A/N: A big thanks to my beta samurai girl93 (who have jumped into the middle of this story) You did a great job on this one! And just so you know, chapter 20 was a flashback of Kakashi's life in his days in ANBU and how he lost Rin. Even if it was a filler, it was a very important filler, just like with every other chapter so far... Ehum... Anyway, read and please don't forget to review! ^3^
(Disclaimer: I don't own NARUTO! They belong to His Highness Kishimoto Masashi! )
Chapter Twenty-One - On Melancholy Hill
Sakura glanced down to the big garden through the window of the big mansion and she sighed, while trying to make herself comfortable on the pillow to the window seat by the bay window.
She could see from here how the gardeners worked, placing out colorful spring flowers to what would soon be gigantic and surely beautiful flower beds almost all over the garden. She watched how some of the maids walked down a little stone path to where, they would most likely, hang up the newly washed laundry to dry in the warm spring sun.
If Sakura hadn't locked herself inside of her own room, she would have gladly walked out in the garden to breathe in the spring air, while enjoying the flowers of April.
It had already been a week since she had been left here to marry that man, Ryuusei Sange and right after she had been showed into this room by that little hyperactive (almost Naruto copy) boy Itsuki, she had become a bit melancholy.
And it hadn't disappeared even though she tried to hide herself inside of this room, away from all and nothing that had something to do with Ryuusei Sange. She hadn't even come out to eat when the boy Itsuki had on her first day here, announced that the dinner was ready and she chuckled low to herself when she thought about it.
Itsuki had knocked on the door to her room and had waited patiently for her to open the door. And when she finally had opened the door, he had told her the dinner was served and the 'master' was waiting for her at the dining room.
When she had told the grinning hyperactive boy that she wasn't hungry, he had began to fuss about that she must be at the dinner to please her 'husband'. It had been those words that had made her slap the door in the boy's face. After hearing a high pitching scream, she had walked satisfied back to her bed.
After that, the boy hadn't even tried to bother her about to dinner with her soon to be 'husband' and he had left some food outside of her room after having knocked once, before taking his escape down the hall. And she was really thankful for those four meals she got each day, but it wasn't enough to satisfy her growing abdomen or hunger.
And thanks to that boy's big mouth, the maid that was suppose to accompanied Sakura, had refused to even go near Sakura or the hall where Sakura's room was located and everyone else seemed to agree that their 'master's' soon to be wife, was as intimidating as the reputation said she was.
And walking out of this room to ask someone for a snack was out of the question. She would rather stay here and starve, then leave the room to go against her own pride. The pride she had taken by locking herself inside of her own room and to not communicate with the others of this mansion.
Her stomach gave her away with a loud grumbling sound and Sakura looked down to her stomach, which announced that she was eight months pregnant, causing her to sigh, troubled. It hadn't been that long since she had have lunch and she was (as she had been every since she got here) hungry all the time and she didn't know how her baby would manage this lack of food issue any longer.
It surely was melancholy on this hill.
A suddenly knock on the door made Sakura to jump slightly in surprise and she glanced to the dark wooden door, that slowly began to open up.
"Ano*... Gomennasai*, Sakura-sama, but I just thought that you maybe would be hungry..." a soft female voice said in the doorway and Sakura didn't know if she should cry or scream in delight.
Because in front of her stood the only person Sakura really could squeezed the life out of in joy and she thanked Kami*, that her prayers finally had been heard.
"Kiku...? I'm so happy to see you here!" Sakura squealed, while moving from her spot on the window seat to embrace the shocked looking black haired maid in the doorway. "What are you doing here, in a place like this?"
"Ta-Tara-Sama!" the black haired maid stuttered, while glancing to the pink haired woman who was hugging her hard. "I could ask you the same thing... What are you doing here? And where is your husband, Deigo-sama wasn't it?"
"Deigo...? Oh, him... Well if you come in and close the door I will tell you everything..." Sakura told the maid Kiku, who did as she was told.
After both of them had made themselves comfortable in the big bed, Sakura breathed in deeply and let everything out in a heavy sigh while looking at Kiku.
"Tara-sama... Why are you here? And is it true what they are saying? That you are going to marry Ryuusei-Sama...?" Kiku asked with her innocent girlish voice and Sakura sighed once more.
"Kiku... My name isn't Tara... It's Sakura... Tara was just a name to protect my own identity... I'm sorry that I lied to you..." Sakura told Kiku, who looked a bit surprised.
"Why didn't you use your own name back then...? Back in Iyagaru-sama's manor...?" Kiku asked Sakura who looked down to the slightly confused looking maid.
"Because I was on a mission... I'm a kunoichi, Kiku..." Sakura told the black haired maid who gasped slightly at what Sakura had told her and it was after those words Sakura began her story about their mission to the town of Kirizai.
How they had hide their identities as shinobi and how they had tried their hardest to assassinate Iyagaru Kusari, without knowing that his wife already had have him killed by using a nukenin*. How Sakura had been threatened by someone that they later, had found out to be the nukenin who had been disguising himself as Lord Iyagaru Kusari.
Sakura watched how Kiku gasped in awe as she told the maid how that nukenin had once been a shinobi from Konoha (who actually was dead) and how this nukenin in reality was a Devil. How Sakura and her other two team mates had fought him until the very end and how her Sensei had been close to lose his life that day. But every one of them had come out of this alive and with those words Sakura ended her story.
"Kiku, I'm sorry that you had to quit your work because of me..." Sakura then said to Kiku. "I wish I could have done some thing more to make you stay..."
"It's alright Tar-... Sakura-sama... I did never really like that place anyway..." Kiku said and looked up to Sakura with a faint smile. "So you, your 'fake' husband and your guard, was the ones who took care of those two tyrants from my hometown...?"
"Well yeah... And you still don't have to call me 'Sama'..." Sakura told Kiku who began to smile brightly up to her, making Sakura a bit uncomfortable.
"My mother thanked Kami, that day when our town was taking out from its misery... And now she can finally feed my other five brothers... She hasn't been able to do that for years..." Kiku began to sob slightly and Sakura laid a soothing hand on her shoulder. "Thank you... Thank you for making my home town a better place to live in..."
Sakura looked down to Kiku, feeling a bit of happy that she had help Kiku's mother a bit (even if Sakura never had met that woman).
"I'm happy to hear that your home town is back on its feet again... But I still wonder what you are doing here..." Sakura said and Kiku looked up to the pink haired kunoichi.
"Before Iyagaru Kusachi-sama took over as the Lord, I was forced to find a new job and the only one available was being a maid at this court... So I took it and now I can't leave to go back home... He won't allow us..." Kiku mumbled and suddenly she looked up to Sakura like Sakura would be able to solve lifes all mysteries. "But you are a kunoichi! You could kick his butt and take us out of this place...!"
"Kiku, I'm sorry... But I can't..." Sakura told her and glanced down with a sad look to her lap.
"Why not...? You shouldn't have any problem with him...!" Kiku said and grabbed Sakura's hands in hers, while catching Sakura's eyes with her own. "You could just-..."
"Kiku... He is-... He is my... fiancé... I can't go against him..." Sakura looked to the maid Kiku, who frowned a bit. "I'm sorry... But I can't..."
The black haired maid, with her hassle eyes, looked to the sad looking pink haired woman beside her and she couldn't remember that this woman beside her had ever looked this down as she did now and that was why Kiku decided to drop the subject at the moment.
~oOo~
No one in the court of Ryuusei Sange did really know how this little shy, innocent and naive maid Kiku had succeeded to make the highly intimidating fiancée of their Lord Ryuusei Sange, to come out of her sanctuary to eat together with their Lord (even if it only was for the dinner meals).
And Kiku (who didn't understand why her co-workers did see Sakura as intimidating and just pure evil) was just happy that her long lost 'friend' was finally back on her feet, being just like she had been back when she had been Tara-Sama (even if she was looking a bit more melancholy then before). But she still had that soft smile on her lips when Kiku had appeared into the room to help her with whatever she wanted help with.
It was what Kiku lived for. To make her mistress smile (even if her mistress didn't find her fiancés presence particularly enjoyable), Kiku still tried to achieve a smile from her mistress lips. A smile Kiku had found out that she loved more then anything else in this mansion.
And it made the little maid sad to see her mistress looking impassive down to the plate in front of her, with barely touched food and how the handsome dark brown haired man looked down to her like she was just some kind of harlot with his dark lust filled chocolate eyes. No it didn't sad her, it pained her...
"My dear, you need to eat..." the dark brown haired man said to the gloomy looking pink haired woman to his left. "Think of your state... Think of your child, our child..."
The gloomy looking pink haired woman glanced to the man to her right and if looks could kill, he had already been dead... a long time ago...
She gave away a silence snort and wondered how this man dared to say that her child was his, like he owned her baby too. This child would never be his and she would do everything in her power to make her unborn child to grow up elsewhere.
To grow up in a place she herself had grown up in. To grow up to be a great shinobi she knew her son would be. To grow up to be everything her son's father wasn't; to grow up to be a great man.
But how she could make her son to grow up in her beloved home village (that was Konoha), she had still not figured out yet. This place was just like a prison. You could walk in, but you could never leave...
Only few chosen members of the court (and of course Ryuusei Sange himself) had permission to leave as they pleased and (unfortunately) Sakura wasn't one of them and neither was the maid she trusted with her own life.
It annoyed her that she hadn't tried to be friendly with some of them, like the head housemaid (whose name she couldn't remember) or Ryuusei Sange's own servant (whose name had began with S something), a creepy old man who seemed to know everything about anything (but not where her backpack had disappeared to).
"I'm not hungry..." she finally told him and he raised an eyebrow at her.
"How could you not be hungry? A pregnant woman should be hungry all the time and eat even if she isn't hungry..." he said, while looking down to her scarcely touched food. "Sakura, my love... Your food will get cold if you don't eat it now and I don't want to see you and our unborn child starve..."
He placed a palm on her deep red kimono clad belly and Sakura resisted the urge to slap his hand off her belly. Knowing it wouldn't look good if she slapped her fiancés hand in front of the servants and the few guards that was presence in the dining room. So she bit her tongue and counted to ten, while he stroked her belly a little too intimately for her taste.
"Ryuusei-sama!" the creepy old servant of Ryuusei suddenly called from the dining room's entrance and the dark brown haired man snapped his dark gaze up to the old servant.
"What?" he snapped, while removing his hand from Sakura's belly.
"You have visitors," the old servant said to Ryuusei with his creaky voice.
"Alright, escort them to the first living room on the first floor... Tell them I will meet them as soon as I have finished," Ryuusei told the old man who bowed his head.
"That won't be necessary... Niichan*..." a drawling voice of a woman said at the dining room entrance and Sakura turned her head around to look at the one who had spoken.
It was a woman (probably around her late-twenties) with dark burgundy hair, soft tanned skin, icy dark blue eyes and almost blood red lips and she was leaning on the wooden frame to the arch, with her arms crossed over her chest making her breast almost to roll out of her deep cut u-necked carmine colored tunic.
She was a smasher (that would be according to Genma, if he had been here) and Sakura couldn't help to envy this woman's looks, because she (just like Sakura's ex-Sensei) had a face that was not from this world and it was so perfect that even Ino would began to question her own face.
"Why am I not surprised?" Ryuusei purred to the woman in the entrance and she gave him a smirk. "And I didn't expect you this soon, Eimin..."
"What can I say? We can't miss your wedding and Okaasan* wants to meet the future wife of yours..." the woman Eimin said to Ryuusei while shrugging her shoulder. "You know how she is... She maybe won't accept the whore you have dragged home this time..."
Sakura glared offended to the woman in the entrance way and she clenched her fist, bit her tongue again, while telling herself that it was no use to open her mouth to shout something offending back.
Ryuusei just raised an eyebrow at this woman Eimin, while giving her a mocking smile.
"Shut your big trap, Eimin," an icy, cold, elderly woman's voice suddenly snapped just beside the younger woman Eimin and Sakura watched how a slightly plump and haughty looking woman slapped her folding fan on the younger woman's head, like it was her punishment. "Didn't I tell you to behave and shut your foul mouth?"
"Humph..." Eimin turned her head away from the elderly woman and the elderly woman then turned her head to Ryuusei.
"And wash away that disgusting smirk from your face, Sange," the elderly woman said to Ryuusei, who straightened his pose in the chair, but didn't drop the smirk.
"Is this how you talk to your only son, Haha*?" Ryuusei said to the elderly woman, who just glared to him and then he turned his face to Sakura. "Kiku, take Sakura-Chan to her room."
The little black haired maid Kiku (who jumped slightly by surprise), left the shadows in the corner she had stood in and walked towards the pink haired woman who was about to rise from her chair.
"I will take some snack from the kitchen later," the maid Kiku whispered to Sakura, who gave the maid a faint smile of gratitude.
Sakura walked towards the entrance out of the dining hall with Kiku walking behind her and Sakura didn't look at the two women as she came closer to them. But suddenly she was stopped by a folding fan that was carelessly slapped on her chest. She looked up to the owner of that fan.
"Sange, is this your fiancée?" the elderly woman asked Ryuusei who answered the woman with a "Hai" and the woman curled her lip at Sakura. "What a pity excuse for a woman... And what make you think that you are good enough for my son?"
Sakura (who was pretty taken aback by this question) just glared dumbfounded up to the woman, who was looking down to Sakura like she was something unpleasant that had found itself stuck under her shoe. But Sakura (who wasn't at the moment in the mood to be polite) recovered slightly from being dumbfounded and curled her lips in the same way the elderly woman did.
"You think I'm not good enough for your son? It's more like he isn't good enough for me," Sakura hissed to the woman who bored her black stone cold eyes into Sakura's emerald one. "And he will never be!"
"Your insulting little tart!" the elderly woman hissed to Sakura while raising her hand at Sakura.
Sakura felt the burning sensation after the woman had slapped her hard on her cheek and Sakura rubbed her aching cheek with her palm, glancing shocked up to the heavy breathing, red faced woman.
"You should learn how to behave when talking to your superior!" the woman hissed angry to Sakura, who still was rubbing her cheek while watching how the elderly woman began to walk towards the table were Ryuusei still was sitting beside, who didn't care what just had happened to Sakura.
The younger woman Eimin, looked to Sakura with narrowed eyes and a slightly curled upper lip, before she turned her head away from Sakura and went after her mother.
Kiku laid a comforting hand on Sakura's shoulder, while mumbling soothing words to Sakura who was just glaring down to the floor. Feeling how tears began to emerge from her eyes, Sakura began to walk out of the room followed closely by Kiku who glared, unforgiving, to the elderly woman.
Sakura cursed the two women along with her fiancé. The way they treated her, like she was just something the cat had brought in and how her fiancé just had watched, made her boil with anger.
She glanced to a stone bust to her right (that was probably very expensive and was supposed to be a long gone almighty warlord that had once own this place) while clenching her fist hard, before hearing the satisfied sound of stone being crushing against her knuckles. She watched how the wounds on her knuckles began to bleed slightly and how the blood dropped down to the dark cold stone floor.
"Sakura...-sama?" Kiku mumbled while watching Sakura with astonishment.
"Let's go, Kiku. I'm feeling much better already."
~oOo~
A blond straggly haired man with deep blue eyes looked out through the window of his office.
He watched how the people of the village did their daily business, while the April sun warmed their backs as well as the still slightly cold ground. He saw in the far distance how some of the cherry trees still was blooming in the park, where the yearly Hanami* was taking place and even this year something was missing to him.
He had always enjoyed to watch the cherry trees bloom with its soft pink flowers with his friends and these last years that had past, he had always come to think of her.
A friend that he loved more then anything. A friend that he always had been together with during the Hanami back in Team Seven before the war. A friend that he once had lost but was able to find only to be lost again. And just right after they had begun to be friends again, she was gone. Gone like the cherry flowers during a hard breeze.
He missed her. He missed his only friend that was close enough to be like his sister and he would never again see her or the child she bore. Never again would she walk the street of the village Konoha. Never again would she hit him when he had said something that annoyed her or done something pervy. Never again would he and his perv-of-a-Sensei be together with her. Never...
"If I only had known sooner, then maybe I could have saved you, Sakura," the blond man mumbled while closing his eyes and turned his head away from the window. It hurt too much to even look at the cherry trees.
But he needed to pull himself together. He was after all Konoha's Hokage and he needed to have a 'cheery' face all the time.
He turned around on the spot, looked down to his desk and sank into the chair beside the desk. He looked down to the pail of missions scrolls and papers that he just hadn't have the strength to look through after Sakura's departure. And he figured that he was maybe worse then Tsunade at the moment, but right now he didn't give a damn about it.
He began to sort the mission scrolls that already had been done, with those which weren't and read the mission reports. He sighed in annoyance and began to wonder where the hell his Sensei was. Wasn't he the one who was supposed to help him with this kind of things?
The blond Hokage looked down to one of the ANBU reports, while rubbing his temple and when he come to think of it, hadn't his Sensei been taking care of Kurenai's son, Aisoku? He had, but that didn't mean he could slack from his work.
"Shizune-neechan*!"
The door swung open and a ebony haired woman entered.
"You called Naruto-kun." she said and looked to the blond man in the chair.
"Aaa... I want you to fetch Kakashi-Sensei for me. I haven't seen him for a week and I need his help," the blond man Naruto told Shizune, who was holding a little pig with a red vest in her arms.
"I'm on my way, Naruto-kun. Let's find him TonTon," she said while the pig sniffed into the air and Naruto watched how the door closed behind them and he couldn't help to smile at them.
It was surely nostalgic to watch them, like he had done for many years now.
An hour later and the door swung open once again and Naruto looked up to the one entering the room.
"Ne-Neechan? What's wrong and where is Kaka-sensei?" Naruto asked when he saw the troubled look on the ebony haired woman Shizune and the beaten look of the pig TonTon.
"Well, I bring terrible news... Kakashi-San... He is... He is gone!" Shizune told Naruto who raised his eyebrow at her.
"What-What do you mean gone?"
"Neither I nor TonTon could sense any sign from him in the village and not even outside of the village's walls. It's like he disappeared without a trace," Shizune said and looked to a frowning Naruto; his eyebrows knitting together.
"Kuso*... Shizune, bring me everyone you can find from Konoha 11 and be quick!" Naruto told her and she was gone as fast as she almost had come.
Naruto bit his lip while looked down to his paper covered desk with a frown.
"What the hell are you up to, Sensei?"
Naruto looked to the two men standing opposite to him and both of them looking down at him, worried, while he tapped his pen on the desk.
"Naruto, will you please stop tapping the pen on the desk. It is actually a bit annoying," the brown haired man suddenly said to him and Naruto looked to him while placing the writing utensil onto the table. "We have been standing here for two minutes already and you haven't said a word yet. What is it you want to tell us?"
"Well that is what I have been trying to figure out, Yamato-taichou, but I don't really know how to actually explain it," Naruto mumbled. "It is a bit complicated after all."
"It shouldn't be that complicated to you. You being the Hokage after all," the ebony haired man mocked him in a good-natured sort of way.
"Tsk... Then you should try to be the Hokage, Sai," Naruto snapped, while glaring up to the ebony haired man. "Well maybe I should skip the troubling part and go directly to the matter of importance, which concerns both of you."
"Okay, go on," the brown haired man Yamato said and looked down to the blond Naruto.
"It's about Sakura. She has been betro-..."
Suddenly the office door crashed wide open and a furious looking silver haired man stormed inside of the office, while slamming the door close behind him.
"What's the meaning with this Naruto!" the silver haired man growled to the Naruto, who just stared to him.
"Meaning with what?" he asked while looking a bit confused.
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about!" the silver haired man growled even lower. "Why didn't you do anything to stop them?"
"Stop them-...? Oh... So she told you...?" Naruto said and glanced up to the silver haired man who had suddenly slapped both of his palms down to Naruto's desk, making most of the papers to fly down to the floor and making the desk creak.
"WHY?" he asked again and Naruto sighed while looking up to the furious silver haired man.
"There was nothing I could do, sensei." Naruto mumbled, but the look his silver haired Sensei gave him, told Naruto that he didn't believe him. "You know as well as I do, that I alone don't stand a chance against them! Even if I am the Hokage, they don't listen to me!"
The silver haired man seemed to calm down a bit and his shoulder slumped slightly in a defeated sort of way.
"I'm sorry Kakashi-Sensei that I couldn't do more," Naruto said and watched how his Sensei just shook his head.
"No. You don't have to apologize. It's my fault as well, I'm sorry," Kakashi mumbled and sighed.
"Okay... What is going on right now?" Yamato asked, but he was pretty sure he knew what was going on and it seemed that even Sai knew.
"Sakura have been betrothed," Kakashi suddenly said and he didn't hide the bitterness in his voice.
Neither Yamato nor Sai looked surprised as he had said it, but it was when Naruto informed them that her fiancé was a Lord from another country that both of them looked surprised down to Naruto.
"And I who thought that it was a law against marrying away 'pregnant' kunoichi's to other countries," Yamato said still a bit shocked by the news.
"It is?" Naruto said hopefully.
"Only in Sandaime's mind it existed such a law, but it was never a law that said that you couldn't," Kakashi told them and Naruto looked sad down to the desk.
"Naruto, was that what you wanted to tell us? That Sakura is betrothed?" Yamato asked and saw how Naruto nodded his head.
"Partly, but that wasn't the only reason," Naruto said and leaned back, wearily onto the chair with a loud sigh. "The reason why I asked you two to come to my office today is because... Is because I need you two to accompany Sakura to her new home in Tsume no Kuni*. And no arguing about it!"
Yamato closed his mouth and looked to his Senpai who was looking down to Naruto.
"Why did you choose them and not me?" Kakashi asked Naruto who looked up to his Sensei.
"Because I need you here and... And when it comes to escort her, I don't trust you to take her to Tsume no Kuni. As much as I wouldn't even trust myself to take her there. I'm sorry, Sensei..."
Naruto looked up from the desk, wondering if it had been his fault that Kakashi had suddenly disappeared out of Konoha because of what he had said to him.
A sudden knock on the door brought the blond man out of his thoughts and he watched how the door opened by the ebony haired woman Shizune.
"Naruto-kun, I have brought everybody I could find," she told him.
"Right. Show them inside," Naruto told her and Shizune nodded.
It didn't take long until the little circle office was packed with almost everyone from Konoha 11. Naruto looked to them with a stony expression in his face.
"What's the matter? Have someone died?" the still heavily pregnant, light blonde woman asked Naruto, a bit annoyed.
"No, not yet Ino. I just have some questions to all of you, before I will decide if I should send some of you to a very special mission," Naruto told them while the light blonde woman Ino snorted at him.
"Haven't you destroyed enough already...?" Ino barked to him and Naruto looked annoyed to her. "And I'm pregnant if you didn't see that!"
"I know that you are pregnant Ino and I'm sorry that I destroyed you and Sai's up coming wedding, but I needed him for that mission," Naruto told the huffing woman to a lazy looking man's left. "Anyway, as I was telling you, I have some questions to ask all of you."
"And why did I have to take care of Sakura's stuff?" Ino barked once more and Naruto glared to her. "And by the way, I haven't seen Sakura for some time now. Don't tell me that you send her out to a mission!"
"No Ino, I haven't sent her out to a mission. She told me she needed some time on her own, so I send her to Suna*..." Naruto told Ino, hopping it would stop her from asking more questions.
"But-...!"
"Ino, just drop it! If Sakura is in Suna, she will be take cared of," the lazy looking man suddenly told Ino who bit her lip. "What was it you wanted to ask us, Naruto...?"
"Ah right... Well, when was the last time you saw, Kakashi-Sensei?" Naruto suddenly asked them and all six of them (and a dog), looked questioning to him.
"What do you mean? Last time we saw him?" Kiba asked and Akamaru whined beside him.
"I mean what I said. When was the last time you saw him?" Naruto repeated.
"Don't know. I have been on a mission, but it could be two weeks or so," Kiba finally said.
Hinata as well as the silent man in the corner, Shino said the same. Naruto then turned his gaze to the other three.
"I have been training with Gai-Sensei in the mountains for a week and before that I haven't seen him," the bushy, eye browed man to the lazy man's right said while looking to Naruto.
"Naruto, it's not that unusual that he disappears some hours or even days. I mean, it has happened before," the lazy looking man said.
"I know that, Shikamaru, but it is unusual that he disappears without a trace," Naruto told the lazy looking man Shikamaru who frowned troubled.
"Well, last time I saw him was the day he left Aisoku with me," Ino then told them.
"And when was that?" Naruto asked.
"Hum... I think it was about five days or so. He said he was leaving for a mission, that was why he couldn't have Aisoku any longer," Ino said and Naruto just glared to her.
"He was leaving for a mission, you say?" Naruto asked fuming and Ino nodded. "Since when did you begin to believe in that old perv...?"
Ino flushed and looked down to the floor, while Shikamaru scratched his neck with a troubled look on his face.
The white coated canine Akamaru suddenly began to yelp, making his master look down to him.
"Aaa... I have noticed it too," the untidy brown haired Kiba said and looked up to Naruto. "Naruto, Akamaru has noticed some uneasy mood in this room. Someone hasn't been honest with us."
"Okay... Can you tell us whom?"
"Shikamaru, you didn't tell us if you had seen Kakashi-san," Hinata suddenly spoke up beside Kiba and everyone's gaze fell on Shikamaru, who looked even more troubled.
"Mattaku*…Well, I did see him the day Kurenai left Aisoku with him," Shikamaru told them.
"That is not possible. Kurenai-sensei left Aisoku-kun at the school before she left for the mission, telling me that Kakashi-san would pick him up after school," Hinata told Shikamaru who began to look even more troubled then he already was.
"Come to think of it," Kiba suddenly said, "I think it was about three weeks ago, I saw Shikamaru together with Kakashi and Kakashi did look a bit upset while you two were conversing, Shikamaru."
"Of course he looked upset! He was drunk and he smelled like death himself," Shikamaru muttered. "Everyone would look upset if they smelled like that."
"Uke... I couldn't agree more about that," Ino uttered with a shiver.
"Anyway, do you have any idea where he could be at the moment?" Naruto asked him.
"No clue," Shikamaru said while shrugging his shoulder.
"He is lying!" Kiba snapped, while Akamaru barked.
"I'm not lying!" Shikamaru argued.
"You are! I can smell it," Kiba told him. "Your body is releasing the hormone cortisol, which makes your heart beat faster and the fight and flight mood to go off. That's what makes me think that you are lying," Kiba glared to Shikamaru, while crossing his arms over his chest in a boring sort of way and Shikamaru just looked to the Kiba.
"Shikamaru, just tell me if you know where Kaka-sensei is," Naruto said and glanced to him.
"I talked to him at the bar," Shikamaru finally said and sighed deeply. "He had been there for days and he was really drunk. I would say that this time he could have killed himself if I hadn't been there. Anyway, I overheard a conversation between you, Sakura and the elders some time ago and I figured that he must have been depressed about it. So I told him to do something about it..."
Naruto raised his eyebrow at Shikamaru who looked down to the floor.
"He... He must have gone after Sakura... That is the only thing I can think of that he would do..." Shikamaru mumbled and the other five looked shockingly at him.
Naruto closed his eyes and sighed. His suspicions had been confirmed then.
"Shika, what do you mean with that he has gone after her?" Ino asked him. "Is there something you knew, that you haven't told us? And I have never heard that Sakura had been in a fight with the elders."
"It was because of confidential information," Naruto suddenly told her. "She couldn't tell any one of you, even how much she wanted to."
"Telling us what?" the bushy eye browed man, Lee asked.
"That Sakura is going to marry a man from another country," Naruto mumbled and almost every one of them gasped in surprise, while Naruto opened his eyes slowly to look at the five flabbergasted people in the room.
"I don't understand. Why is Sakura-san going to marry a man from another country?" Lee looked to Naruto with a concern look on his face.
"Isn't it obvious," Kiba suddenly said and Lee looked to him. "She is pregnant."
Lee just glared at Kiba while letting his mouth gap slightly, even more surprise was flickering in his eyes.
"Sa-Sakura-san... Pre-Pregnant..." Lee stuttered turning his gaze back to Naruto whose look was solid as stone.
"Don't tell me you didn't even notice that," Kiba mumbled, while averting his eyes from Lee to look at Naruto. "And why would Kakashi-Sensei even try to go after her? He knew as well as everyone else in here, that going against something the elders have decided, is like go against Konoha and even Hi no Kuni* itself."
"I know that he knows that, but something tells me that it must have been something really big, otherwise he wouldn't go after her like that without telling us," Naruto told Kiba. "And I know that he cares for her and-..."
"Doesn't he think that we care for her as well?" Kiba barked, while trying to hide a blush that was creeping up to his cheek and Akamaru barked agreeable beside him.
Lee (who still was too shock after hearing the news) just mumbled sulking that he did never get the chance to beat his Rival of Love, after have slide down to the floor pocking the floor with his finger.
"Lee, get a grip on yourself," Shikamaru told him and sighed while rubbing his eyes. "I think it's my fault that he did it. Well, I told him that he should do something about it and then I mentioned to him that this man she is going to marry was most likely a man known as 'The Bride Reaper'."
"The Bride Reaper!" Ino said while looking shocked up to her team mate. "You must do something about this, Naruto! We must get Sakura back!"
"Even if I want to take her back, we can't. The elders used her as a trade between Hi no Kuni and Tsume no Kuni. We would only jeopardize her safety along with Hi no Kuni's if we took her back," Naruto told them. Even if he would risk his own life for her, he couldn't risk others life for the cost of her. But he was Uzumaki Naruto after all, so he still had some tricks up in his sleeves. "And when it comes to what Shikamaru said about that man, nothing is confirmed. Even if ANBU believed this man could be the long dead 'Bride Reaper', they still weren't sure. And I felt that it was an unnecessary risk to move a whole ANBU team to capture a man that we don't really know a thing about."
"But-!" Ino looked to Naruto, but was cut off by the man in the corner, Shino.
"What about Kakashi-san? Should we pursuit him?" Shino asked Naruto who looked to him.
"No, let him be," Naruto finally said after a long silence. "I have two ANBU stationed outside of the walls of Sakura's fiancés home, they will notice if Kakashi-sensei is trying to approach the mansion. And beside, he knows what position we are in with Tsume no Kuni, so he wouldn't try to do anything stupid to get her back."
"Don't do anything stupid? Naruto if you haven't noticed, he left without telling anybody just to go after Sakura," Ino said and frowned to the blond man behind the desk. "That is pretty stupid thing to do, don't you think?"
"You can't blame him," Shikamaru then sighed out. "After all he has feel-..."
Shikamaru was cut off by a sharp knock on the door and Naruto asked Hinata to open the door.
A brown haired man along with an ebony haired man walked into the circle office and looked a bit surprised to the crowed in the room.
"Have something happened?" the brown haired man asked and was pushed aside by a light blonde woman, who flung her arms around the ebony haired man, who looked bewildered by the woman's sudden burst of affection.
"Well, you haven't seen Kaka-sensei on your way back home, Yamato-taichou?" Naruto said and eyed the brown haired man who raised his eyebrow.
"Senpai? No, not what I can remember," the brown haired wood user, Yamato said and glanced down to the ebony haired man who was trying to tell the light blonde woman that she was suffocating him. "Is he in danger or something like that?"
"No not really. He has just gone missing," Naruto said and Yamato snapped his eyes back to Naruto.
"Gone missing? Well I don't really believe he has gone missing. Are you sure that you have looked everywhere? You know how hard he is to be found if he knows you are looking for him," Yamato said and walked closer to Naruto.
"Shizune has looked everywhere for him and there was no sign of him in the village," Naruto told Yamato, who began to look a bit worried. "And we believe he went after Sakura, which was why I asked if you may have seen him on your way back to Konoha."
"If Kakashi-san was on his way to Sakura, then he would take a different path then us," the ebony haired man suddenly said and looked to Naruto. "His skill in hiding is better then ours, he could have passed us and we would never know it was him."
"Do you want us to track him down and beat some sense into him?" Yamato suddenly asked. Naruto only shook his head.
"I can do it later if he ever dares to come back and we can just hope he doesn't do anything stupid," Naruto said with a deep sighed and returned to his chair while looking to the eight people in the room.
"It's Senpai we are talking about. He would do everything in his power to protect those who he cares for," Yamato mumbled to Naruto, who knew how true it was.
"Anyway, did you two do what I told you to?" Naruto suddenly asked Yamato who nodded.
"We did... twice. I just hope she will do it as a last resort. You know how she can be," Yamato said and the others in the room looked at the brown haired wood user, confused.
"I know. I hope she could just for this time, skip her pride and-..." the last of Naruto's words was cut off by the office door crashing wide open and everyone in the room jumped slightly.
"Hokage-sama! Is it true?" an elderly woman voice suddenly called from the doorway and Naruto frowned at the two people standing in front of him.
"What is true?" Naruto growled, annoyed that he had been interrupted by them.
"That one of our own has left the village without permission," the elderly man said and glanced down to the blond Hokage.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Naruto said coldly and he saw how the hag narrowed her eyes at him.
"Don't take us for some fools, Hokage-sama! We have heard what one of our own did. We only wanted to hear it from you. Did or did not Hatake Kakashi leave Konoha without your permission?" the hag asked and Naruto looked to Yamato, trying to get some consultation out of him.
But Yamato looked away from Naruto, since he told him that it was just best to tell them what they already knew and also because it was futile to lie to them anyway.
Naruto sighed while rubbing his forehead with his palm. His bright blue eyes looking at the two elders in front of him.
"Aaa... He did," Naruto finally said, earning a satisfied snort from Koharu. "But only because he didn't like what you did to Sakura."
"Tsk... That doesn't matter. As a shinobi you must understand what is best for the village and even for the country. Doing things for personal gain, is like to go against the law and Hokage himself!" Koharu said and looked to Naruto. "Are you fine with that? Are you really fine with knowing that your own Sensei has turned himself into a nukenin?"
Naruto, as well as the others, looked to the hag Koharu and the old geezer Homura with surprised looks on their faces.
"What do you mean with that? Kaka-sensei would never turn himself into a nukenin! He would never harm Konoha! Never!" Naruto shouted, looking once more to Yamato for support, but found none and Naruto looked back to the elders. "Kaka-sensei is loyal to Konoha, but he only wants Sakura back where she should be. Here, in Konoha!"
"Loyal to Konoha you say," Koharu snorted and glanced to Naruto with narrowed eyes. "Then tell me what's loyal with disgracing the laws of your own home, just to take something back that isn't ours? Is that loyalty to you, Hokage-sama? His action may lead to war, like we told you before. Do you really want it to end like that?"
"No... I don't..." Naruto mumbled, knowing that he had lost this battle once again, just because the Daimyo* hadn't given him the full authority it meant to be the Hokage.
They still didn't trust him with that power and it never had been the question that the Kyuubi needed protection. Kyuubi itself was the problem and that was why they was too afraid to give Naruto full authority as the Hokage.
Did they believe the Kyuubi would run amok if he was given power? What incompetent fools.
"Good. As for today, Hatake Kakashi is no longer a shinobi of Konoha. He is a threat to Konoha as well as for Hi no Kuni and he will be treated as such," Koharu told them and Naruto could see how satisfied she looked when she told them this.
Naruto felt sickening by this, just like the rest of the people in the room did, but it didn't seem that the elders took any notice of this.
"The order is to find and kill Hatake Kakashi."
More Notes:
The "evil" elders have something going on and will they succeed? And will Kakashi be able to find a way out of this, with this death threat hovering above his head?
When I write 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;
Ano = Errr, well, um
Daimyo = Japanese feudal lord
Gomennasai = I beg your pardon
Haha = Mother (humble language)
Hanami = Cherry blossom viewing
Hi no Kuni = Fire Country
Kami = God
Kuso = Shit
Mattaku = Good grief (expression of exasperation) or just another word for things that is troublesome
Nukenin = Missing-nin
Niichan = Familiar form of "older brother"
Neechan = Older sister or miss
Okaasan = Mother
Suna = Sunagakure (Hidden Sand Village)
Tsume no Kuni = Claw Country
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Next Chapter: The Right Kind Of Wrong