27.) Agony
Kakashi was pointedly bound to a chair with as many chakra strings, wires, and ropes as the ANBU operatives Cat, Snake, and the new, young Hokage could put on him.
"You're not medically cleared for missions again, Kaka-sensei," Naruto pointed out. "So, until we bring her and Sai home, you'll just have to hold down the village until I get back. You already did my job for nineteen years, so what's a couple more days?"
He didn't tell any of them that he had been arguing with Sakura the day she and Sai had left for their mission. He didn't tell them that she was currently hiding a miracle... and a transgression. They went without him, and their efforts to keep him home cost the lives of their friends.
Based on the autopsy reports, Kakashi knew Sakura and Sai had both died in agony.
And the miracle was discovered... never to open it's eyes to the light of day. The little baby boy would never have a single birthday, and it was all their fault.
That had to be it.
She wasn't showing when she left, but her corpse was. Perhaps they knew and didn't think he knew? Maybe they thought it would distract him? It didn't matter, though. Had they gotten there seconds sooner, she would be alive. He would be explaining away how they'd fallen back into bed with one another just the once to her husband, not standing beside him and breaking the news to Mai, Naoki, Kato, Ogawa, and Suzume.
He wouldn't itch to punch the hell out of Naruto and Sasuke. He wouldn't feel like he deserved to be murdered by Yamato. Facing his oddly patched together family, his insides knotted up, and he lost the fight to keep the tears from falling. He sank to his knees and begged forgiveness of Sakura's children for not being fast enough to save her life.
Had he just been fast enough to escape the bindings, he might have been able to get there quick enough. Naruto had started another fight with Sasuke; yamato had to break it up, costing them precious time none of them knew they needed. If they hadn't stopped... If they hadn't forced him to stay behind...
His throat cinched up, his voice cracked, his hands shook, and he gasped for air, trying not to puke all over the entry-way. Every fiber of his being was weakening under the strain. He just needed them to forgive him.
28.) Waking Up Alone
Initially, when he, Sasuke, and Naruto had arrived on the scene, Yamato had seen Sai's split body. He was disgusted, and a bit scared. Sai was at the top of the official ANBU organization these days, just under Yamato and Kakashi by seniority alone. If he could be so completely torn apart...?
Naruto had went straight after an unsuspecting man that was rummaging through Sai's belongings. He created such a scene that at least eight enemies tried piling on top of him. Sasuke stayed with Naruto, picking the toughest individuals for himself while Naruto took on the bulk of the work. It was Yamato that saw the only actual shinobi among their enemies bolt. He trapped the man after a long fight. Both of them were breathless and bloody by the time Sasuke and Naruto caught up to them.
He held it together when they found her stripped, bruised, bloody body near the stream, neck broken. They were in enemy territory, and could be set upon again quickly. Sasuke kept Naruto from killing one of the men who admitted to using her dead body for his wants. While they struggled, Yamato walked up and shoved a kunai in the man's eye, ending any more comments from the prisoners as he walked back to Sakura's body and sat down by her lifeless form again.
He held it together the whole way home, forcing the prisoners to carry the bodies of his friend and his wife all the way to the morgue in the hospital before taking them underground to be interrogated later.
He held it together through breaking the news to Kakashi, and through telling their children.
He just wasn't sure how to handle this.
It wasn't the first time he'd woken up in their bed alone. Despite the fact that she stayed in the village and worked at the hospital while the children were very young, she had decided to start taking missions again once they were in school. As the kids got older, she took on higher and higher ranked missions, some of them keeping her away for days on end.
He worried every time, but reminded himself that she was probably stronger than he was and would be home on time. She never missed a deadline.
When they got the letter stating that there was extra trouble and it would take longer than expected to make the rendezvous, he knew he had to be on the team to retrieve her. After all, he suspected she was holding a secret from him... one that could have kept her from taking this mission. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw her body by the stream.
He beat himself up the whole way home. He should have went to Kakashi and made his suspicions known before she left.
It didn't matter now.
Now he was staring at her pillow from the rocking chair in the corner of their bedroom. He had sat in the chair the night before, and he fell asleep going through photos of their large, awkward family.
Right now is when the tears fell onto his cheeks. Right now is when he felt all the joy sucked out of his soul. Right now, knowing he would never wake up with her ever again, he wanted to just end.
29.) Sliced
Sasuke froze. There on the buffet table before him was a typical assortment of fruit and vegetables and both store-bought and home-made dips. As he reached for the small cherry tomatoes, a kid on the other side of the table decided he should also have a few slices of apple.
He stood, transfixed on the fruit. He tried to remember why it was so important.
"Sasuke-sama? What is it?"
He looked up into the emerald eyes of Haruno Kato. Everything clicked.
Sakura always brought him apples and sliced them by hand when she knew he was feeling down. Her expression was always the same one Kato was giving him now.
Only a month ago he, Yamato, and Naruto had found her dead. Despite the grieving many were still doing, Haruno Mai and Uzumaki Kenta had decided to go ahead with their wedding on schedule. It was the pick-me-up a lot of people needed. It was the reminder that life had to continue. It got especially good when the groom was cornered by Kakashi and Yamato both and made to promise to take excellent care of their little girl and Sasuke had to come to the young man's defense right before everyone's eyes.
Of course, unknown to everyone but the bride, the whole thing was an act they'd planned the night before. Some of the threats were meant, but they all knew nobody was likely to need to follow through.
"Just... remembering," he answered, setting the paper buffet plate down and walking away. He wasn't prepared for all of this, no matter how much he'd pretended everything had gone back to normal.
Sasuke glanced at the main table to the bride, her soft pink hair had emeralds and rubies strung into her long, thick braid, shimmering and complementing her natural beauty as she smiled and taunted her other brother, Naoki. She looked happy in every possible way. The empty seat beside her, her mother's photo on the table as a place-holder spoke volumes otherwise.
It took yet another slice of his heart when he realized Mai was avoiding looking at the empty chair and her mother's photo. He wanted to push her to look at it, to have a moment of open unhappiness on this sunny day for her mother's sake...
"Sakura would be happy to see everyone is happy and keeping the day about Mai and Kenta."
Sasuke looked to his left, seeing Nara Shikamaru sitting on the park's swing set and holding a empty champaign flute. "She would."
"Rumor has it Sakura was keeping a secret from everyone," Shikamaru continued, approaching Sasuke, eyes piercing. "Is it true the baby was yours?"
"I never touched her," Sasuke snapped. "I don't know why anyone would think it wasn't Yamato's."
"The fact that two of her children aren't his," Shikamaru stated the obvious. "One of them is yours. Why not this one, too?"
Sasuke frowned, then remembered. Although nobody had encouraged people to believe he was Mai's father, nobody actively stated he wasn't. It seemed several people still believed he was her father after all.
"You forget that she slept with Kakashi multiple times even after marrying Yamato-senpai."
"Which was the other rumor," Shikamaru shrugged. "Thanks."
"For what?"
"Telling the truth. Now I don't have to worry about another rampage from you over dead family members."
Sasuke punched him.
30.) Impulse
Sakura was in the kitchen pillaging the freezer for ice cream when Yamato came home one evening. He'd had a day at the desk playing secretary at the high security prison. They only had three prisoners right now, and nobody came to visit. It was a boring day filled by drawing out plans for a second floor addition to the house he'd made for Sakura.
Stepping into the kitchen, he set his eyes on a nice view of her ass as she bent over the drawer, sorting through her options. She shifted foot to foot in time with the song on the radio, unknowingly giving him a show as she pulled out a little plastic cup filled with chocolate swirl and pealed away the foil cap to lick at it. Not one drop of the sugary treat would be wasted. Not with that talented muscle of hers on the job.
Oh how he wanted to kiss her. He just wasn't sure which set of lips to start with.
She seemed to know he was home right at that instant. He found himself looking into her bright eyes and listening to her day's events. It all was a blur he couldn't keep up with. Her short black shorts and the way she licked the spoon clean with every mouthful of ice cream made sure he stayed distracted. The fact that she was wearing one of his white undershirts with no bra or bindings had his eyes wandering over her little nipples pointing through the material, still hard from the cool air of the freezer drawer even as they sat on the love seat in the living room.
"You're not listening, are you?"
"Huh?" his eyes snapped up to hers again.
"What's got you so distracted?" Sakura asked, sliding her feet into his lap and leaning her back into the arm rest.
He didn't answer with words, just ran a finger up her calf, around her knee, and up her thigh to the hem of her shorts. He didn't stop there, just trailed on higher around one nipple, then the next one, and up her throat and around her chin to her lips, wiping away a little dribble of ice cream her tongue had missed.
"Oh," she smiled, giving his fingers a quick kiss as his other hand began massaging her left foot. She hummed in delight. It had been a long time since he'd had the urge to worship her legs and turn her into putty for an hour or two. She scooted towards him so that her calves rested in his lap instead of her feet, settling in for the long haul of good things.
And it seemed even to him that he might just do that for a while. He loved the little hums she gave when he worked out a sore spot, and the purrs of satisfaction she'd give when he moved onto a new one.
It was just that her pale little nipples were still pointing at him, and those moans sounded almost too satisfied. If a leg rub was all it took today to make those sounds, what kind would she be making if he could get her out of those clothes?
He carefully slid out from under her legs and placed them on the cushion, much to her disapproval. "What are you doing?"
Again, he didn't answer, choosing instead to push up the tank-top she'd stolen and kiss her stomach, just below her naval. She hummed, running fingers through his hair. He pushed her shorts down a tad, finding soft dark curls there instead of panties. He buried his nose there and kissed again. Her breath hitched and her stomach fluttered under his attention. He didn't realize his breath was a turn on for her, or that she had been turned on since before he'd come home. He knew now. Her reaction to the kisses, and the scent between her legs more apparent now told him a lot.
"I thought you might be too tired," she admitted, running her finger along his jaw by his ear.
"Just office work today," he answered, continuing to place light kisses on her lower stomach, stroking her thighs with one hand and bringing his other hand to palm a breast through her shirt. "Had you on my mind all day. I wanted to touch you, taste you, hear you call my name, have your nail marks down my back, and your cum soaking my balls."
Her breath and heartbeat picked up pace with each statement, between which he placed a kiss, and his voice grew steadily lower. He had her shorts off now, pushed all the way onto the end table. His lips were now on her right hip, his hand parting her legs and teasing her outer lips. He was surprised to find she was already wet and arching up into his slow, gentle caresses.
On impulse alone, he took his hand away and threw off his shirt, his own heart trying to beat out of his chest in eagerness, his pants getting to be too tight to leave on much longer. Sakura took the reprieve to throw off her shirt as well, and push him backwards onto the floor. She made short work of yanking his pants and underwear off and straddling his hips, keeping the length of his dick against the length of her slit. He wasn't hard enough yet, but she'd damn sure get him there soon.
His hands fell onto her thighs and his hips bucked a little under her weight, feeling the slick slide of their sexes and humming in approval of her new position.
"No more foreplay," Sakura ordered the moment she felt he could enter her and eased up just enough to guide his tip to her entrance. "Just fuck me hard!"
He sat up, rolled her over onto her back and jerked her legs into the air, not yet ready. He knelt, her thighs around his ears, all her weight on her shoulders and neck as h plunged his tongue into her core. He sucked as he withdrew the flexible muscle and moved forward to pressure her clit with his lips, humming happily at both her taste and the moans his actions had brought from her mouth. He repeated this set of tortures twice more before she gained enough control to jerk him back down to the floor, twist around and take the head of his dick into her mouth, ending any struggles he might have had before they could begin, her nails running the underside of his length with firm determination.
"Now," she breathed against his wet tip, "Stop this torment. I don't have the patients for this today."
With a quick roll, he put her back on the carpeted floor, then turned around to kiss her hard on the mouth. The moisture on his dick wasn't all from her mouth's attentions. He was nearly as impatient as her, almost missing as he aligned their sexes and thrust deep and hard inside. She called out in shock, but wrapped her legs around his waist anyway, trying to keep up with his quick and needy pace.
He pushed her to cum six times, through two orgasms, before he let himself empty into her slick tightness. She cradled him against her chest, both of their bodies shaking, breath ragged, hearts racing, and fell to sleep.