Chapter 21: To lose or not to lose, that is the question.

Sakura sighed, running a hand across the back of her neck tiredly. She was working the late shift, which she knew Sasuke hated but it wasn't hard work, and it let her get more stuff done, like paperwork; however, it was midnight, and she was exhausted and just wanted to crawl into bed next to Sasuke and sleep for the next few days.

As much as she hated it to admit it, though, she knew that the hospital needed her; this was no time to be selfish. Yawning, Sakura stretched her aching muscles as she re-seated herself in her comfy chair and prepared to continue her paperwork, though she was reminded cheerfully, as she scribbled down the reason a patient had been treated, that she had a fresh cup of coffee by her elbow and her shift ended in a half-hour.

For ten minutes, the only sound in her office was that of her pen scratching across the paper and the ticking of the clock behind her, as well as the occasional sips of the liquid in Sakura's cup that should've been hailed as a God.

Suddenly, a harried-looking nurse burst into the room, brown hair askew. "Ayame-san, what's wrong?" Sakura asked, looking up from her tedious paperwork.

"Sakura-sama, there's an emergency. The future Hokage's wife and your friend, Uzumaki Hinata-sama, she's gone into labor."

Well shit. There went her going home in twenty minutes.

---

"Hinata-chan, I need you to breathe for me." Sakura commanded, as she waited for the baby to finally make it's appearance after so many months of waiting.

Hinata nodded, taking in some shaky breathes while Naruto held her hand tightly, face drawn and pale and, for once, not saying a word. Sakura smiled encouragingly at the two of them, and Naruto managed a weak smile and then blanched as Hinata gripped his hand tightly as a fresh wave of pain wracked her body and Sakura knew that if this child didn't come out soon, both of Naruto's hands would be broken before the end of it.

Secretly, she smirked to herself: as Hinata wasn't fully dilated yet, she wasn't screaming just yet. Naruto would be soon, though. The former-Hyuuga may not look it, but she was quite strong.

Feeling bad for her friend, Sakura smiled at him again. "Naruto, do you want to wait outside? Hinata's gonna be in a lot of pain, and quite soon, and there's a good possibility that she'll break your hand. Plus, there'll be a lot of," here, she winced, "blood involved."

Naruto inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, obviously trying to not get any mental images.

"G-go, Naruto-kun. I'll be fine." Hinata's quiet voice urged him, and he looked from Sakura to his wife; there was pain in her eyes, and he squeezed her hand gently and leaned over to kiss her cheek.

"No, I'll bare with you. Dattebayo!" There it was, that infamous catchphrase that Sakura knew would appear eventually.

"Naruto, you'd better ready yourself." Sakura told him. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

---

Two hours and twenty three minutes later, Uzumaki Hikari was brought into the world. Sakura brought her over to Hinata, all cleaned up, and watched as the happy couple looked at their daughter. "Wow…" Naruto murmured, and didn't tack on anything to that sentence.

"W-would you like to hold her, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, and Naruto turned his wide blue eyes to her.

"M-me?" He squeaked out, and Hinata nodded, smiling. He hesitantly held out his arms, and Hinata placed Hikari in them; Naruto held the little girl the same way he observed his wife doing so, and stared down at her in amazement. "She's so little…" He murmured, picking up on of her tiny fingers and staring at it.

Sakura smiled, tears swimming in both the females eyes, and watched as Naruto pressed a delicate kiss to the top of his newborn daughters head.

"I'll protect you with my life, dattebayo." The Jinchuuriki whispered softly, and Sakura coughed inconspicuously to turn her head and wipe away the tears that had started rolling down her face; however, when Naruto returned Hikari to Hinata's arms, Sakura and Hinata realized that they weren't the only one's crying.

"Hey." Sasuke greeted, as Sakura stepped out of the room. She had placed Hikari in a special room, where she would be taken care of and monitored to make sure there were no problems, while Hinata slept and Naruto told her that he'd stay the night with Hinata.

"Hey." Sakura replied tiredly, the both of them walking towards her office.

"So the dobe's baby was finally born?" Her dark-haired husband asked, and Sakura nodded as she hung up her medic's coat and started to straighten up all the paperwork that had gotten strewn across her office in her rush to get to Hinata. Sasuke watched her from the doorframe, leaning against it with crossed arms and watching the female bend over to pick up pieces of paper.

When Sakura had finally gotten all of the paper in order, she placed them on her desk and looked sadly at her almost-full cup of coffee that had been ignored and was now cold. Sasuke rolled his eyes at Sakura's pouting lips. "I'll make you some when we get home." Sakura, however, shook her head.

"Right now, all I want to do is fall asleep." She told him, and Sasuke nodded, watching quietly as Sakura put some folders in her bag before looking up at him and smiling. "Alright, I'm done." Walking over to him, she flipped off the lights and slipped her hand into his.

"Naruto had a little girl." Sakura told him, as they walked back home. Sasuke's raised eyebrow prompted her to continue. "They named her Hikari."

"Hn." Sasuke replied to that, and Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You know you didn't have to come to the hospital."

"I know." Green eyes regarded him carefully.

"Then why did you? I told you that it'd be a long process, and that you should go home. And I was right, wasn't I? It's three-thirty in the morning."

"You never know who's out here." Was Sasuke's response. Sakura looked at him carefully before a wide grin split her face and she hugged his arm.

"Sasuke." The hairs on the back of his neck rose. "You can't sleep without me, can you?"

Sasuke looked down at his small wife, annoyed. "What? That's not it. Che, annoying." Though he didn't know whether he was referring to Sakura or the fact that she might be right.

Sakura giggled and pressed herself closer to him. "Yes it is." She sang. "You can't sleep without me. You miss me when I'm not around." She laughed loudly, head thrown back and eyes closed as she did so.

Finally able to control her giggles, Sakura looked at the man standing beside her. Sasuke's dark eyes bored into hers, and it felt like they were reaching into her soul; and just like every other time that Sakura caught Sasuke looking at her with such an expression, she felt the breath leave from her body and had to forcefully remind herself to breathe.

"Sasuke?" She whispered, but he merely continued staring at her. "Sas-mph!" Sakura found herself being thrown backwards and into a wall, a hand cupping the back of her head to take the force of the impact. Sasuke's lips ravaged hers, teeth gently nibbling the bottom of her lip and tongue sliding between her parted lips.

Sakura moaned, running her hands through his hair. Sasuke's arm circled around her waist and pulled her impossibly closer to him, hand tilting the back of her head so that he had a better angle.

"Sasuke," Sakura whispered breathlessly, as Sasuke kissed down her jaw and down to her neck, sucking on the skin of her collarbone and Sakura arched, moaning. Sasuke's tongue soothed down the mark he had made on her, while his hand rubbed slow circles on the small of her back. "Sasuke?"

"And if I told you," Sasuke said, pulling away slightly so that he could talk without hindrance, and his breath was hot on the skin of her neck, "if I told you that you were right, that I miss you when you're not around, what would you do?"

Obsidian eyes looked up and met viridian, and Sakura smiled at him, running a hand gently through his hair. "I'd tell you that I need you when you're not around."

---

Eventually, the snows melted and spring returned to Konoha. Tsunade had relieved Sakura of her medic duties, allowing her to stay home and study. In her place went Hinata, while Naruto was often with Tsunade, learning how to become a future Rokudaime. Sakura secretly thought that all the big-breasted woman was teaching him was patience, since Naruto would have a hard time staying in the office and do tedious paperwork.

While they were doing work, Sakura watched after Hikari, which wasn't too hard. The little girl mostly slept, and when she wasn't sleeping she was either eating or playing quietly with her baby toys. So far, Hikari mostly resembled Naruto, with big sapphire eyes that always seemed happy and fine blond hair toped her head.

Sakura looked now over at the little girl from over her notes and smiled to herself as she watched Hikari observe her surroundings quietly before gurgling. Standing up, the roseate-haired woman stretched before walking over to where the baby laid in her crib. Cerulean eyes focused on her and Hikari smiled.

"Hi there sweetheart," Sakura cooed to the little girl, "I dunno about you, but I'm starving. Why don't we go see what's in the fridge?" Hikari didn't answer, but Sakura took the slow blink of her eyes as an affirmation of hunger.

"Hmmm…" Sakura hummed to herself as Hikari bounced in her high chair. "Alright, I'm thinking some mashed bananas for you. I'm craving some milk and cookies, actually, for myself. What say you?" She looked at Hikari, who was giggling to herself. "Okay then, mashed bananas for you and milk and cookies for me."

Taking out the jar from the fridge, Sakura unscrewed the cap and grabbed a small spoon, sitting down in front of Hikari. The little girl was used to this, and didn't even put up a fight when Sakura said, "Say ahhh, Kari." Having spent so much time with the youngest Uzumaki, Sakura had gotten used to calling her by the nickname she had presented her with.

And dare Sakura say it, she thought even Sasuke had become fond of his best friend's child. One time, when Hinata had to work late and Sakura wanted Hikari to sleep over, Sakura had fallen asleep on the couch while they were watching a movie and had woken up to see Sasuke holding Hikari, watching the movie and murmuring to her. "See him? Isn't he ugly. He actually reminds me of your father. How ironic that the character is stupid as well as ugly." And then he started to bounce her on his knee and Hikari started to giggle. The sight was so adorable that Sakura decided to forgive Sasuke for not waking her up.

When Sakura sensed that Hikari was full, she carefully burped the child and placed her back into her crib to go back to sleep. Once she was sure that Hikari was asleep, she got the cookies and poured herself a nice big glass of milk.

Sakura enjoyed her snack immensely; the cookies and milk had hit the spot and successfully killed her craving for chocolate-chip cookies. Almost regretfully, Sakura returned to her book, knowing that she should probably train her body, not just her mind, for the upcoming Jounin exam, but she felt that it would do well to be prepared psychologically as well.

A few hours later, Sakura started to feel funny. Her stomach was grumbling, but not in a hungry way. Frowning, the female wondered if perhaps she had strained herself too much, but didn't have too much time to dwell on it as her stomach gave a lurch and she dashed from her couch and into the bathroom, retching.

Coming out a few minutes later, Sakura frowned at her stomach. Having a thought, she went to the fridge and looked at the milk, scoffing; no wonder she had thrown up, the milk was quite close to its expiration date. Dumping the rest of its contents down the sink, she threw away the carton and returned back to her work.

Not long after, Hikari began to cry to remind Sakura to change her diaper. Sakura did so, nose wrinkled the entire time. "No more mashed bananas for you, missy." She muttered in disgust, and Hikari giggled. After Sakura was finished, there was a knock on the door, and balancing the little girl on her hip while securing an arm around her waist, the older female went to go answer.

"Hey Naruto," she greeted the blond, who smiled at his daughter and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Hi, princess. Did Auntie Sakura take good care of you?" Naruto always asked this when he came to pick up Hikari, and Sakura always gave the same answer.

"God, Naruto, I'm not going to poison her or anything."

"Yeah, but your husband might." Sakura rolled her eyes and punched Naruto in the arm with her free hand and then handed him Hikari.

"Sasuke-kun likes Hikari-chan. He's not THAT heartless, you know." Naruto grinned brightly, then winced when he shifted Hikari.

"Alright alright, Sakura-chan, you know I meant no harm." He laughed, and Sakura shook her head, smiling in amusement. "I'm gonna go; Hinata-chan's making dinner now, and I just came to collect Hikari-chan."

Sakura nodded. "Tomorrow Tsunade-baachan's not making me do anything, so you don't have to worry about watching her." Again Sakura nodded; though she'd miss Hikari, she also had to go out and train for the exams.

"Bye Kari." She waved goodbye to the little baby, and Naruto picked up her hand, looking so small and pale when compared to his large and tanned one, and waved goodbye to Sakura.

---

Sasuke opened the door softly, looking around for Sakura; though it was extremely late, he wouldn't have been surprised to see her sitting on the couch, books surrounding her while she sipped a cup of coffee.

Sakura, however, was nowhere in sight, and he crept quietly towards their bedroom, quickly removing his outfit and slipping into bed beside his wife, who snuggled into his side and he wrapped his arms around her.

"Mmm, welcome home. How was the mission?" Sakura asked, her tone thick with sleep.

"Fine." Sasuke answered shortly. "Go back to sleep."

"I wasn't asleep." Sakura muttered indignantly. "I can't sleep if I know you're coming home. I was just lying here, thinking."

"You probably drifted off." Sasuke reasoned, and he felt Sakura shrug against his shoulder.

"Perhaps." She said, and her breathing began to even out and slow. Though Sasuke was exhausted from the mission, he stared at Sakura throughout the night, watching her sleep.

Destiny's words still haunted him; he thought about it while he was on the mission. Even though he knew that it was Sakura's fate to become a jounin, he kept on worrying that he'd return home and find her exactly like his parents.

He shook himself of such thoughts and brushed the hair from Sakura's face, listening to her labored breathing.

He wondered if he'd really wind up loosing her once more. Truth be told, Sasuke wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle it again. Now that they were together, married, it was so much more than they had been from before; now he loved her, had even admitted it once, though not since then. Sakura knew him, and knew that even then it had been so hard for him to tell her those three words. She had known it well before that, had seen it in every action, every touch, every look he sent her. He himself may not have realized it, but she had.

Almost as if to assure himself that she was here, that she was his, he picked up her hand and inspected the ring he had given her, a large diamond in the middle with two uchiwa fans surrounding it.

Sasuke began to feel the tendrils of sleep surrounding him, and he entwined Sakura's fingers with his own, crushing her smaller body to his own and savoring the warmth.

He closed his eyes and burrowed his face in her soft hair, inhaling deeply the scent of her shampoo. His hand released hers and went underneath his pillow, while his left traveled past her waist, coming to rest on her head and stroked his wife's roseate hair.

"Mmm, Sasuke-kun." Sakura murmured in her sleep, and Sasuke pressed his face closer to her hair, almost trying to mold her body into his, trying to memorize the exact way she smelled (like soap, coffee, toothpaste, and her shampoo, which smelled rather citrus-y. Perhaps oranges?) because Destiny's words had been a reminder to him that no one lives forever.

Yes, Sakura laid in his arms now, warm and safe, but for how much longer?

A/N- Alright, uhm, I really have no idea whether you can feed a three-month old baby bananas; I'm guessing you can, since who knows if they had baby formula in the Naruto-verse?

Miss me? I apologize for the late update, but Verizon shut off my internet for three and a half weeks. Let's not get into that story. Also, one of my friends died on the 9th, so I kind of lost the will to write. Even now it hurts, because I can STILL hear his voice in my head, but I'm more or less over it. I'll be okay eventually.

Also, my birthday's coming up in two weeks, and I'm hoping that I can get up the new chapter by then, but I make no guarentees; homework enjoys pwning me, and the teachers smite me with their schoolwork.

Anyways, thanks a BUNCH for your everlasting patience, and please, leave a review.