Chapter Text
I love her. She’s the love of my life. I’d do anything and everything for her… even if that meant seeing her damned best friend everyday.
Uzumaki Naruto is the nightmare of my life. Always beside my dream -obscuring my private time with my wife. It’s truly unfair that even now I have to see usuratonkachi’s face everyday I come home and every morning I leave. She’s there all the time, and why? Because she “just can’t stay away from her first niece.” I think that’s a bunch of bullshit -usuratonkachi has never been good with children, let alone excited for my first daughter.
Just the mere thought of all this pisses me off. I’m supposed to be the one there to take care of my wife while she houses our child. Not that dobe!
The brush in my hand snaps into two, startling me from my stupor, and suddenly I’m back in Orochimarus lab with Suigestu and Karin bickering nonsense a few feet in front of me. I grumble at the depressing surroundings of water tubes and tables filled with whatever crap they’re currently working on. Karin turns at the sound of my brush snapping. She sighs at the dark aura no doubt clouding the already dark bags under my eyes.
“Just go home.” “No. If I go home I’ll have to deal with that damn brat.” The two raise their eyebrows in confusion of my muttering hisses. I only click my tongue and toss the broken brush into the waste bin and grab a new one from somewhere in the clutter they’ve created. I hear the two muttering not so quietly up ahead, only pissing me off more until I can feel my chakra surge within me.
“He’s pissed because Narutos probably still at his and Sakuras home.” Karin sighed, “Whatever the case, I agree it has something to do with Naruto. He always acts like this when she’s involved!”
I ignore her deliberate attempt to wretch my innermost feelings out, and decide to return back to the scroll in my hand.
With my facade of calm and composedness, Karin and Suigestu quickly lose interest in whatever had “bothered” me from before… until there is the faint feeling of an obnoxiously bright and bubbly chakra signature I am all too familiar with. Karin turns to me with another cocked eyebrow, and I am flattered she thinks I know why usuratonkachi is here. But I am just as much, possibly even more, confused than her. The chakra signature grows stronger until the door is slamming open and in front of us stands the head Anbu in training of Hokage with my wife in arms. Her chest heaves as Naruto storms into the room and puts Sakura on the metal examination bed.
“Uh… Naruto I know you miss us but was that all necessary?” I have a mind to ask the same question. Instead of answering though, usuratonkachi holds a hand up as she continues to catch her breath. When she’s stable enough to let go of her knees for support, the dobe gasps out. “Water.. broke. Didn’t know… where else… to take her.” Her glare is then directed at me. I click my tongue at her blatant accusation and stand from where I sat at the cluttered desk.
Walking over to my wife, the evidence of her water breaking soaks her dress and legs. Her cheeks are pink in flush, most likely from Naruto running at top speed in the ending frost of March. “Are you alright?” I ask, only to be glared at by both women. “Let me rephrase that.” Naruto snips, “Her water broke two hours ago. I would’ve gone to the hospital but seeing how badly the people of the Leaf view her husband, I hadn’t thought it appropriate. It took two hours because she kept having contractions… of course you would know all of this if you didn’t fancy being locked up in a creepy laboratory all day everyday ever since you came back from your travels!” Naruto hisses. I simply roll my eyes at usuratonkachi’s over exaggeration and bend to pick my wife up. Sakura holds onto my shoulders as I walk for the door. “Where the hell are you going?!” I ignore the imbeciles shriek.
I walk through the dark halls and up a few staircases before we’re in the ground level of the hideout. Opening a door, I lay Sakura on the only available bed and immediately feel Naruto peeking around. “Would you qut it?!” Kicking my leg out, I catch her off guard, sending the dobe ten steps from the now open cabinets. Naruto doesn't so much as react as she catches her balance and rolls onto her feet. “The door’s over there. Good-bye.” “Sasuke, stop it. You’re acting like a child.” “She did her part in bringing Sakura here.” I argue. “I want her here Sasuke-kun.” Sakura smiles, bringing everyone's defenses down with a hard blow. “She is going to be the godmother after all.” I grumble at this. “When was that decided?” “Hey!” I ignore Naruto’s childish pout. “When Naruto was spending everyday taking care of me and working around my and your daughters schedule.” “Why does that feel like a jab?” “Because it was.” “You shut up!” I send another kick back into Narutos abdomen, only for her to dodge easily and stand back up as if it were a casual gesture.
“If she wants me here then I’ll gladly stay. I’ve seen people die, have killed and hold a demon beast inside me. What could be so bad about childbirth?” Sakura smiled brightly while Karin scowled and rolled her eyes. “You obviously haven’t seen the pain a woman goes through to give birth.” “Only when I was born.” Naruto flashes a grin toward her third cousin before walking to my side. “Do you think you’ll be able to handle it mass murderer?” “I’m not a murderer.” “Itachi, Danzo, Kaguya, Marada…” “You committed half of those with me.” “I know.” “If you ever become Hokage, I fear for the village.” “Not as much as those around us when you said you’d be Hokage.” “That was a long time ago.” I easily deflect. “That was three years ago!” “A long time ago.” Naruto scoffs, “He makes it seem like our teenage years are decades behind us.” Suigestu chuckles a bit, though quickly stops when no one else follows. I have a mind to cackle at his embarrassment, but I am quickly distracted when Sakuras eyes clamped shut and her physique grew tense.
In a matter of seconds her deathly grip is in my one hand and in Naruto’s other. She doesn’t flinch, leading me to believe she’s suddenly grown immune to Sakuras unbelievable strength or it’s her prosthetic that’s taking the damage. Karin regulates Sakuras breathing until her body relaxes and a cold sweat kisses her brow. Naruto helps me lay her on the bed with the single pillow fluffed under her head. “The contractions are getting longer.” Karin looks at Naruto and nods. “If it took you two hours to get here, I’m sure they are.”
“Hey I don’t mean to interrupt, but is she supposed to be bleeding?” “Suigestu don’t look under her skirt!” Karin punches Suigestu into the nearest wall, before lifting Sakuras skirt a bit. Her head pokes up a moment later, and she turns her attention to Naruto. “Was it her water that broke? Are you positive?” “A pool of water gushed from under her skirts and flooded the floor Karin. I don’t think I’m that much of an idiot to misinterpret water for blood.” “You sure?” “Shut up teme.” She barely spares me a glance before turning back to Karin. “Why?” “Because this far into her pregnancy she isn’t supposed to be bleeding.”
I watch as not only Karin’s expression turns grim but also a sick realization hits both Naruto and Sakura. Within a second Sakura is back in usuratonkachi’s arms and the three women are leaving the room. Without sparing Suigestu much of a glance, I follow after the women in their early twenties back down a few staircases, before I manage to catch Karin by the arm. “Tell me what’s happening.” “The child is pushing! They are as impatient as you!” Naruto shouts from within the room before appearing behind Karin. “Karin.” She nods and slips in before Naruto pushes me back from following inside. “You don’t want to go in there.” “Like hell.” She pushes against my chest again. “Let me rephrase that, Sakura doesn’t want you in there. You are to stay out here with Suigestu as Karin and I do this procedure.” I snarl. “You're not doing any procedure on my wife. Unlike her, you and Karin are not medics.” “We can’t spend another two hours carrying her back to the Leaf if that’s what you're implying.” “Tsunade said…” “Doctors are wrong all the time Sasuke, and Tsunade isn’t even her doctor. Why you were consulting with Granny is beyond me when she hasn’t even given Sakura a proper check-up.” I glare, “She’s the most skilled in the Leaf.” “No shit.”
“Naruto stop talking and get in here!” We both look into the room to have usuratonkachi push against my face and try to slip inside, but I refuse to allow two unqualified genin work on my wife. “Sasuke…” She begins but I stop her. “Get Tsunade or don’t touch my wife.” She glares. “I’m not arguing…” “Good neither am I…” “I can’t….” “But you will.” “But…” “You will or forget whatever the hell you plan to do.” She snarls, but looks back before slamming the door.
Two minutes later Narutos a flash of blonde passed me and up the stairs.
***
There’s too much blood. So much fucking blood.
Goddamnit! Where the hell is Naruto?!
I glance back up at Sakura, but the drug has long taken effect, leaving me with no guidance and in care of Sasukes wifes fucking life. “Dammit to hell. Where are you Naruto?!” Making a last as precise as I can, cut. My hand runs over the red organ to open Sakuras uterus. I’m assaulted with the view of a small babe covered in red gunk and connected to Sakura by an umbilical cord. I reach in and curl my hands delicately around the babe, a squeamish feeling making my stomach flip as I lift her from the womb of her unconscious mother.
The babe huffs and shivers in my hands before a long, ear-deafening cry leaves her lips. My first reaction is to flinch but I find myself wrapping the babe in a spare towel that Naruto had laid out before dashing off to retrieve Lady Tsunade per Sasukes request, instead.
It’s only as I clean the gunk off the girls face and grab the scissors to cut the umbilical cord, that the door slams open to show a winded Naruto in front of a fresh-looking Lady Tsunade. The two rush in with the door slamming behind them. Lady Tsunade crowds me and checks the new born daughter of Sakura and Sasuke while Naruto skids to a stop beside Sakura who sleeps under the influence of the sleeping drug. An unreadable look overtakes Narutos winded physique, turning it tense. Her hands don’t shake as one goes to Sakuras wrist and another goes to the pulse point on her neck. Her face drops then and her knees visibly wobble.
A small heartbeat of panic minutely burns my lungs, and when Naruto looks up a feel of great failure overtakes me. “...Did you track Sakuras pulse… at all?” I gulp, as Tsunade shifts beside me before appearing beside Naruto and taking the wrist that falls from her limp feelings. Narutos shoulders shake as her second hand falls to the straight strands of Sakuras pink hair. “Karin…?” Both women look up at me, but no answer can form around the boulder in my throat.
Though the silence seems to speak for itself as my eyes dart to Sakuras expressionless face as Narutos knees give out. The child is forgotten in my arms for what I could only imagine to be the most excruciating minute of my life, before the child is taken by Lady Tsunade and the umbilical cord is cut cleanly.
“You will need to go inform Sasuke, Naruto.” My cousins eyes closed, and don’t open until the door slams wide on its own. Sasuke stands there… and I have nothing to say.