A/N: Sorry for the late update, been pretty blocked. That's why this chapter sort of cuts out so quickly.

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Uchiha Itachi had never been a very emotional man. Even in his childhood he had kept to himself and had very few relationships. Anytime he had been with a woman had either been nothing but a fling or a one night stand and, thanks to his good looks, it was easy to get a woman into bed. He had never stuck around in a relationship for more than a matter of weeks, most women were lucky to get that much time.

However, as he lay beside a sleeping Sakura, he couldn’t imagine himself without her. When he thought of his life as a musician, in a different country every month, in a different hotel every few days, sharing his bed with a stranger that had a written statement from a doctor that she didn’t have an STI, he felt lonely and cold. He knew that if he was forced to sleep without her, even the most luxurious of rooms would seem like a box on the side of a street and even the most comfortable of beds would feel cold uncomfortable.

In fewer words, Sakura had become an important part of his life and, if she disappeared, that part of his life couldn’t be replaced so easily. It was quite possible that he loved her.

Love. It had been such a long time since he had even thought of that word that, when it popped into his mind, he had to decipher its meaning. He loved Sakura. He loved this young woman that was lying at his side, her head rested on his shoulder, crying in her sleep. He loved her.

And soon... soon everything would be over and what would they do? Would they go back to Tokyo, buy a house together and live happily ever after? He doubted it would be so simple. Despite the fact that Noriko and Tomi had given up their company, they would still have some dangerous contacts and, when they were put into jail, those contacts would be after Sakura and himself. They would have to hide for a while with quite an extensive amount of protection. If they didn’t do that, they’d need to go into the Witness Protection Agency.

That, however, wasn’t possible. They were pop icons, their faces had been plastered all over international television and anybody would recognize them as the lead singers of two very famous rock bands. No, hiding wasn’t an option, but he refused to leave Sakura’s side, no matter what happened in the end, he and Sakura would remain together.

At least, he hoped...

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“Saku-chan!” Naruto exclaimed, the first out of the airport terminal, his arms outstretched to hug her. Unfortunately, because of his excessive speed and the strength with which he used to hug her, it was more of a tackle that sent her onto her back, the blond on top of her. “Oh, Saku-chan, we missed you so much! How are you? How have you been treated by everybody here? Have you learned any cool swear words in English? Can you teach them to me? Please, if I ask really nicely?”

Sakura was only able to gasp for breath as Naruto’s weight squished her, leaving no room for air in her flattened lungs and listen to his incessant jabbering about how much he missed her and how much fun they were going to have in Eduardo Alvarado.

“If you’re quite finished killing my girlfriend, Naruto,” Itachi said rather coolly, the sound of the G-word coming from his mouth making Sakura’s inability to breathe no longer because she couldn’t but because she had forgotten how, “Why don’t we go check you into a hotel so that you can have some rest and then we’ll get to work.”

“Oh, we don’t really need to do much,” Kakashi said, finally arriving with the luggage, a very bedraggled Sasuke in tow, a backpack slung over one shoulder and a pillow in his other arm, “Like we told you, Sakura, the Canadian police have their place surrounded, their just waiting for the right time to strike.”

“Then why are you here?” Itachi asked none-too-kindly, receiving a warning glare from Sakura.

“Because we owe Sakura an explanation,” the bassist-slash-manager answered, not daring to give a rude remark or risk the female singer’s hellish wrath, “Actually, I slept quite well on the plane, I could stay up while the others sleep and I could explain things.”

“Me, too!” Naruto exclaimed, finally getting up and helping Sakura up, as well. “I slept like a baby, so I can stay up, too.”

Sasuke snorted, saying, “Yeah, and kept me up by snoring in my ear the entire goddamn time.”

“Okay,” Kakashi said, narrowly averting an all-out war between Naruto and the junior Uchiha, “So Sasuke can sleep and the rest of us will talk. We’ve already explained everything to him, anyway, so he’s not exactly essential at the moment.”

Sasuke was about to tell Kakashi off when Itachi cut-in, narrowly averting another war, “We rented a van, so we can all fit; our bill on the motel we were staying in has been paid off, so we can all go into the same hotel. I’m guessing you’re looking for four-star or higher?”

Kakashi nodded. “You know us all too well, Uchiha, I can see how you managed to get passed us. Of course, all of the hotel fees, expenses for food and—” he paused to give Naruto an irritated glance, “Movie rentals will be paid by us, so either of you won’t have to worry about such things.”

“Hm, sounds nice,” Itachi commented, “But why don’t we stop standing around the airport like a bunch of goofs and head out? I know a decent hotel we can stay in.”

“Right.” With that, they all left to go to said hotel.

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When they were checked into the hotel, room service had been ordered, Naruto had the remote so that he could sift through the pay per view, Sasuke had conked out in one of the bedrooms and everybody was settled in, Kakashi began.

“We were approached by the Japanese government long before any of this ever happened,” he said, “Last year, during our Forever Resentful tour, out in Kyoto. They said that they would make us the biggest band out there by getting the media to come up with a battle-of-the-bands type deal for us and some other bands to compete in and, of course, my interest was piqued. Of course, nobody gets something for nothing, as a manager, I know that all too well. They said that we needed to help bust some terrorists and, since everybody seemed to like to know my opinion about such things, I supposed it couldn’t hurt.

“I enlisted Naruto and we were going to add you, Itachi, when we found out that you had already volunteered yourself to the other side. That was definitely when we clashed, but the only thing we could agree on was to leave Sasuke out of it. It would have been unfair to make him choose between his brother and the only two people that he—silently, of course—could consider friends. Then we started the try-outs for a new singer. We turned everybody who tried out down and had planned to find a way of getting you in when you magically showed up. I would like to say you looked great, but, unfortunately, you didn’t.”

Sakura nodded in agreement. “Well, I had just gone through a terrible break-up that was what made me try out... so I guess you owe a lot to Hatori and Ino.”

Kakashi sighed. “More than you know.”

“Huh?”

“The police decided we needed to make the gig where we captured you the wedding of Ino and Hatori,” Naruto said, not taking his eyes off the list of movies, “We had no idea why and thought better of asking about it... and then you told us the story about them. We figured it out that they had planned it that way, so that you wouldn’t exactly be on your guard because of the wedding of the two people that had recently betrayed you. Personally, I thought it was despicable.”

Kakashi nodded in agreement. “Fortunately, you’re a great singer, so it wasn’t like we had hired a completely tone-deaf broad. Unfortunately, we all liked you.” Kakashi rolled his eyes when Naruto cleared his throat loudly, “Especially Naruto.”

Sakura sighed. “I don’t know what to think.”

“We’ll understand if you decide to never want to talk to us again after this.”

She only sighed again. “I’ll have to think about this.” With that, she headed to her room to think over things. Unfortunately, she knew what she had to do. It was bye-bye F.o.R.

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A/N: See what I mean?