Chapter 4

"Kakashi-sensei, we have some news."

Kakashi looked at Sasuke and Sakura, wondering what their news was. The last time they had said this, they were leaving the village with Itachi and Asuna for six weeks, meaning he and Menma had to take care of a few missions themselves, which they discovered was much harder when it was just the two of them, considering their biggest assets were gone.

Menma was there with them, and staring at the couple. He knew something was up, he wasn't an idiot. They knew he wasn't an idiot. Menma had sharp skills and was able to tell when something was off.

Something was indeed off. Sasuke was smiling more than usual, and Sakura looked…different. Not in a bad way, of course. She looked different in a good way. He knew he had seen someone look this kind of different before, but couldn't put his finger on who it was.

"Guys~! Don't leave the poor, nearly nine-month pregnant woman behind!" Asuna whined as she walked (waddled) to catch up to her team. She wasn't able to train with them, obviously, but this time she would have Sakura as company, once they informed Kakashi of their news.

Menma looked from Sakura to Asuna, and it hit him in the face like a stray kunai.

"…Sakura-chan's pregnant?!"

Silence over took them, while Sakura nodded. "Yes, I am."

Menma screeched, Asuna laughed, and Kakashi gave a bright smile. "How wonderful, how youthful! My students are having a child! I do hope you will teach this one the joys of youth!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Kakashi had always been like this, pushing the 'joys of youth' on them from the start. "There's a little bit more…"

"Oh, gosh, what?!"

"She's pregnant with twins."

More silence, before Menma started shouting, and Kakashi went back in on a rant about how 'youthful' it was for them to have conceived twins.

Sakura sighed, smiling as she walked over to sit with Asuna while Sasuke took care of calming Menma and Kakashi. "Well, that went better than expected."

Asuna laughed, nodding. "Remember when I announced my pregnancy to them? Menma wouldn't talk to me for a week and Kakashi kept giving me and Itachi lectures about youth."

"I remember… good times, eh?"

"Absolutely!"

"Ino-chan, Hinata-chan, I have news."

Ino nodded, setting down the flowers she was trying to prepare for a customer and walking over to the cash register, where Sakura stood with Hinata. Asuna wasn't with them at this point, having opted to head back to the Uchiha district and spending some time with Mikoto, knowing that the next two weeks she would be wiped out as she waited for her unborn child to be born.

Hinata did like Menma, looking Sakura over, wondering what she could possibly be keeping from them. If Sakura had been keeping a major secret from them, Hinata wasn't sure she would let the girl live.

"What is it, Sakura?" she finally asked after a moment, not being able to figure out what it was just from looking at her.

Sakura smiled at them, before speaking almost in a whisper. "I'm pregnant."

"What?" Hinata said flatly, while Ino squealed and almost jumped over the counter to hug her friend.

"With twins."

"What?!" both girls shouted this time, making Sakura take a step back with a smile as she nodded.

Ino clapped her hands and giggled. "How wonderful! You're becoming a mother as well, Sakura-chan!"

Hinata gave an exaggerated sigh, looking at Sakura. "I thought it was bad enough when Ino and Asuna said they were pregnant, but now you?!"

Sakura shrugged, still smiling. Hinata and Menma had already been married for seven months, and she was in no rush to get pregnant and have a child. "H-Hinata-chan, don't worry! I'm not going to quit working at the hospital!"

"You better not!"

Ino watched them, smiling as she set her hand on her six-month pregnant stomach.

Aw, maybe I can have a daughter. If Sakura-chan has a boy and a girl, her son can date my daughter!

Three days later, word got out over most of the village that the former Hokage's daughter was pregnant. Sakura and Sasuke did not realize it has spread so quickly; not until they were at the grocery store getting things together for Christmas at their house the next week. Those that would be coming over were Sakura's parents, Sasuke's parents, and then Asuna, more than likely by herself because she would be close to her due date and Itachi was believed to still be gone at that point.

"Did Asuna tell you anything she would want to eat?"

Sasuke shrugged, looking over the produce with the list Sakura had handed to him. "She doesn't talk to me about food. We talk about missions and things…"

Sakura held back a laugh, but nodded. "I remember her saying something about craving chocolate covered cherries like there was no tomorrow."

"Get some of them."

As she did, Sakura noticed a couple of women watching them as they went through the store. At first, she thought it was just because she and Sasuke rarely went shopping together and usually went separately. When they were checking out, Sakura was holding onto Sasuke's left arm like she always did when they were out, and listened to the women nearby that were whispering.

"Aw, I heard Sakura-san's pregnant with twins!"

"Really?! How wonderful for her!"

"I heard it was triplets."

"Eh?!"

Sakura wanted to laugh. She really did. These women were the local gossips. They hung out at the grocery store and the sweets shop; all they did was gossip about people they had never interacted with, assuming they knew the truth when they had heard nothing but a snip-it of what was being said.

Well, at least the first girl has it right!

"Mama, they won't leave us alone!"

"I know, Sakura, don't worry about it!"

Sakura rolled her eyes a bit as she shifted to hold the phone to her ear with her shoulder. Mebuki wasn't being the most helpful at the moment. Once Tsunade had announced to the rest of the hospital staff that Sakura was pregnant and would have to be put on maternity leave in a couple of months, word got out quickly to the entire village. Sakura thought it was bad before, when it was just a few women knew it, but now that the entire village knew, she was unhappy.

The majority of the women would not leave her alone, always giving her advice on whether she should go for a natural birth or a C-section, making Sakura stare at them half the time. Others tried to give advice for after the babies were born, attempting to get her to decide right there whether she should bottle fee or breast feed the twins.

It was giving Sakura a headache. While she was finally starting to show, she was getting really annoyed with everyone that kept pointing it out.

"Mom, they keep pointing out that I'm showing."

"So?"

"It's not fun. I already know I'm showing. I wish they would shut up."

"Honestly, Sakura. You were bombarded with this the first time you were pregnant. I don't know why you're so shocked. If you just ignore them, you can listen to yourself. And me. And Mikoto, of course."

Sakura sighed, nodding. "Yeah, I know."

If only it were that easy…

END CHAPTER 4

Author's Note: Ah the 'I know all about child birth and pregnancy so LISTEN TO ME' women. Have yet to run into any, as I am not pregnant, but I do believe I will be meeting some at my church once I get married and pregnant. ^^;

GUYS. THIS IS MY LAST WEEK OF FULL CLASSES~
That means that I'll have more time to write after Thursday night. :D
So excited to be done with my first year of college, and I haven't flopped any of my classes! Yay!

AND, I'm getting Naruto vol. 61. I pre-ordered it on Amazon on Friday night and it was only $6.06. I have a five dollar gift card, so, it only cost $1.06 on the credit card. It'll be here tomorrow, since that's the release date. :D Also, I got Naruto vol. 25 and DN Angel vol. 10 on Saturday. I'm missing every other volume of Naruto (minus the two i'm going to have) and volumes 2-5, 11-14 of DN Angel
Gosh, I love DN Angel. It's so good.

All right, I'll see you guys next week with our next chapter, which I do hope you'll all enjoy!
Have a good week, dear readers!