Gaara and Sakura were strolling through the forest with Shinki and Shikadai, who walked ahead of them. They boys made up all sorts of competitions such as: who throws the stone the farthest, running, who is the first one to catch a bird...Sakura enjoyed her walk next to her man, when suddenly an idea popped into her head. She remained 2 steps behind him on purpose to jump in front of him while waving her hands, trying to scare him. Gaara simply started laughing and didn't even flinch.
"What was that?"
"You were supposed to be scared." Sakura said with disappointment while lowering her hands to her sides.
"When? Now? You make me laugh."
"We'll try again. Be scared this time." She fluttered her index finger at him enthusiastically and he had the audacity to try to bite it.
Sakura raised her voice a little only because she was startled when she retracted her hand to rest on her chest. She walked behind him again. Right before she jumped on him, he pretended to be scared, which made her angry.
"No. You have to get scared after I jump on you."
"Oh, really? I didn't know."
"Let's try again and do it right this time."
"Go ahead." Gaara said without looking at her.
She jumped in front of him with her hands waving, just like before, only this time he raised his arms threateningly and screamed to scare her. Sakura yelled, lost her balance and almost fell on her back because of the scare. Gaara luckily caught her by the waist. She wished to wipe that annoying smile off his face, so she hit him lightly in the chest with the hand that wasn't holding her heart. Gaara's rough laughter filled both of their ears.
"Forgive me, my flower. I didn't think you'd be so scared." And he kissed her cheek.
Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes to calm down. She looked around them and asked:
"Where are the kids?"
"They can't be far."
Gaara let go of her and they both went ahead to search for the boys. Sakura interlaced her fingers with his. He blushed a faint blush, but looked away to hide it. 50 meters ahead stood Shikadai, who seemed very scared. His knees trembled slightly and he was 2 steps behind Shinki, who was face-to-face with a wolf.
"Come on, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you." Shinki told the wolf with food in the hand extended towards the animal. The wolf was afraid of getting closer, so it took one unsteady step forward, then looked back at the forest, then moved another few centimeters closer to the boy. Shikadai tried his best to breath as quietly as possible and not attract attention at all. Sakura got scared right away, let go of Gaara's hand and tried to run to Shinki's side and protect him from the beast. Gaara's hand stopped her. Her chest bumped right into Gaara's extended arm.
"Leave him alone. The wolf can't hurt him. The sand will protect him."
The girl's scared eyes moved from Gaara's calm figure back to the boy and she waited with her heart in the neck for the ending. As soon as the wolf closed his mouth around the food in Shinki's hand, it disappeared like a donkey in the fog. Shikadai sat on the ground with his eyes unfocused. The poor boy already imagined himself being eaten by the beast.
"See? Nothing scares me or Shinki." Gaara told his future wife.
Sakura let out a breath, pushed Gaara's hand aside and ran to Shinki's side.
"What were you thinking?"
"He was hungry, mother. I felt sorry for him."
"What if it bit you?"
Shinki looked at her with disbelief.
"You worry too much. He couldn't have hurt me. I would have killed him if he tried."
"Don't ever try anything so dangerous again!"
Shinki opened his mouth to protest, but his father gestured for him to shut up, so Shinki listened to him and lowered his head.
"Thank God you are safe." Sakura said while hugging him to her chest before she went to check on Shikadai.
Gaara whispered to Shinki:
"Don't try anything like this again near your mother."
"But I didn't do anything wrong." His voice was filled with disappointment.
Gaara ruffled his hair.
"I know, but mothers worry and get upset easily. We have to protect her. You are a big boy now. I know you understand."
"Yes, father. Did you see how scared was Shikadai?"
"Yes. You're braver than him. Good job! I knew my son isn't weak. But that doesn't mean you can treat him bad, understood?"
"Don't worry. I wouldn't even have let the wolf get close to him."
"Good boy!"
Gaara took him by the armpits and lifted him up to carry him on his shoulders. Gaara held onto the kid's ankles to prevent him from falling, while Shinki fisted his hands into the red hair as he screamed in joy.
Meanwhile, Sakura helped Shikadai man up and convinced him to let her hold his hand as they walked. They boys were only 6 years old.
"Don't worry. The wolf won't be coming back."
She managed to make the boy feel better. Shikadai was ashamed that he acted like a coward, so he asked the adults to not mention this to Temari or Shikamaru, which was perfect for everyone.
Shinki was jealous that Sakura was holding Shikadai's hand in place of his own, but there was nothing he could do. The fact that Sakura and Gaara showed up in his life out of the blue, made him fear that they will one day disappear just as abruptly as they appeared. That was why Shinki saw Shikadai as a threat. However, the little boy kept this stress enclosed in his soul because he was afraid that his father might get upset if he were to voice it out. Shinki tried to copy Gaara in every aspect: the coldness with which he looked at his enemies, the calm in the battle, even the walking style, haircut and clothes.
It's such a shame that I don't have red hair or turquoise eyes.
"Dad, let's go that way!" Shinki pointed to a direction.
"No."
"Ah, but why?"
"Fine, we'll go that way and then we return to Suna."
"No. I want to stay more."
Gaara laughed at how quickly the boy changed his mind.
"Then shut up. We are going where Sakura leads us. She knows these forests better than anyone."
"Ok. We'll do it!" Shinki said cheerfully.
Gaara turned to look at Sakura and winked at her. Shinki didn't see, but he grinned at his mother. She blushed and looked back at the road that unraveled before them. There was a river crossing the forest ahead of them.
"Dad, put me down!"
Gaara bent forward making Shinki laugh because he smelled fun coming up soon. The boy opened his arms like wings and let his father's strong arms catch him as he fell from Gaara's shoulders. Gaara put him down, Shikadai let go of Sakura's hand and the boys ran together to play in the river. Sakura insisted that the boys take off their shoes and turn up their trousers to avoid getting their clothes wet. She didn't want any of them to get sick. The boys threw their shoes while running leaving them behind in various spots. After that, they walked into the water. Shinki was thrilled. He didn't have anything like this in Suna. Shikadai came up with an idea:
"Let's see who catches more fish."
"Fine."
Shikadai had a trick up his sleeve: he could use shadow paralysis jutsu to catch a school of fish while Shinki struggled to catch them with his bare hands because his sand got too heavy to use in the water and if he tried to manipulate the sand in the water, the fish got scared and the water became dirty. Shikadai used this contest to make up for the wolf thing. He might be a coward, but he had his ego, which he inherited from his mother, whom Gaara knew very well.
Sakura and Gaara stood behind, watching the kids. He saw in the corner of his eye how she took 2 pills from her pocket and swallowed them.
"How are you feeling?"
"Pretty good."
"Does anything hurt?"
"The stomach, but not much. I can bear with it."
"Is it better now that we came here?" He meant Konoha.
"It's better ever since I have you beside me again."
Gaara smiled and Sakura wanted to hold his hand, but right when her fingers were about to touch his, one of the kids turned to face them, even though he didn't pay attention to the adults, Sakura got embarrassed and brought her hand back to her side. Gaara enjoyed this shyness of hers.
"Do you still have pills?"
"Yes."
"Do you need anything from here to make others?"
"Well..."
"What is it? Tell me."
"I was thinking of giving up on them and try a new treatment."
"What treatment?"
"Tsunade-shishou asked Ino to give me a book on different alternative treatments based on tea that doesn't have any adverse reactions. The only thing is I am not sure they will work. Tsunade-shishou didn't have time to experiment on more than one person and the results need a really long time to show."
"In other words you want to conduct experiments on yourself. I can't let you do this."
"Gaara, even if there are slim chances of success, please allow me to at least try."
Gaara scrunched his nose in displeasure while also frowning.
"It's got a high chance of failure, but if it works, I won't have to worry about getting cancer or any other disease from the never-ending list of side effect of the pills I currently take. I want to be by your side and Shinki's for as long as possible."
Sakura offered him a smile she hoped will convince him.
"There is nothing I wish more than to have you by my side for as long as I live, but I can't let you turn into a lab rat at least not right now. We'll have a wedding not long from now and we need a treatment that we know for sure is going to work at least for a period of time. Put your faith in me. I will find something."
Sakura smiled bitterly and looked back at the kids. Gaara felt bad whenever she didn't feel like herself. His words, even if true, they might be too harsh and he couldn't bear to upset her.
"I don't want you to risk it because I want to have a baby with you."
Sakura's eyes were as big as onions and she turned towards him completely.
"Are you sure?" Her voice trembled.
Gaara nodded slowly.
Sakura burst out crying of happiness and she frantically wiped her eyes with her bent fingers because she didn't want the kids to see she was crying.
"Why are you crying?"
"I was afraid you didn't want to have a kid with me because he might be born sick."
"What are the chances of our baby being born with your illness?"
"33%"
"The odds are in our favor. Even if the baby will be sick, I will just have to take care of him more. We will make sure the baby won't be stressed, so he won't be a ninja. If the baby is a girl, it will be even better. I will keep her by my side all my life."
Gaara raised his hand to wipe her wet cheek because she was overwhelmed.
"We talked about crying before, didn't we? You said you won't cry as long as you are with me." He happily said.
"I know. I am sorry. I wanted so much to have babies, but I was ashamed and afraid to tell you."
Gaara stroked the back of her head and his voice softened even more.
"You think about names for our future children and I will worry about how we are going to make you better."
"Gaara" She inhaled sharply through her nose twice, shaken by sobs. "We have to calculate the month I will get pregnant. We can't leave it to chance."
"Why not?"
"I've told you before. After the illness leaves me be, we only have 8 months before it comes back again. I can't take any medicine while pregnant."
"I see. It takes 9 months for a normal pregnancy. This illness comes back only if you are stressed, right?"
"I think so."
"Then I will make sure nothing causes you stress, not even me. I will take care of you. Maybe we are lucky and we'll gain another month or two."
"I can tell when I can sick again 2 weeks before it gets serious, so we will have time to decide what to do. I will try to hold on until the baby is born, so we won't have to induce premature birth."
Gaara gained goose bumps when he heard "premature birth" because his mother died from a premature birth. There was no way he was going to let Sakura die like this.
"You have to get me pregnant on the first month when I stop taking pills, so I have the best chance to deliver safely."
"How much longer until you stop taking medicine?"
"6 months."
"Perfect. So we're going to start trying to conceive on the wedding night."
Sakura blushed and smiled shyly. The screams of the kids could be heard on the background. Gaara would have kissed her right there and then, but he refrained.
"My Sakura, stop using contraceptives because they also have side effects and I don't want you to suffer even more."
"Does this mean we won't...?"
Her worried face made him laugh.
"Of course we will. You know I can't stay away from you. I'll make sure to not get you pregnant before our wedding night."
Her eyelashes fluttered twice and his heart skipped a beat.
Gaara and Kizashi decided the wedding was going to take place 6 months from now, in Suna. Gaara was the Kazekage, so there was no way of having the wedding anywhere else, but Sakura was free to choose a wedding dress and sweets from her village if she wanted. In 2 months from now, the train rails that connected Konoha and Suna were going to be ready, so all of the guests could use the train and travel for 1 hour to reach Suna, where Gaara was going to have rooms prepared for them with everything they needed. Gaara agreed to send a gift in money to Sakura's parents for raising his future wife. Other details, such as flowers, music and food fell on Sakura's shoulders to sort out.
Note: Thank you very much for your support! I agree with you, Sakura's mom should mind her own business. We will see more of her facets in the next chapter. I couldn't introduce her in this chapter, because I wanted it to be a happy one. Please let me know your opinion on this chapter, too. How many kids should they have? Do you think they should be boys or girls? What names do you like?