I'm not dead, just afflicted with the worst case of writer's block ever! Ack, this was a difficult chapter to update! But thank you all again for your kind reviews, I hope you're still interested in Samurai & the Oni Girl!

Funfact: If one could, it was advisable to build another room onto one's house when one got married...that way if it was a sleeping-in-separate-beds marriage, it wasn't totally awkward. Japan rocked the proto-Victorian and Victorian before the Victorians were even Victorians.

Otherwise, enjoy!

Sarutobi eventually went on his way, getting into his litter and creaking his way back towards the village. The little puppy, while affectionate towards the two of them had started after him but was scooped up by Kakashi. He passed the little dog to Sakura and led the way back into the house, chatting amiably about nothing in particular. He helped her clean up the tea they'd shared with Sarutobi, and to reassemble the kitchen after she'd taken it apart. It was as she glanced around, wondering if she should get water from the well, that he spoke up finally.

"Tenzou mentioned earlier today that he needed to weed the garden, which is code that I need to weed the garden—care to help?"

Outside, the sun's light was waning from the brightness of the day towards the yellowy light of late afternoon, and several more people had already visited them bearing gifts, when the steady trundle of a wagon made itself known. Sakura and Kakashi had changed out of their better things and into clothing appropriate for weeding the garden. They'd been working side by side, each getting used to the other's presence, how the other worked. The little akita—dubbed Pakkun by Kakashi and adored by Sakura—that Sarutobi-sama had given them wound circles around them, sniffing and whuffing at each weed as they dug them up—occasionally pouncing on any particularly offending plants.

Kakashi heard the wagon first, but it was Sakura who jumped up to go change—these visitors had to be her parents, they had to be. It was getting too late in the day to even receive more visitors, and they had promised they would come today, so it had to be them. Girlish excitement curled in her toes as she flew through the house. If she was careful, then her hair wouldn't get messy and she could go out sooner.

Kakashi followed her shortly and shooed her behind a screen so they could change on their own in relative peace. Once she emerged, still tying her obi behind her back, she caught a smirk on Kakashi's face. He crossed the room and smoothed the fabric down over her shoulders and once she had her hands free of her own knots she did the same for his clothing. His lips still betrayed whatever had amused him, though and she frowned a little with a tilt of her head.

"Serves us right for trying to do actual work today."

She giggled in agreement before making her way out of the room.

Seeing her parents turned out to be very strange, which soured the excitement she had felt on hearing their approach. Kakashi blandly ignored everyone else's discomfort, choosing to make the same sort of small talk as he had made with every other guest of the day. Letting them into the house was surreal, because it was to be her house that she would grow old in, that she would maintain and share with Kakashi and their family. And at that moment, it was as though this fact was being loudly reasserted between herself and her parents. Sakura was tipped off because of a weird distance between herself and her father, and her mother seemed to be resisting fussing at her every move. Both were trying to cope, but her mother's agitation only served to make Sakura nervous. Was she doing something wrong or was her mother just trying to give her space? She forced herself to act with some authority with the tea preparations. Just because her mother, who had taught this to her, was watching her didn't mean it was a test of her abilities. Besides, she had had a full day of practice with the few important visitors Kakashi had invited inside.

Suitably encouraged, Sakura tried to see past what this visit was really supposed to solidify. She instead concentrated on the little things about their visit rather than the larger whole, like the specks of silver hair beginning to thread their way through her father's hair, or the way her mother blew just a little on her tea before taking a sip, or the way the steam curled out of their cups from the heat of the tea, or the way that Pakkun—who was napping soundly at her side—sighed in his sleep. Sakura did anything to distract herself from the tiny knot in her stomach which whispered that her relationship with her parents and her entire life up until now were slipping away from her faster and farther than she could ever chase them. It was beginning to really sink in that this was not a visit where she returned to Iimori with her family and accidentally forgot Kakashi's face.

This was a visit where they returned to Iimori and accidentally forgot her face. It was an odd feeling, not quite real and very much like a dream.

Just before her parents left, all of them went out to the wagon to help unload the last few gifts her family had to give her, putting them in the main living area into a neat stack. Something, which earlier had just been a strange ache, started to cramp in Sakura's middle. Once everything was in order, her father resolutely walked back outside and urged the pony to turn about on the road so he and her mother could return to the village—they would leave for Iimori early the next morning, Ume said softly, a sweet, sad, and happy smile on her lips. They would try to visit sometime in the summer, depending on how the spring went. Her words had just barely penetrated Sakura's brain as her father helped Ume up into the cart before following her swiftly—it was eerily similar to Shisui and Rin's departure, which solidified the cramp inside her stomach, a cramp which was becoming almost painful.

The steady clop of the pony's hooves was sharp above the creaking of the wagon. Ume sat close to Masaki, but neither of them turned around to wave goodbye.

As she and Kakashi watched them go, he put his arm around her waist. It really hit Sakura, then, that her parents were an entire day away—that she had enough responsibility here with Kakashi that visiting them often was really not an option. The tears were just heat in her eyes, at first, but grew quickly enough to nearly spill down her cheeks. Sakura bit her lower lip, hoping that the slight pain would keep them from falling, would keep her from sobbing. Her breathing shallowed with the effort, and she bent her head forward to keep Kakashi from noticing her almost-tears.

But he felt her distress as though she actually had sobbed, pulling her closer and tucking her head under his chin. Another arm wrapped around her back with a soothing stroke as he pressed his cheek against the top of her head, and with that Sakura started crying softly into his yukata. She pressed her face closer to him as he readjusted his arms around her turning a makeshift embrace into something more secure, all while she rained tears onto him. Distantly Sakura heard a heartbroken whine from the puppy who tried to comfort her by nuzzling at her foot, and much closer to her ear she heard Kakashi murmuring to her.

"It will be alright, Sakura, it will be alright. Shh…"

Her tears stopped eventually, leaving her in hiccups with her cheek pressed against his damp clothing. His arms were still wrapped around her, a thumb was sweeping back and forth at the back of her neck. Slowly he let her go and took her hand.

"I have something I'd like to show you before I make Tenzou go fishing, will you come with me?" She nodded once before following him. Just as they reached the house he paused and whistled once for Pakkun who perked up at the sound and started bouncing his way towards them. Sakura suspected that it was more for the excitement of a new noise than actual training as the puppy followed them inside, all the while trying to trip them by being underfoot.

Kakashi had never built onto the house before the previous summer, the last major event which happened to the old Hatake home was when his father had added on a large room for himself and his wife, while Kakashi's grandmother had been moved out of a colder outer-room and into the main living area which Sakumo had arranged to better suit her. That way Kakashi's parents had their own room, and the elderly Hatake matron would be warm enough on cool nights. The room she vacated had become a personal room to herself and Kakashi's mother.

His mother had only had time to arrange and decorate it before her death, when he was still a baby—a toddler at most. It was sad, his aging grandmother used to tell him as a boy before she too passed away when he was seven. It had been a terribly swift fever, according to Sakumo who had spoken of Shiori only after Kakashi demanded it in his teens. But neither his grandmother nor his father ever really told Kakashi who his mother was. It was the paintings and her trinkets that defined how he knew her, and in his adult life he'd gained an appreciation for the fact that his parents had managed to get away with being a love-match. Each of their families had been willing to indulge them that much. He'd spent his teen years and his early twenties looking for something like that, falling in love with a woman and then marrying her. Not the other way around. But just because he had married out of utmost necessity didn't mean that he'd given up on the idea of falling in love. He hoped to love Sakura one day, to feel more than just respect towards her. And within that hope was a tiny wish that she could love him as well someday.

However, until then he was determined to give Sakura what his father had given his mother—which had required ingenuity and Tenzou, which had proved to be much against the brown haired man's will, as well as the added benefit of learning the pure storm of curses his servant could summon after construction-related injuries. Kakashi had added an entire new room to the house, and as gifts had arrived he had actually stuffed most of them in it. That way they would be nicely gathered when he and Sakura went through them, and out of the way until then. Tenzou had merely accused him of acting like a squirrel. Kakashi had meant to show the room to her the night before, but they had both been so tired—and he'd been terribly selfish in wanting to spend his first night as a married man next to his wife.

Because if Sakura felt uncomfortable continuing to sleep beside him, there was the option of sleeping in the room he'd built for her. The house was warm despite the spring air outside turning brisk in the late afternoon, almost evening, and Sakura's hand in his was warm—almost a little too warm, but that was perhaps because of her crying. Learning to deal with a woman around and in the house was certainly going to be an adjustment.

"I hope you haven't found this place already exploring the house," he said, unknowing of the smile which crinkled at his eyes but well aware that Sakura was at ease walking with him through the house. Her eyes were red and puffy, reminding him of the dampness over his heart as well as his surprise room. Hopefully it would make her happy and not cause her discomfort.

"Kakashi, I have been making tea all day and smiling sweetly at people I don't know. I've hardly had time to look at what you and Tenzou seem to think is a proper cooking area, and the only other places I've visited between last night and this instant have been the bath house and the well. Whatever it is, I'm sure I will be happy with it." Despite her nose being swelled up and adding an accent to her words, she managed to seem serious through her sarcasm. The first thing that had enchanted him with her almost a year ago was a violent streak to her words at times, and if she was putting teasing barbs into her replies then she must have started to feel better.

The paper on the shoji was still pristine, which wasn't surprising seeing as he and Tenzou had only truly finished the room days ago. A failure for an order to show up was the cause of it, and ultimately why Kakashi was unable to visit Sakura all during the previous week. Not that that really mattered now, but he had wanted to see her. To see if he was really dreaming that her eyes were the color of grass. He gently let go of her hand so he could show her the room.

The smooth sound of the door sliding open was almost inaudible compared to Sakura's sudden intake of breath, but even that was quickly drowned out by their new puppy planting his tiny feet on the ground and barking puppy barks at the new territory he had just encountered.

"Pakkun!" he scolded, right as Sakura took a few steps forward through the doorway of the room. Pakkun flattened his little ears up at Kakashi, and then giving the silver haired samurai a hurrumphing whine as he marched forward after Sakura. Kakashi grinned for half a second before Sakura turned towards him, framing herself in the room with all of their wrapped gifts amassed behind her. The scene was flattened, like a painting, for Kakashi as he took her in with his good eye.

"What is this, Kakashi?" she stood still as he crossed his arms low at his waist, hovering for half a second where he was and then stepping into the room as well, standing close to her. Looking at her eyes, still red from mourning her parents' departure, Kakashi answered her honestly. He couldn't be selfish and ask her for company she didn't want to give, innocently or otherwise—in a very, very technical sense he could, but he knew that he would never be able to. It would bring shame on his family, on his mother and father most directly, and they would suffer for having scum for a son. Kakashi was determined not to do that.

"This is your own room, you can do with it what you wish. For the moment, all of our gifts from before the wedding are stored here, but otherwise it's yours," he said, adding a little smile before plunging into the part he absolutely had to tell her.

"You can sleep here, if you wish, rather than in my room. And at any other time, as well, you don't even have to bring your bedding to this room—there's already a whole set in here if you need it." He glanced away from her then, checking one last time that everything was fully finished and that he hadn't hidden the futon beneath anything, that everything was in a semblance of order. Sakura stared at him, blinking occasionally with slow precision until he looked her full in the face once more, curious at her silence.

"Stop being silly, if I sleep where I do my embroidery I'll never sleep again. My mother calls—called—me One More Stitch sometimes. I don't think I'm going to set up shop in," a tiny hiccup of a pause followed, "our room, so I'm going to need to use this one." And then his pink haired wife proceeded to stare him down until he nodded in agreement with her, dropping his arms from around his middle. It was going to take some time to get used to Sakura, let alone everything else she was about to bring into their lives.

"Well, then we'll spend this evening after dinner opening all of this—and tomorrow, while Tenzou and I are out in the fields, you can set about organizing this room and getting familiar with the house. Unless you'd like to learn the finer points of rice planting? I don't mean to scare you away, but Tenzou can get quite quarrelsome during planting. You still have to get your things unpacked and in order, but we'll be doing it for a while yet."

"So I might still get to learn this season and be useful, you're saying," she said, and as she smiled he saw that her eyes were returning to normal—her grass green irises no longer rimmed with pink and red.

"Naturally, you're Hatake now and should be at home in the fields," he teased before Pakkun pounced on his foot, a surprise attack done in utter loyalty, it seemed, to Sakura. A short laugh escaped him as he bent to pick up the little puppy to scold it up close and personal. Something to the effect of "you are my dog too, you know. It's Tenzou you should be after, especially if he won't go fishing for us. What do you say we find him and see?" The dog looked up at him, now made of docility, seemingly entirely nonplussed. Flashing a nod at Sakura, he was halfway down the hall when she called after him.

"Thank you, Kakashi."

Out in the main area of the house, he met Tenzou just as the man was coming inside. He hid the predatory grin which threatened to take over his face. They were going to have fish for dinner tonight, and that was a solid fact. Never mind that each of them hated fishing, most days, it was Tenzou's turn tonight—they'd had fish a few nights ago, which Kakashi had caught.

"Tenzou, do you know what we're having for dinner tonight?"

Whatever weariness had been in Tenzou's form before Kakashi spoke, all of it turned to alertness within moments.

"Fish. And you're catching it."

Review?