The first 1000-ish words of this story was originally posted as the second chapter of my one-shot budding. I always wanted to expand on it and since one of the prompts for SS Week was 'pregnancy', I decided to take the opportunity.

Sarada's first clue had been the bento full of tiny vegetables her mother had started making for her each morning. Baby carrots, baby corn, and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes were what made Sarada suspect something was up. Her mother knew that she hated them, and she hadn't packed them in her lunch for years.

Her second clue had been when she came home from a mission to find a giant bouquet of flowers in a vase sitting on the dining room table. This wasn't unusual in itself. Mama loved flowers and often brought home lavish bouquets that she picked up whenever she stopped at the Yamanaka Flower Shop for a gossip session with Aunty Ino on her way home from work. What was suspicious were the flowers themselves. Pink roses, blue hydrangeas and… baby's breath.

Her final clue had been just a few minutes ago. They had been sitting down for dinner when her mother looked straight at her, winked, and said "just a second, sweetheart. I've got buns in the oven" and scurried off to the kitchen. When she returned carrying a plate of pork buns, Sarada finally asked her.

"Mama, are you pregnant?"

"Eh?" Sakura looked shocked and pleased at the same time. "Sarada, you figured it out!"

"That wink wasn't exactly subtle, Mama," Sarada said, smiling. "Not to mention the bento and the flowers."

What she didn't mention was that she had heard Sakura being sick in the bathroom every morning that week. That had also tipped her off, but her mother didn't need to be reminded of that.

"Are you okay with this, Sarada?" Sakura asked, looking at her with concern as she sat down at the table opposite her. "I know thirteen is a little late to finally be getting a sibling."

Sarada looked at the bouquet of flowers sitting in the vase in the middle of the table and thought for a moment. Admittedly, Sarada had never longed for a sibling like other only-children did. She was content just to have her Papa safely back at home with them. But she had to admit that she liked the idea of herself walking around the village hand-in-hand with her little brother or sister. She imagined herself teaching them how to throw a kunai and giving them their first shuriken set.

"Of course I'm okay, Mama," Sarada said finally, picking up her chopsticks and pulling her rice bowl towards her. "Have you told Papa yet?"

"No, I found out the day after he left on his latest mission," Sakura answered. "He's not due back for another week."

"Mama, how are you going to tell Papa about the baby?"

"I'm not sure yet," Sakura admitted. "When I was having you, I really wanted my announcement to be special, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance."

"Maybe we could figure something out together," Sarada suggested.

Sarada spent the next few mornings holding Sakura's hair back during bouts of vomiting. At night, Sakura and Sarada talked about how they were going to break the news to Sasuke. Sakura had the idea of serving Sasuke a salad platter with 'we're having another baby!' spelled out in cherry tomatoes, though they joked there was the danger that Papa would eat the tomatoes before he noticed the message. Sarada thought that they should just continue on as they were and casually talk about the baby at the breakfast table and wait for Sasuke to catch on.

One afternoon, as Sarada was walking home from training, she found herself walking past a toy store that her mother used to take her to when she was little. There was a big yellow teddy bear in the window smiling at her invitingly. Five minutes later, Sarada left the store clutching the bear and her much lighter wallet in her arms. Her first present for her future sibling.

"Hey Sarada, aren't you too old for that?"

Sarada whipped around and saw Boruto standing there, with his usual cocky grin on his face.

"It's not for me, dolt. It's for my little brother or sister."

Sarada realized her mistake the moment those words left her lips. She clapped a hand to her mouth.

Boruto looked confused.

"Is Aunt Sakura pregn-"

Sarada put on her fiercest expression and pushed her face right up against Boruto's.

"Boruto, you can't tell anyone I told you that," she ordered. "It's a secret."

That night, Sakura was called away to the hospital in the middle of dinner. Sarada went to bed soon after she cleaned up, as she had training early the next day. At around eleven, she was awakened by a hooting owl just outside her window. She felt thirsty, so she put her glasses back on, climbed out of bed and walked down to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

The light in the kitchen was on. When she walked in, Sarada was expecting to find her mother home, finally finishing her dinner. She was not expecting to find her father hungrily surveying the contents of their refrigerator. His cloak had been discarded thoughtlessly on the counter.

"Papa? You're home early."

Sasuke looked up, surprised to see her.

"Ah, Sarada," he greeted her. "I finished up my mission early. Where's Sakura?"

"There was an emergency at the hospital," Sarada answered. She picked out a clean glass from the dish rack, walked over to the sink, and filled it up.

Sasuke frowned.

"She shouldn't be working this late in her condition."

Sarada almost dropped her glass of water.

"What? You know about the baby?"

"I ran into Boruto on the way here and he congratulated me on the baby."

Sarada was going to kill him.

"That jerk!" she groaned. "I told him not to tell anyone."

"I don't think he knew that I didn't know," Papa told her, looking amused at the memory.

Sarada put her glass down and buried her head in her hands. She had warned Boruto not to tell anyone, but she hadn't specifically told him not to tell her father. Of course Boruto was going to assume that Papa knew already.

"Mama and I wanted to surprise you," she admitted. "I don't know how I'm going to tell her that I ruined it."

As if on cue, they heard the front door shut and a few moments later, Sakura walked into the kitchen. She looked exhausted, but she nearly jumped a foot off the ground when she realized that her husband was standing there.

"Sasuke-kun? What are you doing home so early."

Sasuke looked at his wife sternly.

"Sakura, you should be resting."

"Mama, Papa knows," Sarada confessed. "I accidentally told Boruto, and Boruto accidentally told Papa."

"Sakura, you shouldn't be overworking yourself," Sasuke continued.

Sakura waved a hand dismissively at him.

"I'll be fine, Sasuke-kun. I was fighting off packs of bandits when I was pregnant with Sarada."

Sarada filled a second glass with water and she handed it to her mother.

"Sorry I ruined the surprise, Mama," she said softly.

"Don't worry about it, Sarada," Sakura said, grinning furtively. "I have an even bigger surprise. For both of you."

"What is it, Mama?" Sarada asked, picking up her own glass of water and taking a drink.

Sakura smiled and put a hand on her belly.

"We're having twins."

Sarada's glass of water fell to the ground with a smash.

Sakura had found out that morning. She had gone into the hospital early to have her routine six week scan before she started work that day. One of the perks of running the Konoha medical department was that she could easily fit appointments into her day, even though it meant paying the ultrasound technician to come in a little early.

Sakura hadn't been expecting much when she walked into her appointment. Ultrasounds this early on were mostly just to confirm that she really was pregnant and that the baby was the size it ought to be. At six weeks, the baby was usually no bigger than a pea. It was still too early to see anything other than the gestational sac, which usually just looked like a little blob on the black and white screen. When Sakura saw two little black and white blobs on the screen instead of one, she was stunned.

"Sakura, you shouldn't be working this much," Sasuke said to her as they were lying in bed later that night.

"I'll be fine, Sasuke-kun," Sakura insisted dismissively. "Remember when I singlehandedly caught that band of criminals? I was almost nine months gone and there must have been thirty or forty of them." She patted her bicep proudly. "All it took was a few choice punches and I had them cowering in fear."

"Sakura, you're a lot older now-" Sasuke began.

"I'm only thirty-four, Sasuke-kun," Sakura interrupted huffily. "I'm hardly a geriatric."

"-and you're carrying twice the load," Sasuke finished. He glanced at her abdomen and Sakura could have sworn she saw a tiny smile spread across his lips.

Sasuke only had two weeks to spend with his daughter and pregnant wife before he had to leave on yet another mission. Sakura insisted on making his usual bento despite her nausea, though she felt too sick to accompany him to the village gates, so he and Sarada went alone.

"Be safe, Papa," Sarada told him seriously as she handed him the bento. "For Mama and the babies' sake."

"I will," Sasuke promised.

He gave Sarada a 'take care of your mother or you're grounded' look, poked her forehead, and set off, bento in hand.

Sasuke felt uneasy about being so far away from Sakura while she was pregnant. They had traveled together during her first pregnancy and they had rarely spent more than a few hours apart from each other.

Sakura and the babies stayed on his mind for the entire month-long mission. What if something went wrong while he was away? He worried about Sarada too. A thirteen-year-old shouldn't be forced to take on the responsibility of looking after her pregnant mother. She had her own training and missions to think about.

By the time he walked back through the village gates, he had made up his mind.

"I will not be going on any more long-term missions for the time being," he informed Naruto at the end of their meeting.

Naruto blinked in confusion.

"Why?" he asked.

"Sakura-" Sasuke started to say before he stopped himself. He and Sakura had agreed not to tell anyone until after he got back. "I can't tell you."

"You have to tell me," Naruto said, trying to sound authoritative. "I'm the hokage."

"Be that as it may," Sasuke said, smirking. "I still can't tell you."

"Is there something wrong with Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, looking worried. "Is she sick?"

"Not exactly."

"Then what is it? Is it Sarada?"

It was obvious that Naruto wasn't going to let up. Sasuke didn't have time for this. He had to get home to check on Sakura. He hadn't seen her or Sarada for a month.

"Sakura is pregnant with twins," he admitted finally.

Naruto stared at him for a few moments, clearly trying to process the information. When the words finally hit him, his face split into a wide smile.

"Congratulations! Twins! I didn't know you had it in ya, Sasuke," Naruto joked, beaming at the news.

"I have to get home to my wife," Sasuke said, turning on his heel and making his way towards the door. "Don't tell Sakura I told you."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Naruto yelled before Sasuke could make it out the door.

Sasuke stopped and glanced back at Naruto, annoyed.

"What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"This means you're gonna have more kids than me!"

"I guess it does," Sasuke said. "Well, bye."

He strode out of the door before Naruto could see the smug smirk on his face.

Sakura had reluctantly decreased her work hours for the sake of her and the babies' health, leaving her with more spare time than she needed. She filled it by catching up on medical journals and cooking elaborate meals for her family. Her nausea had subsided and her cravings made her want to try out new and experimental food combinations, much to the distaste of Sasuke and Sarada, who loved her cooking but weren't particularly enthused about some of her latest creations(such as her new obsession with combining fish and cheese).

It had been a while since they'd had Sasuke home for his birthday and Sakura had decided to go all out on it. He refused to have a party, so she decided to cook him a bunch of his favorite meals(he had made her promise she wouldn't take the opportunity to try out some of her 'experimental' recipes) and finish it off with a carrot cake, the only type of cake she could get Sasuke to eat under the guise of its health benefits("You know you need a lot of beta-carotene for your eyes, dear.") She had even decorated it with an Uchiha crest made out of cream cheese frosting.

"Mama, did you find out about the babies yet?" Sarada asked when Sakura brought the cake into the dining room after dinner. "You said you were going to find out this week."

"I did," Sakura confirmed, cutting the three of them a slice. "We're having one of each."

"A little brother and a little sister," Sarada mused, leaning back in her chair. She smiled teasingly. "I guess that makes up for being an only child most of my life."

Sakura smiled and looked over at Sasuke, who was absent-mindedly poking at his slice of cake with a fork.

"What do you think, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke looked up. He had a small smile on his face and a misty look in the eye not covered by his hair.

"I can't wait to meet them," he said simply.

Now that he was no longer taking on long term missions, Sasuke also found himself with an abundance of free time. He got to work on converting their spare room into a nursery for the babies, starting with moving the existing furniture out of the room and painting the walls.

As Sasuke leaned down to dip the paint roller into the can of pastel yellow paint, he noticed Sakura standing in the doorframe watching, frowning around at the room as she absent-mindedly ran a hand over her swollen abdomen.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Do you think this room is going to be big enough for both of them?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke glanced around the room. It looked fine to him.

"They're just babies, Sakura," he said, looking back at her. "They don't take up much space."

"They're going to get bigger," Sakura reminded him. "They're going to need their own rooms one day."

"In a few years, Sarada will be old enough to move out and one of them can have her room," Sasuke replied.

He leaned down to dip the roller in paint again and heard a small sniffle. He looked back at Sakura and saw that her eyes had filled with tears.

"Ah, Sakura, what's wrong?"

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun, it's nothing. I just thought of Sarada moving out," Sakura admitted, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief she pulled out of her pocket. She waved a hand dismissively. "Pregnancy hormones."

"I'm going to throw you a baby shower," Ino declared. She took a sip of her coffee and set it down. She looked disgusted. "This is awful! We need to find a new coffee shop."

"I don't need a baby shower," Sakura insisted, taking a sip of her own coffee. She didn't think it was that bad, though pregnancy had been known to throw taste buds out of whack. "I've already had a baby before. I know what to buy."

"It's not like you still have Sarada's old baby things lying around," Ino said. She smirked. "Those must have been destroyed two or three houses ago."

"Very funny."

"And you're having two this time. You'll need twice the amount of stuff."

"I'm just going to end up with a mountain of clothes they're going to grow out of in a few weeks," Sakura said, sighing. "That's all anyone wants to buy for baby showers."

"Forehead, that's what a registry is for," Ino said, rolling her eyes. "So you can get the things you want. You have to let me throw you a baby shower. I couldn't throw you one when you were having Sarada because you were out of the village. You owe me."

"Fine, you can throw me a baby shower," Sakura conceded. "Just make sure you tell all the guests not to bring baby clothes."

"I can try, but I can't promise anything," Ino admitted. "You know it's hard to resist the allure of stamping the Uchiha crest on the back of a duckling onesie."

Sasuke was half-asleep when he felt a small poke on his back.

"Sasuke-kun," he heard Sakura whisper. "Sasuke-kun? Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Sasuke murmured. He rolled over to face her. "Again?"

Sakura grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun," she said, rubbing her stomach. "It's for the babies, not me."

Sasuke grunted and rolled out of bed.

"What flavor?" he asked resignedly.

"Chocolate," Sakura said apologetically. "With peanut butter on top."

Sasuke pulled on his robe and went downstairs to the kitchen. He retrieved the tub of chocolate ice cream from the freezer and scooped some into a bowl. He took the peanut butter out of the pantry and spooned out a dollop of it on top of the ice cream. Sasuke put everything away and took the bowl up to the bedroom. Sakura was still lying in bed waiting for him. Her face lit up as she eyed the bowl of ice cream in his hand.

"Thank you, dear," she said, taking the bowl from him. "You're too good to me."

Sasuke sat on the edge of the bed watching Sakura devour the ice cream. When she finished, she started licking the spoon thoughtfully, a familiar flirtatious look in her eyes.

"That's not your only craving, huh?" Sasuke asked, smirking.

Sakura placed the bowl on her nightstand and patted the space on the bed next to her. She heaved herself into a sitting position as Sasuke lay down next to her. She slid his pyjama pants down and attempted to climb on top of him, though her first few attempts failed. She looked uncomfortable. It was clear that her exhaustion and her big belly were making it rather difficult for her to mount him.

Sakura had just entered her sixth month of pregnancy and she was already as big as she was near the end of her pregnancy with Sarada. To put it bluntly, sex had become quite difficult for them lately. There weren't that many comfortable positions when one person was heavily pregnant and the other was missing an arm.

"Never mind, Sakura," Sasuke said quickly. He didn't want her to strain herself. "We can try tomorrow when you've had some rest."

"And so I told Hinata that we should have another baby so that we could level the playing field with you guys."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, not looking up from his scroll.

"She said no," Naruto said, sounding a little put out. He leaned back in his chair. "It doesn't matter. We're happy with the two we've got. At least I don't have to deal with diapers and baby puke anymore."

"Hn."

Sasuke had been booted out of his own home by Ino so the baby shower could take place in their living room. With nowhere else to go, he had found himself in the hokage's office, sitting opposite Naruto.

"In a few years, Boruto and Himawari will be all grown up and out of the house and Hinata and I will be empty nesters," Naruto continued. "You and Sakura-chan still have another eighteen years ahead of you. I don't envy that."

This thought was what turned Sasuke's attention away from the scroll. If he was honest, he was glad to be getting a second(and third) chance at fatherhood. He'd had to leave when Sarada was three and a half. He had missed out on so much. He had never been able to help her with her homework, he'd never been able to walk her to school, and he'd never attended a parent-teacher conference(he didn't exactly regret this last one, though).

Sasuke knew that he would never be able to get the time he missed out on with Sarada back, but getting to experience fatherhood all over again was a close second.

"I can't feel them," Sarada moaned, disappointed. She slumped into the couch sadly.

"Sorry, honey," Sakura said apologetically. "They're still little, not that you can tell from this thing." She placed a hand on her enormous belly. "Maybe you'll be able to feel them in a week or so."

"Papa could feel them!" Sarada pointed out sadly.

"Papa has experience from when you were in here," Sakura said, patting her abdomen. "He knows what it feels like already so he's more likely to notice it."

"It took me a while before I could feel you moving around," Sarada heard Sasuke's voice say.

She looked around and saw him coming into the room with a mug of tea. He handed Sakura the mug and sat down next to her.

"Why don't you try talking to them?" Sakura suggested.

"What should I say?" Sarada asked, looking at her mother's stomach, doubtful.

"What about, 'my name is Sarada and I'm your big sister'?"

Sarada reluctantly leaned forward and placed her hand on Sakura's stomach.

"My name is Sarada and I'm your big sister," Sarada repeated, feeling a little silly.

For a few moments, nothing happened. Sarada was about to take her hand away when she felt it. A tiny twinge of movement under her hand.

"I think I felt something," she exclaimed, delighted.

Girl names

Sachie

Sakiko

Sanae

Boy names

Saburo

Sando

Satoru

"What about Sawao for the boy, Mama?" Sarada suggested, looking up from the book of baby names that Sakura had received at her baby shower.

"Sawao Uchiha," Sakura mused, trying out the name. She shook her head. "No, it doesn't sound right."

Sarada looked back down at the book and skimmed her finger down the list of names.

"What about Sadaki then?"

"Hm. Sadaki Uchiha," Sakura tried. "It's okay, It might grow on me. I'll add it to the list."

It seemed like a cute idea back when she had Sarada. She and Sasuke both had names that started with Sa, so obviously their child should have a Sa name too. Now that they had two more kids on the way, Sakura was beginning to regret this new naming tradition. It was harder than she thought it would be to come up with two names that start with the same syllables.

Sasuke had recused himself from the naming process, only stepping in to veto names he disliked. Back when they had Sarada, Sakura had suggested naming her after someone in his family, but he had refused, not wanting his child to be burdened by their family's past.

"What about Sarami?" Sarada suggested, still looking at the name book. "For the girl? It means princess."

"It's cute," Sakura said. "Sarami Uchiha. I'll ask Papa if he likes it."

In her thirty-second week of pregnancy, Sakura was put on bedrest to prevent her from going into labor too soon. Twins usually came early, and Sarada had been born two weeks early, so Sakura was at a heightened risk of premature labor.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Shizune had all banned her from even calling to check in on work. They had even tracked down Tsunade and gotten her to come back to help Shizune run the medical department.

As the weeks went by, Sakura became more and more miserable. She had read all the medical journals, folded all the baby clothes, and watched all the romantic comedies available on Ninflix.

It was such a sharp contrast from her pregnancy with Sarada. She had travelled through her entire pregnancy and her condition had rarely held her back.

As much as she loved her babies, she needed them out of her as soon as possible.

Sasuke took a deep breath and knocked on the apartment door. A few moments later, it opened and the half hidden face of his former sensei peered out at him.

"Ah," Kakashi said. "Sasuke, to what do I owe the pleasure? Come in."

Sasuke followed Kakashi into the apartment. They sat down at the table and stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments.

"Do you want something to drink?" Kakashi finally offered.

"No," Sasuke said, because he wanted this over and done with as soon as possible.

"So what is it that you want?" Kakashi asked.

"I need your help," Sasuke admitted. "With Sakura. She's not happy."

"I see," Kakashi said thoughtfully. "Do you think it's a lack of variety after fifteen years of marriage? I can suggest a few positions for you. Or is this a problem with 'little Sasuke'?"

"No," Sasuke said quickly. He never wanted to hear the words 'little Sasuke' again in his life. "Sakura is on bedrest and she's unhappy about it. I want to make her feel better."

He said this last part quietly, his face suddenly feeling very hot.

"Ah," Kakashi said in understanding. "So you've finally come to understand the wisdom that Icha Icha can teach us."

The first thing Sasuke did when he got home was go straight up to the bedroom. He found Sakura lying in bed looking miserable as usual, resting a medical journal against her belly.

"Sakura," Sasuke said from the doorway. "You look thin today."

Sakura set her medical journal on the nightstand and looked down at her stomach, which had grown so big and so round that it almost looked like she was trying to hide a beach ball under her shirt.

"Was that supposed to be a joke, Sasuke?" she asked tersely, leaving the -kun honorific off the end of his name.

"Ah," Sasuke said, realising that may not have been the best thing to say to her at this point. He sat down next to her on the bed and took her hand in his. He looked her directly in the eyes and said, "Your eyes are the color of freshly mowed grass."

Sakura looked taken aback.

"Sasuke-kun, are you feeling alright?"

"I want to kiss every inch of your body, honey."

"Honey?" Sakura blinked and a look of realization spread across her face. "Sasuke-kun, have you been taking advice from Kakashi-sensei again?"

"Ah." Sasuke paused. "Yes," he finally admitted after a few seconds.

"That explains it," Sakura said, sighing. "Being a cheesy romance hero doesn't suit you, dear. I'd rather you just be Sasuke-kun."

"You seemed upset," Sasuke said. "I wanted to make you feel better."

"I'm fine, I just want this pregnancy over with so I can get my life back," Sakura said, rubbing her belly. "Why don't you make me a cup of tea, Sasuke-kun? That would make me feel a lot better."

Sasuke stood up and started towards the door.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called.

He stopped and glanced back at her.

"Speaking of freshly mowed grass, can you please mow the lawn?" she asked, jerking her head towards the window. "I've been asking you for weeks. It's starting to look like a forest out there."

Sakura was thirty-six weeks gone when Sarada had to go on a week-long mission with her team. She was reluctant to leave when her mother was so far along in her pregnancy.

"I don't want them to be born while I'm gone," Sarada admitted to her mother the night before she had to leave.

"They're going to wait for you, Sarada," Sakura promised her. "They want their big sister to be there when they're born."

When Team 7 finally returned to the village, Sarada ran back to their house as soon as she was done with the mission report.

She had just walked through the front door when her father came galloping down the stairs carrying her mother in a one armed bridal hold.

"It's time," he said to Sarada.

The two of then whipped through the streets of Konoha, Sasuke carrying Sakura, Sarada carrying her mother's hospital bag. They looked more like a pair of black and red blurs than people.

Sakura lay in bed, her left arm wrapped around her oldest daughter's shoulders as her youngest daughter slept peacefully in her other arm. Sasuke was standing by the window, holding their son in his arm. He gazed down at him in wonder, as though he had never seen a baby before in his life.

"I can't believe how tiny they are," Sarada breathed, reaching over to cup her newborn sister's face in her hand.

"You used to be that size," Sasuke reminded her as the baby boy in his arms started whine.

"I think he's hungry," Sakura said. She held her youngest daughter out to her oldest daughter. "Sarada, would you like to hold her?"

Sarada gingerly took her younger sister in her arms. She held her carefully, as though she was afraid she'd break if she made any wrong movements. Sakura undid her hospital gown and held her son to her breast, who latched on immediately. She nursed her son in silence for a few moments, taking a moment to breathe in the serene scene playing out in the room. She and Sasuke had three children now. Three!

"Visiting hours are over," a nurse barked from the doorway just as Sakura finished feeding the baby.

Sakura smiled apologetically at her husband and daughter. Nurse Haya was strict and wasn't willing to flout the rules for anyone, not even the head of the Konoha medical department.

"Bye, Mama," she said.

Sarada kissed Sakura's cheek and settled her sister back into her mother's arm. Sasuke gently touched the foreheads of each of the babies before giving Sakura a forehead poke of her own.

It was one of the coldest winters that Konoha had seen in years. Sakura made sure to keep the twins bundled up in thick warm clothes and blankets, including little caps with little Uchiha crests stitched onto them.

When Sakura wasn't looking, Sasuke liked to take his youngest daughter's cap off to take a peek at the little whorl of wispy pink hair on top of her head. It faintly resembled a pink halo if you looked at it from the right angle.

His son's hair hadn't grown in so they weren't sure what color it was yet. Sarada had taken to fondly calling her little brother names like Cueball and Baldy. Sando Uchiha had, however, inherited his mother's piercing green eyes.

"Do you think Sando will still be able to use the sharingan with green eyes?" Sarada asked her father as they were sitting together with the twins on their foam playmat while Sakura was taking a nap upstairs.

"I don't know," Sasuke said, cradling his sleeping son in his arm. "The sharingan isn't guaranteed even in black-eyed Uchihas. We'll have to wait and see."

"I'm a little jealous that Sarami got Mama's pink hair and I didn't," Sarada admitted, fingering her sister's pink wisps

"Ah, you're both beautiful though," Sasuke said. "Like your mother."

Six weeks after his youngest children were born, Sasuke set off on a three week mission. While he hated to leave, he was filled with a reinvigorated sense of duty to protect his family, especially the two newest, most vulnerable members.

He rushed back to the house immediately after returning to the village. His report to Naruto could wait until later. He was surprised to find his house seemingly empty when he walked in. The lights were off downstairs and the whole house was silent. He walked upstairs and checked the babies' room and then Sarada's. Both were empty.

When he got to his and Sakura's room, he opened the door very carefully and peeked inside. Sakura was lying in bed, seemingly fast asleep, holding a sleeping baby in each arm. Sarada was curled up on his side of the bed, looking much younger than her thirteen years(almost fourteen, Sasuke hated to remind himself).

Sasuke walked slowly into the room and shut the door behind him carefully. He sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at his wife and children. Sakura opened her eyes and blinked tiredly.

"Sasuke-kun," she murmured sleepily and managed a small smile. "You're home."

"I am," he said. He gestured to the babies. "How have they been?"

"They're perfect," Sakura said, smiling down at them. "A little colicky, but otherwise perfect."

Sasuke smiled and reached out to wipe a bit of drool from Sarami's mouth.

"Sakura," he said. "Thank you for giving me this family."

Sarami is the Japanese word for salami and Sando is a common shortening of the word for sandwich. I felt like they went well with salad.