7 months Earlier

"Naruto, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"Sasuke's in the hospital, and Tsunade-sama wants to see you immediately."

"What?! What happened to him?"

"I don't know, Naruto; but hurry, it's important."

Naruto ran off worriedly, "Thanks Sakura-chan!"

"No, thank you, Naruto." The pink headed shinobi smiled at his running form.

Naruto burst in through the doors, panting, his legs aching from the run across the village.

"Naruto! Nice to see you here, how can I help you?"

"Shizune, where's Sasuke?"

"Oh," she laughed lightly, "Here, I'll guide you, Tsunade-sama has some important news for you."

"Is it about Sasuke?"

"Yes."

"Is he okay?"

"More than okay," she smiled brightly at him.

"What do you mea-"

"We're here, come on in." She opened the door and Naruto walked in to see Sasuke with his head between his hands, staring aimlessly at the ground.

"Sasuke!" He ran over to his lover and they embraced for quite a while.

"Naruto... I..." Started Sasuke but was abruptly cut off by Tsunade, "Naruto, sit."

"What? Why?"

"Sit."

Reluctantly he let go of the raven and sat in a chair directly across from the both of them.

"Listen carefully to what I say. Sasuke's in a delicate condition. Due to his Uchiha genes, his body was able to conceive another human being. Therefore, when you guys were having intercourse, something clicked in his body and now... Well now, you're going to be a father."

Naruto just stared blankly at Tsunade, as if she had grown a third eye meanwhile Tsunade and Sasuke stared back at him, the raven head tapping his fingers anxiously against the hospital bed.

"What?" the blond spoke after a few seconds of silence.

Tsunade face palmed herself and Sasuke rolled his eyes before yelling, "Naruto, I'm pregnant!"

"WHAT?!"

"We were doing it and suddenly my body took your semen and converted it into a baby!"

"WHAT?!" A thud came from where Naruto had once been sitting, now sprawled over the floor.

"Oh my God, you really are dense aren't you?" Sasuke turned to Tsunade, "Is he really the father of my child?"

She shrugged in return, "I don't know, have you done it with anyone else?"

Naruto glared at Sasuke from the floor and growled, "You better have not done so, teme."

Sasuke sighed, "I didn't dobe."

"Then," Tsunade smiled brightly at the raven, "He's the biological father to that little bundle of joy inside of you."

One Fateful Autumn Night

"Sasuke, will you stop bickering for once?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. I'm-not-carrying-a-child-in-me-so-I-don't-know-what-it's-like."

"I know, I know. But please, just stop. I'm trying my best to please you okay? It's three in the morning and your cravings drive me insane."

"Talk about driving, just look ahead Naruto."

"Well, I mean, if you'd stop fighting maybe I could drive in peace an-"

"NARUTO WATCH OUT!"

CRASH

"Sasuke..."

"Naruto! The baby..."

"Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasu…"

They both couldn't feel their bodies. Naruto stretched his hand and touched Sasuke's. The raven felt the blood drain from his body as he closed his eyes. His body felt cold and the world around him was still. He could feel something inside him dying, but he didn't know if it was him or their baby girl. "Sasuke… don't leave me." But he could no longer feel any life left in him as he slipped away from reality into a dark pit of nothingness.

"Oh my God! Call an ambulance! The blond one is barely conscious!" [T]

"What about the other one?" [N]

"Oh dear God… he's pregnant." [H]

"What?!" [N]

"Jesus, he's pregnant! And in his condition he might lose the child!" [H]

"Call the ambulance, tell them it's urgent!" [T]

"Will they make it?" [N]

"I doubt it…" [H]

"No, he cannot lose that child!" [T]

Sirens wailed in the distance causing Naruto to stirr.

"The blond one is waking up! Sir… Sir? What's your name?"

"Na...ru...to."

"Naruto?"

He nodded.

"Naruto, hi, my name is Tenten. My husband Neji called for the ambulance and they're almost here, just hang on a bit, okay?"

"Sa...sasuke. Where- Where's Sasuke?"

"Sasuke? Is that your lover's name?"

Again he nodded.

"Naruto, by the looks of it, Sasuke is in very critical condition... "

His eyes widened and he tried to lift himself up but Tenten pushed him down, "My sister-in-law Hinata is with him, tending to his wounds at her best ability; please calm down."

The ambulance arrived shortly after and Tenten and Neji helped the nurses lift Sasuke and Naruto into the back.

"Tsunade-sama! It's Naruto and Sasuke!"

"What happened to them?"

"They got in a bad car accident."

"WHAT?"

"If it weren't for Hinata-chan, Sasuke wouldn't even be breathing now."

"Dear God, the baby! Shizune, did he lose the baby?"

"I don't know…"

Tsunade and Shizune rushed towards the room that held Naruto and Sasuke. Both of them were pretty beat up, but Naruto was conscious enough to direct her to Sasuke. Tsunade examined the Uchiha with so much worry that her hands shook and her chakra wavered. No, no please God, no. Don't let him lose the baby. Please, by all means, don't take away that happiness from them. They don't deserve it please. She saw broken ribs, a punctured lung and… her chakra concentration broke completely and she slammed her fist into the table, creating a dent as big as a football.

"Tsunade-sama?"

"She's gone…"

"What?"

"Their baby is gone."

"No…"

"NO!"

Tsunade and Shizune turned to see a still injured Naruto rising from his bed and staggering over to them. He grabbed Tsunade by the wrist and brought her up to meet his height. She wept silently even though his grasp wasn't harsh, she knew that even in his anger and hurt, he wouldn't harm her.

"Tsunade-baachan, tell me she isn't gone."

"Naruto, let her go!"

"Quiet, Shizune, he isn't hurting me."

"Granny, please… tell me she isn't… tell me she's still with us."

"I… I'm sorry… Naruto."

His grasp loosened on her wrist and he let his hands slip to his sides. His knees buckled and his shoulders shook. He screamed and tears slipped from his cheeks, he cursed and wailed.

"Naruto…"

"Granny…"

She embraced the shaking figure and they wept together, one was silent as the other's screams took over the room.

"She's gone, Granny. My baby girl is gone."

"I'm sorry."

"What about Sasuke? How is he?"

"He's got a punctured lung, but it's not so serious. Katsuyu is working on him right now and by the looks of it he'll be okay soon."

"Could she have done anything to save her?"

"No."

"Nothing at all?"

"She was gone even before Sasuke was brought in."

"It's all my fault."

"Naruto… what happened?"

"Sasuke woke up in the middle of the night and he told me he was craving ice cream. I told him I'd bring him some from the fridge but he mentioned he'd finished it that morning, so then he ordered for me to go buy some more, and insisted he'd come along, claiming I wouldn't know what flavor to bring, and after fifteen minutes of arguing he had gotten in the car and turned the engine on as he waited for me to close the door. I shouldn't have agreed to let him go," He sobbed a little harder this time, "We went to the store and after thirty minutes of walking up and down at least 20 times in the row of ice creams, he picked two flavors and I paid. We were arguing slightly on the way home, and I asked him to stop fighting. God, I'd do anything to hear him fighting with me rather than having to listen to that stupid monitor. I got distracted and a car's headlights smashed onto the right side of the car, where Sasuke was."

"But… were you obeying the law?"

"Tsunade, I was being as careful as I could be. I swear it was our turn to go and seeing no car coming by, I let the car roll. We never expected that car to hit us."

"Tsunade-sama, Naruto, Sasuke's awake."

"Thank you, Katsuyu."

"I owe you one, Katsuyu, thank you so much."

"Don't mention it Naruto-kun."

Naruto rose from the floor and helped Tsunade up. He walked over to the raven and smiled sadly when the onyx eyes met his, At least, you're still with me love. Sasuke smiled back, before his eyes closed and his hand went to rest on his belly. Not feeling it's roundness, Sasuke's eyes shot open and he looked towards his now flat abdomen. His eyes worriedly shot over to the now crying Naruto. His eyes watered.

"Where… Where is she?"

"She's…" Naruto choked back a sob, "She's…"

"Where is my baby?!"

"She's gone."

"Where did they take her?!"

"Sasuke…"

"Naruto, where did they take my baby girl!"

"They didn't take her anywhere… She's…"

"Naruto Uzumaki, where's my daughter?!"

"She's gone, Sasuke!"

"NO! WHERE'S MY BABY? WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE'S HIKARIYAMI?"

"She's gone Sasuke! Hikariyami is gone!"

"No! Don't you dare tell me she's gone! My baby girl isn't gone…"

Sasuke's face flooded with tears, his once beautiful, calm features contorted with pain and sorrow. Naruto cried wordlessly as he held Sasuke's shaking hand, praying this was all some horrible nightmare. They stayed like that for a few hours, days even. Naruto refused to let Sasuke go and Sasuke refused to leave without Hikariyami. But she really was gone, they had lost her that terrible night, and the after-shock had been unbearable.

6 Years Later.

It has been exactly 5 years and three months since they last made love. Before that night, even with his round belly, Sasuke managed to cuddle Naruto's back; but now, they slept back to back. When Naruto left for work, Sasuke would no longer kiss him goodbye like he used to. In fact, he rarely even saw the blond man anymore. Before around the day, he sat around rubbing his belly and looking through baby catalogs and surfing online for Hikariyami's furniture; but now, he laid his hand were his baby girl once took residence in and stared aimlessly out the window. Silent tears still flowed steadily down his face as he saw the kids from the Academy run around and imagined Hikariyami running around with them. She would have been a beautiful girl, with black hair and blue eyes. Or would it have been blond hair and obsidian eyes? Would Naruto's whisker marks have been inherited as hers? Would the Sharingan been in her possession? Would she have been wild like Naruto or calm like Sasuke? Would she have been a little perfect mixture of both of their personalities? What would of been of her? How would she have turned out? Sasuke always wondered this. Day and Night. He wondered what his little bundle of joy would've turned out like if he hadn't lost her.

Sasuke heard the door slightly click open and then silently click shut. Naruto was home. In other times, he would've gone downstairs and greeted the blond, but that habit had long been forgotten. He heard the other's footsteps come up the stairs and stop abruptly behind the door before knocking.

"Come in."

"Hey, I'm home," came the light reply from the slight crack on the door.

"I heard."

The blonde sighed, "Okay," he slowly closed the door again.

"Wait." The door barely stopped, "Let me see you."

"I don't think it's a good idea, Sas…"

"Just let me see you."

Indeed it hadn't been a good idea. Naruto looked disgruntled. His hair was a mess and there were dark circles under his eyes. 6 years ago those eyes held a certain spark of life, happiness and love; now, they looked dead, beaten and forgotten. His face had grown a small, blond beard that didn't suit his face at all. His figure that once stood tall and confident was now slumping and tired. He wasn't the Naruto Sasuke had fallen in love with. What happened to him? Had these six years taken its toll on him too?

"Sas, I'm tired."

"Come in."

"Please, don't…"

"I said come in."

Reluctantly, Naruto completely opened the door and shut it behind him. He didn't make a move from his spot on the door. Sasuke felt a need to hug him but couldn't bring himself to do it, so he settled with the distance between his lover's figure and the window seat. Naruto raised his tired eyes from the floor to look at Sasuke's figure, only to find the raven already staring back.

"What happened to you?" The Uchiha whispered.

"Nothing, what are you talking about?" He forced a grin but only managed a deformed smile.

"Have you seen yourself in a mirror?"

"I try not to."

"You look like garbage."

"I feel even worse."

"What happened?"

"Nothing-"

"No, I mean to us."

"What?"

"What happened to us?"

Naruto sighed and scratched his annoying beard. What had happened between the two? After that night, when Sasuke heard he'd lost their daughter, he had pushed Naruto away. Even after they were both released from the hospital, Sasuke didn't ride with him home; rather he called his older brother Itachi to ask their cousin Shisui to give him a ride home. Their childhood friend Sakura had gone to visit the couple alongside their friends but even they noticed how distant Sasuke had gotten and how dead Naruto seemed. The loss of their baby really took a toll on them, and instead of them working and growing together out of it like most couples did, Sasuke seemed to always blame Naruto for it, claiming that if it hadn't been his stupid fault, maybe Hikariyami would still be around. And instead of arguing back, Naruto blamed himself too.

"Our empire fell," was all the blond could manage.

"Why'd you let it fall?"

Naruto ran his fingers through his hair rather desperately and let his fingers rest in his messy hair.

"You know, Sasuke, it wasn't only me who let it fall."

"And what do you mean by that Naruto," the name that once tasted sweet now rolled off sourly from his tongue.

"What I mean Sasuke, is that ever since that fucking night-" Naruto clenched his fists and then sighed, "Nevermind."

Sasuke grew irritated, and his voice dripped with anger, "No, say it. Say what you have to."

"I don't want to, " Naruto snapped back.

"If you're gonna open your big ass mouth, at least have the nerve to say what's on your mind."

"Fine, you want things to be like that?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Ever since that fucking night, you have blamed me for everything. It wasn't my fault that stupid car came crashing into us. May I remind you who was the one that craved ice cream? And the one that insisted on getting in the car with me even though I pleaded him not to? And the one that bickered and distracted me during the ride home? Even after, in the hospital, I didn't leave you alone. Her loss hit me too, you know? I loved her as much as I loved you. But all you did was push me further away as the days went by. And even now, it's like I'm living with a stranger. And I bet living with a stranger feels much more cozy than it feels here."

Sasuke's eyes teared and widened a bit and Naruto sighed before turning to leave.

"Then maybe you should go."

"I already packed my bags and rented a new apartment across the village."

"When were you planning on telling me this?"

"I wasn't planning to tell you.

"You were gonna leave me just like that?"

"Weren't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh Jesus Christ, don't act all innocent. I saw that you filed for divorce."

"I didn't."

"Hiding papers under the mattress? Haven't you heard that makes them ugly?"

"Naru…"

"When were you planning to tell me that?"

"Soon."

"The sooner the better, no?"

"This is it, huh?"

"The empire fell long ago. And there's nothing we could've done to rebuild it."

And with that, the blond man shut the door behind him, went to his room to pick up the bags, and glanced at the night table with a single picture of a once pregnant Sasuke and Naruto laughing and Naruto placing his hands on his lover's belly. He let his pent up tears fall and walked by the room Sasuke had been in only to find him gone. Jesus Christ, this really is the end. He walked down the stairs and left his bags by the door before heading into the kitchen where the papers had been sitting on ever since he had found them. He flipped through the pages were Sasuke's perfect signature had been placed and he signed his own too. Once he was done, he went to the living room and stared aimlessly once more, like he had done so every night for the past 6 years. He waited for a certain miracle to happen, he waited for Sasuke to come down and plead him to stay. But he was still an arrogant Uchiha-bastard, of course he wouldn't do that. So with that, he picked up his bags, walked out of the house, locked and placed the key alongside the extra key next to the bush, and placed his bags in the trunk of his car and drove off. Sasuke was in their room, looking out the window as he saw Naruto drive away. His mind replayed the scene from earlier. The defeated look in his lover's eyes, the tired figure pressing his head against the door frame.

"The empire fell long ago. And there's nothing we could've done to rebuild it."

He started crying, his slight figure shook like a leaf and he punched the window before letting his hand slide.

"And if there would've been something we could've done to save ourselves, would you have done it?"