disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto.

a/n: Okay, I hope Sasuke and Sakura are in character. Someone help/tell me if they aren't? Rated M just to be safe. And I DON'T do lemons. I'm telling you now :)

Chapter 1: Indifferent

Sakura pounded on Sasuke's door, resisting the urge to break the door down in her impatience. Where the hell is he?

Two loud knocks later the door to the Uchiha compound slammed open, an extremely annoyed and sleep-mussed Sasuke on the other side.

"What the hell do you want?" he snapped once he saw her. "It's two in the morning, Sakura—"

Without a word she pushed past him into the house, her shoulders tense and lined with fury. There was a long pause until he finally closed the door silently and stalked after her; by now he was used to her barging into the compound without asking, and he knew better than to provoke her when she was obviously in one of her moods.

Because she was Sakura and he was Sasuke.

Sakura threw herself down on one of the chairs at his kitchen table, not caring that it was dark outside and she could barely see. Sasuke leaned against the kitchen counter, already fully awake even though it was obvious that Sakura had forced him out of bed with her impromptu visit.

When Sakura shot him a glare, the corner of his mouth turned down in disapproval—but he didn't comment. Instead, he turned around and made her her usual cup of tea, like her glare had told him he should.

He knew exactly how she liked it, through no effort on his part. It was more like he'd instinctively learned by seeing her make tea repeatedly—with his Sharingan he memorized habits as fast as he memorized jutsu. It was safe to say that he probably knew her as well as she knew herself.

Because he was Sasuke and she was Sakura.

Sasuke set the cup of tea in front of her, not bothering to hide his irritation as he waited for her to say something. "Well?" he asked finally, his voice cold.

"I'm pregnant" was her answer after a slight pause.

He was silent for half a second, his body stilling as he analyzed her statement. He knew that the baby was his—could be his—had to be his.

Because she was Sakura and he was Sasuke.

"Fine. Why are you here?" he asked, after taking less than a moment to process the gravity of the situation.

Sakura's eyes flashed. "Why am I here?" she repeated angrily. She stood up, slamming her hands on the table with each word. "Because. You're. The. Father, you moron!"

His onyx eyes glinted dangerously. "I know that. Why are you here?"

She threw her cup at him, the half-drunk tea splashing against the wall as he dodged it easily. "You knew?" she raged.

Sasuke decided against telling her that fate seemed to love throwing them together, even when they wanted to be worlds away from each other. They were assigned missions together, they were forced to train together, they couldn't seem to walk through Konoha without running (literally) into each other.

And there was no other reason for knowing that the baby was his other than the fact that she was Sakura and he was Sasuke. Simple as that. And destiny, or fate, seemed like it would never let them let go of each other—but Sasuke was the only one who had realized that.

"Of course. We weren't using protection."

"You idiot!" shrieked Sakura, throwing anything she could at him.

Sasuke deftly avoided the pots and pans. "Sakura, you're testing my patience," he warned.

"Testing your patience? Oh, great!" she spat, growing louder. "What the hell am I supposed to do with the baby if you're impatient?"

"Sakura," he repeated, the subtle threat clear in his voice.

"You are impatient! Now that I think about it, back then you didn't even ask me before just taking what you wanted! You jerk!"

"I didn't take advantage of you," said Sasuke, deciding it was about time he defended himself, hysterical girl or not.

"So? You could've taken me on a date or even asked me if it was okay before just jumping me out of nowhere!"

Sasuke lost his patience right then. When he spoke, his voice was icy cold, a razor-sharp edge of finality to it. "You consented, Sakura."

Sakura paused mid-rant, because it was true. "Well—"

"And it didn't seem like you wanted me to stop," continued Sasuke, advancing on her. Sakura shrank back warily, eyeing him. "In fact, if I remember correctly, you started it."

"You kissed me!" said Sakura, finding her voice.

"You kissed me," corrected Sasuke, bending down until their noses almost touched.

Her brilliant green eyes were sparking in anger and frustration, and Sasuke remembered how differently they'd looked that night. They had been soft, wanting—not hard and defiant as they were now.

This rebellious, disobedient Sakura seemed to be the one he kept encountering, and the fact bothered him a little. What had happened to the girl he'd grown up with? The one who hung on his every word, and would never even think of defying him—much less yell at him like she was now?

Had he never noticed until now that Sakura was different from before? True, since his return to Konoha two years ago slight changes in her behavior toward him had caught his attention, but they hadn't been so obvious that he'd had to think about it. They hadn't been that different from how she'd acted six years past.

He had spent four years away from her and Konoha, returning only when he and Naruto had nearly killed each other in what they'd both thought would be their last fight-to-the-death. Then, as they'd lay side-by-side, drained of chakra and any energy to continue, they'd started talking. Well, Naruto had.

He'd made Sasuke realize that they—Uchiha and Senju—needed each other to face off against Madara to save the shinobi world. At least, that was how Naruto had phrased it. Sasuke had just "Hn"-ed him in response, but had, nevertheless, still pulled his old friend-rival-enemy-ally to his feet without attempting to kill him and sworn an unspoken truce that would last until they could defeat Madara.

Saving shinobi villages who had him highly-ranked on their missing-nin assassination list was not a smart move on Sasuke's part, but he—on his own, not because of Naruto's persistent arguing abilities positively influencing him—had come to understand that his revenge had nothing to do with Madara—so who needed him alive? Sasuke didn't need him to destroy Konoha. In fact, they'd only tolerated each other because they'd both wanted the same thing.

If Konohagakure and the other Hidden Villages wanted him dead, then Sasuke wasn't going to interfere. It would just be one less threat gone. He was sure that Madara had planned to kill him once he'd accomplished whatever task Madara had had in mind for him from the very beginning in his master plan, so if Konoha was going to get rid of Madara for him, then why stop them?

But truly, even to Sasuke's quick-thinking mind it was a paradox. Konoha, who he wanted gone, was the one who wanted him gone (under Danzo's rule, anyway), and yet he was going to assist them (or, rather, Naruto) in ridding the world of the one who had made him want Konoha gone.

At the end of their fight against Madara, when they'd stood over his dead body, Sasuke had turned on Naruto again. He'd been ready to attack Naruto when Naruto had suddenly blurted out—out of nowhere—"I'll help you with your revenge, Sasuke. Just be patient. Don't kill me and throw everything away—it won't prove anything!"

Sasuke had refused to believe him, but nevertheless Naruto had continued to say the same thing over and over, even as he evaded Sasuke's Chidori and katana. Finally, when Sasuke had lost all self-control and screamed at Naruto to just go if all he was going to do was avoid his attacks, that was when Naruto had gotten in his way and taken a fatal hit. Sasuke had frozen for almost a minute, an extremely long time with Sasuke's well-honed lightning-fast reflexes. He couldn't believe that he'd actually wounded Naruto, possibly for the very last time.

His mind had been burning, loss of blood and chakra depletion making him dizzy and causing him to sway on his feet. Then, he'd made his choice.

He'd used the last of his chakra to teleport Naruto's unconscious body to the achingly-familiar gates of Konoha, and there, Sasuke had lost consciousness.

He'd woken up in a cell that cut off chakra flow through the body and was resistant to elemental jutsu. Sasuke was well and truly imprisoned.

When Tsunade had approached him to make sure of his choice, he'd known what to say. The council had put him on probation for a year, with ANBU dropping by every so often to check on him. Chakra seals were inked onto his wrists, only to come off when Kakashi, as his old mentor, and Tsunade, as the Hokage, unanimously decided that he had truly changed.

Team 7 had been reformed after his probation was over, and it was almost like old times. They were still obliged to go on D-rank missions, because Sasuke and Naruto were (technically) still genin, which irritated Sakura to no end.

Still. They'd been able to catch that cat in record time, genin or not.

To be honest, he wasn't sure what he was going to do with the baby. Of course it would be beneficial to him to have an Uchiha heir, but for that—Sasuke couldn't believe he was even considering this—he'd have to marry Sakura. With her willing consent.

He very wisely decided not to bring up that particular option at the moment.

"So what now?" asked Sakura, daring to speak even though Sasuke was less than a hair away. "I'm not about to have the baby of an ex-menace to Konoha"—Sasuke stilled, his body suddenly motionless in the way he moved before exploding into action during battle—"a missing-nin, a disgusting trai—"

Sasuke's lips abruptly took her words and slipped them into his own mouth, forceful and demanding. He leaned forward slowly, until she was shoved back in her chair because she refused to kiss him back. He moved his mouth against hers again and again, each one longer and harder, until she was forced to respond in order to breathe. At her response, he pulled away.

His eyes caught hers, glittering, flinty obsidian fighting defiant, startled emerald.

Sasuke spoke. "Don't ever," he growled, his voice pure ice and death, "call me a traitor." His eyes were onyx-black, as dark as she had ever seen them. They were close enough to each other that Sakura could see the edges of his dark pupils in his midnight eyes. A nameless emotion in them shut off as he let her go.

Sakura could only sit, stunned, at the table as he stalked out of the room, cold fury in the set of his shoulders.

Eventually, she recovered enough to stand up and track Sasuke down so that she could finish their argument. She knew that his kiss had meant next to nothing to him, and she was going to treat it as such. He had only kissed her as punishment and as a warning, nothing else.

He was in his living room, flicking through the mail on the table. His attention seemed to be caught by one in particular, and Sakura leaned over his shoulder to peek at it, deciding that she could let their fight go (for now).

It was Naruto and Hinata's wedding invitation, inviting Uchiha Sasuke to cordially attend on the date two months from then.

"The dobe's getting married," said Sasuke, not having acknowledged Sakura's presence visibly but knowing that she was there anyway.

"Yeah. I know," answered Sakura, taking the invitation out of his hands to study it fondly, running her fingers over the lavender ribbon and black lettering. "They had a pretty short engagement. I guess Naruto didn't want to wait any longer." A small smile curled the corner of her mouth.

"You should be happy," said Sasuke in a low voice, watching her set the invitation down.

She blinked at his words. "I am happy."

"Don't lie to me, Sakura."

Her sigh was distant and resigned. "Fine, I guess you should know, since you're a major factor."

Sasuke's wary body language told her that he knew what she was going to say, but at the same time, he wanted to hear it anyway.

"You've ruined my life, Sasuke," she said simply. "I know a lot of people would be overjoyed to have a baby with the person they've been in love with their whole lives, but for me, it's not going to work. I'm going to have to give up my career as a shinobi in order to take care of the baby. Everything I've worked for is going to be . . . gone."

Sasuke was silent, but Sakura knew that he was waiting for her to say more. "And there aren't a whole lot of men out there who are going to want to marry or date a girl who's already had a baby with another man. So I might stay single for the rest of my life, but I wouldn't expect you to understand that." Her voice was bitter.

"Why didn't you take pills?" Sasuke knew the answer to that question already, but he had to ask anyway. He had to know.

Sakura was silent for a moment. "I don't know. I think that, maybe, deep down I still wanted to have a child with you. Maybe I never gave up hoping."

Sasuke pushed away from the table and moved to the couch slowly. "I see."

"Is that it?" asked Sakura. "You're not going to ask me what I'm going to do with your baby?"

"Do whatever you want." His voice was quiet.

Sakura leaned over the side of the couch, watching him. Finally she spoke, her eyes disappointed and slightly accepting. "I knew you'd say that. You don't care about me at all, do you?"

Sasuke breathed out slowly. "Not in that way. You know that, Sakura."

Sakura cleared her throat before turning away to leave. "I suppose we're both at fault then, Sasuke," she said just before she opened the door and slipped out into the night. She paused, one hand on the doorknob. "At the very least, will you do something for me?"

Sasuke turned his head slightly to her, listening. "What?"

"Don't have one-night stands with anyone else. If you're going to, then make sure that that girl is the one you're going to spend the rest of your life with. Please." Her voice was soft, the gentle shatter of glass before it hit the floor.

Sasuke closed his eyes, fighting himself. She was asking him for something nearly impossible for a single man to do, but he knew that she was asking for the right thing. No girl deserved what she had.

In Sakura's eyes, he didn't deserve anyone else.

"All right, Sakura. You have . . . my word."

"Thank you," she whispered, her voice feather-light and shaking. "Then . . . I'll see you later. Goodbye, Sasuke."

Sasuke stood at that, but she was already gone. Her last words echoed in his ears as he stared out the door, watching her walk away from him.

Fate had let them go.

a/n: Just a thought, but if Sasuke had never met Madara after "killing" Itachi, then would he have come back to Konoha? What was his plan once he'd "killed" Itachi? Was returning home his plan once he'd accomplished his goal? What did he plan to do with Team Hebi after "killing" his brother? Something to build on (maybe in a later story).

Read and review? Please and thank you so much! :D