Disclaimer: don't own Naruto. Never have, doubt I ever will. sigh (mumbles about cruel people with no hearts). But, BUT I do own the original characters (a.k.a. the new happy pretty ones that I made up!) and They're all mine. Mine I Tell You! MINE!

Ok enough ego obsession. I wrote this because I can and 'cause The Great Lord Cythuulu, destroyer of all things and praiser of my genius, told me to. Take that! I will try to provide some entertainment for my readers but bare with me this is my first time. blushes be gentle. I like helpful hints, emphasis on helpful. Asinine comments will be treated with sarcasm and, depending on my mood; scorn (mumbles something about 'not to mention vengeance'). Suggestions are appreciated. I have a limited inspiration period so anything to help me focus is esteemed. Anyhoo enjoy.

Back story: Naruto and Sakura are currently both 19. My story branches off the the Naruto series sometime after manga chapter 245 or so (after Naruto returns to Konoha after three years training, but before Gaara is abducted.) Naruto gained the rank of anbu gaining the respect of those he worked with as one of the greatest ninjas in the village. Sakura is eight months pregnant with their first child.

At this point Orochimaru has taken over the body of Uchicha Sasuke and is currently waging war on the Leaf while simultaneously conniving to control the hidden Cloud and Mist, not to mention everyone else. Add this to just being his normal asshole self and you get trouble. Yep, just status quo.

Naruto has just been bought back from a battle against Akatsuki where he was stabbed through the lung close to his heart. Already vastly depleted of chakra he is unable to heal the wound even with Kyuubi's help. (In this battle he killed off nearly all of the nine Akatsuki, I'll go into it more l8r.)

Warning: This fic contains abominable language and possibly improper content that my parents may not find appropriate for their children. For those of you who couldn't care less Buyah Read On!

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Kyuubai speech"

'Kyuubai thoughts'

&& scene change

blah special scene change

&&the beginning and ending of chapters&&&

&&&&& Prelude &&&&

: written to the song "Rain" from the Cowboy Bebop series:

Deep within the fire country in a hidden ninja village known as Kanoha a woman's wail keened out at the injustice in her life. Uzumaki Sakura clung to the lifeless body of her husband searching desperately for a sign of life she knew she would not find. She barely felt the hands reluctantly pulling her away from her beloved, absently batting them away too focused on the wide unseeing blue eyes staring up into space. Finally her weeping sensei dragged her away, forcing her to lie down on a near by bed. The off-white walls of the Kanoha hospital surrounded her, giving off a cold feeling of indifference to her sorrows. Sakura did not feel the pain or the sudden wetness that announced her water had broken, she was not cogent enough to come to terms with the fact that she was about to give birth a full month early. Nothing seemed real to her but the numbing pain of loss. Her last thoughts before her practical side forced her to breath and push in time to the mounting contractions were of his final words and the realization of what she now had to do.

Tsunade bellowed for Shizune while propping pillows behind Sakura. Her mind acting on its own drew forth the proper medical procedures to the front of her thoughts, allowing her to shut out the sorrow over her adopted little brother's death and focus on the situation before her. Gathering chakra to the tips of her fingers she placed them on her apprentices distended stomach and allowed her awareness to flow within as the contractions rippled under the skin. Sakura screamed as the pain hit her, chocking on her sobs as she tried to steady her breathing. Feeling her presence behind her Tsunade directed her to help hold down Sakura without even looking up from her task. The child like its father was impatient, sensing its mother's stress it decided to come out now. Pushing down her awareness she checked to see how dilated the mother was. 'Shit' Tsunade thought to herself. The child was coming out, no question about it, but Sakura's body was taking this a lot better then it should. By all accounts her body shouldn't be half as far along as it was.

'Damn it! What happened between them.' Thinking back to the thirty minutes before when Naruto had been dragged in with a hole in his chest. As her mind slipped elsewhere Tsunade's hands worked through the necessary birthing process.

Flashback

Tsunade ran pushing through anything in her way panic griping her heart as she made her way to the emergency room in the Konoha hospital. News that her favorite little brother was in with serious wounds pulled at her heart strings. Seeing a group of anbu gathered outside a room ahead of her, she pushed past them not stopping for an explanation as she entered the emergency ward. A large circular seal marked the floor, drawing the eye to a bloodied form struggling to breathe as blood pooled beneath him marring the tracing patterns. She paused as her old fear of blood rose within her. 'Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…' she kept repeating in her mind. She stood frozen, eyes wide, breathing sharp and shallow unable to regain control. 'No Naruto. No, not again. Please not again' her mind flashed back to the deaths of her little brother and her boyfriend. Trapped in her own mind the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf went into shock.

Shizune continued to push chakra into the dying anbu inwardly wailing at her inability to stop the young man's bleeding. Beside her an obviously pregnant woman labored to keep her husband awake, pulling any distraction she could think of to get him to focus on her and staying alive. 'Please' she said to herself 'please don't leave me Naruto.'

Naruto wore a wry smile as he gazed at the confusion around him. Medics scurried back and forth obeying the orders of a sharp mouthed Shizune. His two former teachers stood worried in the corner, knowing that they would only be a hindrance if they sought to get involved.

Leaning by the door was his poker faced partner, Anbu Hyuuga Neji. No real expression crossed his face, but the slight tightening of the muscles around the famous Hyuuga eyes betrayed his worry. He knew Naruto had expanded too much of his chakra while fighting against the Akatsuki, it was highly unlikely that he would survive this night, but Naruto was never one to do the expected. He would pull through. There was no other outcome.

A great bellow shook the room as a chakra enhanced punch took care of the room's door and its surrounding wall.

Rapidly glazing, blue eyes slid from the sobbing woman to the new entrance. Ah there she was. He had been wondering when she would get here, the right side of Naruto's lips quirked in the mimicry of amusement. 'Too late 'baa-chan. Can't do much now' he thought wryly.

Naruto struggled to lift his hand, shakily reaching up to brush against Sakura's cheek.

"sa..ku..ra…"

Sakura's watery eyes flickered to meet the fogy sapphire, blue of her husband's, leaning into the shaky caress. "Hold on, Naruto. Hold on… d-don't you d-dare… l-leave me" her voice, husky from trying to retain some control of her emotions, stumbled over the words.

Naruto near smirked at her stubborn refusal to see reality when it went against her will. "beloved…" cough-cough a dribble of blood slipped past his lips, rolling down his jaw to pool by his neck. "need to tal-" his voice failed him sparking off a coughing fit.

Sakura slipped her hands beneath his head and shoulders to try and support him, shifting him so his head rested upon her lap, as much as it could with her belly sticking out over her lap. As the fit ended, she leaned down bringing her ear close to his mouth straining to hear his faint voice. After a few minutes in that position the pink clad head rose to address her old sensei.

"Out."

When the blonde Hokage made no move to leave Sakura raised her voice to include all the remaining shinobe in the room.

"GET OUT NOW!"

One look at the mourning woman's face and Neji shifted from his place at the wall and grabbed the dying blonde's perverted sensei's and pulled them from the room.

Tsunaide snapped out of her daze at the raised voice, searching the young woman's eyes she inwardly cringed at what she found behind them. Stone, hard chiseled stone reflected within their emerald depths, her seeming indifferent appearance was belied by the flood of tears cascading down her pale cheeks. Tsunaide's heart clenched at the steel in Sakura's gaze. She bit down on her lip stifling the protest that was begging to be let lose. With visible effort she tore her gaze away from Sakura and proceeded to pull the protesting Shizune through the gaping hole in the wall, and out into the hall.

Now alone Sakura looked down into the fading cerulean blue eyes of the man who had captured her heart two years past and protected long before. Never had she thought to lose the indomitable blonde, unconsciously thinking him incapable of truly mortal damage. She cringed bitterly at her childish naivety. Of course it was possible to lose him, their profession guarantied the possibility, but she had stubbornly refused to think on the likelihood of his death.

Naruto looked up at the woman that embodied his hopes and dreams. Since first meeting her all those years ago his affection for her had matured from a childish crush to full blown love.

"Oh how delightfully touching" came a deep sarcastic voice in his head.

'Shut up you fucking fur ball'

"Humph hardly your best come back Kit."

'Yah well you're not the one with the gaping hole in your chest.'

"……."

'That's what I thought. Now what the fuck do I do now? We only have a few minutes left before my chakra system breaks down and my innards crumple with it."

A pause answered Naruto. The Kyuubi was unusually silent, normally he have come back with a witty retort on Naruto's ineptness, now…nothing. Just an odd slightly ominous quiet hung in the inner regions of his mind.

"Tell her."

'WHAT!'

"Tell her to go Now."

'ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS! I'm not going to-'

"Tell her to leave as soon as possible. Get her out of the village; they'll come after her as soon as they regroup. Don't leave her here where they can find her and the pup."

'I'm not going to send her out there alone with My Child!'

"You forget the pup is Mine as well! We have no choice, but to get where they can't find her."

'I won't make her raise our child alone without the protection of the village!'

'God damn whelp won't listen. Does he think I like this any more then he does!' Kyuubi thought to himself. "We have no other choice. Its send her away are just leave her here form them to find, her and the pup."

'And force her to raise my son or daughter alone?'

"…there is no other option."

'…but'

"Kit. Tell her."

'… fine'

Sakura watched as something flickered behind her husband's guarded eyes, denoting his inner conversation. She had long ago learned of the conversations between him and his 'tenant'. After her initial shock at finding out her childhood teammate was the vessel for the ancient youkai Sakura had come to a wary truce with the knowledge of what Naruto had been forced to grow up with.

Upon seeing his eyes focus back on her she carefully leaned down to listen.

"sakura...need to…leave n-now…out…village to protect…from…" his words came out cracked and hoarse. Sakura winced inwardly at the strained sound in comparison to his normally bright and chipper voice.

"Shh, you need to stop talking and just try and heal yourself. There's no need for me to go anywhere we're safe here."

"N-no…need t-to leave…before." Naruto paused to suck in a deep breath before exhaling with a bloodied cough. "Before they come… Not safe where they can find you…rule #3 'member."

Naruto placed a pale, slightly trembling hand on her distended belly.

"Need to …k-keep safe…"

Sakura pressed her own hand over his, clinging to his scarred fingers.

"I'll be fine here there's no need to worry. I'll stay with my parents until you get better." Sakura's voice trembled, betraying her false confidence.

The corner of Naruto's lips rose slightly giving her a slight smirk as he recognized her stubborn refusal to admit the truth. He was dying. He knew it. She knew it. She just didn't want to face it. Not that he was too happy to face it either, but it was a fact and he needed to know that she would be safe when he was gone. He painstakingly pushed himself up with his free arm ignoring her protests for him to lie back down and conserve his strength. His other hand tensed briefly on her stomach emphasizing his need for her to agree.

"please Sakura trust me."

She hesitated. There were only a few times in here life time that Sakura had heard those words from Naruto and each time had been in life threatening situations. Once she had foolishly ignored his plea and near died because of the mistake. But now…she hesitated. Looking into his eyes she saw his earnest appeal for her to listen.

"All right…I promise." Her words came out in a sobbed whisper, anything to get him to calm down again.

Unable to hold himself up any longer and full of relief at her agreement Naruto collapsed once again to the floor. Sakura began to panic as blood flowed rapidly from his wounds. When she started the seals to perform a healing Justsu he reached up to pull down one of her hands interrupting her concentration and banishing the chakra that had gathered in her hands back into her chakra system. Her face registered surprise as he brought her hand to clasp around a small crystal hanging from a thong around his neck.

Thoughts slipped from his mind as Naruto fought against the blackness closing in on him. Forcing his muscles to obey him Naruto made his lips curl into a loving smile.

"I love you Sa…ku…ra-chan."

"Naruto! NARUTO!" A scream tore from her throat as she clutched at the motionless body of her beloved.

&& End Flashback &&

&&&&& End Chapter &&&&&&