I lied. I didn't publish it at the end of May, and I feel utterly ashamed. Because, you know, I had a, uh, writer's block? -ducks from various pencils, knives, flying pigs, or anything that is suddenly thrown my way- Sorry?

Disclaimer: Did not, do not, and will not ever own Naruto. -tear-

Epilogue

Five Years Later

I peered down at the blob of black hair and pale skin, as his wide obsidian eyes stared at me in curiosity and anticipation. Smiling, and knelt down to his height and ruffled his hair, "Can you go and help Daddy and Uncle carry in their tomatoes? You're a big man now, right?"

"Right," he chirped back cheerfully, and scurried his way across the kitchen and towards the front door of the house. Chuckling, I stood up, and soon enough Sasuke entered briskly with one brow raised, a reusable bag of fresh tomatoes in his arms.

"You're treating him like your son."

"He is my son."

"Then who's the father?"

"That's none of your business."

Sasuke looked annoyed but amused at the same time.

"Itachi's gotta be pretty lucky to have a wife like you," a man suddenly called from the hallway, and then his blond head poked through the door to smirk at me. "And Zatsu's lucky to have you as a mom."

Sasuke made an irritated sound through his teeth as he made his way to the refrigerator, and I laughed at Deidara as he stepped in with a smug smile. Sasori-pretty-boy soon entered the room quietly, and stared at me with a lazy gaze as my chuckling died down, and I shrunk back slightly at Sasuke's withering glare. Not even a minute later, the kitchen was packed with Itachi's friends and new food as his son followed close on his trail, observing his father's every move.

"How's your job going for you?" Itachi asked politely once we settled down in his living room with chips and junk food on the tables. I smiled as I wrapped an arm around Zatsu when he jumped onto the spot beside me on the couch.

"Pretty well. It's really busy though," I replied, and noisily sipped on my drink with a straw. "Since I work in the ER in the hospital, and all, things are very unpredictable. It's basically different every day. Not that I necessarily dislike it."

"I see."

"What about the company? How's vice-chairman going for you?"

At this, Itachi sighed amusingly, and gave Sasuke a pointed look as he leaned back against the seat. "My little brother here keeps bossing me around during work. Keeps saying that I don't take my job seriously."

"That's because you don't," Sasuke muttered moodily.

Itachi shrugged. "I'm the vice-chairman, not the boss. Taking a job seriously is your work."

Sasuke glared.

"So, erm, I'm assuming that everything's well?" I interrupted awkwardly. Three Uchiha heads turned towards me, and two of them tilted their heads back and sighed amusingly whilst the other happily started to poke my arms. I caught Zatsu's hands, and he giggled as I pulled him onto my lap and tickled him.

So this was what a true family felt like.

"So, what do you think?" Ino asked with a flirtatious voice, and stroked a pose in her glorious paparazzi-styled dress as the rest of us laughed and clapped our hands. Modeling was the job that suited Ino almost perfectly in her sexy-looks-glory, while Hinata was currently working as a kindergarden teacher, and Tenten was running her own martial-arts class for kids. At the side, I could almost feel Karin rolling her eyes as she ran her hands through the racks of clothing, and flipping her hair back in an I'm-so-much-better-than-you fashion.

"You look like a disco ball," she said, and Ino immediately snapped her head towards her to glare.

"Nobody asked you," she sneered, placing her hands on her hips. "And for your information, a disco ball looks way better than you in your hippy clothing."

The red-head turned her head towards Ino and gaped.

"I can't believe anyone would want her as a magazine model," Tenten muttered as she leaned forward in front of Hinata, since she was sitting in the middle. "Anyone can tell that she's a brat."

"No kidding," I replied, smiling sarcastically, but the rest of my sentence was interrupted as Sasuke and the rest of the boys walked in loudly, laughing.

"Woah, Ino," Kiba exclaimed, ignoring Naruto as he dashed by him to greet us girls on the couch. "Pretty hot there."

"Heard that before," Ino replied, and winked at him. Sai slowly walked up to her with a -still creepy- smile on his face, and she kissed him on the cheek in greeting.

"The dress makes your boobs look bigger."

Ino promptly lifted her purse from a nearby table and whacked him in the head.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said cheerfully, and pulled me into a tight hug. From over his shoulder, I saw Tenten stand up and peck Neji on the lips before Hinata waved at her cousin. "How are you? It's been like, what, a month since I last saw you?"

"A week," I corrected amusingly, and slapped him playfully on the arm. "And I'm good. I'm just glad we can all get together, and stuff. You look pretty well, so I'm not gonna bother to ask the question."

Naruto laughed.

"Suigetsu," I heard Sasuke say irritatingly on the side, and I turned my head towards his direction before I saw a white-haired guy with him, and Karin strode towards them. "Please don't tell me-"

"Yup. It's official. We're dating."

"Who's dating, you idiot!" Karin exclaimed loudly, and punched him in the shoulder that sent him flying to the floor. She quickly recovered by sending Sasuke a sickening sweet smile. "Hi, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke spared her one glance, and grunted.

Ha! Take that, bitch!

"To be honest, I have absolutely no idea why I'm dating her," Suigetsu moaned as he stood up and rubbed his head. Karin turned to glare at him again. "She's vicious."

"I know the feeling."

Offended, and sent Sasuke a dirty look. Surprisingly, he caught it as he turned to me and smirked.

"-and so, it was hilarious. I mean, try imagining a guy running around with a bowl of ramen on his head. Ha ha. Oh, Sakura-chan!"

I turned my head towards the loud blond in question.

"Guess what?"

"What?"

"The reciprocal of sadness and doom is The Ramen God!"

"The what?"

"The Ramen God! Because Ramen brings all happiness to the world!"

"The what?"

Naruto's smile immediately turned into a frown.

"I never understood why you're dating him, Hinata," Ino sighed as she walked towards us, ignoring Naruto's protest of a "Hey!" Hinata laughed quietly.

"Well, um, he's sweet," she said softly, and I made a girly noise before I leaned towards her and cuddled her side.

"You guys are too cute together," I said cheerfully. "I agree. Naruto's weird. But I also agree that he's sweet." I paused, and turned to glare at Sasuke. "Unlike Mr. Emo-Dude over there."

Sasuke heard me, and turned to glare back.

"You don't mean that," Tenten laughed, her arm linked with Neji's quite contently. She leaned forward. "You guys have been living together for five years now, huh? Wow. Time goes by too fast."

"I know," Ino said, "I still remember the day she turned red and stuttered so bad when she first talked to Neji-"

"-And we really don't need to go over that; thanks, Ino," I interrupted, and glared at Neji's smirk.

"So will we be seeing Uchiha babies any time soon?" Kiba teased from over Naruto's shoulder, and I felt my cheek heat up almost immediately.

"O-of course–of course not!" I retorted, and snuggled even closer to Hinata. "There's already a Uchiha baby. Sasuke won't be needing one."

"Says who?" I heard his teasing voice behind me, and I crossed my arms as I looked up from my position on Hinata's shoulder.

"How many times do you do her each day, Uchiha?" Kiba's loud voice asked again, and Naruto laughed awkwardly with him.

"About three."

I kicked Sasuke in the shin.

"Ha ha, ew. We're not talking about this here," Ino said, and linked her arm with Sai's. "We're here for a get together! We haven't been like this for so long!"

"Which club are we going to this time, Ino?" Tenten quirked an eyebrow up, and Ino beamed triumphantly.

"The Lotus Club!"

At the same moment, the door of the room backstage of the photo shoot opened and crashed against the wall.

"Good day, my youthful friends!"

As if on cue, everyone but Ino bowed their heads and groaned.

"Hi, Lee."

"Hey, Sasuke!" I yelled to him over the loud music, and in turn he stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned towards me. "Wanna escape?"

"Escape to where?" he asked back, though I could barely hear him because he almost never raised his voice.

"I dunno, just outta here. This place is driving me crazy. I'm so hot."

At his smirk, I felt my cheeks grow red again. "Oh, you know what I mean."

I think he grunted, since he suddenly grabbed me by the hand and tugged in response. "Come on. Let's go."

I happily allowed him to half-drag me out of the sea of people, and out into the fresh air of the early evening. "So much better," I sighed, and laced my fingers through his. "Where can we go?"

"How about there?" He asked me softly, and tilted his chin towards a small restaurant a block down.

I blinked for a while, before I tilted my head in recognition. "You took me there last year," I paused, and smiled at him. "For my birthday."

"Hn," he replied, and tugged me gently by the hand as we crossed the deserted streets and into the cozy building. The place smelt of fresh air and slight mint, and we settled ourselves into a booth near the windows. A middle-aged waitress had welcomed us and served us tea, before leaving a moment later to wait for us to order. I hummed happily.

"What to get, what to get," I murmured, and flipped through the menu like a little child. Sasuke, I noticed suddenly, looked completely still, and. . . was it just my imagination, or was he sweating just a little bit? I looked up at him in concern, but his eyes were cast down on the table and his hands were clasped. "Sasuke?"

"Mmm," he closed his eyes, and stayed like that for a little while. When he opened them, I almost gasped at the strong emotion in them, even though I couldn't exactly tell what that emotion was. My heart started to pound in worry. "Nothing."

. . . Oh my god. He wasn't going to break up with me, was he? I mean, yeah, I'm busy most of the time, and we don't hang out as much as we should, but we've still been together for five years! And now. . . was he getting bored of me?

The sudden thought of him wanting to end this brought me down immediately, and I frowned as I leaned back against my seat, and looked at the menu with much less eagerness. Our waitress came soon after, and time seemed to have flown by as she ordered our meals, presented them, and handed us our fortune cookies when we were both done. Sasuke still hadn't said anything, and that made me frown even more. I tore my dessert out of its plastic bag, and cracked it open.

Suddenly, something shiny and round fell out from the shell and landed on the table with a 'ding'.

I blinked in surprise as I looked down at the object, and picked it up gingerly with my fingers. When my brain finally registered what it was, I had dropped the rest of my cookie and the tiny slip of paper fell out.

"Marry Me."

I couldn't see him through the blurriness of my eyes, but I faintly heard him move up from his seat, knelt down beside me, and took my hand that held the ring as I clasped the other over my mouth. He pulled it out gently from my grasp, and kissed my fingers that were clasped around his.

"Sakura."

I was sobbing already as I turned to him with wide eyes. Murmurs erupted from around the room like echoes, yet somehow, everything just seemed so quiet.

"Will you marry me?"

Choking out a laughter, I held my fist to my mouth and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, wondering if this was just some wonderful dream, before I nodded quickly, and smiled at him.

"Yes, yes." He slipped the ring on my finger with a small smile. "Oh hell yes!"

I then proceeded to jump on his still-knelt-down figure, wrap my arms around his neck, and kissed him.

At that moment, it didn't matter that there were a few other people in the room watching, smiling and clapping, or that my friends had somehow appeared by the window next to us and was shouting in celebration, not looking drunk at all. At that had mattered was that I was finally where I belonged, and the pink crystals on my silver ring glistened under the dim light of the room like a cherry blossom blooming.

Eek, I didn't really like the ending. It was so cheesy.

But still! -tear- It is officially done! I cannot believe that this story is, like, about eight months old. My baby, I'm going to miss taking care of you!

And thank you all sooo much for supporting me all the way until now. :) I hope you liked it!

Much love, readers! If you want more Naruto from me, I'll be writing a new humor and crack story that'll be up in a few days. Thanks all!