A Moment of Weakness

Part 5

Sarada slept peacefully now that the sun was down, and Sakura decided to try and clean herself up again since she knew Lee would be over sometime soon. She brushed her teeth, slid her hair back out of her face, and changed into her regular outfit so she looked more put together. With her last few minutes of alone time, she even decided to try and add some makeup to hide the dark spots on her face and the heavy eye bags.

Her quiet alone time came to a close with an enthusiastic knock at the door. Her stomach churned slightly because it was the first time in a while she would have a guest. And it was Lee. The nicest, most thoughtful, most helpful person she had met. She let the anxiety rise and bubble up into excitement before opening the door, and finding there were more people than expected. And missing the one person she did want over.

She bit back the slight disappointment in her voice. "Hi, guys!!" She smiled "Tenten, Ino. Come on in!"

"Sorry for not letting you know we were stopping by! Lee invited me and I invited Ino," Tenten explained and stepped inside. Sakura's house was cleaner than it was in the morning, she managed to straighten up knowing someone was coming over. "And Lee will be here in a few minutes, he decided to go find something to bring for all of us to eat, he thought it would be rude to show up without food on the way over here and told us to head over anyways."

"Well, that's sweet of him," in the back of her mind, Sakura wanted to scream. These people weren't the ones here when she was pregnant and exhausted when Lee was. Ino had visited once since Sarada was born. She was grateful that Lee would be there soon. "How are you guys? sorry I haven't been around, having a baby is hard work. Oh and feel free to have a seat. there's enough space for everyone, I just need the recliner in case baby wakes up."

Ino and Tenten sat together on the couch and Sakura took her space in the rocking recliner. Ino was excited to talk about her life and how excited she was about how the flower shop had been commissioned for Hinata's baby shower. It only made Sakura jealous though. She didn't have a baby shower because no one suggested it or offered to help set up, so it made her feel weird asking anyone, even her own parents. But Ino kept talking, not sensing how poorly it made Sakura feel. Tenten did stay quiet though, wanting to stop Ino but not wanting to be rude.

15 minutes into Ino's blabbering, a knock came, and Sakura let in Lee, who had a plastic bag with him. "Sorry, I am late! Sakura, I hope it is okay that I brought pork buns for us to share!" He stepped in excitedly, seeing Tenten slightly uncomfortable and Ino annoyed that he had interrupted.

"Thank you, Lee, dinner slipped my mind so thanks for bringing something." Sakura looked up at Lee and smiled, relieved that he was there. Lee could feel himself turning red, and his head whipped around to avoid any more eye contact. "Here, let me get some napkins and we can all eat."

Tenten stood quickly to help Sakura, noticing how Sakura had stared at Lee, clearly aware of how Lee didn't just do this to be nice. In her mind, she saw this as Lee swooning again, the same way he did as they were children. Lee is more talkative than Ino but even he stays quiet as Ino talks, only speaking up when he has something he could relate to.

"I want a baby but Sai isn't sure. I mean seriously, it's not that hard and I think it's time we start a family. We've been married for a while and I want a baby soon." Ino demanded as if Tenten, Lee, or Sakura could produce one. She looked directly at Sakura. "What about your baby? Where is she?"

"Sara is actually sleeping, a miracle that she's been down for so long actually. Maybe I should go check on her-" Sakura began to stand and threw her napkin away before Ino joined her.

"I want to see her!" Sakura tried to keep Ino from following her so that if Sarada was still sleeping, she wouldn't have to wake up to be social. Ino followed anyway.  Sakura tiptoed into the nursery, leaving Tenten and Lee to chat in the other room. She passed the light switch, careful to leave the room dark to keep the baby calm. Ino paid no mind to how Sakura was so careful to let the baby rest. "Why'd you leave the lights off? You can't see her this way?" She flipped the lights on to see, immediately waking the baby and causing her to scream and cry.