Chapter Five
Run baby Run
A marriage without love means love without marriage.
And that’s what exactly she feared right now.
Today was the fifth day.
Her wedding day.
She now stood in front of a full-length mirror, blankly staring at her reflection wearing the traditional white wedding kimono. I look stupid… Sakura dejectedly observed as her shoulders sagged. The white crown on her head slightly moved from its previous position. Annoyed, she threw it away and sat miserably on the couch.
She wanted this day to end… Sasuke, you’re insane! Up until now she could not believe she’s about to get married to Uchiha Sasuke. This is not what she wants. Getting married to Sasuke might have been one of her dreams when she was a child but now—everything’s changed. She doesn’t love him anymore. The adoration was gone long ago. She can’t love him again even if she wanted to. It’s just not possible.
Right now, all she wanted to do was to run away from here and be a missing-nin. But of course that would obviously be dishonourable on her part. Running away from her wedding will embarrass both her family and Sasuke. Plus, Tsunade-sama will curse her to hell and back if ever she did such foolish thing.
But the temptation was too much… she almost wanted to jump outside her window.
No! Must-not-escape! But her feet eventually betrayed her. She was now walking towards it. Well, not until she heard the gentle knocking coming from her bedroom door.
Finding that as an excuse for her inevitable escape, Sakura made her way towards the door and opened it.
“Sakura! Oh my god! You look beautiful!!!” her blond friend, Ino excitedly entered the room and started babbling.
“Hello to you too.” Sakura dryly greeted as she closed the door behind her.
Ino questioningly stared at her, “You know, for a woman whose getting married, you don’t look too excited.”
“I’m not.” Sakura simply shrugged her shoulders and sat on the couch again.
Ino’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped, “Are you serious? You’re getting married, Sakura!”
“You don’t have to rub it in, Ino.” Sakura had enough of this marriage conversation. All these stuff suffocates the hell out of her.
Ino dropped of the bed and asked, “Okay, tell me what’s wrong.”
Sakura faked a laugh and waved a hand, “Psh, nothing’s wrong! What makes you think that?”
“Aside from the fact that you’re not excited on your marriage with Sasuke? Nope, nothing.” Sarcastically, she replied.
Sakura looked at her in the eyes and Ino stared back. Finally, she gave up. “I don’t want to get married!” she cried and threw her hands in the air.
“What??” Ino was stunned. “B-but, this IS Sasuke we’re talking about here. Why don’t you want to marry him?” for years she’d known Sakura’s head over heels in-love with Sasuke. They even fought for the same guy’s attention for years! Not until Ino noticed her efforts were useless and decided to give up. All this time she thought Sakura will use this as an opportunity to lure the Uchiha boy, but much to her surprise, she didn’t.
Knowing exactly what’s running inside her friend’s mind right now, Sakura answered, “I-It just doesn’t feel right…” and then she shook her head, “n-no, I mean… This marriage… This is what he wants… not mine!”
Ino frowned as she watched her pace back and forth, “What do you mean?”
“He only wants to marry me because he wants an heir. He doesn’t love me and so… and so do I.” the last four words were spoken slowly. She couldn’t find the strength to look Ino straight in the eye. She never told anyone about this except Kakashi. Only he knows she fell out of love for Sasuke. Ino on the other hand still thinks the opposite.
“But I thought—”
“I don’t want a forced marriage, Ino! I have to get away from here… away from Sasuke.” Yes, that’s right. She must leave the area before the wedding ceremony starts. Reputation be damned! Her feelings and freedom counts more than anything else. So what if her parents disown her? She’ll be a missing-nin if ever she leaves Konoha’s border without the Hokage’s permission. If her parents renounce her as their daughter, might as well leave the village.
“Are you insane??” Ino bellowed in the sudden rush of anger. She can’t believe Sakura’s sorting on reckless decisions. “If you run away, you’ll get in trouble. Not only with your family but with Hokage-sama as well!”
“I know!” Sakura gave a heavy sigh, “But there’s no other choice…”
Ino wanted to protest but Sakura immediately beat her up to it. She walked towards her and held her hand. Ino was stunned at this.
“I have to do this.” Green eyes sparkled as she begged, “Please help me get away from here?”
Ino’s brows furrowed, “What makes you think I’ll help you?”
“I’m your friend.” Sakura shrugged her shoulders.
They both looked each other in silence until Ino broke it when she exasperatedly sighed out loud. “Argh! Fine!” the blond glared hard, “You owe me one.”
Sakura grinned happily and hugged her friend, almost chocking her, “Thank you!”
Ino coughed, “Too-much-love-can’t-breathe!” and then she wheezed.
Sakura released her immediately, “Sorry.” Sheepishly, she smiled.
Ino smiled back. Even though she’s quite confused and at the same time downright disappointed that her best friend’s about to escape her wedding ceremony, she’s glad that she could help her out. If this makes her happy, then so be it. She’ll help her run away.
“Sakura! What’s taking you so long? Sasuke’s waiting outside.” Naruto’s muffled voice impatiently said behind the mahogany door. He’s probably forced to go up there by Sasuke to fetch her.
Both girls looked alarmed by this.
“I-I’ll be there in a sec!” Sakura hurriedly replied.
“The zipper’s stuck! I’m currently fixing it! She’ll be done in a minute.” Ino lamely lied.
“Oh, okay.” Naruto offhandedly said, “Just hurry up will you? Sasuke’s starting to piss me off.”
“Yeah, sure.” Sakura replied and then felt utterly relieved when she heard his footsteps grew faint.
Both Ino and Sakura exchanged looks until Ino exclaimed, “What are you waiting for? Go before Sasuke comes here and destroy that door himself.”
Sakura nodded and then headed for the open window. Before jumping out, she glanced over her friend and smiled gratefully, “Thank you.” She mouthed before disappearing outside.
**
Sasuke glared death at towards Naruto when he returned with no Sakura in sight. “Where is she? Why isn’t she with you?” he immediately questioned, which once again baffled the poor blonde.
Blinking, Naruto replied, “Ino said she’ll be down in a minute. Said she’s still fixing her zipper or something.”
With this answer, Sasuke’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Zipper? Kimonos doesn’t have a zipper! His eyes flew wide and turned towards the window of Sakura’s bedroom.
It was open.
Naruto questioningly stared at his friend, “What’s wrong?” but before he got any answer, Sasuke hastily ran inside the house and up to the second floor to Sakura’s bedroom. Impatiently, he rapped the door. Something’s off. Sakura’s smart and he wouldn’t be too surprised if she come up with something like running away from the village. I wish she didn’t. He said to himself, fearing that she might have done the opposite.
“Naruto, for the second time—” it was Ino’s voice who answered, which increased Sasuke’s suspicion more.
Without further ado, he kicked the door open and entered causing Ino to shriek loudly.
“Where is she?” Sasuke asked in his usual cold, calm tone as he glared practically death towards the blond kunoichi before him.
Ino had no idea what to say. Her eyes flew wide and her jaw embarrassingly dropped, “S-Sasuke! Err… S-Sakura’s not h-here.” She sputtered.
“Where-is-she?” the Uchiha prodigy repeated gravely.
**
Kakashi yawned openly as he stared on the small drops of snowflake outside the window of his apartment. Today’s Sakura’s wedding. Two of his former students are getting married. Man, I’m getting old… he mused to himself while scratching the back of his head. He knew he should get dressed and head to the shrine as what Naruto instructed him. But why did he choose not to come and waste his time watching the snow instead?
Is it be possible that Sakura and Sasuke’s nuptial bothers him?
That he’s disappointed?
Not interested?
Or perhaps…
Jealous?
Nah, that’s not possible. Why would he be jealous? His and Sakura’s relationship had never crossed that line. They were just friends. A companionship they built for years since they started as Team 7. He couldn’t possibly developed feelings towards his ex-student other than ultimate friendship, did he?
Ah, even Kakashi didn’t know the answer to that question.
He shook his head and decided to ignore those scrunched up thoughts cramping his head. It’s giving him a headache.
The room was so quiet.
Not until he heard continuous tapping somewhere on his room.
Too lazy to get up, he closed his eyes, assuming the tapping was caused by a bird or something he’s not interested with.
Well, not until he heard a muffled scream coming outside of his window.
“Oh, for god sakes, Kakashi, open the damn window!”
Kakashi jerked in his wake as he sat up and directed his stare towards his closed glass window. It stunned him when he saw Sakura’s form outside, still in her wedding kimono, looking awfully irritated. If he did left his window opened, he knew his ears might have been bleeding right now.
He got out of bed and went to open the window.
“Sakura, what are you—mphff!” he was roughly pushed back inside his room with her hand tightly enclosed around his mouth.
Sakura stepped inside, looking cautiously around the perimeter. “Shh, nobody’s supposed to know I’m here.”
Kakashi nodded and was grateful when she removed her hand. She then turned back towards the window and closed it. When she was done, she saw her sensei looking as if he’s waiting for an explanation, just as what she’s expecting. Smiling sheepishly, she greeted with a voice notch higher than normal“Good morning.”
The white-haired jounin crossed his arms and questioned, “What are you doing here?”
Sakura looked at him and noticed that he was wearing a shirt and grey sweat pants. Her face dropped at this and had her arms in Akimbo, “Kakashi-sensei, why aren’t you dressed? The ceremony starts in a few minutes.” She was obviously reprimanding him.
Kakashi gave a lopsided grin, “Well, I—” then his face turned into confusion after realizing that she’s here, standing inside his room… meaning… “Are you lost? The shrine’s further north from here.” Seeing the look of guilt cross Sakura’s face, he frowned, “Sakura, is there something you want to tell me?”
Sakura immediately dodged his questioning gaze.
“Sakura…” Kakashi he called with a little disappointment. If the wedding’s about to start and the bride’s here, then there’s only one reason forming inside his head. “You ran away.” He softly mused, a little surprised himself.
He’s about to say something again but interrupted when his ex-student ran towards him and held his hand tightly between hers.
“Kakashi,” she said almost shakily, “Tell Tsunade-sama that I will not be her student from now on…”
“What?”
“And tell Naruto to stop being an idiot and that I love him. He’s a great guy, really.”
“Sakura—”
“And as for Sasuke.” This made her stop for awhile. Well, not until she came up with something to say, “Tell him that I’m sorry and I hope that he forgives me…”
Finding her gushing of words quite irritating, Kakashi held out his free hand to stop her from talking. “Hold on a sec.” he said, “What-are-you-talking-about?”
Sakura tried to calm down for a minute, looking into her sensei’s eyes until she managed to pacify her haywire nerves. “I’m leaving.” Again, she tried to avoid his gaze. There’s something by the way Kakashi’s looking at her that makes her feel ashamed about herself.
“Why?”
Sakura felt reluctant to confess anything just yet. But the way he’s looking at her left her no other choice. Kakashi mastered the art of getting all the information out of her if he wants to. She had nothing against that ability. With a sigh, she released his hand and sat at the edge of his bed.
Kakashi on the other felt thwarted from the loss of her hands. He then turned to follow and sat next to her.
Noticing that he’s waiting for her answer, Sakura decided to reply, “I—can’t marry him…”
“Obviously.” Kakashi derisively mumbled, which earned him a death glare from the other. Sighing, he said, “But you already said yes, Sakura. You can’t back off. Not now…”
“But I already told you,” Sakura turned to her ex-sensei and frustratingly whined, “I don’t love him anymore.”
“You loved him once. You’ll learn to love him again.”
Sakura turned away again and lowered her head, “It’s not that easy.”
“Running away will never be the solution, Sakura.”
“I know…”
“You know Tsunade will be upset if she learns about this.”
Sakura gave a dry laugh, “Yeah. That’s one of the many reasons why I want to run away.” She knew not attending the ceremony itself will cost her head.
He didn’t know why, but he doesn’t feel entirely bad over this situation. Sure, he feel sorry for Sasuke. But the thought of Sakura refusing to marry the Uchiha… it somehow relieved him.
As he mused, they sat their in companionable silence.
But the silence, this peeved Sakura… a lot.
So, she chose to break it, “Love can really be mysterious,” she said with a heavy sigh.
“Huh?” was the only response he could give after being pulled away from his thoughts.
“Every time you give yourself away, it comes back to haunt you…” she stared into space as she spoke in the barest of whispers. The room was so quiet that even her murmurs were enough for him to hear.
“I wish I can relate.”
“Don’t say that, sensei! You do have a fair-share of lovers before.” The pink-haired kunoichi retaliated.
“Sleeping with someone doesn’t mean you love them in an instant.”
Sakura turned to him and blinked slowly.
That reminds him of that time he made a comment to her that irritated her to no end. That’ where all the challenge started. Kakashi sighed. “How about I give half of your prize right now?”
“What?”
“We’ve been challenging each other for weeks and you improved a lot.”
Sakura tipped her head on the side, “Oh?”
“Yes.” He nodded.
Hope and excitement flashed the girl’s eyes, “Then which one is it?”
He cheekily grinned, “My explanation.”
She knew it’s too good to be true… “Better than nothing.” And then Sakura looked pensive before asking, “Wait, what’s the catch?”
“You get your ass down the shrine in five minutes?” Kakashi unsurely replied.
Sakura whipped her head away and defiantly crossed her arms, “Well, forget it!”
“Sasuke’s waiting there. You must go.” This was a half-hearted suggestion, and he knew that.
“Kakashi, if you’re going to press the subject then I think I should go!” she glared, “Not to the shrine but away from this village!” she suddenly shot up from the bed and was about to jump outside the window when a hand gripped her arm and pulled her back. He whipped her around only to find herself face to face with Kakashi. Or in terms of their height differences, face to chest.
“Sakura.”
“I can’t marry him.”
“Do you really want to leave?” the thought of her leaving Konoha. Unconscioulsy, his hand tightened its hold around her arm.
“I have no other choice. What I did is an embarrassment to both our families. I ruined his name by ditching him on our wedding day and I’m too ashamed to face him…”
“That’s not enough reason to—”
“It’s enough.” There was a finality intone with it.
Before Kakashi could articulate a protest, Sakura quickly jumped out of his window.
And there goes the bride.
TBC