A/N: So here we are. The true conclusion to Lacrimosa. I swear! Damn, I caved already and spoiled the surprise right above this commentary! XD Again, apologies for the agonizing delay (should probably just automatically paste that line as the heading of every author's note at this point). Unfortunately, I drew the short straw and was wrested away from my spring vacation to advocate against some…err…legislative debacle that went down in these past few weeks. So much for my spring break…T_T The trolling though? Yeah, that one's on me. Anyways, here's the chapter as promised.

After a tiresome period of canvassing the local village and staving off the Sound thugs who blitzed him while he was briefly away from his wife, he followed the trail of blood on the forest floor which led him inside a cavern. Orochimaru stood face to face with the intruder who so rudely stormed into his hideout and accosted him. A subtle smirk surfaced to snake-like man's thin lips as the Uchiha cast him a dangerous glare.

"I believe what you're looking for is probably in Konoha by now," Orochimaru said nonchalantly with a smile plastered on his face before adding, "and I want my Sharingan back."

The intruder's eyes bled red, glowing ominously within the dim cave. Orochimaru's bespectacled apprentice stood loyally at his side, appearing amused with the intruder's anger.

Orochimaru pressed a finger to his lips and uttered a wheezy chuckle. "Oh? Did I strike a nerve?"

"How are you so sure it's Sakura-chan's baby?" Kizashi inquired skeptically as he eyed the raven haired infant cradled within Tsunade's arms.

"There is no mistaking this child's chakra is half-Uchiha," Tobirama answered, glimpsing to the scowling Fugaku who leaned against the wall with his arms tightly folded across his chest. "The other half is more difficult to determine. Unlike the noble clans who practice endogamy and have easily recognizable chakra signatures, the lineage of specific peasant clans is harder to ascertain based on the feel of the chakra. Sakura's chakra doesn't exactly resemble typical peasant chakra either."

"As head of the Uchiha, I refuse to accept a half-breed into the clan," Fugaku asserted firmly, provoking an affronted frown from Tsunade.

"I don't follow," Mebuki stated, placing her hands to her hips. "If you cannot definitively prove this is my daughter's child, then we are under no obligation to care for it."

"It is not necessarily the feel of the chakra that leads me to believe Sakura mothered this child. Take a closer look." With a flourish of the hand, Tobirama gestured for Tsunade to rise from the rocking chair and present the infant to the Uchiha and Haruno clan leaders.

Fugaku's eyes widened as if he could not believe what he was witnessing. "The Sharingan? But how?"

"I believe this baby may have activated the Sharingan from witnessing Sakura's death," Tsunade responded, noticing the predictable apprehension in the Haruno parents' faces. She swayed back and forth to pacify the alarmed infant who began to whimper at the sight of the strangers crowding around it. "The Sharingan has been within this child's eyes since recovery and it's been almost two hours now."

Fugaku cupped his chin in his hand as he assumed a pensive expression. "It's not possible for a newborn to keep a Sharingan activated for so long. Not unless this child inherited impeccable chakra control."

He gazed fixedly into the tiny infant's red orbs, uncertain whether to welcome such an extraordinary child into the clan or not. Most Uchiha activated their Sharingan during their adolescent years and typically fainted not long after attaining it. Though the infant's possible maternal lineage chagrined him deeply, he let his mind run with the limitless potential the child possessed. As he fancied the infant's potential to one day surpass the power of its predecessors, he stumbled across a concerning thought.

Was he looking at his grandchild or the child of his former superior?

"Who is the father?" Fugaku followed up, asking a question Tobirama anticipated but did not look forward to answering.

"We do not know," Tobirama replied candidly, knowing his response would rile both clan leaders. "I suspect it may be Sasuke, Itachi, or Madara since they are the only Uchiha that have been away from the village."

Fugaku's perpetual scowl deepened in revulsion. "That loose woman could've conceived a child with any of them."

"How dare you!" Mebuki snarled fiercely as she slammed her hand down on the table, startling her husband. "That is not our daughter's child! Sakura-chan wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Uchiha. They ruined her life! They ruined our lives!"

Mebuki pivoted on her feet and trudged angrily towards the door. Kizashi clumsily scrambled after his fuming wife.

"Honey, wait!" He uselessly flailed his arms as she slipped through the door and slammed it shut. He dangled his head in a despondent manner and mumbled, "What if this baby is all we have left of Sakura-chan…?"

Sakura moaned miserably as she slowly lifted her eyelids open to the bleary sight of a wrinkled face hovering over her. She blinked back her tears, enabling her eyes to focus on the familiar elderly woman tending to her. It was the same old woman from Sunagakure who once requested Sakura's medical assistance to contain an outbreak of the measles. Besides the shrill whistle of a tea kettle boiling on a stove in the background, the room was silent.

"Chiyo-baasama?" Sakura uttered the woman's name as she attempted to sit up.

The elderly woman forced her to remain supine on a floor mattress. Sakura spotted the woman's redheaded grandson standing against the wall behind her. Although she had come across him once or twice before, the sheer intensity in his liquid amber eyes never failed to unsettle her.

"My baby! Where's my baby?" Sakura cried out as Chiyo wrung the water out of a rag and placed it on Sakura's sweat-ridden brow.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to locate your baby. I found you unconscious in a forest while I was out gathering herbs," Chiyo answered ruefully, noting the crystalline luster within Sakura's tearful eyes.

Chiyo placed the knife edge of her hand against Sakura's lower abdomen, stabilizing her womb to prevent it from inverting. She massaged the Haruno's swollen belly with the other hand, attempting to firm the boggy fundus of her uterus while the aggrieved woman wept in silence. After a couple minutes of unsuccessfully massaging the stubbornly atonic muscle, Chiyo injected a syringe filled with clear fluid into Sakura's thigh. If this method did not cause the muscle to contract and staunch the flow of blood pooling in between her legs, then she would've exhausted all of the treatment options she was capable of employing.

"You've lost a substantial amount of blood and are continuing to hemorrhage despite everything I've tried. What on earth happened to you?" Chiyo asked as she stuffed a stack of pillows beneath Sakura's heels, elevating her legs.

Sakura swallowed forcefully and smeared her tears with the back of her hand. "My husband and I arrived in a village where I had been asked to teach basic first aid to the villagers. However, they were really criminals from the Sound in disguise. They managed to separate me from my husband and kidnap me. I was taken to Orochimaru's hideout and ordered to deliver my baby right there and then. I told Orochimaru that I wasn't due yet and he said it was not a problem."

"Not a problem?" Chiyo parroted her words back to her.

"A tall man with orange hair grabbed me from behind while Orochimaru ordered another man with pointy teeth to strike me in the stomach with a wooden plank. When he ruptured my bag of water, I told Orochimaru that my baby would die once all of the fluid was gone. He stabbed me with a syringe that contained a labor-inducing drug and told me to hurry up and deliver his Sharingan. He threw me in a room with Karin from the Uzumaki clan who ran an IV line into me to amplify my contractions and monitored me while I was in labor."

Sakura paused briefly as she replayed the traumatic sequence of events in her mind.

"But, I managed to escape the cave with my baby and was struck down when I made it into the forest." Sakura's lower lip began to tremble as tears welled up in her eyes once more. "I never even got to learn if it was a boy or a girl…"

"That sounds like something Orochimaru would do. He's always yearned for an Uchiha body as his future vessel to attain everlasting life," Sasori hummed wearily, breaking his silence.

Though Sakura was aware Sasori wasn't the most expressive person by any stretch of the imagination, she reckoned he had become quite blasé to Orochimaru's machinations. He previously mentioned spying on Orochimaru once before when she treated him for poisoning by a noxious toxin which was concocted by Kabuto.

"So your husband is an Uchiha, huh. I recall crossing paths with an Uchiha who said he was searching for a woman named Sakura. He was wandering the streets earlier this morning."

"You've seen my husband?" A sanguine glint flashed across her tear-ridden eyes.

He replied indifferently, "I can retrieve him for you if he's still around."

"That would be very much appreciated, Sasori," Chiyo said graciously in relief.

She watched as her grandson retrieved his cloak off the hanger and headed towards the door. Sakura turned her head, capturing a sideways view of him exiting the room.

She removed the dampened rag from her forehead and dabbed her ashen cheeks with it. "I remember one day, he suddenly showed up to a clinic I was volunteering at and requested medical attention. He wore a hooded cloak over disheveled clothing that didn't have his clan symbol on it. It came as a shock to me since I was so accustomed to him wearing the fancy silk clothing of the nobles. I had never seen him in such terrible shape."

"I thought you left your village to avoid the Uchiha after everything you said they did to you." Chiyo cocked a sole brow somewhat disapprovingly.

"I didn't want anything to do with Uchiha and I was absolutely certain I would stand by that." Sakura closed her eyes and drew a deep breath as Chiyo resumed massaging her fundus. "I didn't feel I had given myself adequate time to heal, but I decided to give him a chance because, deep in my heart, I loved him too. We ended up travelling the lands together and eventually married in private. I don't think I've ever seen that man happier than the moment I announced that I was pregnant. He was so excited about the pregnancy he even helped pick out baby clothes."

"How sweet." Chiyo smiled warmly at her as a modest blush crept to the surface of Sakura's cheeks.

"But, he was also very protective of me. He cautioned me to wear loose-fitting clothes and conceal my pregnancy in case we encountered any potential enemies. I never told anyone I was pregnant and we planned to settle in a remote cottage once I was closer to my due date."

Chiyo stiffened and then proceeded to ask, "How did Orochimaru know you were pregnant?"

"That's exactly what I asked him, but he never gave me a straight answer." Sakura fixed her eyes on the ceiling above as she recalled Orochimaru's cryptic words. "He just held up a crystal ball that had an orange glow to it and said, 'so you chose him.'"

Sasuke raced up and down the long stretch of mazelike corridors inside Orochimaru's hideout. Trickles of sweat descended from his temples down the sides of his face as he hastened his pace. One by one, he kicked in the doors of the rooms lining the corridor in search of any trace of the pink haired woman's whereabouts. Pure panic stole his breath as his relentless scouring yielded nothing but barren rooms.

As he rounded the corner, he sighted his former fiancé restlessly pacing the dark hallways like a ghost.

"Karin!" he called out to her.

"Sasukeh!" she answered him. With a hesitant smile on her face, the Uzumaki woman trotted up to him, intruding upon his personal space.

"Where is she?" Sasuke demanded, casting a more comfortable distance between them.

Karin chewed her bottom lip before injecting an oblivious tone to her voice. "Where is who?"

"Where is Sakura?" Sasuke pressed her, quickly losing his patience with her deflections as his eyes roamed her bloodstained silk kimono. "I received an SOS from a crow and came as soon as I could."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she answered dismissively, dodging his crimson eyes.

"I'm not going to repeat myself again. Where is Sakura?"

Karin abandoned her ignorant facade as Sasuke's callous voice sliced through her like a kunai plunged deep into her heart. She could feel the tears pricking her eyes and soon they were uncontrollably spilling down her cheeks.

She choked out her words through her sobs, "I wanted revenge on her for stealing you away from me, okay!"

Though Karin's green-eyed and retaliative nature was no surprise to him, he never fathomed she would go so far as to harm Sakura and her unborn baby. He averted his gaze as he couldn't stomach looking her in the face any longer.

"Orochimaru knew she was pregnant and I helped him track her down. He intended to steal the baby and force it to watch Sakura being tortured so it would be traumatized enough to activate its Sharingan," Karin cried loudly. "I hated her so much I wanted her to suffer for making me suffer! I watched her scream and cry as she labored on the floor. But, in between her contractions she asked me…"

Karin's voice faltered as her sobs intensified, making it more difficult for her to speak coherently. Her voice reverberated off the walls of the empty corridor as she suddenly yelled her words, "She asked me if I was in pain too!"

She seized a handful of her own hair and tugged at her bright red locks. "Why would she even ask me something like that?"

Sasuke stared at her in utter shock with his mouth agape. Karin squatted on the floor and rocked back and forth in an effort to self-soothe.

At first, Karin hadn't the faintest clue as to why Sakura asked her such an asinine question. The Haruno was the one who was contracting for what seemed like an eternity and pleading for merciful death. Sakura expressed her sympathy to Karin about the suffering Sasuke's rejection caused her. Her first instinct was to disregard Sakura's words as a desperate plea for mercy disguised as compassion. She expected Sakura's chakra to fluctuate since it was the telltale sign of a lie, but she never detected any concrete evidence of deception. Sakura claimed that women exhibited heightened sensitivity to the suffering of others, evoking Karin's memories of Sakura's anguished visage and the pummeling she received at the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Then Sakura quipped that if her statement was unequivocally true, her husband was secretly a woman too.

Sakura speculated that Sasuke probably would've been unhappy if he proceeded with the marriage. Initially, Karin was slighted by Sakura's supposition until she clarified that his fear of having his autonomy taken from him was the basis for his refusal to marry her. Before now, Karin had never considered the implications of what their betrothal meant to him. She desired nothing more than to be his bride, but on the other hand, she did not wish to condemn him to a life he perceived as an unhappy one.

She mentioned that Sasuke asked her parents for her hand in marriage, but she was not assured she would find happiness in a marriage to him.

Sakura told Karin about the heart-wrenching story of her capture, the torture she experienced through the Moon's Eye Seal, and her repeated attempts at escape. Overtime, Sakura's spirits gradually lifted and she touched upon the more comical stories of her time on the compound. When Karin inquired about Sasuke, she told her about her efforts to ditch him at the Akagane marketplace, taking breaks in her storytelling to breathe through her contractions. She spoke of Sasuke's monumental change from a ruthless abductor to the liberator of the peasants and a key contributor to the downfall of Uchiha tyranny.

Karin recognized that Sakura must've possessed astounding resilience to carry on a conversation while she was in active labor sans analgesia. Based on her accounts of the excruciating torture she endured during her time in captivity, she likely became desensitized to even the worst of pain. Sakura stressed that even though the contractions hurt like hell had taken up residence in her abdomen, she felt at ease with Karin at her side.

The pangs of remorse suddenly came unbidden to the Uzumaki woman, extinguishing the hatred that once burned within her heart. The more time she spent with her, the fonder she grew of Sakura's companionship. Perhaps if they had met under different circumstances, she could've become great friends with the Haruno.

Karin ordered Suigetsu and Juugo, who had been standing guard outside the door, to heat up boiling water once Sakura had reached complete dilation. She specifically instructed the two men to retrieve the pots which were located on the opposite side of the hideout and the fabricated name of a drug. This would ensure the two men spent an ample amount of time away while Sakura pushed. She held Sakura's hand and hugged her head against her chest to muffle her screams and avoid alerting Orochimaru as the infant's tiny head began to crown.

"I delivered Sakura's baby, wrapped it in a blanket, and handed it to her." Karin wiped her tears and steadied her trembling voice. "Even though she had yet to deliver the placenta, she seemed well enough to flee so I guided her towards the exit at the northern end of the hideout."

"You helped her escape? Where is she?" Sasuke asked, finally getting to the bottom of what had happened to the Haruno.

"I don't know. Orochimaru's henchmen must've noticed and gone after her. Judging by the trail of blood, it seems she managed to make it into the forest, but I cannot sense her chakra or the baby's." Tears returned to Karin's eyes as an outright look of horror fell upon Sasuke's face.

Sasuke exhaled noisily and started in a low, subdued voice, "A short while after I left Konoha, I came across my brother who had left the village as well. He told me he was busy with a mission to protect the village from the outside."

He reminisced of the time he encountered Itachi by chance many months ago while on his travels. His brother was noticeably malnourished and sickly in appearance. He accused his older brother of neglecting his medications, but Itachi insisted he was still compliant with his drug regimen. It was evident Itachi had been exhausting himself with an endeavor beyond simply monitoring the village.

"I asked him if he had been searching for Sakura, but he denied it." He twisted his face into a pained grimace and added, "I knew he was lying to me."

His brother had been a masterful actor and liar as evidenced by his prior stint as a Senju informant, but this time, Sasuke would not be fooled.

"I called him out on his lie, but he adamantly denied pursuing Sakura because he sought to respect her wishes of avoiding the Uchiha. Though he was loath to admit it, her absence was tearing him apart."

All his life, his older brother had protected him and cared for him. He pleaded with his brother to prioritize his own interests for once, no matter how much it opposed his self-sacrificing tendencies. Even though it hurt to give up Sakura, Sasuke was beset with a much greater pain witnessing his beloved brother suffer so unbearably.

"My brother means the world to me. You took away his happiness," Sasuke said frigidly, "and that I cannot forgive."

Karin stood in the middle of the corridor as though his words had frozen her in place. Sasuke wheeled around and bolted for the exit in search of his brother. He headed towards the light of the outside world slicing through the narrow mouth of the cave. Not far from where he stood, his brother was untying the reins of a chestnut pony tethered to a tree branch near the opening of the cave.

"Nii-san!" Sasuke flagged down Itachi as he swung his leg over the pony's croup and seated himself on the stocky mount.

"I was able to penetrate Orochimaru with the Sword of Totsuka and seal him inside the gourd. He's no longer an issue," Itachi stated, his grip tightening on the reins of the impatient mare who fidgeted beneath him. Following a momentary pause, he added, "For now."

Before the two brothers could discuss their next course of action, they heard a feminine voice calling from afar. "Please, wait!"

Karin hurried out of the cave and halted herself before the mounted Uchiha. She extended her hand, offering Itachi a small wooden box with a red ribbon tied in a bow around it to secure the lid. "It's a piece of the umbilical cord. Please take it so the baby's spirit does not become lost without its mother."

Itachi accepted the offering and silently nodded his gratitude. He nudged the mare's rotund barrel with his heels encouraging her to move forward.

"Our next destination is Konoha."

"And then one day I woke up barricaded in dishes. He had tried to make me breakfast in bed," Sakura rambled hoarsely, lying in a nest of towels and blankets. "Meal preparation had verged on becoming a source of conflict with him. I know he only has the best of intentions, but he can be frustratingly insistent at times."

"Tell me more," Chiyo deliberately probed her to share her loquacious tales of travel. "How did you afford all that food?"

Sakura's pulse had become rapid and thready and her complexion deathly pale. She had soaked the last set of fresh towels and blankets Chiyo had in blood and perspiration. Her soft chatter was comforting to the elderly woman since she had become increasingly difficult to rouse whenever she closed her eyes and fell silent. Her speech was progressively incoherent, though she still remained interactive. Despite Chiyo's best efforts to curtail her blood loss, there wasn't much time before she succumbed to hemorrhagic shock and finally departed this world.

"He periodically sent reports to Konoha with his crows. He only received a small stipend for his mission so I was the breadwinner. I informed him I would cook the meals from now on, but he thought I was over exerting myself while I was pregnant. I kept telling him I…" Sakura voice trailed off into silence as if she couldn't muster the energy to complete her sentence.

"I'm home," Chiyo heard Sasori's dull speak from the foyer. A dark haired man wearing a cloak entered the room behind her grandson.

"Sakura, please wake up." Chiyo vigorously shook the girl to keep her from slipping into unconsciousness. "Your husband is here."

Sakura's long-lashed eyelids fluttered open, meeting the gaze of the familiar man who approached her and knelt down beside her. She lifted her head off her pillow slightly, scrutinizing his severe countenance.

Her eyes closed again as her head collapsed back into the pillow. "That's not my husband."

"No, I'm not," Madara replied bluntly. "And unlike your incompetent husband, I would've never allowed you to wind up in this condition."

"What an unfortunate mistake." Sasori shrugged his shoulders apathetically.

Chiyo cast her grandson a suspicious glance then set her sights on the notorious man he had welcomed into their home. "Sasori, are you hanging out with those mobsters again?"

"I wouldn't know anything about them," he answered without even bothering to mask his unapologetic tone.

Madara ruminated over the ironic path his life had taken. Ever since his exile from the Uchiha clan, he resorted to criminality to survive and cope with his losses. Essentially, he was no better than Sakura's bandit mother. He wandered the lands searching for the Haruno with the hope he could begin anew. Rumors of the Haruno's sighting with another Uchiha eventually reached his ears. The news of her marriage to Itachi left him without a sense of purpose or direction. He questioned whether Sakura saved his life out of her natural obligation as a healer or if she had truly forgiven him for the grief he had caused her.

"Please tell Itachi that I was able to pass on peacefully," Sakura uttered delicately as a faint smile graced her lips. "I'm also thankful to have seen you once more, Madara. Even after everything…"

According to Sasori, the very same man who saved her life after the explosion was also the one responsible for her current critical condition. As much as her rejection wounded him, he couldn't find it within himself to resent her. He still loved her, even though that love was not reciprocated. While the heartache gnawed at him like a parasite, there was no imagining a life without her existence.

He interlaced his fingers with hers and squeezed lightly. "There is no way I'm telling Itachi anything. Is there any way you can save her, Old Woman?"

The elderly woman twisted her wrinkled mouth into an indignant moue for all of a split second. "She is in shock. I've tried everything I could but the extent of her hemorrhage requires intensive care beyond the scope of my medical capabilities. The only one who can save her at this point is Tsunade."

"I'll take her to Konoha," Madara said decisively, snapping up to his feet.

"How are you going to transport her? By wagon?" Sasori raised a valid caveat to his proposed plan. "She'll die on the way there."

The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan spun within the former Uchiha Lord's irises. "The fastest way to Konoha is to fly by Susanoo."

Kakashi invited three Uchiha men inside and quietly shut the door behind them.

"Itachi…Sasuke…" Fugaku breathed the names of his two sons as they entered the room with Shisui trailing close behind.

Kakashi ushered them towards a woven flax bassinet situated beside Tsunade. Shisui and Sasuke lingered a few feet behind Itachi, respectfully allowing him to approach the bassinet first.

"Meet your daughter." Tsunade introduced him to the tiny infant wriggling inside the bassinet.

Itachi wordlessly studied the dark haired newborn who suspiciously studied him back with the Sharingan she inherited from his lineage. He noticed the newborn's limbs tremoring in a vibratory manner without provocation. When he reached into the bassinet, she curled her little fingers around his index finger and gave an uncoordinated frog-legged kick. She gripped her father's finger firmly, despite her small size and the tremors immediately ceased.

"Do you remember the sound of my voice?" he asked softly, warmth brimming in his obsidian eyes.

When she released his finger, her tremulous movements returned with the same intensity as before.

He turned to the blonde woman seated beside him, seeking an explanation for the infant's abnormal jitteriness. "Why is she shaking?"

"I assume her blood sugar is quite low since she won't accept a bottle from me and I haven't been able to find a willing wet nurse," Tsunade answered. She readied herself to deliver the devastating news. "We weren't able to locate Sakura. This baby has yet to nap since arriving here and appears to be very wary. I fear she may have witnessed her mother's death."

"I see," he said impassively, as if unaffected by Tsunade's words.

"Nii-san…" Sasuke uttered, noting his brother's disturbingly blunted affect upon hearing her tragic speculation.

A dead silence fell over the entirety of the room as Itachi stared vacantly into the bassinet. He lifted the small infant out of the bassinet, carefully supporting her head and held her en face to better view her facial features. She had the same rosy lips as her mother and perfectly shaped eyes lined with long, dark lashes. Ultra-fine, downy hair covered her back, which was indicative of her unfortunate prematurity.

As he continued gazing at the precious life he and his wife created together, his stoic front crumbled away. He brought the infant to his chest, silently vowing to protect her with all his might from any further harm. Despite his efforts to withhold his tears, he sobbed harshly, hugging the infant tightly against his body.

Unable to watch his eldest child cry, Fugaku deserted the scene and stepped outside into the hallway. Aimlessly, he wandered the hallway before running into the Haruno clan leader's wife. She wore a deeply set scowl on her face and attempted to circumvent him as if disregarding his existence. The two glared at each other in deadlock, as neither person was willing to concede and step aside for the other.

"All I ever wanted was for my son to marry an Uchiha woman and carry on our legacy. But, that daughter of yours ruined that dream," Fugaku said bitterly.

"Likewise. Your wretched clan ruined the hopes and aspirations I had for my daughter," Mebuki hissed, refusing to step aside. She clasped her hand against her forehead and heaved a dramatic, yet defeated sigh. "But, I cannot control what that stubborn girl does anymore. She marches to the beat of her own drum no matter how I tell her to live."

Although he wished to purge the fresh memory from his thoughts, the image of his son shedding tears over the Haruno's death had become emblazoned in his mind. Where did he go wrong as a parent to wind up with two children who defied the future he meticulously laid out for them? In spite of his reluctance to admit it, the Blossom Bandit's grievances closely echoed his own sentiments. Quite frankly, her words were valid in a sense.

At this point, there was no severing the romantic bonds their children had fostered together over time, regardless of his distaste towards their relationship. Their children were now independent adults free to make their own decisions, be it right or wrong. Both of his sons strayed from the paths he intended for them and embarked on their own journeys in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment.

And, perhaps, that's where his pride truly lay.

"I may not have approved of the choices my sons made. But, the past and done and cannot be changed," Fugaku stated earnestly, causing the Haruno mother to broaden her forest green eyes in response to his unforeseen change in tone. "It's time to look forward to the future and support them as best I can."

Although it felt like a betrayal to ever agree with an Uchiha, he was right to suggest moving on from their unrealized aspirations. Before Mebuki could open her mouth to speak, a man bustled past them carrying a lifeless woman in his arms.

"Hashirama's daughter!" Madara suddenly burst through the door, startling the occupants in the room and commanded the buxom blonde, "Fix this now!"

Tsunade ordered Shizune to retrieve a hemorrhage kit while Madara laid Sakura on the ground before her. She instinctively checked for the presence of a pulse then assessed the tone of her fundus. The young woman was barely clinging to consciousness and unmistakably in shock. In order to save her from the cusp of death, she needed surgery straightaway. Tsunade shooed Madara outside of her makeshift surgical field and yanked the curtain closed to ensure their privacy while she operated on Sakura. Madara twisted his face into an irked scowl for the Senju woman's brusqueness in driving him out.

Fugaku and Mebuki reentered the room as Kizashi and the Uchiha took turns passing around the newborn baby. A soft murmur filled the room while Tsunade continued to operate on Sakura from behind the curtain. Sasuke, Shisui, and Kizashi exchanged ideas for potential names to Itachi, although he was understandably more concerned with the fate of his wife. Even if it was a minor step towards improving the historically strained relation between the Uchiha and Haruno, Mebuki proposed arranging a celebratory ceremony with Mikoto's collaboration. From here on out, the two clans were irrevocably connected and it was imperative the process of healing commence.

"The Sharingan already," Madara said with an intrigued inflection once the baby made it to him. "Next, I will teach her the Great Fireball Technique."

When he noticed the infant's activated Sharingan, he felt the stirs of bitterness arise within him for the potential he believed he was deprived of. But, even he thawed at the sight of the newborn Uchiha gazing back at him with a rather unimpressed expression on her face. While it was difficult to completely surmount the resentment he still harbored towards the village's leadership, he was motivated to stay for the sake of watching her grow up. He considered possibly assuming a mentorship role and cultivating her talents so she could become a notable warrior someday.

Displeased with the former Uchiha Lord holding his niece, Sasuke shot him a scathing glare behind his back. He planned to remain within the village long enough to attend a celebration of the child's birth and support his brother during his transition into fatherhood. Kakashi suspended Itachi from his mission and honored Sasuke's request to temporarily stand in for him so his brother could devote himself to caring for his child.

Once Tsunade wrapped up the surgery and Sakura's vitals stabilized, she cleared the occupants from the room in order to grant Sakura and Itachi private time together with the baby. Tsunade hooked Sakura up to a continuous IV line to replenish the fluids she had lost and left the couple alone for some much-needed rest.

Itachi planted a soft kiss to Sakura's wide forehead as he handed her the baby and whispered sweet nothings into her ear. She nestled her daughter against her chest, allowing her to curiously knead her breasts and discover her food source. With trial and error, she was eventually able to find a comfortable position for feeding. The infant's red eyes darkened to a coal black as she contentedly snuggled within the protection of her mother's bosom. After she finished feeding, she finally drifted off to sleep.

As Sakura cuddled against Itachi's chest and watched their soundly sleeping child, she reflected on all the times she implored the gods to bequeath her with good fortune during the grimmest of times at the Uchiha compound. Her prayers were answered in a way she never expected.

And she couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

A/N: That's all folks! Happy birthday, Sakura! Here is your happy ending. I think I've adequately prepared myself for the imminent cheers and tomato throwing. If you guessed the end pairing based on the title of the chapter (without looking ahead to the reviews or ending), kudos! If you guessed the end pairing based on the progression of the story, kudos! Admittedly, I'm a little upset that someone called me a Kishimoto-level troll, because I was striving for Kubo-level. :(

Trolling aside, I had quite a bit of fun writing this story. It was quite challenging to give the impression of a level playing field when the three potential suitors include one that appears to be the hero, the other somewhat of an antihero, and then the villain. I hope I didn't fail too hard XD. While tried my best to stay true to the canon personalities of the characters, Sasuke was probably the hardest to write given the AU setting. But, don't worry! He has Sakura in canon. A few of you have asked if (and assumed) the baby is Sarada. Well, I guess I leave that up to you to decide. Honestly, I can only picture Itachi having daughters. I also tried to dabble with the theme of healing from trauma and oppression across generations from the perspective of the victims as well as the perpetrators without it becoming heavy-handed. But, sexy reverse harem stories are a more entertaining read.

I may begin a new story if I can find that elusive thing called "free time." If I do, it'll probably be lighter in tone than Lacrimosa.

I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to all my readers for your support and valuable feedback!

**UPDATE-6/1/17**

So I've received a couple of PMs and reviews with similar questions and comments and wanted to give more in-depth answers here rather than writing the same message over again. I'm also answering here because I do not want to post another chapter and mislead people into thinking there is a new chapter to this story when it's really just an author's note.

-Requests for alternate endings: Unfortunately, I wound up having eye surgery again a few weeks after publishing the last chapter. Things seemed to be going fine and then went downhill suddenly. Right now, we are just monitoring the eye, but it looks like there's going to be another surgery in the near future to preserve my vision. I wanted to start on another story, but sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time is very straining on my eyes. I may write alternate endings if things start looking better. I just don't want to make any promises or guarantees and not be able to follow through.

-The terrible grammar: I know, I know! English is not my first language and I grew up reading books and literature in my native language. My first language is a contextual one with a very different sentence structure than English. I guess it would appear very choppy to an English-speaking reader. It is organized into "blocks" so dialogue and actions are written on different lines instead of a continuous sentence. This is why I never noticed anything wrong with the way I wrote dialogue. I tried to fix some of the grammar in the story and I hope I got it right this time. T_T

-The ObitoxRin plotline: Yes, I did have a separate plotline for Obito, Rin, and Kakashi planned out that I had built up throughout the story. However, I ended up dropping it because I was in "despair mode" after being hospitalized with a post-surgical infection and wanted to end the story sooner. This is why the conclusion for them is abrupt and incomplete. I apologize for that.

-Why Itachi?: Why not? ;) Of the three Uchiha, Itachi has the fewest romantic interactions with Sakura. Even though he has fewer moments, I tried to balance it out by making his interactions have more "weight" since they are also more positive. Since he was more invested in freeing the slaves, I felt it would be OOC to have him actively pursuing romance and that it would come across as exploitative given Sakura's situation. Since I don't care for standalone smut, I tried to tie in each "intimate" moment to the character development of the three Uchiha. I also tried to write any romance from the perspective of the men and avoid having Sakura show any overt signs of reciprocation so the end-game pairing would remain a mystery.

-Why are the Uchiha so damn evil in the beginning?: I deliberately depicted the Uchiha as "undeniably evil" in the beginning to demonstrate the hostility between the different castes and because it is from Sakura's perspective. If there weren't such hostility, this story wouldn't very suspenseful. I specifically wanted Sakura to get her first glimpse of goodness in the Uchiha from observing Obito and Rin. Obviously, Sakura learns more about the complexities of the Uchiha and her own biases as the story goes on. The slaves are shown to be fully capable of brutality as well.

I hope this explains some things!