Hey everyone, how's it going?

It took me a long time to come up with this chapter. I had written about half of it before I lost inspiration, and chose to focus on my other story in the meantime. Luckily, inspiration has come back and he's chapter 9! I will try to put the next chapter during the following week.

Enjoy!


Chapter 9

Sakura walked inside her apartment, sighing in content after a tiring day at the hospital. The case and the endless hours she had to stay with the patients were taking their toll on her, and she felt like she would collapse at any moment.

"I'm home!" she shouted, and immediately started humming the last song she had heard on the radio. She didn't know the name, but it was another one of these songs about working, or something like that. In all honestly, these singers didn't know what they were talking about because working all the time was exhausting, especially when your asshole of an ex-boyfriend was trying to ruin your life.

"Sarada?" she shouted, when she got no answer. "That's weird, she's not here yet?" she muttered. "She must still be at Sasuke's."

She set her bag on the table, not bothering to walk to her room, and sat down on the sofa, stretching her tired limbs. She removed her shoes and gently massaged her ankles, before lying down on the couch to rest. It wasn't long before she closed her eyes, and fell into a deep slumber.

-: :-

It was a few hours later when the pink haired woman woke up, groggy and disoriented, and surprised to find out that she had fallen asleep on her couch.

"I must have been more tired than I thought," she murmured, yawning loudly, before getting up and walking to the kitchen to get something to eat. The clock on the stove showed that it was already past eight, and she could see the sun starting to set from the window. She groaned, realizing that she had already lost her whole afternoon sleeping, when she would usually spend time with her daughter.

She smiled to herself when she thought about her daughter. The young Uchiha had probably noticed how Sakura had been tired, and let her sleep. She was sometimes really considerate, and had an uncanny ability to understand things more mature than her age.

She opened the fridge, looking inside to see if she still had leftovers from the night before, and grinned in triumph when she saw the wrapped up lasagna. It was too late to cook, and she didn't have the energy to do it anyway.

"Lasagna it is," she declared to herself, taking the plate out.

She cut two pieces, one for her and one for her daughter, and placed them in the microwave before walking towards her daughter's room. She had probably gone there to read a book or to watch one of her cartoons like she usually did, and Sakura knew that if it weren't summer, she would scold her about her homework. Despite being a very smart girl, she tended to be forgetful and get wrapped up in her stories.

When Sakura got in front of her door, she knocked a few times, before calling for her daughter.

"Sarada? I'm heating up dinner. Come to eat," she said. There was no sound for a few seconds, before she knocked once again. "Sarada? Are you there?"

An impatient Sakura finally opened the door, thinking that Sarada had fallen asleep, but her eyes widened when she realized that there was no one in the room. She walked out, and looked inside the other rooms, and frowned when she couldn't find her daughter.

Did Sasuke decide to keep her for the night?

Her expression instantly morphed into anger, and she quickly walked back to the living room. She took her phone out of her purse to dial his number, which was something she hadn't done in more than a year, and patiently waited for him to answer.

"Hello? Sakura? It's a surprise to hear from you."

"Sasuke," she replied back coldly. "I don't appreciate you holding Sarada back."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're already trying to take her away, why do you also need to shorten the time I spend with her?"

"I didn't do such thing," he argued in a firm voice. "I'm respecting the arrangement we set, and I have no idea where you're coming from."

"Just bring Sarada home," she insisted tiredly. She didn't have the energy to argue.

"I already took her to yours hours earlier, I left her in front of the building."

She frowned her eyebrows. "She's not here, are you sure you didn't forget to bring her back?"

"No I didn't, I left her in front of the building and even watched her get inside. Are you sure she's not sleeping somewhere? You know she tends to fall asleep everywhere."

Sakura was starting to panic at the prospect of her daughter being gone. "No! She's not here, I've looked in every room!"

There was a pause on the other line. "Well, shit. Call Ino, maybe she's at her house. I'll be there in ten."

The line went dead, and Sakura hurriedly called Ino who, like Sasuke, confirmed that she had not seen the youngest Uchiha. At that point, Sakura had started panicking. Where would her wayward daughter have gone?

Before she could ponder further about her whereabouts, there was a knock on the door, and Sakura hurriedly ran to open it, knowing that Sasuke would be on the other side. It was the first time they were seeing each other in a long time without any form of resentment towards the other, but simply worry for their child.

"Did you call Ino?" he asked, making his way inside.

Sakura nodded, glaring at his back. "Yes I did, she had no idea where Sarada might be. Why didn't you bring her upstairs when you brought her home?"

"I never walk upstairs with her, it's no news to you, so stop finding excuses to blame me. Why weren't you home when I brought her here?"

"I stayed late at work!" she retorted. "I wasn't that late anyway, only half an hour!"

"Well anything can happen in half an hour, look at what's happening right now, our daughter is missing!"

Sakura started pacing the living room, as Sasuke sat down on the sofa to stare at her in anger. Worry was clouding his mind, albeit not as apparently as Sakura.

"I don't know where she might have gone to, Naruto is working at the moment, and there's no one else living close enough for her to walk to their house. Do you think she was taken?" asked the pink haired woman.

"In your own building?" scoffed Sasuke. "I doubt it. Plus, it's been hours and no one called for a ransom or anything. If you want my honest opinion, I'd say that she left on her own."

"Why would she do that? It's getting dark, she shouldn't be out at this hour," whispered Sakura.

"She's a child, she probably got distracted," she shrugged, and Sakura stared at him in ager.

"You are way too relaxed about this, do you even care about your daughter?" she snapped.

"Of course I do," he replied back. "But there's no use in panicking. We'll find her."

"What if we don't? What if she's gone forever?" exclaimed Sakura, who was starting to really panic. "I'm going to call the cops."

She picked up her phone that she had put on the table, and started dialing when a knock on the door interrupted her.

"That's probably Ino," she muttered.

Sasuke stood up. "I'll open the door, you talk to the police."

"Okay," she nodded, watching him walk out of the living room, before dialing 911. It wasn't long before someone on the other line answered her call.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Hi, my daughter's missing, and we can't find her anywhere," she informed the woman at the other line.

"How old is your daughter?"

"She's will be eleven in two weeks."

"And when was the last time you've seen her?"

"Two days-"

"Sakura," said a deep voice behind her.

She turned around, and was met with the sight of Sasuke's older brother holding Sarada's hand. The latter was looking at the ground in shame, and relief washed over Sakura at the sight of her daughter being safe and finally home.

"-miss? Are you still with me?"

"Oh yes, sorry," she replied. She had forgotten that she was talking on the phone. "My daughter just got home. It's fine now, thank you."

"No problem."

The line went dead, and Sakura put her phone down to reach for Sarada, and wrap her arms around the young girl in relief.

"Oh God, where have you been?"

The little girl didn't reply, and simply stood there in her mother's arms.

"I found her walking down the boulevard while I was driving. I found it curious that she was alone," said Itachi, who had been silent up until that moment. Sasuke soon followed his brother and his daughter, entering the living room with a much more relaxed posture. Sakura untangled her arms from around Sarada, placing the girl in front of her and staring into her eyes.

"Why would you do that? Why would you just leave the house without alerting me or your father? You know that you have to come inside and wait for me to come back home," scolded Sakura.

"I'm sorry," she muttered back.

"What were you thinking?" continued the rose. "Your father and I were so worried!"

"I'm sorry mom," she repeated, her head hanging low.

"Don't ever do that again, Sarada. I called the police for you!"

Sarada's shoulders started shaking, and Sakura's expression softened as she brought her daughter to her chest and wrapped her arms around her.

"Why are you crying? Tell me what's wrong."

Sarada kept crying, her body wracked by strong tremors, as her mother attempted to comfort her, her hand sliding down her hair as a reassuring gesture. Sasuke and Itachi watched the exchange with worried eyes, concerned about Sakura. Sasuke stood a few feet away from them, shifting from one leg to another. He had an idea why his daughter was so distressed, and a sudden surge of guilt started eating at him.

"I won't do it again," muttered Sarada, after she had slightly calmed down. "I was just mad."

"What were you mad about?" asked her mother. Sarada stayed silent, staring at her shoes, and Sakura nudged her. "You can tell me, we can fix whatever is making you sad."

"You can't fix it," replied Sarada.

"Try me," insisted the pink haired woman, giving a sideways look to Sasuke. "Your father and I care about you, and we want you to be happy. We'll help you with whatever is bothering you."

Sarada looked up, frustration swimming in her onyx orbs. "I want you two to stop fighting over me! I want us to be a family, not what we've become! I'm so tired of going to court and looking at all those stupid adults trying to decide everything for me! This is the first time in forever that I've seen you in the same room without you two glaring at each other!"

The three adults watched her with a stunned expression, and the young girl's gaze travelled between her two parents as they stood silent in front of her.

"I'm sorry Sarada, I know all of this is a lot to take in for a young girl like you, and trust me when I say that I would rather not have you go through all of this-" started her mother.

"Then stop!" shouted her daughter, taking a step back. Her angry glare went to her father, and she balled her hands into fists. "It's all because of you, dad! You're the one who caused all of this! You broke mommy's heart, and now you're trying to break our family for good! I've heard mom crying every night after you left, and there was no one to comfort her! And I heard her crying a lot because of the case. Thank God Naruto was here for her, because you've never done anything like that, ever! You're so selfish!"

The young girl screamed the last part, her eyes tightly shut and tears streaming down her face. She opened her eyes and stared at Sasuke, who stayed silent and preferred to look away in culpability. Sarada bit her lower lip, and huffed in anger, turning away and running towards her room.

"Sarada, wait," exclaimed her mother, trying to stop her, but the young Uchiha ignored Sakura and shut the door to her room behind her. Sakura debated whether to follow her or not, but chose not to, realizing that Sarada probably needed some time alone.

Sakura sighed, rubbing her temples, and turned around to stare at Itachi. "I'm sorry you came back to this, this whole case is weighing a lot on us."

"It's understandable," Itachi dismissed with a wave of his hand.

Sasuke, who hadn't said a word or looked at Sakura in the eyes since Sarada came back, suddenly spoke, and Sakura jumped in surprise, having completely forgotten about him. "I'll be going now," he muttered.

Sakura and Itachi watched as he scurried out of the house, before Sakura left the living room to grab two glasses of water. She came back to find Itachi sitting on the sofa in contemplation, and offered him one.

"Thank you," he said, downing the drink.

"Would you like something else? To eat perhaps?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he dismissed. "Dinner's waiting at home anyway."

"I'm just going to call Ino and tell her that Sarada's home," said Sakura, grabbing her phone. She called her best friend and quickly explained the situation, before putting the phone back down on the table.

"I feel like water isn't enough for me right now," muttered Sakura, taking a seat in front of him. "Sometimes I wish I could drown my problems in sake like Tsunade."

"How is she?" asked Itachi, setting the glass on the low table.

"She's good," smiled Sakura, "hasn't aged a day."

Itachi laughed lightly. "I would kill to know her secret."

"There are speculations around the hospital, the young nurses think it's witchcraft," mused Sakura.

"What a preposterous presumption," added Itachi, shaking his head to himself. "Although I understand they would think so with that temper of hers."

Sakura giggled, thinking back to her fiery superior.

"You don't need to know her secret, you look good yourself. I haven't seen you in a while, how have you been?"

"Pretty good," he replied. "I've been travelling around with Ayame to promote the company."

"Is Ayame around?" asked Sakura. "I would love to visit her. How is she doing?"

Itachi suddenly sobered up. "She's under a lot of stress at the moment. I don't know if you've heard, but we've been having some troubles with father concerning one aspect of our relationship."

Sakura worriedly gazed at him, setting her own glass on the table to give him her undivided attention. "What do you mean?"

"I'm infertile," he blurted out, and Sakura froze in her tracks. "We've been trying to have kids for some time now, and we didn't succeed."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Sakura, sincerity in her words.

"Thank you," nodded Itachi. "It really isn't much of an issue with us. We don't really want kids, but we agreed when we got married that if it ever happened, we would keep it. But father wants an heir for the future of the company, and he had been pretty adamant about us having a child."

"So soon?" exclaimed Sakura, her eyes widening in surprise. "I thought that you were going to inherit the company!"

"I will, but father wants me to have a child before it happens to assure its future," explained Itachi.

"Have you thought about adoption?" suggested Sakura.

"We have," he nodded. "But you know him, father wants an Uchiha heir."

"What are you going to do?" asked Sakura worriedly, furrowing her eyebrows and looking at him in concern.

Itachi smiled softly at her. "We can't really do anything. I can't produce the Uchiha heir my father wants. He really wants one as fast as possible, and mom is too old to have a kid. He'd been running after Sasuke to get a spouse and give him one, but you know how he is, he hates the idea of marriage. He rejected the idea, and father seems pretty furious about it."

"Sasuke would never agree to it," Sakura shook her head. "I don't even think he wants more kids after Sarada!"

"I don't know how father hasn't disowned him for the refusal, Sasuke usually does anything he asks."

Sakura shrugged. "Knowing Sasuke, he probably proposed an alternative-"

She suddenly stopped talking, setting her mouth in a tight line, and narrowed her eyes, before cursing in realization. "I'll be damned."

Itachi smiled at her, running a hand through his long black hair. "So you've finally realized, huh? You know, I've found it very odd that Sasuke would try to get full custody of Sarada, it's really out of character for him to hurt his daughter or to hurt you-"

"That didn't stop him from cheating on me," she sneered out.

"I don't think it was intentional, he was being immature and didn't see the extent of the repercussions of his actions. This is different and very deliberate," explained Itachi.

Itachi was the only person other than Ino who knew what had transpired between her and Sasuke from the start. The day after her earth shattering discovery, she had called him first thing in the morning, crying on the phone about his brother being a cheating asshole. It wasn't a surprise when Sasuke sported a black eye when he had come to their former house a few days later to gather his belongings.

"How did you realize Fugaku was behind this?" she pondered.

"It was when I came back," he said. "Sasuke has always had his guard up around father, but the recent tension between them is palpable, and I knew something had transpired while I was away. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together when I learned about the custody matter, I soon realized that father had definitely asked something from Sasuke that he was very reluctant to do."

"I knew Sasuke was hiding something, I should have expected Fugaku was the one responsible for this," she sighed, leaning against the sofa and throwing her head back to stare at the ceiling in contemplation.

"I'm certain it will be fine," added Itachi reassuringly. "I heard that you got Nara to represent you, he's an excellent lawyer and he won't let you down."

Sakura looked back at him, and smiled gently. "I have faith in him, Naruto assured me that he was the best."

Itachi frowned, quirking an eyebrow at her. "Naruto?"

Sakura smiled, realizing that Itachi didn't know who the blond man was. He had been away for a big part of the last year, and would have not heard about it if he hadn't even learned about the case in the first place.

"My boyfriend," she explained.

"Ah," exclaimed Itachi. "I'm happy that you've moved on, Sarada's speech had me worried that you were still pining after Sasuke."

She laughed heartily. "I thought I would never get over him either! But Naruto changed my mind, he really is a great guy, and it helps that Sarada likes him a lot."

"I'm glad she does. It wouldn't have helped if he had been bad with her, she's going through enough already."

Sakura's eyes softened, and she looked down at her lap. "I wish I could do something to make her feel better, but I have no solution to her worries. All I can do is wait until the case is over."

Itachi nodded, smiling gently, and Sakura found herself returning it with incredible easiness considering the circumstances.

She often wondered why she had never fallen for the older Uchiha. He was an easier and gentler man, and a lot more understanding than the rest of his family. She got along with him best, and he had always been there for her from the start.

When she began dating Sasuke in high school, he had been aware of it, and despite knowing that Fugaku forbid his sons from dating, he had chosen to keep it to himself and encourage them, realizing that they truly wanted to be together. He had even sided with them when she got pregnant, and when Fugaku had learned about her disorder.

The CEO hadn't been happy, considering that Sakura had been pregnant with Sarada back then, and even voiced his fear of having his granddaughter inherit the disorder, saying that it would 'taint the Uchiha blood'. Needless to say, it was at that exact moment that Sakura truly realized that Fugaku didn't like her, and would never spare her a second glance.

"I should go home," started Itachi, getting up. "Ayame is waiting for me. She insisted on cooking and promised to make my favourite."

Sakura got up as well, and hugged the young man. "It's good to have you back in Konoha. Say hello to your wife from me, and I hope to see her soon."

"Of course," nodded Itachi.

-: :-

Sakura sat in front of Shikamaru, biting her nails in worry, and eyeing the documents in front of her under Shikamaru's pondering gaze.

"Do you think you can use any of this in our favour?" she asked.

"Probably not," the lawyer shook his head. "Knowing that the court is backing him up, they would not consider the fact that Fugaku wants Sarada for the company."

Sakura suddenly felt like crying, and Shikamaru, noticing the way her eyes seemed to rapidly tear up, placed a comforting hand on hers.

"Don't worry, I'm on a mission to figure something that would help," he reassured her.

"But it seems like anything we come up with doesn't work for us," she exclaimed, her voice trembling. "Fugaku has everyone in court backing him up, we can't beat that."

"That's why I came up with an idea that would work," he said, retracting his hand. "I figured out that since the Konoha court cannot help up, we should try and take this case to federal court. It's heavily monitored and the Uchiha would not have the occasion to bribe anyone."

Sakura suddenly perked up, a semblance of hope coming back. "How can we do that?"

"We have to find something serious enough to accuse Mr. Uchiha or his son with, something that would prevail against the case itself," he explained.

"Something more serious?" wondered Sakura. "Like…something illegal?"

Shikamaru nodded. "That's exactly what I was thinking of. If we can't beat them on a smaller scale, we have to think outside the box."

"I don't think they've done anything illegal! And even so, it would ruin their lives to accuse them of it," protested Sakura.

He chuckled at the remark, shaking his head to himself. "Of course not, Dr. Haruno. The Uchiha have money, and would be able to cover it up and come up with alibis and whatnot. Sure, it would take some time, but the end result would be the same. That is unless it's something undeniable and highly dangerous and risky that they cannot cover up. But I don't think we would have to go that far. We just need something mild that would create an additional case that would make the court reconsider the custody issue. Just the fact that something illegal or dangerous might be linked to Sasuke would force the federal court to consider something safer for your daughter; you."

Sakura stared at him in awe, her mouth slightly agape. "Holy fucking shit, you really are a genius."

Shikamaru threw his head back and laughed heartily, and Sakura reddened at the realization that she had just cursed in front of a man she wasn't used to being so crude around.

"I apologize," she muttered, watching him taking deep breaths to calm himself.

Shikamaru finally calmed down, wiping remnants of imaginary tears from his eyes. "Do not worry, Dr. Haruno, I've been acquainted with Naruto for ages, and I've heard things ten times worse come out of his mouth."

Sakura pondered for a moment. Naruto was indeed very crude when he wanted to, and the young lawyer had definitely heard a few of his colourful expressions in his lifetime.

"I think we've known each other for long enough, and if we're going to keep working together, you can just call me Sakura," she said with a smile.

"And you can just call me Shikamaru," he smiled back, going back to his files. "Now, if we want to find something that would help our case, we need to dig deeper."

"That would be hard," she said. "Sasuke wouldn't do anything illegal himself unless his father was the one behind it. But Fugaku is pretty secretive about his stuff, it would be hard to find something."

"Indeed, but like every successful and multimillion business, there's always something not very honest that had to be done to get it where it is."

"What you're saying is that we have to look into the company's past?" she asked.

"Yes," he acquiesced. "We know that Uchiha Inc made a lot of money in an abnormally short time. There ought to be something that helped. Perhaps some mild embezzlement? That would be good to use; it's serious enough to be considered by the federal court, but not enough to ruin their lives."

"How do we proceed?" asked Sakura eagerly.

"I have already started looking into his past associates, and I'm waiting for anything concrete to come back. I have some contacts, and if he'd done them any harm by the past, they will be very willing to sell him out without even having to pay them," he explained. "As for you, I want you to think back to anything strange concerning Fugaku. You had been with Sasuke for a long time, and you might recall something that could help."

"I could ask Itachi," she suggested.

"Is that the next heir?" asked Shikamaru, and she nodded. "No matter how much you trust him, don't go to him about this," he disagreed, and her face fell. "He would not agree to something against his future company. It would just alert Fugaku, and we don't want him to take any more precautions."

"That's understandable-"

Sakura was cut short when Shikamaru's phone started ringing. The young lawyer apologized, picking it up, and answered the phone after a long, bored sigh.

"Shikamaru Nara speaking," he said, before listening intensely. "Yes, yes of course-oh, this is great news," he exclaimed with a smile, looking sideways at Sakura. "Thank you, goodbye."

He put the phone down, and placed his arms on the table to look at Sakura.

"Did that have something to do with the case?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied. "That was my assistant. The court called back at the office, and it turns out that we won't need to do any of this, because Sasuke had decided to drop the case."


And there you go! The case business is finally over, and more will be revealed about it very soon. But their troubles are not done yet!

I know there's a lack of NaruSaku here, but I promise there's more to come with those two, especially since the case is over.\

For the guest who asked me why I hated Sasuke, I actually don't! I think he's a well thought out character with amazing characterization, it's his actions that are cringy to me. And I don't like him with Sakura. I mean, he actually tried to kill her. It's the only ship that I dislike. I actually used to ship them a lot before, and NaruSaku is pretty recent for me.

I hope you all enjoyed this, and don't forget to review! Leave your impressions or suggestions! It really helps with the story and helps keeps the ideas flowing!

Thanks to DragonPony022, Gavinator, Marbk, Brehze, Trunksmybaby, Bread Crumbs21, Beta117, FSzebo, Mangaka Shuzen, and other lovely guests for reviewing! Y'all rock!