#<-Gaara making excuses for extra touching

[bandsandwristbands]

hihihi you're really cool and I love your art :D

Me???? COOL??? If you say so pal! 👉😎👉

AHHHH THANK YOU!! You're really cool 🫵

Pls accept more gaalee training shenanigans! 😚💕💕💕💕💕

[captnjacksparrow]

i dont like sasusaku and not even slightest naruhina, but its weird that you hate sakura as a character and not the creator himself. as much as i hate sakura, i used to love her development but all that went to trash right around the ending. honestly they should've just made narusasu a canon because that made more sense and even sakuino made more sense that some of the hetero pairings 🚮

Apart from the first line of your ask, I somehow disagree with everything, Anon.

Let me tell you why.

First off,

SNS becoming canon by holding hands or kissing or walking towards Sunset.... was never going to happen. So expecting that is kind of extremely childish. I was only unhappy because they wanted to go for this Next Gen shit. That made Kishi to marry off every other characters without any development until Chapter 699.

Second off,

I am immensely happy with what I got. That is NaruSasu became Soulmates. One can't exist without the Other, One complement the Other. Even though they have married those girls and have children, I don't think they will die for their families. And they still love each other more than their own families. Point me one popular Shounen with this kind of Development between 2 male Characters???!!! So, Kishimoto made something extra-ordinary, unusual and I must appreciate him for this from the bottom of my heart. From the way he has written their bond, he really wanted to end with an Open Ending... Like no pairs and trash.

Third off,

What even SakuIno means???? I mean, Sakura was totally going horny over Sasuke's dick and kiss. She was always touching his Body whenever she gets the chance. How can she be paired with a girl??? Same case with Ino. I am not Anti-SakuIno or anything. Probably you ship them for their aesthetics. But both the girls are filtered Heterosexual. They don't have any Lesbian Subtexts like SNS has. Sorry, that is just a crack ship just like SasuHina. They both are friends. That's all.

Fourth off,

Since when did Sakura's character had better development, Anon?? You mean that Sasori fight??? You are calling it as a development, and I am still calling it as a Selfish Obsession on her Sasuke-Kun. Sakura took that fight very seriously only after Sasori mentioned the name of Orochimaru. Sakura thought, if she manage to defeat Sasori, she could get information about Orochimaru which inturn will make it easier for her to retrieve Sasuke. She never fought for Gaara or Naruto, which is what she should've done in the first place. Tell me, how is this called as Development??? Just because she repeatedly punch stuffs???

In part 1, she was a total annoying Asshole and in the end she was even more of an Asshole.

It's not like the Author developed her as some Badass Girl and then dumped her for no reason. She was always written to be hated. At no point, I felt the Author made any conscious effort to make her likeable.

Fifth off,

You are asking me to blame the creator.... And why should I??? If Kishimoto can write amazing women characters like Tsunade, Konan, Kushina.... Why can't he do that for Sakura as well???

Let's take Tsunade

Her body was splitted into Two Halves. It's really gory to look. I think even Danzo had a pretty nice death... I think she is the only character in Narutoverse to have her Torso separated from her Lower Body....

Even then

She still wants to save other people with whom she had no proper connection with!! She was still thinking about saving other Kages rather than saving herself.

Tell me atleast one moment when Sakura thought about putting her life on the line to save other people??? Or tell me at what point point of the story, Sakura remotely displayed her selflessness???

You can't.

If Kishimoto can write someone like Tsunade, why can't he make Sakura, a strong person??

Let me tell you... If I am an Author and if I want to make a character likeable, the very first thing I would do is, to make that character be nicer to the Titular Character. This is an inherent and unwritten rule. That's exactly why Hinata was liked by many people.... It's funny, people really liked her a lot in Part 1 (not realizing her inherent shittiness)... But he decided to potray her in a wrong way starting from Part 2. If only Sakura was nicer towards Naruto, I repeat nicer... not to love him... people would have liked Sakura more. But all she did was behaving extremely horny towards Sasuke but showing Drainage-level care towards Naruto. And do you really think Kishimoto don't know this logic?? At no point, I've seen her being completely genuine towards Naruto. Even when she wanted to feed him Ramen, she only did it because of Naruto's devotion towards Sasuke.

Throughout part 1, she was an asshole... Towards the end of part 1, she was nice because she needs Sasuke's dick.... And in the beginning of Part 2, She totally was using him to retrieve Sasuke... She cared him here and there.. In the middle of Part 2, she shamelessly fake confessed him.... In the end of Part 2, she was begging Sasuke to like her... She didn't care about Naruto or Tsunade, who were about to be killed by Sasuke...

Where is this development you speak of, Anon???

I am Sorry, I still feel like you are a big Sakura fan and want to make an excuse by pushing the blame on the Creator. Because Hinata fans also always do this same thing... Like pushing the blame on Kishimoto for writing her that way. They never once realise that the character they like was piss poor because the author wanted it that way.

By that logic, I must criticize him for making Sasuke take certain decision which I am not OK with, too... Right???

If your favourite character don't behave in certain way like you expected, then there's only one thing to do. Blame the Author.

Sorry, I won't be doing it for any other characters in Naruto series. I accept every characters with the way the author has written.

Sakura is a pathetic character and she was meant to be. It was intentional and deliberate from Kishimoto's side. He wants this character to be hated and that's why he wrote her that way... And I know The reason for why he did it... Which is not the point of this post.

Just ask yourself, this question Anon...

If a secondary character like Ino who was very similar to Sakura, got a good development towards the end... There are so many good woman characters inside the Narutoverse. But still, in the end, why Sakura and Hinata alone was shown to have a negative and ugly development??? What makes Sakura and Hinata different from the other women??? Why particularly these two women???

Just give this question a deep thought and you will find the Answer.

People taking the wrong cue about a Character and blaming the author for the Character's shittiness... I am Sorry, I don't support this logic.

I would really appreciate those Sakura fans who completely accept her shittiness, mistakes, flaws and still able to love her... Without blaming the author. Because I've seen such fans but they are very rare to come across.

[artlessictoan]

*crawls out of the void to dump this and disappear again* so just a lil bday prezzie for my good ol pal @thecozycryptid... a day late. as is my usual mo. there’s still 10 mins of the day left it’s definitely not 2 days late. fuck. it was originally gonna be part of as longer story but i got a little over ambitious with it so here’s just one scene, still gonna work on the rest bc it’s a kanky bday thing but who knows when it’ll turn up kjdfhgsjhkdfg

anyway HOPE YOU ENJOY BUDDY!!

---

The sounds of grunting and cracking wood floating over the wall weren’t unusual, but Kankuro was in the middle of a very good book and they weren’t helping his concentration.

Scrambling up the wall separating the training area from the garden proper, he poked his head over and glared at the girl busy pummelling a training dummy into dust. “Yo, I just repaired those, you wanna slow down so they last more than a week this time?”

He was fully prepared for her to scream at him, so when she instead jumped half a foot in the air and spun around like she was expecting an attack, he raised a brow. Yodo didn’t calm down much when she saw it was only him, just gave him that look she had whenever she was stressing about something and didn’t know whether to dare ask for help, or just run away and pretend she was above the assistance of others.

Deciding that the book wasn’t quite that interesting, he pulled the rest of his body over the wall and dropped down on the other side. “You wanna talk?” he asked, not stepping any closer, so she didn’t feel pressured and clam up as a result.

There was a moment where she could’ve gone either way, but it only lasted a few seconds. “I think I’m sick,” she mumbled; if he weren’t a shinobi, he might not have heard her.

“Sick?” Clearly it wasn’t something minor like a cold – as tough as she liked to act, she tended to become a bit of a whiny brat when she knew she could get extra attention by playing up her illness – and he hadn’t noticed anything off about her the last few days. “What kind of sick?”

Resigned to opening up to him, her cool, rough façade dropped away and she stomped over to him, flopping down on the ground and answering with her most petulant whine, “I don’t know! I was fine until I went to Konoha last week, but now I keep feelin’ really weird and hot and tingly at random times, you think I caught something while I was there?”

Ok, so she probably wasn’t that worried, the tension in his shoulders dropped a notch as he sat down next to her. “Maybe, when exactly did this start?”

“Right after I met up with Chouchou, I kinda ignored it at first ‘cause I was so excited to see her again, but it wouldn’t go away whenever we were hanging out, it sorta stopped when I got back home but now I get all sweaty and uncomfortable for no reason and I can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

“That doesn’t sound like any illness I’ve ever heard of, you sure there’s no common link, like after you’ve eaten something specific? Could be an allergy or something.”

Her face screwed up as she wracked her brain for clues, meanwhile Kankuro gave her a brief visual examination himself. She didn’t look particularly unwell, a little on the thin side but she’d always been skin and bones – several doctors had assured Gaara that it was just a result of childhood malnutrition and as long as she was eating healthily now then it was nothing to worry about – and her face was a little flushed but that could very easily just be a result of her working herself up about the whole thing.

“I think… I guess I notice it most when I’m thinking about Chouchou?” She frowned. “Kinda weird, maybe it’s just ‘cause she reminds me of Konoha which is where I first felt sick? Actually, now I’m feeling weird again, do you think she made me sick?”

The urge to slap his own face was overwhelming, but he fought through it and carefully packed away his repressed laughter deep inside, to be released later on when she was less likely to punch him for it. “Yeah, I’ve heard about this before…” He turned to fully face her, placing a comforting hand gently on her shoulder, before continuing, “I’m sorry, but the symptoms are clear, I have to diagnose you with Lovestruck Idiotitis.”

She stared blankly at him.

This time he really couldn’t hold back a snort at her painful obliviousness. “You’ve got a crush on Chouchou, kiddo.”

“Wha- no. No. I don’t- No!”

“Ok, so the feeling hot and tingly, does that get worse when you think of her? Have you been paying more attention to her appearance lately? Do you think about her more than you used to? Look for excuses to touch her?” The stunned silence and gaping mouth basically answered his questions. “Yeah, that’s what we call a crush.”

He let her have a few moments to come to terms with the crushing reality of his statement, but Yodo wouldn’t be Yodo if she didn’t fight against every uphill battle she came across.

“But that can’t be it, I’ve never had a crush on anyone before and I’ve known her for years without… feeling like this.”

“Feelings don’t happen on a schedule Yodo,” he said, dropping an arm across her shoulders and pulling her into a light hug, “you’re probably just a late bloomer, not that unusual.” He himself remembered not having much interest in relationships until he was well past twenty. Admittedly he’d had other, bigger things to be worrying about before that, like a family on the verge of collapse and a shinobi war or two, but he still remembered how it felt the first time he realised he had feelings for someone.

Pretending not to notice the very soft sniffling, he let Yodo duck out of his grip with the same performative disgust she always levelled at his attempts at comforting. “I… you’re probably right.”

“Always am.”

She scoffed and threw a wad of sand at him, he snickered and threw one back, and all was right with the world again.

“Frick, I dunno what to do now, how do I tell her? I ain’t gonna be able to hide it if I turn into a blushy mess every time I see her.”

Kankuro had seen the way that Chouchou had been looking at her best friend for many years now. “Yeah, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about, just be yourself.” She clearly already liked Yodo as she was anyway, no need to mess with a winning formula.

Apparently Yodo wasn’t only oblivious to her own feelings however. “No way, I’ve gotta try and win her over somehow, be really suave an’ cool or something.”

“I can help with that,” Kankuro said, a beautiful idea blooming in his head, “just give me full control of your hair and wardrobe for a day, oh and let me puppet you around too, I can make you a queen of dance.”

Another spray of sand slapped against his face. “Forget it, I’m going to ask papa for advice instead!”

Spirits help her, if she did that she really would be doomed.

She was already charging off, leaping to his feet, he chased after her, desperately screaming all the way, “Woah, woah, woah, I was just kidding! Please don’t ask Gaara he has negative amounts of game!”

---

[sporddreki]

"ive wrote an essay months ago about how sasoris puppets work but ive decided not to finish it does anyone want that" Ugh, I am so new to Tumblr, I was trying to figure out how to leave a comment just to say, yes, I would be interested in this.

alright here you go B) i havent touched it ever since so no promises

Guess what - I finally start writing down all the trivia I know about Sasori, because it’s been some kind of strange fixation a while ago and I will regret never having written all of this down, so… this time it’s about Sasori’s specialty: the Hitogugutsu or the Human Puppets. But only from the “mechanical” side rather than the psychological (that comes later). Some warnings: This will be dealing with gore and other pretty gross stuff, so be careful, also English isn’t my first language so excuse any possible mistakes. Without further ado, let’s jump straight into the rabbit hole!

So first things first, what are the Hitogugutsu? If you’ve read or watched Naruto Shippuden and you paid attention to what Sasori is all about, you’ll immediately be confronted by his obscure obsession with puppets that stems from his childhood. As the story went on Sasori has made his first puppet out of a human being, his best friend Komushi to be exact, and then went on with indulging in this gorey procedure for the rest of his life, leaving him with a total of 298 human puppets in his possession. In this analysis we’re going to look at the what rather than the why, how they’re created, how they’re used in battle and what distinguishes them from normal puppets.

As you heard, Hitogugutsu are made from human bodies, preserved and equipped with a bunch of puppet mechanics. His most famous Hitogugutsu, the Third Kazekage puppet, which he has built out of his former village leader, is a great example for what his creations have to be like to adequately perform their jobs - Hitogugutsu are mainly used as a weapon in battle and are a form of “eternal art” in Sasori’s eyes. Means the human puppet has to be 1) effective in physical fights and 2) match Sasori’s ideal picture of what he considers art. These are the two most important points and will become significant throughout the analysis.

Let’s talk about the battle efficiency first. The key part of Hitogugutsu is that they can contain the chakra and the kekkai genkai the “material” (the person the puppet has been made out of) used to have, which can be used by Sasori in battle. Throughout Naruto Shippuden this attribute has only been showed once by the Third Kazekage and his magnetic iron sand ability. We are left to speculate about the other 297 Hitogugutsu and whether they have kept their chakra/kekkai genkai or not - but counting on Sasori’s words, they did. Other than that they’re barely able to distinguish from normal puppets, at least fighting-wise. Keeping that in the back of our heads, the construction of Hitogugutsu will give us the following problems:

1) Easiest first - a bunch of mechanics, weapons and special attacks have to fit in them to be useful in battle. Hence the general puppet structure, which is the best way for Sasori to manipulate them as he pleases.

2) They have to be well preserved to not decay and be robust enough to not immediately break in battle. Proper preservation and a stable foundation is the key here. Additionally, they have to be immune to Sasori’s poison.

3) An intelligent ten-year-old needs to be able to make at least a simplified version of them. Sasori was only a child when he made his first one out of his friend Komushi and it looked authentic.

4) The chakra needs to not just be stored inside the body, but to be able to flow, to be released through physical attacks and to be regenerated. This is essentially the biggest problem of human puppets, since they lack the (functional) organs needed to create chakra in their own, personal chakra nature.

5) Another important detail is his “ultimate” Performance of a Hundred Puppets where he controls all of them individually with a chakra string coming from his chest, which means the mechanics of a puppet must be adjusted in a way to be able for Sasori to do that.

Sounds like a bunch of obstacles Sasori has to overcome, and we with him since that’s part of the analysis - but it’s possible, especially when calculating Naruto logic into it. Before the question comes up, I’m purposely not trying to be as exact to the canon as possible nor do I think all of this was Kishimoto’s masterplan, but i will try to find the most efficient way for Sasori to achieve all of this and stay reasonable at the same time.

*** Now heres the thing: As mentioned above, the main problem seems to be the whole chakra story and we have to question how chakra works and then how Sasori used it for his techniques. We are walking on eggshells here because nearly everything is speculation. Considering the Hitogugutsu kept their chakra inside of them and are able to release it (e.g. the Third Kazekage), they have to have some sort of modified chakra system inside of them. The problem is that this chakra is a consumable, means it’s not an infinite resource and since the bodies are dead there is no way for them to regenerate their chakra. However, Sasori is using it anyway and has pride in stating that he preserves people’s chakra in puppets eternally, so what’s going on here? Here’s the problem - the Naruto logic is completely broke here. I’ve spent days rummaging the Naruto Wiki but there’s no canon way for Sasori to do that, but we know he does it, so he somehow has found a way. If he made some kind of apperature or jutsu that can convert his own chakra to the human puppet’s nature, everything would make sense, but the canon has forsaken me here. However, there were some cases where that actually happened through some kekkai genkai or a ~fortunate coincidence~ so stuff like that is possible in the Naruto universe, for Sasori too, but sadly I can’t describe it here until now. For real, hit me up if you guys have an idea, otherwise I have no choice but to accept that as indescribable Naruto logic and get my own theories and speculation going. ***

Of course we won’t let that stop us - its just time to get our minds going and make some own theses. I’ve got two for you: One that prioritizes the battle efficiency and one Sasori’s view of art.

1) The Chakra conversion theory

The only “renewable chakra source” we have is Sasori himself. Means, if Sasori found a way to convert his own chakra to have the nature of the puppet’s chakra, it would pretty much be solved. This would require some sort of gadget or jutsu, but I won’t be understimating Sasori’s genius - **********

Assuming Sasori has built in a convertor of some sort into the puppet, it gets a little easier. To use chakra in the first place, Sasori has to store it inside of the puppet. Nothing as easy as that coming from a family that predominantly uses Fūinjutsu (or Sealing Techniques) - we’re gonna dig into the lore to make it possible that also a young Sasori could’ve used this technique with a certain effort.

May i present you: The Puppet Brigade of Sunagakure, with Chiyo as its head and a mighty forbidden jutsu in her hands - the One’s Own Life Reincarnation. You may have heard of that when Chiyo revived Gaara, but it was initially for a way different cause, and that is to give life to puppets. It works as following: The user takes their own life energy to revive a dead person, but dies by themselves in return. The brigade wanted to use it to “breathe life” into puppets for more efficiency in battle, but it was banned by Sunagakure for being unethical. You heard it - puppets, so it is possible to transfer life energy into a puppet to bring it to life, somehow. Fortunate for teen Sasori of course, who just began with his cruel passion of making Hitogugutsu. Let’s take a look at how the jutsu works:

Simple. Here comes the interesting part - Sasori could’ve modified this jutsu to store the living person’s chakra inside of the puppet, and even had access to the technique by being involved in the puppet brigade himself. He just needed to rummage through the forbidden files in there. Once you think about it it seems pretty plausible, right? Now let me explain how a modified jutsu would work:

The sealing technique stays the same, but with an extra step, which uses Sasori as its “medium”. He prepares the body as the shell and later seals the person’s chakra into it. The scroll is just a placeholder by the way, Sasori puts the energy in whatever aperture its later kept in and builds it into the puppet. It never got shown in the canon, but maybe it looks similar to his core. I believe the step of sealing the chakra away before preparing the body is important; otherwise the person would die and lose their chakra before Sasori is finished. So that’s how the chakra gets preserved inside of the puppet.

Next step, what happens to the chakra? Since Sasori was fond of collecting rare kekkai genkai users as his material, his puppets need to use their abilities in battle somehow. Not just that, here’s an extremely efficient option of navigating puppets and we can connect that to the Performance of a Hundred Puppets problem.

Each of the Hitogugutsu has an internal chakra “skeleton” (similar to those that you use for Blender models + it’s probably more complicated), which Sasori is able to manipulate using his own chakra. If the convertor idea is correct, he has the ability to let his chakra flow into the puppet to start a circulation inside and trigger the conversion.

How’s that related to the Performance of a Hundred Puppets? When we see Sasori opening his chest lid, a hunded chakra strings pop out at once and every single of them gets connected to one of his puppets. The key part is that Sasori needs only one string to control a puppet with its full range of mobility. And an efficient way to achieve that is by giving them a chakra skeleton he can manipulate, which only needs one point of connection to get the flow going.

Another thing that bugged me was the fact that he only used taijutsu when fighting with all of his puppets at once. If his puppets had their own chakra preserved infinitely and eternally inside of them somehow, he could’ve just bombarded Sakura and Chiyo with all of their jutsus at once but instead he focuses on hand-to-hand combat and weapons. The chakra conversion theory simply explains this with Sasori not having enough chakra to pour into his puppets, since he was at the very end of his battle.

This theory prioritizes the “eternal art” point, since the Hitogugutsu do stay eternally functional and usable. So tldr; the human puppets have an internal chakra skeleton that can be manipulated by Sasori letting his own chakra flow through a theoretical convertor (which might as well be the seal he revamped from Chiyo’s old reanimation jutsu), which turns it into the puppet’s chakra nature and can then be used in battle.

2) The disposable puppet theory

Now, personally, I’m not very fond of this theory since it pretty much dumps the whole “eternal art” point into the garbage, as much as the psychological aspect - but it’s way too legit and rational to ignore. The main idea is that the puppets Sasori used for his technique were “empty” Hitogugutsu with their chakra already consumed which had no choice but to fight without ninjutsu. Meaning once Sasori has preserved their chakra it cannot be regenerated and the puppet is left behind as an empty shell. The reason why I’m still going with this theory is because the Third has a special gadget in his chest that makes him special and that got me thinking - the magnetic apperatus he uses for his Iron Sand abilities.

First of all some information about the Third Kazekage - he’s known for his kekkai genkai that is the Magnet Release, which he inherited through his bloodline. The Iron Sand technique is an adaptation of Shukaku’s (the One-Tails) abilities, which he created himself. When Sasori transformed him into a puppet he kept his abilities, but noticably weakened. Sasori has been using him as his “favorite weapon” ever since he was a young man and he has shown no sign of missing chakra. At the same time he has the (so far) unique apperatus that lets him use his magnetic abilities. So why isn’t the Third emptying out?

Now here’s the thing: The chakra we’re seeing in this picture isn’t the Thirds - its Sasori’s. The puppet has an unique appeatus that artificially creates the Thirds abilities, thus making them weaker than they originally were. Since the Third is both the only puppet we’ve seen keeping all of his abilities and the only one having the apperatus, he’s basically the only actual “eternal” puppet owned by Sasori. His inner chakra system just needs to get flowing by Sasori’s input and activates the magnetism, so it works similar to electricity.

Carrying on, we can see Sasori having holders attached to his back, four in total with the first one already being used in the picture (to shoot fire out of his palms). The second one is for the Performance of a Hundred Puppets, the fourth one is for shooting water out of his hands and well… the third one? No one knows. If we follow the theory of empty and full puppets, the third scroll can be used for puppets that still contain their chakra, while the second holds the empty ones, of course. This could explain Sasori’s reckless fighting style, the empty Hitogugutsu are pretty much “waste” and serve no purpose other than overwhelming the enemy by numbers - not just in the battle against Sakura and Chiyo, but also in the attack of the Land of This. So theoretically Sasori still had an ace up his sleeve but didn’t decide to use it.

As I’ve mentioned above, this theory is logically reasonable but at the same time signs Sasori off as, well, pretty much a liar when it comes to his view of eternal art. After the chakra of one of his puppets is worn off, their special abilities become unusable and the effort of making Hitogugutsu in the first place seems over-the-top to me personally. While their bodies stay “eternal”, their abilities get lost by usage, and later recklessly destroyed by a Performance of a Hundred puppets attack. So tl;dr - chakra regeneration in human puppets is impossible, their abilities can be used once or twice before their chakra runs out, Sasori later only uses them for taijutsu and contradicts his own view of art.

[inanotherworld5599]

Anata

Prompt: Side By Side, Sasusaku Day 2

Summary: I’m your wife Sasuke-kun, so depend on me.

If there's anything Sasuke's learnt about his wife over the past few months of their travelling, it's the fact that she's annoyingly stubborn.  He'd always known she was persistent, more so than even Naruto but the streak of stubbornness was something that he'd just discovered.  When they were genin Sakura's main objective had been to agree with almost everything that he said, her stubbornness only surfacing the few times she chose to defy him.  But now they were on equal terms, well at least that's what most people seemed to think but the fact of the matter was that Sakura had him completely wrapped around her finger which is why Sakura more often than not got her way, stubbornly disagreeing to everything he said. He never thought he'd actually say this but he missed the Sakura Haruno who used to follow him around like a puppy, her eyes wide and bright as she asked him to go on dates with her.  "Sasuke-kun!" Grown up, Sakura Uchiha argued,"Do you think I'm an invalid?"  Calling her invalid is nothing short of a joke especially when he's seen what she's capable of. Sasuke has never been one to crack jokes either and he certainly won't ever make the mistake of saying this.  "No." He says irritatedly,"I'm just telling you to sit this one out."  "But why?"  He gives her a pointed look.  You know.  She looks back at him her green eyes confused.  Know what?  He sighs.  "You're pregnant."  While Sakura doesn't really look pregnant, it's barely been three months since they found out, Sasuke has already become overprotective treating her like she was incapable of doing anything in her own.  While at first Sakura glowed under the attention being showered upon her, the effect wore off really quickly and caused the two of them bicker endlessly.  "So what difference does it make?"  He looks at her dumbly.  "Sakura stop being annoying."  "Sasuke-kun!" She whines,"If anyone should sit this one out it should be you. You've been out of sorts for days now with that fever of yours and you refuse to even let me come near you to treat you." "It's nothing serious." Sasuke persists, it's true that he's been feeling lightheaded and feverish for the past few days but it's nothing he can't handle. He's got sick plenty of times before when he was alone and he's handled it perfectly well.  Besides he doesn't want to risk getting Sakura sick, for her pregnancy seems to be hard enough as it is with her puking every morning like clockwork.  Surprisingly Sakura doesn't mind, she bounces right back after it with a bright and happy smile on her face never once complaining. Sasuke knows that it takes a toll on her however unnoticeable it may be and has made the resolution to help ease her pregnancy in anyway he can. "I'm fine." Sasuke states,"I don't want you to get sick by coming near me. Especially not now." His eyes flicker to her stomach for extra emphasis. Sakura rolls her eyes.  "I'm fine." He insists,"And as I was saying. You can sit this one out." "No." He blinks. Sakura has rarely been this adamant about anything and almost never been this curt with him. The only reason she's not got around to treating him yet is because Sasuke has been extra vigilant to flash step out of her way and even take another room in the inn they are staying just to be safe.  She's tolerated this behaviour for the past few days to humour him (actually it was more on the lines of getting a break from his overprotective hovering) but she was starting to reach the end of her patience.  "There are children there Sasuke, if they're hurt, you don't have the medical expertise to treat them, I do. In fact right now you're a pretty sad excuse for a shinobi right now because you're sick and you won't let me treat you. So you're damn well going to take me along with you or else I'll go on my own." 

Sasuke sighs. He knows the situation is grave for Sakura has rarely ever referred to him without a suffix. Besides he very well knows that if he just left her behind she would just follow him and blindly run into danger. Knocking her out wasn't even an option for it could harm the baby and not to mention that Sakura would pulverize him as soon as she woke up.  So he conceeds,"Fine but you're not going to fight." "I won't fight." She says reassuringly,"If that's what your worried about then I won't fight even if it's against a couple of civilians who can't even touch me."  He blinks. The sarcasm in her tone is not lost on him. She's angry at him but he can handle her anger over the possibility of her getting hurt.  "You have to give me your word that won't fight."  "I swear on Kakashi's porn collection."  This time even Sasuke can't help but smirk but none the less he looks over at her sternly,"Sakura."  "Fine, fine." She talents,"I promise I won't fight."  The entire matter had actually begun when the two of them had stumbled onto a small civilian town nestled beside a lake because Sakura had been craving a proper bed and shower for days.  They'd been surprised to know that the small run down town had once been a prosperous hub for merchants but due to frequent visits by bandits, the town had fallen to ruin.  Recently a group of slave traders had stumbled onto the small settlement and in the past few weeks there had been over fifteen kidnappings of young children and the two of who'd narrowly escaped were critical.  Well they were critical until Sakura arrived.  It didn't take much for the people of the town to recognise Sakura, once she was done healing them. With a combination of her pink hair and healing prowess, while she was far younger than most people imagined, she was easily identified as Sakura Haruno, the pink haired wonder medic who was a hero of the war, the apprentice of the Godaime Hokage who'd surpassed her master to earn the title of the Slug Queen, friend of the Naruto Uzumaki the saviour of the five nations and a student of the current Hokage, Kakashi of the Sharingan.  She'd been rather flattered of all the titles given to her of course but to be perfectly honest Sasuke had felt rathered bristled that her identification mainly revolved around knowing others rather than her own achievements which were far more illustrious. Even he knew Naruto and Kakashi and frankly being associated with either of them was a pain more than an honour.  Well that's what he told Sakura but she was well aware that his irritation had stemmed entirely from the fact that they hadn't called her Sakura Uchiha and she’d made a point to correct them. They knew him too, but his introduction was unsurprisingly a more hushed affair than hers for his past and his associations were not nearly as commendable as hers. But he was a hero of the war too, the best friend of the blonde haired idiot and while others might not know it both Sakura and Naruto were well aware that despite everything he was still Kakashi's favourite student.  But barring that aside the word of their travels had also spread, two of the legendary neo sanin traversing the lands together helping rebuild and heal villages.  Thus unsurprisingly as soon as Sakura was done healing the two kids they found almost the entire village standing in front of them begging for their help. The village was entirely isolated from any of the five nations and didn't fall under the jurisdiction of the Damiyo's leaving them to fend for themselves without any manpower or money.  The Uchiha's agreed immediately of course. Even if they hadn't been asked they'd have gone ahead and rescued the children.  Well at least Sasuke would have gone, he'd thought that both him and his wife were on the same page of letting him take the lead on this one whilst leaving Sakura behind in the village but of course Sakura had other plans.  "We should get going." Sakura tugs on his sleeve,"I want to rescue them as soon as possible." Sasuke sighs as they head towards the hideout that they had sensed a few miles away. When they're just a few metres short he lets his chakra flare up while Sakura beside him did the same.  Both Sakura and Sasuke have maintained the practice to suppress their chakra to a civilian level through out their travels. Despite that they've never been abused because the way they carry themselves is enough to make most people scramble.  (Well at least the way Sasuke carries himself, Sakura seems approachable, sweet and gentle until she gets mad.) And right now she's mad.  Its clear by the way she stands in front of the huts, disgust lacing every inch of her delicate face. Sakura, he'd learned felt strongly about things, whether it would be anger, sadness or love, Sakura gave her hundred percent to all of it.  Sasuke wonders just how many acres of land his wife was going to end up destroying this time. But his curiosity has to take a back seat in these matters for right now his wife is pregnant. Her physical prowess may be unmatched but Sasuke doesn't like taking risks, especially not when it comes to Sakura. If he can handle it on his own there's no need for her to fight.  And he can handle just about everything on his own. Their chakra serves as a warning to the slave traders to tell them that these are not people to be messed with it as well as an out for them to quickly surrender. Both Sasuke and Sakura don't enjoy unfair fights for controlling their powers to a level where they might not accidently kill them is far harder than fighting all out against a stronger enemy.  And sure enough the enemy, at least a few dozen have instantly become alert and in an instant the pair is surrounded.  "There are jounin amongst them." Sakura comments offhandedly as she inspects the enemy around them. Most were civilian but the number of ninjas were astounding none the less.  His eyes flicker briefly to the scratched out headbands,"Rogues from Sand. We'll have to inform Kakashi and Gaara about this."  At the name of the Hokage and Kazekage the rage on the ninjas face is palpable.  "Who are you?" One of them ask. They are rightfully weary of the both of them.  "That's none of your business." Sasuke replies curtly. While their surname should be enough to make these traders back off, Sasuke knows better than to reveal his location to a bunch of rogues. He’s sure that there are plenty of people searching for him to obtain his Sharingan. While he's sure that he can handle all who come after his eyes with ease, he's aware that he's not alone anymore. Avoiding conflict was the best way to keep Sakura and their baby safe. "They seem familiar." One of the ninjas comment,"I think-"  "We don't want any conflict." The leader presumably speaks up,"If you leave us in peace then we will too."  "Then free the children." Sakura's words are sharp,"And we shall consider asking the authorities that we hand you over to,to be the slightest bit lenient."  A ripple of unease passes through the crowd but it's suppressed by the leaders laughter.  "You're arrogant for being such a small thing aren't you?" He comments and then his eyes flicker to Sasuke who stands placidly behind her,"I wonder how well your dog can protect a pretty little thing like you."  Sakura's eyes flash but she remains calm. Normally this is enough to set her off but she's made a promise to Sasuke to not fight which is why she just smiles.  "And you're pretty arrogant for a no name jounin who kidnaps and sells children. I wonder how well your abominably large ego will be able to protect a heartless bastard like you."  The shock on his face is palpable but Sakura hardly gives him time to react as she grabs his hand and twists it away in a way that's unnatural with her regular amount of strength.  "Go to hell bastard." She hisses and then kicks him sending him flying back into two others.  So much for her promise to not fight, Sasuke thinks as the attack begins. He's careful not to activate the Sharingan, the villagers might keep his secret but he knows better than to flaunt one of the most sort after doujutsus in the face of people like them.  While Sakura's hair is a dead giveaway to her identity thankfully it seems like no one has recognised her amongst the group of rag tag ninjas and civilians without seeing her healing abilities and Sasuke wants to keep it this way.  Sasuke swings the katana over Sakura's head to pin down the bastard who was running at her whilst Sakura bends down and sweeps her leg underneath the opponent that was attacking Sasuke.  In a moment they change positions, their backs against each other.  "Sakura you promised. Go now." His voice is sharp and he can feel her hesitation from behind him but none the less she agrees,"Fine cover me."  He can't use his Nagashi and take all of them out at once, for he's not recovered completley from his fever and is afraid without his Sharingan he can't control it precisely enough to make sure that Sakura and the children who he detected just behind the army will be spared.  Sasuke grits his teeth knowing that he's left with no choice but to activate the Sharingan but before he can Sakura speaks up as she punches yet another ninja who attacks her,"Activate your chidori when I give you the signal. I'll control it's path."  While Sasuke has no idea how Sakura intends to do it but he's long since learned that his wife's strategies fall second only to Shikamaru's.  He dodges another one of the enemies attacks impatiently. The longer Sakura stays in the fight the more she's at risk.  "Suiton: Ryūsuiben no Jutsu." Sakura's voice calls out loudly and instantly Sasuke realises what his wife intends to do. A water whip materialises and Sasuke doesn't need his Sharingan to admire the level of chakra control displayed as Sakura wields it with ease controlling its movements with extreme precision. Sasuke has rarely seen Sakura use water release, her fighting style has always been partial to taijutsu and genjutsu over ninjutsu.  In fact the first time she had used it against him had been during one of their spars to counter his Katon. He'd underestimated her grossly, thinking he’d be able to take her on without using his sharingan and had paid the price by getting punched right in the face for assuming that Sakura was just a one trick pony whose moves were predictable.  After that he promised to never insult her by thinking that he could defeat her without his Sharingan activated. His lightning crackles through the water whip and Sakura controls it's path perfectly sweeping it across the army in one perfect circle.  While it isn't enough to take out the more skilled jounin's who've managed to avoid the technique but in one fell sweep it's lessened their numbers considerably weeding out the weaker civilians and ninjas giving Sakura enough place to escape and head towards the children in the hut. She gives him a look right before she leaves, Stay safe.  Sasuke thinks it's entirely unnecessarily, after all this group hardly possesses a threat to him but none the less he nods and Sakura reassured disappears from his line of sight away from the danger of the army.  Sasuke falls into a pattern as he fights. Block, dodge, strike. One down. Three down. Four down, he keeps delivering blows making sure to keep it on a level where he doesn't accidently kill them.  One jounin, more skilled than the others almost blindsides him with an ice jutsu but he dodges in time throwing a shuriken.  His nose itches slightly and he realises that his cold isn't faring well. It’s fine though he’s fought plenty of battles on his own when he was sick and at that time he’d never had Sakura by his side, he’d never had anyone.

One jounin throws a shuriken his way and Sasuke raises his katana to deflect it... And then sneezes. The great Sasuke Uchiha sneezes.  The shuriken promptly gets embedded deeply at his side and Sasuke stares at the red blood that's quickly spreading in shock.  It's been so long that someone has actually managed to wound him that he can't help but be utterly baffled as to what’s happening. Did he just sneeze in the middle of a fight? He quickly steps back, the surprisingly persistent group of jounin had the upper hand now. He realises that his movements are sluggish and his eyesight is already getting blurry.  Shit, it's poisoned.  His opponent grins and lunges at him. This time Sasuke has no choice but to activate his Sharingan to dodge the attack and the jounin catch a glimpse of his eye their eyes widening in recognition. His katana feels like lead in his hand and he contemplates finishing everybody off with Amaterasu but he's afraid that he'll pass out before he can put it out. Starting a forest fire would be a sure shot way of burning the nearby town down as well as effectively trapping Sakura and the children.  Shit. He stumbles as he dodges the next one and the ninja raises his blade over Sasuke's head. Sasuke quickly activates Susanoo but the poison is potent and the purple shield flickers cracking against the blade.  The others don't hesitate and attack from behind and Sasuke dodges a second to slow.... But it doesn't matter because a resounding crack is heard through out the clearing sending the jounin back brutally into the ground in a way that sends dirt up all around them. When the dust clears he sees Sakura standing in front of him, blowing a lose strand of pink hair out of her eyes glaring at the jounin who'd almost got him.  "Don't touch my husband."  The other attackers are instantly on guard looking at Sakura apprehensively. She’s the bigger threat now and her stance is clearly protective as she stands in front of Sasuke. "You need to get out of here." She tells him not taking her eyes off the ninja who were slowly regrouping. 

He doesn’t move though, he can’t let her fight alone, what if-

"Sasuke-kun." She says,"Believe in me. I’m not weak" 

No, his wife was definitely not weak. And yet-

“I’m your wife Sasuke-kun.” She says her green eyes soft as she looks at him,” So depend on me.”

So Sasuke does as she’s asked and teleports himself in front of the children.

Sakura's evasive skills are far more superior to both his and Naruto's and she has no trouble dealing with multiple enemies and while her strikes are few in number, they’re smart and each hits it’s mark perfectly sending another opponent flying back. The ice jounin is smart and has quite a few tricks up his sleeve and he creates a large ice wall and sends it flying towards her. Sakura doesn't seem daunted, not even the slightest bit and Sasuke's mouth twists into a smirk as he recognises the signs she weaves to counter the ice. "Katon: Gokakyo no Jutsu."  The measly ice wall has no chance against Uchiha clans signature jutsu and it melts in a handful of seconds.  While Sakura's never really had an affinity towards fire jutsu's her speciality lying in water and earth this was one jutsu she'd perfected.She always claimed that it was because she had an exceptionally good teacher although Sasuke knew he was hardly worth that praise.  It was because while Sakura may not have a drop of Uchiha blood in her she was still meant to be one. And Sasuke had known that from the very beginning.  She gives a sidewards glance to Sasuke and he gives a short nod in response. He understood that she was going to end it now and he activates his Susanoo with whatever chakra he had. "Shannaro!"  Her fist slams into the ground sending chunks of rock up into the air, creating a massive faultline in its wake. Sasuke's Susanoo protects him and the children from the sheer show of strength his wife displays without even trying that hard.  As the dust settles Sakura's sillouhette is the first to appear followed by all the remaining ninja who lie unconscious at her feet.  Sasuke slumps in relief, the Susanoo fading as Sakura jumps off the rock she was standing on and lands in front of him smiling brightly.  She grins at him, dust covering her from head to toe and a shallow scrap on her right cheek,"Well that was fun."  All the children look at her gape mouthed as one says,"That. Was. So. Cool." He agrees with him wholeheartedly. Sakura bends down in front of him one palm on his cheek the other on his wound.  He grabs her wrist,"Later. I'm fine."  He thinks she might protest but she nods. She knows her husband is a proud man and showing weakness in public  It's only after the children are safely returned to the village and they're in their room in the tiny but comfortable inn that the townspeople have put them up in does Sakura talk again.  At first she stares at him, her green veridian eyes scanning him up and down. He thinks she might hit him, he sure as hell deserved it but instead she just smiles widely. "Thank you Sasuke-kun."He blinks at her surprised,"Thank you for depending on me. I’m glad we could fight side by side.” He doesn't respond so she continues. "I'm not going to let myself get hurt." She says firmly brushing aside his fears,"But more than that I will never let anybody touch my family. That includes you and our baby. I know my limits and I'm strong enough to protect both of you. So thank you for letting me, I know it can't have been easy.  But I’m here now and I’m your wife so please depend on me from now on."

”I will.” Sasuke promises and he’s surprised by how quickly he answers, “And I’m sorry.” "For what exactly?" She demands but she's smiling. 

"Everything." He reaffirms just as he'd done all those years back after his fight with Naruto in the Valley of the End. "You better be.." She pauses,"Anata." His eyes widen at the term of endearment and Sakura suddenly pauses her hand resting on her stomach. "What's wrong?"  Sasuke asks, panicked. "The baby.." she looks at him, her eyes gleaming,"Kicked for the first time.”

Sasuke eyes widen and he gently puts his hand on her slightly bulging stomach. 

”I think it happened when I called you Anata.” And once again the baby kicks and Sasuke sucks in a sharp breath.

“I think our baby likes it when I call you Anata.”  Sakura giggles as the baby kicks again.

And at that moment he can’t help but marvel at this woman who was the mother of his child and then he remembers the girl who’d once stood behind him crying begging to stay promising him that she’d give him happiness. 

And that’s exactly what she’d done, hadn’t she?

Sasuke pulls her into a kiss, it’s soft and gentle and when he pulls away he gives her a smile, a smile that’s for her and because of her.

A smile that’s only for her.

“I do too.”

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So this was in my works ever since I saw that Sasusaku scene in Gaiden where they interchanged. I hope you liked it and reviews are always appreciated. I’m sorry it’s a bit late though.