I don't need to elaborate when I say things get hotter in here, and really extend to the bigger problems for our characters. ;)

Chapter Thirteen

Why is Love a Pain?

Awaking, sunlight was shining on his face. His eyes snapped open at once. He swore when he saw that morning had broken. He was late; he should have been out of here when he had the chance.

"Damn it, Sakura," he growled when he saw she wasn't around, "why didn't you wake me?!"

It was then and there that Sasuke assessed his situation. He was laying in a bed - a real bed, on a soft mattress and covered with blankets, his body feeling like it had undergone a spa treatment instead of the sitting upright and curling his wings around himself as he'd lived for the last several years, nor was it in chains by Orochimaru. He was laying free and comfortable, without a care - but that would soon change when reality kicked in and he recalled last night's events.

Sakura and I...

He stared up at the ceiling, relishing the solitude and automatically assuming she'd left him. If she had gone to the hospital or to the Hokage herself, then she wasn't dumb enough to not leave a note which he would soon hunt for, but then he heard the sound of water being turned off. She was still here. Sasuke looked over his exposed chest; the covers had ridden down to his waistline. His insides tingled with the images of being with Sakura for a second time. Just how was he supposed to deal with next year, when there might not be a third time for them?

Sitting up and stretching, Sasuke sighed when he felt his joints pop as his muscles and bones relaxed. This wasn't going to last. If he didn't get going now, the Leaf Shinobi would catch him in broad daylight and set to follow him, or even ANBU. Yet he had to ask himself another question: but WHY do I feel like I shouldn't care? Look at me, look where I am now - and look at her.

Sakura stood in front of him, dressed and still drying her hair out with a towel. She gave him a little smile, her cheeks flushed, when she looked over him once and then back to his face; he realized he forgot to cover his nudity. "My shower is yours if you want it," she offered. "And then I can make you some breakfast before I leave?"

He did not know what to make of what was happening now. "I should have left sooner," he said instead, looking down at his fallen garments and then twitched when he glimpsed what he remembered to bring back with him. Sakura's underwear. I must give it to her as soon as possible.

"You can stay here, just for today. I got any entertainment you want, but I have to get more groceries when I get off. Though I do still have enough left in the fridge today..." She realized she was rambling and paused there, her blush deepening. Somehow he found it all amusing instead of annoying. He smirked when he walked by her, deciding he did need a cleaning up.

"Anything is better than nothing."

As he passed her, his eyes caught sight of a familiar framed picture on the surface of her vanity - Team Seven...of course she'd be as sentimental as the dobe. His mouth muscles twitched, wanting to sneer, but his will didn't allow it. He ignored it now and hurried for the bathroom. And as soon as he stepped in, his body reacted and spilled the guttural groans through his throat when he realized how LONG it had been since he had a hot, decent shower instead of in a spring or waterfall, or being sprayed in a cage.

~o~

She cooked up a few cinnamon buns because she wasn't that hungry, and she sprinkled them with brown sugar when they were done, but when she set them down on the table, she remembered she left her boots in the bedroom. Walking back there, she almost tripped on something that was left on the floor. Looking down, she saw Sasuke's fallen wrap and belt. Scowling, she shook her head and picked them up to lay on the foot of the bed for him.

Really, he needs more clothes. He can't go walking around half-naked forever. I don't even know how he managed Snow Country or anywhere frigid at any time of the year...

Sasuke was just finishing up his shower. She heard the water turn off. He'd take quite awhile in there, and from the moans and growls which sounded almost sexual, it told her he hadn't bathed in decent water in so many years. He deserved it now.

But when she picked up his garb, she quickly saw something fall to the carpet. Something soft and peach...she gawked and gasped at what it was. My broken underwear - I wondered if they'd still be around! The heat returned to her cheeks. Oh, my gods, why did he have to do this to me by bringing them all the way back here?!

Billboard, he probably got a smell of you after you left. She cringed at the idea; that happened to be one of the weirdest and most embarrassing things to ever think about.

God...what must he think...

"I thought you would want them back, even if they are beyond repair," Sasuke said, announcing himself when he set foot dried but naked into her room to pick up his minimal covering. She couldn't look at him. "A part of me considered keeping them just for myself." Oh, that bastard was doing this to her on purpose. Suddenly, her stomach lurched, but it wasn't from his words.

"I made breakfast on the table," she said quickly, turning and dashing past him to throw up nothing in particular but bile into the toilet. She did this a few more times before she was fine. She needed some orange juice or something fast. Tea could only do so much.

Sasuke was watching her intently when she padded into the kitchen with her boots on now. "Are you all right, Sakura?" He was picking piece by piece from his roll, raising an eyebrow as he waited for her answer. She nodded and joined him, before looking at the clock. She had half an hour left.

"Been sick the last three days. It's probably just a mild flu."

"Hn."

Even for his short answers, he seemed to still care, and that was good enough. She snarfed down her roll and juice before standing and moving to grab her things. "I'll see you later." She didn't need to tell him to not get into trouble; he might be a beast outwardly, but he was still a human being. And a grown man at that.

The day was smooth, with no serious threats to any patients, surprisingly - but in terms of her sickness, she was suddenly hit when it was time for lunch. This did not go unnoticed by Shizune and Ino. Well, it was bound to be found out sooner or later. Sakura was a grown woman; she could deal with this. But she didn't even know what was wrong...

"Sakura, it's been three days," Shizune was telling her when the pink-haired woman was done, concerned in more ways than one. "Maybe the three of us should take a look at you real quick..."

"This way." Ino led them into a currently unoccupied room; her schedule had been cleared for another hour, so this was an opportunity. She sat in the patient's chair with the dark-haired woman chewing her lip thoughtfully as she got out the tools, being the one to ask her the questions and the likes.

How long had she been throwing up? "Three days."

Did she eat anything unusual? "Not at all. I always watch my diet," Sakura answered calmly, rubbing her abdomen in small circles.

When was her last period? That question hit her the most; she asked for the calendar in the room, remembering the day well, but when she did the math...oh, God, I am over a month late. Way over than usual. The sweat began to break out from her forehead. Ino and Shizune noticed this and shared a glance, both sharing the same idea as she was.

"I'm going to get it," Ino announced standing and vanishing for a few moments. "I got one of my own..."

Sakura was alone with a narrow-eyed Shizune who knew about the truth along with Lady Tsunade, but she didn't ask. Her expression softened when they noticed the solemn air around the younger kunoichi. "Maybe it's only a false alarm, Sakura," she tried to assure her, "and maybe it's too early to tell..." She didn't get the chance to finish when the blonde woman returned with what she had in case she and Sai ever got lucky.

She took it in the privacy of the narrow restroom adjacent...and her stomach and heart dropped along with her entire inner body, almost throwing up again. "Oh, God," she moaned, closing her eyes and stinging with tears.

She was going to have a baby.

~o~

He watched her from the treetops in this part of her village, leaving Kisame alone at the inn not far away in the mountains, claiming he had matters to settle. He knew Sasuke was staying with her, but it would be very soon before he would once more run into dearest big brother. Itachi was counting on it, because he intended to see that this was not shattered beyond repair.

So...it is done. I see it in her eyes. She is afraid.

Of course he did anticipate it, but his brother and the kunoichi would have to accept this responsibility. He himself wouldn't take this child under his wing, not because he didn't want to, but because of his status in the S-rank Bingo Book. That child would not be condemned with him or its father. He did not know the solid answer as to its mother's decision, not unless he asked Haruno-chan herself. Which was precisely why he was here.

He watched her make her trip to the market with help from what appeared to be her blonde friend, whom he noted was married - newlywed, perhaps? She could not be any older or younger than Haruno-chan. The two women bade good evening to each other before he sought his chance to tail Sasuke's lover and mother of his child on her way home, where less people were coming. He damned well would make it out of here by nightfall if that was the last thing.

Sasuke had fared well without her for the entirety of the day; Itachi did visit him through the balcony window which he'd opened and let his big brother in if only for a few moments. Safe to say that the younger still wasn't pleased, but Itachi had important news to give Sasuke that he and Kisame uncovered in the last few weeks without his knowledge until now, but he couldn't tell him here. It would have to be by nightfall when he would leave his prize for a longer amount of time.

Now he stood before the woman with groceries in her hand. She looked upon him with fiery green eyes and a clenched jaw. "Itachi Uchiha," she hissed. "You thought you could torment your brother some more by coming onto me, am I right? Or are you going to torture me for Naruto?" She was trying his patience, and he wouldn't let her. Calmly, he denied it.

"Sakura Haruno, I have no intention to lift a finger to you."

"That comes from a man who slayed his own clan and cursed his own little brother," she countered heatedly, "but you have the balls to come back here, waste your time trying to help your brother when he doesn't need you anymore - but you better have a damned good reason to come to ME."

Itachi chuckled. Sasuke couldn't have had a better choice in a mate, even if it was star-crossed in the sense. "I know about the child," he told her, getting right to the point when they started walking in the direction of her apartment complex.

"Your Sharingan saw it, did it?" Sakura spat, looking at him from the corner of her eye. "You plan to take it for your plans, whatever they are?" She has every reason to doubt me this much.

"No such intentions," Itachi answered. "Why should I take away Sasuke's child - and speaking of which, do you intend to tell my brother now that you know?" He smiled slightly, knowing the answer to this. "Or is it that you fear his response that it is too soon, and he could always plea with you to remove it even if you choose to keep it? I know deep down that you want this child as it is what you have of him. I may not be your favorite human being, nor do I deserve to be, but I am doing this for the both of you, if you don't recall. That child is my niece or nephew - and another key to pulling my brother from the darkness he still resides."

He saw that she needed help taking a bag in so she could open the door. He took one, curiosity getting the best of him and seeing eggs at the bottom along with more tomatoes and bread. He frowned, wondering why she let him take the smaller weight while she carried the heavier one. She still had enough strength left. She opened the door to her home and let him in with her. Sasuke was sitting on the sofa reading a book, but he closed it and hid it beneath a pillow when the woman herself came home - and his eyes narrowed dangerously at the sight of the man he hated most in the universe.

"What the hell are you doing back here, Itachi?"

"Little brother," he answered smoothly, sharing a look with the weary-eyed Sakura, "perhaps we should all have a small dinner before parting ways - but alas, this comes something of...grave importance to discuss."

~o~

"I have to go." That was all he said when she told him she was pregnant with his child, with Itachi at her side. She was far from happy when the elder Uchiha had the balls to come to her when the day was ending, when she was heading home, and already knew she was with child. Sasuke's child.

A child he clearly didn't want, and that hurt worse than his words.

Itachi had said it was of grave importance, and it was all of that. The conversation continued to play over and over in her head for the next week, and each morning she was ill intensified as she recalled every word and lost her appetite that night, but Itachi had stayed with her even when his brother shut himself away in the closet, refusing to come out for the rest of the night as long as she was cooking when she didn't feel like it.

"Go on and tell him, Haruno-chan." Damn Itachi for this.

"Tell me what, hn?"

Neither of them seemed to truly understand how hard this was for her as it had been for him. "I've been sick the last few days because...I'm pregnant, Sasuke." To look him in the eyes when she told him made her stomach roll again, her appetite for the dinner she'd planned to make gone at once when the fire flared in the red of his eyes. It was like fire burning from the darkest pits of hell.

"I see." That was all he said, and a long silence followed, before Itachi broke it.

"I suppose it is an ill wish for me to state that this was an issue you would have avoided with the other unfortunate girls in the past, otouto. But nevertheless, what has been done is done. The two of you will not face this alone." She'd found herself looking at him now, shocked at finally hearing the sincerity of his words. Itachi Uchiha, the man who butchered his own people but spared his little brother to suffer, joined a criminal organization, had stood in her own home before her and his brother, the father of the child she was carrying, and claimed he was putting his foot down to be the middle man for them. But even that did nothing for Sasuke's foul mood he failed to hide. That was when he announced he was leaving, but not before he shut himself away in the closet.

Sasuke had never done something like that before, and a small part of her had thought it was childish, which his aniki called him out on when he tried to pry his way in, with no success, making him sigh heavily and return to her. Sakura tried to busy herself when she unloaded the groceries, all the meat and the eggs, bread and vegetables, but the nice meal for three wasn't up to par anymore.

"It's been some ages since I have had a decent dinner made by a woman's hand," Itachi had said casually as he sat at the table, respecting her space, but that did not lessen her irritation and her nerves. "My brother should be grateful that someone cares for him. I wondered why you and the Kyuubi vessel were so fixated on him for years, but I want to still hear it from your own lips - or I may know the answer already." By the sound of it, he did know.

"I love him," Sakura had answered sharply. "But it's not enough for him, is it?"

Itachi had sighed. "It appears so. I've failed him as a brother in more ways than one, but he is too hardened like stone to cut me the slightest amount of slack, Sakura. He's grown into an angry man who lives for himself. Now that he will not come out for awhile, perhaps I should let you in on a handful of secrets..." She'd frowned, turning her face halfway to let him know she was still listening. "A long time ago, I was the prodigy of our clan. When war broke, I was placed on the battlefield and watched numerous friends and comrades be dismembered and willingly sacrificed themselves for the village and for those on the frontlines who would live to tell the tale; I was one of them. I was not even eight when I graduated from the Academy, and thirteen when ANBU took me on as their captain. I never even dreamed of making a path for myself, always allowing my father and others around me lay my life's plan for me. I never knew who I was or what I truly wanted, but as we both know, a Shinobi's sole purpose is his village and his people.

"Sasuke, my beloved little brother who became my only light in the darkness that consumed my soul, was the first living being I truly loved besides my mother and best friend Shisui - but this is where I must cut it off. There are dark secrets that Konoha's elders, including the Third Hokage who was against it all but was overruled, are keeping. I am on the path I am now because of it, all for Sasuke, and my reasons for killing our family and clansmen were orders not of my own choice. I had the worst choice to make, and I made it on one condition: that Sasuke be spared. Danzo agreed, but only if I..." He'd paused there, and Sakura felt her sinking heart tighten worse than it was. Years of experience reminded her nothing was without a price, but even costs did not always necessarily mean simply killing another; it also meant handing over your body...

Itachi allowed himself to sleep with Danzo just before the massacre of the Uchiha clan. All for Sasuke, the baby brother he loved more than anything...

Now her stomach began to roll with unwanted images in her brain.

To look into the man's eyes, this rogue of the Hidden Leaf Village, and seeing the hardened ice glazing over emotionless onyx orbs...for the first time she saw humanity that was slipping through despite his lifetime of lost innocence. He was never innocent from the day he was born and tried to ensure his younger brother was nothing like him - all of it ending in failure. For the first time, Sakura Haruno saw Itachi Uchiha as the big brother who did the best he could, even if it meant giving up his own humanity and soul.

He and Sasuke were not that different after all. Only Sasuke does not see that. He sees himself inferior and wants to surpass his brother - even if to kill him.

"My death by his hands will be the final card," Itachi had said grimly, tired to his bones. "Too many years of watching him and honing him from afar...I'm tired of this."

Sakura put his dinner down in front of him, which he accepted with a tired, grateful smile that she returned only to feel her hormones get out of control and weep, unable to control herself. His response she never expected: he leaned over and took her chin into a couple fingers, placing a tender, chaste kiss to her forehead. It was by no means flirtatious or insulting, but she was still offended and pulled back. "What the hell was that for?! Just because I listened to you does not mean -" He silenced her with his thumb to her lips.

"Shush, Sakura-chan." His chuckle was deep and brief. "I assure you, I have no intentions of touching what belongs to my brother."

"Then what was it for?"

"To comfort you, nothing more. Must I elaborate, or have I made myself clear enough?"

When Sasuke finally came out of the closet, it was late in the night. He refused to eat, but she did leave his dish on the table for him, even after Itachi left them alone, promising her he would watch over her as he would his brother - with both eyes as often as he would spare. "From the shadows, I shall assist with the hunt for Orochimaru," he'd sworn before taking off into the night. If Sasuke heard, then he was standing on his pride and keeping himself bottled up. Even when Sakura was cleaning and changing for the night, she thought about opening the door for her new set of clothes before deciding it would only make things worse, but she did do one thing in telling him what time it was before slipping into bed and turning her back when he opened the door.

There were no words exchanged when he looked her way, the obvious dilemma present in which he wondered if he should say some parting words or at least his own form of an apology for his lack of enthusiasm that he was going to be a father - how could he be? They both knew that this would not be like the other normal, happy families in the village. But at least he didn't tell me to get an abortion. Sakura had her time then and there to begin gathering her thoughts as she heard him roam around, eating his dinner cold and uncaring before opening her balcony door so he could take off into the night - but not before he called over to her, low but loud enough for her hearing.

"Good bye, Sakura...for now."

She closed her eyes and pulled the covers up, feeling cold and afraid. If there was one thing she would do since the beginning, it was to go to Lady Tsunade, her sensei and the woman who was like a mother to her.

I struggled with Sasuke's response to learning about the unexpected pregnancy, for obvious reasons, but don't worry, things won't stay as they are. Meanwhile, Sakura has her own problems to deal with, so the suspense has only grown...