Dedicated to 'Virtues & Sins's first reviewer; white-rose kiss. Hope you liked it just fine. I'll do the other two after posting my other two dedications, ok?

.-.-.

"Hello?"

It was a sound he hadn't heard in a long, long time.

It was almost inaudible, lost in the sea of yelling, screaming people and endless sound of chaos.

But he heard it nevertheless...

...A woman's voice.

"Who is this?"

"A local woman," she answered simply. "Are you a Sound-nin?"

"...What do you want?"

"Your comrade is with me. She's trapped in a jutsu."

"...Wavy dark hair?"

"Yes."

"...Why is she with you?"

"She was abandoned."

"...Where?"

"Nearby the-"

Suddenly she stopped talking and there came a disgusting sound that suspiciously sounded like someone puking.

"Sorry about that," she said after a moment.

"...What did you see?"

"? Nothing nauseous, if that's what you mean," she said as a matter of factly, as though saving an injured enemy ninja amid a war was something she'd done a countless number of times before.

The woman was either very brave or extremely stupid. What the Hell was a local woman (she might be a kunoichi for all he knew, but still) doing, tending to an enemy ninja amidst a war against her own village?

.-.-.

Amidst a War

.-.-.

She bit her lip as another tremor shook the body of this unknown enemy nin she brought into her temporary hiding place. She really was too soft for her own good. Just a look at the scrunched up younger woman's face made her take the defenseless nin with her.

She wondered if what she'd done was a good thing. She hoped she could escape before the man who'd answered her call came...after all, he might not spare her life even if she had saved his comrade and was in a...condition.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps just outside where she was and she stiffened and muffled her companion's mouth. The footsteps stopped and she saw a pair of sandaled feet. She couldn't recognize the chakra and she started to panic.

"...We were ordered to wreck havoc. You're not making any."

"A-ah..."

"...Go before I kill you."

There was a poof sound and they were left with an even more dangerous chakra than the first one.

...Which, for some reason, felt a bit familiar...

Suddenly, her shelter was filled with moonlight and it took her a moment to realize that its roof had been snatched off.

Eyes widened, as if reflecting the other pair. The only difference was that one pair was the color of onyx...

...And the other, the shade of emeralds.

"Sa-Sasuke-kun?"

Her heart had skipped a beat and was now accelerating its palpitations and she hoped it would bring no harm to her unborn child.

"...Sakura."

If fate was a romantic, then he or she was probably squealing at the melodramatic way of their first meeting after seven years from the time they met at the Sound...

Ten years since he betrayed them...

.-.-.

They stared at each other for a long moment, her on the ground still holding the comatose Sound-nin and he just a step away, towering over them.

Sasuke was clad in a sleeveless, turtleneck black outfit that sculptured his well-toned lean body, fingerless gloves covering his arms to the elbows. He wore no forehead protector, but on his bicep was the tattoo of a very familiar-looking snake.

Sakura wore a loose red gown that reached her knees, showing the shape of her bulging stomach that looked ready to burst at any moment. She had grown her hair, which fell to her waist in gentle waves.

Suddenly she gasped, her arms wounding around her mid section. Without even thinking, he automatically knelt in front of her. "Sakura...?"

"Con-contractions," she answered by way of explanation then she gasped.

Sasuke wondered just why the ground became wet...

She whimpered. 'No...not now, of all times...'

Suddenly, Sasuke activated Sharingan and looked into the trapped kunoichi's blank orbs. She instantly blinked and the blankness in her eyes disappeared as she reacted to the familiar voice. "Sasuke-san...?"

He nodded in swift acknowledgement. "Suzuno, this is Sakura. She's in labor."

That got the dark-haired woman moving. "How long ago had the water broke?"

"Just now," Sasuke replied as the object of the topic was having difficulty replying.

"Sasuke-san, we must move to a safer place. Deserted and with towels."

He lifted the panting Sakura with ease and sprinted off, her on his heels.

.-.-.

"Breathe Sakura-san. One. Two."

He watched as the two medics cooperated. He couldn't imagine just how horrid it would've been if the nin Sakura had saved wasn't a good fellow medic, if Suzuno stayed stuck in that torture jutsu or if she was one of those obsessed with him.

Suzuno wiped the sweat off the Konoha woman's slightly large forehead with a dark blue towel adorned with the Uchiha clan's symbol. "I know of a jutsu that will quicken the delivery, but all the pain will combine and come at the same time..."

"...Sakura. She's the one who healed Orochimaru's hands. She knows what she's doing and...can be trusted."

"...It won't...hurt...my child?"

Sae shook her head reassuringly. "But it will hurt you."

...Sakura nodded.

"Sasuke-san, please be prepared with a towel," she instructed as she did various seals swiftly, gathering chakra in her hands.

Sasuke obediently stood at the opposite end of Sakura and blamed the non-existant heat of a cool moon for his boiling face.

"Ready, Sakura-san?"

She bit her lip as she felt another contraction and nodded.

For the first time, Sasuke found that being in the Sound had its advantages...

Her scream matched that of the child's, which didn't escape from the room due to a soundproof jutsu he placed around his old house.

.-.-.

A certain, always smiling dark-haired Konoha anbu was about to slash another Sound-nin when his supposed to be victim suddenly fainted.

"Sai!"

He turned and met a familiar face. "Sakura-san?"

She was in the arms of the notorious Sasuke-kun, but what caught his attention was the bundle she carried in her arms, wrapped in a dark blue towel with only a tuft of black hair visible from his point of view.

Also the fact that another nin was present, a female of the Sound. She was the one who'd made her supposed to be comrade (his supposed to be victim) faint, his instincts told him.

"Take us to Naruto or Tsunade-shishou!"

He nodded and sprinted and they followed suit.

.-.-.

An astoundingly accurate and swiftly silent needle nearly landed into a certain Soundkage's snake like neck. He managed to evade it, but of course. He jumped away from his ex female teammate who was spluttering blood to the other side of the Hokage's building's roof.

Two Konoha nins, the ones he'd met when he 'discovered' Kabuto's 'Akatsuki spy secret' and one of his own nin were at the Konoha Godaime's side. The expressionless shinobi watching him, the unsuitably dressed kunoichi calling out to the busty blonde and his own nin swiftly healing her before turning to him with a glare that contained no anger and coldness.

"Switching sides so swiftly, Suzuno?"

"I side only with fairness."

Suddenly, he launched his stretching neck at her and landed his teeth that would give her a Curse Seal successfully. Or so he thought until he felt her slammed a hand against his heart, making his face fly back to his body.

And then, wounds from all over his body appeared somehow and in an instant, it seemed that quite a bit of his body turned bloody.

He glared Cursed Seals at her as he couldn't speak with a mouth that couldn't be called one any longer.

"One who heals...can also kill...in fact, the best killers are also healers...I reopened all the wounds you've ever received in this body. It doesn't matter that they've healed. Because I can reverse the process of healing..."

Her audience: the shocked Sakura who hid the terrible image and sound from her innocent child, the recovering Tsunade who looked at the younger woman with grim respect and for once the always smiling Sai looked neutral.

.-.-.

"...You are indecisive, ototo...," a certain mass murderer of a brother commented.

"Shut up," he snapped as he stood between him and a certain Kyuubi container.

"Sasuke-teme...?"

"Dobe...," he said without looking at him. "Go. Kill Orochimaru."

The blonde smirked and had time to punch the ex missing nin's head. "Leave enough of yourself for me to pulverize later."

He countered him with the same attack and the soon to be Hokage grinned his trademark girn before sprinting off.

"...I have one question."

Itachi looked nonchalantly at him.

"Did you ever...touch...my other ex-teammate?"

At his older version's smirk, he pounced at him in fury.

Finally, the fate of the Uchiha clan was coming to a standstill.

.-.-.

"...Finally...we are free..."

Sasuke stared down at his defeated brother, himself barely conscious. "...?"

"...Start...," the Akatsuki member said between splutters of blood from his mouth. "...anew.. Leave...the past...how...you want...our clan...to be...is up...to you...don't...repeat... mistakes..."

Sasuke could only stare at him.

"...was it...a boy?"

"...Yes..."

"...Look...after...all...your descendants...equally...do not...be...like...Father..."

For the first time in all these years, Itachi managed a last smile. "...I'll...haunt you... if...you waste...my effort...in setting...you two...up..."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"...and...sorry..."

"...It's ok..."

"...Nii-san..."

A pair of red eyes lost its shine of life but there was a peaceful expression on the normally stoic face, the opposite of a certain ex-avenger's tear-stained one.

.-.-.

Tsunade hit Sakura on the head much similar to what she usually did to Naruto after recovering fully. Then she hugged her apprentice out of relief, who was one of the few who would survive her literally back-breaking hug. "Silly girl! You left because you didn't want us to know you were pregnant with Sasuke's brat?"

"Actually...I had no idea it could possibly be Sasuke's...until Taichi was born..."

"Eh...? Then how did you find out, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, knowing she hadn't done a DNA check as he peered at his little 'nephew', whose green eyes peered back at him.

The female medic flushed. "U-um, well..."

All eyes turned to Sasuke, who was being tended by Suzuno. "...Nii-san…set us up."

A pregnant (no pun intended) silence emerged.

'...Thank you, Itachi...nii-san,' Sakura thought, smiling.

.-.-.

Somewhere, a certain someone smiled and replied though he knew the recipient would never hear it.

"You're welcome, imoto in law."

.-.-.

The End

.-.-.

For those who're wondering, Jiraiya killed Orochimaru after Naruto had difficulty doing so. And Kakashi and the rest were busy with the other Sound nins.

.-.-.

Anyways, hoped you liked it. Thanks for reading 'Amidst a War'. Reviews will be extremely appreciated. The 1st, 10th, 50th and 100th (I will swoon if this happens, I swear) reviewer will have the chance to choose from 3 choices I'll give them in my reply to their reviews which one they'd like me to post first or make a one shot request. Sequels of sorts to this fic can be found in the coming soon 'Successful Ways To...'. a series of hopefully hilarious one shots.