#narusaku friendshipp

[kuriquinn]

Od to Eileithyia [4/4]

Blanket Fic Disclaimer: (and link to the main fic, of which this is a coda)

Summary:   This baby is more important than any of us thought. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she’s strong enough to survive 

Rating: M

Pairing: Off-screen SasuSaku

Beta Reader: Not beta-read; check back at a later date for edits

Author’s Note:  Early update because I have stuff that needs doing tonight. I’m sure you’re suffering :)

Warning(s) None

Previous Chapter

Karin does a last examination of Sakura’s vitals as the other two women leave the room, frowning at the sharp decrease in the Senju leader’s chakra levels. It’s not the only thing that is concerning.

“The old bat isn’t much longer for the world,” she tells her cousin once the others are out of earshot.

“Could you at least pretend to be respectful?” Naruto chides.

“You realise the irony of that coming from you, right?” They frown at each other, but Naruto’s gaze continues to be drawn to his unconscious friend and Karin sighs. She holds out her arms. “Pass me the kid. I need to weigh her and do all her vaccinations.”

“Can’t we wait until Sakura wakes up?”

“No,” Karin snaps. “This baby is more important than any of us thought. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she’s strong enough to survive.” When Naruto continues to falter, Karin’s gentles her tone a bit. “You know how important Sakura is to me. Besides, even if she wasn’t…can’t you feel it?”

She gazes down at the infant, and closes her eyes, focussing on the vibrant, alluring chakra that already thrums through the tiny body.

“She’s so warm and bright,” she whispers. “It’s different from you, it’s…dazzling. It’s just like…” She trails off and stares meaningfully at her cousin, who continues to wear the face of their traditional enemy and (apparently) Sakura’s secret lover. “I know I only met him the one time, but I will never forget what his chakra felt like.”

She spent the entirety of that meeting, up until the moment when that bastard Danzō ruined everything, daydreaming about tracking down Uchiha Sasuke and dragging him into a corner to have her way with him.

You know…before he went on a crazy rampage to try to kill us all, she tells herself, but there’s a tiny part of her that doesn’t even think that would have been a deterrent. She hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him since that day, but now…knowing that he belongs to Sakura, and they created this child…

It will get easier, she tells herself.

Her ability to sense chakra is both a gift and a curse sometimes, influencing how she interacts with other people. It’s why she never had a true friend growing up until her mother introduced her to her cousin. And through him, she met Sakura, who befriended her despite her static personality. 

And that’s why it must get easier.

“I’ll bring her back soon,” Karin tells Naruto. “Knowing Sakura, she’ll be awake soon, and she’ll want to know the baby is alright. Besides, you have some explaining to do.”

She nods at his current guise.

“Right,” he says, and takes one last look at the baby. Lightly, he traces her hairline, which is still stained with some of her mother’s blood, then carefully passes her over to Karin.

She shivers as the baby’s chakra washes over her.

Sarada mewls in protest as she’s forced to relinquish Naruto’s pinky-finger, and Karin hurries to the other room to find something to feed her with. Sakura may be unconscious for another hour or more, and the infant will need sustenance.

Naruto dispels the Henge and goes to sit beside Sakura, waiting for her to wake up. His usually bright and warm chakra seems disturbed, and a hint of melancholy hangs over him. Karin shakes her head in empathy; Naruto’s always had a soft spot for Sakura, and she thinks he was hoping that one day their friendship might become something more. It’s usually the way arranged marriages are supposed to work, too.

But remembering Sakura’s total bliss at the sight of Sasuke—even if it wasn’t really him—it’s obvious that will never happen.

She leaves the room, bringing the baby to the next room to clean her properly and give her the right inoculations. Karin handles her as carefully as possible, hardly daring to breathe all the while. She’s never been the type to long for motherhood—she’ll die before she inflicts her abilities on an innocent child the way her mother did to her—but holding the little one, she comes close.

Once all of the tests are done and she’s procured some formula for the baby—it will do until Sakura’s able to feed her—Sarada returns to the delivery room.

“The baby’s with Karin,” she hears Naruto say quietly; Sakura is awake. “She’s be back here in a minute.”

“Right…” Sakura says, voice weak and rasping. But there’s a sudden violent flare in Sakura’s chakra, and then an overwhelming sensation of loss and pain.

“Sas…Sasuke-kun…” she whispers. “He was…he wasn’t…”

“Sakura-chan…I’m sorry,” Naruto tells her. “I didn’t want to…I hate seeing you in pain. But you weren’t going to push. You could have lost the baby, or…or we could have lost you.”

“I…I know.”

But the pain doesn’t leave her voice.

That, more than anything else, motivates Karin to move. She strides through the door, trying to look unbothered by any of the emotions that run high in the room. 

“Congratulations,” she tells Sakura as she hands her friend the baby. “She’s healthier than you are right now.”

Sakura’s face lights up with a joy no one hasn’t seen in the past months, and once she holds the infant, begins counting fingers and toes, touching the tip of the finger to the baby’s nose and eyebrows, fingers the wavy hair and soft skin.

“She’s perfect,” she whispers, and Karin tries to snort in contempt and walk out, to pretend she is unaffected, but finds she’s unable to move.

“No argument there,” Naruto agrees, happy to see his friend happy once more. But he still seems troubled. A beat later, in an injured tone, he says, “I wish you had told me.”

“I couldn’t…”

“After everything?” he challenges. “All this time, you’ve trusted me with trying to save the life of our enemy.” Karin frowns in confusion at this, but a warning look from Naruto tells her he’ll explain it later. “I kept secret what I knew about you and Sasuke once I found out, even though I…And after all this time I’ve been trying to keep Tsunade from losing her patience and attacking the Uchiha forces instead of evacuating. And you couldn’t—”

“I was scared,” Sakura interrupts, and though her voice is small is stops his growing irritation in its tracks. “I…I wanted to, but then…I thought about just leaving…and then there were so many people who needed help, and between the evacuations and the fighting and everything. And then Hinata and her family arrived, with their complications, and I know that she was Sasuke’s betrothed and if they found out that I…and you’ve been spending so much time with her, I thought...I know you wouldn’t want to keep secrets from her, so I just…it was never the right time. And by the time it was, I thought you would be angry at me for keeping it quiet for so long.”

Naruto processes all of this, and then exhales with effort.

“I’m not angry,” he tells eventually. “A bit hurt, but not angry.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Karin says. “I’d tell you if he was lying.”

Naruto glares. “Why are you still here, Karin?”

“I delivered that baby, it’s my responsibility to observe her and make sure she’s doing alright,” Karin retorts, even though that’s not really something she has to do. “Sakura doesn’t mind.”

“No,” the green-eyed woman says, offering Karin a tired smile. She no doubt suspects why Karin isn’t able to tear herself away just yet. Then she returns her attention to Naruto. “I’ll…I’ll make it up to you.”

“Heh. You’d better.”

“And…thank you. For not being angry.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t believe in grudges,” Naruto dismisses, stretching his arms in a show of casual disinterest. “If anything else, this war taught me how stupid that is.”

“I don’t know what I would do without you, and not just today,” Sakura goes on sincerely, and then swallows heavily. “It’s enough that my child’s father hates me. I don’t know what I would do if her godfather did, too.”

Naruto blinks at her, uncertain if he has heard right.

“Are you insane?!” Karin demands. “He can barely keep a toad alive, and you want to give him responsibility over your child?”

“Well, I’m hoping her godmother will also pitch in,” Sakura suggests, giving Karin a significant look.

It’s her turn to stare.

“What?” she asks in toneless disbelief.

“I don’t know if we should take any of this seriously,” Naruto says nervously. “You lost a lot of blood, and you’re sort of loopy, so—”

“Who better than the man who stood in for her father—literally—and the woman who delivered her?” Sakura counters. “I’ve seen some more questionable choices in the past.”

“If you’re talking about Ero-sennin…” Naruto begins, defensive, and then snorts. “Okay, then you’d be right. But this…I mean…godfather…that’s just…” He whistles, like he can’t really understand it, and then suddenly grins. “Oh, the cranky bastard is going to lose it when he finds out! His face will go all red and his eye will twitch—it will be hilarious!”

Sakura goes quiet, gazing sadly upon Sarada.

“Idiot!” Karin cries, and reaches out to smack him upside the head.

“Ow!” But he looks suitably chastised, and the mood shifts once more. Naruto leans close to Sakura.

“He doesn’t hate you,” he insists.

“You didn’t hear the things he said,” Sakura replies, tears gathering in her eyes. She holds the baby a little tighter, like she needs a physical anchor.

“I can imagine. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s going to be alright. We’ll get through to him.”

“But at what cost?” she wonders.

“I’ll pay it,” Naruto insists. “Listen, I’m going to bring him back to you. That’s my promise of a lifetime, okay? And Karin’s even here to witness it, so you know it’s official and everything. If I don’t do anything else before I die, I’ll bring Sasuke back to you. To you both.”

“To all of us?” she whispers.

“To all of us.”

“Good,” she sniffs, unable to wipe her face with the baby in her arms. There’s a beat, and she nods, attempting a businesslike expression. “You should go. I…need some time with Sarada. Besides, I’m sure she’s hungry.”

“I’ll get him out of your hair,” Karin offers. If she focusses on Naruto’s chakra, she can ignore the incredible pull of little Sarada’s.

“I’m going to go tell Kakashi the good news. I bet he’s going to be pissed that he wasn’t here!”

“It’s Gai’s fault. He hasn’t left him alone since he got here.”

“Though…if you have to feed her, does that mean I get to see your breasts?” Naruto asks. “I mean, seeing as how technically we’re still officially betrothed and all, I should get to anyhow, but—”

“I will turn you into a stain,” Sakura promises him, while Karin hisses “Idiot!” again and begins to shove him from the room.

 “Yeah, yeah,” Naruto grumbles, allowing her to drag him to his feet, but without true malic. He sticks his tongue out at Sakura. “You know what, he’s welcome to you when we get him back. You two deserve each other. Besides, what do I want with a bruiser who could probably punch a goddess if she was in the right mood?”

“Oh, is that it?” Sakura asks in weary amusement. “Good to know it’s not my bastard child.”

“Well, she comes by that honestly.”

Sakura laughs softly and nuzzles the baby. Sarada squirms in her blankest, scrunching up her face.

As promised, Karin drags Naruto to the door and makes a show of kicking him out, but she pauses at the door to glance back. Sakura has already secured the infant to her breast and is watching her feed, a smile on her face and tears streaming down her face.

She and Naruto leave the new mother alone to bond with her child. Once out of hearing, Karin scowls. “That son of a bitch.”

“It’s not his fault,” Naruto says wearily.

“A lot of it is.”

To which he has no reply. Instead, he leans heavily against the wall, and Karin is shocked to see that Naruto is also crying now, although it seems more out of anger and frustration than anything else.

“Bastard,” he growls, fists clenched. “He should be here for this!”

終わり

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#naruto fanfiction #implied sasusaku #rating: t #warring states period #sakura haruno #karin uzumaki #naruto uzumaki #sarada uchiha #drama #humour #family #angst #fluff #penthesilea #coda #friendship #sakura and karin are friends here #narusaku friendshipp #narukarin friendship