The Monster in the Gray Overcoat

Chapter 9 (Epilogue)

EPILOGUE

"Sasuke?! Sasuke!" The gray walls only echo her own voice in reply. "Sasuke, you baka! Where the hell are you?!"

Then she sees it. A shadow moving into the doorway a few feet away. She takes a stance, ready to fight even in her delicate condition. The figure moves in.

--"Sakura?!"—

--"Karin?!"—

The two women shout one another's names in unison, each surprised to see the other.

"Karin! Is Sasuke here? Have you seen—aargh!" The young woman clutches the bottom of her swollen abdomen.

"Sakura! What the hell are you doing here? Like that?! You should be in bed! You look like you're about to pop, and...and...did you...did you just have a contraction?!"

"Well it sure isn't indigestion! Do you know where Sasuke is? He doesn't even know he's going to be a father, dammit! He's going to miss the birth of his own first child! I came out here to find him before that happens! Now is he here or not? I've been looking everywhere for him for months now! This is the last place I know to check!"

"N-no, sorry...he just pops in and out sometimes like a ghost that haunts the place. Ya never know when you'll see him, or for how long..."

"No need to tell me that!" Sakura agrees. "Oooh! That was a big one! "

"Here, Sakura, lie down quickly! I know this lab isn't as comfortable as a hospital room, but at least I have medical training. There's no time now for you to get back to Konoha's city limits. I'm afraid you'll have to deliver here. I will help you!"

"Well I guess I—ooooh!---don't have any choice now. SASUKE, YOU BASTARD!!"

"Someone call for me?"

"Sasuke!" the two women call out in happy surprise.

Sasuke's eyes pop open wide upon seeing his wife's bloated belly.

"S-S-Sakura? Y-you're...p-pregnant??"

"No, I just ate one too many watermelons! Where the hell have you been?! I didn't find out about the baby until after you left and you haven't come back since then! If I hadn't come here, just now, and by some stroke of luck actually found you here, you would have missed the birth of your first child! But you're here now, and I guess that's all that matters." She offers Sasuke a warm smile, his presence in time for the birth being enough to quell her anger at his prior absence.

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A few hours later, a new life is brought into the world. "It's a girl!" shouts Karin. "With black hair!"

Karin quickly cleans and wraps the baby and hands her to her delighted mother, who has forgotten all about where she is, or why she's in such a place.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone now," Karin says, excusing herself out the door. "Congratulations, you two!" she sings down the hall as she makes her exit.

"Oh, Sasuke...look how beautiful she is! She's absolutely perfect, isn't she?" The new mother beams at her husband. "Here, hold her, Sasuke!"

Sasuke looks, for once in his entire life, afraid.

"Oh, don't worry, Sasuke, you won't break her. Just put one arm under her body like this, and hold her head with your hand of your other arm like this."

A silent and trepidatious Sasuke takes the newborn from Sakura with the utmost care, doing exactly as Sakura had just shown him.

"She...she's so tiny. Yet...just like you said, perfect. Her little body is just perfect, already. I can tell she's strong. But until she's older... I...I just want to protect her. And I didn't even know she was coming until a few hours ago."

"Well...would you like to help name her now? We can't just call her 'baby' for the rest of her life..."

"Sarada. Her name is Sarada. It basically means "perfect body." I think it suits her. Don't you agree, Sakura?"

Sakura grins. "Sarada suits her well. Quite befitting an Uchiha!"

Mother and Father smile at one another in complete bliss before Sakura has to ask 'Papa' an uncomfortable question.

Sakura looks down, a sad expression on her face. "So...now that you've seen your new child...where will you be off to this time, if I'm even allowed to know?"

"Well...I was actually on my way back to the Leaf Village to stay for a few weeks before I leave again and I have no intention of completely changing my plans now. But since circumstances have changed...I might just stay a little longer." Sakura's head pops up, a glowing smile spreading across her face.

Sasuke, still holding the first new addition to his family, actually returns his wife's unadulterated smile of genuine warmth.

"Sasuke?" asks Sakura meekly, a curious look in her eyes as her smile fades into a serious expression. "I did it. I bore you a child. A real Uchiha, with your blood and your eyes. I wasn't left infertile after all. I actually did it..."

Sasuke snorts. "Of course you did. I never doubted you. You, and this baby, are Uchihas. Don't be surprised, be proud!" Sasuke gives Sakura his famous half-smile, reassuring his wife.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Sasuke!" beams Sakura brightly. "Now...what do you say we bring this new baby of ours home?"

"Way ahead of you," remarks Sasuke, handing the young human to her mother and helping them both off the lab table that Karin was forced to use as a makeshift delivery bed. The couple finds and thanks Karin properly, then set out for Konoha.

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"Sakura?" asks a serious Sasuke as the three head onward toward their city.

"What is it?"

"I hope you understand that I can't always be around. I still have a lot to make up for, and I can't do it all in the Leaf. But I give you my word as an Uchiha...that no matter how many times I leave Konoha, or for how long, I will always return to you and Sarada. Even when apart, we will always still be a family."

Sakura grins. "I know, Sasuke. I have known formany years that you're not one to be tied down, but also not one to give up his roots. Those roots were once only in your past. Now they are in your future. I knew back then and I know now that you will always return to Konoha. To me. To us. But thank you for saying so." Sakura gives her husband a contented smile, clutching the proof of her tie to him closely in her arms. Sasuke simply pats them each gently on the head, the corners of his mouth rising ever so slightly. PG