Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto.

Oh my gosh this has taken such a long time! I have to say that compared to my other stories I was definitely more on top of this one than the others that took me 3+ years to finish. Hopefully you all don't hate me for the ending. I tried to make it a twist and creative, but I also wanted to get this chapter out to you as soon as possible.

"I know how close you two are" Mebuki scoffed, "But sleeping in the same bed at your age borders on inappropriate. Even if you are related directly by blood."

Sai sat up squinting as the light came in from the windows the maids were opening. He directed his squinting to scowling at his mother standing in the doorway.

"Get ready. We leave for the courthouse in an hour." Were Mebuki's last words before sashaying back down the hall.

Sai nudged Sakura awake and told her to go clean up. She was a mess from her bed-head, and makeup streamed down her cheeks like a raccoon in a water park. She begrudgingly made her way back down the hall towards her room where maids had laid out fresh clothes she'd never seen before. However it seemed they were the right size, although not to her personal taste. It was a white pencil skirt and heavy pink sweater, along with black tights and white high heeled low cut boots. She didn't bother spending too much time on her makeup as she assumed she would probably be crying it off anyway. After taking a long look in the mirror she grabbed her only possessions, a phone and a jacket, and walked out the bedroom door.

"Due process is good to you folks isn't it?" a guard asked sarcastically while unlocking Sasuke's holding cell, "The richer you are the faster it goes. Some of these poor bastards haven't seen a court date and they've been in here for months."

Sasuke got the feeling that this guard wasn't really on his side. Another person came in and shackled his wrists and ankles with a long chain between them. After being loaded into a van they were off to the courthouse.

Sakura knew that they were both going to be in the same courthouse. It made her heart ache knowing that Sasuke was going to be only a matter of meters away from her, but out of sight and out of reach all the same. She glanced over to see Itachi walking into the marble floored building. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as she had to resist the urge to run strait into his arms. She ached to feel his embrace so much it hurt. Although her love for Itachi was different than her love for Sasuke, she felt the same amount of pain for both. Itachi saw her and locked eyes with her from across the foyer and just nodded. He had this under control. At least he kept telling himself that. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to be doing.

Sasuke entered a separate way from the back of the building. It seemed appropriate since leading someone in cast irons through the main lobby full of polished, shining marble wouldn't look right. They had allowed him a change of clothes. A simple blue button up shirt and black dress slacks. His mother had dropped them off at the front of the police station to be examined and approved before Sasuke could wear them.

"Poor you" Mebuki sighed as she walked into the courtroom for Sakura's custody battle, "One son is a murderer and the other is a neglectful parent. I'm sure the tabloids are eating you alive right now, aren't they?"

Mikoto didn't even dignify Mebuki's sarcasm with an answer. She wasn't going to indulge her with a reply just to be patronized further. Itachi soon walked into the court room making Mebuki shuffle to her prosecutor's stand while Itachi made his way towards his mother.

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder before saying, "Go. Sasuke needs your moral support more than I do. I have this under control."

Mikoto nodded before getting up to make her way back out of the courtroom. She was glad to have an excuse to leave and not be antagonized further by Mebuki who seemed to be enjoying every minute of the chaos she was creating. She found Sasuke's court room nearby and quietly slipped into one of the back rows. His trial had already started for a few minutes.

"How do you plead after hearing these charges, Uchiha Sasuke?" the judge asked indifferently.

"Innocent" came Sasuke's monotone reply.

Mikoto watched as Madara stood up from the prosecutor's stand next to Karin's parents and started present evidence and backstory to the supposed murder.

"Is it true that you were affiliated with the same gang as Karin, both in it at the same time?" Madara asked with a toothy smirk.

"Yes."

"And is it true that you and Karin had a close relationship?"

"Yes."

"And you have also kept your gang affiliation, if I'm not mistaken."

"You are mistaken" came Sasuke's sharp reply.

"Then why were these on your person at the time of your arrest?" Madara cockily asked while dangling a chain with two tags, one of which was bent, in front of Sasuke's face.

All Sasuke could do was clench his teeth and try to concoct some sort of reply. All he could come up with was, "Material belongings from past affiliations could be called memorabilia. You can't use that to honestly accuse me of anything. The only way you can positively identify me is if someone were to testify against me who was in that gang with me, and then they would be prosecuted for gang affiliation as well."

"You were never prosecuted though, not yet." Madara added.

"By the time people discovered it I had ditched that past time for over two years. There was no way for people to peg me for it. Everyone left it alone as it should have been."

"Please present the next set of evidence to the jury" the judge droned getting bored with the argument of the dog tags.

"Gladly" Madara growled as he shuffled some papers and then pulled out some photographs of the carnage that was Karin's badly beaten body, "We found on Karin's person, strands of Sasuke's hair. How do you justify yourself?"

The judge leaned forward intrigued by the sudden escalation of definitive evidence. Sasuke gritted his teeth when he was about to utter sometimes until the court room doors boomed open.

"Sorry I'm late" The man grunted, "I'm here to serve as Sasuke Uchiha's defense."

Sasuke looked wide eyed at the man. He'd seen him a few times before around campus at Senju university. It was Tobirama, Hashirama's brother.

"You've come just in time" the judge droned, "The prosecution has presented some rather interesting evidence."

"I have some interesting evidence of my own, your honor." Tobirama said as he set his briefcase down and handed a disk to the the judge and asked her to play it.

Up on the screen the interrogation of Sasuke was shown between him and Madara. The audio was present too. Madara looked horrified at the screen as he described all of the altering he'd done to the evidence.

"That video is fake! That isn't what happened!" Madara shouted.

"Quiet!" the judge shouted at him while slamming her gavel.

Tobirama turned to face Madara with grim smirk as he said, "Madara, you tried to destroy the original footage. Lucky for me, the police department isn't that dumb. This isn't the first time an officer has tried to destroy evidence with a suspect or hide a conversation, so they have a backup sever that no one besides a select few have access to. All recorded interrogations are digitally copied to that database out of reach from anyone else. When the chief realized the interrogation footage was missing and someone claimed it was 'accidentally' not recorded he had his suspicions. He had someone check the databank and found that there was video footage, and he was none too happy about what he saw. He asked me to personally come here and ask you to turn in your badge to me. In addition, due to improper accusation by you, and then alteration of evidence, Sasuke is no longer considered a suspect and is therefore completely pardoned from this investigation until further inspection is made of untampered pieces of the crime scene."

Tobirama turned to the guards attending Sasuke and said, "Undo his cuffs please."

As soon as the chains were off Sasuke was ready to burst through the defendant booth gate but walked up to Tobirama first and thanked him, "I would normally take more time to give you a proper thank you, but my wife is in another court room and I need to get to her."

With that, he was out the door. Mikoto managed to shout at him down the hallway what room she was in. She couldn't quite keep up in her skirt and heels and determined she would just have to catch up to him later.

"Please present documentation of custody" the judge ordered.

Itachi handed the judge the official adoption papers he had signed and laminated after receiving the twins from the orphanage. It was notarized, sealed, and stamped. The judge then looked expectantly at Mebuki with a quirked brow as she crossed her arms and made no movement to present anything other than her attitude.

"I have no papers your honor," She said matter of fact-ly, "I didn't adopt my children, I gave birth to them and then they were taken from me."

The judge gave her a face that seemed to sarcastically emanate "You poor, pitiful rich woman…"

Itachi glanced at the judge expectantly as he whined, "Your honor, you can't be serious with letting this trial continue. She has no legitimacy. She isn't taking this seriously!"

"I gave documentation before hand of a paternity test that was conducted as well as both of their original birth certificates. The judge already has them. I have nothing further to present. This isn't an argument of legitimacy of who is the rightful parent, so much as it is me taking them back from you because of your negligence." Mebuki scoffed back.

"Well, we do have one woman who volunteered to testify, I suppose now would be the time to bring her out."

Right after he said those words a woman walked out from a door behind the judges stand and into the witness booth beside him. Everyone in the courtroom who knew who it was grew silent, and Mebuki grew pale.

"Kushina…" she nearly growled, "You seriously plan to testify against me?"

"Against you?" She asked, "I'm here to tell the truth, regardless of who it benefits."

"Order!" The judge shouted as he slammed his gavel breaking up the two bickering women, "Now, who would like to ask her a question first?"

"Me" Mebuki sneered, "Me first."

The judge rolled his eyes before making a motion with his hands for her to continue.

"Kushina, is it true that you took my children from me?"

"Yes and no" She answered, "I did take your children from you, because you voluntarily surrendered them to me. I placed them in the welfare system orphanage. They were taken better care of there than by you. I didn't wrench them from you by any means. You willingly cast them out because they were too much work for you, and those were your exact words as your weeping children left with me that night."

"I didn't ask you for an epilogue. I asked you a yes or no question."

"I'm telling the whole truth, no yes's or no's. You ask, and I will answer fully and completely."

Mebuki scowled at Kushina's confident attitude. Sai and Sakura were sitting in a booth near Kushina but out of the prosecutor or defendant booths. Sakura let out a silent sigh of relief since this courtroom had turned against Mebuki.

"However the fact still remains that there is no documented evidence that Mebuki surrendered the children. It's all by word of mouth that she did this. While an eye witness testimony is very important a signed and legally notarized document is more important in this situation."

"Your honor" Itachi stepped forward, "I have a notarized document right here, for both of my children. I would even debate to bring up charges of neglect and abandonment against Mebuki for what she did. They were still in the Japan welfare system for well over a year. If she had truly wanted them back it wouldn't have been hard at all to locate them. They were registered in the orphanage under their legal names that they still have today despite my adopting them."

The judge scanned Itachi's earnest and desperate features and then Mebuki's cold and indifferent one. It was obvious who wanted these children more, however there wasn't too terribly much the judge could do if the legitimate mother wanted her children back and there was no documentation of her having surrendered them.

"Wait!" the door slammed open.

Sasuke entered the court room out of breath. He slowly walked up to the judge's stand and handed a rolled up document to the man as he leaned his hands on his knees and caught his breath. Sakura was watching Sasuke with wide eyes as she realized he must've gotten out of his court room with a clean record. Mikoto soon came into the courtroom out of breath as well but in a less abrupt fashion and settled into a row towards the back.

"This is interesting, what do you have to say about it?" The judge inquired.

Sasuke stood up strait as he answered, "When Itachi had legitimate custody of Sakura he had us sign a marriage license, so she's technically my wife which means she is an Uchiha not a Haruno. So that means that Mebuki has no claims to her no matter how much she wants to take her back. You can't separate a husband and wife no matter how young they are."

The judge raised his brow and said "While this is a legal document it appears no one has signed it validating you've said your vows."

Sasuke's face grew pale as he did realize that since there was no ceremony yet the certificate was only half valid.

"Right now!" Sakura shouted as she stood up, "We'll say our vows right now! And you can sign the certificate your honor!"

The judge quirked his brow at the spitfire girl as she climbed out of the stands she was seated in and made her way to Sasuke and took his hand.

"Very well" he began as he stood, "All rise"

The crowd of people in the courtroom stood as the judge turned to the two and asked, "Do you, Sasuke Uchiha, take Sakura Haruno, to be your lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and in health? Until death do you part?"

"I do"

"And Sakura Haruno, do you take Sasuke Uchiha to be your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health? Until death do you part?"

"I do"

"By the power vested in me as a keeper of the peace and justice of the court I now pronounce you man and wife."

Mebuki screeched her insubordination "Where's the part where you ask if anyone objects?! I object!"

The judge looked over to the woman and said "I am not a pastor, this is not a church, I do the ceremony however I want. This settles Sakura Haruno's case. But it still leaves the boy's fate to be decided."

Itachi wiped a hand over his face in half relief and half distress at the situation.

"I have come to a decision" The judge said as she picked up her gavel.

"Due to abandonment and abuse Mebuki Haruno has lost any custody or rights to her children, indefinitely."

At the slam of the gavel Mebuki pouted in her seat at the prosecutor's stand while Sai jumped off the stand he was sitting in and joined Sakura and Sasuke.

"This isn't what I had in mind for a wedding…" Sasuke muttered in her ear with a crooked smirk.

"It's ok" she hummed as she leaned in closer to his ear, "I'm more interested int he honeymoon anyway."

With that Sasuke picked Sakura up into his arms and carried her down the corridor of the courthouse out the door into his car as the two drove off. There was no "Just Married" painted on their window or tin cans tied to their exhaust. They quietly slipped away into their own happy ending. Leaving every obstacle they'd faced together behind.

The End