Trying to Stay Positive

G4P0

Naruto grunts as he finishes. Before the blond can even relax, his husband unceremoniously pushes him off to go check in the washroom. Naruto sighs. This is taking too long. They had been trying for over a year now without much success. The blond man can't help but wonder how productive it is to check so soon after he's ejaculated inside of Sasuke - well doesn't that sound romantic? The situation wasn't exactly conducive to passion. Naruto will never tell Sasuke this but sometimes he struggles to get in the mood. There is too much pressure, too much stress. "Damn it!" he hears Sasuke curse from the bathroom. Naruto sighs. Unsuccessful yet again. While Naruto loves Sasuke's determination, he also knows how destructive that determination can be for his lover. With the way they were going at it, Naruto wonders if they'll ever conceive.

After what feels like a very long time, Sasuke is pregnant again.

Naruto doesn't tell Sasuke this but he's worried about him. Sasuke, who has always tended to be on the more reclusive side, has stopped leaving the house altogether ever since he was told by the medic nins that his blood pressure was too high. The raven takes his hypertension medication almost religiously. Naruto knows he's scared. Scared of hurting the baby. Scared of losing the baby. He's seventeen weeks along now so they should be in the clear but Sasuke has always tended to fall on the paranoid side of the spectrum.

The Seventh Hokage manages to slip out of his office one afternoon to check in on his pregnant spouse. He finds Sasuke sleeping outside, resting against a pillar in the veranda. He looks so peaceful like this that Naruto almost doesn't want to disturb him. But this is Naruto after all so he can't help himself. He greets Sasuke with a warm kiss. "Glad to finally see you out and about," the blond says lovingly. "Even if it's just our backyard."

Naruto is content as he rests his head on Sasuke's lap, the raven running his fingers through golden locks. He turns his head so that he's facing his husband's modest belly. "Do you have a name in mind?" he asks as he gently caresses the bump. The ultrasound last week showed that they were having a boy.

"Honestly, no," Sasuke answers.

Naruto grins. "What about...Boruto?". The death glare he receives from Sasuke tells him that that is not a good idea. "Well... what about naming him after my Dad?"

Minato? "The same father that sealed the Nine Tails in you thereby condemning you to a fate where people were afraid of you until practically the moment you became Hokage?"

"Hey! He had his reasons! Well what about your father then?"

Sasuke thought about it. Uzumaki Fugaku didn't sound quite right to him. He shudders at the thought of their son being born with his father's stern face. He wasn't sure how he felt about naming their child after someone from the past. There were still too many bitter memories that he wasn't prepared to confront.

"How about...Arashi then? I've always liked that name."

Storm? Uzumaki Arashi had a nice ring to it. "...I'm okay with Arashi."

Naruto falls asleep soon afterwards in the company of his two favourite people. Now it's Sasuke's turn to kiss him. The blond idiot sleeps right through it. 'I hope Arashi has your sun kissed skin, bright blue eyes and golden hair' Sasuke thinks before he kisses his husband with all his love.

Sasuke wakes up with a terrible headache. He's never had a headache before and if this is what they feel like, he never wants to have one again. He fights through it for Naruto's sake. He makes his husband his usual cup of ramen in the morning, anything to distract from the pounding in his head. He has to stop from wincing in the sunlight when Naruto kisses him goodbye on their doorstep. He's too proud to tell Naruto to stay.

Naruto is busy at work when the pain starts for Sasuke. This is different from what he experienced when he had his last miscarriage but it is severe pain none the less. He finds himself gripping the table so tightly that he thinks it might break, paralyzed with the pain in his right upper quadrant and the incessant pounding in his head.

"Sasuke, you didn't come into work today. Is everything alright?" Kakashi says as he opens the door without knocking. This is just a pretense, of course, because it's Kakashi who goes on rounds these days and reports to Sasuke from home. He knows his former pupil too well. The grey haired man finds his student doubled over in the kitchen, clutching his belly tightly.

"Kakashi..." Sasuke manages to say. "Can you take me to the hospital?"

Once again, Sakura is on call. She feels a deep sense of dread when she sees Sasuke arrive with his arm over Kakashi. His blood pressure is 210/154. She rushes him into a room immediately.

"Good work, team!" Naruto says to the group of genin and their sensei with an award winning smile. He's grateful that his job lets him meet so many amazing people. He loves encouraging them and telling them what a good job they did. He wonders if Sasuke will let him say 'good job' after Arashi is born. He almost laughs out loud at the thought.

It's Kakashi who informs the Seventh Hokage that his husband is in the hospital. It wipes all joy from Naruto's face. He rushes over.

Naruto wasn't allowed to be in the operating room when Sasuke had the procedure done and now more than ever he was grateful that that was the case. As he enters the dark hospital room, he is immediately distracted by the sounds of beeping monitors. Numbers flash in front of him, constantly changing and he's not sure what to make of it. He sees all tubing going into his beloved, his pale arms bruised from all their failed attempts to start an IV. Sakura might have mentioned that the concoctions dripping into Sasuke's veins were to help get his blood pressure down but all coherent thought is lost when he sees Sasuke laying there, prostrate in pain and exhaustion. Naruto is shaking at the sensory overload.

Sakura follows Naruto inside. The blond sits by Sasuke's side while Sakura sits at the end of his bed. "Sasuke," Sakura says weakly, it's barely audible over the sounds of the monitors going off again. "We need to induce labour now."

Instinctively Sasuke shakes his head. He's only nineteen weeks along. It's too soon.

"Please, Sasuke, we need to do this or you will die."

Again, Sasuke shakes his head. It's too soon.

Sakura snaps. She hates this. Hates Sasuke for always putting her in this situation. Hates Sasuke for always being too stubborn for his own good. "So you would rather both you and the fetus die at this point?!" she screams. Fetus, not baby. She says it with the same coldness that she remembered hating in Sasuke when they were younger.

Sasuke doesn't even offer her a response.

Naruto breaks the stalemate between his two former teammates. He interlocks his tanned fingers with the pale ones of his husband. "Sasuke please…" he begs. "I can't live without you." Only then does Sasuke relent.

Naruto looks down at his son. It's funny, he never got a good look at the boy when he was in the room with Sasuke because the dark haired man held him so tightly to his chest. It was only after hours of this that Sasuke finally allowed them to take the body away. 'He's... so tiny' Naruto thinks. He counts ten fingers and ten toes. He doesn't know who Arashi looks like.

On the other side of the door, he can hear Sakura crying. When he finally leaves the room, he holds her tightly. She's a wreck. She mutters over and over again that she can't do it again. After a while, he's not really sure who is holding who at this point because he can't do it again either.

Naruto visits Sasuke's room for the first time in days. Sasuke is sitting up in bed with a look on his face that is all too familiar. He is no longer in the oiroke state, the jutsu having dispelled on its own accord once there was no further use for it. He says nothing but, with Naruto, he doesn't need to. His eyes do all the talking for him, they're glazed over. Naruto hasn't seen Sasuke this lost in a long time. This time, he doesn't even have the strength to apologize.

"Sasuke…" Naruto starts slowly. "Do you remember the day we submitted our marriage registration?"

Sasuke doesn't respond.

"I went in there expecting a fight," he continues. "Because it's you we're talking about here. The proud Uchiha Sasuke never goes down without a fight. I know that I've let you walk all over me my whole life but this was where I was going to put my foot down. There was no way in hell I was going to be Mr. Uchiha Naruto. Imagine my surprise when you signed your name as Uzumaki Sasuke. You told me that day that 'there didn't need to be anymore Uchihas'. I almost cried right then and there because I knew how much your last name meant to you. You, who in the past made it abundantly clear to me that you would choose your ambitions over me in a heartbeat, were now willing to let it all go because of me. You said that you didn't need any of it anymore, that as long as you had me then that was enough".

"Well Sasuke," Naruto's crying now. "Right now I feel the same way." He takes both of Sasuke's hands in his and kisses them tenderly. "The only thing that matters to me is you. I don't need anything else."

After a long pause that seems like it would never end, Sasuke finally says, "Okay... Let's stop." The two hold each other for a long time after that.

Naruto and Sasuke love their lives.

Naruto wakes up with Sasuke in his arms. He tries to initiate round two and today Sasuke lets him. The two spend tender moments this morning basking in the growing sunlight and each warm other's embrace. There's barely any time to clean up so Sasuke joins him in the shower. The raven almost laughs at how fast the blond can chug down a cup of instant ramen. The two walk to the Hokage's office together. Sasuke lets Naruto hold his hand the entire way there.

Naruto attends to the Hokage's duties. Sasuke keeps the streets safe. They have lunch together with Kakashi and Sakura. Sasuke comes back to the office at 5:00 PM to pick Naruto up for dinner. The two enjoy a nice meal of Sasuke's homemade udon as Naruto chats about the upcoming chunin exams and Sasuke talks about the security plans for the village.

That night, Naruto and Sasuke are especially passionate. They explore each other's bodies as if it's their very first time. Blue eyes meet black ones as they come together in perfect harmony. After all is said and done, Sasuke sleeps curled up on Naruto's chest. Yes, they are happy.