"What's happening out there?" Yashu demanded the moment Tsuyomi was back in the room. "And what happened to your head? You've got an ugly bruise."
"Someone threw me across the hall," Tsuyomi answered, glowering.
"What? Who?"
Tsuyomi seemed to just then realise he'd answered that question out loud. "I--Tenzou-san told me not to tell anybody in here."
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Outside, Naruto had come back around to the roof over their heads, wanting to see if Neji had any thoughts on why the night was so quiet on their end. What he found, however, was the Hyuuga locked away in his own mind...in a genjutsu so strong even he--Neji--couldn't struggle through it, let alone block it.
Not really caring at the moment that Sakura would probably have his head for this, Naruto gave the signal that alerted six ANBU teams to flood the house and six others to search the immediate area. Of course that was the same instant somebody got thrown out of a window.
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"Chikuso!" Kakashi moaned as he shook bits of broken glass from his head and re-orientated himself to see Tenzou just before the shattered window was walled up by hard oak timbers to prevent Danzo's pursuit.
"Kaka-sensei?"
He looked up to the roof above where he had been tossed out of a moment before to find Naruto looking down at him, two others flanking him in full ANBU gear. "How many more men did you bring?"
"Enough," Naruto flashed a small smile, "for Sakura to kill me later."
"You'll need them all."
The oak crumbled and fell in a pile of ashes as Kakashi spoke those words, revealing a kind of dog pile in the bedroom he'd flown through. Naruto was first through the opening to see the situation in its entirety.
Tenzou was flat on his stomach, pinned down by Danzo whom held a senbon to his temple. A third figure--a woman by the slight curves and overall size--was on top of Danzo's back, grappling for the senbon while three other men stood around ready to fire off different jutsu the moment Tenzou was cleared of the senbon.
"Ino, get off of him," Naruto commanded, and knelt down at the feet of the two struggling men as the woman on top did as she was told. He had to avoid the kicks now, but he kept grabbing for the man's legs until one of them was caught. Not a moment too soon, Naruto touched Danzo's left leg and pumped red chakra inside...pure poison to anyone but himself.
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"Naruto you bastard!"
Sasuke held back a sigh, as the rest of the room winced. At least she wasn't cursing his name now. Then again, he really couldn't take much time to be happy about that fact, seeing as the ANBU duo standing across from him didn't look to happy at the moment.
"Sakura, not so loud please," Yashu grimaced.
"To hell with it, just alert the whole damn village what's happening, why don't you!" Sakura continued to rant between contractions as the second child began it's way out into the world. "Oh, shit! Why does this hurt more?"
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ああああああああああああああああああ
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"We should move them to the hospital, it's easier to defend."
"There's too many people in and out of there on a daily basis. Here, we know every face that is friendly."
"But at the hospital they'll have a permanent--"
"I'm not going to let the triplets be taken in by the Hyuuga for any length of time."
"Believe me, Sasuke, neither would I. Hiashi still wants my son, remember?"
"She is not going to the hospital."
"She's not staying here."
Sakura's eyes fluttered open finally. She had listened in on the conversation for a few seconds, but her eye lids were just too heavy to move up and get a clear view of the arguing men not far away.
"I'm definitely not going anywhere that doesn't have all my babies in it," she spoke up for herself now.
"Go back to sleep, Sakura," Sasuke knelt down by her side and pulled the fresh blankets back up over her shoulders.
"It's hard to sleep with you two arguing not but five feet away from me," Sakura grumbled.
"I'm sorry," he kissed her temple. "We'll talk about it in the morning. Okay?"
"Stay with me..." she whimpered softly.
"Just let me talk to the others in the living room for a bit. I promise I'll be right back in here."
Naruto watched with a secreted smile. He was so right! Sasuke really was just a big softy underneath it all. The evidence was right infront of him as Sasuke gently cupped Sakura's cheek and softly kissed her again. When Sakura was sufficiently pleased to let go of Sasuke's wrist, the raven haired man's mask of hardness fell back into place once more. Naruto was still smiling a shit-eating grin when Sasuke passed by him and out into the hall with a pointed look.
"Don't say a word, Naruto," he stated dully.
Naruto just shook his head and followed Sasuke back through the hall and into the living room.
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ああああああああああああああああああ
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Sakura cringed when she realized where their small group was headed. As the old barn came into view, she just knew she'd have to chew out whichever idiot suggested this kind of move. What about the health of the children? Especially the babies? The house was all broken down last time she saw it, and what about all the openings the barn must have so long after last being visited?
"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," Kakashi said lightly. "Tenzou and I came back and fixed up the house and barn. Naruto even managed to talk Choji into helping out with supplies. I doubt you'll be hungry."
"And what about the fact that the people masquerading as dead Sand-nin? You expect me to fight them off on my own, too?"
"Who said you were doing this alone?"
"Well nobody said they were staying with us."
"That's because the people staying here will be from Sand, mostly."
Sakura's eyebrows shot up. "So, they'll know right off?"
"And they don't have as many prejudices against Sasuke," Kakashi nodded, "seeing as they don't have full knowledge of all he's charged with."
She still didn't like it. Because of ever being in this damn area in the first place, she now had an almost constant limp. True, it was hard to notice for those who hadn't known her before the injury. True, she could now fight just as hard as she did before hand. Only, it had taken her quite a while to get back the agility and endurance Karin had robbed her of back then.
"Oh, and it's a family, too, that you look enough alike that you could be related to them and just visiting," Kakashi continued. "It took some convincing on my and Tsunade's parts, but Naruto did agree on whom to ask for."
"And Gaara loves Naruto too much to refuse him," Sakura answered knowingly. "He and Naruto are the way Naruto wanted to be with Sasuke in the first place."
"Give it time, Sakura. Naruto will come to understand he really can't have it all."
"And Sasuke?" she asked, shifting the newborn in her arms a bit. "What happens if he can come home?"
"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, not really understanding.
Sakura looked back at the path before them, "I don't want to mary him or anything like that. I just want him to have a way back...that's why I haven't stopped letting him in my bed. It's just to have the kids that can bring him home."
"Do you care about your children?"
Sakura stopped dead in her tracks. "Of course I do! They are my children, Kakashi-sensei! They mean more than...than...anything ever has. Even my life as a kunoichi. I gave that up for them twice now, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I found out I was pregnant tomorrow!"
Kakashi just smiled at her then. "Then I'll forgive you."
"What?" she looked like he'd just doused her with water right after slapping her.
"In all reality," Kakashi took a step back so as not to crane his neck down to see her clearly, "it looks to me like he's just using you again. He's pretending to care for you so that you'll be his little brood mare and secure him a place back home."
Sakura nearly laughed at that this time. "You're wrong, and for once I'm right about that. He does care about me this time. I think he'd even like the kids if he had enough time with them. I'm the one who doesn't have any romantic love involved. I see it as more of a favor to Naruto and a way to occasionally have a good night in. Honestly, he still does turn me on completely, but that's only physical."
"Don't you intend to make him own up to his responsibilities as their father? Money and housing are never going to add up to what you've given these kids."
"He's given us what he can."
"That's not an answer."
"I'm not going to answer that to a man who has no children and barely ever knew what it was like to have a parent!" she spat at him before following her running first-borns onto the farm's official property.
Deep inside Sakura felt that the horrible truth was that her children would never know their father as anything more than a brief visitor that paid them no attention and kept her from them at random moments in their lives. He would come and go, and occasionally give them another brother or sister to hold her back until the council finally decided to just kill him and be done with the whole mess. They would only know what Iruka had told her once about being put into the village history books about the Uchiha Clan...That he was a sole survivor (lie!) who abandoned the village in search of the slaughtering brother (partial lie) and joined Akatsuki when revenge for his parents wasn't enough (mostly lie).
She felt that, once any one of them was able to use even the base mode of their father's blood trait, they would be watched closely and kept under the council's thumb their whole lives. One misstep and they'd be attacked almost as severely as their father, and they wouldn't understand why. They wouldn't be told the truth of their family history, the one Itachi and Sasuke both fought to keep clean according to official public records, the history that actually tore the once happy brothers apart forever.
And Sakura knew, no matter what happened, she would not be able to stand up for them. She would be dismissed as insanely obsessed with Sasuke, unable to see his faults due to delusions the Uchiha had made her to believe or some other nonsense like that. She couldn't really save any of them, especially their father. She really was one flimsy safety net for him, especially since she no longer felt like she really would do anything for him. She realised she couldn't do anything for him even if she really wanted to try.
"Sakura?"
A hand was on her shoulder, thumb rubbing at her neck gently. She hadn't even realised her knees had hit dirt until opening her eyes then to find she was kneeling several yards from the barn, baby still sleeping in it's sling peacefully even though her tears were flowing down onto it's clothes.
Looking up, she saw the very person plaguing her mind before her, her three three-year-olds clinging to his pants as if they already understood his role in their lives.
"I cant, Sasuke," she shook her head, looking away quickly. "I can't do it. I can't save any of you."
"What are you talking about?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice only because he allowed it. He knew she needed to hear it to know it was ever actually there.
"Were are the people from Sand, Sasuke?" Kakashi's baritone broke in, sparing Sakura.
Sasuke turned a frown to the older man, "What did you do to her?"
Kakashi now knew the look Naruto had once described to him about a year after they were all put together as a team. When Sakura was knocked out protecting them, Naruto said, Sasuke had lost his cool completely and tackled three enemies on his own when he saw her hurt, but not after making sure she was safe with Pakkun. Damn his memories, but Kakashi now thought that Sasuke had actually cared all along...more than he himself would admit to anyone.
"That's between her and I," Kakashi replied anyway. "Are the others here yet or not?"
"They're finishing things inside," Sasuke grunted before turning a softer tone back to Sakura again. "Come on. There's food already waiting."
"Just give me a minute," she sniffled, pulling herself back together for the sake of the men and her children. What good was a sniffling woman in a situation like this? None. Ever. Just added baggage that would only get in the way.
