Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto
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Thank you MS3923 for beta-ing this chapter!
Note: this chapter was edited on 15-05-2014
-oXo-
Chapter 8: The knowing
30th of March
Sasuke woke up to the feeling that someone was spooning him from behind, and who had his arms tightly wrapped around his waist. A soft purring sounded and almost vibrated through him.
"Hmm, Naruto," he mumbled. He could feel Naruto's, now clearly visibly extended belly against the small of his back.
"Can you feel it?" Naruto asked.
First Sasuke didn't know what he was talking about, but then Naruto pressed himself a little more against his back and he could feel some small pressures coming from the baby.
"It's quite active this morning."
Sasuke smiled.
Then Naruto detached himself from Sasuke and turned him on his back. He moved so he hung above the dark haired man. He started kissing Sasuke tenderly on his cheek, next his mouth, his chin, his neck and ended with his chest.
Sasuke closed his eyes, as he felt hands move all over the right places on his body and because of getting the gentle kisses on his chest.
Suddenly it stopped, and he felt Naruto hover above his face. As he opened his eyes, he stared into clear bright eyes. They seemed to be sparkling. Purring sounded in the air.
Naruto smiled cutely and attacked his mouth.
Sasuke moved his hands from Naruto's waist to his hips. As he felt Naruto's hands on his chest and in his hair, he moved his hands over Naruto's belly.
He could feel a few small stretch marks that started to form on his stomach, and occasionally he felt some movement.
Naruto moved away from his mouth, and now was having his way with Sasuke's neck and shoulder.
Sasuke brought one hand into Naruto's hair; it had become thicker and fuller.
Suddenly he felt a stabbing pain as Naruto had bitten him. The purring intensified as he felt blood tickle down his shoulder.
"Naruto?"
Naruto didn't do anything, other than keep on purring. His nails dug into Sasuke's arms, not painfully but playfully.
"Naruto!"
Naruto retreated so fast, he would have fallen over if Sasuke hadn't held him.
"I'm sorry; I did it again, sorry." The purring had stopped.
Sasuke saw Naruto's extended canines as blood dripped off them.
"But you have been eating enough meat-" Sasuke started.
"I know; I took special attention to it." Naruto clasped his hand over his mouth.
Sasuke looked down to Naruto's round stomach. "The baby must have something to do with it."
Naruto nodded.
"You had an appointment with Sakura anyway this afternoon, right?"
Naruto nodded again.
"I'll go get you some food then. Akira will probably wake up soon, so I'll just make breakfast."
Sasuke took off downstairs to the kitchen, and Naruto lay back on his side in the bed. His hand stroked the bump on his stomach. It was quite big, Naruto thought, though he was only in his 24th week. He still had 14 more weeks to go and he'd already started noticing that his balance was changing. Well, he'd already gained 6 kilo's! He couldn't believe it. It felt heavy.
Sasuke came back with breakfast and Akira followed him sleepily. Together they ate on the bed.
-x-
Naruto was lying on the couch, watching Akira clean his practice shuriken and kunai. He was finally wearing some well-fitting pants and a kimono-like jacket that hung loosely around him. Naruto felt comfortable in his new clothes, though he missed his orange jacket.
He wasn't lying comfortable. His hips hurt, no matter how he lay or sat. He tossed and he turned, stuffed some pillows behind his back and in his side, but it didn't really help.
"I'm not made for this," he mumbled.
Finally the pain became quite unbearable, and he sat up. This also wasn't a good idea; he swung a bit and clutched his stomach. A sudden pain shot through him.
Sakura had told him a few weeks ago that he shouldn't rush to sit up. He had noticed since then why he shouldn't.
He groaned, and Akira looked around. "Are you alright?"
Naruto didn't answer.
Sasuke had told Akira if something was wrong with Naruto, or if he was in pain, he should get Sasuke, even though Naruto said it was all right. So Akira sprinted to the garden to get his father, who was next to Naruto in an instant.
"What's wrong?" Sasuke looked Naruto up and down, trying to see what had happened.
Naruto looked up and saw Sasuke's slightly worried face and sighed softly. "Sat up too quickly, but it's better now."
He let his abdomen go, and held out his hands so Sasuke could help him stand up.
Akira came in again, looking around, seeing everything was okay, and went back to his cleaning.
"You don't really seem fine." Sasuke said while he let go of Naruto.
"Just have to walk around a bit," Naruto answered, and walked into the kitchen to get himself something to eat.
Sasuke turned to Akira. "You know that we have an appointment with Sakura in a moment."
Akira looked up, wondering if it had been a question or a statement. He decided that either way nodding was the correct answer.
"You can stay alone without demolishing the house?"
Akira smiled. "I can."
Sasuke smiled back. "Good boy." He ruffled they boy's hair. Akira's smile became bigger, and he tried to push his father's hand away.
Naruto entered the room again with a ham sandwich. "Do we need to go already?"
Sasuke looked at the clock on the wall. Normally he would say they could wait a little, but he knew it was better if Naruto took his time getting to the hospital.
"Hm."
"Let me get my notebook."
-x-
As they walked to the hospital via a route that went a little outside Konoha, so Naruto wouldn't feel too embarrassed, Sasuke noticed Naruto wince every once in a while. He would very much like to ask what was wrong, but decided Naruto would probably tell when they were with Sakura.
They entered her office, and Naruto handed Sakura his notebook before strolling to the examination table, and leant against it instead of sitting on it like he usually did.
Sakura looked him over, noticed this, walked over till she was next to him, and began reading Naruto's scribbles of the last week (it was quite a deciphering exercise).
She noticed he hadn't written anything about the pain stabs in his stomach, just like the week before. She wondered if he hadn't had them anymore, or if he had just come used to them and thus had forgotten to mention them.
"Have you had any pains in your stomach?" she asked as she turned the page.
"No, just discomfort." He winced and moved to lean on his other hip.
Sakura finished reading his rapports, and looked up to him as she noticed him change his weight to the other hip again.
"Any other pains?" She closed the notebook and laid it on the examination table next to her.
"My hips hurt." He winced again.
"Since when, you didn't mention this in the notebook?"
"I think yesterday, but it wasn't this bad yet. After breakfast it became worse." He turned his head to her, while he tried to lean against the table in some other way. "I don't know how to sit or lie down. Walking feels better than standing still."
Sakura moved so she stood in front of him, she untied his waistband and lowered his pants a bit -hanging loosely around his hips now- so she could take a better look.
As her hands started glowing pink, Naruto's frown lessened a bit.
"During normal pregnancies, the hormones in a woman's body causes to make the joints in the pelvis softer to prepare her for delivery." She looked up to him. "Of course you're not going to do it in that fashion, but the hormones we gave you still try to do this." She lowered her hands down his tights. "So this isn't normal to happen to your pelvis, and on top of that is your bone structure denser than that of other people, which makes it harder to loosen these joints. This all will probably make it more painful." She wasn't finished talking yet, but she let her hand go from Naruto.
She put up her finger and continued. "Furthermore a male's pelvis is a bit different from a woman's as a man's pelvis has progressed to its optimum for walking, while a woman's has optimized to give birth and still being able to walk." Naruto's eyes narrowed some. "Your pelvis is longer than that of a woman, but also smaller, narrower. And since you're gaining weight, your gravitational point is changing, to which your hips also have to adapt." His eyes narrowed even more. "So the child is pressing against your organs and also your pelvis though it of course actually isn't supposed to." Sakura finally noticed the explanation was too long for Naruto, as he frowned in confusion.
Sakura sighed. "Your pelvis is small and not made for this," she concluded.
"I could have told you that myself." Naruto glared at her, he groaned as he tried to change position again.
"What can be done about it?" Sasuke asked.
"All I can say is, that it will probably hurt, seeing the dense bone structure and that it is harder for your pelvis to loosen the joints. What we tell pregnant woman that have this, is to rest by sitting reasonably upright, and support your back with a pillow. Sleep with a pillow between your knees, and don't lift heavy objects."
"Wasn't planning to," Naruto mumbled.
"When walking stairs, take it step by step." Sakura went on like she hadn't heard him. "All in all it's best to rest and take it easy."
"More rest?" Naruto whined, sighing deeply and letting his head fall.
Sakura gave him a stern look.
"But then it hurts most, I prefer walking." Naruto bowed a little in pain.
Sakura put her hands on his sides again, to ease the pain. "That's a bit odd I must say, but I think it's better not to move too much, because I think you will probably feel it at the end of the day." She let her hands go again. "Get on the table and we'll continue this."
Naruto nodded. Sasuke came to help him up the table, and Sakura collected her notes and looked them over before scribbling some things down.
"Other things you or Sasuke-kun have to add?" she asked, as she walked to the table and put her hands on top of his stomach. She noticed there were more stretch marks than the week before.
"This morning," Sasuke started, "he bit me."
Sakura looked at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. "Excuse me?" Was he talking about Naruto? And if he was, did she wanted to know what he meant?
Sasuke sighed. "I mean, he bit me because he needed more meat, although he has had no shortcoming in that area."
"Aha," Sakura turned to Naruto again.
"The baby needs a lot of iron. It probably takes so much you don't get enough yourself anymore, even though you still eat more meat than a normal person."
Sakura pushed a bit at the side of his belly, making the baby move suddenly.
"Aah," Naruto said as the baby moved against his pelvis. He winched.
"Sorry," Sakura apologized.
She finished her check-up, and she slowly helped him to sit up. Next she measured him and asked him to go stand on the scale.
"You've gained about 6.4 kilo's in total." She noted this in his notebook. "Well, that finishes things up. I'll need your notebook to decide for the dosage of your medication, but I'll bring it back tomorrow."
Naruto was already on his way to the door, not being able to stand or lie still any longer.
"Arigatou."
"Bye."
-x-
When they arrived home, Naruto walked to the door and stopped. Staring at the door he asked, "Why are they all here?" Sasuke watched his back as he asked this. He'd seemed to stiffen up a little.
The raven reached out to him, and turned him around at his shoulder. "Naruto, I know you don't really like it, but they would find out anyway, eventually, and you can't sit alone at home all day. You need them." Sasuke grasped his other shoulder as well. Naruto stared at the ground. "Because this is already hard enough for you as it is, although you are doing really great."
Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's chin, and lifted his head up so he could look him in the eyes. "I decided it was my responsibility to tell them."
Naruto's eyes widened. "They already know?"
"Yes." As Sasuke had told everyone a week ago, he had found out why Naruto had dreaded this for so long. It hadn't been easy to tell them, looking them up one by one. "And they are all here to support you."
Naruto fell silent; he didn't know what to say. Then he hugged Sasuke. "Thank you."
"Furthermore, in case Kiba starts annoying you... at the slightest remark, just call me, and I'll cut off his balls."
"Haha, I will. I promise," Naruto grinned. "But really, he isn't that bad."
Sasuke placed his hand on the doorknob, ignoring Naruto's last sentence. "Ready?"
"I don't think I will ever be ready for this."
It was good enough an answer for Sasuke, so he opened the door and they walked together into the living room. Naruto looked rather nervous, which he didn't happen very often.
As they stood in the door, he saw everyone standing in the room, talking to each other. Some looked up to him and nodded, others waved. He waved back.
Sakura came to him. "Long time no see, Naruto," she smiled.
"Hàhaa," he said mockingly and smiled back, though it didn't completely reach his eyes.
Slowly though, he noticed no one came storming at him, asking how he was or if they could feel his stomach. He was relieved, and he suspected Sasuke had something to do with this.
Sometime later he had visibly relaxed more, though he never stood still talking to someone for a long time. Sometimes he sat here and then stood there. He had crossed the room a couple of times like this, until he was now standing and talking to Chouji and Shikamaru.
"We found some leads, but we haven't found it yet," Chouji told Naruto.
"I didn't think you would find that bastard's hiding place that easily. We searched a long time before we found him," Naruto replied.
Team Ino-Shika-Chou was the team that was looking for the doctor's research. They were close to finding his lab.
"I just hope he hasn't burnt it down," Shikamaru said.
"I'm not sure if I would mind," Naruto said as he felt his hip click. "I think I need to move again." He had been standing too long on the same stop, so he walked to the other side of the room, and started a conversation with Kiba, who was unusually polite to Naruto (meaning no jokes or teasing).
All the while Naruto slowly shifted his weight from one leg to the other, and Kiba stared at him as he did so, though he didn't say anything about it as he kept talking to Naruto.
All of a sudden Naruto inhaled sharply and went through his knees. Kiba caught him right under his arms. Naruto grabbed Kiba's upper arms, and squeezed into his shirt as he let his head fall against his chest, still panting.
"Naruto?"
"Itai, itai." His ears dropped and his tail curved slightly between his legs.
"Naruto?" Kiba asked again, concerned as he didn't stand up. Sakura and Ino came next to him.
"What's wrong Naruto?" Sakura asked, "Your hips?"
"Aa," Naruto confirmed, still clutching to Kiba.
Kiba started glancing nervously at Sasuke while he held Naruto up.
Sakura went to stand behind Naruto, and brought her hand up under his shirt to ease the pain.
Kiba began to panic even more now. This could be misunderstood in so many ways. He was glad none of their senseis were here, just the 'rookie nine' and Neji's team. But still, he wasn't comfortable with the way Sasuke kept glaring at him.
Naruto began to slip away a little and he heaved him up again, which hadn't been one of the best ideas.
"Ahh!"
"Kiba? You must hold him still," Ino almost yelled at him.
"But he started to slip away."
"Let's move him to the couch."
Ino piled up a lot of cushions, and they let Naruto slowly drop into the fluffiness.
"Better?" Ino asked.
"Yeah, thanks," Naruto said as he had his eyes closed, a small blush on his whiskered cheeks.
Sakura moved away from him, and walked up to Sasuke to ask him something, but Naruto was focussed on the pain instead and didn't notice.
Ino sat down next to him, and took over the job Sakura had started, laying her hands under his shirt on his hips.
"Just relax; I'll ease the pain for now."
"Thanks."
Sasuke and Sakura had gone upstairs, and Sakura was now standing in front of their closet, as Sasuke ruffled through some clothes.
"Is this alright?" He showed Sakura some sort of shawl.
Sakura took it from him and tried to stretch it and felt the material. It was quite sturdy, though still relatively soft.
"Yes, that seems fine." Sasuke started to close the closet, but opened it again right before it had completely closed.
"What are you doing, Akira?"
Sakura looked down to the spot Sasuke was staring. Akira looked innocently up from under a pile of Naruto's not organized clothes.
"Playing?" he almost asked, afraid of what Sasuke might say. Sakura giggled.
"Have you finished your homework?"
"Yes."
"Then come downstairs with us, I thought you were still working. Some people asked where you were." Sasuke stared at the boy.
"Really?"
"Yes, come." Sasuke moved his head, indicating for Akira to come out.
Akira left the pile of clothes, and ran past Sasuke and Sakura down the stairs, barely time to say, "Hey, Sakura no oba-chan."
"Hey, Akira-kun," she answered still smiling, even though he was already on the stairs.
Sasuke shook his head.
"You sure got a sweet kid there."
"I know," Sasuke said as he went downstairs.
When they entered the living room once more, Akira was already on Lee's shoulders, happily chatting with him.
"And a bit weird," Sasuke added. Sakura smiled.
When they looked over to Naruto, they noticed Ino was just pulling her hands back as he had fallen asleep.
"Nice job, Ino," Sakura said as she laid the cloth she had been holding over the arm of the couch next to Naruto.
"Ha! You mean I did what you couldn't," Ino ridiculed her, grinning.
"Sure Ino!"
Before they started bickering Sasuke divided them, pushing them away to either side of him.
"So tell me why we went to get this shawl, and don't wake him with your quibbling."
"You can tie it around his waist for support."
"Okay." Sasuke took a breath and looked down at Naruto. He was sleeping like he really needed it; which he probably did. "Good job." He turned around and walked away from the two women, into the direction of Kiba.
Kiba noticed so, took a gasp and hurriedly tried to flee, hiding behind people as he rushed in the direction of the door.
"Poor Kiba-kun," Hinata said and Ino and Sakura almost screamed out of surprise, as they hadn't heard her coming so close to them.
"Hinata, you scared me there," Ino said, her hand resting on her chest.
"Sorry." Hinata blushed ever so slightly.
"You two are just so easily distracted when Sasuke's around. Even after all those years," Tenten said as she joined the conversation.
"Don't know what you're talking about," Sakura huffed.
"Sure you don't," Tenten smiled.
"Lee-san, you wanna see some of my taijutsu moves?" Akira asked.
"Ah, you're so youthful!"
"How Akira-kun can be around Lee this long…" Ino said as they watched the two walk off the porch.
"Well, Lee isn't that bad… just a bit extreme every now and then." Tenten saw Lee and Akira walk into the garden and taking some stance.
"I believe you."
It was silent for a moment, and Ino looked over to Naruto, sleeping on the couch. "It's so weird." She looked down to his swollen belly. She had noticed he tried to cover it as much as possible, but with such a round stomach that wasn't entirely possible. It was a good thing for him though, that he was so thin and small, being able to hide it better, but still...
"I know; I was really shocked when I saw that echo the first time." Sakura said.
"I thought Sasuke was joking," Hinata said. Eyebrows rose up.
"You thought...?" Tenten said.
"Sasuke-kun joking?" Sakura asked.
Hinata smiled gently, a bit uncomfortable. "I did."
"That would be a new one." Ino turned to look at Sasuke. Chouji had distracted him in some way, probably to help Kiba get away from him. Chouji was just very kind in that way.
"Well, I didn't think Sasuke was joking, but he did had to tell me at least three times, I think," Tenten laughed.
"It is quite a..." Sakura was looking for a word to describe the situation, "unique situation. I honestly hadn't thought the jutsu would turn into... this." She waved her hand over to Naruto. "But I've been his doctor ever since we found out, and I must admit that I have started to like it." She smiled.
Hinata nodded. "I think I understand."
"What?" Ino asked.
"They might actually get a baby together," Hinata explained.
"Wouldn't that be-"
"So cute," Tenten finished Sakura's sentence.
Ino began smiling. "The hottest boy of our year, getting another child." Ino was starting to daydream and twisted in excitement; imagining another small Sasuke.
"I think she misunderstood me," Hinata said to Tenten.
"Yes, I think so too."
-x-
"Man, Sasuke didn't need to punch me in the arm," Kiba said while moving his shoulder up and down, rubbing his sore shoulder with his other hand.
Shikamaru sighed. "He was overreacting," he agreed.
"He's probably just concerned about Naruto," Chouji said.
The three of them stood a little away, near a corner. Naruto was still sleeping on the couch, and probably would continue to do so well past they had left, by the looks of it.
"And he hates me, I just know it," Kiba grumbled. Akamaru sat down beside him and licked his hand. "He does," he told his dog.
"You know not to underestimate Sasuke when it comes to Naruto." Shikamaru glanced at Kiba.
Kiba sighed. "I do, but it's normally just too much fun to not say anything about it. Naruto is so easy to tease." Kiba grinned. "And I like to try getting under Sasuke's skin."
Chouji glanced at Naruto, who had his hand lying on his extended belly, making it only more noticeable how much he'd grown already. "Sasuke's afraid of what might happen to him."
"Doesn't mean he has to-" Kiba stopped. "He's afraid?" he smirked. Akamaru gave a soft whine from below.
"You do know men normally don't get pregnant," Shikamaru mocked Kiba.
"Of course." Kiba crossed his arms. "That's what makes this all so difficult for me to understand. It's just outrageous. Absurd."
"Then you must have figured out that it's not without risks."
Kiba was silent for a moment, but soon found how to counter that. "It's Naruto; he'll be fine."
"I don't doubt it," Chouji said.
"Aren't you two freaked out by this at all?" Kiba suddenly asked. "How can you just accept this?"
"I just do, it's not so hard," Shikamaru said. "The proof is right over there." He pointed over his shoulder to the couch. "Naruto knows how to attract the unusual."
Kiba turned to Chouji; surely he'd just asked the complete wrong man about this. "And you? You think it's normal too?"
"No, I still have trouble understanding as well."
Kiba sighed. "Finally, someone..."
"You haven't seen Neji then?" Chouji asked.
Kiba looked around Chouji, and saw Neji standing completely still and stiff. Sasuke was standing next to him, but the two were obviously not talking, and looking in opposite ways. Furthermore it looked like Lee was holding a one-sided conversation with the Hyuuga.
"What's so different about him?" Kiba asked, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
"Look closer; at his face." Shikamaru leaned in too, wanting to see what Chouji had seen that the other two hadn't.
"He's blushing?" he said.
Chouji nodded, and the other two straightened up again, looking at him. "He has been glancing over to Naruto -his stomach to be precise- every now and then, ever since Naruto came in."
"He's having an even harder time accepting this than we have?" Kiba smirked. "This could get funny. I owe him for what he told Hinata about me."
Chouji didn't ask what Neji had said about him, and Shikamaru surely couldn't bother about it either.
"Sweet revenge," Kiba grinned, wringing his hands together. "He'll know not to mess with an Inuzuka." He shuffled away, Akamaru staring after him.
"He says that, but I have never seen him trying to get his revenge on Sasuke; in a serious way." Chouji looked down to Akamaru.
"That's probably because he always chickens out at the last moment, and turns his revenge on Naruto."
"They sure always have lively conversations," Chouji added, revering to Naruto and Kiba. Those two could pester each other while having fun at the same time.
"Troublesome."
Kiba walked over to Neji, and Chouji saw he said something to Lee. Lee nodded and walked off. Neji glared at Kiba, as Kiba came closer to him.
Neji said something, probably trying to get Kiba away, but Kiba didn't bother.
He said something to Neji, and Neji's eyes widened when Kiba laid his hand on Neji's stomach. If this hadn't been Neji, he would have screamed or hit Kiba by now, but since it was Neji, all he did was shove Kiba away. They squabbled for a while, and finally Kiba came back to Chouji and Shikamaru, smirking.
"That felt so good. Did you see his face?" Shikamaru was obviously not interested, as he looked out of the window.
Chouji looked again towards Neji. His small blush from before was now covering his entire cheeks and reaching his neck. He didn't dare looking at Naruto anymore, and if he did, his blush only became worse.
Neji glanced over to Kiba and turned away, said goodbye to Sasuke and left.
"You're not much better than Sasuke is to you," Chouji stated.
"He will never get that thought out of his head," Kiba smirked. "Him having a child, haha." Kiba started laughing. "It would be the end of me; I would laugh myself to death for sure."
-X-
It was dark outside even though it was daytime. Clouds prevented the sun from shining, and rain was pouring. It was almost a week after the 'party', and Naruto didn't know what to do; Sasuke had forbidden him to go outside in the rain. He had tried to sleep till far into the afternoon, but at 8:30 he couldn't bear to stay in the bed any longer, as he didn't know how to lie anymore.
He'd made himself a big breakfast and had taken his time to eat it all. He'd lain on the couch watching television, had sat at the table reading, sat at the porch watching the rain (theoretically that was still inside!), lunched in the kitchen and even had lain on the floor staring at the ceiling for quite some time.
Eventually he had decided to walk up the stairs, though that was a bit painful, so he had to take it one step at a time, like Sakura had told him to.
He was walking around Akira's room, picking up his scattered dirty socks to do the laundry. Akira was like Naruto when it came to undressing in the evening: just throw it away from yourself, you'll find it again… someday.
He was just coming up again, when he heard Sasuke enter the house. He walked over to the stairs and called down, "I thought you had a mission today?"
Sasuke came to stand at the landing of the stairs and looked up to Naruto, a serious look on his face. "We have to go to Tsunade-sama," he said. Rainwater was dripping from his bangs.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"They got some information about the doctor's research." Naruto's eyes widened. "She wants to see us now."
Naruto nodded and began descending the stairs, one step at a time.
Sasuke appeared next to him. "Sorry, but I'll take you there, it's faster."
"Huh? O-okay."
"I'm sorry if I hurt you."
"Don't worry; I would actually be impressed if you didn't."
Sasuke heaved Naruto up in his arms and they disappeared. In the Hokage tower Sasuke put Naruto down, and opened the door to Tsunade's office.
Sakura and Tsunade were already there, along with team Ino-Shika-Chou, who were all drenched. Slowly they turned to Sasuke and Naruto, as they heard the door close.
Unconsciously Naruto pulled his shirt down, and rubbed his aching hips.
"Sit down," Tsunade told him pointing to a chair, which he had the feeling it was especially placed there for him. Not really wanting to sit, but thinking it better to do under Tsunade's stare, he hobbled over to the chair and sat down in it.
"They found the doctor's hide-out." Tsunade held some files in her hand and shifted through the papers. "It's not all good things in here, but you need to know anyway."
Naruto just stared at her, waiting for her to continue.
"They also found some specific files about the jutsu he used upon the two of you," she continued. "I haven't read it all yet, but they have." She waved her hand to Ino and the rest to explain what they had found out.
Ino took a step forward and leaned against Tsunade's desk. "Yes, we went through all the files we found in his hidden lab and took out the ones relevant to this jutsu. Some other teams will collect the rest.
I also read all the relevant files we found. Most files were not so nice to read I must add. He was very cruel with his human test subjects and there were quite a lot of them."
Naruto didn't like that fact. Had so much gone wrong?
"From all the files I can say that none of the test subjects survived past the fifth month of pregnancy," she looked sadly to Naruto. "You're the first."
Naruto was clearly shocked, as was the rest.
"So what is the jutsu supposed to do? Why did he make it?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes, sorry. I should have started with that. Apparently it took the doctor quite some time and test subjects to create the jutsu, and he still hadn't finished it. For some reason, he didn't mention why, he wanted to make men able to carry children. Probably to be able to revive clans with special jutsus or something." Ino glanced to Sasuke for a moment. "Somehow he was finally able to create a jutsu that could transport a single cell from one person to another without harming either person. At first many subjects died because he couldn-"
"Please continue without mentioning all the dead people," Naruto interrupted.
"Sorry, I… Anyway," Ino had lost her story for a moment as she thought of Naruto's words.
She looked down to her little notebook and continued. "When he finally completed that stage he began experimenting on how to form a womb inside a man. He did that rather quickly I must say." She skidded through her notebook. "Let's see."
She found the right page and continued. "Yes, however the womb costs a lot of energy and organic material to sustain and took too much from the subjects. And others died as the womb suddenly began to destroy their intestines." Ino made a face as she read her notes. Naruto began to feel a bit sick.
"And others again just suddenly exploded from the inside out as the womb couldn't contain its shape any longer and the chakra burst free-"
"Ino, please~" Naruto tried to stand up, but Sasuke pushed him down again.
"That's horrible," Sakura gasped shocked as she clasped her hand over her mouth.
"Skip the unpleasant parts, Ino," Sasuke warned Ino. "You can tell them later." He waved to Tsunade and Sakura.
"I'm sorry; I was just reading my notes…" She looked at Naruto apologetically.
"Ehm, then I…" She fumbled through the pages. "Should I tell this?" she seemed to ask herself. Chouji bended over to her and read the notes.
"It's not so nice, but you need to tell that." He pointed on the other page.
"But I…"
Shikamaru sighed. "I'll do it, give me your notes." Ino did so, as she didn't know what she should tell and how anymore.
Shikamaru read her notes and cleared his throat. "Okay, so there are a couple of things that can happen when the cells of the two involved persons are merging together to one. As the sperm of the first man is placed inside the second man's abdomen it is completed by seed from the second one." He said this all like he was an old biology professor, doing his yearly boring speech in front of overexcited teenagers. Ino was almost gaping at him, but somehow his almost boring voice made everyone pay attention and turn very serious, even though Naruto showed some red on his cheeks at those words.
"The combinations of the decisive chromosomes that decide the gender of the baby, determine the survival chances of the foetus. When an X and an Y melt together, the foetus -a boy- has the best chances of survival. A girl, two XX, already decreases the chances by half and then there were foetuses with two YY. They died relatively soon, because it's a non-life sustaining combination. But they kept growing anyway even though they were dead."
Shikamaru looked up from the notes. "Do you know the gender already?"
Naruto was a bit too shocked to answer, slightly shaking. He was starting to lose his happiness about this pregnancy.
"No," Sakura replied. "It's hard to see clearly through the chakra-womb, since it has become so strong. And last time I checked the baby was still a bit small to tell." She looked down to Naruto. "This isn't a bad sign per se."
"That's what the doctor also said in his notes. It says you can put more chakra through the womb to see better, but it will cause some pain and might disrupt the chakra inside the womb for a while so it's not advised to do it frequently." He looked up to Sakura, then Sasuke and finally Naruto, who looked at his knees. "You need to find out."
Sasuke nodded.
Shikamaru flipped through the pages for other important information.
Sakura looked over to Naruto and saw his ears lying low in a sad way. "It will be alright, Naruto. Don't worry too much, okay?" Sakura tried to cheer him up a bit; it didn't help. She couldn't really blame him.
"Hmm, it says that the so-called donor experienced some changes as well as the…" He looked down at the written word. "Carrier?" He looked up to Ino and she shrugged. "Let's say lucky one." Naruto looked up at his attempted humour, or whatever it was. It seemed to work though.
"This is because of the jutsu, it says how and why, but that's not so important for the time being."
"Thank you all," Tsunade said. She looked over to Naruto, who was biting his lip.
"You better go with Sakura to take a look at the baby's gender."
Sakura came to stand next to Naruto's chair. "Naruto, you alright? Think you can walk?" she asked softly.
Naruto looked up to her and nodded slowly. "Yeah, let's go."
Sasuke helped him up together with Sakura and they walked away. As they closed the door Shikamaru turned back to Tsunade. "I have to add this before we go and you can look through the files yourself."
Tsunade turned to him, returning the serious look.
"Because none of the involved men survived the doctor wasn't sure what would happen to the womb when the baby was ready to be born, but he designed it so the womb would detach itself from the intestines when the time was right. It's not sure if this will really happen though. However, he described how one can serve the connections themselves. You can only do this when it's absolutely necessary." Shikamaru looked up to Tsunade. "The jutsu's effect is very strong, and the only way the doctor was able to break the connection was by sending a small amount of chakra through those connections to disturb the chakra flow and rip it off the intestines."
Tsunade nodded, she had expected as much; though she didn't like it to be confirmed.
"It will most probably destroy some organs in the process. He found no other way to loosen the connection. He tried a lot of things though, but even after the subject had died the connection remained for another couple of days. That's how strong the jutsu's effect is."
"Thank you all for this." Tsunade collected the papers on her desk. "I'll give you some time off for now."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Chouji said and they left the office. Tsunade let her head fall into her hands. She definitely needed some sake right now.
-x-
On the way to Sakura's examination room, Naruto winced once in a while, but he didn't say anything. In Sakura's office Sasuke seated him in Sakura's comfortable desk chair. Naruto was still breathing a bit faster than normal and he looked rather shocked.
They let him sit there for a moment, trying to collect their own thoughts at the same time.
After a while Naruto took a deep breath and Sakura decided that this was the moment to come into action.
"Naruto?" she asked carefully. "We have to do the check-up."
Naruto nodded blankly and stood up to slowly shuffle to the examination table. Sakura followed him, and Sasuke went to stand at the other side, laying his hands on Naruto's shoulders as he sat down on the table and took off his shirt.
Naruto looked down at Sakura's hands as she laid them carefully on his stomach and started moving them around over his stomach, his lips slightly parted.
Sakura stopped and looked up to Naruto. "I'm going to put more chakra into your stomach." Naruto nodded.
He flinched as she moved her hands and slightly pushed his stomach to be able to feel better.
"I can feel it better now. It's..." She moved her hand slightly.
Naruto gasped as she again pushed her hand a bit harder.
"It's..." This really wasn't comfortable. "It's a boy and... I think I can..." She let her hands fall back a little and moved them up. "I can..."
"Can what?" Naruto finally asked; a bit annoyed and wincing.
"I can feel a pulse, a heartbeat." She looked up.
"He's doing fine, though he is a bit smaller than average as I told you before, but that's fine." Sakura smiled and Sasuke's mouth actually curled up as well. He was so relieved.
Sakura moved her hands to his sides and began prodding again.
"Ah, Sakura-chan," Naruto yelped painful.
They heard a click as Sakura retreated her hands and Naruto's pelvis apparently shifted as did Naruto.
"Itai."
"Sorry Naruto, but now they are a bit better in place."
"Hm, thanks," he grumbled. He finally took another deep breath as the information sunk in.
A boy; the combination with the highest chance of survival.
-oXo-
Next: The pleasure
A/N: Akira's 'girlfriend' still doesn't have a name. Does anyone have suggestions? :)
