Apologies for the long wait. Computer trouble. Please find forgiveness for me by reading this chapter.

Origins of the New Uchiha

Chapter 7

The past traces back to the present in a long, winding road.

They had, naturally, been very quiet about their relationship, acting much the same to the extent that no one suspected. They silently agreed to this because of their mutual desire to go on missions together, which they also agreed were to have no more love-making. (The following morning after the first time, the two had been so exhausted and inclined to lie with each other that the mission almost failed, despite its simplicity.) They simply couldn't bear to be parted from each other during those first few months of their marriage.

For indeed, when they returned to the Hidden Leaf, they exchanged rings, made vows filled with chakra and their own souls, and had performed their own ceremony with only each other in attendence. So though legally they would not be married for another half year, they each counted the beginning of their marriage from when they returned from the mission to the Land of Rain.

Despite that, Sakura remained excessively busy when she returned to the village, working at the hospital as one of the best medical ninja in the country, but Sasuke would visit her as much as they were allowed to see each other. Being together was not difficult, since at night they had either appartment they could visit, being his or hers. What was difficult was managing the urge to never leave the appartments or to find a random room and make a mess of each other for hours on end, an occurence that did happen at the hospital in the late nights.

However, they both realized that keeping their relationship such a secret was unfair to their friends, especially Naruto, who could sense that something was happening but had no idea what. At length (great length, for Sasuke hated the idea of making something so close to his soul a public affair) Sakura convinced him that he would be the best one to tell Naruto.

They took him to a barbeque diner, a small, local stop with dark, warm lighting and a comfortable atmosphere. Sakura left the table when one of her old friends, Ino, entered the shop, saying with her eyes that while she was gone, Sasuke should somehow tell Naruto.

Sasuke usually felt an ever-present fondness for Sakura, but at the request, he wanted to loathe her. Naruto's reaction was going to either be obnoxious, annoying, or an awful combination of both. He allowed Naruto to talk away, about how beautiful his first-born daughter was, how she looked like Hinata and had her eyes. He let him prattle on about the tasks of being Hokage and how boring it was, on and on and on. Sasuke responded normally, with grunts and minimal responses like "Hopefully your kid won't have your brains too," and the like. After a while, he shifted his eyes and found his gaze unconsciously gravitating toward Sakura, as it was wont to do even in public. She was leaning across the bar, the side of her body stretched out in front of him, as she smiled at something Ino had said. Her hair had grown, if possible, even longer, waving past her waist and dancing across her arms as she shifted. She'd sometimes tied it up in an ornate pony-tail held in place with chopsticks, but Sasuke preferred her natural, like how she was now, hair loose and flowing. The young Uchiha thought for a brief moment that he should cut this interlude with Naruto short and bring Sakura back to his place, where he could remove that ninja gear she was wearing one agonizing piece at a time...

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, smiling blindingly.

Sasuke didn't turn his attention back to his blonde friend, but he did say very quietly, "I'm going to marry her."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"Sakura. I'm going to marry her."

There was a brief pause. "WHAT?" Naruto shot to his feet.

Sakura's attention swiveled back in the men's direction at the sound, but Sasuke waved her off under the table. He then motioned for Naruto to calm himself and sit down, which the blonde did after some time.

"Are you crazy?" he whispered across the table, shooting glances at Sakura. "Listen, I know she liked you when we were kids, but I have to tell you something, buddy. She kind of... well, I think she hates you."

"Hated. Past tense," Sasuke clarified shortly. "That's no longer the case. We plan on marrying. I want her."

Naruto's eyes bulged into blue saucers. "Y-you want her?"

"Is it surprising?"

"Of course not! She's Sakura! She's gorgeous! But you... I mean, you never-"

"Then what's the problem?" Sasuke cut off. He was surprisingly enjoying Naruto's bewilderment.

"Well, I don't think she wants you..."

At this the dark-haired Uchiha let out a bark of laugh. "No, I think that's not the case."

"But she never-"

"Naruto, listen. Sakura and I have already promised to each other to be together. If you want proof, I'll take off my shirt and show you the evidence of how much she wants me. But I don't think she'll like that. Anyway, the only reason I thought we should tell you is because we need you to sanction the marriage. Make her a true Uchiha."

At the thought of Sakura bearing Sasuke's name, the young man felt a flutter of excitement in his heart. He would love it if Sakura wore clothes with the Uchiha crest on her back, a display to let the world know she was his...

"I," Naruto said, placing a hand over his head in bewilderment, "I can't believe it. You and her... I should have seen something. This just happened, right?"

"Over half a year," Sasuke corrected.

"Half a year?" Naruto screamed, standing to his feet once more.

Sasuke shot a glance over to Sakura, who could be in no doubt about what they were speaking any longer. She lowered her head with a laughing grin and held a hand over her mouth to hide it. In the next second though she seemed remarkably pleased that he had done what she'd asked and told Naruto their secret. Even though the bar separated them by meters of distance, he could feel the heat she emitted from the other side of the room. Her eyes were shifting as she stared at him, from her normally intelligent and kind gaze into her vixen-like stare. He recognized it well and felt a pealing of excitement roll through his stomach.

"We're ninja, Naruto," he said distractedly, slowly turning his attention back to his friend. "We were... discreet."

"You were fucking ghosts!" Naruto declared loudly. "I never saw either of you unless you came back from missions, but even then you would barely talk with me! You both always seemed to be in a hurry to..." Naruto's mind seemed to be in high gear, working over time. "Probably to run home and fuck!"

Sasuke smiled unabashedly. "Probably."

The blonde Hokage fell back to his chair, seemingly exhausted. "I can't.. believe it..."

"Well, hurry up and get over it. I'm tired of waiting. You know that request I put in a few days ago to be moved back into the Uchiha section of the village? That was for this. I have work to do, rebuilding my clan. I'll need the house to do it. Sakura and I are tired of living apart."

It was at this point that Sakura returned, sitting next to Sasuke as if nothing had happened, though under the table she put a hand suggestively on Sasuke's thigh, dragging it up toward his pelvis. He shifted abruptly and swallowed. "Think about it," he said to Naruto shortly before he got up and left, dragging Sakura behind him. He couldn't even wait for them to get home, taking her in one of the secluded alleyways of the city and claiming her against the stone wall of a tall building. Running his hands up and down her back that night, he couldn't wait until she'd be clothed in the robes of an Uchiha. When she would be Sakura Uchiha.

In the present, inside the mind of a young man, soon to be a father.

Marriage, love, passionate wild sex, fights, silence, time, all of it Sasuke had to push from his mind as a spike in chakra before him allerted him to another's presence. He dived for the chakra, ready to kill and bathe in blood of those who dared to take his Sakura from him. But all at once, just as he was about to deal the killing blow, he saw the chakra flare to a light, emerald green that he knew all too well.

In a moment he dispelled his Sharingan and saw her with his own two eyes: Sakura, pregnant and bowed over in exhaustion, her face white as a sheet in fear and then abruptly shocked in surprise. "S-Sasuke?" she whispered.

He could hardly believe it himself, having to grasp ahold of her with his own hands to prove that she wasn't some sort of illusion. She hugged him back as hard as she could, crying softly while she sank in his arms to the forest floor.

"Sakura," he whispered into her hair. "How?"

"They un-underestimated a Hidden Leaf Ninja," she spat, and he noticed how cold her hands were and how violently she was shaking.

"Sakura, listen to me. Did they give you anything?"

"F-fucking left me alone in a room for fucking four hours! Only a child wouldn't be able to escape that! And they obviously didn't do their research! That cell gave way like f-fucking splinters. They didn't know I'm stronger than most ninja."

"Did they hurt you?"

She raised her head to look up at him, her eyes red and blood shot. She seemed to regain herself. "Y-yes, they gave me something. Over-dosed me on a sleeping agent, I think. Or else I- I wouldn't have such a hard time... f-figuring out if this is real or not. I n-need to get back to Lady Tsunade, or the baby..." Her eyes widened. "The baby! Sasuke, we have to-"

She stopped when Sasuke jerked his head away from her and toward the line of trees.

"I-I can't feel," she whispered. "Are they coming?"

He nodded. "How long have you been free?"

She shook her head. "No more than half hour. I couldn't move... had to wait to rebuild my chakra"

He wrapped an arm gently around her shoulders and led her to the base of a large tree, positioning her to where she was partially hidden in its roots. She was looking more and more pale by the second, and the fact she had escaped enemy ninja in her delicate condition was amazing to say the least. She must have been thinking the same thing, because she said slowly, "Of course I escaped. I'm an Uchiha. We're all amazing..."

He closed his eyes briefly, pained at what she'd had to endure because he couldn't protect her. He raised the cold fingers of one of her hands to his lips and kissed deeply. "Stay hidden. This will be over quickly. Do not move until I come for you."

She smiled weakly. "Since when do you have the authority to give me orders?"

He couldn't bring himself to smile back at her, but he did give her a quick squeeze before leaving her. He stood in the center of the clearing, waiting for them to arrive. He flared his chakra like a challenge, enticing them to come closer. He could feel them, their energies numbering almost to a dozen, which did not intimidate him. Sasuke had never felt so blackened by righteous rath more in his entire life, even when his parents were dead and he was merciless in his persuit of Itachi. He was ready for them, when they came down from the trees like black wraiths.

And before they could even mount anything of an attack, his chidori was activated, cracking and sizzling an icy white in as much rage as anticipation. His whole body was enveloped in the light as he moved flawlessly, killing two ninja with blows to the neck in one swoop. He spun and alighted, faster than he could think, only acting on pure instinct, and another fierce bolt of light pierced another ninja. The man screamed in agonizing pain as Sasuke cut upward from his stomach to his throat. With a gurgle, he fell into the air and back to the hard ground, half his body falling one way, the other dipping the opposite way.

Sasuke was no longer a man. He was a shadow, a god of war. The ninja before him had eyes filled with fear and then with death as he slaughtered them, bathing in the blood of those who would dare attempt to harm his precious family.

He stood now in a graveyard of bloodied bodies, his eyes red and bleeding Mangekyo. The last ninja's presence behind him made Sasuke turn, and he perceived behind his red haze that this man was the leader ninja from before.

"Well, well, Sasuke," he growled, circling the Uchiha. "Your wife seems to have complicated things for me. Damn bitch who-"

But he didn't finish. Sasuke was on him faster than a lightning strike, the chidori blade impaling the man through his chest. He gasped and gulped, clutching his chest while blood bubbled to his mouth and spilled on Sasuke's sword.

"You don't say a fucking word about her," Sasuke hissed, pushing the sword slowly through the man to its hilt, knowing the lightning infused in the blade made every inch an experience of agony. With angry, quick hands, Sasuke removed the leader's mask, the blue light of the lightning blade crackling over a scarred and old face. But Sasuke recognized it well, his eyes widening.

"Tohru."

His hair had dimmed from a fine and long brown into a stringy gray matt on top of his head, and wrinkles formed prominent crevices in his once youthful face. Sasuke could not imagine what had brought on such a change, but he was sure that Tohru had been the same age as Sasuke, though now he looked like an old and decrepit man. His eyes were full of cackling rage, borderlining insanity, though Sasuke was sure not to underestimate him. This was the man who had infiltrated the security of the Hidden Leaf not once but twice.

"Tohru indeed!" Shin Namura, the old betrayer of both Sasuke and Sakura, spat enraged. "I'll kill you both! I swear I will!"

Sasuke could feel the rage boil inside him. This leech had dared to survive that fateful night! After injuring both him and Sakura, after betraying the Leaf, after Sakura had plainly dispatched him, the man had the audacity to survive!

"I'll ask this once," Sasuke hissed. "Why did you come back?" In emphasis, he twisted the blade cruelly, causing Shin to cry out in cursing, pitiful pain.

But Shin turned his cry of pain into ridicoulous laughter, coughing up a mouthful of blood on Sasuke's blade. "You two certainly are cute. Look how close you are now. My old captain and her bitch getting hitched! Even fairytales can't come up with a pair like you two!"

The dark-haired Uchiha didn't see the reply to be fit enough to deserve a response, so he waited, enjoying the feeling of his blade tasting Shin's flesh.

Shin began to gasp and pant, more blood flowing from the wound in his chest. "You're all I've thought about these long years, Uchiha. I wanted to kill you and Hana for so long. You two made it easy. I didn't even have to look past the same block to find you! But the baby. Oh, that was just an added bonus. How fragile little Hana was when we took her. And I'm sure she won't survive the kind of torture we put her through. You think she escaped on her own? I told you that you'd be able to find me. I've been waiting for this... Oh, I've been waiting so long!"

Shin bared fang-like teeth and shoved his body further up Sasuke's sword, driving the harsh metal into his body as he neared Sasuke, another blade in his hands. He swung, but Sasuke was elite, he was an Uchiha, and he was damn angry.

With the flick of his wrist, he brought the sword outside Shin's body, cutting through him till his sword was free from skin once again. The man cried out in pain, his blood coating every inch of Sasuke's body before he finally fell to the forest floor. Sasuke wrung his sword free of the carnage and of the unworthy man's blood, allowing the satisfaction of vengence wash through him. He gace himself a moment to calm down and wipe a bit of blood from him before returning to Sakura. She hadn't moved an inch, still huddled by the tree, her eyes closed.

She looked like a glass statue and he had to hold out a hand and touch her to make sure she was real.

She flinched at the contact but when she saw who he was, she breathed easier and smiled at him. He noticed how she was even more pale if that was possible. Between her legs a small stream of blood and water flowed, and Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Sakura!"

"My water broke," she whispered, leaning heavily against the tree. "We.. have to get back... home..."

He nodded fiercely, trying to keep himself as calm as she seemed to be. Ever so slowly he lifted her up, her cries of pain causing him to stop.

"No, move!" she gasped. "We have to move, Sasuke. If we don't go back, then the baby could die. No matter what you have to take me back to the village."

Again he said nothing and acted, putting one arm under her legs and the other to support her back as he leaped into the air, fear clawing its way up his spine. For some reason, though the enemies had been defeated, Sasuke felt no peace. Sakura panted heavily in his grip, shaking like a leaf despite the concentrated look on her face. He could hear her initiate breathing exercises, trying to control her chakra. But it was too erratic and weak to produce anything helpful to her. Sasuke quickened his pace.

She needed Lady Tsunade now.

Chapter 7 end.

So now we have come full circle. There won't be anymore flash backs, only the present. Please continue reading for the conclusion to the Origins of the New Uchiha.