*Gaiden: Hidden Nine*

Part I of V

by: WhiteGloves

The SasukexSakura sidestory IS driving me nuts.

I hope you enjoy!

A kick of headache woke up Uchiha Sakura that sundown as she raised her head from the table she was leaning on. The sun outside her window had cast a shadow inside the room she was in as she found herself alone and seated by the dining table with nothing but a half empty glass of water and a photo frame on her hand. Looking at the wall clock, she found that it was already past five o'clock.

He's late.

Sighing a little, she gazed back at the photo in her hand. A handsome young dark haired man is in the middle of the photo with herself clinging on his arms right beside him. It was a picture taken not too long ago, before her husband had taken a job that required so much of his time. Sakura smiled a little at how awkward her husband was as the photo was taken. She couldn't remember any other opportunities where Sasuke had stayed long for such a thing to be taken.

Pushing herself up, a sudden spasm of queasiness stopped her that made her sit back. She waited if she needed to run to the sink but seconds passed and nothing happened.

"Oh boy..." she muttered to herself as she covered her eyes with a palm of her right hand as a kick of sudden head ache attacked her again. It was already a week ago when she started having this constant sickness. Headache, nausea, unexpected loss of appetite and then craving for something rare...

Sakura isn't stupid; she knew all those signs and had confirmed it too. The only thing left is for the man accountable for her condition to arrive and take responsibility for it.

Then again, as Sakura opened her eyes with a small smile on her lips, how exactly would he react? She herself had been ecstatic at the prospect—she had cried for days when she found out another life had been inside her... the fruit of their love is inside her... How would Sasuke take this news? How would he react to find that he has become a father...?

She wanted to know. She was dying to know.

She looked at the clock again and saw it was already fifteen minutes past five. Sakura looked expectantly at the doorway but it remained still.

Impatience strung her. She was used of waiting for him but the agony of the news she bore was taking its toll. She wanted to see him... wanted to tell him... be the first one to see his genuine reaction...

She looked at the photo again, the silhouette of her body bent and unmoving.

Slowly, she lowered her right hand down to her stomach and there it stayed.

"Looks like you'll be having problems playing with your dad in the future." She whispered.

Two hours had passed and no shadow of her husband had arrived. The pink haired ninja had already prepared dinner for the two of them and was once again waiting by the couch for his arrival when she noticed a slip of paper sticking out of a an old collection of paper that Sasuke owned. Picking it up, she recognize it to be the photo of Sasuke and his team—a group of people working with him to do his job in the shadows. You cannot really call them the good guys, Sakura thought mildly as she scanned the members of those that has been following her husband like it was a mere hobby. They were former comrades of his in the days of the war—not harmless—nonetheless reliable and strong.

Then Sakura's eyes fell on that familiar girl beside her husband wearing spectacles.

Oh. Her.

A smile twitched at Sakura's lips as she remembered her all too well.

Then her grimace turned into a confused look as she asked herself—just how exactly did they make Sasuke agree to take such a group picture?

Suspicions began to form in her mind but she was suddenly distracted by a strange sound coming from the kitchen. Standing alertly, Sakura let the photo fall down the floor as she focused her attention at the kitchen doorway, her hands forming fists. Sasuke had liked using the different openings of their house be it doorway or window—just like a real ninja— but it still does pay to be vigilant. Sasuke had instructed her to be so.

But then her apprehension disappeared as the familiar form of Uchiha Sasuke in his black hood and coat came out while in the act of trying to remove his black gloves.

"Dear!" she sighed in relief, her green eyes reflecting his appearance.

Sasuke looked up at her and then down to her stance for she was still standing there with hands into fists.

He smiled.

"I don't think anyone would be brave enough to approach you while looking like that."

She blushed and let her hands relax as she crossed the room and embraced him.

A simple wrap of his arms around her made all her anxieties disappear.

"How's everything?" she asked once they were apart as she had taken the gloves from his hands.

"I've got to report to the sixth," he said abruptly with a glance at her, "I can't stay long. Take dinner on your own."

Sakura made a face, "Why should I eat alone again? Come I'll wait for you, you're back in the village anyways so what's another hour or two?" she buried her head on his chest and sighed. "I missed you."

There was a short pause in which he responded with a clasp of hands on her shoulders.

It was more than any words could express.

"Are you okay?" his voice was gentle and Sakura enjoyed the privilege to be the only woman to hear his forgotten gentle nature. "You seem pale when I came... you should eat. Don't wait for me."

Sakura opened her eyes with her head still on his chest.

"Dear... I have something to tell you." She looked up at him in time to see his dark eyes clear and fully focused on her.

"?" his silence made her anxious—if not excited. Just exactly how would Sasuke react if she were to say...

"I..." she made sure their eyes were locked and connected, made sure the momentum was perfect... "dear, I... I'm—"

And she said it. It passed like a passing air between them but its weight was apparent.

Sasuke's expression had turned serious the moment she finished her words. His eyes widened, his lips parted open and for a moment, it seemed that the whole world had frozen in time.

Sakura's confession had taken much of her energy that she felt her knees wobble. She clung on him for support and felt his hands tight on her shoulders. She felt a smile ready to break on her lips and was about to add the idea of him being a father when all at once things began to change—

Sasuke held her in an arm's length, his expression dark and serious—

"Are you sure?"

Sakura nodded without any doubts and Sasuke's face hardened.

"You can't tell anyone about this, understand? You can't!" his tone was urgent.

"W-what? H-hey—where are you going?"

Much to Sakura's chagrin, Sasuke turned toward the doorway without looking back at her—

"Sasuke!"

"I'll be back," he said more quietly, "stay here and don't go out."

"H-hey!"

But Sasuke's back was gone.

Sakura blinked at the doorway and stared at it in disbelief.

Her husband had just run away from her after telling him she was pregnant of his baby.

Of all of Sasuke's attitudes... this...?

And the pink haired ninja's eyebrows twitched dangerously as she raised her right fist which began making cracking sounds; her eyes were circle and point blank of a woman who was so angry and ready to beat someone to pulp.

It was then that we are reminded that she is Tsunade's successor.

She grinded her teeth as she spoke last.

"Just what the hell... dear?"

Sakura's wail was so loud and discouraging that it took all Ino's sympathy to pat her unsightly form.

"S-Sakura...? W-what's wrong with you coming to my house all of a sudden looking like... this?" she asked with a sweat drop at the side of her face. The two of them were in her family's living room with a photo of her and Sai's marriage. "It is a bit late isn't it?"

The pink haired ninja responded with a cringe and a dark look in her direction.

"D-don't you want to share wive's woes, Ino?" she sniffed.

"Wives woes?" the blonde haired ninja raised an eyebrow and then blinked, "Are you crying here because your husband hasn't returned yet?"

"You think I'm that pathetic?"

"Then does that mean Sasuke-kun's back in the village after so long?"

Hearing his name made Sakura sulk and drop her head on the table.

"So I am right after all?" Ino looked thoughtful, "did he tease you again? Come on now Sakura, you know Sasuke-kun. If he doesn't want to do it with you, you can't complain."

"What the hell's that 'IT' supposed to mean?"

"Never mind if that's not the case— my point is—what are you crying about?"

Sakura paused with her lips pressed together and shook her head. The blonde haired ninja frowned.

"Nothing? Then what got you all so sensitive, it's not like you at all."

"I am not sensitive...!" the medical ninja paused again and then dropped her head in the table and muttered under her breath, "well... maybe I am these days... who wouldn't be...? Stupid stupid Sasuke!"

Ino continued looking curiously at the pink haired ninja and then crossed her arms.

Half an hour later, Ino came to the living room carrying a thick blanket and dropped it on Sakura's sleeping form on the couch. She neatly placed the blanket on her friend and sighed as she stared at Sakura's sleeping form. The pink haired ninja's cheeks were still damp from tears.

"Oh, Sakura..." she smiled a little with an understanding look, "I don't think I'd be able to cope up if my husband is always away for so long... then again, my husband hasn't returned from work either." She looked at the marriage photo she keeps right beside the table and sighed.

It was then that she heard continue knock on her door.

Ino looked at the family clock and saw that it was already past ten in the evening. Sai would normally knock too but he would usually open the door right after.

"Who is it?" she asked as she reached the doorway and touched the doorknob.

"It's Naruto."

"Eh?" Ino blinked and hastened to open the door, "Naruto?"

The people on sight surprised her a little for it was not only the blonde hero ninja—there beside Naruto stood Shikamaru, two genins she doesn't know—and then—

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino blinked several times to make sure she wasn't having illusions. She wasn't. The dark haired ninja gave her a piercing look.

"Is Sakura here?"

"S-she's inside," she pointed to the living room and just like that—Sasuke went pass her like a passing air— found Sakura asleep by the couch—stared at her— and the next thing Ino knew, the dark haired man had dropped himself on his knees beside the couch and had let out a big sigh of relief with his shoulders hunching as if exhausted—

"W-what...?" the blonde haired woman stared at Sasuke's form in disbelief and then shot the other ninjas a questioning look. "What's going on? Why's Sasuke-kun acting so...weird?"

"The case of a run-away wife." Shikamaru breathed but Naruto gave Ino a serious look.

"There was an attack in their house," the blonde ninja said quietly as they all stared at Sasuke's back immobile beside Sakura, "We just came there and saw the place in shambles. We all thought Sakura-chan was in danger."

"Sakura came here steaming," Ino explained as she looked back at Sasuke, "don't you think she destroyed the house on her own?"

"It's likely," Shikamaru offered, making Naruto grin a little, "but would she really completely destroy her own house? No, it was a deliberate attack."

"Thank goodness she's alright," Naruto sighed too with a smile.

Sasuke reached a hand and touched Sakura's head, making Ino blush at the gesture.

"T-this girl... doesn't know what she's missing..." she muttered, taking a step toward the couple with her aura searing—

"O-oi," Naruto and Shikamaru blinked and then— Ino's voice was full of vigour—

"Do you really think it's a good time for you to sleep now,HUH? SAKURA!"

~tobecontinued~

A/N: I am so ECSTATIC to find the GAIDEN focusing on this FAMILY!

Banzai, REVIVAL of the UCHIHA CLAN!

Thanks for reading!