AN: At least I am writing again. I've been very very depressed recently, and it's hasn't been helped all that much by the quantity of flames and criticism I have been getting. Let me make a few things clear before you read on…
Any unusual changes that have been made recently were dictated by your votes and poll results.
People said that Kakashi was too much of a pushover and way OOC, so I changed him to be a little more domineering, including a back story of lies that you may not even recognize until the next chapter but it's written so it'll have to come out whether you like it or not.
You also asked for more drama and for something big to happen to KakaSaku ('like get someone almost killed or something'), so I gave you that.
Then those of you who took part in the poll said that you wanted KibaSaku action, and drunken fun, so once again, I gave you that in the last chapter.
All of these things came out of your imagination, not mine, and yet all I got was abuse for it, so I'm not taking suggestions anymore. My self-esteem hit an all time low recently and I've got enough to stress me out without that.
If you didn't like it, and you didn't take part in the poll, then please don't blame me.
I'm going to ask now, just for the rest of this story (two chapters, it's not that hard), that although I would usually welcome criticism, could you please withhold any waves of negativity, even if you think they are constructive. I'm just too emotional not to take it the wrong way at the moment.
2311 words in this chapter
Unmasked
Chapter 29- Bridesmaid
I am having the worst hangover of my entire life. My head is spinning so badly that the last thing I want to wear today is lilac satin, but the alternative doesn't really bare thinking about. Headaches and nausea combined with Ino on Bridezilla mode would probably send me over the edge.
She glanced over the room to find it empty, no sign of her roommate at all but a good spread of her clothes about the floor space. This is never good…
Her memory was still a bit fuzzy, so she pulled on some clothes hastily before tip-toeing out into the living room area of the apartment. Giving the room a quick scan, the memories began to spill back to her consciousness and she gave out a sigh of relief.
There on the floor beside the sofa was a semi-comatose but fully dressed Kiba. The reason for her hangover was on the coffee table next to him; an empty bottle of Malibu.
We didn't do anything. Actually the reason that it didn't go very far was because Kiba was pissed out of his head. Despite the fact that guilt was not a deciding factor in last night's lack of activities, it did get me thinking. That was the main reason I hit the spirits.
One conclusion was made before I was too out of it… no more thinking. I'm supposed to be with Kakashi today, so I'll have to talk to him. I'll just be honest and if he can't handle it then I'll have to deal with it, but hiding from your husband is pathetic.
Her attention wandered back to the other pathetic presence in the room and sighed again. As for him…
She kicked him in the side grumpily "Get up"
He groaned loudly as he began to wake up, but didn't manage to form any coherent words, so she kicked him again.
"Argh! I'm up, I'm up…" he sat up slowly and looked up at her with narrowed eyes "what the hell Sakura, I was sleeping"
"I know that Baka, that's why I kicked you" she smirked at him
"Wh…"
"Why? That's simple, it's Monday. You have a wedding to go to"
"Already… but it's…" his confused expression cleared as he ran his hand through his hair "I fell asleep, didn't I?"
"Hai" she laughed lightly at him then wandered off to the bedroom again "and it's too late for breakfast now. I'm going to meet Ino in about ten minutes."
She kept smiling as she dressed to leave, listening to his grunting attempts to get ready from the other rooms. Today is a good thing. Everyone will be happy if I have to pay them all to do it.
"Sakura!" Ino yelled from her seat as she finished pinning her hair up.
"You had better go in. I need to finish some things… as far out of this house as possible" Kurenai told her, opening the door wider to allow her through.
"Arigato Kurenai-san" Sakura smiled and went through to look at Ino through the mirror she was posed in front of. "You look lovely"
Ino bit her lip as she continued to criticize her own appearance. "Hmm… I've looked better"
"Don't be silly" she slipped off her coat to reveal her strapless bridesmaid dress, which reached to her feet and was tied under the bust with a simple silver ribbon, a delicate contrast to the lilac satin. "You're getting married. That makes anyone glow beyond the normal."
She still looked doubtful. Her blonde hair was left straight, but the top half of it was pinned back elegantly with a number of small lilac and white flowers, only a small amount of her long bangs left forward. Her make-up was applied thinly only to accentuate her natural beauty and her nails were manicured and painted with a light metallic purple polish. That was all though, as she still sat in her pajama bottoms and a zip-up hoody.
Sakura just continued to smile at her best friend proudly. "Ino, Shikamaru will die seeing you like this. You are that beautiful."
"He better not. I've waited 21 years to marry him; he's not backing out now."
She giggled as she imagined what Shikamaru's reaction would be if she said that to his face. He'd probably just mutter 'mendokuse' under his breath and get on with it. I wonder how many times he will actually say it today… I should run a sweepstake.
"You are all smiley today Sakura, what's up?" Ino asked cautiously
"Nothing" she beamed "I'm just in a good mood. I mean, come on, my best friend is getting married today"
"Yeah… how long do I have?"
"Ooh, not long. I just checked everything with Tsunade and it's all set there except for some last minute details, which are all being dealt with. All you have to do is put your dress on and turn up."
"How long Sakura? Don't patronize me."
"About half an hour"
Her eyes went wide as she turned to face her maid of honor directly "Kuso… seriously?"
"Don't worry Ino, that's plenty of time"
"Get the dress, I need to get changed now" She ordered, standing up to head into the middle of the room.
Sakura shook her head in amusement and kept smiling as she went to fetch the garment from its storage place. She called back over her shoulder "Don't you need to change your undergarments?"
"No. They took so long to get into I just put them on earlier this morning."
"Dressing up underneath for Shika too?"
"Not really. It was just another way to spin ridiculous amounts of money out of Daddy."
"Are you ever going to let that rest?" She smirked as she re-entered the room, handing the dress to Ino.
"Um… we kind of decided that once our first son graduated from the academy, maybe we'll stop then"
"Why then?"
"Because then we can sponge money off of his mission pay. Daddy will be retired by then anyway"
"How long exactly did you spend talking this through?" Sakura raised an eyebrow at her
"We've been babysitting a lot." She stressed, slipping off her hoody and pj-bottoms.
Sakura ran an eye down the lingerie that was now on show and smirked "It's no wonder that took a while to get on. Why do you always go for the more complex clothing?"
"Because I'm pretty and I like to actually show my figure"
She merely nodded in response and pulled the dress from its hanger, helping Ino to step into it.
"Do you think it was silly to hold the wedding so early in the morning Sakura?"
"Not at all; you wanted the reception outside in the sun, so it being September, it had to be earlier rather than later."
She pulled the dress up as far as it would go, but had difficulty at the bust area. The dress had a lace up front, embroidered around the silver ribbon on both sides to hip level and along the thin spaghetti straps. The whole thing was made out of multiple lighter layers, not to give more body, but to add movement to her figure. Each layer to the dress was very sheer and delicate so Ino was paranoid of ripping the seams. "Sakura, I need help"
"Alright, hold on…" she smiled and gave her a hand in trying to pull the dress up over her bust, but quickly became aware of the problem. "Whoa Ino, how have you put on weight?"
"I didn't think I had. It's been a while since I've checked" she frowned
"You've practically been fasting to stay the same size." She looked down critically "Everything else fits fine, it's just like you've grown a cup size since the fitting"
"Hmm…"
Sakura looked up at her face.
All of a sudden, Ino started to look really pale.
"What's wrong Ino? You don't look well."
"Oh, um… I am I just…" she put a hand to her mouth and jolted slightly "I need your help."
She had switched onto medic mode "With what?"
"I'm gonna be sick"
"Ino?" she looked at her strangely.
She snapped "Now Sakura!"
"Alright" She helped Ino out of the dress quickly and wrapped her dressing gown around her as she escorted her to the little adjoined bathroom.
She sat on the floor, helping to hold Ino's hair out of the way as she emptied what little there was in her stomach.
After about ten minutes, Ino fell back against Sakura, completely exhausted.
"What's wrong Ino? This isn't cold feet is it?"
"No! No way! I'm just… so tired." Her eyes fluttered shut briefly at this
"You didn't drink last night, so you shouldn't be…" Sakura stopped and gasped, realization dawning on her. She's not hung-over, and she wasn't ill a second ago, it must be…
She reached out a hand to Ino's abdomen and felt out gently with her chakra. Ino glanced up at her, confused. She sighed when her suspicions were confirmed. "Why didn't you tell anyone Ino? Doeshe know?"
"Huh?"
"You really didn't notice?"
"Notice what? Sakura, please make sense." Ino's expression was a picture of perplexity as she looked at her with bright eyes.
She hated to be patronizing, but this was necessary "Ino, when are you due next for a period?"
"I don't know, I skipped last month so…" Ino finally caught on "I skipped last month." She looked to Sakura with another bemused expression "Am I…?"
Sakura smirked at her "congratulations."
"Kuso!" she tried to get up, but was still wobbly on her legs.
Sakura got up to support her "What now Ino?"
"What if it's…? Do you know how far?"
"My guess is about 53 days"
"That's pretty accurate"
"I'm a bloody good medic Ino." She pointed out with a slight edge of acidity
"53 days… that would be…"
"August 2nd; the day of the mission…" she doubted herself slightly as she went over the figures in her head "That can't be right, can it?"
Ino breathed a sigh of relief "Thank Kami. It's his then."
"Who else's would it be?"
"No one at the start of August"
Just then, Tenten knocked on the door and barged in, not waiting for an answer. "Hey, are you…" she froze, seeing Ino looking pale and being supported by Sakura "whoa, what happened?"
"Nothing, I'm fine." Ino told her gently as she sat in a chair in the main room.
Sakura quickly went and got her a glass of water and some mints. "Just relax for a while, it'll wear off soon."
"Arigato Sakura" she sighed
Tenten shifted uncomfortably in her own bridesmaid's dress "I hate to interrupt guys, but this thing is supposed to start soon and you aren't even dressed."
"It's going to have to be delayed for a little while then." Sakura instructed "That is Medic and Maid of honor's orders. She's not going out there until she looks like a goddess. Right now, that's not going to happen."
"It's not what it looks like Tenten" Ino insisted, judging by the sympathetic look she was getting from the older kunoichi.
"What do you mean?" she asked "You're pregnant right?"
"Huh? How did you know?"
She glanced down with a blush "I know what morning sickness feels like."
Both Sakura's and Ino's eyes shot wide at this.
"I know…" she mumbled, not even wanted to meet the critical glares she was sure she'd get from them "just forget it, I'm already angry with him about it"
"Does he know?"
"Well he caused it so…"
"Didn't you use protection? Either of you?" Sakura asked as politely as she could manage.
"No…" Ino mumbled
"Yes" Tenten scowled
"Huh?" Ino stared at her "How are you pregnant if you used contraception jutsu?"
"He countered it with his Byakugan; disabled the jutsu without my knowing. Of course I know now…"
"How long have you known?"
She slumped down beside Ino on another chair "For almost a month. I was due for a period not long after the dance and I missed it so I made the connection."
"What are you going to do?"
"I plan on playing stupid till he admits what he did. There's nothing I can do to reverse it, so I'll just have to deal the best I can."
"You can hardly blame him." Ino pondered while she drank the glass of water "you must know what it means to him"
"What?"
"Hasn't he told you yet? If you didn't get pregnant before Hinata's kids were born, you'd both be declassified to branch status again and they'd re-activate his curse mark. It would probably mean that they'd give you a curse mark aswell."
"How did you know that?" Sakura frowned, knowing that that was classified family information.
"Kurenai told us when she found out about Hinata" she looked over at the now oddly quiet Tenten "Are you alright?"
She nodded "It doesn't matter now; you just need to get to your wedding"
"Not for a while…"
Sakura giggled "well at least we know now why you don't fit in the dress properly"
Her eyes went wide again "Oh Kami, what am I going to do?"
"It'll be fine. It fits well enough, you'll just be displaying a little more cleavage than you intended to"
"I'm sure Shikamaru won't mind" Tenten added helpfully
"I have to tell him." She stood up again, feeling a little stronger now. "I can't marry him without him knowing"
"Just slip it into your vows. Then he'll know and it'll be really entertaining to see his reaction." Tenten suggested.
"But what if he says no? What if he doesn't want it? What if…"
"Shut up Ino. He loves you." Sakura smiled "He wouldn't say no if someone had a kunai to his throat."
"Sakura…"
"Yes Ino"
"Can you tell the gender?"
AN: Ok, so it's short but believe me it's a good stopping point. The next chapter will be a lot longer I think. It will also be the last. What a long journey…
Please follow what I said in the first author's note and don't criticize anything in this chapter. My reasons have been explained.
I hope it wasn't too much of a disappointment.
Stay shiny and show the luff
Xx Belizma-chan xX