From my studies, I always knew that this was going to be hard. The fact that my body feels as if it's being spilt up the middle though, wasn't covered in my books.
Tsunade-shishou never had any children, so we never covered the affects on the body, only how to deliver and heal afterwards, along with the proper aftercare of the child.
"Breath. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1..." Sakura counted out loud for herself. No one else was around to do this for her. She was on a mission coming back from Suna, when the pains of contractions began to hit her. From there, she had three options to take: run back to Suna, try to make it back home, or have the baby here. She decided on the latter.
And so she lies here, in a clearing, in the middle of the forest with a stream, which she is currently half-emerged in.
"Why wouldn't this damn child come out, it's already two months early, apparently it wants to be here, just come out already!" Another contraction pain racked her body and she let out a loud pain-filled moan. "Damn him! He's the one who got me in this position and he's not even here to help me!"
If Tsunade sent her on a mission to Kiri and him to a mission in Suna he somehow always managed to find her. No matter what, he'd find her. As he always had. It didn't matter the land, even Iwa wasn't out of the question. "Damn him."
"Breath. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4..," Sakura didn't even make it to three before she let out a scream. "It's coming, it's coming!" Sakura's hand went for one of her kunai that she had laid out earlier and finished cutting off her black tights and underwear. The blood had starting mixing with the stream's slow current and traveled downwards.
"You have to start pushing and healing so that you can carry the child back to Konoha." Inner Sakura had been always there for her when pain had laced her body, keeping her on track and consistently pushing her further in her studies and training. She wouldn't stop here. "Ok, I can do this. With my skills as a medic, I and the child will make it." After her determination had set in, Sakura let out a wave of charka to search a 5-mile radius to make sure she was safe. Nothing. It was safe. She felt another contraction begin and she pushed. Her fists tighten in the soft dirt beneath her, and she let a hard breath out.
Her ANBU chest plate felt heavy against her chest and her mask sat a skewed on top of her head. Sakura concentrated on sending healing charka down to her womb and checked on the child's vital signs, along with lubricating her vaginal canal. "Everything checks out alright on my child, along with my dilation being correct."
"Breath. 10…9…8…7…" Sakura pushed hard, felt herself tear, and watch more blood fill the stream. "How I wish Tsunade-shishou was here." As Sakura sent a small dose of soothing charka down to her womb, she felt it. "Two! Two children!" How had she missed this during her check-ups, not only by Tsunade, but by herself too!
"Damn him, him and his superior genes. And of course they just have to have my stubbornness, why couldn't they have gotten his lateness?"
No wonder this was much more difficult than she had imagined. Why couldn't he find her now, just like he had always done before? Why now? Sakura felt another tremor rack her body and she pushed, along with the helping aid of some charka to ease the pain. Sakura heard a small cry, along with pressure being alleviated from her body. She quickly reached down and scooped her child up, grabbing a kunai and cutting the umbilical cord. She placed the small, bloody mess onto a small square of medical bandages. "I have to get this one out now!" With another surge of charka, and another pain-filled pressure release, her other child was born.
She proceeded to cut the umbilical cord on this one and set the child next to the first-born one. Sakura then gave birth to the afterbirth and watched it wash away in the stream's lazy current. Taking a deep, calming breath, Sakura listened to her two children's cries, "Good. They are making noises, now all I have to do is….NO!" Sakura sent out another wave of charka and felt a large mass of foreign charka. It was traveling at fast pace and would be here in approximately five minutes.
Sending a surge of healing charka down to her nether regions, Sakura started to heal herself, along with collecting her babes in her arms.
"The first time I get to hold them and it's in this dire situation, my luck exactly," Sakura thought to herself as she rushed over to the edge of the clearing, away from the approaching ninjas.
"Doton: Earth Dome," Sakura whispered and created a small, foot thick earth barrier that will protect her children. Creating a clone of herself, Sakura sent the clone to hid behind the dome and to start amassing chakra into her seal.
After watching Naruto several times collecting and activating his Sage Chakra, Sakura had tested out several was to do the same, but to collect it in her seal and store it in a much quicker way then amassing the chakra over a three-year period to use. After a year of consist mediation and revision of the justu, she had done it. She had essentially created Medical Sage Chakra. After having done the justu successfully for the fist time, two smaller diamonds had appeared on either side of the main seal that Tsunade had taught her. These two smaller seal would be filled much more rapidly than her normal one, and she used these during dire situations.
"For example, now." A signal tear fell from her eye, and with that last thought, the shinobi appeared in the clearing.
"Here we go Sakura-chan, we have defeated enemies way above their skills, all the while being injured. This is no different; those babes in that dome are your two teammates that you are protecting. We can do this."
"Well look what we have here boys, a Konoha kunoichi, and a pretty one at that," said the shinobi that appeared in the cleaning a second before the others. "And look at that, she's injured and appears to be protecting something in that dome."
"What do you want?!" Sakura questioned the group of eight. "Well the Godaime's Apprentice has a nice bounty on her head," the smaller, leaner one told her. "So you're Hunter-nins I take it, well then…" and with that Sakura shot off towards the smaller one. He appears to be the smartest one of the team, considering he spoke of the bounty that is on her head. With a fist full of charka, Sakura smashed her fist into his face and felt his neck give away. Her speed was one of her worst areas back when she was younger, so she trained with Lee and sometimes Guy-sensei. Because of that hell she went through, she had improved her speed twenty-fold, along with her endurance. She even still wore the weights that those two had given her. Doing a quick substitution, she avoided a kunai to the head, and landed behind two of the shinobi. She sped off toward them, with her ANBU grade sword in hand. As the tip pierced the first body, he disappeared into water and at the same time the earth rumbled beneath her. Thinking quick, she sent a large spike of charka into the ground and jumped back at the same time. Two kunai were thrown at her, she twisted in mid-area and landed in a fighting stance. The shinobi that was underground emerged with his left side completely bloodied due to the missing arm that was ripped off.
"I smell the stench of birth in the air," a whisper from behind her said. Her eyes widened with fear and with unknown speed she flew over to the earth dome that housed her children.
"You will not harm my children!" Sakura flew through a cluster of hand signs creating a wall of earth between her and the fire that was fastly approaching her. Creating another clone, both of the Sakuras armed themselves with chakra scalpels. Rushing the wall, Clone Sakura flipped over the wall and landed in a fighting pose. Three of the ninjas, including the one-armed one, engaged her in battle, while the other four engaged the real Sakura.
Clone Sakura was able to easily take out one of the shinobi due to him having lost his arm and his main skill being that of a taijustu specialist, while the other two were giving her some trouble. One of the shinobi was a wind-user, and since Sakura was primarily a short-ranger fighter, it was harder for her to get to him. And the other one mainly used taijustu along with some exotic weapons. Throwing several kunai, one with an exploding tag, at the two they began to dodge and counter the weapons. Sakura had layered a genjustu over the weapon user, throwing off his depth perception. The bomb kunai caught him in the chest. While the remaining shinobi was concentrating on avoiding the deadly weapons, Sakura raised a small wall behind him. While he was backing up, he tripped on the wall and she wasted no time, rushed him and embedded her sword in his head. Having completed her task, clone Sakura dispersed herself, giving back the remaining charka to the real Sakura.
The real Sakura's battle wasn't going so well. A water dragon had clipped her on her left shoulder, leaving her left arm completely numb. Plus she was still incredibly tired and weak after giving birth to her two children. "Why can't he just be here to protect me and his children…?"
"No Sakura-chan! You don't need anyone, but yourself! You remember all of the blood, sweat, and tears you put into being who you are! You are Haruno Sakura, ANBU Captain, and the Godamine's Apprentice!"
After Inner's speech, determination lit up in Sakura's green eyes. "Fine, you want to play? I'll play then." Sakura called the clone from behind the earth dome and dismissed her. The Seals on her forehead began to glow, and Sakura felt a strong pressure build up in her forehead and she released them. Purple geometric patterns began to flow down her face, alongside her eyes, over her checks, and down into the center of her chest. They then exploded outwards to her arms and around her belly button, where they began to heal the numbness in her arm and the tears and muscle fatigue in her vaginal area that was caused after giving birth. Her green eyes took on a glowing aspect and her pupils turned into purple slits. "Are you ready now? You want to hurt my children? Now it's my turn to hurt you."
After that being said, Sakura flew towards her opponents, and just like in the beginning of the fight, took out the water-user with one punch, causing his brain matter to explode outside of his head. Sakura felt a huge heat on her back, and just in time kicked a slab of rock up to protect herself from the incoming flames. Molding her chakra to settle in her lungs, she formed a one-handed seal and blew out a gust of wind that sliced the rock and fire in half. Having been on a team with a fire-user, Sakura knew never to breath in during a katon justu, but her surprise attack caused the fire breather to gasp in air, leading to his throat and face to suffer third-degree burns, where his throat became an unused passageway for air to get to his lungs. "And then there was one," Sakura taunted with a grin. "How would you like to go? Oooo, I know, how about a new justu I've been working on…" and before the last shinobi knew what hit him, he was dead on the forest floor. Sakura had created charka senbon out of her Medical Sage charka and impaled them into his eyes, leading the chakra to overload his sense and shut down his brain.
"No one will ever harm my children so long as I live."
Having finished the battle with the Hunter-nins, Sakura went over to the earth dome and dismissed it. She kneeled down to her two naked and bloody babes, placing a hand on each of her children. Sakura still had plenty of her Medical Sage chakra, that when she used it to heal her children the chakra was purple and not the normal green colour, along with it being twice as powerful than her regular Mystic Palms technique. With a content sigh, Sakura put her children into a slumber so that she could transport them with ease. Gathering her pack from the edge of the stream, she dug through the bag and pulled out a pair of underwear, at least she wouldn't have to travel home in a half-naked state. With another sigh, Sakura collected her two children in her arms and sped off into the trees.
With the Medical Sage chakra still coursing through her veins, the day and half trip back to Konoha only took her the remaining daylight to get back home. She bounced from tree limb to tree limb, until the main gates came into view. "I hope that he's here."
Sakura leaped down from a tree limb and landed in the road leading up to the gates, about half a mile away. With the Medical Sage chakra still working, her green eyes glowed in the twilight time of the day. Stepping through the gates, Sakura felt a weight lift off of her shoulders; she was now home where she could see Tsunade-shishou and her lover. Heading straight to the Hokage tower, Sakura ascended the stairs to her mention and mother figure's office.
Knowing that Tsunade would still be in her office, Sakura knocked and waited for her shishou to tell her to come in. "Enter."
"Tsunade-shishou…." with Sakura's soft spoken words, Tsunade looked up from her paperwork, and nearly knocked over her bottle of sake. "Sakura! Are you all right? What happened? Oh Kami, are those…are those yours?" Standing up from her chair, and briskly walking over to her student, she placed glowing green hands onto her student. "Tsunade… we are alright, my Seals, I used them." Taking a step back, Tsunade noticed the glowing green eyes and purple markings on her student's body. "So even after child birth you were able to mold your chakra according and even use my seal, along with your own modified ones. You surely have surpassed me now." Sakura blushed from the compliment, "Shishou…I'm sure that there is still plenty for me to learn from you." And with a shake of her head, Tsunade took the two babes from Sakura and sat down in her chair, Sakura followed suit into the chair across from the desk.
"Have you thought of any names yet for them?", Tsunade questioned Sakura, as she gently rocked the children. "Not yet, he and I haven't had that discussion. For one, I didn't even know that I was having twins, nor was I expecting them to come two months early….". And from there Sakura reencounter the events of her birthing process and the fight with the Hunter-Nins. "So I see. Haruno Sakura I release you from active duty until you deem in fit to return to work." Sakura was slightly surprised by the quick dismissal of her ANBU duty, but was grateful for it. There was so much to do now that her children were here. "Tsunade-shishou there is something I would like to request of you." With a quirked eyebrow from her mentor, Sakura continued, "We had talked about who we had wanted to make the godmother of our children, and well, will you do us the honour of becoming the godmother of the twins?" Tsunade looked surprised at first, but then her face softened, "Of course Sakura." Tsunade looked at the two children in her arms and returned them to Sakura.
Taking the sleeping babes from Tsunade, Sakura ased,"Where is he?" "He should be returning from a mission, he will be here within the hour." So Sakura and Tsunade waited in her office, going over a few plans and names for her children. Without warning, a knock was heard at the door. "Enter," Tsunade called out, and the door opened to allow the ANBU shinobi to step in. "Remove your mask, and report." Kneeling onto a knee, the ANBU shinobi removed his mask and gave the report on a successful mission to the Land of Waves.
Sakura was beginning to fidget in her seat, she knew that he couldn't acknowledge her until the Hokage release him from his last mission, but she wanted him to say something or have some kind of emotion response to the two bundles that she had in her arms. But there was nothing in his eyes that showed any sort of surprise or joy. "I hope he doesn't reject us."
"Good job, your village thanks you for your service. You are released from the confides of your mission and you earnings will be transferred into your account. Now then..." and Tsunade gestured to Sakura and the two tiny bundles.
Just as he had reached her and wrapped her in his arms, two tiny wails began to sound from Sakura's arms. Her lover released her and took a step back from his loved ones. Sakura rocked her children and cooed at them until they settled down in her arms. "The poor things have a had rough first day on earth, they must be hungry and in need of a good bath. Tsunade-sama is it all right if we draw up the paperwork tomorrow for the twins?"
"That will be fine Sakura, have you decided on how you will feed the children? Will you nurse them or with a formula?" Sakura shifted the children in her arms and with a thoughtful look on her face she stated, "I'm going to nurse them for awhile and then switch them over to….oh. Oh Kami!" With panic in her voice, Tsunade rushed over to Sakura, " What? What is wrong…how is this even possible!? Eyes aren't developed until later on in the developmental stage. How?!" With confusion in his stance, he walked over to the two panicked women to see what the fuss was about. He looked down at his two children and at first didn't see anything wrong with them, until he looked at their eyes.
In each of his children's face, a boy and a girl he realized, stood a lone Sharingan.