A/N: Heh, long time no see, ne? MAN, I've missed 'TGOF' – I'm so happy to get down to this! (grins, and rubs hands together)

I got this idea in a shower. Yeah, you read correctly. 'Almost got a gallon of shampoo into my eyes because I was in such a rush to get down to writing, too. (smirks sheepishly) And now, this little one is finally out – be that a good thing or not…!

FULL SUMMARY: Four months after 'TGOF', things seem rather tense between Naruto and a very pregnant Sasuke. What has happened? Things are made even more complicated when two old enemies arrive - and the life of one of their sons soon hangs in a balance as the chase for the Kyuubi begins once again. Will their family make it through this one? Will Sasuke survive through the childbirth?

WARNINGS: YAOI, MPREG, spoilers to those following anime instead of manga (or who are behind in the manga), sadness, adult themes, language, an author who loves torturing poor readers….

DISCLAIMER: Me, OWN?! That's gotta be the worst joke of the century – today it took most of the cash I had to get my bike fixed up!

THE FULL SUMMARY: Four months after 'TGOF', things seem rather tense between Naruto and a very pregnant Sasuke. What has happened? Things are made even more complicated when two old enemies arrive - and the life of one of their sons soon hangs in a balance as the chase for the Kyuubi begins once again. Will their family make it through this one? Will Sasuke survive through the childbirth?

A LITTLE RECAP OF 'TGOF': Pein's attack changed and shattered a lot of things; Hinata died trying to protect Naruto (which Neji didn't manage to forgive for a long time), Iruka was injured so badly that he lost all his memories and Kakashi died (which scarred Iruka deeply, although he couldn't understand why without the memories), and Tsunade was also badly injured (from which she, fortunately, recovered). Pein also died.

One week after Pein's attack, Naruto and Sasuke had an encounter in the woods – which, thanks to Orochimaru's sick experiments, ended up to Sasuke getting pregnant. The Uchiha, of course, wasn't all that excited when finding out six weeks later. He, however, chose not to get rid of the baby when Karin offered a chance. Deciding to move before it'd be 'challenging', Sasuke moved towards Konoha – and ended up getting arrested by Danzo right before Naruto's eyes. After spending a while seething in a jail, Sasuke was – thanks to Sakura's persuasion – allowed to house-arrest under Naruto's observation. None of them, of course, knew that this was only Danzo's scheme; he and his posses were only waiting for the Uchiha to make a mistake. While our favorite couple lived together they, of course, ended up getting closer – slowly, and (particularly from Sasuke's behalf) reluctantly. Then Naruto found out through a near-miscarriage that Sasuke was pregnant, which pushed them closer in a whole another way – especially when they found out they'd in fact lost one of the twins Sasuke was carrying. They didn't, however, have a long time to recover, for Sasuke wasn't weavering from his plans; he had Juugo and Suigetsu take Naruto away from the village, activated the resistance he'd helped gather against Danzo (which caused a mini-war the resistance won) and into their hideout while he attacked Danzou. (During this hassle, everyone was led into believing Karin was killed by Kisame.) Sasuke's attempts were succesfull (or so we assume); he poisoned Danzo, and was about to leave the village – when he ran into Madara, who gave him startling news that unless the man would help him, the pregnancy would kill him. Those news on his mind, Sasuke made it to Naruto, who – understandably – wasn't all that thrilled by how much danger he'd just been in. During the following weeks the two of them grew even closer still, until particularly hard symptoms made Sasuke think he'd have to accept Madara's offer. He left Naruto with a heavy heart, and headed straight into Madara's pawns – who, in turn, was aiming for a jackpot with both a Sharingan-weilder, a VERY strong baby and the Kyuubi-host into his hands. He was, however, saved by Naruto, who attacked the base with some friends, fought Madara and with difficulty managed to kill the man. (During this battle Kisame turns his coat, attacking Konan and forcing her to run away.) Naruto and Sasuke almost had a clean start – until Sasuke was sent to serve a sentence for what he'd done in the hospital, and Naruto was sent to a long mission away. And then came the fateful day of the birth. Naruto, fortunately, made it to Sasuke's side right on time, and after an extremely close call the Uchiha pulled through (with a little bit help from Itachi…). They had a baby-boy they decided to name Taichi. Now, fifteen years later, they also have another son named Kai. They're still together, Sai and Sakura are married, and there seems to be a tingle between Iruka and Yamato. Neji also spends a lot of time in Suna… In short, everything's perfect – until dark clouds start to gather, and old enemies reappear…

Awkay, without any further blabbering (I hope you've all made it this far…)… Let's rooock – I really hope ya'll enjoy! (gulps nervously)

The Tricks of Destiny

PHASE 1 – Where Dark Clouds Appear

Naruto's blue eyes were somewhat thoughtful while he observed his slowly waking up village through the huge window of his office.

It'd been a long, hard road to guide Konoha through the devastation Pein, Madara and even Danzo had left behind, but now it was easy to think that nothing special had happened at all. People were smiling happily, kids were allowed to play without a care. Old scars weren't raw and tender anymore. They'd had many years of peace and quiet.

He felt like wincing all of a sudden, and folded his arms.

He really wished he could've said the same about himself. Especially lately his life had been far from peace and quiet.

Much to his embarrasment, he jumped slightly when there was a knock on the door of his office. Turning around, he grinned when finding Sakura entering. "Hey. I thought you weren't supposed to go back to working until tomorrow."

"I'm not." She shrugged, appearing somewhat sheepish. "Sai's on a mission, and I was starting to climb to the walls."

He snorted with amusement. "How nice to know I'm good substitude pastime."

She smiled. "I thought I should come and see if we'd manage to kidnap you for some ramen."

He blinked twice. We?

It wasn't until then he noticed the bungle in Sakura's arms. His grin from before grew tenfold as he walked up to take a peek, and found an almost four months old baby-boy with a thick bush of dark hair looking back at him with thougthful green eyes. "Hey, kiddo." He poked the baby's nose, which first made it sneeze, then smile with utter delight and giggle. "You haven't been giving mommy hard time, have you?"

Sakura chuckled. "No, he hasn't. Yuki's probably the most content child ever born. Mommy's also fine, though worried all the time." Her green eyes were suddenly much more serious when she looked at him. "But honestly, I came to see how you are doing."

His face immediately fell, and he turned back towards the window to discover that sun had slipped to behind a cloud. "Honestly… I still feel like crap." And I miss him, a lot.

Sakura held a moment's pause before talking in an atypically soft tone. "He'll come back today, Naruto. Then you'll talk. Everything's going to work out."

He nodded slowly, wishing he'd been more sure. "Yeah. I guess."

This time they both jumped, and Yuki emitted a tiny yelp-like sound when the room's door opened after a brief knock. "Dad, there's…" Taichi seemed slightly embarrassed when noticing that Naruto wasn't alone. "Uhm… Sorry."

Sakura grinned and ruffled the teen's hair. "It's okay, I was just leaving." She then gave Naruto a stern look. "You, stop worrying and remember what I said."
He nodded, feeling far colder than he should've. He watched in silence as she left, then shifted his attention to his son. He frowned at the troubled look on the teen's face and in those blue eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Taichi swallowed thickly, and barely managed to gather the courage for looking at him. "Dad… There's something I've been supposed to tell you for a long time." The boy took a deep breath, and focused on staring at a stain on the office's wall. Fists balled. "I… I've joined the ANBU/Root. And I'm going to my first official mission the day after tomorrow."

At first he felt too numb to react in any way whatsoever. Then, very slowly, his eyes widened and his blood ran cold as facts sunk in. "What?!" He knew far too well how dangerous the missions of that organization were. And now his own son…

He didn't even know what to think.

Taichi's blue eyes seemed troubled when searching his. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but there was never a good time."

He blinked several times, fighting to get his head back on track. "Taichi… Those missions are dangerous. You do understand that, right? They've lost a lot of ninjas." His throat felt unbearably tight, and he had to clear it before he managed to go on. "Are you sure you're ready for something like that?"

"I know all that, and I'm ready. I'm already a fully trained ninja." Suddenly a spark of determination he knew very well appeared to his son's eyes. "I didn't come to ask for your permission. I just… I want you to know, and understand, before I go."

For the longest time – possibly even a full minute – he couldn't do anything but stare at his son. Then, very slowly, a sad smile appeared to his face while he walked up to his son and pulled the teen into a tight, tender embrace.

Taichi squirmed, obviously embarrassed. "Hey, what's this for?"

He shook his head, barely managing to speak. "Nothing. Sometimes you just surprise me with how much you've grown, that's all", he explained in a slightly choked tone. It took a moment before he let go of his son and started to make his way towards his desk. He winced at the pile of papers waiting for him; lately it'd been next to impossible to get anything done. "I… guess I should get back to work."

"Yeah." Taichi's voice was slightly shaky. "We'll talk again later."

While slumping to behind his desk and staring at his papers, Naruto couldn't help feeling intense rage towards Hiashi Hyuuga. That man was the leader of ANBU/Root. How could he invite in the Hokage's son who was only fifteen? Why hadn't he been told about this?

He'd sunken so deep into thoughts that Taichi's voice caught him off guard. "Dad?" The boy was looking at him with worried eyes. "You and papa… haven't broken up or anything, have you? He's going to come back."

For several moments he didn't have the slightest clue what to say – he couldn't even react. Then, quite slowly, he managed to pull on a rather pathetic fake-smile. "Meh, of course we're not breaking up. Why did you think that?"

Taichi seemed far too serious. "I've heard you – both I and Kai have. It's been going on for weeks already."

The fake-smile started to hurt. "Everything's going to be okay, Tai." He hoped from the bottom of his heart he wasn't lying. "We just… need some time to sort things out, that's all."

Once again Taichi looked incredibly lot like Sasuke when looking at him with observant eyes before nodding. "'K." The boy then waved a little. "I've gotta go – there's a lot I need to take care of before the mission. See you at home." As an afterthought the boy added. "And dad? Try to come before eight today, will you? Kai misses you almost as much as he does papa."

He nodded, for once in his life not managing to find the words. Taichi's lips parted, but instead of speaking the boy left.

Once he'd been left alone, he took a deep breath and focused on looking out the window. Although it'd been sunny all morning, the sky now promised rain.

With a loud groan he leaned his head against the glass.

He was in a serious need of sake.

The house was eerily quiet while Sasuke pushed the door open that night, using all his skills to make as little noise as possible.

The last thing he wanted was everyone waking up.

He was so exhausted that he let his legs do all thinking for him. Quite soon he found himself peering into Taichi's room. The teen was sleeping peacefully with one of his legs hanging from the bed, breathing deeply and occisionally wrinking his nose at the dream he was having. Sasuke figured that even a bomb wouldn't wake the teen up.

He gave a tiny, wry smile.

That kid's always had Naruto's sleeping-habits.

It wasn't until then moonlight revealed a bag resting in the room's corner, obviously prepared for a long mission. His eyes darkened.

Of course Taichi had done missions before, but that didn't mean he would've gotten used to them. The role of a parent wasn't always exactly pleasant.

Emitting a small breath, he closed the door soundlessly, leaving his older son to sleep. For several seconds he stood in the hallway, completely paralyzed by all the thoughts bouncing around in his head, then started to move once more.

As soon as he opened the door of his younger son's room, he found it hard to hold back a smile when finding a pair of onyx eyes that quickly lit up at the sight of him. Fighting to hide his limp, he slipped into the room and sat to the child's bedside. In an isntant a pair of arms was wrapped around him so tightly that he could barely breathe. "Kai, you should be asleep."

"I had a nightmare", Kai mumbled, face buried to his chest. "I wanted to wait for you – I missed you." The child then emitted a sniff or a chuckle, clutching to him even more tightly. "You smell horrible, papa."
He chuckled, ruffling the child's hair. "I know." Then, as gently as he could, he pried the child into letting go and tucked him in. "Now go to sleep, okay? I'll see you in the morning."

Hope lit into Kai's eyes. "Will you sleep with dad? He's been lonely in the bed – he cried last night."

He was fairly sure his eyes darkened while he grit his teeth. "We'll see. But you don't need to worry about that." He then ruffled the child's blond locks once more and pushed himself up. "G'night."

"'Night, papa." Kai was obviously already half-asleep, with his eyes closed. "'Good to get you home."

He watched his younger son for a little bit longer, then sneaked into the hallway and leaned heavily against the wall. Free of his will, his eyes moved towards the bedroom door, behind which Naruto was most likely sleeping. His onyx eyes darkened even further as he fought with his all to make up his mind, and winced a little when the baby kicked sharply and squirmed inside his already swollen bump.

Why did everything have to be so damn hard?

Groaning under a yet another violent kick, he decided that at first he'd need a long, hot shower to clear his head.

He was too damn tired for musings like this, anyway.

-

Naruto had almost drifted into a troubled sleep when noises of someone moving around in the apartment pulled him back to full awareness.

Sasuke?

All but holding his breath he remained absolutely still and waited, until steps eventually paused behind the room's door. After a few moments of hesitation the door was opened, and the arrival entered with Sasuke's familiar scent. Steps approached the bed slowly, and he wanted to wince when hearing a limp.

That damn teme…!

When Sasuke stopped right beside the bed, all breath got stuck in his throat as he waited for the man's decision.

Would he sleep in the bed, or wander off to the couch?

In the darkness he smiled as Sasuke finally slipped to the empty space beside him. Although he knew the Uchiha wasn't facing his way and kept distance, it felt like a tiny victory to have the raven back in the bed.

For the upcoming half an hour he remained absolutely still, listening as Sasuke breathed behind him. Then he couldn't take it any longer.

Cautiously, not wanting to disturb Sasuke if the man had dozed off, he turned towards the raven to find a back he could just see in the darkness. "Sasuke? Are you really asleep?" His throat was tight and his eyes stung, and his voice also didn't sound right. The unmoving figure before him didn't respond in any way whatsoever, and it took his all to keep tears from coming. He licked his lips before managing to whisper. "I just… I hate it when you go to missions, especially in that condition." He emitted a stiffled sniff. "I… I love you, and I'm sorry. And I'm glad you're back."

He waited for ten full minutes – which felt like years to him – but there was no response from the Uchiha. Feeling utterly defeated, sad and ready to scream, he shifted so that he was facing the opposite wall.

About an hour later he was so exhausted that he fell into a troubled sleep.

Sasuke's head was buzzing with thoughts while he lay on an extremely uncomfortable bed, staring at the surprisingly filthy roof above him.

He didn't know how long he'd been drifting in his thoughts until incredibly cold gell was dropped to his stomach all of a sudden. It took all his willpower not to emit a sound of surprise, and he was fairly sure he twitched.

"Sorry." Sakura sounded sincere enough. "That damn stuff is always too cold."

He squirmed to a better position, never noticing how his hand fumbled for something. "It's okay", he all but grunted out.

It was silent for a moment before Sakura spoke. "Where's Naruto? Does he know you're here?"

He shrugged, gritting his teeth. "I… don't know." He didn't like how bitter his voice sounded, but couldn't really do anything to help it. "He'd left to the office when I woke up."

Sakura sighed heavily, and kept a long moment's pause while moving a tiny device on his stomach. "He really missed you, okay? And he's sorry." He could feel her looking at him, but wouldn't meet her gaze. "Don't you think he's already suffered enough?"

He emitted a small growl, his eyes narrowing.

He didn't have any answers anymore.

"The baby seems to be fine." Sakura's voice shook him out of his dark musings. He discovered that she was looking at a tiny screen with a smile on her face. "It's a lively little thing, too. The blow you got didn't do her any damage."

He quirked an eyebrow, strange feelings swelling in his chest and stomach. "'Her'?"

Sakura nodded with a wide grin. "You've been right from the beginning. You're gonna have a baby-girl."

He blinked, and focused on the roof once more. It was surprisingly hard to keep his emotions in check. "Hn", was all he managed.

Obviously to give him a moment to gather himself, Sakura wiped the gell from his stomach, then searches for some papers before speaking again. "As from today, you won't be taking any more missions." She gave him a threatening look. "There's no use in glaring at me, Uchiha. You're five months pregnant. We both know this is necessary – for you and the baby. You've already taken too many risks."

He fixed his glare to the window, noticing that rain had started to fall outside. "Hmph."

Sakura wrote down something before focusing on him once more. "So… How have you been feeling lately?"

He felt like snorting. He was so tired that he could barely stand, threw up about thirty times a day, plus had more stomach-cramps and headaches than he could count. "The usual."

Sakura seemed to sigh inwardly while nodding and writing again.

The hospital, Sakura's words and a yet another headache eventually became too much for him. He looked towards the pinkette. "The poking's over with, right? Can I go now?"

Sakura nodded, appearing thoughtful. "Go home and get some rest. And remember to come to me if anything unexpected occurs, understood?"

He nodded, then got up much faster than his head would've allowed and started to march towards the room's door as though it'd been a sanctuary.

Just before he was out Sakura's voice made him halt. "One more thing." He wouldn't turn towards her, but her tone told everything necessary. "I… I know you love each other, okay? So… Stop doing this to each other and your sons, please. Stop…." Stop wasting your time, was something she couldn't bear to say.

For a couple of moments he remained frozen, his fists balled and his eyes narrowed against something. Then, as suddenly as the tension had appeared, it disappeared. "See you later." With that he walked out, leaving a exasperated Sakura behind.

Late that evening Sai was just coming home from a mission – exhausted to the core and deep in thought – when he saw something by the village's borderline, approaching him. At first he was almost sure he was looking at a ghost, but then the figure became far too clear. He froze, his eyes widening a fraction when moonlight revealed Danzo's face.

Impossible…!

Danzo was supposed to be dead. Danzo wasn't supposed to be here, walking towards him with that haughty expression.

The man chuckled chillingly. "Now what's this? You look like you'd seen a ghost."

He instinctively took a step backwards, his hand flying to a weapon. "How…?" His lips moved, but no words came. "Why…?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Danzo's visible eye flashed. "I've returned to take back what's mine."

Not all that far away from Konoha, Zetsu watched how Kabuto's eyes flew open, and the man grinned devilishly. "Well?"

"Everything's working according to the plan." The man's eyes flashed. "In a matter of days Naruto and Sasuke's older brat will cross paths with us."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Why, exactly, are we doing this?"

Kabuto smirked again, even more chillingly than the last time. "Isn't it simple? If you want a beast to come to you, the surest call is the cry of its child." The man then got up, starting to walk away. "Now start getting ready. There's a lot we need to do."

TBC, OR DOES IT??

A/N: Gah! Things are really messed up, ne? (winces)

So… (gulps thickly) Was that a worthy start, or should I just disown this lil' one? Whadda you say?

PLEASE, do review – it'd mean a lot to hear your opinion, especially with how insecure I always am with first chapters! (glances all but pleadingly, thinking of fitting pribes)

Awkay, I've spent WAY too much time on a computer already, so I've gotta start tuning out. (winces)

Until next time, folks – with whatever story that may be! Thank you so much for reading!

Take care!