where you were standing when I jumped into the scene and diverted her attention. You're lucky."

Sasuke just scowled. He didn't particularly want Kakashi's help, even though it did help him technically. He was just too prideful to say thank you in that situation. Both men eventually made a mutual decision to head back. Sasuke had had too many close calls and was exhausted. He figured that with Shikamaru and Ino, Sakura would be just fine, assuming she behaved herself. Both men headed strait to sleep when they returned home, but it was a more peaceful slumber for everyone else except Sasuke. He was so lonely in that two-person bed that he almost ached from the pain. He didn't know how long Sakura needed to come home, but he hoped she wouldn't take her sweet time doing it.

To Be Continued…

So here's another chapter to this saga I kinda wrote myself into a whole with the splitting up thing, but the drama adds tension to the epic ending! Anyways, I'd love it if you could write reviews. Try and see if you can predict what will happen! I won't tell you if you're right or wrong, it's just fun for me to see how many of you are close. Also Please check out my other story Love Like This. I'll be wrapping that one a little while after this one. I'm so close to finishing this one! You all will be so damn happy! I'm sorry it's taken like 3 ½ years, but it's been a journey in the making. Inserting pieces of my own life into my stories is what makes them personal and fun for you guys to read. I consider my life a bad sitcom. I almost feel like writing it into a script and selling it to TBS or ABC Family. Legit, I'm not even kidding. My friends say I should but it's all so fragmented idk where to start lol xD

I hope you all have had a great summer and are ready to go back to school! CAUSE I'M NOT!