Daylight

Aurora Pt.1

Sasuke woke up to the morning sun with a pillow of grass under him, and a tickle of pink hair timidly brushing his left cheek. He looked at her sleeping form, her left arm wrapped around his own waist beneath the blanket of cloaks, and a coy smile spread across his face. He kissed her tangled hair, causing her to stir until her eyes fluttered open. The smile she gifted him was warmer than the sun. She shuffled closer and buried her nest of hair on his slightly tanned chest. "I missed you, Sasuke-kun," she muffled into him. 

"Hn." He stroked her hair lovingly, feeling the silky waves wash beneath his fingertips.

She spit out a giggle, and he knew that she knew the meaning behind his lack of words: I missed you too.

They took their time to dress and get ready for the day ahead, stealing stolen glances followed by light blushes all the while. Once both fully dressed, Sakura turned to Sasuke. "So, where to now? If you haven't already we should check out the Wind country, as that's where the Zetsu cells were first-"

"Sakura."

"Hm?"

"We need to get you home."

"What?! If last night taught us anything, it's that we NEED each other. And the mission-"

"-Can wait." Sasuke was defiant and would not budge. "You're my main priority right now. And the baby." Sakura's face softened at his words. "I can't have you risking yourself on these missions."

Sakura took a step forward towards Sasuke and brushed his dark hair away from his face so she was staring at Sasuke deeply, as if she could peer into his soul. "I can hold my own. You know that." She took his lone hand by the wrist and placed it on her stomach. "And we ARE home, if we're with you." 

Her use of 'we' caused a flutter in his own stomach; the unborn baby already binding them together into a small family. Sasuke leaned in for a kiss full of desire but understanding at her words. When they were done, he let his mouth linger over hers for a few moments more. 

"But Sakura...", his voice husky. "There's another reason I want us to go back to Konoha..."

"Tell me", her voice quivered as her lips almost grazed his as she spoke. He straightened his head, and lightly cupped his fingers under her chin so that she was looking up at his crimson red sharingan and a ripple patterned rinnengan. "To keep my promise. Make you my wife." 

The weight of his words caused her to collapse under him, falling into his muscular arms. 

***

When she finally awoke, she found herself on a mattress placed beside the window, allowing the sunlight to wash over her. Sasuke sat at the foot of the bed, her slurs of 'where are we' made his head instinctively turn towards her dazed voice. 

"We're at an inn," Sasuke said, his voice grave. "But we can't stay long, it's not safe."

Sakura sat up, so her feet met the carpeted floor. Her eyebrows furrowed. "Why is it not safe?"

Sasuke was hesitant in giving her an answer. Before Sakura could persist in her questioning, the roof caved in on them. In a blink of an eye, Sasuke grabbed Sakura - his lone hand went under her knees, and the remains of his left arm supported her back - and teleported using his rinnengan, and they both fell into a bed of sand. 

Sakura coughed out grains of sand before stuttering, "H-hey, this is, this is that place!" She looked at her fiance with bewilderment. Sasuke found himself constantly gravitating towards Kaguya's dimension of sand that stretched out endlessly, each time he needed to escape. The memories of being rescued from the desert would forever be fresh in Sasuke's mind - the look they shared that fateful day when he caught her burned arm in his, as she collapsed into his chest, had stirred something in him that he had thought had died when he abandoned the village. But he would always gravitate back to her, and the places that held remnants of memories of her was where Sasuke found solace even in his darkest hours. Sasuke exhaled softly. It was time to be upfront with his lover. 

"Sakura. If you're going to stay with me, you might as well know." His face was solemn. "There are still people after the sharingan. That's  the second inn I was tracked down in this week."

"We could have taken them!" He held her defiant stare, before Sasuke sighed. He had been keeping a close eye on her, and the patterns of her collapses had been bothering him. He had begun to doubt whether she was fit to fight in such a condition.

"Sakura... there's something you're not telling me... that's also the second time you fainted."

Sakura dug her toe into the sand, and licked her lips meekly. "I... must confess. This pregnancy has been quite hard on me... and this is only the beginning. I can only guess that the excessive drinking didn't help-"

Sasuke looked at her incredulously, shaking her left shoulder. "You did what?"

Sakura shrugged his arm off, breaking out of his grasp. "That was before I knew I was pregnant!" She explained, exasperated. "You leaving... I needed to find a way to deal with it..." Her gaze cast towards the specks of sand swarming around their feet.

For a brief moment, the reality of the consequences of his actions once again cast a shadow over him. "I'm sorry". He would live the rest of his life apologising for his mistakes, trying to piece together the cracks in her heart. Sakura's eyes lit up at the sincerity of his voice. "Sasuke... It's okay now." Her face wore a thin-lipped smile along her lips, the intention to reassure Sasuke, but he had other things weighing on his mind. 

"Sakura, who else knows about the baby?" His voice became serious, heavy with concern.

"Shizune," Sakura confessed. "She was the one who confirmed my pregnancy. She promised not to tell anyone, especially not Lady Tsunade. I couldn't have faced her if she knew... But I trust Shizune. She managed to convince Naruto, Ino and everyone else I was suffering from alcohol poisoning. God, what they must think of me." 

"So only Shizune," Sasuke echoed. 

Sakura bit her lip. "Actually, there is one other person. The person that helped me track you down..." Sakura winced. Sasuke gave her a look full of questions. "It was a friend....of yours." 

Sasuke squinted his eyes, trying to piece the puzzles together, before finally seeing the full picture. "Karin. Tsk. Really?"

"Kakashi informed me of her whereabouts. She was.....difficult at first, and that's putting it mildly", she said dryly. "But she sensed your chakra inside me when I collapsed at her feet, and, well, the rest is history." 

Sasuke could only imagine that the female Uzumaki had put aside her personal feelings to cooperate with the woman who held his offspring in her womb.

"Sakura. No one else can know. If word went out that there was an unborn Uchiha... My clan. My blood. It's a curse... I wouldn't wish it on anyone." Sasuke looked at Sakura's eyes, reflecting his own mismatched eyes, hoping she understood his meaning. Sasuke was never good with words, and desperately needed Sakura to understand the danger their unborn child would be in. If Sakura's pregnancy became common news, this new flicker of light would soon become a target, and the flicker would die out as quick as it was conceived. 

Tears sprang up in her emerald eyes. "What are you saying?" Her voice shook with strained anger. "I thought you wanted this baby. I thought you were happy. I thought that this is what you wanted. I don't understand!" She shook her head vehemently, her eyes shut tightly as droplets sprang away from her face and moistened the ground beneath. 

Sasuke took a step closer, and held her beneath his arm, so that her cries were muffled out by his black cloak. He whispered into her hair words of comfort. "That is what I want. But I also want it to stay safe." His fingers tightened around her waist. "I NEED it to stay safe. And you. Do you understand, Sakura?" Her whimpers stifled to a stop, and she looked up at him, blinking back tears that threatened to spring forth. "So we can't even tell Naruto?" 

He smiled down at her. "No, not even that idiot." She grinned up at him, a light blush formed on the creases of her cheeks as she did so, complimenting her locks of hair.  "Now, let's make you an Uchiha." His eyes reflecting in hers was like an aurora breaking into the sky.