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more teamwork-- end of chapter four
Yeah, I cut chapter 3 in two finally. Next will be Sasuke POV.
Sakura looked guilty for laughing at that, but Sasuke's dry comment had managed to lift the tense atmosphere. Naruto chuckled, as much from the quip as from sheer relief.
The baby. Sakura's baby.
He wondered what it would look like, if it would be a boy or a girl -- if he or she would have Sakura's eyes and his hair... He thought of a little boy with pink hair and swallowed a giddy chuckle. Man, he hoped not.
"Yeah. So... uhm. 'Course I don't mean we got to live together, but I'll help you raise him --her?-- and all ... You can have half of my mission pays, s'not as if I need it..."
Suddenly it was cold in their cozy corner of the woods. Sakura got up on her feet and started to pace on the branch, and the two boys couldn't help but stare. She looked ready to cry once again, her hands gripping big handfuls of her hair.
"I don't even know if I'm going to keep it!"
All of Naruto's half-formed dreams about a family shattered in hundreds of shards. Inside him, the Kyuubi was quiet, just like the calm before the storm.
"I'm barely seventeen, I'm too young to be a mother! And we-- don't take me wrong, Naruto, I love you, but-- but you're the Kyuubi's vessel!! Even if the council lets me keep it, the villagers are going to give me hell about that, and my child will be treated like shit, just like-- just like YOU were, and I don't want that for a child of mine, I can't stand the thought!!"
She seemed to know how cruel it was to him, but she kept pacing, kept listing her reasons, her voice bordering on hysteria.
"I was supposed to go on missions and train and finally become strong enough so that you two wouldn't leave me behind all the time! I didn't want to be a mother yet -- when am I going to train? Who will go on missions with you two? Who will plan for you two and prevent you from being stupid and bandage you up and-- we're not even chuunin yet. We were supposed to wait until the Council stopped giving Sasuke hell and then we'd go take the exam together, all three of us, and you're my boys and I refuse to see you two team up with someone else while I stay behind to play housewife!!"
Naruto bit down on the howl of denial that was trying to rise from his throat. He would hate it if something came and wrecked all his dreams like that, and it was unfair for Sakura to expect her to put her life on hold for an accident.
"... Your boys?" Sasuke whispered.
She bit her lip and her fists fell back at her sides. "That's-- how I think of you two. Even before... last night. Since... Well, for a while. It's not romantically or anything," she added, giving Sasuke a beaten puppy look. "It's just... Well, you know I've wanted to date you for ages, but it doesn't matter. You're both my boys, even if -- you find someone else."
She seemed to realize she'd only been staring at Sasuke and gave Naruto a glance. He tried to smother the quick burst of jealousy. He knew that Sakura had a crush on Sasuke. It didn't matter, because the way he felt for them had nothing in common and yet they were both his anyway.
Sasuke still looked just as stuck-up as always, but he nodded, slowly. "Right. We're a team. We're in this together. Sakura, it's your decision. But we'll follow."
/Don't you talk for us, you arrogant ice-brat/ Kyuubi suddenly snarled, making Naruto flinch. He scowled, shoving the fox back. 'But I agree with him.'
/No. You don't. Do not even try to lie to me, brat. I'm inside you. You would kill to have this cub./
And, understood Naruto, so would he.
Naruto couldn't help but be vaguely shocked at the vehemence with which the monster living inside him protested. Kyuubi no Youko cared only for himself, for his own life. Everyone else could die, for all that mattered, especially if he got to kill them himself. 'I don't understand. Why...?'
For a second, he was suspicious -- maybe Kyuubi COULD leave his body for that of his child-- but when he pressed down on the fox's mind, he couldn't feel the desperate hope such a possibility would have created. Just rage and disdain and a few disturbing images of Sakura chained down in a hidden cave as her belly grew rounder. He pulled back with disgust -- especially because, for a second, he had considered pressuring her to keep the child.
/Stop being so squeamish./
'I would never do that to Sakura-chan. I'd rather die than treat her like a breeding bitch. So you can cross that little fantasy out, okay?'
The fox laughed, a dark, ugly roar of a laugh. /You would have her around every time you want to fuck. And when she nags too much you could just leave. It would be perfect./
Naruto clenched his teeth, feeling his growing fangs cut into his gums.
'No.'
/Hoping she'll let you keep on mounting her anyway? If you think it will be fun to convince her.../ the fox drawled, sounding unconvinced but amused anyway.
"Shut up," he whispered, shaking his head. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Sakura's belly. She was wearing his sweater -- surrounded in his scent, marked as his protégée, his mate, and inside her was growing -- no. She was not his to knock up at will. She was Sakura-chan, one of his most loved people, and he would rather never have a family of his own than have it like that.
/It's your problem to convince her to have more sex. There's always the heat if the prissy slut turns too-good-for-you once again./
The blond boy hissed, baring his fangs. If he wasn't so angry and sad and desperate, it would be an easy matter to drop into a light meditation and refuse access to the Kyuubi once more, but right now he was in too much of an emotional turmoil to even try. And the stupid fox didn't make it better by letting their feelings mirror and echo off each other.
... Wait-- Kyuubi wasn't feeling angry anymore. Or he was, but only a normal level of angry, mixed with some satisfaction and a touch of dark amusement.
'What the hell...'
He caught a flash of images, a full moon in the night sky, and chakra lines in Sakura's belly that glowed and looked just like he had always imagined a Hyuuga must see.
'Explain that,' he growled, sending back threats of months in the dark, inside a cage whose bars seared the mind and the memory of a body.
/Just let her stall until the full moon and the point will be moot./
'What about the full moon?' It would start in three days, he knew that, but-- what the hell did he mean?
Under his mind's eye, the chakra lines running in a spiral from Sakura's bellybutton were bleeding into another, subdued glow -- and then as it grew clearer with the light of the moon, he understood what it was. It was the start of the baby's chakra pathways, feeding off its mother's.
They had learned at school that it was normal, that it didn't hurt the mother, only depleted her chakra reserves for a few months before her body got used to the imbalance, but Naruto strongly doubted that it started this early, or that powerfully. Sakura would be very sick during that pregnancy.
/It will be a lot worse if there's no pregnancy/ Kyuubi commented with a disdainful snort.
Suddenly, in the image, there was no softly glowing baby-chakra anymore, and Sakura's pathways went haywire, trying to compensate for the sudden loss -- and her lifeforce seeping out from the gaping holes left by the fetus' disappearance. Horrified, he saw the delicate web of her vital energy tear one link after another and then go out, snuffed like a candle.
"No way in hell," he snarled softly, looking up at his teammates. They were staring at him, wary, ready to bolt, and he realized that he must have looked about to snap. He was still seeing things with that weird intensity, catching every tiny movement, which meant that his pupils had elongated into two ovals and his irises were red as blood.
He made himself take a deep breath, then another, and yet another, until his claws had retracted and his teeth felt normal once again. "You are considering aborting, right?"
She flinched, but nodded, not meeting his eyes.
"Then I-- I feel obligated to tell you that... SHUT UP!!" he snarled at his tenant, blinking back the itchy feeling in his eyes. "That in about three days-- Kyuubi just told me-- in three days, it'll be firmly anchored to your chakra and you won't be able to pull it off without damage and will you stop howling, you bloody sack of fur?!"
He knew that his eyes had gone red once again and he had to fight to keep the chakra from leaking out, claws piercing his palms as he clenched his fists. He forced himself to get on his feet slowly, carefully controlling his every movement. Kyuubi was still raging against the seal and throwing insults at Sakura. Naruto could only catch a few words here and there -- not that he was trying to listen, but the yowling was so loud it even drowned the beat of his blood in his ears. /how dare she--/ /--should be honored--/ /--my cub, MINE--/
'No,' he thought, fighting back tears. 'Not yours. Not mine. Just Sakura's. Her choice.'
"So here it is. You have three days. If I were you I wouldn't cut it too close, you never know. If you want to keep the baby, I'll be there. ...Even if you don't. So... I'm gonna... take a walk. So you can think."
'And so I can murder a helpless animal or two,' he added to himself, before turning around and letting himself fall from the tree.
Sakura looked guilty for laughing at that, but Sasuke's dry comment had managed to lift the tense atmosphere. Naruto chuckled, as much from the quip as from sheer relief.
The baby. Sakura's baby.
He wondered what it would look like, if it would be a boy or a girl -- if he or she would have Sakura's eyes and his hair... He thought of a little boy with pink hair and swallowed a giddy chuckle. Man, he hoped not.
"Yeah. So... uhm. 'Course I don't mean we got to live together, but I'll help you raise him --her?-- and all ... You can have half of my mission pays, s'not as if I need it..."
Suddenly it was cold in their cozy corner of the woods. Sakura got up on her feet and started to pace on the branch, and the two boys couldn't help but stare. She looked ready to cry once again, her hands gripping big handfuls of her hair.
"I don't even know if I'm going to keep it!"
All of Naruto's half-formed dreams about a family shattered in hundreds of shards. Inside him, the Kyuubi was quiet, just like the calm before the storm.
"I'm barely seventeen, I'm too young to be a mother! And we-- don't take me wrong, Naruto, I love you, but-- but you're the Kyuubi's vessel!! Even if the council lets me keep it, the villagers are going to give me hell about that, and my child will be treated like shit, just like-- just like YOU were, and I don't want that for a child of mine, I can't stand the thought!!"
She seemed to know how cruel it was to him, but she kept pacing, kept listing her reasons, her voice bordering on hysteria.
"I was supposed to go on missions and train and finally become strong enough so that you two wouldn't leave me behind all the time! I didn't want to be a mother yet -- when am I going to train? Who will go on missions with you two? Who will plan for you two and prevent you from being stupid and bandage you up and-- we're not even chuunin yet. We were supposed to wait until the Council stopped giving Sasuke hell and then we'd go take the exam together, all three of us, and you're my boys and I refuse to see you two team up with someone else while I stay behind to play housewife!!"
Naruto bit down on the howl of denial that was trying to rise from his throat. He would hate it if something came and wrecked all his dreams like that, and it was unfair for Sakura to expect her to put her life on hold for an accident.
"... Your boys?" Sasuke whispered.
She bit her lip and her fists fell back at her sides. "That's-- how I think of you two. Even before... last night. Since... Well, for a while. It's not romantically or anything," she added, giving Sasuke a beaten puppy look. "It's just... Well, you know I've wanted to date you for ages, but it doesn't matter. You're both my boys, even if -- you find someone else."
She seemed to realize she'd only been staring at Sasuke and gave Naruto a glance. He tried to smother the quick burst of jealousy. He knew that Sakura had a crush on Sasuke. It didn't matter, because the way he felt for them had nothing in common and yet they were both his anyway.
Sasuke still looked just as stuck-up as always, but he nodded, slowly. "Right. We're a team. We're in this together. Sakura, it's your decision. But we'll follow."
/Don't you talk for us, you arrogant ice-brat/ Kyuubi suddenly snarled, making Naruto flinch. He scowled, shoving the fox back. 'But I agree with him.'
/No. You don't. Do not even try to lie to me, brat. I'm inside you. You would kill to have this cub./
And, understood Naruto, so would he.
Naruto couldn't help but be vaguely shocked at the vehemence with which the monster living inside him protested. Kyuubi no Youko cared only for himself, for his own life. Everyone else could die, for all that mattered, especially if he got to kill them himself. 'I don't understand. Why...?'
For a second, he was suspicious -- maybe Kyuubi COULD leave his body for that of his child-- but when he pressed down on the fox's mind, he couldn't feel the desperate hope such a possibility would have created. Just rage and disdain and a few disturbing images of Sakura chained down in a hidden cave as her belly grew rounder. He pulled back with disgust -- especially because, for a second, he had considered pressuring her to keep the child.
/Stop being so squeamish./
'I would never do that to Sakura-chan. I'd rather die than treat her like a breeding bitch. So you can cross that little fantasy out, okay?'
The fox laughed, a dark, ugly roar of a laugh. /You would have her around every time you want to fuck. And when she nags too much you could just leave. It would be perfect./
Naruto clenched his teeth, feeling his growing fangs cut into his gums.
'No.'
/Hoping she'll let you keep on mounting her anyway? If you think it will be fun to convince her.../ the fox drawled, sounding unconvinced but amused anyway.
"Shut up," he whispered, shaking his head. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Sakura's belly. She was wearing his sweater -- surrounded in his scent, marked as his protégée, his mate, and inside her was growing -- no. She was not his to knock up at will. She was Sakura-chan, one of his most loved people, and he would rather never have a family of his own than have it like that.
/It's your problem to convince her to have more sex. There's always the heat if the prissy slut turns too-good-for-you once again./
The blond boy hissed, baring his fangs. If he wasn't so angry and sad and desperate, it would be an easy matter to drop into a light meditation and refuse access to the Kyuubi once more, but right now he was in too much of an emotional turmoil to even try. And the stupid fox didn't make it better by letting their feelings mirror and echo off each other.
... Wait-- Kyuubi wasn't feeling angry anymore. Or he was, but only a normal level of angry, mixed with some satisfaction and a touch of dark amusement.
'What the hell...'
He caught a flash of images, a full moon in the night sky, and chakra lines in Sakura's belly that glowed and looked just like he had always imagined a Hyuuga must see.
'Explain that,' he growled, sending back threats of months in the dark, inside a cage whose bars seared the mind and the memory of a body.
/Just let her stall until the full moon and the point will be moot./
'What about the full moon?' It would start in three days, he knew that, but-- what the hell did he mean?
Under his mind's eye, the chakra lines running in a spiral from Sakura's bellybutton were bleeding into another, subdued glow -- and then as it grew clearer with the light of the moon, he understood what it was. It was the start of the baby's chakra pathways, feeding off its mother's.
They had learned at school that it was normal, that it didn't hurt the mother, only depleted her chakra reserves for a few months before her body got used to the imbalance, but Naruto strongly doubted that it started this early, or that powerfully. Sakura would be very sick during that pregnancy.
/It will be a lot worse if there's no pregnancy/ Kyuubi commented with a disdainful snort.
Suddenly, in the image, there was no softly glowing baby-chakra anymore, and Sakura's pathways went haywire, trying to compensate for the sudden loss -- and her lifeforce seeping out from the gaping holes left by the fetus' disappearance. Horrified, he saw the delicate web of her vital energy tear one link after another and then go out, snuffed like a candle.
"No way in hell," he snarled softly, looking up at his teammates. They were staring at him, wary, ready to bolt, and he realized that he must have looked about to snap. He was still seeing things with that weird intensity, catching every tiny movement, which meant that his pupils had elongated into two ovals and his irises were red as blood.
He made himself take a deep breath, then another, and yet another, until his claws had retracted and his teeth felt normal once again. "You are considering aborting, right?"
She flinched, but nodded, not meeting his eyes.
"Then I-- I feel obligated to tell you that... SHUT UP!!" he snarled at his tenant, blinking back the itchy feeling in his eyes. "That in about three days-- Kyuubi just told me-- in three days, it'll be firmly anchored to your chakra and you won't be able to pull it off without damage and will you stop howling, you bloody sack of fur?!"
He knew that his eyes had gone red once again and he had to fight to keep the chakra from leaking out, claws piercing his palms as he clenched his fists. He forced himself to get on his feet slowly, carefully controlling his every movement. Kyuubi was still raging against the seal and throwing insults at Sakura. Naruto could only catch a few words here and there -- not that he was trying to listen, but the yowling was so loud it even drowned the beat of his blood in his ears. /how dare she--/ /--should be honored--/ /--my cub, MINE--/
'No,' he thought, fighting back tears. 'Not yours. Not mine. Just Sakura's. Her choice.'
"So here it is. You have three days. If I were you I wouldn't cut it too close, you never know. If you want to keep the baby, I'll be there. ...Even if you don't. So... I'm gonna... take a walk. So you can think."
'And so I can murder a helpless animal or two,' he added to himself, before turning around and letting himself fall from the tree.
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On an unrelated note, do you do commission work? 'Cause your art make me purr, too.
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Ahh, afraid not. see, I have this serious disease called lazyassitis, and even with the promise of money I can never finish anything I don't feel like finishing. Also I never bothered trying to figure out how to make paypal work from France. I hear now they changed things a bit, so I might give it another go, but --ehh. *feels another relapse coming*
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*uses special pervy icon to show appreciation* (hmm, i need a naruto pervy icon)
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*slips back into stalking*
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I also like Naruto's reaction. He does seem to be the type to be very fatherly.
I see that it's been speaking to you. ;)
Can't wait to read more. Particularly can't wait for Sasuke's POV... tho, I can't help noticing, that we haven't really seen Sakura's thoughts...
Then again, they're probably so chaotic that you'd never be able to write them down without sounding like a complete prat.
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XD yeah, Sakura's gonna wait for the last chapter, because right now she's hovering on the edge of being completely hysterical.
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Sasuke is, right now, an uncomminucative bitch. Big surprise here. But I'll make him talk to me. Bwahahahaha.
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*flails*
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I am enjoying this story very much. I've had very bad luck finding good Naruto fic, so it's definitely a treat. Especially the way you write Naruto/Kyuubi. Most people don't pull it off so well.
And I like the way you are having the seal work. It's the first thing I've seen that's anything close to my theories. >_>
^____^ Hope you don't mind sort of late feedback.