Warning: Drama Ahead! Yes, there will be more mystery and intrigue next time around but this chapter is all about the drama. I hope that's okay. It also happens to be the longest chapter yet.

Sakura and the Prince of Flowers
By Miss Angel Maxwell

Chapter 7: "You Gotta Stop Blaming Yourself"

"Pregnant?" Sakura uttered, in complete shock over Tsunade's revelation. "Pregnant like… with a baby?"

Tsunade nodded. "You're only a couple of weeks along, so I'm not really surprised that you hadn't diagnosed it yourself."

All of the blood had drained from Sakura's face and she looked like a trembling ghost. It has to be a mistake, she thought. I'm seventeen years old. I can't have a baby. It's just not possible. This is what she told herself to try to ease her mind. She knew, however, that technically it was possible. But it was just too unbelievable to accept without question.

"Are you sure you didn't make some kind of mistake?" she asked Tsunade. "I mean… is this one-hundred percent… for real?"

"I can guarantee you that I've made no mistake," the older woman answered. "You're definitely pregnant, Sakura. With a baby."

Sakura suddenly felt as if there was a large tight knot in her belly. She understood that the child growing inside of her had been there for the past two weeks, but now that she knew about it the world around her seemed different. She felt different, as if now that she knew, everyone else would be able to tell just by looking at her, even though she wasn't showing any outward signs yet.

I can't believe this is really happening. I really am pregnant. Why… why didn't I even see this as a possibility? I'm such an idiot! I mean… we didn't even use protection. We weren't even thinking about it. And now… everyone is going to know. Sasuke, Naruto, Master Kakashi, Gai… they'll all know what I did to Lee. What if… what if they take it out on the baby? We'll be outcasts! I… I deserve to be hated. I can take it… But my child… I would rather die than have the whole town condemn my child as a symbol of my crime.

"Sakura?" Tsunade asked after several silent minutes had passed. "Are you okay? You haven't said anything in a while. I assume this is news you weren't expecting to hear?"

The young woman finally broke out of her frozen, unblinking state and looked up at her mentor with fearful eyes. Her voice was timid and tremulous from the weight of what she was about to say. "Tsunade, can you make it so I'm… not… pregnant?"

"Oh," Tsunade replied, sounding surprised but not judgmental. "I take it this is an unwanted pregnancy?"

The situation was too complicated for Sakura to explain, so she just nodded solemnly and said "yes."

"There is a procedure I can perform," the seasoned medical nin explained. "It will terminate your pregnancy. It's controversial. A lot of medical ninja refuse to perform it, but not me." She paused for a moment. "Are you planning on telling the father?"

"I… I can't tell the father," Sakura replied anxiously, hoping that Tsunade wouldn't ask any additional questions. She had no intentions of explaining that the reason she couldn't tell the father was because he was dead. "I'm sorry but… I don't think I'm ready to talk about it, even to you. I just… I just need you to do this procedure, get it over with."

"Sakura," the Hokage said compassionately. "Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?"

A fiery hot claw gripped Sakura's chest. She didn't really know what she wanted. She was afraid to ask herself that question because she knew she had to go through with this no matter what. And even though there was so much she needed to talk about, she knew there was nobody she could talk to. Her anguish came through in the desperate pitch of her voice. "Just… just get it out of me! Before anyone else finds out… the baby… you have to get rid of it!" She was so shaken she didn't even notice that there were warm tears leaking down her cheeks.

Without saying a word, Tsunade wrapped a strong, graceful arm around the young girl's shoulder and pulled her close. "Sakura, I think you're much too worked up right now to make such a serious decision." Sakura opened her mouth to protest, but Tsunade immediately hushed her and continued speaking. "Listen, you'll have to stay here in the hospital for a few more days to treat your injuries. Why don't you take this time to meditate on all your options? If you still feel the same way on the day of your discharge, I'll perform the procedure. In the mean time, just try to get some rest. And I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Alright, Tsunade," Sakura said softly. "I'll think about it. But I don't think I will get any rest. I haven't slept normally in so long."

The wise old woman smiled. "I'll fix you something that will help with that."

"A sleeping medicine?" the young woman stuttered. "It won't hurt the…" She didn't finish the question, but her hand was pressed to her belly.

"It's safe," Tsunade answered. She decided not to mention how odd it was that Sakura was so concerned about the wellbeing of a child she planned to abort. It wasn't her place to comment. As she opened the soundproof door to Sakura's hospital room, some raucous noise from the hallway attacked her ears and she had to investigate. Undeniably curious, Sakura got up from the bed and joined her mentor in the hallway.

The source of the commotion, it turned out, was Gai, who was staggering through the hospital and knocking into things while his helpless former students, Neji and Tenten, tried to keep him from falling over. It took a moment before Sakura noticed that there were several deep gashes in the jounin's right hand that were dripping blood in fat droplets onto the clean marble floor.

"He got drunk again, Lady Hokage," Neji said as Tsunade approached them. "Put his hand through a plate-glass window."

Tsunade sighed. "Drunk again. The poor man… That boy really was more like a son to him than a student, wasn't he?"

"Lee was very important to him," Tenten answered as she ducked to avoid the reckless swing of the drunken man's arm. "He's gotten wasted like this almost every day since Lee died. But this is the first time he got hurt because of it."

"Don't worry, I can take care of his hand," said Tsunade, putting Gai's arm across her shoulder to keep him steady. Then she turned to Sakura. "I'll prepare that thing for you as soon as I'm finished with him. Is that okay?"

"Uh, of course," Sakura replied. Gai's rowdy, drunken behavior had been so distracting that she temporarily forgot about her life-altering situation.

As Tsunade walked her new patient down the hall and into a room, Sakura's absent teammates reappeared in the corridor walking towards her. "Hey Sakura!" Naruto called. "I see you're feeling well enough to be up and out of bed. That's good. So what did Tsunade have to say?"

"Uh, well…" She was trying her hardest to sound casual. "She just said that I needed to get more sleep. You see… I was tired, and that's why I fainted. Yeah, just a lack of sleep."

The two young men remained quiet for a moment, carefully considering what she had said. Finally, Sasuke spoke up. "I think I see what's going on." Sakura's heart jolted at the thought of what he was going to say. "You're still upset about what happened to Lee, aren't you? You feel bad because you were the first to come to his aid and you weren't able to save him."

"I, uh, guess you're right, Sasuke," she mumbled. "I'm trying to make my peace with it but… I think I just need a little more time. Oh, and Tsunade said she could give me something to help me sleep. You really don't have to worry about me, you guys. I'll be fine in a few days."

Sasuke shot her a skeptical look but she managed to keep a straight face stick to her story. Naruto seemed a bit more trusting. "Well, I hope Tsunade's remedy works," he said. "I mean, I know it will, I just hope that once you get some sleep you feel better. And seriously, Sakura, you gotta stop blaming yourself for what happened to Lee. There was nothing you could have done."

"And don't forget," Sasuke added. "I'm…" He paused when he glimpsed Naruto's death glare and corrected himself. "We're always here for you, no matter what. I think we're going to go back to our homes now to let you get some sleep. But you can fetch either of us if you need to, and we'll be back here to check on you first thing tomorrow."

"We'd stay here if Tsunade would let us," Naruto interjected.

"I'll be fine," Sakura reassured them. After seeing them off, she retreated back into her room with a sigh. She felt bad that her partners' departure brought her so much relief, but she knew the more time they spent with her the more likely they were to uncover her secret. How many days would she be stuck in this hospital? How long would she have to wait before she could get this procedure over with and forget that she ever had a baby? A baby. Sakura tried not to even think about that word. Every time she did she could feel her heart on fire.

She had just climbed back into bed when Tsunade burst in, seeming much more frazzled than usual, and carrying a bamboo tray with a steaming cup of hot liquid. "Sorry I took so long. Gai is really messed up. His hand wasn't hurt that bad, but psychologically he's a wreck."

"I'm so sorry," the young patient murmured.

"Oh, don't you worry about him, he'll be fine eventually. You just concentrate on taking care of yourself." Tsunade pushed the hot cup into Sakura's hand. "Drink it slowly, it's very hot. You should be feeling very drowsy by the time you finish. Now, I'm going to be returning to my office soon, but there are plenty of medical nin around here in case of emergency. And I'll see you again in the morning."

The young lady had already begun to sip the warm concoction as the Hokage took her leave and shut the door. Just as Tsunade had warned, within minutes Sakura felt herself being swallowed up in sleepy haze. She barely had time to set the cup on the bedside table before her eyelids dropped and she was lost in deep slumber.

Whatever had been in Tsunade's magic brew, it got the job done. When Sakura finally awoke from what seemed like endless, dreamless sleep her body felt like new again. Even her broken arm seemed to have healed. Out the window, she could see that the sky was still dark blue, but a pale yellow glow was beginning to rise from the horizon. This would be a good time for her to get up and walk around to ease her restlessness, now before everyone else woke up.

Clad in a plushy pink bathrobe and matching slippers, the young woman tread softly through the dark, empty hospital hallway. The doors on either side of her were all closed and she wondered how many of them had patients behind them. At an earlier time in her life, Sakura used to fantasize about staying in this very hospital when she gave birth to her first child. Of course, in those visions of the future she was quite a bit older than seventeen, and she was married to Sasuke.

No, she thought to herself. I'm making the right decision. I can't have this baby. As she tried to force her mind to think about something else, she felt her stomach lurch and a wave of nausea washed over her. I gotta lay down.

Luckily, she had made her way around the hospital and was back at her own room, recognizable by the fact that she had left the door open. With the utmost care not to jostle herself and aggravate her queasiness, Sakura crawled back into bed and let out a sigh. I suppose this is morning sickness. As she lay there with her back to the door, softly rubbing her belly and gazing furtively out the window at the rising sun, Sakura started to wonder how Lee's teammates were coping. Neji and Tenten, and most especially Gai were all suffering.

"I hope he's alright," she said aloud to herself. "Poor Gai… I wonder what he might do if he knew that I am responsible for Lee's death…"

"What did you just say?"

Sakura gasped as she spun to see who had just spoken and was confronted by the sillouette of Maito Gai framed in her doorway. "W-what are you doing here, Gai? Shouldn't… shouldn't you be… somewhere else?"

"I'm sorry," he said gravely. "I was walking by and I overheard you talking about Lee… about his death. What do you mean that you're responsible?"

"I uh… well…" She was completely dumbfounded. The only thing that rescued her from the conversation was the appearance of Sasuke and Naruto in the doorway behind Gai.

"Sakura, what's going on?" Naruto questioned. "Why is Gai here?"

Gai answered for her. "I heard her say that she's responsible for Lee's death. I just wanted to ask her what she meant."

"She just feels bad that she couldn't save him with her medical jutsu," Sasuke assured the older man. "That's all."

"I don't think that is all," Gai said accusingly. "I think you're keeping something secret and it has to do with Lee."

Hearing the commotion, Tsunade had joined the small crowd in the room, and all of the sudden Sakura found herself under the blistering stare of four pairs of eyes. The secrets that had been churning inside of her for so long had reached their boiling point and she could no longer keep them in. Now, with wet eyes, she began to reveal everything.

"Gai is right. I killed Lee." She paused as the room drew in a collective breath. "I know, he was attacked out in the woods… But… it's my fault that he left Konoha, my fault he ran away. I did something terrible to him and it broke his heart."

"What could you have possibly done to upset Fuzzy Brows?" Naruto snorted. "The guy practically worshipped you."

Sakura looked down at her lap. She couldn't stand to make eye contact with anybody when she said this. "I slept with him. That is… the night before he ran away… Lee and I… we had sex. I was really mad at Naruto and Sasuke because they left me behind. I just wanted to feel desired by a man. I ran into Lee at a party… and he was so nice to me… I knew that I could get what I wanted from him, so I invited him back to my house. He didn't want to do it… said it would be taking advantage of a woman when she's vulnerable. But I knew I could change his mind. After all, he'd always had a crush on me. I seduced him. Then in the morning I told him that despite what had happened, he and I would never be more than friends… and that I would never love him that way… ever."

The entire room was dead silent and slack jawed. "Sakura…" Gai uttered. "I can't believe you would do something like that… knowing how Lee felt about you. Sakura, Lee didn't just have a crush on you. He was in love with you. And you took advantage of that. It's just so…"

"I know, what I did was terrible," she whimpered back, but Gai interrupted her, his voice growing louder and angrier.

"I don't think you do know! Because of you, Lee is gone forever! And the saddest thing is he was probably thinking about you up to the minute he died! But you! You'll forget all about him and what you did!"

By now, Sakura was sobbing and Naruto and Sasuke were trying to calm down Gai. "That's not true," the girl cried. "I won't forget about him! I couldn't!" But nobody seemed to care what she had said.

"I'm pregnant."

At last there was silence and all eyes turned back on her in disbelief. "I'm pregnant," she repeated. "And it's Lee's. But… before you say anything else, I think you should know… I… I'm not going to keep it." After that, all she could do was cover her face and weep. She didn't want anybody to look at her.

"All right, everybody out," Tsunade demanded of the visitors. "She's my patient and I say you're all interfering with her recovery. So, if you could, give the lady some space. Let's all leave her alone for a little while." And with that, she led the three men out and closed the door. In a little while she would come back to check in on Sakura, but for now she thought the girl needed her solitude.

It's done with, Sakura despaired as she sobbed into her pillow. They know now. They know now and they hate me. I could tell from the way they looked at me, Sasuke and Naruto both think I'm a monster. I am. I'm a monster, unworthy to be a shinobi on Naruto and Sasuke's team, and definitely unfit to raise a child. She lay there crying for what seemed like hours, her brain oscillating between rationalizing her decision and wondering what her life would be like from now on.

She felt utterly alone. But then, she wasn't alone. Gently, very gently she placed her hand over her tummy. It felt strange, almost like a tingling deep inside of her. Then it intensified, the tingly sensation in her belly turned into pain, a twinge at first then becoming sharp and searing. Sakura panicked.

"Tsunade!" she shouted, though she knew the Hokage wouldn't hear her. She had to get to the door, so she rolled off the bed and staggered across the room clutching her stomach. Her fingers had just grazed the doorknob when the pain became so severe that she doubled over and fell to the floor.

Sakura didn't even know that she had blacked out until she opened her eyes and realized that she was back in bed. The pain in her stomach was now just faint and Tsunade was standing by her bedside looking very concerned.

"What… what happened?" Sakura asked. "All I remember is feeling this really sharp pain in my stomach and then falling on the floor."

"We need to talk," Tsunade said softly, taking one of the young woman's hands. "Sakura, that pain you felt was contractions. I'm afraid you've had a miscarriage."

"A miscarriage?" Sakura breathed. "You mean the baby…"

"There is no baby. It's gone."

It was the most terrible pain Sakura ever experienced. She felt empty inside, like a piece of her soul had been torn out. Why did it hurt so badly? She didn't even want this baby. Nature had simply done the job for her. Then, finally, she saw things clearly. She had wanted the baby, wanted it more than she even knew, more than she'd ever wanted anything. Finally, she let herself feel what she'd been denying herself since she found out that she was pregnant. This was her baby, no matter what circumstances had led to its conception or who its father was. This was her baby and she loved it. But now her child was dead. She never even knew if it was a boy or a girl. Hot tears streaked down her cheeks.

"It knew," she cried. "The baby knew what I did and it didn't want me for a mother. It knew that I was going to get rid of it. But… I never really wanted that… I didn't… Now… too late… It's dead… My baby is dead… This… this can't be happening…"

Tsunade embraced the young woman comfortingly, like a mother. She gently rubbed the bereaved girl's back as she spoke softly into her ear. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I didn't realize you felt this way. I should have found a gentler way of telling you." She paused. "But you're right, it isn't happening. The baby is perfectly fine. What you felt wasn't a miscarriage, just an upset stomach."

"What?" the girl gasped, pulling away from the Hokage and looking up with red swollen eyes. "Are you saying that this was all some kind of cruel joke? Is… is the baby really still in there? It's really alright?"

"I promise your unborn child is unharmed," Tsunade answered, smiling. "And it wasn't a joke, it was a test. I wanted you to look inside yourself, Sakura, and decide how you really felt about this pregnancy. I wanted you to see how you would feel after the baby was gone. So, did it work?"

Sakura was crying again, but this time her tears were coupled with a smile. They were tears of absolute relief. "Yes it worked. I… I want to keep it. I want to keep the baby, Tsunade. But how… How did you ever come up with something like this?"

"It wasn't my idea," she said as she moved to the door and pulled it open. Standing there behind it was a familiar blonde-haired young man.

"I'm sorry I told Tsunade to lie to you," said Naruto. "But when you said you weren't going to keep the kid, I knew that wasn't really you talking. I just wanted you to realize it for yourself. You're not mad at me, are you?"

"I'm not mad at all," she cried joyfully. And when Naruto came over to her she pulled him into a tight embrace, her tears of joy kissing his yellow hair. "Thank you, Naruto. Thank you."

In the corner of the room, unnoticed by either of them, Sasuke watched his teammates hug. He knew he couldn't be jealous of Lee for getting her pregnant. It was wrong to envy the dead. But Naruto on the other hand…

To be continued…