true daddy confessions
SasuSaku. AU. The General of the Army, Uchiha Sasuke, has a lot of explaining to do to his own personal Commander (a.k.a. the Wife) after telling his son, "I'm scared of your mom." What's a General against his wife? A mashed potato, that is.

confession number 1
"I honestly nearly peed on my pants when I went to ask for your grandfather's blessings."

It was hard enough when they were outside of the camp, even harder when they were inside, training to become soldiers with the toughest of hearts. It was hard ignoring her just to get to his duties, and even harder when she decided it was time to break their relationship up.

"Enlistee Haruno requesting permission to break up with you, Sir!" Haruno Sakura had cried then, her face void of any emotions. That was just like any soldier-to-be were supposed to do.

If they were allowed, Sasuke was certain that the other platoon members would have been gawking already. He was Uchiha Sasuke, after all. And no one should break his heart.

Ignoring the fact that his lips were nearly trembling, Sasuke saluted his hand outward and said, "Carry on."

Among the most painful things Sasuke had ever witnessed was a broken and stunned Sakura who was obviously fighting the urge to cry. But because Sasuke was brought up by the previous General Uchiha and by the ever-eccentric Mikoto as a sweet guy, he sure did his part in doing things for the better.

During the annual visit of the new Army General, Haruno Asahi, Sasuke had walked up to him, saluted, and had told him in a strong and decisive way, "Uchiha requesting permission to make your daughter mine, Sir!"

The gaze that the General had given Sasuke was almost disapproving, and the gasps that had unconsciously erupted from the other trainees in the camp were enough proof that Sasuke was not doing the right thing. After all, being the father of his supposed ex-girlfriend, he should have known how broken Sakura had been all because of the young man.

But General Haruno smiled.

In fact, he even told Sasuke, "Carry on. Sweep her off her feet, cadet."

And Sasuke had found his bladder relatively relaxing.

confession number 2
"I was nearly tempted to ditch your mom on our wedding day."

When he was a child, Uchiha Sasuke used to ask his father, Uchiha Fugaku, random questions that popped up into his head at any given time. Fugaku had been the politically and nationally renowned General of the Japanese Army, so it had really bothered nosy neighbors how such a little and jovial boy could easily pry answers from the scary man. After all, the Uchiha patriarch had almost been always away, so the biggest conclusion anyone could come up had been You cannot speak to Uchiha Fugaku so carelessly.

But Sasuke could. And "speak carelessly" he had done so many times before. What the currently twenty-five year-old-man could not forget, even after twenty years, was his father's answer after asking him, "When were you scared so much?"

Fugaku had told him, apathetic but thoughtful, "When I married your mother."

When he was young, he did not understand why. But after facing different wars and confrontations for years and had witnessed the many somersaults of life, Sasuke could not agree more. As he rigidly stood at the front of the altar, watching as the long list of entourage walked down the aisle, jumbled and frustrating thoughts bombarded his mind so much he nearly ran towards the church's entrance and left. The action could have been cowardly on him especially he was the Army's current Brigadier General, a much high-ranking military personnel, but he understood.

He then understood already why, his father — who was the freaking General of the Army back when he married his mother, had been scared. The reality of a new responsibility and a new, committed life dawned on Sasuke so rapidly like building blocks weighing down on him mercilessly.

It actually put that time when he asked the new Army General Haruno for permission into dating Sakura, let alone marrying her, into shame.

Sasuke would have really ditched Sakura that day had she not taken his breath away with that beautiful smile in a beautiful face in a really pretty dress. Sasuke would have ditched her if his feelings were not real.

confession number 3
"I faked that the car's tires were blown when your mom was about to give birth to you so I would not bring her to the hospital. Before you ask, I did it just so I would be the one to hold you first. I got a pointed knife the next day and hit the tires with it."

Heavy snowstorm rampaged against the town, and the cold was getting to Sasuke. The fire he had set up on their room's fireplace did nothing to abate the coldness that seeped its way into the area.

"Sasuke-kun . . . ," Sakura muttered, a gasp tailing her call.

Sasuke looked up from the documents in his hands, staring at his wife. Since the moment they had gotten married, Sasuke and Sakura had mutually agreed that the latter could still work for the military, although not during field missions. She would have to stay in the headquarters, helping in research works and tending to injured soldiers brought to the HQ after heavy training or confrontation.

It had all been going well for two married and committed years, until Sakura decided to get pregnant and pregnant she became. Sasuke could clearly remember how happy the pink-haired woman had been — how her green eyes glowed in apparent delight and how her grip on Sasuke's arms had tightened so tremendously — as she told him the news.

"Sasuke-kun! I'm . . . I'm pregnant!"

On her sixth month of pregnancy, Sakura had taken maternity leave; and being the understanding and generous and not to mention sweet husband that he was, he asked for leave on his wife's eighth month, just so he could look after her. [He never once heeded the fact of a possible demotion.]

And now, look where he had gotten himself. . . .

Smiling-foolishly-but-not-really, Sasuke dumbly watched his uncomfortable wife, who was getting annoyed because he was so not doing anything about her condition then.

"Sasuke-kun!" she yelled angrily, groaning after. Sakura sent her idiot of a husband a fierce glare and held onto her swollen tummy in panic. "My water just broke and look at you! You're not doing anything! Like, at all!"

The numerous exclamation points after Sakura's statements brought a heavy tic on Sasuke's apathetic but excited demeanor, so he shoved the prior documents he had away and approached Sakura who was on the bed.

"What — What am I supposed to do?" asked the Brigadier General to his medic wife, frantic and honestly not knowing what to do. He tried to carry Sakura, but the woman slapped him on the arm. He tried getting his car keys, but Sakura held on to him tightly. He tried just roaming around in panic, but Sakura glared at him and told him to just freaking stay put! "What the fuck do you want me to do? I'm trying to get you to the hospital but you —"

Sakura's shrieks of horror actually scared the soldier's wits out of him. Not that Sasuke would admit it. Finding determination within him — [You're nearly a Major General, you fucking bastard! Get a hold of yourself!] — Sasuke told his pink-haired wife that he forgot to tell her that the car's tires were blown, the telephone lines were out, he was yet to charge his phone, and that there was blizzard outside so he could not possibly bring her to the hospital.

So they resorted to the next best thing.

"Then just freaking help me give birth, Bastard! This is your entire fault! Why are you so hormonal? Damn it! I shouldn't have let you impregnate me and —"

"Just tell me what to do, Sakura," Sasuke grumbled, inwardly accusing that Sakura was the hormonal one and she was the one who wanted the baby in the first place.

It was all worth it, he guessed. Having grasped the soft head of his son as it finally went its way out of Sakura's womb, having heard its shrieks and cries, and having seen and held it first. . . . It was all worth it.

His son. Her son.

Their son.

The coldness brought by the weather was a disgrace beside the warmth that Sasuke and Sakura felt at the sight of their first-born wiggling uncomfortably on Sasuke's alien of a gentle touch and the thought they were finallyand officially parents.

Sasuke never told Sakura that the tires were never blown, that the telephone lines were very much OK, that his phone was never out of battery, and that the blizzard, during that time, was already taming. He might as well commit suicide than confessing those to her.

confession number 4
"Just so your mom won't get mad at me, I actually lied when I said it was your maternal grandmother's fault that little Hana's hair was a ruin when she was two."

In all reality, Sasuke hated to see his wife mad at him. She could, after all, strangle him and put him to death without any hint of guilt when she got angry. He was on a two-month leave that time when Sakura got home from the grocery store and sighted the flaws on her two-year-old Hana. Sakura, by that time, had taken early retirement from her job to tend to her family.

Her five-year-old Syuusuke was coloring happily on the coffee table; her Hana was seated comfortably against the crook of the arm of her father, who was then sleeping. Sakura's eyes visibly narrowed at Hana's hair.

"Sasuke!" she yelled, stomping her way towards her family. She put down all that she had bought on the floor beside the sofa, and yanked the man through his shirt's collar. Realizing her actions, she sent a sheepish look at Syuusuke and kindly told him to bring his younger sister with him upstairs in their room. Not before Sakura kneeling in front of her Hana and cooing, "Oh my baby . . . your hair. Oh my. . . ."

"What the hell, Sakura?" demanded Sasuke the moment his children were out of earshot. Was he shook out of his sleep for some trivial things?

Sakura glared at him as she placed both hands on her hips. "What did you do with Hana-chan's hair?"

Sasuke's heartbeat pounded against his ears, and he so very hoped that nothing gave him away in his eyes. So he glared. "It's your mom's fault! She came today and asked to have her two grandchildren with her for an hour or so, so I agreed, considering she's your mom. The moment she brought the children back, Hana's hair had been that way."

He nearly retracted his words when he saw the pink-haired woman's eyes glimmer with unshed tears, but relaxed when she said, "I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun, I didn't know! I'm sorry I ever accused you — I — I — I'm sorry! It's just that I've always loved Hana-chan's hair and I — oh my Kami-sama!"

Sasuke smirked when she hugged him tightly and kissed him her apologies.

. . . when in all reality, he was certainly at fault. He knew Sakura would never confront his mother-in-law, so he placed all the blames on her. Sasuke had actually decided to cut his daughter's fringes into a straight set of bangs, but after trying so horribly to get it straight, he did not notice he had been cutting so much already, until it nearly reached the hair line.

Sasuke gulped in all his guilt as they continued to kiss.

••

Fifteen-year-old Syuusuke, who was plopped down beside his father that sat comfortably by the fireplace, gaped in thin air. His black eyes sought his father's equally dark ones and sighed, looking half-amused, half-incredulous. Uchiha Sasuke, current General of the Army, was one hell of a man. He managed to keep all those four confessions from his mother.

His scary mother. The Commander of the Uchiha family where he belonged.

Uchiha Sakura.

"Uh," mumbled Syuusuke, not really knowing what to say. His father had just been back home two days ago, and he needed to interview him for an essay he had in Japanese literature. But none of those really justified why his father had suddenly blurted those out to him. "Dad, don't you think you should be telling her already? You've kept this for how long?"

After doing a quick math from the stories his father told him, Syuusuke supplied, his dark pink hair falling on his eyes in amusement, "Seventeen years or more?"

Sasuke's haggard face looked on to his son and he smirked. "As I told you, I might as well commit suicide. Your mom's pretty much a . . . cannibal of sorts."

The younger of the two Uchiha males snorted and ran a hand through his hair. The snort turned into an all-out laugh and it took him a few minutes before he even tamed. Syuusuke gazed at his father amusedly when Sasuke glared at him in apparent embarrassment.

"You wouldn't want her to hear that Cannibal comment. Mom's surely gonna kill you."

"Che."

There was silence in the room as both stared at the crackling fire of the hearth. They talked for another hour about handsome Syuusuke's personal life. Having grown up already, Syuusuke had been part of the beautiful species of the male population. His dark pink hair was messy and very much like his father's, and his dark black eyes were perceptive and tantalizing. He was tall and sporty, which led to Sasuke's next set of questions — Syuusuke's preferred career path.

Sasuke knew very well how skillful the boy was in both basketball and soccer and did not want Syuusuke to enter the military school in the next few years just to keep the family legacy. But that was what his son wanted; the young man wanted to be a soldier just like his father, uncle, grandfather, and maybe like his mother. He wanted to be like his idols. He wanted to run in battlefields with rifles and guns and more dangerous firearms.

He wanted to be strong and tough, and able to protect his family and country. And his curiosity about a soldier's apprehensions got the better of him that he just had to ask.

"Dad, what are you scared of?"

confession number 5
"I'm scared of your mom."

••

Snuggled closely to Sasuke was Uchiha Sakura, in her forties already and hugging him tightly. They had been in that position silently for an hour already, not talking — just breathing and hugging. It was when Sasuke's eyes were already starting to sag close when Sakura broke the silence.

"Sasuke-kun," she called, unmoving.

"Hn."

Sakura sighed and looked him in the eye. Suspicious sweetness shone in her eyes and vibrated in her voice when she asked, "Why are you scared of me?"

The man stiffened as he lay with his wife and stared at her. The question caught him off-guard that he nearly stuttered. ". . . You're the Commander of the family, after all. Why should I not be scared?"

The term "Commander of the Family" got into Sakura's head so easily that she smirked smugly at him. It was as if she was telling him that Hey, you may be the General of the Army, but I'm still the Commander of your family. I'm way high-ranking than you.

"Is that so?"

Sasuke closed his eyes.

". . . Hm."

It was too late when Sasuke realized that his wife had asked him something that must be just between him and his son. Masked horror flashed in his eyes as he looked back at his wife who was then glaring.

"If I am Commander Sakura, then you should be able to tell me everything. You have a lot of explaining to do, Mr. I-have-a-lot-of-confessions-hidden-from-my-wife-that-I-would-never-bother-unfolding-unto-her-because-she's-a-freaking-Cannibal."

This was among the many unspoken reasons why he was scared of Syuusuke and Hana's mother.

Sasuke found himself gulping.

••

notes: i was reading this magazine and there was an article entitled "true daddy confessions" so i thought i just had to write this. the first confession has excerpts from sakura guide to breakups chapter 4. :) i don't know anything military so spare me from unknowing knowledge. this is also motivated by the conversation that went on among my drunken father and his equally drunken friends. :)

#It'

snorts.