prologue

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/21114569.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/M, M/M
Fandom: Naruto
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Gaara/Uzumaki Naruto, Nara
Shikamaru/Yamanaka Ino, uchiha sasuke & uchiha itachi, Hatake
Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Characters: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Itachi, Uzamaki Naruto,
Yamanaka Ino, Hatake Kakashi, Umino Iruka
Additional Tags: Unplanned Pregnancy, Angst, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Slow Burn, Friends
With Benefits, Protective Uchiha Sasuke, Protective Haruno Sakura, i’m
shook okay can you tell, i just needed them to be actually happy ok
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of they will soar on wings like eagles
Stats: Published: 2019-10-21 Words: 2,018 Chapters: 1/1
 prologue
by jarorrakunsenpaisan

Summary

Sakura has to tell Sasuke something.

Notes
See the end of the work for notes
When Sasuke was younger, his brother taught him how to choose his own battles. Through
weekly lessons at the dojo and emotional pep-talks that Sasuke hated the longer they went on,
Itachi taught him all he’d ever have to know about when it was worthwhile to fight and when
it was not.

First, it was important to have a why. Something that legitimately provided reason to be
fighting at all.

Second, to decide if the fight was really worth it. Will everything be over the next day, or will
it haunt him forever?

Third, to know for a fact that he had enough power over the situation.

Sasuke does his best to live by those principals when it comes to idiots at work, or idiots at
the supermarket, or any idiot he comes upon ever . Because even if he never shows it
anymore, he respects and loves his big brother, and tries to listen to his advice.

Then again, Itachi had also advised him to get at least eight hours of sleep each night and to
wait until marriage to have sex, but Sasuke wasn’t doing the best with either of those things
at the moment.

They aren’t even together , which would probably just disappoint Itachi even more. Sasuke is
just bored, and Sakura is just lonely. They both know this, and they’re both okay with it;
more than okay with it not being anything other than filler—something to help the dull spell
in their lives pass quicker.

Point being: their shenanigans didn’t mean anything.

Sure, sometimes, in the mornings, Sasuke will wake up before Sakura to take a shower and
get to work, and he’ll see the sunlight hit her hair just right and send a pink hue over her
eyelashes that he can really only describe as gorgeous . Often, she’ll lean in for a quick peck
when they go out for dinner, and when she leans away her lips will still be pursed a little, and
he just has to lean back in and kiss her full on the mouth. And shit, he completely admits that
there’s nothing like the sight of her on her knees before him, eyes so innocent as she blinks
through a sheen of tears, her tongue working him to nothingness.

Sasuke is in love with the image of her.

But when they spend more than a few hours talking to each other, the reason why they’ve
never breached the conversation of becoming a couple becomes clear.

Sakura is annoying as hell. She’s arrogant(though he supposes he is too), and bossy(which

sometimes ignites his abdomen on fire in bed), and most of all, extremely blunt(he secretly
enjoys this). On top of all that, she’s constantly having mental breakdowns about seemingly
small things, like what someone said about her at work, or a vague text from her best friend.
(He usually has to pick up the pieces of her in those situations, which he doesn’t exactly
enjoy.)

When given the choice between actual conversation with her and mind numbing sex, he
chooses the latter every time.

So does she.

They’ve been seeing each other for over a year, today. It’s an anniversary.

Sasuke has already prepared a sexy surprise or two for her, since they are, of course, meeting
up. He’d actually been looking forward to tonight for quite some time, but it’s embarrassing
enough in his head, so he doesn’t plan on sharing that information.

He gets off of work at the usual time. Gets in his car, drives home, picks up chocolate
covered strawberries and champagne on the way.

As soon as he gets home, he pops his items in the fridge and gets into the shower.

While he gets dressed(a pair of tight fitting jeans and a dark blue turtleneck), he thinks about
the faces he’ll make to seduce her. Even practises in the mirror a little, though it leaves him
feeling like an utter idiot. Practise makes perfect in every circumstance, he tells himself.

He’s chopping green onion for the miso soup while the fish bakes when there’s a knock at the
door.

Sasuke fights a smile, his heart skipping a beat as he thinks of seeing Sakura. No doubt she’ll
be dressed up all nice—it is a special occasion, after all.

He might give her shit, but he had come to enjoy their visits for more than just the sex.
Sometimes.

Sasuke pads down the hallway after wiping his hands down quickly, and opens the front door.

He frowns.

Sakura is wearing a simple pair of boyfriend jeans and a sweatshirt. Her hair is in a messy
bun, with a few messily wavy strands framing her face. She’s not even wearing any makeup.
Her glasses are on.

He distinctly remembers her saying once that she refuses to leave the house in glasses. The
only reason he even knew she wore them was because of the times when she’d lose an eye
contact overnight after passing out from their...activities. Well, that, and the fact that he
frequently visits her at her house for their meet-ups.
She’s still a sight, of course, since she’s unnaturally beautiful, but the fact that she isn’t giving
him a smirk of some kind, isn’t looking up at him through her eyelashes, sets something off
inside him.

“Something is wrong,” He doesn’t say out loud. “What’s wrong?”

Instead, he just opens the door wider, allowing her to pass. She does so without a word, arms
folded over her stomach.

He exhales as he closes the door, not knowing what any of this is about, but knowing for sure
that there was some kind of serious talk coming his way.

Sasuke follows her down the entryway and into the kitchen a few paces behind her.

She keeps her eyes trained on the tile as she leans against the counter right beside the cutting
board.

He doesn’t prompt her, irritation bubbling inside him. How fucking childish was she?

If you have something to say, just say it, He wants to yell. Why today ? Today was supposed
to be good. But here you are, throwing a tantrum like a three year-old.

But he doesn’t say anything at all. Just takes his place before his half chopped green onion
and starts up again.

The steady clunk-clunk-clunk of his knife against the cutting board is rhythmic and loud in
the otherwise deadly silent room.

Sasuke stares at his hands, the irritation boiling further into anger every second Sakura
chooses to stay silent.

He finishes the onion. Uses his knife to slide his work onto a plate, and then reaches for the
tofu—

“I’m pregnant.”

He hand halts, and ice floods his veins.

In a fleeting moment of pure panic, he slams the knife onto the board and whips around,
squinting his eyes at her as menacingly as he can.

“ What .” He hisses, begging any divine being listening that he had heard wrong. What does
pregnant rhyme with?
Sakura, to his wariness, looks like she’s about to break out into tears.

“I went to the doctor for a routine check, and—“ She breaks off, wiping at her face a little
desperately as a few tears slips down. When she pulls away, her face is red. “Well. I’m
pregnant. Have been for about two months, according to the doctor.”

Regnant is the only word he can think of.

Sasuke doesn’t know what to say. Just knows that his anger is deflating into barely contained
terror. He squeezes his eyes shut and grips the bridge of his nose, making a grunting sound
that he hopes conveys his feelings.

Sakura isn’t finished.

Just as Sasuke looks up to meet her eyes again, she straightens up and looks him dead in the
eye, and even though her face is terribly gross and splotchy, he has to admire the way she
looks when she’s determined. Then she says, “I’m keeping it.”

To be regnant is to have power over something.

Sasuke is not regnant at all in this situation.

“You’re—“ He halts, just so he can offer a spiteful laugh. It sounds like he’s choking on
cotton. “Of course you’re keeping it. Because you’re so lonely, right? Because you think this
—“ He motions between them. “Isn’t going to last forever. And god forbid you ever be
alone.”

Sakura bristles at his words, eyes shining like fire.

“I’m not doing this for me, Sasuke, I’m doing this for the baby. I can’t just—kill it!” She
tosses her hands into the sir. “I have to take responsibility for this, even if it was a mistake!”

Her hand moves to her stomach in a protective motion, just as she had been folding her arms
across it earlier, and it strikes Sasuke how odd it looks. So odd to wrap his mind around the
fact that Sakura is growing a baby in her stomach right now. That in a few weeks, she’ll
probably have a baby bump.

He stares at her hard, standing his ground as he grits out the only thing he can think of to say.

“How?”
“The condom didn’t work, or something. Because we definitely used one.”

“You won’t get an abortion?”

“No,” Sakura says plainly, the harsh arch of her eyebrows easing into a flat line, the
resignation clear as day in the way her eyes dull a little. “I won’t.”

Sasuke exhales slowly. Holds his breath for a moment.

Here it was. A battle. A choice.Itachi had warned him.

Will he fight, or choose to step away?

As Sakura looks at him, gauging his reaction, waiting for whatever it is he’s going to say, as
the clock ticks on the walls, as the sound of footsteps down the hallway fill the space, Sasuke
thinks of Itachi’s lesson.

Why does he want to fight for this? What is he fighting for at all? The baby, he supposes.
Sakura, even? She hasn’t made any demands of Sasuke, which is awfully indifferent of her.
He bets if he decided to, she would let him leave. Would raise the child on her own, and
allow him to live life as if he hadn’t given her a child she hadn’t wanted.

Could he let her do that?

Sasuke decides his why is to take responsibility for this. It was practically his fault anyway.
He provided the semen.

Next: was this worth it?

He thinks of the last year of his life. Thinks of his boring but profitable job as CEO of his
father’s company, and how Sakura had swooped in and made his life a bit more exciting.
Thinks of the times he and Sakura had spent their nights intertwined on the couch watching
TV, since neither of them wanted to put in the effort to get it up, but they still wanted to see
each other. He thinks of the way she surprises him with her actions, sometimes, and how
breathless she looks when he surprises her .

Sasuke hates to admit it, but he thinks it’s pretty goddamn worth it, even if it’s just to make
sure Sakura doesn’t screw things up.

Then, lastly, there’s the question of whether or not he has enough power over the situation.

He remembers that despite the deadweight Sasuke often regards her as, Sakura was not
forcing him to help him raise the child she’s carrying.
Sasuke has as much control over this as he wants to have.

Like a wave, the helplessness and fear and nausea washes over him. He takes a deep breath
and presses his lips together, his knees becoming uncharacteristically weak.

Sakura is still looking at him with that openly resigned expression.

Sasuke swallows. The click in audible. Then he leans forward and envelopes Sakura in a hug,
feeling how she tenses in his arms. He breathes into her messy hair and presses a kiss to the
crown of her head, just for good measure.

“This is our responsibility.”

I’m not going anywhere.

He’s usually more straight forward than this, but he can’t bring himself to form the words he
wants to.

Sasuke hopes she can read between the lines.

End Notes

listen. i needed to write some sasusaku because they just need to be written well. someone
needs to do it, y’know? someone needs to take the initiative and say: hey, they suck ass in the
show, but what if they didn’t suck ass in fanfiction? hm?

i hope you enjoyed! leave some kudos and comments down below, let me know what you
think!

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