His Father's Strength
Chapter: 1
Disclaimer: Sasuke's shirt is blue, here is my cue, I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto do!
Spoilers of the Manga & Naruto Shippuuden. You've been warned.
A/N: I was in desperate need of a new story, and this one I came up with this one the first week of October. I really like the idea of this one. Let me know if you do too!
Thanks for all your support guys, and I WILL be answering reviews, so If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Summary: Haruno Sakura is pregnant, and half of Konoha claims to be the father of the beautiful cherry blossomed kunoichi's baby. When he's born - green eyes open, black hair shifts, and a beautiful baby boy looks up at Sakura with all the strength of his father.
Dictionary:
Nori - A common ingredient in a Japanese breakfast - it's an edible seaweed.
Nattoo - A type of soybean
—
Drip drop, drip drop, the mouse ran up the clock. Tick tock tick tock, the mother is about to pop.
Rain started to beat down on the smaller apartments near the Haruno estate. It hammered down harder and harder, flowing down and around the plants, houses, and buildings. All seemed tranquil, all seemed right. But it wasn't.
Something was not right in the Haruno estate. Something was missing. Someone was absent. Someone needed to be there; yet they were no where to be found.
No one seemed to know who it was, but everyone seemed to want to fill the shadow of the main that should be with the main branch's first and only child - Haruno Sakura.
Rain drops, fall from, everywhere
I reach out for you, but you're not there
So I stood, waiting in the dark
With you picture in my hand, story of a broken heart...
Sakura listened to the calming sound of the radio as she washed the dishes. Her emerald eyes watched the rain drops falling outside the window in the darkness of the mild morning light. She looked up at the sky and then closed her eyes and looked back done at the dishes, opening her tired and puffy eyes once more to see what she was doing; and to avoid scrubbing off her own hand.
She knew this song well. She sympathized with it. She knew it, she understood it. Someone ever close to her had once done exactly what this song stated - ran away. And she did everything she could to beg him to do the opposite - to stay. She reached up and wiped away the forming spills of salt water that were gathering in her eyes as she relived the memory.
Sakura turned off the faucet and left the dishes to dry in the strainer. She sighed and then closed her eyes. She was so sick of doing chores alone, of being by herself, of just being period. It's not that she wanted to die. She just wanted a change in her life. Some support. Something else to happen that both would and could help her along with what was going on in her life.
'Til she knows that the heart of a woman
will never be found in the arms of a man...
She heard another song come onto the radio, expressing another one of her personal theme songs that made tears spill from her eyes. She looked up at the ceiling, straining her neck to try and make the tears fall back into her eyes. Her eyes burned like a tiger scratching at another to get it away from the last ounce of food in the jungle. All she could feel was pain from what had happened.
Sakura ran her hand over her bulging stomach. She was so tired, so weak from all of the work she had been doing at the hospital even though she was supposed to be on maturity leave. She was 37 weeks pregnant and she felt disabled, like she couldn't do anything else. She closed her eyes and put her hands on her chair by the couch and slowly plopped down into it. She was nine months pregnant, and was exhausted. She leaned her head on her hand and then closed her eyes and started to fall asleep, until an alarm went off telling her she had to call Ino.
Ino insisted that she called her every morning, and night. She picked up phone and walked in her room and laid down, speed dialing Ino's number. She smiled and then closed her eyes. She was tired, ands he knew Ino would understand, but Ino wanted her to check in all the time now that she was so close to the end of her term.
It wasn't just that. Sakura loved talking to Ino and listening to Ino go on about the latest gossip that she had heard in the hospital. Ino loved gossip. The classic, "who's dating who" "Who left so and so's house last night at 11." And the classic, "he said she said."
Sakura smirked as she heard the ring tone start. It was so loud she held the phone about half a foot form her ear and then sat down and looked up at the grey ceiling once more. It matched the sky outside that morning.
"Hello?" Ino asked, not expecting Sakura to be the one calling her that early in the morning. She was always tired and usually slept passed 8:30.
"Hey Ino." Sakura said, smiling slightly. "Do you still have to cover my shifts? Because I could really use someone to talk to right about now." She said, sighing, not wanting to bother her best friend if she had prior arrangements.
Ino bit her lip. "Well I... You know what, nothing is more important then you right now, Sakura-chan." She said happily, forgetting her date. Sakura mattered more than any man in her life and she knew it. She got some money and then walked off, holding her baby blue cell phone with her right shoulder.
"Does something sweet sound good for breakfast?" Ino asked happily. "I'll come over and make you a huge breakfast and then we can eat and talk for a while, then go for a walk ok?" Ino questioned as she walked towards the Haruno estate; not too far from her own house.
Sakura smiled. Ino could always make her feel better; at least now that they had become friends and stopped being rivals. She nodded, even though Ino couldn't see her.
"That sounds good Ino, thanks. I'll see you in five minutes." Sakura told her.
"Bye." Ino said, closing her blue razor and then pocketing it.
Ino walked to Sakura's apartment and then let herself in, knowing that no one really locked their doors in Konoha unless there was an invasion, or you lived in some of the more beat down neighborhoods, which there was only one really bad one.
Ino walked inside and saw Sakura sitting down on the couch. "Don't get up." she said as she walked into the kitchen and then smirked and pulled on an apron and started to get out pans and all the ingredients to make Sakura a prefect pregnancy breakfast. They were both medical nin so they knew what was good for pregnant and nursing mothers.
Ino put on some miso soup, nori, nattoo, six grilled fish, rice, six eggs and then she brewed some green tea. She finished and walked over to Sakura and then gave it to her.
"Here Sakura, eat up." She said, handing her some chopsticks and sitting beside her with her own plate.
"Shouldn't we eat at the table?" Sakura asked raising an eyebrow.
Ino laughed. "You're pregnant you can do whatever you want." she said, sitting at the living room table, sitting on her knees as she started to eat.
Sakura leaned against the couch and propped herself down on the floor across from Ino and started to eat the breakfast that was made for her.
"Thanks Ino." Sakura said, taking a small bite of her rice, she wasn't really all that hungry, but as soon as the rice touched her tongue, she was ravenous. She started to eat and watched Ino eat much slower then her; not that she cared. She smiled.
"Thanks Ino. That was awesome. Is there anymore?" She questioned, looking at the stove.
Ino nodded. "You're awfully quiet. What was bothering you?" Ino asked, turning off the radio behind her.
Sakura got some more food, after struggling to get up, requiring Ino's help to do so. "Nothing really. I just didn't want to be alone." She said, feeling a pain in her stomach, making her loose her appetite. She sighed and got one more fish and then ate it.
Ino got a small amount of seconds and then walked over to Sakura and looked up at the sky, looking out the window. It was still raining. It was nasty outside and Sakura didn't want to go for a walk like Ino had suggested. It was just a light drizzle, but she knew she didn't want to slip and fall onto the cold, hard, and slippery ground.
Sakura smiled at Ino. "Hey Ino... I'm not in the mood to go for a walk, you just want to talk?" She asked, feeling the sharp pain in her stomach once more. Sakura winced. It hurt a lot. She closed her eyes and leaned forward.
Ino ran over to her. "Let me bring you to the hospital." She said, helping Sakura to stand up, which she was now unable to do. Her legs gave out and she fell to the floor, holing her stomach.
Ino pulled out her phone and then heard Shikamaru's tired voice pick up. "Shika! I need you, come to Sakura's apartment, RIGHT NOW!" She yelled angrily, hearing Shikamaru mutter something about mendokuse woman.
Shikamaru arrived about five minutes later, knowing not to cross Ino when she yelled or when she said it was an emergency, even when an emergency for her was the time she accidentally lost her blow dryer to a place were she couldn't reach.
Shikamaru picked up Sakura bridal style and then walked off with her. He appeared in the hospital with Ino. Ino got dressed and ready and got a few others to help her out and then went to get Tsunade.
She came back with the fifth, and then they prepared Sakura for her birth. They prepped her and then Ino got ready for the wait that they had to go through.
—
During the nine hours it took for Sakura to go into the last form of labor and finally have her baby took a long time. They walked around the hospital a bit, played a few card games, and talked for a long time.
Naruto, Lee and almost everyone else was outside waiting to see Sakura and her baby. She sighed and then ran her hands over her stomach as she went into the final stage. She wanted a natural birth, with no drugs or anything that would make her baby tired or had a risk of hurting him. She knew all the risks, and she promised herself that she would have a natural birth.
She pushed as hard as she could, holding Ino's right hand as she did so, not wanting to do this alone. She had thought about it for a long time – and giving birth alone was something she never ever wanted to do, but here she was. No husband, no boyfriend, no anyone beside her except her best friend.
All those books she had read when she was a child; it wasn't a man who saved you, it wasn't prince charming, it was your girls and your closest female friends.
Sakura felt the pressure in her vagina and then pushed harder. She cried out as she felt the most intense pain of her life, more then when she fought Sasori almost 3 years before.
Sakura heard crying, and for the first time, she realized that all the struggling, the crying, the pain, she closed her eyes and then smirked. It was all worth it. She reached out and picked up her baby and held him close to her. They gave her a new room and then walked off around the room rocking him. She looked down at her small son and then smiled at him. She was starting to think of names, something she had never really done. Sure, an occasional thought now and then, but she had never sat down and decided what to name her baby. She didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl.
Sakura smirked and looked down at her son as he opened his beautiful emerald eyes. Her eyes. His hair however. Was the color of his fathers – black. It was amazing. She smiled and ran her hand over his cheek, seeing him open his small toothless mouth to yawn. He was happily. He was content. He was hers.
Everyone came into the room to see her and they all exchanged congratulations, thank you's, your welcome's, how are you's etc. All the girl held the small baby boy and then looked up at Sakura expecting an answer.
Sakura seemed confused by this. "Wh-What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
It was Tenten who chose to break the silence and speak up. "Well...?" Tenten asked.
"Well what?" Sakura questioned.
"What's his name!?" Ino asked, leaning towards her. "We HAVE to know!"
Sakura thought for a moment and then smiled suddenly. "He's my gift." She said looking at them.
Everyone seemed confused by her statement.
"So..." Sakura continued. "That's what I'm naming him. Shai... My gift." She said, smirking at them.
She picked up her son from Temari and then held him close against her chest.
Naruto moved Sakura. "Um... Sakura-chan?" he asked. "You never did tell us who the father was...?" He stressed, wanting to know more than anything.
Everyone grew tense. They had been wanting to know who the father was for almost nine months now, and they were just drying to know. They had to know. No one wanted to ask however, so they all voted that Naruto should be the one to do it.
Sakura shook her head. "I did tell you. Shai has no father, Naruto." She said, looking at the ceiling and then laying back down on the bed.
"I need to feed him, you guys should go." She said, smiling down at the small child.
Lee took Sakura's hands. "Sakura-chan! If you are in ever need of anything, please, tell me and I will talk across the world to get it for you."
Sakura laughed and smiled. "Thank you Lee, but I think I can manage on my own."
Sakura picked up her small infant child as everyone left and pulled her shirt open, raising his head to it and letting him drink on the milk that had kept babies alive for centuries.
—
A/n: I love this story! Don't get me wrong, the first chapter is pretty boring, it's the background for the story, but much more excitement and things are to come in the next chapters. I hope that you continue to read through it. Hope you enjoyed. Remember to review!