Much love and thanks to my lovely beta ns92!

A Roof

9.

The fine pitter patter of drizzling rain echoed off the slated roof and filled her room with a soothing noise. Sakura let a lazy smile spread across her face as she glanced at the flashing clock on her side table. A whole nine hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep. It was exactly what she needed after her desert ordeal. She hoped she could just forget about the events that had taken place, at least for a bit. Her green eyes stared out of the fogged pane of her window. It was ten o'clock in the morning and though Sakura dearly wanted to sleep the day away in her bed, the threat of her grandmother rattling up the steep steps and barging in with plans for afternoon tea with her aunts was enough to entice her to stretch and get out of bed and continue on with her day. It was common knowledge that if you were not out of the Haruno Home by eleven o'clock, half your day had been wasted so it was necessary for the old bat to step in and guide you in proper activities.

After several more catlike stretches, Sakura pulled herself from bed and walked toward her closet. Her first thought was that her ever present shadow seemed to have vanished leaving a neatly folded blanket in his place. This alone caused Sakura to smile fully; he must have gone and reported to Tsunade that she would only need a full time guard once she got to fat to successful knock someone out. Sakura nearly skipped into her closet at the happy thought of freedom and not having a constant reminder of the situation present. She pulled a loose yellow sundress from the hanger and also the proper undergarments out of a drawer. She then headed toward the bathroom down the hallway. Once successfully inside she turned the water on as hot as humanly possible, and hopped in. A half an hour easily passed, as Sakura stood in the stall letting the warm water fall over her. It felt soothing on her sore bones and muscles. The water ran cold eventually forcing Sakura out into the equally chilly bathroom. She pulled her hair into a towel and wrapped one around her body.

She continued with her routine brushing her teeth and pulling her bra and underwear on over her damp skin. She wiped the fog from the mirror and scrutinized her reflection. She knew it was completely improbable but she thought she saw her stomach rounding already. She shook her head before pulling on the dress and shoving the towels and night shirt in the hamper. She opted to just let her hair air dry today and headed back to her room to grab her bag and sandals. Sakura yawned hoping she would have time for breakfast before escaping her home for the day.

She heard it before catching sight of the graying pink hair of her grandmother trying to come up the steep wooden steps: the unmistakable wheeze of a near to dying woman. Shit.

Sakura actually used a bit of Chakra in speeding back to her room. She glanced in the direction of her clock. The digital green numbers were 11:00 exactly, she was late. Sakura had to give the woman some credit at the brilliance of actually thinking of cutting her off. She had mere moments before the liver spotted old woman turned the corner and prowled down the hallway. She grabbed her sandals and bag from a chair, no exit: this was not good. She glanced at the window and thought how utterly ridiculous that escape route was maybe she could just reason with the woman. As the wheezing grew louder Sakura grew tenser.

The window was open and Sakura was half out before she even realized what she was doing. There was no turning back she pulled it closed behind her and crouched on the roof under her window. She nearly screamed not at the sight of her grandmother looking down at her in dismay but rather at the sight of the familiar man sitting Indian style on her roof smoking. To give her some credit she noted Shikamaru looked equally shocked at her appearance. Before he could open his mouth Sakura placed a palm over his lips and shock her head motioning for silence.

"Sakura, dear where are you I just heard the shower turn off," Her door creaked open rather loudly. Shikamaru looked at her with sheer confusion.

"Sakura don't be silly dear," her grandmother's voice raised an octave, Sakura flinched slightly.

"Sakura as your grandmother I demand you stop this nonsense," Her voice grew more shrill and Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly giving her look of sympathy and understanding.

"Kimi, where that delinquent of a daughter of yours," The yelling continued down the hallway and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief slumping back onto the slate at the old woman's retreat. The drizzle continued slightly and she wished she would have grabbed the umbrella before escaping.

Her grandmother's howls echoed through her home and leaking through the thin walls and into the empty street. She felt a bit bad for leaving her mom alone with the monstrosity. Sakura knew that her mom would cover for her. As the voices continued to raise, she decided it would be nice to stop and pick her mother up a bouquet of daisies on the way home. She looked to her left blushing a bit when she realized she had yet to move her palm away from Shikamaru's mouth. His skin felt rough like he hadn't shaved in a while though with oddly soft lips, she found it an odd sensation against her skin.

"I thought you left," She asked quizzically while fastening her shoes on. He ignored her statement with a grunt, still looking at her oddly.

"Do you make a habit out of jumping out of windows just so I can be prepared for the future," She huffed a bit at his comment before shakily standing up on the wobbly slates gaining her balance. She looked down at him skeptically before gracefully running toward the edge of the roof.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" He called his voice roughly cutting through the silence. He winced as she jumped down to the alley below. He ran a hand threw his hair, grunting again before following at a slower pace. He landed on the ground a few feet from her.

"Couldn't that…. you know jiggle the kid or something?" he asked a hand resting on the back of his neck. She glared at him.

"I won't know for about two weeks if the procedure stuck. I don't think my embryo will be jiggled either," She stated dusting off her dress. She sighed quietly at being reminded of it all again.

"Look can you please refrain from doing dangerous things, that way I don't have to, you know restrain you," He spoke in monotone looking toward the dark grey clouds in the sky. He looked back at her expecting for her to be rather pissed off instead she was smiling rather gloriously.

"Like you could," she replied with defiant eyes.

He actually chuckled at that, mostly because she was probably right. Sakura let out a little smile too, it was the happiest she looked since he had escorted her home last night.

"I guess I'm stuck with you then," Sakura told him hoisting her bag onto her shoulder.

She didn't look particularly happy and he knew that she probably would have a serious talk with her mentor about it later but at least she wasn't running away from him.

"I suppose you are," he replied soft laugh . They both walked out into the street which was very deserted for a Sunday afternoon due to the rain most likely. They walked close to the buildings trying to stay as dry as possible.

"So your grandmother." He stated, it was odd for him to be making conversation but for some reason he didn't like the silence between them. She laughed a little and gave him another small smile.

"She's been living with us since I turned fourteen, and she really doesn't approve of me to put it mildly," Sakura told him.

"Then why not move out?" He asked, in fact she was the only ninja from their year he could think of beside Hinata that still lived with her parents. She bit her lip a bit.

"Don't get me wrong but I love my family to death but financially with me gone so often it's been easier just to live at home rather then get a place I'm hardly ever in."

"It makes sense I guess Sakura, but that hasn't stopped everyone else from striking out on their own." He replied glancing at her shorter frame. Her eyes were glancing ahead of her then back to him quickly. She sighed a bit before looking up at him stopping in front of a restaurant with colorful food spread across the front seeming unearthly bright in the glum street.

"Honestly, and no laughing at me either," She warned him. He nodded slightly looking at her green eyes.

"I don't want to be alone, I'm afraid of coming home to a dark empty apartment after an especially horrible mission and having no one to comfort me. The darkness at night it scares me sometimes even more then death or my grandmother. I don't want to be consumed by it," she spoke quietly. He looked away from her. She didn't want to become someone like him and for some reason the thought of her being taken over by her demons wasn't one he liked. She coughed in the uncomfortable silence. He looked down at her.

"I want to get something to eat she said," gesturing toward the food. He nodded following her silently into the restaurant. It was warmer and drier inside; the bright atmosphere seemed oddly misplaced for the day. Sakura politely asked for a table for two and they were seated in the front room of the establishment. The menus were distributed and the two were left again to the silence. They sat together looking over the options for lunch. He looked at her over the menu and couldn't help but think that she looked considerably more alive and healthy then she did last night.

"I miss it sometimes," Her eyes looked at him again. She held confusion in her eyes as she glanced at him.

"My family and my house, it was also so warm and happy at the compound at night. I miss it, not enough to go back but enough to not be afraid to remember," She smiled at him again. She looked like she wanted to say something; however they were interrupted by the waiter taking their orders. They both ordered rather cheap meals and water causing the man to look a bit irked by the fact that his tip would be rather small before he headed out into the kitchen. The silence didn't feel as heavy when it returned it was softer than before. It unfortunately didn't last long as they seemed to be interrupted again.

"Sakura, Shikamaru?" A voice questioned. They both looked up, to see Ino smiling down at them.

"What are you two doing here?" She asked a slight twinkle in her eye. Sakura felt slightly panicked trying to think of an explanation as to why they were together before Ino's mind jumped to the obvious ' oh you're together so you must be secretly involved' maybe it wasn't so obvious but that was how Ino's mind functioned. .

"On break from conference, we didn't feel like entertaining the council members at some fancy lunch," Shikamaru said smoothly. Ino nodded in understanding before looking back to Sakura.

"How was the mission?" Ino questioned.

"Good the negotiations worked out well," Sakura lied with an equally fake smile.

"I'm glad, I have good news I found you an apartment while you were gone but we have to act fast. I was hoping you might have time to see it tomorrow," Ino said hopefully.

"Sounds great, Thank you so much Ino," Sakura told her.

"I should get back now, I just wanted to say hi," She gestured toward Sasuke who was waiting by the exit staring protectively at the bundle in his arms. His eyes didn't look as cold as usual while they looked at the little girl wrapped in blankets in his arms. It was an odd sight to see, but Sakura looked away and waved a good bye to a retreating Ino. Sasuke looked up toward Ino as she came closer and it was plain to see that the same warmth didn't extend to her on most days. Sakura frowned slightly at the sight before looking down at the table cloth. If Shikamaru noticed the exchange he didn't say anything but instead waited silently for their food. The rest of the meal was filled with small talk about life recently, mostly light safe topics of conversation. It felt almost normal as they exited the restaurant and entered back onto the street.

It was pouring as they exited, Sakura walked into the middle of the street looking up and letting the water splash over her face. She felt alive letting the warm water droplets wash over her. She smiled and even laughed a little spinning in the abandoned street. She stopped, smiling toward Shikamaru.

He stood in the doorway, looking at her. She was drenched but as odd as it was her presence seemed to brighten up the empty dark street. The yellow dress and her pink hair lit up the gray day in a way he didn't think possible. It was an odd effect he noticed she had on the world, making it a bit brighter. Even more peculiar was that the darkness seemed to slowly recede from his vision the more he was with her.

"What are you waiting for? We have to go see Lady Tsunade." She called through the rain. She backed away facing him. He stepped a sandaled foot out of the doorway and followed her into the pouring rain letting it drench him to the bone, for some reason though he didn't really mind.

*Author's Note *

Wow, it has been way to long since I last was on Fanfiction both reading and writing. I've had a lovely combo of finals and the SAT occupying my time though so my story unfortunately got put on the back burner for a bit. Its officially summer though for me, so chapters should start consistently flowing again. This chapter was defiantly one of my favorites mostly because their relationship is starting to bloom a bit and I'm finally really starting to get into the main plot. Hope you all liked it!

As always I have a little shout out to my lovely reviewers : GoonieLove, Readalot-TMB, minniemousemom, inu-babygirl1, ns92, Riptiderobin, caffienet, Zadite, , and mizz-kitty-15 [five whole reviews your making me blush :D ]

I also appreciate anyone who added me to your favorite/watch lists, I'm really flattered!

Next chapters up in the air though Sakura probably will be finally moving into her own place most likely, a little more Ino/Chougi action on the side.

Please review if you have the time, you have no idea how much I appreciate feedback from you guys, it really makes my day! ^_^