Chapter 9: Fire and Ice
Papers scattered everywhere as more and more scrolls were thrown from the center table then across the other side of the Hokage office. The blonde Hokage was currently sorting through a bunch of mission reports from all of the shinobi that had just finished their tasks, the rest were new laws that were being pushed by the elders and Konoha's district representatives, and a whole pile of complaints from both the elites and commoners.
Exhaustion etched over Tsunade's face as her hand slowly inched its way towards the desk's drawer where her precious sake was stored.
Her hand was just about to grasped the neck of the bottle when Shizune's voice stopped her.
"Tsunade-sama, the Uchiha couple's here. Would you like me to let them in?" Shizune opened the door to the hokage office. Another pile of scrolls and paper works towered over Shizune's slender figure as she carried it towards one frustrated Hokage.
"Sasuke and Sakura? What for? I don't remember any schedule with them, especially that Uchiha brat."
"Sakura said that they had something important to talk to you about." She explained.
"Alright. Just send them in." Tsunade dismissed Shizune as she continued on looking over the new set of documents in front of her.
Outside the door, Sakura was waiting patiently for Shizune while Sasuke simply assumed his usual brooding position as he leaned on the nearest wall with his arms across his chest and eyes shut out the world around him.
Shizune came out of the office. "Sakura-chan, the Hokage will see you guys now."
"Arigatou, Shizune-san."
The couple entered the office. Sasuke raised one fine eyebrow at Tsunade who was eagerly gulping down sake like there was no tomorrow. She did not even noticed that the two were standing in front of her, waiting for her to acknowledge them.
Sakura cleared her throat which caught Tsunade's attention.
"Ehem… Ohayou gozaimasu, shishou. I hope we're not disturbing you." She politely greeted the half-drunk Hokage.
Tsunade gulped down the rest of the sake, placed down the bottle, wiped her mouth with her robes, before finally responded to her apprentice.
"Hn. It's not like the presence of your husband is already a disturbance." Sarcasm sipped though her red lips.
As usual, Sasuke paid no mind and simply rolled his eyes at her.
"SHISHOU!"
"Yeah. Yeah. Be civil. I get it. So, what do you guys want? If you haven't notice I'm busy running this village."
Sakura sat down to the nearest chair in front of Tsunade's desk and asked for Sasuke to do the same but he deliberately ignored her and simply towered over the two women.
She shook her head at his husband's stubbornness before turning her attention to Tsunade who was yet again gulping down another bottle of sake.
"If you mean drinking at ten in the morning working, then I guess we can pretty much disturb you."
"Hey, don't be so anal about me drinking. It's cold outside and a doctor such as yourself should know that sake is a good insulator." She defended and took another swig on her sake bottle. "Ahhh… Definitely warms you up."
"I can tell that your robes are not made out of sake so don't use that insulator shit, and you have a freaking heater here. Does Shizune even knows you're already drinking?" Sakura lectured.
"Lay off my back will you." She snorted at her apprentice's sharp comeback. "So, what do you guys really want?"
"Sasuke-kun here have some small request from you." She sheepishly smiled and prompted for Sasuke to speak up.
"I'm canceling the mission tomorrow." He plainly stated and made eye contact with the Hokage.
Tsunade raised one elegant eyebrow at him. "Hmm… Funny, I could've sworn you said you're canceling your mission. The weather might've been freezing my eardrums, so could you repeat that again."
"The mission is cancelled." His bluntness ignited Tsunade's anger.
Her dazed eyes suddenly blazed with uncontrolled anger.
"And who the fuck gave you the authority to do that? Huh, Uchiha?" Her eyes narrowed down to the tiniest slits, to the point where her hazel eyes were barely seen though her long lashes.
If it were an ordinary person, shinobi or not, he or she would probably be sweating through out his or her body, down the last pore, until he or she dehydrated and end up getting a heat stroke due to the intensity of her glare.
Unfortunately for her, Sasuke was never the normal one.
Silence enveloped the office for a few minutes.
"That's right, no one gave you permission. Why do you need to cancel the mission?"
It seemed like her glares just bounced off of the stoic Uchiha.
He gave her a glare of his own, which ultimately proved to be the grandfather of all glares, including hers.
She didn't backed down.
The silence of the room was sliced by the sound of electricity crashing between the two hard-headed adults.
Tsunade released a defeated sigh when she figured that nothing would ever intimidate him.
"Uchiha, you're wasting my time. Just get on with your point."
"I'm going with Sakura tomorrow."
"WHAT?!" Her booming voice made Sakura almost fell out of her chair and created tremors which shook the foundations of the Hokage tower.
"Please, shishou, calm down."
"Calm down?!" She exclaimed. "His mission for tomorrow can not be canceled. And why the hell would you wanna go with Sakura? I don't remember you being a doctor."
"The mission can wait. I already informed my team. All I need is your approval."
"That's not the point here, Uchiha! You cancelled it before even informing me."
Sasuke remained emotionless through out her outburst.
His stoic look annoyed Tsunade to no end, and her sharp nails was itching to be sharpened with his face.
"Shishou, the mission is only another spying mission, right? Couldn't it be delayed just for now?" Sakura tried to intervene.
Tsunade turned her attention away from Sasuke and directly her anger at Sakura. "That's not it either, Sakura. Why all of a sudden he's interested in this medical convoy. He couldn't care less of you doing this before. Why start now?"
"Well, it is kinda different now." She started.
"How different?" Tsunade urged her apprentice to continue.
But before Sakura could even open her mouth to explain, Sasuke answered for her.
"There's not a single chance I would let my pregnant wife on this convoy."
"Oh." Tsunade's anger suddenly dissipated into thin air. "Heh, I seemed to forget that you're pregnant." She tenderly smiled at her apprentice.
Sasuke snorted. "Che, that's not a surprise. You're probably too wasted to remember."
Some of her anger instantly returned and her bloodshot eyes pierced through him.
"You're stepping out of line, Sasuke Uchiha." She seethed.
"Hn."
"And I've told you, don't hn me. Have some respect for your Hokage before I change my mind and completely banish you!" She held herself from banging the hell out of her new desk. She just replaced it yesterday after one of her Hokage-in-training sessions with Konoha's number one goofball.
"Tsunade-shishou, you don't need to go that far. Please, calm down and hear us out."
"Sakura, I love you like my own daughter but I am first and foremost the Hokage. I can't and will not tolerate your husband's attitude."
"Sasuke-kun did not mean to be rude and I know he's very sorry for how he acted. Aren't you, Sasuke?." She glared at him.
"I have noth- Owww" He started but was cut off when her right foot slammed itself to his left foot. The impact almost crushed the bones on his foot.
"What was that Sasuke?" Fake smile plastered on her face.
Shivers ran down his spine. He finally decided to follow his wife before she crushed another part of his anatomy.
"My apologies, Hokage-sama." His apology sounded forced.
"Hmmph, apologies my ass!"
"Shishou, he's really serious, so please reconsider your orders" She tried to reason with her.
"Hmmph. Fine. But one more of his disrespectfulness and I'm gonna take back all the Uchiha properties, including the whole compound and your mansion. Sakura could stay with me, you, on the other hand, could sleep on the street and be homeless for all I care." She threatened.
Last month, the reconstruction of the Uchiha compound was finally finished. Everything was fully furnished up to the marbled toilet bowl. The couple had just moved in the main mansion two weeks ago after Tsunade signed off the property back to its rightful owner and only heir.
"What?! You can't do that! All of that is legally owned by the Uchiha clan." Her threat finally resulted an outburst from him.
"Try me."
"Ok children, we don't need to be trying anything right now. So, please play nice." Her grip on the table made a cracking sound. Its edge slowly cracked from where she was gripping it towards the opposite side where Tsunade was leaning against.
The chilling aura that radiated off of her body was enough to stop them.
Whoever said pregnant women were delicate and fragile must've been stupid or haven't met Sakura yet. Damn, she was just freaky, plain and simple.
In the end, Sasuke ended up getting his way yet again. Somehow he made a sharp turn and used his undeniable intelligence against the Hokage. Tsunade couldn't find any loophole around his argument, dejectedly gave up, and allowed him to accompany Sakura to Suna.
After the disastrous morning with Tsunade, the couple went to the grocery store to buy supplies for their trip.
The next morning, Sakura woke up bright and early. She quickly showered and prepared breakfast for the two of them.
They were ready to get out of the house even before the sun started to rise over the horizon.
It was a chilly morning and Sasuke made sure that Sakura was wearing enough to keep her warm. He was being extra protective of her and wouldn't allow her to leave the house until she had at least two winter jackets on.
Sakura, on the other hand, was pretty much getting annoyed with her husband. She didn't want to start her morning getting worked up by her eccentric husband so she just pointedly ignored him though out their walk towards the gate where they were supposed to meet Naruto and Sai.
The trip to Suna was uneventful and everything went as planned with the team.
Although, the three day trip was stretched to a five and half trip due to Sasuke stopping the group every three hours. He claimed that Sakura's current condition left her body to be unfit for such long trips so she needed to rest. Sakura stubbornly argued against him but would always end up losing whenever he would bring up their baby in the argument.
Naruto simply watched the two argue and laughed from time to time at how childish they looked. Sai, on the other hand, would always lean against a tree, take out his sketchpad, and draw the couple having their lovers' spat.
Sai would occasionally asked Naruto about the emotional dynamics behind the Uchiha couple. Naruto would just laugh and told him to listened carefully and jot down his observations. Naruto analyzed the couple while Sai vigorously took notes to be added as another chapter to his 'research' about human emotions.
The days passed by and the group arrived in Suna. Gaara had made arrangements for the group to stay in the Kazekage's mansion.
Naruto practiced his Hokage trainings as him and Gaara held meetings with the elders and anbu elites of the village.
In the meantime, Sakura had immediately started working the moment they arrived. She went to check the main hospital in the village and had seminars with its doctors and nurses. Sasuke followed her around, glared, and sneered upon those who he deemed were trying to hit on his wife.
Before, his possessiveness did not bother Sakura at all. She thought it was kind of nice to have to him act like that. In a sense, she could somehow feel that she was special to him.
But right now, he was really getting on her last nerve. Sasuke was being a possessive and chauvinistic brute, and he was clearly disrupting her work.
How could she possibly work with the doctors, whom most were males, when he was breathing ice down their throats and glaring fire-ignited daggers at their direction.
By day three in the village, the doctors were very cautious when they were around her for they did not want a repeat of what happened the day before.
One of the doctors ignored Sasuke's visibly invisible warning signs he placed upon Sakura and approached her with intentions of asking her out to dinner and insinuated on leaving Sasuke for someone who he thought was much better suited for her. The poor guy did not know who he was dealing with.
Sasuke lunged at him with the purest intent of killing him and later defended that he was 'graciously' eliminating the village one less idiotic doctor.
The commotion alerted shinobis who were patrolling the hospital grounds, but even the three young chuunin level shinobis were not enough to stop Sasuke's rampage.
Sakura had to use her inhumane strength just to haul him off of the bloody doctor and threw him to the other side of the room.
She tried to help the crippled doctor but before she could even reach him, the young doctor sprinted out of the room as far away from her. And if he must, he would move to the other side of the village just to stay clear from Sasuke's 'evil' sights.
After that catastrophic event, Sakura was seething fire down her husband's 'innocent' face. It was almost as if the fire was real enough to scorch him. Sasuke had a nagging thought in the back of his mind that his wife was either a menacing dragon in her past life or she was simply destined to be one in the future.
Sakura finally banned Sasuke from being with her during work when she did not get any reaction or any reasonable explanation from him. She event went to great lengths of setting a chakra shield that was similar to the shield around Konoha's borders that was especially designed and enhanced to detect Sasuke's charka signature and shock him whenever he crossed the ten-mile radius around her.
So, nothing was left for him but hang out with Naruto and Sai for the rest of the trip.
"Sakura-chan are you sure that you have everything you need for your trip back to home?" Kankuro asked as he inspected her duffle bag.
"Yeah, I think I have everything. Food, scrolls, first-aid kit, drink…" Sakura replied.
The group was being escorted by Gaara and his siblings towards the village's borders.
"Kazekage-sama, arigatou for your hospitality." Sakura bowed down in respect.
"Sakura, I told you. No need for formalities."
"Yeah, Sakura-chan. You know how he hates it especially when its coming from you. His allergic from it." Temari joked around causing Naruto and Kankuro to laugh.
"If ever Gaara was to get allergies and be all blown up, he would look like a giant panda with that dark circles in his eyes." Naruto snorted before continuing, "That is, a gothic furless panda who's going through the phase of his teenage rebellion." He laughed as he pointed at Gaara's red hair.
"Hn." Simply replied the Kazekage.
"Ah-ah-ah Naruto, you better stop if you still want to be Hokage." Temari warned.
All laugher ceased as Naruto confusedly stared at her.
"Yep, that's right. Gaara has a say in you being the next Hokage since Tsunade asked him for further recommendation."
"WHAT?!! She did not!"
"Did too"
"Nah-uh"
"Yeah-huh"
"Would you two shut the hell up!" Gaara cut them off.
His outburst had everyone widely staring at him. Gaara rarely yell or curse just to get anyone to conform to his bidding. The only time he created an outburst such as this was when he released the Nibi and that was pretty much it. Even Suna's council and elders were silenced by just one look from their Kazekage.
"Stop this nonsense and let's go." Sasuke nodded towards Gaara, turned around, and walked out of the village.
Sakura shook her head and turned towards Gaara. "Well, we better get going. Thank you again Gaara." She hugged him.
Gaara returned her warm embrace. "You take of yourself Sakura."
"Thanks." She pulled away and hugged Temari and Kankuro goodbye.
"Yeah yeah. Stop the mushiness Sakura-chan. Jaa." Naruto said, bid Gaara and his siblings goodbye, and hurried after Sasuke.
"Arigatou, Kazekage-sama." Sai bowed down in respect then followed the guys.
"You guys take care of yourselves too, aight. And be sure to visit us." Sakura waved goodbye and ran to catch up with her team.
A/N:
First and foremost, I am really sorry for the late update. I typed up the next part of this chapter and I'm just going to proofread it. Reviews are very much appreciated.
So, happy reading. Don't forget to review.
