All of you make me cry, WELP :')
I can't believe you all love this story even though I'm not that proud of it at all. Here is the penultimate chapter. I love you all so much, you don't even know.
I don't own Naruto
Sasuke's right eye stared at the campfire's orange flames lazily licking the air. He rested against a boulder, left leg extended while his right arm was propped up on his right knee. To anyone who didn't know Sasuke, it would seem as if he was calmly lost in thought. But Naruto knew Sasuke, probably more than anyone but Sasuke himself. And at that moment, he knew with one glance that Sasuke was anything but calm.
"Sasuke," Naruto cautiously treaded. Shikamaru and Sai eyed them warily. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.
"She's strong," Naruto reassured, more to himself than his best friend. Sasuke looked away.
"She'll be fine," he continued, "She's the scariest person I know." This time, Sasuke abruptly stood and stalked off, limping and settling a little ways from the rest of the group.
Naruto sighed and rested his chin in his hand, shaking his knee up and down. He was anxious to save her just as much as Sasuke! After all, she was his other best friend. Hell, he had been ready to ignore Shikamaru's orders and go find her himself! But he realized that this was probably something Sasuke needed to do. After all, he clearly remembered just how agonizing it had been for him when Hinata was taken by Toneri.
While observing Naruto, Shikamaru's lips curved upward slightly. To be honest, Shikamaru had been a little more afraid of Naruto's antics over Sasuke's. He realized Naruto could be mature when he wanted to back on the mission to the moon, but he also knew how strong Naruto and Sakura's friendship was and was afraid his stubbornness would shine through.
"Thanks, Naruto." Shikamaru was grateful that Naruto took it upon himself to see that Sasuke didn't become irrational.
"Huh? For what?"
"... Nevermind. Anyway, we should all get some sleep," Shikamaru added while eyeing the darkened sky.
"Good idea, it looks like we'll need all the rest we can get," Sai emerged from a few boulders, having just scouted the area. He had deemed this area (and maybe even this entire planet) devoid of any living creatures. Sasuke didn't care to react, as Sai was obviously referring to him.
Shikamaru and Sai lied down near the fire, soaking in its heat.
Naruto yawned, stretched, and sprawled on the hard terrain. He looked on at the ginormous tree looming gloomily in the distance. Just what in the world was its purpose? He felt uneasy. His eyes then slid down to Sasuke's back and worry etched into his brows. When will he regain his strength? Naruto knew Sasuke wouldn't be able to recharge his full Rinnegan powers for a long time after using it to open the portal. Would he be strong enough to defeat whatever they'll be up against? Strong enough to help Sakura?
"Naruto." Sasuke spoke for the first time that evening, his back still turned to him.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"I didn't even say anything!"
Thank you.
"God tree?"
Sakura was speechless. She had only ever heard of the Shinju's existence on Earth—the tree grown from the blood of mankind, bearing one fruit of unimaginable power per millennium.
As if he heard her thoughts, Hotaru said, "Yes. There are many God Trees that exist in multiple dimensions and times. The fruit of this one is finally ripening; we will be able to consume it soon. And then, we will obtain inconceivable power and glory..."
Sakura remembered that Kaguya herself had eaten the fruit of Earth's Shinju. And she had seen how Kaguya ended up.
Fucking psychotic.
"No," Sakura breathed, refusing to ever let power corrupt her soul. Hotaru let out a slightly irritated sigh.
"The Earth's shinju is incomparable to the powers of many others. This one is stronger by a vast margin. This was cultivated by the blood of my brethren and my people. The earth's shinju grew from the blood of thousands during times of war? Well here, it has fed on the blood of the billions who've once populated this planet. Its power is unexplainable by words."
"I will never involve myself in an idiotic idea like that!"
"You simply don't understand. You will with time."
"How could I?" Sakura demanded. "True power isn't obtained just by eating some fruit off of a stupid tree."
Otherwise Kaguya would have won their battle.
Hotaru frowned, baring his teeth and gritting them in frustration.
"Why can't you understand?! With this power we can erase all the evil from this Universe, and start a new world, the perfect world!"
Sakura looked away, bangs shadowing her eyes. Her mouth was pulled into a grim line. Why did this man so badly want power? He was almost like Sasuke when he fell to darkness nearly a decade ago...
Hotaru continued, "I will wipe away all beings in the Universe. I will purge sin and we will start mankind anew, father and mother to a superior race."
Sakura could feel the anger bubbling inside of her chest. But she decided it wasn't worth reasoning anything with Hotaru at the moment, saving her words for when she got the chance to pulverize this alien.
"Come, now. Sleep for the night and we will continue our deeds tomorrow." He carried her back to the bed, gently setting her down. The door melded with the wall once more and Hotaru fixed the seal that had been on it before. Deciding to give her some space, he himself settled a little ways from her on the ground and rested against the wall.
Sakura pretended to sleep. She knew Hotaru was watching her, so she lied still and evened out her breathing, choosing to think about her friends. Even if she managed to kill Hotaru, how would she return to Earth? She didn't have any special space-time jutsu or powers. All she could do was believe that her friends would find a way to get to her. She knew they would.
After what felt like an eternity of lying still, Sakura finally drifted off in the early morning hours.
For the rest of the week, Sasuke and the team didn't travel very far from where they initially landed. Instead, they focused on acclimating to the new atmosphere and training under these new environmental conditions. During this time, Sasuke kept his Rinnegan eye shut, which helped speed up the recharging process.
Shikamaru also relayed his strategy during this period of time.
He had decided that it would be best for him and Sasuke to retrieve Sakura, while Naruto and Sai destroyed the enormous fruit hanging off of the ominous tree. If his thinking was correct, Shikamaru deduced that the fruit held fearsome powers, and they would need to prevent anybody from consuming it.
And so the four went on, revising and re-revising their plan while preparing to fight.
On the sixth morning since their arrival on the desolate planet Sasuke felt power surge through himself once more. He felt strong enough to take Sakura back, and he couldn't waste anymore time.
He called out to his teammates.
"I'm ready," he declared. Shikamaru nodded.
"Alright. We execute Plan A as soon as Sasuke locates Sakura." Naruto hadn't been able to use his Sennin Mode due to the lack of life and therefore lack of nature energy in this world. Sasuke, on the other hand, could still detect chakra with his Rinnegan.
"When you're ready, Sasuke."
Sasuke gave a curt nod of affirmation and stood still for a moment. Then, his left eye shot open, revealing the rings of his purple eye. The six commas weren't back because he wasn't fully recharged, but he didn't care. His head snapped in the northwest direction, toward a far away rocky cliff.
"There!" Without wasting a second, the four shinobi flew off with a blur.
After running as a group for a bit, Naruto and Sai branched off in the direction of the tree.
Sasuke's eyes were fixated on the cliff with anticipation.
Sakura lost track of how long she had been held in this room for. If she cooperated, Hotaru had let her rest whenever she was tired and fed her at random times, so it was difficult to gauge when the day started or ended. Ever since she began "healing" him, she stalled the healing process as much as she could. She used some of the little chakra she was allowed to temporarily relieve some of the effects of his unknown ailment, enough so that he believed there was progress. However, without the proper tools and resources, there really wasn't much else she could do. She had taken mental notes of especially weak areas in his body. The remaining chakra she had left was slowly being gathered at her wrists and ankles, in a bastardized manner of how she obtained her Byakugou no In.
Talk about deja vu, Sakura bitterly thought while remembering her time being held captive by Kido. Except this circumstance was just a bit more dire than the last.
Just a bit.
Sakura estimated she had been inside this cave for about a week or so. That meant she had been storing chakra little by little for that long.
Then it should be about time...
Sakura tested her strength against one shackle, careful to avoid making obvious noises. It was one of the rare moments she found Hotaru actually sleeping. She smiled.
All right, here goes nothing!
With a heave, Sakura yanked her hands and feet apart as hard as she could, and the restraints that bound them together snapped and shattered to the floor. Almost immediately, she felt her suppressed chakra flood out of her core and throughout her body.
"YOSHAA!"
Hotaru's eyes snapped open but before he could react, Sakura punched him so hard that his body broke through the seal on the door and demolished the entire wall of the cave. He flew over the cliff, knocked out of breath and momentarily stunned. Sakura, taking advantage of this, sprinted and threw herself over the edge as well and grabbed a hold of his throat.
With a heavy cry and Sakura tried to swing one more punch at him right before they rammed into the ground, as the heavier gravity of this planet made them fall at an alarmingly fast rate. Unfortunately for Sakura, Hotaru managed to come to his senses and wave a hand seal. Her punch was basically nullified mid-air as the gravity around them disappeared. He gasped for air.
Unfortunately for Hotaru, however, one Sasuke Uchiha appeared right below the two. And he was filled with rage.
Sasuke jumped upwards and grabbed Sakura's arm and pulled her off of the alien.
"Hold on!" He ordered, and Sakura complied, quickly wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Chidori!"
The surrounding air was deafened with the sound of a thousand chirping birds. He slammed the lightning jutsu into Hotaru's back. He flew a good twenty feet back, but whether he was unconscious or dead Sasuke didn't know and he didn't really care at the moment. He secured Sakura with his arm and landed with a boom, as rock and debris rained around them.
Sakura was at a loss for words. She stared at Sasuke while they were still essentially embracing each other.
"S-Sa- I- what? How did you-!"
"It doesn't look like you're hurt," Sasuke briefly assessed, his visible eye softening. Sakura knew this was his way of asking, are you okay?
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."
He nodded. Looking down straight at her, he added, "You did well, Sakura."
All of a sudden Sakura felt weak at the knees.
"Looks like I wasn't really needed..." Shikamaru ran in on the scene, surveying the damage done by the pair. "Jeez. I really ought to report you for not following my orders and going on ahead, Sasuke," he sighed, "but you're lucky this turned out well."
"Shikamaru too? Wait, how did you guys get here?"
"We'll save the explanations after we've helped Naruto and Sai take care of business on their end. Are you two going to stay like that forever?" One of Shikamaru's brows rose.
Sakura suddenly realized that Sasuke's arm was still wrapped around her waist while hers were around his neck. She immediately jumped back, red dusting her cheeks.
"A-Ah! Yeah! Naruto and Sai, okay. What are they doing?"
"They've gone to get rid of that fruit and tree. I figured with Naruto's power they should both be able to do it."
"Alright, well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She took off toward the looming plant and the other two followed.
Unbeknownst to them, the beaten Hotaru who was sprawled on the ground clenched his hand into a fist. Watching the trio's retreating backs he growled.
"I'm not done yet!"
Placing his hand down, hundreds upon hundreds of humanoid stone creatures started to form from the ground .
Naruto and Sai raced at full force.
"So, all I gotta do is hit the thing with a powered up Rasengan, right?"
"Basically, yes."
"LET'S DO THIS! KURAMA!" With the Kyuubi's chakra cloaking him, Naruto began charging a Rasengan with the bijuu chakra.
Sai drew multiple winged beasts from his scroll, and they flew on ahead to hold the swaying fruit in place.
"Naruto!" A faint, female voice far behind them yelled. Naruto turned his head back. He saw Sakura running with Sasuke and Shikamaru toward them!
"Sakura-chan! You're safe!"
"More importantly, we got company!" And Naruto saw that further behind them were... a giant army of giant stone statues chasing after them.
"Change of plans, Naruto, Sai! Naruto, we need your clones to help defeat these things! Sasuke and Sakura will take care of the tree instead!" Shikamaru shouted as he engaged in combat.
"Alright!" Naruto skidded as he did an abrupt one-eighty. Sai followed closely. Naruto threw his charged Rasengan into a group of enemies as Sasuke and Sakura ran past. He gave them an affirmative nod and performing his infamous hand seal, he shouted, "TAJUU, KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"
And there was a chain of never-ending puffs of smoke as a thousand Narutos materialized.
"LET'S GO!" It was war.
Sasuke and Sakura sprinted toward the tree. Sasuke was surprised to see her keeping up so well with him even while her bare feet were scraping up from the sharp rocks. The corner of his lips turned upward in pride.
"Do you have any ideas?" Sakura asked, still focused on the tree and eyes narrowing.
"A few. There's one jutsu I've only used once before..." Sakura leaned in and nodded as Sasuke explained his plan.
"Got it!"
Sasuke nodded and his Mangekyo Sharingan bled into his right eye.
"Amaterasu!"
As the black flames shot into the sky, it didn't take long for the air current to swiftly change. Soon enough, rumbles of thunder could be could be heard overhead. With a little manipulation, Sakura could see striking flashes of lightning occur against the dark storm clouds as well.
As they neared the tree, rain drizzled down, eventually evolving into a pouring rainstorm.
"Sakura, get ready!"
"Right!"
As they braved the final stretch of distance, Sasuke rose his hand to the heavens. The storm became even more vicious, as lightning violently clashed against each other.
Sakura, on the other hand, concentrated as much chakra as she could into her right fist. Her hand glowed a bright blue.
"Sakura, now!"
"SHANNARO!" And the surrounding vicinity brutally quaked as Sakura managed to fracture this tree that was taller, thicker, and wider than multiple skyscraper buildings combined.
Wasting no time, she propelled herself off of the trunk back to Sasuke as he brought his hand down.
"Kirin!" A savage bolt of lightning struck the entire tree, holding enough electricity to finish what Sakura started and cleaved it down the middle. The huge fruit that was growing from it disintegrated.
Sasuke stopped Amaterasu. The rain ceased and the storm clouds dissipated slowly.
Sakura breathed heavily, having used almost all of her chakra for that attack. She collapsed onto her butt and laughed nervously.
"Is it over?"
Sasuke looked at her and saw her tattered state of dress. Unclasping his cloak, he knelt down and gently draped it over her shoulders.
"Th-thanks."
And suddenly a painfully familiar voice interrupted. "My, how touching this is." The two whipped their heads and saw Hotaru rising from the remains of the tree.
"What are you doing here?!" Sakura blurted. He should have been down from Sasuke's Chidori earlier!
"Do not underestimate me, Sakura. Although you managed to put an end to my Shinju, you failed to notice that I had already taken a bite of the fruit before it was destroyed." Sakura's eyes widened in shock.
"Wait! Your body, it isn't well enough to take control over the powers!"
"I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! All I care about now, is PULVERIZING HIM!" With godlike speed, Hotaru appeared in front of Sasuke. Sasuke barely managed to unsheathed his sword to block a wave of gravity thrown at him. He skidded backwards.
Observing Hotaru carefully, Sasuke saw him sign another hand seal. Quickly, Sasuke activated his Rinnegan and managed to switch places with rocky debris. The place he had been standing not even a second before was pummeled.
But Sasuke himself was nearly a god-level shinobi, and he knew it. He smirked. Perfect, he'd faced the likes of Madara and Kaguya. If he thought about it calmly, Hotaru was just fodder for his long list of defeated enemies. He pumped chakra into his Rinnegan. Using his renown speed, Sasuke manipulated his eye's space-time capabilities in order to quickly shift around Hotaru, trapping him in his own circle.
He was too fast for the naked eye. Hotaru whipped his head about, confused and disoriented. This was not only the result of Sasuke's strategy but the power of the fruit taking control of his body. Gradually, he lost his senses. Frustrated, he was about to perform another jutsu, but Sasuke took this slight opening as a chance to cleanly slice both of his arms off at the elbows. The limbs squished grotesquely as they hit the ground. Sakura grimaced from her position.
Hotaru started forward, eyes hysterical at the sight of his own arms detached from his body.
"What... WHAT DID YOU DO?!" And suddenly Sasuke and Sakura were pressed flat on the ground, as Hotaru slammed tons of gravitational force throughout the entire area without the use of his hands.
Sasuke gritted his teeth in pain. He thought he got rid of those annoying arms so Hotaru wouldn't use those stupid powers! As his Rinnegan weakened, Sasuke instead chose to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Su...sa..noo!" He managed to bite out. At once, his purple humanoid armor of chakra engulfed him and struggled to get up against this gravity.
Hotaru laughed, clearly a different person than before.
"It's futile... I will kill you, right now!" He flew with a burst toward Sasuke and hit Susanoo full force with gravity. The Susanoo faltered but still stood its ground, fighting against the alien and his power. But Sasuke could see the armor of chakra breaking piece by piece, and he knew it wouldn't be long before Hotaru broke through.
Until he saw Sakura come up behind him.
Sakura had been relegated to being a spectator between Sasuke and Hotaru. Damnit, she should've been fighting too! But once she saw Sasuke's Susanoo losing power, she knew she had no other choice but to do something herself. So, she gathered whatever chakra she had left and fought the tons of force pressing down on her, enough so she could sneak up on Hotaru without being detected. He was preoccupied with Sasuke, after all.
"You're dead," she heard Hotaru snidely remark.
Sasuke smirked, despite his perilous situation.
"No, you're dead."
Sakura took that as her cue. With her remaining strength, she snapped a kick through the heavy air and heard a sickening crack as the bones in Hotaru's neck were displaced. All at once, the atmosphere lightened tenfold and she could finally breathe once more. Hotaru's body slackened, and she pushed it out of the way. She could hardly stand, so she let herself fall over. Into Sasuke's open arm.
Sakura felt like she wanted to cry, like a baby. Not because of any overwhelming emotion, but because she was so damn exhausted. But instead a puff of laughter escaped her lips and she felt herself shake as she rested her chin on Sasuke's shoulder. She heard Sasuke smirk once more.
"Now... it's over."
They stayed like that for a bit, until a struggled breath resounded from a few feet away from them. Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened and they looked at Hotaru's body. He wasn't dead yet?!
"W-why... doesn't... any-... under..stan..."
Sasuke helped Sakura up and together they limped to the defeated man. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"You said you wanted to 'purge' this Universe of sin and evil. You wanted to start a race of 'perfect' beings. Let me tell you something. No matter what you do, there will always be people who fall to sin. There will always be just as much evil as good. So instead of trying to build a perfect world, we just have to improve the one we live in now. And that's what we're here for," Sakura looked at Sasuke this time, "to help our friends who fall to get back up on their feet. And this is the most rewarding."
"..." Hotaru looked up at Sakura, and she could see the life in him diminishing.
"Ah... I see now... why you... care so much about... him... Sa..ku.." Like a dead candle, the remaining light vanished from his eyes. Sakura wasn't sure she believed in anything religious, but she sent a short prayer to the heavens anyway.
"I hope you are able to reunite with your family and friends."
When she finished, Sasuke nudged her.
"We need to meet up with the others."
"Right." And without a second glance backward, the two started the trek back to the other battlefield.
"I think this is the last of them!" Shikamaru shouted, referring to a group of about twenty or thirty stone statues.
Sai had been injured not long before, and Shikamaru had just put him aside in a safe zone while Naruto held off the army with his own squad of kage bunshin.
"Naruto, follow up! Kagemane no Jutsu!" It took Shikamaru's last chakra reserves to pull off trapping the rest of the creatures in his shadow.
A group of Narutos jumped in the air, each one sporting a regular Rasengan. There were many cries of "Rasengan!" and only dust remained afterward.
Shikamaru fell over, drained. He was sprawled on the ground and he stared up at the blank, dreary sky, sighing.
"No clouds..." He closed his eyes and drifted out of consciousness. Naruto bounded over and wordlessly help him up, dragging him next to their other comrade.
"Now to find the other two," he muttered. He really hated that his Sennin chakra was rendered useless here.
However, Naruto didn't need to look far, as he saw the outlines of two figures in the far distance. He brightened instantly.
"OIIIII! SASUKE! SAKURA-CHAN!" He took off, an endless ball of energy happily reuniting with his original team. When he got to them, he didn't hesitate to support Sasuke with one arm and Sakura with his other.
"Mission accomplished guys! Let's go home!" He raced back to where Shikamaru and Sai were resting.
"Naruto, I can't." Sasuke bluntly stated as Naruto helped him down next to Sakura.
Naruto and Sakura tilted their heads in question.
"What?"
"My Rinnegan is too weak now. We'll have to wait until it fully recuperates."
Naruto gasped, "WHAT! It took you a week to recharge it, and even then it wasn't fully recharged!"
"The problem is, even if we set up camp here, we don't have the supplies to last us long."
"Nuh uh, no way bastard. I am going home to my wife NOW and I will do anything if it means going back to Konoha."
This gave Sasuke an idea.
"Say, how much chakra do you have left?"
Naruto put a thoughtful finger on his chin. "Hmmm, I'd say a lot, since I didn't use any Sennin jutsu."
Sasuke closed his left eye. "I think I can get us to Konoha. But you'd have to be the fuel, Naruto."
"All right! Count me in!"
Sasuke stood back up and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Opening his left eye, he willed a portal to open a path straight to the familiar village.
"Hurry, get in!"
Sakura dragged in Shikamaru and Sai, and Naruto and Sasuke jumped in right after her.
It was a normal morning for Konoha in the market streets. Everyone was bustling about, doing their daily dinner shopping or haggling prices. Doting grandparents bought toys for their grandchildren, kids bought cheap candy from friendly vendors, and the vendors themselves called out to potential customers. The day was sunny, the skies clear. It wasn't boiling hot out, and there was a nice breeze wafting through the village here and there.
And suddenly, a black hole ripped open right above their heads as five unconscious shinobi were vomited out of it and dumped unceremoniously onto the ground.
A few of the women screamed in shock and the streets quickly cleared, wary of the people who fell from the sky. Everyone seemed confused until one vendor pointed out, "Hey... isn't that Naruto and Sasuke?!"
This didn't help the situation at all, as people began to panic that their revered war heroes were apparently dead.
Kakashi sat at his desk, anxiously awaiting news. It had been a very long time, about two months, since Team Shikamaru's departure. Kakashi knew time flowed differently in other dimensions and on other planets, but he was skeptical it would take this long for them to complete the mission. What if something had gone wrong?
He sighed and absentmindedly took the top sheet off of a mountain of paperwork invading his desk. Skimming the contents but not really paying attention, he stamped his seal of approval on the bottom.
"Hokage-sama! There's trouble!" His head shot to the door as his expression hardened. His assistant burst through the door. She took a minute to catch her breath.
"Naruto... they're back!"
The first thing Sakura registered was pain. Her body ached with it. She groaned, and turned over in her bed. Bed? She took a moment to come to her senses. When she opened her eyes, she saw the familiar white colors of the hospital.
"Sakura-chan! You're awake!" Sakura's eyes slid over to her neighboring patient.
"Naruto?"
He sheepishly laughed and scratched his head, "Ahahaha. Yeah, case of severe chakra exhaustion. Opening a portal really drains you... I don't know how Sasuke did it the first time."
"I have the Rinnegan. It's easier for me to optimize the chakra use," a new voice cut in. Sakura looked over her other shoulder and Sasuke was in the bed on her other side. Sakura took a moment to look between the two boys, who began to banter if the utilization of chakra was better than just having a whole bunch of it to use and then she threw head back into her pillow.
"We're safe... I'm so glad," she whispered.
A couple short knocks came from the door, and it slid open to reveal a midnight haired beauty.
"Hinata!" Naruto cheerily smiled. He lept out of his bed and embraced the young woman. She squeaked as he lifted her off the ground and twirled around.
"Quit it, Naruto, or else she'll need her own hospital bed!" Sakura reprimanded. Naruto stopped twirling but still had her wrapped in a hug.
"I just heard that you returned, and I came as fast as I could. I'm so glad you're not hurt. I'm so glad that you're safe too, Sakura-san." Hinata sniffled.
"Thank you, Hinata."
"Hey, Hinata, is it just me, or did you put on some weight while I was gone?"
SMACK. Sakura threw her pillow at Naruto full force.
"Don't be rude!" But Hinata's belly did seem considerably rounder than before... oh. Oh. OH.
"Oh my goodness. Hinata could it be—!"
Hinata smiled serenely, "Yes Sakura-san, it is. Naruto-kun, I must tell you some amazing news."
Naruto lit up, "Does Ichiraku have a new flavor of ramen?"
"Well, no, but—"
"—OH! Is Kakashi passing the hat to me so soon?!"
"No, dear. Not that."
"I got it! YakinikuQ has ramen on their menu now!"
Hinata laughed.
"Moron, you've got your spawn inside of her stomach," Sasuke interrupted, clearly having had enough of Naruto's obliviousness.
"IDIOT, of course I know tha—" Naruto froze.
"Well, that isn't exactly the way I would put it, but yes, Naruto-kun. Sasuke-kun is right. I am... pregnant."
Naruto still didn't move. Hinata's smile slid into a frown with worry.
"Dear, is everything alright? Oh no, don't tell me you're upset?"
"I'm... I'm gonna be a dad?" Hinata nodded, unsure of his reaction.
Suddenly, Naruto's mouth twitched up into the widest grin Sakura had ever seen.
"I'm gonna be a dad!" Hinata let out a breath of relief.
"SAKURA-CHAN, DID YOU HEAR THAT? I'M GONNA BE A DAD!"
"Congratulations, Naruto!"
"BASTARD, DID YOU HEAR? I'M GONNA BE A DAD!"
"Yeah, yeah."
"HINATA, WHAT ARE WE STILL WAITING HERE FOR? WE NEED TO GO PREPARE THE BABY'S ROOM!" Naruto snatched Hinata by the hand and sprinted out the door. Sakura cringed as she could almost hear him dragging the poor woman around as he shouted to anyone who would listen, "I'm gonna be a dad!"
"HEY! YOU HAVEN'T BEEN DISCHARGED YET!" Sakura could feel a comical sweat drop forming as a nurse yelled at Naruto down the hallway.
Sakura lied back down and sighed.
"I am happy for them," she smiled. Sasuke didn't say a word as he looked at her.
After a moment, he opened his mouth to say something but Sakura didn't find out as another person stepped into the room. This time, a wild bush of gray hair and his signature mask and smiling eyes.
"Ah, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to see the faces of my lovely students."
"Kakashi-sensei!"
"I'm glad you are safe Sakura. You too, Sasuke. I was getting worried."
"Thank you, Sensei."
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my paperwork. Sakura, I expect to see you in my office later. Carry on, you two."
"Bye!" Sakura called after him. "So what were you saying, Sasu— woah!" As Sakura turned to look back at Sasuke, he had gotten up and knelt beside her bed. Their faces were unnaturally close and she immediately felt her cheeks heat up.
"Sakura."
"Y-yes?" She all but meeped.
"No more interruptions. No more 'help' from Ino or Naruto. I am doing this my way."
"Okay...?" Sakura was extremely confused.
"After the war on the day I left, I did this," Sasuke brought his two fingers and lightly tapped her diamond seal, "because I didn't feel worthy enough to do anything more."
Sakura felt her heart stop.
"But you don't know that on that day, I wanted to do this instead because I do return them. Your... feelings..."
Sasuke gently cupped her face and pulled her forward. When his parted lips met Sakura's tense ones her core exploded into millions of tingles throughout her body and all she could do at the moment was widen her eyes as wide as they could possibly go. Sasuke was watching her expression, cautious to continue but desiring to.
Sakura, you idiot! DO SOMETHING! She screamed at herself. She slowly relaxed, closing her eyes. One of her own hands cupped his face as well, giving him the "okay." When she almost lost herself in the movement of Sasuke's lips, she abruptly remembered something and immediately pulled back.
"W-wait!"
Sasuke frowned. Did he do something wrong? Did she not want to do this anymore?
"I... I haven't showered in a week."
Sasuke smirked.
"Sakura. Shut up."
And he crawled on top of her, kissing her once more.
A/N: WOOHOOO! Thanks for the support, my lovelies! Watch out for the final chapter/epilogue within the next week!
MY NEXT FIC IS IN PRODUCTION AS WELL! It will focus more on quality of writing and plot than length.
I LOVE YOU ALL. HAPPY NEW YEAR. LEAVE A REVIEW IF YOU WISH.