Reise zu Reinkarnation

XII.

Sasuke spent the better part of his personal time off healing. His scar, though annoying, was sealed shut as well as it could be, and while the skin still twisted and moved with each breath he took, Sakura had done her job well. He had very little pain, aside from what his two parasites caused him, and went to each check-up with Sakura, usually with Naruto at his side. She didn’t say anything about the conspicuous limp Sasuke always seemed to have, though Sasuke was sure she had a good idea. Naruto had just stepped out of the examination room to discuss the possibility of Sasuke returning to active duty, leaving Sasuke to dress in private. His arm still twinged with the ghost-pain of the needle Sakura had used to draw his blood, and perhaps because of that ghost-pain, he was able to feel the pulse in his abdomen.

Even Orochimaru and Uchiha stopped fighting when Sasuke’s hand went to his abdomen, pressing down on the flesh, feeling resistance as he did so. Sasuke blinked once, twice, and watched the world of colour bleed away into black and white, the plants glowing a soft pale light with their life. But it wasn’t only the plants that were glowing. Sasuke himself was glowing, a softer light than the plants of course, but he was still glowing. The glow, much to his distress, was mostly concentrated on his abdomen.

Sasuke blinked a third time to return the world to normal and tried to think back to how this could have happened. Oh, he knew the mechanics, but he’d been careful. He’d been incredibly careful, since the memory-image jutsu and since being wounded. He’d carefully kept infection away from the wound, carefully kept a mental log of how much feminine chakra he allowed to mix with his own during the healing. He had thought he’d been careful enough to keep such a change from occurring. How could he have missed this for so long? Unless… Sasuke frowned and looked toward the door. At the hushed voices, he understood how he could’ve missed such an important change.

He was in love.

The life inside of him was a product of that love.

Sasuke shivered. Naruto would find out soon enough, as soon as Sakura ran Sasuke’s blood through the machines. Once Naruto found out, Sasuke would never be able to leave the village alone. In fact, he’d probably never be able to leave the village at all, and he desperately needed to tell the only other living Uchiha he knew of about this. But the challenge was getting out of Konoha before anyone could stop him. He needed to leave as soon as possible, get a head start on Naruto because Naruto would definitely be a part of the team sent out to find him.

He could leave through the window, but that would be too suspicious. Better to leave through the door, be seen, and have a few minutes of a head start toward the gate. Maybe he could even circumvent the gate entirely. He had to pack though. Naruto wouldn’t be as pissed with him if he had a pack full of food and other outdoor gear. Sasuke settled his shirt over his frame and moved for the door, easing it open and moving out into the hall, passing by several nurses and other doctors, making sure he was seen heading for the hospital’s front entrance. Hopefully, most would assume he was heading for the Tower or maybe Naruto’s apartment, which would be the truth. But Sasuke didn’t intend to stay for long. He intended to pack and get the hell out of Konoha has fast as he could. He knew he should tell someone, but that would only lead to him being stopped. He was in the apartment and out of it in record time, hurrying for the gate. If he could just get through it, then he would be free for a short amount of time.

He couldn’t stop, not now, and with more bravery than he felt, Sasuke picked up his speed until he was flying over the rooftops, a blur to those who looked, and nothing more than a shadow to those who didn’t.


Naruto rubbed his forehead and tried not to snap at the nurses who told him in a not-quite flirtatious way that Sasuke had already left the hospital. Sakura had said the blood tests would take a few hours, but she’d get the results to him within the hour that they were finished. So Naruto assumed that Sasuke had left for the Tower, but since Sasuke hadn’t been seen going in there, Naruto went for the apartment. But Sasuke wasn’t there either. So where could the brunette be? Naruto decided to wait around for the results before panicking, thinking maybe Sasuke had been kidnapped by Kakashi for some training or by Iruka for some help on whatever project Iruka needed help on. Perhaps he’d even gone back to the Uchiha compound for a while, maybe trying to decide if the place should be torn down or if it was worth rebuilding. It wasn’t until a breathless Sakura and an equally breathless messenger chuunin caught him as he was heading out to search for his wayward Uchiha that he realized Sasuke wasn’t even in Konoha at all.

He’d completely ignored Sakura in favour of the messenger, telling the pink-haired woman to give him her discoveries later, hurrying to get into his ANBU uniform. Sakura wasn’t far behind him, accompanied by Ino, both of whom were dressed in their uniforms. Sakura didn’t tell Naruto why she’d invited herself and Ino along, but Ino just gave Naruto the meanest stare she could without actually using her special technique.

The three were out of the village by dusk, flying through the forest in an effort to catch up to their wayward nukenin, hardly stopping for anything but a few bites to eat and a few sips of water. Konoha had been set on stand-by, mostly to keep the Council from asking questions and asking for Naruto himself. Not only that, in the event that those that went out came back in a strange way, they could be disposed of quietly.

By the second day of searching, Naruto, Sakura, and Ino had switched on their radio collars, splitting up and keeping tabs on each other by reporting in every hour. Sasuke continued to remain elusive, however, and the three finally had to stop to sleep. Sakura sidled over to Naruto then, offering him a half of a cheese sandwich, before settling beside him and nibbling her own half. Ino wandered over to the other side of their camp, pretending to give them their privacy, though she certainly was listening in.

“I’m getting sick of his constant running away,” Naruto grumbled.

Sakura sighed. “He did it for a reason, I’m sure.”

“He couldn’t tell me he was going to leave? He couldn’t just leave me a note? ‘Oh, Naruto, by the way, I’m going out for a while’?”

“I tried to tell you something back in the village, Naruto. You insisted on coming out here looking for him.”

“What were you trying to tell me?” Naruto said with a sigh, looking at his friend, trying to school his face into a proper stoic expression.

Sakura scratched at her cheek. “The blood tests for Sasuke came back. There were low levels of HCG in his blood.”

“HCG?”

“It’s a hormone, Naruto.” Sakura chewed on her thumbnail. “Sasuke’s pregnant.”

Naruto was silent for a long, long time. “What?”