And the plot thickens... now they're faced with the dilemma of telling their parents!
Chichi - father
Hahaoya - mother
o.O.o
Chapter 3
Gai was coming to pick Lee up in ten minutes. The two teenagers had finished their homework and were currently sitting around the Haruno's dinner table eating noodles for dinner. Lee was talking animatedly with Kizashi about ninja movies and Mebuki smiled at the conversation. For Sakura's parents this was a normal evening, but it wouldn't be for long. Both parents-to-be agreed to tell Mebuki, Kizashi and Gai the truth: Lee was the chichi and they were keeping the baby. Sakura shook her head, still unable to believe what was happening.
After all, aside from the constant puking she didn't even feel pregnant.
"The foreign ninja movies really lack the realism that Japanese movies have," Lee declared, waving his chopsticks around. Kizashi laughed and went to reply when the doorbell rang.
"Gai's early," Mebuki grinned, standing and walking to the front door. Sakura swallowed nervously and exchanged a glance with Lee. He smiled encouragingly from across the table.
"Lee! My youthful son!" Gai burst through the doorway excitedly, smelling of sweat. He worked at one of the local gyms and everyone feared a workout with the terrifying Might Gai. He was just as intense with his workouts as he was with everything else.
"Hello chichi." Lee greeted his adopted chichi enthusiastically, but he didn't stand like he usually would. Instead he gulped down the rest of his noodles and pushed his bowl away.
"Gai, can we tempt you with some noodles?" Mebuki asked.
"No, I ate at work. Thank you for feeding my monster of a boy." He bounded over to Lee and ruffled his hair cheerfully. "Did you eat them out of house and home?"
"No chichi." Lee rolled his eyes.
Gai laughed and looked at Sakura. "Hello pretty blossom! You look pale. Are you spending enough time outside? Would you like to come along for an outdoor workout tomorrow afternoon?"
He was always offering for Sakura to workout with him and Lee. She always refused, knowing that she couldn't keep up with the athletic duo. "No thanks. I, um, I can't really right now."
His brow furrowed with concern. "Are you okay?"
How many times had she been asked that in the last few days? Too many to count… "No. I have something to tell all of you."
Mebuki sat in her chair again, frowning, and Gai squeezed in beside Lee. "What is it blossom?" the hahaoya asked in concern.
Sakura looked at Lee again and he continued to smile encouragingly. If he were closer she would have grabbed his hand. "I should be honest with all of you." She steeled herself for the reactions and blurted everything out. "Lee's the chichi!"
Everyone stared for a long moment and Sakura's face reddened under the scrutiny. Then they all turned collectively to stare at Lee. Gai broke the silence.
"Lee's the chichi of… what?" he asked.
"I'm pregnant," Sakura said softly, her heart thudding in her chest. "Lee's the chichi. And we're keeping the baby."
Gai looked between them for a long moment before his face broke out into a smile. "Congratulations! I would love to have a grandchild!"
Mebuki's mouth dropped open. "Sakura, you can't seriously be suggesting to raise the baby. Do you have any idea how much work they are?"
At her hahaoya's words, every misgiving Sakura felt just… melted away. "We're raising the baby."
Kizashi rounded on Lee, his eyes narrowing. "Of all the boys, I thought you were the safe one."
"It was unintentional," Lee replied. "We did not mean for it to happen."
Sakura's chichi took a deep breath to calm himself. "Are you two a couple now?"
"No!" Sakura shook her head. "It was just…" She couldn't believe she was having this conversation with her parents and Gai. "It was when Sasuke had just broken up with me."
Lee stepped in for her, for which she was thankful. "We did not intend to do anything. It just happened and has not happened since. But we must deal with the consequences and we will raise the child that our union created."
Gai hugged his son, tears in his eyes. "Oh, when did you become so youthfully mature?! I am so proud of you my boy!"
"What Lee said," Sakura muttered hastily. Kizashi stared at her for a long while and turned to glare at Lee.
"You're lucky I like you," he growled. "You treat her right and I don't kill you."
Lee looked shocked. "I would never hurt Sakura! She is my best friend!"
That was the crux of the matter as far as Sakura was concerned. They were going to raise a baby together and they were only best friends. It felt… wrong. Again, she wondered if it would be bad if she started to love him romantically, but dismissed the notion.
o.O.o
After Gai and Lee left, Sakura was questioned thoroughly by her parents. She told them everything and expressed her thoughts on falling in love with him.
"You couldn't do better," Mebuki had said confidently. "Lee's a good boy."
"I'm glad he's the chichi and not some jerk," Kizashi admitted.
When she finally got to sleep she was plagued by strange dreams where she was married to Lee and had a child that looked like Sasuke. She woke the next morning feeling unsettled, then ran straight to the toilet to vomit again.
After a light breakfast of miso soup, Sakura dressed and was driven to school by Mebuki. Her hahaoya constantly shot her worried looks while they were in the car and it irked Sakura to the point of anger.
"Hahaoya!" she snapped. "I'm having the baby! I know it'll be lots of work but I'd take that over abortion any day."
Mebuki sighed and glued her eyes on the road. "I can't help but worry, blossom. You're my little girl."
"Hahaoya, I'm going to do this with Lee. We've both agreed. I'm going to leave school at the end of this year so I can become a hahaoya. Lee's still deciding what he's going to do. Either he's going to stay in school and find part-time work, or leave school to work casual so we can get some money. I'm not having you, chichi and Gai paying for everything."
Mebuki's posture relaxed and she sighed again. "When did you become so mature?"
Sakura smiled softly. "You know the answer."
They pulled up outside the school and Mebuki laid a hand on Sakura's arm. Hahaoya and daughter shared a look. "Blossom, don't force yourself to fall in love with him. Just let it happen."
"Thanks hahaoya," Sakura murmured gently. She leant forward and kissed Mebuki on the cheek before getting out of the car.
Lee was waiting for her at the front gates, smiling widely. He held out his elbow and she held it lightly, unable to prevent a small smile from escaping. They walked into the school arm-in-arm, Lee towering over her. No one thought anything of it – it wasn't unusual for those two to walk like that. The contact, however limited, calmed Sakura's racing heart. Stress was bad for a baby.
Only Ino was in the Art room when they arrived. Sakura knew she would have to tell her friends sometime, but she didn't want to do it at school. It was better to do it in a safer environment, like at a park or someone's house.
"Hey guys," Ino greeted, looking up from her computer screen. "You should take a look at this prank video! This guy puts wasabi in his roommate's mouth while his roommate is asleep and it's hilarious!"
Lee and Sakura moved behind her to watch the video, but they didn't lose contact. Ino was right; the video was hilarious. Both Ino and Lee were in stitches in the end and Sakura was giggling quietly. It was nice to have a distraction every now and then, even in the form of a YouTube clip.
Loud voices sounded outside and Neji and Hinata appeared, obviously arguing. Strangely, Neji seemed to be losing this argument, as evidenced by the annoyance in his voice. Hinata shouted "Good!" at him and marched into the Art room, leaving a fuming Neji in her wake. He turned and stalked away, his long hair swinging behind him.
"What were you arguing about this time?" Ino asked.
"Well," Hinata sighed, "you know I'm having a sleepover with all of you this weekend. My dear brother wanted to invite his friends over too."
Sakura tilted her head. "As in… Sasuke, Naruto… Kiba… Shikamaru, Choji and Shino?"
"Yes. I won the argument by saying that you haven't been over in weeks, while his friends were over last weekend." Hinata looked at the ground. "You are coming aren't you Sakura?"
The pink-haired girl blinked. "This is the first I've heard of it. I'll see what I can do." This would be the perfect time to tell them about her problem. After all, if she didn't tell them and they found out another way, they'd be extremely mad at her. She couldn't bear to lose any of them.
Lee nudged her. "I will be going. If you stay at my house on Friday we can both go on Saturday?"
Sakura shrugged. "Sounds like a good idea. I'll ask my parents."
The bell rang and they all scattered, wishing each other a good morning until they met again for brunch. Sakura and Ino had double Humanities first up and that term they were covering history, specifically the Renaissance. Their teacher, Zabuza Momochi, seemed less scary that day when they walked in the door.
"How are you doing?" Ino asked softly once they'd taken their usual seat. Sakura tilted her head.
"About what?"
"About Sasuke and everything. I was worried about you all holidays, but you seem better today." Ino watched her with wide blue eyes.
"I'm fine. Believe it or not… I don't actually feel anything for him anymore." It was the truth. As soon as she learned she was pregnant, all feelings for Sasuke were gone. The only boy she thought about was Lee.
Ino smiled. "I'm glad you're okay. You had us concerned." She leant in close and spoke in a low whisper. "And now that you're over him I can tell you that he was never worth it."
Sakura blinked. "But I thought you liked him too."
"Nope." Ino shook her head. "I only said that to annoy you. Truth is, I've liked someone else for a while."
"Who?"
"I'm not saying now," Ino winked. "I'll tell you at the sleepover. I also believe that Hinata has some new information about her crush on Kiba."
The boy in question was in a deep discussion with Naruto about action figures. Sakura looked him up and down. Kiba Inuzuka had always been a nice boy; opening doors and carrying books for people; and he was handsome in an odd way with wild hair and sharper-than-usual-teeth. For someone like Hinata, Kiba was just her type. He seemed completely oblivious to her crush, as was typical for boys, but she continued to hope that he'd notice her.
Zabuza cleared his throat at the front of the class and everyone shut up immediately, not wanting to risk getting on his bad side. "Good morning. As you know, we're studying the Renaissance this term. Today we'll be looking at their social system. I'd like you to break up into groups of three and have one person come up to get activity sheets for the group. Go."
Everyone scrambled around to find a group and Sakura and Ino looked around for a possible third person. Two rows behind her, Ino spotted a boy eating chips, totally unaware of the world around him.
"Choji!" she called. He looked up and she beckoned frantically. The boy grabbed a pen and darted up to their desk, pulling up a chair.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We had to get into groups," Sakura hissed as Ino went up to get the sheets.
Choji grimaced meekly. "I wasn't paying attention…"
Ino re-joined them and handed a sheet to Choji, keeping her eyes averted. Sakura looked between the two of them and noticed how Choji was perfectly ignorant to Ino's furious blushing. It looked like Sakura didn't need to wait until the weekend to know who Ino liked.
o.O.o
The car pulled up at Haruno household and Sakura exited immediately, sitting on the ground and drawing her knees to her chest. She took several deep breaths to force down her nausea and Mebuki walked around the car and placed a hand on her daughters shoulder. They smiled at each other and Sakura stood slowly, following Mebuki inside.
They'd just been to the doctors to meet with Kabuto. The good doctor had given the hahaoya-to-be a long lecture on looking after her health and provided a brief timeline on what to expect over her pregnancy. He said that the first ultrasound could be taken at twelve weeks and organised an appointment for the young girl. Then he'd given her more books to read and sent her on her way, wishing her well.
"So hahaoya," Sakura said once they were inside, "Hinata is having a sleepover this weekend on Saturday. Lee was thinking I could stay over at his on Friday and we could head over together. Is that okay?"
Mebuki placed the pregnancy books on the kitchen bench and turned, one eyebrow raised. "Are you sure you should, given your condition?"
"Hahaoya, Ino and Tenten will be there. I have to tell them."
"I'm not sure you should. You'd be better off keeping it to yourself."
"They're bound to find out anyway and I'd rather they heard it from me. I trust them. They've been my friends for years and they'll support me." She rearranged her face into a pleading expression. "Please, I need their support. I can't do this without them on my side."
Mebuki hesitated and looked down at the books, her hands tightening on the pile. "I suppose so. When I was pregnant with you I went to a support group with other pregnant women. I had my friends." A strained smile crossed her face. "I remember Gai came over every day to see how I was doing. He's such a sweetie, even though he can be a real idiot at times. It's why he and your chichi get along so well."
Sakura bit her lip. "Is chichi okay?"
"He'll be fine. He's just moaning over the fact that you're too young to have a baby. If the chichi was anyone but Lee, he'd be a lot worse."
The girl's hand ghosted down to her stomach and she touched it lightly. "I still can't believe this is happening."
Mebuki handed her one of the books. "If you read this, it'll feel more real."
"Okay. I'll read it." Sakura held up her hand. "Just let me go pee first."