This story will be coming to an end shortly. Just as a warning.

Chapter 44

All good things come to an end. Pregnancy must not be a good thing because it was not coming to a freaking end. Sasuke had to take time off work because it was getting closer and closer. Hiruzen had turned 2, Christmas and New years had passed and the new year hype was already gone. And baby girl Uchiha seemingly had no interest in being born. That or Tsunade wanted to drag this out on purpose. 'Any day now' seemed to be the theme.

Sasuke had their hospital bags packed and ready to go as well as a bag for Hiruzen who would stay with Naruto's parents during their hospital stay since they were expected to be there at least 4 days for monitoring. They had a list of everyone who needed to be contacted and the carseat was already in the SUV Sasuke had bought. They were just waiting on baby girl.

Naruto was making hospital trips daily. Every single day. Tsunade always gave them the same readings so the anxiety was building up. They planned a day out for the following week. She would be born before the 40 week mark but she was more than developed enough to be born. And Naruto and Sasuke both secretly cheered because it would be over.

Sasuke received a call from the office informing him he needed to come and sign a few documents in person leaving Naruto and Hiruzen home for a few hours. Not even 20 minutes into Sasukes departure, Naruto felt a horrible pain. Which was odd since he shouldn't feel ANY pain from going into labor. But it was definitely bad enough to call 911 and his grandmother and text Sasuke. Naruto chanted fuck over and over again while taking deep and very steady breathes. Naruto inhaled slowly through his nose until the paramedics arrived and they headed to the hospital. Tsunade met them right at the ER and began running diagnostics immediately making sure the baby was ok.

Another doctor came in to help monitor Naruto who described feeling his baby move and a super sharp pain in his right side developing immediately. Sasuke who had gotten said text message after parking at work headed home immediately and arrived at the hospital about an hour later.

"Is everything ok? Is the baby ok? Is Naruto ok? Where is Hiruzen?" Sasuke fired off imediately.

"Baby fine, Naruto in pain and Hiruzen in hospital daycare." Tsunade shot back using an ultrasound machine to check the sack and the baby.

The other doctor came in once Tsunade cleared the baby and felt the area Naruto was experiencing pain in. Sasuke held his hand and cringed seeing Naruto in that much pain.

"Well, I do believe your daughter just broke your rib." The doctor said almost bored.

Sasuke and Naruto slowly looked up at the doctor.

"We can go ahead and confirm with an x-ray and we will need to make sure no fragments damaged your organs but this does happen every now and then though its rare. Baby does a big stretch and can break, bruise or fracture a rib."

"You little demonic baby." Naruto whispered.

Sasuke let go of a breathe he had been holding on way too long. "Can we go ahead and get her out now please? I don't think I can survive that amount of stress twice in such a short amount of time." Sasuke said pleading with Tsunade.

"I suggest we call everyone and get the operating room ready. I don't think we need Naruto to be down another rib." Tsunade said with a small smile.

-

Sasuke called everyone and his family got their plane tickets booked, Kushina came over and got Hiruzen to at least watch him at the hospital and take him home if things dragged on too long. She wanted to be there for Naruto, but she knew it wasn't fair to make Hiruzen wait if it took forever. Naruto got his x-ray and it was a fracture so after the baby and the equipment were out he was getting a band to wear around the rib. Naruto got all set and ready for the c-section and was just waiting for his lower half to go numb. Sasuke got changed into some scrubs and Naruto thought he looked kind of sexy. He almost wanted to keep them for role playing. But he wasn't sure if they could or were going to get covered in all sorts of nasty fluids.

They wheeled him into the operating room and Minato shouted "Good luck!" to them getting the thumbs up from Naruto and Tsunade. Sasuke for his part, wasn't sure what to do so he kept walking. They got in and set up the curtain and Sasuke knelt down keeping his eyes on Naruto. Occasionally brushing some hair out of the way and just talking in general. Tsunade for her party informed them of what was going on without actually saying anything. Sasuke didn't dare get up. If he did he for sure was going to either puke or faint.

"I can't believe this is happening." Naruto said with a very faint smile.

"I can't believe our newborn fractured your rib. You still think you could fight me?" Sasuke said with a lazy smirk.

"Shut up." Naruto said with a laugh.

Naruto felt no pain but he did feel pressure in certain areas. It was an odd sort of feeling. Naruto was so caught up in how odd it felt that he missed hearing "She's out" but did hear her cry and wasn't surprised when Sasuke stood and looked over in that direction.

Sasuke saw a lot of blood. Forcing his eyes to that specific sound though he saw a baby getting carried over to a little table to get checked out. Naruto felt the grip on his hand tighten and tried to encourage his husband to go over and inspect their baby.

"Go teme." Naruto said with a whisper and Sasuke slowly let go and walked over to the table to look over her. The nurses didn't seem very keen on wanting another person to be over there, but they didn't voice their opinion since Sasuke wasn't touching her. Probably counting every toe and finger and making sure the nurses handled her with absolute care. Naruto smirked as he was informed that he was being sewn up.

Tsunade cleared the baby to be held and Sasuke immediately got her up in his arms and walked her over to Naruto and he carefully placed a kiss on top of her head.

"This was worth it." Naruto said looking up at them.

"She's beautiful." Sasuke said with a slight break in his voice and one tear came rolling down his cheek.

Naruto thought back to when Sasuke told him about Hiruzen being born and how drastically different it all was. Eventually Sasuke carefully placed her in Naruto's arms and they just stared down at her.

"We still don't have a name." Naruto whispered.

"Don't tell my mother that. We have four days to come up with something." Sasuke whispered back.

"You damn well know they will ask immediately."

"Shhhh, for now lets just enjoy our little girl." Sasuke said kissing Narutos temple.

It didn't exactly take long for Naruto to get wheeled into his own room and Sasuke to carry the baby there. Sasuke sat down in the recliner and curled up with his daughter in his arms when Kushina, Minato and Hiruzen came in. Kushina immediately went over to Naruto checking on him while Minato came over to inspect his grand daughter. Sasuke passed her over to him and Naruto watched as his mom looked torn between wanting to go snatch her or just enjoy seeing her husband hold a baby again. She chose watching Minato hold the baby while rubbing Naruto's neck. Sasuke picked Hiruzen up and pointed out his sister to him and Minato brought her to Hiruzen's level. He didn't seem too interested in her and more interested in telling his dad all about the toy "Gamma Kushi" brought him.

After Kushina and Minato left with Hiruzen, Sasuke resumed holding her while Naruto rested. He changed her first diaper as well remembering how disgusting that dark fluid was but quickly got rid of it and wrapped her back up and resumed sitting in the recliner with her until he heard the unmistakeable sound that was his mother squealing. He looked at his watch at saw visiting hours would be over in 3 minutes. But he supposed 3 minutes was more than enough time for his mother to meet her new grand daughter.

Mikoto rounded the door with Itachi, Kisame, Tegan and Fugaku in tow and scooped her up from Sasuke's arms and brought her into her own.

"She's so small! Look at her!" She beamed down at the baby. Sasuke let out a massive yawn and was surprised when Itachi droppeda bag food into his lap.

"There's also food for Naruto as well." Itachi said with a smirk.

"Thanks Itachi." Sasuke said opening the bag and pulling out the fries. He watched as his daughter got passed around along with Tegan which was entertaining to say the least. After Mikoto got her back the nurse informed them they had to leave and could come back the following morning. Instead of handing her back Mikoto put the baby down in her bassinet next to Naruto and gave Sasuke a look he remembered from his childhood- 'finish your food or else' glare.

He ended up eating the entire contents of the bag before setting the recliner into the bed position and falling asleep.

Naruto woke up during the night to the nurse changing his IV. The room smelled like stale fast food but he couldn't really pin point it. He saw his husband asleep on the makeshift bed and his daughter bundled and sleeping in her bassinet. he carefully shuffled over and peeked at her noting she was breathing and seemed content. He went back to sleep only to wake up to her crying about an hour later and he watched in almost utter fascination as Sasuke seemed to rise from the dead and walk over to her picking her up and sitting on the bed with Naruto. She began to calm down but Sasuke set her down and changed her diaper once more before handing her off to Naruto and making a bottle with formula using warm water.

Sasuke handed Naruto the bottle with a yawn and watched as he put the bottle to her lips. After a small struggle she eventually got the hang of it and drank some of it. Sasuke rubbed her back and burped her afterwards.

"Thank goodness you have this down pat teme. I can look to you for guidance."

"Hn." Was the response. She settled down right about when the nurse walked in to check on them.

"He's a pro. He's got this." Naruto said with a cheeky grin as Sasuke swaddled her and handed her to Naruto.

"Let me know when you want me to put her back in okay?" Sasuke said before laying back down.

"Mkay teme." Naruto said.

Morning rolled around and Naruto woke up realizing his daughter was asleep on op of his chest just as the sun lit up the room.

"Oops." Naruto whispered.

He checked and made sure she was ok and after deeming her 100% pulled the bassinet over to him and set her inside before carefully sliding her back to were the bassinet was originally.

It didn't take long for Sasuke to wake up after that and go to the bathroom. He washed his hands and Naruto got a glimpse of a fast food bag.

"That fucker." Naruto said glaring at the bag.

Sasuke came out and looked at Naruto and the baby confused.

"I don't remember putting her back last night." Sasuke said walking over and getting the diaper and wipes pulled out."

"The nurse did it. She came in to check on us and you were already out cold." Naruto replied hopefully sounding convincing.

"Hm." Sasuke replied while undoing the swaddling and changing her.

Not even a moment had passed before Mikoto was walking through the door followed by the rest of the family and Naruto's parents.

"Ok. So, I was so excited I forgot to ask yesterday. But what name did you end up going with?" Mikoto asked with her hands clasped together and an expectant smile.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a moment of "Oh shit."

"You do have a name picked out don't you?" Kushina said with a eyebrow twitch forming.

"Of course we do!" Naruto began.

"It's a very good name too." Sasuke followed.

"Yes, we put tons of thought into it." Naruto continued.

Itachi began shaking his head from side to side.

Kisame slowly smiled.

Fugaku hung his head.

Mikoto dropped her smile.

Kushina crossed her arms.

Minato seized the moment- "How is Mieko doing? That's the name you guys were thinking of when I asked last time. Or did you change your mind. Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed but I thought it was very fitting." He finished with a goofy grin and scratching the back of his head.

Naruto and Sasuke ran with it. It was a very befitting name for an Uchiha.

"She's doing wonderful. Only woke up once last night."

Everyone except Itachi and Kisame seemed to buy it.

The grandparents went to get coffee for everyone while Itachi held his new niece.

"Seriously? You two didn't have a name?" Kisame asked with a smile.

"We couldn't think of one..." Naruto said with a grimace

"Yeah... Mieko is actually a really good name though. I like it." Sasuke said looking at his daughter.

"Sometimes it's best to wait until you meet them." Itachi said looking over at Tegan. "Her birthmother chose her name and we kept it. It suited her, we just changed the last name to Uchiha-Hoshigaki"

-

A few days passed and Naruto was able to stiffly walk out of the hospital. He refused to be taken out with a wheel chair. Sasuke carried Mieko out in the car seat and they climbed into the SUV. Kushina was at their house with Hiruzen when they got there and the four of them sat down in the living room together as a family of four.

"This is nice." Naruto said with a smile seeing Sasuke holding Mieko and Hiruzen 'showing' her his toys. He didn't realize she was asleep.

It was picture perfect.