(A/N: Quick apology to everyone who was waiting for this chapter; as we all know, the sitehas been down off and on for the past week, which was when I was going to wait til to update this, so I could coincide it with the "And the Beat Goes On" update.
Thanks for over 125 reviews!
As I said last chapter: This is the FINAL CHAPTER.
It doesn't answer all questions, so IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, please feel free to E-MAIL me (e-mail on my bio page) OR REVIEW and LEAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS so I can get back to you.
Or, you can all be very evil and yell at me and such and demand a new chapter: an epilogue.
Again, thanks for all the reviews!
Nicola DEE: A cliffhanger? That? Oy. . .I don't even remember what I wrote, how can I comment?
KageKitsune16: lol Indeed, you can't just let a guy like Sasuke die. XD My friends would kill me (they're all Sasuke fangirls. Scary.)
artemis347: I'm glad you're enjoying the fic!
jadetiger: That it could have. As for the questions you asked, you'll just have to find out. . .
Mistress Ethereal: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. The title actually came from a chapter title from one of my other fics and has a sort of double meaning: Fair, as in a fair or an event - A Fair of Torture; the other meaning is contradictory: Torture isn't very nice, but 'fair' can mean just that. If you really think about it, there's a third meaning: we say something is 'fair' or 'unfair', and torture isn't all too fair, when you think about it.
Sugahlei: I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
Melrose Stormhaven: I'm glad you're enjoying the story; I think you'll be pleased with this chapter, or at least specific events in it.
ManicReversed: lol We all like it when we're right. And you shall wait no longer!
Spectre: Happy birthday! I'm glad you're enojying the story!
Elk: I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying the story so much, and that you preserveered with it, even though you didn't enjoy the first chapter!
Kansou: I'm glad you're enjoying the story! As for the kitsune-jins, I do mean something new entirely, not demons or half-breeds or shapeshifters, but thanks for the definitions!
Kaiyo No Hime: I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the story! I hope you were okay after your ordeal in the desert!
arora: I'm glad you're enjoying the : Thank you very much. Writing professionally is what I want to do, but I've got a back-up plan just in case that doesn't work out. Thanks for the vote of confidence, though!
Yuen-chan: Well, you see, you set your fingers to the keyboard and type 'the end'. Just kidding. It's not a solid, concrete be-all-end-all type ending, which is how I managed to 'tie it up' in this last chapter.
viciouscallisto: I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
Suna no Gaara: Part of the reason this is so 'short' is that I already have a fic that's 30 chapters long (and still going) and is about 17 pages long per chapter. It takes me about four hours, non-stop to write a new chapter for that, and when I sat down to write this, I had the fact I didn't want to go on and on and on forever with it in mind. But I will consider an epilogue for this, if some of you are insistent. . .I'm glad you're enjoying the fic!
Baka possessed Neko: Oh my! Candy and ramen and brownies?! Unfortunately, I can't eat any of that. . .accursed wisdom teeth. Sorry about the long wait for the update! I'm glad you enjoyed the story!
penguiin: No nail-biting! Here's the next chapter; sorry about the delay!
Amei: Here is the update! After a long delay ::mumble mumble:: Enjoy!
And now, on with the fic!)
Chapter 12: Wicked Winter Winds
The end was near.
At least, that was what Uchiha Itachi believed, as he lay on the bed, having been in agonizing pain since early that morning, before the sun had even dared to shine.
It did not sit well with the Uchiha to wake so early, in so much pain. The sheets tangled about his body, which was slick and sticky with sweat. His bangs stuck to his forehead, and into his eyes.
He panted and clutched at the blankets, as another wave of pain rolled over him and broke, causing him to cry out. His voice was already run ragged, and he felt sore all over, as if he'd been run over by a rampaging horse.
The baby was two months early.
At first, he'd passed it off as a simple false alarm, because he couldn't nearly be ready to go into labour yet; it simply wasn't possible.
But as time passed, and the pain got worse, it became more and more plausible that the baby was being born, ready for the world or not.
The sun had already crept into the sky by the time he'd figured that he should go and see someone with medical training, and by that point, he was panicky, because he'd never, ever felt pain like that before.
He'd been asking questions at first - what were the chances of the baby surviving? What were the chances it would die? Was there something wrong with him? Was there going to be something wrong with the baby?
Nobody could really answer him, and now, Temari was the only one in the room with him, and he felt so shy and stupid, because he couldn't do anything but what she said, but he didn't want to - he wanted her not to see him like this.
Kabuto was a medic, that was true enough, but he had not been trained in delivering babies and things like that. Temari, on the other hand, had, and she was the only one suited to be there with him now.
He tried to keep his mind blank, tried to just focus on what he had to do, focus on the pain, just to keep himself grounded, and not bother with all the other stuff floating around in his head, making his brain feel like soup.
Why? Why, why, why? Why was the baby so early? Why did it hurt so much?
He needed to shut his mind up, he needed to shut it down. He needed to not think, but act on instinct, like he usually did, because everything came naturally to Uchiha Itachi.
Well, not quite everything anymore.
He hadn't been quite sure how he'd deal with being a mother, for mothers were supposed to be gentle and kind, and he vaguely remembered his own to be that way, and he was nothing like that. He was brash, bold, and uncaring of the world.
Now, it looked like he didn't have to deal with that, but he had to deal with loss, the loss of something that could have been precious to him, could have perhaps kept him alive a little longer, because if he was important to the baby, and the baby was important to Orochimaru, then Orochimaru wouldn't dare send him away.
He had to deal with everything else that had happened to him. He wasn't made to do this, he wasn't made to play the woman, not at all. His body still seemed wired like a male's, even if he did know, for sure now, that this curse actually existed.
Another push, another strain, another wave of pain forcing the breath up out of his lungs.
How long was this going to last? How long could he put up with this stinging pain?
Temari's voice was in his ear, telling him to do something, but he couldn't think of what he was supposed to do, he couldn't understand her. It was as if she was speaking a whole different language.
Push, his body told him, so he did. It was the only sensible thing to do, it was the only way he could stop the pain, it was the only way.
Temari was gone now, and the pain was relaxing, everything was relaxing, like his tired body, and there was a tiny, feeble cry, barely loud enough to reach past the hazy fog in his head.
It was over, it was over now, this was the end.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The wagon rolled over the endless sand dunes, up one side, then down the other, and then up again. It was almost as if they were at sea, and the water was sand, and the waves were dunes. It was making Sasuke sea-sick, because he didn't think you could get sand-sick.
The winds had died down since the day before, and there was only a fine layer of dust in the air as they went on. He was silent in the corner, and nobody said anything to him, and he said nothing to anybody, because he couldn't understand them and they couldn't understand him.
It worked out.
At long last, the desert sands started to fade away, into a memory behind them, and hardy grasses sprung up in its place, and gradually gave way to the softer grasses that he had known back home.
Home. He wondered which direction they were travelling in. Were they taking him toward Konoha, or further away from it? He couldn't be sure. He wondered, absently, how long he'd been gone. A month, two?
He couldn't be sure, because nobody had ever informed him when he had arrived in Suna, and he was left to separate the days, not by numbers and dates, but by 'yesterday' and 'today.'
Thinking soon wore a hole in his head, from running about in circles, and he decided to lay himself down and rest while he could.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Naruto looked at Hinata, who sat, with her head down, blushing so hard that he thought she might explode due to the massive amount of blood in her face. She could not look him in the eye this morning, and he knew why.
He was stopping this, before it got too out of hand, before it became another scandal, because he already had one too many of those.
She thought it was her, that she had done something wrong to displease him, but no, that wasn't the case. She had been so warm, so gentle and he'd felt so alive while he was in her arms, that he'd nearly forgotten the frigid cold his heart had become encased in since Sasuke had gone.
Hinata had been so warm and welcoming to him. She had accepted everything he did, without question, and with praise, and she cooed at him and held him when they were through, and he'd been content to stay like that, just forever, because Hinata, though she did not possess strength of any physical merit, could protect him and would protect him from the world outside.
But no, they couldn't stay like that, for fear of getting caught, and the relationship was not pure, because of the fear, because of the thrill of the fear. Kiba might catch on, he might smell someone else on his wife, and then, they'd be caught. Sakura might figure it out, she was brilliant, Naruto couldn't deny, and then, they'd be caught.
It had to stop.
And there was another reason. He loved her, he truly did, but it was more of an awkward love, as one loves a sister or a brother and grudgingly admits it, though not too often and more through actions than words. And the one he truly loved was going to return to him and bear his child.
It ended here, and he told her so, and when she sat down and looked so hurt, he had wanted to explain, so tenderly why, and explain until she understood, and just talk the night away, explaining uselessly to her, until she finally saw the light, in the morning.
But he couldn't, because that coldness was seeping back into him, and it wouldn't truly go away until Sasuke returned to him, his bed, and his arms.
He didn't want to hurt her, oh, he didn't! She was too sweet and gentle to be hurt, and she was so fragile that she looked like she might break. There were tears in her eyes, oh no, he'd hurt her and he'd made her cry.
But he did want to hurt her. He had wanted to hurt her from the moment he took this up, because you did not sneak around with someone unless you were trying to hurt them, because you knew that after you were caught, the thrill was over, and that was all there had been there for you anyways, an adrenaline rush that suddenly didn't exist any longer.
He left her, like he'd been left, and he went away to let her become as cold as he. Somehow, though, he doubted she'd ever be as cold as he, for she just wasn't like that; she couldn't be cold, not ever, not in his mind at least. His memories would always remind him that she was warm and gentle, caring and kind, and for her to be anything else was utter heresy.
It had ended.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sakura wasn't speaking to Naruto, and he wasn't even attempting to talk to her, which suited her just fine.
He was bringing that damned human back, just to torment her! He thought it was funny to see her belittle herself in her head. He thought it was funny that a human boy could be so much more than a kitsune-jin noble woman.
She hated him for it, she hated that damn human with all her heart. He took away her chance to be something to someone, to be higher than everyone else. If she was acknowledged as that perfect thing to the prince, then she was higher than everyone else, on a pedestal so high, that it disappeared into the clouds.
But she was not that perfect thing. The human was, and that made her angry and sad all at once, and the two feelings meshed together until she wasn't sure how she should feel, what she felt.
It was all very confusing, but one thing was very clear. She hated him. It was like a needle in her mind.
Naruto was bringing him back, and he was going to cause hell in her world all over again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Gaara was conversing with one of the men, who came monthly, to deliver their saleable items to the proprietor of this little business. They were farmers from the far side of Suna, who grew and collected and made whatever he wanted to sell, or other drug dealers wanted for that matter.
He'd been dealing with these folks for about a year now, he mused, and what they brought was always pure and good, of the highest quality. He liked it, but he was the only one who could speak to them, for they spoke a strange language, that neither the kitsune-jins of Konoha, nor the humans natively spoke.
Gaara, being the intuitive fellow he was, had quickly picked up on it and learned the language well enough to speak with them and deal with them.
That wasn't what held his attention right now though.
There, just down on the street, part of the little caravan was helping someone out of their creaky old wagon - he supposed they'd need a new one soon, but with the money they had, why did they not already have one? - and it looked to be a human. More specifically, it looked to be a human boy, one he would have called by the name Uchiha Sasuke.
The man he was talking to looked back over his shoulder to see what he was staring at. "Oh, that," he sighed, still speaking in his curious dialect. "We found that on our way here."
Gaara nodded, then said, also speaking that strange language, "What do you want for him?"
The farmer shrugged. "You can have him. We don't want him. He is human after all," he sneered, then looked at Gaara, as if half-apologizing. "He isn't much good the way he is," he continued.
Gaara nodded, noting now how the formerly skeletal whore had rounded out substantially. Still, Sasuke had a tab to finish paying off and he was bound bent and determined to get it.
Sasuke, meanwhile, was starting to think that this street looked entirely too familiar for his own comfort. He stretched his limbs as best he could, walking around a bit. It felt good to move, because there wasn't much room in the wagon, so he'd been in the same cramped position that he had assumed when they'd started that day's travels.
He yawned and stretched some more, then turned about, looking around. And his heart skipped a beat, and sunk in terrible realization.
He knew exactly where he was now. Gaara stared at him with wide green eyes and he could only stare back, shock making him feel numb all over. He was back here, they were going to, oh god, no. . .
Well, at least he could get his scarf back. Maybe.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Neji returned to the shoddy little apartment on Fourth Street that he co-rented with Gaara, his business partner. He had gone and made the rounds today and collected the fees that were due, while Gaara stayed behind and waited for the 'shipment'. Gaara was the only one who could talk to their suppliers.
Yes, he and Gaara made a healthy living off the other humans in the area, because they'd been smart enough not to be the victims, but the predators. They were drug-dealers, and they did a damn fine business.
He walked into the apartment, and the first thing he noticed, was that all the lights had been dimmed and put out. He was on the alert immediately. Was this a trap? He was lucky that the last time the Special Forces - damn kitsune-jins - had been in, they hadn't seemed to notice anything else, except their prize.
Maybe they'd been tailing them for a while now? Had they gotten Gaara?
No, there was the green-eyed bastard sitting in the kitchen, head bowed, some sinister smirk scribbled all over his features. Neji glared at him and turned on one of the lights.
"What the hell are you doing here, sitting in the dark?"
The other human just kept smirking. "I. . .was going for a dramatic effect," he said, laughing a little.
Neji was on edge. Gaara did not laugh, he did not smirk. Was this some sort of trick? Could the Special Forces' officers transform, or use a corpse as a puppet, or something?
Gaara looked him in the eye, and the look was that of a psychotic homicidal freak. "Why don't you take a look in the bedroom?" he asked, his face nearly splitting in two as the maniac grin grew in size.
Neji backed away nervously and nodded, fleeing to the relative safety of the bedroom. He shut the door, locking it against Gaara, who, he was afraid, had lost his mind and was on the verge of another bloody killing spree.
He turned around, hearing something in the room move. He stared blankly, and blinked several times in disbelief. There was that Uchiha whore, sitting on the bed in front of him, wrapped in nothing more than a flimsy sheet.
He stared. Since when had Sasuke been back in Konoha? Last he'd heard, through the grapevine was that he'd been sold to some kitsune-jin in Suna.
The other human blushed and tried to hide, though it really was too late for that, because Neji had already seen him. The white-eyed boy's eyes darted about the room, and he noticed the shreds of clothing scattered all over the room.
"Gaara!" he called, through the door. "What the hell did you do to him?!"
The green-eyed boy, replied very calmly from the other side of the door, "Nothing much."
Neji shuddered at the smoothness of his psychotic business partner's voice, and wondered how he'd managed to get so close to the door without him hearing. The floorboards squeaked and groaned with ever step he took.
Gaara had more to say, because he kept talking. "I wouldn't do much to him. Do you know how much he's worth? That Suna bastard paid a lot of fucking money for him."
Neji stayed silent.
"I heard that the prince wants him back. He's willing to pay twice the money that Suna bastard did, to get him back. Do you know how much money that is?"
Neji said nothing, but he looked at Sasuke, scrutinising the boy. He could not, no matter how hard he tried, put a price tag on him.
Gaara laughed, a bit more of that chortling psychotic sound he'd made in the kitchen. "He's worth twice sixty thousand to the prince. Twice sixty thousand!"
Neji stared. "Twice...sixty thousand?" he mumbled, unable to believe that such a thing drove such a price.
Gaara chuckled some more. "And do you know why he's driving that price? Do you?"
Neji shook his head, though he knew Gaara couldn't see.
"He's pregnant," Gaara said with a dry laugh.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The night was crisp and bitter, like the winter always should be. The stars hung low in the sky, bright and vivid. His breath rose into the air, and he watched it, because it was like a column of smoke rising from him.
He was on duty, for the first time in a month or so. It felt good, at least to him, even in the burning cold, to be running through the snow in the night, like he used to, before all of this began.
It felt so good to do this again. He was on the hunt, he was on the prowl. The world had better watch out, because Uzumaki Naruto was back on the job, rounding up the perpetrators of crimes again.
It seemed like something out of an action novel, or something.
He leapt from rooftop to rooftop, sending up snow crystals when he landed, when he took off, and they glittered behind him, like a trail of crushed starlight.
He came to a rather abrupt halt, just on the corner of Fourth Street, nearly sending himself from the building he was sitting upon right then and there. Someone was standing down there, looking up at the night sky. No, looking up at him. Green eyes stared at him angrily, as if they'd been waiting for him.
Silently, like a shadow, he leapt from the building, landing in the snow with practised ease. He got up from his crouched position, and looked at the green-eyed creature before him.
He was a human, no doubt, with flaming red hair and green eyes that burnt into his soul and mind. He nearly shuddered, because the human's demeanour was colder than the winter's night they were standing in.
They said nothing for a moment or two, and then, the shorter said, quietly, "Good of you to come, Uzumaki Naruto."
The blond kitsune-jin narrowed his eyes. "Who are you and what do you want?" he demanded. He jumped straight to the point. He wasn't about to play games with this one.
The human closed his eyes and chuckled lightly. "I'm Gaara, not that it will matter much to you. But for now, I'd like to bargain with you. I have something that you want."
Naruto's eyes narrowed even more, becoming dangerous slits. "What could you possibly have that I want?" he snorted.
Gaara smirked, and that expression was as icy as the wind. "Ah, I have a certain human, my dear prince. One that you wish to pay twice sixty thousand for."
Naruto's eyes widened in horror, and hope. "You mean?" he breathed, feeling choked as the winter air bore down on him.
Gaara lifted his gaze and motioned, to someone, something. Naruto turned himself about, positioning his body so that he was half-way between the newcomer and Gaara, should either of them decide to attack.
Blank white eyes, so similar to Hinata's, stared out of the darkness at him, and dark eyes he knew so well averted their gaze and melded with the shadows.
"Sasuke," he whispered, as if afraid this was an illusion and to call him by name would shatter it.
Gaara's voice cut through the nighttime air, murmuring, "Hyuuga Neji and I are business partners. And this little beauty owes us a wager of ten thousand."
Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion, searching Sasuke's face for the answers, which never readily came. He could see shame and embarrassment there, but not much more. A cold hand was laid upon his shoulder and he looked at Gaara, who was still smirking.
"He owes us ten thousand," the human boy repeated. "He owes us ten thousand for the drugs."
Naruto blanched. "You're. . .drug dealers," he hissed, turning a bit to look Gaara in the eye.
The red-head smirked and nodded. "That's right."
Gaara brushed by him, joining Neji and Sasuke. Naruto growled when the red-head placed a hand on Sasuke's face, pulling the boy's chin up, making him look at him. "We were going to have him work off his debt, but as you can see, nobody would want him now."
He patted Sasuke's swollen stomach, with a dry laugh. Sasuke blushed and looked away violently. Gaara looked back at the prince. "Nobody would pay for this one now, except you, prince."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What are you driving at?" he snarled.
Gaara was walking back his way now. "Here's the deal, kitsune-jin," he sneered. "We give you the whore, you give us the money and we disappear into the darkness."
"I should have you arrested for selling illegal substances!" Naruto hollered, jabbing an accusing finger in the direction of the two.
Gaara held up his hands in an act of innocence. "By all means, prince, do just that. But..."
He made a quick hand motion and Neji pulled a knife, pressing it against Sasuke's throat. The human made a soft noise of discomfort, but otherwise, stayed still.
"By the time you call your little Special Forces' friends, we can have him dead and be gone."
Gaara took a step forward. "Isn't it just simpler to give us the money? Then we can all go back to our happy, meaningless little lives."
Naruto didn't look at him. He grit his teeth and looked at the ground, as if the snow held the answers.
"Fine," he said at last.
Gaara grinned. "I knew you'd see it our way."
Neji put the knife away, and turned, leading Sasuke away. Gaara turned about also, saying, "Have the money for tomorrow, ten o'clock sharp. If you don't, then the whore gets it, ah?"
Naruto stood there, in the snow for a moment, dumbfounded, then coming back to himself, dashed ahead, yelling, "Hey! Wait! Where will you be?"
Gaara grinned. "Oh, I'm not giving you an address. You're a kitsune-jin, right? You figure that out."
He kept walking, leaving Naruto puzzled and confused.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Naruto was pacing his room, thinking. Sakura, whom he had woken when he'd returned home, was watching him, her eyes angry with righteous anger. Who wouldn't be pissed off if they were woken at two a.m. by their husband, who proceeded to pace the floor, and think, trying to figure out how he was supposed to get his pregnant bed slave back?
"Think like a fox," he grumbled, and Sakura's eyes followed him as he went.
Yume yipped, not liking to be kept up any more than Sakura, apparently. Naruto looked at the fox kit, then grinned widely and dove onto the bed, picking her up. "Yume!" he cheered.
The fox started and bit him, jumping clear as he threw her in surprise and shock. Sakura rolled her eyes and finally spoke. "Naruto, just go to bed and get some sleep. Who cares if he dies? It's just another human being to go to the graveyard."
She crossed her arms and blew a stray bang out of her eyes. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her. "He's not just another human being! He's the mother of my child!"
Sakura looked pointedly at the ceiling, muttering, "Whatever. It's not like you can't have more."
Naruto flopped back onto the bed, mind still reeling. He did not need any distractions right now. "Think like a fox," he muttered again. "What can a fox do that a human can't do?"
Sakura smacked him over the head with her fist. "Duh! There are plenty of things that a fox can do that a human can't! Like, for instance, tracking. A fox can track its prey using scent -"
Naruto sat up bolt right. "Sakura!" he exclaimed, grabbing the girl into an embrace. "You're a genius!"
She blinked, then pushed him away, saying, "Why do you say that, stupid? And don't touch me."
Naruto grinned, having figured his little puzzle out. "A fox can track it's prey using the power of scent. Being kitsune-jin, we have a more powerful sense of smell, so we can pick up an idividual scent better. I'm supposed to sniff them out."
Sakura looked at him skeptically, then turned away, hunkering down in the blankets.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It was nearly nine o'clock, and Naruto was hot on the trail. The scent, he'd picked it up from their meeting place last night, and though, the footprints were too jumbled to follow, he had the scent clear in his mind.
With every step he took, it got heavier, strong. Gaara smelled like glacier water, something pure and clean, and almost tasteless. Neji smelt like an odd mixture of honey and rain. And Sasuke, though he usually smelt absolutely delicious, smelt like sweat, sex and sand.
It was easy enough to track, because the sand was so out of place. Sure, Konoha's slums smelt of sex and sweat, drugs and dirt, but the sand was just so different. The sand was so weird.
He looked up at the building, then started up the stairs, inside it, down a hallway. He paused outside each apartment, waiting for the scent to be overbearing. His fist tightened over the handle of the small sack he was carrying, the money sachet.
He paused, the looked at the door he was standing outside of. He knocked on it, unsure now, if he had got the clue right, because, this might have been the wrong apartment, this may not even be the right place, and it was already too late to go and start over again. He'd never find them in five minutes.
The door had no markings on it, aside from the lopsided brass 'three' on it. It pulled back and he looked down at Gaara, who smirked and gestured for him to come in.
The place was shoddy, and ill kempt. There was a rotting sofa, with the springs and stuffing sticking out of it, and garbage littered all about the room, and little packets of drugs, all ready to be shipped off to the paying customers.
And in that dark hole of decaying stuff, there was something beautiful, sprawled lazily across the sofa, looking worse for wear, and tired, and uncomfortable. He looked like he'd been gone for years, and Naruto felt as if he had been. They'd been apart for too long.
Absently, he put the money in the red-head human's hands, then walked over to the sofa, ready to claim his prize. Dark eyes looked up at him, and in a small, under-used voice, the human boy asked, "Why?"
Naruto licked his dry lips and tried to find something to say, but the words would not come. If this were one of the ten-cent romance novels the apothecary sold, he would have said, confidently, "Because I love you," and swept Sasuke away from this place.
But this wasn't so he didn't say that, but said, softly, "Let's go."
He took Sasuke by the hand and led him away from there, with no sweeping exits or anything of the sort. They just walked, like normal people did.
And though he couldn't say it with words, the time would come when he could, so for now, he entwined his hand with Sasuke's and gave that pale hand a good squeeze, indicating all the feelings that were running rampant in his heart right then.
And he noticed, from the corner of his eye, that Sasuke had scrubbed the back of his arm across his face viciously, but hadn't gotten rid of the tears streaming down his face.
The blond hugged him, held him, petted him and stroked him, like he'd wanted to for so long, since he'd left, and the poor human, he hugged back, and sobbed into Naruto's shirt, curling his fingers tightly about the fabric.
There was no admission of emotion from either of them, for they understood without words what they felt. Naruto's hand passed over the human's stomach, and he felt pride swelling in his chest, pride that this beautiful, brilliant creature, this human boy that he loved could do him the great honour of bearing his children.
And though people stared, and pointed, and mocked and were angry, Naruto did not care, because in the end, this was all that mattered.
In the end, the wild divisions of Konoha - the kitsune-jins, the humans, the rich, the poor, the uptight, the criminals - were conquered.
In the end, everything worked out right.
OWARII