Surrogacy
-chapter 26-
rated for language / adult themes
Remembering the image that was burned in his head, he stared at the slightly prominent curve of Sakura's belly. He had his hands on either side of her belly and imagined the tiny little being that was residing in there. "Can you feel them yet?" He questioned without even budging his eyes.
Sakura smile and gently nodded her head. "Only faintly. Usually a first time mother wouldn't notice the signs but since I've had to work with pregnant patients I've memorized the tell tale signs." She sighed and ran her fingers through his hair. "If you're asking because you're waiting to feel something, that wont be for a little while."
He was slightly disappointed but didn't allow it to show on his face. "At the appointment, did you learn the gender?"
She nodded again. "Yes, Ms. Nao told me once you two left. I'm surprised you didn't want to know, what with not liking to beat around the bush and all."
"It would be boring to know what it is." He thought maybe if he could focus really hard then maybe he could feel a tiny little movement. Still nothing. "Will I be happy?"
"I think you'll be happy." She smiled. "I mean either way you'll be happy, right?"
"Hn." He stayed quiet and continued staring at her swell. "Are you happy?"
A small hearty chuckle escaped from her throat. "I'm not saying whether I'm happy or not because I have a feeling I've told you what gender I was leaning toward. I'm not accidentally spoiling it for you... Have you started buying baby clothes? Thinking of names?"
He stared up at her with a perplexed face. He didn't like when she talked as if she was still just a surrogate to him. She was much more. "No."
"Huh, why not? Names are something they're stuck with, so you need to sit on a name and see how it fits!" She jokingly reprimanded him as she still soothingly ran her fingers through his inky black locks. "You don't even have an idea? A meaning? I've kept a list of all the names I like."
"I'm not naming my child without even seeing it." Sasuke stated and rose up tall, crossing his arms then looking her in the eyes.
"Hmm, not even a few names that you've remembered through the years?"
"A few I suppose." He shrugged lightly and paced through the kitchen to pick up his crystal glass of water. He took a small sip of it as he eyed her silently. He didn't want to tell anyone the names he had in mind because he was slightly embarrassed. Not that they were stupid names but they held significant meaning to him - so if anyone degraded the names he'd be forced to hold a long lasting grudge.
"Are you going to tell me?" She swiveled around to face him with a long warm smile etched on her face with a raised brow. He shook his head at her as he took another sip of his water and Sakura let out a long sigh.
"Well now I'm dying to know. I know that you were named after the Third Hokage's father, so do your 'secret' names draw from anyone or have a nice meaning?" She carefully lifted herself up onto the edge of the kitchen counter and absentmindedly swung her legs back and forth.
He shrugged again. "Both I suppose."
"My parents named me after the trees that were in bloom when they first met and the night of their honeymoon. I guess it goes well with my last name since it means spring field, but I don't really think my name carries any significance other than a tree that reoccurred through their life together."
"Your parents have their reasons." There was another reason why he was somewhat reluctant to name his child. If his child didn't like their name he'd forever be somewhat hurt by that revelation.
"Would I like the names?"
"Most likely."
"Hmmm." She tapped her chin idly with the corner of her lip turned upwards. "Is it a name that's popular?"
"Not really."
"Is it a name I may know?"
"Probably not."
"Interesting." She stated as she hopped off the counter. "I'm going to remember this and keep prying you till' you tell me."
"I'll be waiting." He smirked and sipped at his water once more.
Later on in the day they 'ran into each other' when Naruto had called in a team 7 meeting.
"Look at you Sakura! You're huge!" Naruto wailed loudly in the streets with his bright blue eyes glistening underneath the suns rays and his hands came upward to make grabby motions. "Last time I saw you... You.. Weren't this..." He began to regret what he said as soon as he remembered her wrath. "...Pregnant."
Sasuke smirked at his idiotic friend while Sakura waved it away as if it were nothing. "I know, things are going by so fast. Overnight it just gets so much bigger."
"There aren't two in there, are there?" Kakashi showed his face to their right in an instant with a novel clutched in his hand. Beneath his mas they could see their old sensei giving them a warm welcoming smile.
"Gee I hope not." Sakura chuckled and rubbed her belly idly. "There's only one in there, for sure. I saw it myself on the 3D ultrasound."
"What's that Sakura?" Naruto chimed in with an interested face.
"It's a 3D image of the baby. Y'know the regular ultrasound only shows a 2D image, well you can practically see the whole baby with this 3D ultrasound. It's pretty amazing." She pressed her hand to the small of her back and let out a sigh. "Can we hurry up and sit down, my back is aching."
All of the men nodded and they found themselves in a tea shoppe around a wooden circular table and curled up in large soft red chairs.
"I brought you three here for a reason." Naruto started and leaned in, placing his elbows on the table as his eyes sharpened with seriousness. "I'm going to tell you three something that must be kept secret. Understand?"
They all looked at each other silently but without question, nodding back to Naruto when they felt the time was right. "Alright." He began and his eyes darted from black to green to black. "The important thing is... I'm going to be Hokage!"
Sakura let out a long sigh as she deadpanned. He tells us to keep this under wraps as he exclaims it with joy! She rubbed the bridge of her nose as she let her eyelids flutter shut. Sasuke shook his head with a grimace.
"You idiot." He muttered to himself while Kakashi let out a dramatic sigh and pulled out his novel.
"Tell me something I don't know, Naruto."
"WHAA-?! How did you know, Kakashi Sensei! I understand Sasuke knowing, b-but..!"
"Of course I was informed, Naruto. I was your teacher so I was one of the first to know. Even before you did."
"Aw man, at least Sakura didn't know... Right Sakura?"
"Eh? Yes of course Naruto. I have no high standings in this village so I wouldn't know. Now, if my jobs weren't reduced at the hospital, then maybe Tsunade could have told me..." She darted an accusing eye to Sasuke briefly, playing the facade of the girl who knew nothing about Naruto becoming Hokage. "Anyways, congratulations Naruto! I can't believe your lifelong dream is coming true!"
"Yes, it seems we all have completed life-long dreams." Kakashi muttered almost under his breath and exchanged a short glance with Sakura. Naruto didn't catch it, but Sakura looked down at her feet nervously.
"What? Kakashi what was your old dream?"
"To raise a splendid team from genin to jonin! Now look at you three! Member of the anbu, soon to be Hokage, and Tsunade's own pupil - Konoha's best healer on the field."
"Yeah, look at us now." Naruto beamed proudly.
Kakashi intervened. "Actually I'm surprised you three made it this far. When I first met you guys... I didn't expect much. Maybe Sasuke, of course, but.."
Naruto snorted lightly. "Yeah whatever Kakashi, face it, we were the best team ever. We were the underdogs but we surpassed all odds! Wanna know something even more surprising? Sasuke got married before all of us. What the hell?!"
Sasuke grit his teeth. "You're not married because no woman in all the lands can stand you for more than five minutes." He leaned in angrily as Naruto did the same.
"Oh yeah? Wanna bet? I have a thing with Hinata that's been goin' on for years, SASUKE. Wanna here something else?"
"No." He interjected.
"Well I'm going to say it anyways - she is the best woman in all of the lands!"
"Yeah, she's really the cream of the crop, Naruto. You of all people would pick the woman that has no nerves to stand up to your idiocy-"
"That's it!" Naruto slammed it fists down on the table, shaking their tall glasses of iced and heated teas, spilling over the sides and pooling on the wood. Citizens gazed over their shoulders to the two arguing boys and giggled among themselves.
Sakura took to her feet and grabbed both of the boys by their collars and growled. "If you two don't calm the hell down you're going to make me really angry - and me being angry isn't something you want nor is it good for this baby. So settle down!" Sasuke was the first to take his rightful seat quietly yet his eyes still blazed with anger for the blonde.
Naruto grumbled to himself. "But Sakura, he insulted her..!"
"It's in the past, leave it there." Sakura growled once more and that shut him up.
So from then on they pretended the other didn't exist.
As time rolled by the found themselves outside of the shoppe saying their goodbyes. Sasuke and Naruto left in opposite directions and Sakura had to file some papers at work, that was until as she was about to take a step in her direction she felt a hand wrap itself around her upper arm.
"Kakashi? Something wrong?" She asked him with a hint of curiosity yet she somewhat feared the answer he would give her.
"It's something I need to warn you of, Sakura. Naruto sometimes is mildly stupid, but he is no real fool. He's going to catch on to this... 'Thing' you and Sasuke have. He caught those glances you shared and if he finds out he will be so angry with you two." He warned her with a caring beady black eye and she couldn't let the wetness come to her eyes with a slight nervous quiver of her bottom lip. "Sakura... What is the truth with this child - there will be hell to pay legally and with that wife of Sasuke's if..."
She shook her head gently. "Kakashi it's not that.." She stared deep into his eye and found comfort in telling him. "I.. I'm carrying his child for him and Karin.." He simply raised a brow to her. "B-but.." The tears welled up in her eyes because Kakashi was like the father she never had since her real one was always busy at the hospital in her youth. He was not someone she wanted to let down but she felt like she did a million times over. She whispered. "..but I still love him."
He let his gentle grip on her arm loosen and his serious face soften. "Sakura... Then why did you agree to surrogate for him in the first place?"
"Because I wanted to help, Kakashi.. No matter my feelings I knew how important it was to Sasuke to have a family and Karin is unable since she lacks eggs.."
"Ah. So it is biologically yours then.."
She nodded furiously and wiped the tears on the back of her hand. "And the more I fall in love with him the more I fall in love with this child that's legally not mine..!" Tears continued to roll down her cheeks without her permission and she still fought to wipe them away because she had gotten to far to break down now. "I know what we're doing is wrong Sensei! I truly do, but. I just love him so much and I always have."
"You need to have Sasuke tell Karin the truth. In some cases it's better for the, eh, 'other woman' to tell the wife for some sort of woman-to-woman kind of thing."
She chuckled through her ugly sobs. "Sasuke said she'd kill me no matter if I was pregnant or not. Plus I can barely be in her presence for more than five minutes."
"Maybe if you got to know the woman it would be easier.. Or I suppose harder, whichever way you see it. I know you, Sakura, you're a smart girl. Run into her in the street and start chatting."
"I know you're a smart man Kakashi, but getting to know the wife of the husband I'm seeing wont exactly do me good. If I get in her good grace's and she finds out that will do more harm than good. But I suppose if I do run into her in the street it wont be me trying too hard.."
Kakashi shrugged. "I'm no relationship counselor so don't take it from me. Just conceal it more for your sanity, for Naruto sanity as he goes through the rough transition of becoming Hokage. Alright?"
She nodded and believed the last of her tears had been shed. "Yes. Thank you Kakashi sensei. You really are a smart man, you know that?" She smiled gently when he let out a little chuckle.
"As I've been told, yes."
Kakashi knows the truth! He's too smart for his own good!
Sorry to the people that aren't too particularly happy with this story.
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