Someone Worth Fighting For
By: Ernilriel
Disclaimers: I do not own Naruto, and I do not like western movies.
'Kyuubi' 'thoughts' "speech"
Chapter 6: A New Life Begins
Naruto shuffled down the street, the sun was setting. It was hard for him to concentrate because of his splitting headache. He was also worried; he was worried about how Sakura was doing without him.
Just then Naruto felt pressure behind his ear again and the world went black.
Naruto woke up with an even worse headache than before. He was in a strange room there were no doors or windows that he could see.
'Dammit! Not again!' Naruto thought rubbing his head; he looked up and saw a hatch door on the ceiling. Kyuubi chuckled.
'I swear you are one of the worst ninja I have ever seen,' taunted Kyuubi, 'I'm surprised you got to elite level.'
Naruto didn't answer; he was not in the mood for another of Kyuubi's useless conversations. After a few moments of silence the hatch opened and a ladder dropped. Then three men dressed in black came down the ladder.
"Hold him down," ordered one of the men, the other two obeyed and tied a rope around Naruto's wrists behind his back and tied the other end of the rope to a ring on the wall so Naruto could only get so far from the wall.
"What are you doing?" Naruto asked, he was confused, "Where am I?"
"Let's just call this a privet hell," said the leader of the three, Naruto couldn't see his face, then the man began to perform some hand seals and pain shot through Naruto's body. Naruto buckled and fell to his knees, he yelled in pain.
The Man stopped with the hand seals but the pain still lingered, Naruto began to bleed from his nose. Then the man made some different hand seals and a pain now burned in Naruto, and blood trickled from his ear. This torture continued for Naruto for what seemed like countless hours.
It had been another three months sense Sakura heard that Naruto was still alive, but now; hope was starting to fade. Sakura was looking out the bedroom window that Ino let her stay in.
'Where are you Naruto, you promised you'd come back,' thought Sakura letting the cool autumn breeze whip at her face.
Then something caught her attention, a dark figure was limping toward the portch and the doorbell rang. Sakura ran down the stairs; and just in time, she saw something that made her heart both jump and sink at the same time. Ino was supporting Naruto under the arm and she was leading him to the dinning room table. Naruto had several deep slashes on several parts of his body, he was dripping with his own blood, and he was slipping in and out of conciseness.
"Sakura I need you help," grunted Ino as she staggered under Naruto's weight. Sakura quickly joined into help and they laid Naruto on the table and Ino immediately went for bandages and antiseptic. Sakura opened Naruto's shirt so they could clean his wounds. Slowly with a mangled hand Naruto gently grabbed Sakura's sleeve.
"Sakura, don't leave me," Naruto mumbled, Sakura looked into Naruto's eyes and saw that one eye was encrusted with blood and the other one had a cataract forming in it. So in other words he was blind.
"I'm not going anywhere, I'm here for you, but stay with me," Sakura assured grabbing Naruto's hand. Ino came back and the two of them started to clean his wounds.
Naruto opened his eyes, he was lying on a bed; it was strange though; Naruto knew he opened both eyes but he could only see through one eye. He stared at the ceiling for a while until he felt some thing stir beside him. He looked with his good eye and saw Sakura lying next to him, she looked up at him.
"How'd you sleep?" Sakura whispered; she put an arm over his chest.
"Good, how long was I asleep?" Naruto asked, he rolled over on his side facing Sakura. She was definetly; expecting a child, because it showed.
"About three days," Sakura answered with a gentle smile.
"Three days!?" Naruto exclaimed, "But how are you and the baby doing?"
"She is just fine, and so am I," Sakura said kissing Naruto on the cheek, "but I'm glad you're okay,"
"We know the gender already?" asked Naruto smiling.
"Yeah, we just learned last week," answered Sakura.
Naruto yawned and sat up, his sides were sore; Sakura got up and went into the bathroom.
'When am I gonna ask her?' Naruto thought, he got up and found some of his own clothes on top of a dresser, Sakura must have gotten them.
Naruto walked down the stairs; he had changed into some fresh clothes. Sakura was upstairs taking a shower, and Ino was in the kitchen. Naruto walked in the kitchen Ino greeted him with the usual good morning and Naruto replied.
"Er, Ino, I need some help," Naruto said sitting down.
"Sure what is it?" asked Ino taking a sip of her coffee.
"I want to ask Sakura to marry me, I knew I was going to ask the second I learned she was pregnant, but I want the moment I ask her to be special, and I need your advice," Naruto explained.
"Okay, first thing you want to do is get her an engagement ring, not too fancy or expensive, but something that says you care, and put some thought into it," Ino instructed.
"Ring; got it," Naruto said as a mental note.
"Next, you either want to propose on a special date like her birthday or something like that, or catch her off guard, but not on some random moment, like take her on a nice date and the at the right moment you ask her," explained Ino. Naruto thought for a moment.
"Can you handle that?" asked Ino raising her eyebrows. Naruto had a look of serious concentration on his face.
"I think I can," answered Naruto finally.
It had been three weeks sense Naruto's return, and the new baby girl was one month away until she was due. Naruto had searched tirelessly for the perfect engagement ring, and did he find it. The ring wasn't too fancy but the diamond cut in the ring was cut nearly perfect, and Naruto knew that it was the ring for Sakura.
Naruto even knew when and where he would propose. Because of all the recent events the celebration of team 7's promotion to elite level had to be postponed, so now they were getting around to it.
Team 7 went to their usual noodle bar and had dinner there, then they went to Naruto's for drinks (Sasuke didn't want his apartment trashed, only Kakashi knows were he lives and he wants to keep that a secret, and Sakura left Ino's and was staying with Naruto, so his place was the only option.). Team 7 and their now former teacher raised their glasses for a toast.
"Well it looks like I don't have to put up with you three any more!" Said Kakashi jokingly, but there was a hint of sadness in his voice.
"We'll miss you!" said Sakura.
"What! It's not like I'm dying, I just can't boss you around any more!" exclaimed Kakashi.
"Well, a toast to surviving this long, and making it this far," Sasuke said, they all raised their glasses and then took a drink.
"And Sakura, there's something I wanted to ask you," Naruto said getting down on one knee, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small box, "Sakura," Naruto paused; he was nervous, "Will you marry me?"
Naruto opened the box, took out the ring and slipped it on her ring finger on her left hand. Naruto stood up; Sakura was defiantly caught off guard, but in a good way. All she could do was wrap her arms around Naruto's neck, and then finally she kissed him on the cheek and whispered "yes" in his ear.
It has been two months after Naruto asked Sakura to marry him, the two of them got married shortly after that, and the baby was expected at any moment.
Sakura was lying in bed, awake, she couldn't sleep; Naruto was sound asleep next to her. Then Sakura felt something very odd, it was time.
"Naruto? Get up, I think it's time." Sakura said urgently nudging Naruto.
"Uhg, Sakura, training doesn't start 'till six more hours, get back to sleep," Naruto said rolling over and started to snore loudly.
"Naruto, you idiot, get up! I think my water broke!" Sakura yelled pushing Naruto off the bed.
"OW! What is it!?" Naruto got up rubbing the back of his head, then seeing the urgent look on Sakura's face he understood.
"Crap! Right! I'll get the bags while you get ready!" Naruto said with a mix of confusion and hysteria.
Naruto and Sakura were at the hospital, Sakura had gone into labor and Naruto was trying to spread the word to those that wanted to know when the baby was born. Naruto dialed Ino's number on the phone.
"H-hullo?" came Ino's groggy voice on the line.
"Ino-," Started Naruto.
"NARUTO! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING CALLING ME AT 3 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!?" bellowed Ino on the phone, a few bystanders looked at Naruto strangely.
"Ino, Sakura went into labor, we're at the hospital," answered Naruto timidly.
"Oh, why didn't you tell me? I'll be there in a few minutes," Ino said calmly and hung up the phone.
Naruto called a few other people, and got similar replies. Naruto left the phone and went to go give Sakura some support. Sakura was in one of the rooms on a bed, there was a nurse there coaching her through her breathing. Naruto sat down and grabbed Sakura's hand which she immediately squeezed his hand to the point where he couldn't feel his fingers.
"C'mon Sakura you can do it," Naruto encouraged, then gritted his teeth; Naruto had no idea Sakura could squeeze that hard. Sakura groaned in pain. The nurse went to a telephone and paged a doctor, Naruto heard her say that Sakura was giving birth.
"It's almost over, just a few more hours or less," Naruto encouraged; Sakura threw Naruto a deadly glare. But she was too tired to say anything. The doctors moved Sakura to the delivery room, the doctors told Naruto to leave because they didn't want him in the way.
Naruto waited in the hallway outside the delivery room, while he was with Sakura quite a crowd had formed. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Tenten, Neji, Lee, Sasuke, and Kakashi had come to make sure Sakura and the baby was fine.
Shikamaru started snoring loudly and Ino smacked on the back of the head.
"OW! What was that for?!" Shikamaru yelled in surprise rubbing the back of his head.
"Quiet you guys, this is a hospital!" Tenten scolded.
"Don't be rude!" Ino said to Shikamaru who decided to stand. Then a nurse walked out of the delivery room.
"Which one of you is the father?" the nurse asked, everyone pointed at Naruto, the nurse smiled and walked over to Naruto.
"Is everything okay?" Naruto asked nervously.
"Everything went just fine, it's a girl, you can go in and see her," said the nurse and she left.
"You're a daddy now," Choji patting Naruto on the back. Naruto walked in the room and saw Sakura lying on her bed exhausted. Naruto sat down next to her and gently held her hand.
"How're you doing?" Naruto whispered affectionately.
"Considering what I just went through, I'm doing good," Sakura said and looked over at Naruto, "But I won't be doing that again any time soon."
Just then the doctor walked in carrying Naruto and Sakura's new baby. The doctors and nurses just finished cleaning the baby up and they were letting the parents see her.
"What's her name?" Naruto asked while he and Sakura held their new baby girl.
"Tomoko," Sakura said lovingly looking down at the sleeping newborn.
"Uzumaki Tomoko, that sound right," Naruto said gently running a finger down Tomoko's silky soft cheek.
'I swear I'll be there for you Tomoko, I'll be the father I never had,' thought Naruto feeling a deep sense of duty to be there for her.
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Author's notes: pant, pant, (passes out) that was a tough one! Sorry it was so late, school finals came up so I had no time to work on it.
A note on Tomoko: I decided to name Naruto's daughter after my best friend in Japan; Tomoko, she lived across the street from me when I lived in Japan. I haven't spoken to her in five years and I really miss her, with out her I would have really missed out on some good Japanese candy! So that's why I named Naruto's Daughter Tomoko, 'cause I miss her and it's one of the only Japanese names that I know isn't in any known story so it's original. And I need to shut up 'cause I'm rambling!