And the conclusion of Sakura's family problems that everyone has been waiting for. I am so exhausted as I typed this that it may or may not even be in English. Big thanks to my friend Starbucks for keeping me from ripping all my hair out and flipping tables.

Enjoy!

Fancy Footwork

Chapter 22: Wish

"Are you free this Saturday?"

Sakura raised her eyebrows as she handed the wet dish to Itachi on her left. They stood, shoulders touching as they cleaned up after dinner. Mikoto had protested, as always, but Sakura had shooed her out of the kitchen to go relax in the living room. Mikoto had spent the entire day worrying over her, trying to distract her with various things. The Uchiha matriarch was too kind to bring it up but she knew Fugaku had told her about what had happened the week before at school.

"Saturday? Yeah," Sakura finally said. They hadn't been able to go on a date in quite some time because of all the chaos with the cultural festival. In fact, their trips to the supermarket and running other errands excluded, they hadn't had much time spent just between the two of them.

"Alright. Then keep Saturday open for me," Itachi requested with a smile.

Nodding, Sakura tucked the promise away in the back of her mind. She thought nothing more of it until Saturday morning she walked into a café. Itachi held the door as usual so she turned to ask him where he wanted to sit and found a guilty smile stretching his mouth.

"Sorry. This is for your own good," he said.

"Wha-"

"Sakura-chan."

She stiffened. Face twisting in a grimace, she glared up at Itachi. Her hands fisted at her sides for a long moment before she let out a heavy sigh.

"I hate you," she muttered even as he bent over to press a light kiss to her mouth.

"I'll be at the bookstore across the street," Itachi said before he left. Sakura took a deep breath. Sucking in as much calming oxygen as she could through her nostrils, she turned on her heel and easily found her father sitting at one of the tables.

Black hair dotted with some flecks of white was neatly combed back. Soft brown eyes, so light that they were almost amber, watched her carefully. When she pulled a chair back to sit across from him, a few wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes in a smile. There was a faint layer of stubble on his chin and upper lip. The collar of his grey shirt was wrinkled and his blue tie was crooked as if he had been nervously tugging at his collar for quite some time.

"What can I get you, miss?" the waiter asked as she unwound her scarf. Cheeks flushed from the cold, Sakura scanned the menu as she ran her fingers through her wind-tousled hair. After a moment, she looked up at the waiter with a small smile.

"I'll have some Earl Grey tea and a blueberry muffin, please," she said. The waiter took the menu and quickly left, leaving Sakura in an awkward silence. Eyes avoiding the man sitting across from her, Sakura unbuttoned her red pea coat and let it slip off her shoulders and over the back of the chair. He cleared his throat, clearly at a loss for words too. Neither of them spoke until the waiter returned with a mug and a plate with a small pastry.

"Thank you," said Sakura. To her surprise, the young waiter flushed and then was off.

"Looks like you're a natural charmer," Ryuu finally said.

"Just like you," Sakura replied with a tight smile. She finally looked him in the eyes, unsure of what she was expecting to find there. As she watched, he raised his left hand to rub at his chin.

"You're married," she flatly remarked when she saw the silver band on his fourth finger. Grinning sheepishly, he dragged his knuckles along the top of the table with a small nod.

"You threw me away," Sakura suddenly began. At this, all traces of Ryuu's smile vanished. He almost looked wounded as he looked up at her. When he reached across the table for her hand, her fingers clenched. Letting his hand fall harmlessly at his side, Ryu shook his head.

"It was part of the divorce terms. Your mother demanded that I have no contact with you until you turned 16," he explained. Sakura felt a frown tug at her mouth. That did sound like something her mom would do. Impulsive and brash in light of her anger at being betrayed. And with the soft, vulnerable expression on this man's face, she was inclined to believe him. But some things just didn't add up.

"And you just let her? Why didn't you fight back?" Sakura inquired.

"I…How could I say no? After how much I hurt her?"

Sakura broke off a piece of her piece of her muffin and stuffed it into her mouth so she wouldn't have to reply. Silence fell over them again but this time it wasn't bitter or suspicious. Sakura thought hard as she took a sip of tea.

"Why contact me now? Why after all these years?" She remembered being much less comfortable financially when her parents had still been together. It was only after Kirie started working at a consulting firm that their situation had improved. Maybe he was after their money. In which case she would be sure to tell him just where he could shove his pleas. Instead, he reached into his wallet and took out something that he slid across the table to her.

It was a photo.

A photo of him and a woman with long gold hair that fell into soft waves to frame her face. Her sky blue eyes were sparkling as she smiled at the camera. A little boy with dark curls sat between them. His grin revealed a missing tooth and the same little dimple in his cheek that her father had. Sakura's stare drifted to the soft swell of the woman's stomach and she bit the inside of her cheek.

"That's my wife and this is our son, Yuki," Ryuu said softly. Not speaking, Sakura handed the photo back to him and quickly took another sip of tea.

"Was this that lady at the hotel?"

Ryuu looked like she had just punched him in the stomach.

"Y-you remember that?" he asked in a low voice. Sakura folded her arms over her chest.

"The Shizuka Hotel. Room 654. It was a Tuesday," she recited the facts that had forever burned themselves into her brain. She waited as he put his head in his hands. Then, after a long pause, he began speaking.

"Amanda and I met during my first year at culinary school. She was studying abroad in Japan for a semester. We had a relationship but then she broke it off when she went back to America. I met your mother a year later and I was very happy with her. But then, years after, when I was already married and you were already born, she contacted me. She told me she was in Japan for a conference. That she wanted to see me."

"She was your first love," Sakura commented. He nodded without lifting his head.

"We started meeting in secret. I told myself it was just until Amanda went back and then everything would be over. But she kept asking me to come to America with her. She begged me," he sighed.

"Why not divorce mom first? That would've been better than deceiving her in the first place," Sakura demanded, interrupting him. But Ryuu rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"Sakura-chan, I never stopped loving you or your mom. I never wanted to leave you. I didn't want to hurt either of you," Ryuu insisted, suddenly looking up at her. Her eyebrows knitted together as she stared into his desperate gaze. Taking in a deep breath, she opened her mouth.

"So mom found out and she divorced you and you went to America with Amanda-san," she surmised. Ryuu shook his head.

"I broke things off with Amanda too. She was too forceful and she had just destroyed my family. I moved to New York and I met Jennifer." As she listened, Sakura took the photo back and examined it more closely this time. She didn't have clear memories of the woman she had seen with her father for that short instant before her mother had managed to close the door. But the harder she thought, the more she was sure that the other woman had had brown hair. It couldn't be the smiling woman in this photograph. She was very beautiful with big eyes and a small face, almost like a doll. And she looked so completely happy, like there was nothing in the entire world she would ever want. She didn't look like someone capable of trying to tear a man from his wife and child.

"So you're feeling guilty now that you're a dad again?" she asked in a soft voice, closing her eyes.

"I was always guilty, Sakura-chan. I still am. There's no amount of repenting and pleading I could do that would be enough for you to forgive me. But that's not why," Ryuu said. Opening her eyes, Sakura glanced up at him. His hands were twisted together tightly on top of the table.

"Jennifer and I are going to have a second child. A daughter," he finally choked out. Sakura felt her throat close in on itself. Their second child. Their second child as a family. There was no place where she fit in. It was like she had never been born in the first place.

"…I never told her that I already had a daughter."

His words hovered in the air between them. For a moment, Sakura could hear her heart thudding in her ears, a dull, empty noise.

"And?" she prompted.

"She… Jennifer was furious. She told me that there was no excuse for abandoning my daughter like that. She said that I should have fought to be able to see you. She said I was terrible for just giving up. And she told me that I needed to sort things out with you before our daughter was born," Ryuu quickly said, words stringing along into each other in his haste to convey everything at once. Suddenly, an ugly stab of jealousy twisted her gut.

"Why? So you can finally get rid of me for good and you can live your cozy life together?" she snapped. She immediately regretted such harsh words. Ryuu looked at her like she had just given him a million papercuts and then poured salt water all over him. But he was somehow still smiling.

"No. Um… Jennifer wants… she wants to meet you. She says that it's not fair that you've been excluded as a member of our family for all this time."

Sakura didn't know what to say. This woman was so utterly kind, almost to the point of idiocy. And Sakura felt so ugly and petty for hating such kindness. If she had been some evil woman, it would have been simple to push her away. Why did she have to be so nice?

"How old… is your son?" Sakura suddenly asked.

"He's turning 7 this autumn," Ryuu promptly said. And Sakura knew that if she asked him right then when her birthday was, he would be able to answer without hesitation. She took a moment to mull things over.

"You know, Jennifer told Yuki about you. He told me that if I didn't make up with you, he would never forgive me," Ryuu admitted. Shaking his head, he chuckled. As she thought, her gaze drifted down to her mostly-empty cup of tea. Mashing a large crumb underneath her thumb, Sakura pursed her lips.

"I'm not really mad at you," Sakura finally admitted after a while, "I should be. But I'm not." The look of immense relief that spread across his face spoke instead of his silence. Scratching her fingernail across the tabletop, Sakura glanced around the café one more time before she focused on her father.

"But I said the same thing to mom last week. I'm not speaking to either of you until you talk to each other," she firmly said.

"Talk about what?" Ryuu asked. Clenching her hand into a fist, she shrugged.

"That's for you two to figure out."

There was another silence. Sakura pretended to examine her nails for a long time before she looked up again.

"Are…are you happy?" queried Sakura with some difficulty. She watched the puzzled frown on her father's face slowly shift to a shy smile.

"I am," he said. With a heavy sigh, Sakura stood, letting her chair scrape along the floor as she shrugged her coat on. She could feel his frantic brown eyes following her as she buttoned up the front and then picked up her handbag.

"Talk to mom first, okay? And stop calling me every other day like some crazy stalker," she muttered, not meeting his gaze. Ryuu made a noise between a wheeze and a chuckle.

"Sorry. I was just really impatient to get in touch with you. I won't call you anymore," Ryuu said, bending over in such a low bow that his forehead touched the table. As she counted out bills to pay for her food, Sakura's gaze traveled back over to Ryuu still hunched over.

"That's not what I meant. You can still call me… just not so often," she amended after some hesitation.

"Bye…Dad," Sakura softly said before she hurried outside. When she glanced over her shoulder, she could see him sitting with a ridiculous grin on his face. Their eyes met and he waved so enthusiastically that she felt a laugh slip out.

Like he had promised, Itachi was sitting in the bookstore across the street. It didn't take much hunting. He was skimming through a historical novel when she caught sight of his broad shoulders. Placing her hands on his forearm, she leaned over to see what he was reading. The book snapped shut and he stared at her with an expression filled with curiosity. His question was clear.

How did it go?

"Not perfect. But good," she simply told him with a light-hearted shrug.

Luckily for them, the store was mostly deserted as Sakura leaned against his side and let just a few tears leak out. Whether they were from relief at finally seeing her father or sadness from seeing his new family was something neither of them understood. But that didn't seem to really matter as Itachi pressed a kiss to her temple and she let out a shaky breath.

The first snow in Konoha that year was marked by a slight tinge of sadness.

"You okay, My-chan? You're looking kind of down, yeah," Deidara observed, leaning over to press his forehead to hers. Sakura looked up at him, feeling a smile forming automatically. Deidara, for all his clumsiness and perversion, was such a mother hen. They looked over at Kisame and Sasori bent over the stereo together. It had been working fine one minute and then suddenly started spouting static. When Kisame smacked his hand down on the electronic, Sasori responded by smacking his head down on top of Kisame's head.

"You'll break it more," Sasori sighed before he turned back to the instruction manual. Itachi was lying in the corner with his textbook lying flat over his face. He had another exam in a few days and he seemed to have lost all understanding of the concept of sleep. If Sakura hadn't been living with him, he would probably never remember to eat. Deidara stared down at her, lips pulling into a little pout.

"Still no word from either of your parents, huh?" Deidara finally guessed. Sucking her lower lip into her mouth, she slowly nodded. It had been nearly two weeks since she had spoken to her father. Of course she wasn't really surprised since, from what she had gathered, he was a very flustered man and her mother was apparently not a very forgiving person when it came to romance.

"At this rate, I'll die of old age before they ever speak to each other again," complained Sakura, knocking the side of her head against the window. Maybe it had been unrealistic and somewhat childish to expect her demand to magically fix everything. But Deidara ruffled her hair with a grin that helped reassure her even if it was just a little bit.

"Don't worry too much, My-chan. If things take too long, just bring Sasori with you and he'll beat the crap out of both of them until things work out, yeah," he said with one of his brilliant smiles. The very image of Sasori expressionlessly bashing his fist into her father's head made a laugh spurt out of her. She and Deidara burst into giggles that left them lying on the floor with aching abdominal muscles.

"What are you two weirdoes cackling about?" Kisame demanded, walking over to loom above them.

"Sakura's papa potentially being bludgeoned to death by Sasori's fist of unholy rage," Deidara promptly replied.

Itachi woke from his nap to Kisame and Deidara howling with laughter on the floor while Sakura sat up to watch them, her hand clamped tightly over her mouth to hold in her mirth too. Their eyes met from across the room and Sakura lowered her hand to smile easily at him. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Deidara bolting upright to point at Sasori still struggling to fix the stereo. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he tried to undoubtedly articulate some kind of joke at Sasori's expense. Struggling to breathe properly, Deidara lay back down, evidently abandoning such an impossible task. Kisame laughed twice as hard, even as Deidara began kicking him in the back.

"What are they even guffawing about?" asked Itachi in a tired mumble.

"Murder," Kisame choked out before Deidara muttered something that elicited a high-pitched screech of laughter from both of them.

"Psychos," Sasori sighed before turning his back on both of them.

Since they had no more music and since Deidara and Kisame were rendered useless by their inability to stop screeching like hyenas, they ended practice a little earlier than planned. Though Sakura expected Kisame and Deidara to argue over where to eat dinner, Kisame ran off (still snickering) with Deidara at his heels.

"BYE, LOVERS! ENJOY YOUR DATE!" Deidara yelled, grabbing Sasori's wrist to drag him along.

Sakura blinked a couple times as their friends grew farther and farther away. She turned to Itachi who also blinked a few times.

"We have strange friends," he finally said. She nodded solemnly.

They took their time packing their things and dressing. It had become bitterly cold in Konoha for the past few days so Sakura sat on the bench pulling a second pair of socks on over the first. As she laced up her black boots, she felt Itachi's eyes on her.

"What?" she asked. She stood to pull her coat on while he stared even harder. After a long minute, Itachi took a step toward her, put his hand on her shoulder, and knocked his forehead into hers.

"Stop getting prettier. It's making me worried," Itachi grumped out.

"Itachi-kun."

"Yes?"

"Don't be gross just because Dei-chan's not here."

At that, Itachi cracked a smile. Linking fingers together, they walked down the stairs to leave the building. To their surprise, their first steps broke through a thin layer of powdery snow. Throwing her head back, Sakura stared up at the white flakes still drifting down from the black sky.

"Wow! Snow already? It's so pretty!" she sang. She spun around once, spinning Itachi in the process. But he didn't seem to mind. He watched her prance about with a faint smile that she never completely understood. It was only when she stooped to scoop some snow up in her gloved hand that Itachi let out a sigh and slipped his hand around her waist and then tossed her over his right shoulder.

"We are not getting hypothermia tonight. What do you want for dinner?" he said over the sounds of her complaints. Sakura stopped struggling as she thought carefully for a moment.

"Tempura," she finally replied as he began walking to his car. She knew Itachi was smiling even though she couldn't see him.

"What kind? Shrimp? Carrots? Sweet potato?" Itachi queried.

"All of them," she immediately responded. His quiet snort of laughter didn't quite manage to hide underneath the sound of his boots crunching through the snow. The drive home in the warm car was quiet as Sakura scrawled a quick list of the groceries they would need to buy for dinner that day. She had considered doing what housewives did and just buy their food in bulk at the beginning of the week. But most days they ended up being dragged to some restaurant for meals or ended up too tired to do much more than boil hot water for cup ramen. After a quick stop at the nearby store for vegetables and some flour, they took the elevator up to the third floor.

"You are literally carrying four bags. Why," Sakura sighed as she watched Itachi walk ahead of her. Somehow the man managed to juggle her schoolbag, his schoolbag, and two plastic bags of food while keeping up the same casual pace. She was sorely tempted to trip him to see just how much he could handle but she didn't want to risk breaking the carton of eggs in one of the bags.

"Chivalry, Sakura. Simple manners," Itachi responded in a voice that wasn't quite humble.

"Show-off," she sniffed as she dug in her pocket for the key. She bumped into Itachi's back when he suddenly stopped short.

"What's wrong?" Sakura inquired, peering around him. What met her was a man huddled in a pathetic little ball in front of their door. A wilted, sopping bouquet of flowers lay to his left.

"…Dad?"

"Sakura…your father is a failure," Ryuu uttered without looking up at her. Puffing her cheeks out in a pout, Sakura crouched down in front of him.

"What's wrong, Dad?" Her voice was soft as she saw that his hair was plastered to his head and there was still water dripping down his face. Ryuu shook his head vigorously.

"I should not be allowed to live. I am a worthless human being," he sniffed. Sakura's eyes narrowed in on the mauled flowers and then at her father's haggard, unshaved appearance. She took her father's cold hand and stood, trying to pull him up.

"You're not. Now come inside. You're all wet," Sakura said, tugging a little harder. With a little more insistence, Sakura managed to get Ryuu to stand. She unlocked the door and Itachi went to start making dinner while Sakura scrambled around getting a clean towel and finding some of Itachi's clothes that would fit her father. As she sat on the floor, digging through one of the dresser, Itachi walked in to change while the rice cooker worked.

"Why are you so tall?" she grumped out as he closed the door behind him. Itachi chuckled while pulling his dark blue sweater over his head.

"You've never complained before," Itachi noted with a shrug. Sakura glared at him as she pulled out a long-sleeved shirt that would most definitely look like a dress on her much shorter parent.

"It was nice before," she sniffed. She paused to watch Itachi unbutton his shirt and toss it into the hamper. In just a plain t-shirt, the chiseled lines of his chest and arms were so very clear. Itachi caught her staring and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't get distracted, Sakura. Your poor father is waiting," he teased just a little. Color rose to her cheeks as she whipped her head around and began pawing frantically through his clothing in response.

"What about your stuff? I think you're around the same height as him," Itachi suggested once he had finished changing.

"My stuff?" she repeated with a thoughtful expression. Muttering to herself, she moved up to the first drawer where she found one of her more simple shirts along with a pair of loose sweatpants she liked to wear on the days she had eaten a few too many cookies. Folding them over her arm, she walked into the kitchen where Ryuu was sitting at the table, both hands on his knees like a child waiting to be scolded. Eyes wide, he jumped a little when Sakura handed the clothes and towel to him.

"Take a shower and get dressed, Dad. You'll get sick," Sakura said, pointing to the bathroom door. The way he mutely stood and obeyed struck her as a little odd.

"Has he always been like that?" asked Itachi, taking a seat at the table with a cutting board and a couple carrots. As he peeled and chopped the vegetables, Sakura stood at the counter to mix the batter for the tempura. Holding the broken halves of an egg in her palm, Sakura paused.

"You know…I wouldn't know. I don't remember him too much," she admitted after some thinking.

Several minutes later, there was a pot of oil bubbling away on the stove and Itachi watched over Sakura's shoulder as she coated the vegetables in batter and carefully dropped them in to fry.

"Aren't you going to flip them?" Itachi asked when she just left the food to float in the hot gold liquid.

"That makes the tempura less crispy. Just leave them," she ordering, swatting his chopsticks away with her own. He responded by putting his hand on her back and leaning in to press his nose against her hair.

"But I'm hungry," he murmured in a voice completely unrelated to his stomach.

"Then have some carrot," Sakura retorted, picking up a slice of vegetable and sticking it in Itachi's mouth. Itachi stared at her as her lower lip jutted out in a stubborn pout. She managed to hold onto the expression for about five seconds before she began giggling. Itachi cracked a smile, before he crunched through the carrot and began chewing.

"Looks like someone's getting a little sassy," Itachi remarked, pressing sweet kiss to the side of her mouth. Sakura smiled impishly before she turned back to the tempura to scoop the pieces out before they burned. When a drop of hot oil splattered out, Sakura drew her right hand back with a wince. Itachi immediately grabbed her to check her fingers for a burn. Sakura sulked a little and pretended that it hurt more than it did. She knew that Itachi knew she was laying it on a bit thick from the way he tried not to smile but he still pressed his lips to her fingertips to kiss away whatever pain she claimed lingered. A giggle left her when he lightly nipped at the tip of her thumb.

"I'm jealous," Ryuu's voice morosely interrupted their flirting. Sakura jumped when she looked over and found her father standing in front of the bathroom with a towel draped over his shoulders. Trying to cover up her blush, Sakura quickly pushed her chopsticks into Itachi's hand and hurried over.

"Dad, what are you doing? You've got to dry your hair off," she scolded, reaching up to use the towel to rub furiously at the top of his head. When she began roughly yanking at his collar and fussing with his hair, a laugh spurted out of Ryuu.

"You're just like your mother," he noted. Sakura's hands froze. Scowling a little, Sakura pushed him into a chair.

"That's not really a compliment at the moment, Dad," she softly said, watching the smile slide straight off his face.

Ryuu dug in eagerly to his warm dinner while Sakura and Itachi sat across from him. Only when he was through his fourth piece of crispy shrimp did he look up and find both of them staring at him rather intently.

"So? What happened?" Sakura prompted, tapping her chopsticks against her lower lip as she tried to decide on whether she wanted a piece of carrot or sweet potato.

"I'm afraid to talk to your mother," Ryuu admitted in a very small voice. Sakura blinked a couple times as she chewed.

"Why wouldn't you be?" she demanded in response.

"Eh?" Itachi and Ryuu asked in unison.

"It's normal to be a little scared in these situations, right? I mean, she tried to cut you completely out of my life, right? And you still feel guilty about hurting her so you don't know what to say," Sakura guessed before she popped another piece of tempura in her mouth and chewed diligently. Ryuu was silent for a long time. Setting his chopsticks down on his plate, Ryuu let out a heavy sigh.

"How did you end up to be such a great person from such awful parents, Sakura-chan?" he wondered aloud.

Sakura smiled a little. She nudged the plate closer to her father with her chopsticks.

"Just eat, Dad."

After dinner and some coffee, Ryuu got to his feet. He was changed back into his own clothes which had been tumbled around in the dryer while they ate. As he began pulling his shoes on, Sakura tapped something against his shoulder. Ryuu looked up to find her holding out paper bag to him.

"Don't peek. Just…just bring it with you when you visit mom, okay? I think you'll both need it," she said, not meeting his gaze.

She didn't complain when he pulled her in for an awkward hug. Neither of them knew where to put their arms and how close to be but when they pulled apart, both of them were laughing.

"Good luck," she simply said before Ryuu walked out the door, wilted flowers in one hand and paper bag in the other.

"Did…did I say the right things to him?" Sakura asked without looking. She knew that Itachi was leaning against the doorway, his arm pressed just above her head. His sigh ruffled her hair. Then it was his fingers brushing through the strands, twirling them lightly across his knuckles.

"You need to stop asking me things that I don't know the answer to, Sakura. It makes me feel useless," he grumbled. The sound of her startled laugh was clear and bright.

It turned out that Sakura didn't need an answer. Because three days later, Ryuu marched over to the apartment Sakura and Kirie normally shared and rapped on the door. Eyes red, hair pulled back in a lopsided bun, Kirie answered and then eyed her ex-husband in silence for a long while.

Sakura didn't know what they talked about but Ryuu only told her that her mother cried. For a long time, all she could do was sob, "Ryuu, you're a bastard" and he could only reply, "I'm sorry". But after some coffee and some words, Ryuu admitted that they had turned to the few photo albums they had in the house. They were the ones of Sakura grinning brightly with pigtails and scratched knees. Her teeth were missing, boys picked on her for the size of her forehead. But she was still the happy child they had raised together even if just for a few years.

"What did you end up giving your dad, Sakura?" Itachi asked one day as they sat across from each other at the kitchen table. Sakura glanced up from her textbook and then flashed a little smile.

"My birthday present from you last year," she said. Itachi's eyes widened.

Because they had both missed most of Sakura's childhood. Ryuu had been in America trying to restart a family- one that he wouldn't ruin with his own stupidity. And Kirie had been working nonstop, trying to make her daughter happy with things and objects and presents. Looking through the album of Sakura laughing and dancing and eating and sitting on her friends' shoulders as they carried her through the water was strange. It was a laugh they hadn't seen before. She was a child again.

Though they would never admit it, as they looked through these photos, they both felt a few silent tears leak out.

The second week in November, Sakura answered her cell phone. It was her mother asking if she was free for dinner that night.

They had nabe*. Sitting around the same pot, dipping vegetables and meat in, and talking around mouthfuls of food, they felt the horrible crack that had ripped them apart start to mend even if it was just one pebble at a time. Bellies full and mouths smiling, Kirie and Ryuu sat as they watched Sakura peel an apple for dessert.

"So… I don't know if I have the right to ask this. But… Sakura-chan, that boy you're living with…" Ryuu left his words drift off when Sakura looked up at him with an unreadable expression. Not saying anything, she sliced the apple and stabbed toothpicks through the wedges.

"He's Mikoto-chan's son," Kirie offered before sticking a piece of fruit in her mouth.

"Dad, are you saying that you don't like that I'm staying with my boyfriend?" Sakura finally asked with an exasperated smile. Ryuu immediately shook his head so hard that he looked like a bobble-head doll.

"I just…I just wanted to know how serious you are with him. You know… he seems a little older than you," he slowly responded, eyebrows drawing down low over his eyes.

"Three years," Sakura admitted without hesitation.

"Do you think you'll marry him?"

With both her parents' curious gazes fixated on her, Sakura mulled it over for a bit.

"I don't know. But I'd be happy if I could," she finally admitted. Sakura suddenly felt like a child because her parents looked at each other and then back at her. In that one instant, something passed between them. Years of life and experience and maybe even a little heartbreak had already molded them. There was something they understood that she didn't yet. But for some reason, that didn't scare her. Kirie suddenly smiled.

"Well, since I'm not home so often, it's actually kind of comforting to know that you're with someone so dependable. I think that's safer than a young lady living all by herself," Kirie said. After a pause, Kirie reached for another slice of apple.

"But don't make me a young grandmother. I'm not ready for that yet," she added quite seriously.

Even blushing furiously, Sakura found it in her to laugh at the look of horror on her dad's face.

Ryuu left for America two days later. Sakura hadn't known about his departure until he had showed up at school during her lunch break to say goodbye. Ino, perhaps a little too angry to be reasonable, had caught a glimpse of him and proceeded to scream an endless rain of insults and curses on him until Shikamaru and Chouji had showed up to drag her away. Scratching at his freshly-shaven cheek, Ryuu watched the screaming blonde disappear back into the school building.

"I'm guessing you remember my friend Ino-chan, right?" Sakura laughed.

"It's hard to forget the sound of that scream. She should become an opera singer," Ryuu sighed. Their conversation was still stilted and awkward. There was a decade-long gap as strangers to account for. Still, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little sad as she hugged him and watched him get back into his taxi headed for the airport.

A part of her wondered how she would be different had her parents not divorced. Would she like the same things? Like the same people? Would she still be in love with Itachi? Would he still love her? After a long time pondering, Sakura shook her head and went back inside where her friends were still eating in the classroom. Sasuke watched her carefully when she entered, mouth twisted into a scowl.

"You okay?" he grunted out as she sat down next to him.

"Probably a little better than okay," was her response.

Ino was standing at the back of the classroom, jabbing her finger angrily into Shikamaru's chest to punctuate her words. He gave her the same harried sigh he always did, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"God, Ino, just butt out. This isn't your business. I don't get why you're making things so difficult," Shikamaru finally sighed. At this, Ino turned bright red.

"Sakura is my friend! Of course it's my business! He has NO RIGHT to barge back into her life! And you have no right to tell me what I should or shouldn't do, you lazy asshole!" Ino yelled, her voice growing louder and louder until everyone stopped eating to look up at them. Sakura jabbed Sasuke in the ribs once and he glared at her even as he reached for his wallet.

"Ino, you don't get it. What you think isn't always what's right," Shikamaru replied, his voice growing a little louder too.

Ino glowered at him, hands clenched tightly at her sides. Everyone waited with baited breath for her to scream something else. Instead, a single tear welled up in her right eye before trickling down her cheek.

"SHIKAMARU, YOU IDIOT! WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT WHAT I THINK ANYWAY?!" she yelled. With a frustrated shout, Ino threw her cell phone, hitting him in the forehead. Ino stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door open in the process. Sakura leaned back in her seat with a sigh. Fingers clamped to his forehead, Shikamaru opened one eye to stare at her.

"Aren't you going after her?" he asked, gingerly feeling the little bump that had formed on his head. Sakura exchanged a look with Hinata before she shook her head.

"Don't tell me you're that oblivious, Shikamaru-kun," she scoffed as Sasuke counted out a few bills and handed them over to her. Sakura paused to look down at the money and then fix Sasuke with a glare.

"We agreed on 2000 yen, Sasuke-kun," Sakura reminded him. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke dug out a couple more bills and shoved them at her. Counting her haul like some sort of loan shark, Sakura peered at Shikamaru over the money.

"The longer you wait, the angrier she'll get."

But now it was Shikamaru who was scowling.

"This is all so troublesome," he grumped. Irritated, (and it took a lot to get Hinata irritated) Hinata stood and pointed at Shikamaru.

"Nara-kun, if you drag your feet, Ino-chan's going to get stolen away by some guy and you'll regret it forever!" she squeaked out in as fierce a voice as she could muster. Surprisingly, it was this timid little pep talk that motivated Shikamaru to sigh and trudge out the door after Ino.

"By the way, Sakura-chan, what was the money for?" Naruto asked a few minutes later when everyone had resumed eating. Flashing an evil grin, Sakura waved the money in Sasuke's face.

"I bet him that Ino and Shikamaru would get together before Winter break," Sakura said, still smiling tauntingly.

Sasori and Deidara were going insane. Kisame kindly pointed out that a crazy person couldn't go crazy again. Sakura pointed out Deidara running around in circles as he babbled into his cell phone while Sasori sat in the corner furiously gnawing on the end of his pencil. They sat in silence to watch before Kisame graciously shook her hand.

"My bad. You're totally right, Sakura-chan," he conceded.

Like they had last year, the duo was once again panicking to finish up their rough drafts to submit to their professors. The annual fashion show was scheduled for the spring again. All of this would have been made significantly less stressful if their model hadn't ended up being one of the most difficult and rude people to work with. After their complete victory the year before, several students had complained that using a dancer as a model was unfair. ("How the hell is that unfair, yeah? I bet if Sakura-chan was a model, these asses would complain that her having pink hair was an unfair advantage!" Deidara raged.) As a result, Konoha University had assigned models to each pair, all girls contracted from professional modeling agencies.

She didn't like the cut of this dress; she didn't like that particular shade of purple. There was a never-ending list of complaints from the girl and Sasori looked just about ready to stab someone with his pencil every time they got off the phone with her.

Fortunately, the girl's measurements were close enough to Sakura's that Sasori was still able to use her for some of the fittings. Sasori abruptly stood, stomping over to Sakura and Kisame sitting in the middle of the studio.

"This," Sasori said, pointing at a picture on the right side of the page while he crouched down in front of Sakura. Sipping at her water, Sakura tilted her head to get a better look. She eyed the flowing lines of the dress and the empire waist that cinched just below the chest.

"What color is this going to be, Saso-kun?" asked Sakura.

"Light yellow," he promptly said. After a little more head-tilting and observing, Sakura nodded.

"I think it looks nice," she finally decided. Sasori didn't seem at all reassured by her approval. If anything, he looked even more conflicted as he retreated back to his little corner to continue scribbling like a madman. Sakura knew from experience that nothing she said or did would actually reach Sasori who had gone a little wacky from lack of sleep and an excess of caffeine. So she looked back at the textbook lying in her lap. University entrance exams were at the end of January and she had just a little over two months to study for them. Kisame was content to munch on his rice ball while she memorized formulas.

"Is Itachi still sleeping?" Kisame suddenly inquired. Sakura and Kisame both looked back to see Itachi lying on his side. His shoulder blades were pressed against Sakura's back and he was using one of her thicker books as a convenient pillow. When she lightly nudged him, he didn't even stir.

"Wow. That hard, huh?" Kisame whistled.

"It was a big exam," Sakura agreed.

"Man, I'm jealous. If only I had a pretty girlfriend to take care of me," he said a little wistfully. Leaning back on his hands, Kisame cocked his head to look at her.

"You okay with your parents now?" Kisame queried.

"Hm… Dad said he wanted me to visit him and meet his family. I'm thinking of going after graduation," replied Sakura while tapping her lower lip.

"Your stepmom sounds like a nice lady," Sasori suddenly piped up without looking up from his drawings.

"And how're you going to fly out all the way to America, My-chan? Itachi's going to die of loneliness, yeah," Deidara scoffed, plopping to the floor in front of her. He lifted his feet into her lap, blocking out the pages of her book. Even when she frowned at him, Deidara just wiggled his socked toes at her until she finally set her book aside for a moment.

"I'm not a rabbit, Deidara," Itachi grumbled, rolling onto his back. He reached over to swat Deidara's legs off of Sakura. When she looked over to thank him, Itachi simply hooked his arm around her waist and moved around to deposit his head in her newly-freed lap.

"Sorry. Did we wake you?" she softly said, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. Giving her a sleepy smile, Itachi put his hand on the back of her head to pull her in for a light kiss. When they broke apart, Kisame and Deidara were clinging to each other with identical expressions of revulsion.

"Doing such a disgraceful thing in front of Mama and Papa. Shame on you two," Kisame gasped in a high-pitched voice.

"Yes. Look how upset you've made Mama, yeah," Deidara chimed in with exaggerated gestures in Kisame's direction.

"You know, Deidara. You're right. Clearly, only a good-looking individual like me is cut out to be Sakura-chan's mother," Kisame relented. He quickly silenced Deidara's protest by planting his foot on the back of Deidara's head and mashing his face against the floor. Sakura sat watching Deidara's face grow purple either from asphyxiation or fury.

"You do realize that as soon as you let go you're going to die, right?" she asked. Kisame gave her a grim smile.

"I'm going to count to five and then run like hell," he simply said. Sakura squinted at Deidara's murderous gaze.

"Make that ten," she suggested.

Later that night, belly full of ice cream and hot chocolate, Sakura threw her notebook aside and rolled off the sofa and onto Itachi who had been stretched out on the floor to highlight passages in his book. He let out a little huff as she landed on his back. Unapologetic, Sakura pressed her chin to his left shoulder.

"Are you done for the night?" Itachi inquired, looking over at her. She hummed noncommittally before she snuggled up against his back and let out a sigh.

"I can't exactly focus with you doing that, Sakura," he chuckled, sounding half-exasperated and half-amused. When she stubbornly refused to budge, Itachi reached around to take her arm. With a little wriggling and laughing, he managed to flip onto his back. Sakura settled for curling up against his right side like an overgrown cat.

"How's the studying going?"

"I'm going to die," Sakura cheerfully replied.

"I don't even remember what the exam was like for me. Maybe it's the trauma," Itachi wondered, rubbing at his chin. Sakura raised her eyebrows at him.

"Or maybe you're getting old," she teased.

"Old?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow at her. She immediately regretted her words when he sat up. Planting a hand on either side of her head, Itachi leaned over her until their noses nearly touched. A smirk curled at his mouth that should have been illegal.

"Old?" Itachi said again.

"Supremely. Ancient," Sakura giggled before Itachi silenced her with a kiss.

It was late enough that a lot of his stubble had grown in. The roughness against her cheeks actually wasn't all that unpleasant. She took a moment to run her thumb along it. Itachi looked at her a little strangely.

"Porcupine," she simply uttered.

"Please don't call me that."

"Ikkun," Sakura promptly tried.

Itachi looked like he didn't know whether to smack his head against the floor or to laugh. Sakura's eyes lit up as she suddenly remembered the talk she had had with her mother.

"You know, my parents asked me if I was planning to marry you," she announced. Itachi's face froze completely. Just his eyes moved to focus in on her face.

"What did you say?" he probed, expression stiff. Feeling just a little mean, Sakura opened her eyes wide with innocence.

"I don't know. Are you proposing to me, Itachi-kun?" she giggled. Her laugh cut off when she saw Itachi's eyebrows knit together in serious thought. When he finally spoke, she found herself holding her breath for some reason.

"You're going to be the death of me," he sighed, letting his forehead press against her shoulder. After a long pause, Itachi looked up at her again.

"If I said yes, would you consider keeping that proposal on reserve for a few years?" Itachi demanded. A laugh spurted out of Sakura as she reached up to put her palms on his cheeks.

"Oh my gosh. Dei-chan was right. You're kind of a social retard," she sighed. But Itachi's earnest look remained unchanged.

"Do you honestly think I would say no, Itachi-kun?" Sakura responded very seriously.

So that was how Haruno Sakura ended up suddenly engaged at 17 years old.

Nabe* is a hot pot dish popular in Japan during the winter. Everyone gathers around a pot filled with broth and they take turns cooking thinly-sliced meat or vegetables and then dipping it in sauce. It's considered a dish that can help people grow closer so I thought it would be appropriate. Also, nabe is just plain delicious.

Wowowow! Thanks to everyone for the reviews! Just 5 chapters left until the end.

Let me know what you think. Let me know who your favorite character is!