Sakura waited.

She waited in a cloud of white cloth and veils and flowers.

Sakura sat in a wooden chair—that grew increasingly uncomfortable—in front of a vanity.

Her nails—perfectly shaped and precisely painted just for the occasion—clicked against the vanity.

"You're not going to be late, right?" the pinkette questioned the man with the mask in front of her.

He smiled beneath his mask, his visible eye crinkling at the edges, the other eye was hidden beneath an eye patch, "I won't, I promise."

Sakura let out a sigh, her breath angled upwards, making her veil move upward slightly with her exhale.

She allowed herself a glance at the clock; he's going to be more than 20 minutes late… she thought.

A platinum blonde slipped through the doorway. "Hey Forehead," she said as if it were some sad, horrible news.

Sakura smiled slightly and lets out a breathy laugh. "Ino-pig."

Ino walked up to her best friend, her high heels dully thudding against the floor with each step.

Sakura stayed sitting, watching the blonde in the mirror.

Ino stopped behind the pinkette. "I would hug you, but I don't want to mess anything up."

Sakura laughed with no humor. "I don't know if it'll really matter much anymore." She placed her bouquet on the vanity.

"People are starting to get restless."

Sakura pressed her lips into a line. Figures, she thought.

Ino continued, "It doesn't help that the groom hasn't showed up yet."

They sat together on the couch, possible guest lists and pictures of wedding cakes and floral arrangements spread out on the coffee table in front of the two.

"I want a small wedding," Sakura declared.

The deep voice of her counterpart questioned, "Really?"

Sakura nodded. "Mm. No more than 30 people, I think."

"That sounds doable."

Sakura smiled. "Now, Kakashi, who should we invite?"

Sakura sighed, thinking, this is when I'm kind of glad we decided on a small wedding.

"What do you suggest we do, Ino-pig?"

Ino shrugged, "Wait it out, maybe? Or just abandon ship if he doesn't show up after some deadline?"

"A deadline sounds good," Sakura nodded once. "This is why you're my maid of honor."

Ino smiled. "That, and you love me."

Sakura stood, the material of her white dress sliding across her skin.

"So, Ino-pig, how long should we give him?"

The blonde just shrugged. "It's your wedding."

"Two and a half hours," Sakura declared. "I give him two and a half hours to get here."

One of Ino's perfectly shaped eyebrows raised. "You sure that's enough time, Forehead?"

Sakura scoffed and threw her hands in the air slightly. "He's half an hour late already. If he hasn't shown up for three hours, he obviously doesn't want to get married." married to me, Sakura mentally added, glumly.

The blonde considered Sakura's words, her brow furrowing and her cheeks puffing out slightly, before shrugging. "Again, your wedding, Forehead," and with that she turned and walked out the way she came.

Sakura paced the length of the room, her feet starting to hurt in her shoes.

She started taking the shoes off when her mother entered the room, fuming.

"She's less than half his age!" the older woman raged, "and did you see her? She's a complete ditz!"

It didn't take long for Sakura to realize her mother was talking about the pretty young thing her father had shown up with.

"It's not that bad, Mom," Sakura said in a comforting tone.

Her mother's anger only flared, "Not that bad? Not that bad?!"

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, and in a deadpan she said, "I mean, it's totally horrible. The nerve of that man."

"Finally," her mother huffed. "Someone agrees with me." Her mother gently cradled her daughter's face before kissing her once on the crown of her head. "You're beautiful," the older woman said into Sakura's hair.

Closing her eyes, Sakura sighed a small "thank you" to her mother before her mother released her head and walked off.

Sakura waved off her mother as she exited the room.

The pinkette went back to sitting, muttering to herself as she fiddled with her bouquet. "Things couldn't possibly get any worse."

"Sakura…"

Sakura looked towards the source of the voice and sees her father. "Dad…."

He walked into the room. "I just want to let you know before you get married about the certain… relations a married couple share."

Sakura's eyes grew wide as she registered her father's words. "Dad, I took hea-"

He raised his hand and cut her off mid-sentence. "I know you think you know about that stuff, but you don't, and you should. And it's best to know about these things beforehand," her father smiled after he finished talking, and Sakura knew that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this.

So Sakura continued to sit on the chair, trying to tune out her father's very long, very detailed explanation of "marital relations".

She heaved a sigh of relief when she heard the door close behind her father.

The pinkette rested her head in her hands and started picking invisible bits of lint off of her bouquet's ribbon.

Her head snapped up when she heard the door open and close, a pair of heels thudding on the ground.

Her dad's pretty young thing said, "Hey."

Sakura went back to the ribbon. "Hi."

Pretty Young Thing (whose name Sakura couldn't seem to remember for the life of her) walked up behind her and smiled at the mirror. "I just thought I'd give you some pointers in how to… pleasure your man on the big night."

The pinkette looked up in shock, turning an unsightly shade of red.

P.Y.T. started giving a horribly detailed talk to Sakura, who couldn't seem to even get a word in to try and stop P.Y.T. before the pinkette was mentally scarred for life.

P.Y.T. smiled at Sakura after she finished her terribly long and even-more-so embarrassing lecture on the proper way to pleasure a man.

Sakura gagged, trying to hide her gag unsuccessfully, thinking of P.Y.T. doing this to her own father. Slapping on a fake smile, Sakura thanked P.Y.T., hoping it would send her out of the room all the quicker.

Jesus, did Sakura want this woman out of the room.

P.Y.T. didn't leave, though. To Sakura's horror, P.Y.T. walked up to where Sakura was sitting and starting playing with Sakura's veil. Sakura could see P.Y.T.'s eyes fixed on the two of them in the mirror. "You're so beautiful," P.Y.T. breathed out. "A complete vision."

Sakura sighed, a genuine smile creeping across her face. Her dad's new arm candy may be a complete ditz, but she was genuine. "Thank you," Sakura said quietly, barely above a whisper.

Draping the veil over Sakura's face, P.Y.T. said, "It's a wonder the groom hasn't shown up yet. If I were him, I'd want to get here as soon as I could to marry a pretty girl like you."

A deep breath was the only thing that was keeping Sakura from clawing at P.Y.T.'s face with her perfectly manicured nails. To further deter herself from actually doing it, Sakura scraped her nails across the vanity table, as if she were trying to gouge lines into it.

"Maybe he got cold feet, men do seem to get it much more than women," P.Y.T. continued. "Thinking about marriage as a trap, they think they're making a mistake!"

Sakura was having trouble coming up with reasons why attacking this stupid woman would fall under the "Oh-No-No" category.

"Well!" P.Y.T. clapped her hands together once. "I should get back to your father!" Squeezing Sakura in a brief hug, she whispered, "I'm sure he'll show up," into Sakura's ear before taking her leave.

Sakura checked the clock as the door clicked shut behind P.Y.T.

One and a half hours left? I thought those talks took up way more time than that… Sakura thought.

"Mom warned me," Sakura mumbled to her reflection. "She warned me and I didn't listen."

"He was late for a date again?" Sakura's mother asked, appalled.

Sakura nodded into the phone. "Yeah, and it was our anniversary, too."

Her mother huffed a breath into the receiver. "I don't know what to tell you, honey. I told you that it wasn't a good idea to date a man more than a decade older than you and look what's happened. He's senile."

"Kakashi's not senile, Mom," Sakura defended. "He just… gets lost along the path of life." Sakura fed her mother the same line Kakashi often used when he was late.

"Honey, he's no good, late for everything," her mother said sadly into the phone, "I don't think he's right for you."

Sakura sighed into her phone. "I can make my own decisions, Mom, I'm an adult. Besides, Kakashi's sweet and I think I love him." Sakura fiddled with the picture of Kakashi and herself she had on her nightstand, the one Naruto had taken of the two of them on the beach together.

"Alright," her mother said, knowing she wasn't going to win this battle. "Just remember you said that when he breaks your heart."

"You were right, Mom," Sakura mumbled into the mirror.

"What was your mom right about?" Naruto asked, poking his head in.

"Oh," Sakura said, turning to face Naruto, "Nothing."

Naruto shrugged. "Oh, okay." Walking the rest of the way into the dressing room he said, "Sakura, I have something to confess."

"Oh God, what?" Sakura asked, a million possibilities running through her head. Was something on fire? Did someone have a heart attack? Did Naruto kill Kakashi?

"When we were kids and until the end of high school, and even a little bit now, I was in love with y-"

"Naruto!" Sakura all but shrieked. "You are married to one of my best friends, might I remind you."

Trying to reassure her, Naruto stammered, "I know, I know, but I just wanted to say that-"

"Leave."

"Wait, Sakura, hear me out!"

"Leave. Now."

"Okay, okay!" Naruto put his hands up in defeat as he slowly backed to the door and out of the dressing room.

"Jesus, what the hell prompted that?" Sakura wondered aloud.

"Heeeeeeyy, Sakura…."

A nervous voice came from the slightly opened dressing room door.

"Kiba?" Sakura said in surprise, he was the last person Sakura expected.

"Um," he pulled at the collar of his dress shirt, his eyes flicking to look away, "I don't know how to tell you this but…." His voice trailed off, his sentence unfinished.

"But what?" Sakura asked, eyes wide. She prayed something hadn't gone wrong, that this wasn't going to be a confession of love. Maybe he's here to tell me Kakashi's in the hospital and that's why he can't make it, Sakura thought a bit hopefully. A sick or injured Kakashi was better than an I-didn't-want-to-get-married one.

Kiba bit his lip, still not finishing his sentence.

Sakura's voice lowered. "What?" she asked dangerously.

"Akamaru pissed on the flowers," said Kiba in a rush, his words jumbled together. "I'm really sorry, please don't kill me," he squeaked out, holding his hands over his head and face as a shield.

Sakura's eyes flashed dangerously. "He what?"

Kiba lowered his hands slowly and nervously said, "Marked the flowers?"

Pinching the bridge of her nose, an irritated Sakura said, "Please, please, tell me you're joking."

Kiba swallowed nervously and shook his head slowly.

He barely dodged the scented candle that was lobbed at his head.

"YOU IDIOT!" Sakura yelled. "You had one job! One. Job."

"I know, I know!" Kiba yelled defensively, eyes squeezing shut and hands going to protect his head again.

"You were supposed to watch that damned dog of yours and make sure he didn't fuck any thing up while I got married," Sakura fumed.

"Akamaru wasn't telling me he had to go out!"

"Probably because he saw the flowers and thought, 'Score!' or whatever goes through a dog's freaking head!" Sakura threw her hands in the air out of frustration.

Instead of arguing, Kiba ducked out of the dressing room in fear of having other, more dangerous objects being thrown at his head.

"Goddamn, stupid dog," Sakura muttered under her breath, "ruining my already ruined wedding."

She took a deep breath and looked at the clock. One hour left for him to show up… thought Sakura.

Ino slipped back in half an hour later.

"Last half hour," Sakura commented sadly, carelessly dropping her bouquet onto the vanity. Who cares if they're ruined, Sakura thought bitterly. It's not as if he's going to show up.

"Sakura…"

This made Sakura whip around to face her best friend. Ino hardly ever called her anything but Forehead. Something big must be happening.

Ino took a deep breath. "Promise you won't throw things at my head when I tell you? Oh, stop giving me that look, I know you threw something at Kiba."

Sakura gestured with her head as if to say get on with it.

Ino bit her bottom lip before spilling. "Tenten "accidentally" cut the priest.

"She what?!"

"She said he was leering at her and she "just so happened" to trip onto the priest when she had her knife out," Ino explained hastily, blocking the door so Sakura couldn't get out and beat the living tar out of Tenten.

"How bad is the priest cut?"

"Well, she missed all major veins and arteries."

Knowing that trying to pass Ino while in her bulky wedding dress was just a dream, Sakura plopped down onto the chair in front of the vanity.

"Could this day get any worse?" she wailed.

Patting her best friend comfortingly on the cheek, Ino said, "Yes it could, honey, yes it could."

Sakura wailed, "I don't see how!"

"You could die!" Ino said cheerfully.

"Thank you," said Sakura, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "You are such a help."

"I try!" Ino giggled. Waggling her fingers, Ino semi-skipped out of the room. "See you later, Forehead!"

Twenty-five minutes. Sakura had twenty-five minutes left to wait to see if her groom would actually show up.

She put her face in her hands, wanting so desperately to cry. But she couldn't, not yet. Not when there were still twenty-five minutes of hope left.

"I won't, I promise." Kakashi's statement played over and over in her head, like a broken record.

"Liar," Sakura quietly spat at Kakashi, wherever the hell he was now.

She glanced at the clock. There were five minutes left for him to show up. Five minutes to redeem himself and save their relationship. Sakura couldn't help but feel that small bubble of hope pressing against her ribs. Sakura anxiously started playing with her engagement ring, twisting it around on her finger, sliding it up and down. He still had five minutes to show up, maybe he had been stuck in traffic or some crazy family emergency occurred and he'd been attending to that before he went to his wedding. Maybe he was "wandering the path of life" and finally decided to get to where he was supposed to be going.

She should know better than to hope, though. He had been late for every date, even the first one, and was always giving her lame excuses for being late. But he's sweet, a small part of Sakura said. He loves me and I love him. He told—promised—me that'd he'd be here, so he will… right?

"It's time," Ino said gravely, as if she were sentencing Sakura to death.

Sakura stood again, grabbing her bouquet and rearranging her veil and her dress, trying to look beautiful for the man who wasn't there.

As much as she'd felt like crying earlier, the tears wouldn't come now. Her eyes were dry as she stepped out of the dressing room.

Sakura walked down the aisle. No wedding march was playing. She walked down the aisle and everyone was on their feet, watching her walk. Walked passed the pissed on flowers to the injured priest; passed Dad and his P.Y.T., who smiled at her; her mother who flashed her a look that meant I told you so.

She walked up to the altar where there was no man next to her.

Kakashi said he wasn't going to be late.

He lied.

A/N: enjoy the reception.

I wrote this a million years ago and finally got around to finishing it, thus the change in writing style (maybe). First time I wrote KakaSaku, so I'm kind of nervous about posting it. Constructive criticism is appreciated.