Story: Pink Happiness

Author: MizukiYukiko

Rated: T

Pairing: ItachiXSakura

Disclaimer: Standard discla

imers apply. I don't own Naruto.

Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Uchiha Fugaku was not against his son's marrying outside of the clan. He was not even ag

ainst them choosing a bride of civilian background. But did his eldest son have to choose someone with…pink hair?

Notes: 50_shinobi themed challenge #19. Applesauce. This is a gift fic for Snowrose65 for being the 400th reviewer on The First Time. Her prompt was Dynasty, her choice pairing was NonMass Itachi and Sakura.

If you would like to find out how you can win gift!fic, then read The First Time, especially the two most recent chapters. I am offering some other gift!fics for some of the stuff offered on there.

Pink Happiness

"Open wide."

Itachi watched her with startling intensity as she swooped the small blue spoon of apple sauce to the face of one of his little cousins, ten-month-old Uchiha Emiko. Emiko's little eyes scrunched when her round mouth opened to accept her meal of mushed apples as Sakura cooed to the baby in the high chair of his living room.

"Good job!" Sakura chorused again as she dipped the spoon in for another round before bringing it to the lips of the child once again. Emiko ate the apple sauce like a champ, mashing it between her gums before swallowing the substance down and opening her mouth for another round of her dinner.

Uchiha Itachi did not babysit, and where his cousin Kohaku got the idea that he did, he didn't know. But regardless, when he and Sakura had been having lunch with his parents earlier in the day and Kohaku had arrived to seek help with her infant, it had not been he who had accepted the responsibility. No, it had been the pinkette next to him, feeding the baby her dinner of mushed apples, who had jumped at the chance to look after one of the newest members of the Uchiha clan. Sakura loved children, and she had taken little Emiko out of her mother's arms and whisked her away without a worry or fear.

Mikoto had chuckled that Sakura would be such a good addition to the family one day, and Itachi couldn't help but agree. Fugaku had remarked that it seemed early in their courtship to be considering marriage, as he and Sakura had only been officially courting for a little over a month, but Itachi and Sakura had a secret.

The two had been dating for well over a year before propositioning his parents for the right to court. Itachi had wanted to keep Sakura away from the pressures of the clan, lest she be driven off by their suffocating obligations, expectations, and conservative values. Sakura was a bright, fiery kunoichi with a bright future ahead of her, and he surely did not want to scare her away before he had the chance to truly learn her.

He also did not know how his family would respond. Sasuke had figured out about six months into their relationship, and blessed them, albeit tentatively. Team Seven was a tight knit group of shinobi, proven by their ability to stay together throughout the stages of their ever-growing careers. Naruto and Kakashi had been more reluctant by the ever-growing seriousness in their relationship, but Itachi's steadfast determination in making the pink haired medic his and his overwhelming desire to protect and care for the kunoichi eventually won over the fickle Team Seven.

Mikoto was not a worry to Itachi, either. Sakura had been a fixture in the Uchiha household since she was twelve years old, and Mikoto always doted on the young girl as if she were the daughter she never had. His loving mother just desired for her son's happiness, and seeing him with Sakura always brought a rather excited gleam to his Okaa-san's eye. Itachi suspected his mother knew of their relationship even before Sasuke did, but she never brought it up.

No, it was Fugaku that Itachi was most concerned over. His father was a strict and hard to please man. Since Itachi was a small boy, he had raved about the Uchiha and their dynasty. He had always made the point that the Uchiha were not just a clan in Konoha, they were the clan in Konoha. The Uchiha family had been in existence since the founding days of the village, over five generations before, and it was of utmost importance that they preserve the sanctity of the Uchiha bloodline.

Itachi was not so convinced.

After knowing Sakura for so long and working with her on a few missions, Itachi had found himself inexplicably attracted to the young girl one day. He found he could no longer keep his eyes from straying to her when she came into a room, and what started out as a rather odd fascination with the pinkette eventually turned to desire and the overwhelming feeling of possessiveness towards her.

Courting her had been a long process, beginning with convincing her that his feelings were real, and ending when she finally agreed to date him as long as they did it in secret for a while. Surely, if the clan had found out about them sooner, they would have been forced into a marriage that they may not want long ago. But those feelings of restraint had all but left Itachi at this point. He knew what Sakura was; she was his endgame, the rest of his life.

This decision was further cemented, watching her now as she finished off the last of the infant's dinner and moved to pick the contented child up. Gurgles came from deep in the baby's throat, and a few bubbles puckered from her open lips.

"Itachi, could you get me the rag in the diaper back that Kohaku-san brought?" Sakura asked. The baby was lying lazily on Sakura's shoulder, yawning as if ready for bed. Itachi reached into the red bag that his cousin had brought with her and found a ratty old rag that had clearly seen better days. Sakura nodded when he held it up for his appraisal. "Lay it under Emi-chan's head so if she spits up, it doesn't get on my clothes."

Maneuvering the child's heavy head rather awkwardly, Itachi scooted the rag onto Sakura's shoulder and figured it would suffice for the time being. Sakura walked in circles around the kitchen, rubbing the baby's back and soothing her into a lulled sleep. Itachi stood rather awkwardly in the middle of the room, just watching his lover with rapt fascination as she murmured sweet babbles of nothing until the infant went limp in her arms.

Kohaku had brought a small, portable crib with her that Itachi had set up earlier in the day. After Emiko had been sleeping for a few minute and Sakura was relatively sure she wasn't going to be waking up any time soon, she moved slowly into the living room and gently placed the sleeping toddler into the crib. Emiko let out another gurgle and shifted restlessly before finding a comfortable position and falling back asleep, her breath evening.

A small, intimate smile graced Sakura's lips as she looked down at the sleeping baby. Itachi came to stand next to her, his hand going to the small of her back as they simply watched the little toddler doze contently.

X

Fugaku found his wife sitting on a mat on the engawa outside, watching the intimate scene of his oldest son and his girlfriend unfold before her. Sakura had just walked into the sitting room where the small crib had been set up and was slowly, carefully placing the baby into the crib where she would hopefully sleep until her mother returned from her short-term mission later that evening.

Mikoto didn't bother to hide her smile at the two. Itachi really had found the perfect woman for himself, and she was so excited that her relatively reclusive, socially inept son had found Sakura and that she had accepted him. As a mother, she had recognized the tell-tale signs of first attraction, fascination, and then the love that Itachi had towards the pinkette, and she had known the moment that the two had made it official, judging by the secret, heated glances the two had been throwing at each other for more than a year now. They truly believed that they had been secretive, but their love for each other was as clear as day to a mother as tuned into her sons as she is.

"You look simply conspiratorial, Mikoto." Her husband's gruff words broke her from her excited daydreaming. "And you've been staring at Sakura hungrily for the better part of an hour. Perhaps it is not Itachi marrying her I should be worrying about."

Her husband's sense of humor had surprised her when she and the very serious Uchiha Fugaku had first formally asked her and her parents for her hand in courtship. Still, after so many years of courting and marriage, the fact that the stone-cold Fugaku could tease her never failed to put a surprised smile on her face. Turning to look at Fugaku, who was folding his legs to sit next to her, she gave him a rather evil smile.

"Why would you worry about those two getting married? Look at how happy they are together," she replied before turning to look at the couple that was now having a cup of tea on the tatami mats not far from where the baby was slumbering peacefully, talking to each other in quiet voices as not to wake the child.

"They've just begun courting. It's too early to think about marriage. Itachi barely knows the girl."

At this, Mikoto let out a rather unladylike snort.

"There are so many things wrong with that statement, Fugaku." At her husband's raised brow, she pat him on the shoulder lightly before smiling at him. "First of all, they have known each other for almost ten years now. Secondly, they have been dating for well over a year."

Fugaku, who was in the middle of a rather generous gulp of tea, choked on the hot liquid before trying to swallow it so he wouldn't spit it out.

"Excuse me?"

Mikoto was patting him on the back roughly to help him from choking on his tea, but she stopped when his coughing fit subsided.

"Oh, Fugaku. If you paid as much attention to your son's personal lives as you did their professional lives, you would know so much more about them. But, yes, Itachi and Sakura have been dating for at least a year already, if not longer," she stated with a rather bland tone to her voice before taking another sip of tea.

"Do tell, Fugaku, what is it that you have against Sakura-chan? She is smart, the apprentice to the Godaime Hokage, a special jounin and occasional ANBU, and she has been a welcomed member of our household since she was ten years old. Is it that she isn't an Uchiha? Because of the love of Kami if you go on about the Uchiha dynasty one more time…"

"It's not that," Fugaku interrupted, looking rather uncomfortable.

"Then what? Is it that she would want to continue her career as a kunoichi until she has children? Because I did the same thing…"

Fugaku shook his head rather forcefully and looked up to the sitting room where Itachi and Sakura were still engaged in an intimate conversation. For what seemed like the first time in his life, Fugaku was really watching Itachi in a setting that didn't include a training ground. The smallest of smirks graced Itachi's thin lips as he leaned in to hear what Sakura was telling him. The pink-haired kunoichi was holding a hand over her smiling mouth to keep her mirth from waking the baby in the crib only a few feet away.

His son looked happy.

"It's not that she wants to continue her career."

Mikoto let out a harried sigh.

"Then, do tell, Fugaku, what objection could you possibly have against the beautiful, intelligent girl who is making our son smile," his wife asked, the timber of her voice growing in slight irritation with her other half. Fugaku jerked his head away to look at the chaffed, smooth wood of the engawa beneath him.

"Her hair."

"What?"

"Her hair is pink. If those two get married and have children, then there will be pink haired children in our family for generations to come."

His wife blinked at him for several moments in complete shock before letting out a startled laugh. It took her a moment to calm down, and by the time she did, she had attracted the attention of the couple who had been sitting in the other room. Sakura was pulling Itachi up and dragging him across the room with a smile on her face, planning to join his parents for some tea and nice conversation

Fugaku watched this, watched Itachi's eyes soften as his girlfriend dragged him across the room, and decided, then and there, that maybe pink hair wasn't so bad, after all.

AN: Please review!