Naruto Uzumaki stood in the hotel bathroom next to his wife, Sakura. They were at the hotel for the wedding of Naruto’s friend, Choji Akimichi, to his fiancée, Karui.
Sakura was putting on her make-up while Naruto finished tying his tie and making sure it was straight.
Finally satisfied with how the knot looked, Naruto left the bathroom and put on his suit coat. He knew the dark grey suit looked good on him. He’d been watching what he ate and working out over the last six months and had lost about forty pounds. He hadn’t felt this good in some time.
He walked back to the bathroom and watched Sakura continue to put on her make-up. He smiled at her. “You look so beautiful.”
“Thanks.” She absently replied.
Naruto tugged at the sleeves of his dress shirt to make sure they were properly aligned with the suit coat. He waited for Sakura to say something about his own appearance, but she remained silent. Then he realized that she never said anything complementary about his appearance. She commented about his gaining weight but when he went to the gym and started losing fat and gaining muscle, she didn’t say anything.
He took a deep breath and spoke to his wife. “I just realized that I’m always complimenting you on how you look but you never say anything about how I look.”
Sakura rolled her eyes and continued to put on her mascara. “I told you that you were getting fat, didn’t I?”
“But you haven’t said anything about how I look since I’ve started going to the gym.”
Sakura tossed her make-up in her case then walked out of the bathroom. “Whatever. Hurry up, I don’t want to be late.”
“Do you even find me attractive?”
“No.”
“Then why did you marry me?”
“Because you asked, and I was drunk.”
Naruto stood there for a moment. He was afraid that if he looked down, he would see his heart in a million pieces on the floor.
He took a deep breath that hurt his chest then followed Sakura out the door.
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The wedding was simple and beautiful. Choji and Karui couldn’t stop beaming at each other throughout the service. And now, at the reception, they were holding hands and looking at each other with absolute love when they weren’t talking to their guests.
Sakura was flitting around talking to various people.
Naruto stayed in one spot, carefully nursing a beer. He knew that if he drank too much, he might start talking and he didn’t want to cause a scene and ruin things for Choji and Karui.
“What’s wrong with you. You’ve tried to hide it, but you’ve been sad all afternoon.”
Naruto turned to the man that was speaking behind him and saw Sasuke Uchiha and his brother, Itachi, Shikamaru Nara and Kiba Inuzuka with their own drinks.
He gave a soft laugh, raised the beer bottle to his lips and took a drink before he spoke. “I had an epiphany today.”
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him. “Did it hurt?”
Naruto smiled at his friend and from the reactions of the other four men, his smile had zero humor to it. “Normally, I would say ‘kiss my ass’ but, yeah, it hurt.”
“What the hell, man?” Kiba lightly punched his arm. “What happened?”
Naruto recounted what had happened back at the hotel to his friends.
After a stream of curses that came from all four.
Kiba just shook his head. “The bitch could have called it off. But she went through with everything anyway? Why?”
Itachi asked. “What are you going to do?”
Naruto shook his head. “I see now that she’s never loved me. And she just…just killed whatever I felt about her.”
Sasuke held out his hand. “Gimme your wallet.”
Puzzled, Naruto reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and handed it over. He watched as Sasuke pulled out three twenties. He tossed Naruto’s wallet back to him then handed his brother one twenty, Shikamaru another and placed the third into his own pocket. “Congratulations, you’ve just hired the three of us to manage your divorce.”
Naruto’s jaw dropped. “Oh…okay.”
Itachi grinned and Naruto shuddered. He really hated it when Itachi’s evil side came out. Itachi leaned forward, making sure that his voice didn’t carry beyond the small circle of friends. “Do NOT say anything to Sakura until we get things set into motion. But, on Monday, pay off half of the balances on your credit cards then remove your name from the account. Then go to the bank and open a new account and take half of what’s in your joint accounts and put it in the new account.”
Naruto fidgeted.
Sasuke looked at him with narrowed eyes. “What? What’s going on?”
“We don’t have any joint accounts.”
“Who pays the bills?”
“I do.”
“Does she give you money to pay her share?”
Naruto didn’t want to look Sasuke in the eye, but he manned up and looked at his friend. “No.”
Shikamaru spoke “Does she have any student loans?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Naruto sighed. “Because I worked three jobs to make sure she wouldn’t be in debt.”
Sasuke looked like he wanted to punch Naruto for being stupid. “You mean to tell me, that before the two of you were even married, you were paying her bills.”
Naruto was feeling extremely stupid. “Yeah…”
“THAT explains why she went along with the marriage!” exclaimed Kiba. “I love you, dude, but you’re a moron!”
Itachi raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me you kept the statements and everything else.”
Naruto nodded. “Yeah, I have everything. Well, not the cancelled checks since the banks don’t send those back anymore but I have the bank statements with the images on them.”
“Get those and bring them to our office.” Sasuke ordered. It was his turn for the Evil Uchiha Grin. “Sakura’s going to be in for a rude surprise by the time we’re through with her.”
The five men shared a laugh and clinked their drinks together.
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Sakura screamed in utter rage “You motherfu…”
The judge glared at her “Dr. Haruno, if you complete what you are about to say, I will throw you in jail for contempt of court. Your bank statements clearly indicate you have the money available, so you have thirty days to repay Mr. Uzumaki $260,000. Since you currently earn $300,000 a year, you will also pay Mr. Uzumaki spousal support of $5,000 a month for the next four years or until Mr. Uzumaki gets remarried, whichever comes first.”
Sakura glared at the judge but kept her mouth shut as her lawyer whispered frantically in her ear. “Fine.” She grated out. “Let’s just get this farce over with.”
The judge looked at Sasuke, “Have the paperwork drawn up by next Monday for my review, then we can have both parties sign and go on their separate ways.” He banged his gavel. “Court dismissed until Monday.” The judge got up and walked away from the bench back to his offices.
Sakura shoved her chair back with a grating screech and stormed out of the courtroom. Her lawyer stayed behind, putting his paperwork into his briefcase.
Naruto sat.
Numb.
His marriage was almost over.
Sasuke gently nudged him. “Come on. Let’s get something to eat. You need it.”
“Yeah.” Naruto stood and followed his friend out of the courtroom.
The doors shut behind them with a hollow thump that echoed his hollow marriage.