"One Year" Chapter 11

I can't imagine the sleep deprivation will be worse when you two finally get here. You're doing a good job of keeping me up at night already. Is it because you like to hear my voice when I groan out of irritation? Do I snore?

I can't help but smile when I think that your hearing is developing right now. Twenty-four weeks have flown by and I'm sure that the ones to come will do the same.

Just do me a favor and don't grow too fast when you're here. Mama wants her babies to stay babies until Papa can be here, okay?

~Mom

Sakura sighed as she zipped up the cranberry-colored dress her mother had made her for the party at the Uchiha compound that night. Lee was supposed to be meeting her at the party, so they would finally be making their first public appearance together.

To say that Sakura was nervous would be an understatement. She was so scared he was either going to let it slip that he wasn't that father or that he was going to embarrass her. She didn't know if she could take either scenario.

Sakura turned to look at herself in the dress she was wearing. Very prominent circles under her emerald eyes stared back at her. Makeup was definitely calling her name. She wasn't about to arrive at the Uchiha compound looking like she hadn't slept in weeks, which she really hadn't.

Once she finished making herself look presentable, she left her apartment to meet up with Ino.

"I still can't believe that they thought to invite you. Isn't it mostly the Uchiha clan and the occasional outsider friend?"

"I apparently am the outsider friend in this case, Ino." Sakura sighed. They had decided to take a look around in the shops to try and find a good gift to give to Rikka and Itachi. What could they even get for a baby that would have everything handed to them on a silver platter?

Sakura sighed when she saw the price tag of an outfit she was tempted to buy. She may have been a doctor, but she had her own delivery and bills that she needed to think of. Especially with not having much help financially from her parents and zero help from the Uchiha clan because they had no clue that Rikka wasn't the only one expected to give birth in the next few months to new clan children.

"It must really suck having to watch them celebrate her and the baby." Ino frowned.

"You have no idea." Sakura tucked hair behind her ear. "It's torture not being able to talk about how I'm really feeling when Lady Uchiha asks me if I'm okay or if the babies' father is as excited as I am about them."

In all reality, she just wanted to scream and stomp her feet on the ground and say "No, I'm not okay at all! Sasuke's not home, and he has no clue what kind of hell I've had to go through these last few months! And because your clan can't get out of their old-fashioned ways, my children may grow up without the things you can easily provide for them that Sasuke and I will spend the rest of our lives working so hard to get for them!"

But Sakura was too nice to do that.

"Are you sure you want to go to the party tonight then?" Ino asked.

"I'm positive. I need to be as normal as possible around them." Sakura answered. She picked up a small toy and decided that this was what she was going to purchase.

"Thank you, come again." The shop clerk smiled and handed over the now-wrapped gift.

Sakura and Ino politely bowed to the cashier and left.

"So, are you still having a hard time with names?" Ino asked as the two women walked the streets. They had decided to make their way over to a local tea house before heading their separate ways.

"Yes." Sakura groaned. "It's like anything I think of, I can just hear him in my head saying 'Seriously? You named our kids that?'."

Ino laughed. "That does sound like Sasuke."

"I think I'm going to probably end up deciding when they're finally here," Sakura admitted. "Mom says that once they're in my arms, I'll know without a doubt what their names will be. She said she did that when I was born."

"Well, gee." Ino giggled and lightly tugged on Sakura's hair. "I wonder where they got the name Sakura from."

Sakura playfully swatted Ino's hand away and laughed.

When they got to the tea house, TenTen and Hinata were there placing their own orders. TenTen was going to be married into the Hyuga Clan soon, so it was becoming more and more common to see the two together.

"Hey, guys!" TenTen cheerfully greeted. "Why don't you two come sit with us? We're taking a break from wedding planning."

"Sure." Sakura smiled.

She and Ino placed their orders and joined the other two kunoichis at their table.

"Sakura, how have you been?" TenTen asked. "I haven't seen you since you and Lee met with our team a few months ago to announce your surprise pregnancy."

It was true. She had been avoiding as many people as she could the last few months. Especially Lee's teammates because she was sure that they would be the first to know that something was definitely up.

"So, what's so important that you had to call us all here on short notice?" Neji glared at Lee, his arms folded. He was definitely annoyed because he had been interrupted in training is own Genin team when Lee had begged him to come to their old training grounds.

"Yeah Lee, I've never seen you talk so fast before," TenTen said. She was also busy planning the grand opening of her ninja tools shop.

Guy on the other hand... Was sobbing with joy. Lee had obviously told him before gathering the rest of the team together.

Sakura felt awkward standing next to Lee. She had never really been around the full team in a casual manner before. It was even more awkward feeling Lee wrap his arm around her waist. More than awkward, really. More like wrong.

"Well, Sakura and I wanted to come together with you all and announce something very important." He said, a huge grin on his face. He was better at acting than Sakura had hoped.

"And that would be?" Neji narrowed his eyes at the pinkette, then focussed back to Lee.

"You see," Sakura began, giggling nervously. "Lee and I have been secretly dating for a while now, and I just found out recently that I am pregnant."

"WHAT?!" TenTen gasped. "Lee! Why didn't you tell us that you two were dating?!"

"Well, uh-" Lee was stumped. He looked to Sakura for an answer.

"We wanted to wait until we were more serious." Sakura quickly replied. "And this is pretty much as serious as we can get." She faked a laugh.

"Right..." Neji said, keeping his arms folded and his eyes focussed on Sakura. He obviously wasn't buying it.

"That's it! I can't take it anymore!" Guy exclaimed and embraced both Lee and Sakura into a huge embrace. "Lee, you and I have special training we must embark on!"

"Special training?!" Lee looked like a child on Christmas when Guy said this.

"Yes. You must learn to be reborn so that you can help Sakura take care of your child when it is born!" Guy pumped his fist in the air. "A journey of youth is what we must take! I will let Kakashi and Lady Tsunade know and we will leave at sunrise tomorrow!"

"Wait, what?" Sakura looked panicked at the energized sensei.

"Don't worry! I promise to have him back in a few months." Guy beamed, giving Sakura a thumbs up.

It was at that moment that Sakura realized that she made a horrible decision. It didn't help that Neji hadn't taken his suspecting stare off of her since they told the team their news.

It was completely evident that the Hyuga didn't buy it.

"I mean, I've been better." Sakura nervously laughed. She wondered if Neji still was suspicious of her and Lee's relationship. She also wondered if he had told TenTen any of his thoughts on the matter.

"How is wedding planning going?" Ino asked, getting the subject off of Sakura.

"It's such a pain!" TenTen groaned. "No offense, Hinata, but clan traditions are so frustrating."

Tell me about it. Sakura inwardly agreed. Clan traditions are what got her where she was in the first place.

"I mean, we're not in the old times anymore!" TenTen continued. "I just don't see why I have to wear all of the restricting clothing and such when it's the wedding day."

"But it will be worth it when it's over with." Sakura encouraged.

"Yeah, yeah." TenTen sighed. "I know."

Sakura couldn't help but be jealous though. The Hyuga Clan was still allowing her in.

"Aww, let me in!" Karin's voice came as a whine outside of Sasuke's door. They were in a new inn now, this time with separate rooms.

Sasuke felt his eye twitch. He was trying to meditate before going out on the next capture test, which Karin was the next one to lead.

She, of course, wanted to stage as a couple with Sasuke, but he blatantly refused and told her how idiotic the idea was because if it failed then the target would know what the two of them looked like behind their masks. The other two times they had caught him, he commended the three ninjas on keeping their identities hidden well and Sasuke wasn't about to ruin that streak for Karin's fantasy date that she was so hung up on having.

"It will catch him completely off guard, Sen!" The redhead whined from outside his door.

"Then proceed with Suigetstu or Juugo." He flatly told her when he finally opened his door. Which was a horrible mistake because she threw herself at him.

"I don't have as great chemistry with them. You know that~"

Sasuke pushed her off. "I'm starting to think you don't have any good chemistry with anyone."

Karin frowned. "Oh, Sen. Don't say that."

"Look, I think you need to rethink your plan or you will definitely be the first one they cut out of the running." Sasuke honestly told her. "You would be risking not only yours but my safety as well if this were a real mission. Don't you at least see that? As a leader, you need to put your teammates first."

The kunoichi hung her head and looked down at her feet with a sigh. "I guess you're right."

Sasuke felt almost felt bad for her. Almost. Until he pictured Sakura's angry glare when he came home and she found out he let Karin go on with false hopes of romanticism.

"I don't like you, Karin." Sasuke flatly stated. "I have too much waiting for me when I get back home, and let's be honest, you're not my type. Just focus on the mission in front of you so we can move on to Juugo's turn."

Karin felt a pang in her heart at his words. "O-okay." She pushed her glasses up her nose and stood straight as if everything were fine. "I'll go and remap my strategy then. It will be even better than what you and Suigetsu did."

"It's all I ask," Sasuke said, guiding her out of his room and shutting the door.

Sasuke sighed and stretched his arms over his shoulders. He couldn't help but think about what Sakura would do if someone pushed themselves on her like Karin had been doing him.

Would she do the same as he did just now?

Probably not. Sasuke chuckled and smirked to himself. Knowing Sakura, she would beat the living hell out of anyone trying to get remotely close to her romantically because they weren't him.

Lee wrapped his arm around Sakura's waist as he walked beside her into the event hall of the Uchiha compound.

Sakura was super nervous. She clutched her gift to the baby in her hand as she watched everyone else pass by her with the uchiwa fan proudly worn on their backs.

She was definitely an outsider in the sea of Uchihas around her and Lee.

"Sakura!" Rikka called out the pinkette's name and waved her over to where she was standing with Itachi.

Sakura and Lee gave the couple a polite bow before Sakura presented their gift when they made their way over to them.

"Thank you for inviting us, Lord Itachi." Lee beamed.

Itachi scowled as he briefly judged him, then looked at Sakura. "May I speak with you for a moment?"

Sakura's shoulder's stiffened. She could tell that it was really important, so she excused herself and followed Itachi while the two left Rikka and Lee behind.

They went outside to the dock of the Uchiha lake. Sakura couldn't bring herself to look at Itachi because she knew what he was probably about to talk to her about.

"You have to be kidding me." Itachi had his arms folded as he looked down at the pinkette. It was like he was scolding a small child. "Of all of the things you could have told everyone, you said he is their father?"

"I wasn't thinking." Sakura truthfully answered.

"You two aren't even remotely compatible romantically. I could tell that you obviously weren't comfortable with him holding you like he was." Itachi huffed. "Sakura, you do realize that Sasuke will murder him if he hears the rumor before you see him right?"

Sakura gulped. She hadn't even thought of that. She could see someone like Sai or Kiba slip up and say something to Sasuke if he was walking the streets to find her. The rampage he would be on frightened her more than the thought of Fugaku learning the true lineage of her boys.

"Then what am I supposed to do, Itachi? I panicked. I just don't want anyone knowing that Sasuke is-"

Itachi put his hand up to cut her off. "That's why you should have come to me first. I had been working on a scenario for you before you had told anyone about the father. I think it still may work, but you need to hear me out on this."

Sakura looked up to Itachi, hopeful. "You can get me out of the lie about dating Lee?"

The older Uchiha sighed. "Well, it involves another lie, and it has to work in order for my father to really believe it. That's why I invited him to follow us."

He pointed to someone Sakura hadn't even realized was nearby. He was patiently waiting with his arms folded across his chest. He was wearing nice clothes to match with the evening's events. Sakura gulped when she noticed the uchiwa fan decorating the edge of his collar.

"You must be Sakura." He said as he casually made his way over to the two. "My name is Shisui, and Itachi here tells me that you've gotten yourself into a bit of a situation."

Okay, this was getting a bit too long so I'm having to cut chapter 11 into two parts. I thought this was a great place to end because I'm about to fill part two with all sorts of baby daddy drama. All staged to be public by Itachi, of course, because he's obviously the only one that doesn't have pregnancy brain which allows him to come up with a better situation for Sakura.

Thank you for all of the love and support!

~RynUhara