A/N: YAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I've finally finished the third chapter -is all swirlly eyed- after like what, 2 weeks or something?XD
Disclaimer: Me still no own Naruto...Other than the DVDs I havewith Narutoepisodes, a kakashi keychain...and a kakashi plushie! -huggles plushie-.
Suki: now This is a present to all my reviewers for waiting so paitently...-drags Gaara out-
Gaara: -is wearing a tutu with fairy wings and a tiara and ballette slippers and a wand- I hate you...-glares daggers at Suki-.
Suki: -ignores Gaara- now that we have all THAT delt with...ONWARD WITH THE FIC!
How Love Blossoms Beneath the Sakura Tree
By: ToraYashaChan
Chapter 3:
For Sakura, the rest of the week went by without any more out of the ordanary incidents happening. She went to training and her job at the hospital every day. Her team wasn't given any new missions, so they just trained.
The only thing that was different about this week was that people in Konoha were talking nonstop about the banquet at the Uchiha estate and making guesses about who Itachi would be spending the rest of his life with.
Sakura, on the other hand, could care less about the banquet. In fact, she was dreading it. The pink-haired medic could understand why people were so excited about it. But that didn't do anything to make her feel any better about going.
The other thing that was kind of weird was that Kakashi was spending more time with Team 7 when they were training. He would offer to spar with somebody so the three of them could fight one on one instead of them all fighting each other.
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On the evening of the banquet, Sakura entered the Uchiha estate where it was being held. As she walked in the room, she saw the table where all her friends, Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Lee, and Chouji, were sitting.
"Hey guys!" The pink-haired medic chirped as she ran over to them, grinning down at the group, "Have I missed anything?" She asked, looking rather worried that she might have missed the announcement.
Ino grinned right back at her pink haired childhood friend and shook her head.
"Nope, you haven't missed anything. People have just barely started sitting down to eat," she replied, motioning for Sakura to sit down in the chair next to her.
Taking her seat, she gave a sigh of relief, "Ah, good," she replied. A little bored she looked up at the ceiling. 'I wonder who Itachi's fiancée will be.'
Then Sakura began to look around at all the other kunoichi that were attending the banquet.
'There are so many eligible girls here that would make great wives for Itachi, I wonder which one will be picked tonight.' She thought as she looked around the dining hall. 'That's most likely the question on everybody's mind tonight. Why else would they be here?'
For a while, Sakura talked with her friends about a multitude of things. For example, she talked with Tenten on how her training was going and sharing different tips that they had learned on how to use different weapons, and listening to Rock Lee talk about some new taijutsu he had mastered recently. She even talked to Naruto and Sasuke about what they were planning on doing for their next training session tomorrow.
About half an hour into talking with her friends, a girl that looked an awful lot like Itachi came walking up to the table. She had the same dark hair, there faces were pretty close but she didn't have the two lines under her eyes like Itachi did, (A/N: For all of you who know what Itachi looks like, you know what I mean, to those that don't, look for a picture of him on google.) and her hair was longer and she let it flow freely.
Sasuke noticed her almost immediately, "Tsuki-san! You're back from your mission already? But Mom said you wouldn't be back till next week!" he exclaimed in surprise.
The raven-haired kunoichi smirked at Sasuke, "Why do you insist on calling me that Sasuke? You know how horrible I am with formalities. We're family, so just call me Tsuki, got it?" she said as she sat down next to him, "Anyways. Introduce me to all your friends!"
Neji was the first of the group to speak, "I'm Hyuga Neji.'
"Rock Lee!"
"Tenten."
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Haruno Sakura."
"Akimichi Chouji."
"Yamanaka Ino! Nice to meet you!"
"Ah… this is troublesome… Nara Shikamaru."
"Hyuga Hinata." Hinata mumbled quietly.
"Aburame Shino."
"Inuzuka Kiba!"
Tsuki's gaze fell on Sakura for a moment when the pink-haired kunoichi stated her name, but quickly hid it as she went and looked around the whole table after everyone had said their name, "It's very nice to meet you all," she grinned as she messed up Sasuke's hair, "Do you mind if I eat with you guys? I know that my dear cousin wouldn't mind, would you Sasuke?"
Sasuke just glared at his older cousin as she messed up his hair, "Only if you stop doing THAT to my hair Tsuki..." he replied grumbling in annoyance.
The raven-haired kunoichi rolled her eyes in exasperation, "FINE. I'll stop. As long as it gets me away from Uncle Fugaku talking about Konoha politics with random people who come walking by. It gets boring after a while."
Ino nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that DOES sound boring. I've never been one for politics either."
"Really! Cool! I've finally found someone else who doesn't like politics! You're my new best friend Ino!"
And with that, Ino and Tsuki went rambling about how much they hated politics and how boring and annoying it was.
Sasuke anime sweat dropped at his cousin's actions, but said nothing as he watched the pair start ranting about the evils of politics and such.
Sakura found their conversation rather amusing. Snickering at a part where they started "making plans" to take over the government of Konoha and change it to their liking.
After a while when the group ran out of things to talk about, and Ino and Tsuki's anti political conversation had died down, everyone continued eating their meal in silence for the most part. Though small conversations popped up here and there throughout the rest of the evening between people at their table.
Sakura smiled at everyone as she ate her dinner. She was deep in thought for a large portion of the banquet, listening to the different conversations that people had. Surprisingly, she was enjoying herself. Sakura hadn't thought she would have a good time at this dinner because she had been dreading having to face Itachi again after she had hit him, luckily their paths hadn't crossed yet. All in all, Sakura was having a good time.
'I'm glad I came tonight, I don't get to see all my friends together in one place very often. It's so nice when I get to spend time with them like this.'
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After an hour or so of chatting and eating, Uchiha Fugaku (A/N: In case you didn't know, that's Sasuke and Itachi's dad.) stood up from his chair, along with Uchiha Mikoto (A/N: Itachi and Sasuke's mother.) and signaled for the attention of everyone in the room.
"Friends, family, and fellow citizens of Konoha, on behalf of my wife and two sons, I would like to thank you all for coming this evening," he said, eyes sweeping over the crowd as he spoke.
Uchiha Mikoto cleared her voice with a small cough and continuing where her husband left off, "As you all know, tonight is the night that my son Itachi's fiancée is being announced," the dark blue haired woman said, beaming at all the guests, "and I can imagine that you all are anxious to find out who that lucky young woman is going to be."
Sakura felt her breath catch in her throat in anticipation as she waited for the announcement. She unconsciously leaned towards the heads of the Uchiha clan as Mikoto spoke.
Continuing with what she was saying, Mikoto looked around the dining hall at all the guests, her gaze falling on Sakura's table for a brief moment, but then moving on, "Our family will welcome this young woman into our clan with open arms. We're very happy to announce the new addition to our household is..." Mikoto grinned inwardly as she saw everyone's eyes were glued to her, waiting to hear who her son's new wife would be, "... Haruno Sakura." She finished, motioning to the girl as she said this.
Immediately following the announcement, the dining hall was filled with the excited chatter of all the guests. Many young kunoichi around Sakura's age were giving her cold looks. They were very upset that she was chosen to be the wife of Konoha's heart throb, Uchiha Itachi.
While all the chatter was going on in the dining hall, Sakura sat there dumbfounded. She was pretty sure that her jaw literally hit the floor out of sheer surprise and shock of the entire situation. She had a completely shocked expression on her face as she stared at the head table where Itachi and his parents were.
'ME! I'm going to be Itachi's fiancée! What the HELL is going on here! This can't be real! Okay, just calm down Sakura, this is probably some bad dream, when you open your eyes, you'll be in your bed, at home, not engaged to Uchiha Itachi.'
To Sakura's dismay her thoughts didn't work as Ino suddenly tackled her in hug, "Oh my GOD! Congratulations Sakura! I am so jealous of you! You get to marry Itachi! You are so lucky!" She exclaimed with excitement as she hugged her friend, squealing out of sheer happiness.
The pink-haired medic went and covered up how surprised and upset she was about the engagement to Itachi and smiled weakly at her blond-haired friend, "Heheh... thank you Ino." She replied, trying her best to sound happy and excited about this, "That means a lot to me."
Sasuke chuckled at Ino's antics as he watched with amusement, "Welcome to the family Sakura." He said, giving one of his unusual real smiles.
Tsuki nodded in agreement, "Yeah, Uncle Fugaku picked a great girl to be that stick in the mud, Itachi's wife." She said with a grin.
Sakura blushed slightly at their comments, "Thank you Sasuke-kun, Tsuki-san." She replied, smiling back at them like she had Ino.
'What am I going to do? I can't say no to this arrangement. I would probably be hated by the entirety of the Uchiha clan if I didn't agree to it. I don't want that to happen. Sasuke has been like a big brother to me, and I don't want to loose that.'
After about five to ten minutes of random people congratulating her on being picked to be Itachi's fiancée, Sakura suddenly realized that Itachi had been watching her for quite some time now.
Her face went completely red at this realization and turned her back on the Uchiha prodigy, refusing to make eye contact with him. She may have to marry the guy, but that didn't mean she had to like it. But he never took his gaze off of her. In fact, he just stared at her even more intently than he had before.
'DAMN IT! Why does he have to keep on staring at me like that? It's getting very annoying!'
She continued to have conversations with people who walked by to congratulate her as they filed out of the dining hall once they had finished eating.
Once the majority of people had left, Sakura decided that she was going to get out of there too and go home to sort all of this out. Plus, she was getting sort of tired from all the excitement and stress of the evening.
With a yawn, Sakura stretched and stood up from where she was sitting, "Ngh... I think I'll be heading home now you guys," she said to all her friends that were still at the table with her, "I'm exhausted and I need my sleep. So I'll see you guys later, ok?"
Everyone nodded and waved as she started leaving, congratulating her one last time before she left.
Sakura was almost to the door when Mikoto stopped her, "Are you going home Sakura-chan?" She asked, beaming at the pink-haired kunoichi.
Sakura nodded, "Yes Mikoto-san, I'm tired, so I decided that I should go home and get some sleep." She replied, smiling back at her.
Mikoto nodded, "Alright, but I don't want you walking home alone at night," she replied, "I'll have Itachi walk you home, okay."
The pink-haired medic almost passed out at Mikoto's words, "N-no... Mikoto-san, that's quite alright. I'm perfectly fine walking home on my own." She said, trying not to sound too distressed.
"Don't be silly Sakura! You and Itachi need all the alone time to get to know each other better, and I know with both of your schedules being so busy that you wont get many chances to do that for awhile. I insist on it."
With that, Sakura knew that there just wasn't any way she was getting out of this. Itachi was walking her home, and that's that.
'Oh, that's just GREAT... just what I need, alone time with that stupid prick.' She thought sarcastically. 'Especially after what happened during our last "alone time"!'
Sakura sighed in defeat, "Yes Mikoto-san. It would be best for Itachi to walk me home." She replied, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice as she spoke.
Mikoto beamed at Sakura, "Good! Itachi, can you come over here for a moment?"
Itachi came walking over to them when Mikoto called him over, "Yes? What is it mother?" He asked.
"Will you walk Sakura-chan home? She's tired and wants to get some sleep." Mikoto replied. She said it with a sweet voice but it sounded like an order, not a request.
Sighing, Itachi nodded, "Yes mother. I'll take her..." He replied walking over to Sakura and taking her hand, "Come on Sakura-chan. Let's get you home." He said as he started walking out of the dining hall holding her hand as he headed off of the estate.
When Itachi grabbed her hand, Sakura just stared and went into super shock mode and just followed looking very confused as he led her off of the Uchiha estate.
A/N:
Shikamaru: -talking with Ino and Neji- Alirght, I bet you ten bucks that when they get to Sakura's house, Itachi is going to screw her senseless...
Ino: I bet ten that it will be Sakura screwing Itachi senseless...
Neji: I bet you twenty that nothings going to happen...
Suki: -glares at the trio, but then decides to ignore them- anyways -coughs- hope you enjoyed this chapter.Oh! And R&R please!