Surrogacy

-chapter 28-

rated for language / adult themes


Sasuke paced through the abandoned streets of Konoha minutes after the battle was called off.

His footsteps were the only thing he could hear at the moment aside from the quiet chatter of paper rustling through the warm breeze. He blinked behind his mask as stray smoke from the buildings clogged his vision and muttered under his breath about how downhill this event turned. He continued down the streets, eyeballing the dead corpses that belonged to the sound-nin, Konoha's own ninja's assisting with removing them from the streets. The fires were put out almost immediately when the last of the attacking Sound's were done with and dangerous beams and floors were given support to last through the night. Surprisingly no citizens had died from this celebration, as far as Sasuke knew.

Sasuke made his way down the main street until he reached the Hokage's mansion where Naruto was standing proud with a smirk on his face, proud because he had the hand in defeating the last infiltrator. Naruto turned around to face his best friend with that same familiar oddly reassuring grimace. "What a way to end the night, eh?"

He shrugged and smirked behind his mask. Even though this animal printed mask covered his identity Naruto always knew which one he was. "I suppose."

"Good thing we got everything under control." The newly appointed Hokage scratched the back of his head. "I mean we've secured all of the bombs through the city that failed to detonate. Good thing only three exploded."

"Third explosion? I only remember two."

The blonde looked at him with a serious face. "Yeah, Sasuke, I thought somebody told you already. A building beside Sakura's apartment blew up. It was a chain reaction so the gas and everything beneath the complex blew up after, sent the whole place into an explosion."

His heart began to beat rapidly and he could feel his blood drain from his face. "What?!" Now he prayed she had defied him and returned to the hospital once he left to help the others. "Where is she now?"

"At the hospital being treated. I don't think it's as bad as you think-"

Naruto didn't even get to finish because Sasuke was gone in a flash.

...

Sakura was curled up, snug as a bug in her heated hospital bed. She had complained and argued against taking a bed from someone who most likely needed it more than she did but was shut up when they said they needed to give routine check ups to the little baby within her. So she nodded and climbed into her bed without more objections and when the nurse would arrive into her room questioning if she needed sustenance Sakura felt like a pampered Princess. She had her arms curled around her swell on her abdomen and sighed heavily.

She was ever so grateful they made it out of there without serious injury. So much more could have happened to them other than the few lacerations on her back and a few bruises here and there. God forbid if she wasn't conscious when falling to the earth below she could have landed on her belly and done some serious damage. Or even worse, her baby would have died she was facing the other way or if she landed on the ground wrong.

The door was thrown open and an angry looking anbu member stepped forward, furiously closing the door behind him. She didn't smile or anything because she had to tell him something that was far from the truth. "Sasuke." She whispered gently as he removed the mask from his still angry face.

"What happened to you?" She could see he tried his best to keep his stoic composure but she could see the fear and raging fury behind his coal like eyes.

She felt bad for saying this. "I almost lost the baby." She whispered and the emotions hiding behind his eyes began to make way to his face. She lifted her hospital blanket and patted beside her. "I didn't actually - I only said that so you wouldn't make a big deal about my actual injuries. I'm fine and the baby is fine, so please sit with me."

Sasuke pursed his lips angrily and she could almost see steam blowing out from his ears. "Why in the world would you say that?!"

"I'm sorry, but no offense but you're incredibly worrisome and somewhat overbearing with me being pregnant and all. You needed to know what could have happened, but didn't. Only a couple of lacerations on my back. Sit down please."

Sasuke breathed through his nose noisily yet did as she asked and took a seat beside her in the hospital bed. "Lay down with me, I'm getting cold." She pleaded with big sparkly emerald eyes and still, he did exactly that. She tucked them in and wrapped her right arm around his torso while she rested her left cheek upon the grey anbu vest. She let her eyelids flutter shut in somewhat complete bliss.

"... Are you sure you are fine?"

She knew his questions were going to be inevitable. "We are both fine. If we weren't you'd know of it. I promise." She stated and let her eyes close again.

She heard him let out a huff of frustrated air. "What about your apartment?"

"For the most part, gone." She sighed and clutched him tighter. "I'm going to have to ask the nurse for a real estate magazine and start apartment searching. As if I needed that stress on me right now."

Sasuke remembered reading in his book that a pregnant woman should not have to go through a move because it is a huge stress on your life. He pursed his lips into a thin line. "Can't you just stay with your parents?"

She scoffed. "Sasuke I moved out for a reason. It's a real pain in the ass living with parent when you're in your twenties, besides, it'll be more stressful living with them than moving. And then I have to buy furniture..."

Sasuke deeply wished he could just move her into a spacious mansion on the compound with everything she needed and wanted with their baby. "..So what were you talking about last night before I left, about Karin."

Sakura shimmied up closer so she could fit her face into the warm crook of his neck. "I bumped into her after I escaped from my parents a few minutes before the initial explosion. We were still standing in the thicket of the crowd together when you and the other two anbu members came."

"How do you know she knew it was me?"

"Because, I know I shouldn't have, but I looked over in her direction and she was staring right at us, Sasuke. She knows what you look like! You're hair isn't too hard to differentiate from the others." She propped herself up on her elbows and stared at him seriously. "I didn't like the look in her face. Tell her, Sasuke. Or I swear.."

He licked his lips and let out a sigh. "I'll sit her down today."

Sakura smiled gently and leaned in, placing a small kiss upon his lips. "Good."

After being booted from her hospital room by her and the nurse, Sasuke was left to his own accord. He filed out his report for the night and dragged his feet back home, dreading what he knew was going to be a long fight.

He opened the door to his abode and took a hesitant step inside, his eyes darting everywhere until he spotted the woman sitting on the couch looking quite sullen. He quietly paced in and took a seat on the opposite love seat.

"Sasuke.." Her head snapped up and her expression he could only read as angry. "How come you saved another woman over me?!" She screeched loudly while she crossed her arms.

He debated on how to tell her. "Don't you think we should save those who cannot readily save themselves before able bodied people? You could have gotten out of there just as fast as I did yet you sit here complaining that I didn't waste my time to save you."

Karin snuffed angrily. "But I'm your wife! I should be the FIRST person on your mind!"

"Shouldn't the baby be the first things on our mind?" Sasuke replied rather darkly and shot her an angry glance with his emotionless eyes. She just rolled her eyes at him and scoffed.

"Whatever." She shook her head and brought her knees up to her chin, her eyelids only half lidded. Sasuke wondered what it was she was thinking at the moment besides the anger she currently harbored for him.

He leaned back against the back of the couch and let out a sigh. This will be a very long fight indeed. "I don't believe your're happy, Karin, as much as you try to let on."

"What?" She peered up from over her knees with a confused face, her brows meeting in the middle.

"You're not happy in this marriage, and neither am I." He stated simply, looking her dead in the eyes. She looked quite taken back, as she slowly leaned back away from him defensively. "That's not how marriages work."

"What the hell are you saying, Sasuke?! It's mostly you that makes me unhappy! You act so cold to me!"

"I've always been that way. You knew that before we got married."

She clenched her fists. "That's not what I mean, you're never home anymore and when you are it's for a brief time only! You never spend time with me, you don't touch me anymore! I don't know what the hell happened to you!"

Sasuke sat there listening to her piercing words, taking them all to heart; however, he knew all of this already. "Karin I believe it would be best if-"

"Don't you dare say it! You can't just back out of a marriage that's degraded at your own fault!"

He stared into her crimson eyes once more with his own glass eyes, emotionless and non-comforting. "It's not a marriage Karin and you know it. Don't live here just to live here."

"It's about that baby isn't it, I'm just useless to you aren't I." She furiously grit her teeth together with little sparkles of tears prickling the corners of her eyes. "Sorry that my body is just so messed up!"

Sasuke felt a tinge of regret for putting her through this but he just wanted to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to smarten up and just leave him. "It's not about your body and it never was."

"Then what?! What makes you so unhappy!?"

He bit his tongue. He could be an asshole and tell her the truth or just brush off her question and tell her he wanted a divorce. But then again he thought about how she deserved at least a little bit of an explanation. "You don't interest me anymore. You're depressed, you don't take missions, you leave the house once every two weeks." No matter how mean the explanation was she needed it.

She sat there in shock, her lips curling downward into a nasty scowl.

"So just leave and go someplace where you'll possibly be happy." He stated. "...Our marriage is over."

...

When Sasuke returned stealthily to Sakura's cracked open window, he spotted a nurse gently untying Sakura's light blue hospital gown, revealing the bloodied gauze taped down to her skin. Quietly, he watched as the nurse apologized if taking off the gauze hurt her in any way as she began to carefully peel it away. Sakura's tired face winced slightly as the gauze tugged away at the fresh delicate scabbing over her deep cut wounds. Around the deep cuts her skin was slightly burned from the gas explosion that exploded through her flooring.

The nurse carefully began to apply the light green ointment to the burns that covered most of her back and uncapped a new ointment for the raw skin that was ripped open. Sakura let out a long, exasperated sigh and buried her face into her hands which led the nurse to apologize once more. "It's alright." She whispered and the nurse gave her a curt nod before unwrapping new gauze and spreading it over the wound. She taped it down to the skin of her back that wasn't torn apart, checked a little machine, and told her she'd be back in a few hours with the OB/GYN.

Sakura sat in the darkness of her room with half lidded tired eyes, rubbing her upper arms slowly as she glanced around.

Her eyes fell upon the window to her right and the tiniest hint of a smile graced her face. He slowly slid the window open and dropped his feet into the room as silently as he could before closing the window behind him. She just barely whispered his name before he interjected.

"Are you in pain?" His eyes darted around her body that she was currently wrapping in the heated hospital blanket. She shook her head.

"Somewhat." She told him and moved around in the bed to make room for him. "They gave me some medicinal tea's to rid me of the prominent pain but it wont take everything away." His face scrunched up sourly and she chuckled gently. "It's nothing to get worked up over."

"Why can't they just give you stronger tea's to get rid of every pain you have?" He remained on his feet with his hands gripping the metal hand bar on the bed.

"Because they don't want to drug me up too much. There's no stronger tea's in the country that will do the trick and I can't take local anesthetics because of the baby. If I do then there will be a complication called Neonatal Toxicity. I don't want to risk any of that."

Sasuke remained silent, still feeling downright angry at himself. If he hadn't made her go back home then she wouldn't be in this predicament.

"Sasuke sit down already." She patted the open space beside her. He followed after her words and she immediately attached herself to his side calmly. "You had no idea that the building next to mine was rigged and I know if you knew you wouldn't have left me there to possibly get killed. Please don't blame yourself."

"If I just let you go back to the hospital then this could have all been avoided."

"Well this is the way it all played out and it happened for some reason." She told him once she fully found a comfortable place in the crook of his neck once more. She licked her lips. "...Did you go back home?"

Sasuke nodded.

"What happened?"

"She reacted the way I knew she would." He sighed gently and opened his eyes a crack to look out to the large grey moon. "She's not signing anything."


wow she's okay! And Karin now knows their marriage is down the drain but not the whole other woman part, that hasn't been pieced together yet. It's funny because half of the reviews and PM's I get are either getting angry that Karin has no idea or that they want Karin to be killed off. It's hilarious.

Thanks for all of the reviews and faves and follows! You guys are amazing! xoxo

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto