Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto...(If I did, it would be called 'Sasuke'!)

Author Note - Wow...I didn't realize I haven't written since January. I apologize for the long absence. Teen life is really kicking my ass right now and I've been dead on writing for a long, long time. But I'm back after my love for anime returned a few weeks ago and I'm ready to continue this story and hopefully start up a few more oneshots!

Sakura awoke early in the morning. The moon was still out and the sun had yet to arise to bring the bustling city to a start. Without moving, she could feel that Sasuke's warm back was to hers and he was lightly snoring away. She was more than certain he was in his common position of using his arm as a pillow and using the bend where his elbow was as a comfortable bend. She smiled at the thought of him sleeping, how adorable he was when his hair was messy and his shirt was off, only a blanket to keep his chest warm.

With force, she moved her body to sit up in the bed when all of a sudden, a cramp arose in her abdomen. Her body felt heavy and achy, her head swirled around and she felt more obese than usual. Panic arose between her breast and she ran to the bathroom and stripped herself of her clothing to see a thick red stain in her undergarment.

"Oh, my...no!" She stared at the bloody undergarment and wondered how it could have happened. "How could this have...? It's not possible...I haven't eaten that much...i-it...it can't be..." She dropped the garment she held in her hand, blood staining her palm where it was fresh. She felt like she was about to vomit, and for once, she wish she wouldn't. The large mirror above the sink gave even more proof . Her breasts did seem large, her stomach more full, her hips looked a little wider, every body changing symbol that she was menstruating was there.

"How could this of happened?" She spoke to herself as she bent down and went underneath the sink for the package of pads she always kept at the house in case of an emergency such as this

Taking a few out and disposing them 'after use' kept Sasuke far from suspicious. A rush of relief came when she remembered her backpack full of clean clothes for the new day. The trouble would be getting them from the far end of Sasuke's bedroom to the bathroom. She prepared herself everything she would need for a quick shower. Shampoo and conditioner and womanly scented soaps were all under the sink for the nights she slept over, convenient.

Slowly, she opened the door that would then lead to the bedroom. Sasuke had yet to still move since she moved from the bed. Her heart pounded loudly against her chest and she prayed that he would not awake and see the bottom of her night-shirt stained with blood. She moved slowly into the bedroom. Like a ninja, her steps were light and quiet. No noise came from any of the wooden floorboards and she was most certain she was home-free when she grabbed the backpack.

"Sakura?"

She inhaled sharply, a chill running up her spine from being caught. "Yes, Sasuke?"

"What are you doing up so early?" His voice was strong and clear, like he had been awake the whole time.

How embarrassing would it be to say that she began in the night and the sheets he possibly slept on had her blood on them? "I had a nightmare...and I just want to take a quick shower to wash away the sweat." She hoped it was still so dark in the room that he could not see the blood stain. "I'll be quick...I'm sorry if I woke you up." Her eyes moved to the red numbered alarm clock. It was only five minutes after six.

Though she could not see him, she heard Sasuke stretch and shift his body position. "Why don't you come back to bed?"

She gave a low sigh. It would have been easier to just say why, but at the same time, it would have disgusted him to discover the thin blood stain next to him. "No, Sasuke, I want to shower...I'll be out shortly." She turned around, holding the backpack in front of her, hoping he wouldn't notice her lack of undergarments, and walked into the bathroom.

The shower was steaming hot, she placed the soap where the blood ran and scrubbed it against her body. Disgusted everytime she saw the blood mix in with the water and taint the pure colour of the water. It was a quick shower, but the few minutes she spent under the hot water and turned her skin red. She dressed quickly, sure to make sure she was protected before any more blood decided to slip down her legs and opened the door to Sasuke's bedroom, hoping yet again that he was asleep.

"You could have told me, you know,"Sasuke said as he continued to pull off the blankets on his bed. His black comforter blanket was on the very bottom, followed by the dark gray secondary sheets. He was now removing the pillow cases from all four pillows. Tossing them onto the laundry pile one at a time. "I would have understood."

Still hot from the water, she could feel the blood rush to her face and create more heat as she saw the blood stain on the sheet. "I...it's never happened like that before, I just got nervous...." she sputtered out. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I just thought it was embarrassing."

Sasuke gathered up all the dirty laundry and walked to the door. "You're a female. It's natural."

After Sasuke started the laundry and changed into clean clothes for the day, it was only six thirty. The house was boring with no one awake at six thirty. They expected Kyoko to awake and cry for food any minute, but the silence still filled the house. Kakashi would soon awake and begin breakfast for Rin before he headed off to work, any given minute.

"Do you want to watch some t.v.?" She asked, trying to get rid of the silence.

"There's nothing on in the morning," he replied, getting two bowels out from the cupboard. "It's only those stupid talk shows and children's shows." The clinking of bowls onto the table and silverware then followed. "What cereal do you want for breakfast?"

She sighed. Wishing he'd rather watch t.v. with her instead. "Anything, I'm not picky..."

Moments after Sasuke began to pour the cereal into the bowls, Kakashi came down the stairs. Like Sasuke, he slept shirtless and his hair was messy. Eyes glazed over and his voice showing high signs of a late and restless night. He stopped at the entrance of the kitchen, leaning against the wall.

"You two are up early. Did Kyoko wake you up?"

Sakura sat down in her usual chair at the table. "No, I had a bad dream...I woke Sasuke up after that." She hoped he didn't hear the loud noise from the laundry machine. "Since we couldn't get back to sleep, we decided to come down for some breakfast."

Kakashi pushed himself off the wall and slowly walked into the kitchen. "If you count cereal as real breakfast. You could have waited and had one of my nutritious meals that I always make for Rin."

Like bacon is nutritious, Sakura thought. Then again, high carb cereal wasn't a breakfast made in heaven, either. Her thoughts continued as Sasuke poured the milk into her bowl.

They ate silently, the only noise came from Kakashi, who sang to himself and banged pans and food around the kitchen. The sizzling of bacon and the frying of eggs soon joined in. And though Sakura finished the bowl of cereal, her stomach growled hungrily as the aroma of the bacon engulfed the room.

"Do you want some bacon, Sakura? Sasuke? I made a little bit extra just in case you two wanted something more than cereal." Kakashi smiled as he stood proudly over the frying pan. This gave him a more motherly appearance to his figure as he adjusted the bacon with the utensil with one hand on his hip.

Sasuke at the time was pouring himself a glass of juice. "We'll take some. Thank you, Kakashi." His eyes moved to Sakura as quickly as they could and she shivered in discomfort of being watched.

Bacon, too? She slurped loudly on her spoon as she finished off the last little bit of milk there was left in her bowl.

"Oh, Kakashi. This smells wonderful!" Rin's soothing voice entered the kitchen. In her arms was Kyoko, who's big brown eyes were looking all around the room. "Thank you for making breakfast this morning." She walked over to Kakashi and kissed him on the cheek. "Sasuke, Sakura, did you two have a good sleep?" When Rin walked around the kitchen with the baby in her arms, she had this unreal appearance to her. A warm smile and a little glow surrounding her, making her look like something you would see in a children's movie when the princess entered the film even though Rin was dressed in a baggy tee shirt and sweat pants and her hair was erratic. Sakura always loved how warm Rin was.

The remainder of breakfast held a more 'happy family' feeling to it as Kakashi and Rin flirted across the table and the cooing from Kyoko made them all laugh as she waved her tiny arms around. Sasuke looked so different from the family image. He was in dark clothing and looked distant from the three. Despite how warm and loving they both were to Sasuke, he held a position that looked as if they never even noticed he was there.

She knew it came from all the trauma that he had been through since childhood that made him weary of getting too close to people and the large age difference between Kyoko and Sasuke would also make the parents act differently towards each child.

After breakfast, where Sakura only ate one piece of bacon that Kakashi offered her, Sakura was allowed to change Kyoko while Kakashi and Rin got ready to carry on their duties for the rest of the day. The two girls were off to shop at the mall for new clothing and Kakashi was off to work

It took no time at all for the two parents to be ready and eager to head out the door.

"Your nightmare, it was about him?" Sasuke asked shortly after they pulled out of the driveway.

Shivers grew around her shoulders and breasts. "Yes. It's not uncommon, you know, they are still fluent enough to be almost every night." She knew that Sasuke was still having nightmares of his own. He denied every single one of them, but the talking in his sleep of fighting away from him and the thrashing he did made it very clear that there were some nights that he haunted Sasuke, too. "Do your dreams still have him?"

"No. I never dream of him." He turned away from her and walked towards the living room. "Do you still take the medication?"

The medication was to stop the terrors of Orochimaru. While they were in the hospital, a psychiatrist had visited them both and prescribed a medication to stop the terrors for the two of them and an anxiety medication for Sakura.. For the first couple of weeks, Sakura was religiously using the medication. Never forgetting a single day to take both pills. She was happier during this period, but it made her dazed and sleepy. When school then began to start and she was falling asleep throughout the day, she skipped a few days of pills. Remembering sometimes to take them on the weekends, and now, they were avoided all together. When the medication was held on being taken in, the dreams reoccurred.

"Are you?" She asked in an almost defensive voice.

She heard the loud clicking noise of the television being turned on and the laughing of a children's show being played on the screen. It was then that she knew this part of their conversation was over and it was pointless to continue even though it was he who brought it up in the first place. Sakura walked into the living room and saw that he was flipping through the menu to find something different to watch. She grabbed the nearest blanket and curled up on the couch next to him. Warming up slowly as the blanket trapped her body heat.

"Do you want to watch a movie instead of something that will have commercials?" She asked, hoping for some type of response. With Sasuke being reserved as he was, a relationship was often strained. "Maybe we could go out, too...We haven't seen Tsunade in a while. We could check on her. Or perhaps we could just take a walk...I don't want to spend my day inside."

Sasuke's arm startled Sakura as it snaked around her body and held her close. "I was thinking we could just stay here today." He finally changed the channel to a show designed to attract teenagers and set the remote control down on the armrest of the couch.

Hardly ever did Sasuke show any big sign of affection or that he was willing to stay inside and be cozy with her. She cursed her menstruation, wondering why of all weekends it had to be the one where Sasuke was willing to be touchy with her. She moved her own arms and wrapped one around his waist and snuggled her face upon his chest.

"I'm concerned, Miss Haruno," the school's guidance counselor said as she peered down at Sakura's grades from the first two months of school. "You're grades have dropped. You were once an honor roll student and now it appears you're struggling in the basic courses."

"With all do respect, I was in the hospital for several months," Sakura was tired of hearing this same thing over and over again was making her frustrated. "My grades aren't even that bad. I only have a few B's...I can easily bring them up."

The guidance counselor set down the paper and stared at Sakura. "Do you have plans for yourself after high school? College? Occupation?"

"I know I'll be able to go to college. From the...work....I did over the past year, I have more than enough to set myself financially on the right path. I figured I could go to the local college here...I'm taking a psychology course right now, too. Maybe I'll become one of those?" She didn't want to really think about a job at the moment. She knew that being in rehabilitation for drug use and an eating disorder would show up and haunt her whenever she'd apply for a job. No one would hire her if they found out if she was a former crack addict and starved herself.

"I see you with Mr. Uchiha all the time, do you both plan on attending the same college or does he have something else in mind?" She rustled through some papers and glanced over the information she had on Sasuke. "You two have been dating for some time. After high school is when things really settle. Be sure to not make any decisions that could horribly change your plans."

Sakura wrinkled her brow in disapproval of what was just said. "Sasuke and I will be fine...I may not know what he wants to do after high school, but I'm more than positive his plans involve attending the same school as me."

The guidance counselor smiled. "If you say so, dear."

Sakura closed the door to the office and let out a long sigh. College never came to her mind once she began to model. It wasn't that she saw herself 'too pretty' to go to school or even that it was for 'ugly people', she had just been so busy with the occupation there itself that something more real never crossed her mind.

Graduation is in three months, that gives me more than enough time to find out what I want to do with my life and what Sasuke's plans are. She thought to herself as she walked down the nearly empty hallway to return to her second period class. When she finally broke her deep trance of the future, she saw Ino.

It had been months since they last spoke. It wasn't on Sakura's initial half that it was this way. She wanted nothing more than to go back to the way things were before Orochimaru but that was so far away. A decade ago, is what it seemed like.

"Ah...Ino...how....have you been?" She said softly, walking closer to the girl. Cautious and more than positive that this reunion would turn into a disaster.

Ino's bright blue eyes narrowed coldly. "Sakura...I hear you're still dating Sasuke," her arms folded across her breasts. "I also hear that you see a psychologist because you couldn't handle a little picture taking." The last bit held an acid tone to it.

"It was more than picture taking, Ino. You know that." More shivers ran up Sakura's spine and her entire body felt like jelly. "There is so much more that happened aside from what that silly media says."

Ino took one hand and wildly flipped her long blonde hair. "Silly media, hm? Now that you're out of the picture, I've gotten so many more bookings." She formed a crooked smile across her seemingly flawless face.

Sakura exhaled. "I didn't speak to you just so you could poke fun. I wanted to see how you were doing..." She found the strength to move her legs and began to walk past Ino to her next class, slowly, but at a pace where she didn't seem fazed by Ino's taunting.

"My, Sakura, everyone is telling the truth! Rehab sure has made you noticeably bigger!" Ino giggled as she walked in the opposite direction from Sakura.

Author's note - Yes, my writing is still as crappy as always. A very bland chapter, but I hope to entwine so drama in here sometime soon.

Thank you for reading.