𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

Birthday

"So? How did it go?"

As usual, Kannon and I sat across from Sasuke with Ayumi in between us, and he began questioning me about the appointment. I sighed and slouched in my seat, and the Uchiha narrowed his eyes at me.

"You look horrible," he said bluntly. I rolled my eyes as Kannon snickered beside me, shooting her a "don't you dare" look. "Have you been taking care of yourself?"

"Yes, of course I have," I said in exasperation, throwing my hands into the air. "I just haven't been sleeping well these last couple of days."

"Welp, I'll be outside if you need me." Sasuke and I looked up as Kannon rose to her feet, saluting at us before making her way towards the door. Rather than question her actions, Sasuke and I turned back to each other, resuming our conversation.

"Why? Is it Ayumi? Are you finding it hard to manage on your own?" he asked with concern, shifting uneasily in his seat. "I thought Kannon was meant to be helping you? And that nanny?"

"No, it's not Ayumi," I sighed, covering my face with one hand. "I've been managing fine with her. It's just that I've had trouble sleeping because of this... nightmare. I think it'll pass soon, so I'm not too worried about it."

"Did your midwife say anything about it?"

"I never told her much about it. It doesn't seem like a big deal, so I don't think she'd need to know."

Sasuke groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Why are you having nightmares all of a sudden? You were perfectly fine back home," he said in puzzlement. 

"That's because my whole life was a nightmare at the compound," I joked, making Sasuke shoot me a cold look.

"Very funny. If your nightmares keep persisting, then talk to your midwife about it. Get some sleeping pills or whatever. Running on no sleep isn't a good idea."

"Yes," I said, giving up on the matter.

"What else did she say? Specifically, about training?"

"Well... she said she'd prefer it if I stopped altogether..."

"But?"

"... but she said a maximum of three days a week is okay enough for her," I finished. Behind the glass, Sasuke looked like he wanted to smack some sense into me.

"Well, if she prefers you to stop altogether, then I would prefer it if you did as she said," said the Uchiha in a falsely sweet voice. "You're training every day and then failing to have adequate sleep afterwards. It's not healthy if you keep on going like this. You'll burn yourself out eventually, and that's not a good thing. Obviously."

"Yes, I understand," I said glumly, crossing my arms. Ayumi began to let out small cries, so I reached over and gently began pushing her pram back and forth. "Kannon was going to try and teach me some basic wind techniques, since I've already got a decent amount of water and fire nature techniques done."

At that, Sasuke slammed his head against the glass, making me jump in fright.

"Tera, what part of 'you're pregnant' don't you understand?!" 

Aghast, Sasuke stood up and threw his hands in the air, shaking his head at me.

"Since finding out you were pregnant, you've trekked across three countries, continued your standard training as if you weren't carrying a baby inside of you, mastered a completely new branch of jutsu that we barely know anything about, been struggling to balance sleeping with taking care of an infant and recurring nightmares, and now you want to learn an entirely new chakra nature? Forgive me for sounding condescending, but there's only so much you can do! God knows why on earth you want to do so much at such a crucial time like this! You're pregnant! And I don't goddamn care if you have the chakra of some demon or whatever in you! You have the body of a human, and a body carrying another human being at that! Whatever you want to do can wait until these nine months have passed- can't you at least wait that long?"