I don't own Naruto okay? After seeing the response I got on the last chapter I decided to work harder on this one to update sooner. But yeah, I don't have much to say here this time, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

"How is the patient?" Sakura asked as she headed up to the bed where Naruto's partner in ANBU was laying in the recovery ward.

"Stable. He has been for the past few hours now mam." The nurse said.

"Okay, get their vitals, I have to have a word with Lady Tsuande." Sakura said wiping sweat from her brow. She headed up to Tsunade's office to see what her next orders were. Sakura knew it was well past her assigned quitting time, but the arrival of injured ANBU put all those other concerns she had on hold. As a member of the medical corps, your time off was subject to when someone didn't get hurt. Rereading her report, she opened the door and went inside to Tsunade's office.

"Yes? Who is it?" Tsuande asked from her desk.

"It is me, Haruno Sakura mi lady." Sakura said as she headed to Tsunade's desk. "I have the recipe for the antidote. From what I could tell from the poison it was a variant of the the venom of the black widow spider, working as a neurotoxin but it also had properties of the brown recluse spider when it came to the bleeding yet it also made clots. This is an intricate poison, for it was meant to cause death days or weeks after contact." Sakura explained handing her report to Tsuande. "I have the antidote in the report, it is based off the antivenoms of the black widow and brown recluse spiders and some anticoagulants that are given to heart patients."

Tsuande opened the report and skimmed over what Sakura had and smiled. "Good work Sakura. You have learned well. In fact most medics on my staff would not have noticed this poison let alone been able to break down the components and come up with an antidote like you have." Tsunade smiled.

"Thank you mi lady!" Sakrua bowed. "But some credit should go to Naruto, if he hadn't told me about his suspicions on the poisons and the decoy poison, I thought I wouldn't have noticed this." Sakura blushed.

"You are being too hard on yourself." Tsuande said stepping up from her desk and putting her hands on Sakura's shoulders. "Based on the reports, it was designed to hide. You found it. That alone takes great skill. And the ANBU members who were poisoned's latest blood work shows that the antidote that you made is working. Remember Sasori's notorious poison?" Sakura nodded. "You found an antidote and made a field version with Suna's limited herbs. Never forget your talents Sakura."

"Thank you for your praise and confidence mi lady." Sakura blushed as she bowed respectfully.

"Go home Sakura." Tsunade said. "Take tomorrow off as well for your good work. I will see you again in a few days." Sakura headed out the door with a bow.

Despite the confidence Tsuande had boosted in Sakura with her praise on the antidote, she was worried about Sakura. Normally she was confident about her skills as a medic and in herself. But ever since the miscarriage and Sasuke's violent and angry reaction afterwards, have made Sakura, in Tsuande's eyes at least, made her more timid and filled her with self-doubt. Tsuande had been Sakura's teacher for nearly 10 years now and she knew her well. Tsuande had never forgot Sasuke's treason of leaving the village and heartbreak it caused Sakura to begin with. The she remembered his reaction when Sakura was told of her infertility and it worried her. Since Sasuke was brought back to the village, Tsuande never fully trusted him. He had passed Ibiki and Inochi's interrogation but Tsuande was still wary of him. Women's intuition and her past with Orochimaru caused her concern. She didn't want to see Sakura give up on all she had worked so very hard for because of what Sasuke thought. Yet lately every sign she saw in Sakura was pretty much textbook on something bad in the relationship happening.

Sakura headed back to her locker and got out her purse and headed back home. She looked at her wallet and seeing that she had enough money to do so, she decided to pick up something special for her and Sasuke to have for dinner. As she walked by the restaurants, she saw that the barbecue stand was having a special, 3 skewers of teryaki beef and rice. Sakura figured she would surprise him with it when she got home. Walking to the counter, she ordered two of the special deals and when she paid for them, she headed back to the house she shared with Sasuke. As she approached the door, a slight feeling of foreboding overcame her. Sasuke had been rather short with her lately, especially when work ran longer than he expected to. Normally she was only a few minutes late when finishing up some paperwork but this time it was a few hours late. Sakura cautiously opened the door.

"Sasuke! I brought home dinner!" Sakura said nervously as she walked into the living room.

"I'm sorry Sakura, I already ate." Sasuke said simply.

"I'll just save this for later then." Sakura said as she headed into the kitchen to place the containers in the fridge to save for another time.

"So, you're late today as well..." Sasuke said. "Naruto stopped by and told me there was an emergency on an ANBU mission."

"Yes there was. I am sure he explained about me having to tend to poisoning victims." Sakura said.

"Why did you treat those ANBU members when your shift was over and you could have said that your shift was over?" He asked with a note of rising anger in his voice.

"I had to stay on until we stabilized the poisoned members. And I am one of the best with poisons in the village." Sakura said.

"Why did they have you do it though? Couldn't have Shizune or Tsunade have done it just as well, if not better. I mean they are more experienced than you." Sasuke said, anger creeping up on him even more.

"I am one of the best with poisons and antidotes in the village! There were three affected members and we had to make sure no other members were poisoned as well. That is something with the type of poison it was hard to detect! If I wasn't there those men would have died! They would have recovered from their wounds but they would have died from what seemed like natural causes! If I left when I was supposed to they would be dead men walking! I saved their lives.!" Sakura pleaded.

"This is how you lost the baby. You stayed at work too much and got yourself so stressed out that you miscarried! It is all your fault!" Sasuke said moving closer to Sakura in a threatening way.

"That...that could happen to anyone..." Sakura said terrified as she stepped back away from Sasuke.

"Yeah, but stress weakens you and can hurt the unborn child's development! Who knows what all those medicines you had to handle would do to an unborn baby or all that chakra you had use when you were healing wounds! That could have done something!" Sasuke said.

" Since when did you become a doctor? Last time you got a bad training burn, you wanted to put butter on it! A miscarriage happens when the fetus is no longer viable. It could have been from a bad sperm cell I got from you! There is no way to be certain." Sakura said.

"That was only because you weren't around to treat me!" Sasuke said covering up for his first aid failure.

"I should be there for you by your side always?!" Sakura yelled incredulously. "You are an Uchiha and a member of the Konoha Military Police force as a police officer! If nothing else you should be able to treat and give basic first aid to anyone and be able to treat the most basic of wounds!"

Sasuke sunk back. He did know how to treat wounds and could handle most injuries. The incident Sakura mentioned was a one time accident when he was delirious from dehydration. But he didn't want anything happening to Sakura. Sasuke knew his mother kept up the home even though she was quite a skilled kunochi in her own right. But his mother's duty was first to the clan and then to the village. As an Uchiha wife, she was to look after the Uchihas. Sakura would not only be an Uchiha wife but also the headmistress of the clan. Losing the baby and her fertility caused him to forget who he really was and what he really cared about and focused on the one goal he had and that was restore the Uchiha clan the way it was, even if the way it was wasn't perfect. He was proud of being an Uchiha and he wanted to redeem the name of the clan.

"It doesn't matter!" Saskue yelled. "You are an Uchiha wife and the duty of an Uchiha wife is to the clan first!"

"What?" Sakura said taken aback. "Is that all I am to you? Your servant? To honor the Uchiha clan. I am sure even as young as you were when the massacre happened you saw things you'd rather not have been. This is your chance to improve Uchiha!"

"You are my wife!" Sasuke yelled pulling Sakura by her vest closer to him so he would know she would hear him. "And as such you have duties to Uchiha before you do the village!" Sakura pulled away from Sasuke.

"Let me go!" She pleaded.

"You agreed to help me restore the clan and you failed!" Sasuke said.

"This could happen to anyone!" Sakura yelled. She was started to become frightened at how Sasuke was acting.

"You caused it! With all your hospital duty to Konoha over the duty to the Uchiha baby!" Sasuke said as he raised his hand and struck her face. "You ruined our family and even worse we could never try to have another child again!" He yelled as he smacked Sakura across the face again. Sakura was stunned and sunk back in the chair Naruto had sat in earlier.

"I'm sorry." Sakura said looking down at her feet willing to say anything to bring the Sasuke she knew back.

"Just make sure you are never late again." Sasuke said walking off.

Sakura sat there in her chair in silence while Sasuke headed upstairs to take a shower. It was true, what she was being warned about by Shizune and Tsuande. Sasuke was being harmful and hurting her, she thought as she rubbed her cheek. He wanted her to stay at home and wait on him for everything. He didn't want her progressing in her medical skills, even though she was well on her way to being as good and skilled medical ninja like Lady Tsunade. All Sakura was to Sasuke now was just a womb that went bad to him. Ooooooooh, this is not the real Sasuke. The Sasuke I know and love wouldn't act like this. She thought. The normally intelligent, calm and quick witted medical nin was as blank minded and full of disbelief as never before. Automatically, partially to keep Sasuke happy, partially for a reason to leave the house and find someone to talk to that wouldn't write off Sasuke's behavior as the pair of miscarriage. By now the word had spread throughout Konoha about what happened anyway, so the whole village knew Sakura was infertile. Writing a list of groceries they were low on, she left a note for Sasuke on the fridge and headed out. She hoped she could find Tsuande or Naruto, as they were the people she was closest to and knew Sasuke as well to know this was something to be concerned about. Luck so happened to shine down when as she headed to the grocery store, Naruto ran into her.

"Sakura!" Naruto said. He was going to ask how his partner was doing when he noticed the bruises on her face. "What happened to you!?" With this, he pulled her down an alley so she couldn't be bother by people talking to her.

"I ran into one of those push doors at work." Sakura said not wanting people to talk anymore about Sasuke more than the did.

"Bullshit." Naruto said. "Look, Sasuke was acting different when I talked to him earlier. I was afraid something like this would happen." He pulled out some ointment and rubbed it on Sakura's cheek. "Tell me everything that happened. I won't do anything you don't want me to do."

Sakura looked around to make sure that no one was listening. "Fine. I cam home when everyone was stable and Sasuke was mad. Beyond mad. He yelled at me while I tried to explain everything and myself, then he pulled me in, accused me of not caring about him or Uchiha, saying he wanted me to stay at home and be the housewife and abandon my medic ninja goals. He pulled me in and yelled louder and when I tried to object to being the Uchiha housewife and he smacked me in the face twice." Sakura broke down and cried. Naruto wrapped his arm around Sakura and hugged her. She had suffered enough up to this point. First when Sasuke left the village, nearly died on the way back to the village years later, she had lost a child she was growing close to then lost the ability to ever have children again. She was a strong woman in Naruto's eyes and could forgive what happened to her but what he could not forgive was how Sasuke was treating her. It was obvious to him that he was no longer in love with Sakura and no longer respected her as the strong, independent beautiful woman that she really was.

"None of this was your fault. Sauske was the one in the wrong. You did everything right, trying to be a better medic for Granny Tsuande. No one in their right mind would blame you for the miscarriage or your infertility. Granny Tsuande said it could happen to anyone. You don't deserve this kind of treatment." Naruto said hugging Sakura. He cared for her as a teammate and a friend too much to see this happen to her. "Kakashi-sensei is going to talk to Sasuke. Maybe he can talk some sense into him with his wisdom."

"Rumor has it he will be the next Hokage." Sakura said wiping a tear. "Lady Tsuande has him on the short list of successors."

"I hope he gets it." Naruto said. "Just remember Sakura-chan, you are special. You don't have to justify yourself to anyone. You are a brilliant, talented, strong kunochi and don't let what Sasuke thinks stop that from being true."

"I won't" Sakura said hugging Naruto and kissing him on the cheek.

"And if he does try to hurt you again, let me know." Naruto said with a dark look in his eyes. Brothers by bond or not, no man would get away with hurting Sakura in such a low manner. "And make sure you get plenty of ramen!" He waved as she headed to the grocery store.

How was that? Good? Bad? Serious? Let me know in a review. I was surprised at the hits and I hope you keep reading. I know it is a serious topic I am dealing with here so I hope I am doing it the justice it deserves. Anyway, remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm.