I DO NOT OWN NARUTO
"Your apartment is ready, I had a team of genin clean it just yesterday. Mikoto, Fugaku refused to release your personal belongings. I think that he decided that you will have to come for your things, and he will be able to speak to you face-to-face." Tsunade said ruefully, a small grin on her face as she looked at her friend.
"Sakura, you know what this means right?" Mikoto said cheerfully. Sakura's eyes grew wide in apprehension, and Tsunade grin widened. The two older ladies looked at each other.
"SHOPPING TRIP!" They announced in unison. Sakura paled- she could feel the energy leeching out of her body already. In the past, she had been dragged along with the two friends on one of their trips. She liked to shop as well as the next woman, but these two literally spent ALL DAY LONG shopping. Sakura shook her head from side-to-side in denial.
"Oh no-no-no! You two are NOT dragging me off on one of your endurance shopping marathons! I am sure that it would be bad for the baby…." She tried to reason with them. They merely smirked at her, again in unison, which truthfully was a bit creepy to the young woman. She sighed in resignation, and they laughed at her.
"Just think of all the cute maternity clothes we can buy! Oh, and the baby clothes! I always wanted to shop for a girl!" Mikoto cried out excitedly.
"So the baby is a girl?" Tsunade inquired. Sakura nodded.
"When I scanned this morning, I noticed that the chakra has a distinctive feminine feel to it, but I was going to ask you to see what you think." Sakura told her. Tsunade reached out and placed a hand over the small baby bump, and sent her chakra out searching. She grinned in delight when the baby pushed back, and especially when she detected that Sakura was correct. This baby was definitely a girl!
"You are right. It's a girl." She told the young mother. Mikoto squealed in delight. Shizune was summoned, informed of the good news, and tasked with job of covering for the Hokage for the rest of the day.
They left the Hokage tower and headed out into the shopping district. Everywhere they went, eyes and whispers followed them. Sakura was highly uncomfortable with all the attention they were gathering, not all of it was positive. She was so slender that is was obvious she was pregnant, and everyone in the village had apparently heard some version of what happened between her and Itachi. Many of the older generation were giving her looks of disapproval and disgust. She straightened her back and outwardly ignored the looks, but inside she was humiliated by the fact that she was pregnant out of wedlock.
Mikoto reached out and pulled her into a hug in obvious show of support, and glared right back at the gossipmongers. Just as they were getting ready to enter the first store, a loud voice rang out.
"SAKURA-CHAN! You are back!" Sakura was pulled into a strong embrace, and she had only seconds to register the smell of ramen before it was ripped away.
"What the hell are you doing, Dobe? Trying to make her lose the baby?" Sasuke exclaimed in exasperation. He embraced his former teammate carefully, and then stood back to inspect the changes in her. He nodded to himself in satisfaction, and then turned to his mother.
"I've missed you Kaa-san. Father and Itachi have been driving me up the wall. I've moved in with Naruto." He informed her as he bend down and snatched her into a much firmer hug than he had given Sakura. His mother merely laughed at him, and squeezed him back.
"Serves them right- I hope that they are suffering the asses!" She snorted.
"Aren't you even go to talk to Tou-san?" Sasuke asked with a small hint of disapproval in his voice. His mother pulled away and looked up at him with a serious expression on her face.
"Son, your father betrayed my trust, and I am not going to go crawling back to him like I was the one that did something wrong. Don't worry so much, I am sure that it will all end up how it is supposed to be." Mikoto told him. They exchanged a look of quiet understanding, and Sasuke pulled out of her embrace.
"So would you boys like to join us? We are shopping for the little mother and your niece." She coaxed them mischievously. Sasuke immediately got a look of horror on his face, which he quickly tamed back into his normal blank expression. Luckily for him, Naruto diverted her attention.
"A niece! Wow, that's really great, Sakura!" Naruto said happily, hugging her again, this time a lot more carefully. Suddenly, he started to laugh. They watched as he dropped to the ground, grabbing his sides as he laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks. Sakura was just getting ready to reach down and give him a 'love tap' when Tsunade did the honors for her.
"Alright brat, what is so damn funny?" She growled at him. Under the threat of her raised fist, he hurriedly sobered up to explain.
"Well, I was just thinking how it served Itachi right that the baby is a girl." He told them with a grin. They all gave him looks with varying degrees of incomprehension.
He sighed and explained more.
"One day, he is going to have a beautiful daughter that he will have to protect from guys just like him." He said with a smirk. Sasuke was the first to snort, then Mikoto and Tsunade started snickering, while Sakura just got a gleam of evil satisfaction in her eyes followed by a slow smirk. Behind them, there was a sound of someone choking, and they turned to see Itachi with a look of complete shock on his face, as he slowly turned red. And then something happened that stunned them all- for the first time in his life, Itachi Uchiha fainted.