Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

A Living Secret	By : viridianglare Category: Naruto > General Views: 3159 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto anime/manga/franchise and do not make money from this work.

Chapter List
- 1-results
- 2-exchange
- 3-seed
- 4-public
- 5-foundations
- 6-resolve
- 7-trust
- 5
- 6
- 7
Sakura glared moodily up at the fluorescent lights as Tsunade leaned over her, checking her heartbeat with a stethoscope while a blood-pressure gauge suctioned around her wrist. She felt her mentor’s cold fingers probing her belly, checking her limbs, examining her; the fingers dug in a little harder than necessary and there was an edge to her flat mouthed look of sternness as she went about making sure Sakura was healthy. She winced at the stab of her mentor’s nails as she checked her stomach, checked her chest area. Sakura had reluctantly agreed to be looked at on the contingency that she not be tailed anymore. She looked forward to escaping the unbearable tension in the room with Tsunade and returning to figuring out the rest of the day.
There was a silence among the beeping in the room, and she shifted uncomfortably on the exam table as she cleared her throat. “Satisfied?”
“I don’t get it,” Tsunade muttered as she set aside the stethoscope.
“What?” Sakura sat up, zipping up her jacket and shaking her hair out of her face as she looked over at Tsunade.
Her mentor’s coffee-colored eyes were piercing. “How did you end up voluntarily being with him?”
Sakura’s green eyes widened a moment before a softness crept into her gaze and she looked to the side. “It’s… it’s a little complicated, shishou.” She sighed. “But I guess you haven’t heard.”
Tsunade folded her arms, her nails tapping along her arm. “Haven’t heard what.”
Sakura clenched her hands along her legs where she sat, looking away with pink rising to her cheeks. “Well… I uh…”
“That Sarada’s his child?”
Sakura jumped slightly, keeping her eyes fixed to the floor. “Yes.”
Tsunade let out a sigh, and then her hand curled gently around Sakura’s upper arm. Her tone was quiet. “Did he force himself on you?” Her fingers tightened. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”
“No!” Sakura shook away the hand. “No, not at all.” She tried to relax the tightness in her features. “He’d never…”
“He’d never? Sakura-chan, again, I wonder if he hasn’t purged your memories. Considering all he’s done, I wouldn’t be surprised if --”
“He would never.”
Sakura’s eyes were burning then, fixed to her mentor’s face. Tsunade paused at the fire in her student’s eyes and then sat back with a sigh. “Tell me how it happened.”
The fires in her eyes waned a moment before smoldering into a deeper heat. “Um… well, he was living out in a tiny settlement, out in the Land of Earth.” She looked away again as she remembered. “I came across it when I was looking for calendula maritima…”
“Ah. I remember asking you for that.” Tsunade glanced across the exam room, thoughtfulness creasing the lines between her brows. “And?”
“And… the villagers there asked me to leave. They were really secretive, kind of aggressive, had no visible symbols I could recognize. They asked me to talk to their leader, who turned out to be Madara, and… we talked.” Sakura’s blush deepened and Tsunade rolled her eyes. “Considering how things have turned out I’m sure you didn’t do much talking.”
Sakura swatted at Tsunade, one hand covering her scarlet cheeks. “Shishou!”
Tsunade’s smile was half-wicked as she nodded for Sakura to continue. “So, you ‘talked,’ and it was voluntary.” She blinked as she shook her head with this information. “Were you drunk?”
“No.” Sakura turned a mauve color as her mentor leaned in with a confused stare. “You slept with him and you weren’t drunk?”
“Well -- well, I was trying to learn more from him about why and how he was alive again, and what his plans were.”
“Did you learn those things?”
“I…” She buried her face in her hands. “Yes, some of it… We got kind of… sidetracked.”
Tsunade snorted, and Sakura’s shoulders tensed; she felt her mentor’s hand return to her arm, and she relaxed slightly. Sakura kept her red face hidden as her mentor mused aloud. “That’s very surprising.” Tsunade leaned back in her chair. “Seeing how ruthless he is according to his past, there’s no reason Madara would leave you alive after you recognized him. Even if he’d just used you for some ‘talking’ for a bit, he’d still have finished you off or otherwise disabled you afterward to guard his secrets.” She tapped a pen against her teeth from her clipboard. “Or some sort of conditional tag, which I haven’t found on you.”
Sakura lifted her face from her hands, her brows drawn together as Tsunade continued, her fingers tapping against her face as she thought through what Sakura had said. “And then he just let you go?”
“I, well, I left. But yes, I suppose he did.”
“Why’d you leave? Did he not satisfy you enough?” Tsunade’s eyes gleamed, and Sakura huffed with embarrassment. “Shishou! No! I mean…” She covered her face again. “He did.”
Tsunade laughed then, her hands gripping the arms of her chair; Sakura hunched deeper into herself as Tsunade’s laughter bounced around the room. “Ah… if things get better around here you have to tell me about how exactly all of that happened.” She wiped a tear away and then fixed Sakura with a more serious look. “So you had a one-night stand with Madara and ran home. Why didn’t you…” Her eyes flicked to Sakura’s lower stomach, and at this Sakura let out a quiet sigh. “It wasn’t a one-night stand.”
Tsunade fell silent; Sakura ran a hand over her abdomen as she spoke. “It was a bit more than three days that I stayed with Madara. I didn’t… I didn’t think to check, to make sure… I realized too late that I was with child.” Sakura rubbed her fingers under her tired eyes and let out a long sigh; the hand on her arm squeezed, and when she looked at Tsunade, she didn’t expect the look of shock and anger there.
“You stayed three days and didn’t learn anything from him?!”
Sakura waggled her hands as she backed up on the table, her face tomato-red. “I was -- We were distracted --”
“Like hell you were!” Tsunade thundered, getting to her feet; Sakura shrank back on the table. “What were you doing that you couldn’t find two minutes to ask?!”
Sakura’s green eyes flicked aside, her stomach warming at the memories, and she returned her gaze to Tsunade with trepidation.
“Foolish girl.” Tsunade’s fists gripped at her sides. “I should knock you into the next stratosphere for how you handled all of that with him. And you still don’t know how he’s alive and well? He just knocked you up and you left each other alone… for what, how old is Sarada? Twelve years?”
“Yep.” Sakura gave a deep sigh, her shoulders slumping.
“And you knew he was out there, alive, well, as powerful as before, and you didn’t tell anyone.”
She slumped further, covering her head. “He promised not to attack or plot against Konoha. I promised to not mention to anyone that he’s alive.”
“What?”
Sakura’s fingers wrung through her hair; her skin tingled where she expected Tsunade to hit her. “Yes, that was the deal we made… before you kill me, shishou, I want to point out that not only did he make that deal with me, but he kept up his end of the agreement and stayed living there peacefully. No harm has befallen us from him in all those years. And… if it weren’t for Sarada, maybe I would have told someone about him… but I wanted to protect her, and I…” She looked out at the medical tools and instruments, struggling to explain herself. She felt shame prickling her ears as her instincts stirred; she closed her eyes. “I feel stupid saying it aloud here and now but… I felt a connection with him.”
“A connection. How?” Tsunade’s voice was gentler, and Sakura looked up in time for Tsunade’s fist to punch into her shoulder; but the hit was light, and she was surprised at the emotion in her mentor’s face. “You idiot. He could have killed you, he could have started the fifth Shinobi war. He still could.”
“But he didn’t,” Sakura argued, her fire rising within her again. “He didn’t, and something in him has changed. I swear it, shishou. He’s not the man he was during the war and none of this would have happened this way if he was.”
“I did hear about his last words with my grandfather before his passing.” Tsunade gave a sigh. “And I witnessed what happened out there today. Speaking of…” She glanced down at Sakura. “How did he end up here, with you, demanding to be the Uchiha clan head again? What did you say to him to make him stop when he was about to go on a murderous rampage?”
Sakura’s lips twitched upward as she inhaled softly, her eyes closing with the memory; Tsunade’s brows drew together as she watched the way she visibly melted. Sakura gave no answer but to open her eyes with a troubled expression that she directed at the floor.
“You’ve really got it bad, don’t you,” Tsunade said then, concern etching her features.
Sakura nodded, resting her head on her hands with a dejected sigh.
“You and those Uchihas.” Tsunade shook her head as she stood back; Sakura got to her feet, looking up at her mentor uneasily. “I’m sorry, shishou. For all the trouble. And I know I should have talked to you about this sooner.”
“Years ago,” Tsunade agreed with narrowed eyes. “We’ll talk more, especially before you consider becoming the Uchiha matriarch…” Sakura’s eyes widened at the term as Tsunade went on. “But, somehow, there’s no curse tags or foreign jutsus that I can find in your body. Just… far too much forgiveness and affection for someone who really doesn’t deserve it.” She folded her arms as Sakura shrugged her coat back on, the pink still staining her cheeks. “But might I remind you, Sakura.” She turned to look at Tsunade, blinking innocently.
“Madara Uchiha is my grandfather’s enemy and comrade.” Tsunade repeated herself, slower, gesturing to herself - “My grandfather’s. I think the man is over a hundred years old at this point, give or take, and you--”
“Shishou!” Sakura stamped her foot indignantly, tugging the coat around herself. “He doesn’t look that old.”
“True. It looks like he reincarnated in the fourth war to be around 30, which is what he looks like now. Is his current body the same as the one at the end of the war?”
Sakura bit her lip as she thought. “Yes, I think so.”
“Well you would know. You’ve apparently had plenty of time to examine him.” Tsunade rolled her eyes at Sakura’s blush. “So what’s your plan now?”
Sakura looked toward the door, a fresh determination in her eyes.
She pressed a hand to her lips as she pulled open the exam room door and left, her coat trailing out behind her. Tsunade shook her head as she watched her go, brown eyes full of warmth and concern.

As she pulled in a breath of the fresh air, Sakura felt her resolve settling deep within her core as she stepped out into the sun. She had never been questioned so fiercely or taken down piece by piece the way that Tsunade had done, both now and in the past, and found that not only had it not made her feel indecisive - it had made her feel stronger.
She knew this to her bones as she began to walk down the crowded Konoha street, her hair fluttering back behind her head and her long coat flaring around her figure. She felt more alive than she had in a long time as she took a sharp turn down a side street, her heart beating against her chest like a pendant in the open air.
The questions had torn her open and then shown her what was truly within. Her embarrassment and shame had evolved into a strange new confidence that gave her the strength to keep walking as she approached the old and long-abandoned Uchiha district. I will take this chance at a new life. I will face the conflict, and I will come through stronger. I will make this a fresh start: for his sake, for Sarada’s sake, and for my sake.
Sakura slowed her step to a respectful quiet walk through the silent street, her eyes tracing over the blank-faced buildings and empty windows; darkness sighed from the bent doors and lifeless homes. Once, she knew, it had been alight with sound and light, with faces and feeling, but now it was lifeless before her; it was dead since the night of the slaughter of the clan. She inclined her head as she walked, remembering the dead. Though she had been very young when it had happened, she had heard of it; and though her innocent child’s mind had not been able to comprehend it then, she could now. Her pulse slowed as she slowed her feet, and she found herself standing before the expansive ruins of the Naka temple.
Sakura’s eyes drew up the jagged remains of the ruins to see the lone figure that stood in its center, the sighing breeze from the abandoned compound rising and flickering through his long black mane.
She stopped where she had seen him, lifting a hand to her eyes; the sun glinted white-gold behind his silhouette as Madara turned to look at her. Though the sun’s glare obscured most of his features, she saw the trace of a smile beneath the mass of darkness around his face.
- 5
- 6
- 7
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A Living Secret