Disclaimer: DNON

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke growled at Karin.

The red head shirked back in fear and grimaced at the hurt look on Sakura's face. "I-I uhh I was jealous and thought seeing her kissing someone else would make you realize how wrong she is for you. I'm really sorry," the words sounded forced even to her ears. Karin had to search deep and hard past the resignation to reach the anger to continue this façade. "Sasuke-kun, you never even gave me the chance to win your love and it just was not fair that…" she trailed off because honestly, what was she supposed to say? Even in her deepest stages of hatred towards Sakura, she would never have done something like this to win him over. Why would Michiko-san do such a thing?

No one was saying anything so after and awkward second of silence, she just finished with, "Well, I imagine I have overstayed my welcome and forgive me for this attempt to break you two up. I will be out of your hair soon enough." It was an on the spot decision she made, but she knew it was the right one because she longer wanted to be around his presence and that murderous glare Sasuke was sending hurt her so much. She wanted to scream out that it wasn't her, that she would never do such a thing, but Michiko-san's secret would be kept safe with her simply because Karin loved her. Karin loved the Uchiha family and she would make this small sacrifice for Michiko-san. Anyway, she probably wasn't going to be needed for a while anyway.

She looked over at him and saw Sakura's grip on his arm tighten, probably to keep him from lunging at her or Taro. She gave a small sigh and turned to Taro, "I think we both should leave, don't you think?"

The entire time, Taro's mouth was slightly open in surprise and once acknowledged, he sent one more apologetic smile at Sakura before walking carefully towards the red haired girl. He did not want to make any movements that would surprise Uchiha Sasuke. He did not need another bruise. However, he also was not sure whether or not he should speak up.

"Wait," Sasuke commanded surprising the other three in the backyard.

He shook his arm free from Sakura and ignored his name being whispered from her mouth.

He walked towards Karin and stopped directly in front of her ignoring Michiko's attempt at stopping him. He was silent for a minute staring into her red eyes. He saw fear and sadness etched into them, but what she did was terribly wrong, "Karin, when you leave, it will be the last time I see your face. Don't come back."

Karin's eyes widened with hurt and tears gathered in the corner of her eyes, but after a moment, he looked away from her and walked past her to tend to Ami. Karin balled her hands in anger trying to suppress the urge to call him all the mean things she was shouting inside her head. It was so unfair. It wasn't even her who did this!

Sakura stood there and watched this unfold with surprised eyes. She honestly couldn't believe what was happening. A very small part of her felt relieved with Sasuke's parting words, but a much bigger part felt that he had done something wrong. She was so baffled by this entire thing. Why would Karin do this? Hadn't they just had a heart to heart a couple of days ago? It made no sense.

With no idea what to say, Sakura walked to Karin waiting for an explanation.

Karin didn't look up from the ground when she felt Sakura approach her and she knew she had to say something, "Are you happy now? He's never going to talk to me again. You must be ecstatic."

"I don't understand," Sakura whispered and Karin detected the hurt in her voice, "Why would you do that? It doesn't make sense for you to have done this?"

The doubt in Sakura's voice made her angry. Why hadn't Sasuke doubted this? "Oh, you stupid girl. Just because I told you I had given up didn't mean I was actually going to. But whatever I'm done now. So go away and leave me alone. Be happy with him." The last part came out more wistful than she had intended but it was laced with anger so it didn't matter.

Sakura looked like she had been slapped in the face and Karin felt something inside of her laugh bitterly. She bet that if Sasuke told Sakura what he had told her, it would have felt a thousand times worse.

"Okay, Karin-san, I will," with those words Sakura walked slowly into the house only pausing once to look back at Karin standing with her back faced to her and Michiko looking saddened. Something didn't add up, but right now she just wanted to be with her fiancé.

Five minutes after Sakura left, Michiko reached out for Karin's arm whispering, "Karin-chan, don't worry, I will fix this. I will tell Sasuke-chan the truth right now and he will take back those words."

As if broken out of her stupor, Karin snapped her head towards Michiko, "No!" she whispered harshly, "Don't say anything to him! I don't want to see him ever again."

Karin whirled around and pulled Taro behind her as she stalked off to the entrance. When she arrived at the unfamiliar car, she sniffled, "C-can I get a ride?"

Sakura stood outside of Ami's door knowing that Sasuke was in there fuming with anger not ready to listen, but this needed immediate attention! She was more bothered by Karin's confession than Taro kissing her. Hesitating a moment, she raised her hand to knock on the door, but there was no need because the door opened to reveal Sasuke.

"Uhhh, is Ami okay? Do we need to take her to the clinic?" her doctor side kicked in once she saw a glimpse of Ami sitting on the bed resting her foot in ice while eating ice cream straight from the container.

"She's fine," he said shortly and brought his hand to her chin. His thumb rubbed against her lower lip and he asked, "Are you okay?" while closing the door behind him.

Sakura brought her hand up to cover his and noticed it was the one he had punched Taro with. Lovingly, she brought his hands to her lips and kissed his bruised knuckle, "Yeah, I'm okay, what about you?"

He scowled, "Of course I am," and Sakura nearly rolled her eyes at that response.

Sakura took a step back and gently dropped their interlaced hands to the floor, "You know Sasuke," she started carefully choosing her words, "I don't think Karin was in charge of that exchange." At the mention of Karin's name, Sasuke's face formed a slight frown of disapproval, but other than that, there was no surprise evident in his face.

He sighed and started walking away from Ami's door pulling his fiancé behind him, "I know," he said quietly.

Surprised, Sakura stopped in her tracks and jerked her hand away, "What?" she hissed, "You knew and you said those awful things to her?"

Exasperated, he turned around and ran his fingers through his hair, "I didn't know at the time, Sakura, but the more I think about it, the more I'm sure it was Obaa-chan behind all of this."

Noticing the rejected look in her eyes, he yanked Sakura to him and wrapped his arms around her waist. He tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned in to whisper, "I don't want you to worry. One way or another, you will be Uchiha Sakura."

Sakura smiled and leaned into his embrace, "I believe you Sasuke-kun, but we need to figure out what the truth is."

"Right," he said distractedly, "we will deal with that in a moment, but there is something we need to do first." He paused and searched her eyes for something. He must have found it because, before she could ask, he grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him. He walked briskly towards the living room where he knew his grandmother was sitting defeated on the couch.

Sakura followed him with no hesitation and instead, she tightened her grip on his hand and let him lead on ahead.

Upon sight of Sasuke dragging his fiancé behind him, Michiko straightened up and put her glasses on. Her mind was on poor Karin and she was trying to figure out a way to make it right. She noticed Sakura behind him and she wondered what the dear boy was up to. She knew she should speak up and reveal her role, but Karin-chan had been determined to not let him know.

"Sasuke-chan, we need to talk..."

Sasuke walked past Michiko without any signs of acknowledgement and let the door slam shut behind his fiancé. Michiko was not surprised by his actions and only hoped the dear boy would forgive her when he came to know the truth.

In retrospect, she had no idea why she had been so hard on the girl because the truth was, she just did not want her grandchild to get hurt and it seemed as if her protective actions had been the cause of his disappointment. Michiko, however, knew she had to call Karin-chan first to make sure she was okay because she was sure the red head's heart had broken upon Sasuke's parting words.

She sighed heavily as her husband came and sat down next to her picking up the newspaper from the table next to him.

"Obaa-sama, how fares your game?" he asked teasing her

Too exhausted to respond to his jibe, she just muttered, "Bah. You wouldn't understand, you foolish old man."

"S-Sasuke-kun, t-this is a court," Sakura stuttered staring at the building in front of her.

"Aa." He stood next to her holding her hand staring at the brick walled building in front of her. Sasuke turned to face her, tugging on her hand to do the same. When her eyes met his, he said, "Marry me, Sakura."

Half-confused, Sakura mumbled, "W-what? I'm already engaged to you Sasuke-kun."

How typical of her. He rolled his eyes and pulled her closer. His hand reached for her chin and he tucked her hair behind her ear with his other hand, "Sakura, marry me," he repeated firmer and more sure than before.

She turned to look at the court and stared at it dumbly.

"I want you to be Uchiha Sakura today. I don't want to wait another day to make you mine."

Sakura felt a sob build up in her throat and torn between the desire to cry and laugh, she settled on a choked giggle. She turned to face him with tears of happiness running down her face, "Yes!"

She raised her hand to wipe away the tears with the back of her hand and said, "Yes, of course I'll marry you."

His eyes lit up at her acceptance and he smiled at her as he gestured towards the stairs, "After you, Haruno."

She started towards the stairs but Sasuke pulled her back to kiss her lips. She giggled and said, "Let's go Uchiha."

Once they were inside, Sakura could feel the nerves starting to get to her. When they walked up to the receptionist, Sakura couldn't help but feel giddy when Sasuke requested the necessary paper work to register for a marriage license.

When the receptionist asked for the date of their wedding, Sasuke bluntly said, "Today."

Surprised, "Sir, you need to make an appointment for a judge to meet with you and you need witnesses."

Undeterred, Sasuke responded, "I'll have the witnesses and I'm sure Kakashi will be available if you tell him an Uchiha Sasuke is here."

Shooting a glare at Sasuke, the receptionist picked up the phone to dial for Kakashi. Who did he think he was to annoy the Judge's time? This wasn't the first time a young couple had demanded a marriage right then and there. How annoying couples like them were. There was no drama in the single life.

Sakura tugged at Sasuke's sleeve, "Ne, are you sure you want to do this?" Nervous butterflies were building up in her stomach but she was sure she wanted this. This was it. In a couple of hours, she would be Uchiha Sakura. She never imaged her wedding to be like this, but now, all of her childish dreams didn't matter because she had the guy and the guy was the most important part.

"I have never been so sure of anything in my life."

Sakura felt tears well up in her eyes

"What about our families?" she questioned thinking of how angry her father would be.

He rose his hand to stroke her cheek and he looked at her thoughtfully, "I have not thought that far ahead, but what I do know is I want you to be Uchiha Sakura by the end of today if this is what you want as well and we can deal with the rest later."

As always, thank you for reading! So sorry for the delay, I promise you the final chapter to this story will be up by January 1st 2014

I'm sad to see the story come to an end, but it's about time!

Sasusaku779

Review please!