Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Author's Note: You can consider this as a sequel from my fiction 'Love Comes As You Least Expected It'. And all of you reading this will need to know that Gaara's demon, Shukaku, has become a guardian to Gaara because Gaara once saved him from the demon who chibified him. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I wanted to write this fiction so badly. By the way, if you want to see what Shukaku looks like in this fiction, e-mail me and I will send you the picture.
All of the characters are 10 years older than their current ages in the manga.
I want to thanks Naruke for being my beta-reader. If it wasn't for her, this fiction won't be as nice as it is now. Thanks.
It all happened too fast. I didn't know what to do. When Naruto brought me to the clinic, when I fainted, I knew I was…..pregnant.
Hinata exited the doctor's office only to be assailed by a curious and worried Naruto. Hinata wished fervently that she wasn't pregnant. What would her father say? What would everyone think? The father of this child was not even in Konoha. She couldn't decide what her next move should be. First things first: she had to answer Naruto's question.
"Naruto-kun, I'm...um...pregnant." Naruto was dumbstruck. He scratched the back of his head and let out a long sigh.
"Hinata-chan, who's the father?"
"He didn't mean to do this to me." She vainly tried to explain herself. Naruto let out a harsh bark of laughter.
"Does he know...about..." He gesticulated toward her stomach. "This?"
"No, he...He's not in Konoha right now. And he won't be coming back until he finishes some business."
"Hinata-chan, I just want to know. Who's the father?"
"It's your best friend….Gaara-kun."
Naruto stood, shocked, for a moment. His mouth opened and closed like a gawping fish, and he managed to squeak out "What?"
Later
"HOW COULD GAARA DO THIS TO YOU?! What a wuss! Only an idiot would leave a pregnant woman behind!." Naruto screeched, caught up in his so-called righteous anger.
"Naruto-kun, please!" She shifted from one foot to the other awkwardly. "You can't tell anyone about this! My father, my sister, my whole family, and especially Gaara can't know about this."
"Even Gaara? But why?! Why shouldn't Gaara know about this? HE'S the one that got you this way!"
"Because Gaara went back to Sunakagure to take his place as the next Kazekage! It would ruin his image!"
Naruto paused for a moment at this, but barreled on."Well, why not stop him from going? He can take it! He's not an irresponsible blood-thirsty freak anymore!" Naruto sighed and added softly, "He probably won't go if you tell him to stay."
"Naruto, you don't understand! I'm the one who told him to go! He wanted to stay, but I told him to go."
"Why the hell'd you do that for?"
"I wanted him to fulfill his dream."
Naruto looked at her strangely. "Dream?"
"It is his dream to rebuild the Sunagakure after what that demon did to it."
Naruto laughed sheepishly."Yeah, Sunagakure was a mess after we fought the demon..."
"I...I like him a lot...I mean, I love him, but I could never stand in the way of his dream. That would hurt him too much..." Hinata confessed, staring at her feet in embarrassment. Absentmindedly, she placed a hand on her stomach.
Naruto watched her for a time and did not speak. There was a tense silence between the two. Naruto thought back to when he first met Gaara of the Desert. He was a total jerk and a pain in the butt. He had a problem with blood and the full moon; Dosu died because of that. But the red-haired Sand Nin had changed drastically since they were twelve. Now he lived to protect the people of his village and those close to him. Naruto laughed inwardly. He prided himself on being the main reason why Gaara had changed so much.
Then he remembered their first battle with the formidible Wolf Demon. They had those irritating scars that the demon had bestowed upon them. Their predicament got even worse when Naruto and Gaara's demons rebelled against their vessels because they believed that they could escape. But they had been decieved, for the demon was lying. Shukaku was left without any chakra and turned into a small tanuki. It was then that Gaara realized that he needed to save his demon because, since the moment he was born, it had been Shukaku who shielded him from everything. He came to grips with the fact that all of the emotional trauma he had gone through as a child was not Shukaku's doing, but actually his father's. It was a long story, but Shukaku managed to regain his power. Slowly, the tanuki demon changed. No longer was he the fearsome, blood-thirsty berserker demon. His appearance, instead of being that of a snarling badger, resembled a human. Shukaku now resides inside Gaara's leaf necklace, for he had deserted the gourd in favor of a nicer abode.
Naruto closed his eyes and rested his head against the tree he was leaning on. Hinata was still standing there, blushing and muttering things to herself. "It's getting dark, Hinata-chan. I'll walk you to your house, okay?" Hinata nodded, and they began tread the familiar path back to Konoha.
'Gaara,' Naruto thougt. 'I will protect her in your stead because I owe you a lot.' He chuckled lightly. He couldn't even begin to fathom the infamous Gaara as a father.
Five months later
Hinata's swelling stomach was clearly visible now. She tried to hide it with a genjutsu whenever she goes out. It used up a lot of of her stamina and chakra, but Naruto was always beside her, telling her to hold for just a few more minutes.. He would buy her food, help her clean her apartment, and volunteered to go fetch the things she craved, even if they were really weird. Every time Hiashi, Hinata's father, cames to visit her, they had a hard time making him believe that nothing was out of the ordinary with her. Hinata was terrified that Hiashi would find out about Hinata's secret.
When Hinata was seven months into her pregnancy, her father finally realized what she was trying so hard to hide.
Hinata was cleaning her house. She never used the jutsu when she was at home. This turned out to be her undoing, as her father had decided to give his oldest daughter an impromptu visit.
A loud knock made Hinata start. She walked slowly to the door and opened it. "Naruto, you're-" Hinata stop talking, her mouth hanging open in surprise. ''F-father?" She tried to hide her obvious bulk, but Hiashi had already taken the initiative. He drag her to the Main House, quaking with some pent-up emotion.
Naruto went to Hinata's apartment but he couldn't find the Hyuuga anywhere. Judging by the open door, she must have left in a hurry, he thought. But where would she have gone in such a rush?
Naruto pounded down the bustling streets as fast as he could, asking every person he met if they had seen the pale-eyed girl.
When no one seemed to know where she was, he panicked and searched harder. He ran on blithely until he knocked over an unsuspecting person. He began to apologize profusely until he realized that his victim had been the stoic Uchiha.
"Sasuke," Naruto panted. "Have you...seen Hinata...anywhere?" He bent over, trying fruitlessly to regain his breath.
"Yeah."
"Then tell me!" cried the irate kitsune. Sasuke beckoned with one slender finger. "This way."
At The Hyuuga Mansion
Naruto and Sasuke reached the mansion to find Hinata bowing to her clan. Neji was standing with his wife, looking rather forlorn. Hanabi stood on the other side of Neji. She wanted to help her older sister, but her father had strictly forbidden her from doing so. All she could do was try and communicate her sympathy with her eyes.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted as he walked in front of Hinata. Hiashi shot him a get-out-of-my-sight glare.
Sasuke promptly smacked the blonde upside his head. "Show some respect, dobe." Before Naruto could retaliate, Hiashi asked Naruto the question that burned in everyone's mind: "Do you know who the father of this child is?"
Everyone stared at Naruto, waiting expectantly for an answer. Sasuke released his grip on Naruto's wrist. The blonde strode right up to Hiashi and looked him square in the eyes. His cerulean eyes challenged the other's pale eyes.
"I, Uzumaki Naruto, am the father of that child and you ain't gonna do nothing about it."
Everyone was shocked to hear something so brazenly disrespectful, even though it was Naruto. Neji glared at the Uzumaki reproachfully, and Sasuke raised a dark eyebrow in amusement.
Hiashi was utterly disgusted. "Neji, dispose of this heathen creature."
Neji took a step forward, and there he stopped. "No. He is a good friend. I won't kill him."
Hiashi scowled. "Very well. I will kill him myself." He summoned his Byakugan and assumed a fighting stance, as did Naruto.
It was a heated battle. The Rasengan versus the Gentle Fist. Naruto was completely exhausted, but Hiashi was still raring to go. With bone-cracking punch, Hiashi sent Naruto crashing to the ground, blood and spittle flying from his mouth. As Hiashi stepped towards Naruto to finish him off, a barrier of sand around Naruto halted his progress.
"Touch him again and die, Hyuuga." Everyone looked at the source of the voice: a man in a kage uniform. Hinata sucked in a breath. Hanabi looked at her strangely. "The Kazekage!" Hinata breathed.
"Gaara!" Naruto croaked, struggling vainly to get to his feet. He collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily from the effort. He grinned. "Took you long enough...asshole..."
A ghost of a smile flickered across the Kazekage's face. "Thank you for all you have done, Naruto."
"No sweat, dude...Ouch! Watch where you poke me, ya bastard!" Sasuke ignored his comrade's feeble protests and hauled him bodily to his feet. "Ow! Can't you be a little nicer to an injured hero?"
Sasuke half-dragged half-carried Naruto in the direction of the hospital. "Hero? Whatever, dobe."
Hiashi spat at Gaara. "Move, brat, or I'll kill you too!"
Gaara looked coolly down his nose at the enraged Hyuuga. "I won't move. I am the father of Hinata's child, and I alone will take the responsibility for it."
Everyone was dumbstruck. First Naruto claimed that he was the father, and now Gaara! Who was the real father?
To Be Continued
Pandora: If any of you wants to see how Shukauku looks like now, you can send me an e-mail and then I will send it to you.