Sasuke stumbles and leans against a tree to stay upright. The forest is dark in the middle of the night. The snow has soaked his shoes and the hem of his cloak and is dragging him down with each step. It feels like he has been walking for days. He should have reached Konoha long ago but his injuries make his progress agonizingly slow. His leg hurts with every step he takes. He is too weak to summon Aoda. His chest is bleeding.
He fights the temptation to sit down and take a break, for fear that he will not be able to get up again if he interrupts his rhythm. His knee can barely support his weight. He straightens up and the movement wakes a flash of pain in his chest. For a second his lungs are on fire. He tries to catch his breath but every move sends stabbing, bright raw pain into his ribs. And the injury in his chest is, paradoxically, not his first concern. His eyes are burning. Tears of blood have dried on his cheeks but the pain behind his eyelid has not stopped. It feels like his skin is raw and the ache follows the nerves into his brain. He knew his sight would start to blur when he overdid it but he had never had to push it this far, and now his rinnegan is opaque and his sharingan can't see his feet properly. He fears, deep inside, that he went too far when using his dojutsu and that the damage will be irredeemable. In the night, barely illuminated by the glow of the moon, he walks almost completely blind, only relying on halos of lights, on shapes and shadows on the horizon, and on his instinct and memory of the way home.
Sakura wakes up in the hospital again. Her body feels weak. When she remembers what happened, she puts a hand on her belly and checks the baby monitor. She seems fine. She's not hurting anywhere, except her chest, which feels like it was crushed under a boulder, but she knows it's not a physical injury.
Only a few minutes after she came to herself, someone knocks and the door to her room opens slowly. Kakashi glances inside and walks in when he sees that she is awake. He sits at the end of her bed.
"The nurses said you should be fine," he says. "The jonin you were talking to saw you faint and prevented your fall."
She looks at the mattress and remains silent.
"Sakura…" Kakashi starts, with a serious and paternal tone. "Missions don't always go as planned. People in charge have to make decisions. You know this already."
Sakura looks up. "Your jonins abandoned a teammate, isn't that the opposite of everything you've ever taught us?" she asks bitterly.
"To save the rest of the team. We don't know yet what happened. If Sasuke decided to go ahead on his own against the plan–"
"You said he was doing well!"
"He was but we–"
"How long will he have to do this before you trust him again?" Sakura snaps. "He went to jail, he was away for two years, he did everything you asked him to, and you still don't trust him!" Her eyes water and she can't stop the tears. Is it the hormones, the fear, the exhaustion of waiting and not knowing? Her cheeks get wet all the same. "Before he left…" she says in an ugly sob, "he asked me to marry him."
Kakashi seems genuinely surprised. He smiles. "Congratulations. When he comes back you can–"
"I said no!" she cries out in a burst of tears. "I was afraid– I wasn't sure, I– and now he's gone."
Guilt and regret are crushing her heart. The idea that he might never come back and that the last thing she did was to reject him after he finally opened up is unbearable.
"He's not gone," Kakashi says firmly. "He'll be back soon, I'm sure of it. We're working with the team that came back to send a rescue mission as soon as possible."
She tries to wipe her cheeks with her hand but her fingers are wet and the tears keep flowing without control. "How can you be sure?"
Kakashi gives a slight tilt of the head. "He is in thirteen villages' bingo books. If someone, somewhere, had managed to take down the last Uchiha, we would know."
Sakura gives a small, wet smile. She takes in a shaky breath and brushes her belly. "He's not the last anymore."
Kakashi seems relieved. A knock makes them both look up.
"Sakura?" Naruto asks, through the barely open door. "Hinata said I could visit if I ask you first."
Sakura bites her lips and smiles at how awkwardly polite Naruto is. She wipes her face with the bedsheet. "You can come in."
Kakashi nods goodbye and leaves as Naruto walks in.
"I brought ramen," he says as he shows her two plastic cups.
"... You're not supposed to bring food into the hospital."
"If you don't tell the doctors it's fine, you know."
"I am a doctor here," Sakura reminds him.
Naruto scratches his head as he realizes that he didn't think it all through. He shrugs. "Hinata is always hungry because of the baby so I thought you'd be too…"
Sakura nods and smiles. "There's a kettle behind the desk in the hallway."
Naruto soon brings two steaming cups that they eat in Sakura's room.
"Can you find his chakra?" she asks.
Naruto shakes his head. "He's too far. I sent a clone into the north to see if I could feel something. He could be in another dimension."
Sakura can't help a disappointed sigh.
"Not to be bragging, you know," Naruto says, "but if I can't beat him I don't think anyone else can right now. But don't tell him I said that, he'll be even more of a pain."
Naruto pouts like he used to do in the academy when he was jealous of Sasuke being the top student and it warms Sakura's heart.
"Kakashi says he might have been reckless," she says, "but I… I don't think he would do something like that now?..."
"He's different since you got pregnant. I think he's looking forward to it. Maybe he… needed something to look forward to."
She wants to believe it. "Maybe."
"He told me… that he asked you to get married."
Sakura looks away with shame. Sasuke also probably told Naruto that she refused his proposal.
Naruto doesn't seem to be mad at her. "You waited for him all these years… he can wait for you a little bit."
Sasuke takes another breath in and coughs. He spits dark stains on the snow and tastes iron as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. His chest gurgles and flashes with white-hot pain every time he takes a breath. It feels like he is drowning out of the water. Every exhale feels like he's about to pass out. He realizes he probably won't make it and is suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. He really wanted to see the baby. He wanted to see what she looked like. If she had Sakura's hair. What kind of person she would become. The idea that he might never see Sakura again breaks his heart. The shame, and guilt of leaving them both alone when he should be there to protect them, the knowledge of the pain he will cause Sakura if he doesn't come back, it all hurts almost more than his injuries.
In the dark blur in front of his eyes, he notices two bright dots. Two lights, quite far away on the horizon. He wants to believe that they are the lights at the top of the watchtowers on each side of the gates of Konoha. He tries to walk faster. The taste of iron in his mouth worsens. He gags. The effort makes the pain in his chest flare up. He is suffocating. He falls down and lies on the frozen ground. He loses consciousness before he can catch his breath.
Sakura is called into the ER. The medics are bringing in a critical patient. Someone was found in the forest. A young man, with a severe chest injury. He's missing an arm.
Sasuke hears people. He feels them step around him. He worries that they might be ill-intentioned. They move him and it wakes all the pain in his body. He can't even scream in pain, he cannot take a breath. He faints and wakes up again several times as they carry him. At one point he manages to blink and a bright neon light burns his eyes. Several people are grabbing him and holding him.
One touch is different. It's delicate and familiar, so soft on his face. Her scent floats around him. Just the idea that she's next to him makes him feel like crying with relief. He feels the warmth of her hand on his cheek and her other hand on his chest. He tries to talk to her but only a hoarse sound comes out.
"Shhh... I'm right here." Her voice is so smooth in his ear, he fears that he is having a hallucination. "I'm right here."
Incredibly gently, she covers his eyes with her hand. He feels the comfortable, familiar warmth of her chakra on his forehead. The pain fades. The voices vanish. Everything disappears.
When Sasuke wakes up he is not completely sure that he is awake. For a second he is even convinced that he is dead and waking up in the afterlife. His body is floating. His mind is empty. How blissful it is not to be thinking about anything! He realizes that he cannot see anything. He doesn't mind. His bed is very comfortable. He doesn't know where he is but he doesn't care. He feels extremely relaxed. He hears footsteps. Someone is coming.
"Sakura?" he asks.
She says something but he doesn't understand. He doesn't mind. She sounds nice. He hears her laugh. He doesn't know what is funny. He laughs a little too anyway.
"I feel weird," he eventually manages to say.
"We had to hook you up on the really good stuff," Sakura says. "And you're on a really high dose. You probably won't remember this conversation."
When they first took Sasuke to the ER, no drug seemed to bring him any relief, and Sakura understood that him being immune to a lot of poisons had also raised his tolerance for medication and painkillers. She was worried for a moment, seeing that none of the regular meds they tried seemed to ease his pain while he was still struggling to breathe and needed to undergo surgery. Luckily, she eventually found something that worked, albeit in a dose that could kill a small horse. Now Sasuke is half awake, confused, and completely high, but he's not in pain.
"I… I don't like it," he says slowly.
"Some people pay good money for this kind of drugs."
"Can I touch your belly?"
She is surprised but sits next to him and takes his hand to put it on her baby bump. He remains silent for a few seconds and she thinks he might have fallen back asleep but he speaks again.
"Sakura… I have no idea how to take care of a baby," he confesses quietly. "I don't even know what kind of rodent they eat."
Sakura blinks. Sasuke's words are absurd and yet his tone is so sincere and so genuinely worried that it makes her heart melt.
"... It's ok," she says softly as she covers his hand with hers, "we'll figure it out."
"Aoda says you know these things."
She understands. Her chest tightens as she realizes what he is mumbling about.
"You've been talking to your snake about the baby."
"He has had a lot of eggs. He knows things. I don't know anything."
Patients' reaction to anesthesia is always a gamble. Some get very talkative, some just have nausea. Some get really lewd, or really rude to the nurses. Most are completely incoherent and babble nonsense until the effect of the drugs fades. And now there's Sasuke, whose uninhibited state is oversharing his concerns for his baby.
"It's alright," Sakura says softly.
"Sorry I only gave you one egg," he adds. "I'll give you more later."
"One is ok."
"Twelve."
Sakura can't help a short chuckle. "Rebuilding the whole clan now, are we? You should sleep," she says as she stands up.
He briefly holds her back. "Will you be there when I wake up?"
"Yes."
She watches him sigh before the meds knock him out again and his face becomes peacefully relaxed.
When he wakes up again, Sasuke feels completely different. It's dark around him, something is covering his eyes. His whole body is extremely heavy and his chest hurts when he breathes. He hears a door open.
"Are you awake?"
It's her voice.
"Sakura?"
He cannot see her. He feels her touch his hand and he squeezes hers back. "You're in the hospital," she says.
He reaches up and touches the band over his eyes.
"Don't–" she says as she takes his hand again to stop him. "You need to be careful."
"Am I–"
"You're fine. Your eyes are fine. You will recover completely. You just need to rest."
He relaxes. She slowly unwraps the cloth around his eyes and he needs a moment to adjust to the dim light in the room. His sight is very blurry, but his eyes don't hurt anymore. Sakura is a vague cloud of soft pink in front of him.
"It'll improve over time, with a lot of rest," she says.
"How long before it comes back?"
"Probably a couple of weeks if you don't strain them."
"What time is it?"
"It's almost 9 pm. You've been out of surgery for two days."
"Surgery?"
"You had several broken ribs, two of them punctured your left lung. I'm not sure you have one rib left that has never been broken now. "
"Sounds bad."
"It was bad."
He tries to sit up. His arm is weak and his chest flashes with pain. She pushes him back into his pillow.
"You had internal bleeding, you have several torn muscles and your knee is injured as well. You're a mess."
He glances down. He can see the outline of her belly. He slowly raises his hand to touch it, and Sakura lets him. "She's bigger."
"Yeah. She's over there," she says as she guides his hand to the side of her belly and covers it with her own. He feels the movements under his palm. He thought he'd never feel them again. He enjoys them so much more than he did before. And Sakura's hand over his hand is so soft, he could stay like this for hours, feeling both of them against his palm, knowing they are close. As he enjoys the unpredictable movements under Sakura's skin, he remembers a hazy dream he had when he was out.
"Sakura… we're not having twelve children, right?" he asks warily.
He can hear the smile in her voice. "No, you can tell Aoda that we're fine with just one."
"How's Sasuke?" Kakashi asks when Sakura drops a report in his office the next day. She stiffens briefly. Sasuke is barely strong enough to sit upright in his bed for a few minutes. He almost left a baby without a father, all because Kakashi misjudged the mission.
"He needs to rest," she says flatly. "It was worse than when he lost his arm."
Kakashi nods. "I leave him in your care."
"His lungs were filled with blood and he almost became permanently blind," she adds despite herself, to make Kakashi understand how bad it really is. "All the ligaments in his right knee are torn and several of his ribs were crushed into pieces. I don't know how he made it back."
"Some instincts are very strong," Kakashi says seriously. "Did he say anything about the mission?"
"He isn't well enough to have a long conversation," she says, and her tone becomes so sharp that Kakashi finally retreats.
"I guess I can ask him after he recovers." He sighs slightly when he sees Sakura's piercing glare. "The team… reported that he went ahead to give them a chance to flee. Several of them said they'd have died if he had not given them an opening. I was wrong to think he had been reckless."
Sakura's heart swells in her chest. Her instinct was right to trust him.
"He probably won't be back to work for several weeks," she says, still trying to sound severe.
Kakashi nods. "Take the time he needs."
Sasuke thought his recovery would be quite straightforward after waking up in the hospital, but on the third day he develops a fever that makes it hard to stay awake. Sakura talks about complications and infection in his chest and he can only have faith in her medical abilities. When he wakes up in the middle of the night his whole body feels hot and clammy. It takes him long seconds to realize that the sticky feeling on his forehead is not just cold sweat. When he reaches up with his hand, his fingers touch a slimy, squishy blob, and he squirms with disgust when he lifts the slug off his skin.
"What–"
"She's monitoring your fever," Sakura says as she takes the slug from his hand and puts it back on his forehead. "Please rest."
He doesn't have the strength to fight her and quickly falls back asleep. His fever doesn't go down the next day and the following night it's so high that he struggles to be coherent. He is half asleep, half awake, having nightmares, unable to tell what is real and what is a hallucination. His head feels like it's about to burst. This time it's not the slug but a wet towel that Sakura places on his forehead and he relishes the relief of the cold touch on his temples. He is too hot but shivering at the same time, he is sweating, and thirsty, his chest burns when he breathes. Sakura runs a wet cloth on his neck and chest and it cools him down enough to sleep a few hours. Every time he has a few seconds of clarity, Sakura is here, next to his bed. In the dark, he takes her hand and she realizes he's awake.
"Thank you," he whispers.
She leans over him and kisses his forehead. Her lips feel cold against his hot skin.
Sakura doesn't leave Sasuke's side. After worrying about him for weeks while he was away, she doesn't want to leave him alone when he is in such an unstable condition. She still feels guilty about what happened before he left, but now he is in no shape to talk about it. She stays in his room between her shifts and she tries to always be there whenever he wakes up. Seeing him so agitated in his sleep breaks her heart. She wishes she could help him rest and recover but no matter the care she provides, his fever doesn't go down. On the second night, she only realizes she has dozed off next to Sasuke's bed when she hears the handle of the door turn in the dark. She straightens up on her chair but quickly relaxes again. Naruto peeks inside the room, glances at Sasuke's sleeping form, and walks in quietly.
"Hinata said you've not left the hospital in three days," he whispers. It's unusual for him to be so quiet. "I'll take the next round, go home and rest."
Sakura hesitates. "He needs to sleep."
"I'll call a nurse if he wakes up," Naruto adds. "Come on, he wouldn't want to see you all pregnant sleeping on a chair."
Sakura bites her lip. She has already done everything she could, now Sasuke only needs rest and peace and quiet. If there's someone she trusts to watch over him, it's Naruto. She gets up and picks up her coat as Naruto takes her chair.
"I'll be back in the morning," she says. "Thank you."
Sasuke wakes up a bit later that night. He can feel that someone is next to him but Sakura isn't holding his hand anymore.
"Sakura?" he asks.
"She went back home, she needed to rest," Naruto says next to him with a yawn.
"Why are you here?" Sasuke asks.
"Taking care of you, as usual."
"... Loser." His voice is so weak, it doesn't sound like an insult.
"The chair is super uncomfortable though," Naruto whines. "Can I sleep in your bed? Next to you? There's enough space, you know."
Sasuke takes a struggling breath. "I'm too tired to tell you how much I don't want that."
He tries to move but hisses between his teeth. Naruto gently pushes his shoulder back down.
"Sakura said you should sleep more. I'll stay until she comes back tomorrow."
"… Thank you."
A nurse comes to check the monitor by his bed. He falls back asleep before she's gone.
After three days of Sakura's treatment and round-the-clock care, Sasuke's fever finally breaks, and he is left weak and tired. His body is stiff and his muscles tight. When he can walk again, he refuses to use a crutch and falls flat on the floor the first time he puts too much weight on his injured knee. He accepts the crutch. He is out of breath just going to the bathroom. He asks about his belongings and is very upset to hear that his sword has been taken to a storage room and he cannot get it back until he is discharged. He grows annoyed with the comings and goings of the nurses and assistants who come into his room several times a day and a night, to make sure he is alive. Everything is painful and exhausting. His sight is still terrible. Sakura repeats the instruction to take it easy and rest as much as possible but he is frustrated to be so helpless.
Kakashi visits a few days later, on a timed visit where Sakura forbade him to talk about the mission, or anything that would require Sasuke to use his brain or to talk too much. Sasuke points out that Kakashi is literally the Hokage and should be free to do whatever he wants, but Kakashi seems to fear Sakura's wrath more than Sasuke's irony, and leaves quickly after wishing him to get well soon.
Sasuke can hear the next visitor before he even opens the door. He hears him say hi to all the nurses and staff with a strong, heartfelt good morning, and they are all happy to reply.
"SASKE!" Naruto shouts as soon as he opens the door and sees that Sasuke is awake and sitting up in his bed.
"This is a hospital, don't be loud."
"I'm over here! Sakura said you still have eye problems."
"I can see you," Sasuke mumbles.
"Really?"
"I see a giant orange stain and I imagine your idiot face."
"You're in better shape than I thought!" Naruto says happily, before he gets more serious. "I'll tell Kakashi that we have to go together if you go back out there next time."
Sasuke shakes his head. "There's no need."
"Sending jonins would be sending them to die and you can't go back alone because that'd be sending you to die. I'll talk to Kakashi."
There is something in Naruto's tone, a confidence, a determination that leaves no room for negotiation. A hint that one day he will take the decisions himself.
Sasuke sighs. "We can talk when Sakura lets me out of here."
Naruto smiles and winks. "I bet she's taking very good care of you…"
"That's none of your business."
"C'mon! I love when Hinata plays doctor with me."
"You need to stop telling me about what you do with your wife."
"It's not my fault if you have no imagination with Sakura!"
"We're doing fine."
"She must be lonely when you're not here."
"It's not like I have a choice."
"When I'm away for several days, I send Hinata a clone, and when the clone pops I see everything."
"I never asked to be this close to you."
"You're just mad because you can't keep a single clone for two minutes."
"I can, and unlike you, I need more than two minutes for this."
"What do you mean!?"
The door opens and Sakura walks in with a clipboard.
"How can you make his blood pressure rise just by being in the same room?" she asks with an accusatory frown at Naruto.
"I'll give you all the privacy you want," Naruto says, and he glances at Sasuke and gives a suggestive eyebrow wiggle as he leaves the room.
Despite following Sakura's recommendations, Sasuke's sight takes a frustratingly long time to come back. He sees shapes and lights, patches of colors, but no details. Sakura takes pity on him and brings him a pair of glasses. He frowns when he sees them.
"It's temporary," Sakura says softly. "I'm not sure how much it'll help though, try them."
He slowly puts them on. To his surprise, he can immediately see much better. It's almost perfect. He looks up at her. It's the first time he sees her face clearly in weeks. She is smiling at him. He cannot stop looking at her. He had not realized how much it meant to see her, to see every detail of her green eyes and her pink lashes, to see her lips and her smile. Sakura laughs softly at his stunned face. She brushes his bangs to the side with the tips of her fingers. "They look good on you."
He takes them off and looks away, but picks them back up in the evening to watch TV and read.
When he has recovered enough strength, Sakura sends him to daily physical therapy for his knee and it is upsetting to see how much he struggles to walk up three stairs when he used to be able to run up trees and jump down cliffs. It is already hard to be missing an arm, now not being able to walk without a crutch heightens his frustration and makes his days long and miserable.
Naruto visits whenever he can. He teases Sasuke every chance he gets, especially after he sees him with his glasses.
"You can't see, you can't walk without a cane, and you're out of breath after three steps, that's old age, you know," he says when he sees Sasuke struggle to move from his bed to a chair.
Sasuke hmpfs. "If you didn't have your tailed beast, you'd already have died five times."
"Yeah, because of you!"
Sasuke promises to take revenge as soon as he is out of the hospital, and Naruto agrees, and Sakura pushes Naruto out of the room after their talk once again made Sasuke too worked up for his own good.
"If you keep this up I'll have to prevent you two from seeing each other until he recovers," she threatens.
She obviously doesn't do any of it and is always very happy to see Naruto come to cheer Sasuke up. She herself spends almost all her free time with him, and if he is not sleeping or doing physical therapy, she is with him in his room when she isn't working.
One night it's already quite late when she finishes work and joins him in the evening.
"When do you finish your shift?" he asks when she comes into his room.
"Two hours ago," Sakura says as she takes off her white coat.
"Are you going home?"
She shrugs. "Maybe a bit later."
"Come over here," he says as he pulls her towards him. She sees him move to make space in the bed and she shakes her head.
"We shouldn't."
"You're not on the clock, we're not doing anything wrong."
Sakura sits next to him. "That's not in the rules."
"You need to change the rules then."
She hesitates.
"You're here to watch over me anyway," he says, "you might as well watch from closer."
She keeps looking at him and eventually sighs. "Just a few minutes and I'll go home," she says as she crawls into bed next to him.
Holding Sakura, hiding his nose in her hair, feeling the familiar curve of her body against his, he falls asleep immediately.
In the morning Sakura is gone before he wakes up. She stayed much longer than she had planned and spent most of the night in his arms. In the following week she does it again a few times. They only ever just lie down together and sleep, but soon they both feel like they want a little more. After they spent the night together and Sakura slipped out of his embrace in the morning, Sasuke cannot wait to see her again. She comes into his room late in the morning to check on him and gives him a quick kiss on the forehead before she reads his chart. He pouts, straightens up, and pulls her back to get a real kiss. Sakura squeaks in surprise. She kisses him back. His hand moves around her waist to the small of her back and her knees get weak. She sits on the bed next to him. His kiss deepens. Her cheeks burn. She moves to get onto the bed and straddle him.
Sasuke forgets the hospital room when Sakura sits on his hips. They have not been together in several weeks and feeling her so close, touching her, kissing her, makes the need simmer in his body. He pulls on the front of her coat to open the snaps. He pushes her sweater up under her chin to reveal her bra and her breasts, even rounder and fuller than they were before he left. He hides his nose between them and kisses her milky skin. He relishes the warmth and the softness of her body. He holds her tighter. He pushes the cup of her bra to the side to kiss her nipple and she moans gently at the feeling. His hand touches her other breast and rubs it just a bit too strongly. Sakura whines.
"Careful, they're sensitive."
He resumes his kisses, but softer. He pinches the back of her bra and her breasts fall free. She sighs with relief. He gently, slowly, caresses one in his hand while he kisses the other and gently sucks on her nipple.
Sakura presses her chest against him, his tongue on her nipples feels amazing. The slight draft of air that comes from pushing her sweater and her bra up makes her nipples harden, and feeling his mouth and his thumb on them is heaven. He takes more into his mouth and she sighs with pleasure. She rolls her hips in his lap in response. He kisses up her cleavage, avoids her sweater and kisses up her throat until their lips meet again. Their kiss is deep, hungry, and Sakura moans when he holds her tighter and presses his hips between her legs. She needs him. She slips her hands under the sheets and pulls on the waistband of his hospital pajamas.
They both hear the door open and Sakura jerks away from Sasuke. She scrambles and almost falls off the bed, stumbles, catches herself on the bed rail, and straightens up. She turns away from the door and poorly pretends to look at a machine while she pulls her sweater back down over her undone bra and closes her coat with the snaps. When she turns around she's bright red.
Thankfully the intern at the door looks more worried than embarrassed.
"His cardiac monitor was going very high," she says, to explain why she walked in.
Sakura struggles to calm down and compose herself. She brushes her hair away from her face and smoothes her sweater down over her round stomach. "I'll…Erm… I'm already on it," she manages. "Thank you. You can leave us." The intern seems confused but turns around and leaves.
Sakura looks back at Sasuke. He is just as red as she is and he is crumpling the sheet over his thighs. She gives him an apologetic smile.
"I want to go home," he says seriously.
She reopens her coat to fix her bra. "I'll see what I can do."
Sasuke is free to leave three days later, after promising that he will rest at home and come back for physical therapy. He eagerly agrees to anything that will let him leave the hospital, and signs a mountain of discharge papers and waivers without hesitation. The intern gives him a lot of instructions for his recovery, including advice of not moving a muscle and not doing anything that might cause the slightest exhaustion in the coming days.
"I live with your head doctor," Sasuke mumbles when he can't take it anymore and gets dressed to leave, "I think I'll be fine."
In the evening he gets to go to bed with Sakura in her apartment and it's the first time they are truly alone together in several weeks. At the hospital it always felt like stolen moments, they knew they could be interrupted, there were always noises from the hallway and comings and goings of the staff. Now Sakura sits next to him under the blanket and they finally have peace and quiet. He brushes her belly with his hand.
"I'm glad you're home," Sakura whispers. "I didn't like being here while you were at the hospital."
"You're alone here when I'm away."
"It wasn't the same. When I was here it reminded me of when I was waiting for you to come back. I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking… that you wouldn't come back. It's ridiculous but–"
"It's not." How many times while he was making his way back did he himself suffer at the thought that he might never see Sakura again?
She nestles closer against him and he is surrounded by her scent and her warmth.
"About…" she starts. "About what you asked before you left…"
His heart races. They have never mentioned it again since it happened. He shakes his head. He doesn't want to hear it again, it was already painful enough to be humiliated once. Several times since her refusal he has imagined Sakura going for another man, one day. Finding someone suitable to marry. Someone who didn't carry such a troubled past. Someone who could give her a more balanced, safer life. The thought of Sakura and their daughter living with someone else is so painful that he always tries to push the idea far away whenever it comes up in his mind.
"I understand," he says, "but I… I hope you'll still want me. I want to be with you. And the baby."
Sakura straightens up in bed. "What–"
"I understand that you don't want to get married–"
"I don't want to be without you," Sakura says like she never meant anything different. "I've never wanted to be with anyone else. When I thought you wouldn't come back, it felt like I had lost everything." She moves to straddle his legs and face him. "I regretted so much that I doubted you and that I doubted myself. I wished I could do it all over again."
"You don't have to. I'll be there anyway. I just want to be with you. Even if we're not married."
She looks at him for a moment and kisses him.
"Please ask me again," she whispers.
He hesitates.
She smiles and nods. "Let me do it again."
"Are you sure?"
"I've never been more sure."
"Sakura… Will you marry me?"
"Yes." She nods again. "Yes, I will."
He brushes her hair back behind her ear and kisses her. He holds her so tight that it makes his ribs hurt again but he doesn't let go. He never wants to let go again.
In the following days, Sasuke complies with Sakura's order to stay in bed, because his body hurts, and breathing too hard awakens the pain in his abdomen. He thought he had recovered a lot but being back home is exhausting. He is out of breath just walking to the kitchen. Sakura brings him food when she comes back from work and he feels bad that he has been in bed all day while she went to work and still helps him when he comes home. He touches her belly when she sits on the bed next to him.
"I should be taking care of you," he says bitterly.
Sakura smiles. "I'm not sick. I feel better if I know you're resting." She covers his hand with hers and uses her green chakra. "Can you feel it?" she asks.
He feels Sakura's chakra, and another one, much smaller, muted, but fresh and bright like a new star. "It's her?"
Sakura nods.
"I wish I could feel her all the time like you do."
"When she's out you can hold her all the time."
Sasuke doesn't take his hand off Sakura's belly. Thinking about the future makes him both excited and worried.
After a few days, Sakura allows him to leave the bed and go outside to get some fresh air during the day, if he promises not to exert himself.
"No fights," she says pointedly.
He nods as he puts on his shoes. "Noted."
"No fights with Naruto."
"It's just training."
"No training with Naruto."
"I'll be careful."
She puts her hands on her hips on each side of her large belly and glares at him. He pouts and sighs.
"I'll just go for a walk."
He eventually enjoys resting at home. No one is there to prod him or wake him up in the middle of the night to stab him with a needle. He can stay in bed if he is tired or aching. He keeps finding slugs everywhere and putting them where they can't see him until he puts one in the laundry basket and the slug sprays acid on his clothes and makes holes in his underwear. He can sleep next to Sakura again and it's the most effective medicine he has tried so far. Thanks to her care, the end of his recovery is much faster than he expected considering the state he was in. His eyes finally see normally again, like she said they would. Her medical chakra does wonders to heal the remaining pains in his chest and his knee. Her medications and herbal concoctions help his body recover, and she keeps bringing him food and making sure he goes to physical therapy to build his strength back up. Soon he is up and about again and he is annoyed not to have anything to do with his time.
A couple of weeks after he left the hospital, she comes home still wearing her white coat and carrying a hospital bag that he doesn't remember seeing.
"Still wearing your coat?" he asks.
She nods. "I have a patient left to see."
He raises an eyebrow. She stares back at him with a half smile and he understands. He shakes his head. "I'm fine."
"Yes, and you need to be cleared by a doctor to be sent on missions again. I don't make the rules."
He shakes his head and shrugs. "Just tell Kakashi I'm fine."
"Do you want to go to the hospital and see Shizune? The wait is two weeks long and she'll make you take a full physical to update your file. She'll do blood work, you'll have to pee in a cup, she'll-"
"Alright!" he cuts in reluctantly. Shizune's care is nothing like Sakura's. She is still professional, but in a cold, abrupt way, and she doesn't have time to be gentle. While he appreciates her pragmatism, he clearly prefers to be seen by Sakura, especially now that she has already seen and touched every part of his body in great detail.
"It won't take long," Sakura says. "Sit on the bed, take off your t-shirt."
She writes his name at the top of a hospital form on her clipboard and opens her bag. He watches her put on a pair of blue gloves and he remembers the time she healed a cut on his arm at the hospital. His mind wanders but Sakura pulls a small flashlight out of her coat pocket and shines it in his face. He flinches.
"Look at the light," she says, unaffected by his discomfort. "Do you have any pain in your eyes anymore?" she asks as she pulls his cheek down with her thumb to look at his eyelid.
"No."
"Look up for me... And down…"
She asks him to look at the tip of her finger and follow her movements. "Tell me when my finger appears in your field of vision," she says as she extends her arm behind his head.
"It's already in my field of vision."
She rolls her eyes and checks his other eye. "What am I even supposed to see in this eye?.." she says with a sigh. "Does it feel the same as the other eye?"
"Yes."
She picks up her clipboard and checks a little box. She puts the flashlight away but picks up a tongue depressor
"Open wide."
Sasuke leans back and winces. He starts to think it'd have been less embarrassing to see Shizune.
Sakura raises her eyebrow at him to insist. "I see toddlers who are easier to work with than you."
One by one, she checks every little box on her form. She listens to his lungs and checks his reflexes. There is a professionalism in her tone and the way she moves that makes him hyper-aware of the situation. It feels like they're playing. The fact that they are alone in their apartment and not in the hospital doesn't ruin anything. He cannot stop thinking about that time they did it on the countertop at the hospital. Sakura presses her fingers on both sides of his face and his neck, she feels strategic spots on his rib cage with a focused frown. She asks him to lie down and her touches on his stomach and his chest give him goosebumps. He tries to sit back up before she's done and she pushes him back into the pillows. The green glow of her hands over his skin feels warm and familiar and he lets her examine him for long minutes.
"Your lungs are much better," she says after a moment. "You can sit up."
"Are we done?"
"Almost," she says as she wraps his arm in a cuff to check his blood pressure and stays silent for a moment. Her fingers over his skin make him feel hot. He looks at her while she checks the monitor. Her coat is tight over her belly, and her breasts, swollen with her pregnancy, look like they will pop out of it. He remembers how they were interrupted while he was touching them and sucking on them when he was still in the hospital. There is something about her white coat that always turns him on.
"Blood pressure is fine," she says as she removes the cuff and takes his wrist with her fingers. "Resting heart rate…" Another pause. She glances at him through her pink lashes. "... Slightly elevated."
She pauses and for the first time, he sees her professionalism waver. It's so brief, just a fraction of a second where her eyes linger, the slightest hesitation on her parted lips. He leans in to catch them in a kiss. She doesn't push him back. She even deepens the kiss. She moves to straddle him on the bed and runs her fingers over his bare chest. He helps her out of her coat and her T-shirt and she quickly removes her bra with a big sigh of relief. They roll on the bed and get rid of their pants. He looks at her and hooks a finger in her panties to pull them down. She spreads her legs and he kneels between them. He can see how flustered she is to be exposed like this. Her breasts look heavier than usual. Her stomach is round and full, and there is no sheet or clothes to hide her body anymore. He touches her inner lips and she reddens. His fingers gently slide between her wet folds, trace across her clit, down to her entrance, and back up. She squirms and he keeps teasing her until her thighs tense up. Her breathing catches. She grabs and kneads her breasts slowly. Seeing her touch herself, massage her soft skin and moan as she makes herself feel good makes him yearn for more. He lines himself up and presses against her. She whines softly as he pushes in and pulls back. He thrusts harder. He leans over to kiss her and it feels like he reaches even deeper inside her. She kisses him fiercely and moves her hips to get more. He doesn't hold back. She holds onto the headboard as he pounds into her faster. With each move her white breasts jump and her hair gets messier on the pillow. Her cheeks are bright red. He can see that she is getting closer and he slides his hand down between them to touch her clit. She gasps against his lips when she reaches her climax, but he doesn't stop. She whines loudly at the overstimulation and the feeling of thrusting in her spasming core as she comes is overwhelming. Everything about her, her scent, her touch, her moans, and the tension in her body, makes him want more. Her legs shake and his muscles tense up until he reaches his release and finally stops, still deep inside her. They both open their eyes and look at each other. She is flushed red and disheveled. He is out of breath. He kisses her a last time before he lies next to her.
Still panting, she presses two fingers on the side of his neck and checks the timer on her watch.
"Effort heart rate is good," she says after a few seconds. "You're cleared to work again."
Sasuke shows up early in the Hokage's office the next morning, eager to catch up on what he has missed and report on his last mission, which he still hasn't done.
"I got your notice of absence directly from your personal nurse," Kakashi says.
Sasuke doesn't let the allusion embarrass him. "Sakura's a doctor."
"... And the notice that clears you to be back," Kakashi adds as he hands Sasuke a paper. Sasuke takes it from his hand. He reads it over. Sakura scribbled a little note right before her signature and the stamp of the hospital.
"Sasuke is healthy and full of vigor again."
He sighs at her lack of discretion and looks away to avoid Kakashi's teasing stare.
"I'm glad Sakura got you back on your feet," Kakashi says.
"She always does."
"You can join the ANBU training again. And this should keep you busy," he adds as he throws a scroll at Sasuke. Sasuke unrolls it to check the content. He pauses. The scroll isn't like usual. It had a symbol on top that is different. He looks up at Kakashi.
"I want you to lead the next mission," Kakashi explains. "As captain."
Sasuke pauses. He has never asked to be promoted. "Why?"
"The reports of your latest missions show that you have the required abilities."
"When you almost die you get to become captain?"
Kakashi ignores his sarcasm. "Leading is an important skill to acquire. Also, you can't always work alone and you're terrible at following other people's orders." He gathers the papers on his desk like the discussion is already over. "The scroll gives you your team and your mission. Go over it and gather them when you're ready. I want you to take off within the next week."
Sasuke nods but doesn't leave the office yet.
"Questions?" Kakashi asks.
"No," Sasuke says as he rolls the scroll back up and slides it into his pocket. "But there's something Sakura and I would like to do before I leave the village again."
Sasuke and Sakura agree almost immediately to skip the wedding ceremony and just sign the papers so they can tie the knot before he leaves for his next mission. Sakura is too busy at the hospital and too pregnant to plan and host a big celebration. Sasuke couldn't care less about having a wedding and, if he could, he'd marry Sakura at home in her pajamas. They pressure Kakashi into marrying them in the next few days despite the short notice, and it takes all the pleading in the world and very unfair heartstrings tugging to convince him to go through the trouble of being an officiant. Ino threatens to never speak to Sakura again if she gets married in her maternity sweatpants, and drags her to buy a dress and have it adjusted to her belly just days before the wedding. Naruto mentions a bachelor party and Sasuke gives him a look so dark and threatening that Naruto changes the subject and starts talking about baby clothes.
As much as they try to keep it short and simple, Sasuke and Sakura still have to go to the Hokage's office and sign the papers, and that day feels different from all the other days. Sasuke thought it was just a formality and didn't think much about it, but as they get ready together in Sakura's apartment in the early afternoon, he feels the slight excitement mixed with apprehension that he sometimes has when he is about to leave for a new mission.
"This came while you were in the shower," Sakura says with a nod at a garment cover on the bed. "I think it's from Kakashi."
"You think?"
Sakura heads to the bathroom. "It was delivered by one of his dogs."
Sasuke opens it. It's a wedding haori. It's embroidered on the front with the white and red fan of his family. He stares at it for long seconds. He hadn't really thought about what he would be wearing. He doesn't own a lot of clothes and his cloak is quite worn at the hem. Sakura would probably be disappointed if he dressed too casually. He is suddenly relieved to be provided with a formal outfit.
Sakura comes out of the bathroom a bit later and he stops what he was doing to look at her. Her dress is white and long, silky and fluid over her milky skin. It's not the full traditional wedding kimono, it's much lighter and simpler, it follows the curve of her belly without hiding it. It doesn't take anything away from her elegance. Her hair is up, and a jade pin in her updo recalls the color of her eyes. Her cheeks and her lips are pink and bright. He cannot look away from her. He already thought she was pretty when she was in her hospital scrubs, in her mission outfit, in her pajamas, but now... She catches him staring. He doesn't look away.
"You look great," he says.
She comes up to him and brushes the front of his haori where the crest of his family is embroidered. "You're not bad either."
She takes his hand. "Shall we go?"
They didn't tell many people the date and hour of the ceremony, but the news of their union has spread like wildfire in the streets of Konoha. The hospital has been buzzing with gossip for days already. The name of Uchiha was already subject to all kinds of rumors, so now the idea of a secret Uchiha wedding stirs up excitement in the village, and it was a conversation topic in every shop and restaurant the night before. A small crowd has gathered outside of the Hokage's office since the first hours of the day so as not to miss the arrival of the couple. What Sasuke and Sakura thought would be a small, fifteen-minute meeting with a handful of people just to sign the papers, quickly looks like an actual event. They see the crowd on the street from afar and decide without exchanging a word to make a small detour and use another entrance. They climb up a building in a narrow street, enter the Hokage tower through a window, and finally find peace when they walk into the Hokage's office. Their friends are already there, Naruto, Hinata, Ino and Sai, and Shikamaru who managed to get the marriage paperwork done in time. But Kakashi has not arrived yet. They wait and check the time again. After thirty minutes the crowd has doubled outside the tower, and Kakashi is still nowhere to be seen.
"I can't believe he's late for this," Sasuke mumbles angrily.
Sakura takes his hand and squeezes it gently. "Are you suddenly in a hurry to get married?"
He sighs but looks slightly less annoyed.
The more they wait the more people gather on the street. A group also forms in the hallway of the Hokage tower, behind the door of the office. People talk out loud about the event like they are discussing the latest news.
"Did you see them?"
"Did you see the bride?"
"Did you see her belly? She really can't hide it anymore."
"Oh my god he's so handsome I will rebuild his clan for him if he wants me to!"
"Ew, he's a criminal…"
"I know, it's so exciting!"
"How does she look so good being pregnant though?"
"I heard it's actually Toshi's baby."
"No, it's not."
"What do you know?"
"Shhh, the Hokage's here!"
Kakashi finally shows up, his Hokage cape wonky on his shoulders, holding a copy of icha icha paradise.
Sasuke mutters as he walks by, "If you read a word from that book out loud today I'll blink you into another dimension."
Kakashi gives a light, embarrassed chuckle, and takes a few more minutes to quietly settle in his office. He clears his throat and the room becomes silent.
"Well… Sakura, Sasuke," he starts with a look at each of them, "I, your friends, and the people you haven't invited who are waiting at the door of my office and on the street outside of the building, are gathered today to witness the union of two of my students. I, erm, usually do a little speech for young couples about growing love and affection, but you guys went straight to serious business," he says with a glance at Sakura's round belly.
A light, slightly embarrassed laugh travels through the room, and Sakura glares at Kakashi.
"Keep it short," Sasuke cuts in coldly.
"Anyway," Kakashi says as he looks away from Sakura's burning stare. "I trust you to take care of each other. I have seen you grow into adults, with your ups and downs, and with the support of your friends you both became some of the most talented and powerful shinobis I know. It's not an easy mission ahead but I'm sure with teamwork you will be successful. Sasuke, Sakura doesn't need anyone to protect her, she is strong and independent, but even the strongest needs a shoulder to rest on when life gets in the way. I know you can take care of her better than anyone else. It takes someone with character to support someone with character." He takes a short pause and turns to Sakura.
"Sakura. Sasuke is grumpy and dramatic, he never listens to his teachers and he's a pain to train, but I know that you know all of this and accept him as he is, and for that he is lucky to have you. Please stay by his side on his new path."
He turns again. "Sasuke." The tone in his voice is serious and solemn. "Do you promise to love, respect, and cherish Sakura, and provide assistance and protection as long as you both shall live?"
There is a slight pause but Sasuke's reply comes easily, clear and sincere.
"I promise."
"Sakura, do you promise to love, respect, and cherish Sasuke, and provide assistance and protection as long as you both shall live?"
Sakura smiles. "I promise."
"Well," Kakashi says, and his tone slightly lightens. "As the sixth Hokage I hereby declare you husband and wife."
A light wave of cheers goes from inside the room to the hallway and spreads louder down the street until they can hear it through the windows. Sasuke and Sakura's eyes meet. His hand slightly tightens around hers.
"Hey Saske!" It's Naruto's voice, loud and shameless in the middle of the room. "You can kiss the bride!"
A whisper goes over the people gathered in the office. None of them has actually ever seen them being close, barely even holding hands just now for this ceremony. The group holds its breath.
Sakura hesitates. They have never been affectionate in public, and even just in front of their friends, it feels like a lot. She doesn't want to do something that would make Sasuke uncomfortable. But when he takes her by the waist and gently brings her closer, she leans into his touch without hesitation. He leans in until their foreheads touch and the crowd sighs. Their eyes meet and she sees he is thinking about something. Before she can think, she feels the floor shift under her feet.
She loses her footing upon landing and Sasuke catches her, and kisses her. For a few seconds her mind is empty and she forgets about the whole world. When they pull apart, she looks around herself. She is in his embrace, outside, on the top of a building down the street from the Hokage tower. The wind – is it the wind or is it the way he is holding her so close – makes her shiver. She looks at the roofs of the village. Sasuke used his rinnegan to switch places with something and leave the Hokage's office.
"Did we leave them all hanging?" Sakura asks. She glances around them and spots a bird's nest in a gutter next to them. She understands. "Did you leave our friends and the Hokage with a pigeon?"
Sasuke tilts his head slightly. "I wasn't looking forward to walking out through the crowd."
She shakes her head in disapproval but he holds her closer.
"I told Naruto we'd leave early," he says to explain, "we can have dinner with them tonight, we just have time to go get changed."
"Aren't you leaving this afternoon?..."
Sasuke's eyes briefly smile. "Tomorrow. Tonight I thought we could… enjoy the night as newlyweds. What do you say, Mrs. Uchiha?"
Sakura's heart skips three beats at once. There, standing on the windy top of a building on a chilly day of March, she suddenly feels incredibly warm. She leans against him and kisses him again. "I'm all yours."
They do have dinner with their friends in the evening, in a cozy and discreet restaurant downtown. Ino and Hinata keep chatting excitedly with Sakura. Naruto gives a speech that would have been more coherent if he had given it before drinking several beers, but they get the general idea of it and are very grateful for his kind words.
When they finally find themselves alone at home as husband and wife, something feels different, while at the same time being all exactly the same. Sakura is still gorgeous, soft, and her scent and her warmth are all the same he is used to, and yet she is also so much more. She takes off her top and reveals delicate white lingerie. He picks her up and brings her to the bedroom. He kisses down her neck and along her collarbone, down the lacy, ivory strap of her bra to her breasts. She abandons herself to his touch. When she undresses and lies down for him he knows it's only for him. She is still as fiery, as desirable, but now she is his, and no one else can see her like he does. When he leaves she will wear his family crest and bear his name and everyone will know she is his wife. How did he get so lucky?
The night is well advanced when they finally fall asleep, hair tousled and bodies pleasantly limp with bliss, tangled together and wrapped in the wrinkled sheets.
In the early morning, Sakura feels Sasuke brush her forearm to wake her up before leaving.
"Sakura."
She opens sleepy eyes and raises her head slightly. He squats by the bed and she feels his hand on her belly. She covers his hand with hers.
"Be safe," she whispers.
"You too."
When she hears the front door close behind him, she rolls on her side and presses her nose in his pillow. She falls back asleep before his side of the bed gets cold.
His first mission as captain goes smoothly, leading comes to him naturally, and the team completes the mission without incidents. He doesn't think about it further once he has given his report, and it's only when he goes to pick up his next assignment that he realizes he probably should have been more worried about his performance. Kakashi does not look at him. Sasuke can guess the pinched lips and the tense jaw under his mask.
"I got the reports of your team for the mission you led last week," Kakashi says slowly. "According to them you are…" he picks up a form on his desk to read it, "too severe, cold, arrogant, rude - rude was mentioned three times, stubborn, and… disagreeable. The reports pointed out that you didn't follow the suggested route or the mission plan, you apparently told people that they were "annoying" and "noisy" and one that he was… "a loser". If I didn't know you I'd think they are exaggerating."
Sasuke briefly blanks. When listed out loud like this, it indeed sounds much worse than he thought. He hates to admit it but his short temper does make him a difficult team leader. He is used to working alone and has a low tolerance for complaints and setbacks. Naruto and Sakura are used to it but other people don't give him such an easy pass. Still, he had not realized that his behavior had been such a problem and the team had been able to complete the mission with quite good cooperation between the members. He realizes that he is disappointed that he did so badly without even being aware of it, and disappointed that he won't lead the team again. Kakashi was right and it's an enjoyable position not to have to follow someone else's orders or decisions, and he was looking forward to doing it again the next time he has to work with a team. He stares at the desk as he waits for Kakashi to speak further. When nothing comes, he looks up. Kakashi's eyes have softened in a strange expression.
"The team members also noted that you had a very good knowledge of the area that was essential to the mission," he says. "You saved three of them on two different occasions, you took an easier route to avoid the mountains, changed the plan to spend a night in a shelter instead of outside when it snowed, and led them to complete the mission a day earlier than planned with no injuries. They are looking forward to working with you again," Kakashi says as he pushes a new scroll on his desk towards Sasuke.
Sasuke remains still, conflicted between relief and the embarrassment of receiving praise. He picks up the scroll. "Thank you."
"Well done."
Sasuke nods and turns to leave but Kakashi speaks again.
"Sasuke– I know you use "loser" as an affectionate term but–"
"I don't."
"Right. Anyway, please don't use it again with your team or I'll have to write you up."
"I hear you are appreciated as captain," Sakura says, when he comes home in the evening and she walks up to him as he takes off his shoes.
"How do you know?"
"Shikamaru told Temari who told Ino who told me."
Sasuke sighs.
"I'm proud of you," Sakura says, as she stands on her tiptoes and kisses him.
Her words move something inside him. He isn't sure when the last time someone was proud of him is, or even the last time he was proud of himself. Would his daughter be proud of him? He holds Sakura tight.
Sasuke's mission in the North goes much faster with Naruto's help. In between his outings with the ANBU team they go together to the most dangerous areas in the mountains and make great progress. On top of having twice the amount of power, they are used to fighting alongside each other and Naruto is a valuable tactical help. It is almost too easy. Naruto is as chatty as ever and Sasuke doesn't go one night of the mission without hearing great details about Hinata and their baby.
"... The book says it's normal but I still think it's weird, you know?" Naruto says in the evening as they camp around a small fire for the night and Sasuke wishes he could sleep but Naruto has a million more personal things to share.
"... The book?" Sasuke asks.
Naruto nods. "Hinata bought me a book because I had too many questions. It has a lot of info about pregnancy. It says right now the baby is the size of a cabbage and soon it'll be the size of a pineapple. What size is your baby?"
Sasuke shrugs. "I don't know."
Naruto gives him a very concerned look, like not knowing what vegetable your baby is is the utmost negligence. "I can lend you the book when we get back home," he says seriously.
The mission goes as planned and they come back to the village on the expected date, two weeks after their departure. When Sasuke comes home, the apartment is silent. A ray of soft light comes from the bedroom. He quietly slides the door open. Sakura is fast asleep, hugging a pillow against her belly in the warm halo of the bedside lamp. She's wearing one of his t-shirts but her bump is stretching it. He sits on the bed next to her. She stirs.
"Oh…" She realizes it's him. "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in. I could sleep through anything lately." She stretches."How was your mission?
"It was fine."
"Any injuries?"
"Naruto lost a fight against one of his clones."
She sits up. Her belly is impressively large and round. Every time he sees her he thinks she won't get bigger and yet she still does, and every time he catches himself thinking how beautiful she is. There, on her bed, still groggy from her nap, her cheeks are glowing, her hair is longer than it has ever been, and her eyes sparkle in the dim light. The curves of her body give her a softer look.
He frowns when he looks at her further. "Are these my sweatpants?" he asks.
"Mine don't fit anymore," she says with a pout. "I can't see my feet anymore."
"You look good."
Sakura sighs. "I feel huge."
Sasuke looks at her belly again. "What size is the baby right now?" he asks.
Sakura hesitates. "... About ten or twelve inches maybe?"
"If it were a vegetable what would it be?"
She blinks. "A… a large eggplant, I guess?... Why?"
"I just wanted to know."
"She's upside down, she was kicking my ribs during my nap."
"Tell her to let you sleep."
"She can hear you, you know."
He is briefly taken aback. "Really?"
"Yeah. She knows your voice."
"How?"
"Babies get used to the voices they hear the most."
He looks back at her belly. For a second he wants to speak but he doesn't know what to say. Is it stupid to talk to an unborn baby?
He kisses the top of her stomach. "Please let your mother sleep."
At the end of March, Hinata goes into labor. Everyone in the hospital is there for her. She gets the most comfortable birthing suite in the maternity ward and all the nurses pamper her. Naruto is all over the place but he knows how to support his wife when she needs it, and his unfailing optimism makes Hinata smile. The delivery goes like a dream. The baby is born quickly, healthy and strong, and Hinata barely needs time to recover. She is glowing and ready for visits within hours. Visitors from Konoha and from other villages keep coming and showering Hinata and Naruto with gifts and wishes of joy and happiness.
Sakura is thrilled that everything went fine for Naruto and Hinata, and seeing their baby makes her even more impatient to meet her own. She watches them from afar during her shift at the hospital as they get used to the new addition to their family and take care of their baby together. Her own belly has gotten heavier. She still has two months to go but it feels like every day is harder. She watches Naruto coo over Hinata and she finds herself wishing that Sasuke were sometimes more expressive. She wonders how Sasuke will be when their baby is born. He has made tremendous progress since they started seeing each other but he is still nowhere near showing public affection like other husbands do. She hopes that when the baby is born, Sasuke will feel more comfortable showing his feelings.
Sasuke notices how different Naruto is when he visits the day after the baby was born. Naruto, who is usually so loud and careless, is quiet and slow when showing his baby. He knows, just seeing the way Naruto looks at his baby, how he holds him and rocks him to sleep, that he would give his life for him.
"It feels weird…" Naruto tells Sasuke without looking away from his newborn, "but in a good way."
Sasuke stays awake in bed longer than usual that night. He doesn't know if he can feel this kind of affection. How to be sure he will love his baby enough? What if he just can't? What if he already gave everything to Sakura and he doesn't have enough for two people?
Sasuke is given a different mission while Naruto is off from work and they can't go together to the North. He comes home late in the evening and finds Sakura leaning over the kitchen table as she checks a pile of documents.
"Still working?" he asks when she doesn't even look up as he joins her in the kitchen.
She nods. "I have so much left to do before next week."
"Next week?"
"Yeah, the trip."
"The trip?"
"The medical aid trip, I've been planning for it for months."
He blinks at her. Surely he's not understanding this right. "You're going?"
"Yeah, why?"
Sasuke can't help an obvious gesture at her belly. "The baby!?"
"I'm pregnant, I'm not sick."
She moves away from the table and her belly bumps into a chair. Sasuke opens wide eyes. "See?"
Sakura shrugs. "Some of these people wait for the doctor for months, for some of them it's a question of life or death. I can't cancel just because I'm feeling a bit bloated."
Sasuke doesn't hide a roll of the eyes of irritation. "You're not a bit bloated, you're over seven months pregnant!"
"So what? You're missing an arm and you still go on S-rank missions."
"My arm isn't going to go into labor early!"
"I won't go into labor if I'm just walking."
"Let Shizune go."
"Shizune did it last summer, it's my turn. If she goes this time again I'll have to do the next one after the birth and I don't want that. I can't ask her to do it three times in a row. And I really like these trips."
"You can go next year!"
"It's not like I'm going on a dangerous mission, I'm not going to run or fight."
"Last month you fainted when you stood up from the couch and now you want to go on a trip outside of the village?"
"It was two months ago, I'm feeling much better now. I'll just take my time, and the team will help me."
Sasuke paces back and forth in the kitchen but cannot help himself. "This baby's my baby too and you're my wife, and I– I… "
There is a silence.
Sakura is almost shaking with anger. "... And?" she repeats after him, daring him to finish his sentence.
He hates whatever he was about to say. He sighs and his shoulders drop. "Please don't go."
She shakes her head. "You go on all these missions, I don't even know when you'll come back, or if you'll come back, and now you can't accept that I leave the village for three weeks?"
"I'm not pregnant."
"You're still the father of this baby! You think it doesn't matter if you don't come back?"
"Sakura–"
They barely exchange any words for the rest of the evening. When they go to bed, she lets him hug her. She doesn't turn towards him but she doesn't move away.