Author's Note: It literally took me over eleven years to finish this story, but here it is: finally finished! Thank you all so much for going on this journey with me, and I hope you have enjoyed reading my sometimes jumbled up ideas. Please enjoy the conclusion!


Sakura hummed quietly to herself, rubbing small circles onto her pregnant belly. She could feel their little one stirring beneath her touch, and she smiled.

Sasuke came up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her, resting the palm of one hand near hers, so he could feel their baby moving too.

It was one of many blissful moments that had come with the discovery of her pregnancy four months ago.

Perhaps Sakura should be a little ashamed that as a medical ninja it had taken her so long to realize she was with child, but to be fair to herself, the early symptoms were easily explained away by their travels.

Sasuke began kissing her neck, and Sakura leaned back further into his touch. She would never stop being swept off her feet by his affection.

It had been a long road to get where they were today.

She had abandoned her post, disobeyed a commanding officer, abandoned her post again, kidnapped a fellow shinobi and delivered her to a missing-nin, and the list had only gotten longer by the time her trial rolled around.

Sasuke's list of offenses was far worse, and he sat in maximum security prison far longer than she did.

There were a certain two members of the council who were throwing everything and the book at her and Sasuke to help keep their own necks off the chopping block.

Those two had even called for her execution at one point.

She frowned as she recalled one of their final moments.

Koharu was the elder Sakura was assigned to observe the execution of as a medic. She stood beside one other medic and a jonin representative on the left, opposite one of the new council members, an ANBU guard, and a civilian witness to the right.

The elderly women looked almost serene, kneeling in the center of the room before a tea table with a full service laid out. She gracefully went through the steps to prepare the tea, and poured the finished product into her cup without spilling a single drop.

Sakura swallowed thickly, feeling conflicted even though she knew logically it was the right move. The truth coming out about Itachi and other unsavory things had some out and someone needed to answer for breaking Konoha laws. Still, she was old and out of power. Part of Sakura wanted to let her live the rest of her life in prison.

Koharu must have noticed, because she paused in her tea ceremony for one to look at Sakura.

Sakura met her gaze unflinchingly.

"We're not so different, you and I," the old woman said. No one tried to stop her from speaking. She was allowed final words if she so chose.

"We chose different priorities perhaps, but we're both products of the teams we were trained in. Our senseis and teammates shaped who we became and overshadowed us at the same time. We both fought in wartime, loved, and lost. We made morally objectionable decisions in pursuit of our priorities. We both deserve strong consequences for our decisions, and we both do not regret them," she paused her speech to look away from Sakura and down to the tea cup in her hand.

"I suppose, here at the end, that there is one regret I carry that you do not because of your diverging choices," she paused again to drink the entire cup in one go, gently setting the empty dish on the table.

She suddenly clutched her chest, the poison acting fast. As her eyes began to roll back in her head and her breaths shortening, she uttered one final sentence, "Hirozen, my love, I have so much to tell you."

When she hadn't moved for a minute after collapsing to the floor, Sakura and the other medic approached her body to confirm death.

Sasuke nudged her gently to shake her out of her memory, "What are you thinking of that has you so down?"

Sakura sighed. It was a blessing and a curse sometimes how well he knew her.

"I was thinking of what Koharu said to me before she died," Sakura answered truthfully. Even if she wished Sasuke hadn't noticed her mood change, she didn't want to lie to him.

"At the time, I wrote off what she said as a way to make herself feel better and not true at all. Now though, I think maybe she wasn't so off base," Sakura frowned as she came to the conclusion seconds before she said it out loud.

"How so," Sasuke asked, voice and eyes supportive.

Sakura began, "Her sensei and teammates shaped her beliefs that the whole was to be prioritized over the few, and having Kakashi for a sensei and the two of you for teammates shaped my beliefs that the individual is just as important as the whole. Both of us made the choice to break the law for our beliefs, and neither of us regretted doing so."

Sasuke only nodded, waiting for her to finish, knowing she was piecing together what she wanted to say next.

"I don't think either of us was wrong up to a point. Because I believed that individuals were important, I would not have cast my vote to do some of the things she did, but perhaps she could have tried harder to find a way to protect innocent people and the village as a whole. She convinced herself that the village as a whole would not suffer in the long run at the loss of a few sacrifices, but she was wrong about that," Sakura paused again, sighing heavily.

"She never told the man she loved that she loved him for the sake of the village, where I said it from the beginning, and would have even if the village were at stake," Sakura grinned bitterly before continuing, "I nearly gave up everything when I decided to go after you when you tried to ditch me rather than go into custody. That could be considered as reckless and self-justified as any of her actions ever were."

Sakura was well aware that she had made an enormous gamble that could have had long-reaching negative consequences for the village just like Koharu had. Sakura lucked out that her gamble paid off.

Sasuke reached to cup her cheek with one hand and wiped away the stubborn tear that managed to fall, even though Sakura tired hard to stop it, with his other. She chose to blame the pregnancy hormones for her lack of control.

"Sakura," he said, drawing her eyes to his with his gentle voice, "You have nothing to be ashamed of. You might be like her in some ways, but you're not her. You were willing to kill me at one point to save me and the village from my darkness. You went with me, yes, but you risked your life at that time for both and didn't compromise like she did."

Sakura blushed and looked away. It wasn't a favorite memory of hers the day she tried to kill him, but he somehow made it sound almost romantic.

She changed the subject, feeling good enough about it to drop it, "We should really start to pick names for our little one. That way if he or she comes early, we'll be prepared."

Sasuke shook his head dismissively, "I don't think I'm ready, and we have time. Both Itachi and I arrived past our due dates. I don't think this Uchiha is going to break that tradition."

Sakura sighed, relenting. They were making their way towards Konoha earlier than he had wanted at her request, so she could compromise on this for him.

It turned out that they hadn't left early enough, and the newest Uchiha had in mind to break traditions.

Sakura nursed their baby girl while running a glowing green hand over her tiny frame to assess her while Karin tended to Sakura's own bleeding. Sasuke hovered, an anxious mess.

"It's okay, Sasuke," she assured him, looking up from their baby once she was sure nothing was medically wrong that needed attention. While she came almost a month and a half early, she was in very good health, just small. Sakura was beyond tired after the long labor and mad sprint to make it to this base where Karin was thankfully willing to help.

Sakura made a mental note to give her a gift before they left for the village and promise to spend more time with her. She had neglected the red-head more than she meant to.

"What about you," he asked, glancing at Karin who was putting the final stitch in the worst tear.

"She's fine," Karin answered for her, "This level of tearing is normal. She's recovering faster than I would expect on top of that."

Sakura nodded her agreement with Karin's assessment when Sasuke asked her with his eyes.

Karin bowed out as she was no longer needed, wishing the new family a good night. Sakura called out after her to wish her a good night as well, and Sasuke softly grunted his acknowledgement.

He relaxed a fraction, worry still etching lines in his face.

Sakura reached out with her free hand to capture one of his, lacing their fingers together and giving him a smile.

Sasuke felt weak in the knees. He was always a sucker for her smile and expressive eyes.

She began to chuckle and narrow her eyes mischievously, "You know Sasuke, I asked you two weeks ago to think of names."

The rest of the tension melted as he allowed himself to smile at her 'I-told-you-so,' "Aa, you did."

Sasuke paused a moment, and then almost hesitantly said, "Sarada."

Sakura looked back up in surprise, "Sarada?"

"Aa," he said, "It was a name my mother had picked out for me if I had been a girl. It would…mean a lot."

Sakura smiled brightly. She would never tire of the depths of his heart he let her into. She tested the name out loud, "Sa-ra-da."

The little girl cracked her eyes open briefly to look in her general direction, made a soft coo, and then fell back asleep.

"She likes it," Sakura said, "And so do I. Sarada Uchiha."

Sasuke smiled back at her, and looked at their daughter once more. She would grow up to be a strong and wise shinobi, blessed with the best that the Uchiha name had to offer and none of the baggage that he had worked so hard to undo in the years before he married her mother.