A/N: I won't be uploading so many chapters as I did yesterday and the day before, I gotta do some packing for college. But, I'm still on track, even through it feels so weird to go from a cold Sasuke and a dark start to the story to this light plot. But oh well, as long as it still flows. And there is also a little bit of crack OOC, that I couldn't resist adding for Tenten. Gotta keep the readers laughing somehow, ne? Enjoy!
The next day, Neji arranged for a robe's fitting for his grooms party, so Sasuke grumpily got up early to go training before hand, leaving Sakura half-awake, whispering that she would see him when she woke up later. He pressed his lips to her forehead, grabbed a tomato and disappeared from the house. When Sakura awoke, later on in the morning, she took her time getting ready, and this time, decided to leave her hair down. She curled the ends, and added a bit of pink lipstick.
White waiting for Sasuke to return, she hung around the house, cleaning, when the phone rang. It was Ino, who sounded giggly and bubbly.
"Morning, Sak. You heard about Neji's grooms party fitting today?"
"Of course, Ino, it's at eleven, why?"
"Well, a bunch of us girls are going. I mean, it's not bad luck with the whole 'seeing the outfit' or whatever with the guys, and Tenten has to go anyways to make sure Neji get's the right size and color. And you know how Neji is in public, Tenten has to keep him on his toes, so to speak. Naruto already asked Hinata if she wanted to come with him, Shika's asking his mom to babysit Shin for the day, so yeah. If I were you, I'd tag along with Sasuke. Anyways, see you at eleven, maybe!"
She hung up soon after, and Sakura giggled. Seeing Sasuke get fitted for wedding robes? She had never had the chance to be there for his own wedding fitting, so she decided she would ask him if he wanted her to come with him. She put the telephone back and headed into the kitchen to pour out a cup of coffee. She was almost done, when the door opened, and Sasuke entered.
"Morning." She smiled happily and he pressed his hand gently to her cheek, pulling away when he realized he was sweaty. Sakura blushed. Sasuke with sweat covering his skin just made him look even more like a god. She bit her lip at Sasuke's raised eyebrow and questioning look, and shrugged.
"Hey, Ino called me and said that she, Hinata and Tenten are all going to be at the dress fitting, so if you wan't, I could tag along, if you feel uncomfortable having to make small talk with Neji." She grinned at him, and Sasuke plopped down in the chair, his head falling back.
"Please." Sakura laughed.
"Well alright then." She walked over to Sasuke and perched herself in his lap, still sipping her coffee. His head burrowed into her neck, inhaling the sweet scent of her newly washed hair. He sighed again.
"How was training?" Sakura reached out and stroked his hair, as Sasuke's hands found her waist.
"Tiring. I had to push myself extra hard so I can control myself later from killing the dobe." Sakura giggled.
"Oh, Sasuke, you know Naruto, he'll try his hardest to irritate you anyways."
"Sadly." He grumbled, and snaked his arms around her, his warm breath fanning her collarbones. She blushed and wriggled in her lap, making sure he hadn't fallen asleep. She wiped the sweat from his forehead and set down her coffee mug on the table.
"I suppose you should go shower before we leave."
Sasuke stood up, Sakura still in his lap, and her legs instinctively hooked around his hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck, blushing. He said nothing as he carried her towards the bathroom, and set her down on her feet, looking away from her, the tips of his ears red. He swallowed, opening his mouth to say something, but Sakura's cool fingers were already at the hem of his shirt, pulling the sweat material over his head. What he wanted to say was that he loved it when she stripped him of his clothes so.. so... lovingly, so much like a wife, but he held his breath, knowing it wouldn't come out right.
Sakura picked up his clothes and left him to hop into the shower, as she cleaned up, putting his sweaty outfit in the hamper. She cleaned up the kitchen, and stood in the hallway, looking at her hair in the entryway mirror. She scowled.
There was one piece, one stupid little piece of hair, that refused to curl. The rest of her ends bounced with ringlet curls, but that one piece... it was completely straight. Sakura growled, attempting to wrap the piece around her finger, to curl it, when Sasuke chuckled from behind her, and she jumped. Kami, how long had she been standing there? She inhaled his wintergreen shampoo scent and leaned against him, closing her eyes.
"What do you see, Sakura?" He whispered in her ear, and her eyes snapped open. She blushed and turned to look in the mirror at their appearance. His hands snaked around her midsection, and rested his palms on her flat stomach.
"I see happiness." She murmured, and stroked Sasuke's arms. He smirked into her hair, his eyes falling shut.
"Me too." She turned her head in his embrace and pushed her lips onto his, and his tongue automatically snaked out to meet hers. Her hand cupped the side of his chin, her other hand resting on his arm, fingers squeezing his skin. He let out a soft groan against her lips that made Sakura want to melt into putty in his hands, and pulled away from her gently.
"We'll be late." He murmured, pressing his lips back to her head, before pulling away to finished getting ready. Sakura blushed and looked back in the mirror, her hands finding their way to her flat abdomen.
"Anytime now." She whispered, and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
They were only two changes into the fitting, and about thirty minutes in, and Neji was already frowning, Sasuke was scowling, and Naruto owed the store owner money for the robe he had ripped. Sakura let out a little giggle as she sat with her friends on the small stools in the fitting rooms. The guys looked awkwardly at each other, all staring at their matching robes, and before Ino could open her mouth to make a joke, they all disappeared into their curtain covered rooms. Sakura let out another giggle.
"Are you sure they're grown men?" Ino whispered to Hinata, and the two laughed. Tenten rubbed her temples.
"Come on out, Neji, I wanna see a pretty smile on your face in that robe." She heard a grunt, and Neji slowly stepped out of his changing room, standing in front of the mass of mirrors. He frowned, but Tenten had hearts in her eyes. She kissed her fiance hard on the lips, leaving him to blush and pull at the collar of his robe. Tenten squealed.
"It's perfect! I love the design, the color, the fit- Yes!" She dragged him over to the store owner so he could take his measurements to order a gown be made ready. When she was done, she pushed Neji over to the shoes to choose a pair, which she decided not to breathe down his neck. She headed back over to the changing rooms, her hands on her hips.
"Alright guys, lets's see robe number three! Come on outtt!" There was a chorus of grumbles and curses, before all five men (including Lee and Kiba) stepped out of their rooms, and glared at each other. Then they saw their girlfriends faces, and all blushed. Each girl stood up, pulling the respectable man towards the individual mirrors, marveling at them. Lee and Kiba exchanged awkward looks, as Tenten pulled them over to the main mover, fussing over the best man and Kiba. Sakura smiled, looking towards her husband, and stood up, slowly making her way towards him. He smirked.
"You look handsome." She kissed his cheek and turned him towards the mirror, standing behind him. Her hands moved around him to tie up the robes wrap, fingers adjusting the material. He wrapped his arms around her from behind.
"Alright, I'm goin' with robe number three! Neji get over here and stand in a group so I can see what you guys look like!" Sasuke sighed, and kissed his wife's head, before pulling away to stand next to Naruto, who was rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. The men grumbled, slowly grouping around Neji, who frowned deeper. Sakura moved to stand by Ino and Hinata, as Tenten folded her arms, tapping her chin. She nodded.
"Yep, number three it is! And it only took us three hours to decide!" She ignored the tired groans.
There was a large bang and then a familiar girlish scream.
"TENTEN STOP DOING THAT, DATTEBAYO!"
"THEN QUIT MAKING BUNNY EARS BEHIND SASUKE'S HEAD."
"Dobe." Came Sasuke's stoic response.
"NEJI QUIT FROWNING IT CAUSES WRINKLES! SASUKE I CAN SEE YOU SCOWLING, AND LEE STOP WITH THAT GODDAMN FLAMING YOUTH GRIN OR SO HELP ME- KIBA STOP SCRATCHING YOUR HAIR, YOU BETTER NOT HAVE FLEAS-"
The entire room sweatdropped at Tenten's yelling. But no one commented on her Bridezilla-like nature.
"Let's get some dinner." Sakura jumped, looking at her husband as they walked down the street. He blushed and clutched her hand closer to the crook of his elbow. Sakura beamed, nodding.
"Alright. Where would you like to go?" He chose a small cafe, and they sat in silence, digging in, since they hadn't gotten to eat lunch, courtesy of Tenten's insistence that no one was leaving until everything was perfect. Sakura smiled and looked down at her bowl of soup.
"Ah.. it .. it really made me happy to see you trying on wedding robes, even if they weren't the grooms ones. I'm glad I could see it, since I never got to be in Tenten's position." She bit her lip. It was true. Sakura and her mother were in charge of everything for the weeding, down to the last flower and dinner menu, but Sasuke had chosen his own grooms robes, and done it alone. However, Sakura didn't dwell on this, and instead chose to savor the moment she had just experienced.
"Good." She smiled at her husband who looked away smirking.
"You'll get another chance anyways, I'm sure Naruto will want a large groom part for his wedding." Sakura beamed. Cha, she couldn't wait until that wedding! And she secretly knew that Naruto would ask Sasuke to be his best man. She bit her lip to hold back a smile. She tried to imagine Sasuke giving the best man's speech, but couldn't.
When they had finished, he quietly walked her over to the small movie theatre and bought them tickets to one of the drama movies. In the darkness of the theatre, his arm snaked around her shoulders, and she placed her head into the curve of his neck, smiling. They both knew that this was his way of slowly making up for their lack of courting before their marriage. Sasuke was slowly, but surely trying to redo their relationship. And Sakura was thoroughly enjoying it.
When they walked home, and reached the front door, Sasuke stopped short, so Sakura reached out to open it, but Sasuke placed his hand over hers to stop her. She turned to him, her lips parted, when she slowly pressed her up against the closed door, one hand on the wooden surface by her face, the other cupping her hip gently. She reached up to stoke his neck, and his lips fell on hers feverishly, biting her lower lip. Nevertheless, they stood there, full on making out against the compound door, before Sasuke slowly pulled away, and leaned his lips to her forehead. He closed his eyes.
"Thank you for the wonderful date, Sasuke, we should do it again another time." Sakura giggled.
"Hn. You're welcome." She smiled, and let them inside, closing the door behind her. They stood in the hallway, not really knowing what to say, when Sasuke's husky voice came out of no where, his words making Sakura's eyes widen.
"Do-Do you have sex on the first date?" He blushed and looked away. She smiled, and placed her hands behind her back, her eyes closing.
"Nope." Sasuke frowned at this, inwardly unhappy with her answer.
Then she pinned him against the hallway wall, and slid down his body to kneel in front of him, her lips very close to his groin. He blushed deeper, his hands burying themselves in her hair. She looked up at him, grinning.
"But I always liked third base." She finished happily, her hand already reaching to undo Sasuke's pants.
The hospital was quiet the next morning, and even Hana at the lobby desk was slowly falling asleep, her hands cupping her chin. All was silent. Sakura finished her rounds, adjusted the dosage on a patient's IV and headed upstairs, intending to continue her thesis research. However, as she was passing the numbered doors, she slowly came to a stop at the door on her left, eyes turning to read the name of the room.
Fertility Testing.
The main branch of Konaha's hospital was well funded, and had numerous floors and rooms offering any kind of tests, machines and scanners. Pretty much any and every need during surgery and diagnosing a patient was possible. Sakura swallowed, her hand braced over the doorknob. She opened the door and slipped in.
She guessed that she just wanted to make sure her levels were okay, that her body was creating the right amount of hormones and performing healthily. But in the back of her mind, she wanted to make sure that she was fertile enough to conceive.
She stood in front of the printer an hour later, tapping her foot, and crossing her arms nervously. She it her lip, waiting for the test results to print. She ripped the paper out of the printer and scanned the sheet, reading everything, before her eyes started to water. She collapsed against the counter, letting out a large cry.
Thank Kami.
Her fertility levels were good, in fact, she was on the better side of the spectrum, indicating she was in good standing. She read her other results. Good estrogen levels, perfect hormone function... healthy blood work.. She smiled happily.
"Cha!" She clutched the paper to her chest, letting tears of happiness slip down her cheeks.
A few weeks from Tenten's wedding, Sakura decided to spend her day off work cleaning the house and doing laundry. She and Sasuke had never left the house dirty, but in such a large place, dust accumulation happened very frequently. She stood up from the bed and flounced into the bathroom to shower. Her stomach cramped slightly, and her thighs ached, among other things. But then again, she knew why, she and Sasuke had had a few glasses of wine last night and then spent the rest of the night in the bedroom with the moonlight caressing their skin. Sakura blushed.
Ever since Sasuke's birthday, he had insisted with body language that she be on top. She laughed and pushed the memory away, drying her hair and changed into sweats. She rubbed her stomach and headed to the kitchen. She took an apple out of the fruit bowl and bit into it.
Immediately, a bitter taste filled her mouth, making her gag. She spat out the apple piece into the trash, and then chucked the rest of it out too, wiping her mouth.
Must have gone off, she thought, and reached to get a glass of water. After that, she wasn't as hungry, so she headed to the bathroom to grab the laundry hamper. She did the laundry and grabbed the cleaning supplies, starting first with the other side of the house.
She and Sasuke mostly used the left side of the compound, including the master bedroom, kitchen, living room, office, laundry room and bathroom. However, connected with the hallway was a whole other part of the Uchiha compound. It included two empty bedrooms, a small bathroom in between, the weaponry room, and a dining room. When she had asked Sasuke one time if they wanted to use the dining room to eat dinner, he had promptly denied the request and shut the door. She assumed it was also a meeting room, based on the small bookshelf in the corner of the room.
The smaller of the two bedrooms was Sasuke's old room. There was a small futon bed inside, along with some of his old ninja gear (sakura giggled at the familiar wide necked shirts and white shorts), a picture of team 7, and his genin scrolls. She cleaned up quickly and left the room. The other room, she knew had been Itachi's. When Itachi left the village, he took much of his belongings with him, she assumed, and whatever he left, Sasuke got rid of. The room was empty of gear, pictures and clothes, so she cleaned up and left it.
She didn't bother with the weaponry room, knowing Sasuke kept it clean and dust free, and quickly cleaned the spare bathroom. When she and Sasuke had a child, she planned to ask him if they could turn one of the smaller bedrooms into a nursery for the baby. She headed to the laundry room, that was next to the weaponry room and Sasuke's old room, and ironed the clothes.
When she was done, she put the clean clothes in a wooden basket, hoisted it onto her hip and walked back into the bedroom to put their clothes away. She opened up one of Sasuke's drawers, and put a pair of his folded pants away, before her eyes caught something orange under the neat mass of dark materials. She frowned and gingerly pulled at the orange item, bringing it into view.
She dropped the laundry basket, letting out a scream, her face turning bright red. She shakily dropped the orange book onto the floor and took a step back away from it.
Why did Sasuke have a copy of Kakashi's Icha Icha books?
She blushed a deeper shade of red, not wanting to know why. But, that did explain his sudden interest in exploring... positions and other things. Her eye twitched. Just as she was about to open up the book to feed her curiousity, she heard the front door open. She let out a squeal, hastily picked up the book, replace it quietly and perfectly back where it belonged, and shut the drawer. She picked up her laundry basket and continued to put away her clothes, trying to calm her hands. She bit her lip, willing herself to stop blushing.
"Sakura?" Sasuke called from the house entryway. She calmed herself down.
"In here!" She finished putting away her clothes and turned to put the basket back in the laundry room and collided with Sasuke. His hand snaked out to catch her from falling, his eyebrow raised in question.
"Are you okay?"
Sakura jumped out of his reach and nodded furiously.
"Mhmm!" She ran past him to the laundry room and collapsed to the floor, letting out a sigh of relief. She didn't think she could meet his gaze for a while, especially with this secret she had just discovered. She finally calmed herself down again and headed into the kitchen. She put on a pot of tea, hearing Sasuke change out of his gear in the bedroom. He appeared in the hallway of the kitchen a minute later, now dressed in pants and a shirt. His hands placed itself on her back, and she jumped.
"Gah!" He raised an eyebrow at her once more, but she waved a hand at him, continuing to pour two cups of tea.
"I'm just jumpy today."
"Aa." He collapsed at the kitchen table, his head thrown back, eyes closed as he let out an exhausted sigh.
"I'm going to kill Naruto." He muttered. Sakura placed a cup of tea on the table before him, took her seat and listened as Sasuke told her about how Naruto had spent their entire morning spy mission blabbering about how he was going to propose to Hinata very soon, probably after Tenten and Neji's wedding. Sasuke told him to shut up, but Naruto blew their cover, landing them in a fight with a gangster. And then, when Tsunade screamed at the two for forty-five minutes, demanding to know who ruined the mission, Naruto had ratted Sasuke out. Sakura giggled.
She reached across the table to stroke his hand, quickly pulling away as her mind strayed to the orange book.
"Ah.. that's Naruto for you, huh?" She laughed awkwardly.
A few days later, Sasuke had asked her out on another "date", and Sakura had happily agreed. They had gone out for a few drinks and ran into Ino and Shikamaru at the bar. They got talking, rather, Ino and Sakura talked while Shikimaru commented once in a while and Sasuke returned to his usual 'hns'. Sakura had downed a few martini's and a glass of wine, but she was far from drunk. She and Sasuke had walked home, and just as he was going to kiss her against the door as usual, Sakura's stomach wrenched.
She hastly ran in and fled to the bathroom and was promptly sick into the toilet. Sasuke pressed a cool hand to her forehead, his other fingers pulling her hair away from her face. Sakura gagged, spitting and flushed the toilet, leaning against the sink counter. Sasuke kneeled in front of her, his hand still on her forehead, looking worried. She smiled, waving a hand at him.
"Ne, Sasuke, I'm okay. Ah, I had a bit too much to drink, and that cherry in my martini did look a little unripened. She closed her eyes at his cool touch, and he helped her stand up, standing behind her as she brushed her teeth. He put them under the covers, and pulled her to his chest, stroking her hair.
The next day, they had been each working on papers in the office, when Sakura's stomach rumbled loudly. She ignored, Sasuke's chuckle, and realized she had a sudden urge to go and get ramen. She dragged Sasuke out to Ichiraku's for lunch, where they each had a bowl of ramen, remembering the Team 7 days. After that they had gone home, and Sakura, after stuffing down a bowl and a some ricecakes at Ichiraku's felt slightly nauseous from the overindulgence. But after sitting on the back porch with Sasuke in the air, she felt instantly better.
His arm snaked around her shoulders and pressed his lips to her hair. She smiled, slowly falling asleep.
Even at work, that night, Sakura could not stop yawning. She periodically downed cups of coffee, but still found herself feeling sluggish. After she took a shower the next day, she felt a twinge of cramps hit her stomach and back. She grimaced. Gah, not that time of the month again. Well, that explained the hungriness, cramps and sluggishness.
While in the bathroom, she wrapped a towel around her hair and dropped her towel, looking at her body from the side. She made a face, and realized that this menstrual bloating left her stomach and thighs a bit fatter. She huffed. She heard a 'hn' from behind her and blushed as Sasuke walked into the bathroom, and stood at the other mirror, taking out his shaving cream and blade. She blushed and pulled her towel back around her, ignoring her husband's obvious lustful gaze.
She rubbed her back once more, throwing her head back, before blushing deeply.
"D'you know, ah, Ino told me once that orgasms were the best way to cure cramps."
Sasuke set his shaving cream bottle down on the counter, forgotten.
"Hn. Let's find out."