A/N: Brace yourselves!
To say the room was tense was like saying sun was hot. Extremely hot.
Something that didn't need to be pointed out.
Totally unnecessary while making not one bit of a difference.
It didn't help that Sakura was still distressed over Rei's tears last night.
He's been giving her the silent treatment, rightly so, but it just broke her heart to pieces. She couldn't even remember the last time her baby's been so mad at her. He didn't even look in her direction when she woke him up and got him ready to go to her parents' house to take care of him until she settled this mess.
He still hadn't spoken a word even as she kissed him goodbye. He'd kept his eyes averted from anywhere near her face. So it was with a somber look on her face that she made her way over to the main Uchiha residence.
It definitely did not help that the horrible feeling in her stomach was making her nauseous and it hurt to to the point that it was giving her cramps and stomach pains.
It's been about ten years since the last time she's been here. The last time being when she was still with Naruto back in high school and they would come over to hang out at Sasuke's place so that Naruto could raid his kitchen.
Oddly enough, even with the handful of times she'd been over, she never ran into any of Sasuke's family members. It had always just been the three of them hanging out in his room, with no one else home. Strange, but it could've just been a coincidence.
Not that it mattered right now, with her sitting in the tense living room, with almost the entire main family plus the head of the branch family here with her. Sasuke's son was not present as what was about to occur was certainly no place for kids, and Sai's brother, Shisui, was unable to make it to this important family meeting.
Sakura was sitting on one of the long couches with Sai, while Sasuske, his wife, Karin, and Itachi took up the other long couch across the coffee table from them. Fugaku was sitting in his armchair at the head of the table, and Mikoto sat in the other armchair opposite him. Madara was the lone wolf standing by the empty fireplace, leaning against the mantle, just an observer for now.
Sakura's posture was rigid and stiff, bracing herself for whatever was to come. Her survival instincts that had served her well in her gang days were yelling at her to abort and flee shamelessly, but she clamped them down and stayed put, no matter how much it hurt to do so. She already felt a crick in her neck from how strained it was.
Fugaku and his first wife were stuck in fierce staring match, Sasuke and Karin looked confused as to why Sakura was here at a family meeting, Itachi was looking everywhere but at her, Sai was surprisingly calm, and Madara was unsurprisingly cold and calculating. What with the ultimatum he had given her, he was here to make sure she followed through with it.
It seemed like Mikoto had won when she cleared her throat and announced decisively, "Sasuke, Karin, Madara, Sai, your father, brother, and uncle have something to say to all of you."
Itachi was left out.
Sakura now knew that he figured everything out and had informed his mother. She couldn't help but feel betrayed even if she had no right to be and even if she had known that that was the most likely course of action Itachi would take, even if she had expected it of him.
Good guy, Itachi. She couldn't blame him for his decision to inform his mother of his father's misgivings.
Sakura's attention was torn away from her thoughts when she head Fugaku finally speak, not taking his eyes away from Mikoto's, "I am having an affair."
Sakura didn't have time to catch the hurt look that flashed across Mikoto's face, from having the ugly truth thrown in her face a second time, because it sounded like Sakura and Karin almost broke their necks when they whipped their heads to look at her, and she shrank back into the couch under their incredulous and unbelieving expressions.
"What?" Sasuke asked in barely a whisper, almost as if speaking quietly would keep it from being true. He looked like he'd just been slapped in the face. "That can't be. Father, you have to be lying," he spoke reverently, almost begging his father to lie and say it was untrue.
Karin couldn't seem to get the shocked look off her face as she gaped like a fish.
Sakura tried her best to maintain eye contact, to not show any sign of weakness, but truly it was becoming hard not to. There was nothing that could've prepared her for something like this.
"It is true," Fugaku affirmed in an unrepentant tone. "We have a son together."
Harsh silence reigned over them as Sasuke looked like he was about to have a panic attack and Itachi looked extremely pained.
"No, no, no, not Sakura. That can't be," Sasuke was heard whispering under his breath as his hands fisted themselves in his hair and as he started folding into himself. Sakura couldn't watch and looked away when he repeated the words like a mantra.
"Sasuke? Sasuke, please don't do this," Karin called out worriedly, not knowing what to do to help her husband. It broke her heart to pieces to see him break down like this over the woman that had just about ruined their marriage before it could ever have a chance to start properly.
Now that same woman was about to ruin another one.
Karin looked up at the other woman hatefully. Was one broken marriage not enough for her?! How many more casualties will there be before she'll finally be satisfied with herself?!
Sakura could feel the heated glare on the side of her face and it made her wince, thinking about the part she'd unknowingly played in that marriage's downfall.
"I knew," came from right next to her.
It was Sakura's turn to whip her head to look at Sai in disbelief. He knew? All this time, he'd known? She found him looking straight at her, watching her reaction. "How long?" was all she could get out in a whisper.
"Almost the end of January, this year."
Sakura didn't know why but she felt relieved that he hadn't known during any of their encounters. It would've made their interactions infinitesimally more awkward in hindsight. She'll take any sort of silver lining at this point.
"How did you find out?" she was almost scared to ask.
What happened next shocked everyone when Sai turned to look at Fugaku, who was watching them quietly and discerningly.
Sakura turned to her husband and asked incredulously, "You...you told him?"
"I might have implied it," Fugaku spoke, shameless in his semi-confession.
Sakura covered her face with her hands in disbelief before she lashed out at her husband, "Did you tell your brother, too? Is that how he found out?"
It was Fugaku's turn to look at his otouto with betrayal clear in his eyes. Even Sai looked shocked at his father.
"You knew? Since when?" Fugaku asked.
"You really need to find a better hiding place for such incriminating photos," Madara copied his aniki's earlier unrepentant tone. "I suspect that's how Itachi put everything together, too, after he figured it out."
Sakura had her face back in her hands so she missed Itachi's nod. Oh kami, this was turning out to be worse than she'd imagined it would. And that was saying a lot.
Sasuke, who'd been shocked out of his impending panic attack by all the revelations coming to light, had to ask, "Just what the fuck is going on?!"
Sakura buried her face further into her hands, if that was even possible.
"What photos?!" Mikoto asked shrilly. She had to know if her husband's been keeping inappropriate photos of another woman all this time.
As if hearing Mikoto's thoughts, Madara reassured her, "Nothing improper, just yearly photos of their son, tucked away in a drawer in his desk at work. Admittedly, I'd been snooping, but they were entirely too easily found." Madara was shameless in his otouto-type antics. "I found them the last time I visited Aniki in his office after I came back from my trip, last November."
"He's my son, I want to keep them close," Fugaku spoke, as if to explain why the photos were where they were.
"Do you have photos of our sons at your office, too?" Mikoto asked bitterly, as if continuing an argument they'd previously had.
Fugaku looked affronted, "Of course, I do. You know I do. They're framed, on my desk. You put them there."
"Yes, I put them there. Meaning that if I hadn't, you wouldn't have done it yourself?!"
Fugaku pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I don't know what else I can do to make you believe that I do, in fact, love both of our sons, no matter how much it might seem like I don't."
Itachi and Sasuke froze. This was the very first time they'd ever heard their father expressing any sort of affection for them out loud, and they didn't know how to handle it.
Sakura rubbed her temples firmly to try and chase away the headache that was threatening to form.
Just what the hell was wrong with this family?
It was exceedingly apparent that they were all so emotionally stunted with each other that it was extremely unhealthy and troubling. She would need a stiff drink or five before she could ever deal with this family ever again. She was just about ready to wash her hands of them once and for all.
She wasn't discounting the major part she played in this entire situation to bring it to this point, but Sakura was certain that with or without her presence, it would've happened eventually. Could've been with an entirely different woman, who knows? It really had been just chance that Fugaku met Sakura. It could've easily been someone else Fugaku met at the convention six years ago.
Karma was definitely a bitch, getting back at Sakura big time, with interest, for all the wrong she's done in her life. She'll make sure to be a better daughter and person in general in her next lifetime. She even made Inner make a long, detailed note for her reincarnated self.
Become. A. Nun.
That should keep her future self out of any and all trouble that may follow her from this life and any new troubles that might try and entice her to deviate from being an absolute angel.
Before she could fall any deeper into the rabbit hole that was the unlikelihood of a carefully selected memory being transferred from this life to the next as a critical footnote in bold, no matter how loud Inner screamed it and prayed it and repeated it, someone called out her name and pulled her out of her reverie.
"Sakura!"
Sakura looked up to see everyone staring at her, she noted that Mikoto was now standing and looked like she was out of breath, likely from the argument between her and Fugaku escalating to a screaming match. Fugaku was also standing now, red in the face, Sasuke looked like he was about to be sick, Itachi had his face miserably in his hands. Karin looked lost, Sai was bewildered, and Madara was aloof.
"What do you have to say about all of this?" Madara asked.
They all watched as she took a steadying breath before she reached into her bag and pulled out the envelope she had brought with her. She heard Fugaku's breath catch as he recognized the familiar manila envelope.
Sakura looked from the envelope to Fugaku before handing it to him without another word.
Fugaku's hands visibly trembled as he took it from her.
It was time to end this, once and for all.
Sakura couldn't watch as he poured the contents out onto his hand. The original sketch of her tattoo. The divorce forms, finally completely filled out and ready to be filed. And child custody papers.
Sakura wanted full custody of Rei after everything was said and done, and no one was going to take that away from her. She'll fight tooth and nail for it if she had to. No one was going to take her baby away from her, no matter how mad he was at her right now.
She waited for Fugaku to speak first.
"Why?" was all he was able to utter as he stared at the papers in front of him.
She kept her eyes on her fidgeting fingers in her lap. "Because it's for the best."
"But," Fugaku protested, "I love you."
Sharp intakes of breath were taken all around the room.
Sakura clenched her eyes shut and bit her lip harshly, this was what she'd been afraid of.
She stayed silent long enough for him to know her answer.
Finally, she opened her eyes and looked straight into Fugaku's saddened ones. "But would you have left your family for ours?"
Everyone waited on bated breath but Sakura already knew the answer.
No. He wouldn't.
He would never divorce his wife of thirty-one years just like how he refused to let Sasuke break free from his unhappy one. It just wasn't done.
Fugaku looked away, ashamed.
And there was her answer.
Sakura gave him a sad smile.
They just wouldn't have worked out, no matter how much they wanted to be in each others' lives. He would never leave his family no matter how much he said he loved her, and she wanted more than whatever pitiful existence they were right now. She wanted a proper husband to be a proper father to her baby.
Fugaku met her eyes and they shared a reluctant understanding. It was time to end it.
What they'd had, had been blissful and exciting while it lasted, but that was the thing, it wasn't supposed to last. They'd been doomed from the very beginning.
Standing up, Sakura reached reached up and held his face lovingly. "We'll be alright, okay?" she cooed when she saw tears start gathering in his unusually expressive eyes. The emotions she saw swirling in them made her heart ache. But they were making the right decision ending it.
Following her instincts, she pulled his face down to hers to share one last kiss. Losing themselves in the kiss, they missed the shocked gasps from their audience. In fact, everything but each other faded away and only they existed, a taste of what could have been.
This was their goodbye.
Sakura poured all her emotions into the kiss and received Fugaku's in return. Finally pulling away, they touched their foreheads together and kept their eyes closed, living in the moment one last time.
"I just wanted to be selfish for once in my life," he confessed and Sakura nodded. She understood what he was trying to tell her.
He hadn't wanted to hurt her or anyone else around him. For once in his life, he tried chasing his own happiness but found that it came with the expense of the happiness of others around him. He didn't regret anything that had happened between them but knew that the only way they could've been together was if things had been different from the very beginning. If only he'd never met his wife and had met her first, or if only he'd ignored his upbringing and divorced his wife.
Sakura couldn't help but lean in for one very, very last kiss when she was suddenly wrenched away from Fugaku's arms.
SMACK.
Her head whipped to the side from the force of the slap.
"Mikoto!"
"Mother!"
"Aunty!"
She barely heard Sasuke, Itachi, Sai, and Fugaku scrambling to hold Mikoto back when she looked like she was getting ready to deliver another hit.
Sakura kept her head turned, unable to face the beautifully infuriated Uchiha matriarch who had angry tears running down her flushed pale cheeks. Sakura's lip trembled with repressed tears. She wasn't the wronged party here. She had no right to cry.
Not when she had knowingly been the other woman this time.
She had no right.
No matter how much her chest hurt right now.
She grit her teeth and held it back.
That was, until she looked up and saw Madara standing there, arms crossed with a cold unforgiving look on his face. A harsh sob escaped her before she could stop it and she knew she couldn't take it anymore without breaking down completely.
With a long, deep bow to Mikoto who was still cradled in her sons' arms–she'd thrown her husband's arms away because she couldn't stand touching him right now–and with her husband and nephew close by for reinforcement, Sakura intoned as clearly as she could, her voice thick with tears, "I am so sorry, I cannot apologize enough for my unforgivable behavior. I will never be forgiven and I do not think I deserve it, but please know that I am deeply sorry for all the sorrow I have caused you."
She straightened up and looked deep into Mikoto's eyes to show just how sincere she was, holding the older woman's gaze as long as she could.
"GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" was screamed back into her face as the older woman fought against the hold restraining her.
With one more deep bow, Sakura grabbed her things and fled, ignoring the cries for her to stop from her former suitors and now ex-husband.
She needed to get out of here.
And never come back.
A/N: You guys might have notice that this chapter, at about 3000 words, is a bit longer than my usual 2000-2500 word limit. I'm sure a majority of you are rejoicing instead instead of yelling at me for it. (Or maybe you guys didn't notice a thing and I've just deluded myself on how much you guys actually care and pay attention to exactly how long a chapter is...)
Why did I let this chapter go on longer? One, because it just refused to finish withing the word limit. Two, because you guys have been awesome readers and this was a highly anticipated chapter. And third, *drumroll*, the next chapter will be the last one!
Finally wrapping this story up! The last chapter will include an epilogue and a short omake for a scene I wrote for this chapter that didn't fit with its tone, but I still want to include it just for fun. I'll also let the last chapter run as long as it need to, as a treat for you, my lovelies.
Now here's to hoping I get it out in a timely manner!
Thanks for reading and please review!
Updated – 10/29/2016
