The results were in and Sakura was crying.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Sasuke told her, rubbing her head. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

“I know,” she blubbered. “I’m just so happy. It’s over. It’s over. I don’t have to see them again,” she sobbed, hugging him.

Tsunade and Jiraiya were smiling and celebrating themselves, happy to know they had found their daughter again. They felt she needed time with her friend, and excused themselves to give Sakura and Sasuke some time alone.

“This is so amazing,” she breathed, smiling. “Sasuke, I’m not a Haruno!”

He smiled and kissed her, happy for his girlfriend of three days. “You’re a Mishimoto. It’s such a strange name. Sakura Mishimoto.”

She smiled back. “I think it’s perfect,” she replied. She let out a relieved sigh and looked at her arms. The bruises were fading, and they were now a greenish-yellow compared to the black they were only three weeks before. “I can’t believe how different my life it. It hasn’t even been a month and everything’s upside-down.”

“And you’ll be moving out,” Sasuke replied, frowning. “I won’t get to see you at night.”

Sakura laughed. “I won’t get to sing you to sleep,” she teased.

“Promise you’ll sing for me some other time?” he replied.

“Depends. We still on for tomorrow?” she asked, kissing him.

“Yes. Is that even a question?” he replied, laughing. Then he frowned again. “We probably have to go to school again now. The only good thing about that would be telling everyone that you’re mine now.”

Sakura laughed, then got a distant look as she started to think. “They’re be no one controlling me anymore. I can get a B and not get grounded. Hell, I can stop scaring myself every time I get a grade back. I can hang out with people again. I miss Hinata and Naruto and Neji and TenTen and Shikamaru and Temari…”

“I figured you would,” Sasuke replied, smiling as he walked over to open the door.

Standing there, teary-eyed, were her friends. “We missed you too, Sakura-chaaaaan!” Naruto wailed, hugging her as Hinata blushed and came to hug Sakura as well.

“Guys!” she gasped, smiling. She looked at Sasuke, who shrugged. “Thank you,” she mouthed, stuck in a pile of her close friends.

“We’re sorry we weren’t there for you, Sakura,” TenTen told her, the first to make amends for her actions. “I started blowing you off because I thought you were blowing me off. I’m so sorry I didn’t realize what was happening to you. You’re my best friend. I should have seen it happening.”

“I too am sorry,” Neji replied. “I was mad you were alienating us. It never crossed my mind it may not be because you wanted us gone. I regret hurting you more than you were already hurting.”

Sakura smiled and cried as all her friends apologized for leaving her. While some pointed out she had alienated them first, they did admit that they too were to blame. After she apologized and they cried a little more, everyone seemed to calm down and Naruto got back to his antics.

“So you’re Tsunade-barchan’s daughter?” he asked, excited. “Is she always an old fart, or is she really nice out of school?”

Tsunade laughed when she heard this, walking back into the room. “The only reason you think I’m a fart is because I won’t let you paint InuZuka’s face when he’s sleeping my class. Or put Whoopee cushion on his seat. Or cover him in feathers. What do you have against that kid anyways?”

Naruto shrugged. “He tried to take Hinata away from me,” he replied, holding her protectively.

Hinata’s cousin, Neji laughed. “I already like this kid,” he replied. Then he turned to Hinata. “Why haven’t I met him yet? He should have a chance. You gave Naruto one.”

She pretended to gag. “No way. He’s a creep. You’d even like Naruto over Kiba. He has fleas.”

Sakura laughed and rested on Sasuke. “Some things never change,” she murmured.

“So, when are you and Sasuke getting married?” Naruto asked, coming straight into Sakura’s face to ask her. “Any little teme on the way?”

Sakura screeched. “No.”

Sasuke laughed and pulled Sakura closer. “Not until after we graduate if at all,” he replied humorously. “Sakura would still have to decide if she wanted to deal with me for the rest of my life…dobe.”

The girls laughed as they two bantered back and forth. They incessant yelling made such a racket Itachi even came to Sasuke’s room, on the other side of the house from his, and yelled to keep the noise down. It did nothing to calm them down when they saw he was only in his pants and sporting hickeys and a boner.

“Sasuke, control your friends,” Itachi muttered. “Sakura, make sure you control Sasuke enough to make him control his friends.”

“So, you like women being in control?” Naruto crooned, laughing.

Eventually they calmed down and everyone was hungry. Tsunade and Jiraiya, in the spirit of celebration, took everyone out to a fancy restaurant and Sakura smiled from where she sat, between her parents and across from her boyfriend and his brother.

“Hey, Sasuke, guess what?” she whispered.

“What?” he asked.

“I love you.”

He smiled. “I love you too.”

No one really knew how Sakura claimed the player, the bad-ass, the Uchiha at the school, and honestly she didn’t know either. But she had him and she had a family that loved her, and friends that cared. She didn’t know how she got this lucky, but somehow in those twisted years she lived with the Haruno, it led her straight to it, a family and a love.

“So, Sakura, what are we going to do about the scars?” Sasuke asked after they got home. Tsunade agreed for Sakura to spend one last night at the Uchiha house and the couple was spending it sleeping together in his room. “You can’t wear wristbands forever.”

She sighed and looked at her bare wrists. True to her word, Sakura hadn’t cut once in the almost four weeks she spent at the Uchiha mansion. The second day there, Sasuke forced her to stop wearing things to cover her scars so she could come to terms with them. Just like he showed her how he came to terms with his own cutting.

His wrists, which she hadn’t noticed before, were white from where all the scaring was. There was so much, it melded into one thick, solid line going on inch in one direction and two inches the other way.

Hers weren’t much better. They weren’t solid scar tissue, but it was a dizzy array of horizontal and diagonal lines, looking like a spider web on her wrists. It had an interesting texture and she shivered when she ran her fingers over the once smooth skin.

“There’s always cosmetic surgery,” he offered. “Do you want to get rid of them?”

She shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t learn my lesson. They’re a part of me. If I got rid of them, I’d forget the part of my life that led me to meet you. I wouldn’t be able to remember how important you were to my life. I wouldn’t know why I love you so much.”

He laughed softly and smiled when he kissed her. “How is it I fell in love with a sappy romantic?” he asked. “So, no more cutting.”

She nodded. “I will never cut myself again,” she promised, wondering if it was a promise she could keep.