Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.

When Naruto left with Master Jiraiya to train outside the village, and came back after two and a half years, it was one of the happiest moments in Sakura's life.

And that was also the same day Naruto had denied her the courtesy of complimenting her femininity.

"So, what do you think? Am I more womanly now?"

"Don't worry, Sakura! You haven't changed at all!"

She had punched the living daylights out of him after attempting to perform his perverted jutsu. That had been quite satisfying in itself?

The truth was, it wasn't just Naruto who had rubbed it in her face that she was just too strong to be feminine. After the desire to bring back Sasuke had convinced her to approach Tsunade for direction, her strength had grown in biblical proportions. She was no longer the damsel in distress who needed protecting. And although she had more than once tried to convince herself that this was what she had wanted, there had been instances she wished she were a bit more lady-like, like Hinata, or Ino, when she could depend, even for just a short period of time, on a man.

The fact that she could admit this to herself, made her feel – even just a little bit – that she had at least severed whatever feelings she had for Sasuke Uchiha.

That and because she tended on loving being weak in front of Sai, and Sai seemed to enjoy being the protector.

That fateful night of Sasuke's escape and their shared kiss in the dark forest, Sai had opted carrying her on piggy-back while she had her face buried on the crook of his neck. The familiar scent of parchment and charcoal filled her senses to the point of drowsiness, and she felt content to have him not say anything until they've reached the village.

It was still dark when they made it to the hospital, and although Sakura had spent majority of her probation in said building, coming here as a patient at this hour felt… weird.

The hospital doors were thrown wide open and the hallway's lights were only half-lit. The familiar scent of disinfectant and alcohol made Sakura open her eyes and raise her head from Sai's shoulder.

At the end of the hallway appeared a lithe form in a robe and furry slippers.

It was Ino, her long hair usually in a high pony tail, was freely cascading down her back. The girl saw them, gave a start and rushed towards them, a worried expression on her face.

Sakura felt her arms unconsciously tighten around Sai's neck, the jealousy bubbling inside her again.

Much to her surprise, Ino completely ignored Sai and had her hands on Sakura's face, peering into her eyes worriedly.

"Her eyes are unfocused, and her breathing is irregular." Her fingers glowed a faint green as they lightly trailed down her neck, arms and back. "I don't sense any major damage, but it would be best to have her lie down."

Sakura felt herself being lowered by Sai, and Ino was instantly supporting her.

That was when Ino turned to Sai and said, "Thank you. For bringing her back."

Sakura felt her hand grip Ino's wrist gingerly. "Naruto…?" she muttered. She had seen Naruto stab himself in an attempt to make it look like Sasuke had been forceful about his escape, and although Naruto's healing abilities were undeniably outstanding, Sakura wanted to know if he was all right.

Before Ino could answer, Naruto rounded the corner, dragging along with him a mop and bucket. It was then did Sakura notice that the floor was splattered with blood.

Naruto, his middle wrapped in white bandages stained red, looked up and waved at them, leaning casually, if not limply, on his mop. "Sakura! Sai!" he called to them.

"What on earth are you doing?" Ino demanded as she returned Sakura against Sai and ran to Naruto, giving his head a couple of bops with her knuckle.

"Ow! I'm cleaning my blood off your hospital floor, what does it look like I'm doing?" Naruto said as he shrank away from Ino, who snatched the mop from him. Ino then grabbed the bucket and started hauling it down the hall as she grumbled something about stupid idiots not knowing what was good for them.

Sakura, despite herself, grinned. She tried to approach Naruto, nearly stumbled in the attempt. Sai's caught her easily.

"Don't force yourself," Sai said silently, squeezing her shoulder.

Sakura nodded to him wordlessly, then turned to her other teammate. "Naruto."

Naruto's head snapped up and was by her side in a second, worry marring his whiskered face.

Sakura reached out a hand to him, and the blonde quickly intertwined his fingers with hers. Sai, seeing this, gently let Sakura go. She collapsed against the Jinchuuriki's chest.

"How are you?" Naruto asked, his arm around her waist to keep her up.

"Sasuke's gone…" Sakura whispered in his ear as she gripped his shirt with a shaky hand "We… did the right thing, right? Naruto?" She wanted to hear from him the answer. Of all the people who had been involved with Sasuke Uchiha, no one had the better answer than Naruto.

There was a glassy look in her teammate's blue eyes, and it took him a while before he could answer. "We did the right thing, Sakura. It's… better this way." And he looked away.

Sakura's grip tightened on him. "Do you promise you'll never try to come after him again? Because I'll worry, and Sai will worry. And Hinata – "

The sound of the heiress' name made Naruto look up, a strange expression crossing his face. It was gone at once, as if it hadn't been there at all. And then he took to staring at Sai intently. "I always thought…" Naruto said. "… that if you keep on thinking about someone, he'll come back to you. Sakura and I, and Kakashi-sensei, we've been hoping against hope that Sasuke will come back to us."

Sakura watched Sai's face, as always devoid of expression.

Naruto squeezed Sakura's hand. "But if that person doesn't even want to be remembered, I guess there's really nothing we can do." He looked down at her. "You're okay with this, aren't you?"

Sakura bit her lip. She had asked herself over and over again, what ever made her want Sasuke to come home. She had made a long list in her head five years ago of the reasons why she needed him back. She couldn't remember a single one in that list at the moment.

It was over.

She knew that being a kunoichi didn't simply mean fighting on, but also about giving up.

She nodded. "Let's end this."

Naruto's blue eyes twinkled as he nodded at Sakura, then gently guided her back into Sai's arms. Grinning his trademark grin, he raised his hand in a thumbs-up sign at the two of them and said, "We should get our picture taken together. The new Team Seven."

Sakura, for all it was worth, rubbed at the side of her eye before a tear fell. She felt Sai's embrace tighten around her, and she nodded. "I'd love that."

Sai, whose pale face slightly colored and those glassy black eyes closed pleasantly, smiled one of those rare, genuine smiles of his. "I would love that, too."

The following day bombarded the Lady Tsunade with news of Taka escaping from the Correctional Facility. This had caused the elders to grill the Hokage even more. For three whole days, the whole village had been under surveillance and the elders even went so far as to ordering ANBU members to trail Neji, Naruto, Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru. As expected, no one even dared try to trail Kakashi-sensei, much to Naruto's annoyance.

In the end, no one was able to prove anyone had anything to do with the jail-break.

This got Tsunade in such a good mood that she allotted a whole day to Sakura for her training.

"To tell you honestly, I'm surprised everything went well," Sakura confessed as she took a sip of her water bottle. It was just past noon and the sun was hot against her skin. She and Tsunade had taken refuge under a tree for a few minutes' break.

"Of course it went well. It was my idea after all," Tsunade scoffed, as if offended that Sakura even thought of doubting her.

Sakura looked over to her. "What I meant was, how you got everyone to cooperate with the plan. Especially Naruto. He was, after all, the most desperate to get Sasuke back."

"And you weren't?"

Sakura blushed. "How many times do I have to apologize, Master Tsunade?"

Tsunade had to laugh, but the laugh was instantly cut off as she leaned her head back against the tree trunk. "Naruto, of all people, had been the most eager to let Sasuke escape."

Sakura found that hard to believe. "How so?"

Tsunade closed her eyes slowly. "It's because the mate the elders had chosen for Sasuke Uchiha… was Hinata Hyuuga."

Sakura nearly choked on her water bottle. "WHAT?"

"The elders were convinced to keep the Sharingan alive in the Leaf, and the Hyuuga blood seemed to be the… 'most promising' of the clans in the village. Hiashi has also been pressuring Hinata for an heir, now that she's almost of age. When the elders asked Hinata's father, the man couldn't refuse, even when he looked quite hesitant about it."

Sakura felt the blood drain from her face. "Does… did… Hinata know?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Only those who attended Sasuke's trial knew. So Kakashi and Naruto had been the first to pitch in with the plan." The Hokage wrinkled her nose in disgust. "They will do no such thing to the next generation of this village. Not in my reign."

It took a while before Sakura could actually recover from what Tsunade had just told her. The very thought made Sakura want to throw up.

"Naruto almost went mad when the verdict was announced. When I proposed to him my idea, he was almost deliriously ready to do anything. It was rare to see him follow orders so willingly."

In Sakura's mind, she remembered the look on Naruto's face when he came over the hospital to tell her the outcome of Sasuke's trial, the desperate look on his face before he stabbed himself with his own kunai, and the detached expression he had when they met in the hospital. It was because… he had known…

Tsunade snatched the water bottle from Sakura's hand and threw it over her shoulder. "Well, at least everything went well."

Sakura looked at her. She knew what the older lady meant. She lowered her head shyly and she fiddled with her ankle weights. "Everything went well, yes."

Tsunade placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up. "We shinobi seldom receive the convenience of finding love in a battlefield. So when you do find it, you hold on to it, if it means risking your life for it. You got that?"

Sakura smiled ruefully. "I never imagined you to be the romantic."

"I'm not a romantic; I'm a realist. Besides, I do not want you risking destroying one of my most efficient teams by having little lovers' quarrels here and there when I send you and Sai together in a mission."

Sakura blushed. "We are very professional when it comes to our work."

Tsunade raised her eyebrow. "Right. So if I send just you and Sai without Yamato or Naruto, I would be able to count on you and Sai to keep your hands off each other while sharing the same tent?"

Sakura's blush deepened.

"As I expected."

"It's not like that!" Sakura blurted out as she reached out with her hands in plea.

Tsunade watched her intently until she continued.

"Sai and I are back together, but… things aren't the same as before…"

She was not exaggerating when she said this. The night of Sasuke's escape, Sai had brought her home from the hospital after Ino treated her light bruises and gave her a weak dose of morphine. She had been weak, but sane enough to grab his arm after he laid her down on her bed.

She had invited him to stay.

Sai had smiled at her and agreed, but he had slept in the other room. This continued for the whole week, and even though he would come home to her every night after a mission, he would kiss her lightly on her forehead, and still insist on sleeping in his own bed, or on the couch.

And Sakura was either too proud or too embarrassed to ask him to come to bed with her, though she was dying to feel his body against her once more. She had kept this small detail from him, thinking that if he thought distancing himself from her was a good enough revenge for her mistakes, then so be it. It was, after all, all her fault. It was punishment enough that he would be so understanding as to not bring up her blunderings on everyday conversation. For someone who used to be so tactless and insensitive, Sakura had been surprised to see him being so… un-Sai-like.

Sakura snapped out of her reverie when Tsunade's voice boomed in her ear.

"We've had enough of that. Back to training."

Sakura nodded and was up on her feet in an instant.

Tsunade, as always, did not waste time. She was gone the moment Sakura had turned to face her.

With the thoughts of Hinata in her head, and her heart heavy with thoughts of Sai, she felt herself tensing as she waited for Tsunade's opening attack.

Tsunade had sent the Retrieval Team plus Team Ten to deliver provisions in the form of food and medicine to the late Yue's shelters. Sai at first had declined the Hokage's orders for two reasons. One, he did not know how to react to whatever emotions he was going to feel when he visited the place where his past could have been. And two, he did not want to get separated from Sakura. Both reasons were tossed out the window by Tsunade.

For the last week, things had been strangely… off… between them. It had nothing to do with her. It was all him. There was just – something – that was making him stay away for some reason. At first he thought it had been pride that was making him keep his distance.

In the end he found out it was fear.

Fear of what, he did not know. All he understood was that it wasn't a good feeling. But there had been times when he'd feel her eyes on him when he'd walk away from her after kissing her out of habit. And there had been moments when she would raise her fingers to his face as if to touch his cheek – or flick his nose? – but she would always stop midway and drop her hand altogether and smile uncertainly at him.

And that was when Sai had realized that it wasn't just him who was keeping away, but Sakura as well.

When he asked Ino for help, she had shaken her head at him in frustration and told him to fix it by himself. "Do I have to do everything for you guys?" she had said and muttered about love-struck couples who can't handle things on their own while she walked away.

Sai rubbed his temple in… irritation. Yes, that was the perfect emotion as his eyes bore holes behind Ino's head, who was kneeling in front of the lump of loose soil where they had buried Yue's crystal coffin. Hinata, Kiba and Chouji were kneeling with her in front of the grave, saying silent prayers, or whatever you say when you were in front of a grave.

Sai couldn't even bring himself to go near it. He did not even know why. At the back of his mind, he remembered the raccoon he and Sakura had buried in the training grounds not too long ago. The regret he felt then somehow resembled the feeling he had right now, only worse. He regretted having not listened to Yue when he tried to propose the prospect of Sai having parents. He regretted the loss of the titled drawings hanging in the shelter walls before it burned down, especially when there was a possibility that it was Sai who had drawn them when he was young.

Along with regret… came the pain. It was as if an invisible needle was continuously piercing at his heart, making him wince. He did not know Yue's death would affect him this much. There were so many things left unsaid, so many things left undone.

Sai closed his eyes and turned his back on the grave. He was surprised to find Guren looking at him with those cold eyes of hers.

"Good afternoon," Sai greeted her. Always a greeting to start a conversation. Always polite.

Guren jerked her head towards the grave where Sai's fellow Leaf nin were still kneeling. "Aren't you going to say goodbye?"

Sai lowered his chin, but did not let his eyes leave her face. "He was a stranger to me."

"He could have been something… more."

That was the truth. Once again, regret threatened his heartstrings. He nodded. "It was my choice to shut him out. It was my choice not to know."

Guren looked at him for the longest possible time, then, "Walk with me a bit."

Sai frowned at her. There had been only one time did he get to interact with this woman, and that had been in battle. Aside from the fact that she was capable of crushing him on a whim, she scared him. There was always something scary with women who had big breasts.

"All right," Sai finally agreed, and he let Guren lead the way.

It turns out that Yamato did a great job with the new shelters. Everything was made of polished wood and well-shaped rafters and banisters, not to mention it was huge. Sai did not doubt it was spacious in the inside, too. Yamato even had the kindness and the childlike imagination as to build a playground behind the building, composed of a fairly huge jungle gym, three slides and several see-saws and swings.

"It was two years ago that I got to know Yue. Yuukimaru was hungry, and I was desperate enough to steal food when Yue invited us in for dinner. They didn't have a lot, but he was willing enough to share. Ever since, I dropped by on occasion to help around with the children," Guren started as she gestured at the playground where several children were playing.

"What will happen to the children now that Yue's gone?" Sai asked.

"I will take care of them. I will be picking up Yuukimaru later and we plan on staying here. Just until things stabilize."

"That would make everyone very happy, I'm sure."

Guren started to observe him again. Sai had to look away. It was like one of those penetrating stares Ino gave him when she wanted him to say the things heavy in his mind. "I can tell you all about him, or at least everything I know about him."

Sai could only blink. Guren was offering him a glimpse of his possible past. Just like Yue offered him his possible past. Sai's stomach started to do cartwheels. She was giving him a second chance!

Guren, those sharp eyes, continued to look at him eerily. "But even if I tell you, it would be like hearing about a completely different person."

Sai bit the inside of his cheek as his dark eyes met her bright ones.

She smiled. "My past had haunted me with regrets. And there were times when I wished I could turn back time and redo the mistakes I've done before. There had been moments I wished I were dead, if that would relieve me of my guilt of the sins I've done in my past." She looked away, back to the children innocently playing by the shelters. "Until I met Yuukimaru."

Sai was taken aback. He did not know why this perfect stranger was talking to him. He did not know why he was intent on listening.

Guren continued. "What I want to say is, I can tell you so many things about Yue, but they would only be just that: stories. I can see it in your eyes, the desire to know."

Sai bowed his head. "I had wanted a name," he said truthfully.

"What's in a name?"

Sai opened his mouth, closed it. He shook his head. "Nothing? Everything? Who knows?"

Guren suddenly touched his shoulder. Sai's skin began to crawl. "A name doesn't define who you are. A past doesn't define who you are."

"I…" Sai looked down at his shoulder where she touched him. He remembered having said the same thing to Sakura, that her past doesn't define who she was. Sai nodded. "You're right, Guren."

The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip meanly. "Tsubaki," she corrected sweetly.

"Tsubaki," Sai repeated quickly and he shrugged her hand off.

"When you find your special someone, you'll realize that everything – your past, your name, your mistakes – will not matter compared to what you have at the moment."

Sai rubbed his shoulder gingerly, but felt his heart skip at what Guren just said to him. Thoughts of pink hair, green eyes and salty cake filled his mind, and he smiled. "I think I already have," he said.

Guren nodded. "Don't ever let go, then."

"Hey! Sai!"

Sai looked over his shoulder to see Ino and Hinata waving at him.

"You ungrateful little cretin! Show Yue some respect and pray!" Kiba yelled at him.

"You'd better hurry, Sai. We have to get back to the village as soon as possible of we're going to miss the bachelor party we're throwing for Shikamaru!" Chouji added.

The thought made Sai cringe. He had read about bachelor parties from books borrowed from Kakashi-sensei. The knowledge of strippers jumping out of cakes dressed as half-naked bunny rabbits paraded in his head and he nearly shuddered.

He waved back. "I'll be right over." He turned to Guren. "Thank you…" he said, still quite unused to the words used when showing gratitude. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again some time."

Guren had to raise an eyebrow at him, but she smiled nonetheless. "Tell Naruto that Yuukimaru would love to see him."

Sai nodded. "I will." And he hurried off to his friends.

The fields in the eastern outskirts of the Village were memorable for Sakura. This was where she and Ino had become friends. And this was where their rivalry began.

The memory of her childhood made her smile as she plucked a daisy in front of her and added it to the basket of assorted flowers at her side.

"I was never really good at this," Tenten grumbled as she threw aside a dandelion. "Tell me again why I have to help you gather these?"

"Because you said you'd like to contribute something for Temari's wedding, and since Ino and Hinata aren't here yet, it's up to us friends to do our best and – "

" – Okay, okay. I get it," Tenten said as she threw her hands in mock surrender. "But if I end up gathering weird weeds instead of flowers, don't blame it on me."

Sakura could only shake her head at the brown-haired girl. Though Tenten was not in her batch, she had more than once wondered if they took the same classes when Tenten was still in the Academy. The weapons master didn't seem to have the faintest idea on flowers. "Hinata will sort them out for us. She's intent on pressing these flowers to use as a decoration for the Nara wedding album."

Tenten could only frown, but before she could complain even more, Ino and Hinata were seen stalking up the hill towards them, talking loudly about something that concerned bunny girls and cake. Tenten sighed in relief and waved at them with both arms. "Over here!"

Sakura was on her knees too and waved at them as well. "Welcome back. How was the mission?"

Hinata daintily tucked her legs under her the moment she reached them and smiled happily. "We've successfully delivered the provisions to the shelters. Sai and the others are getting debriefed of the mission by the Hokage and they told us we can go on ahead and help with the preparations for the wedding arrangements."

Ino collapsed in front of them, sending blades of grass flying everywhere. She started digging in the basket of flowers Sakura had and plucked an offending dandelion from the batch. "Dandelions are weeds. Who put this in here?" she demanded as she shook the weed violently before dropping it on the ground.

Tenten took a sudden interest on the cloudless sky above them.

Ino gave her a nasty look and was about to say something when Neji suddenly appeared a distance away from behind a tree, arms crossed over his chest, those cold eyes roaming the field. Those eyes stopped the moment they found the girls sitting on the grass.

Hinata's face colored and she gave her cousin a faint wave. Neji, in return, nodded at her slightly, but Sakura didn't miss the slight smile that tugged on the older Hyuuga's lips. The smile, however, vanished when those pearly white eyes landed on Tenten.

Tenten raised an eyebrow at him, shook her head briskly.

Neji jerked his head back.

Tenten blushed.

The suspicious exchange did not go unnoticed from Ino's sharp and very observant eyes, which by that time had narrowed snidely at Tenten. "You two aren't … together, are you?"

Hinata blinked.

Sakura's eyes widened at Tenten, did a double-take at the Hyuuga who was still staring at them a few hundred feet away, then blanched. Tenten? Dating Neji? It was like… dating… Gaara… minus the sand….

Tenten, much to Sakura's wonder, shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "No."

Ino leaned back on her elbows as she looked over her shoulder at Neji. Sometimes, Sakura thought Ino could read minds without even using her jutsu. This was, perhaps, a good thing for her career as an Interrogations Specialist. "So is it just me, or is he acting like an impatient boyfriend over there?"

Tenten laughed as she got up, brushed her bottom and smiled down at Ino. "Neji is always impatient with me and Lee." And with that, she ran off to meet with Neji, who tapped her roughly on the shoulder. Tenten countered with a punch, but Neji caught it with his hand, where it lingered for a second too long before they let go and started to walk off towards the direction of the training grounds. They were not holding hands, but the way their shoulders brushed against each other nagged at Sakura's imagination to no end.

"They're dating, yes?" Hinata asked timidly. Like Sakura, she too was looking after them until they disappeared over the hill.

Ino shrugged her shoulders lightly then fell flat on her back on the grass. "She likes him, and he finds her presence comforting. But aside from that, there's nothing going on."

Sakura looked at her doubtfully. "Is there such a thing?"

Ino pointed at Hinata. "It's not too different from Naruto and Hinata before they started dating. Naruto finds Hinata a comforting constant, and Hinata was content on basking in Naruto's presence. The only difference is that Neji and Tenten aren't that obvious with it."

Hinata's face once again started to color. "It's different w-with Na-na-naruto!"

"What's different with Naruto?" Naruto asked as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere right behind Hinata, his arms already slithering around the Hyuuga's waist and rubbing his cheek against hers like a contented cat.

Hinata's face turned from pink to red. Naruto had always been generous with physical displays of affection, and Hinata had sort of – sort of – gotten used to it, but the heiress would still sometimes end up getting a bit overwhelmed.

Sakura bit her lower lip. Ever since Sasuke's escape, Naruto had been especially clingy to his girlfriend. And Sakura now knew the reason why.

"I'm stealing Hinata away for a few hours, if that's all right with you," Naruto said, squeezing Hinata's shoulders lovingly.

Ino, who was also used to all of this too, yawned and waved them away. "Shoo. Have fun and do what you always do." Ino rolled onto her belly and smiled slyly. "Don't overwhelm her too much, Naruto."

Naruto gave Ino his trademark fox grin, and before Hinata could even say a word, the two had disappeared in a whirl of smoke and leaves.

Ino yawned again. "Ah, young love…"

Sakura stared at the blonde like she had sprouted horns. "You make it sound like… you're a forty year old lady who missed getting married."

Ino grinned at her, looking so much like Naruto's foxy grin. "That's from someone who's made up with her boyfriend and is telling me this to make me feel bad that I don't have a man of my own?"

Sakura smiled ruefully at her and poked Ino's cheek, making the girl roll away a few times from her in case she poked her again. Sakura pulled her knees up to her chest and said, "I'm jealous of you."

Ino raised one eyebrow at her as she propped her head on her hand. "Eh?"

"Ever since we were children, I had always been jealous of you." Sakura laughed weakly. "Would it sound weird if I told you I get jealous when Sai spends time with you?"

Ino stared at her a full minute before scratching her head. "Sakura, when we were kids, we broke off our friendship because of a guy. Because of Sasuke. When we look back at it, was it ever even worth it?"

Sakura blinked, and she found herself lying on the grass parallel to Ino. "That bastard."

"Yeah. That bastard," Ino reiterated, falling back on the grass.

And they were silent.

Sakura watched the blue sky above them. It was annoying that there wasn't even a single cloud for her to watch. "I… love Sai. Making that big mistake made me realize just how much I love him. And I was just wondering… if – "

"I probed his mind," Ino interrupted her silently.

Sakura closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening it again. "Why?"

"Because he was being an idiot."

"All men are idiots."

"Only when they're in love." Ino rolled towards her and ended up bumping her shoulders with Sakura's. "That guy's head contains nothing else but you. You have no reason to be jealous." She nudged her. "Haven't we had enough fights over guys?"

"We're not fighting."

"We could end up fighting about it."

"Over Sai? I doubt that, Sakura." Ino laughed.

Sakura laughed with her. And they laughed until their stomach hurt, until there were tears pouring out of their eyes, and until they couldn't laugh anymore. After a few minutes they found themselves silently lying side by side, staring at a cloudless sky and holding each other's hand.

Ino sat up when they heard someone's footsteps coming towards them. "Your man's here," she said, giving Sakura a small nudge.

Sakura merely grunted as she looked over her bangs. Sai walking upside down towards them made her heart beat fast.

Ino waved at Sai. "Hello! How did the debriefing go?"

Sai waved back at Ino. "Long, and boring. What are you two doing, lying on the grass?"

Ino was up on her feet, brushing her skirt and giving Sai a stiff salute. "We were talking about lewd things that Sakura wants to do to you when you get home. Everything starts with getting you out of your clothes."

Sakura nearly choked on her own spit when she scrambled to her feet. "Ino!"

Sai blinked. "My clothes?"

Ino hastily grabbed the basket full of flowers and was running up the hill before Sakura was able to grab her. "I'll see you two lovebirds around!" And she vanished over the hill, skipping happily.

Sai looked after her, totally confused. He turned to Sakura. "Did she mean you had wanted to undress me?" he asked seriously.

Sakura nearly fainted. She rubbed her arm self-consciously. "That wasn't what we were talking about… "

Sai tilted his head to the right. "You don't want to undress me?"

Sakura wanted the ground to open up and swallow her alive. "It's not that!"

"So you want me to undress?"

Sakura had her hand on her forehead, feeling slightly sick. "Yes…?" she said feebly.

Sai paused, blinked, then after a while, started to unzip his top. "All right…" he said, confused.

"Not here!" She screamed as she lunged at Sai's hands. The conversation was starting to get out of hand. She decided to change the subject. "We should go home. You're attending the bachelor's party in Otafuku Gai, right?"

Sai stared down at her, still looking confused, but squeezed her fingers gently nonetheless. "The mere concept of it disturbs me. Can I not to go instead?"

It was Sakura's turn to look confused. "Why?"

"Aren't strippers scary? I borrowed a book from Kakashi-sensei where there were strippers involved, and they jump out of cakes dressed as rabbits, and they take all your money. I don't think I'd want them to take all my money."

Sakura stared at him unblinkingly. After a moment, she burst out laughing. "Oh, god. Is that all? You don't have to worry about them. They would be too busy with the groom-to-be that they would hardly notice you!" She doubted it, though. Sai was too good-looking to be ignored by women.

In the midst of her laughter, Sai's arms were suddenly around her, and the next second he had pinned her against a tree. Fast bastard. She gasped when he roughly pressed his body against hers. "I'd rather have you undress me," he whispered against her ear, making her shiver.

Sakura let out a yelp, her eyes shifting to make sure no one was looking at them. Fortunately for her, the fields were empty, because Sai's hand had started taking an interest on a sensitive spot in her inner thigh. She wondered what on earth had taken over him, when for the past week he had been more than distant and shared nothing with her but a few pecks.

"S-sai! Not here! What's gotten into you?" she demanded, but nonetheless not making a move to stop him when he started to abuse her neck. He seemed to have a fetish with necking.

His lips trailed from her neck to her ear. "Because I love you for what I am, when I'm with you," he whispered. "I wouldn't have much to offer, not a past, not a name. But I was kind of hoping you'd like to share the future with me, as you're sharing your present with me now."

Sakura's eyes widened. "I'd love to share the future with you, Sai." That wasn't a proposal, was it? As Sai started to trail more wet kisses down her neck to her shoulder, she closed her eyes and sighed. Knowing Sai, it couldn't possibly be a proposal.

"I don't know your size, so I was hoping you'd like to get the ring together. After Temari and Shikamaru's wedding?"

Sakura went rigid. "EH?"

Sai pulled back from her, smiled that creepy smile that never really reached his eyes. "Let's go home so you could undress me." And with that familiar hand sign, they were gone so fast in a poof of smoke that Sakura couldn't even react.

A/N: I was aiming for more fluff, but decided to leave it all out for the last chapter. Sai and Sakura are so fun to write about. XD

One more chapter to goooooooooo!