A/N: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Sarada blinked. "... what?"
The pink-haired Uchiha matriarch sighed quietly. Sarada was smart; just as smart as she'd been at that age. She of all people should know better, and yet... she just didn't have the heart to start yelling about it. Possibly because her good friend was here with a baby just a few feet away, but she didn't count that in the equation.
"Sarada-chan..." Hinata spoke up this time, for which Sakura was grateful. "... when was the last time you had unprotected sex?"
Sarada turned bright red, her eyes going wide in shock. "U- um!-"
Sakura slumped in her spot, disappointment rolling off of her in waves. The teenage girl winced when she felt it.
"I just wish you'd have told me," she implored solemnly, going up to and wrapping her arms comfortingly around her daughter. "I'm a licensed medical doctor, remember? I'm not going to shame my daughter for being sexually active at legal age."
"Y- you're... not mad?" Sarada's voice was small, and her hands ghosted over her flat abdomen. "About...?"
"If you'd been me and I would've been your grandparents, all hell would've broken loose. I promise, I'm more disappointed that you didn't come straight to me first about this before going and getting pregnant," her mother's voice took a stern edge as she guided the girl to the couch. "Do you feel comfortable telling me who the father is?"
At this, Sarada looked hesitantly up at Hinata, who was watching her with a disarming aura. She smiled encouragingly at the young black-haired teenager.
Bowing her head in embarrassment, she mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that, honey?" Sakura asked from the kitchen, turning her head to glance over her shoulder.
"It's... Boruto..." Sarada sighed, slumping in her spot.
Sakura nearly dropped the teacup she was holding, instead gripping it with a tight hand. "... Boruto, you say?"
"Please don't tell Papa," she begged, looking up with teary eyes. "I don't want him to hate me!"
"Why would Sasuke-kun hate you?" Hinata asked soothingly, reaching out to gently touch the girl's wrist. "He loves you more than anything in the world, along with your mother and siblings."
Sarada cringed at the mention of her unborn sibling. "I... I just... Boruto's always admired him, y'know? I'd rather die than have him find out that Boruto knocked up the daughter of his idol."
"True, true, I'd fear as much too," Sakura hummed as she came over and poured the girl a cup of tea. "Don't worry so much, Sarada. I'm your mother, and I'm always going to be here for you. I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
"Promise?" Sarada's eyes were watery.
Sakura's own eyes softened, and she set down the cup to hug her daughter's head to her chest. "I promise."
Hinata sighed, looking up at the clock. "If you're here, then no doubt Boruto has returned..."
"You're not going to lecture him too horribly, are you?" Sakura inquired curiously.
"Oh, no, no," the noirette smiled, although the killing intent she radiated made both Uchihas shiver. "I'm merely going to give him a talking-to about using proper protection when choosing a lover next time."
Sakura bade her friend goodbye and handed Sarada a cup of tea, which she accepted glumly.
"I hate that I even have to ask this early," Sakura spoke up, catching Sarada's attention, "but do you want to abort the embryo?"
"Wh- what?!" Sarada was stunned. "L- like, right now?!"
"No no, of course we'd have to wait," she shook her head. "I always give my patients until about the fifth or sixth week to make up their minds about it. It's a heavy decision to make, after all. I need to know that you're absolutely sure."
Sarada thought long and hard about it. Did she want a baby? From the sexual education she'd gotten in the academy, having a child was a lot of responsibility. She still remembered the late nights her parents (mostly her mother) would be up taking care of Kaede when he was first born. The infant's screams had left her tired and grumpy for weeks before the sleep schedules balanced out some more.
Then again, she was sixteen, nearing seventeen. She was capable of leveling a small mountain with her bare fists, as her mother could, she was adept with her Sharingan abilities, and she was well on her way to building up enough chakra for the Yin Seal that her mother bore so proudly. She had the qualifications to be a shinobi; how much harder could motherhood be instead of risking your life with your team? Her own mother had raised her all by herself, so if she could do it, then Sarada could too, right?
Her brow furrowed, and she clasped her hands together, resting her chin atop them in a way that painfully reminded Sakura of the way Sasuke used to sit when they were genin. "Just clueless genin, we were," the woman thought to herself, "not much younger than this generation's Team 7."
Finally, Sarada shook her head. "No, I'll- I'll keep it," her voice was faint as she looked up in trepidation. "You'll help me, won't you?"
"I'm not gonna raise my own grandchild, but I can help you with babysitting and whatnot," Sakura replied with a soothing smile. "You'll eventually need to settle down the missions a little bit and raise the baby yourself. It's going to be much harder than you think it'll be, trust me on that."
"Yeah..."
The thirty-seven-year-old woman looked at her teenage daughter with a painful fondness. It seemed like only yesterday she was an adorable child, so full of sunshine and love. It seemed like only yesterday she truly met her father for the first time. Time had flown by so fast.
To cheer her up, Sakura nudged her softly. "Since it's so early on the the embryo's development, I won't bar you from taking missions with your team," she began. Then, with a knowing look, "But your father can't be kept away from this forever, you know."
Sarada drooped. "I know."
"Don't be so glum, sweetheart. He'll be home in a few weeks; you can let him know then, or I can tell him for you." Sakura rubbed her daughter's back. "In the meantime, we need to go over some ground rules."
The black-haired girl swallowed. "Rules?"
"Yes." Sakura's face turned stern, and she held up her index finger. "Rule number one: even though it's not dangerous for the embryo's growth, no sex with Boruto or anyone else until it's born."
The teenager shakily nodded. "That's easy enough."
"Rule number two: tell me if you're going to be sexually active, okay?" The rosette said, exasperated. "I'm definitely not the most prudish one out of your father and I, but if you're planning to have sex, let me know beforehand and I can help you."
"... Okay," Sarada mumbled with a blush.
"And finally, rule number three: I'm not going to kick you out, heaven forbid I kick out my own child to live on her own at sixteen with a baby," Sakura shuddered at the thought, "but you're going to have to work to support both yourself and the baby. Missions are paramount, but you'll have to find a babysitter - I'm not adverse to helping if you absolutely need to - if you happen to go on any missions that are overnight and longer."
"Okay." Sarada nodded again, leaning in to hug her mother tightly. "Thanks for not freaking out, Mama."
"Believe me, honey, I really wanna go punch something right now," the weary woman replied, patting her daughter's hair. "But for the sake of your emotional state, plus the fact that I'm tired and I really want to lie down, I'll save that for a later date."
Boruto absolutely flipped his shit when Hinata told him about Sarada's pregnancy. His face turned interesting colors of red, then white, then blue. Almost like an American flag (not that any of them would know what in the hell that looked like in Konohagakure), but not nearly as festive. Or irritatingly patriotic.
He promptly fainted after Hinata asked him, verbatim, "So what are you going to do with Sarada-chan now?" It took all of five minutes to get him back up, and when he was up, he frantically agreed to look out for her until the baby was born (since Sarada was fierce in keeping it for reasons she refused to divulge to him).
Since both Sakura and Hinata had made a mutual agreement to tell Sasuke and Naruto when the former got home, Boruto was advised not to say anything to his father until then. Strongly advised. He readily agreed to keep his mouth shut when Hinata offered (read: threatened) to let Himawari spar with him using the Byakugan. She may have outgrown that cutesy child stage when she got her own genin team, but she was still fuck-all terrifying when she got into matches. 'Sparring or real combat?', I hear you asking. The answer is Yes.
It was decided that the entirety of Team 7 - Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki - would take special sexual education and parenting classes from Sakura on the weekends that they weren't on missions. She was all too happy to lecture the teenagers on the importance of contraceptives and the dangers of disease, as well as the different ways of having consensual sex. She mildly enjoyed watching the couple squirm while their teammate looked on innocently, his intuitive mind absorbing the information like a sponge while he scribbled away at a notebook, mumbling to himself and nodding every so often as he wrote.
"He truly is Orochimaru's," she thought to herself one day when the boy came to ask her a few questions of his own. She didn't know whether the thought made her shiver or made her happy to have such a curious boy on her daughter's team. Then again, he was polite to her - and when he asked if he could feel her own unborn child, his eyes had widened in awe at the faint chakra signature inside. That alone made her smile. He was scientific in his approach to procreation, a way that was distinctly Orochimaru, yet not. There was a more innocent side to it, a human aspect, something that the Sannin lacked after all of his years of experimental debauchery. It was refreshing, honestly. Had Sarada not chosen Boruto, and had Mitsuki not been a literal human experiment by one of the Leaf's ex-greatest-enemies, she probably would've entrusted her daughter to him instead. At least she could be confident in the fact that he wasn't about to go around causing undue mayhem around the village like his 'parent' had.
Thankfully, she could trust him to keep a secret this time. All she had to do was mention it being an S-ranked mission for him to complete, and he was all-too-willing to keep it away from any prying ears. With a cheerful "Of course, Uchiha-san!" he was off, probably to bug his uncomfortable teammates more about the lessons.
All they had to do was keep it a secret for the next three weeks until Sasuke got home. She wasn't quite sure what they were going to do then, but she'd figure something out. She hadn't come this far with him just to draw a blank when their daughter was involved. She'd survived the Forest of Death's shenanigans, his defection, trying to kill each other, and she'd helped him and Naruto defeat a literal goddess. If Sakura could do anything when it came to dealing with Uchiha Sasuke, she could definitely make do.
In her arms, Kaede babbled something and waved at one of the older ladies crossing the street. Sakura smiled as they came over, cooing and awing at the toddler. For now, everything would be just fine.
A/N: Sarada definitely inherited her mother's overestimation of her abilities when it comes to certain things. She's taking the usual naïve route of 'Oh, it can't be as difficult as most people make it out to be, I got this!' without realizing that it'll probably screw her over in the long run.
Please tell me what you thought! See you next chapter!
