Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.

In the years she had known him, Ino Yamanaka had never dreamed of having Shikamaru Nara marry before she did.

Scratch that.

She had never dreamed he would be able to find a partner before shedid. But as she walked behind him, a very silent boy riding on his back, she actually thought he looked to be a promising father.

"So, how are the flowers going?" Shikamaru asked at an attempt to shatter the silence between them as they made their way out of the hospital. "Temari could be a pain with detail. I hope she isn't giving you too much of a hard time."

Ino unconsciously hid her hands in her pockets. "I'm having a fun time, actually. I'm looking forward to designing her veil. I was hoping to put tulips on it, but she insisted on roses for her bouquet, so…" She shrugged. "I can manage."

Shikamaru barely looked over his shoulder at her. "You can always say no if you don't want to do it, you know."

Ino rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. "You only get married once, Shika-poo."

Shikamaru made a face. "Don't call me that."

Ino fell into step with the Chuunin, peered up into his face. "Say, what does Temari call you when you're alone together?"

Ino couldn't have thought of it possible, but Shikamaru blushed as he looked away. "I feel no responsibility to answer that."

"Aw, come on. It's not like it's going to kill you if I knew."

"She calls him Shika-bear," said a voice from behind them.

Ino whirled around to see Chouji Akimichi sitting on one of the benches in the Hospital Lobby, in his hand was a half-eaten candy bar. Chouji was probably one of the nicest people Ino had ever gotten acquainted to. Because he loved food, and denied himself absolutely nothing, he was rather round and pudgy. The brown-haired boy would not admit it, though, and Ino had known better than to say it in his face.

"How'd you know she calls me Shika-bear?" Shikamaru asked, horror-struck, as he lowered the boy, who looked up at him, right next to Chouji.

"I was behind the ice cream shop when she asked you to buy her a Two-Scooper Mint Chocolate." Chouji grinned from ear to ear after taking a bite of his candy-bar.

Ino laughed gaily, clapping her hands in delight. "She calls you Shika-bear? Ohh, I'm gonna remember that till my wedding day."

Shikamaru only wrinkled his nose testily. That was what Ino hated the most about her teammate; he just did not give her the satisfaction of getting annoyed when she tried to annoy him. Right now, he just got on his knees in front of the boy and started talking to him in hushed whispers.

Seeing no fun in poking at his pet-name, Ino turned to Chouji. "What brings you here in the hospital?"

Chouji gestured to his left arm where a small bandage was. "Gave blood today. You should give blood, too, sometimes."

Ino could not help but crack a grin. "Maybe later. Chouji." With this, she returned her gaze at Shikamaru, who had now ushered the boy into the room where a nurse was waiting for him. "By the way, why did you give Sai your honeymoon gift cards?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, my God. Don't tell me he asked you."

Ino could only laugh. "I would have gone, but the Lady Tsunade would have killed me if I did." She nibbled the nail on her pinky finger. "But I wouldn't mind seeing the rest of that hard body."

"You disgust me."

"I was kidding! Sheesh! I've seen his abs almost everyday for the last two years and the only thing that's crossed my mind is why he never tried to get a tan."

Sakura was never a patient girl. Nope. In fact, she was very impatient. That, and very intolerant. And her situation right now was only feeding more wood into her fire.

And what was worse was she did not have her shoes on.

Stupid Sai had decided to abduct her from her living room without even bothering to check if they did not forget anything. And in the end, as they stood near the main entrance of Onsen Village, both of them barefooted, Sakura could only grab Sai by the scruff of his wet collar and pull him closer to her.

"I didn't mean we could leave now!" she seethed between her teeth.

It took Sai a few seconds to respond. "I apologize." And he smiled at her. She wanted to smash his face in.

She needed to calm down. This was no place to murder Sai, what with public eyes looking at them from all directions. Luckily, the rain had decided to calm down into a drizzle. At least she did not have to get soaked again.

Onsen Village was mainly that, a Village of bath houses. Sitting at the base of a mountain, there were easily about two dozen hot springs in the vicinity. Sakura and Sai had stayed in this village once when the new Team Kakashi went off to its first mission. She had been with Naruto and Captain Yamato then. She had enjoyed their stay then, however short it had been, and Sai and Naruto in each others' throats majority of the time. She had thought of coming back, using one of her days-off, but never in a million years did she think she would be coming back with Sai, of all people.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and started counting from ten backwards. Ten… nine… eight… sev – Whoa!

Hey eyes popped open when Sai had suddenly took her into his arms like a sack of potatoes, hooking one of his hands behind her knees, another around her waist. "Now what do you have in mind? Put me down! This is embarrassing!"

Sai, a dead-serious expression on his face, only shook his head as he looked not at her face, but at her feet. "We don't want to blister your toes."

Sakura winced, but nonetheless allowed him to carry her. It was, after all, his fault that she did not have shoes on. She crossed her arms over her stomach and tried to ignore the stares that came from the people around them. If Tsunade hears some weird scandal, she could easily point everything at Sai.

"The one we are looking for is called the Tsuruga Bath House. Do you know where that is?" Sai asked her, looking around the premises. When Sakura said she did not, Sai shamelessly started walking into every hotel that came their way to ask if that was the Tsuruga Bath House, Sakura still in his arms.

While some of the staff of those hotels simply said no and sent them away with snickers, one was kind enough to lead them to the very edge of the mountain to a bath house that was separated from the rest of the village by a small moat, and the only means to get to there was a tiny ferry with a weird old man stirring it. The Bath House itself was hardly seen from behind the tall Willow trees surrounding the moat.

Sakura beat Sai into putting her down, and she dropped on her feet beside him. This seemed to have caught the old man's attention. He jerked from where he was sitting (he was apparently asleep on his watch) and waved to them. "'Ello der! 'Ulcome to Tsuruga Bath 'ouse. My name be Fred. Shall I takes you lovebirds across?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow and subconsciously adjusted her blouse.

Sai blinked at the old man. "You talk funny."

Sakura's hand snapped and she had Sai by the ear in a second. "Take us across, please."

"O'righty! Hop on."

Sai tried to show the old man, Fred, their Reservation Gift Cards, but the man simply brushed them aside.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Rub it in me face, why dontcha? Damn lucky bastard to get married t 'a pink-haired fairy princess with no shoes… Rub it in me face, buddy! I got married twice already, an' none o' them were pretty pink-haired fairy princesses…" Fred rambled on and on, and Sakura was starting to believe that the old man was not… sane. She was more than happy to disembark the ferry and get away from Fred, who was now talking about fairies being real.

Sai opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura grabbed him again by the ear, and dragged him off, as far away from Fred as possible. She was starting to have negative thoughts about this trip, and was about to voice her thoughts to her companion when she saw the Bath House appear before her. Her jaw dropped.

"Sai?" Sakura asked as her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Yes?"

"Where did you say you got those gift cards?"

"Shikamaru gave them to me. He said Temari doesn't like outings like these… Why?"

Sakura extended her hand to Sai. "Let me have a look at those cards for a minute."

Sai handed her the said cards.

Sakura ran her eyes over them, and groaned at what she saw. She shoved the cards back to Sai. "This is just great…"

The hotel that stood in front of them was made of old polished wood. Three-storey high buildings clustered around each other, their curved roofs where golden storks were perched swooped down elegantly over a rock garden in the middle of the buildings. Steam, obviously from the hot springs, floated in every direction, and the smell of sulfur was unmistakably present. The place was huge… And now she knew why…

"Is there anything wrong?" Sai asked as he, too, observed the Bath House indifferently.

Sakura rubbed her bare feet together self-consciously. "I think we just made a grave mistake coming here…"

But it was too late, as two ladies, most probably at their forties, donned in dark blue kimonos and white aprons, appeared from the entrance of the bath house and collected their gift cards from them.

The older of the two women smiled warmly at them and gave them a low, respectful bow. "Mr. and Mrs. Shikamaru Nara, welcome to Tsuruga Bath House."

Sakura felt the world tilt dangerously to the right, and she found Sai supporting her elbow as she foolishly teetered back, wanting to disappear then and there.

Sai tilted his head curiously. "Hn," was all he said.

Though Naruto had said to Sakura that she would be leaving for the Hyuuga Manor, he found himself jumping into Tsunade's office through the window and nearly colliding with said Hokage as she raised a dumpling to her mouth.

"I'm looking forward to the day when you stop raining into my office, boy." Tsunade settled on her seat without so much as turning one eye at Naruto, who had settled on sitting on the floor in front of her desk.

Naruto gave the lady, looking too young for her age, a searching look. Pursing his lips, his eyes once again narrowed into slits, like a cat.

Tsunade chewed on a dumpling uncaringly. "Your teammates have finished the report, thus giving you no purpose whatsoever to be here. Shouldn't you be stuffing your face with Ichiraku ramen? You know Master Fukusaka will be summoning you anytime soon."

Naruto, momentarily distracted, blinked. But he knew that there were matters better than Ichiraku right now. He was up on his feet in a second and had his palms planted flat on Tsunade's desk. "I need to ask you something."

Tsunade swallowed the dumpling, feeling it slide home. She sipped her tea. "If it's about Sasuke, no. There are no leads on his whereabouts."

Naruto flushed. "It's not that…"

"Then what is it? I'm in the middle of a dumpling break, and dumplings don't taste as good with you breathing down my neck."

Naruto bit his lips. If his mother were alive, he supposed it would be just as hard to ask, but the hell would he ask Kakashi Sensei about these things. He leaned forward. "What does a boyfriend have to do to keep his girlfriend happy?"

Tsunade choked on her tea.

Naruto was suddenly by her side, patting her back gently. "Aww, come on, Granny… Is it that too weird to ask an old lady like you about young stuff like this?"

That got him a smack on the head.

"God help your girlfriend, Naruto..."

The moon found Sakura looking out the private hot spring clad in her yukata, hair pulled back from her face, a piece of fruit sitting on her lap. Sai was on the other end of the hot spring, a towel perched on his head, and he was looking up into the sky, the lower half of his body submerged in the hot water.

Dinner had been wonderful, mostly seafood and vegetables. Sai had barely said a word over the food, but Sakura saw him once or twice looking over her way as if torn between asking or not asking. She had left him alone then, and pigged out on the delectable feast laid out in front of her. She wondered how many pounds she was going to gain, eating this much food for three days.

When Sakura and Sai had been led to their "Honeymoon Suite" (Tatami-floored, minimalistic, and much to her horror, quite romantic), which Sakura thought to be divine, she was scandalized to know that they had to share a hot spring together. Sai, as usual unbothered by their situation, suggested that they didn't necessarily have to take a bath together, and settled on the decision to take baths in turns. As always, the perfect gentleman.

"I want to ask you something," came Sai's voice from his place in the far end of the water.

Sakura squinted at him. With the steam, he was barely visible to her. She took a bite of her fruit. Regardless of the misunderstanding of their marital status, Sakura was actually having fun. "So long as it's not about my eating habits."

Sakura heard him wade into the water lazily and she could see his shadow floating out of sight. "I was wondering… why you said yes when I asked you to come with me here."

Sakura frowned. "Why not? I like hot springs. A free reservation doesn't come along everyday."

"It's just that, I read in a book that girls don't usually accept sudden invitations that got them alone with the opposite sex unless they were committed." She heard faint splashes. "And I was actually expecting you to turn me down."

With this Sakura had to laugh. She swore, sometimes Sai was a pain, but his naiveté was genuine it was starting to be funny. "You and your books. Girls only turn invitations down when they know the guy who gave the invitation is a proven perv who can't keep their hands to themselves."

"Does that mean you trust me?"

Sakura chuckled again. "No. It means I do not see you capable of sexually harassing me. And even if you were, I doubt you would be any good."

The next thing that happened made Sakura instantly regret her words. One moment she was looking up into the sky, eating her fruit, and the next, she was pinned down on the tatami floor with a naked Sai on top of her. "Humans do not need emotions to proceed with the art of love-making, Sakura. It is a primal need, an animal instinct to reproduce. Though I still lack on the emotional department, you'd find me quite handy in bed. Would you like to give me a try?"

Sakura felt her face heat up, and had she not been too startled to think, she would have knocked Sai half-way across the universe with her punches. But there was something in his voice that made her want to listen. One of Sai's hands was resting on her hip, the other arm pressed against her collarbone to keep her down, hand near her face as if frozen in mid-stroke. She tried to get up but he was intent on pinning her down.

"Get off me. Now," she threatened dangerously.

With this, Sai frowned, got off her and sat on his hunches. "That's funny. Weren't you blown away by my sexual charms?"

Sakura gingerly sat up herself, her hand on her racing heart. She swore all the blood in her body was concentrated on her face. In that brief moment, she actually – actually! – thought Sai was sexy.

But she would rather die a long and painful death than admit it to him.

She scoffed. "And I suppose you read that in a book, too?"

His answer nearly had her reeling. "Actually, yes. Do you know the book Icha-Icha Tactics Kakashi Sensei always carries around with him? For some reason, he lent it to me. And the hero was portrayed to be an aggressive man who got his way with women. Kakashi Sensei said that most women love dominant men when it comes to making love." Now he looked really confused. "But you didn't look too happy… so could the book be wrong?"

Sakura merely looked at him for the longest possible time, then threw him his Yukata that was neatly folded a few feet from her. "You, Sai, are a jerk."

More confusion. "Why?" He pulled his yukata on.

"Only jerks push themselves on women without even thinking about their feelings. Women who don't have a certain attraction to men, whether it be deep or shallow, do not engage in… sex… " she blushed at her own explanation.

With this, Sakura thought the conversation would be over, but she was mistaken.

Because Sai asked her a question that made her heart skip another beat. "Don't you think I'm attractive?"

…

The truth was, she did…

How many times had she compared him to Sasuke? The way he talked, and his dark hair and eyes. The similarities were too uncanny to not notice. Sakura had wondered time and again, if Sasuke were as tall as Sai was. And if he still grew his hair long, flaring it behind his ears.

She felt a stinging sensation in her chest, and she turned away from Sai. "It's my turn to take a bath," she informed him softly, and made her way to the water. "Don't look, all right?"

The answer she got was a gentle opening and closing of the door when Sai left the room wordlessly, either to respect her privacy, or simply because she did not answer his question directly. Sakura closed her eyes, took off her yukata and jumped into the hot water uncaringly, feeling it wrap her body in a comfortably protective shell.

Sai had an open canvas in front of him, a piece of blue crayon in his right hand as he looked out into the rock garden opposite the hot springs where Sakura was taking her bath. His first day with her was turning out to be one of the most confusing ones he's ever had. It was like peeling an onion. He would be able to peel off one layer only to be stuck with another. But what made it more confusing was he felt like he was peeling two onions. And he had no idea as to why he thought so.

Am I… unattractive to the opposite sex? Unattractive enough to be underestimated when it came to that...?

He poised the crayon a few centimeters from the canvas, and was once again lost in thought. The extinguishing of the night torches in the rock garden made him snap back to his senses. It had been one and a half hours since he opened the canvas in front of him, and he could only grimly look at it. He did not get one single inspiration to draw that night. Tucking his materials under his arm, he got up and proceeded to enter the room he was going to share with Sakura, only to find the pink-haired girl sitting on the edge of the springs, the lower half of her yukata soaked, her hair dripping wet, and in her hands was something – something – that Sai, by all means, thought she should not be eating.

When they were led into their room, they were presented with three boxes of Fire Whiskey Chocolates, compliments of the management of the Bath House. And much to Sai's displeasure, she was already halfway through her third box.

Dropping his art materials carelessly on the tatami floor, he picked up one of the discarded boxes of the said chocolates and chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully. Forty percent alcohol… the girl could as well have drunk five bottles of rice wine after eating that much chocolate…

"Is that you, Sas – Sai?" Sakura whirled around, throwing one of her legs over the rocks, splashing water everywhere.

"I think we've had enough of this, don't you think?" Sai tried to snatch the box of chocolates from her, but she pulled it away from him. She nearly fell back into the water had Sai not grabbed her arm and pulled her back to safety.

The act of chivalry was left unnoticed. She snapped her arm back and wrapped it around the box of chocolates protectively. "Why is it… why is it that when I start to like something, life always wants to take it away from me?"

Sai, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about, took another chance at taking the chocolates away from her. "You are drunk from too much alcohol and sugar. I think we should put this away."

"NO!" Sakura lashed out at him blindly. Sai caught her wrist, reached his long arm over her shoulder and succeeded in plucking the chocolates from her. He slid it over the tatami floor, out of reach.

That was when she lost it. She turned to him angrily. "Is it too wrong to take what you want, Sai?"

Sai adjusted his yukata around him, and sat down comfortably in front of her. "No. Unless that something belongs to someone else. Then, that would be stealing."

She wiped at tears that did not fall. "He was never mine, he was no one's. And I had loved him the moment I saw him… " she extended her arms pleadingly to him. "I heard a rumor that he liked girls with long hair, and so I grew mine. I chased after his standards, tried my best, and nearly got there. But I was never enough. He had to leave. And I tried to stop him, but I was too weak… Just too weak."

Sai patiently listened to her drunken ranting, because he knew who she was talking about. He knew it too well. It was like Sasuke's ghost was always hanging around her. She seldom mentioned him, but he could almost feel the rouge nin haunting her wake when she was not busy, when she did not have anything better to think about.

"What I am now, I became because I wanted to bring him back. My strength was because of him. Everything was about him! With him gone, what am I going to be?" she gave a small hiccup, making Sai smile a bit.

He reached out to her, just how he had reached for her desperately in that raging river. "You will be Sakura. No more, no less. And that in itself is a task."

She looked at him doubtfully, but nonetheless took his hand. Sai gently took off her wet yukata, careful not to look at her body unless necessary, slipped his yukata of his own shoulders and wrapped her in it. Thankfully, he had his shorts on. "You should have known better than to take a bath with your clothes on." He scooped her up into his arms again, took her to the next room where the maids had prepared two futons for them.

Sakura drowsily blinked her eyes as Sai put her down on one of the futons. That was when she took notice of his bare arm where the ANBU symbol was tattooed on his pale skin. She traced it with one shaky finger. She smiled. "Tattoos are cool, huh? I'd like to have a tattoo someday. Maybe of a butterfly. Or a dragon…"

Sai watched as she giggled at the randomness of what she said. He looked over the dresser not too far away, reached for one of his palettes and paintbrushes. He turned back to her. "A butterfly would suit you fine, I think."

She beamed at him after giving another hiccup.

"Where would you like it?"

Sakura lazily traced his tattoo again. "Right where yours is. Yeah, it would look cool on my arm…"

Sai watched as she rolled on her side. Shaking his head ruefully, he sat down on her futon, leaned his back against the wall. He was supposed to pull Sakura towards him, until she suddenly slumped her head on his lap.

"I changed my mind. I'd love it on my shoulder… On the left one… no, on the right… " She stifled a yawn, and then stopped moving.

Sai stared at her pink head in wonder. Who was this vulnerable creature in front of him? He had seen so many faces of Sakura but this has got to be the weakest yet. It was not as if he did not value this side of her. But it just made him even more confused than necessary.

Did love make humans this weak? Was bringing back Sasuke that worth it for this girl? He wondered...

With steady fingers, he gently brushed Sakura's yukata off of her shoulder, in this case, the right one, dipped his brush in dark red ink and started to draw her request of a butterfly. It was probably going to wash away when she took a bath again tomorrow, but somehow, painting something on her skin was so alluringly tempting that he could not help himself.

He glanced at her toes peeking from under her blankets, smiled, then concentrated on her shoulder.

Meh, I had wanted it to be a bit more romantic, but I guess nothing could be more unromantic than a drunk Sakura and a still emotionally-invalid Sai… XD

Once in a while, you'd notice snippets of other characters in between Sai and Sakura moments. This is for plot development later, by the way. You might not really like them, but I just love every single character in Naruto. Except Sasuke, maybe. Well, I don't really HATE him. Hate is such a strong word. I just really, really dislike him. LOL. Sooo sorry, Sasuke fans. Unless he shows something worth liking in Shippuuden, I stand my ground.

Thank you so much for the reviews and faves! XD I see you are enjoying your Hinata plushies! If you put her on your shoulder, she automatically vomits all over you! Give it a try!.

Review for this chapter, too? Yes? You know I love you all. XD

Please? – makes heart shape with fingers -