Chapter Text
Responsibility (part 1)
Karin had deemed it safer that Sakura spent her pregnancy in the lab they were staying at. As it had been some months now since Taka and Sakura settled there, they managed to make quite the cozy underground den, making Sakura think they must look like a tribe of opossums, only getting out to enjoy the sun when it was out, or to get some fresh food.
Sakura barely convinced Karin to do so because “so help me, Four Eyes, if I have to eat one more canned food meal, I will burn this place to the ground, you know I will do it”. Karin had raised her hands in dramatic surrender, rolling her eyes: “Geez, FINE, simmer down, you maniac!! We’ll get your damn fresh food.”
Karin changed her outlook quite drastically when Sakura and Juugo teamed up to make the most epic meal they could muster out of the mushrooms and vegetables they could find around the lab, both in the villages surrounding and in the forest -it was all vegetarian, out of respect for Juugo’s principles. Suigetsu had been obscenely moaning non-stop during the meal but it had been such a good one, probably one of the best they all had in weeks, not even Karin smacked him for making these noises while she ate.
Karin was now the self-appointed Doctor for Sakura, scheduling monthly check-ups, and Sakura had snickered in her back when she had noticed disgustingly old and weathered books on pregnancy on her desk. Though they appeared thoroughly detailed, it seemed obvious that Karin pulled them out of some random box in an attic, originally thinking that it was highly unlikely someone would come to her to help give birth to their child. Well, it looked like fate had other plans for her in mind.
Sakura was laughing at her, but she was feeling all mushy inside with how grateful and moved she was at how hard Karin was trying.
Sakura never saw Karin use her Mind Eye this much before she learned of the child’s existence in her womb through it. She used it as a replacement for echograph, though it was much more precise, considering she could see the flow of chakra quite accurately. This way she could check on the evolution of the child.
Both women learned a lot from this experience, and Karin was surprised to see such a potential for research material. Sakura herself, had tried to use her own flow of chakra to feel her baby’s, trying to guess herself how it was doing. She had this level of mastery over it and managed to feel quite a lot with this technique they developed together. Sakura had told her about the Hyuugas who had a similar way of feeling and seeing, through their eyes. She explained that in emergencies she had to request the assistance of a Hyuuga to examine someone’s condition that could not be examined through simple examination. Karin herself thought that Sasuke could probably manage to see it with his Rinnegan. They spent most of their time theorizing about all the applications they could set up with their Justus.
However after a while, as they sat in a bench they set up at the lab’s entrance, Karin had observed something:
“That’s all well and good, but honestly Haruno, what are you going to do now?”
Sakura had frown at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we immediately assumed you were going to keep the kid, and you seemed pretty excited about it, though I’m mostly blaming it on hormones–“
“Oi.”
“But! I’m still wondering... is he going to be okay with that? And are you going to be okay with that?”
“Do you think that he won’t...?” Sakura wondered.
“Not that,” Karin dismissed. “He’s a serious guy, you know him as much as I do, if not more. I meant that this is his offspring in here. The offspring of an Uchiha. The closest thing he now has to a family. The last time he had a family, it was slaughtered by his own brother. And he was alone for the longest time. Thinking that he might have some sort of issue with the whole thing might not be too far fetched.”
Euphoria and a world of theories on Justus and the way to apply them in a pregnancy setting had prevented Sakura from actually thinking about it.
“Right. I’ve been stalling a bit, haven’t I?” she muttered, staring at the trees.
“I wouldn’t blame you for it. It’s not exactly something you can think about easily.”
There was a pause, and Karin finally looked at Sakura, red eyes gleaming behind her glasses. Sighing, Sakura pulled out from the inner pocket of her tunic the small paper they had received by bird a week after they sent it to Sasuke’s location. She unfolded it and reread it for the up-tenth time.
Almost done here. On my way as soon as finished.
I’ll take responsibility.
Stay safe.
The sharp hand writing gave a clipped tone to the answer. It had almost made her laugh when she read it the first time, with the uncanny way his writing was so similar to his speech.
“He said he’ll take responsibility,” Karin sighed after leaning over shoulder to reread the message with her. “But there is a lot to unpack here. You need to actually think about what it means to have this kid, for you and for him.”
Sakura nodded and stayed there as Karin did a gesture she rarely did, squeezing her hand, before pulling away, and awkwardly pat her shoulder. Sakura had smiled at her attempt at comfort. Karin could be so adorable in the most unexpected ways.
“Thank you, Four-Eyes,” she grinned at her.
“You’re welcome, freak,” she huffed away, and Sakura giggled when she noticed her blush under the glasses she desperately tried to push up.
Left alone, in the forest, listening to the birds and the wind in the branches, Sakura, hand on her belly, caressing it absentmindedly, started to think about what was to come.
There had to be a method to it all, and Sasuke tried to hang on to dear life for this method. But nothing about what was happening was conventional and methodical. So as he ran through the forest to Karin’s lab with a franticness he despised, Sasuke realized he might just loose it.
Less than an hour after entering the forest, he arrived at the entrance of said lab, a hidden door in a tree, descending into stairs. Although the bench and small table next to it was a clear statement that someone was living around here. He saw a cup of tea still fuming on the table.
Someone was here not too long ago, and would likely come back soon. He could wait for them, but didn’t want to leave it to luck regarding the safety of that someone.
He easily followed the trail left behind and heard the sound of someone hurling their guts in the river nearby.
At the corner of a tree, he saw Haruno Sakura kneeling on the river bank and vomiting whatever she had consumed before.
Morning sickness, his mind groaned, and he closed his eyes, trying one last time to check if it was a dream.
Another wet hiccup from Sakura brought him back to reality in a deadpan kind of way. It would almost be funny, if he wasn’t so...
Absolutely fucking terrified.
There, he finally admitted it.
While he tried to even his quick breathing, more from panic than actual exertion, Sasuke pondered on wether he should leave her to throw up in private or walk up to her. It seemed his feet made the decision for him.
As he came closer, he saw that her hair was now quite long, now past her shoulders, with a high pony tail swaying on the side, though now the hairdo was a bit of a mess.
“Sakura,” he called softly, not wanting to startle her. He still saw her freeze.
He crouched next to her and she looked up briskly, seeing him for the first time in months. A bit of drool and bile on the side of her mouth, less than glamorous and still her green eyes pinned him where he stood and he surrendered himself to her scrutiny without complaining.
She then gave a dramatic sigh and he knew it would be the beginning of their little dance. It was how they preferred to interact, how they felt comfortable around each other. He was grateful that she tried to ease him back into the way of things, before they finally talk.
“Why is it,” she groaned, raising her hands and eyes to any gods above willing to listen to her laments. “That whenever I see you after a while, you always manage to find me precisely when I’m not supposed to be found!!” She glared at him so hard he couldn’t help the smile that came on his face, and gods, he had missed the blush it triggered on her cheeks.
“I can’t help having impeccable timing,” he greeted and her shoulders slumped with a scoff, before she straightened on her knees, cleaning her face with the water from the river.
“Yes, Mister Talented,” she rolled her eyes, “please come down from your high horse, you’ll break your neck with how fast you ride, thank you.”
“Someone’s in a good mood,” he smirked while rummaging through his pouches. She put a hand on her hip, looking positively disheveled, but still having an amused expression, like she didn’t just spend the last minutes puking in a river.
“Why, good observation, my friend, what could possibly be happening for such a thing to occur?”
He shook his head at her antics then pulled out a clean kerchief out of his pouch, and gave it to her so she could dry her face. She blinked at it then smiled shyly and took it with a quick thanks. She scrubbed her face briskly and then she looked proper once more, save for wild strands of her hair straying from her ponytail that she tucked behind her ear.
He was getting embarrassed at how much he was paying attention to her every move, and he admonished himself for staring too much, focusing instead on the way back.
“It’s been a while, Sasuke-kun.” He turned back to her, and the way she stood straight in front of him, with her face flush from scrubbing it a bit too hard and her clear green eyes brought clarity in his mind. “Hello,” she added bashfully.
“Hm. You look well.”
She smiled, though it looked... complicated and he didn’t quite know what to think of it.
“I try. Though now it’s a... strange turn of events...”
“Right.” He turned slightly towards the lab and she fell into step with him as they walked back to the clearing. There was a breeze that lifted the pink locks of hair in her pony tail and he realized how long her hair had grown.
He was gone a while. Still... he saw no clear difference in her body, beneath her clothes. It was hard to see any change at all...
“You let your hair grow,” he said simply.
“Ugh, right, the bane of my existence,” she scoffed, flicking her hair with an impatient gesture. “I forgot how much of pain it is to care for. I might just straight up cut the whole thing, way too much work. Plus, if I get badly injured, I can store some chakra in it and heal myself with it. It’s a bit tricky, but some hair set aside just in case can be useful...”
He let her ramble, seeing how her nervousness slowly lifted from her shoulders as she talked.
Soon they arrived at the bench. She grabbed the teacup from the table and drunk slowly from it, calming herself. He waited for her.
“How do you like it?” she asked after a while, sliding a shy hand in her pony tail.
“Your hair?”
“Yes.”
He paused, wondering if there was a right answer to the question. He looked at her and she waited patiently, no apprehension, just simple curiosity. She wanted an honest answer. He didn’t know if it was important, but she seemed to be wondering about his thoughts.
“If you find it annoying, then cut it. I think it will suit you either way.”
She smiled shyly, but there was a slight disappointment. “You’re right.”
He remembered she wanted his opinion on whether he liked it, he just dodged the question. He thought again and said:
“Long hair suits you. But on you, I think short looks better.”
She blinked then laughed and gods, he had missed that too. She placed her hands on her hips with a determined face.
“Alright then, it’s settled! Short hair it is!Thank you for your input, good sir.”
“Glad to be of service”, he drawled and she snorted at his tone. They stared at each other, both smiling.
Seeing her after his mission alone... Never he would’ve admitted it so easily before but she made him want to be honest with himself. She had that kind of power, after all. He had missed her. A lot. The memory of her pushed him through the most ungrateful of tasks. It was as if he’d been walking in a desert, thirsty and she was the first drop of water he’d met on the way. He was probably never going to admit this thought out loud. But it felt like that.
Sakura then sighed, pointed at the bench after putting back the tea cup on the table.
“Please have a sit. You might want to make yourself comfortable. I... would like to start, and this might take a while.”
Sasuke immediately stiffened and nodded. He walked passed her, sat on the bench, unclasped his cloak neatly and folded it next to him along with his back pouch. He watched as she paced slowly, likely thinking about her words, fingers both linked together, lips thinning:
“I should probably start by apologizing...”