Chapter 19

She was fuming. And basically her nose flared, uttered a shocked gasped, wanted to protest- everything in her system wanted to protest- but words can't form from her mouth except a hard NO, and she came flying and stomped out of that office.

Not happening! Ever! She muttered as her hands balled to a fist.

There is no way she's going to stay in that arrogant, egotistical, and unemotional idiot's place! And the nerve of the guy! He just uttered his famous grunt 'hn' with a blank expression.

In a matter-of-fact- bored tone!

She just arrived in Konoha, just arrived for godsake! She was expecting a great reunion with friends, was planning to visit all of her colleagues and senseis and to relinquish herself with all the times she had missed. And yet, here she was! First day and it was already hell!

She never thought she would meet Sasuke on her very first day in Konoha. She really thought he was with Naruto and belonged to the team who was sent to Suna. She was placid and was confident enough coz that was what she thought! Great! She should have asked and confirmed it to Ten-ten or Neji before she entered the gates! But then, that would obviously mean, she was checking up on him didn't she?

She was breathless when she saw him, air knocked out from her lungs. Fear, excitement, expectation, longing, and whole bunch of emotion all slammed into her. And yet, all he did was to look at her for a mere two seconds and then none. NONE! As if it was just a normal occurrence to see her. Like how he see a thing or an object. INSIGNIFICANT. There was no 'hi", or 'hello', or even a slight bow just to indicate a small greeting. NONE. He even seemed to give her a slight twitch of that lovely mouth of his. A smirk? Or was that just her imagination? God , those lips. She still remembered how those lips devoured her. Okay reality check Sakura! What are you doing thinking about those things? Shit, she thought. She wanted to punch herself . That irked her to the core. She wanted to punch him. Oh yes she did! But all she could do was to look at him as if she was throwing sharp daggers at him with the message 'How ya doin you bastard, it's been 5 years since we last saw each other and now you're giving me the cold shoulder?'

He never glanced at her in that room again. He kept his eyes towards the Hokage. She did that too, but on her peripheral, she was intently looking at him…She wanted to strangle him….and to embrace him at the same time.

Her heart was beating madly on her chest. She was nervous because this was the first time in all of those years when they last saw each other. She was sad because it seemed that he just doesn't care…like what he did all those years when they were still young. She was angry because after all of those promises she made to herself, after all of those years she had trained to make her heart stronger, just one look at him, and all of those flew away.

She still loved him.

And she was hurting all over again.

She tried her very best to act normal. To look normal. But inside, she was a storm of conflicting emotion. Many times, she clinched her teeth, and she wasn't actually listening to Tsunade. And when Tsunade said that she will be staying in the Uchiha's house, he didn't even flinch! He just said 'Hn' like a snort, bordering between a grunt and something like an amusement. She didn't get if he had said yes or no. Well, no one ever gets what he means when he's like that.

Not that it matters.

Her plan was to avoid him at any cost, as in really avoid him when she's in Konoha. Like PRETEND he was not in Konoha, and that he didn't exist. She could do that. But that proved to be a fatal task to do.

"I'd rather sleep outside than stay in that arrogant's place!" she mumbled as she stomped in the street. Then she stopped striding, "Sasuke, you…idiot…"

"Mommy!" she heard Ryuna called her. Her frown vanished upon seeing her daughter and a smile crossed her lips. Gods, what would she do if her daughter's not around. Shizune was still with Ryuna.

"Mommy, where are you going?" Ryuna asked.

"The meeting's done Sakura?" Shizune asked, "by the way, we just had lunch at Ichiraku's. I'm sorry we didn't wait for you. Your daughter here keeps complaining you didn't have lunch yet," she said as she ruffled Ryuna's hair.

"Yup, they have the best ramen Mommy! Uncle Naruto was telling the truth! We should go back there sometime! Maybe I should ask Uncle Naruto to treat me there too!" Ryuna gleefully said.

Uh-oh. Naruto, bad influence. Sakura's mind was imagining things how to get back to Naruto for influencing her daughter about ramen.

"Thank you Shizune. And I'm sorry for the trouble," she said after strangling Naruto and burying him on the ground, in her mind.

"Not at all. Have you already found a place to stay here?"

"T-That…somehow," Nope, she couldn't tell her when Ryuna's around, "I'll manage it somehow," she smiled.

"O-Okay," Shizune seemed bewildered but she shrugged it somehow. She knows her Kouhai's story and seeing Sasuke went into the Hokage tower a while ago, she knew something must have happened.

They parted ways, and together with Ryuna, Sakura went to the direction to her parent's house. It was still the same as she left it five years ago. They were now standing in front of the door.

"Who's place is this Mommy?" Ryuna asked.

"This is where I grew up. This is our house and where Baa-chan and Jii-chan lived now. But they're not here, so we'll try to open this door," she said as she tightly gripped the knob. She tried to twist it but it won't even budge. She tried to push it with her body putting a little strength but nothing happens. That arched her brows a bit so the next push she did was she applied a little bit of her chakra on it, yet the damn door didn't even budged a millimeter! A jutsu? Yep, there's a possibility on that. Her parents were also a shinobi, and they knew bits and pieces of jutsus on their own, particularly her mom. So probably, they have put a sealing jutsu on the door so that no one can open it without the proper decoding of the seal.

This is bothersome! Crap! Did she sound just like Shikamaru now? She wasn't an expert in sealing jutsu though she knew basic ones. She didn't bother to study them. She wanted to try to find someone who can decode the seal but who she will look? The intel division where Ino's dad worked? Nope, she won't bring any inconvenience to people who haven't seen her for five years just to unlock a damn sealing jutsu on a door! She won't go back to the Hokage tower either to ask for Tsunade's help. And she would rather not use her chakra-infused strength. She wouldn't want her parents to find that instead of a standing house, they will find rubbles and dust when they come back from their travel. In the end she gave up. She had to find ways.

"We can't stay in here, Ryuna. Let's look for a hotel or Inn first," she said as she picked up her personal bag. Ryuna nodded but Sakura saw tiredness in her round emerald eyes. They have been walking since this morning and Ryuna haven't had her afternoon nap. "You tired?"

"I can still go Mommy," Ryuna smiled.

The next they went into was an Inn. Sakura inquired but it seemed all the rooms have already been occupied.

"Sorry Sakura-chan, it's because of the upcoming Moon Viewing Festival. All the inns and hotels now are all occupied and it will be like this for the next three days. If only there's something I can do, but most of my clients are visitors from the other countries and they come here as tourist for the festival. I'm really sorry about this," the inn manager said to her. She forgot about the Moon Viewing festival. It's one of the most anticipated festivals in Konoha. It's the season where the moon was at its most beautiful during this month. And many people come to Konoha just for that.

"No problem, Shoka-san. I understand," she said politely though a bit disappointed. She went to the other inns, even inquire in the expensive hotels to try her luck but all were already occupied.

"Mommy…" Ryuna muttered worriedly.

"Don't worry, honey. We'll find a place to stay," it's already past five in the afternoon, and she would often get a glimpse of Ryuna yawning and rubbing her eyes. Her baby must have been really tired.

Well. We actually have one already, in Sasuke's. Said her Innermind.

Just..shut up!

She was thinking that maybe she could check out some of her friend's place and asked them if they could stay for the night.

"Uh, Ino is with Shika and Chouji in a mission. Hinata is with Naruto and Sai. Ten-ten's out on a mission too. How about Shino and Kiba?" she mumbled while Ryuna looked at her mom, "No. No. No. NO. Never mind!" she said thinking that Shino's family was a bug's master, while Kiba's family was a canine expert. She hated bugs, and she had bad experience with dogs! (Remember Pakon who told her that he also uses the same brand of shampoo like her when she was 12? Because of that she immediately changed the shampoo she used as well as all of her toiletries and cosmetic brands). Not to mention that the Inuzuka breed huge dogs!

"How about Neji's?" she continued mumbling, "Nah, it would be too much. And thinking that there is a festival, I bet all the Hyuuga clan are quite busy these days," she sighed.

"Mommy?"

"Ah, I'm sorry baby, Mommy's thinking where we should stay for the night. Are you tired? Hungry?"

Ryuna nodded, "How about we stay in Uncle Naruto's place?"

"Nah, I don't want us to get sick,"

"Why?"

"Because Uncle Naruto is living in a garbage dump. And it would take centuries for the two of us to clean the garbage,"

"Oh," she innocently reacted, "then Uncle Naruto must be really strong Mommy. Because he didn't get sick even though he's living in a garbage dump,"

Sakura made a serious face, "Yeah, because believe it or not, he's a walking bacteria. So asked Uncle Naruto first if he has taken a shower before you hug him, okay?"

"O-Okay,"

"Good. Now hang in there, we will try our luck on the hotels and inns again. Maybe someone checked out. Before that, let's have our dinner first. Mommy's famished, I could eat an elephant!" she said as they started to walk in the busy street on that district in Konoha. Lanterns were decorated everywhere. People were wearing their beautiful yukatas. Children were running here and there, shops selling different stuffs from foods to masks, souvenirs and other else. The sun sets and this whole area came alive.

Ryuna giggled heartily, "Mommy, does elephant's taste good?"

"Dunno, haven't tried one,"

"Mommy, let's have ra—!"

"And no ramen. You just have one today and that's enough. I don't want you to get the 'ramen-virus' just like Uncle Naruto,"

"Ohh,"

"Let's have barbecue shall we?" Sakura said and picked up Ryuna, kissed her and carried her towards the BBQ shop where the Ino-Shika-Cho and their sensei Azuma were a frequent.

The two of them entered the shop without noticing the pair of onyx eyes closely watching their every move since this afternoon. He was leaning in a dark alley, a few blocks away from them, completely masking his chakra.

TBC. 09.20.2013

Hi guys~ you miss me? Hahaha. Sorry for the super late update. I know, I know, but I am happy because I finally retrieve this chapterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…errr….yeah, quite short and uhm…whatever. This chapter is quite not finish but I think I'll stop right there and will continue on to the next. So leeeeet's move on. What do you think? Yeah, not much happening there, but I do hope they can find a place to stay in Konoha. I pity little Ryuna. She must've been really tired. TAT

Now that I have retrieve this particular chapter, expect a constant update from now on. Yeheyyy~.

So, for bits and pieces about this story, there were a lot of confusing scenarios in the entire story (previous chapters). I know because I had the time to re-read everything. Sorry for that. Aside from a lot of grammatical errors, these mistakes were mine by the way, as I've mentioned (did I? O.o) I didn't make any rough-draft or notes when I wrote this. My style is 'whatever-comes-to-mind-will-write-it' thing. Sort of everything goes writing style. (lol Ranma 1/2), and sometimes pieces of details were missed. (like Neji's actually in ANBU already, and he's not just a temporary, and Ryuna's friend in Tea is Miko, while the Genin in Sasuke's team is Mika- things like that). I apologize for the mistakes. :P I've actually corrected some of that here.

And thank you for following my story. Cookies for you!

See u next chapter, it'll be real soon!

XoXo

SnowRabbit~ (wearing a fire-breather mask)