Sakura actually took pleasure in seeing entertainment news the day after the Ame shows, and couldn't help watching the same talk show they had seen a few days before. "Sasuke Uchiha's speech? I'll admit it. That was the most badass defense and declaration of love I've ever heard," the male host, Juugo said.

"I swooned," Karin said.

"So did I," Sakura said, smirking at Sasuke. He met her eyes and his lips quirked upward.

"Can you please have eye sex in another room?" Ino said, sounding bored. She'd been at the band's apartment when Sasuke and Sakura got there that morning for breakfast (proudly cooked by Naruto). "I don't need this in the morning."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows but Sakura didn't bat an eye. "Look who's talking," she said.

Shikamaru coughed. "I'll have you know that I got here at ten this morning for breakfast," Ino said. "And nothing else." She pursed her lips and turned back to the TV.

"So is the drama over? Has Sasuke won back the world?" Juugo asked to the camera.

"Let's not get too dramatic," Karin said. "But I think so." They cut to commercial.

Ino stood up and gathered her things. "Good show. Unfortunately, duty calls."

"You're coming over again later, right," Shikamaru said lazily.

"No, I have rehearsal," Ino said breezily.

"What?" He frowned, sitting up straighter.

"I'm busy. I have a job," Ino said. "So no, I can't come over." She smiled at him.

"God, Ino," Shikamaru said, his head hitting the pillow again.

"Unlike you, I can't just rearrange my schedule on a whim."

"Can I come with you and watch?"

Ino stared at him. "No, you pervert. It was bad enough when you showed up that first time."

Shikamaru gave a world-weary sigh. "Come on..."

"I'm sorry, am I annoying you?" Ino asked him, her smile getting wider.

"Yeah," Shikamaru said.

"I'm sorry." She grinned and then turned and left the room.

Shikamaru let out another sigh and avoided the eyes of Sakura and Sasuke. "Don't tell me I deserve this."

"You already know it," Sasuke said, and Sakura laughed.

"She doesn't want people to know about us," Shikamaru said. "She's worried about how she'll look, because I'm..."

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a look. "Already rich, successful, and influential. Yeah," Sakura said. "Sounds familiar." They would sort it out, hopefully.

Back in their apartment later that night, Sakura was at the table with a notepad and pen, writing and crossing out the scribbled lyrics that covered the page. Sasuke was trying his hand at making some fancy pasta sauce. Cooking was not something that he would call fun, and it wasn't going well. Sakura had been teasing him, and then went quiet when she pulled out her notebook. She'd covered pages in the past few days. Sasuke knew better than to ask her to share any of it.

"Is this delusional?" Sakura asked suddenly.

Sasuke turned away from the stove and frowned at her. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm twenty-one. You're twenty-three. How realistic is it that we feel this way about each other? That we want to be together...Permanently." She was staring at him. Her eyes looked vaguely glassy.

"How should I know?" Why was she talking like this?

His feelings must have shown in his face, because she blinked and suddenly looked horrified. "Oh God, I'm not—I don't want to break up, or...I guess I was just thinking about it. Do people meet this young and make it work?"

"How old were your parents?" They seemed like the best example of two people who loved each other and had been together for a long time.

"They met when they were twenty-five and got married two years later. But they were the same age, and their lives were completely different from ours."

"No one's making you get married," Sasuke said, feeling weird just saying the word. Married.

"No, I know." Sakura was blushing, and his stomach tingled. "I'm just worried that we'll grow apart." She swallowed. "Don't freak out but I just want to say this. I don't care if I'm young and naïve. I think I could easily spend the rest of my life with you."

Sasuke stared at her. "Yeah. Feel the same way." It was hard to put that statement in the open, even though he meant it. "Has to matter, right?"

"I want to think so, but I keep thinking maybe it would've been better if we met each other a few years from now. We'd be older, we'd know what we wanted."

"Who knows what we'd be like." You rescued me, Sasuke wanted to say, but knew those words wouldn't leave his lips for years. "Might not have been interested in each other at all." At the rate he'd been going when he'd met Sakura, he was destined for a solitary, spiteful existence. With no room in it to even consider pink hair.

"You're right." Sakura sighed. "I just want everything to work out."

"It's not like it's out of our control," Sasuke said, weirdly amused.

She gave him a grateful look. "Deep down, I know that. I think."

"You expect to change a lot in the next few years?" Sasuke asked her, smirking slightly.

"I mean, I hope not." She returned his smirk. "But hypothetically, if I become super vain and inconsiderate..."

"That's not happening," Sasuke said before she could finish whatever ridiculous thought was on her mind.

She shook her head and smiled slightly, but then wrinkled her nose. "I think something's burning."

"It's the fucking sauce," Sasuke hissed, turning back to a pan of now-charred tomatoes. "Are you fucking kidding me."

Sakura came over to look at his mess and started to laugh. "It was a good effort."

"Hn. Never trying this again." Sasuke salvaged a few non-burned tomatoes and dumped the rest, then wiped his brow. "Waste of time."

"I'll take the blame, I distracted you with existential questions."

"Did you buy any store-bought sauce? I was gonna do pasta..."

"No, but it's fine, we've got other food." Sakura grinned. "I love how disappointed you are about this."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Not disappointed. Just annoyed."

"You've got some tomato on your forehead, by the way." Sakura reached up and rubbed a smudge away with her thumb. Sasuke's skin tingled where she touched him. "Did you think a secondary career as a chef would make your life more fulfilling?"

"I try one recipe and you rub it in forever," he muttered.

"I'm just admiring your ambitiousness. You were at it for almost two hours."

"Shut up," Sasuke said. Their faces were close.

"I'm a great girlfriend, I was hungry an hour ago but didn't want to make you self-conscious. Also no offense, but those tomatoes didn't smell too great."

"Taking back what I said about you being inconsiderate," Sasuke muttered, smirking down at her.

"Are you?" He grabbed her waist. She put her hands around his neck and brought his face down to meet hers. He held her arms and she pushed him back into the counter, and then they slammed into the wall.

"We'll wake up the neighbors," Sakura said. "It's late."

"I don't give a fuck," Sasuke growled.

Sakura snorted with laughter.

"The walls are soundproof," Sasuke said, almost embarrassed at his transparent need.

"I'm sorry for insulting your cooking," Sakura said. "But I'm not sorry about this." She started kissing him down his jawline and then slipped a hand down his pants.

At this point it wasn't about being graceful. They just wanted to be all over each other.

Then Sakura stopped abruptly and smiled at him. "Were you enjoying that?"

"God," Sasuke said, his voice hoarse. "My turn." He kissed her down her neck and landed on her collarbone. Her back arched unconsciously as his teeth grazed her skin. His hands slid down her body, under the waistband of her jeans.

Sakura was fairly sure that "melting" was an appropriate verb to describe what she was doing under his influence. Then her stomach grumbled. "Okay, we need to pause. I'm still hungry."

"Seriously," Sasuke got out.

"It's not my fault we always do this before we eat dinner." Her shirt was askew, her face flushed; the abrupt switch was almost comical.

"Yeah, right," Sasuke said, pulling his hands off her and striding over to open the fridge.

They ate the plain pasta and salad he'd made sitting on the same chair, because Sakura wouldn't stop kissing him and Sasuke wouldn't stop letting her.

Later they lay in bed together, Sakura's bedside lamp still on. Sasuke could feel himself drifting off slowly, warm under the sheet with Sakura's body nestled comfortably next to him.

"I think I might try songwriting. For other people, not me," Sakura said sleepily. "There's only so much I can do with my own voice, you know?" At Sasuke's frown, she rolled her eyes. "I'm not criticizing my own abilities. I'm just saying, it'd be really cool to write for someone who has completely different strengths. And I can afford to do it. I've had a pretty successful career already." Sasuke snorted and she grinned. "I just...Feel like I'd be stealing a job from someone else."

"Jesus Christ, Sakura," Sasuke said. "You kidding me?"

"Come on, I don't want to monopolize the industry. It's a reasonably thing to think, right?"

"No," Sasuke said. "Not if you're the best person for the job."

"Thanks," she said, smiling sheepishly. "A year ago, did you think you'd be my best ego booster?"

Sasuke's lips twitched upward, but he didn't say anything.

"Alright, I need to go to bed," Sakura said. "Interview tomorrow."

Sakura turned off the light and snuggled deeper under the covers. She was asleep in a few minutes. Sasuke listened to her breathing. He knew she'd meant what she said about not wanting to break up earlier, but the conversation still needled him. What if they didn't want to stay together? Sasuke knew the last thing he should do was try to predict the future. But disregarding the ordeal of the past few weeks, his life right now seemed too good to be true. Sasuke looked down at the mess of pink hair on the pillow next to him. Sakura's face was turned toward him, mouth slightly open, one hand curled against his stomach. Her words from the day Tayuya's interview had come out came back to him: If you say I'm too good for you, then I'll throw up.

He understood what she'd meant during that conversation, but that didn't mean he accepted it. She was too good for him. What if she realized it one day, realized that she could do much better than him? The only thing Sasuke had in his favor was his guitar-playing, and that didn't do shit when it came to relationships.

Why are you like this, he thought to himself, frustrated. This thought would send him down a never-ending path of self-doubt. He had to prove that he was good enough for her, to himself more than anyone. He knew Sakura wasn't perfect, he didn't worship her. But he wanted every good thing to happen to her. With a jolt, Sasuke realized that he would do things for her without a second thought that he wouldn't do for anyone else. The least significant of which was cooking. Why was he only realizing it now?

Sakura exhaled loudly and Sasuke watched her breathe in again. He felt like a completely different person from who he'd been a year ago.

The next morning, Sakura had the interview corresponding with her Ame photoshoot. It was happening over an early lunch and was also supposed to be an in-depth profile. Sakura had read plenty of similar articles, but wasn't quite sure what to expect. The interviewer, Mei Terumi, was warm and chatty, and laughed when Sakura stifled a yawn before they sat down at a private restaurant table. "Rough night?"

"I've been spoiled. This is my first early morning all week," Sakura said. She wasn't about to say she'd been up late because of, well, sex. "I'm sorry."

"No worries! Now, we're officially on the record in a minute. Anything you want to warn me about first?"

Sakura laughed. "I don't think so."

"Great. Let's get to it, then." Mei gave her an encouraging smile.

On the way home from the interview, Tsunade called her. "The court case is going ahead, but I just wanted to tell you that I won't be as available in the next few weeks because of it."

"No problem. This is good, right?"

"Yes, it's good. I'm just feeling the pressure. That doesn't leave this phone line," Tsunade said. Sakura laughed. "I'm going to hand your organizational obligations over to Anko for the next month or so, depending on how long this takes. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, of course," Sakura said.

"I was getting to that. Are you still comfortable with testifying against him? If so, that will be coming sometime in the next few weeks."

"Yeah. I'll do it," Sakura said.

"Thank you. And I don't want you in the courthouse before or after that one day."

"Noted," Sakura said.

"Great. How was the interview?"

"It went well, I think. Mei Terumi was nice."

"She's always nice," Tsunade said scornfully. "I trust your report. We'll have to see what ridiculous headline they come up with. Anko or I will keep you posted about everything."

"Okay, sounds good."

"Excellent." Tsunade hung up. Sakura shook her head, vaguely amused.

The magazine came out two weeks later, complete with her face on the cover and a seven-page spread of photos. Under her face was the teaser headline: In Her Own Words: Sakura Haruno. The subtitle was, the singer discusses life, love, and her climb to the top.

Sakura Haruno enters the room with a genuine smile, an accessory that she's become known for. Her pink hair, a natural trait that might be too quirky on anyone else, is just as bright in person. I've never met Sakura before this afternoon, but she's immediately warm and friendly. It is evident that she would put any interviewer at ease, a gift not to be overlooked. We sit at a cozy corner table, and she orders that day's special, onion soup, with as much consideration for the waiter as for me when I hem and haw over my own choice. My hour with her was lively, funny, and enlightening enough that I felt the best way to get Sakura Haruno on a page was to present some of our conversation word for word, with minimal interjections from yours truly.

"Does it feel good to be back from your summer tour?"

"Yeah, it's nice to be able to relax a little. I really love touring, but it's more mentally and physically tiring than people ever let on. We have this superpower kind of mentality in this industry and no one's allowed to show any weakness. I feel obliged to talk about that, because my real self isn't the polished girl who shows up onstage and at awards shows. I feel like I owe it to the people who listen to my music, if that makes sense. But maybe I'm just trying too hard to be relatable. People want to have flawless role models."

"Let me pull on that thread for a moment. In the past month or so, you've been so much more flexible in terms of your performances. More real, I would say. The Ame show comes to mind, because you performed alone. And played a song that hadn't even been released yet! That's unheard of for those big stadium shows."

"Yeah…" she says. "I just wanted to try it. I'd been playing show after show with a strict set list, and I wanted to change it up."

"Was that strict set list a product of your previous management under Cobra? I think we were all curious when you switched your record deal. It's another thing that's unheard of."

"My career has been ridiculously lucky, and because of that I can work with the people I get along with best. And I'm in that position now."

"Diplomatic as ever." She laughs at that. There's clearly more there regarding Cobra, but even Sakura Haruno's patience for prodding questions has its limits. She may be the girl next door, but she's also been coached by an experienced publicist.

We talk about her childhood, growing up in downtown Konoha, working through high school to afford recording equipment, and skipping out on fun with her friends to work on her music instead. "My parents were always supportive, which says something considering I was desperate for a career that would not do anything for me financially. Saying that now is obviously ridiculous, but they sacrificed so much for me. I know I said I was lucky, but I should probably say it again. I'm in a place that .1% of musicians reach, and I constantly ask myself why I made it."

"Do you doubt your own abilities?"

"Not really. I know I can carry a tune, at least." She laughs. "But I doubt myself and my abilities all the time, I can't help it. Everyone really is their worst critic."

"So what in particular do you think is responsible for your success? You're twenty-one and you've got young girls mesmerized by you, you're selling thousands of albums every week. How did it happen?"

"I'd like to say it's my drive and enthusiasm, but I won't pretend my appearance doesn't have anything to do with it." She pulls on her hair absentmindedly. "But I did work hard for years before all of this happened. Practicing, writing and rewriting songs, performing, pushing myself on recruiters."

"How did Sasuke figure into everything?" She gives me a look that's almost skeptical, the only sign of exasperation I've seen. I almost feel ashamed for bringing it up, because she's surely been asked a similar question hundreds of times.

But she shakes her head and smiles tiredly. "I'll address it directly, if you want. I met Sasuke at the Iwa Festival last September. At that point, I already had some forward momentum. This is a bit weird to talk about. Anyway, my first EP was selling well and I was in the middle of plans for my album. So I met Sasuke, and then a few weeks later we started…Dating."

"Wait. That was, when, October? The first photos of you didn't come out until around January."

She smiles slightly. "Unfortunately, the paparazzi don't catch everything. But I really didn't want to go public with it, and neither did he. I can be a little too independent, sometimes. I did things on my own, and I didn't want people to think anything different."

"So why did you two go public, in the end?"

"Because we were tired of keeping it a secret. It was affecting things negatively. I said I'd take whatever criticism came my way, because I realized it didn't matter. He had to get over his changed image," she adds wryly.

"Wow. So that secret relationship rumor is confirmed. I hope you know this is going to be a popular tidbit. If you'd rather it be off the record, that's fine."

She gives me a knowing grin. "I'd like to think I have enough experience to know better than to trust you on that. Anyway, I'm getting used to being hounded about my relationships."

"That's fair. Do you find that you have any time to yourself?"

"Lately I've had a bit more. I'm just starting to get back into the studio, but I had a few weeks before the lead-up to Ame. I'd forgotten what it was like to actually get a good night's sleep and be in your own home."

"Are you an eating in or out kind of person?"

"In. Not to throw my fame around again, but everyone is aware that it's kind of hard to eat out unnoticed. Sasuke's been trying to cook for me. He won't thank me for mentioning this later."

"I have to say, I love that you refer to him as 'Sasuke' and not 'my boyfriend.'"

"It feels ridiculous to say 'my boyfriend.' It's not like I want to be mysterious about it. I think it's the compromise between being coy and shouting it from the rooftops nonstop."

"What would you say to shout it from the rooftops?"

"I don't know. Maybe adding 'my boyfriend, Sasuke Uchiha' to the beginning or end of every sentence? I just—Ugh."

The interview went on over a few pages, interspersed with images from the photoshoot in Ame. A complimentary copy had been delivered to her, and Sakura looked at it standing up in the kitchen, unable to resist reading the whole thing as soon as the magazine was in her hands. It was weird to read back things you'd said, with added descriptions of your behavior. Sasuke picked it up after she finished and read it skeptically.

"Comes off a little ridiculous, with her narration," he said.

"Profiles are always like that," Sakura said. "She's perceptive, though." She frowned at him. "Do you mind, that I told her about us?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, it's fine."

Sakura laughed, but was interrupted by her ringing phone. Tsunade was calling, the first time since their quick conversation in the car after the interview. Sakura was waiting for a message about the day she'd be expected in court. Articles were starting to trickle out about a possible scandal involving Orochimaru, but everyone with information was tight-lipped.

"Hi, what's up?" Sakura asked.

"I just got word about ten seconds ago." Sakura couldn't read Tsunade's tone, and braced herself for bad news.

Infuriatingly, Sasuke couldn't hear Tsunade's voice. Sakura frowned, her eyes wide. "Wait, what?"

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, disregarding that she was on the phone.

Sakura put a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God. No way."

"What. Is it," Sasuke ground out.

"Yeah, okay. Wow." She was smiling. "Of course, yeah! Okay, sounds good. Talk to you tomorrow."

Sasuke stared at her expectantly.

"Okay, okay. You know the New Music Achievement award? It's sponsored by the Music Hall of Fame?" Sasuke nodded. "I...Won it."

"Of course you fucking won it," Sasuke said. He couldn't help smiling. "Are you surprised?"

"I mean, I never thought...Well, yeah. I know you guys won it, but it was a while after your debut, right? I barely have two albums out."

Sasuke shrugged. "Not surprised."

"Tsunade said she talked to a representative, and he said that my Ame show was what convinced them." Sakura rubbed her forehead. "This is crazy."

"Don't say you don't deserve this, either," Sasuke muttered.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I never said I didn't deserve certain things. Oh, never mind." She punched his arm playfully.

"Are they throwing you a ridiculous party?" Sasuke asked.

"Tsunade said there's some kind of charity ball and acceptance speech thing, in November," Sakura said.

"Tch. We had one of those, too. It was awful."

"Well, you'd better have a better attitude about this one, because you're coming with me."