Tuesday, 14th of April. Baby is two weeks old.
Sasuke was watching over Sakura's shoulder as she changed the blanket of his baby. To be very honest, the image he had of a just born baby had nothing to do with what was in front of him. He imagined them more... human looking. He obviously loved his child but that wasn't enough to deny her strange appearance. Her skin was completely see-through and he could see all the veins trailing her body. She also had this weird hair covering her entire body and he had no idea where it came from. As far as he was concerned, he had never met anyone with that much body hair. As he watched her, she opened her eyes. She had started to blink the previous night and both him and Sakura saw that she took the famous black Uchiha eyes. A part of him was sad that she hadn't taken the minty green colour of Sakura.
"Why does she have so much hair?"
"That's called Lanugo. It will go away when she grows bigger and stronger. I know she looks weird but don't worry. Just imagine that for the next weeks she will grow like she would in the womb. At the forty-second week, she will look like what you expected in the first place."
"So how do we help her."
"No touching. She can't differenciate a gentle touch from something painful and her skin is too fragile for the moment. We need to avoid holding her as much as possible. No loud noise either. She is too sensitive and will react badly to them. The lights needs to be turned off in this room all the time. She is only starting to open her eyes so she is too sensitive to it. She needs to sleep a lot."
"She doesn't move so how do we know that she is awake."
"She twitches. Her bones and muscles aren't fully formed so she can't move a lot. We need her to gain some weight."
"That's what this tube does?"
"It is. Her intestines are very weak and are not ready for food yet so for now she will eat through her veins."
"So I can't touch her at all?"
"I know that you want to be close to her but right now try to avoid it."
"Can you still sing songs to her?"
She laughed and looked at him. "Yes, I can sing. Can I ask you something?"
"Hn?"
"Why did you give her my t-shirt?" he blushed and walked away from her. If he said it to her, she would laugh at him. He heard her follow him and so he left the room. She closed the door behind them and she stopped him. "Sasuke, answer me. Why did you give her the t-shirt that you gave me? I just want to know so I know if I can take it back or if I need to give it to her permanently."
"I don't want to speak about it."
"I am your wife. You shouldn't feel ashamed."
He looked at her and she seemed so sincere and beautiful right now that he said it out loud. "She was in you for all this time and is connected to you. I see her move a little bit everytime you talk to her but she doesn't react anymore when I do. You told me that you sleep with it so you can feel like I am with you and I thought that it could do the same for her."
"First of all this is the cutest thing I have heard in my entire life. I know that you might feel like she is more connected to me but I can guarantee you that she isn't. I have a hard time connecting with her too. She is two weeks old and she wasn't supposed to be born. Imagine, this would have been week 29 of my pregnancy so it's normal that we can't bond with her. Wait until you can hold her."
"Is it normal?"
"Yes it is. I can see that you care about her. You ask questions, you spend hours of your day watching her crib, when we fall asleep at night you stare at it and you constantly make sure that she is doing fine. You just can't bond with her yet but you will."
"What if I never do?"
"You will. You might even be a better parent than me."
"I don't know how to be a parent."
"No one does. I don't. I learn as I go. The only thing that I have is the medical knowledge to take care of that baby. If it makes you feel better, the next time I do a treatment on her I'll show you how to do it so we can do it toghether."
"Thank you..."
He heard a cough coming from behind him. Sakura and him turned around and saw Karin standing there. "Sorry to interrupt. Can I talk to Sakura?"
Sasuke looked at his wife who took his hand. "Stop worrying. I'll be right back."
She left with Karin and he went back inside to stay with his daughter.
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"What do you want?"
Sakura and Karin were sitting on a branch of a tree outside. Sakura felt at peace even if she was sitting next to someone who used to be an ennemy in the past.
"I just wanted to congrtulate you."
"You've avoided us for two weeks and now you say it?"
"I needed time to process."
"That's fair. There's something I wanted to ask you. You were in Sasuke's team before the war. How was he like?"
"Cold. Extremely cold. He didn't speak much, never smiled or laughed. I saw him cry once when he killed his bother which didn't make sense. He wanted to kill him so badly and when he finally did, he cried over it."
"It's complicated."
"It always is with him. You're lucky you know. All the time I was in his team I secretly hoped that I will be the person who would turn him good. It sounds stupid today but I really believed that I will have what you have with him but the day that he nearly killed me and moved on, I realised that I will never be that person to him."
"Can I be honest with you?"
"Am I gonna get hurt?"
"Probably."
"Well... go ahead."
"Growing up, Naruto and I always tried to make Sasuke happy. We tried to make him smile and forget about his trauma. Even when he was away we ran after him to bring him back to put him on the right path again. All you and your team did was encourage him down his wrong path, you even helped him. There was no way that you could've made him happy because you made him think that the person that he was was good enough. We didn't. Naruto nearly killed him to bring some sense into him and I fought him hard, really hard when he came back to show him that what he did was not ok. Naruto triggered him to change and I triggered him to open up a bit more. We always had his best interests at heart, you didn't. You wanted him and you didn't care about what version of him you were getting."
Karin stayed quiet for a few minutes. Sakura let her take everything in.
"How do you know that he loves you? I mean... it's Sasuke..."
"Because he shows it. He shows it all the time in his own ways. He asked me to marry him, he saved my life, he tried to keep me safe, he nearly killed someone who hurt me but most importantly, he told me that he loved me and I believed him. Sasuke doesn't lie or doesn't do things he doesn't want to do."
"I get it. Do you want me to leave you two alone?"
"No I don't. You were his team mate and you saved his life. I would never ask you to leave us. I only ask you to respect my relationship with him, that's all."
"I don't know how to act with him."
"Maybe the next time he thanks you, don't tell him that it creeps you out for a start." she laughed. "Just talk to him and get to know him. You never got to get to know him and now is your chance. He changed and became more like who he was before his family got killed."
"You know... in a way I want to tell you that you deserve better than him but now that I saw how he acts around you... you two are made for each other. You two just make sense."
"I think so too... It took me a while to see it though."
" Well, it only took me two weeks to see that. You find the right words to use around him and he is more open to you."
"Yeah... that didn't happen in one month though." she remembered everything that had happened since the day that he came back to Konoha after his two years journey. Everything had changed since then and for the best.
"I really wish the two of you the best."
"Thank you. Go talk to him! He's probably with Sarada now."
The red haired kunoichi jumped to the ground and lifted her head back to Sakura. "Oh and Sakua! That baby... I really hope that she will do well and if you ever need anything just ask me. I'm here for you."
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Sasuke was standing next to the crib when he heard the door open behind him. He initially thought that it was Sakura but it didn't sound like her footsteps. Just as he thought, Karin stood next to him.
"Hi little Sarada."
"Speak quietly."
"I was whispering!"
"You were whispering too loudly."
"So I come here to congratulate you and have a chat with you and that's how you speak to me?"
"You're still being too loud."
"I AM WHISPERING!"
"You whisper too loudly."
"Is it better like this?" she kept adujting her voice until Sasuke nodded. "Congratulations on the baby. I'm glad that I could help to bring her out."
"Thank you for helping us."
"I just talked to Sakura."
"I know, you left with her."
"I know that you know. Stop being annoying I was trying to introduce the next topic."
"I am not being annoying, you are stating obvious things and I am pointing them out."
"Shut up and listen. She loves you and she told me that you love her too. If you do anything that will break her heart I will end your life. This girl is a sweetheart and I hope that you can see it."
"I can. Don't threaten me."
"I was threatening you for the form."
"It was pointless. I won't hurt her."
"You better."
She tapped his shoulder and left the room Sasuke rolled his eyes with a smile. She was annoying but she made him laugh. He missed having someone he could just mess with. Now come to think of it, he missed Naruto... a little. He wondered how his friend was doing. Was he handling the first weeks of his baby well? Was he having the same doubts as Sasuke? Probably not. Naruto was a ball of optimism and he was most likely making the best out of his time as a father.