( Disclaimer: I Don't own NARUTO! They belong to His Highness Masashi Kishimoto! )

Chapter Eighteen - A Beautiful Lie

Sakura walked slowly down the wet street of Konoha and she was feeling more miserable then she usually did. Not because of the really gloomy, wet, early spring weather they had got, but because of what she did two weeks ago.

She was feeling guilt. Guilt over what she had done to Kakashi and what she still did to him. She hadn't meant to run away like that in the middle of the night, leaving him alone in his bed after they had made love and after he had fallen asleep. But she couldn't stay with him any longer, not after what they had done. It would hurt even more if she stayed longer then necessary.

Why had she been so stupid? She knew that he had warned her and yet she had turned a deaf ear to him and begging him for more. Knowing it would hurt her just more. That was why she had began to avoid him after she had fled his apartment that night. And now, when he come knocking on her door, she refused to open and pretended that she wasn't at home (obviously he knew she was at home, because he had shouted through her front door, saying that he knew she was at home and if she didn't turn her pretty little ass out right at the moment, he would break down the door and drag her out), but he had never broken down the door like he often threatened her with. And maybe he was learning that he wouldn't get far with it, but yet it bothered her that he suddenly just stopped to wait for her outside of her home and stopped to knock on her door. He had even stopped to call after her when he had spotted her out in the steet.

Well, she hadn't answered him either on that one. She had more or less ignored him, like she had done five years ago. But she was still, somehow, deeply missing him calling her name when ever he was near. But she knew that he was always close by, because he had always let out some chakra when she came close enough to him (even if she didn't see him) and she felt safe when he did so. But now, even that had stopped and she began to feel even more guilty then before. She could understand if he hated her at the moment and maybe that was a good sign, because if he did hate her it would be much easier to just let everything go.

"...Haruno Sakura! On Mars the 28th you are to travel to your new home and to your future husband..." Homura told Sakura, who just glared to them.

"Future... Husband...?" she mumbled.

"Aaa... The on you have been proposed to..."

Sakura glanced to the old hag Koharu in shock. She didn't know what to say anymore.

"You-You can't be serious?" Naruto suddenly shouted, making the shocked Sakura to jump slightly. "You can't take Sakura-Chan away from Konoha! We need her to be here, with us! Here in Konoha!"

"Konoha doesn't need her if she is pregnant..." Koharu said sharply to Naruto who didn't wince the slightes. "It's what Konoha's laws says..."

"Screw the laws! We need Sakura here!" Naruto growled.

"Aren't you a bit selfish, Hokage-Sama...? We can't change the laws, just because she happened to be one of your team-mates that you haven't been spoken to for the last five years..." Homura said and looked to the blond furious man beside him. "And we have already agreed to leave Haruno-San to him... He is after all one of the Lords in Tsume no Kuni*... We would hazard Hi no Kuni* as much as we would hazard Konoha if we stopped the engagement between her and that Lord..."

"A Lord? Why would a Lord be interested in a Kunoichi from Konoha...?" Naruto aksed them and Sakura was asking herself the same question.

"How would we know that. He asked for her and he got her, end of question..." Koharu said and glanced from Naruto to Sakura, who still hadn't spoken since she had got the awful news. "And as Homura said, if we take her back, it could lead to an unwanted war between Tsume no Kuni and Hi no Kuni. And I believe people have had enough of wars as you probably understand..."

Naruto growled low and bit his lip, annoyed about everything he had heard.

"As we have told you Haruno-San..." Homura began and turned his gaze to Sakura who glanced to the old man in front of her. "He is a Lord. A high respected Lord of Tsume no Kuni, what ever you do during your stay with him before your marriage while be crucial to both Konoha and Hi no Kuni. Any wrong step could lead to war..."

The way they told her those things, made Sakura to have no other choice then to accept her fate with this Lord of Tsume no Kuni. And she, who now had began to feel a little more for a certain silver haired man, was now forced to rethink her feelings for him and maybe it wasn't meant for her to be with him in the end (even after he had asked her to move in with him).

She hated this. And she found herself unable to move out of this mess. It wasn't like a mission she could just shrug at after have done a half-hearted job and turn back to Konoha with no worries of her own village. Now she was forced to go into a 'mission' that she couldn't walk away from or do half-hearted, if she did it would be no good to either Konoha or Hi no Kuni. She had no choice in this matter and she had to accept that.

She had accept it.

She looked to Naruto who was really breathing heavy, because of his anger and she saw that he was about to say something to them to (hopefully) change their minds, but Sakura knew it was impossible to change their mind as it always had been, when they was settled with something. They where almost like a horse with blinders, when it comes to things like these.

"Naruto... It's okay..." Sakura mumbled and Naruto looked to her.

"Sakura, it's not okay! You can't accept this! I can't accept this and I don't think Kaka-Sensei would accept this either...!" Naruto told her and it pained her when he had said Kakashi's name.

"Everything is okay, Naruto... And you know why I have to do this..." she told him a bit sharper. She didn't need him to tell her what she had to or not had to do. It was her life. Her life that would be destroyed.

Naruto could see the pain in her eyes and he couldn't stand to see her in pain. Whatever it concerned an escaped team-mate, to a lost beloved one. He just couldn't face her, without feeling the same pain she felt and he knew she was in lot of pain right now.

"Who is he?And when do I have to leave..?" Sakura finally asked and watch the satisfied look on Koharu and Homura's face, especially Koharu's face. They had finally break the apprentice of Godaime*.

"His name is Ryuusei Sange... And you will have to leave in two weeks..." Koharu said and looked to the young pink haired woman in front of them. "You can say goodbye to your friends, but they can't know that you are leaving... Is that clear..."

"Hai..." Sakura mumbled and looked down to the floor, hidding her tears of anger and despair.

She was forced to leave all her friends without saying goodbye to them and it hurted a lot and even to leave the silver haired annoyance she had finally began to get along with. If she had felt weak before, then that was nothing what she felt right now. It was like everything she had work for had tumbled down on her and it could never be rebuilt again.

Naruto walked away from the desk he stood behind and began to walk towards Sakura, who was still glaring a hole in the floor.

"Sakura... I'm sorry..." Naruto began and tried to grab her hand in his, but she flinched away from his hand and glanced up to him.

"Don't touch me...!" she hissed to him and then she turned around on the spot, stormed out of the office and slammed the door shut behind her.

Sakura leaned on the door, leting her tears finally release in a full cascade and she could hear how Naruto began to shout to the elders again, behind the closed door.

"Are you happy now? You have just send away Konoha's brightes and strongest Kunoichi to a far away country and you didn't even conciser if it was a wise choice...?" Naruto barked to them.

"We don't need her... She is pregnant and she if for crying out loud carring the child to a Nukenin*!" Koharu barked back. "And Konoha have a lot of bright and strong Kunoichi's. She won't be any loss to us..."

"That is not true! And you judge her because she got knocked up by some scumbag! It isn't right!" Naruto yelled.

"What is done is done... And even if she would stay here with the child, she would still have a hard time to both take care of a child and earn money..." Homura said. "She would have a better life with the man we found to her. He is rich and he will at least have a roof over her head."

"She could easily found someone here in Konoha to marry and who would love her...!" Naruto told them. "And this isn't what she wants... This is what you want and how could she be happy with that?"

"Some marriage is never done out of selfish happiness or love... Some marriage is due to the will of others and of power..." Koharu said and Sakura could hear the cold tone in her voice as she said it.

"Leave... now!" Naruto told them firmly and Sakura pushed her up from her leaning position on the door and hurried out as fast as she could out of the mansion of the Hokage. Hopping they hadn't seen her escaping out through the doorway.

And this was the reason for her to the beginning to seek comfort in the arms of the silver haired man and it was also the reason to why she was avoiding him. It had hurted too much for her to stay with him and watch him sleep soundlessly in the bed beside her, so it was why she had left him in the middle of the night. And she could still not get the guilt she felt to vanish away.

She was still walking down the wet street, feeling like she just wanted to give up everything and die...

"Sakura!"

She suddenly stopped. Surprised by the suddenly call and then she began to walk again, totally ignoring the one who had called her name. This day couldn't get any worse it seemed.

"Sakura!" the voice called agian and she kept walking, like her legs was on aoutopilot. "Sakura! Please, stop!"

She was suddenly grabbed by her wrist by a strong hand and she looked up to the face of a concerned looking silver hiared Jounin, who had jerked her closer to him.

"Kakashi...?" she said as calm as ever and she tried to hide the pain she felt when looking up to him, but his eyebrows knitted when he looked down to her.

"What's the matter, Sakura...? Are you hurt?" he asked her and eyed her up and down, trying to see any hint of harm on her body.

"No... I'm fine..." she growled to him and turned her head to look at some children that was playing on the street. "Let me go... I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now... And I'm in a bit of a hurry..."

Well, she was in a hurry, but the truth was that if she began to talk to him now it would be harder to let everything go.

"Sakura... You haven't been honest with me..." Kakashi suddenly said and Sakura turned her head towards him, with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean...?" she asked him and she tried to play dumb.

"Don't start to play dumb with me, Sakura... I know... I know what is bothering you..." he told her in a low voice and her eyebrow rasied even more. "Come one..."

He dragged her in her wrist and she was then placed in a little alley between two small shopes and she looked questioning up to him, as he let go of her wrist.

"It's the elders, right...?" Kakashi suddenly said and she tensed on the spot.

"How did you-...?"

"I am not stupid Sakura... You havn't been at the mansion since that day you told me Naruto had find it out..." Kakashi told her and she looked down to the ground. "So it only makes sense to me that the elders found it out too... That's why you aren't with Naruto as you should be, because they won't let you..."

Sakura snapped up his head to him. Surprised and worried that he knew that much about something he hadn't seen or heard off.

"You- You have no idea... what they did..." Sakura said low and she began to sob. "Kuso*..."

She had told herself over and over agin that she wouldn't began to cry over this on the street there people could see her. And now she had done just that, even if the only person who could see her was her former Sensei in front of her. But still, she didn't want to look weak.

Kakashi, who looked down worried to the sobbing woman, began to reach out to her. But she flinched away from him like she had been burned by him.

"Sakura...?"

"Don't touch me!" she cried. "I can't stand you touching me! Just-Just leave me alone...!"

"If you are sad, I shouldn't leave you alone..." Kakashi said to her, but she didn't seem to listen to him as she walked past him and then she stopped.

"I need to get far away from everything... I need to get away from you..." she said and glanced to Kakashi, who was looking at her with a hurt expression on his all too often unreadable face.

As Kakashi looked to her, he felt like his heart had turned into ice. Why was it feeling like this?

"Get away from everything...? Get away from me...? Why?" Kakashi asked and she didn't answer him. "Well, I know that I'm not that rich and my apartment isn't that big... But I promise you, I will take care of you and even your baby..."

"You will not take care of me! You will not take care of the baby!" Sakura cried and turned around to glare at the confused looking Jounin in front of her.

"You-... You don't want my offer...?" he asked and looked even more confused then before. Why had she acted like she had two weeks ago? If she didn't want to be with him, then why had she let him make love to her?

"It has-... It hasn't anything to do with your offer..." she mumbled to him and turned away from him. "I-I need to go, Kakashi... I can't see you anymore..."

She began to walk away, but her hand got grabbed by a big, warm and quite callous hand and she stopped.

"If it hasn't anything to do with my offer, then why are you walking away from me...?" Kakashi said and she didn't turned around to look at him.

"You wouldn't understand..." she told him and that made him turn her around to face him.

And what he saw made him knit his eyebrows once again. Her eyes was filled with tears and he just looked at her, uncertain what to do or say.

"I wouldn't understand...?" he mumbled and was still looking down at her. "Sakura... we have been through a lot... And I probably wouldn't understand all of your feelings at this moment, but at least let me try to understand just a little..."

She looked once more down to the ground and then she looked up to him again.

"How could my perv to Sensei understand me now, when he never did try to understand me before..." she told him stony and let a tear roll down her cheek. "I can't see you anymore, there isn't anymore to tell you then that... Please... Let me go..."

He looked down to her tear filled emerald eyes and he began to look at her even more confused and worried then before.

"I won't let you go... Not until you have told me why you don't want to see me anymore... I think I really need to know that, because of your sudden disappearance two weeks ago..." he told her and he really had that demanding tone in his voice. The tone she couldn't handle.

She was still looking up to him and she hated how he looked down to her with that concern look in his eye. She felt like she didn't deserv that kind of concern from him and it also enraged her because he looked down to her like she was weak.

"It's because I have been betrothed!" she cried out in anger and Kakashi looked down to her wide eyed.

Shock wasn't the right word to describe what he felt at the moment, it was more like he was surprised.

"Be-Betrothed...? So sudden..." he mumbled and Sakura looked to him with a raised eyebrow in her angry face.

"What do you mean with that...?" Sakura asked him and Kakashi bit his lips and glanced down to the ground, with an expression that told her that he had said something he shouldn't have had.

"Kuso..." he growled low to himself.

"You-... You knew? You have knew this all along?" Sakura looked at him with a bit of shock, disbelief, hurt and even more anger.

Kakashi couldn't blame her for feeling the last thing towards him.

"Aaa... I knew... But I didn't want you to know that, at least not yet... I wanted you to choose without thinking of the laws regarding a pregnant Kunoichi..." Kakashi glanced back to her. "I wanted to protect you as long as I could..."

"Protect me...? If you think that not telling me that importent thing, is your way of protecting me. You are wrong!" Sakura growled to him. "And even if I had knew about that law, I would probably have kept it anyway. And maybe It would have a much better and more caring father then it has now!"

Kakashi heart felt like it had been stabbed with a katana a tousend times in only a second. It had been feeling much worse then been stuck in Itachi's Tsukuyomi for seventy-two hours. And he suddenly felt all the thrill that he had felt to have Sakura and her future child to live with him, had just suddenly broken. Like a glass, shattering to tiny pieces when it had hit a stone floor.

Why hadn't he acted faster? If he had, Sakura wouldn't have left him that night two weeks ago and she would certainly not to have marry another man beacuse of the village pride.

Sakura's unborn child was a bastard and it would be treathen like one too and she would be seen as the black sheep of the village, with her way of a whore.

Kakashi had known this all along, but he had still choose to not tell her and see what it had cost him. All because he was a coward.

"Why did you want me to move in with you, when you didn't even care to tell me about that law...? Why even bother to ask me when you knew what would happen to me...?" Sakura asked him and she began to cry again. "Why...?"

Kakashi didn't know if he could answer honestly to her question. He knew that if he told her she would probably hate him more and if he didn't tell her, she would be married off to some slimy prick without knowing his true feeling towards her.

"I care for you... I care about your future son... I want to put everything right again..." he told her softly and she frowned.

"Why is that so important to you now, when you from the beginning didn't even wanted me to be pregnant... Why would you care now...?" she asked him coldly and he felt how he began to be frustrated.

Why didn't she listened to him, when he told her that he really cared for her and her unborn child now. Back then he had been different about this and even scared. But he wasn't that anymore.

"Why Kakashi... Just tell me why...?" Sakura continued when he hadn't answered her for along time and she could see that frustrated look in his eye. And his gaze began to rove, until it stopped on her once more.

"It's because-... It's because I Love You!" he hadn't meant to shout those words out loud to her, but he had done it in his state of frustration and he could see the frown she had, lift from her face and be replaced with a surprised look.

But that surprised look suddenly vanish and she looked at him with stony, emotionless emerald eyes. And he began to regret deeply that he had said those words to her. After all, those words was forbidden words to utter to her.

"You-... You love me...?" Sakura sounded a bit surprised, but she didn't hide the disbelief in her voice and she was still frowning at him.

She couldn't believe him. She just couldn't and she saw how he nodded shortly to her and began to walk closer to her.

"I have been in love with you for a really long time now..." Kakashi then said to her and he hoped that she would come crashing into his arms, but she looked up to him with sceptical in her eyes and she didn't move a muscle. "Sakura... I want to be with you and only you... I want to share every single moment with you... I-... I want to raise your child... Our child, with you..."

Sakura looked down to the ground. She didn't know what to believe or what she would say. All she could do was to shook her head to him in a dismissive sort of way.

"Sakura... I will talk to the elders... I will tell them everything... I will make them change their minds..." Kakashi told her and moved his hand towards her cheek, but she shrugged it off.

"It's already too late for that...!" she barked to him and tears began to emerge from her eyes again. "It's too late... I'm leaving... tomorrow..."

"You are leaving? Tomorrow?" Kakashi glanced down to her with a questioning look in his eye.

Why was she leaving? And who would be her future husband and stepfather to her son? Their son?

He couldn't accept this. He couldn't let the elders do this to her and he didn't understand why she had to leave Konoha. And what he knew about this sick law, was that every pregnant Kunoichi (without a husband) was forced to leave the child or be married. And most of the Kunoichi Kakashi had known, had chose to marry a man from Konoha. A man the elders had picked for them.

But why was Sakura so different from them? Why couldn't she be married to a man from their own village? Or was it something else. Something political?

Kakashi didn't really know and he didn't really care. All he did care for was to have Sakura for himself and that was the only thing he really could kill for.

"I-I have to leave, Kakashi... I need to pack the last things and say goodbye to Ino..." Sakura looked away from him and began to fumble with the Rose Quartz in the black leather chain around her neck. It had began to be anxious habit of hers.

The necklace... Hadn't it been a 'gift' from Kakashi?

She needed to give it back to him. She couldn't have things with her that would remind her of him.

Sakura took it off, held the leather chain in the palm of her hand and held it out to him.

"Take it... It was after all yours..." Sakura said and watched how Kakashi took her hand in his own and closed her hand around the necklace.

"It was a gift... And the gem originally belonged to you... Sakura..." he told her and looked into her still moisty eyes. "As long as you keep it with you... I will always be thinking of you... And I will keep on loving you..."

He let go of her hand (that still was closed around the pink little stone in the black leather chain) and stepped away from her.

"You don't have to love me anymore... I will leave you and everything else behind and I will start a new life... So you should be doing the same..." she told him and her gaze met his.

"I know..." he mumbled and he had a hard time to keep his emotions in check. He then bent forward and kissed her forehead with masked covered lips. "I wish you all happiness... Sakura..."

His words wasn't taken from his heart as he had said it. It was stiff and Sakura had heard the agonize in his voice and yet she couldn't really understand why he felt what he did for her. He was after all her Sensei and he couldn't love her, or could he?

And why was it so hard for her to just turn around and leave? She had walked away from him before without any problem and now she found herself not able to even do that.

She knew she couldn't love him and she probably never would. Because they were too different and he only continued with telling her hurting lies and was still acting as he knew her. But he had never knew her and he still didn't knew her.

"Gomen*... It's the best way... Not just for me, but for you and this child as well..." Sakura mumbled and then she turned around. "I'm really sorry... Sensei..."

She cast him one last glance before she began to walk out of the alley and she closed her tear filled eyes. Trying really hard to get that image of him, looking at her with that hurt expression on his face. It was killing her deep inside when she had noticed that expression on his face, when he usually didn't show any kind of expression on his face. It was that look she only could have imagine in love novels with a man that could show his emotions. Not in this Shinobi, that had lived his life on the battlefiled and she wished that she could just stop and turn around to run back to him. But she couldn't. She couldn't turn back to him. She had made her choice already and her choice was not him.

~oOo~

"Oi! Forehead!"

Sakura looked up form her dreamy expression and glanced to the light blond woman in front of her that held a tea cup out to her.

"What's with that face...?" the light blond woman asked and watch how Sakura took the tea cup from her.

"It's none of your buisness... Ino-Pig..." Sakura told her and sipped on the bitter tea.

Ino had never been any good at making tea. She was always leaving the tea leaves in the hot water too long and her food wasn't much better.

"None of my buisness...? Well, is their a reason for you to look all gloomy? You can tell me..." Ino said and sat herself down in the armchair opposit of Sakura. "That is what you have friends for..."

Sakura looked to Ino and putted the tea cup down to the coffe table in the living room.

"Well... It's a lot of things that is bothering me right now and some of it I can't tell you... You know, the new job with Naruto..." Sakura lied and Ino didn't seem to have noticed her little lie.

"Oh... That's right... It must be hard now when you are pregnant and what do Naruto and Kakashi-Sensei think of it...?" Ino asked her innocent and Sakura frowned.

"Well... Naruto, as you already know, is happy for me and Kakashi..." Sakura paused for a slight second and looked down to the tea cup on the table. "Kakashi-Sensei is as he always has been... He doesn't care the slightes..."

"Really...?" Ino said surprised. "I mean, I though I saw him with you that day you was checking on your baby... But I could be wrong..."

Sakura huffed and looked to the big window in the living room. It had surly turned out to be a nice afternoon, even if had been raining in the morning and the early spring flowers that was planted in a wooden 'pot' just out side of the window, was still covered with small raindrops that glimmered in the beam of the spring sun.

"Ino... When are you due...?" Sakura suddenly asked Ino who looked to Sakura, who was still looking out through the window.

"Wha-...? Oh... I think the nursed said in April, between the eleventh or maybe the thirth..." Ino told Sakura who nodded her head.

So she couldn't be with her best frinds when she would giving birth to her child. She would have to ask Naruto before she left, to ask Ino to send her some pictures when the child was born.

"And you? When are you due...?" Ino then asked Sakura who glanced to Ino.

"June the tenth I think... And I really hope I don't overdue..." Sakura said and Ino nodded.

"Me either... My mom told me that she was overdue with me... She told me it was really a pain in the ass..." Ino said and sipped on her tea and making her lips in a thin line in her face, due to the teas bitterness. "Sakura... I may be blond... But I'm not stupid... Something else is bothering you... It's obvious something that isn't worked related, or am I wrong...?"

Ino looked worried to her best friend who sighed and leaned her back on the back of the armchairs, looking out through the window once again.

"You aren't the first one to have said that to me today..." Sakura mumbled and glanced to Ino, who looked to her with a raised eyebrow. "Ino... Can I ask you something...?"

"Sure... Whatever gossip you have, you can spill it to me..." Ino said with a smirk and Sakura sighed again.

"It's not really gossip... And I would appriciate it if you didn't tell somebody else about it..." Sakura mumbled and Ino nodded.

"My lips are sealed... Come one spill it..." Ino said curiously and Sakura closed her eyes, rolling her tongue in her mouth in annoyance.

"What if-... What if someone suddenly told you that he loved you..." Sakura said and looked to Ino, who looked back.

"What? I thought it was something more juicier then Lee-San confessing his undying love to you... again..." Ino said and snorted. "That was no fun... It thought it could be Naruto who finally had confessed to you... It would be a great love triangle, wouldn't it? I can almost see the headlines; Hokage-Sama in love with-..."

"Stop with your stupid nonsess, Pig...! Naruto hasn't or will never confess his love to me, because he is in love with Hinata..." Sakura growled and cast Ino a nasty glare. "And it was nither Lee-San for that matter..."

"Oh~ Now have you made everything more interesting... Then who confessed his love to you...?" Ino asked and came closer to Sakura, who began to be annoyed.

"Please Ino... It's a really serious matter, because I don't know what to do anymore..." Sakura told Ino who once began to look serious. Well it was really not true that she didn't know what to do. But it always felt good to hear another persons point of view. "If someone told you that he loved you... Someone that shouldn't love you, but still does... What should you do...?"

"Well... if he was a hunk I had go for it..." Ino said and Sakura gave her a glare. "Fine... Honestly I don't know... But if you feel the same for him as he does for you, so why not take a chance? You know how hard it is for pregnant womans to find herself a man..."

"But the thing is, I don't know what I feel for him... He shouldn't be loving me, but yet he does... It's just confusing me..." Sakura told Ino who sighed. "He lies... He makes up excuses... He is always la-..."

Sakura stopped and looked down to the floor. She had almost said that he is always late for everything and that would make Ino know exactly who this man (who had confessed to her) was. That was something Sakura couldn't risk to expose to this chatterbox in front of her.

"...He-He is always annoying me to no end... How could I love him?" Sakura then said and Ino shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know... It sound to me that you are quite infatuated by this stranger..." Ino said and sipped on the tea, trying to not make a face by the bitter taste.

"Me? Infatuated? By him? What have you been smoking?" Sakura said and looked to Ino, who was rolling her eyes.

"Forehead, Forehead... I have known you for some time now, haven't I? And I recognized that voice you did when you talked about his bad habits and I asume it was his bad habits... You are infatuated by him..." Ino said and putted down her cup to the table. "I, personally, think that you should go for it... If he loves you and you kind of like him too, so why not..."

"But... But he is old... Really old..." Sakura whined, trying to persuade Ino that she was wrong about trying to take a chance on him.

"You know our Shinobi life can be short, so age doesn't matter I think... And it isn't wrong to have someone who loves you close, even if you don't feel the same for him right now... Who knows, maybe you began to love him too sooner or later..." Ino said and Sakura looked back to the floor. "Who ever this stranger is... He has choosen a good girl to fall in love with... That is what I at least think..."

Sakura shoot her head up and looked to Ino with teary, surprised emerald eyes.

Now Sakura really regreted that she had come to Ino's place and she found that she would miss Ino more then she ever could admitted. Like with the rest of her friends.

"By the way Sakura..." Ino said and Sakura acknowledged her. "I know that this is maybe a little bit late too tell you, but me and Sai... We are going to get married..."

Sakura looked shocked to Ino and then she began to laught slightly.

"Wow... That is... That is great Ino... I wish you all happiness..." Sakura said and Ino looked questioning to her.

"You don't have to talk like it would be the last time you ever would see me again..." Ino said and watched how Sakura raised from the armchair, to hug her. "After all, I want you to be my bridesmaid..."

"Really...? I would love too! When is the wedding...?" Sakura asked and tried to smile, but her smile didn't really reach her eyes.

"On April the fifth... I had hopped that I could be married before the child is born..." Ino told Sakura and the two womens let go of each other.

"April the fifth... That is like in nine days... Have you prepared everything?" Sakura asked and hide her sadness, behind her mask of 'fake' joy.

"Of couse I have...! Mother have helped me alot with the preparations for the wedding... It's not going to be a big wedding anyway... Just the closest one to me and Sai..." Ino said and looked to Sakura who rubbed away a tear from her eye.

"But that is like everyone..." Sakura said and Ino giggled.

"No no... Baka* Sakura... It's only those who have been really close to us... Like Shikamaru and Choji and their familys and everyone else from Konoha eleven..." Ino told Sakura who nodded. "And Sai told me to bring Yamato-Taichou and Kakashi-Sensei as well... He told me that you would be happy if I did invited them..."

Sakura looked down to the floor. Sai was so going to die when she got her hands on him. But she figure that it was probably not necessary anymore, after all she would be leaving Konoha tomorrow. And yet she had accepted to be Ino's bridesmaid on a wedding she wouldn't even be at. It sure felt weird to sit with Ino and discuss what kind of kimono Sakura should wear and other wedding realted things.

As they talked, the time just flew by and the suns warm beams was slowly being exchange to the full moons cold silver light.

Sakura yawn tiredly and looked to the clock on the kitchen wall.

"Oh god...! It's already twelve! I should be going, it's a day tomorrow too..." Sakura said to Ino, jumped out of the armchair and walked to the little hall, followed by a sligthly confused looking Ino. "Thanks for your time, Ino..."

"You are welcome..." Ino said and smiled to her best friend. "And remember what I told you... About that stranger of yours..."

"What about him?" Sakura asked, as she took on her sandels.

"Have you gone demented? I said that you should give it a try... It's about damn time that you found someone who loves you, with all of your flaws and your famous temper..." Ino said with a smirk on her lips and Sakura couldn't help to growl annoyed to Ino. "And this makes me really wonder who have confessed his love to you... It's obviously someone who knew you pretty well and you him..."

Sakura looked to Ino and tried to find a way out of this conversation. But she found it harder then it should be.

"So... What if it is...?" Sakura said and Ino was still looking to Sakura with that smirk on her lips. "Do you have a problem with that...?"

"No... It's only making me more curious to who it could be and I knew a lot of men in this town..." Ino said to Sakura, who snorted.

"Of couse you do... You aren't called Konoha's own tramp for nothing..." Sakura said in a good-natured/teasing sort of way and Ino scowled at her.

"I'm certainly not a tramp...! At least not anymore...!" Ino told Sakura who sniggered. "Then who is your mysterious knight...? If it is Gai, I am going to the psychiatric clinic with you at once..."

"It's not Gai! That I can assure you..." Sakura said, holding her hand on the doorhandle to the front door, ready to move out in any second. "Just face it Ino-Pig... You will never figure it out..."

"Humm... How about Kakashi-Sensei...?" Ino then said and glance to her pink haired friend that didn't even move a muscle after her statment. "He is old and you have grown some closeness to him, just like he has grown closeness to you... Or am I wrong...?"

Sakura looked to her light blond friend and Sakura didn't really know what she would say. Ino was for once right about that thing. It had been Kakashi.

A slightly smile broke forth in the pink haired Kunoichis face and a deep unnatural giggling noise rolled out over her soft lips. And Ino looked questioning to her friend that couldn't stop to giggle.

"Kakashi-Sensei? Why should he even confessed his love to me? When he is as emotional as a rock!" Sakura began to giggle harder, until her giggle turn to laughter. "Seriously Ino... You know him as well as I do... He isn't that kind of guy..."

It was a lie. A beautiful lie, to make Sakura forget about his words. Words she couldn't brush off. And Kakashi had turned out to be just that kind of guy, who wouldn't hide his emotions under the same rock forever. She had been proven how much she knew about him, and that would be nothing at all...

"Yeah... You are probably right about that.." Ino mumbled thoughtfully and Sakura looked relieved to her. "But you never know Sakura... One day he maybe be proven you wrong..."

Sakura sighed and she already knew that she had been proven wrong and she couldn't really accpet that fact that she had been wrong about what he really felt for her or that he wasn't like an unemotional war machine, not anymore that is.

"Don't get this over your head, Ino-Pig... I will believe it when I hear it or when pigs really can fly..." Sakura said and laughed slightly. A laught that didn't belong to the 'real' Sakura. "I will see you tomorrow..."

"I hope so..." Ino said and watched how Sakura stepped out of her apartment. "And Sakura..."

Sakura looked to Ino with a raised eyebrow.

"If there is something you want to talk about, please don't be afraid to come to me... I won't tell a soul about it... Just don't go and dig yourself down in your problems again... You have friend that is here for you and will help you..." Ino said a bit worried, by Sakura's suddenly lack of presence during her stay. "Sakura... We care-..."

"Ino... Arigatou..." Sakura mumbled and looked up to Ino with a stony face. "But some problems can't be shared by friends... Sumanai..."

Sakura turned on her heels and began to walk out to the moon lit street, shrugging off Ino's worried gaze and even the sharp unknown gaze of a pair of mismatch eyes, as she walked back to her home to pack and to cry a bit more...

~oOo~

The pregnant pink haired Kunoichi glanced up to the still darkened sky, but the sun would soon be up over the horizon and let its warm beams to shine down to a new day in Konoha.

She looked over to the guard booth at the main gate and saw how Hagane Kotetsu was sleeping with his head down on the 'desk', while a mischievous Kamizuki Izumo poked him in his head, trying really hard to not fall asleep as well.

The pink haired Kunoichi could understand their nonchalant way of 'guarding' the main entrence. After all they had been stationated there since Godaime's time and she too would began to not take her roll seriously if it never happened anything during a watch. Even after the war, things had almost got back to normal. Missions coming in to the village to be carried out by the village Shinobi's. Transpots with load was rolling in to the village as well as out of the village and people coming and going. And everything needed to be checked and then been written reports on and she (who once had been the one to pick up the reports) did know how boring their job was even if it was an important thing to the village safty.

She sighed and decided that it was time for her to walk out of her hidding place. She had pondered on this the whole night and because of that hadn't got much sleep and she had finally made up her mind.

She would escape Konoha before her ANBU escort would show up and she would first travel to Suna there she could repack and get some food and other supplies as well. And she knew that Gaara or the others wouldn't tell anyone of her whereabouts in Suna or where she would be heading next. Even if she would be running from ANBU for some times, she would be at least free and could do what ever she wanted too with her life.

The pink haired Kunoichi cast Kotetsu and Izumo one last glance before she was certain that they was busy with what ever they were doing and she took one steep outside of the main gate.

"Huh? Sakura-San! What are you doing?"

The pink haired Kunoichi Sakura, froze on the spot and she turned stiffly around to face the one who had called out to her.

She was surprised to see that it had been Kotetsu who had called her and she smiled to them and rubbed her nack a little bit sheepishly.

"Eh... I was just-... I was just... sleepwalking..." Sakura said and she knew that was a lame excuse for a lie.

"Sleepwalking...?" Izumo looked baffled to her. "With that kind of bag with you...?"

His gaze fell on the massive backpack she had on her back and then she knew that she had been stupid to even choose that big bag. But she couldn't leave most of her 'life' back here in Konoha. Those things that told her who she really was and why she was leaving her home.

"Eh... Un*... I was having this weird dream you see... And it must have made me pack in my sleep..." Sakura stuttered and she cursed herself for being such a bad lier. She was even worse then her Sensei was.

Izumo and Kotetsu looked questioning to each other and Sakura began to concider to knock them into unconsciousness. But the only problem was that she was pregnant and due to that, her chakra control wasn't that perfect anymore. She doubted that she could knock them both out with one blow and then run for it. But she could at least try.

She gattered a small amount of chakra in her fist and began to walk slowly towards Izumo and Kotetsu who sniggered to each other about Sakura's unknown habit of sleepwalking.

Suddenly Sakura could feel a hard substance wind itself around her wrist and fist and she stopped to look down to it.

She was a bit surprised to see a small branch around her wrist and fist and she knew who had done it. She glanced to her right and saw a pair of ANBU's standing not far from her, one was holding his hands tight together and the other one was standing with a scroll in his left hand and an ink brush in his right.

She sighed and looked down to the cobbled ground and smiled slightly.

"Why am I not surprised..." she mumbled and glanced to the ANBU's, before she let her chakra covered fist fade. "Aren't you two a little early?"

"Early? We was told to be here when the dawn was coming..." the brown haired male ANBU said and Sakura raised her eyebrow to him.

"But that isn't now..." Sakura told them.

"Take a look again..." the ebony haired one then said and Sakura looked to the mountains to see how the sun was almost over the mountains.

"Kuso..." she growled and began to wonder how she could have been mistaken the time with almost one hour.

The brown haired ANBU with the Tiger mask appeared suddenly beside Sakura and she looked up to him.

"Sakura... Do you really want to end up as a Nukenin?" he asked her and took her fist in his hand and the small branch was slowly disappearing.

"Do I have anyother choice? And what do you know about it...?" she mumbled to him and she could hear who he sighed behind the mask.

"I know more then you think... And Naruto summoned us yesterday night to tell us about your departure and to tell us that we was chosen by him to accompany you to Tsume no Kuni..." the brown haired ANBU told her and she looked down to the ground again. "Sakura, can you for once stop being selfish and think about your future child... You can't run away from ANBU while carring a child with you... It's insane...!"

"But it is also insane that I should be married off to a man that I don't know and whom I don't even love..." Sakura told him and looked up to him. "Could you blame me because of my action to be free...? And if being a Nukenin is the only way for me to be free, so be it..."

"Sakura... We don't want you to turn out to be a Nukenin..."

Sakura turned her gaze to the ebony haired ANBU, who had spoken and he walked closer to her and the brown haired ANBU.

"We don't want to hunt you down and drag you back to the village and then you would convicted as a criminal... We don't want that and even if we tell the elders that we failed to bring you back, they would send out other ANBU's that isn't loyal to you and they wouldn't care if they took you back dead or alive..." the ebony haired ANBU said and putted his hand on her shoulder. "So please, rethink your decision... We don't want to bring back your dead body because of this..."

"Sa-Sai..." Sakura glanced up to the Ram masked ANBU and she didn't know what to say to what he had said to her. She was somewhat moved by his words of caring and yet she felt like she shouldn't be listning to him. "Sai... Yamato-Taichou... I can't-..."

"Do we have to beat some sense into you?" the brown haired ANBU Yamato said to Sakura who looked to him a bit baffled. "If you are still thinking to leave Konoha as a Nukenin, we will have to take special measures to take you to Tsume no Kuni unharmed..."

"You can't be serious?" Sakura told them and looked from ANBU Yamato to ANBU Sai.

"We are..." Sai confirmed her. "We don't want you to end as another of Konoha's Nukenin's and die by the hands of the elders will..."

"You have to go Sakura... It's either that or be killed..." Yamato said and then he leaned closer to her, to whisper in her ear. "You know where to find us and if it would come to that moment when you can't stand to be there any longer... Just send us a bird and we will fight our way to you... Is that a deal?"

Sakura looked into Yamato's eyes that was hidden by the mask and then she nodded.

"It's a deal..." she told him and Yamato straightened his back to look to Sai, who nodded his head to him.

Sai then turned to look to Kotetsu and Izumo, who was glaring to the three of them with their mouths slightly ajar and they couldn't see the little smile Sai gave them under the mask, while forming some hand signs.

"Wha-What are you doing?" Kotetsu asked in slight panic and glanced to his companion beside him, who was as shocked as himself.

"Nothing that concern you two and it won't hurt that much..." Sai told them and looked to them behind his mask. "Kenboushou No Jutsu*!"

"Was that really necessary...?" Sakura asked Yamato, as Sai was walking back to them. "Putting an 'amnesia' Jutsu on them..."

"Aaa... If they told someone what they heard... It could mean trouble for us and beside, no one is supposed to know that you are leaving..." Yamato told her.

"True... But still, I don't believe those two is the one who would tell anyone about this... Maybe to Naruto, but no one else..." Sakura said.

"It never hurt to be careful..." Yamato mumbled and pulled out a scroll under his ANBU cloak. "Give me your bag... I will seal it until we have arrived..."

Sakura shrugged of her ridiculous big backpack and Yamato began to seal it into the scroll.

"There, finish... Let's move out..." Yamato said and they began to walk out of the main gate of Konoha.

Sakura glanced back to the main gate to see Kotetsu and Izumo with their heads on the 'desk' and she felt a bit sorry for them and then she blinked twice in surprised.

She could have sworn that she had seen a flash of silver hair, just beside the gate, but it had disappeared as fast as she had seen it. Maybe her mind was playing a trick on her.

She shook her head and turned her head back to the road and then she sighed deeply.

She had walked out of this gate many times before in her life. But this time she would walk out of this gate to never see her home again. To never see the spring of Konoha, with its sakura trees in full-bloom in the park. To never see the summer of Konoha, with its multicoloured flowers that growed on the meadow. To never expernce the color filed autumn or the cold and almost snowless winter.

The village she had cared for and called home the last twenty-four years, had now deserted her...

Author note:

Kakashi tells her his true feelings and she once again is "turning" him down, beause she thinks she knows what is best for them. Ino is on to something, something Sakura totally denies and when Sakura is about to decide that she would rather escape Konoha as a Nukenin, Yamato and Sai stopes her and she makes a deal with Yamato. A deal nither of them know if they can keep and Sakura is now on the road to her new future...

It may contain some spelling errors...

And some notes;

When I writes the text 'like this' it means that the person in question is thinking. When I writes like this the person emphasis just that word and when I writes like this that means flashbacks.

Mini Japanese dictionary and little more;

Arigatou = Thank you

Baka = Idiot

Gomen = Pardon (your pardon)

Godaime = The Fifth (a.k.a Tsunade)

Hi no Kuni = Fire Country

Kuso = Shit!

Kenboushou No Jutsu = Loss of Memory Technique ( I want to call it Blackout -no-Jutsu! XD)

Nukenin = Missingnin

Sumanai = I'm sorry

Tsume no Kuni = Claw Country

Un = Yeah

Chapter 18 out! Yay! ^3^ Here you have it, the chapter that you finally find out what had happened between Sakura and the elders! Hope you enjoyed it! And yes, Choji has a family (with a woman that I just call Reika) and (for those who doesn't remember chapter three in Ajiouhuougen) Shikamaru and Temari got twins. Choji got a son February the 8th and ShikaTema got their twins on June the 16th. And I named the children (for fun) to Chouja (Choji's son), Takara and Tamiko (ShikaTema's girls). *lol*

I always appreciate your reviews and the support you give me and also everyone who fav's, read and alert it! Thank You So Much! ^-^ *bear hug*

Do feel free to ask me if you have questions.

Take Care! ^3^

Next Chapter: Say All I Need