Hey, hey! Welcome back! I managed to squeeze this chapter out a bit sooner than I expected I would. It's not as long as I initially planned it to be, but I figured I might as well give you guys something before I have to commit the rest of the week to my final exams this semester. So here you go!

I apologize to anyone who may think that the rather serious romance/family/drama story got a biiiiiiit off-track with Sakura and her girls' night out. n.n; I know, it may have seemed like a bit of a hard left, and maybe a bit OOC near the end (and at the very beginning of this chapter...) but I wanted to try out something funny and broaden my horizons a little bit, as a foil to the whole emotional ride we were taken on with Sasuke, Sarada, and the Uchiha identity, I suppose.. The story's gonna get back on track pretty soon. This is more an interim chapter than anything substantial, but the plot's moving forward!

I also apologize to anyone who's expecting a sex scene with Drunk!Sakura in this chapter. I tried, I really did. Half this chapter was originally a drunken sex scene, but I couldn't get through it! It didn't feel right. Sasuke explains it in the story better than I can here, so just read on! And again, try not to laugh immediately.


"…I can imagine all of us having a foursome… Can you imagine it, Sasuke? Think of all the… the… positions and stuff. Like… um… Oh, me and Hinata all mushed together between you two, kissing on each other while you're *hic* fucking us at the same rhythm… Or, um… Um… *hic* oh! Maybe, uh, we could… cover our face. …Faces. And tits... In cream or something, and you two have to lick us up to find out who's who. Oooooooh… Or we could… wife-swap. Yeah! That'd be an adventure… Hinata's got a fat ass, you wanna fuck that? I know I wanna fuck that… Ooooh, or you and… and… and Naruto on me at either end. We'll call it the Team Seven Spit Roast~ Mmm… I bet you're so hard right now, Sasuke…"

Sasuke now knew how Naruto felt carrying a yammering Himawari on his back while they were heading back to the Village. He was visibly flustered and worn by Sakura's increasingly lewd, loose-tongued remarks as he carried her back the way he came. He was hoping she'd give up if he just didn't answer her, but to no avail. He was relieved when he finally spotted their front gate, and picked up his pace just enough for Sakura to giggle as she bounced on his back.

"Was our house always this blurry, Sasuke~? Hm?" Sakura hummed, blinking as she looked around their dark and quiet living room, or what she could make out of it, before resting her head lazily on Sasuke's shoulder again. He took a brief look around as well before carrying Sakura across the room and up the stairs toward their room. With some effort, Sasuke let his clinging wife down from his back to lay across the bed.

"I'll be back in a minute," he told her with a nod before turning and stepping out of the room with a heavy, weary sigh.

Sasuke took a brief moment to collect himself and shake his head, before walking over to Sarada's room to briefly peek in and check on her. Finding her in the same position she was in when he put her to bed, he closed the door and headed back downstairs.

Sasuke found himself trying to be more quiet than usual as he tread down the steps and into the kitchen, as if Sakura's stabbing hangover had already arrived and he was reluctant to make any noise at all. He filled a tall glass with cool tap water before turning and taking a long look around their living room again.

He stood still and quietly for a full minute, sensing that something was just… off for some reason. Eventually, he brushed it off, set his mind back to getting Sakura her water and putting her to bed, and headed back up the steps. He peeked slightly again into his daughter's room before returning to his own to find that in the time between his leaving the room and coming back, Sakura had thrown all of her clothes and undergarments to the floor and was sprawled out over the sheets, passed out.

"…Sakura," he sighed, walking over to attempt to stir her awake, to no avail. Even when he tried to sit her up, she wouldn't wake up. Sasuke pinched his nose at the thought of nursing her hangover the next morning as he undressed himself as well and slid into bed, pulling Sakura comfortably against him and drifting off to sleep as well.

"Sasuke… How drunk was I last night?"

Her voice stirred him awake, and he opened one eye to peer down at the soft form nestled against him, her shoulders shrugged up painfully to her ears, and her entire bare form tense and rigid.

Sasuke closed his eye again and sighed. "Well…" he started. "You had Hinata in your lap with her pants pulled almost halfway down, kissing each other aggressively."

"Uuuuuuuugh…"

"And on the way back home, you were mumbling in my ear about a foursome, a wife swap, and whether or not I wanted to fuck Hinata's fat ass."

"I said that?!"

"You were that drunk."

"Uuuuuuuuuugh…"

Sakura whined loudly and lifted the covers over her head. He could feel how warm her body was getting with embarrassment, and started to chuckle when he heard a knock at the bedroom door.

"Papa…? Is Mama alright?"

Sasuke could almost imagine the look of concern etched on his daughter's face and shook his head with a smile. "She's fine, Sarada. She's had a long night and now she's a little sick, is all. Do you need anything? Are you hungry?"

"No, I can make my own breakfast…" Sarada replied. "I just wanted to know if I could go out and visit Himawari today."

"Sure, sure," Sasuke answered, sitting up.

"Can… I stay the whole day over there?"

Sasuke lifted a brow. "I don't see why not. Just come back when you're ready to."

"Can… I sleep over at Hima's house?"

Sasuke chuckled lightly under his breath. It was the start of a sisterhood, he supposed. "It's fine with me, but that's a question you'll also have to ask Himawari's parents."

"Alright, thanks, Papa! I'll see you later! Take good care of Mama!"

Sasuke listened to his daughter's footsteps retreat from the bedroom door and start to head downstairs. It warmed his heart to hear that she was no longer distraught and forlorn about her family name. Naruto's words yesterday strengthened his hope as well that Sarada would be able to someday change how the world saw the Uchiha name…

"Mm… I take it yesterday's outing with Sarada went well?" Sakura groaned, pulling the covers from over her head and sitting up as well. She closed her eyes and brought her hands to her head, using her Healing Jutsu to try to ease her splitting hangover.

Sasuke leaned back against the headboard and nodded. "Very. I brought Naruto and Himawari along to help. Everything turned out well. I can already tell that you had fun yesterday."

"Sasuke, make me feel a little better and tell me we at least had sex last night."

"We didn't. For a few reasons. Firstly, you passed out soon after I put you in bed, and you wouldn't wake up. Second, you weren't yourself. I wasn't about to take advantage of you when you clearly weren't in your right mind. Third, I suspected you wouldn't remember the next morning anyway, even if we did, and the fact that you're asking means that I was right."

Sakura nodded as she continued to numb her pain with her healing jutsu. "Well, will you have sex with me now? This isn't exactly medical theory, but… maybe pleasure will make the pain go away faster. Just so long as you don't touch my head."

Sasuke lifted a brow at Sakura, who looked at him with an almost adorably pleading look, thin brows knitted together, soft lips puckered in a pouty whine. He sighed and smirked.

"Alright, come here."

There were still people who stared. Not as many as when she was with her father, but Sarada could still feel the eyes on her. She did her best to shrug them off, and kept the Seventh's advice running through her mind all the way down toward the Hokage Residence.

They saw her father when they looked at her, but she was still a blank slate. She could do good and strive to better the world. She would do good and better the world. Then they'd look at her with pride and admiration instead of suspicion and disdain, just like how it was with the Seventh and his life.

It brought a smile to her face, and the uncomfortable atmosphere rolled mostly off her back as she eventually left the main road and approached the large mansion where the Seventh and his family stayed.

It took a minute of knocking before there was an answer, and Sarada blinked and adjusted her glasses upon taking in a worn-looking Naruto as he opened the door.

"Oh! You're… not in the office today, Seventh?" she asked after a quick and respectful bow.

"Oh, I am! Sort of. Shadow Clone," he explained as he looked back into the house over his shoulder. "Hinata is, ah… a little sick today. Had a bit of a long night… So I'm trying to be in two places at once. I wasn't expecting you; did you need something?"

"Well, two things," Sarada said, clearing her throat. "First, I was just wondering if Himawari was home, and… I wanted to ask if maybe I could sleep overnight here with Hima? Papa already told me it was alright with him if it was alright with you." Sarada gestured to the backpack she was carrying that she packed with nightclothes and toiletries after eating and before leaving the house.

Naruto glanced into his home again for a moment before answering. "Sleep over? Sure, sure, I don't mind! I'll take your things and go put them down in Himawari's room if you'd like. If you want to find Hima, she's with her aunt, training at the Hyuga Compound."

Sarada nodded with a smile and handed her backpack over to Naruto before bowing again. "Thank you so much! I hope Mrs. Hinata feels better soon!"

"Me too, Sarada, me too…" Naruto said with a slightly weary sigh under his breath as he watched Sarada head back down the walk for a moment before heading back inside.

As Sarada made her way back onto the main path to head in the other direction toward the Hyuga District, she tilted her head curiously. Both her own mother and Himawari's mother were 'a little sick' from having 'a bit of a long night'. She let it go after a minute of thought. Probably a coincidence.

The doors were locked, the house was quiet and empty, and the light streaming in past the closed blinds struck warm, pink-tinted light down on Sakura's soft, trembling form as she grasped gently at the bedsheets beneath her. Her back was arched, her eyes had fluttered closed, and her head was tilted aside to allow Sasuke to kiss slowly up her shoulder and neck while his fingers danced between her legs.

Sasuke was extremely careful to not even barely touch her aching head as he hooked his fingers teasingly within her and latched his teeth upon the lobe of her ear in the same moment. If Sakura was suspicious before about whether or not Sasuke electrified her body with his fingers, the faint humming she felt and the shivering in her loins that it caused erased all doubt. Sasuke's torturous skill drew out her longest, shakiest moan since he'd been back, and the agonizing pain of her hangover was further cushioned by the warmth of the pleasure flowing slowly through her form.

"You're seriously going to paralyze me one of these days…" she mumbled at him with a smile as he unhooked his fingers, released her ear, and returned to his gentle, steady dance.

Sasuke smirked back and returned his lips to her neck, making Sakura tense and shiver again as he rediscovered the still-tender spot on her neck where he marked and reddened her neck just a couple of nights ago. As he focused his lips, teeth, and tongue upon that sensitive spot once again, his teasing fingers sank home once again.

Sakura's fingers and toes curled against the sheets as she yelped up to the ceiling, nearly forgetting she was even in pain for a long few moments. No matter how used to him she thought she was at times, Sakura knew that this would never get old and she'd never stop enjoying the times they can spend being husband and wife, especially not now, as it seemed Sasuke was dedicating himself fully to pleasing her and keeping her from doing any of the work.

In retrospect, being hungover isn't as bad a feeling as Sakura initially woke up thinking it was.

Since Sarada couldn't remember the last time she had been down through the Hygua District, she'd forgotten just how much of an intimidating place it was. Compared to the rest of the village, with its more modern construction, the small section of the village in which the Hyuga clan made its home seemed had something of an antique and dated feeling to it.

The telephone poles she would barely half-notice around the village with their wires crisscrossing above the buildings weren't present at all here. The people walking around wore old styles of robes in only a few plain hues, typically white, black, or grey. The most unsettling part about the Hyuga District, however, was how quiet it was, compared to the bustling land around it.

Sarada barely caught anyone's eye. Those who did spare a glance in her direction did not look for very long before returning to their business. They all had the same eyes as Hanabi, so it was nearly impossible to tell exactly what they thought of her at a glance whenever they looked, and the rest of their neutral faces told about as much as their eyes did. Sarada thought her sensei's ever-stern expression was just a part of who she was, but… sternness and hard faces seemed to just run in the clan.

It reoccurred to Sarada while she was walking that not long ago, she punched the Hyuga clan heiress in the face, albeit accidentally… Even though Himawari certainly held no hard feelings, Sarada couldn't help but make herself nervous wondering if these other Hyugas were hiding hostile thoughts behind their calm, quick glances. Maybe that's why she was so intimidated walking through here…

Eventually, Sarada began to approach the largest building in the district, an impressively large section of interconnected structure surrounded by a wall, known around the village as the 'Hyuga Compound'. Protected on either end of the entrance gate by two tall, blank-eyed guards, Sarada was very hesitant to approach at first, and went nervously rigid when the stationed men turn their eyes toward her.

"Sarada Uchiha," one of the men identified her with a calm nod. "You're quite far from your home. What is it you need here?"

"I, um… I came to see Himawari. If that's alright, that is… S-She's here, right? The Seventh told me I could find her here training."

Both of the guards gave Sarada a careful look for a moment, as if they were wondering to themselves if it was safe to let her near Hima. After a moment, they looked at each other, then the one that addressed her spoke up again.

"Lady Himawari is here and currently training, indeed. And we normally do not allow outsiders to observe training sessions… But if you were sent by the Lord Hokage, and since it's been evident that Lady Himawari has taken a liking to you in particular, we'll make a small exception. You'll be allowed in, and you'll be monitored closely. Don't cause any trouble. Understood?"

"Yes, of course," Sarada immediately accedes with a quick bow.

The guard who hadn't spoken yet nodded for Sarada to follow him, and with a short breath and another quick adjustment of her glasses, she steps past the gate and closer toward the large compound.

Sarada had never really thought of Himawari as a princess, heir and future leader of the most powerful clan in the Hidden Leaf Village, one of the most influential clans in the Land of Fire, and one of the most well-known and well-respected clans in the entire world. But now that she was, every step closer to the doors of the compound and closer to Himawari made Sarada feel just that much smaller…


You laughed immediately, didn't you? :3

The next few chapters are going to be pretty focused on Sarada and Himawari. Once night falls, then the story's going to kick back to Sasuke and Sakura. That's the plan, anyway. I'm mostly making this shit up as I go. xD

I have a good idea on what the climax of the story is going to be like, but it's getting there that's the hard part. I want to keep this story going for as long as I can, because people seem to really like it, but the climax is in sight for me. Don't know long it's going to take to get there, but we're getting there. And once we get there, I'll be starting to wrap the story up so I can get to work on some other things I have in store. :D

~M.H.C~

May all your

Hearts beat with

Calamity!

Till next time!