Hello. Without too much delay, I present you the next part of the story.

As for chapter trigger warnings: dark thoughts, manipulation, psychic violence, moderate suicidal thoughts

If you're feeling bad, depressed, etc., this story may (or probably will) not be the right one for you (I project my own weenie-ween into my writing, so it's going to be a violence fest), in short: take care of yourself, drink water and stay hydrated.

For those who wake up every day choosing chaos and fanfictions where you only live for the drama: good reading!

The title of the chapter refers to a song by the band Paramore.

LETTING SINK HIS TAILS TIL THEY TRAILED IN THE DUST
II - MISERY BUSINESS

One week. Seven days, one hundred and sixty-eight hours since Tsunade had dropped her bomb thinking that Naruto would be strong enough to carry one more weight on his shoulders. It hadn't been the case. And as time passed, Naruto did not move an inch. So much for the showers he had stop taking. It didn't matter that his stomach was screaming, it didn't matter that his throat was drier than the desert of Suna. He just didn't feel like anything anymore. For the first time in his life, Naruto was out of energy, out of motivation, out of backup plans.

When the fifth hokage had drop the news, everything had started to look like Judgment Day for the sixteen year old shinobi. He had thought it was a bad joke, some kind of twisted punishment invented by the even more twisted mind of his caretaker for doing something he didn't know was wrong. He had believed everything but the words that had had the audacity to pass her lips. Days later, the boy could still remember the bitterness that had filled his mouth, the lump of terror that had formed in his throat and the panic that had flooded in like a large cataract, paralyzing his every muscle. Tsunade had begged him to breathe, she had said please and look at me and I promise you that we will find a way out of this. You are not alone, may the gods hear me, you are not alone, Naruto.

He had been too obsessed with the news to pay any attention to her. Then he got angry. A burst of fury unlike any other time he had ever nearly killed someone because of poor chakra control. This time, Naruto - or more Kyûbi - was in control. He was still dangerous though. Tsunade however, had not backed down for a single second. Not even when Naruto had started screaming, throwing things across the room, smashing medical equipment into pieces. An ANBU had shown up, attracted by the evil chakra emanating from the young shinobi. Naruto had felt the fear oozing from every pore of the poor man's skin before Tsunade sent him away. The man had stayed, had insisted even though every fiber of his body had screamed at him to get out this place. He had thought he was being discreet by implying that Naruto was currently a danger, that he could not afford to leave her there, alone with him. Tsunade had shrugged and looked like she didn't care. The man had walked away. All this had had the merit of fanning the flames of anger. The room had seen its bathroom door fly out the window which, carried away by the mass, had shattered into a thousand razor-sharp pieces of glass.

"Are you feeling better now?" the village chief had asked.

His face had reflected nothing but deep desolation. Naruto had started fidgeting. Gradually, the fox demon's chakra had been dissipated.

"Yes", he had answered. "No. Maybe. I don't know."

Fists clenched at his sides, he had given himself another minute to catch his breath, to order his thoughts, to realize.

"No," he had made up his mind. "It's not getting any better. I feel like I'm dying. I try to breathe but I am lost in the middle of the sea. I swim, I try to swim to the surface, to take a breath, to live. I can't do it. "

Tsunade had tried her best not to burst into tears. What did you want her to say to this kid after that? She had no words of comfort to offer him. There was no precedent for this kind of situation. She couldn't count the number of families who would have rejoiced at the announcement of a pregnancy. What made them different was a matter of consent, of choice, of free will. Naruto had no choice. That was what she had understood the moment she had seen his face decompose. Beyond that. Her protégé was a cisgender man. A pregnancy should have been impossible. He didn't have the organs to develop a fetus. At least, that's what she had believed for years, after watching the X-rays, going through the scans and all the other medical examinations she had done years earlier, on a Naruto then in his early teens. In three years, a change had taken place. She didn't know how or why, but the facts were there. Naruto's body could now accommodate a child and hadn't lost time to do so. For a moment, the doctor in her had marveled at such a medical breakthrough. The next one, she had felt terribly guilty. This was Naruto. Not some X or Y guinea pig.

So there had been a nervous breakdown. Words exchanged, ideas. Tsunade had promised him to do anything to... she didn't know what exactly.

"I can't," Naruto had breathed many hours later.

His eyes were full of tears and the terror still written on his face.

"It's not fair. Not after the kyûbi. Not when I've been trying for years to get past the demon sealed inside me. Not when the village is just beginning to think beyond it."

"I know."

"No, you don't. No, you don't know how it feels. I was hated for something I couldn't control. And now that I have some control over my life, this is what I get? This is a fucking joke Tsunade. I'm tired of always having to try harder than everyone else just to get the same amount of respect as a basic human being. It's not fair."

Tsunade didn't know what to say after that. She had thought about Hiruzen Sarutobi and how he had raised that child. She had cursed him for three, maybe even four, generations.

After that, Naruto had fell asleep. She had kissed his forehead and left the room behind, letting him rest. It had been a long night with a taste of eternity. She had spent it going through every medical file that ever existed, hoping to find something, anything, that would help her to see more clearly.

The next day, she showed up again in Naruto's room, still deeply asleep. His lips were pursed, his eyes ringed with purple circles. She had proposed him an abortion.

"It has the merit of solving the problem in general," she had said. "If that's what you want, I'll do it."

Never mind that, as a minor, Naruto was supposed to have the approval of a parent or legal guardian. The last time she checked, the kid had never had either. Well, she couldn't say that Jiraya was the best in terms of anything legal and/or responsible. Besides, she was Hokage for the Gods Sake. If Uzumaki gave her consent, then she would go along with it. The council didn't need to know about this. It was something that would definitely end badly. So if getting rid of the surprise fetus before anyone understood what was really going on, Tsunade was not going to bother, or even ask for permission, let alone forgiveness.

"Yes," Naruto had answered without even bothering to think twice about it. "Yes. Let's do it. Let's do it now. We have to do it now, Tsunade."

They had done it within the hour.

It had been a magnificent failure.

Naruto had stared at her for a long time, his face paler than pale and his lips trembling.

"You said it would solve the problem," he accused her in a flat tone.

"It should have. At this point, it should have worked."

The procedure had failed. Chakra that was neither his nor the fox demon's had formed a kind of protective shell around his body. No needle could pierce his skin. No medicine had passed his lips without being instantly reduced to dust by the strange barrier.

"Damn it," the woman had cursed at the peak of her wonderment. "I can't believe what I'm seeing."

She had never had the opportunity to observe such a phenomenon. Naruto curled up on himself and felt like a circus animal being watched from outside a cage. He understood the appeal of a new discovery to the woman's scientific mind. It wasn't fair that he was the one still prone to oddities. Naruto was fed up with it. All he wanted to do now was to take a vacation from the kind of beating that would get him six to twelve months in a coma. He was sure that after that, he would wake up refreshed and ready to go.

Or with a child in his arms.

His face had turned green. The Hokage's reflexes had been sufficient - but not by much - for a bean to be placed in his lap and for the non-content of his stomach to spill into the small medical basin.

After that, there was a silence. Tsunade had to leave him to go back to her research on a : I promise you that we will find a solution. Naruto didn't have the heart to tell her to let it go, to let him go. He had the feeling that this story would never end and he didn't want to be a metaphorical burden on the shoulders of the few people he could still consider part of his disastrous family. She had an entire village to manage. She couldn't just save one person and leave everything else behind. The Council would know how to get her before that.

So the shinobi had picked up his things and left.

His apartment had greeted him with a damp, rotten smell. He had emptied the contents of his refrigerator in the dustbin which he had taken out. Then he had changed before going to take refuge under his blanket. He had not left his bed since. He did not have the energy, nor even the desire. Moping about his fate seemed more appealing than a shower or a bowl of ramen. Eventually, it began to deeply annoy the demon nestled in the pit of his stomach. The said fox had known how to go easy on his host. Not so much because he was a compassionate being, but because he didn't give a damn. There was, however, a limit to the amount of tears the fox could take.

Could you please stop being so dramatic? You're not alone. You're bothering me. Stop complaining.

Naruto thought he was hallucinating.

"I beg your pardon?"

There's nothing to complain about. Everybody has mother did this shit before you, gods forbid, she should have abstained, that silly girl.

That's the icing on top of the cake, thought the shinobi.

He felt the flame of anger ignite as simply as that. The understanding between him and the demon had always been fragile, even after their pact. Exchanges of pleasantries under the guise of insults were still okay. This was simply too much.

"My apologies O Lord of Demon Foxes. Do I have to remind you that in the real world, men are not made for this? That I'm basically the first fool that this has happened to?"

There's a first time for everything. Congratulations. You can now strut your stuff next to the first woman to ever give birth to a child. Can you shut up now that we've solved the problem?

"The problem is not so much that it happened, but how it happened."

I'm not having this discussion with you, squirt. There are limits to our cohabitation, and it's on how we shit kids, that I veto," the beast growled in his mind.

The host had to pinch himself to make sure he heard it right. He wondered how and why he had come to this. His life was a series of events, each more weird than the last. He hated it.

Cheeks flushed, Naruto tried his best not to stutter an answer. Wasn't he supposed to be an adult? Or at least something close to it?

"I know how this works, you stupid fox."

Tell me about it. I'm happy for you, congratulations on not being totally stupid.

"Stop it. You're not helping," the shinobi snapped.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was up to me to solve the problem of world hunger.

Naruto wondered if it was possible to torture something immaterial, after that. The demon could have an interesting discussion when he wanted to. The rest of the time it was just lost bullets, sarcasm and mockery. It was something he had no patience for anymore. The situation was serious. Seeing that his inner parasite found a way to make fun of the subject sent him to the thirty-sixth below.

"I'm telling you that you're in as much trouble as I am. If it happened there, it means that either you know something about it, or you were sufficiently out of touch to notice anything."

This had the merit of drawing the attention of the fox. In the shinobi's mind, the beast growled, its fur bristling with anger.

Don't put your incompetence on me, you miserable vermin.

"You're using my body as much as I am, you moron. If I die, what do you think will happen?

I will finally be free of your innate stupidity.

"You'll serve as a friendly watchdog for the village councilors. Or you'll end up like the others before you: sealed in a teapot until someone remembers your existence."

Be careful of the words you say, I can still get you killed."

"Not without hurting yourself in the process. Now be a nice fox and give me a break with your stupid theory about the evolution of the human race. Instead, find a way to get us out of this mess."

The silence ravaged the boy's senses. He wondered if the demon, offended as he could be, had started to pout. Why ignore him if he hadn't? Yet, a few moments later, someone sighed in the depths of his mind. Sitting on his bed, Naruto wrapped his arms around his legs, his chin resting on the top of his knees.

I really don't see why it bothers you to...

"Because," Naruto cut in. "It's just the way it is. I can't do it. We don't even know where that thing came from."

Are you sure it's not you? That you didn't have a drunken party before Jiraya dropped you off in the village? That's not how you ended up...

"No. It wasn't... It's not... Look. It's not me. It's not my choice. I've never... had alcohol, let alone..."

Had sex?

Naruto closed his eyes. There was a pain in his heart, a weight on his soul. He was a terrified kid. What if it was my fault in the end? he wondered. What if I just don't remember? I should have been more careful. I should have done... I don't know. I don't know. Anything.

His eyes were wet again and in his mind the fox growled. He hated his host, sure. But it was still his. It was nobody's but his to give him shit. The beast curled up.

It doesn't matter, he finally said. When we find the person responsible, we'll know how to put our claws to good use.

This barely comforted the young shinobi.

"You like me, admit it."

I liked it better when you were moping around. Pregnancy gets to your head, you start talking shit.

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

And you, some kind of messiah apparently.

"Fuck you."

That was the end of the discussion. With his shoulders heavier than ever, the Uzumaki did as he had done so well during the last seven days: he curled himself under his blanket, his face pressed against his pillow. And if he eventually burst into tears, it was his business and his alone.

So that was the summary of his life: more bad luck than anyone had ever experienced before. It hit him like a bad blow in the heart. He was sixteen and he was going to be a father, no matter how much he might currently hate this thing growing inside him. No matter how much he didn't want it. In a few months, this thing would come out of his body, one way or another. And he winced at the thought. This thing would have to come out of his body. He had no idea how this thing would come out.

I think you've got a long way to go before it happens. You're going to get huge before that. And you're going to be shoving a lot of ice cream down your throat when you're not allowed to set foot outside your house. Your mother had become as fat as a pig. Pray you don't get her genes.

Naruto had hated him a little more, but at least it had distracted him from his original concern. Instead, he called himself a moron. How could he have missed this other fact? It would show. People would be able to point to him and his huge belly, would be able to see how abnormal he was. A real freak. It wasn't like the fox demon that went unnoticed. This was going to be written in the horror of his face, right down to the pores of his skin. Naruto felt his stomach protest sharply at the mere thought.

That's enough, he thought. I have to get out of here, or will lose my shit.

The beast accepted the news with a click of his tongue, meaning that he was totally in agreement with the idea: even he was beginning to feel the stench of his host.

Rolling on his back, the teenager took the time to stretch himself for a long time before going under the shower, without ever stopping hoping that once under an icy jet, this nightmare was going to disappear and that finally, he could take again the course of his life, burying in the deepest part of his being what, the space of one night, had terrorized him. Of course, this did not happen. You might as well ask a mosquito to stop feeding on blood - it would die trying, or probably never venture. So there, under the icy spray of his tiny shower, of his tiny apartment, Naruto wondered how hard he would have to slam his head against the tiles of his shower, for this nightmare to end.

You're such a drama, sighed the demon in the back of his head.

Naruto ignored him. He wasn't feeling well.

Apart from the fact that he had eaten very little in the last few days, he felt...

Guilty.

Guilty, of being in this state, guilty of worrying Tsunade so much, guilty of having given his body, somehow, to a complete stranger without fighting, guilty of being born. His head was buzzing like a hive full of bees and they all knew only how to scream guilty, guilty, guilty! In an uninterrupted symphony. His head hit the dirty, moldy and cracked tiles of the shower.

"Enough", he shouted, his eyes glowing. "Enough!"

With trembling feet, he pulled himself out of the stall, clutched the edge of the sink, his cerulean blue eyes fixed on his foggy reflection right there in the mirror. It was yellowish and pale, like a deformed creature in the semi-light of the room. The young man shuddered, was seized by acid reflux and emptied himself just in time into the toilet. In his head, Kurama stirred slightly.

Pull yourself together, kid. Whining won't get you outta here.

If the blond didn't answer - too busy emptying his stomach - the mind was there. How could the beast think for a moment that everything could be fixed? Tsunade had tried and failed. She, who was a legendary shinobi, had failed. That was all that the stubborn Uzumaki had retained. So the beast gave up. He had better things to do than listen to a kid whining about life and why the world was so miserable.

When Naruto finished getting ready, he closed the door of his apartment, without even bothering to lock it; he had nothing of value at home anyway. So he put a black cap on his blond hair, stopped to zip up his jacket and headed out into the cold February weather. It had been a week since he had set foot outside. Seven days - almost eight - since he had even given a sign of life to his friends - to Kakashi. Maybe it was time to go see him? Apologize for his infamous behavior, and then what? Smile at him, tell him everything was fine? He had never been a good liar. Who knows, anyone could spot his vain attempts from a mile away. A four-year-old would probably be more persuasive than he was.

A shaky breath escaped his lips as he gazed to his favorite restaurant. His stomach twisted unpleasantly as the aromas filled his nose and he passed on his way, his head sinking into his shoulders. It wasn't so much because Tsunade had explained the concept of morning sickness to him, but because he was too depressed to be hungry.

Letting yourself die is not the answer either, you idiot. The Old Senju told you that. That stuff will suck your strength away. You have to eat to live. Don't tell her I said that, but she was right. You're not alone anymore.

Naruto could feel the beast's smile even in his mind. He began to curse it with all his being. Sometimes he deeply hated the spirit fox. He was only a Chakra entity, at best, a fox. How could he then claim to understand the state of mind of his host? To them, a cub was a cub to be protected - at least as far as Chakra beings could conceive, which Naruto was far from sure of. To Naruto, the monstrosity was an abomination that had no business being there. And if Tsunade couldn't do anything to weigh him down, he was going to be on his own, as he always had been. They all wanted him to move on? Well, so be it. They would get their wish. A smirk played at the corner of his lips as he set off for the training grounds.

His coat fell to his feet, revealing the fishnet top he only left on sleepy nights, as clones appeared before him by the hundreds. The words of his teachers had not been forgotten. He would use his clones to increase his level. Kunai in hand, it only took a sign from him, for all his clones to dive into the melee. The rest was just blows, pain and body mingling, sweating and training with the seriousness of a higher level shinobi.