Oh, God, a word of warning: you will be DISTURBED. I'd been planning to do this for a while but never had inspiration yet or even time - but here it is now, and in time for Sarada's birthday (disturbing as it is, but it's for reasons in terms of the events).

Since it's midnight now, her birthday is over, but think of it as a late one. :)

What happens is that this short fic takes place in post-war canon. Sasuke is currently traveling and seeking redemption when he pays Orochimaru a visit in regarding to a surprise experiment his former sensei is doing in this time of peace, but it's NOT what Sasuke thinks. After that, Sasuke is abducted for nefarious reasons - and it may as well bring back a certain someone but also risk others he loves.

I have not read any of the manga - even though my boyfriend does - seen enough of the anime up to episode 374 (English dub), but I did do enough research to bring this to life and add my own ideas as well, so please don't be too hard on me. I'm happy with how this came out.

However, I will add there is gross content that I am hesitant to say, but now is your chance to leave if you are THAT sensitive. But for those of you brave enough, then enjoy.

Disclaimer: nothing of Naruto belongs to me.

Chapter One

It had been a few years since the war had ended.

The Hidden Leaf Village had a new Hokage - Naruto.

Sasuke was pardoned - after serving time - and released to atone around the world, to see separate individuals rather than as a whole. Which was what he'd done for the last two years, and he confessed he enjoyed his freedom from the village - but only granted time and permission. He was the Hokage's right hand, but to him, it still felt like close scrutiny like his clan's history.

What was more: his wife, Sakura, whom he married for the sake of restoring his clan and was currently pregnant with their first child, was tagging along with him as she refused to let him go alone. He liked to think it was because she didn't like to be behind during her pregnancy, which was something they'd argued over. It would not only put her at risk, but their BABY.

The next Uchiha...

One who will carry on the Sharingan.

He only wished Itachi were here to see his niece or nephew born, which would be a matter of days or weeks now. Either way, Sakura was nearing the end.

It had been difficult to carry her on his back when she could be unable to walk, his single arm adding to the mix, for due to the dominating infant she was carrying, she felt like she weighed a bit over her average, like a boulder in his embrace. He had to resort to Susano'o as his additional arm to keep her suspended for the ride, which she had to squeal with excitement over and cause him to roll his eyes at times, when it only amused him. He liked to blame it on the hormones.

But now Sasuke put her down when they reached their destination just as the sun hit its highest point in the middle of the day.

Otogakure.

Orochimaru.

Sakura groaned and popped her bones. "That feels better," she said, before she followed his gaze ahead. She sighed sharply. "The sun feels so nice I want to fall asleep now." Her eyes drooped as the proof.

Sasuke sniffed. "You can do that when we reach him," he told her as they began walking, given the clearing led to the site of the cave constructed into the great tree ahead. Beyond was a lush forest and the distant sound of a waterfall. But the tranquil atmosphere did nothing to ease the tension the sole surviving Uchiha heir knew lingered between him and his wife.

The messenger snake that arrived in his home had stated that what his former sensei wished to speak to him about held great interest for him - simply because Sasuke was going to be a father himself, and who else to talk to other than his former protégé? This alone made Sasuke raise an eyebrow.

What does fatherhood have to do with - wait a minute.

When he spoke to Sakura about this, to keep it brief, she was far from enthused. Just because he helped save Tsunade and the Leaf Village did not mean he would ever be welcomed. Sakura tolerated Orochimaru to a small extent. That was why she still did not trust him enough to let her husband go alone, insisting he take her along - and in the final month of her pregnancy nonetheless! Not only does she hate being back home while I am away, she refuses to let me be alone with the old man. She's still annoying like that.

But I love her still, and she forgives me easily. He felt the smile slip. TOO easily.

But she suffered that love just for him, just as he suffered his love and hate for his brother. She suffered his betrayal as he had Itachi's - but aniki's were on orders while his had been his making. And I've paid the price, but more to come. It will never be enough to end what I am doing for her and the entire world. He found himself looking down at the stump beneath his cloak, where his left arm once was. She'd offered to heal it for him after the fight with Naruto and the war ending, but it would never work. He deserved it, and besides, he could use his remaining arm well.

Walking beside her, without a word except an occasional glance, Sasuke turned his attention to the firm roundness in the middle of her body she cradled, sometimes running a hand or both over it. The ring he gave her on their wedding day shimmered subtly; the white cherry blossom grew from a magical swirling band of silver around her finger. Because he'd lost his arm, he'd been given a plain chain - because, between them and Naruto, it reminded him of his brother, whom he felt had been watching over them when their vows were made in front of those watching them. Those who welcomed him back, and those who had not; nothing mattered to him, except her.

The one who held him as he fired with pain through the effects of the Curse Mark given to him by the man who took advantage of the darkness inside him.

The one who screamed her undying devotion when he left in a night.

The one who was willing to kill him because he wanted to destroy the village she loved - the one who wrecked his beloved elder brother's life.

The one who sent a creature off its feet, earning the right to kunoichi.

The one who he cried to for forgiveness when he lay bleeding out the stump where his arm had been.

She took him back, after he left the village to travel the world, see more within than as a whole. There is more to life than a Shinobi, which was what Itachi traded to protect...

Ahead of them now lay the place in the open for the sun to shine down upon, away from the dreary shade where HE was waiting, for Sasuke. Right now, the Uchiha intended to visit this great tented place which one scarcely imagined a certain spectacled man was taking care of young ones.

Kabuto runs the orphanage he was raised. He is making up for everything he's done.

Not surprisingly, Karin was with him. She brightened when she saw the couple approach, and Kabuto himself joined, excusing himself after wrapping up a child's sprained ankle. Both smiled genuinely and led them both in. Karin wasn't up to medical potential like his wife, but she was Kabuto's assistant and a guidance counselor to the little ones who took to calling her "Mother".

"She reminds me of Mother Nono," Kabuto clarified, taking Sasuke back to the time he and Itachi fought against him, and his story to understand came to light. Seeing the children and their eyes filled with hope made Sasuke think about the one he and his wife were expecting very soon.

~o~

"You've been doing well for yourself," Sakura Uchiha noted of the redheaded woman with the glasses - the one Sasuke wanted her to kill to prove she would be loyal to him, and because he saw the woman no longer useful. That cold chakra of his is no more.

Karin Uzumaki gave her a shy smile, a blush creeping to her cheeks. "And the same goes for you." She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose out of habit. "These kids really are something for me. I didn't think I'd like them as much as I thought. Lord Orochimaru was wise to suggest this was productive for me, since where else could I go?"

Sakura frowned at her, sitting down at one of the unoccupied tables, watching as she administered a shot to a young girl of eight with blonde hair reaching her ears. It was strange to know that the man she hated and distrusted with a passion would even give his subordinates a choice to make. "That's odd, hearing that from you. I never thought the snake was capable of giving his low ones an option," she said, rubbing her swollen stomach. Any day now, she was due. She shouldn't have gone with her husband, as he'd heatedly told her, but she deserved to be there when he spoke with Orochimaru about whatever it was he wanted Sasuke for.

I may be pregnant, but I refuse to be weak.

"Just as you had an option to come all the way out here in your condition?" Karin asked, scrutinizing her as she watched her actions. The pinkette returned the look.

"I'm fine, okay? Sasuke didn't want me out here, but I still don't trust that snake." Her husband was fiercely protective of both her and the baby, which she loved him for, but he had no right to treat her like the girl she used to be: the one who couldn't fight to defend herself and instead relied on her boys. Did he forget she kicked ass before his eyes on the battlefield and outshone her shishou - or was he just secretly enjoying annoying her?

"Even though he helped?"

"How can you forgive or forget the fact he's done abominable things? Killed his own sensei and nearly destroyed our village?" Sakura kept her voice down so not to raise attention. She shouldn't be arguing, but could she help it?

Karin sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Fair enough. But I swear he and Kabuto haven't done any trouble. Orochimaru-sama has been doing some new research that doesn't involve human experiments. Actually, it's a small form, but it's nothing like you think."

Sakura was about to speak when a shadow fell on them both. It was none other than Kabuto himself, looking down at them with a smile, but the Uchiha wife was wary - until she'd seen the way he treated the children under his care. Had things been different in the past, she would have enjoyed working with him as a fellow Medical Ninja because he was so exceptional.

If there WAS one thing she sympathized with him, and even though it did not make him being Orochimaru's pet right - as well as the abominable Reanimation Jutsu he'd used to cause so much pain to her and the others - it was the fact that he never knew who or what he was, but because of Itachi in the manner her husband told her...look at the tired smile and the tender look in his eyes...he doesn't look or seem like the man I remember.

He has found a purpose.

He had to really earn her trust, but this was a start.

~o~

"...it seems you're going to be a 'father' - but not the same way as me."

"You are correct, Sasuke-kun. I confess I was curious to test it out and see if it could be beneficial."

"This isn't something like your usual experiments. It goes much deeper than just test tubes and embryo extractions, Orochimaru. Just what do you wish to accomplish by bringing to life a synthetic being in a jar?"

"Oh, tsk, tsk, Sasuke. Is curiosity too much? You're going to be a father very soon, to which I congratulate you on...and yet I felt something was missing in my long years of life. Kabuto and Karin, and the children - seeing those around me elope and bring nurslings of their own...if you were in my position, you would ask yourself the question. But I cannot take the time to find a woman the way you have; who would fall for the likes of me, hm? And what better way than the manner I know best?"

He supposed that did make sense. He wasn't unnerved, but it still made him twitch in the stomach because parentage and childhood weren't something you made by hand from nature. But if Orochimaru finds himself growing attached, then I'll have a laugh about it, be it in his face or behind his back.

He had sensed that he had been followed - no, trailed - and had jumped to attack. He had no time to activate the Rinnegan and his Sharingan before darkness claimed him without a fair fight. No weapons, no power from a god - but he did sense them - only when he inhaled the air, too late did he realize the air had been released with knock-out fumes. With that, he retaliated by making the hand signs and bringing to life the onyx form of -

Damn it, my Chidori was no match, was his last thought before he was taken by unconsciousness, shocked by his own jutsu through the arm, cursing himself for his lack of care - and cursing them for being so good, whoever they were.

Sasuke expected to wake up in some form of pain, but he felt like he had awoken from a spa treatment. Too much relaxation could lead to a death wish. Shaking his head in order to clear the fuzziness, he blinked and assessed his surroundings - and found himself in a typical cave. Was anyone going to be original nowadays? Hissing, Sasuke discovered that his remaining arm had been chained at the wrist, and so were his ankles.

"Damn it!"

Sakura is still out there. She will notice something amiss when she finds I didn't return. He angrily tugged on his bonds and rolled onto the opposite side...

...and found himself staring at the face of Itachi.

His scream that tore from his throat didn't seem like his own at all.

The worst is to come, so stay tuned for the next chapter. :S

On the upside, happy b-day to none other than Sarada Uchiha - Kushina Uzumaki incarnate, as my boyfriend says. :D