OH. MY. GOD. I am a terrible author to leave you guys hanging for sooooo long. D: Please forgive me! I swear my resolution will be to finish these fics! I love you all because you guys keep reviewing me and making me feel guilty that I haven't posted in months? A year? Not quite sure, but still… So anways, Happy New Year, and lets get down to business!
Last time: "Congratulations! You're really pregnant!"
A smile lit up on Sakura's face that could not be rivaled by even the sun. Itachi, though years of training dictated that he keep a straight face, could not help but break out into a rarely heard laughter as he smiled -another rare occurrence- at the doctor and the woman next to him.
"This is really happening then?" Sakura asked, full of joy with the news.
"I'll prescribe you some pre-natal vitamins just to make sure that the baby gets as many nutrients as possible. And no junk food! That's so unhealthy for you I can't even begin to explain." Although he was being serious, even Dr. Sayazuki could not help but crack a grin at the ecstatic couple in front of him.
"So," the doctor began. "When will your family hear about the good news?"
An awkward pause settled upon the room as Sakura merely cleared her throat and Itachi found a diagram of the human foot to be quite fascinating.
"You ARE going to tell your families aren't you?" the doctor asked perplexed.
"O-of course, I just realized how much they'll fuss over me and the baby and I just sorta zoned out." The mother-to-be laughed nervously.
"Understandable. Well, congratulations, and whenever you're ready you can leave." He handed Sakura the note with a list of vitamins to take as well as a date for the next appointment and proceeded to leave the room.
"Our families huh?" Itachi said dryly, leaving the human foot to instead stare at Sakura.
"You know what he meant. He's a new doctor at the hospital. Konoha's stories haven't quite made their way through the grape vine to him yet. He meant well." Sakura defended the doctor only to receive an eye roll from the Uchiha next to her.
"I should have told him that if my little brother didn't hate my guts and still didn't hold a mortal grudge against me, I'd be delighted to tell him I knocked up his childhood friend." Sakura glared at her boyfriend and sighed.
"Really you had to go THERE?" Itachi just shrugged nonchalantly, brushing off her irritation at him.
"Come on, we should stop and get this stuff then head home." changing subjects was an Uchiha tactic that Sakura had learned long ago.
"Alright." Already the happiness she had felt earlier was starting to dissipate with the burden of who to tell about their good news.
'Kakashi would be ok to tell. He'd keep it secret if we wanted him too. Naruto however…'
Although Naruto had long gotten over his puppy love crush on Sakura, he still cared for her deeply and had not been too happy when she and Itachi had originally gotten together, still not fully trusting the ex-Akatsuki member.
'Who else could we tell? Honestly… not many people would be too pleased. And the village elders weren't happy when Itachi came back and demanded a legal pardon for the crimes he had committed against Konoha. He claimed Konoha had pushed him into it but still… some of those old geezers might still hold a grudge…'
For barely being two weeks along, there was already a lot to think about. As she and Itachi walked home, she wondered what he was thinking about. His thoughts were always an enigma to her and no matter how well she thought she knew him he always managed to maintain a slight air of secrecy.
By the time they arrived home the sun was already setting. Apparently finding pre-natal vitamins was not as easy as they both had assumed. They had to visit several different shops to find all of the ones listed by the doctor and by the time they had purchased the last one both Itachi's and Sakura's nerves were wearing thin.
"I still don't understand why you don't want to tell anyone! Not even Kakashi!" Sakura shouted at the dark haired man across from her as she slammed the grocery bags down.
"I never said I don't want to tell anyone I just said-"
"You said we should wait! So basically, you don't want to tell anyone!"
"Stop assuming things! Just hear me out!" The shouting match continued for a few minutes more until finally Sakura couldn't handle it anymore.
"Are you ashamed of me or something?" she asked him, fists clenched and waiting to be thrown.
"Wha- no, I never said that." her question caught him completely off guard.
"Then what is it? You seemed pretty happy this morning."
"It's just… Look at my position."
The pink haired kunoichi raised a delicate eyebrow at him, biding him to continue his fairly vague train of thought.
"I was happy this morning. I still am. It's just that I don't have exactly the best track record when it comes to families. And on top of that, there's a lot of people -here in Konoha in fact- who still dislike the Uchiha name. Some of it is deserved, I won't deny them that. But I don't want to be announcing to every person and their mother that the Uchiha line has continued. I have a lot of enemies and I don't want to expose you to that quite yet." he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in a futile attempt to alleviate the stress he was feeling.
"Itachi…" Sakura trailed off, not realizing how big of a deal this baby was to him. Sure she knew it would be a huge life adjustment, but sometimes she forgot how much emotional baggage Itachi carried around with him.
"It's fine."
She moved over to where he was and wrapped her arms around his broad chest, laying her head on his right shoulder. In return, he put his hands around her waist and sighed deeply, tension releasing from his body. She squeezed him in a tight hug, hoping to ease his current sorrows. It seemed to work for the moment, but she knew his inner turmoil would be a problem in the future for the both of them.
"It'll all work out. I promise." She looked at him, her green eyes met his black ones and she kissed his lips. It was a simple, fairly chaste kiss, and yet it spoke greatly of her love for him.
"You know," he said, when the kiss was done. "Maybe we could tell Kakashi."
Sakura smiled, glad that he was feeling a bit better. She kissed him again, more a peck this time than a kiss, and grinned.
"I knew you'd come around to my side. And besides, maybe he could even help us out."
Itachi cracked a half smile, half smirk and sighed, this time in mirth.
"You'll be the death of me someday." he joked. She merely stuck her tongue out at him in a very childish way.
"Well, don't go making funeral arrangements just yet because we have some stuff to sort out."
"Like what?" The nuances of baby-raising escaped the oldest Uchiha's mind, although it seemed to have been pre-programmed into the pink-haired girl next to him.
"Where are we putting the nursery? We only have 1 bedroom remember? Unless of course you wanna move. In which case we better get cracking on that before I bloat up and become a useless whale."
"Hmm, good question. But regardless of how much you bloat up you'll always be my whale."
"Oh ha ha ha. When did you get such a good sense of humor?" she poked fun at him, enjoying the little glare he sent her way. Winking in response, she slinked back into the bedroom to change into her pajamas. Itachi merely rolled his eyes at her antics.
'This'll be a long nine months.' he thought as he followed her into their room.
Sakura was already fast asleep; apparently all of the excitement of the day had taken a toll on her. The dark haired man kissed her forehead and retired next to her, his arms wrapped possessively around her small body. He could spend forever here and still be satisfied.
"I love you so much." he whispered into the nape of her neck. "You have no idea."
With that, he succumbed to a deep sleep as well, joining his beloved in the Land of Nod. They didn't have all the answers or even all of the questions just yet, but they had time for both in the future.
A/N: Well chickadees I hope you enjoyed that update to 'Cruel Irony'. I hope they weren't too O/C for you guys. (Also, I haven't read the manga for some time, so please don't say anything about stuff not matching up. Sasuke can run around and be a little angst man for as long as I feel like it. :P Unless of course you readers want a little Uchiha family reunion ;)
I'm always open for reader-suggested ideas.
Love you all!
J'ecris! 3 3 3