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Sasuke has found more contentment in the past four months than he's ever known. Having Sakura, being by her side, has brought with it a peace that Sasuke had never known he'd been missing until he found it. Smiles come more easily; laughter, while still rare, is heartfelt and genuine. He will never be an expressive man, but Sakura doesn't seem to mind in the slightest. She knows him well enough now to see the way his emotions colour his gaze when he looks at her.
His birthday finds them holed up in a cave in the north of Lightning Country, sheltering from a storm for the third day in a row. Sakura, with her chakra-enhanced strength, has used a few kunai to pin the tarp they keep on hand for weather-related emergencies over the mouth of the cave, driving metal into the rock wall to keep out the worst of the wind and water while still allowing the smoke from their fire to escape.
"Sakura," Sasuke calls from the fireside, "you're going to get wet."
She's standing at the mouth of the cave, peeking around the tarp and chewing her lip. "I was just really hoping it'd let up by today." She sighs. "I didn't wanna spend your birthday in the middle of nowhere in the mountains."
"You know I don't care about my birthday." He prods the fire with a stick to clean some of the ash out.
Sakura comes away from the mouth and takes a seat at his side. "I know. But still, I wanted to make it special." He catches her eye when she sneaks a peak at him, cheeks dusted pink; she still retains her bashful demeanour, even after nearly four months of sharing a bedroll. "It's the first one I've been around for."
Sasuke had deliberately avoided everyone on his only birthday during his brief tenure on Team Seven. Every one since had either been spent in one of Orochimaru's hideouts, on the run, or while travelling alone. He hasn't bothered to celebrate since he was seven, because there was no one he cared to mark the occasion with before now. "It's not that big of a deal."
"It is a big deal!" She insists earnestly as thunder rumbles outside their bolthole. "I mean, you were so sweet to me for mine…"
"It's not a competition, Sakura."
"I know that." She puffs her cheeks in exasperation at his smirk. The light pink becomes deeper, stealing over the bridge of her nose and the tops of her ears. "I just wanted to do something nice for you, okay?"
"I know." He smiles. Her eyes widen as she watches his hand reach for her, brushing her hair back from her face and slipping around to cradle the back of her head. Then, they flutter shut as he leans down to press his lips to her own; warmth spreads through his chest as she accepts his kiss, her small fingers curling around the edges of his cloak.
It's a novel pleasure that he hasn't grown tired of, and hopes he never will; the feeling of her lips on his, her body shifting to draw nearer to him as he loses himself in the scent of her. She smells of strawberry shampoo and sweat and rainwater and home.
When he'd returned to Konoha all those months ago, ready and willing to try to form deeper connections with others for possibly the first time since he was a small child, he hadn't been able to conceptualise what it would really feel like to give his heart wholly and completely to another. He'd guarded it so closely since the loss of his family that the idea of giving one's heart away willingly had seemed to be nothing but folly.
He knows better now. There is no safer place for it than in her hands. And, in return, hers is the most precious burden to carry.
He doesn't waste time in regret; not these days, not when it comes to her. Yes, they could have arrived at this destination much sooner if he'd approached life with an open heart and clear vision as a child, but self-recrimination will not change the past.
They are here now, and that is what matters.
Thunder rumbles as his hand slides down to her waist, resting in the dip of her lower back and bunching in the fabric of her shirt. Her breath fans over his face when she draws back slightly to press a kiss to his jaw, tongue and lips trailing toward his ear as clever fingers unfasten his cloak.
His body warms even as articles of clothing are stripped away, each touch leaving his skin buzzing with want. He'd never expected to be the type of man to pursue physical pleasures; oh, he'd gone through puberty and dealt with hormones just like any other boy, but sex had never been something he felt the desire to seek, even after the war. It is only since Sakura has joined him that he's felt compelled to pursue physical intimacy.
He ends up on his back on their bedroll, flushed and panting as she grinds her hips above him. Firelight casts her in a golden glow as she moves, deep shadows playing along the planes of her body. His fingers find purchase against her clit as she rides him, stroking her with confidence gained over the months of learning what she likes. She whimpers, fingers digging into the planes of his chest, no doubt feeling the thundering of his heart under her palm.
His singlemindedness serves him well; it's what's allowed him to learn her body, to discover what she likes and apply it in a way that reduces her to a writhing, panting mess. His whole body burns when her breath hitches, legs spasming on either side of his hips. She shivers and moans when she comes, his mismatched eyes drinking her in before rolling back into his head and joining her in orgasm.
She rests against his chest when they are sated, pink hair tickling his chest as her warm, damp breath skates across his skin in the afterglow. She's a light enough burden that he doesn't mind her resting on top of him for the few moments it takes for her to get her bearings again.
But still, she eventually slips away, not bothering to don clothing before slipping out of the cave to the latrine they'd dug just outside in the rain. He cleans himself up with a damp rag and pulls his pants back on by the time she returns, looking like a drowned rat with a flush still spread across her body.
He stands and wraps her in the towel they use to dry off after a bathroom visit, fingers carding through drenched hair. Her hands find his hips, curling against the fabric of his pants as he kisses the seal on her forehead.
"I love you." The words are breathed into his neck as she tucks her head under his chin.
He wraps his arm around her and closes his eyes. "I know."
It takes a few more days for the rain to die down, and then they're back on the road again. The ground is muddy beneath their feet, squelching up and getting between their toes in their nin sandals, but it feels good to be moving forward again.
Their next destination is in the Land of Frost; it is the middle of a relentless summer, and a cooler climate will be a nice change of pace.
They decide to stick to the coastline to avoid unnecessary trouble. There are a few fishing villages that they stop at along the way, with opportunities to earn a few ryō here and there. Mostly, they chase off bandits that prey on the weaker villages while the nation is focused on rebuilding elsewhere. The scars of the war still run deep in Lightning country.
"I'll miss the sea." Sakura sighs one night, apropos of nothing. "There's nothing like it in Fire country."
Sasuke shrugs. "Every country has something the others don't."
"That's true." She uses her chopsticks to begin flaking the fish in the frypan on their campfire. "Nowhere has forests like home."
Sasuke thinks of the thick, green canopy of his youth. There are forests in other countries, of course, but Sakura is right. Nowhere is as lush and green as their homeland.
He wonders if she's homesick. If it weren't for the fact that she'd be dragged right back into working at the hospital as soon as she steps foot inside the gates, he might have considered making a stop to visit her family and friends. But, selfishly, he doesn't want their time together to end yet. He still has a lot of work to do, and after spending so long alone… he doesn't want to give her up yet.
They've both waited long enough.
He plans to marry her, when they do finally return to Konoha. His mind has long been made up on the matter; there is no one else he can see himself having any kind of future with. More importantly, there's no one else he's ever wanted besides her.
He wonders, sometimes, if this was how his parents loved one another.
He was struck one day with the sudden realisation that he'd become very similar to his father. It was a bittersweet realisation—his father had paved the way that forced Itachi's hand and ultimately destroyed the Uchiha. But Sasuke had still loved him, craved his attention and approval in a way that still aches when he casts his mind back. He wonders what his father would say if he could see the twisted path that Sasuke has walked.
Sakura reminds him of his mother, sometimes. She is a warm presence at his side, full of endless compassion and patience. But she is different at the same time; Sakura is passionate in a way that his mother wasn't. She loves her field and is forever seeking learning opportunities and ways to improve her craft. As they pass through tiny, no-name villages, she treats the sick, educates children, delivers babies, and generally spreads goodwill wherever she goes. His mother could never have been so selfless, trapped within the confines of an ostracised clan.
He likes to think his parents would have approved of her, had they lived long enough to be introduced. He knows Itachi would have.
"I met Itachi, once." She confides in him one evening, a few days out from the border. "Back when Gaara was taken by Akatsuki."
Sasuke closes his eyes and braces himself. He knows Itachi had played the part of double agent well. "Were you hurt?"
She shakes her head. "Naruto and Kakashi-sensei fought him off. But it was… unsettling. I'd never seen the sharingan in anyone's eyes but yours, before."
He opens them, fingers probing around his eye sockets. "My eyes are long gone." He sighs. She knows that he has Itachi's eyes, now. She's healed the strain enough times to reduce some of the scar tissue left over from Obito's less-than-expert surgery.
In the old days, he'd have been disowned for telling an outsider the source of his clan's advanced dōjutsu. There's no one to reprimand him now—and, if he has his way, Sakura will join his clan of one at some point in the not too distant future. It's his decision to make, how much he tells her—and he tells her everything, because he trusts her more than anyone else in the world with the information.
"The heart that looks through them is the same." She tilts his face to meet her gaze. "I only see you when I see these eyes. Maybe the shade is a little different, but people's eyes can subtly change all the time. You'd have to tell people for them to know."
"Doesn't it bother you?" He frowns. "That my clan gains power by stealing the eyes of our brothers?"
Sakura shakes her head. "You said the mangekyō was rare, right? And the eternal is even more so." He nods. "Then I don't think all that many intentionally sought it out. And yours was a gift given by a dying sibling. It was Itachi's intention that you take his eyes, to preserve your own sight."
Sasuke can't speak around the sudden lump in his throat, but she seems to understand. She looks back over the ocean, head on his shoulder. "I think…" she pauses. He can see her parsing her words, licking her lips before speaking. "I think it's an expression of love that most people could never understand." She says finally. "A… desire to protect his precious little brother, even after he died." She smiles. "He must have loved you very much. That's something he and I have in common."
Sasuke is not a man given to tears; since the ones he cried in the wake of the loss of his family, he has only shed them twice. But there's a burning behind his eyes that tells him they're very close when she finishes speaking.
She squeaks when he wraps his arm around her waist and buries his face in her hair. "Sasuke-kun?"
He shakes his head, unwilling to speak. Slowly, she shifts in his grip to wrap both of her arms around him, a gesture of comfort that he hasn't felt in a very long time.
Sakura falls ill shortly after their arrival in the Land of Frost, emptying the contents of her stomach into a bush on the side of the road. Sasuke is only mildly concerned; he often fell ill, himself, when he first started travelling extensively. It takes the body a while to acclimate to constantly changing cuisine and conditions.
She rinses her mouth and sips at her canteen for the rest of the day, looking off-colour even through her insistences that she's fine. He doesn't push. She is the medic, as she is so often reminding him. She knows her own body.
They check into a small inn in the rebuilding Shimogakure, the largest settlement for miles. Sakura immediately heads for the hospital, eager to help what she knows to be a perpetually understaffed team. Sasuke, to keep himself occupied, presents himself to the village's leaders.
For as much as his name has spread across the shinobi nations in both hushed and awed whispers, the jōnin in charge take Sasuke's arrival in stride. There is always work for willing hands in Shimo, and he is summarily dispatched to assist a team hunting down a group of rogue nin in the area.
He's used to people staring by now. Even had he not been infamous among the shinobi population, his appearance alone would have caused tongues to wag. Some openly question the wisdom of sending a one-armed man into combat, but Sasuke ignores them as they sweep the frozen plains. He proves his combat capabilities in the end, killing two nukenin and incapacitating a third for interrogation. The team is nothing but complimentary after that.
He collects his payment and is dismissed for the day. It's not that late, but sunset comes early in Frost Country, plunging the streets into sub-zero temperatures soon after the sun goes down. There's maybe an hour or two left of daylight when he arrives back at the inn to wash up.
Sakura stumbles into the room not long after he's finished showering, looking grey and wan. Her hair is roughly pulled back from her face, and flecks of blood have dried on her cheek.
"Are you alright?" He asks, eyes calculating as they scan her.
She waves him off. "Just tired. I napped earlier, but I think that made it worse."
"Have you eaten?"
She grimaces. "I really don't think I could keep anything down right now." She sighs. "Go ahead and eat without me. I'm just gonna shower and go to bed."
He frowns, but doesn't push. He's hungry enough to slip out of the room to chase down food on his own, leaving her to her shower.
The village is cold, even in the middle of summer. Sasuke, who comes from a family of fire-breathers, barely feels the frost as he stalks through the streets in the late afternoon. He settles for cheap ramen for his dinner, thinking of his friend back in Konoha and trying to remember the last time one of them sent a letter home.
They have, admittedly, been a little distracted since Sakura's birthday. Their burgeoning intimacy has eclipsed much—but Naruto hasn't chased them down yet, so he figures no one is too worried. Sasuke had, after all, been away from the village for nearly two years without a word at one point.
Still, Sakura has many more people who love her than he does. He makes a note to send a quick update to Kakashi, at the very least, to inform him of their movements when they leave town.
Sakura is asleep when he returns to their room, looking small and exhausted, curled into a ball to ward off the cold. He strips down to his trousers and climbs into bed with her, wrapping his arm around her waist to warm her.
"Sasuke-kun?" She murmurs sleepily as he draws the blankets back over them.
He shushes her. "Go back to sleep."
She turns to press her back to his chest, happy sigh escaping as she warms in his hold. "What'd you eat?"
"Ramen."
She snorts, sleepy giggle escaping. "Careful. You'll turn into Naruto."
Sasuke leans over her and scowls, meeting a single bright, bleary green eye in the gloom. "Not funny, Haruno."
She snuggles backward as he settles back down. "Mmm, you're far too handsome to turn into him." She yawns. "G'night."
Sasuke presses his face into her shoulder blade and curses, feeling his cheeks go ever so slightly pink. He's not a vain man—he knows who he is and where his value lies. But there's something about Sakura so casually complimenting his looks that leaves him tongue-tied and unsure. Is he supposed to return the sentiment? Call her pretty? She is, he can admit in the privacy of his own mind that he finds her beautiful. But he's never been the type to verbalise that kind of thought. Does she expect compliments from him? She's never complained about a lack of them before.
She falls asleep again before he can make up his mind, and he shrugs it off. She was so drowsy that she probably won't even remember the conversation in the morning.
He notices that Sakura seems… skittish, the next evening. She flits from one topic to the other, avoiding his eyes and dodging direct questions.
She's hiding something.
"Sakura."
She continues to chatter about her day at the hospital as she folds their laundry while sitting on the futon, telling him about the little old man she helped after he fell when slipping on some ice. "You'd think they'd have some way to make the roads safer, here." She shakes her head. "There are so many accidents that come through the hospital as a result of slipping on ice, you wouldn't believe it. I saw ten today. Ten. And nine yesterday!"
"Sakura."
"At least people seem to know how to keep warm. I haven't seen a single case of hypothermia, which is a blessing. You'd think it'd be fairly common in a place like this, but nope! Everyone seems to know how to handle it—"
"Sakura!"
She stops mid ramble, blinking at him with wide, innocent eyes. If it wasn't for the fact that she's been behaving suspiciously for the past hour, he'd have been tempted to believe the act. Because that was what it is; an act.
"What is it, Sasuke-kun?"
"What are you hiding from me?" He demands, hand fisted on his hip as he stares down at her from his full height.
She flushes. "Nothing." She tries to demur, averting her eyes.
"Bullshit." He shakes his head. "You've always been a lousy liar. What is it?"
Silence descends.
She knows she's caught; he can see it on her features. Anxiety wars with fear on her face and he feels himself grow cold. What could possibly be so bad that she fears to tell him? They haven't had any secrets for a while, now.
He doesn't want her to fear him. Not again.
"Sa-"
"I'm pregnant." She blurts.
His mouth snaps shut as his eyes widen. His breathing stops. He feels almost like he's having an out of body experience, like he's an outsider looking in on this moment between the two of them.
"…what?"
She flinches. She's chewing her lip now, picking at her fingernails as she looks down at her lap, avoiding his eyes. "I'm pregnant. I found out this afternoon."
It… shouldn't be so surprising. They're a young, sexually active couple constantly on the move and without ready access to birth control. It was only a matter of time.
He takes a deep breath in through his nose, kickstarting his brain. Sakura is looking at him with wide, worried eyes, and it occurs to him that she's unsure how he would take the news.
He no longer feels cold. A warm, indescribable feeling begins unfurling in his chest.
A child. A blood relative, born into the Uchiha clan. The first in thirteen years.
His child.
"That's why you've been sick." He says slowly.
"Yes." She says softly. "I started to suspect it a few weeks ago, when we crossed the border. I… had a test done yesterday at the hospital."
He frowns down at her, confused. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She wraps her arms around herself, averting her gaze again. "I… I wasn't sure if you wanted kids." She admits in a whisper. "And… I didn't know for sure until today. I didn't want to bother you over something that could have just been a stomach bug."
He crosses the room in two strides and lowers himself to his knees in front of her. His fingers grasp her chin and tilt her head up so that he can meet her eyes; her reaction is causing a niggling worry to sound alarms in the back of his mind. "Sakura." He holds her gaze. "Are you unhappy about this?"
Her jaw drops a little and the colour drains from her face. "No!"
He lets out a breath of relief. "Good."
"Good?" She repeats. "So… you're okay with this?"
"Of course I am." He's more than okay. His brain is struggling to process the news, but he can already feel that warmth becoming something frighteningly powerful welling up inside of him.
Her face crumples. He has a brief moment of alarm before she throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in this throat. "I was," she hiccupped, "so worried you'd be upset."
His lone arms wraps tightly around her. "Why would I be upset?"
"Because it's so soon." She sniffles. "We haven't talked about anything."
It is soon. But he's known for some time now that this is what he wants. "I suppose we had better start, then." He muses absently. "We'll begin to return to Konoha as soon as you feel up to travelling."
She pulls away, aghast. "No! I don't want to go home!"
"But—"
She shakes her head. "I'm not going back to Konoha yet, Sasuke-kun!"
He grunts in frustration. "Be sensible, Sakura." He growls. "The road isn't exactly an ideal place to—you need access to consistent medical care!"
He's not stupid. It might have been a long time since he's been around a pregnant woman, but he knows enough to know that there are a lot of appointments that they need to go to to ensure that the pregnancy goes well. Sakura might be the world's most talented medic, but there's a reason that doctors aren't allowed to treat themselves.
"And what happens when we go back?" She challenges. "Because I know what will happen: You'll drop me off and leave without me again. I don't want to give this time up, yet. It's still very early. I can still travel for a while!"
"Sa—"
"And it'll never be just the two of us again. At least, not for a long time." She says softly, stopping his arguments abruptly. "Even if we go back now and you decide to stay for a little while, Naruto and my parents will be all over us. I just… I want us to experience this together." She takes his hand and squeezes gently. "I know how to look after myself, Sasuke-kun. I won't overdo it. I promise."
He knows what the correct answer is: To take her back to Konoha where she can be in the loving embrace of family and friends for the duration of her pregnancy. He would stay, would endure the ignominy of being dressed down by her father for getting her pregnant before marriage, and then would subsequently correct the lapse by making her his wife.
He winces at the thought of Haruno Kizashi. The man is typically jovial, but Sasuke remembers the short, tense conversation that the man had pulled him aside for the night before they left.
"I'm choosing to trust you, despite everything you've done," the man had said, deathly serious for the first time since Sasuke had met him, "because Sakura does. But if you do anything to hurt her, I swear by the gods, boy; I don't care how powerful you are, I'll make you wish you'd never been born."
Sasuke had bowed his head and murmured an acknowledgement before being permitted to return to the impromptu farewell party. Sakura had given him a concerned look that he answered with a shake of the head before re-joining her at the table and patently ignoring the suggestive waggling of Naruto's eyebrows.
He still hasn't told her what her father said that night.
And, civilian or not, he's pretty sure Kizashi would run him through for getting his daughter pregnant out of wedlock.
So would his own father, most likely. That's a painful thought.
So, yes, the correct answer is to take her home and marry her without delay. The alternative is to have her pregnant on the road, which causes an entire mess of anxiety to simmer in his gut.
"I wouldn't leave." He promises her. "If we went back. I wouldn't."
She smiles at him in a way that tells him she doesn't quite believe him. "Maybe not for a little while." She agrees. "Until he's born, anyway. But you'll get restless. I know you will. You don't like staying in one place for more than a week at a time."
"That's different." He asserts. "I don't—none of the places we've been are home, Sakura."
"And Konoha?" She challenges. "Is that 'home' to you, Sasuke-kun?"
He stops short, because she's right. Konoha isn't 'home'. It's simply the place where everyone he loves lives; the place where, if he has his way, his child will be born and grow up. But Sasuke has probably been too damaged by Konoha to ever think of the village itself as his home.
"It's your home." He says instead.
"Yes." She puts her hand on his knee. "But it's not yours."
"That's not important." He insists. "The—the Uchiha are of the Leaf." Because that, at least, is true. His people had helped build Konoha. They had met their ends there. It was only right that they began again there, as well.
"I'm not saying we won't go back before the birth." Sakura wheedles. "Just… I want to see more of the world, while we still can. That's all."
Sasuke sighs.
He realises that she's not going to let this go. It's one of her more admirable traits—her tenacity—even if it's driving him crazy right now. "There's no way I can convince you, is there?"
"Nope!"
He frowns. "Fine. But if we run into any trouble on the road, you are not fighting." She nods eagerly. "And we'll have to marry before we go home."
"Huh?" She reels back. "Wait. We don't have to get married!"
He all but glares at her. "Yes, we do." Then, a thought occurs to him, sharp and almost physically painful. "Do you… not want to?" He wouldn't blame her. She may love him, but he knows that he isn't the greatest husband material.
Her posture shrinks, wrapping her arms around herself. "You know I do, Sasuke-kun. I love you. But I don't want you to feel like you have to, for—for your honour, or anything like that—"
Sasuke takes one of her hands, lacing their fingers together and squeezing. "Sakura." The deadly serious tone in his voice makes her meet his eyes. "I want to marry you."
Tears collect in her eyes. She sniffles and dashes them away with her free hand. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
She bites her lip, eyes searching his. Then, apparently seeing whatever it is she's looking for, she breaks into giggles. "You're just afraid of my father." She accuses.
Sasuke splutters. "I am not."
She leans forward and presses her lips to his cheek. "Of course not." She agrees indulgently, and he scowls at her. "It's my mother you should be frightened of. When she finds out we eloped in the middle of nowhere…?" Sasuke blanches, and she laughs. "When do you want to do it?"
He coughs. He's not afraid of her parents, damnit. "As soon as possible."
They marry three days later, in a small shrine in the heart of Shimogakure. The sake is substituted for water as they perform the san-san-kudo, in deference to Sakura's pregnancy; the priest doesn't even bat an eye at the request. He pronounces them husband and wife and helps them fill in the paperwork without a word.
Sasuke sends the paperwork to Kakashi via hawk for filing, with a request to add Sakura to the Uchiha family registry, and to keep their marriage quiet until they can return and tell people themselves. He makes no mention of the baby. Knowing Kakashi, he might suspect; but their sensei is far too circumspect to spread rumours.
He and Sakura stand on the top of a hill just outside the town and watch the hawk fly off in the direction of Konoha. She laces her fingers with his and leans her head on his shoulder. "That's that, then."
Uchiha Sakura.
Sasuke's lips quirk into a small smile at the thought. She wears his name well, despite its blood-soaked history.
He squeezes his new wife's hand, tipping his head to look down at her. Her cheeks are flushed a light pink in the cold, her eyes shining with happiness. They track the flight of the bird bearing their news until it's no more than a speck on the horizon.
"Naruto is going to be so disappointed when he realises he missed our wedding." Sakura sighs.
"Do you wish—" Sasuke snaps his mouth shut. It's done. If there's one thing he's learned in life, it's that wishing doesn't change the past.
"Do I wish what?" Sakura looks up at him.
He shakes his head. "Nothing."
"I wish a lot of things, Sasuke-kun." She tells him quietly, meeting his eyes. "But I wouldn't trade right now for anything, either."
He rests his forehead against hers, taking a breath of her strawberry-scented shampoo. Then, he straightens. "We should head back. We're leaving tomorrow."
Sakura beams, and allows him to tug her back to town. He doesn't let go of her hand.
Sakura has referred to the baby as a 'he' ever since she told him about the pregnancy. Sasuke, on the other hand, is almost certain that it's going to be a girl.
Once, a long time ago, Sasuke had asked his mother why he didn't have any sisters. She had told him that it was likely he'd have ended up with more brothers if she and his father had had more children, since the men of the main family often only produced boys. Sasuke doesn't think that applies to him. If things had gone as intended, it would have been Itachi's family who were of the main household, not his. He was supposed to be the spare, the start of a new branch off of the main family.
It feels fitting, somehow, for the start of the new Uchiha clan to begin with a daughter.
Sakura laughs at him when he tells her he suspects that the baby is a girl. "With a father like you, Sasuke-kun? I'm positive he'll be a boy."
Of course, he'll be happy with either. Whether it's a boy or a girl, Sasuke has already made up his mind to be the best kind of father he can learn to be.
'Father' has never been a word he'd thought to associate with himself. A father, to Sasuke, is a distant figure, a source of anxiety and a yearning desire for acknowledgement; all things he knows he never wants to be to his own child.
But where Uchiha Fugaku had had Sasuke's mother, Mikoto—who herself was an Uchiha and grew up in the same type of home that Sasuke had been born into—Sasuke has Sakura for his partner. She exudes love and care in everything she does. No child of theirs will ever feel as if they aren't equally loved by both of their parents.
These thoughts occupy his mind as they set out from Shimo, heading west, a week after their wedding. Sakura's morning sickness—a misnomer, he learns, since she always seems to feel ill—slows them down considerably. He doesn't begrudge her the slower pace or frequent breaks. They have no real timetable, after all.
They receive a messenger hawk the day after they arrive in Yugakure, containing Kakashi's congratulations and promises to keep their news under wraps. They also receive a separate, enclosed note from Naruto with the news that he and Hinata are also expecting a child of their own.
Sakura smiles as she reads over the missive and tucks it into her pack. "Maybe we should have sent him a letter."
"And have him send clones through the countryside to hunt us down?" Sasuke rolls his eyes. "No thanks. Besides, he'd tell everyone. I imagine you want to tell your parents yourself."
"You're right." She hums. Then, she grins. "He says she's due in late March. It's hard to imagine Naruto as a parent, isn't it?"
Sasuke disagrees. Out of the three of them, he's the most unlikely parent. Naruto, he thinks, has the right kind of warmth and compassion to raise a child. Especially with the tempering effect of a partner like Hinata. "Do you want to be there for the birth?"
"I'd like to be." She beams. "It's close enough to my due date that we should probably aim to be home by then, anyway." Before they left Shimo, Sakura had managed to squeeze in a prenatal appointment. Their own child is due in mid-April. The children will likely be in the same class at the Academy.
He has the spiteful thought that Naruto's kid would be better off taking after Hinata, at least academically. It's a foregone conclusion that any child of his and Sakura's is almost guaranteed to be some kind of genius.
He shakes himself. The children aren't even born yet; it's a bit early to be getting competitive over their grades.
"It'll be good, though." Sakura muses aloud. "At least we won't be the only boring parents that cut hanging out short because we have to get our kid off to bed early."
Sasuke snorts. "At least Naruto will be so busy with his own that he can't corrupt ours."
Sakura sticks her tongue out at him. "What are you talking about? He's going to be a great uncle."
Sasuke huffs, but doesn't refute her statement. She'd probably right.
She manages to talk him into using the hot springs with her while they're there. It's late and she'd been feeling sick all day, but since she's feeling better, she wants to go.
Sasuke doesn't particularly like hot springs. Being naked out in the open leaves him feeling vulnerable—even more so if Sakura is also naked and in the water with him. They've rarely bathed together since Sakura joined him, always having one on the lookout while the other washed as quickly as possible so they could switch.
In the Land of Hot Water, though, the springs are well guarded and maintained; tourists and the elderly visiting for their health are the country's primary source of income. If anywhere is safe enough, it's here.
Sakura relaxes with her back against his chest in the warm water, tipping her head back onto his good shoulder and sighing with closed eyes. They're in a smaller, private pool surrounded by bamboo screens on all sides. Sasuke can hear others nearby, but they're all hidden from view. The only way someone could see them now would be if they could fly overhead.
"Relax, Sasuke-kun." She splashes his face a little with a grin.
With his arm wrapped around her waist, he can't even retaliate. Instead, he pinches her hip and shakes the water out of his face. "Stop that."
"Ow!" She splashes him again. "Don't pinch me!"
"Don't splash me and I won't pinch you." He grouses.
She squirms out of his hold and spins in the water. She climbs onto his lap, thighs bracketing his hips and lowering her face to his. Her breath ghosts over his lips as her hands slide up his shoulders. "Sasuke-kun…" Her voice is high and thready, almost breathless.
He swallows thickly, trying to hold her gaze. The steam is heady around them. "What?"
"Lighten up!" She splashes him again, laughing as she almost launches herself away from him in the water. He splutters, the wave bigger than the last, shaking his head to dislodge the water in his hair.
He glowers at her over the pool. "Sakura."
He's not really mad, even as he stalks toward her. She squeals and tries to escape, but he's faster than her; he loops his arm around her waist and pulls her into him. Her breasts press against his chest as he presses his lips against hers.
She giggles, looping her arms around his neck, parting her lips. His tongue steals inside her mouth and she moans as his hand smooths over the curve of her backside.
Then, abruptly, he lets go, standing and climbing out of the pool. Sakura stares at him as he nonchalantly wraps his towel around his waist and uses his hand to shake water out of his hair. "Sasuke-kun!"
"Hm?" He raises his eyebrows at her, arranging his wet hair to cover the rinnegan. No sense in freaking the other patrons out.
"What was that?"
He shrugs. "I'm heading inside."
"Wait—Sasuke-kun!" He smirks as he turns away; he can hear her splashing around behind him in her haste to get out of the pool. Rather than let her catch up, he flash-steps into the changing room and collects his clothes, pulling his pants on before stalking through the corridor to their room. It's after midnight, so the halls of the onsen are blessedly empty.
He's alone for less than a minute before she throws the door open, hair curling from the humidity and still dripping wet. There are wet patches on her tunic, and her shorts are missing. She throws the rest of her clothes onto the pile he'd dropped his in when he entered the room and slams the door behind her, diving for him.
The end up tumbling into bed, clothing stripping away. Sakura has been too tired, or too sick, for sex for the past few weeks. Sasuke looms above her and noses his way down her body, delighting in her little yelp when he uses his teeth on the underside of her breasts.
He doesn't stop there, though, using his tongue to trail down her body. She'd been too shy for oral sex the first time, but a little experimentation has turned them both into avid fans. Her legs spread easily when he settles between them; her hands find his hair when he buries his tongue in the apex of her thighs, thighs quivering on either side of his head.
She's already wet. He props himself up on his bad arm, fingers teasing her entrance before slipping inside. She sobs as he closes his lips around her clit and sucks, fingers stroking her from within. The heat of her is scalding, the taste of her salty on his tongue.
"Sasu—Sasuke-kun!" She gasps, pulling on his hair. He allows her to drag him up after a few minutes of torture, leaning back on his knees to admire her.
His wife—his wife, he's still getting used to that—is all creamy skin and pink flush, big green eyes blinking up at him as she hooks a leg around his waist. "Please." She whispers as she hitches her hips up to brush against his erection.
He lowers himself back down to his bad arm, reaching down to hold himself steady as he sinks into her. She gasps; he dips his face into her throat to taste her skin. She wraps her limbs around him as he sets a gradual pace, panting into his ear. She tilts her head back as he sucks bruises into her neck, groaning at the salt of her sweat on his tongue.
Her hand snakes between them to touch herself; his fists in her hair, cradling her head as he claims her lips. It's hot; she absorbs his heat and amplifies it, warming him from the outside in. Sweat drips between them as their bodies move, her body squeezing and fluttering around him.
She's more sensitive than usual, he realises as she comes faster than she normally does, slapping a hand over her mouth to avoid disturbing the other patrons. Her thighs twitch as he moves, dropping his forehead onto her shoulder. There are tears in her eyes as she noses at his ear, fingers carding through his hair. She whispers his name in between stolen breaths, fingernails scraping along his scalp and making him shudder.
He comes with a groan, hips twitching slightly as she pants into his ear. He uncurls his fingers from her hair, resting heavily on his elbow. She whimpers as he withdraws and levers himself over to the side, rolling onto his back and panting up at the ceiling.
She slips out of the bed, donning his discarded shirt and her shorts and slipping out of the room to use the restroom. Sasuke throws his arm over his eyes, closing them and slowing his breathing back to normal.
She returns just as his body is starting to cool down. He pulls on his pants and lifts his arm; she strips off her shorts and climbs into his embrace, nose pressed to his chest. He buries his face into her hair and huffs a breath as she bares her teeth against his chest, biting softly. "Sakura."
Her reply is a sleepy "Yes, darling?"
She doesn't seem to notice the pet name, but Sasuke does. He tightens his arm around her and grumbles "Go to sleep," even as his heart begins to thump anew.
They decide not to learn the gender when Sakura manages to squeeze in for an ultrasound in Takigakure. Sasuke suspects that she enjoys needling him too much to put a stop to it.
Her morning sickness has mostly passed, and she's full of energy once again. She's not even showing yet, though she assures him that that's not unusual.
"Some women don't really show all that much until the third trimester!" She tells him as they sit and read a handful of pamphlets from the hospital. The staff there had been aghast at the idea of Sakura staying to help out in her condition, despite her protests. Instead, they'd loaded them down with as many informational brochures as possible to keep them busy.
Sasuke stares at a diagram of a pregnant belly, complete with cross section. He turns it on its side and squints.
He knows the basic biology of sex and pregnancy, of course, but there is a lot of the minutiae that he apparently doesn't know. They're lucky that Sakura is a doctor, because their travels mean that they can't always make the advised appointments.
The baby has started moving, she tells him, though it's too soon for him to feel for himself. There's an irrational jealousy there that he can't help as she sometimes pauses and presses her hand to her belly with a distant look on her face.
"It feels like a… a jerking or fluttering sensation." She tries to describe to him one night, when the movement is keeping her awake. His thumb brushes the skin just below her belly button; he imagines the flesh is a little firmer now than it was a few weeks ago. "Like he's doing summersaults or something."
"She should let her mother sleep." Sasuke murmurs, pressing his thumb in a little.
"He likes your voice." She says, surprising him. "He moves a lot when you speak." She shifts onto her back. "I guess he knows who his Papa is already."
"She can hear me?"
Sakura nods eagerly. "He can hear most things now! Mostly our voices though. There's studies that indicate that babies can recognise songs played to them in the womb even months after birth! But it's mostly voices that they recognise. Their mother, father, and others who are around a lot during the pregnancy, like siblings."
An old memory surfaces at her words, so vague he's not sure if he's really remembering something or dreaming it. "I think my mother said I was born recognising Itachi's voice." He says wistfully, closing his eyes. "She said he liked to talk to me while she was pregnant. Before things got… bad."
Sakura's hand rests atop his. It hurts to speak of his family; his brother, especially. But now that he's faced with the advent of a new one, memories of the old float to the surface more readily than before.
His lips quirk. "They left me with him a lot, apparently, even when he was way too young. He always acted older than his age." She titters a laugh. "The night of the kyūbi attack, he saved my mother and I from a piece of falling debris and lead her to a shelter."
"Wouldn't he only have been five?"
"He graduated the academy at seven." Sasuke sighs. "If he wasn't already sick and planning to die, I don't know if…"
"Hey." Sakura taps his nose, bringing him out of his melancholic daze. Sasuke blinks at her. "You are not responsible for what he had planned."
He nods, though it's not technically true. Itachi may have planted the seeds, but Sasuke had been the one to reap the bitter harvest. He could have turned his back on vengeance; he'd had ample chances and reasons to. The fact of the matter was, he'd allowed himself to be manipulated into that fight, and the fact that he is still standing was purely because of his big brother's will.
They're silent for a little while, ensconced in their little world under the blankets. Sasuke almost thinks she's fallen asleep when she asks "Do you want to name him after Itachi, if it's a boy?"
"No." His answer is immediate and vehement. "I don't want to name her after anyone."
He wants this baby to be the start of something new. A new future for his clan. He doesn't want to undermine that by cursing her with a name chosen from the list of the dead.
"Okay." Sakura yawns. "I guess we should find a book of baby names, then. He's halfway here already."
Sasuke has a twinge of anxiety at the thought of the looming birth. He'd probably feel better if they were back in Konoha, with access to the hospital and Tsunade or Shizune on hand to provide prenatal care. But Sakura is stubborn; his every gentle suggestion that they return has been rebuffed. And he knows better than to try to force his wife to do anything.
Sakura squirms out of his hold in the middle of the night, cool air seeping under the blanket as she crawls out.
Sasuke sighs. "Again?"
"He's sitting on my bladder." Sakura whines, ducking out of the tent.
He rolls onto his back and rubs his burning eyes. His internal clock tells him it's somewhere around two in the morning; this is the third time she's had to answer the call of nature tonight.
Her pregnancy symptoms are starting to have a greater impact. Not only is she needing to take more frequent bathroom breaks, but she's also significantly slowing down. She craves the strangest foods—nori-wrapped apple slices slathered in wasabi?!—and complains of heartburn after meals.
Aside from all of that, her emotions are on a hair trigger.
Sasuke had always been deft at avoiding her outbursts as a child, content to allow Naruto to be her punching bag when they were all on the same team. He will never, ever admit it, but he'd been slightly in awe of her temper as a kid. Now, as her husband, he's wary of it—she can do a lot more damage as an adult. And he, unfortunately, does not have the durability and healing capacity of a jinchūriki.
Not that any of her recent outbursts have been directed at him, either. Her most recent meltdown had been over the fact that her clothing was now beginning to no longer fit.
"I'm getting fat." She'd sobbed.
Sasuke had rolled his eyes where she couldn't see. "You're barely showing."
"That means it's only going to get worse!" She'd sobbed. "I'm getting fat and I'm tired and I just want dango!"
Thankfully, they'd been on the edge of a village at the time; Sasuke, desperate to stop her from crying, had promised dango and hurried into the crowd, ignoring the raised eyebrows of the locals. Sakura had been happily distracted by the sweet treat, good mood buoyed until they'd gone to bed that night.
Now, she crawls back into their bedroll and huffs, giving him her back.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"You're still a lousy liar, Sakura."
"He just woke up while I was outside, that's all." She groans, hand rubbing her stomach. "It's no reason for you to be awake."
Sasuke sighs and tucks her against his chest, resting his hand on her slightly protruding belly. His noses rests in the crook of her neck, breathing deeply as she sighs and shifts better into his embrace. They often sleep this way now; the heat of Sasuke's body helps the aching muscles in her back relax, she says. He secretly suspects she's simply milking him for affection.
His eyes shoot open a moment later, pressing his hand a little further into her skin. There, just under the skin, he can feel the faintest flutter against his fingers. He leans up on his bad arm, looking down at his hand splayed over his wife's abdomen with wide eyes.
"What?" Sakura looks over her shoulder, blinking in the dark. "What is it?"
"…I can feel her moving."
"Really?"
He nods dumbly, tracing his thumb over the spot he'd felt his child move. She seems to have settled now, though, if Sakura's relieved sigh is any indication.
Still, he stays awake, even after Sakura falls asleep. With a face full of pink hair, Sasuke absently moves his thumb back and forth, mind racing.
He thinks of Sakura, and the baby; of his family, and the ache in his heart that they won't be there to meet their newest addition. He can almost picture his mother's beatific smile on holding her grandchild for the first time; can almost hear Itachi's quiet congratulations.
It's not fair that they're not there, he thinks darkly. He may have given up on vengeance against the Leaf—might even be willing to raise his own family there—but there is a small, dark part of his heart that cannot, will not, let go of his anger at the Sandaime and the Council. He may have killed Danzō—and even on his most guilt-ridden days, the only thing he regrets about his death is that Karin was caught in the crossfire—but his anger had not died with him.
Sasuke isn't as optimistic as Naruto. He believes his friend when he says he wants to make Konoha into a good place, a home for all of them—but Sasuke is a realist. The Uchiha will always receive side glances and murmurings not-quite out of earshot. He and Itachi may be recognised as heroes of the Fourth Shinobi World War, but nothing will ever erase their blood-soaked history.
He has faith in Kakashi, though, and Naruto; though he will never, ever admit it to their faces. Neither of them would allow an atrocity like what happened to his clan on their watch. Konoha is already in the throes of change. Naruto had promised him that he would shape it into something better, where children can grow up without needing to throw their lives away for a greater good that they won't live to see.
Sasuke wants his own children to live in that future.
The bandits come upon them between Iwa and Kusa. Sakura is visibly pregnant now; at the end of her second trimester, there are only perhaps two more months before they have to start thinking about beginning the journey home.
They must look like an attractive, easy prospect for thieves, Sasuke supposes as the leader steps out of the trees, axe brandished in their direction—a small, pregnant woman and a one-armed man might not look like a serious threat to someone who isn't familiar with them. They don't wear any clan crest or shinobi headband. Even Sasuke's blade is concealed by his travelling cloak.
"Listen up, you two!" The large man booms as six other men swarm around them. "Jus' leave yer valuables on the road right there, and we won't hurt a hair on yer pretty heads."
Sakura crosses her arms and quirks an eyebrow. "And if we don't?"
The man grins evilly. "I'd hate to have to hurt ye, Miss." He cocks his head and looks her up and down with a leer. "Yer mighty pretty. Maybe yer man might be willing to bargain for you and yer kid's safety?"
Sasuke's eyes flash dangerously; Sakura cracks her knuckles. The men around them laugh uproariously.
Sasuke looks over his shoulder. "You are not fighting." He tells her sternly.
"But—!"
"No. I'll handle them."
Sakura looks mutinous. "I'm pregnant, not an invalid!" She hisses.
Sasuke growls. "Sakura. You promised."
It was part of their deal, after all. She huffs and shakes her head, arms crossed over her chest. "Fine."
"What's the hold up? Trouble in paradise?" The leader snickers.
Sasuke has had enough. His visible eye bleeds red and the tomoe spin into place, causing those in front who can see it to step back. A whisper of Uchiha shudders through the circle of thugs as the kaleidoscope of his eye becomes a six-pointed star. He leaves a shadow clone to anchor a Susano'o ribcage around Sakura, stepping out of the burning purple chakra and drawing his chokutō.
The bandits panic. One tries to flee and gets a kunai embedded between his shoulder blades for his trouble; the others rush him to try to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. His mangekyō sharingan flashes as his blade clashes with the leader's axe, and he charges it with electricity, ducking his head to avoid being clubbed by a farmer's hoe. The leader drops, heart stopped by the shock, and Sasuke kicks out, forcing two more away.
All in all, it takes less than ten minutes for the fight to be over. Broken and bleeding, the bandits litter the road; some are dead, others are injured too badly to move. Sasuke leans down to one of the bodies and uses its grubby shirt to wipe the blood off of his blade. The clone disperses, and Sakura picks her way through the bodies, retrieving spent kunai and shuriken along the way. She washes the blood off her hands with her canteen and doesn't bother to heal the wounded.
They continue on without another word. Their map tells them that there's a village within a short distance; they'll let them know that the gang has been dealt with when they pass through. Let them decide what to do with the survivors.
Sakura is bewitched by a few pieces of baby clothing in Ame during their visit. She has begun to coo over tiny jumpsuits and shoes, running them through her fingers in market stalls. A small yellow onesie is practically shoved into her hands by a stall owner when she begins to tear up over it, and Sasuke fishes out a few ryō to cover the cost.
She hugs it to her chest as they meander through the market, smile soft and fingers running over the fabric of the tiny outfit. Sasuke reminds her not to get too carried away purchasing clothes for their daughter—"He's going to be a boy, darling."—before getting back to Konoha. They might be able to store things in scrolls, but there's only so many of those scrolls they can carry, after all.
He leaves her to rest in an inn for a few hours while he resupplies. When he returns, she's got the little jumpsuit spread out on her knee, sitting by the window in the afternoon light and busy with a needle and thread.
"What are you doing?" He asks, putting his pack down. It clanks with new shuriken and whetstones to be sealed away later.
Sakura beams at him, holding up her work. The back of the baby clothes is presented to him, a tiny uchiwa half-stitched onto it. His throat closes up. Not even Sakura has work his clan's crest yet; by mutual agreement, they'd decided to hold off on that until they were back safe in the village, where it wouldn't matter if they could be identified. He has enemies, after all. People that won't hesitate to go after his pregnant wife to see him suffer.
Not that she can't handle herself, even so heavily pregnant. But Sasuke doesn't want to take the chance, regardless.
"I went back to the market and bought some things!" She announces brightly. "What do you think?"
He takes it and runs his fingers over the red of the crest silently, at a loss for words. Sakura frowns. "Oh, no, did I go too far?" She frets. "I'm sorry. I should have asked you first. I just thought—"
"You didn't go too far." He says quietly, handing it back. "You both have the right to wear it. You don't need my permission."
It's becoming a bit more real, now. In just over two months, the Uchiha clan will number three. Six months ago, there had only been one.
Sakura smiles as if she can read his mind. "It's a lot, isn't it?" She murmurs, thumbs smoothing the fabric back over her knee. "Sometimes… sometimes I'm so afraid that this is all some kind of dream." She flinches, and then adds wryly, rubbing her swollen belly, "Of course, then he kicks me and I'm reminded that this is all very much reality."
Sasuke chuckles and sits beside her, resting his head on her shoulder as she goes back to her sewing. He watches the frayed edges of the fabric become smooth and round, until a perfect little uchiwa is fastened securely onto the fabric. She holds it up for inspection, looking to him for approval.
He nods; she smiles and kisses his cheek.
They don't stay long in Ame—it's association with the Akatsuki doesn't sit well with either of them. They stay only a week to resupply, and head south to Tanigakure.
They cross into the Land of Rivers in the second week of March. Streams flow under sheets of ice that Sasuke is forced to ask Sakura to break for drinking water; they will melt in the next week or two as spring gets underway.
Sakura's belly has dropped, and she's experiencing false labour pains, causing them to stop every so often. She often needs to sit, or pee, or sleeps so poorly that she can't travel for very long the next day.
Sasuke puts his foot down and announces that they're going home before they even reach Tani itself.
"I think you're right." Sakura sighs, rubbing her back and wincing. "It's time to go home. Besides, I wanted to be there when Hinata gives birth."
It lifts a weight off of his shoulders. They're in the middle of nowhere, with just under six weeks before she's due—he wants to be home long before the baby comes, to have time to prepare. Sakura's apartment might do for a few months, but they'll need a house. And more baby clothes. And a bassinet. And diapers and toys and—he puts a stop to those thoughts before he works himself into a panic.
They have time. They'll make it.
But it's slow-going. Now, they take four days to travel what would ordinarily only take one. He offers to fly them with Susano'o or Garuda, but Sakura only lasts ten minutes before she's too motion sick to continue. Sasuke presses his lips together and says nothing.
Sakura's birthday passes with little fanfare. They're both too anxious to get home to worry about it.
And then, two days later, the worst happens.
She starts having contractions. She looks at him, white-faced, over their campfire and tells him that the baby is on the way.
"Are you sure it's not false pains?" He asks, voice rasping, thumping himself on the chest where he'd inhaled his water in shock.
"I don't think so." She bites her lip. "I've been having them all day. It's worse. A lot worse."
For the first time in a long time, Sasuke panics. They're too far from Konoha—at least another week by foot at their current pace. And it's two weeks too soon. "It's too early."
"Not really." She shifts in her seat. "Babies are considered full term at thirty-seven weeks. I'm at thirty-eight, now. I just—I assumed we'd have longer, since the first pregnancy usually runs later."
"Shit."
He packs up their camp alone, not even bothering to erase the signs of occupation before extinguishing the fire and helping Sakura to her feet. It's late, and they're far from any village or settlement.
But Sasuke knows this area. He grits his teeth and sets their feet in the direction of the old hideout of Orochimaru's that he knows is nearby. It's exactly where he doesn't want his child to be born, but at the very least he knows there will be an infirmary that will be clean. And a clean infirmary must be better than the dirty side of the road, right?
"Where are we going?" Sakura asks, gasping and clutching her belly as another contraction hits her.
"There's a hideout around here." Sasuke has his sharingan active and is scanning the trees for threats.
"Orochimaru's?"
"Yes. There's an infirmary." He nods firmly.
"Will anyone be there?"
"I don't know."
"I don't want to go in if he's there, Sasuke-kun!" Her voice is high with panic, and he realises that she hasn't seen Orochimaru since the Forest of Death seven years ago. To Sasuke, Orochimaru is a dangerous threat, yes, but one that he knows well and can anticipate; to Sakura, he's still the monster who twisted the mind of the boy she loved and took him away.
"I won't let him near you." Sasuke promises. "Either of you. Besides," he helps her along with his arm around her waist and hers over his shoulders, "it's either there, or out here in the middle of the road. There's nowhere else."
Sakura doesn't argue after that.
It takes an hour to get near the base. Her water breaks along the way. Sasuke is on edge and Sakura's contractions get closer together. They're both so frazzled that he's ready to attack when someone steps out of the trees and into their path.
"Sasuke, what are you doing here?" Karin's lips are pressed into a thin line, hands on her hips. He hasn't seen her in nearly two years, back when he sought out Orochimaru's help to find Oyashiro En. She'd been in the northeast then, so to see her now is something of a shock. She must have sensed them coming and come out to meet them.
But before Sasuke can open his mouth to reply, she takes in the sweating Sakura. Her eyes narrow. "What's wrong with her?"
"I'm in labour!" Sakura grits through her teeth, hunching slightly.
In any other circumstances, the expressions that cross Karin's face would be a source of amusement—surprise, concern, shock, fear, determination. She stalks forward and hooks Sakura's other arm over her shoulders. "Come on. You're headed to the base, right? The entrance is this way."
"What are you doing?" Sasuke barks, refusing to move.
"Helping, you dumbass!" Karin snaps. "Now come on, or do you want your kid to be born out in the middle of the road? It is your kid, right?" She sniffs. "Geez, you couldn't even wait to get home to knock her up, Uchiha?"
"Of course it's mine!" Sasuke snaps. He allows Karin to lead them over to a nondescript cave entrance.
Sakura freezes. "Is he here?" She asks in a whisper, looking into the gloom with wide, distressed eyes.
"No." Karin shakes her head, and Sakura visibly relaxes. "He's out east, with Suigetsu and Jūgo."
"Then why are you here?" Sasuke asks.
Karin sniffs. "Not that it's any of our business, but I asked to come here to get away for a while. I need quiet to work, damnit."
Sakura cries out again as another contraction grips her. They don't speak again until Karin opens a door and flicks on a light.
The infirmary is just as Sasuke remembers it from Kabuto's time, if lacking in gruesome specimen jars lining the walls. He and Karin help Sakura onto one of the metal slabs in the middle of the room, and Karin rushes over to one of the counters.
She returns with a pair of latex gloves, snapping them against her wrist as she pulls them on. "Okay. Sakura, you're gonna have to talk me through this. I've never delivered a baby before."
At three in the morning on the thirty-first of March, Uchiha Sarada is born.
Karin lays the baby, still sticky with the residue of birth, on Sakura's naked chest. The baby is squalling in outrage, her piercing cries quieted only by the shaking touch of her mother's glowing hand. Sakura cradles the newborn to her chest and blinks away tears.
Sasuke sits on the edge of the bed, hardly daring to breathe.
"It looks like you were right." Sakura laughs a little, not taking her eyes off the baby. "She's a girl."
Sasuke feels like he's floating, suspended in nothingness. His hand slowly creeps toward his daughter. Her hair is as dark as his, plastered to her tiny head as it is. He runs his fingertips down her little red cheek and bites the inside of his to fight off the suspicious heat behind his nose. He will not cry in front of Karin. Again.
Sakura gives instructions to Karin to deal with the placenta when it comes, her own hands glowing green over the baby to check on her health, but all Sasuke can hear is a faint buzzing in his ears. Sarada's eyes open as she beats her tiny fist against her mother's chest, almost as dark as his.
She looks just like him, he realises.
He doesn't hear when Karin comes to Sakura's other side and says something. Sakura nods and hands the baby over, causing Sasuke to snap back to attention. The buzzing disappears, the room coming back into sharp focus. "What are you doing?"
Karin gives him an unimpressed look, but her voice is calm. "I'm going to swaddle her." She nods to the sink behind him. "There's some towels in the cupboard. Help Sakura clean off her chest, will you?"
He doesn't want to let his daughter—his daughter!—out of his sight, but Sakura catches his arm when he moves to argue. He blinks down at her, at the muck on her chest, and nods. She hadn't let him hold her hand through the labour, for fear of breaking it. This is the least he can do.
A few moments later, Karin brings the baby back to them, placing her into Sasuke's single arm with care. He sits heavily on the bed next to his wife, staring down at the tiny person who, he realises, he loves more than anything. More than Sakura, or Naruto, or his brother. Not even an hour old, and Uchiha Sarada already owns his whole heart.
Well, he thinks, looking over at Sakura's happy sigh as she rests her head on his shoulder—most of it, anyway. The vast majority.
"She's beautiful." Sakura whispers. Sarada is awake and alert, blinking uncomprehendingly up at their faces.
"She is." Sasuke's voice is raw with emotion. The warmth that had spawned in his chest when Sakura first told him she was pregnant is back, but a thousand times stronger; a love so visceral that it chokes him. He loves Sarada. He loves Sakura. Both of them more than he knows what to do with.
"I'll have to feed her in a minute." Sakura murmurs.
"I'll go set up a room for you three. You can stay as long as you need to recover." Karin says from the foot of the bed. Sasuke looks up; he'd forgotten she was there, even as she cleaned up the mess of childbirth. She's smiling at them through misty eyes. "Give me about an hour and I'll come back."
"Thank you, Karin." Sakura nods, and the redhead disappears. She reaches for the baby. "Here, I think she's hungry." The baby's head is moving from side to side, face beginning to scrunch up. Sakura takes her and arranges her against her chest, using her fingers to help the baby find her nipple. Sarada's little mouth latches on and begins to suckle, causing Sakura to exhale in relief. "Oh, thank goodness. I was worried she'd have trouble feeding, and we'd be stuck out here with no alternatives."
Sasuke wraps his arm around his wife, watching quietly as their new baby drinks.
Karin waves them off two weeks later, calling out her goodbyes.
It's really too early for either of his girls to be travelling yet, but they can't spend too much time in one of Orochimaru's hideouts. Karin had kept their visit a secret, but every day spent there was a risk that he would show up unannounced and discover them. They knew that word of a new Uchiha would reach Orochimaru's ears eventually, but they'd both agreed that they wanted to be well out of range before it happened.
Sakura had spent the two weeks fashioning a sling out of an old cloak so that he can carry Sarada on his chest without giving up the use of his arm. They're moving much faster now, even with the need to stop for the baby's regular feedings. She's dressed in the little onesie with the uchiwa on the back, and Sasuke is filled with pride at the sight.
"I feel lighter than I have in months." Sakura stretches as they head into the forest. Her belly is still bigger than usual, stretched from pregnancy, but she's able to move more freely.
Sasuke snorts. "You were carrying a baby." He points out. She sticks her tongue out at him.
It takes them a week at a sedate pace to reach the gates of Konoha, where they see a beaming Naruto and a smiling Kakashi waiting for them.
Sakura blinks as she makes out their forms. "How did they—?"
"He probably sensed us coming." Sasuke would bet a fistful of ryō that Naruto has been trying to sense them coming ever since the hawk they'd sent a week ago, with the news that they were returning.
"He's going to freak out." Sakura muses mildly, as Naruto bounds forward to meet them.
"Hn."
Sarada is concealed by Sasuke's cloak, and her chakra signature is so small at the moment that she's dwarfed by her parents, so Naruto hasn't noticed her. He pulls a face when Sasuke sidesteps the blonde when he throws himself at him.
"Hey, what gives?! I haven't seen you guys in over a year and I don't even get a lousy hug?!"
"Hello, Naruto." Sakura laughs, throwing her arms around him. "We missed you! How are you? Has Hinata had the baby yet?"
Naruto's face lights up. "She did! His name's Boruto!"
"Congratulations!" Sakura releases him as Kakashi approaches. "I'm sure he's gorgeous."
"He is! He's the cutest thing ever, you know!"
Kakashi reaches them, casting an appraising eye over the suspicious added bulk to Sasuke's frame, and the visible growth of Sakura's belly. "I suspect," he says mildly, "that your friends may disagree with that."
"What?" Naruto demands, outraged. "Are you calling my son ugly?!"
"Oh, no, not at all. He's cute as a button." Kakashi waves him off with a dismissive gesture.
"He just means that there's no way your spawn is better looking than our daughter." Sasuke has the immense satisfaction of watching Naruto's jaw drop.
As if on cue, Sarada begins to fuss. Sakura darts over and opens Sasuke's cloak to retrieve her, looking sheepishly at their friends. "Sorry. Is there somewhere I can go to feed her?"
"Wait, you guys had a baby?!" Naruto shrieks.
Sarada jerks in Sakura's arms at the loud noise, face scrunching up and beginning to wail. Sasuke takes a threatening step toward his best friend. "Now look what you've done." He growls as Sakura tries to hush the squalling baby.
"Whoa, hey!" Naruto backpedals. "I'm just surprised! I mean, you guys aren't even married yet!"
"Yes we are." Sasuke sniffs.
"They've been married for about seven months." Kakashi scratches the side of his mask. Sasuke can tell he's enjoying this. "Sasuke sent me the paperwork a while ago."
"And you didn't tell me?" Naruto splutters. Then he rounds on Sasuke. "Hey, no fair! You skipped out on my wedding and then didn't invite me to yours?"
"It wasn't really much of one." Sakura says guiltily. She and Sasuke look at each other over Sarada's head. "We asked Kakashi-sensei to keep it quiet so we could tell people ourselves when we got home."
Naruto narrows his eyes as something clicks. "Hey, wait. You guys have only been married for seven months? How does that work?" Sasuke can see the gears turning in his head before his mouth splits into a lascivious grin. "Oh, I get it. You knocked her up before marriage." He punches Sasuke's shoulder. "Didn't know you had it in you, Sasuke!"
And, of course, Sasuke slugs Naruto in return. Harder. In the face.
Sakura's parents take the news about as well as can be expected—with much shrieking from Mebuki and a pat on the back from Kizashi. Sarada is passed around Sakura's friends and family, all of whom gush over how cute she is and how much she looks like her father.
Sasuke accepts this as part of his new life. People—usually, his new in-laws—come and go from their new home in the weeks after their return. Sakura files Sarada's birth certificate with the records office. Sarada grows.
He comes home from the market one day to find Naruto and Sakura painting twin uchiwas on the front of their new house, smiling and chatting. Hinata is seated nearby with Boruto in her arms. Sarada is in her carrier next to her.
The Uzumakis stay for dinner. True to Sakura's earlier prediction, they call the night off early to put their son to bed, and he and Sakura are left to put their daughter down for the night.
They stand at the side of her bassinet, looking down at the baby girl in silence. Sakura slides her fingers through his and sighs happily. They don't speak, for fear of waking her.
She squeezes his fingers in silence.
He squeezes back.