Chapter 16

Sakura leaned back against the high seat of the plane, pulled her cashmere coat tighter about her, and closed her eyes for a moment. Kenji had finally dozed off, and it was a rare time of quiet for her.

But in spite of the quiet, or at least the roar of the plane, she couldn't sleep. Inside she was excited and nervous and jumpy. She was going to see Sasuke again.

Closing her eyes, she thought back to that horrible night when she'd "escaped." How noble she'd been that night! How full of telling a man that she didn't need him or his money. How full of romance she'd been, basing her life on the way she thought a movie should have ended—or would have if it had been real life.

Sakura pulled the blanket back over Kenji, since he'd squirmed about in the airline baby cot and uncovered himself. She and Kenji were flying business class, so she didn't have to hold a heavy, struggling two-year-old on her lap for the whole flight.

Settling back, Sakura closed her eyes again and tried to sleep, but she still saw Sasuke's face. Reaching down, she pulled the thick portfolio from inside her carry-on bag, opened it, and looked at the articles again. Over the past two years she'd collected everything that had been written about Sasuke Uchiha.

He'd sold most of his businesses and become what Forbes magazine called the World's Youngest Philanthropist. And most of his philanthropy dealt with the town of Konohagakure.

Sakura again read an article about how Sasuke Uchiha had transformed the small, poor, run-down, dying town of Konoha into something healthy and prosperous. The first thing he'd done was to invest heavily in the struggling baby food company, Hiro and Co.

With amusement, the article told how Uchiha had handed four million dollars to a tiny advertising company in Konoha and told them to promote the new baby food on a national level. Until Sasuke Uchiha appeared, the company had done nothing more than draw ads for local businesses for the local newspaper. But to the surprise and no doubt delight of everyone, the article said, the tiny advertising company did a good job. "Who will ever forget the TV ad of the baby with the 'yucky' face?" the article said. "Or the one with the society hostess emptying jars of Hiro and Co. baby food on crackers to serve as canapés?"

The advertising campaign was a great success that year, and Hiro and Co. was named as one of the fastest growing companies in the country. "And now they're going international, both in sales and in content. Who would have thought of serving beef Stroganoff to a baby?"

And all the food was made and bottled in Konohagakure, giving thousands of jobs to a town that had once had a fifty-two percent unemployment rate. "And the few who did have jobs had them outside the town," the article said. "But Sasuke Uchiha changed that."

There were other articles that dealt less with facts than with the philosophy of why Uchiha had done what he had. "What's in it for him?" was the question that everyone wanted answered. Why would a man give up so much to gain so little? It was even rumored that Sasuke Uchiha didn't own so much as a single share in Hiro and Co. baby food, but no one believed that.

Sakura put the articles down and closed her eyes. How would she react when she saw him again? Had the

last two years changed him? There had been next to nothing written about his personal life, so all she knew was that he dated a lot, but still wasn't married.

"Sleep," she whispered out loud, as though she could command her mind to be still, but when it didn't work, she took out her sketch pad and began to draw. It was cold on the plane, and she'd read that the airlines kept their cabins that way to keep the passengers quiet and in their seats. Warm the cabins and the travelers would wake up and start talking and walking about. "Rather like we're lizards," Sakura had thought at the time.

Tsunade had told her that Sasuke wanted something from the Arabian Nights, so Sakura had spent quite a bit of time looking at previous illustrations to get some ideas of what to do. Since all the stories seemed to be either about sex or extreme violence, she wondered how she was going to illustrate them for a public library.

"You can do it," Tsunade had said. "And you can stand to see Sasuke again. He's still in love with you and Kenji."

"Sure he is," Sakura said. "That's why he's dated nearly every woman in Konoha, at least that's what one article said. And he didn't spend a lot of time trying to find me, did he?"

"Sakura, he—" Tsunade began, but Sakura cut her off.

"Look, there was nothing between us back then except that he thought I was a charity case. He had such a good time playing Santa Claus to me that he decided to do it with an entire town. Have they erected a statue to him yet?"

"Sakura, it's not like that. He doesn't have an easy time here. You should meet Hanabi."

"Ah. Right. Remember, I only plan to be in Konoha for six weeks. I may not be able to meet all the women he's involved with in that time."

"All right," Tsunade said. "Have it your way. All I ask is that you come back here with my grandson and let me see him. Please, I beg you. You can't be so cruel as to deny a grandmother—"

"All right!" Sakura acquiesced. "I'll do it. Does he know that it's me who's coming?"

"No. He has no idea that anyone knows where you are. Not that I've known for very long. So, tell me, did my grandson ever learn to crawl?"

"No. He went from sitting to running. Tsunade, could you please let up on the guilt?"

"No. I think I'm rather good at it, don't you?"

In spite of herself, Sakura smiled. "The best," she said softly. "You're the best."

So now Sakura was on the plane, Kenji sleeping beside her. She was going back to Konoha and she was going to see the man who had haunted her every thought for two years. But for all her thoughts, all that she'd read and been told by Tsunade, she knew that she had done the right thing in leaving Sasuke two years before. Maybe he hadn't changed, maybe he was still trying to buy his way into whatever he wanted, but she had certainly changed. She was no longer the innocent little Sakura who was waiting for a man to come along and take care of her. Now, when she looked back on it, she thought maybe that was what she was doing when she met Sasuke.

But, somehow, on that early Christmas morning, she had found the courage to walk away. Now, two years later, she still marveled at the courage she'd had that night, a courage born out of fear, because she foresaw a future without freedom. She had seen a future in which she and Kenji and any other children she'd have would be swallowed up in the machine that was Sasuke Uchiha.

So she'd left Konoha on a bus and gone to Suna, where she called a girl she'd gone to high school with. They'd kept in touch over the years, and she was delighted when Sakura showed up. And it was this friend who'd helped Sakura get into a publishing house to show her drawings to an editor, and when Sakura got a job illustrating children's books, her friend helped her get an apartment and a baby-sitter for Kenji. Of course the pearls that Naruto had given Sakura had helped. She'd been astonished when she realized that they were real, and the money she received from the sale of them had furnished the apartment and paid four months' rent.

She'd done well, she thought as she looked down at her sketch pad. She wasn't wealthy, wasn't famous, but she was self-supporting. And Kenji was happy. He went to a play group three days a week, and every minute that Sakura wasn't working, she spent with him.

As for men, Sakura hadn't found much time for them. Between work and Kenji, there weren't enough hours in the day. Quite often on the weekends she and Kenji went out with her editor and the editor's husband, Yamato, and their daughter, and Yamato tossed Kenji around in that particularly male way and that seemed to be enough for the boy. Someday soon, Sakura thought, she was going to start thinking about men again, but not yet.

Hurriedly, she began to sketch some of her ideas for the murals, and she wasn't surprised to see that every man in the pictures looked like Sasuke.

When the plane landed, Sakura's heart was in her throat. Gently, she woke Kenji, who started to complain because he hadn't finished his nap, but when he saw that they were in a new place, curiosity overrode the grumpies. Once in the terminal it was difficult to hold Kenji, as he was determined to ride on the luggage carousel.

As promised, Tsunade had a car and driver waiting for her, and his instructions were to take Sakura and Kenji directly to her house.

But Sakura had her own ideas. "We'll get out here," she said to the driver as he turned onto the main street of Konoha. "Please tell my mother-in-law that we'll be there in an hour or so." She wanted to see the changes that she'd read about. Holding Kenji's hand, she walked slowly down the street and looked at each shop.

She thought she had an idea of what Sasuke would have done to the town, but she was wrong. She thought he'd make it into a tiny Suna, with Versace boutiques and a zillion art galleries. But he hadn't. Instead, he'd merely repaired and painted what was there. And he'd removed the modernization from many of the stores. In a way, walking through town was like a step back in time—except that it wasn't quaint. It wasn't like a stage set or one of those re-creation towns they had in amusement parks.

No, Konoha looked like what it had become: a healthy, prosperous town, with people bustling about and businesses doing well. Sakura walked slowly, Kenji twisting and turning to look at everything, as he liked to see new people and new things.

Suddenly Kenji halted in front of a shop window, and Sakura nearly tripped as he pulled her up short. In the window was a display of pinwheels, and a fan was blowing them about, round and round. Sakura's first thought was that they were only pinwheels, nothing special, but she realized that to a child used to complicated, noisy toys, they were wonderful.

"Come on then," she said, and Kenji's face lit up with a grin.

Minutes later they emerged from the store with Kenji holding a shiny blue pinwheel in one hand and a candy wrapper in the other. His mouth was distorted around a huge chocolate-coated piece of dried fruit, and Sakura was smiling. Home, she thought, was where the store owner gave away a free piece of candy to a bright-eyed child.

At the end of the street was the Konoha Library. The front door was open, and there were several pickup trucks outside and workmen moving in and out of the door.

Sakura took a deep breath. She was going to see Sasuke soon; she could feel it. Even though she'd spent little time with him, it was as though all of the town was now filled with him. Everywhere she looked reminded her of him. This is where we bought Kenji a pair of shoes, she thought. And this is where Sasuke made me laugh. And this is where—

"Shall we go in?" she asked Kenji, looking down at him as he sucked on his candy. "This is where Mommy is going to work."

Kenji gave her a nod, then looked at his pinwheel as a breeze made it twirl around.

Taking another deep breath, Sakura walked up the stairs, Kenji beside her. At first it was too dark in the room to see anything, but as her eyes adjusted, she saw that the workmen were nearly finished. They were removing scaffolding and leaving behind clean white plaster walls ready for her murals. She could see that she was to paint across the front of the checkout desk, then up the side of the wall, over and down again. There was a great blank wall in the reading area, and she assumed that this was where the main mural was to go.

As she was looking at the walls, thinking how what she'd planned to paint would fit, out of the back came a man, a pretty woman following him. As soon as she realized it was Sasuke, Sakura stepped back into the shadows and stayed quiet. He was looking at a set of plans, the woman seeming to be content to stand beside him silently.

Now Sakura stood where he couldn't see her and watched him. He looked a bit older; Or maybe it was just a trick of the light. His hair was the same though: a great thick black mane of it that grazed the back of his collar.

Damn! He was more handsome than she remembered. Damn, damn, and double damn!

When the curvy woman leaned over him, Sakura wanted to snatch the woman bald. "But I have no right," she whispered to herself, causing Kenji to look up at her in question. Smoothing back her son's hair, she smiled down at him, and he turned away to stare at the man standing a few yards in front of them.

Sakura tried to give herself a pep talk. She was here to do a job and nothing more. A job that she needed very much. A job that . . .

Okay, she told herself. Get over it. Get over Sasuke. Remind yourself of what a trick he played on you.

Remember every photo you've ever seen of him with a gorgeous woman draped across his arm.

She took a deep breath, tightened her grip on Kenji's hand, and stepped forward. Before he turned to see her, she said, "Sasuke, what a pleasure to see you again."

As he turned around, she held out her hand to shake. "You haven't changed at all," she said, nodding toward Hanabi, who stood close beside him. "Still the ladies' man, I see." She gave a wink at Hanabi as though they were bosom buddies in on some secret.

Sakura was afraid to stop talking for fear that she might collapse. Sasuke's eyes on hers were almost more than she could bear. She wanted to throw her arms around him, and—

"Where have you been?" he demanded, sounding as though she'd gone to the grocery and hadn't come back for five hours.

"Oh, here and there. And where have you been? As if I needed to ask." She knew she was making a fool of herself, but the woman was everything she wasn't and it bothered her. Of course it couldn't be jealousy. But Sakura did wish she had a boyfriend whose name she could drop.

"It looks as though you've done all right," he said, nodding toward her cashmere coat with the paisley scarf about the neck. Under it she wore a cashmere sweater, trousers of fine wool, and boots of the softest kid leather. Gold glowed warmly from her ears, neck, wrists, and belt buckle.

"Oh, quite well. But as . . ." Frantically, she looked about, then saw a bag of Saitoma potato chips. "As Sai says, I take well to nice things."

Sasuke was scowling and, inside, Sakura was smiling. Her heart was racing at her lie, but then she looked at Hanabi and couldn't seem to prevent herself from continuing. "Kenji, come here and say hello to an old friend of mine. And yours."

She picked up Kenji, who was staring at Sasuke with intense green eyes as though he was trying to place him. Sasuke wanted to take the boy in his arms, but instead his pride took over. What had he expected? That Sakura would someday come back into his life, sobbing, telling him that she needed him, that the world was a cold, cruel place and that she must have his arms to protect her? Is that what he'd hoped for? Instead, it was just as everyone had said; she'd gone on with her life while Sasuke had stood still and waited.

So now was he to tell her that she meant everything to him? That while she was having a mad affair with some guy named "Sai," he had thought of her every minute of every day? Like hell he would!

Suddenly, just as he was formulating an appropriate response to Sakura's introduction, Hanabi flung her arm around his waist and grabbed him in a shockingly intimate way.

"Oh, honey, isn't Kenji just the cutest little thing?" Hanabi gushed, ignoring Sasuke's murderously bewildered glare. "I just can't wait until we have one of our very own."

"Honey?" Sakura said, and Sasuke was amazed to see that she looked a tiny bit shocked.

Again, the overly helpful Hanabi jumped in. "Oh, that. Well, Sasuke doesn't like it when I call him 'honey' in public, but I keep telling him that it's okay—engaged people call each other silly names all the time."

"Engaged?" Sakura barely whispered the word.

Sasuke started to remove Hanabi's arm from his waist, but she caught his fingers in hers, then leaned against him as though they were Siamese twins joined at the hip.

"Oh, yes," Hanabi purred. "We're to be married in just six weeks' time, and we have sooooo many things yet to buy for the house. In fact, we haven't even bought the house yet."

Sasuke had to stop himself from staring at Hanabi in flabbergasted awe. He supposed Hanabi thought she was helping his cause by concocting this story, but this time she'd truly gone too far. How in heaven was he going to explain his way out of this? And would Sakura even believe him?

"I'm sure that Sasuke can afford any house you want," Sakura said softly.

"Oh, yes, and I know just the house I want, but he won't agree. Don't you think that's mean of him?" She poked Sasuke in the arm and ignored his furious gaze.

"Dreadfully," Sakura said, her voice low.

"But then I guess your Sai would buy you the best house in town," Hanabi said.

Sakura straightened her spine. "Of course he would." She flipped the wool challis scarf about her coat collar. "The biggest and best. All I'd have to do is hint and it would be mine. And I'm sure Sasuke will do the same for you."

"Well, when I do get him to agree, you must help me pick out all the furniture."

"Me?" Sakura asked dumbly.

"You are the artist, aren't you?"

For a moment both Sasuke and Sakura stared at her.

"I am, actually, but how did you know?" Sakura asked.

"You look like an artist. Everything on you matches. Now me, I have trouble matching black and white. Isn't that so, sweetheart? But Sasuke loves me just the way I am, don't you, honey bunch?"

Sasuke tried again to move out of Hanabi's grip, but she was holding on tighter than a set of lug nuts to a wheel rim. It did occur to him to hit her over the head with a lunch box that was sitting nearby, but he decided it would be best to explain to Sakura once they were alone.

"You, ah, you're to paint the murals?" Sasuke asked while his hand slipped behind his back so he could try to peel Hanabi away from his side.

"Yes," Sakura said solemnly, no longer effervescent. "Tsunade said there was a mix-up about dates and what was to be painted, so she asked me if I could help out. I brought some sketches that maybe you'd—" She broke off because Sasuke had given a muffled grunt as though something had hurt him. "Are you all right?"

"Sure," he said, his free hand rubbing his side as though he were in pain. "I'd like to see your sketches. Maybe we could get together tonight and—"

"Now, honey, you promised me that tonight we'd pick out china and silver. We're getting Noritake and real silver," she said to Sakura. "Sasuke, darling, is so very generous, aren't you, my dearest? At least about everything except a house, that is."

"Perhaps there are limits to every man's generosity," he said pointedly, glaring down at Hanabi with murder in his eyes.

"Gee, I bet Sai is generous, isn't he? I mean, look at that coat you're wearing. He is generous, isn't he?"

"Yes, of course," Sakura answered, looking into Sasuke's eyes for a moment and wishing that she'd never made up this man Sai, wishing she'd told him the truth. Wishing . . .

"When would you like to see the sketches?" Sakura asked. "I think you should approve them before I start painting. And I'm going to need some assistants, people who can do fill work."

"Sure, anything you need," Sasuke said as he at last managed to get Hanabi's hands and arms off his body.

But the moment he was free, Hanabi stepped between the two of them. "That's just what he says to me all the time. Anything you need, Hanabi. Anything at any time. So it's odd that he won't buy me a house, don't you think? Maybe you could persuade him."

"Maybe," Sakura said, then looked at her watch. "Oh, my, but I have to go. My mother-in-law will—"

"Oh, then you're married," Hanabi said.

"Widowed."

"That's too bad. I am sorry. When did Sai die?"

"He didn't. He . . . I really must go. Sasuke, it was good to see you again. I'll be staying at Tsunade's, so if you need to talk to me about . . . about work, you know the number." With that she grabbed Kenji's hand and practically ran from the building.

Outside the car and driver that Tsunade had sent to meet her at the airport were waiting for her.

"I hope you don't mind, miss," the driver said as she and Kenji got in, "but Mrs. Senju sent me back to get you and the boy to take you home to her."

"No, no," Sakura said hurriedly. "I don't mind. Just go fast!"

Before I start crying, she could have added.

But she managed to hold back her tears until she got to Tsunade's, where she found that her mother-in-law had engaged a professional nanny to help with Kenji. Within minutes Kenji had decided he liked the woman, and they went into the kitchen to have cocoa.

"Everything," Tsunade said. "I want to know everything that's wrong with you."

"I've ruined my life, that's all," Sakura said, sobbing into the pile of tissues Tsunade handed her.

"It won't be the first time."

"What?" Sakura looked up with red eyes.

"Sakura, dear, you married a man who was an alcoholic and on drugs, which, may God rest his soul and even if he was my only child, was a disastrous thing to do. Then a rich, handsome man fell madly in love with you and you ran off with just the clothes on your back. And a baby to support. So I'd say that you'd already ruined your life several times."

Sakura started to cry harder.

"So what have you done this time?"

"I told Sasuke I was in love with another man because she was so pretty and they were standing so close and it was like I left yesterday and I think I'm still in love with him, but nothing has changed. He's still the same man I ran away from. He still buys and sells whole towns, and all those women of his are so beautiful and—"

"Wait a minute. Slow down. You act as though I know anything about why you left and where you've been with my grandson for these last two years. And if that makes you feel guilty, it was meant to. Now, slow down and tell me why you agreed to return if you didn't think you were still in love with Sasuke."

"My editor wants me to get this job so we can use a quote from the Daimyo on my next book."

"How did you get started in the book business?"

Sakura dried her eyes a bit. "I got a job in Suna illustrating children's books. I've done quite well actually and there have been some really successful illustrators who—"

Tsunade waved her hand. "You can tell me all that later. So what happened with Sasuke this morning?"

"He's engaged to be married."

"He's what?"

"He's going to get married. But what did I expect? That he'd been pining away for me all these years? In all these two years I've had only two dates, and I only went on those because they were for lunch, so I could take Kenji. But Kenji didn't like either man. In fact, with one of the men, Kenji—well, it was really very funny, although the man didn't think so. Kenji and I met him in a Park and—" She stopped because Tsunade was giving her a look. "Okay, I'll try to stick to the point."

"Yes, and right now the point is Sasuke. Just who is he engaged to?"

"Her name is Hanabi and you even tried to warn me about her."

Tsunade's jaw dropped so far down her chin almost hit her knees.

Sakura didn't seem to notice. "She's beautiful: tall,dark-haired, curvy. I can see why he's fallen for her. Why are you laughing? Is my misery funny to you?"

"I'm sorry. But, Hanabi! You have to tell me everything. Every word that was spoken, every gesture, everything."

"I don't think I want to if you're going to laugh at me. In fact, I think maybe Kenji and I should stay somewhere else."

"Sasuke is not engaged to Hanabi. She is his secretary and she's the sweetest thing but, unfortunately, the worst secretary in the world."

"You don't have to be efficient for someone to love you. I've always been—"

"Sasuke told Hanabi to order duck à l'orange for a dinner for backers for the new municipal pool. Hanabi thought he wanted orange ducks, so she had the pool filled with two hundred pounds of orange Jell-O, then had a farmer unload four hundred chickens in the building because she couldn't find a duck farm."

Sakura stared at Tsunade. "You made that up."

"When Sasuke was furious, she thought it was because she'd ordered chickens instead of ducks."

Tsunade paused a moment to let that sink in. "Hanabi files everything by what color the paper feels like. Not what color anything is, just what color it feels like. The problem comes when she tries to retrieve anything because she only knows what it feels like when she's touching it."

"I see," Sakura said, her tears drying. "And if she can't find the paper, how can she feel it so she can find it?"

"Exactly. Hanabi ordered all new signs for every business in town. They all came back with Konoha spelled Konbanwa."

Sakura laughed.

"Hanabi collects red paper clips. Ask her about them. She can talk for hours about her collection. She has red paper clips from every office supply store within a hundred and fifty miles, and she will tell you that the amazing fact is that they all come from the same company."

Sakura started to laugh in earnest. "And Sasuke wants to marry her?"

"Sasuke wants to kill her. He calls me every few days and tells me the latest method he's come up with to kill her. He can be quite ingenious. I liked the one where he crushed her under a mountain of red paper clips, but I said it might give her too much pleasure."

"If she's so inept, why did he hire her? Or keep her? Why was he hugging her?"

"Hanabi may be horrible at her job, but it wasn't exactly her idea to be a secretary in the first place," Tsunade said with an arched brow. "You see, she's Sasuke's former secretary's sister, you know, the formidable Hyuga."

"Yes, of course. Hyuga did everything for him. She helped him do all those things to me."

"Yes, yes, Sasuke was vile. He bought your kid clothes, arranged for you to have a fabulous night out, made Christmas a dream come true, and—Okay, I'll stop. Anyway, Hyuga married Naruto and—"

"Naruto? Dr. Naruto? Sasuke's brother?"

"The very one. Hyuga was staying at Naruto's house while Sasuke was with you, and they got to know each other, and, well . . . Anyway, Sasuke could never replace Hyuga, so when she begged him to hire her sister, Sasuke jumped at the chance. He wanted to fire Hanabi the first day because she sold his car for a dollar—no, that's another story—but he found out that day that Hyuga was pregnant and Naruto said it would make his wife miscarry if he fired her sister."

"My husband died while I was pregnant, but I didn't miscarry," Sakura said.

"Ssssh. Let's not tell our little secrets, all right? I'm sure Naruto just wanted peace, so once again he conned his big brother." Tsunade paused to chuckle. "Sasuke constantly says that he wants to go back to Suna, where the people are less conniving, underhanded, and devious than they are here in Konoha.

"Anyway, Sasuke agreed to keep Hanabi on until Hyuga had her baby, and at last count that baby was nearly two weeks late. However, my guess is that once the baby is born, Naruto will figure out another reason his brother should keep Hanabi on. But if he doesn't fire her soon, I really do think Sasuke will murder her."

"Or marry her," Sakura said heavily.

"I want you to tell me about that," Tsunade said seriously. "What exactly did Hanabi say?"

"Something about houses and silver . . . I don't know. I was pretty miserable and Kenji likes him."

"How do you know?"

"Because she said so. She told me that they were picking out china patterns and—"

"No, I mean, how do you know about Kenji liking Sasuke?"

"Because he was more interested in Sasuke than he was in pulling books off the shelves or seeing what was in the paint cans. And he stood by me and didn't climb on anything. But then Kenji always did like him."

Tsunade listened to all of this without saying a word; then she narrowed her eyes at Sakura. "My grandson needs a father. And you need a husband. I've had all I can take of you living in secret somewhere else and my not being able to see my only grandson whenever I want and—"

"Please, Tsunade. I feel bad enough as it is."

"You don't feel bad enough that you can make up to me for missing two years of my grandson's life," Tsunade snapped.

At that, Sakura stood. "I think I should go."

"Yes," Tsunade said quietly. "You should go. You should run away, just as you did when Sasuke wanted you to be his wife." Her voice lowered. "And just as you did when you married Kenichi."

"I did no such thing!" Sakura protested, but she sat down again. "Kenichi was always good to me. He—"

"He gave you a reason to hide. He gave you a reason to stay away from everything in life. You could have a baby and stay in that old house, and no one expected any more from the wife of the town drunk, did they? Did you think that I didn't know what was going on? I loved Kenichi with all my heart, but I knew what he was like and I saw what was going on. And after Kenichi died, you were afraid of stepping outside of that house.

"So tell me, Sakura, what did you do when you ran away from Sasuke? Hide some more? Did you stay in an apartment somewhere and draw your little pictures and only go out with your son?"

"Yes," Sakura said softly as tears began to form in her eyes again. Great big drops were spilling over and running down her cheeks, but she made no move to wipe them away.

"Okay, Sakura, I'm going to tell you some hard truths. You've hurt Sasuke Uchiha to the point where I don't know if he'll ever recover. He's had a difficult life, and he's learned not to give his love easily. But he offered his love to you and Kenji, and you spit in his eye and walked away from him. You really, really hurt him."

Sakura took a deep breath. "So how do I get him back? I was horrible this morning. I lied and said dreadful things. Should I go to him and tell him the truth?"

"You mean tell him that you've learned your lesson and that you want him so much that you ache inside?"

"Yes, oh, yes. I didn't know how much I wanted him until I saw him again."

"Honey, if you go to a man and tell him you were wrong, you'll spend the rest of your life apologizing to him."

"What? But you just said that I'd hurt him. Shouldn't I tell him that I'm sorry I hurt him?"

"You do and you'll regret it."

Sakura stuck her finger in her ear and wiggled it as she tried to open the passage. "Forgive me, but I seem to have gone deaf. Would you go over this again?"

"Look, if you want a man, you have to make him come to you. You know you're sorry you ran out, but you can't let him know it. You see, to a man, conquest is everything. He has to win you."

"But he did already. He went to a lot of effort for Kenji and me before, but I had some weird idea that I wanted—"

Tsunade cut her off. "Who cares about the past?"

"But you just said that I run away and hide and—"

"You do. Now, listen, I've just come up with a plan. That's 'Plan' with a capital P. By the time we get through with Sasuke Uchiha, he won't know what hit him."

"I think I'm jet-lagged, because I'm not hearing things properly. I thought your sympathy was with him. I thought he was the wronged person."

"True, but what has right got to do with it? Look, you can't win a man with apologies and truth. No, you win them with lies and tricks and subterfuge. And sexy underwear helps."

Sakura could only blink at this woman. Tsunade Senju didn't look like the type of woman to use subterfuge on a man. No, she looked more as though she were the type to rope and brand a man. "Underwear?" Sakura managed to say.

"Did you ever get that body of yours in shape?"

"I, ah . . ."

"Thought so. Well, I'll get my hairdresser to do something with you. In front of Sasuke, of course. And maybe we'll even get Hanabi her house. Why not? Sasuke can afford it, and Hanabi will probably marry some gorgeous man who knocks her around, so she'll need a house. And you're going to need a lot of help with those murals of yours. And—Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I don't think I've ever seen you like this before."

"Honey, you ain't seen nothing yet. Now, let's go see my grandson."