DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS AND PLOTS. I ONLY OWN HARUKA AND ANY OTHER OC.

Unofficial Beta: ShootingLightStar

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in you way of thinking.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Childbirth

"Deep breaths Haruka."

"What the hell do you think I'm doing Kakashi?" I hissed out. I still did what he said though, I took a deep breath and exhaled. Contractions had started sporadically two hours ago, but the pain in my abdomen was only getting worse by the minute. I did have to endure two false alarms the past few weeks, but already this episode was proving itself to be well near the real deal of labor; these babies were going to be the absolute death of me.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help." Kakashi grabbed my hand and started to grip it. "If it'll help, I'll hold your hand again."

"Are you sure?" I asked. I didn't want a repeat of the last hour—I nearly broke a bone in his hand and Rin had to heal a fracture that I did manage to make.

"This time I'll reinforce my hand." He reassured.

I was about to say something along the lines of 'fine, it's your hand,' but the sudden pain that came over me again caused me to instinctively clench my hand, Kakashi's own one in it. At this point, I was pretty sure my face was permanently wrinkled from all the scrunching it was doing, my hair a rat's nest, and my general appearance just a fucking mess, but in all honesty who cares when you're in labor? "Kakashi..." I managed, voice satisfying low and threatening, even if from lack of air, "I don't think I can stand the pain for another hour. As much as Hyūga-san said going through the first few hours of labor at home is comfortable-" Whoa, need to take a break right there. Deep breaths Haruka, deep breaths. "-it is totally not."

"Alright, let me get the bags." He said, and then ran a hand through his hair, as if he was trying to figure out if he was supposed to do something else. "Just...breath."

I glared at him. Was he serious? What the hell does he think I've been doing for the past two hours? Kakashi seemed to get the message because he quickly left the living room, leaving me alone with my wolves. Rin had to leave about half an hour ago because of some emergency at the hospital, which made me kind of sad.

Not that it actually mattered at the moment. The feeling quickly disappeared in lieu of letting the more dominant distraction be in the forefront of my mind: namely, the pain. Imagine a menstrual cramp, being stabbed continuously, and a charlie horse all in one shoved into your uterus and lower back—or if you're a guy, then only the later of the two. Then intensify that pain by a thousand. And that was only one contraction. The further into the stages of birth-giving you progress, the higher the dosage and frequency of pain. That translates into: all the metaphors above, multiplied by itself the closer to birth. That, is what labor feels like.

"Haruka-sama, would you like us to help with your breathing again? You seemed to have stopped; does it not help?"

I looked at Akira and at that same time, the pain went away. Thinking optimistically, it wouldn't come back for the next ten minutes, so I rejoiced at that fact. "The pain is gone, but not for long. Can you check to see what's taking Kakashi so long?" She nodded her head at my request, but as she turned, Kakashi ran into the room, carrying a backpack that contained all of the stuff we needed to take to the hospital.

"I got it! Lets go."

"Well, it seems that you're fully dilated Aotomi-san!" A nurse checked me for what felt like the hundredth time over the course of three hours. "I'll be right back with the others. Get ready, because you'll be meeting your children in about an hour!" This was said irritatingly cheerfully, like there wasn't a pregnant lady in the room about ready to rip her boyfriend's genitals off for making her go through this pain—that was me if you didn't realize.

"What's 'dilated' mean?" I heard Obito asking Mom.

Mom gave an amused look over at me before answering. "It means that she's ready to give birth."

"That's right Obito." I groaned out. "I'm about to pop some babies out."

"Haruka..." Kakashi, being the nice boyfriend that he is, started to rub my back after I rolled over to my side. I still wanted to rip his genitals off, but as a thought occurred to me, I realized I had bigger things to worry about.

"Oh Kami..."

Mom was instantly at my side, Obito trailing behind her. "What's wrong?"

I swallowed hard. "I'm going to be an actual mom to two kids in less than an hour."

You would think that my mind had already accepted that as the reality, but apparently it needed me to be in the moment before the big happening to finally register. My mind was a mantra of shit, this is actually happening, and in literally an hour I'm going to be a fucking mom, shit, shit, shit—

She placed her hand on my cheek and started to rub her thumbs across my cheekbones, probably to sooth my mind. "You'll be a great mother, so don't worry, Haruka. And you have Kakashi with you too, so take comfort in that."

"Yeah Haruka! You'll do great! Just try not to...curse too much." My dearest Uchiha teammate gave me a thumbs up.

"Oh my god." I started smiling and the next thing I knew, I was laughing. Can you believe it? I was about to cry and now I'm laughing—kami I'm ready to be rid of the pregnancy hormones. They've only caused problems in these past nine months. We all stayed like that for a few seconds when Rin suddenly came barging into the room, panic written all across her face.

"I'm not too late right?"

"No!" I held out my hand for her to grab onto. "Thanks Rin; it makes me happy to know that you'll be here." I said with a smile.

"Of course." she said with conviction. "You're my best friend and my teammate. There's nothing that would have stopped me from coming to support you." As much as I wanted to say more, the door to the room opened again and a stream of nurses came in.

"Alright, only the father can be in the room during birth! Everybody else, out!" A nurse snapped, barely giving my family any time to wish me luck; Mom and Rin gave me a kiss on my forehead, while Obito, being the awkward person that he is, just patted me on the shoulder before leaving the room. Hyūga-san walked in and started explaining things, but I was only listening halfheartedly. I just wanted this to be over with, I was so done being pregnant. I just wanted my babies and go home.

After moving around, cringing in pain, and looking around worryingly, it seemed that everything was what it was supposed to be. "Alright Aotomi-san. You probably have that feeling to push." Hyūga-san said while preparing something in between my legs—and let me tell you, it's so weird.

"Yes, so can I?" I asked, my voice shaky and probably revealing how I just wanted to already be done. Kakashi had pulled on some sort of hospital gown thing over his normal clothes, and he walked over to the side of the bed to grab my hand, giving me comfort in this mess.

"Alright Aotomi-san," Hyūga-san signaled. "push!"

The next thirty minutes were spent—guess what—pushing the kids out into the world. Those exact thirty minutes were also riddled with pain, exhaustion, grunts and groans, the occasional scream, repetitive urgings to continue pushing, along with assurances that everything was going swimmingly, and the comforting presence of Kakashi by my side.

Not that Kakashi's presence could stop me from cursing the whole painful process to hell the whole thirty minutes. But that was besides the point. The point was the result.

I could barely hear the sounds of the babies crying because my mind and body was still kind of...dazed from all the pain and pushing I had to do. "Haruka-san, your children." I looked up tiredly and barely had enough time to position my arms before the nurse placed two babies in my possession.

So, first things first. I call bullshit on the mothers who say that babies are the most beautiful things in the world when they're born because I assure you, they're not—appearance wise that is. However, it just might be the wonder that you did technically create these children inside of you speaking, but other then that? Yeah, they're ugly; thoroughly red, squinting eyes and just a hint of hair on their heads. But I know that it just takes a few months for them to get into that cute baby stage that makes you want to go 'aww' every time you see one.

"Haruka..." I looked up at Kakashi and I saw a type of emotion I'd never seen in him before, and I've seen what I believe to be almost all of them. But I knew what he was thinking, because in the end I was thinking the same thing.

"They're ours." I said, looking down at them. You wouldn't be able to tell which gender was which without the color-coded hats and swaddling blankets, especially with both of them mewling and wriggling. I smiled at the baby with the pink hat. "Noka. Hatake Noka is her name." I announced her name as I looked back up at Kakashi.

He nodded his head in agreement before placing a hand tenderly on the head of the baby with the blue hat. "And Hiroki." Before I knew it, tears were building up because I could think of those who would've wanted to be here; who should've been there. "Sensei would've been proud." Kakashi whispered, squeezing my shoulder. He already knew what I was thinking, and never have been more grateful for his empathy. "Both Kushina-san and Minato-sensei would've loved to see them."

"A-And Raijin too. Can't forget about h-him." The tears were falling hard now, the back of my eyes burning, but I didn't care because we were right. I sent my thoughts and prayers to the heavens: I hope you are proud Raijin...Sensei...Kushina-neesan… Because this may be the happiest day in my life.

My week in the hospital was intense, in all honesty. After recovering from the twins' birth, the nurses and caretakers were teaching both Kakashi and I how to care for babies. It went from how to feed them—my job—how to change diapers—mostly his job—and how carry them. All of our friends came to see them the day after, and that pretty much filled the room because there was the usual gang, which consisted of Kurenai, Gai, Rin, Obito, and Asuma. Then there were the ANBU that Kakashi was 'friends' with. I say that with quotations because I still find it hard to believe that this socially awkward man who reads porn in public manages to find anybody that respects him. Tenzō had been the first from that group to come visit us, which made my day, surprisingly.

But the week flew by quickly and the next thing I knew, Kakashi and I were holding Noka and Hiroki in our living room. They were both sleeping at the moment, but after sleeping next to them for the last two days, I realized that my sleeping schedule was going to be shot. And collectively shredded.

"Well, let's put them into the cribs for now since they're sleeping." He nodded his head and we both walked up to the rooms we decided would be theirs. I was carrying Noka while Kakashi carried Hiroki.

"Of course your genes had to win Kakashi." I teased. Both of the babies could be seen possessing silver white hair, for starters. I couldn't tell if I was excited or scared to find out if they happened to inherit more from their father.

He just shrugged. "What can I say? The Hatake genes are strong. According to pictures, my mom had black hair."

"...No way."

"Yup. But look at me—"

I smirked. "You look like an old man, Scarecrow." I said, Kakashi's nickname slipping out.

"Oh." The look he gave me, with his slightly darkened eyes, unsettled me slightly and the way he said it didn't help. "But who's the one that had kids with this old man?"

"...Who's the one who forgot the condom?" I deadpanned. He stopped in his tracks while I continued walking with my hips swinging, feeling somewhat smug at winning whatever that had happened. Placing my hand on the handle to the door, I opened it and smiled. This was Tenzō's present to us. He created the cribs, chairs, and cute little decorations from his Mokuton. Opening the door to it, I walked in with Kakashi following close behind me. The white crib was Noka's while the grey one was for Hiroki. I first thought the colors were dull, but after both Kakashi and Tenzō painted the room to a color similar to the sky during a sunny day—both in color and design—I just...fell in love with it. There were white clouds painted in various areas around the room while the remaining space on the wall was blue like the sky. It made me so happy to the point where words couldn't explain how much.

Looking down at Noka, there was a warmth that spread from my chest and all across my body. She was mine; I had created her, I was her mother, and I was going to be a role-model for her—for them. I turned around and looked at Hiroki. I may have only known them for only about nine months—and one week physically—but I already love them. I know that I'd protect them and lay down my life if it came down to it. I just...hope that I can live up to that title of being a mother.

A/N: Hey guys. I'm so sorry that this chapter came out so late, but I have a good reason to why. My computer stopped working and it won't turn on now, so I've had to go a week without one, hence the reason why this chapter is so late. I'm currently using my mom's computer because I still haven't gotten a new one and probably won't until earliest, next week. Also, this chapter is so well written because like my friend (the unofficial beta) is such an amazing writer and she fixed a lot of mistakes and added all these complicated words that I never use in my stories. She's been such a great help because school started last Monday and I've been so busy since.

So...I have some bad news. This decision isn't set in stone yet, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be writing a part two to In Time. I feel so bad and guilty because I did all this talk about writing a sequel, but I have my reasons to why I changed my mind. This story...isn't as fun as I remember, if that makes any sense. I've lost all motivation to actually write about a part two because I've just gotten so bored with In Time. I feel like all the official characters are too OOC, especially Kakashi. And it's not just, I know this is super selfish of me but I barely get any motivation for it anymore because like I stated in a few chapters back, I get my muse and motivation from reviews, which I barely get. I feel so bad, I didn't want to do this and I even tried talking to my friend (the one from earlier) about what I should do. But even then, my decision didn't want to budge. So, the most likely outcome is that In Time will end as In Time. Don't worry though, I still plan on finishing this story. I need to, it's something that I have to do. I am sorry though.

I've been wanting to write another story and it's a OCxKakashi but this time, I won't have her do anything with the earlier canon. Minato and Obito and Rin all happen as it should. She'll meet Kakashi during Shippuden and then the story goes on from there. She's not a Self-Insert OC, she's just a plan character from the Naruto Universe. After I finish this story and my other, Looking into His Eyes, I want to start on writing that one. I have a general idea of what I want to happen for it, but for now it's just going to be these two stories.

I do have a plan on a epilogue, but it's only going to be either one chapter or two and it'll be uploaded on Looking into His Eyes. The main OC in that story will meet Haruka during the Fourth Shinobi War and yeah.

So, I hope to have reviews on this chapter but other than that, have a good day/week! I can't promise when the next chapter will be uploaded, but it won't be too long, I swear.

So until then!~