DISCLAIMER: Yep, Naruto ain't mine. And I'm bitter about it. TT

Note: I was listening to some music, and poof! this was born. Damn you, Hyde!

And She Said

Before the Wave: Breaking News

Tsunade was busy gobbling up the dredges of her sake from the sake bottle itself. Such a normal day for the Godaime, it is. In fact it was only eleven in the morning and she had already finished her stock of sake, gone halfway through all the scrolls and documents, and assigned at least twenty missions for the day.

All in all, it was such a booooooooring day.

"Hokage-sama!"

The door suddenly burst open, revealing a dazed Shizune. Tsunade immediately threw the sake bottle out of the window behind her.

"Hokage-sama! I-I have bad news! Sa—What's that horrendous sound?"

Tsunade straightened up on her chair, ignoring what suspiciously sounded like wailing that was coming from just outside of the Hokage tower.

Her hands reached out to fix her glasses about the bridge of her nose. "What is it, Shizune?" She asked in her most "I'm-the-Hokage-I-am-the-law-haha" tone. "If this is something that you can easily remedy without my help I'll—"

Now standing before her desk, Shizune waved an unruly lock of hair that was blocking her vision. "Hokage-sama… It's about Sakura… She's…"

"Sakura…?" If this is about Sakura terrorizing the town again with her massive strength, Tsunade thought, then that girl's really going to get it. She didn't become her apprentice just for that, for Shodaime's sake!

"Sakura… She's… Haruno Sakura is pregnant."

"NANI?????"

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What begun as a mediocre day for the Hokage was slowly turning worse. Tsunade sat on her desk now, massaging her temples, nursing a headache. What was the use of teaching Sakura all those medical jutsus if she was not able to even perform it for herself?

Well, given that she was not dating anyone (to her knowledge, in the least), it would be kind of unnecessary for her to actually do all those birth-control jutsus. But still…?

She had summoned the little kunoichi she considered as a daughter and had proceeded to terrorize – no, interrogate her as to her current predicament. But the girl, even with her cheerful disposition dampened severely, would not budge as to at least explain some details to her definitely unexpected pregnancy.

"I'll raise the child alone," she had said.

"Were you… er, raped?" Tsunade asked, and she was hoping the answer was no.

"No!" Came the defiant answer. "I haven't gone out of Konoha in a month, Shishou."

Well, true enough. At least, that eradicates the possibility of… But why does she insist on raising the child alone? Sakura knew the implications of the situation. She knew that most of the Konoha inhabitants were averse to this kind of situations, and that a child born out of wedlock would be most likely shunned by the civilians. But oh, she persisted.

Damn that girl for being stubborn. And, damn herself for teaching her to be stubborn, too.

Even enlisting (albeit begrudgingly) Ino's help to get the cherry blossom to blurt out (even accidentally) the identity of the perpetrator in this problem was for naught – Ino only became an emotional wreck after failing to elicit any name out of her. And even became waaay too emotional for her own good that she had to call her husband – her favorite jounin – to send her home.

Asking the people who are closest to her have proved to worsen her mood – no one answered her question, dammit, and she wants true, straight answers!

Yet as she called upon her most likely suspects (notice the 'S'), in hopes of being able to weasel out the answer from them, it only proved that she was setting herself up for a huge disappointment. She did get an answer out of them, but she never expected them to be such… such… Ugh!

"I'm the father."

"I'll be the father."

"It is I… the father."

Tsunade groaned loudly as she let her head fall on her desk, piles and piles of documents crumbling and papers flying around as she did so.

It was a futile attempt.

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… TBC.

a/n: How was it? Good? Bad? Interesting? Who's the father, might you ask? Weeeeell… We'll see. Hee-hee.

Review! Nyah!