TONFA
The Original Naruto Fanfic Archive

Main Categories

Het Romance [1092]
Any Naruto fanfiction with the main plot orientating around different sex couples.
Alternate Universe & Crossovers [651]
Where cast of the Naruto Universe are inserted into an alternate universe.
Essays & Tutorials [17]
An area to submit intelligent essays debating topics about the Naruto Universe and writing tutorial submissions.
 
General Fiction [1739]
Any Naruto fanfiction focused without romantic orientation, on a canon character in the current Naruto Universe.
OC-centric [865]
Any Naruto fanfic that has the major inclusion of a fan-made character.
Non-Naruto Fiction [291]
Self-evident
 
Shonen-ai/Yaoi Romance [1575]
Any Naruto fanfiction with the main plot orientating around male same sex couples.
MadFic [194]
Any fic with no real plot and humor based. Doesn't require correct spelling, paragraphing or punctuation but it's a very good idea.
 
Shojo-ai/Yuri Romance [106]
Any Naruto fanfiction with the main plot orientating around female same sex couples.
Fan Ninja Bingo Book [125]
An area to store fanfic information, such as bios, maps, political histories. No stories.
 
 

Site Info

Members: 11985
Series: 261
Stories: 5884
Chapters: 25418
Word count: 47689150
Authors: 2162
Reviews: 40828
Reviewers: 1750
Newest Member: Redxkenny
Challenges: 255
Challengers: 193
 


Unplanned by KuriQuinn

[Reviews - 0]   Printer
Table of Contents

- Text Size +
Story notes: Chapter Rating: T

Disclaimer: This story utilises characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelisations, comics or short stories is intended by KuriQuinn in any way, shape or form. This fan-oriented story is written solely for the author’s own amusement and the entertainment of the fandom. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organisations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All plot and Original Characters except for those introduced in the canon books, manga, video games, novelisations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn. (© KuriQuinn 2016-)

Warning: Spoilers for everything in Naruto (up to Chapter 700) and Boruto: Next Generations (up to Episode 66). Original Characters will be prefaced where extant, but please do not use without contacting the author for permission.

Canon-Compliance: This work is part of the Path of Needles series. It is NOT CANON COMPLIANT with Boruto: Next Generations, either the manga or the anime. It is the author’s personal headcanon and thus any comments on canon deviation will be ignored.

Beta Reader: Sakura’s Unicorn

“Pregnant?”

Sakura Uchiha says the word as if it’s a foreign idea; as if she isn’t a qualified medical professional who has not only studied the vast permutations of the human body but has also delivered quite a few babies in her time.

And given birth to one herself.

Shizune laughs, nervous. “Congratulations?”

Sakura cannot speak for a moment as her brain processes the new information. It’s several moments before she manages a weak rasp, “Are…are you sure?”

Shizune huffs in offence and, at her feet, Tonton emits and equally indignant oink. “Sakura, I might not be a doctor of your calibre, but I can recognise a pregnancy when I see the blood test results.”

The minor chastisement barely penetrates.

“I just can’t believe I’m…that I’m…”

The word does not supply itself with the same ease this time.

“Pregnant,” Shizune offers with a gentle firmness that borders on amusement. “Knocked-up. Expecting. In the family way. Have a bun in the oven. Oops, you made a---”

“I’m familiar with the idea!” Sakura snaps, cheeks burning in irritation and embarrassment. Shizune is having too much fun with this, but she should have noticed it herself. In a quieter voice that belies the sense of unease fluttering somewhere beneath her ribs, she continues, “I thought I had missed a period because of all the stress.”

First the emergency when the Ōtsutsuki attacked the village, and then the inexplicable adventure through time and space.

No, wait. It would have had to have been right after the Ōtsutsuki, she calculates, remembering that night well enough. They had tried so hard to be quiet and Sarada had still side-eyed them with a put-upon expression the next morning.

Another realisation sets in, and now the unease gives way to actual panic.

So, when we were fighting those things, I was already…?

Her hands splay across her lab coat and her as-yet flat stomach, and she murmurs, “How could this happen?”

Shizune’s voice drops into a syrupy lilt she has never actually used with children. 

“Sometimes, young lady, when a man’s and a woman’s hearts are full of love, and they care for each other very much, they show their desire by---”

“Oh, shup up, I know how!” Sakura groans, and falls back against the nearby examination table with a muffled thump. “What am I going to do about it?”

She never considered the possibility of any other child after Sarada; at least, not after it became clear Sasuke’s absence would extend for longer than a year. As a child she pictured having at least three or four. During her teenaged years, in the few moments between guilt, anger, sorrow and a war, she dreamed Sasuke would return to Konoha and settle down with her. She imagined they would have a fairy-tale marriage and try to fill the empty houses of the Uchiha compound with tiny pink- and black-haired children.

(Sakura realises now how untenable her dreams were. She can never replace the people he lost, and after having Sarada, she was ready to swear off going through childbirth ever again. And besides, her hair colour is a recessive gene, so the probability of passing it on was always unlikely to happen.)

After the War, all those dreams faded to the realm of bittersweet, fanciful “what-ifs” that grew more dim with every passing year. Sakura’s status as Director of Konoha’s Children’s Mental Health Clinic, and as Chief of Surgery at the main hospital, kept her busy. So much so she couldn’t pursue any relationship, whether she was so inclined or not. And Sasuke spent those immediate years alternately in prison or wandering the world trying to find his place in it. On top of that, neither of them leads a life a normal person would consider safe.

Those few years she and Sasuke had together with Sarada were a dream she had almost let fade away. Sakura always told herself that it was enough---that their family was enough the way it was.

Until now, it would appear.

Sakura stares up at the ceiling, trying to wrap her mind around the idea.

A baby.

Another child with Sasuke.

Shizune is talking, saying something about her only being a few weeks along, and Sakura rests her hand on her abdomen, more deliberately this time. Shizune’s estimation lines up with her own calculations. Once Sasuke and Naruto returned from the other dimension, and once she was positive that Sasuke had no lasting damage, Sakura had proceeded to welcome her husband home.

Enthusiastically. Several times. And over the course of several days, because with his quarry dealt with, there had been no need for him to leave the village right away.

But none of that welcoming had been prompted by an ulterior motive or long-repressed motived on her part, and certainly nothing that could cause…this. Ever since Sarada, whenever Sakura and Sasuke are together, they are always very careful.

Whatever gods exist, they seem to have had other ideas.

Something unnameable within Sakura swells, a larger and more visceral joy than that which she feels waking up beside her husband, or when she is sure of daughter’s hapiness. On its heels, a mountain sense of anxiety grows more potent with every passing second.

What are we going to do?

Sasuke has only just returned.

There might not be a need for him to leave again in a hurry, but that doesn’t mean he intends to settle down here for good. There are still missions that only he can carry out with his abilities, and she knows he intends to take them as long as he is able. His vow to protect the village drives him, its fervour as strong as (albeit less fanatic than) his once vow to destroy his brother.

Sakura long ago resigned herself to the truth that her husband would never be the type to settle in one place for an indefinite period of time. It doesn’t make it easier to face his absences, though, especially now that his long mission is finished. In eight years, they’ve barely had time to enjoy each other’s company as the parents of their precocious impulsive daughter, let alone as adults in a proper relationship.

And now this.

Gods, what will he think? It’s different from the last time. We were always on the move and there wasn’t much stopping it. What if he thinks I’m trying to trap him into staying home?

Would Sasuke even want another baby? He was so hesitant about even the one child whenever they talked about it during their first weeks together. He loves Sarada, and Sakura knows he wouldn’t trade her for anything, but she sometimes catches the fleeting glimmer in his eyes, a residual guilt at his own happiness.

Do even want another baby?

She is in a good place right now at work, and there is much planned in the next few years to expand the hospital and its programs. To take time off in the coming year would be a major disruption to her plans, and the first time around she had horrible post-partum depression. Is it worth that?

And if he leaves again, can I raise a child on my own? I know Sarada will help, but---oh, what will Sarada even think about this. They’ll be so far apart in age, she might resent the baby, or being asked to help raise her, and then---

“Sakura? Are you even listening to me?” Her eyes snap up and she discovers Shizune watching her with concern. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“Do you not… want this?” her old friend and mentor ventures. “If that’s the case, you’re aware that there are options available to you.”

Something inside her recoils the minute Shizune finishes speaking.

“No,” Sakura says with an unexpected firmness. “I’m keeping it.”

It’s surprising that, despite her worries, she experiences a sudden certitude in this.

The situation might be unanticipated and a little frightening, but it does not negate certain unignorable truths.

This child, however unplanned, was conceived in love. Whether Sasuke wants more children or not, Sakura knows he will love any child of theirs. His craving for a family has been obvious since the minute she told him she was pregnant with Sarada, whatever his persisting reservations.

With a smile, she still remembers his matter-of-fact declaration at the age of twelve about how he intended to restore Uchiha. She doubts he realised what that entailed when he said it though. Her husband is a genius at almost everything, but it pleased her to learn that the basics of physical intimacy were at least an area they could stumble through together. It’s perhaps the only good thing to have come out of his younger self’s relentless thirst for revenge.

Aside from Sarada, of course.

Which brings her back to the issue at hand.

Her husband has an itinerant’s heart which Sakura accepted long before she married him. If he has to leave, she will support him. He’s promised he will always return, and she trusts in this beyond anything else.

Even if he has no choice but to leave, she will not be alone.

She has Sarada and Naruto and Hinata and Ino and Sai and Kakashi and---

And she’ll have the baby.

She will not be alone.

But she’s sort of hoping he won’t go off alone again, either.

“Well, it isn’t your first time, so that’s good,” Shizune muses. “Thirty-three isn’t old, either, so we don’t have to worry about major complications. How’d did it go with Sarada? Apart from giving birth to her in some filthy, dank underground bunker?”

Shizune is still a bit bitter about not being around to deliver Sakura’s child.

“There were a few complications,” Sakura hedges. “Preeclampsia, breech birth and some…other minor issues.”

At the time, her self-healing had been both blessing and a curse that none of them had expected. No one with her abilities had ever given birth before, at least not that that they knew or had thought to investigate.

If it hadn’t been for Karin…

She shudders at even the shadow of such a possibility.

“Well, we can discuss that later. For the immediate future, you should change to a special diet,” Shizune tells her. “I’ll prescribe you some supplements. Unless something unusual happens, you won’t have to be too careful until the fourth or fifth month. If you have any excessive nausea or---”

“I know all this,” Sakura complains. “You don’t have to walk me through it.”

“I had to walk you through the definition of pregnancy a few minutes ago.”

“Shizune, I care for you deeply, but if you don’t watch your tongue, I will rip it out of your head,” Sakura threatens with a sweet smile, her panic making her temper short.

Shizune yelps, Tonton squeals and the world spins back onto its axis.

All will be well, Sakura decides.

She just needs to figure out what to tell Sasuke when she gets home.

つづく

Chapter end notes:


Thanks for reading my story, and I hope you enjoy it! Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome (but character-bashing or ship-shaming will be deleted/ignored). For more information about updates, or just to get in contact with me, check out my Twitter (Typewriter Ninjutsu at KuriQuinn).

You must login (register) to review.