Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Story Rating: T

Summary: In order to restore the Uchiha clan to its former glory, Sasuke is given a special permission by the impatient elders. Part 6.

The Perfect Candidate

Part 6

Tsunade started her day on a good note. She woke up earlier than Shizune, feeling rested, watched the sunrise from the top of Sandaime's head on the Hokage Mountain, then went on a morning walk around the village, stopped by her favourite food stand and ate a light breakfast, then went to work. Thankfully, there were no bratty genin demanding missions from her, mostly because she had them all sent out of the village for C-ranks the last day. The legendary kunoichi settled behind her large desk and began looking through the neat stack of reports without much disturbance.

Until the village elders barged in, that is.

"Koharu, Homura, what's the matter?" Tsunade asked calmly, even if she felt a twinge of irritation at their unannounced entrance. However, she had no intention of allowing that minor inconvenience to ruin her day. Besides, she could easily guess what they wanted as they had already tried to interrogate her on the same matter a few times, though to no avail. And she planned for it to stay the same this time around, too.

"Tsunade-hime, we can no longer tolerate your recalcitrant behaviour," Koharu said grimly. "Where is Uchiha Sasuke?"

"I thought we already went over this," Tsunade replied with her best poker face on. "It's confidential. Hokage eyes only, you know," she drawled smugly, enjoying that she had the upper hand over the usually snotty elders.

Koharu's lips thinned into a straight line and she glowered at the Hokage with blatant disapproval.

"Tsunade-hime," Homura spoke in a more tempered, yet a very firm tone, "you need to stop hiding his location from us. We need him in the village, where he is supposed to be. Not doing god knows what god knows where. I'm sure you realize the need to keep track of our shinobi, especially the ones with a history of... truancy." That was putting it very mildly in terms of Sasuke's past transgressions against the village. Who knew the old coots had it in them to be so diplomatic?

However, Tsunade was rather unimpressed. "I realize you have a compulsive need to keep an eye on Uchiha, but he's my shinobi, not yours. If I know what he's doing and where, that should be enough of assurance to you both that it's nothing harmful to the village. Or are you worried about something else?" she asked acutely. "Tell me, my dear advisors, are you per chance hiding something from me, your Hokage?" She didn't mask the strong sarcasm, letting them draw their own conclusions, but not revealing how much she really knew.

The elders shared a troubled look. Tsunade observed them carefully, not showing any impatience as she waited for a response.

Homura was sending subtle signals to Koharu that she should handle this, but his old teammate gave him an unsympathetic, hard look and shrugged, basically telling him that he had started this with his ideas so he should be the one explaining himself to the Hokage. The old man sighed, defeated.

"There's nothing to hide, really, Tsunade-hime," he said. "Everything's on record. All we do is our job – ensuring a safe future for Konoha."

The Sannin nodded, motioning him to continue. Homura glanced at Koharu, who crossed her arms, pointedly gazing outside the large, panoramic window that was situated behind Hokage's desk.

"Uchiha Sasuke's presence is required in the village for marriage interviews. He is the last living member of the Uchiha clan and it wouldn't be wise if we lost him before he could continue the bloodline. The Uchiha were one of the founding clans and always provided the most exceptional shinobi. Now, they are on the verge of extinction and the Senju are no more."

Tsunade scowled, hearing the muted reproach in his words. Back in the day before she had left the village, the elders had been constantly nagging her about getting married and bearing children. Of course, she hadn't listened to them. Later, Dan's death had been too devastating for her and so considering another man was out of question. The elders, however, stayed sore about her disregard for preserving the First Hokage's line. Tsunade herself was more concerned with preserving his spirit to care about their wounded pride.

"Bringing Sharingan back to the village is vital to Konoha's interests," Homura concluded his speech.

Tsunade drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "Can you repeat that?"

"What?" Homura asked, clearly taken off guard by her strange request.

"Repeat that last line."

"Bringing Sharingan back is vital to Konoha's interests?"

Tsunade hummed. "Yes, that's it. But tell me, if it was so vital, then why did you agree on almost complete extermination of the Uchiha? Why weren't more of them spared? Surely the whole clan wasn't a threat, just the able-bodied shinobi and kunoichi. Am I right?"

Koharu stirred from her temporary lethargy and snapped to defense. "This doesn't have anything to do with the current situation..."

"Oh, but it has all to do with it," Tsunade smiled dangerously, like she was about to win a hand at poker. "At some point you two decided that the village can make do without Sharingan. And guess what? It did. Unbelievable, right? For once, you two actually were correct. Konoha does not need Sharingan to thrive."

"Tsunade... I don't like what you're insinuating," Koharu said in warning but Hokage just scoffed.

"That you're hypocritical and going senile? Why, I'm just telling the truth," she taunted.

"Do you think that we wanted the massacre?!" Koharu bursted out with full force of her accumulated ire. Tsunade had an uncanny ability to set the elder's temper off with her impudence.

"It damn looks like so!"

"Don't act as if you know everything! You weren't even in the village then! You were a useless roadside drunkard!"

"I was still good enough for you to crawl to me and beg to become the damn Hokage!"

"Because you would've just loved if Danzo was chosen in your place!"

"Enough! That's enough!" Homura roared, clapping his hand on the desk to stop the fight before it came to blows. These two kunoichis sure picked the worst of times to duke it out.

"If you two are quite done, let's get back to the original topic of our discussion," he rebuked them severely. Koharu and Tsunade shot him venomous looks, but none of them were any longer in the mood to continue the argument. The tension in the room lowered palpably. The old man sighed in relief.

"Tsunade-hime, where is Uchiha Sasuke?" he asked patiently again.

But before she could give another non-answer, there was a sharp knocking to the door, followed by the intrusion of a third party into the Hokage's office.

"If you're looking for me, I'm here," Uchiha Sasuke declared his presence, striding right up to Tsunade's desk.

"Uchiha, you're back earlier than expected," she remarked drily in return, her emotions back under control despite the previous outburst. Tsunade smirked, taking a great enjoyment from watching the elders' surprised expressions. "I told you two that there's no need to worry, didn't I?" she stated mockingly. She took great satisfaction from rubbing it in elders' faces that she had been right all along.

Homura was the first one who regained his composure. "We still don't know where Uchiha Sasuke was all this time and what he did. There's a possibility it could be harmful to Konoha," he argued.

"Harmful? Nonsense." Tsunade snorted. "Uchiha, why don't you tell us what you were doing?"

"Certainly, Hokage-sama," he replied respectfully, which was another way of undermining elders' opinion of him. Sasuke almost never used honorifics, having little to no respect for his superiors. It was a character quirk that even found itself in his files, which contents the elders knew very well. To see him go against his habits to show deference to the Hokage's authority was a real testament of her influence over the Uchiha.

"Plainly speaking, I was on an errand for my clan," Sasuke pulled a scroll out from his jacket's pocket and unsealed a jar. It was filled with green liquid and there was a round object floating inside. It slowly swayed and turned around, exposing the characteristic, red iris marked with black commas.

The elders gasped in shock.

Then they erupted with questions.

"Whose eye is it? Where did you get it?" Koharu demanded.

"Is this eye of one of those killed in the massacre? Did you find more?" Homura immediately asked. If there was ever a question whether his mental faculties were still working properly, this sort of acuteness invalidated it right away.

"This eye belongs to the Uchiha clan, that's all you need to know. I took it from Uchiha Obito's hideout," Sasuke said, careful not to reveal more than was needed. He had to keep his cards close to his chest.

Tsunade smirked. "It looks like he did what you two wanted. He brought the Sharingan back to the village," she remarked slyly.

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, I thought that waiting until one of my own children activates a Sharingan would take too long. However, we could transplant the Sharingan into an active shinobi, provided we could find someone capable enough. But there are certain conditions."

"Such as?" Koharu asked suspiciously, and rightly so.

"You call off the marriage interviews and you never try to interfere into the Uchiha affairs," Sasuke laid down his terms.

The elders shortly considered. Having a new Sharingan-user in active service would strengthen the current task-force considerably. It was a great boon and only a fool would miss this opportunity to gain it.

"We will find the shinobi for transplantation," Koharu made her own condition quickly.

"No," Sasuke rejected it bluntly. "The person will be chosen by me and they will become a part of the Uchiha clan. My eye, my rules."

His expression was resolute and the elders understood that he would not budge. As the last Uchiha, he was within his right to do as he wishes with the legacy left to him and that included body parts of his dead clansmen. Additionally, he had the backing of the Hokage, who observed the situation with a deep-seated amusement. Koharu and Homura recognized that they would not win with him on this.

"No matter how many people you will implant with a Sharingan, they won't gain the Uchiha genes along with it," Homura pointed out. "What you propose is only a substitute to the clan restoration, which was our original goal. You still need to marry."

Sasuke sealed the jar back into the scroll. "That is none of your concern, but if you must know there is only one person I will accept as my wife."

"Haruno Sakura," Koharu guessed correctly. "And you will allow this, Tsunade?" she asked, even though it was like grasping at straws.

The Hokage shrugged. "Sakura can marry whoever she wishes. And I made sure she can clobber her husband if he pisses her off. So no, I don't have any issues with this."

Koharu sighed. She should have expected that Tsunade wouldn't deny her apprentice the same happiness that had been denied to her so many years ago.

Sasuke turned to the Hokage. "I think that's all we needed to discuss, I'll write a full report for tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah, you can go, Uchiha, give Sakura the good news," she waved him off.

Sasuke smiled. He intended to do just that.

Sakura was in the middle of vanquishing the paperwork that had bested her the previous day, but it wasn't going so well again, though for different reasons. While yesterday she had been worried and anxious, today she was distracted by the memories from the morning. The argument and reconciliation with Sasuke was all she could think about, filling her with warmth and giddiness. She wanted nothing more than to see him again and therefore her concentration suffered.

A flare of chakra and a knock alerted her that someone was outside the window.

"Sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed, bolting out of her seat to let him in. "How did it go? Did they agree?"

"They had nothing to say. It was a success," he smirked.

Sakura beamed and hugged him. "That's great! So, they will finally leave you alone?"

"Yes," he replied and dipped his head to give her a short kiss that still left her dazed and breathless. He couldn't get enough of this. And he suspected that he never would.

Sakura was blushing, still unused to their new closeness. "A-and shishou? Did she say something?"

"She said you can clobber me if I ever piss you off," Sasuke cited the Hokage, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"Well, she's right! So better watch out, because I won't tolerate any funny business from you!" Sakura said jokingly.

"You mean, something like this?" he asked innocently and pulled her into another, more steamy kiss which she eagerly reciprocated. "If you want me to, I could stop," he offered teasingly. He was lying but he also knew she loved kissing as much as he did.

"That's not what I meant!" Sakura cried out. "If you stop, I will definitely clobber you," she threatened.

"Well, I wouldn't want that," he said and drew her into a kiss again, just to make sure she wouldn't make good on her threat right away.

They were interrupted by a newcomer barging in without knocking. "Sakura, are you here? Sasuke's back in the village!" Ino shared the news excitedly, then gawked when she caught sight of the two of them wrapped in each other's arms. She coughed awkwardly. "Oh... so you already know."

"I-Ino," Sakura stuttered, surprised and embarrassed, but her friend shot her an encouraging smile.

"I thought you'd like to grab some lunch with me, but we can go tomorrow," Ino said casually, shrugging off the awkwardness without effort and smirked. She would grill Sakura later, there was no doubt about it, but first her friend had to spend some alone-time with the Uchiha. Ino knew Sakura long enough to guess that her issues were with the man were already solved, otherwise she wouldn't have found them in such intimate hold. "Have fun, you two," the blonde called over her shoulder as she breezed out of the office like nothing happened.

Sakura sighed and buried her face in Sasuke's neck. "Everyone will know by the end of the day," she mumbled.

Sasuke chuckled. "They would even without her telling."

Sakura glanced up, frowning. "Why?"

"Because I'm taking you out for lunch."

Sakura smiled radiantly and pecked him on a cheek. "It's a date, Sasuke-kun."

Their first date. She liked the sound of it.

Epilogue

Uchiha Sakura woke up in darkness, distressed and shaken. A warm arm reached around her waist, caressing gently the round belly under the nightdress, and tugged her closer to the firm chest of her husband. She snuggled up to him, turning on her side and released a sigh when he started running his hand up and down her back, soothing her with the steady motion.

"What did you dream about?" he asked unobtrusively.

"It was stupid," she replied. "You had five wives. And five children with each one."

Sasuke didn't comment, letting her just speak. After five years of dating and then almost equally long time being married to her, he knew she liked to talk out her problems. He was a good listener.

"So together you had twenty-five children. Can you imagine that? It would be chaos. But it wasn't because they were all so quiet, just like you. And they were all named Sasuke Junior."

"Even the girls?" he asked, amused.

"Yes, even the girls. I told you it was a stupid dream," Sakura huffed. "I'm not letting you name our baby Sasuke junior."

"I never planned to name him that," Sasuke assured her.

"Her," Sakura corrected. She was convinced it would be a girl and it was often a point of contest between them, because Sasuke was sure it would be a boy.

"If it was a stupid dream, why were you scared?" he asked gently, still rubbing her back.

"Because I was alone," she replied so quietly, he barely heard her. "Suddenly the dream became dark and you were away from me. Your eyes were cold. I called your name and ran after you but I couldn't reach you." Her body trembled and Sasuke hugged her tighter against him, mindful not to squish her protruding belly. "It was so scary, Sasuke-kun."

"I'm here, Sakura. And I'm never leaving you again."

Uchiha Sakura smiled, relaxing in her husband's embrace. Loving him was the best thing that had ever happened in her life and she never regretted it. Despite the various obstacles and misunderstandings, they had still found a way to each other, their love growing stronger with every trial they faced. And now she was carrying the child made out of that love.

Sakura felt deeply thankful.

"I love you, Sasuke-kun," she whispered sleepily, safely surrounded by his embrace.

"Hn. I love you, too," he replied and kissed her brow, then stroked her belly tenderly. "And I love our little boy in there."

"Girl," Sakura mumbled, already falling into slumber.

Sasuke didn't argue, instead aiming a soft kiss to the top of her head.

He was happy like he had never been in his life. And it was all thanks to Sakura.

He would be eternally grateful for her.

The Perfect Candidate/END

AN: Thank you for bearing with me and reading this story to the end. So mushy, but I think they deserved it :) Anyway, I'm happy I worked in so much Ino and even Tsunade, they're both great characters and I enjoy writing about them.

I hope you all liked the story :)

For the next time, I have a few ideas, but I can't decide between them. One is a little bit sexy, the other is humouristic and the last one is tragic. Any suggestions?

See you next time,

-MdeNile-