Thanks for everyone who reviewed last chapter! I can't believe I forgot to send out a thank you to the people who reviewed chapter five as well so thanks to you guys too! I really love my supporters! (haha creepy much?)

Bad news compadres, the school semester's about to start so that means slower updates. =/ I won't be abandoning the story in no way whatsoever, but most likely my updates are now gonna be limited to one per week- maximum. Sorry about that, but I've gotta prioritize.

Even hours after Sasuke's and Shunsuke's departure, the entire house still reeked with the upset from before. Sakura had gone into Shunsuke's room and leaned against the doorframe. Glancing around, she spotted a few toys left on the floor- forsaken in the emotion from before. Sakura walked over to Shunsuke's unmade bed and picked up the stout, stuffed frog that Naruto had given her son on the day he was born. She held the frog close to her chest and sighed somberly. The nightstand beside Shunsuke's bed housed a framed picture of the young boy and Sakura making silly faces, and the walls of his room were also lined with unframed pictures of Shunsuke with several of Sakura's friends- Shunsuke's extended family. Sakura couldn't help but feeling remorseful at the lack of pictures of Shunsuke and Sasuke.

Looking to the red rimmed clock hanging on the wall, Sakura saw that it was ten minutes until noon. She knew that after what had occurred, Shunsuke would be in no rush to come home and in order to remain obedient, he most likely would not come through the door until noon exactly. Sakura rose from the bed and nodded. She didn't care about her past conflicts with Sasuke, right now her focus was on repairing the man's relationship with Shunsuke- no matter how long it took.

When Shunsuke came home that afternoon, Sakura had a plan.

"Here's lunch, honey. Eat up so we can go to the market and get something for dinner tomorrow."

"I'm not really that hungry Mama," Shunsuke shook his head.

"You need to eat Shunsuke," Sakura prodded softly. Sakura had purchase boxed lunches the last time she and Shunsuke went out shopping, and now she pulled them out for the two of them.

Shunsuke shrugged and reluctantly went to sit at the table. "Alright Mama."

Shunsuke ate his food continuously: bite, chew, swallow, bite again-never giving a moment's rest in between. When they were done eating, Sakura stood from the table and took their empty trays.

"Ready to go?" She asked as she put her money into her coin purse.

"Okay." Shunsuke got up from the table and took Sakura's hand in his. Shunsuke didn't talk much the entire walk to the store and back. Sakura was going to try talking to him, but she knew Shunsuke could be as taciturn as his father, and didn't really like being prodded to talk. She looked down worriedly at the child as spells of deep thought overcame him, and his bright eyes clouded over with some unreadable emotion and after a few seconds, slowly re-brightened and returned to normal.

When the two arrived home, Shunsuke stood in the kitchen with Sakura and helped her put the groceries up.

"Did you have fun at Aito's house?" She asked casually. Shunsuke nodded.

"Uh huh, his older brother and some of his friends came out and played with us."

"That sounds nice." Sakura smiled. She waited for a moment and just as Shunsuke had sat down and the table, she opened up the core topic of her conversation.

"Hey Shunsuke whaddya say we invite Sasuke over for dinner, hmm?" Sakura tried with a bright smile.

Shunsuke hesitated slightly. "I'd…rather not," he said into his hands.

Sakura sighed in sad understanding and leaned her hands on the counter. "You wanna talk about it- How you're feeling?" She asked gently. She was careful not to focus too much physical attention on him, knowing the young child didn't like that in situations like these. From her peripheral vision she saw Shunsuke shrug and spin a piece of paper on the table with his finger. Sakura kept her "focus" on the counter and waited patiently. Finally Shunsuke spoke.

"I don't want him to be my father," he muttered quietly. Sakura felt her chest cave upon itself in overlapping waves. She waited for Shunsuke to continue speaking like he usually would, but when he didn't she became worried and asked why not. Shunsuke shrugged again.

"I dunno. 'Cause I've gotten used to him not being there. Just one mommy and one Shunsuke. That's it," the young child explained as he held up an index finger to represent both people. Sakura walked over to the table.

"Well there's always room for one daddy who's trying awfully hard to make one Shunsuke like him." She said softly, lifting her index finger up in between his. Shunsuke watched her finger and his eyes narrowed before taking the finger that represented him, moving Sasuke aside, and regaining his spot next to his finger that represented Sakura. Then he looked at Sakura with sad, narrowed eyes before shaking his head and looking down at the ground.

Sakura looked at their fingers and thought a moment. "You know I won't love you any less right?" She saw Shunsuke's eyes shift spots on the floor. "And I know you won't love me any less." She joked as she lightly poked his side, earning a slight giggle which he quickly covered.

Sakura smiled, but her smile faded lightly as she spoke. "All Sasuke-sama wants is the chance to love you just as much as I do." Shunsuke kept his eyes on the floor and a light sigh escaped out. "Are you afraid?"

"Of what?" Shunsuke asked quickly, his brow furrowed in irritation that his mother sensed fear in him. Sakura smiled in fondness of how much her child was like his father.

"You tell me." she said gently, hiding her smile. "There's nothing wrong with feeling that way you know."

"…Everything's gonna be different…" Shunsuke sighed after a long silence. "I used to want a daddy so bad, but now that I've got one…I…I don't. I just want it to be you and me, Mommy. And Uncle Naruto, and Uncle Kakashi, and Uncle Kiba, and Auntie Hinata, and…and…" Shunsuke had started crying now.

Sakura leaned forward and pulled his head to her chest-resting it there as she gently stroked his soft, black hair.

"What if he doesn't like me?" Shunsuke sniffled out in between sobs.

"Shunsuke, he loves you already." Sakura said genuinely.

"And what if he just hurts you again?…What if he just leaves us again?"

Sakura's mouth slacked slightly at her son's mature sentiments. "Oh Shunsuke…." was all she could say for a while. "You know, sometimes, you just gotta take a leap of faith. See how it works?"

Shunsuke kept his eyes on the kitchen floor and thought quietly. She felt him shaking his head and spoke up quickly.

"We'll get through this together, baby." she soothed. Shunsuke remained quiet for a while longer then sniffed.

"Just dinner though…right?" Shunsuke asked in a soft voice.

"Hmm?"

"He's not staying here is he?"

"He'll be going home that night."

"And I don't have to like him right?"

"I do want you to be respectful to him, but I don't expect you both to be best friends over night. I can't change the way you feel."

"…If I say yes…can I get ice cream after dinner?"

Sakura started laughing and Shunsuke lifted his head up and looked at her with a small, hopeful smile.

"Yes Shunsuke, you can have ice cream afterwards."

Shunsuke nodded with a small sad frown back on his face. "Okay, I guess it won't be so bad then."

He nodded again as if to convince himself and then his eyes clouded over in thought once more.

The next morning before she went to work, Sakura stopped by Sasuke's home to tell him the good news. She knocked a couple of times on the door and stood anxiously in wait for him to answer.

As she began knocking again, Sasuke jerked the door open wearing a pair of sweatpants, no shirt, and his spiky hair was tousled.

"Yeah?" He asked upon seeing who it was. Sleep lingered in his voice an came out in a gravelly grunt.

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you," Sakura winced apologetically. In all honesty, she was surprised to find Sasuke like this. Ordinarily the Uchiha would have already been up, dressed, and most likely would have already done some sort of training. Her mind couldn't help but wonder if his current state had anything to do with Shunsuke's reaction, but the kunoichi knew better than to ask.

"What do you want Sakura," Sasuke sighed impatiently. Sakura's blinked her brow into a furrow- not concerned with hiding her hurt by his curtness. "Well I wanted to invite you over to dinner tonight-" she began with an equal air of snippiness to her voice.

"Not interested." Sasuke interrupted as he abruptly tried to close the door. Sakura shot her hand out and took step inside-opening the door back up.

"…You're in my house." Sasuke looked at her with dull eyes as he pointedly insinuated with that sentence for her to get out. Instead Sakura closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, I noticed. Look Sasuke, I know you're hurt but stop sulking, this is another chance!"

"Let it go Sakura, Shunsuke wants nothing to do with me and that's that."

"Sasuke, I talked to Shunsuke he wants you to come over!"

"Well it's good he'll talk to at least one of us isn't it?" Sasuke sneered. He hadn't intended to be rude and he knew Sakura meant no harm, but just hearing about the bond she had with their son made him envious and left the man seething inwardly and he found himself powerless to contain it.

"What the hell does that mean Sasuke?" Sakura snapped taking an angry step towards him. "He may talk to you too if you'd get off your ass and come see him!-"

"Stop trying to make it sound like I was the one who turned my back on him. I tried to see him!" Sasuke spat back, matching her step. "And you saw what happened: I'm still fuckin' dead to him. Just like you wanted, right?"

Sakura huffed. "Is that what this is about? Sasuke, I told you already I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm fuckin' sorry! I don't know what else I can do to make you understand that! I honestly didn't think you were coming back and telling Shunsuke you were dead was the only thing I could think to do at the time. Regardless, you didn't make things any easier by breaking into my house at night, refusing to leave, molesting me, and then- right in front of Shunsuke- cussing me out and calling me out of my name!

"I'm not saying what I did wasn't wrong-I'm not saying that at all- but you can stop trying to make me feel like shit about it! I mean, you don't see me trying to make you feel like shit because you were locked up making you unable to take care of him in the first damn place! You don't see me trying to make you feel like shit because I had to spend nine months-no even longer- feeling alone while everyone in the village gossiped about me behind my back! I'm not trying to make you feel like shit because me and my friends and Lady Tsunade and Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei were the ones who dealt with all those people who called my son a bastard! Or when he got older, and people began speculating that he looked just like you and we had to deal with the stares and the whispers and my job and reputation were threatened every time I told someone to mind their own fuckin' business before I killed them!

"And yeah, I know you weren't there to do any of that stuff, but that's my point! I had to get by on my own. I had to do what I had to do for my son. So we could move on. "

Sasuke stared at Sakura, doing his best to hide his shock and to keep his face impassive. He couldn't remember seeing her get so worked up before. He knew his words from earlier were unnecessarily caustic but he couldn't help himself; a sadistic part of him deep inside wanted to make Sakura hurt the way he'd hurt when Shunsuke had left yesterday afternoon. He looked at her with the same seemingly dull eyes. He felt like he should apologize, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he nodded lightly to the door.

"You can let yourself out the same way you let yourself in." he said flatly, using all his effort to keep his voice steady. Then he turned and began walking off. Sasuke heard the front door open, then Sakura's voice broke out- clear, low and possessing that same steadiness that threatened to give way to quivering.

"We'll be eating tonight at seven, I hope you can make it." The door began closing slowly and through the small crack Sakura paused and called back. "We both do."

Then she let the door close silently and a few steps later, angrily punched a crater into a nearby wall.

Hope 'twas to your liking. Like I said, the updates will be slowing down due to school, but the story's not over yet. Review please, thank you! XD

See ya soon! xoxoxoxoxo