"One Year" Chapter 10
I felt you this morning! It was the slightest little quiver, but then a more firm hit had me realizing that my boys are growing so well!
My heart is full of love for you two. I can't help but think about the hair that is growing on your heads and the thought of your senses developing right now... Twenty weeks...
Keep growing my loves. We're over halfway there.
~Mom
"So, boys huh?" Sakura's mother was sitting across from her daughter at her kitchen table. Her daughter had come over to talk with her and had let the gender slip. She was meaning to keep it a secret until they had made their arrival, but Sakura found herself unable to keep it in for much longer.
Sakura was glowing with happiness. Ever since she had felt them move when she had eaten breakfast, she knew that she had to tell someone about how giddy she felt. It was like meeting a first love for the first time.
"So, when am I going to get to meet this infamous Rock Lee?" Her mother asked after she took a long sip of her tea, bringing Sakura back down to earth.
"Oh... Right..." She rubbed the back of her neck and took a sudden interest in the water sitting in front of her. "He's actually away with his sensei on what he calls a 'Journey of Youth' before I have the babies."
"Oh?" Mebuki didn't look amused by this news. "So is this why he hasn't been around?"
"Well, Guy-Sensei is very impulsive. When he found out that Lee was going to be a father, he said something about having to learn to be reborn again and made him pack a bag and just got out of the village. He never said when they would be back." Sakura slumped down. The whole point of telling people that Lee was the father was to make public appearances together to shake the attention completely from Sasuke. Oh, what a fail that had been.
Ino said that she had started to hear different rumors around the hospital, which Sakura had to call a full staff meeting to shut down. Even then, that didn't stop them completely. There were still the old wives around the village that would talk about Lady Fifth's apprentice and her scandalous life resulting in pregnancy out of wedlock.
Mebuki sighed and took another long sip of tea before speaking again. "You know, Sakura... You've always been a good liar when it comes to your romantic relationship. Even I know that this person, whoever he may be, isn't the one you're telling me about."
Sakura sat straight up in her seat, looking at her mom wide-eyed. "W-wait. No mom, you have it all-"
Mebuki put her hand up to cut her daughter off. "Sakura, I'm sure you have a good reason for keeping it a secret. Just as long as he's not a ninja that has betrayed the village or something like that, I'm not going to pry. You will tell me when you're ready."
Sakura hung her head. "I really thought you believed me."
Her shoulders began to shake as she thought of other people around the village that knew without a shadow of a doubt that Rock Lee had never been Sakura's type. All of the people that knew that there was no way at all that he could father her children.
No matter how much she insisted, she knew that there were still those people out there that knew Sakura was lying.
She covered her face with her hands and began to sob, causing Mebuki to come around the table and go to her daughter's side. She embraced her and stroked her hand through her hair, trying to comfort her as she let her built up feelings out.
After a while, the two women were sitting on Mebuki's couch. Sakura had her head laid on her mother's lap, still trying to compose herself.
She realized she hadn't been like this since the time Sasuke was critically hurt in the Chunin Exams. She couldn't speak or even tell her mother what was wrong with her. She just let her cry it out until she couldn't cry anymore.
"Sakura, I don't understand what's wrong. You and your team passed the exams. Isn't that a good thing?"
Sakura had only just arrived home after watching the final round between Sasuke and Gaara. Sasuke barely won, but he was being rushed to the hospital after receiving multiple fractures, one of which was a rib that punctured one of his lungs.
The medics were shouting out his conditions between one another as they took him away. Sakura, being a medic in training, was hysterical at the thought of losing him. He looked worse than the time he fought Haku, which made her even more worried.
It took her the whole night to cease her tears. It wasn't until Kakashi-Sensei came to her house to tell her that Sasuke was going to be okay that Sakura was able to breathe easy again.
"You really care for your teammate, don't you?" Her mother asked as she was stroking her daughter's hair while Sakura had her head laid on her lap.
"I care about both of them, but Naruto heals a lot faster than Sasuke does." She sniffed. "They were talking about how he was going into shock and his blood pressure was falling while they were on the field with him today. I was so scared he was going to die."
"Oh, Sakura." Mebuki chuckled. "What am I going to do with you? I let you train under Lady Fifth because you have always had the aptitude to be a medic. But now that you're getting more and more versed, it seems like knowledge is a double-edged sword."
"That's the point, mom." Sakura sighed and sat up. "The moment I feel that sword coming towards me is when I'm supposed to take action. But out there, I couldn't. I had no clue what I could do to even begin to help him. Next time, I'm not going to let that happen. I refuse to stand back and watch. You'll see. I'll be one of the best medical ninjas Konoha has seen."
"That's my girl." Mebuki smiled as she patted Sakura on her knee. "Now, go to your room and rest. You'll want to be there when he wakes up in the morning, won't you?"
"Oh, right!" She got up fast and started to run to her room, then stopped and turned back around and embraced her mother. "Thanks, mom. He just means so much to me, I was so scared."
"You know, at least he's not laying in the hospital this time." Mebuki finally broke the silence. It seemed that she and Sakura were thinking about the same thing at that moment.
"Huh?"
"I mean, you did mention something about Sasuke leaving for a year to take the ANBU Qualifications a few months ago. I didn't think about it until now, but you have always been so erratic when it comes to him. The time that you came home from that first mission to the Land of Waves and you couldn't sleep for a week because you kept on having nightmares of him dying within your reach. The time that he was taken to the hospital after the Chunin Exams. And even now. He's not here and yet you have to hold it together because if Lord Uchiha knew then it would be over for you two."
Sakura's heart sank. Her mother pieced it together after all.
"Like I said before, I know you have a good reason for keeping it a secret, but I am your mother Sakura. I know more about you than you realize. I raised you, so of course, I have paid attention to what goes on in your life."
"Mom, you can't tell anyone." Sakura strained to let out a whisper as she looked up into her mother's eyes. Mebuki could tell just how scared her daughter was. "If Lord Uchiha finds out, he will do all he can to either take my babies from me or even exile Sasuke from the clan. His family is too important to him to let that happen."
"So what does he want to happen?"
Sakura swallowed hard. "He doesn't know I'm pregnant."
Sasuke gagged.
They had been staying in one of the Rain Village's inns since the thunder season started.
Unfortunately for him, the rest of his team had gone out to have dinner while he opted to stay behind to tend to his equipment and take inventory of what he may need to proceed with Suigetsu as the leader when they started their mission all over again in the morning.
That meant he was the only one staying in the single room of the inn they had come across when the inn keeper's wife decided to go into labor.
"Quit gawking and help me with the towels!" The man, only a few years his senior, yelled to Sasuke.
Sasuke swallowed back whatever was trying to come up and shook his head. "Shouldn't we get her to the village hospital or something?"
"We don't have one, and it's too late for that." The man rolled his eyes and shoved clean towels into Sasuke's arms.
"Honey, the water is cold again." His wife croaked out between contractions.
"The stove is out of wood, I can't heat it up again."
"What do you mean it's out of wood?!"
Sasuke laid the towels at the foot of the bed the woman was on and knelt down to the bottom of the small basin. He used a small fireball to cause the water to rise to a boil again.
"I knew it would pay off to let you ninja stay here." The man smirked. "Thanks."
It was in that moment, the woman let out an ear-piercing scream. "I think I can feel the head coming out!"
Sasuke and the man looked at each other with wide eyes. They were in no way prepared for the actual birth.
"We've got all of the supplies, what do we do now?" The man asked.
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!"
Sasuke racked his brain. He remembered that there was one time that Sakura had to study on something just like this.
"I don't care what anyone says, watching someone give birth is not a beautiful thing." Sakura huffed as she sat down with him for lunch after a busy day at the hospital. She had just started interning and the person in charge wanted Sakura to help out with L&D.
Sasuke chuckled and handed her a rice ball. "It can't be that bad."
Oh, Sasuke, if only you knew at the time that indeed it is that bad.
"You wouldn't last an hour dealing with what I've had to deal with this week." Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Is that so?" Sasuke smirked.
"I know for a fact. All of the men that I've come across today have had to either sit down or leave the room when the women are giving birth. The only one I saw keeping a cool head today was the doctor on call."
"Hmph." Sasuke took a bite of his food. "Walk me through it then."
"Well, first off, she could be in labor for up to 48 hours." Sakura began explaining to process, causing Sasuke to regret eating lunch with his girlfriend.
"So once the head starts crowning, which is when you can actually see the top of it coming out, we have to urge the mother to push with her contractions. But it's not just as simple as getting her to push and get the baby out, we have to be careful of tearing and such to keep the mother as comfortable as possible after delivery."
"Tearing?"
Sakura giggled and patted Sasuke's head. "Oh, Sasuke. It's so cute when you have no clue what I'm going on about."
"Wait a minute. They actually tear down there?"
Sakura laughed at his reaction when he finally realized what she was talking about. "Well, they can only stretch so much."
"That's it, I'm done talking about this." He said, starting to put his food away, which had Sakura laughing.
"Come on, you haven't even gotten to the best part of it."
"I can wait."
Sakura looked up at him amused. "My point is that giving birth sucks. Sometimes I just have to let my patient do what comes naturally to her."
"You have to push with your contractions, but be careful when you start to feel a burning sensation because the more you strain, the more you will tear." Sasuke finally spoke, looking away from the couple out of embarrassment.
"Are you a medic or something?" The innkeeper asked.
"My girlfriend back home is. She made me help her study a lot."
"Then don't just stand there!" The woman yelled at him. "HELP ME!"
"I-I'm not trained for this." Sasuke tried to remain as unshaken as possible, but then he heard Sakura's voice in the back of his mind.
"You wouldn't last an hour dealing with what I've had to deal with this week."
It was like a challenge being given to him, and Sasuke Uchiha was never one to back down from a challenge.
"Tch. Fine." He glared down at the woman's stomach. What a pain this had turned out to be.
After what seemed like forever, which was actually a little shy of an hour, Sasuke had successfully helped the couple deliver their baby girl. He sat down hard on the floor once the placenta had come out and the baby's cord had been cut.
"Thank you so much." The woman cried as she and her husband worked to clean and wrap the baby.
Sasuke just looked up at the two, completely stoic and unamused. This was completely opposite of what he had wanted to do that night. At the same time, though, he felt a bubble of pride rise up in his chest once he saw the child. He helped bring that into the world.
"I wasn't prepared for a girl. I could have sworn this whole time you were a boy." The man spoke down to his daughter. "We don't even have a name for you."
His wife turned to look at Sasuke who stood to leave the room. "You said your girlfriend is a doctor, right? What is her name?"
"Sakura." Sasuke simply answered and left the room.
It was the next morning when the couple announced that they would name her Sakura after the person who taught the man that delivered their child.
"Itachi and I have been thinking about names." Rikka animatedly told Sakura as she ran the ultrasound across the young woman's abdomen. It turned out that only one egg had taken so they were only having one baby.
"Oh?" Sakura giggled. "That is one of the best parts, isn't it?"
"Have you decided on names yet? You're having twins aren't you?"
Sakura tucked some hair behind her ear after she took off her gloves and put the wand of the machine away.
"Their father isn't here, so it's really hard to think of some names that he would be proud of calling them."
"I understand what you mean." Rikka laughed as she cleaned herself off and put her shirt down. "Anything that I suggest, Itachi just wrinkles his nose at."
"Men." Sakura laughed. "And they say we're the picky ones."
Sakura and Rikka had grown close over the course of their pregnancies. So much that Sakura found herself always at the compound to check on the woman any time that she was free.
Today was an ultrasound appointment though, and as usual, Itachi was out on a mission. He insisted that he was taking as much work as he could so he could take time off to be there when Rikka gave birth.
"You never really talk about their father a whole lot," Rikka said as she took the pictures Sakura had taken from the machine.
"He's..." Sakura paused, trying to think of a way she could describe Lee. "Flamboyant?" That was the only word that she could think of at that moment. "In all honesty, he's always all over the place and I can barely keep up half the time."
"It's so strange." The Uchiha giggled. "I've only ever seen you around Sasuke and Naruto before we actually officially met. Naruto is pretty loud, and to be honest I could see some chemistry there. I wasn't expecting anyone else."
Sakura laughed nervously. "To be honest, no one really was either. Love just happens when it happens, I guess."
"You're right." Rikka smiled, placing a hand on her growing abdomen. "Even though Itachi and I had our marriage arranged at a really young age, I was grateful that we were able to fall in love before we got married."
"The Uchiha boys really are something else, aren't they?" Sakura laughed.
"They really are." Rikka giggled. "To be honest, I'm kind of nervous to see what Sasuke does when he finds out who Papa has chosen to be his wife."
Sakura stiffened at her words. "Has he made his decision yet?"
"Not completely, but he's really been pouring over test scores and clan files the last few months since he left. I think he has three that he's going to present to him when he comes home."
"I see." Sakura frowned.
"Is something wrong?" Rikka asked.
"It's nothing. I just know Sasuke, and he's going to be extremely unhappy." Sakura truthfully answered.
"Maybe he will decide to give them time like he did for Itachi and me." Rikka smiled. "Then again... We were only sixteen when the announcement was made."
"Why did he wait so long to push the marriage arrangement then?" Sakura asked.
"Sasuke has always been good at avoiding Papa," Rikka explained. "He has always been able to sense when Papa was going to bring up the marriage talk, so he would disappear for days at a time claiming that he was on a mission or something. To be honest, I think he may have a girlfriend outside of the clan and is trying to keep her hidden."
Sakura swallowed hard. "Oh really? I wouldn't know anything about that. He's always been super secretive when it comes to his personal life."
"Or maybe he's gay."
Sakura's eyes widened as she turned to look at Rikka like she was ridiculous.
"I mean, Mama thinks so too. It makes sense when you think about it. He's never shown attraction to any kind of girl. You're the only one he's seen hanging around with."
Sakura laughed nervously. "You have a point."
"Anyway, Papa is having a party next month and Mama wanted me to invite you. We're officially announcing our pregnancy and the name we've chosen to give the baby. We would really love to have you there."
"Okay." Sakura nodded, still trying to wrap her head around Rikka's assumptions of Sasuke. "I'll be there."
"Great!" Rikka embraced Sakura. "Thank you for everything, doctor."
"Rikka, I keep telling you to call me Sakura."
Rikka smiled. "Thank you, Sakura."
Okay! Thank you, everyone, for keeping up with this story. I suddenly got out of my writer's block last night so my writing flow has come back for now. I'm hoping to at least get through the pregnancy this time before I lose it again. I hope I don't lose it again, but things happen. I've been sick the last couple of weeks, so I have needed to get out of bed and do something, and writing has always been a huge outlet for me when I'm not feeling well. This is a story I love because I genuinely go back to it at least once a month to think of scenarios that I can write out. The way chapters are going, they will all have a four-week separation in the story. So next chapter, Sakura will be 24 weeks along and so on and so forth. I'm sorry if the story progression seems slow, but I have to have a slow build up because I feel like that's how pregnancy normally goes.
Thank you for all of the reviews, and I want to give out my congratulations Saba Shiekh on her baby girl that she had three months ago. She was excited because she was pregnant when I first started this story so she was kind of along with Sakura for her journey. Again, I'm so sorry I lost inspiration but moving to a new and big city kind of had me overwhelmed for a little bit.
On another note, I'm going to be trying to go to cons and such soon! I'm doing my best to work on my cosplays, but I end up getting so self-conscious because I am overweight. I am working with a personal trainer on that, though, so I'm looking forward to getting to where I'm super body positive with myself. I even have a headshot of myself as Sakura on my Instagram if anyone would like to follow me on there RynUhara.
Now that my shameful self-promotion is done, on to the next chapter!
Thank you all for everything!
Love,
RynUhara.