AUTHOR'S NOTE: Read "Strange Smiles" before reading this story...
"Please Sakura-chan... Please!" Naruto whined as he followed his wife along through an aisle in the grocery store.
Anyone overhearing Naruto's pleads would likely assume that he had found a box of cookies, or candy, or something else that he wanted to buy, and was trying to convince Sakura to permit him to do so. Although this was typically the case in most of the shopping trips Naruto joined Sakura on, today it was not a treat that he was wanting.
"Pleaseeee..." Naruto tried again as he absent-mindedly grabbed a bag of rice from the shelf and put it in the cart, glancing over at Sakura. "I don't see why we can't tell anyone..." He started before a sharp look from Sakura silenced him.
Sakura glanced around for other shoppers nearby, relaxing her expression when she found the aisle empty of anyone that could overhear Naruto.
"Naruto, we both agreed to wait to tell everyone, remember?" She reminded him, knowing that Naruto had never been a good waiter to begin with and had probably forgotten the agreement the minute after they made it.
Sakura had now paused in the middle of the aisle and was intently focussed on the different sauces available in order to avoid watching Naruto pout. Sighing, Naruto leaned on the cart while Sakura made her choice, still resolved to make Sakura change her mind.
"I don't see why you don't want people to know about the baby Sakura-chan... I thought you would be excited to share the news with others like you were with me." He said more casually. "It's not like being pregnant is a bad thing. I mean we are married adults, happy, and in the prime of life as Lee and Gai Sensei would say..." Naruto added, reaching around Sakura, choosing a sauce, and putting it in the cart. He had given her the chance if she had really been trying to decide on the right sauce, but Naruto suspected that Sakura's attention on the condiments was only a way for her to elude the subject. Now she would have no more distraction.
Sakura let out a breath and turned away from the shelf, chancing a glance at Naruto, who now stood behind the handle of the cart so he could push it. He had a serious expression at the moment, which made Sakura feel guiltier for trying to brush off the conversation. Naruto had changed his tactics after his initial pleadings didn't coax Sakura into allowing him to share their happy news, and was now intending to guilt her into it.
It was Sakura's turn to sigh. "Naruto, I am excited to tell other people, and no there's nothing wrong with us having a baby..." She assured him, not wanting Naruto to think she was embarrassed or anything. "I just don't want everyone to know yet. It's only been a couple weeks since I found out, I don't want to jinx anything..." Sakura finished hoping her excuse would appease Naruto as she started towards the checkout.
"What do you mean jinx anything?" Naruto frowned, confused what she meant, and not liking the implications. Sakura immediately regretted her choice of words as her excuse only seemed to dig another hole for her to fill.
"Nothing... Don't worry about it..." Sakura replied waving the matter off. "We can talk about this later, I don't want anyone hearing, especially the check out woman, she is such a gossip." Sakura said, offering Naruto a smile which he reluctantly accepted.
"Alright Sakura-chan." Naruto nodded before reaching the cash register and taking the groceries out of the cart while Sakura got ready to pay.
Naruto might have agreed to wait until later to voice his questions and concerns about what Sakura said and her desire to keep the baby a secret... But that didn't mean that his mind was silent about such matters. He was abnormally quiet on the walk back to their house, much to Sakura's dismay, as his thoughts consumed him. Sakura could tell that it was her reason for not wanting to tell people, rather than Naruto's impatience and general inability to keep any secret, that was now bothering him. Naruto had never been one to keep news to himself, especially good news, and Sakura had been foolish to think he would ever willingly keep the news of her pregnancy quiet.
Sakura herself was having a hard time not spilling the beans to anyone, especially as people were beginning to notice the good mood she had been in for the past few weeks; the calm before the hormonal storm. She was just as excited and eager to tell others as Naruto... Okay, perhaps a little less since few people could match the extent of raw excitement Naruto was prone to. It was just that, in a way, she was afraid of jinxing things. Sakura had never been terribly superstitious, but she did not want to take any chances...
Once the couple arrived back at their house, Sakura headed to the kitchen with her bags to put the groceries away, while Naruto hung back, taking his time to remove his shoes and the thoughts that had been bothering him. Only when he heard Sakura's voice inquiring from the kitchen whether the eggs were in one of his bags did he join the pink haired girl. Emptying the contents of the bags he had carried, Naruto found the eggs Sakura was looking for and put them away in the fridge.
"Thanks," Sakura responded, closing the pantry and turning to Naruto.
She was mildly disappointed to receive only a simple nod in reply, but had not really expected much more. Sakura knew she had brought Naruto's silence on herself, and could not blame him for his lack of reply since she had yet to give him a real one.
"I'm just going to put a load of laundry on, so you're free from daily chores for now..." Sakura said filling the awkward silence that had filled the kitchen with a weak attempt at a joke. Earlier she had persuaded Naruto to join her on her weekly shopping trip, and they both saw how well that turned out. She didn't want to risk having him help her with laundry too.
"Okay Sakura-chan..." Naruto nodded, stretching a little and running a hand through his hair as he turned to exit the kitchen.
Sakura smiled a little, relieved that he still added the affectionate honorific to her name; a sign that he wasn't terribly upset with her. There were few things she dreaded more than hearing her name without the familiar "chan" attached come from Naruto. There hadn't been many of those instances, but even so, Sakura did not want to be the cause for more.
Sakura watched Naruto head in the direction of the living room for a moment, before she left the kitchen through the other doorway on her way to their bedroom to get the basket of worn clothes. Though it needed to be done, the laundry was really just a way to give her enough time to figure out how to express her reasons for not telling others about the baby yet. Grabbing the basket from the corner of their closet, Sakura moved about the room, picking up the loose articles of clothing that Naruto had left scattered around.
Finding one of the spare orange jackets Naruto had hanging in the bathroom, Sakura pulled it from the towel rack and slipped it on around her. The jacket hung on her frame as it was clearly too big for her, but she didn't mind as she continued her objective. Sakura wasn't sure when exactly she began wearing one of Naruto's jackets while she did laundry, but since then she had made somewhat of a habit of it. His jacket around her provided a last breath of his scent before it was washed away. Secretly, the reason Sakura hated washing Naruto's clothes, unless they were gross and really did need cleaning, was not because she disliked doing laundry, but because it erased most of his scent from them, and replaced it with the detergent's. She loved his smell, and eventually if the clean shirts and jackets hung long enough in his side of the closet, they would begin to smell like the blonde again to Sakura's pleasure.
Finally Sakura managed to make her way back to the laundry room and began separating the different loads. Meanwhile, Naruto sat on the couch trying to convince himself to take a nap.
Naruto hadn't intentionally been giving Sakura the silent treatment on the way home and in the kitchen. He wasn't even upset with her really. His lack of talking and response simply came down to his inability to multitask. He was not as good as Sakura was at being able to hold a conversation or act like nothing's wrong, while being troubled by something or having a lot on his mind. He had a knack for speaking without thinking and falling silent when lost in thought, but had not yet mastered the ability to do a mixture of both. If Naruto had tried to say anything, he would have just ended up speaking his mind, and Sakura had already expressed a desire to delay that conversation.
Now Naruto was trying to appease his mind enough so his thoughts would allow him a couple minutes of sleep, but to no avail. Sakura did not seem to be greatly affected by pregnancy hormones yet, but Naruto sure was suffering from mood swings. One minute he was over the moon and one of the happiest guys in Konoha, and the next he was as insecure as an awkward preteen trying to talk to a girl because of something Sakura said. Naruto supposed it was becoming the theme of the pregnancy since that's how things started when he became worried by Sakura's behavior the day she told him, but he really wished it wasn't.
Sakura wasn't intentionally keeping him in the dark and on edge, Naruto hoped. It wasn't her fault that he knew next to nothing about pregnancy or what to expect, and he hadn't asked her much about it either. (Really, Naruto was holding out so he could ask Sai if there was a book he could read on that kind of stuff since Sai seemed to have a book for everything else.)
Maybe people really didn't announce that they were expecting right away. After all, the only person Naruto knew that had been pregnant was Kurenai Sensei, and she had ket her pregnancy from most people for a long time. Out of their generation, Sakura and Naruto were the first ones to get married, let alone make it to the baby chapter. Shikamaru had barely asked Temari to finally marry him late that summer, and no one else, save Ino, seemed ready to settle down yet. Naruto half wished someone he knew had already been through this situation so he could have seen how it was supposed to be done, and not be so worried about everything. Since the worst part, Naruto felt, was that he was really probably worrying over nothing.
Naruto let out an aggravated breath and tilted his head back on the couch cushions to stare at the ceiling. He could now hear Sakura in the laundry room and wondered how long it would be before she was done. Even if she didn't want to talk about her reasons for not sharing the news, or even about the baby in general, he at least wanted to spend time with her. Hopefully she could distract him from his thoughts and ease his mind enough for a nap. Yes, a nap sounded better and better each moment, and Naruto decided he wouldn't mind curling up with Sakura and taking one as soon as the laundry was loaded.
Though, maybe now he could catch a few zzz's before she came out, Naruto thought, having convinced himself that he was getting worked up about nothing. His worry was replaced with the satisfaction of knowing that he had a beautiful wife that he loved in the next room and a new baby on the way and his thoughts shifted to lighter, happier things as he began to drift off. Within a couple minutes soft snores could be heard issuing from Naruto's lightly parted mouth.
However, the snores were soon joined by a light laugh as Sakura walked in to find Naruto passed out on the couch with his head leaning back the way it was. She couldn't held but smile fondly at the blonde haired man as she made her way quietly toward him, not wanting to cause a premature awakening. Once she stood behind the back of the couch, she leaned down over it a little and wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and shoulders, tucking her head next to his affectionately.
Naruto had been having a rather pleasant dream about Sakura at the moment, and initially thought the sensation of smooth arms surrounding his shoulders was just part of his illusion until the tickle of her hair against his cheek and the warmth of her skin revived him.
"Mhmm," Naruto smiled to himself, keeping his eyes closed as he enjoyed Sakura's presence. Even his most vivid dreams could not compete with the feeling of the pink haired woman holding him in real life.
Sakura buried her head against his skin and hair, taking a deep breath and filling her senses with her husband. "Naruto..."
If the feeling of Sakura's hot breath on his neck didn't make Naruto's skin tingle, then the way she breathed out his name did. Reaching up, Naruto ran a hand through Sakura's soft hair before guiding her around the couch with a gentle pull on her arm. Another gentle tug delivered Sakura to Naruto's lap and he wrapped his arms around her this time as he shifted on the couch to get comfortable with her. Sakura leaned her head on his shoulder, and even through his shirt he could feel her mouth turn up into a pleased smile as she turned her head into his chest.
"So I take it laundry is done?" Naruto asked smirking.
Sakura shook her head. "No, but it can wait..."
Naruto's smirk softened to a smile upon her reply, realizing that she had interrupted laundry to come be with him instead.
"I want to be with you more than it has to get done..." Sakura added, tilting her head to glance up at him.
Naruto's own glance down met hers, and he closed the space between them with a kiss. Sakura's hand brushed his cheek for a moment, before sliding back to his hair, and finally down his neck where it rested when the kiss ended.
"Naruto, I love you, and I really do want to tell people about our baby..." Sakura said earnestly. She knew she was risking their tender moment by bringing this subject up again, but she wanted him to know she wasn't keeping things from him.
Naruto nodded. "I know you do Sakura-chan... I just am confused why we have to wait is all..." He said, not exactly asking for her to share, but letting her know that it was unclear to him. "It isn't because you aren't sure who the father is, right?" Naruto added jokingly with a raised eyebrow.
Sakura scowled at Naruto's poor humor and retracted her hand from his neck to cross her arms indignantly. "If you keep that up I am going to start wishing that is the reason." She said tossing her head and looking the other way. She knew he was only joking, but she still had to save face.
"Aw, come on Sakura-chan... I'm sorry, I was only kidding. I know I'm the only guy you've ever been with, I'd be able to tell if you were doing something with someone else..." Naruto chuckled, amused by her pouting and threat.
However, this comment did not win Naruto any points as Sakura just reddened at his confidence that he had been her only. It was the truth of course. She had warned him their first time that she'd never done anything before, so unless she had been unfaithful it was safe to say Naruto was the only guy she had ever slept with, but still... He didn't need to point that out.
"Ahh, not that there's anything wrong with that! I'd much prefer it that way..." Naruto fumbled, trying to save himself. "I like knowing that I'm the only one who's ever had you, has you, or will have you in the future..." He finished, giving her a little squeeze as he leaned his head down against hers.
Sakura blushed at his last statement and uncrossed her arms, decidedly forgiving him.
"Now can you just tell me the real reason we have to wait..." Naruto asked simply.
Sakura sighed. "It's really just a precaution..." Sakura returned simply, snuggling back against Naruto again.
"A precaution?" He repeated questioningly with a raised eyebrow, trying unsuccessfully to glance down to catch Sakura's eye.
Sakura nodded as she distractedly played with a loose thread on the neckline of Naruto's shirt. "Yeah... You know, just in case..." She trailed off not really wanting to voice the possibility.
Naruto frowned as her vagueness began to worry him again. "No, I don't think I do know... In case of what Sakura-chan?" He still looked down at her and was aware that she was avoiding eye contact with him which was never a good sign.
"The first trimester of pregnancy is when two-thirds to three-fourths of miscarriages occur. And there's about a fifteen to twenty percent of a miscarriage, especially during the first seven weeks..." Sakura said allowing her medical knowledge to get the best of her.
Naruto blinked trying to follow her statistics and probabilities, but gave up rather focussing on the miscarriage aspect in general. "Wait, isn't a miscarriage when someone..."
"... Looses the baby, yes." Sakura finished for Naruto, deciding it would be better to just be direct than tiptoe around the matter.
"But why are you worried about that Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked concerned now that the topic was brought up. "I mean, that's not probable to happen, right?" He added, feeling a knot in his stomach.
Sakura finally glanced up at Naruto, hearing the anxious edge to his question and shook her head. "No, it's not probable. Possible, but not probable." She replied trying to ease the worry in his eyes.
Naruto nodded slowly, absorbing everything she had said in the last couple minutes. "So you don't want to tell anyone just in case... In case the baby doesn't..." He said finally once he had processed it all, leaving the end of the sentenced unsaid.
Sakura felt guilty for even considering the possibility of such an awful outcome, especially for voicing those possibilities to Naruto. "Well, yes, but... But I don't really think anything like that will happen Naruto, darling..." She said wanting to assure him that everything would be fine. "I guess I just didn't want to tell everyone and get them excited as well, only to find out that something was wrong. It would be horrible enough to deal with it ourselves, let alone have everyone else feel sorry for us. Sorry for me... I wouldn't be able to deal with their apologies or uncomfortable looks..." Sakura explained, realizing how silly her reasoning was sounding now that she told Naruto. She was afraid of something that deep down she knew wouldn't happen just because mathematically it was possible. "I am being completely selfish. That's all there is to it really." She ended leaning forward against his chest to hide her face, a little ashamed.
Naruto remained silent as he listened to Sakura, allowing her to speak without any interruptions; not that he really knew what to say to even cause any. He frowned at Sakura's need to hide after her explanation and just let the silence hang in the air as he wrapped his arms protectively around his wife. Though he half wished that he could go back in time five minutes and erase all knowledge of the possibility of a miscarriage from his mind, Naruto was at least a little relieved that Sakura finally opened up to him about what was plaguing the back of her mind.
"You aren't selfish Sakura-chan." He finally said, kissing the top of her head. "We can wait to tell people."
Sakura untucked her head and pulled back a little to look up at Naruto, trying to decipher what he was really thinking. She could tell that what she said had left its mark and that Naruto would not be as carefree about this pregnancy as he initially had been. This was not Sakura's intention at all, and half the reason she didn't want to tell him her reason for keeping the pregnancy a secret to begin with. Now though, after telling him and expressing her concerns, Sakura was becoming increasingly sure that there was no reason not to tell people. It was almost as if getting her thoughts about a possible miscarriage off her chest had erased them almost entirely from her mind.
Sakura smiled gently and brushed a couple strands of hair out of Naruto's eyes. "I really don't know why I was so worried about this in the first place. I've realized that it was completely silly of me, so please don't let this bother you. I think it's the pregnancy hormones starting to kick in..." She said lightly.
Naruto relaxed a little, seeing Sakura's change in mood and outlook, and thought perhaps she was right about the hormonal thing. Maybe it was just rubbing off on him some too.
"I'm heathy and you're healthy, so there's no reason for the baby not to follow our example. Just forget what I've said and go back to being excited please..." Sakura said leaning up and kissing Naruto sweetly at first, before deepening the kiss when he returned it.
Naruto held Sakura against him as the kiss dissolved his worries into feelings of relief. Sakura had quelled her fears along with the majority of his and now they could move on from this... For the most part.
Once the kiss came to a drawn out end, Sakura shifted her position to lean back against Naruto contently. Grinning, Naruto loosed one of his arms around her and slid his hand across Sakura's stomach, before lifting the bottom of her shirt up over her navel to expose her pale skin. Sakura just shook her head a little with a small chuckle.
"Nothing's changed since the last time you saw my stomach... I still have a little bit longer before it'll start growing any..." She teasingly reminded him.
Naruto laughed. "I know... This is just as close as I can get. I want the baby to know I'm here, even if he or she can't really tell yet." He replied placing the palm of his hand across her abdomen. "And that I'll make sure nothing happens to you or our baby. I promise." He said unwaveringly. "After all, it's against my way of the ninja to go back on my word."
For a moment Sakura half expected to hear the words "believe it" follow Naruto's last statement, remembering all of Naruto's speeches about his nindo when they were younger, and a few tears almost joined her smile. Somehow she had a feeling that the baby would come into the world already knowing Naruto, perhaps even more than knowing her, and that Naruto wouldn't have to worry about their new addition not feeling his presence. Despite Naruto not knowing what to expect with the whole pregnancy thing, Sakura knew that there was no one else she'd rather have this experience with.
However, even as Sakura now relaxed, confident that nothing would go wrong with the pregnancy, Naruto began listing all the possible things or activities that would pose a threat to Sakura and the baby. He was not going to take any chances and began concocting his plan to keep them safe. In his arms he held his two most precious people, and he would make sure that nothing would take either of them from him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ (Chapter is over)
FUN FACTS
The checkout lady Sakura referred to in the beginning as a gossip, really is the queen of gossip in Konoha, even more so than Ino. I guess one learns a lot of things checking people out at the market and seeing what they buy. X) You will most likely see her again.
When Naruto leaves on missions, Sakura holds off on washing some of his clothes, especially his orange jacket since Naruto wears the typical ninja garb like Kakashi's rather than his orange outfit. And if she does wash the sheets, she leaves his pillow untouched.
There is a TV in their livingroom, but in my mind I don't think there is cable or anything since that would suggest the presence of a news station which does not seem to be around. Rather, the TV is used to watch recorded movies, like the one they watched in theaters in one of the Naruto movies.
Shikamaru and Temari had never really made their relationship official in any way previous to their engagement, but everyone assumed they were together. Finally Shikamaru decided it would be less troublesome if he asked Temari to marry him, even if she was a troublesome woman herself.
As mentioned, Ino would like to settle down soon, and is jealous of Sakura for beating her to the alter, even if it was with Naruto. Currently, she is working on Sai... Poor guy haha.
And finally, just to keep you updated on the timeline, it is the end of November right now, so Sakura is roughly six weeks pregnant.