Two weeks flew by, between interviewing possible ninja nannies, trying to tone up a couple areas, and finding a dress, Sakura was out of time. Lucky for her she had a fashion savvy friend who never let her down. Ino had helped her find the perfect dress. She steered away from her adopted color of black, that she had adorned since she left the Leaf, and embraced her classic red again. It felt right to don it once more. The garment she picked for the big night was a halter top cut long dress that dipped low showing cleavage and most of her backside. It had two slits that allowed free range of motion just in case the party got some rowdy uninvited guests. To be safe, if the Hokage thought she was showing too much skin she had a flowered shawl to go over her shoulders. Also she had some dangerous stiletto heels that she could get away with because her husband towered over her.

As for her body, it hadn't shape up as much as she was hoping it would. She had focused on her arms and love handles mostly. Her arms really hadn't taken much to whip back into fighting form and they were a must for her dress. The love handles had shrunk but she still didn't have her pre-baby body back. Her thoughts grew dark as she wondered if she ever would. Asking Naruto if something made her look fat became a mistake. Every time she asked the question he claimed to have bad eye sight and that he saw better with his hands. Then he would tell her it all felt fine to him. Unless she was in the mood to be groped, she stopped seeking his opinion.

Finding the perfect nanny had been the real chore. They interviewed over a dozen women. One of the parents always seemed to find some kind of fault with all of them until they came to one that neither one find a flaw. Naruto knew her name from the list of perspective ANBU. Lots of the nannies spent time in ANBU while waiting for a childcare position to open. He knew at least one of the Uchiha nannies had been stolen from his batch of guardians, not that he minded. Sakura liked the fact that she hadn't been indoctrinated into that lifestyle yet.

Her name was Saya, she was a woman of average height with long brown hair she kept in a braid. She wasn't overly pretty or too plain, not that Sakura had to worry about her husband. He didn't have a wondering eye, a couple of the prospects had been too bold and tried flirting with him. He had either been too dense to realize or he played at being oblivious really well.

Ino had been kind enough to come over and fix her hair up nice for the party. It gave them a chance to catch up on gossip and for the young mother to pry into Ino's love life. Since the Petal event, her and Shikimaru had been giving their relationship another go.

"He did not say that," Sakura laughed as Ino brushed her hair.

"Yes, he did, called it troublesome right there in the bedroom," Ino replied with a nod of her head.

"Please tell me you did not sleep with him after that comment," the pinkette chuckled.

"Oh, I did, but he had to work for it. In his defense, everything to him is troublesome," the blond defended her boyfriend as she fixed her friend's hair into a fashionable knot on the top of her head with a decorative hair stick.

"I guess that's true," Sakura checked her hair in the mirror, "I don't know how you do it, I can never get my hair to behave and then you come along and make it look beautiful in no time at all," she complimented.

"I'm use to working with pretty flowers," Ino teased with a sly smile.

"You sap," the Hokage's wife chided.

"Where is that idiot of a husband of yours?" Ino questioned looking around the room.

"He's suppose to be getting ready by now," she looked at the time, "crap, we're suppose to be leaving soon," grumbled Sakura getting to her feet to find her shoes and shawl.

She had just strapped her feet into the deadly heels when a knock at the door sounded. Confused as to who would be calling at this time, she made her way to open the door, slim fingers were laced around a kunai she hid behind her back. Opening it slowly to reveal a nervous blond man wearing his full Hokage robes, flowers in one hand and his hat in the other. A smile replaced her frown as she enjoyed the sight before her.

"Pick me up at the door, flowers, an honest to goodness real date," she beamed, tucking the weapon back in its strap around her thigh.

"Only the best for my escort," he grinned as he handed her the bouquet of red roses with a splash of baby's breath and some greenery.

Sakura felt her cheeks heat as she took the flowers from him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ino's knowing look. She might have had a hand in making the arrangement.

"They're perfect," she murmured, it was her first time getting this kind of treatment.

"Well my lady, are you ready? We shouldn't be late," he reminded.

Ino took the flowers from her and shooed them out the door. At the party there were a ton of people Sakura didn't know but there were also some people she had dealings with on her travels. In the beginning she stayed on Naruto's arms, letting him show her off and introduce her to people she had never met or had met once at the wedding. Naruto was talking with a noble when a strong arm snaked around Sakura's waist and she was pulled from her husband's side.

"I didn't think anyone from Suna was invited," she glared up at her captor with red hair and blue eyes.

Naruto's attention moved from the noble to the Kage who had stolen his wife, "I know you weren't invited," he teased.

"I was invited, I invited myself," Gaara stated plainly.

"Crashing my party, should I be flattered?" Naruto quipped, not liking the lack of distance between the other Kage and his wife.

"I just came to see if she was ready to run away with me," Gaara looked down at the cherry blossom he had snatched up.

Her eyes got big as she waited for her husband's reaction. Gaara watched from his peripheral view of the blond. Anger etched itself into every inch of the sixth Hokage's face. Instead of lashing out he stood there and boiled, he didn't want to make a scene.

"Sasuke was right, that never gets old," the Kazekage grinned, looking slightly feral.

The sage schooled his anger and moved to annoyance. Who needed enemies when he had friends like the sand demon and that snake that led his ANBU?

"I hope for your sake you have a better reason to be here than to try my patience," the blond warned.

"Sakura, can you give us a minute," requested the redhead.

She looked to her husband before she moved, his simple nod sent her on her way. She sought out a nice quiet place to stand and wait for the boys to finish whatever it was they couldn't say in her presence. Being excluded from the boys' club always vexed her but she had to trust them and not let herself take it personal like she normally did. Getting bored standing there with nothing to do she started to listen in on the conversation of others. It wasn't polite but she didn't care at that moment as she sipped on her fruity drink.

"Look at those Kages," she heard one lady.

"The Kazekage is still available. Too bad the Hokage had to go and get married," another lamented.

"You're married yourself so it doesn't really matter," the first mocked her.

"Even so, us both being married wouldn't stop me from inviting him to my chamber," the second lady chirped.

Sakura was torn between anger and pride. She knew her husband was a feast for the eyes. She thanked his parents for combining their genetics so perfectly all the time. The fourth Hokage was handsome but her opinion was that his son surpassed him in a lost of ways. Still that didn't give other women the right to view him as a piece of meat at the market. He was private stock for her eyes only.

"You were at the wedding, what's the Hokage's wife like?" asked the first woman.

"I wasn't really paying attention to her, she's just some second class ninja who isn't anything special. I was too busy listening to all the hearts of the women in the Land of Fire breaking at him marrying such a plain girl," was the woman's dramatic response.

"From what I've heard, he had to pick a ninja, otherwise she'd be killed by half the nobles wanting him to marry their daughters," the first lady chuckled.

"I heard he had to marry the little strumpet, a couple midnight rendezvous and she had him where she wanted him," the other woman gossiped.

Sakura nearly broke her glass out of rage. Who did these women think they were? She was ready to give them an earful and possible a slap to the face when another redhead was before her. The pixie cut was gone, her hair had grown down to her chin and styled in a bob manner. Her bright eyes danced with excitement.

She leaned in and purred, "want me to kill them for you?"

"I don't think my damaged pride is worth your village getting destroyed over," Sakura smiled slyly, a knowing look in her green orbs.

Leaning away and looking calmer, the former Queen snickered, "it looked like you were ready to start something, I was just willing to join. Two versus two you know, to be fair."

"I don't think it works that way, Kamiko," the medic shook her head.

"Well, you're no fun anymore," taunted the fallen queen as she fiddled with her Petal headband she had strapped to the arm of her black dress.

"You're pretty bold wearing that here," noted the rosette.

"Not like any of these people know what happened between our villages, besides, if anyone does attack me I have two shadows that will protect me," stated Kamiko sounding bored but her gold eyes flickered around the room to where her constant companions were.

Sakura looked to where her husband was, both Kages were still having their discussion. The room began to feel hot and stuffy. She needed some air so she excused herself and headed for the roof. Under the stars she felt herself relax. Naruto had a few more years experience than her dealing with this kind of thing so she felt justified taking a break from it all. She leaned over the railing and admired the village spread out below her. The flowered shawl slipped off of one of her shoulders leaving her back exposed to the night air's gentle caress. The cool breeze breathed new life into her and she felt she could take another round of the arrogant ladies and lords.

"Its quite the sight," came the sound of a deep voice.

She turned around to see one of the nobles had the same idea as her and escaped the party for a moment. She readjusted her shawl so once again she was modest.

"Its lovely," she replied, moving to leave but he caught her upper arm stopping her retreat.

"Maybe I was talking about you," he flirted as he pulled her back, she stumbled over her tall heels making it easy to pin her to the railing.

A serious look marred her features and curses bounced around in her head at her shoe choice, as she spoke in an even tone, "I have to get back to my date."

"Would that be one of the Kages, I saw them fighting over you. Don't worry about them, let a lord like me show you how a lady is supposed to be treated," he purred, sake breath slashing her nose.

She would have laughed if she wasn't so discussed by the man. She had seen too many of his type in her travels. All they did with their position was use it to get women in bed, instead of being a force for real good.

"Does that line really work?" she questioned, her tone mocking him.

"Normally," he blurted out, he was taken back by her unusual response.

On most woman it was a skirt lifting line. This pink haired vixen who had him spell bound was less than impressed. One hand he kept on the rail, the other found her hip and the top on her rounded rump. Her eyes went from dismissive of him to outraged. Her hand balled into a fist but he wasn't worried. A small woman like her couldn't possibly hit very hard. Before she had a chance to send all her anger in the form of a punch at him, he was sailing away from her.

In his place before her stood a masked man and she felt from behind another man balancing on the edge of the roof top with an arm wrapped around her shoulders above her breast. His other hand had a blade ready to puncture her kidney if she moved. She wasn't worried or offended by their intrusion. It was probably best they intervened, for the young noble's sake. The young man was caught by a silver haired ninja and set up right.

"Sorry, about that but it seemed your life was in danger," came the sound of Silver Dog's voice as he helped the man fix his robes.

"The only one in danger here was that woman and I doubt she'd die from a kiss," grumbled the ruffled man as he shoved the helping hands away from him to fix his own garments.

An eyebrow raised under the hawk mask that was holding onto the woman, he was sure someone would die from the kiss but it wouldn't be her.

A snake mask turned to her and suggested, "why don't you go find your date."

She chose to not protest, this man was not worth her time, and made her way back to the party. Trusting the men would handle things better than her in her current state of anger at the noble. The young lord's eyes followed her as she left, lingering on her backside.

"A word to the wise, next time you're in a hidden village, make sure you aren't hitting on one of the most dangerous ninja in the place," warned the dog mask, trying to sound friendly.

"She seems to follow orders pretty well, she can't hurt me, it would cause unpleasant things for her village. I like how fiery she is, I bet she's good in bed," sneered the womanizer.

The hawk masked man, who was now perched on the railing, drew his two short swords while the snake mask drew his one long sword.

"It would be best if you just stayed away from her, think of those two as overprotective brothers," warned the dog mask, gesturing to the two armed men, all the friendliness gone from his tone.

"What does that make you, her overbearing father?" snorted the young lord, still showing no respect for the men.

"More like uncle, cause I'll let her kill you next time," the silver haired man stated, a razor's edge in his words.

Calculating his odds he spoke, "she's not worth it."

"I know someone who would disagree," the hawk whispered to the snake.

His mouth said one thing but Sasuke saw something else glittering in his eyes. Sasuke's own eyes had that same glint in them when he was a different man. Not over a woman, but wanting something so bad to the point of madness. He was sure it would be useless to tell him she was uninterested and married. This young lord wasn't use to hearing he couldn't have something, so now she was a conquest, a prize, a challenge which intrigued him.

"Going after her will cost you your life, and you won't be the first to loose it in the pursuit of her," warned the snake mask as he returned his sword to its sheath and was gone on the wind along with the other two masked men.

Back at the party Sakura found her husband without their red haired friend but an older woman with an amble bosom was pressed up against him trying to whisper in his ear.

"Hokage-sama," she called sweetly.

Both he and the woman trying to get close to him turned to face her. Her smile was gentle and her eyes shown an amused joy dancing in them at his predicament.

"Sakura," he stuttered out, still trying to put some distance between him and the older lady.

"Is this the date you were looking for?" asked the lady, not impressed by what she saw.

"That's right, pink hair, red dress, just like I said," he laughed nervously.

"Did you think he was lying?" grinned the younger woman.

"It just seemed hard to believe," the lady fake smiled.

Sakura ignored it, she'd been getting flack for her hair color since she could remember. This cougar wasn't going to say anything she hadn't heard already. Naruto gingerly slipped out of grasp and half way hid behind his wife.

"Thank you so much for your help," he spoke quickly and pulled his wife in another direction, once they were out of range of the cougar, he spoke again, "don't abandon me like that. These vultures see me with an empty arm and they latch on. I was ready to chew my limb off."

A small laugh danced from her lips at his antics. She wasn't just here as his date, she was his body guard.

"I'll protect you for the rest of the night," she soothed.

Just then they bumped into the young lord who had tried to make a move on her. Inside she groaned but on the outside she kept her emotions under control and gave him her best fake smile, the one that fooled Sai more often than not.

"I need to have a word with you about your ANBU," the womanizer stated in a business like manner.

"Did something happen?" asked the Hokage.

"Yes, I was having an innocent conversation with this young lady here and several of them assaulted me," he complained.

Sakura couldn't believe he didn't choke on the word innocent, her slight eye twitch at the word told her husband as much. He needed more of the story before he could do anything.

"How many were there?" questioned the leader of the Leaf, he couldn't imagine more than one being necessary to deal with this man.

"Three," he answered quickly.

"There were five but only two touched you," corrected the trained ninja.

"How many were on you?" the blond inquired of his wife.

"Three," she answered, earning a disproving look from the man.

Naruto figured an unseen ninja had some kind of hold on her, whether it be shadow possession or an illusion technique. There being more on her than him told the sage that they were protecting the man from his wife. All her teammates had learned early on that you didn't touch her unless you wanted to risk bodily harm or if she wanted you to touch her. A man who didn't know the first thing about her wasn't going to see the warning signs.

"Well I am very sorry my highly skilled ninja saved you from certain death. I will have a talk with them," the Hokage smiled politely and started to leave, encouraging his date to come along with him.

"Excuse me?" growled the young lord, not use to this kind of treatment.

Naruto turned back to face the man, putting on his best innocent face he could muster.

"In all fairness, I was only going to knock out every last one of his pearly white teeth," Sakura pouted, she had enough control over her temper to not kill a noble, even if he was an ass.

The man was either not listening or flat out ignoring her and didn't hear her comment.

"I would like to finish our conversation," he stated reaching for her.

Blocking his hand the Hokage apologized to the persistent lord, "I'm sorry, but you will never be finishing anything with her, so you should just walk away before you get hurt."

"If you harm me you'll start an internal conflict in the Land of Fire," warned the noble thinking he had an ace up his sleeve.

Naruto moved in close and whispered to the man, "You have no idea what I'm willing to do for this woman. I'd fight every ANBU in the world, take down every single missing rouge ninja, fight the other four Kages, and whoever else you could dig up to send after me. So something as little as a national dispute is well within my grasp. If it turned into a civil war, I'd level the Land of Fire to dust, save our village. I'd go to hell and back for that woman so don't for a second think that your empty words will scare me."

The noble felt like his pride was now on the line so he changed his tactics, dealing with the Hokage would get him nowhere, looking straight into her green eyes, he smiled, thinking he could charm her away from her date. The Kazekage noticed the tension going on between the two alpha males and his pretty pink friend and decided to join the fun. He moved across the room with purpose and everyone seemed to clear out of his way. Staring down the young lord who finally noticed the desert storm standing by him was unnerved by his unemotional face and dangerous eyes.

"If you're tying to flirt with her in front of her husband I'll kill you," he stated in his monotone voice.

"You do that all the time," grumbled Naruto.

"We have history," was all Gaara would say.

The lord had thought he stood a chance of stealing her away from the Hokage until he learned she was the woman he married and not just some escort like most of the other nobles brought instead of their wives. Things seemed to get a little too exciting around her, not only had ANBU members threatened him but two Kages as well. They seemed to speak highly of her skill, he was slowly figuring out she was far too much trouble and he could find easier prey in the room than her.

"Well my dear, we could have had a lot of fun but it seems you are otherwise engaged. Another time," he bowed and left, trying to save what little dignity he had left.

Sakura smiled to herself as he left, a strong hand pulled her from her husband's side again.

"Why don't we go have some fun?" Gaara asked her, little did the blond Kage know that their type of fun was like his and Sasuke's. At one time, she was pretty good about getting around his sand walls. She had never won against him but that never stopped her from trying.

"I'm about ready to start a war with Suna if their Kage won't keep his hands to himself," warned the disgruntled husband.

Gaara decided he had pushed his friend far enough for one night. The rest of the evening passed without anymore incidents. Naruto decided next year he was leaving his pretty wife at home and save him from the headache of fighting off other men.