A/N: I noticed that there are hardly any SasuSaku Baby/Pregnancy fanficitons to speak of and decided to contribute this fic to the SasuSaku-verse. This is my first multi-chaptered fic so I really don't know what to expect.. There is a vague plot in my mind, I just hope I will be able to type it as well as I am imagining it. Furthermore it will be M-Rated in later chapters.
But anyway do read and review and tell me if you like it. Oh and this is canon till about manga chapter 496 or something, that is, after the ninja alliance, and the confrontation between Team 7 but before Naruto meets Killerbee.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Music: Airplanes - B.O.B feat. EMINEM

Sakura had once heard the night sky described as black silk with diamonds sprinkled over it, by Kakashi probably, after he had read a particularly prolific chapter of his beloved Icha Icha.

Right then, as she lay gazing at the sky in a clearing, in the middle of nowhere, she was inclined to agree with her ex-sensei.

Her eyes roamed over the sky, idly making out big and small constellations, naming the various stars, mapping her position and doing anything and everything except to think about the real reason why she was lying alone in a forest in the middle of the night.

But the mind is a treacherous thing. Tell it to avoid something and that would be the only thing it would think about.

And so, when she closed her eyes it wasn't too hard to imagine that she was twelve again. That this was just another Team Seven mission. Kakashi-sensei would be sitting on a branch nearby with Icha Icha in hand. If she imagined hard enough she could just make out Naruto's loud, obnoxious snores. If she wished for it hard enough she could almost convince herself that the empty space beside her would be occupied by Sasuke, even though his back would be turned to her as usual, he would be there.

But what use was wishing when there wasn't even a single shooting star in the sky.

Her useless wishing and the resulting tightening of her chest were a sharp enough reminder of the real reason she was not heading straight back to Konoha after her mission as she really should have been.

It was Sasuke's birthday today.

That was reason enough for her to seek solace from a place where every corner, every shop and every person still reminded her of memories that refused to fade. Did she want them to fade?

But there were other reasons she wanted to escape the village. The war was near and the atmosphere in the village was... gloomy to say the least, at least among those left in the village. These days it was more common to spend nights in inns outside the village or in a camp in the forest or even hidden in a sewer in an enemy village, than in your own bed.

With an almost seventy percent increase in missions, resources were spread thin and so the Hokage had been forced to assign more and more individual missions, the reason that Sakura was increasingly undertaking A-class missions alone.

This had been one such mission, a small civilian village just south of Konoha had requested the help of Sakura specifically from the Hokage to get rid of some Sound nin that had taken up resident there and were terrorizing the populace. The Hokage suspected that they had been sent to collect information about Konoha and had sent her to get rid of them. Sakura herself hadn't expected them to be above chunin level at best, if they couldn't even lay low properly when so near Konoha.

And they weren't.

Because they weren't Sound nin. In fact they weren't ninjas. They were just regular thugs. And while this wouldn't have been a problem for Sakura, it turned out they were far greater in number than expected.

But of course, they were no match for the Hokage's own apprentice.

Still, it had taken her a whole day and a lot of chakra to get rid of them all. In return the kind village headman had paid her handsomely, that too with a family heirloom - a katana. Vainly she had tried to tell her employer that it would be of no use to her, that she didn't use a katana but he had been adamant.

The handle was blue and engraved with intricate sakura petals swirling around it, which may have been the chief reason he was so insistent on giving it to her, she thought wryly. Now, two hours away from Konoha, she was warring with her inner self whether to sell it or not. It was beautiful, but of no use to her.

Or she could always gift it to someone, her inner self put in slyly. As a birthday present.

To someone who used a katana...

Sakura shook her head, as if the movement itself could stop her thoughts from venturing into dangerous territory.

All of a sudden there was a tingling sensation at the back of her neck, which could have resulted from her shaking her head so vigorously but Sakura was a kunoichi and she knew better. Instantly she was on her feet and in a defensive stance with a kunai in hand.

"I know you are there. Show yourself." Her eyes combed through the forest even as she backed out of the clearing where she was open from all sides.

But she froze as something moved in front of her, in the darkness created by towering trees. Sakura's hand inched towards the radio in her pouch as a shadow broke away and slowly, with sure steps advanced towards her.

With quick, small movements Sakura opened her pouch and slipped her hand inside to take out the radio.

That was when the person spoke up ,"I wouldn't do that if I were you...", Sakura's eyes widened, something in her chest constricted and her heart started working double time while her body was rendered immobilised. Because she knew that voice,"...Sakura"

The person stepped out of the shadows and into the clearing providing Sakura with her first clear look of him in years.

"Sasuke-kun...", the name came out more as a gasp than a word but it was clear that Sasuke had heard it, by the looks of the small smirk playing at the corner of his lips. And he disappeared.

But Sakura, or rather her body, even in her shock didn't forget her years of training. She twisted and jumped backwards, throwing her kunai a little behind the place where she had been standing a second ago, the place where Sasuke was now. He jumped backwards and straight onto a tree branch, from where he smirked down at her unpleasantly.

"I am impressed Sakura, you have improved."

The implied insult to her younger self brought her out of her surprise and Sakura bristled, he was mocking her! Now that her rose colored glasses had cleared a bit, she could accept the fact -Naruto could be right sometimes, Sasuke was a bastard and would always be. "Tch, you are just predictable Sasuke."

His eyebrows lifted just imperceptibly. "Aren't you going to beg me to come back to Konoha Sakura?" His smirk remained in place but his eyes turned colder, "Oh, no wait, now you are more interested in killing me."

Sakura's heart constricted. He knew nothing. But she put on a smirk matching his.

"I know a lost cause when I see one Sasuke. And the way I see it, you more than returned the favour last time", her eyes hardened as she lifted a hand to caress her throat. He didn't know how many nights she had woken up after their last fateful meeting, gasping and clutching her throat, still feeling the deadly pressure of his fingers. And after every such episode the inevitable question would invade her mind, 'what if Naruto hadn't been there? Would Sasuke have...?

Sasuke had lost the smirk, he was now just staring down at her with unreadable eyes.

Sakura's mind was racing. Why was he here, this close to Konoha? What did he want? He couldn't be just passing by. If he was passing by, why was he engaging with her? Whatever he was here for, it couldn't be good and she didn't have much chakra left. She had to contact Konoha.

He was still just staring at her, a calculating look in those dark eyes. Should she risk reaching for her pouch again? At least it would end the tense silence that was now enveloping them.

As fast as she could, she inserted her hand into the pouch at her hip... but it just wasn't fast enough.

In a flash Sasuke was behind her and had her wrist in his grip, She couldn't evade him this time. A tight squeeze had her dropping the transmitter that she had managed to take hold of. She had been so close...

She gritted her teeth at his painful grasp. He took her hand out of the pouch but she wasn't giving up so soon, with her other hand she slid a kunai out of her other pouch and twisting in his hold she tried to stab him but he stopped it before it could reach anywhere close to his person. With another painful squeeze the kunai was on the ground and he had both her hands in his grasp.

"Hn", annoyance laced his grunt.

Sakura gritted her teeth, this won't work, her chakra levels were low and she was in no position to fight with him; the only thing left to do was to hope that Sasuke could be reasoned with...

She was doomed.

"Leave me Sasuke and I won't report to Konoha about you", she bit out.

Sasuke snorted derisively and squeezed harder than necessary as he transferred both her hands into his right one, "Hn. The moment I let you go, you'll try to contact Konoha."

"Then you don't know me that well Sasuke, 'cause the moment you let me go - I'll kill you", and with that Sakura used the chakra she had slowly been gathering into her feet to do a back flip flying straight over Sasuke's head. She transferred some chakra into her hands and lifted Sasuke, who was still holding her hands, along with her and flung him over her head, as soon as her feet touched the ground.

She turned around just in time to watch him take hold of a branch and swing himself to lessen the momentum and then land in a neat crouch at the base of the tree.

It would be too much to hope that that would hurt him, wouldn't it?

"Why are you here Sasuke? What do you want?" She gathered the last of her chakra into her fists, just because Sasuke hadn't retaliated yet didn't mean that he wouldn't. There was a reason for his appearance here, however insane and/or twisted. Whatever it was it didn't bode well for her.

He didn't reply, just straightened up from his crouch, his expression as blank as ever.

Sakura pursed her lips in frustration, it was true that no matter how many times she had told Naruto, Sai, Kakashi and Ino that she had forgotten Sasuke, that the next time they met, she would kill him, she could never keep him far from her mind... or her heart.

More often than she would like to admit, she had caught herself imagining a more perfect, alternate reality; where both Naruto and Sasuke had their parents, maybe then he wouldn't have left. Maybe then he would have accepted her. Maybe then... she could have made him stay.

Even today, on his birthday, she had hoped to catch a glimpse of him. But this... well this had just poured water on the painting that she had created in her mind about all that she had hoped their next reunion would be and put on a pedestal and she felt like she was watching all the colour disappear down the drain.

Her inner self however, wasn't that idealistic. What did you expect? He showed no hesitation in trying to kill us last time. We should show him what we are made of!

Sakura pursed her lips, she was tired and grimy from her mission not to mention worried about her friends who were out on their own missions, the last thing she needed was a verbally challenged Uchiha to make her already bad day worse. She had next to no amount of chakra left, killing Sasuke, for his own sake of course, would have to wait.

"I can see that you are going to be your usual, tight-lipped, bastardly self and well, right now I am just not in the mood for that, so", stiffly she walked over to where her bag and the katana were lying, "I am going to take my leave."

In a heartbeat he was in front of her,"You are coming with me", and the last thing she remembered before the darkness enveloped her were spinning tomoes on a background of red.

"Oh Baaaaa-chaaan!"

Tsunade rubbed her temples, why did he have to be so loud?

Shizune, who was standing beside her, gave her a sympathetic if slightly amused smile. The last few days, well actually the last few months had been pretty hectic for Tsunade and the fact that Shizune had found a new space for hiding the sake hadn't helped either. And with Sakura hardly around to bully into getting her some more of it, the Hokage was suffering from withdrawal, the various dents, bruises and injuries around the Hokage tower attesting to the fact.

The door banged open and in walked a grinning Naruto. "Hey Baa-chan! I am back!"

"Do you have to be so bloody loud Naruto," barked Tsunade.

Naruto either ignored the warning or was oblivious to it as he continued in a loud voice, which now had a whiny note injected in it, "The mission was a bust Baa-chan and it was so boring. The guys you had us follow were not sound nin at all, they were just some merchants from Sound selling their wares in Konoha just like they said. They were so slow and it got really boring. But I am pretty sure they didn't notice me. Though getting past the border was a lot more difficult than before but-"

"Naruto!" Tsunade interrupted, her voice dangerously low, "why don't you mention all of that in the report you will be submitting very soon", heavy emphasis was placed on the last words to remind Naruto not to be late about his reports again.

He pouted, then brightened in quick succession, "I'll ask Sakura-chan to help me write the report. Hey Baa-chan, is she on a mission?"

Tsunade, who was drooped on her table with her head in her hands, straightened abruptly, her brows furrowed.

"Shizune!" she barked.

"Yes Tsunade-sama?"

"Where is Sakura?"

"Uhhh...", she bit her lip, "she is... not back yet, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade growled, "She was supposed to return last night!"

Naruto who had been listening quietly up till that time, piped up, "What's wrong Baa-chan? Where is Sakura-chan?"

Tsunade didn't even hesitate before providing him with confidential mission information - she had long since decided to name Naruto as her successor, as soon as he was old enough of course. Before that if anything happened to her, the fate of the village would rest on Kakashi's incurably late shoulders. But all that aside the fact remained that Naruto was Sakura's closest friend, in fact, he was listed as her next of kin. Before anyone else, even her family, Sakura had wanted any essential news related to her to reach him first, such was their bond and Tsunade was well aware of it.

"Sakura is supposed to be checking on some intel we received in Kida village, just South of here", and she proceeded to describe the whole mission to Naruto.

He listened attentively with a serious expression, which Shizune mused changed his whole countenance, making him look older than his seventeen years. She let her gaze roam over him, from head to toe. He really had grown up to become quite handsome - his shoulders had widened, his face had lost its youthful chubbiness, his jaw was more defined and he was certainly more gangly than before and his sun-like hair was longer. The only thing that remained the same were his bright blue eyes, still full of laughter, warmth, determination and mischief. Shizune didn't think she ever wanted them to change.

"Uhhh Shizune-san, could you really not stare at me like that? I mean, I don't mind older women but somehow I know any relationship between us will suffer at the hands Sakura-chan, that is, if Baa-chan, here, doesn't get to us first... ", Shizune snapped out of her reverie to stare at a grinning Naruto with eyes full of mischief.

Well, his perverseness is also the same as before... if not worse, she thought dryly, as Tsunade landed a sound blow to his head. To his credit, Naruto recovered in under a minute, his head had gotten used used to it.

Tsunade took some deep breaths. Sakura's safety was ranked above murdering Naruto. Finally when she felt the itch to murder someone recede, she opened her eyes and looked Naruto straight in the eyes, "You know what to do then Naruto?"

Mischief immediately took a back-seat and he nodded determinedly, "Yes, I'll scout the village and bring Sakura-chan back safely."

Tsunade nodded and dismissed him with a flick of her hand. He had a hand on the knob but stopped when she called out, "Naruto,", he turned to look at her, but she hesitated before saying "Take Kakashi with you... just in case.."

Naruto gritted his teeth, the thought of something happening to Sakura made his stomach twist unpleasantly, but he knew that a shinobi had to consider every angle and so he nodded and quickly made his way out of the door before Tsunade could say anything else unpleasant or ortherwise.

Tsunade sighed. Then without turning she held out her hand and Shizune well-versed with her ways and routine, dutifully procured a small piece paper and a coin from her pocket and placed it in her palm. Placing the paper on the table, Tsunade took the coin and started scratching the silvery line on the paper. Shizune watched from her shoulder, biting her lip, her fingers crossed. As she read the the numbers that emerged, her heart sank in dread and dismay. She closed her eyes but Tsunade kept on staring at the paper with her lips pursed in a grim line.

She had won the lottery.