Tuesday, 18th of February. Pregnancy week 22.
"Sasuke!"
As soon as he heard his wife's voice, he ran out of the bathroom into the bedroom.
"Is something wrong?"
"No! Come here." her voice was gentle and he approached slowly. Her hand was resting on her now obvious bump. She still thought that she was too small but he thought that she was perfect. Everything was perfect. He stood in front of her. "Put your hand here."
He did so and waited for a second. When he was about to ask her what he was supposed to feel, something hit the the palm of his hand. It was very gentle but he still felt it. "Is that...?"
"You felt it? Yes, it's the baby."
"I can feel our baby move?" She nodded. He kneeled down and pressed his hand harder against her belly. "I can feel it." He felt so much joy that he had no idea how to handle it. He had never felt this way before. He had felt happy before, his wedding with Sakura, their first time, when he learned that she was pregnant but this happiness was different. Everything related to Sakura was blissful and moved like water. This felt more like a storm hitting him in the face.
He looked at his hand captivated by what he was feeling.
"Wanna see something fun?" he wasn't able to give her a coherent answer so he simply nodded. "Get me a light or something."
"Flashlight?"
"That will do."
He rushed to his bag and grabbed it before he moved back to her. He handed it to her.
"Ok, put your hand back to where it was. The baby can see the light now. The eyelids are still closed but it can see when it's dark or bright."
"What am I supposed to-" he interrupted his voice as Sakura turned the flashlight on and illuminated her tummy. It took a few seconds but he started to feel the baby move and kick inside of it. "It worked!" he couldn't even realize how childish his voice had become. He sounded so excited that Sakura let out a little laugh.
"Watch what you say now! The baby can hear noises too."
"Hi."
Sakura raised an eyebrow. Her husband's face was so close to her belly that it was slightly comical. He was sitting on the ground and was talking like he was an 8 year old kid.
"Did you just say hi to the baby?" she got no response for that but she knew that he was simply feeling stupid. She let out a motherly laugh. "It's fine, I talk to it everyday. I told you that you were eventually gonna do the same."
"Hn." she saw that he was slowly putting up his walls and soon he will be hard to reach. She wanted to use what was left of his openness.
"Hiii little baby, did you hear that voice?" she put her hand on top of Sasuke's. "That was your father's voice. I know... it's the first time that you hear it but he's shy. Don't be mad at him. He loves you and when you moved he made it very obvious. I don't even get to hear an I love you from him. I mean... we've known each other out entire lives and he said it once so don't take it personally."
She looked at Sasuke who was already staring at her. She didn't know if it was the light or if his eyes were filled with tears but he seemed very emotional right now. She moved her other hand and touched his cheek.
"Sakura, thank you."
Before she had the time to reply, the baby moved again a little bit. She laughed.
"Don't thank me so soon! That baby will obviously be a ball of energy, you might hate me for giving birth to it."
"No... no... I-" he stopped himself and she saw him close his eyes. She wondered what was going on in his mind right now but he was inaccessible. When he opened them again, he had regained full control of himself. "It is our baby. I would never hate you even if that child is a copy of Naruto."
"Oh stop that, you'd be glad if that child is a little Naruto. You love Naruto like a brother and you admire him. Don't act like you don't in front of me."
"Naruto is Naruto."
"Yes, and you love him. You don't have to say it out loud but admit it to yourself at least."
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Tuesday, 10th of Mars. Pregnancy week 25.
"Sakura, sit down."
"No, my legs get uncomfortable when I sit. I need to walk."
"Walking in circle is going to exhaust you and we still have a two days journey before we get to our next destination."
"Sorry but I get really uncomfortable when I sit."
He let out a sigh. Theses past days had been a nightmare. She was constantly complaining about her legs being uncomfortable. She needed to move them to make the feeling disappear but then she would complain about her cramps and swollen joints because she walked too much. Sasuke did not know what to do at this point.
"Well we can keep walking so at least you don't exhaust yourself for nothing."
"Yeah." She was already walking ahead of him and he had to run to catch up to her. "Sasuke?"
"Hn?"
"Should I cut my hair?"
He offered her his hand so she could safely walk on top of the fallen tree that she wanted to climb. He took a second to look at her hair. It had grown extremely fast this month. Her hair was now below her waist. She was doing the same hairstyle as Tsunade's and he honestly liked it. It made her look more adult.
"No. Keep it like that for a while."
"So you like it?" she jumped off the tree still holding his hand.
"Hn."
"Well, you're very talkative today." she said and he picked up the annoyed tone she used.
"I'm tired."
"It's your fault. I told you that you could sleep. If anything happened I could've woken you up."
"I don't want to risk it."
"You haven't slept in four days though. Now if something happens you won't be able to fight."
"I'm fine. Watch your step." he said that as she tripped over a rock. "I just told you to watch your step."
"You're so annoying when you don't get enough sleep."
"You're not easy to live with right now either."
"Yeah but I'm pregnant. I have an excuse."
He decided not to reply. He just wanted to avoid a fight, get to the village and get into a bed right now. He had nothing against her, he just needed some sleep.
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Friday, 27th of March. Pregnancy week 27.
"My eyes are red from the tears I've shed. Swollen as I cried-"
Sasuke's head was resting against the tree as he listened to Sakura sing to the baby. They were now five months in, more than half the pregnancy was behind them.
The previous night, they had left to another new destination. She wanted to see the sea and he thought that the Land of Tea would be good for her. Not much was going on but the land was beautiful and quiet. The journey from where they were was going to take a week, especially since they had to be so slow.
Sasuke had to be ready at any time to attack. Bandits were everywhere and were attacking them non-stop since they had left. When he was tired, like now, his ability to control his chakra was poor. He wasn't sleeping and wished that Sakura would want to settle down somewhere until the baby arrived instead of moving around too much. At the beginning, it was still easy to travel. The pregnancy wasn't affecting her the way it is now. Now she couldn't walk for long, was getting tired, was always angry and in a bad mood. He was not able to protect her correctly anymore. Well, he was if there was a bandit attacking them, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to take care of her if they were attacked by a group of ninjas.
He heard her voice fade until her singing stopped. Sasuke opened an eye to watch her. She was resting against a tree. She seemed so peaceful right now. After all the trouble that he had put her through, he was finally making her happy.
He watched her sleep during the entire night. Everything was as calm as her for once.
She got woken up by the noise a hawk bringing a letter. She watched Sasuke open it.
"What does it say?"
"Naruto had his baby."
Her body froze for a second and her mind had to process the information.
"Already? It seems like Hinata got pregnant yesterday only. Is it a boy or a girl?"
"A boy. He is called Boruto."
"I can't wait to meet him."
"Hn."
She was happy. No, she was feeling ecstatic for Hinata and him. Naruto had a family now.
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Tuesday, 31st of March. Pregnancy week 27.
Sasuke was watching Sakura as she was eating something when suddenly something jumped from the top of a tree and landed in front of her. Sasuke saw red and automatically jumped to attack. He had time to recognize something that looked exactly like the experiment from the Land of Birds. The experiment that nearly killed him and that he eventually managed to kill.
He tried to activate his Susanoo but didn't have enough time. The creature slapped him so hard that he flew away from Sakura. It followed him and by the time it got to him, a group of ninja landed around Sakura.
"We are taking her with us. Master wants the baby as soon as it is born. If you stop fighting, we will give her back to you after we take the baby."
"No one touches my wife or my child."
Sasuke jumped towards them. He took out his sword and activated the Amaterasu on his blade. He sliced most of the ninjas but he felt his chakra getting extremely low. He needed a plan and fast. The creature was worrying him more than the men. He turned around and activated his Susanoo's arm. It attacked the beast.
"Sasuke! Behind you!" he heard Sakura's voice scream and before he could react, he got hit on his back. A multitude of weapons were stuck inside of him. He grunted and fell on the ground from the pain. She was going to be taken away from him. She was going to be taken away. Taken away... Something woke him up and made the pain disappear.
He didn't know where his strength came from but he somehow managed to activate his full Susannoo with his chakra left. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Sakura being hit in belly hard multiple times. His eyes widened and he commanded his jutsu to hit the man as hard as possible. Once all the others were all down, he rushed to the man who had hurt her and he started punching him. His hand was bleeding but he continued punching him. His heart was hammering his chest full of anger. The outside world did not exist anymore and all he could see was the man who hurt his wife. He broke his nose and both their blood mixed on his hand.
Like an echo from far away, he heard Sakura call on him. He instantly stopped his movements and looked at her. She was on the ground bending, one hand holding her belly and the other holding herself up. Her face looked in so much pain that Sasuke started to panic. He jumped to her and kneeled in front of her.
"Sakura, what's happening?"
"The baby. It's coming."
"Now?!"
"I had a feeling... just before we got attacked but... it started when they got here!"
"What am I supposed to do?"
She didn't reply and simply screamed from the pain. His mind raced. Konoha was too far away from them. There was no village around and the only place he could think of was Orochimaru's lab. He knew that Karin was lurking in them but he prayed with his entire soul that she was in this one.
Ignoring the pain coming from his back, he grabbed her and jumped through the forest. Sakura was crying and screaming against him. She was trying to help him by jumping herself but she was slowing them down. He tightened his grip on her and managed to stabilize her against his hip like he saw her do with children. He felt her head rest on his neck and she was shaking. Every few seconds she screamed from the pain.
"Hold on. We're nearly there."
She nodded silently. Suddenly, she bit on his shoulder and muffled her scream. He clenched his teeth from the pain but didn't say anything. If that could make things better for her, she could bite his entire body for all he cared.
He continued jumping and running like a mad man. Sakura was getting heavy and his arm was in pain. He tried to readjust her position on his hip.
"Sakura help me here."
She wrapped her arms around him and held herself up like that. It was better but still heavy. He stopped and tried to see where he was exactly. At this exact moment, Sakura screamed against and bit him harder this time.
"Sa...suke. We need to get there... fast."
He shook his head and ran as fast as he could. It wasn't far anymore.
He barged into the cave and ran to where the lab and rooms usually were. He stopped in front of the room where Orochimaru used to make his disgusting experiments and he kicked the door open. It flew to the other side of the room and he ran in it not caring if someone was around.
"Hey! Who-"
He stopped and turned around.
"Karin. Good, help me."
"Excuse-me? Why would I help you? How dare you show up in here like that? Get-"
She was interrupted by Sakura's scream and he saw the red haired woman look at her. Her eyes moved down to the belly and her eyes grew bigger.
"What the hell..."