They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth.
Love is a familiar. Love is no evil angel but Love.
-William Shakespeare
She was heartbroken and there was no other way to describe it. Her chest stung as every beat of her heart served to remind her that she was alive while he was not. Fresh tears threatened to pour from her exhausted eyes but she refused to let them all. She had to be strong, for them.
Taking the glass of water offered to her by the medic-nin beside her, she nodded her thanks and drank what little she could to ease her parched throat. She needed to tell them what happened.
"Sakura...are you sure you're up for this?" asked Shizune as her eyes roved over the still healing form of the kunoichi.
"I'll be fine. The Hokage needs to know what happened."
Nodding her acceptance, but still reluctantly taking the nearest seat to Sakura, she readied her brush against the scroll preparing to write down the mission details that the injured Sakura could not.
oOoOo
Tsunade was still drowning herself in sake after emerging from the hospital almost 24 hours after Sakura had been carried inside her operating room. The slug-sannin could not believe how close she came to losing her daughter that day and no amount of drinking could erase the horrifying sight of her apprentice's bloodied and broken form.
Although she had been a medic-nin her entire shinobi life, the sight of blood on the people you most cared about was still one thing she couldn't stomach. It was like seeing Dan die all over again when the pink kunoichi was wheeled into the ER, and for a moment Tsunade was afraid she couldn't save her since her limbs were frozen as her eyes zeroed in on the battered form.
Grabbing another bottle she drank the sake in one big gulp and leaned her heavy head against her arm. Why couldn't she just get drunk as easily as she did before?
She barely heard the knock that announced the appearance of Shizune but her eyes caught the movement and she looked up to find the form of her assistant. Apparently she had already spoken with Sakura as nothing could have shaken the always calm form of the medic, not to mention an obviously completed mission scroll was clutched in her hands.
Motioning for Shizune to sit, Tsunade grabbed another cup and poured a generous amount of sake for the woman to take before delivering the news.
Shizune barely looked at the cup before she too drank it all in one gulp. A feat that slightly surprised Tsunade as the former barely had the stomach for liquor and here she was consuming another cup-full of the strong sake.
After her third cup, Shizune slowly opened the scroll and began to read.
oOoOo
Kabuto was lying dead before I finally noticed that the others were still fighting. I guess had been too concentrated on our fight that I didn't even hear them. Or maybe it was the concealing jutsu he performed that hade made me oblivious to everyone else. I was already bleeding badly and the right side of my body was numb from the poison but I managed to drag myself near the edge of the low cliff to see the others.
Orochimaru, now in Sasuke's body, had fallen victim to his own sword. I noticed the glint of the metal at his right and I knew he was bleeding to death. But he wasn't giving up. He was summoning what looked like a weapons jutsu, not unlike Tenten's, and he was obviously aiming to kill Neji.
I didn't notice Lee until he was behind Orochimaru and then he was holding the sannin down with his own strength. He had eighth and last gate opened and I could see his body straining to keep them both standing. He managed to keep Orochimaru in place long enough for Neji to complete his spin. I knew Neji didn't have enough chakra to complete his technique, at the most he'd only be able to deflect some of the weapons back to Orochimaru but he wouldn't be able to properly shield himself. It was suicide. Neji and Lee knew it too, but they were determined to take Orochimaru with them.
When the dust cleared up, all three men were laying on the ground.
I tried to get down as fast as I could but my legs weren't moving. And then I must have passed out because the next thing I remember I was being carried by Kakashi back to Konoha. Naruto was slung over Gai sensei's shoulder and I could hear Tenten crying before everything blurred out again. After that I woke up here at the hospital.
oOoOo
Tsunade slumped down on her seat while Shizune carefully closed the scroll.
"That's not all is it?" asked the Hokage.
Shaking her head Shizune shared the details she purposely kept unmentioned in the scroll. Only the people concerned needed to know.
"Sh'es pregnant with an Uchiha child. Sasuke, or Orochimaru in Sasuke's body, raped her while they had her hostage. That's why her chakra wasn't healing her, it was protecting the fetus."
Stunned, all the sannin could do was slouch deeper into her chair. "And Kakashi?"
"She doesn't want to tell him. She doesn't care that it was ultimately Orochimaru who did the deed. She considers the child Sasuke's and won't terminate the pregnancy. A misplaced sense of loyalty to her old teammate but I guess we never really understood just how much she had loved the Uchiha."
"#%! that traitorous boy. What about her sad excuse of an ex-sensei that's in-love with her?"
Shizune sighed in defeat as she told the Hokage what Sakura had asked her to do, "She wants us to declare her dead. Sakura wants to leave the village so she can take care of the baby outside the influence of the elders. She refuses to let the child be used by another council power-play."
"So she's leaving the man who loves her and who she loves back, to protect the child of the man she apparently also still loves."
Nodding in frustrated assent Shizune hardly flinched when Tsunade cursed a storm. "God what a mess!"
"If she thinks I'm letting her leave without me then she doesn't understand, yet, just how much I love her."
Both women turned in surprise to the sound of Kakashi's voice and found him leaning against the window of Tsunade's office.
"What the hell have you been doing sneaking here Hatake?" demanded Tsunade. Though inwardly she was glad the ex-Anbu had listened in, because now Sakura had no way of escaping the man. She may never openly admit it but the older jounin was the perfect match for her young apprentice.
"I just wanted to let you know that I will be marrying Sakura as soon as I convince her and that we both will be leaving Konoha until you can find a way to keep the council's hands out of our child's life."
Shizune smiled at hearing Kakashi claiming the child as his own. She was a little worried that the ninja wouldn't take the news well and maybe think that Sakura was choosing Sasuke over him. Thankfully, Kakashi didn't think that was the case and she was grateful to the kami above that the man was confident enough in the relationship he shared with the pink-haired kunoichi to not be bothered by how the girl felt for her former teammate. "You really do love her don't you," she couldn't help but say.
An eye-wrinkle which she supposed was a smile behind the mask was the only response she got before the ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke. There wasn't any question on where he was headed.
Tsunade suddenly laughed and Shizune turned to her in question, "I can't wait to see the council's faces when Naruto hears about this. They got enough of a shock when I announced he would be my successor as soon as I decide he's ready to be Hokage, I'm wondering how many of them would dare look at Sakura and her baby after he gets through with them."
"Oi, don't be using Naruto to scaring them just because you're too lazy to do it yourself." But Shizune couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her own lips.
A/N: Just a scene that suddenly came to my head. I know it has a lot of holes on how Kakashi and Sakura got together; and how it was only Lee, Neji and Sakura that was mentioned fighting against Orochimaru. Where were the others you ask? I'm still thinking about that.
The title refers to Sakura's love for Sasuke as she willingly gives up her shinobi life to protect his child, as well as her sacrifice to leave Kakashi's side to spare him the ridicule of narrow-minded townspeople should they find out she mothered a child that wasn't his . It also refers to Kakashi's love for her as he sees Sakura's child as his and that he too is willing to leave Konoha to protect the family he already considers as his own.
This is for AnimeFTW and kaorugirl.