Soul Searching

Chapter 42

We've been in the village for a few months now, trying to get back into a sense of normalcy. We were used to moving around from village to village whenever we wanted to but now that we had Sarada we decided it would be safest for her to remain in Konoha for awhile. With everything we had gone through towards the end of her pregnancy Sakura was nervous to take her outside the gates.

Sarada was growing quickly and was starting to babble and try to crawl around. Sakura resumed work at the hospital but she did it all from our home. They would send her documents and files to look over try to help diagnose difficult cases among other things. Kakashi would occasionally send me on missions but I was home every single night.

Sarada and Boruto often had play dates, usually orchestrated my Hinata and Sakura. I had a sense there was already a rivalry brewing between them. They were too alike their fathers.

Sakura's parents finally agreed to give us their blessing. It wasn't an easy conversation but they agreed that if Sakura could forgive me then they could too. They would pick Sarada up every few days to spend a couple hours with her. Now that the weather was nice they would take her to the park or walk with her along the river.

"Sasuke what do you think?"

"Huh?"

Sakura and I were seated in the kitchen trying to plan the wedding. She had all kinds of things spread across the table that we were making decisions on. I must've gotten lost in thought.

"Sakura do we really need a huge wedding?"

I was hoping for something more private. There wasn't anyone I was really interested in inviting. Not to mention I didn't know if people would want to attend the wedding of a ex-rogue, ex-criminal ninja.

"Well not really" she admitted. "I just know that my family would expect to be there along with friends. It's more out of expectation really."

"But it's our wedding Sakura. We get to make those decisions. Not them" I pointed out to her. "If I had it my way I would've married you before we returned to Konoha. Before Sarada was born even."

"Can we just run away together again and get married?" She laughed as she said it, like a half hearted joke. But it gave me an idea.

"Let's do it" I told her straight faced, deadly serious.

She was shocked, she opened her mouth to speak but couldn't quite find the words at first. "You're serious" she said.

"Yes." I moved closer to her, holding her face in my hands. "Sakura I don't care about anything else but you and Sarada."

She kissed me fiercely, crawling into my lap. She tasted like the honey in her tea, her tongue warm against mine. After over a year of being with her I still couldn't get enough of this. It was just like the night we kissed under the stars when we had our picnic, the feelings were the same.

"You really want to do this?" I whispered against her lips.

"You or the wedding?"

"Both" I said, letting out a breathy laugh.