*Million Dollar Baby*
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha has all he ever wanted; a successful career, married to his beautiful wife, Karin Uzumaki and now that is left is for him to start a family but learns that she cannot bear children. Disappointed and angry at her inability to conceive, his seeks a Surrogate mother without her knowledge.
SasuXSaku
Slight KariXSasu
CA's Note: To those who might be confused on how the way I set the chapter up. Its kinda of like two stories in one like one involving Karin and her experiences with her husband and the other Sakura's experiences with Sasuke (Karin's husband). So it might seem split and choppy. I guess I can mark who's who.
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Karin
Karin Uchiha awakened and without opening her eyes reached across the bed to feel for her husband. He was not there.
She rolled over, barely opening her eyes to glance at the clock. The glowing red numbers flashed 4:37 A.M. Karin sighed, peeled off the blankets, and threw her legs over the bed. She sat on the edge of it, wondering, should she really pursue this with him? But something had to be done. It had been almost every night for a week that she had woken up and found her husband.
She stood up from the bed, grabbed her robe, and ventured out to find him. She walked slowly through the huge downtown penthouse, pulling her robe on and tying the belt around her waist. She took the stairs down from the upper level, not bothering to turn on the light. When she made it halfway down the flight, she could see a giant deal of the first floor, the huge open living room and dining room and the entrance to the kitchen.
It was all dark down there, but the light from the towering skyscrapers just outside their balcony doors, on the sixty-fifth floor, made it possible for Karin to see her husband, Sasuke. He was sitting amazingly still in one of the dining room chairs he had pulled away and set facing the windows. His back was to her as he stared out at the illuminated buildings. He did not turn around, even though Karin was certain that he heard her come down the stairs, was certain that he could feel her as she walked up and stopped just fifteen feet behind him.
"Sasuke," Karin breathed, almost afraid to say another word. "Why are you doing this?"
There was no reply, nor any movement from Karin's husband.
"Sasuke."
"Go to bed, Karin," he finally said, his voice low.
"But every night you get up and you come down here. I just want to know-"
"Karin, please. Go to bed," he said again, without turning in his chair. "Just leave me alone."
Karin opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it, and stopped herself. She turned and headed back for the stairs, grabbing the rail, pulling herself up four or five of them; then she stopped. "Don't stay down here too long, okay, Sasuke? You'll be tired in the morning." Karin stood there at the banister waiting for a response, but when one didn't come, she continued climbing the stairs.
()
It took forever for Karin to fall back asleep, but when she finally did, she felt as though she had been out for only five minutes when her alarm clock started screaming beside her. It was 7:30 A.M., and still Sasuke wasn't beside her. She doubted if he ever came back.
Karin showered, dressed, and figured she would make her and her husband breakfast, considering she didn't have to be at the store until 9 A.M. She walked down the stairs, hoping that what was so heavy on Sasuke's mind had been resolved. She needed to talk to him, work on getting things back to the way they used to be. But when Karin got halfway down the stairs, she heard the front door quickly open and then close again.
She hurried to the front door, threw it open, and stepped out into the hallway, only to hear a "ding" from the elevator and the doors slide to a close. She stood there, unable to believe that her husband, it seemed, not only could no longer sleep an entire night with her in bed but now couldn't stand the sight of her in the morning.
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Karin skipped breakfast, for she had no appetite, and headed on to work. She walked, as she did every morning, because where she worked, an exclusive Italian men's clothing store, was just minutes away from where they lived. She was the first to arrive every morning, because she was the manager, one of the reward she received for attaining her M.B.A She could've quit long ago. It wasn't like she was hurting for money, considering her husband was a billionaire. But she liked the independence, having something more to do than just have spa treatment and shop all day. Besides, she enjoyed what she did, and didn't have to run to her husband every time she needed spending money.
Karin unlocked the store, made her way in across the hardwood floors, and disabled the alarm. The store was made up like a very wealthy man's town home. Exposed brick enclosed the area, the second floor was an overlooking loft. Sofas and chairs were placed about, very expensive clothing intricately strewn over their backs as thought someone actually lived there and had just left after hurriedly dressing.
Racks and racks of other ridiculously priced suits, shirts, slacks, and jackets stood all about the store. And in the back, shelves of shoes costing up to a thousand dollars a pair were neatly stacked. Karin had worked retail clothing all her life, but made the jump from working in the lower-paying stores to a high-classed one when a girlfriend who also worked in retail suggested it.
"You never know. A girl looking like you might snag herself a rich man," Karin's friend said.
She was twenty-seven years old at the time, and it seemed as thought all of her girlfriends was either getting married or engaged. Karin was nowhere near that point, was stuck dating clowns who approached her on the street. She was ready to throw in the towel -considered buying house cats for those lonely Friday night- when a man walked into her store.
"Do you see what I see?" Tayuya, Karin's associate and best friend, said, pulling on Karin's arm as though she were alerting the girl to a fire in the next room.
"I see him," Karin said, yanking away from Tayuya, "I'm looking right at him." They were both in one corner of the store, admiring the tall, broad-shouldered, pale-skinned, slightly spiky-haired man.
"So, what are you going to do?" Tayuya asked.
"I'm not doing nothing."
"What! Why not? The man is fine. Obviously, he has money, or he wouldn't be here, buying this overpriced stuff. And there is fact that you don't have a man, and haven't had one in, like, eons."
"Shut up, Tayuya. Who asked you? Just go over there and asked him if he needs any help."
"I'm not asking him," Tayuya said, "I have a man, and I'm afraid something like that over there could tempt me into leaving his behind tomorrow."
"Just go over there," Karin said, pushing Tayuya in the back. Tayuya stumbled forward, shooting Karin an evil glance, after making sure that man didn't see her trip. "Fine, but don't say I didn't try to give him to you first."
Karin watched as Tayuya walked over, feeling that maybe her friend was right. Maybe she should've gone over there herself, because, like Tayuya said, Karin was terminally single. And then, the man was gorgeous. But looking like that, he had to be married, Karin told herself. She got a glance of his wedding finger, saw that it was bare, and wanted to kick herself. Really wanted to, after Tayuya threw head back laughing, dropped a flirtatious hand on one of his broad shoulders, then shot a look back at Karin that said: Told you. Should of came over yourself.
Oh well, Karin thought, disappointed. She'd been single forever, so what difference did it make?
Tayuya bounced her narrow behind back over to Sakura, a huge giddy grin on her face. "So, what did he say?" Karin asked, less than enthused to hear the answer.
"He wants to impregnate me...syke! He said he wants to talk to you."
"What?"
"Yeah. He said he wants you to be the one to help him with his suits. Now you go over there," Tayuya said, shoving Karin forward, just as Karin had done to her. Karin stumbled as well, but when she looked up to see if the man had seen her trip, he had. Karin blushed with embarrassment as she walked up to the man.
"Yes sir. How may I help you?"
The man looked slightly bewildered. "I don't know," he said, "Your associate said that you'd know what I'd need."
"Oh, oh, yes sir," Karin said, waiting for the man to turn and continue looking through the suit selection before she turned to see Tayuya in the corner of the store, her hand cupped to her mouth, laughing hysterically. Karin helped that man for more than two hours, and when he left, he walked out of the store with four suits and Sakura's number.
He was a sweet man, attentive, and very eager. "I'm going to call you tomorrow, is that okay?" he asked after she had written her phone number on the back of a card and passed it to him.
"Yes, I'd like that," Karin said.
And that was the beginning.
Sasuke and Karin started dating, saw each other at least three times a week for dinner, drinks, movies, or the theater. They slept together after the two weeks, and after that, Sasuke seemed as though he couldn't be in Karin's presence without making love to her, he was a very passionate man.
"So, dude got money?" Tayuya said one day while they were folding and reshelving some sweaters, a month after Karin and Sasuke got together.
"Yeah, he has a small condo, and drives a Mercedes of some kind or other," Karin said, as though it was no big deal. "He's trading stocks for a firm, but he says he want to break away and start his own company soon. And then he said something that kinda freaked me out.
"What?" Tayuya said, leaning in close.
"We were laying in bed last night after -" Karin paused, seeing Tayuya's eyes bulge some- "well, you know...after. And he was telling me about his plans. Then he said he was going to start his own company, but he was waiting for the right woman to come into his life so he could marry her, and they could pursue his dreams together."
"What!" Tayuya said, screaming at the top of her lungs. "He said what!"
"Yeah," said, "And I don't really know how to take it."
"Take it like he's trying to marry you!"
"We only been seeing each other for a month, though. Don't you think it's too to be talking like that?"
"The man is thirty. When do you expect him to talk about it -when he's fifty? Maybe he wants kids or something."
"He does. That's all he seems to talk about," Karin said.
"So, you're saying, he proposes to you a month from now, you're going to turn down a successful, handsome man that will probably become more successful? A man that's about marriage, family, and is certain of that. So certain, that he wants to do it with you. You gonna turn that down?"
"I guess that would be crazy, huh?"
"Oh, yes. Crackhead crazy."
Six months later, Sasuke did proposed, and Karin found herself happily accepting. The wedding took place six months after that, and Karin thought there wasn't a way that she could've ever been happier. Sasuke was a beautiful, successful man that loved her like crazy and wanted nothing more in the world than to immediately start a family.
Unfortunately, that's when she and Sasuke had their first disagreement.
She had known how eager the man was to start a family, had known that from practically the first date they had, but she didn't inform him until the night of their wedding that she had no intention of rushing into having children.
"I'm only twenty-seven, baby. I want a few years just to enjoy us." Sasuke was disappointed, probably more than she had ever let herself realize, but he seemed to accept it, and things once again were perfect between them.
Without the children to slow them down, for the first three years of their marriage Karin and Sasuke traveled all around the world. They spent nights out-of-town, would come in at whatever time they chose, and then make love for as long and as loud as they wanted to, which happened quite often.
It all seemed like a dream back then, Karin thought now, four years later, standing in the same store she had met her husband in. Everything was perfect, until the day she gave her husband exactly what he had been begging for, and got pregnant.
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Sakura
Sakura sighed heavily before placing the newspaper back on the small round table and pulled her Latte to her lips, taking a small sip. Why was it so hard to find a job nowadays? If she didn't find one soon, she would have to stop going to college and start living with her parents again, which it something she could not simply accept.
She had went to over ten interviews in the past month and none of them bastards called her back to tell her if she got it or not. She sat her cup back down on the table and once again lifted the newspaper, scanning her eyes over every little job that she hadn't contact yet. Her eyes then stopped and read one.
It read: Surrogate Mother Needed.
She would of easily skipped over it without giving it a second thought but when she saw the reward. Her eyes bulged, "5 grand a week in nine months," she said disbelievingly, "also a million dollars once infant is born." Her month fell open, shocked. Somebody was paying this much money for one brat? She calculated the numbers in her head; it was 36-39 weeks depending if its a 4 or 5 week month, but technically women are pregnant anywhere from 36-41 weeks in a nine month period.
The number staggered her; anywhere between $180,000 to $205,000 in those nine month, plus a million when the baby is born. She almost stopped breathing; taking out her cellphone she began to dial the number under the title. She stopped before she could push the green button and bit her lip. What was she thinking? Of course it was good money but to carry a baby around for nine months.
It would be for a good cause, she assured herself, she would give a couple that was unable to have a baby a child that they always wanted and also, she wasn't currently in a relationship with nobody. Of course there was the swelling of feet, weird appetites, gaining weight, labor pains and the pain of giving birth and probably the emotional attachment she would gain carrying another life. She could quickly get over that; she liked eating weird foods and she could shed the baby weight easily because she always exercise and ate right.
Labor pains and giving birth; there was no way to avoid them but her body was ready for that, just like any other woman. She was planning on having babies in the future anyway, she just started a little early.
"This money could really help me get through college..." she pushed the call button and put it up against her ear and almost immediately a deep voice sounded on the other end.
"Yes, I've seen your ad and I'm interested in becoming your surrogate."
He asked her simple questions like did she have any STDs or was she a still virgin; she asked them all truthfully, slightly uncomfortable in telling him her sex life She then pulled out a pen and ripped a piece of the newspaper to write down a name of a fertility clinic and directions; he had explained to her that he needed to know her chances of becoming pregnant. He told her that he would schedule an appointment for her at 5:00 P.M.
She looked at her watched; 3:45 P.M.
She furrowed her brow; well that wouldn't leave her much time on trying to find out where the clinic was.
He then told that he wanted to see her later on tonight with the name and location to see the results of the test and for her to collect the down payment of the first 5,000. Sakura thought it was kind of strange that he wanted to start so soon. The couple must be really eager to start a family, which she was sort of happy about, the quicker the better, right?
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Sakura parked her car outside the small restaurant. She looked at her watch, almost time to beet him and his wife. Stepping out the car but not before grabbing the manila folder of her results, she closed the door behind. She checked her dress and hair; she had to present herself good or else they'll think their soon-to-be child would not have pleasant features. Walking into the restaurant, she stopped and began looking around, there wasn't that much people, just some people catching a late dinner and drunken men at the bar watching football.
"Excuse me? May I help you?" She looked at the teenage waitress dumbfounded.
"Um..." she didn't know what to tell her. The guy didn't send a picture of himself or give her his name, "I'm actually meeting someone here." She told her. That's when her face lit in realization.
"Oh, Mr. Uchiha! Right this way." She said. Sakura's eyes widen and her mouth fell open.
U-Uchiha! No way! Could she mean Sasuke Uchiha?!
Sakura followed the girl in disbelief until they came upon a booth. Sakura stared at the man in surprise as he turned his head toward them. She blushed, and oh my God! This man was gorgeous! In all her life she had never seen a man so handsome. She began to wonder a little what features the child would inherit from him and her. He smiled slightly at her, motioning her to take a seat and told the waitress to take her leave.
Sakura nervously sat across from him, her eyes never tearing away from him.
"So, do you have the results?" He immediately asked. She blinked, snapping herself out of her trance before sliding the folder toward him. He picked it up and opened it. He only read the line that were important and nodded his head, satisfied to what he learn.
"Perfect." He said placing the folder down. He reached behind him, lifting a bit a retrieve the envelope in his back pocket and slide it toward her. Sakura nervously looked at it. There was no turning back when she got this money.
She grabbed it and opened it; eyes instantly bulged. She had never seen so much money at the same time. She closed it and stuck in her purse.
She smiled and leaned her elbows on the table, "So, where is your wife so we can talk about arrangements?" She said looking around for moment before turning her eyes back on him. He shook his head.
"My wife will not be joining us, in fact, she doesn't know anything about this." She just stared at him before falling back in her seat.
"Mr. Uchiha, I don't think this is a good idea. Doing something like this behind your wife's back...isn't right and can probably cause problems within your marriage and I don't want that on my conscious to know I had somehow messed it up." She said.
"And that's why I'm paying you for your silence. My wife doesn't need to know and never will know, as long as we keep it confidential between us. I already planned ahead of time that I would just tell her I adopted." She gave him a scrutinizing look. He was paying her a lot of money...
She sighed, finally giving in, the only reason she was still going on about this was because of the hope of her future coming from the money he was paying. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Okay, so when are we going to schedule the appointment at the clinic?" She asked, still a little disgruntled.
She raised a brow as he once again shook his head.
"I don't believe in artificially prepared pregnancy..." She just stared at him.
Did he...?
She was so surprised that she couldn't make a reaction. That's when their early conversation came back to her when he had asked if she was a virgin. She now realized he wasn't asking her that because it will be more then the usual pain giving birth but to have sex with her. She lightly slammed her hand on the table.
"I'm sorry but have you lost your mind! Its worse enough that your wife doesn't know about this but also you want to impregnate me the natural way! If you don't know; its called infidelity! If you had any smarts you will ask for the money back and we'll go our separate way." She silently yelled.
She looked at him strangely when he put his hand over his face, "You're so annoying. Why is this such a problem for you," she glared at him once she heard what he called her, "I'm paying you a great deal money just to bare me a child, not be with me in a committed relationship," he sighed, calming his nerves, "Sorry for blowing up like this...its just that I want to start a family. I love my wife very dearly, but ever since I found out that she couldn't have kids, I haven't been the same way around her knowing that she can't give me what I want most. I thought that this would help get our marriage back together..." He trailed off.
She felt her anger recede as it was replaced by pity. She couldn't imagine what his wife was going through knowing that she wouldn't be able to give her husband what he wanted the most. She could only imagine the weight that would be lifted off her shoulders once he bought a newborn baby through the door.
And this man was willing to hide this all from her just for her sanity, so she would feel useless knowing he to seek another female to do the job she couldn't. She sighed contently before reaching for his hand, he looked up at her. "Mr. Uchiha." She didn't say another word as she only nodded her head.
Okay first chapter done. I'll explain Karin's situation next chapter.