Wow! Chapter 18 was 9200 words! I couldn't believe it when I saw it, because it didn't look that much. Anyway, read and enjoy! Oh, and don't forget to review! =D
( Disclaimer: I Don't own NARUTO! They belong to His Highness Masashi Kishimoto! )
Chapter Ninteen - Say All I Need
The silver haired Jounin sat with an ochoko* in his unsteady hand and looked to it with a blurry sight.
Right now his life was nothing more then a fucked up mess and he couldn't understand (at the moment) what had gone wrong. Everything had began so nicely and then she had told him to leave her alone, well more like telling him to fucking disappear out of her life.
Why did it always end up like this for him?
Screw this! He didn't need her anymore. All he needed right now was a drink and then he would forget everything... Forget everything about her...
But the more he told himself that he would forget her when he took the next drink and the next one, he couldn't. He couldn't forget about her.
It had pained him deeply to watch her leave and not even the saké was helping him to drown his pain and sorrow.
As he watched the ochoko in his hand with a blurry sight (not even knowing how many he had been drinking) a clatter from a chair opposite of the drunk silver haired Jounin, could be heard and the silver haired Jounin didn't take notice of the person who had taken a set opposite of him.
"You have been sitting here for almost five days now... How much have you been drinking, Kakashi...?" the person opposite of the drunk silver haired Jounin Kakashi, asked.
"Not enough..." Kakashi answered thickly and putted the ochoko down on the little round table and smacked his head down on the table, making the ochoko and the tokkuri* tilt over and pouring its contents all over the table and down to the floor.
"...That was obviously too much..." the person muttred troubled. "Mendokuse*... It is a mystery to me how your liver hasn't shut down yet... And I haven't seen you like this in a long time... When was the last time?"
"...Don't know... Don't care..." Kakashi grunted to the male opposite of him.
"It was like five years ago... After you had been in a fight with Sakura... Am I not correct...?" the male said and Kakashi snorted to him.
"I wasn't in a fight with Sakura back then... She told me to fuck off..." Kakashi mumbled, still with his head on the table. "So I did..."
"Eh... Right... But I still think that counts as a fight..." he told the drunk Kakashi who didn't look up to him.
"You are an annoyance right now, Shikamaru... Just leave me alone, so I can drink and die in peace..." he muttered to the man opposite of him.
"I'm afraid that I can't do that, Kakashi... I bet the Hokage wouldn't be too happy with me if I did what you told me..." Shikamaru told Kakashi.
"Well... It's not my problem..." Kakashi muttered.
"Anyway... Are you really going to just sit here and feel sorry for yourself... or are you going to do something about it...?" Shikamaru asked him.
"About what?"
"About Sakura... She has left the village to marry someone and top of it all, she is seven months pregnant... And here you are, drunk as a lord and you aren't even a bit concern about her...?" Shikamaru told him.
"Why should I? She doesn't need me... She told me before she left, that I should to go and screw myself..." Kakashi hiccupped. "And she isn't my student any longer... She can take care of herself... I couldn't care less..."
"That's just bullshit! You are the one who have been most caring about her these last seven years...!" Shikamaru almost barked to Kakashi, who had closed his eye. "I know that you still care for her... I have seen the looks you have given her all those years..."
"Then I should began to write my will and wait for Naruto to kill me..." Kakashi mumbled.
"Mattaku*... All I meant is that you just let her go..." Shikamaru said and looked up to the ceiling. "If you really love her, you shouldn't have let her go with out a fight... It isn't like you to give up this easly..."
"I'm old... Even someone like me must some times admit his own defeat..." Kakashi told Shikamaru, who glanced to Kakashi. "I lost this fight..."
"But you haven't lost the battle... I know that I shouldn't care, but Sakura is a part of Konoha... A part of a family... Our family..." Shikamaru said and Kakashi opened his eye and glanced to him. "I know that I shouldn't tell you this, but I know who Sakura is going to marry..."
"If you shouldn't tell me, then don't..." Kakashi mumbled.
"His name is Ryuusei Sange... He is one of the Lords in Tsume no Kuni*..." Shikamaru told Kakashi, totally ignoring what Kakashi had told him. "He is the one Sakura is going to marry..."
"So...? It doesn't concern me if she is going to marry a Lord of some small country..." Kakashi mumbled and he began to get a bit worried when Shikamaru had said that that man was a Lord.
"Tsk... I guess father was right about you..." Shikamaru mumbled and looked down to Kakashi, whose head was still on the table. "Kakashi... Have you ever heard of 'The Bried Reaper'...?"
"I have, so...?" Kakashi said and glanced up to Shikamrau, who looked troubled down to him.
"There is a rumour that has gone round in Iwa* for some time now..." Shikamaru told him and Kakashi lifted his head slightly, feeling how his silver hair was dripping with saké. "This man, who is supposed to be 'The Bride Reaper', have infiltrate the Daimyo* of a far away country and get a really high status in that country... That country is, what the rumours say, Tsume no Kuni..."
"That rumour is almost eighteen years old and no one really knows if this man is still alive..." Kakashi told Shikamaru. "And if he still is alive, I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't just sit on his throne in Tsume no Kuni and do nothing... He isn't that kind of man..."
"And you know that...?"
Kakashi looked silently up to Shikamaru, feeling how the saké run from his wet bangs down on his semi-covered face, to stuck in his bad pulled up mask. He once again had said something he shouldn't have been saying.
"Sort of... But it was a long time ago..." he sighed and Shikamaru leaned on the back of the chair, watching the drunk man in front of him.
"What if I told you that those rumours are true... What if I told you that our ANBU's have confirmed that this man who is calling himself for 'The Bride Reaper' is still alive and is living as a Lord somewhere in Tsume no Kuni...?" Shikamaru said and then he leaned closer to Kakashi's face. "What if I told you that this man, could be the same man Sakura is going to marry..."
Kakashi's sharp dark onyx eye, watched Shikamaru closely. He couldn't detect any lie in his voice or in his movements. But it couldn't be true. That man who had put fear into the many young maidens cross over the Five Nations, was dead. Then why was Shikamaru telling him that this man, whose real name was Rakuseki Kashi, could still be alive and could be the one betrothed to Sakura. His Sakura.
"You are lying..." Kakashi told him and Shikamaru sighed deeply.
"I am not... I saw the mission reports our ANBU gave to Naruto this morning... And Naruto is oblivious to this as usual..." he told Kakashi. "There is no doubt that this man is still alive..."
"ANBU have been wrong before... I should know, I'm after all, one of the ANBU captains..." Kakashi told Shikamaru, but Kakashi knew perfectly well that ANBU wouldn't be mistaken a man like Rakuseki Kashi, for an other man. After all, he had been listed in the Bingo Book as a Nukenin from Iwa about the same time Kakashi had join ANBU. And that was a long time ago...
Then why was Kakashi denying the information Shikamaru had given him? Was it because he didn't want to think of Sakura at the moment? Thinking of her, sharing a bed with another man that wasn't him?
Denying that her soft skin could be touched by this man. A man that had killed countless of young womans and girls, just to feel the thrill of their pure blood on his skin and tongue. As much as he had enjoyed to get the assurance money from the bride he had killed, he also enjoyed and got aroused to see them suffer for hours before he killed them in their wedding kimono the very same day he had married them.
It was sicking to him... And this man, Sakura (his Sakura) could be marry to, if everything was true.
"I know what that man did during his time as 'alive'..." Shikamaru said and eyed Kakashi, who was looking down to the saké covored table. "If it's true what he did to those womans and that he is still alive, Sakura could be in grave danger..."
"What do you want me to do?" Kakashi barked out in a drunk sort of way and he looked up to Shikamaru, the saké in his silver bangs flew cross over the table to land on Shikamarus face and Shikamaru glared to him bothered. "It's not like I can just barge in to the elders and tell them to take her back! If they married her away to a Lord, it isn't that simple to just take her back! And both of them is too stupid and narrow-minded to even care what they do to others... And they did it because of political reasons, Tsume no Kuni and Hi no Kuni* have never been on any good terms after the war and-...!"
"And marry Sakura to a Lord with almost as high status as the Daimyo himself, wouldn't just look good. It would also strengthen the bond between the two countrys... I know that, it's the oldest and easiest way to deal with disputes between countrys..." Shikamaru mumled and leaned his chin in his palm. "But that doesn't change the fact that Sakura could still be in danger..."
"And as I told you... What do you want me to do...? What can I do? If I leave the village to save her, I will probably be hunted down by ANBU and then my only chance to take her back is gone forever..." Kakashi glanced down to the round table once more and sighed deeply. His intoxicated mind wasn't ready or even suited for this kind of talk with that brilliant mind of the man in front of him. "And she could got killed because of me, then who is going to take care of her child...?"
Shikamaru rubbed his temple and looked to Kakashi.
He didn't look like himself anymore. The man Shikamaru had known as the great man who had lead them through the war almost unharmed. Was now a broken man. Shikamaru could never have imagine the day he really would see the hard-ass Shinobi (Kakashi was), finally break down. Be broken by the only woman he ever had loved and still did.
Shikamaru felt sorry for him. He really did. He knew how hard the elders had been to him and Temari once they had found out that she was expecting, but his father Shikaku had stepped behind them and supported their rights. After all, both of them knew that Shikamaru himself was the father to their baby girls.
It was a little bit different with Sakura's case. The elders thought that she had been 'raped' by a Nukenin* and then decided to keep a child of a Nukenin. But Shikamaru knew. He knew what Sakura had tried to hide from them, he wasn't that stupid to not have noticed it. And Sakura hadn't want to tell them the truth, because she was afraid of being hurted and she wasn't that kind of girl who would force someone to do something against someone else will. She was too kind some times. But what she had done had certainly hurted another instead. Hurted the man in front of him.
Shikamaru raised from the chair and looked down to his semi-wet pants (thanks to Kakashi's saké misfortune) and sighed. It was sure troublesome to talk to this man, last time he had tried to 'cheer' up this gloomy 'old' man, he had been dragged away by Genma to one of the allies camp to look at some... um... nudity... Temari had almost killed him the day after.
"Kakashi-San... It's your choice... But think about what I have told to you... Because you may regret it for the rest of your life if you don't do anything about it..." Shikamaru said to him and he leaned closer to Kakashi. "And as a father... I know what you are through... It isn't a easy road, who said it was? But it's hell worth it... When you get the 'result' in your own arms..."
He began to walk to the bar entrence and before he had stepped out of the bar he turned around to Kakashi.
"Oh, and by the way... Kurenai told me to tell you, that she wanted you to watch Aisoku for her..."
"Aisoku..."
"Aaa... So I suggest that you walk home, clean yourself up and get some sleep..." Shikamaru said and looked to the drunk man. "She will be on a mission with me for some days forward, so you will have to pick him up tomorrow after school..."
Kakashi looked to him and then he nodded his head, feeling how the saké finally had taking over his body and then he slide off the chair, crashing down to the hard, polish wooden floor with a loud smack. In a really ungraceful way for being that famous Sharingan no Kakashi, one of the war heroes during the 4th Ninja War.
"Mattaku..." Shikamaru muttered with a frown in his face and watched how the bar manager pointed to him to take that drunk son of a bitch out of the bar right now. "I guess that his misfortune is contagious..."
~oOo~
Kakashi stood leaning on the tree trunk right outside of the academy. His head hurted really bad and he had still a bump on his head after that far too embarrassed fall he had done in the bar (even if he barly remembered it).
It had been about six days since Sakura had left the village and he was getting depressed and he was also feeling a bit annoyed. Most thanks to Shikamaru...
"...And as a father... I know what you are through... It isn't a easy road, who said it was? But it's hell worth it... When you get the 'result' in your own arms..."
Why had Shikamaru said those words to him before he had annoced that he would have to take care of Aisoku? Had someone told him? No, no one could have... Sakura had been too anxious about it and even Kakashi himself had wanted to keep it as a secret. Then who could have told him? It couldn't be Kurenai, she wasn't the one too tell others about what she had found out (as long as it didn't concern Konoha). Or was it just that Shikamaru had been too smart for his own good?
The later was probably correct, he mused.
Kakashi could hear the academy bell ring and he watched how childrens of different ages walked laughting out of the building. He couldn't help to smile to the whole scene in front of him.
He wondred if he would stand here too one day and watch his son walking out of this place.
His heart ached when he thought of it. His son. His son that he would never met and even if he did, his son wouldn't know who he was. That he was his father. It hurted too much to even think of it and Sakura. Was she alright?
"Kakashi-Ojisan*!"
Kakashi turned his head to the voice who had called and saw the brown-black haired boy standing beside him. Looking up to him like he asked permission to hug him.
"Come here..." Kakashi then said and hugged the boy (who let go rather quickly) and gave Kakashi a genuine, yet shy smile. "Are you hungry, Aisoku...?"
"Un*..." the boy Aisoku said and looked up to Kakashi, still with that smile on his face.
"Do you want some ramen...?" Kakashi asked, oblivious to the fact that this boy wasn't his ex-student Naruto.
"Okaasan* have told me that I can't eat ramen in the middle of the week, it is not healthy..." Aisoku said and Kakashi smiled down to him behind his mask.
"What your Okaasan doesn't know, won't hurt her..." Kakashi told the boy who smiled up to him again. "And it's just this time, okay..."
"Okay..." Aisoku said and followed Kakashi, who had began to walk out from the academy area.
Well, Kakashi wasn't that particularly found of ramen (like his blond ex-student) and during his years as Naruto's Sensei and mentor (before and even after Jirayia-Sama's death) it have been quite a lot of ramen for Kakashi, more then he even could count. Even if Kakashi had rather stopped by his favourite 'restaurant' and take a drink while eating a meal of 'adult' food (in Aisoku's eyes), nothing could compare to eat a bowl of Ichiraku's (nice tasting) Ramen. Even Kakashi had to admitt its tast was almost devine.
Aisoku sat on the stool to the little Ramen Shop and he began to look down to the menu he had got from Teuchi's charming daughter, Ayame while she did some small talk to the shy boy.
Kakashi, who waited for Aisoku to decide what he wanted to eat, looked down to the boy in the stool beside him. Kakashi once again pictured himself sitting just like he did now, but with his own son beside him.
He shook the imagie out off his mind. He couldn't think like that. It wasn't suited for him to think of a child that wasn't his anymore. A child that would grew up in a rich surrounding, with other people raising him to (maybe) be the next Lord and he would probably be a spoiled child (well, he would probably be spoiled even here, Kakashi mused). He could not interfear with Sakura and her soon-to-be husband, he couldn't be selfish right now, it could cost Sakura everything and even for Konoha if he acted out of his own selfishness.
Even if his heart still was craving her and no one else. He couldn't give in to his own selfish need.
"Kakashi-San...? Kakashi-San...?"
Kakashi looked up from his own thoughts and looked to the one who had called his name.
"Kakashi-San... I didn't know that you had a son...?" Ayame said and she looked a bit disappointed to him and Kakashi had now idea why she looked so disappointed.
"Eh... He is not my son... He is Kurenai and Sarutobi Asuma's son..." Kakashi told Ayame, whose disappointed almost vanished from her face.
"Old Asuma-San... Then you should be proud, kiddo... To have such a great father as he was..." Teuchi said to Aisoku who began to blush slightly.
"I am..." Aisoku mumbled a bit embarrassed.
Kakashi knew that Aisoku was indeed proud of his father (even if he hadn't got the chance to meet the man) and Aisoku had spend a lot of time with those who had been close to Asuma (like Kakashi himself and Shikamaru) and asked them to tell storys of the son to Sandaime*.
"Kakashi-San... When are we going to see you walk down the streets with kids of your own...?" Teuchi asked him curious and Ayame looked curious to Kakashi as well.
"Eh... Um... Don't know..." he told Teuchi and rubbed his neck a bit troubled. "Maybe someday..."
Ayame gave Kakashi a fast glance and pushed her hair in a really seducing sort of way, while she took their orders and Kakashi noticed her suddenly action on he could smell the faint smell of her womanly hormons be released. He glanced down to the ground, feeling a bit annoyed about this situation. He wasn't interesed in Ayame and he needed to tell her that with out hurting her (because he was really good with hurting womens).
So he thought quickly and hopped that no one would noticed the little half truth he was about to tell them.
"My girl is pregnant... So it wouldn't be that far away with seeing me with a kid walking down the street..." he told Ayame more then to Teuchi, who had been the one to asked that question and Kakashi noticed that angry and disappointed expression in her eyes, but then she smiled to him like she hadn't heard him.
"Then who is your girl? I haven't seen you with a pregnant girl...?" Ayame told him and Kakashi growled low to himself.
This girl should maybe concider to began as a Shinobi. Because she was beginning to turn the tables on him and what could he possibly be answering to that? He did know a lot of 'girls' in Konoha, but most of them had already a husband/boyfriend or they didn't want to talking to him at all (for obviously reasons. One; he been an ass to them in the bed and Two; he didn't understand the womans heart at all, earning himself a slap or two to his masked face).
Maybe he should tell them who this girl was? After all, he was tired of lying and everything had just began to go wrong everytime he had began to lie anyway.
"Kakashi-Ojisan's girl is really nice!" Aisoku suddenly said and Ayame and even Teuchi looked to the boy. "She works at the hospital and she usually gives me a sticker after my visits there. And she is so good that she is often out of the village to heal other people! She is a really nice!"
Kakashi thanked God that this boy had got Kurenai's quick brain and Asuma's way of telling an innocent lie to sound as it was truth, something that had fascinated Kakashi about Asuma, when he still had been alive. And it surely was fascinating in this boy too.
"Really?" Ayame said and Kakashi was surprised that she believed Aisoku (well, Kakashi wasn't the one who would be taken seriously when he told someone a story like this). And then Ayame turned to Kakashi once again. "Then she shouldn't be out in the field..."
"I trust her to know when her limets is reach..." Kakashi told them and watched down to the bowl of ramen that had been placed in front of him by Teuchi. "She is stubborn and she wouldn't listen to what I told her... And if healing people makes her happy, I will not stop her..."
Kakashi smiled to himself. Those words was exactly the same words he had told the elders when Sakura had began to act as a workaholic during the war and the elders was afraid of loosing their best Iryou-nin* they had at the moment.
"Itadakimasu*!" Aisoku said and Kakashi looked down fondly to the boy, who was slurping noodles in a manor that was far too like Naruto's.
He looked away from Aisoku and down to his bowl of ramen. Shikamaru's words was still ringing in his head;
"...What if I told you that this man, could be the same man Sakura is going to marry..."
"...It's your choice... But think about what I have told to you... Because you may regret it for the rest of your life if you don't do anything about it..."
Kakashi sighed and glanced to Aisoku, who was laughting with Teuchi about something funny Ayame had told and it was suddenly then it had hit him.
`That sly bastard...! Making me take care of Aisoku, so I would began to open my eyes... That Shikamaru... If I ever get a chance, I will kill him slowly and painfully...´
And to Kakashi's annoyance, Shikamaru's annoying plan had worked. And Shikamaru had said everything Kakashi had needed to hear.
The fight was maybe over, but not the battle. His battle had only started...
~oOo~
The pink haired pregnant woman looked up to the big brick wall that surrounded the big white sukiya styled castle and she hated this place already...
The three traveler suddenly stopped at a big dark oak gate and two guards appeared in front of them, their Joumonji Yari* pointed at them and the two dark cloaked maksed males beside each side of the pink haired woman, drew their katanas and pointed towars the gaurds.
"State your business here, strangers!" on of the guards, with dark eyes and 'rat-blonde' hair, said to them in a low growling voice.
"We are here to 'deliver' Lord Ryuusei-Sama's fiancée..." the brown haired masked man said almost in the same growling voice as the guard.
"Can you prove it? Because you both guards look like ANBU to me..." the 'rat-blonde' guard said to the brown haired masked man.
The pink haired woman knew how much the citizens of Tsume no Kuni still didn't trust Shinobi's or for that matter ANBU. So the guards reactions to them would of couse be hostile.
"Please lower your wepons..." the pink haired woman told the two ANBU and placed a hand on each shoulder of them.
"But if they attack, we wouldn't-..." the brown hiared ANBU said and looked to the pink haired woman.
"Trust me, Taichou..." she whispered to him and the brown haired ANBU nodded to her.
Both of them lowered ther katanas and placed it in their sheaths, not feeling really okay with it and watched how the pink haired woman took a step forward to the guards that began to show a bit of fear in their eyes.
"Sta-Stand ba-back!" the other guard, with short cut jet black hair, stuttred to the woman, who looked a bit sad down to them.
She had really wanted to gain their misstrust, so she would be forced to turn back home again. But even after her home village had abadone her, she loved her village and she couldn't turn back home, to be faced with the elders of her village and the pinch the village would be in if she did return. So she did what she had to do.
"We will not hurt nither of you..." she told the guards, who looked doubtful to the pink haired woman in front of them. "Could you please send words to your Lord, that his fiancée; Haruno Sakura, have arrived..."
Even how much it hurted to say those words, she was firmly determined to do this. To do this for her village safty. But back in her mind she still wanted to flee and turn in to a Nukenin if so needed to be. But her Taichou had told her about what consequences it would be to her and to her friends. She would hurt them more then she could ever believe she would and they had more or less told her that they had rather wanted to see her alive (even if it didn't make her happy) then see her turn up in the village dead.
"Ha-Haruno Sa-Sakura...?" the guard with short cut jet back hair, still stuttered and the pink haired woman Sakura, began to believe that this guard was suffering from a really bad case of stammering."Are-Are yo-you tha-that Ha-Haruno Sa-Sakura? The I-Iryou-nin?"
Sakura nodded politely, feeling like it was unnecessary to frighten them more, then they (obviously) already was. And she couldn't blame them, she had after all built herself a hell of a reputation during the war. A reputation that had almost surpassed her Shichou's. A reputation that said that she was even more fearsome then Tsunade herself was and that her skill as an Iryou-nin had even surpassed Tsunade (which was almost true).
But Sakura had stopped to listen to everything that had been said about her during the war and not everything was even true after all. Not even that little rumor that had said that she alone had took out a enemy base of fivehundred enemies. It hadn't been fivehundred, it had been fifty and she hadn't been alone. She had have Kakashi with her during that night raid and she had barly came out there alive. She had have Kakashi to thank for still being alive.
She slapped herself mentally. Why was she thinking of him right now? She had to concentrate on those two guards in front of her, who still looked to her with fear in their eyes.
"Will you please let us in now?" Sakura asked as politely as she could, even if she felt like to storm her way past them and break up the oak door with pure force.
After some glances to each other the guards finally opened the oak door, when they saw how Sakura was beginning to look more like a tomato in her face, the more they questioning her about that she really was the fiancée to Lord Ryuusei Sange.
They walked inside of the big brick wall and they looked up to the big white sukiya styled castle that was built on top of a hill in some kind of terrace style (surely with a great view over the vally and the ocean) and Sakura growled annoyed when she saw that her future 'home' was domed with plenty of steps to the front yard to the manor and then to actually come face to face with the door to the main entrance, you had to walk twenty more steps.
She frowned and glanced to the ebony haired ANBU, who looked questioning back to her behind his mask.
"Na-Nani*...?" he asked a bit uncertain.
"Stairs..." Sakura grunted to him.
"Oh... What do you exactly want me to do about that...?" he asked, still looking questioning to her behind his ANBU mask and Sakura sighed.
"Sai, she wanted you to help her up the stairs..." the brown haired ANBU told the ebony haired on who let out an 'Oh' and saw how the brown hiared ANBU took a step closer to Sakura. "I will support you, Sakura..."
She began to blush slightly when she could feel his warm arm around her waist and she blushed even more when he pressed her closer to him. Why was her hormones playing with her like this?
"Um... Arigatou*, Yamato-Taichou..." she mumbled a bit emberassed and he looked down to her behind his Tiger mask.
"That is what I at least can do for you..." Yamato told her and they began to walk up the many stairs. One step at the time.
The ten days travel had began to catch up to Sakura as she walked up the stairs with Yamato as her only support. It was surely really troublesome to be pregnant and she never ever wanted to be pregnant again. Never!
"Are you-... Are you going to miss me?" Sakura asked them while panting, as they had cleared the last stairs and was now facing a rather big black iron door.
"Konoha wouldn't be tha same without you..." Yamato told her, still holding a firm grip around her waist and Sakura smiled to him. "If we only had known a bit earlier that you would leave us, then maybe we could have forced them to let you stay... I'm really sorry about this Sakura..."
"It's okay, Yamato... Even if you did try, I don't think the elders would give up about this..." Sakura said and looked down to the cobbled ground. "Konoha and Hi no Kuni had reasons to marry me away to this man and... and I needed to come away from Konoha as well..."
Yamato removed his ANBU mask from his face and looked down worried to the sad looking woman beside him. He knew that something had been bothering her the whole trip to Tsume no Kuni, but he didn't really know what and she didn't look like she wanted to bring it up either. So he had just let it go during their trip, but now it was really bothering him and he couldn't leave her looking like that.
"It's too bad that you couldn't be with us when our baby is born..." Sai then said to Sakura and he too took of his ANBU mask. "I know Ino would want to show you our baby..."
Sai looked to Sakura and he smiled to her and this time it was a real smile. Sai had surely improved much during his days with them and Sakura left Yamato's side to sling her arms around the neck of a surprised Sai and she hugged him hard.
"Please tell Ino that I'm sorry that I runied your wedding and that I couldn't stay to be her bridesmaid... And tell her that she will always be my best friend..." Sakura mumbled to Sai, who putted his arms around her to hug her briefly back.
"I will..." he told her and let go of her, while giving her a small smile before she turned to Yamato, who still looked at her with a worried expression on his face and she walked back to Yamato and folded her arms around his neck too, hugging him a little harder then she had with Sai.
"I will miss you..." Yamato mumbled in to her neck and placed his arms around her to pull her in to an even closer hug, while stroking her back soothingly. It was hard to press her any closer then she was against his body, due to the fact that she wasn't as slender as she had been seven months ago, but nevertheless he still hugged her and refused to let her go and he was sure that his Senpai would kill him if he even saw him hugging her in this way.
"I will miss you too, Yamato... I will miss everyone of you..." she mumbled in to his chest, not letting go of him. "He told me..."
Yamato glanced down to the back of her head and he could hear the sadness in her voice. Who had told her what? And if that one had hurted her in some way, that person would be really sorry when he got back to Konoha...
"He told me... He told me that he loved me..." Sakura continued and he could feel how she trembled slightly in his arms.
Was she crying?
"Who told you that?" he asked softly, but he was pretty sure who this person was.
"...Sensei... He told me that he loved me...? He made me so confused and I didn't know what to tell him... All I could feel was this boiling anger, anger because he had keep quiet about stuff he should have told me..." Sakura told Yamato who let out a deep sigh.
"I'm sorry Sakura... It's all my fault..." he murmur and Sakura glanced up to him, not leaving his embrace. "I told Senpai that he should tell you... And I really believed that he would tell you before this happened, but I guess I was wrong... I should have told you... I should have told you from the beginning, when I found out that you where pregnant... I'm really sorry Sakura..."
"It's not your fault, Taichou... And you did tell me, well you asked me to move in with you... But I declined your offer, so don't blame yourself for this outcome... It is my fault as well..." she said almost in a whisper and leaned back to his chest. "And as I said before, I needed to come away from Konoha... I could never remain in Konoha, when I left behind someone I know I have hurted and I know I can't repair that bond again... Because I don't-... I don't love him like he loves me..."
He was not mistaken now. She was crying softly into his chest and Yamato could almost feel her pain and sorrow, but he had also heard a lie be uttered from her lips. Who was she kidding when she said that she didn't love him? Yamato knew and had knew for a really long time, that she was indeed having feelings for a certain silver hiared Shinobi, whose social life was centred around a little green-blue smut novel.
Yamato himself had only been a shoulder to cry on, he knew that and if that could bring some happiness to her, he would continue to be a shoulder for her to cry on. But now Yamato believed that she needed more then just a shoulder to cry on. She needed the only one who really loved her, the one she had pushed away and Yamato felt sorry for his silver haired Senpai. He knew that he had taken her dismissal in a bad way and it had (finally) broken the 'old' Shinobi's already worn heart.
Even how hard his Senpai had tried to distance himself from everyone around him and reject his emotions, his Senpai couldn't reject his slowly growing feelings for a certain pink haired woman (who was rubbing off every single tears that she had shed on to his chest) and Yamato had just recently find out what his Senpai Kakashi, really felt for Sakura. He did really Love her. And she (without she really knowing it) Loved him too.
It was really the irony of fate that had brought them together, but it had also been the one to separated them from each other. Life was cruel, but love was even crueler sometimes. And Yamato didn't envy them the slightes.
"Sakura..." Yamato finally said and let go off her to push her up from his chest and he brushed her tears away from her cheeks. "I know this might not cheer you up as I wished it would, but as long as you think of us, we will always remain here..."
Yamato placed his warm hand on her chest and Sakura looked up to him, with a faint smile.
"...You will always remain in my heart..." she mumbled and she knew that she had heard those words before, only those words had been said in a different way and by another man. But it still warmed her to know that she still was 'loved' by them and would always be.
She could then feel how Sai laid his palm on her shoulder and she turned her head to look up to him. He was, again, smiling down to her.
"And as Yamato told you, if you should grew tired of this place, send us a note and we will come rescue you..." Sai said and he tried hard to sound like Naruto would and Sakura couldn't help to laught slightly at him.
"I wish that you could... But I don't want you to get in trouble..." she told him and her smile faded, when she suddenly thought of her silver haired ex-Sensei.
He had always said that he would come to her need and rescue her from what ever danger she would be facing. But she knew that he wouldn't come, like her knight in shiny armour on his pure white steed to take her away from this place. This time she had accepted that he wouldn't come for her...
Sakura was snapped back to reality when Yamato took out the scroll he had sealed her backpack in and he undid the seal and with a 'poof' the backpack appeared on the cobbled ground.
"We should be going soon..." Yamato told Sakura, who nodded shortly and then suddenly they could hear the big black iron door began to creak and the three of them watch how the big door slowly swung open.
Sakura looked up to Yamato and met his gaze, in a way of telling him to listen to her last words, before they would be parted away... Forever...
"Tell Naruto that I love him and that he will always have a special part of my heart..." Sakura told Yamato, who nodded to her.
"And Senpai? Should I-...?" Yamato become quite, seeing the sad look in her emerald eyes and he knew that he shouldn't have mention him.
"Tell him... Tell Sensei, that I have always admired him... That he have been a good father figure to me, when I lacked one myself..." Sakura told Yamato, not really believing her own words and Yamato nodded once more, before slipping on his ANBU mask and Sai did the same, stepping away from Sakura's side.
The black iron door stopped to creak and was wide open to show a big white hall and Sakura, Yamato and Sai watched how a tall, well muscled, yet slender dark brown haired man walked out of the hall to meet them.
Sakura looked to the man in front of her. She would dare to say that he was looking quite handsome as he walked towards them with a composed posture and his eyes met Sakura's and she at once flinch by his gaze up on her.
She had never believed she ever would see those eyes again. Even how much his dark chocolate eyes radiate warmth, she could still see how his dark eyes was cool and impassive. Just like the eyes of that 'boy' she had called her First Love and Sakura knew those eyes, because she herself had fell victim by the person whose those black and cold eyes belonged to. Uchiha Sasuke. And this man in front of her had the same eyes. Eyes that was filled with coldness, hate and contempt. And Sakura knew that she couldn't be close to this man, because he frighted her more then even Uchiha Sasuke ever did.
She didn't know why she felt like she did and she was sure that she didn't want to know either.
The man stopped in front of Sakura and she eyed up to the man, whose dark quite short cut brown half wavy hair was combed backwards, letting only a single lock hung down over his forehead (almost down to his left eye) and Sakura shivered when his eyes met hers once again. And then he let out a dazzling smile, but Sakura was fast to compare this mans smile with her ex-Sensei's and Sakura preferred her ex-Sensei's lazy grin then this mans far too white, toothy smirk.
"Ah! You must be Sakura-Chan..." the man said to her and if Sakura hadn't known better, she would have though that this man was her ex-Sensei who had spoken. But this man in front of her lacked the wartm and the tender baritone voice her ex-Sensei had and Sakura could faintly hear this mans cold and harsh voice, behind the charming and the authority his voice yet held.
She felt confused by him. She had never met someone that she felt safe with and yet not. And she frown to him when he took her hand and kissed her soft skin on her upper part of her hand She wanted to recoil, but her body refused to move.
"You are even more beautiful then they told me you were and your pregnant body suits you so well..." he said with a silky baritone voice and Sakura couldn't help to still think of her ex-Sensei once again.
Why was she thinking of him right now? She had told herself over and over again during the travel, that she was done and over with him. But this man in front of her just let her mind to drift to her silver haired annoyance.
`God... Did I just think my silver haired annoyance...!´
Then the man let go of Sakura's hand and let it travel up around her shoulder and he pressed her closer to his black sateen suit-like covered body and looked up to the two ANBU standing in front of them and then he smirked to the two ANBU.
"You must be terrible unlucky to not have this little young lady to remain in Konoha, she seems to have a special place in everyones heart..." the man said and glanced down to Sakura, while the ANBU with the Tiger mask clenched his fists hard and then the brown haired man looked back to the two ANBU in front of them, his smirk was even wider. "But I bet you had your little fun on your way here, didn't you..."
Sakura looked confused up to the man beside her and the Tiger masked ANBU took some steps forward, but got stopped by the ANBU with the Ram mask and the brown haired man behind the Tiger mask growled low while frowning to the man holding a possessing grip around Sakura's shoulders.
"She is a fellow citizen of Konoha... A fellow comrade... We wouldn't harm or do anything improper with her..." Yamato told the man in front of them and Yamato could see how Sakura's eyes widened slightly in surprise and confusion.
"And if you hurt her in anyway, you will regret it..." Sai said to the man and saw how the dark brown haired man just smirked even more to them.
"Really...?" he drawled, while looking mockingly down to them. "Then I should rememind you, who I am... I'm Ryuusei Sange, on of the three Lords of Tsume no Kuni..."
He let go of Sakura and stepped closer to Yamato and Sai who was ready to draw their katanas and then he leaned closer to them.
"And as long as I'm with this young lady here, you can't touch me..." Ryuusei Sange said to them in a threatening tone. "And I know that two ANBU, like youself, knows that... So I think it is best that the two of you leave now, before Hi no Kuni and Tsume no Kuni will really be harder to connect again..."
Yamato stepped back, followed by Sai (who was as pissed off as Yamato was) and they turned around to face the stairs.
"Take care, Sakura..." Yamato said without turning to look at her and she looked at them with sadness in her emerald eyes.
They were really leaving her this time and all she wanted to do was to run to them, begging them to take her back again. But it was already too late. They had disappeared faster down the stairs then she had thought that they would do and she watched how the brown haired man Ryuusei Sange turned to look at her.
It was then she saw it. Eyes that was looking at her in a lust and a possessive way she never had seen in a man before. She was indeed scared of him, but she wouldn't let him touch her. He would have to break her, before he ever could touch her in the way he wanted to touch her.
Ryuusei Sange began to walk back to Sakura's side and gripped her around her waist and began to walk with her to the big white hall.
"But-But my bag..." Sakura said and looked back to the big backpack on the cobbled ground.
"The servant will take care of it..." he told her still with that silkly baritone voice and he lead her inside of the big manor and down the white hall and then he stopped. "Itsuki, would you please escort my lady to her room..."
A little light brown haired 'boy' straightened himself to the left side of them and answered Sange with a "Hai" and took Sakura in her arm, who wasn't really that cooperating to follow, making the'boy' to drag her from the spot.
"Sange-Sama..." a old creaky voice said behind the brown haired man, when Sakura was far away from them. "Sange-Sama... Is this really wise to let a woman like her to be your wife? She has no experience when it comes to court life and people will questioning your choice..."
"Even how much I appreciate your concern, Saburou... It is still my choice and that woman have something I want..." Sange told the old man behind him, whitout even taking his eyes from the pink haired woman who was dragged away by the light brown haired 'boy'. "And by the way, Saburou... You have work to do..."
"Sange-Sama...?" the grey haired older man with misty eyes looked confused up to the handsome man in front of him.
"Burn her bag... She doesn't need it anymore..." Sange told the old man.
"Hai, Sange-Sama..."
Sange looked away from the pink haired woman in front of him and nodded to the short old man behind him before he too swept down the hall, disappearing into the darkness.
Author note:
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.
It may contain some spelling errors...
Mini Japanese dictionary and little more;
Arigatou = Thank you
Daimyo = Japanese feudal lord
Hi no Kuni = Fire Country
Iryou-nin = Medicnin
Itadakimasu = Expression of gratitude before meals
Iwa = Iwagakure (Hidden Stone Village)
Joumonji Yari = Look something similar to a trident or partisan and brandished a pair of curved blades around its central lance. Occasionally called maga yari in modern weaponry texts. (Wiki)
Mendokuse = (How) Bothersome/Tiresome
Mattaku = Good grief (expression of exasperation) or just another word for things that is troublesome
Nani = What
Nukenin = Missingnin
Ochoko = A saké cup
Ojisan = Uncle
Okaasan = Mother
Sandaime = The Third (Hokage)
Tsume no Kuni = Claw Country
Tokkuri = A saké bottle (with attenuated mouth)
Un = Yeah
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Next Chapter: War Of My Life