Stability
Summary: They are supposed to fall apart. They don't. Life goes on in odd ways. [SasuSakuNaruHina foursome fic
Warnings: Slight Mpreg (Naruko) Umn... a foursome. If you don't like that, I don't know why you clicked...
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the other characters used in this fic.
Spellcheck of the Day: Hinata- honeydew
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Relationships with more than two people involved are always risky things. Threesomes are known for being inherently unstable; afer all, sex at its most basic involves two people, which by necessity and simple math dictates that one will be left out. This omission tends to be expected to carry over into most activities, and indeed often enough, it does. Precious few threesomes are known to actually survive their dysfunction.
It follows, then, that a foursome is even more unstable despite the implied solidity of the even number. The tendency of the threesome to break into two and one is exacerbated in the tendency of the foursome to break into two and two.
This would be expected, actually. It is easy to imagine; Hinata likes Naruto and Sakura likes Sasuke, and two perfect matches would seem to result. But Naruto has long harbored a crush on Sakura and Sasuke prefers Hinata's personality to anyone else's (particularly in simple conversation– it seems with both Naruto and Sakura, what Sasuke terms 'simple' conversation is impossible.) Then, of course, Naruto and Sasuke share a bond that no one could ever begin to try to erase.
Overall, this leaves out Sakura and Hinata, but the two bond anyway simply by virtue of being girls trying to deal with more powerful men in their life. Hinata has been 'not good enough' since the day she started her training, and Sakura has been left so far in her teammate's shadows at times that her inferiority complex, though younger, is no less intense.
And they could not manage to actually stay in set pairs. Sakura would be willing to stay monogamously faithful to Sasuke, but he is not wiling to return the favor. She tried, once. But Sasuke, even now, is so standoffish and coldly solitary that Sakura was driven to near-insanity in a week. She seems unable to bring Sasuke out of his shell on her own. She came back from a consolation session with Hinata to find Sasuke and Naruto in her bed.
While she had been understandably pissed off at the time (though her attempts to chase them off only resulted in both of them fucking her, Sasuke hard, and Naruto gentle, as though trying to make up for the fact that Sasuke could be a bastard even in bed), in retrospect, Sakura can understand. Those two need each other, perhaps more than they need the girls.
If it weren't for social niceties, they might here break up into different pairs; Naruto and Sasuke and Hinata and Sakura. It would be simple, one would think, more fulfilling than the girls chasing their boys. But while ninja society doesn't necessarily frown on homosexual relationships, Sasuke and Hinata are from major clans and simply cannot stay in an exclusive pairing that will not result in children.
According to Hinata's clan, the only one of her chosen three who would be acceptable is Uchiha Sasuke. According to Hinata and Sasuke, they are the only pair out of their foursome who consider the other absolutely unacceptable. They cannot have children. While protection use among the other three is patchy at best (Sakura is very confident in her birth control jutsus) Hinata and Sasuke make sure. Sasuke does not want the new Uchiha to be born into the Hyuuga. To tell the truth, Hinata does not either. And besides all that, nobody except for the Hyuuga clan elders want to find out what a cross between Sharingan and Byakugan will result in.
With her refusal (mostly facilitated by Sasuke- Hinata has never loved the Uchiha so much as when he marched into the Hyuuga compound and told them flat out that there was no way he was marrying Hinata so would they please stop considering it. Admittedly Neji found it hilarious and Naruto, upon hearing the story, teased her mercilessly about 'liking a guy more because he says he won't marry you,' but Hinata doesn't care. She cares that Sasuke stood up to her family for her, something she never thought he would do) her family begins planning a match between herself and Neji.
They manage to talk them out of a traditional marriage- ultimately their match is one that brings Neji into the main branch and demands that they produce an heir as soon as possible; nothing more.
This is something they cannot talk their way around. They don't tell the family, but they point-blank refuse to do any such thing. Hinata goes back to her foursome, and Neji goes off to lord-only-knows what man or woman has caught his eye.
Hinata expects Naruto to be the least sympathetic to her predicament- he does tend to find amusement in the antics of the Hyuuga clan (usually he can make her laugh about it as well). Instead, Naruto is the most helpful, the most supportive. He doesn't get it, really, but in his own way he understands the root of the problem- the heir- and offers quite seriously to 'knock her up.' Even when being perfectly serious Naruto manages to be crude. Hinata doesn't mind; in fact, she's almost delighted. She has admired Naruto for oh-so-long and can't think of anyone who would make a better father.
At this same time, Sasuke has propositioned Sakura ('propositioned' being used in the very loosest sense of the word- Naruto and Hinata were present, and Sasuke's eloquence stretched about as far as it took for him to say, "Sakura..." After that he seemed to give up and simply hedged- "Naruto and Hinata are doing it; will you?" Luckily, Sakura knows Sasuke well enough that she was actually quite touched.)
Somewhere along the lines of the next few weeks, Naruto uses his sexy-no-jutsu for some kink or another that they all enjoy. Sakura is straighter than Hinata and Hinata enjoys a really enthusiastic female partner for the first time; Sasuke is gayer than Naruto but doesn't really seem to mind being surrounded by three girls, anyway.
Somewhere along this line, Naruto can't change back. Sasuke pokes fun, Naruto proves that sexy-no-jutsu does not impede on his capability to use other jutsu as they engage in one of their usual all-out battles. Sakura changes his name to Naruko. It is another week before they all accept that there's something really weird going on here and Sakura takes him out shopping for girl clothes.
Hinata and Sakura's symptoms start at about the same time. Naruko follows (escorts, he calls it) them to the hospital, where the medinin give them both congratulations and an overzealous one reveals that Sasuke is further along the path of restarting the Uchiha clan than he thought. Not that the medinin know that.
Thus ensues another shouting match between Sasuke and Naruko. Oddly enough, though Naruko tries, he doesn't quite manage to get Sasuke to do more than fend him off. Only Sakura and Hinata can see the hidden tenderness behind this action; the unwillingness to attack the (mother? father?) of his children. Naruko later expresses confusion and aggravation- the bastard was perfectly willing to attack his female form before, so why the hell not now? The girls exchange weary looks and don't bother to explain.
At this point, it would seem that Hinata would be left out, between the other two who are carrying Uchiha children, but ultimately if anyone is left out, it's Sasuke, being the only man among a bevy of pregnant women. Even then, he's not left out, because Sakura goes to him for comfort, Naruko is constantly complaining at him, and Hinata becomes his only escape. Naruko, even as a girl, is constantly solicitous, overprotective of Hinata, even though, while his morning sickness started later, it's far more violent than hers.
Tsunade as a healer is delighted to find three of them pregnant. (She finds it hilarious that Naruto of all people is pregnant.) As Hokage, though, she is more than a little frustrated to lose three of her better shinobi at once. (Four, if one counts that Sasuke refuses to take long term missions, but since he hasn't been allowed to take real missions for a while since the Sound incident, that's not saying much.)
Sakura's pregnancy is the easiest of them; probably because of her medical training and compatibility with Sasuke. Her submissiveness is not as pronounced as it was when they were genin, but it helps in the case of carrying what everyone knows will be a sharingan user. Naruto, on the other hand, is Sasuke's rival. He's known for challenging Sasuke, rebelling against Sasuke, even hating Sasuke upon occasion. Add that to the strange power (Sasuke knows it is Kyuubi, but doesn't know if Sakura or Hinata are aware) that Naruto houses, and pregnancy becomes that special sort of difficult known as 'dangerous.'
Hinata's is not easy, but does not have any unusual complications like Naruko's. When the baby is born, it has the Hyuuga eyes, but no one in the Hyuuga clan can figure out how the baby came to have blonde hair. Later, they learn that Tenten is to be congratulated as well, and when she takes out the tiny custom-made contacts, blank, pale eyes blink up at them.
Naruko and Sakura's are beautiful, pale Uchiha babies, with lighter hair than Sasuke's but still the midnight black eyes framed with dark lashes. Sakura's is a girl with dark brown-auburn hair, and Naruko's is a boy who bawls louder than they can talk over.
Naruto is overjoyed to finally be able to change back; so much that Sakura and Hinata don't really begrudge him the absence of motherhood, but split the breastfeeding of the third child between them. Naruto is the perfect father, as Hinata expected. He cherishes their children (all of them; he makes no distinction between his and Hinata's, his and Sasuke's, and Sasuke and Sakura's), loves and cares for them and protects them with all of the ferocity reserved for his most precious people.
Sasuke is more standoffish; the patriarch. He takes his share of care duties, but is far more likely than Naruto to be conveniently out of the house when a diaper needs changing. Since they don't really live in one house (Naruto still lives in his apartment and Hinata in the Hyuuga compound, though Sakura has moved in with Sasuke. Sauke would bring Naruto to the Uchiha compound as well, but Hinata would not be able to come, so Naruto refuses) it is generally rather easy to pull this off.
People wonder about them, the Hyuugas in particular. Before this familial glut, it was easy enough to go into pairs in public; and if Sasuke could be seen with Sakura at the beginning of an evening and Hinata by the end (and if the event was low-class enough, a particularly observant person might note that Naruto started out with Hinata and ended with Sakura), well, it could be attributed to the fact that ninja are generally easygoing in personal relationships- perhaps they weren't really together.
And if Sasuke and Naruto can be caught kissing and grinding against each other at the end of a training session- well, most people don't get a chance to see this, and ultimately only Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Tsunade have really figured them out. (Neji knows that Hinata prefers Naruto to him, but not the extension of that relationship. After all, he doesn't particularly care beyond a measure of brotherly concern, and when her baby is obviously Naruto's- the only way the other Hyuuga haven't picked up on this yet is because Neji helps cover up- he stops worrying.)
They can't cover it up properly anymore, really. Not the way they used to. To the public, Sasuke and Sakura are practically married, though they haven't actually had a ceremony. Hinata and Neji are married, though the Hyuuga know that what is actually between them is nothing but the appearance of a marriage- enough to put down in the record books, but nothing more. Naruto is a bachelor, and beginning to be a very eligible one as well. A few of the younger kunoichi can't understand why he turns them down.
Perhaps it can't last like this forever, but for now it is enough.
A foursome isn't supposed to be stable- not at all- but theirs is. They couldn't have it any other way.
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A/N:... and thus what was supposed to be a tiny drabble turned into a nearly five-page document of craziness...
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