Welcome back, once again, to the next chapter of my story.

Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto. Characters may be OOC. This is written for 'Fun' - made even more fun because of all the nice reviews I'm getting. :-)

Thanks again to TDotShia who gave me the encouragement to finish. I do hope you are going to read this chapter, as the ending part is completely different (and IMHO much better) than the version you got to see!

Chapter 8

Sakura sank to the floor in shock. There was one bottle too many. She had counted them several times over, hoping against hope that she had just miscounted, but the fact remained, she had not taken her contraceptive for the last month.

Being a practical type of girl she had been taking them 'just in case,' and she cursed at the fact that she had forgotten just when it had really mattered. She knew that she had intended to take it, but something must have distracted her at a crucial time and the fact that she hadn't taken it had completely escaped her notice.

She knew she would have to have it confirmed, but she was pretty sure now why she was feeling sick and out of sorts. She still hoped that she was wrong...

Pulling herself together, she set out to the medical center. She needed to find out for sure and then she needed to find and talk to Kakashi.

She wondered how he would take it.

Tsunade met Sakura in the medical center. "What's the matter, Sakura-chan?" she asked. She could see that something was troubling the young woman.

"Ah, it's a bit embarrassing actually," she started, "I need a pregnancy test."

"A pregnancy test?" Tsunade was shocked, "I thought you were using contraception."

Sakura pulled a face, "I just realized this morning that I had forgotten to take last month's dose and I thought I'd better get checked out."

Tsunade got up and rummaged around in a cupboard and handed Sakura a small box. "You can take it in there," she said, gesturing towards a side room." Sakura took the box, headed in and shut the door.

Tsunade sighed as she paced and waited for Sakura to finish. After a few minutes, Sakura returned, looking pale.

"Sakura?" Tsunade was concerned. She escorted the young woman to a chair and sat her down, then handed her a drink of water.

"Shit," Sakura muttered after a moment.

"Do I take it the result was positive?" Tsunade enquired. Sakura nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Does Kakashi know anything about this?"

"No," Sakura almost whispered, "We… ahh… fell out this morning."

"Was it because of the mission?"

Sakura looked up. "I didn't know he had a mission."

"Oh dear," Tsunade cursed to herself, it really was bad timing, but at least he would not be distracted by this knowledge although the fact that they had fallen out was bad enough. Still, he was enough of a professional not to let things affect him and get the job done.

"Sakura, I'm sorry, but he's gone on an infiltration mission for at least a month, although it could be a lot longer depending on how things go. I can't tell you any more than that."

Sakura nodded knowing that Tsunade couldn't tell, then burst into tears.

Tsunade comforted the distraught young woman as best she could. Damn, she wished there was something she could do, but there was nothing to be done but to wait for the masked man's return.

Later that day found a now much calmer Sakura in search of Maito Gai. She needed to get to the truth about that bet and with Kakashi gone the only other person that knew anything about it was the so-called Green Beast of Konoha.

After making a few enquiries, she managed to find him at the training ground with Lee. She shuddered involuntarily when she saw the younger man, but she needed to speak with Gai-sensei, so she gritted her teeth and walked towards them.

"Ah, Sakura-san!" Gai enthused when he saw her, "You grace us with your presence on this fine day."

"Gai-Sensei, Lee-San," she politely greeted the two shinobi. "Gai-Sensei, can I speak to you for a moment please?"

"Sakura-San," she was surprised when she found Lee kneeling on the ground before her, "I am truly sorry for what I did to you."

"That's ok, Lee-San." Sakura said uncomfortably, "I know it wasn't your fault but I really need to talk to Gai-Sensei."

Gai, noticing Sakura's discomfort, decided to intervene. "Lee, why don't you go and get something to eat whilst I see what Sakura-San wants?"

"Hai, Gai-Sensei. Bye Sakura-San." Lee left them alone, and Sakura visibly relaxed.

"What can I do for you Sakura?" Gai asked pleasantly.

"I need to ask you about a bet you made with Kakashi." She said, getting straight to the point.

Gai was shocked. She had found out about that? His rival must have been getting careless. "Ah, Sakura-San, That bet was an ill-conceived matter between two drunkards. We cancelled it by mutual agreement when it was clear that the circumstances were not favorable, although I must admit that I held him to it for slightly longer than I should have done."

Sakura slumped, so he really didn't do it just for a bet. "Thank you Gai-Sensei. You've told me what I needed to know."

"Glad to be of help. If you need anything else, please let me know."

"I will. Thank you Gai-Sensei." She paused for a moment. "How is Lee-San doing now?"

It was clear that Gai still felt some guilt for not including his observations in his mission report. Tsunade had wiped the floor with him over that.

"He is much better, thank you. He still has a way to go to be fully recovered, if he ever does manage to get over it completely. But at least he is getting the help he needs now."

"That's good to hear. Bye Gai-Sensei. Keep me posted on how Lee is doing."

"I will. Look after yourself, Sakura-san."

Sakura decided to cope for the moment by throwing herself into her work. She had discussed her condition with Tsunade and of course she had decided to go ahead with the pregnancy. She also told Tsunade that she was keeping quiet about it for now. She didn't need people pointing fingers at the moment, and she really did need to talk to Kakashi about it first.

The weeks dragged on. On the 6th week after Kakashi had left, Tsunade was in her office when Pakkun arrived. She was quite surprised to see him.

"Tsunade-san," the small dog said, "Kakashi won't be back for a while yet."

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"No, things are just a little more complicated than expected, but nothing outside the parameters of the mission. He should make it back soon with a bit of luck."

"That's good. I'll trust him to use his judgement."

"Can you tell me how Sakura is before I head back? I know he left under a bit of a cloud and I think he's a little worried about her."

"Oh, she's better than alright," Tsunade said, "I know she wants to see him when he gets back though. I think she'll be disappointed that he's going to be delayed."

Pakkun spotted the pink haired girl as she passed by Tsunade's open office door. "I see what you mean about better than alright," he said in amusement. His kind were quite perceptive. "Don't worry, I won't say anything. Some things are better said in person and we wouldn't want to distract him. After all, we do need him to come back in once piece."

"Thank you," Tsunade said simply as the dog left. Now she just had to tell Sakura about the delay. She was not going to be happy.

Sakura had taken the news about the delay fairly calmly, all things considered. At least she knew that Kakashi was all right. However, time dragged on for another 6 weeks and she began to get concerned.

She wanted to be the one to tell Kakashi her news, but she was starting to show. It wasn't much yet, only noticeable if you were looking for it, but inevitably people would begin to talk. She had even been avoiding Sasuke and Naruto as she was sure that they would notice immediately and Naruto couldn't keep his mouth shut if he tried.

She had told Ino everything though, and her friend was very supportive, which was something that Sakura needed at the moment.

Eventually, Tsunade called Sakura to her office. She had some news.

"Sakura, Kakashi is back."

"Where is he?"

"Currently he's in the hospital."

"Is he alright?" Sakura was concerned.

"It's nothing life threatening, he's only in to be checked over and he's already given his mission report so you can go to see him before he disappears on us. We both know how much he hates hospitals. He's probably only still here because he's hoping you'll come and see him." Tsunade paused, "I suppose I'd better let you go for the day, I know you two have a lot to talk about." Sakura nodded, and thanked Tsunade. Tsunade gave her his room number and she left to go and see him.

As she reached his room, she grabbed some convenient towels and held them in font of her to make sure that he could not notice anything. Perhaps she was being silly but she was worried about how he would react, especially with what had happened on the morning he'd left. So she decided that she would see how things stood then tell him afterwards. Well, it was a plan of sorts.

She opened the door and peeked inside. "Kakashi?" she ventured into the room, "You're late!"

"Sakura." Kakashi was sat on the bed. He seemed happy and possibly a little relieved to see her. He shrugged, "I had to stop to help a little old lady with her shopping, but I came as soon as I could."

"Liar," she said with a smile, "How are you?"

"I've been worse. More importantly, how have you been?"

She walked up to the bed, placing the towels on the table now that she was too close for him to get a proper look at her. "I've been alright," she said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have run away like that, but finding that paper was a bit of a shock."

He sighed, "I understand. I'm sorry about that.I made that bet with Gai on the afternoon we got drunk, but we cancelled it afterwards. I should have thrown it away, but I had forgotten it was there. It was a stupid thing to do."

"I thought it might be something like that before I spoke to Gai and he confirmed it. I'm still not happy that I was the subject of such an idiotic scheme,but as long as you realize it was stupid..." They were silent for a few moments. "I missed you, you know." She said gently. She didn't resist as he pulled his mask down and kissed her soundly.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, then reluctantly, Sakura pulled away. "I have something to tell you."

He raised his visible eyebrow as he replaced his mask. "Oh?"

Sakura was silent for a few more moments, raising her courage. She had just opened her mouth to speak when the door burst open.

"Hey! Sakura-Chan! Kakashi Sensei!" It was Naruto, closely followed by Hinata and Sasuke. "Are you alright Kakashi Sensei? And hey Sakura-Chan, have you been putting on weight?"

Sakura went beet red in embarrassment. Kakashi shot a look at Naruto and then at Sakura. He could see exactly what Naruto meant now that it had been pointed out to him, but from the looks of it he didn't think it was simple weight gain. He looked back to the group by the door. "You lot. Out. Now." His tone brooked no argument. Hinata took Naruto's arm and dragged him out behind Sasuke.

Once the group had gone and the door was closed, Kakashi turned his attention back to the pink haired medic-nin. "Sakura?" he prompted.

Sakura sighed and sat on a convenient chair, suddenly feeling a bit wobbly. "After I refused to speak to you at my apartment that morning, I was feeling sick but I put it down to being upset. I had already decided to find you, and I'd gone to the medicine cabinet to get something to settle my stomach when I noticed…" she paused and took a deep breath, "I noticed that I had forgotten to take my contraceptive." She found that she couldn't speak anymore and she refused to look at him, not wanting to see if he reacted badly.

Kakashi sat there putting 2 and 2 together. To say he was stunned was an understatement. He had never really considered that he would ever be a father. He was quiet for a while, not quite knowing what to say, when he heard a whispered "I'm sorry." He looked up just in time to see the door closing as Sakura left the room.

Sakura was miserable. Kakashi would hate her now, she was sure of it She had sworn that she would not cry, but the hormones coursing through her system made that an impossible task. She ran past the group waiting outside the room without stopping.

"Sakura?" Naruto called as Hinata decided to go after the pink haired girl.

Sasuke looked on with concern. "Damn, what did that bastard do to her now?"

Naruto looked down the corridor in the direction that the two girls had gone. "Hinata will look after Sakura so let's go and ask him," he said in a dangerous tone as they turned to the door.

Hinata activated her Byakugan as she searched for Sakura. The once-shy young woman wasn't stupid, and she thought that she might just have some idea of what was going on with Sakura and her ex-teacher, especially after what Naruto had just blurted out.

Eventually she tracked her husband's team-mate down. She was sat near the children's playground, watching the youngsters playing at being Ninjas, smiling sadly.

Hinata approached slowly. "Sakura-chan?" she started, "Are you alright?"

Sakura sighed, "I don't know, Hinata-chan. My life is one big mess."

"Surely it can't be that bad?"

Sakura sighed and began to tell Hinata about the events that led up to this moment. Maybe she wouldn't be able to help her, but she knew that just talking could make things seem better.

She sighed once again as she reached the end of her tale. "…he didn't say anything so I just left. I think he's upset with me, and I don't blame him. Forgetting to take my contraceptive was the dumbest thing I've done in a long time."

"Sakura," Hinata tried to soothe her friend, "You just dropped a big bombshell on him. He came back to Konoha after being away for 3 months, probably not knowing for sure if you would even want to speak to him again, and then he discovers that he's going to be a father. He probably needs a little time to let it sink in, and I'm sure he doesn't blame you for what happened."

"You're probably right, but I still feel pretty stupid. I am supposed to be a Medic-Nin for heaven's sake!" She threw her hands up in exasperation at herself.

"So you'd be about 4 months along, right?"

"just about," the pink haired girl replied, "I'd been hoping to keep it quiet until I could talk to Kakashi about it, but it didn't stop Naruto noticing something at just the wrong moment."

"I'm sorry about that," the lavender eyed girl said, "I know that Naruto is not the most tactful of people."

"That's OK, Hinata it's not your fault. We wouldn't have him any other way, right?" Sakura smiled, then started as she felt a presence behind her. Both girls whirled round to find Kakashi being tailed closely by Naruto and Sasuke who were both looking a bit put out.

"Kakashi," Sakura whispered.

Naruto and Sasuke had just reached the door of Kakashi's room when it swung open and they came face to face with the copy-nin.

Naruto, of course, waded in with both feet. "OI, what the hell have you done to make Sakura-chan cry now?" Sasuke stood silently to one side, having decided to let the Blond Baka deal with this.

"That, for the moment, is between Sakura and myself," the masked man replied coolly

"Bullshit," Naruto yelled, "This isn't the first time you've upset her and I want some answers."

Naruto," Kakashi said patiently, "You of all people should know that relationships can be complicated." The fox boy was quiet for a moment, realizing this to be true, but he still wasn't happy

"What is all this noise?" the voice of Tsunade interrupted before Naruto could formulate a reply, "Don't you realize this is a hospital?" Naruto was able to look embarrassed whilst shooting filthy looks at the masked man. "Where do you think you are going Hatake-San?" Her eyes narrowed, "And where is Sakura?"

"I was just going to find her," the masked man met Tsunade's gimlet-like stare without flinching, "I think I may have handled things a little… badly."

Tsunade sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had a headache brewing and she needed a drink. "Fine, I think Shizune was about to come and release you anyway, so I'll let you go, not that I'd have been able to stop you."

"Thank you," he said simply as he walked past her with Sasuke following. Tsunade stopped Naruto before he could go any further.

"What is it, Tsunade-Baasan?"

"Give them a chance to talk, Naruto." Naruto didn't look happy about that. "For Sakura," she added.

Naruto nodded and headed after Kakashi and Sasuke. He didn't understand what was going on and he would listen to Tsunade for now, but if that Ero-Sensei upset Sakura again…

Tsunade watched the group as they left and shook her head in exasperation. Not for the first time she wondered what Sakura saw in someone like Kakashi. She headed off to find Shizune to inform her that Kakashi had been discharged, hoping that everything would turn out alright.

Sasuke and Naruto tailed the copy-ninja through the streets of Konoha as they searched for Sakura. Of course, the masked man could have lost the two young men, but he thought it might be better if he knew exactly where they were. The pair were having quite an animated conversation as they went.

"So do you know what's going on?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"Hn," was the reply from Sasuke. Naruto took this as a yes.

"So what did he do?"

"If you'd thought about it for a moment you'd have worked it out for yourself."

"Ah, come on, just tell me."

"No, moron."

"Asshole. You think you are so clever…"

Kakashi was only half listening, lost in his own thoughts for the moment. He knew that he had handled Sakura's news badly but it had come as a real shock. It was strange how life could get complicated without even trying and he'd never imagined anything like this happening when he'd started seeing her. He knew that she blamed herself for forgetting to take her contraceptive, but he had stupidly assumed she was protected when he should have asked, which was something more expected of a teenager than a man of 33. It might have reminded her that she'd forgotten it at the very least. In the end it was just as much his fault as it was hers. It took two to tango after all…

He came back to himself as he realized that he'd found her. She was right in front of him, talking with Hinata and watching the children play in the park. She had her back to him and he could just overhear the tail end of her conversation. Then she turned and saw him. He heard her whisper his name.

"Yo," he said in his usual nonchalant way, visible eye crinkled up in a smile.

As soon as Hinata had seen the older man she had got up and begun encouraging Naruto to give Sakura and Kakashi some privacy.

Naruto was protesting loudly. He didn't want to leave.

"Naruto, I really think we should leave them to work it out between themselves. They have a lot to talk about." Hinata said reasonably. Hinata wasn't jealous over Naruto's over-protectiveness, she understood how deep the bonds of each team ran. After all, she'd had to deal with the same kind of things from her own team when she'd started seeing Naruto.

"But…"

"Damn it, Dobe, do you like people interfering in your relationship with Hinata?" Sasuke was to the point, knowing that very thing had happened several times.

"Of course not…"

"Well isn't this the same thing?"

Naruto considered a moment, then gave the point grudgingly, "Ok, I get it. But he'd better not upset her again." The trio settled to keep an eye on the couple from a reasonable distance.

As Sakura continued to sit there in silence, Kakashi decided to go and sit next to her.

After a few more moments he decided to speak. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"As alright as I can be," she stared at the floor.

He sighed and leaned back. "I'm sorry," he said, "It was a bit of a surprise you know. Not exactly what I was expecting to find when I returned."

"I understand," she said quietly. She absentmindedly put a protective arm across her abdomen.

He looked at her, noting her depressed demeanor. It looked as though she had convinced herself that he was going to leave her to cope on her own, but he wasn't that type of person, and he cared too much about her to hurt her in that way. He sighed as he got up.

Sakura continued to stare at the floor, not wanting to see the disappointment in Kakashi's visible eye. She was suddenly surprised to find him crouching in front of her and she looked up despite herself.

"Sakura, I thought you trusted me," he said gently, "I'm not upset with you. It's a shock and a lot to take in, but it's nothing that we can't work through together, right?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Sakura beathed a sigh of relief. That was far better than she had expected. they stood up and came together into an embrace.

The moment was broken by a shout from Naruto, "She's what?"

Sakura and Kakashi looked at each other and smiled. Some things never changed.

But she was sure from now on that everything would be alright.

LOOK! I put Hinata in this chapter! – I know I haven't had her in before, but I figured that seeing as I've mentioned her a few times, I should put her in somewhere before the fic was over. LOL (I thought about using Ino instead, but she's had her share of screen time, and she wouldn't have fitted this part.)

Thanks to -

BBKarateGrl - Yeah, I know that not everyone likes lemons. I don't mind reading them on occasion myself though. If I had managed to write one I would have made it "off site." I know FF net's policy on "NC-17" stuff, having been around when all that kicked off back in September 2002. Glad you enjoyed it though!

Cuito - I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's reactions like that that make it worthwhile.

'Me' - glad to hear you have your comp working again. I thought you'd just stopped reading XD.

lonniexxqt - I'm happy you think I've managed to keep them in character. It's been quite hard to do, so in case I slipped I put the warning about OOC's in - well - Lee was OOC at the very least :-P. I'm going to try and continue to write, but it depends on inspiration. I might have more luck with that when I finally get this story (and the alternate one shot I'm working on) put to bed and I can move on.

Kakashidiot - It is? well if it is, it's not from a movie I've ever seen, not that I'm really into watching movies. (I am looking forward to seeing Kung Fu Hustle though...) Nice to hear you enjoyed it so much. :-D

Also thanks to - Senx2, Catc10, Freakenout, Ruka-Kun, Hao'sAnjul, December Jewel, Zezura, and Kathleen. I can't beleive I got so many reviews for chapter 7!

Sorry to all those that want it to be longer. It just seemed to come naturally to a close, and if I'd tried to force it on I would probably have ended up in a right mess!

Stay tuned for the Epilogue though. I've tried to inject a little humor in there just to finish off. XD

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