"Pick a number: one through twenty," a nineteen-year-old Sakura dared, evil smile on her face.
The children squealed in delight. Sakura Haruno had come back from the last mission and was now entertaining the children stuck in the hospital. It was like one of her jobs, only she'd never complain about this one.
Naruto had met her out at the gate early that morning when she arrived and told her that Sasuke was back, and that Naruto and Hinata's young daughter was in the hospital. Instead of running to the Uchiha as she may have done in her genin days, she ran to the children's ward as fast as her official ANBU self would let her.
Now, there she was sitting with Sakura-chibi in her lap and a sixteen other children around her. She never minded watching so many kids--she loved them all, and especially Sakura-chibi, whom Naruto and Hinata named after her.
"Eight!" one boy yelled out first, a patch over his eye. He was here a lot, and Sakura had gotten to know him like a younger brother.
"Tsujiai, what happened now?" she asked, smiling. Tsujiai Zakuro had been orphaned at a young age. Tsunade had told her that his mother died on a mission, and his father disappeared to find his wife. Deemed parentless, he was sent to a family that was excellent to him, but he had the tendency of getting hurt.
But Tsujiai swore his parents were alive, and that he saw them once and awhile when his team went on missions to Suna.
He looked embarrassed. "Some of the older boys attacked me again," Tsujiai mumbled, looking down. Then he lifted up his shirt to show his giant scab, fresh as a few days old. "It was last week while Sakura-san was on a mission. But at least Satoshi and Usagi helped. That's why they're here."
"Who would stab a bunch of kids?" she asked, enraged.
"My brother's girlfriend," Satoshi replied, mad. "Why did they event fan-girls? She was mad because she thought we were in the way and helping fan-girls steal him away from her."
"Bitch," Sakura muttered quietly. Then she perked up. "Eight it is then. Does anyone want to know what eight means?"
"Stories," Sakura-chibi replied, not more than eighteen months old.
At first Sakura was surprised to find out her best friends had done that, but then she found out they were getting married and they were too happy to be stopped.
"Yeah. I'm going to tell a story. And I have twenty of them. This one is a really fun one," she started, not noticing the figure that joined them.
"Where is she?" Sasuke asked, seeing Tsunade walk into his hospital room again. In the morning, Tsunade would come in and check on him, then leave witout a word about her. Every night, she'd be assigned to see him and then send another nurse.
And every time, he'd ask for her.
Tsunade sighed. "I told you, she's on an S-mission right now, and you're in no place to move. Anyways, I have good news."
"Deliberations are over?" he guessed.
Every day the dobe and his wife would visit him and tell him how his trial was going. From what he heard from the Idiot and the Fainter, it wasn't that bad. The Sandaime had apparently anticipated he would leave, and so wrote that it was a mission with an undetermined length.
"Yes, and you're a free man. I can't believe he saved your ass with that," Tsunade said, checking his wounds. He finally did it--he had killed Itachi, and with some help from Kakashi, Neji and Naruto, they took out a sizeable chunk of the Akatsuki as well.
"So, I can do whatever I want?" he asked. This was great!
The godaime nodded. "You can move around now, but I suggest you limit yourself. I may be able to discharge you in the week."
He grinned. "And when will Sakura be back from her mission?" he asked.
She sighed. Before she could answer, Naruto ran in the room. He was so excited it scared the other two. And before they could say anything, he was right in Sasuke's face, inches from colliding with the boy--man now. The Uchiha was definitely a man now.
"Tsunade-baachan! Sakura got back this morning! She wanted to see Sakura-chibi before she gave you her report though, and I said I'd do it for her! I've been looking all over for you!" he yelled.
Sasuke sighed. "Naruto-dobe, I'm not Tsunade. She's over...what about Sakura?"
Naruto looked at Sasuke and grinned sheepishly, backing away. "She's back."
"Where is she now?" Tsunade asked, taking the report from his hands.
"She's telling a story to the kids. I think we should have prepared her to know that Karin put Tsujiai and his friends in the hospital--or that Satoshi and Hikari and Hikaru and Jun and Kiba's brother is dating her."
She sighed. "We should have just exiled her." Karin was back from Sound a week before Sasuke, and she was dating the eldest male in Inuzuka's family.
"Take me to Sakura," Sasuke demanded. "Who's Tsujiai?"
"Her friend," Naruto replied, obliging him. "He's this cute little kid. He just got a genin team--barely even twelve."
Tsunade didn't protest--the wound would bug him when he needed to rest again. Sasori almost cut his torso in half with Kisame's sword, Kisame having left it on accident when he was out with some other members to collect the dobe that happened to be a the base barely five minutes later.
When they made it to the children's ward, Sasuke gasped at seeing his Cherry Blossom surrounded by enraptured children as she told a story about ogres and fairies with a prince and a damsel in distress, who turned out to be a princess from a foreign land.
Sasuke smiled, and Naruto was proud of his friends. "She'd be a great mom. And she still loves you," he told Sasuke, glad to see emotion on his friend's face.
"Sakura-san?" Usagi asked, tilting her head to the side. "Where have you been for a month? Can we hear that story next?"
As she listened to agreements, she laughed. "It's not really a tale for children. But when I was gone, I did get a twenty-first story," she told them.
There were several gasps, and after awhile the requests went down. "So, what story do you all want to hear?"
Seven boys and two girls said the twenty-first, while others asked for different stories. Sakura-chibi held up two fists, one fist having one finger protruding and the other with two.
Sakura laughed and hugged the little girl, giving her a kiss on her head. "All right. So twenty-one it is."
Naruto went and found a seat, Sasuke following. It was amazing to see his Sakura with so many children. She would make an excellent mother. She was so happy right now.
"All right. So we'll go with twenty-one and then we'll get some more stories tomorrow. Now, I want everyone to guess a number: one to twenty. No one gets the same number, and one person will win this one test I learned."
When this was done, the only numbers un-guessed were one, twenty, and fourteen. A seemingly random number, but no one had guessed the right.
"No one got the one number right," Sakura told them, acting shocked. "One of you was very close. What one number from the numbers I gave was the one number I wanted? One, fourteen, twenty."
"Fourteen," Satoshi replied.
Sakura shook her head. "It was one. This is the story of the 'Twentieth and First'."
Sasuke sighed. Just the title was dumb enough to make him tune her out. But she was so happy he felt he owed it to her to listen.
One day, in a kingdom far away, there was a family that was very happy. The first son of every family could become king, and the first daughter of every family had the chance of becoming queen. Everyone was happy, except the twentieth son of the recent king.
"He knew if his brother was chosen, everyone in the kingdom would be happy, even his own brothers. But the first born was dumb--he had once given a horse to a monk instead of a god, and let a murderer go free for the price of a present--that the prince himself gave. In fact, he looked all around and found the many one to be quite dumb.
"The boy's name was Eichi, and he lived up to his name. He was an intelligent child, and he was braver than even the heroes in his stories. He had one downside however: he was in love with his friend.
"As pure as rain, and as beautiful as gold--she was first-born daughter with no brothers to speak of. her name was Ayumi, and she too lived to be the beauty of her name. She walked her own way, and didn't obey the orders of others. But she did, however, only when talk of the First Son and the First Daughter appeared."
Satoshi started to ask a question, but Usagi stopped him. Sasuke had to hand it to Sakura--she had a knack with kids. And getting attention. Even he couldn't leave now. Even if he wanted to, he wanted to know what happened even more.
But maybe it wasn't for her skill. She was so happy with those children around her, he started to imagine their children huddled around her, listening to a story. Her eyes bright, soft smile on her lips. He could get used to that.
"Sakura-san, why didn't he just tell her he liked him?" one of the children asked.
It wasn't a child that normally came to the hospital, but Sakura knew her all the same. It was Kakashi and Anko's child, Naomi. The basis of her Ayumi was, in fact, a girl like Naomi and an attitude like Anko's.
That made other children murmur, and then she noticed Iruka and Shizune's son was there too, and so was Tsunade and Jaraiya's daughter. Tetsuo and Natsumi were always around because Tsunade and Shizune were--it was odd to see them all though. Usually Natsumi followed her mother around and learned new chakra-tricks to use on "her father's perverts" as Tsunade called some men.
"Very good. That's actually what I was getting at," Sakura told her, beaming. Her teacher's kids were so close to her she saw them as her own nieces and nephews--and Naomi in fact was. Kakashi was her mother's brother.
"You see, Eichi couldn't tell Ayumi--she was the destined queen. And he was merely the twentieth son. So whenever he went to see Ayumi, he always had to wait in line behind the first born. Not really, but she was always kinder to them and it pained him.
"Every night, he would go home and wish that his brother would die, and the entire kingdom's first-born died, just so that he could live happily with Ayumi. But then one day the recent king grew sick. He gave a speech to his kingdom, and had shocked everyone."
"What did he say, what did he say?" Konohamaru's little brother, Yuji, asked. He was excited. Konohamru was the first son, so if anything was like that in Konoha he'd be more like the twentieth brother. "What did he say?"
Sakura laughed, and played the king with the deepest, most booming voice she could muster. " 'My dear people,' he started, 'I have to soon pick an heir. I have yet to find a hiko worthy of the title of these lands, and so I open to all sons a contest.' He paused, looking around and Eichi got excited. All the sons--he could have his chance! 'We have chosen a daughter to be queen--she will be the proctor.'
"He waved a hand, and Ayumi walked up to his right-hand. 'This shall be your queen, who shall find a test for all of you. All sons wanting to become king, must do as she asks or commands.'
"Some of the people below were getting mad. One of which shouted up, 'Why the change so suddenly? Are our first-born no longer fit to rule these lands?' To this, the king only shook his head. 'We've been foolish, and I too can say I am. Years have destroyed the great kingdom we were, and so we need an extremely bright son to bring us back to our splendor.'
"After the king's announcement, all the boys rushed to Ayumi, hoping they could become the next king.
"To each of them, Ayumi asked the same survey. 'What number birth were you? What would you do in the event of war? When we are married, how many kids do you want? How do you think you would act when…? If you had to pick a number, one through twenty, what would it be? Why?'
"One by one, the sons all failed. Only Eichi and the first son were left, and Eichi was being bullied by the fourteenth and the seventh sons of the king. And so Ayumi and the king made their next speech. He watched from the crowd, but didn't know what to do.
" 'There has yet to be a man worthy of the kingdom, and yet to be a son to guess rightly the number. We have three numbers left, and only one of which is right. One so out there will know this. Only one soul can know what this number means, and one day we may have a king. has every son here gone?'
"It was his chance. Eichi ran to the spot where his father and Ayumi stood. And there with him, was his brother Yuichi. He decided to try his luck. And so, being the first born, he was given the first chance."
Sasuke looked around, and saw the fall of night. Had he really been listening to her all day? He was amazed at the children still listening intently to Sakura.
Naruto was picking up Sakura-chibi, and whispered in Sakura's ear. She merely nodded and smiled towards Sasuke before returning to the tale--that was, until she saw the trickle of blood from under Tsujiai's patch. She sighed and continued the story as she took the patch off.
He was shocked to see the boy had no eye, and that where it should be was a reddish-pink hollow. Something bad happened to the boy, but he saw it didn't phase his Cherry Blossom.
It made him proud to know she cared more about a child than their appearance. She would never squeal if their child was disfigured, merely be happy they were born.
It was normal for this to happen. Though it sometimes disgusted her, like when it was infected and oozed puss, it was just Tsujiai. He had been born without the eye, and he had a bad immune system. He was just...sick. But he was such a sweet and polite child.
"After he answered her first few questions adequately, Ayumi asked him about the numbers. 'I have three numbers to choose. Fourteen, one, and twenty. Which of these numbers do you choose and why?' So he answered, 'Fourteen. It's the number in the middle.' And to this, Ayumi shook her head. 'No. The number is wrong. King, there is one missing. What boy has not gone?'
"Eichi arrived then. 'I am, the twentieth son.' His brother laughed, thinking no son would know such things at such a high number. 'I am the last to compete. May I?' Ayumi nodded and started to ask him. They were simple enough questions, and those which he had thought of before.
"Then came the final two questions. 'What number would you choose and why? One, fourteen, or twenty?' He thought for a moment. 'I know for fact that fourteen is wrong, and so my choice is one.' Ayumi looked at him intrigued. 'Why?'"
Now all the kids were entranced. Sasuke was even leaning forward in his seat.
" 'One, because it's what you want. One child, one kingdom, one love. You were the child of one, and you were one person that knew me best. My I ask as to why it goes to twenty?' She didn't answer, only turned to the king. 'We have found the next ruler.' "
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Kakashi peeked his head in. "Sakura? I'm here to pick up Team Trouble," he told her, his daughter and his friend's children running towards him. Natsumi and Naomi jumped about hugging him while Tetsuo merely nodded and walked away.
Then another nurse came in and said it was too late for the children to be up, and Tsujiai's team was discharged, Kiba coming in and getting them. As Sakura helped put the kids to rest, Sasuke came over to her and pulled her away.
After a week of apologizing and proving his love to Sakura, everything seemed better to him. Until Sakura came home from the hospital one day.
He had made her move into the Uchiha compound, and she just stormed right by him, not saying hello or kissing him, and walked right into the bathroom. Not long after, he heard the water running.
Sasuke walked by several minutes later and heard her crying. That's when he decided to barge in.
There she was, on the hard floor with only a fluffy pink towel wrapped around her, squatting with her back against the wall and her head in her hands. Sakura looked up with tears still falling, and Sasuke shut the door behind him. He sat down next to her and hugged her.
"He died," she told him. "Tsujiai died today. he remembered I didn't finish the story, and he wanted me to finish it. He's been sick for awhile now...but after everything all I got to hear was thank you. Those were his last words."
Sasuke felt a pang in his chest. "Sakura, how did it finish?" he asked.
Wiping her eyes, she looked up and felt comforted just having him wrap his arms around her.
"Years past, and they had happily had twenty children, Ayumi confessing she had always loved him. But he was still not satisfied. So one day he asked her, why was it one through twenty. And so she answered, 'It took twenty sons before one became a friend. Out of all the sons in the kingdom, only the twentieth knew me, and understood me. Out of twenty, only one. It fit for me. Because love isn't found in one; it's found in many.' "
Sasuke smirked. "So what was the moral?"
Sakura slapped her head and laughed. "Love isn't found in one, and the world can't just be trusted to one, because it takes many."
He smiled and hugged her closer. "That was a nice story."
"His mother told me. He was right. They were alive still. he has nineteen older brothers, too. They sent Tsujiai away so he could be better--they were protecting him. And I let him die."
Then he sighed. "No, you saved his life from being awful."