Author's Note: There is an alternate ending to this story, a sadder ending. It'll be posted as a separate story, you can find it in my profile by the name "One Mistake Too Many". There are trigger warnings on it, by the end of the text to avoid spoilers.
After this chapter, there is only an epilogue left, then the sequel will be posted.
Thank you all for the continued support! I never thought people would like this fanfic at all – I really appreciate all the reviews and favorites.
The fight scene was omitted because it spoils the sequel.
Chapter 11: Deja vu
Naruto blinked his eyes open. They were so blurry, he could barely see anything but a bluish light in the dark room. He felt numb. Someone was healing him.
It took a few seconds of blinking, but he managed to recognize the hospital room. The bright light of chakra only really illuminated the area around his chest, but the light reflected easily off his healer's face.
Gaara.
Since when did Gaara know how to heal? She had never told him she had been learning. He wanted to ask, but he felt so tired. His tongue felt thick, he couldn't speak even if he had enough energy to do it. He only watched his wife's look of concentration, and the beautiful way the chakra reflected off her blue green eyes, highlighted by the dark birth marks around her eyes.
He watched her until he fell asleep.
Later, he thought that had been nothing but a dream.
When Naruto woke up, everything hurt. He was glad to be able to hear Kurama's voice inside his mind, faint as it was. Then again, had Kurama been gone, he probably wouldn't have woken up in the first place.
His voice was faint, and what he was saying made no sense, but he was distracted from that fact by the horrible pain he felt all over his body.
Most of his pains were soothed by relief when he heard Gaara's sweet voice. "Naruto, you're awake."
"You're alive." Naruto sighed, forcing his eyes open to take her in. Gaara was pale and exhausted. She also looked exasperated.
"You're the one who almost died. It was reckless of you to bait them, I told you." she admonished him.
"Well, they're dead now. Kurama was more than happy to show them that underestimating a tailed beast isn't good for your health... Ouch!" Naruto cried out as Gaara prodded one of the wounds on his chest.
"Dismissing this isn't good enough, Naruto. You nearly killed yourself. You only survived because of Kurama, because whatever seal they used on you, it stopped other people from being able to heal you until this morning. Kurama can barely heal you." Gaara told him sternly.
"What was I supposed to do? Let them kidnap you?" he ground out, feeling his chest burn. If Kurama was having trouble healing him quickly, then his wounds had really been bad. Kurama's voice was still too faint, too...
"You were supposed to listen to Shikamaru and Kakashi. A good ninja is, above all, a strategist. Rushing head first into battle will get a Kage nowhere but in trouble." she said so gravely that she sounded like a man in a way she hadn't in quite a while. Naruto hadn't even realized her voice had been getting softer and more feminine until he heard Gaara's old voice once again.
"Fine, I'm sorry. I won't do that again." he muttered. He became anxious when he saw Gaara wince and hold her stomach. "Is something wrong?"
"It's a contraction. I've been feeling them for three days now, but they've gotten worse." she explained, strained.
"Three days!? And you didn't tell me anything?" he grimaced as his body complained with pain at his poor treatment of it. She took almost a minute to reply – when she did, she looked annoyed.
"You were in a coma, how was I supposed to tell you?" Gaara remarked, her lips pursed in disapproval.
"C-Coma? Have I been out for three days?" he mumbled, and he was shocked when she silently nodded. He understood now why Gaara was unhappy with him. "I... Sorry for worrying you." he mumbled.
"You should be." she agreed unsympathetically. She closed her eyes. "At least you have awoken now."
He watched her silently. There was something she wasn't telling him. He froze when he noticed something that he should have noticed long before. "Y-You're yellowish... Aren't you?" he couldn't tell if it was just a trick of his eyes. She looked nowhere as bad as she had before.
"Yes. My liver and kidneys are failing. I've been in labor for fifteen hours, but it has barely progressed." Naruto's lips turned down into a frown. He reached out, but Gaara backed away from his fingers. "Don't you dare try to heal me. You're barely able to heal yourself." she warned, her eyes narrowed.
"Why haven't the doctors healed you?" Naruto asked in a whisper.
Gaara said nothing, but her defeated body language made alarms blare inside his mind.
Naruto reached out again, but this time she took his hand and held it instead of backing away. Gaara seemed startled over something as their fingers touched, and she looked at their joined hands in wonder. "Gaara, you're going to be fine." he told her shakily. The sad smile confirmed his fears.
She was dying and she knew it.
"You'll be fine." he repeated again.
"They can't give me medicine, because I'm unable to control my sand shield anymore, and my stomach is rejecting anything but water and rice. Since onset of labor, they can't even touch me anymore." she looked at their joined hands, a small smile on her lips. "I'm a little surprised that you actually can."
Naruto traced his fingers against her skin. It was soft – that meant she wasn't using her sand armor. But when he peered at the floor, he saw there was a pool of sand under her. He was startled when it began to move as if it was a restless, wild animal. Almost as soon as he noted the change, the door opened and Sakura walked in.
Sakura looked tired, herself, but her expression lit up when she saw him awake. "You're awake!" she sighed in relief, walking up to them and placing a hand over his forehead. He winced and shut his eyes as they began to shine with chakra. "That seal has deactivated on its own. You're going to be fine, now." she concluded, relieved.
Her eyes moved to their joined hands, and she looked startled. She walked around his bed in silence and slowly reached out to touch Gaara's stomach. Naruto's eyes widened when Gaara's sand jumped up and blocked her hand, though neither Gaara nor Sakura were surprised. They just exchanged strained looks.
"Naruto can touch you. Your sand's probably only allowing those you trust in contact with you." Sakura sighed, eying Naruto contemplatively. "Well. It was nearly impossible, but I managed to find this!" Sakura took the small machine that she had left on Naruto's bedside and offered it to Gaara. "It's a doppler, it's used to monitor fetal heart rate in civilian villages."
Gaara stared warily at it."My sand might break it, like it broke the..." she whispered.
"That doesn't matter. If it gets broken, that's it. Just give it a try." Sakura held it out somewhat insistently. Gaara hesitantly took it. "You hold the wand against your stomach and press it. Move it around until we can hear a heartbeat. Flick the button at the side to turn it on."
Naruto winced when Gaara turned the device on and a loud, annoying white noise left it. She touched the wand to her stomach in several places until she found one with a heartbeat. He could tell from Sakura's body language that the sound wasn't good at all. It sounded kind of slow, compared to what he was used to hearing when he listened to Gaara's stomach.
"This is my heartbeat." Gaara noted after they listened for a few seconds.
"You're sure?" Sakura wondered, and sighed when Gaara nodded. "Keep looking, then."
When Gaara found it, it was a much faster and weaker heartbeat. Naruto and Gaara exchanged worried looks, but this time, Sakura seemed relieved. She looked at her clock for a few minutes.
"That's it. His heart rate is good. Try to find his brother's." she encouraged them.
It took Gaara ten minutes and some squirming, but she found the twin's heartbeat. It was a little slower, but not alarmingly so according to Sakura.
Gaara turned the device off and gave it back to Sakura. "Thank you." her voice was heartfelt. They probably couldn't have accessed how their babies were doing ever since her shield began acting up.
"Keep this. Try to listen to their heartbeat every hour or so..." she trailed off when Gaara's sand placed the device on her hands.
"...Even if they are in trouble, we can do nothing about it. I think I would prefer to think they are fine, instead of knowing they're dying inside me and I can't save them." Gaara told her weakly.
"Of course we can do something! I'll heal them!" Naruto began strongly, but the air left his lungs in a rush when Gaara pressed his chest, and all his pain receivers screamed at him.
"You need your chakra for yourself. Don't..." Gaara trailed off when Sakura strode up to them, and her Strength of a Hundred seal flared to life.
"Sakura, what are you doing? Your baby!" Naruto started when she placed her hands onto his arm.
"She'll be fine. You're the only one who can keep Gaara alive right now, so I'll give you my strength." His eyes widened as dark lines of chakra traced up his arms from Sakura's hands, and he closed his eyes as he felt her heal him.
His hand was squeezed painfully and he looked up to see Gaara. Her mask had crumbled, and she had tears in her eyes. She looked like a wreck – he had never seen her that exhausted before. Not even during the war. He squeezed her hand back, and when Gaara looked up, he forced his lips to turn into an encouraging smile.
"Sakura, I think that's enough." Naruto whispered warily when he saw pain cross his friend's face.
"I'll help you recover as much as I can. You'll spend most of this energy on Gaara, so be quiet and take it." her voice was commanding.
"Tsunade baa-chan could..." he tried, but she cut him off.
"She will have to help you later, too. This is serious, Naruto." her gaze was intense as their eyes met. She really believed he would get spent trying to support Gaara.
It wasn't even like Kurama's chakra was drained. He didn't know why Kurama was unable to heal him, but it had nothing to do with chakra drain. He tried to reach out to Kurama, and it felt like something had metaphorically snapped in him.
He cried out when a sudden, sharp and burning pain flared on his navel, as if he had been impaled by a flaming sword. All of a sudden, Kurama's chakra overcame his system so quickly that he felt like it was burning him alive, in a way he hadn't felt in a long, long time. The ominous red cloak of chakra that came from an unwilling bond with Kurama started coming off his skin, and Sakura let go of his arm as if it had burned her too. Gaara's grip just became tighter around his hand.
"Naruto!" Sakura gasped. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the burning feeling was lessening, and suddenly his skin was shining gold.
'Your friend broke the seal they placed on you.' Kurama's voice echoed inside his head, no longer faint and nonsensical.
"W-What seal?" he stuttered aloud.
'The one interfering with our connection. I was trying to break it, but you were too weak before, and you weren't doing what I was telling you to do.' Naruto's eyes snapped open.
"That's why you couldn't heal me." he realized. Sakura was watching him grimly. He grinned at her. "Thanks, Sakura! You really helped, but I'll be fine now. Kurama's at full strength, he can keep us alive." Sakura sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I'll ask Tsunade to support you if you need." Naruto hummed his agreement, but he turned most of his attention to Gaara as he directed his chakra inside her body.
She wasn't doing well. At all. As he started healing all the damage in her body, she pressed her lips thin and held her stomach.
He was so focused on her, that he didn't realize Sakura had left until she returned with Tsunade. "Naruto."
"Baa-chan." he stuttered, a little intimidated by the no-nonsense expression on her face. It made him feel like back when he was still a teenager, and she was his Hokage.
She placed her hand on his forehead and examined him. After several seconds, she stepped back. "You're good enough. Go home, and take Gaara with you."
"Eh? But she's in labor!" he stuttered.
"Naruto. Look at this." he followed her pointing finger towards Gaara's sand, which looked ready to jump and shield her from anything. "She's been on guard for three days now. She hasn't been able to sleep more than two minutes at a time since the night you got yourself on this bed. Make her feel safe, and make her relax, or we're going to lose her."
Naruto blanched. "...Why haven't you sent her home yet, then?"
"Because there was no one who could instantly bring her back if there were complications, and we needed technology to resuscitate her. But you're awake now. If something happens, bring her into this room. I'll keep a team at full attention, so they can treat her as soon as she needs it. Sakura will go with you." she turned towards Sakura, who answered with a single, firm nod. "Gaara, you're sure you know what to do?"
"I've studied several books, Tsunade." she replied weakly.
"Good. If you feel any doubt, ask Sakura or call me. Here." Naruto frowned as she unsealed a huge glass full of sand and gave it to Gaara. "Make sure this is the only sand you keep with you."
Gaara agreed and made to take it. Sakura quickly took it, instead. It looked heavy. "Let's go, then. Should we walk, or are you up to using your jutsu, Naruto?"
As response, he disconnected himself from everything but the IV drip and stood up, offering his arms to Gaara and Sakura. Tsunade went up to him and disconnected the IV line too. "You don't need this anymore."
Once the two of them were gripping his arms, he took them into their garden.
He felt dizzy and sick as soon as they arrived. Sakura quickly soothed his malaise, before he had even said anything. "You need to eat and rest, too, Naruto. I'll make a soup for the two of you."
Gaara's complexion became greenish at the mere idea, but she only nodded.
He was a bit unsteady on his feet, but still he wrapped his arm around Gaara's waist and helped her to their room. "Come on." he murmured. Sakura silently followed them, still holding the jar of sand.
"I don't think I can sleep." she whispered back.
"That's fine. Just make me company." he soothed. Sakura opened the jar when they arrived in their room, and the sand sluggishly came out and rested around Gaara's feet. It looked infinitely more relaxed than it had before, even with Sakura's presence. "What did Baa-chan do with that sand?" he asked curiously once Sakura had left.
"She cleaned it. So I won't get an infection if it goes inside me, like it did last time." she mumbled. Naruto frowned.
"Get it off the floor, then. Bring it over the sheets." Gaara swallowed.
"I can't. I'm too drained to control it. It's too risky." Naruto grimaced. At least the tatami was clean... Hopefully.
"Come on and rest with me a little, then. I'm feeling ready to crash." his chakra reserves had probably taken a hit if using this jutsu made him so tired. At least he was sure he could use it once or twice more if he needed to get Gaara to the hospital.
He lied down on their futon, and Gaara hesitated before joining him. As soon as she was in his arms, she tensed and he felt her stomach go taut under his hands. "What's it?" he asked, worried. "Contraction?" he asked once again when she didn't answer. This time, he got a nod in response as she gripped his hands.
He ran his hands over her stomach, hoping it soothed the pain. Gaara didn't say anything, but she didn't relax either until a minute passed. Then, she turned around and buried her face on his chest.
"I'm glad you're awake." she murmured. He ran his hand over her hair.
"Me too. I didn't want to miss this." he leaned in and kissed the crown of her head.
She didn't say anything. By the way her breath kept hitching, he could tell she was trying to say something, but couldn't. It worried him. He held her and rubbed her back, and eventually, she gave up saying whatever she wanted to say, and just laid silently inside his arms.
Before he decided he wanted to ask her what was it, Sakura returned with soup.
"Here it is." Gaara jumped in his arms, and her shield came up between her and Sakura. It startled both of them, then Sakura looked contrite. "I'm sorry, I hadn't realized you were asleep."
"She wasn't..." he trailed off, because when Gaara turned around, she looked half asleep. She had been so tense that he hadn't even realized she had been sleeping.
"It's fine." she struggled to sit up. He placed an arm around her shoulders and helped her.
"I'll be in the sitting room, give me a shout if you need me." Sakura told them, then stood and left.
She had only brought one bowl of soup, though it was a big one. Naruto took it and held up a spoonful in front of Gaara's lips. "Here." Gaara grimaced, but she ate it without complaining. He ate three spoonfuls himself as she chewed, painfully slowly. "...You've chewed it enough. Swallow that and open up." he told her, pretty sure she was doing that so he would eat the soup on his own and she wouldn't be forced to.
But Gaara ignored his words, only giving him a glare as a sign she had heard him. He held another full spoon in front of her lips for what felt like too long, before she swallowed and took the offered food.
He sighed. The soup was badly seasoned, Sakura sucked at cooking. He wasn't in the mood for getting kicked around by his friend for pointing that out to her, so he dutifully ate, and forced Gaara to eat with him.
At one point, Gaara turned her face away, refusing the spoon. "Come on. Eat a little more, you've eaten barely anything." She hadn't swallowed yet, so he waited until she did to give him a response.
"I'm going to be sick if I eat any more." she murmured, and she did look sickly. He didn't insist, he just ate the last of the soup on his own. Maybe he could cook something edible later.
"Do you want some fruit?" she paled at his words.
Or maybe it was because of another contraction, she was holding her stomach again. He was noticing Gaara wouldn't speak when they hit, so he gave up getting a response. "I'll take the bowl to the kitchen and I'll be right back."
So he did. When he returned, Gaara was still sitting up, looking extremely uncomfortable. "Don't you want to lie down?"
"No." she refused.
"Come sit with me, then." he sat with his back against the wall. Gaara crawled up to him and sat between his legs, reclining against his chest and closing her eyes.
This time he could watch her, and he knew exactly the moment she fell asleep. She was still tense, and it didn't look restful at all, but he realized she didn't wake up even when another contraction hit. So he watched her and let her sleep.
Sakura returned nearly two hours later, tiptoeing by the door. "Is she asleep?" she mouthed soundlessly.
"Yeah." he mouthed back, and Sakura nodded.
"Call me when she wakes up." she mouthed again, then left.
It had been exactly a day since he had woken up. He had woken at two in the morning, and it was half past one right now. The twins hadn't been born yet. Naruto was frankly tired of seeing Gaara in so much pain.
Sakura was guiding her to use the small machine to check their heartbeats again. "It sounds good." she said quietly, but the heart rate of one of the twins had dropped quite a bit.
"Why is this taking so long? Is something wrong?" Naruto wondered.
"Labor does take long. Nothing is wrong." Sakura soothed with a small smile. Gaara believed her, but Naruto had known Sakura for too long, and he knew when his friend was bullshitting him.
He didn't call her on it in front of Gaara. But when she left, he sent a clone after her as soon as he could do it without Gaara seeing him. "Something is wrong. What's it?" he demanded in a whisper, when they were far enough from the room.
Sakura made a face and grabbed his hand, dragging him further away from the room, until they were almost outside the front door. That really worried him, specially the pause she made as she choose her words.
"I can't tell without examining her. Maybe nothing is wrong." she trailed off and remained silent for a few moments. "It's just that, if she were in the hospital, they would be using techniques to rush her labor. I've never heard of a labor which lasted more than twenty hours, at least not in the years I've been working as a medic, but I've read natural labor can, when it's not medically assisted. I just have zero experience with it." she finished, frustrated. "Tsunade's the only one who thinks things are going on schedule, I'm not sure if she's just being optimistic."
He frowned. "It's been over twenty hours since I woke. How long has she been in labor?"
"She started feeling contractions over four days ago, but her sand only began to act up forty hours ago. It's hard to really tell how much time really has passed, because we can't tell how dilated she is. We've been trying to judge by her level of pain, and by her sand. That makes forty hours more accurate." Naruto blanched.
"Are the babies at risk because it's taking too long?" he asked warily. He had guessed it right, by the expression on her face, but she didn't say anything. He heaved a shaky breath. "As long as she's doing well..." he whispered, though the mere thought the babies might die made him hurt.
"Don't tell her this, Naruto. She needs to stay relaxed. She's come a long way from yesterday. I didn't agree with Tsunade's idea, everyone was against taking Gaara from the hospital, really, but I can tell now it was the right call. Gaara's..." both of them froze when they heard Gaara cry out in pain, and they rushed back into the room.
She was kneeling on the floor, with her face buried on his neck as he rubbed her back and whispered encouraging words against her ear. She was shaking inside his arms, but before any of them could ask what was wrong, she reached down under her nightgown and pulled something up between them.
An infant's wail filled the room, and Naruto had never felt this much relief at seeing anyone cry in his life. Gaara sagged against the original's arms, holding the wailing infant with shaking arms, looking more relieved than he felt.
She actually started to laugh. Her laugher was so bright and free, it triggered a reflex smile on his lips, and his original chuckled with her.
Sakura was the only one looking worried. "Gaara, don't cover him with your sand." Sakura warned, alarmed, causing Naruto to search frantically and see his legs were being swallowed by the sand.
"...I can't stop it." she breathed out. Her hands shakily formed a hand sign, and all the sand around them flew meters away from them, showering him and Sakura with sand.
Sakura forced her expression to relax. "Don't do that. It's fine, the sand's been sanitized." she frowned as she walked up to them. "He might be the one attracting the sand, himself." she said slowly, as if just thinking about the idea. "Did you do that as a newborn?"
"No." Gaara said quietly, looking at their son. "My kekkei genkai isn't supposed to be passed down in my family line."
"It might have." she pointed out.
Naruto was by her side, and he could see the baby more clearly now. The boy was tiny, just as Gaara had predicted. A tiny redhead, with dark rings around his eyes, and several shades paler than even Gaara. He had stopped crying, and as his mother gently rubbed his back, he sagged against her chest as if it was the most comfortable place to be.
The sand she had sent away was returning, and slowly but surely covering all of his body in a thick layer of sand. Sakura made a gesture for her to wait when Gaara made to push the sand away again, and they watched. The sand encased him, and for a heart stopping moment, it covered his face completely. Soon it left on its own, to reveal the baby's startled face as he choked.
"He's doing it." Sakura repeated again, slowly. She reached out to touch him, but a shield of sand quickly stopped her hand's movement. She stepped back. "Naruto, take him gently and bring him away from Gaara for a bit. Be mindful of the umbilical cord."
Gaara held the baby out as he approached, and he gently took him. It was strange, he felt his hands sink into the sand as it moved to accommodate and cover his hands. He took the baby as far from Gaara as he could, and Sakura tried to touch him again. She grimaced when the sand stopped her hand once again – not a shield, just the thick layer covering the baby. "It's useless." she muttered. "Help me examine him."
The original Naruto held Gaara close and kissed her forehead as Gaara sagged against him. Both of them watched as he laid the baby on a towel by their side, and tried to follow Sakura's instructions, though it was hard. In the end, his friend looked frustrated, but she once again was making an effort to hide it from Gaara.
When she smiled, Naruto knew she was going to lie again. "He's doing great. Just hold him to your chest and let him feed." she suggested.
Gaara looked relieved, and she did as Sakura had asked. Naruto, on the other hand, was extremely worried that Sakura had looked like she was lying when she said that. He wanted to drag her away and ask what was wrong, but he couldn't, not without alarming Gaara.
She bared her breast, then gently pushed the baby's mouth against her nipple. He resisted her at first, but when she squeezed her nipple and squirted milk against his lips, he latched onto her nipple and sucked with gusto. More sand receded from his face, then, and when he moved his arm away from the cocoon in order to plant his little fist against her breast, the sand didn't resist his movement a bit.
"He's definitely doing that with the sand." Naruto pointed out aloud.
"...Feels like that." Gaara agreed faintly. "It's strange." it didn't look like Gaara's armor. It looked like he was trapped inside an amorphic rock made of sand, but Naruto could easily bury his fingers through the sand and touch his head. So could Gaara, and clearly the baby as his hand was poking out to touch her.
"I'll fill the baby bathtub with water to see if we can have him without the sand for a bit." Sakura told them, then stood and left the room.
Naruto watched as his clone strode after her, and he was a little confused as to why he seemed to be in such a rush to follow her. Gaara didn't notice, her attention was fully on their baby as she held him and smiled at him.
As they watched him, sand started covering his face again, until it was covering his forehead and eyes. Gaara frowned. "Smart kid. He already knows how to make a blindfold." Naruto whispered, trying to make her relax.
Gaara placed her hand over his covered eyes, then slowly moved it away, forcing the sand to come out with her hand. The baby looked disgruntled, though when his attempts to cover his eyes again were thwarted, he tried to open them.
His eyes were so blue. He didn't have pupils, just like Gaara, and the darker skin around the eyes just made the blue in his eyes look even brighter. He paused on his feeding as he stared up at them for a second, then he slowly resumed. When Gaara let go of the sand, it didn't cover his eyes again, though he closed them again after a while.
Gaara tensed inside his arms. "Yuraku's coming." she murmured.
He didn't ask her how she knew who was who, he only accepted the baby into his arms and helped her kneel again. This time Gaara didn't cry out, though she did seem to be in pain as she gritted her teeth and bore down. The baby came much faster than before, and he flailed in her arms as she brought him up.
He wasn't crying. He looked disgruntled, but he seemed less upset once Gaara gently cleaned his face. Unlike his brother, he stared at them as soon as his eyes were clean. "Hi." Gaara said softly when his eyes turned towards her, smiling at him. His eyes were so blue, but he had pupils, and his eyelids weren't discolored. He was another redhead, but his hair was lighter.
"The sand isn't covering him." Naruto pointed out as Gaara moved until she was sitting against him again. Yuraku took to her breast faster, and he was moving far more than Yukio. She was definitely right when she guessed who was who – maybe it had to do with their position inside. Yuraku had always moved towards the front of her stomach, and Naruto could never really tell Yukio was moving when Gaara told him he was.
"No. He doesn't have the dark marks around his eyes. Father always got them when he manipulated his gold." she said quietly, as they watched the babies together.
"...Maybe you got that from your father, instead of Shukaku, right?" Naruto guessed.
"Maybe." she agreed quietly, but she didn't seem convinced of his suggestion.
Naruto was hit with the memories of his clone then, and he realized why he had left in such a rush. Sakura was lying about Yukio being alright. She couldn't tell one way or the other, because she couldn't examine him well.
He couldn't be angry with her for lying. But when his friend returned with a tub full of water, he sent her a glare, daring her to lie to him about Yuraku.
She looked guilty for a moment, but then she looked surprised. "He's born. I didn't hear him cry."
"He didn't cry." Gaara explained quietly. "Do you want to examine him?" Sakura hesitated.
"Feed him first. It can wait." Naruto glared at her again.
Two hours later, they were already fed, cleaned, clothed (Yuraku was) and their cords had been cut and placed inside their boxes for safekeeping. Sakura managed to examine him once he was inside the water, but Yukio had screamed bloody murder when he was placed in the tub. The kid definitely had Naruto's flair for the dramatic. Yuraku was more like his mom, easy going and silent, though he definitely moved a lot.
She could examine Yuraku easily. The sand wasn't clinging to him at all. This time she was truthful to Gaara and told them both she wasn't completely sure there was nothing wrong with Yukio, but nothing appeared to be wrong as far as she was able to examine him. But Yuraku was doing really well.
Neither of them needed to return to the hospital. They were smaller than normal, but they were only a week early, they were both doing great outside the womb, able to breath and nurse on their own.
She had left to report to Tsunade, but she would return and stay on their guest bedroom for a week. To be absolutely sure the babies were fine. She would bring a pediatrician with her when she returned – she had gone running, so Naruto could conserve his energies.
Gaara and Naruto were lying on their futon, both exhausted from their ordeal. He was spooning her, and they were watching the babies, who were lying on a second futon she had placed by their side – Yukio was still covered in sand, up to his eyes once again. Both of them seemed asleep.
"We should sleep." he told her quietly, when she made no sign of closing her eyes.
"Yeah." she agreed quietly. She was still staring at the babies. Naruto couldn't take his eyes off them for long, either. Every time he did look away, he had the urge to look back and make sure they were safe.
"Do you want to take turns watching over them?" he offered after they stayed in silence for several minutes.
"Sounds great." she agreed, sighing.
"Sleep first, then. I'll take the first watch." he kissed her forehead.
"Alright." she agreed. She was asleep not long after, and this time she thankfully relaxed in her sleep.
She didn't even wake when the pediatrician arrived, and declared their sons healthy. He didn't wake her up, until she woke on her own next morning.
Gaara felt like she was suffering from the worst hangover she had ever experienced when she opened her eyes.
She was alarmed at the strength of the sun coming from the window – it was definitely late morning. She quickly looked around, and she was relieved when he saw Naruto and a clone sitting by the wall, each holding one of the babies and rocking them. It seemed he was ready to start feeding them formula.
She sat up and reached out, wordlessly telling him to bring them to her. "Good morning." Naruto greeted with a grin, but he did bring the children to her, and helped her hold each to a breast.
She frowned when she saw there was sand on Yukio's face. "Hold Yuraku up for a bit."
She let Naruto hold him and moved her hand to remove all the sand from the baby's face. Yukio let out a small wail, but he was distracted by her nipple just a few seconds later. When his eyes opened, like before he didn't cover them again.
"I need to do something about this sand." she sighed. "Once they're fed. My chakra reserves are half-way by now."
"The doc said you can't use your chakra yet. You should keep yourself drained." Naruto murmured against her ear.
"What can I do? If he keeps doing this..." she once again held both her babies, with Naruto by each of her sides, watching them. "Is he still naked?"
But she could easily touch her son through the sand, and she could feel he was wearing nothing. The sand wasn't acting like an armor, but more like an annoyance. Naruto himself could push his fingers through the sand. Only Sakura had been unable to, at least until she put him underwater.
"I wouldn't call that naked." Naruto pointed out with a chuckle.
"That's not a laughing matter." she told him, but a smile did turn her lips. "We need to put a diaper on him, at least." Naruto wrinkled his nose.
"When you put it like that..." he muttered. She shook her head.
"Why didn't you wake me up? You didn't sleep at all..." he had heavy bags under his eyes. Naruto just grinned.
"You needed the sleep more than I did. I'll take a nap later." he leaned in and kissed her temple. She sighed, exasperated. Naruto had been in a coma for three days, he couldn't skip a night's sleep right now. She had to make sure he slept in the afternoon, at least.
"Prepare a bath for Yukio. I'll try to put some clothes on him before I drain my chakra again." she told him quietly. Naruto hesitated, but he nodded and his clone went to do as she had asked, leaving only Naruto himself to help support the babies up.
Even after giving birth, she still wasn't out of danger zone. It would take a while for her body to recover – her doctors hadn't agreed on a time period, and she would probably take even less than they guessed, since she healed faster than normal. They had told her to continue limiting her chakra usage for two months, to be on the safe side. She should follow their advice, specially now that one of her regular doctors was dead, and the other was in an induced coma so she could recover from jutsu backlash injuries.
But she wasn't about to neglect her son just to be on the safe side.
Once they were both fed, she gave Yuraku to Naruto. He lied with the child over his chest and began talking and playing with him, though the baby really was doing nothing other than stare at his face as if he was the strangest man to ever live.
She took her sand-covered son and placed him near the tub, and once she made sure the water wasn't too hot, she forced the sand away from Yukio's body.
The baby cried desperately, as if she was torturing him. She quickly placed him inside the water, and rubbed his chest in a comforting way. "Sh, sh, it's okay, baby. Mom is here to protect you." she spoke in a soothing voice.
"I don't think he likes water. He'll like Suna better than Konoha." Naruto remarked. She shushed him.
"Stop with the stupid comments and get me baby soap." she murmured, carefully running her fingers over his skin to dislodge any remaining grains of sand. She was displeased, but not surprised, to see his skin looked irritated.
She took the soap from Naruto and gently washed every inch of his skin. He relaxed under the water after a few minutes, and looked like he was ready to fall asleep right there. Maybe he preferred the feeling of water or sand rather than air against his skin – she could commiserate with him.
"She's such a good mom, isn't she? You look like you're enjoying this so much." Naruto was cooing at him non-stop, which probably contributed to his relaxed state. "I'm jealous of you, I wish she would bathe me like that."
Gaara's eyes widened. "...That comment was unnecessary." Naruto only smirked at her.
"Your eyes are so pretty, just like hers." Naruto continued as she reached up to wash his eyes with clean water from a smaller bucket. The sand had been irritating them the most. "He's going to look just like you. We'll get the chance to see what you would look like if you really were a guy."
"Naruto, you need sleep. You're getting addled from the lack of it." she muttered, cupping water inside her hand to wash Yukio's head. All words leaving Naruto's lips so far were non-sense. At least their son seemed to be enjoying his voice.
"But I've really been curious." Gaara shot him a blank look, and he quickly covered his mouth with his fingers, silently telling her he would shut up.
She removed Yukio from the water and carefully dried him with one of the clean towels Naruto had bought.
"Here, let me." Naruto offered when she took a second too long trying to figure the diaper out. He had the baby dressed in the diaper in record time. When he reached for the one-piece, she stopped his hand.
"Let me try something else." She took a cotton blanket and wrapped Yukio snuggly with it.
"Isn't that too tight? He can barely move." Naruto mumbled.
"That's how tight he's wrapping himself with the sand. I would expect he's doing that for a reason." she told him, gently placing the cotton cap on him. Yukio looked very nearly asleep already, completely comfortable now that he was clean and warm – but not too warm. That was why she left him naked, two layers of clothing was probably not a good idea in the summer heat.
She was satisfied when sand didn't rush to cover him as soon as she stopped forcing it away.
"What reason? Is he into bondage?" Naruto muttered, following her as she went to the children's futon and laid her son down gently. He fell asleep seconds later, and at a glance, she could tell Yuraku was also asleep on Naruto's chest. She took Yuraku and gently placed him next to his brother. The baby spread his legs and arms, curled up, then spread his limbs again and stayed like that, looking like a giant starfish.
"Maybe he feels exposed because he isn't in a tight place anymore. It must have been pretty tight inside my womb, with both of them pressed against each other." Naruto frowned.
"Yuraku looks fine." the baby looked like he didn't have a care in the world, with his legs and arms spread. He reminded her of Naruto – that was exactly how Naruto napped when she wasn't in bed with him.
"Maybe that's a personality trait. Yuraku probably takes after you, and Yukio takes after me." she blinked when Naruto knelt behind her and wrapped his arms tightly around her, pinning her arms to her body.
"Hm? You like tight places then?" a small smile curved her lips and she rested against his chest. He felt so warm, like always.
"I like your embrace." she murmured in response. Naruto chuckled against her ear and kissed her temple.
"Thank you for the perfect sons." he whispered against her ear. She smiled again, watching them and enjoying his hug.
