*I DON'T OWN NARUTO*


Naruto stood in front of his apartment door. He let out a sigh of relief; it was good to be home. He reached deep into his pocket to retrieve his keys. He quickly found them and unlocked his door. Hot air greeted him as he reluctantly walked inside. It was dreadfully stuffy in his apartment, but that was expected since it was summer time in Konoha. Plus Naruto hadn't been in his apartment in over three weeks, so his suffocating welcome home was expected. His poor place hadn't had any circulation since he'd left.

"Man I can never get a break," muttered Naruto as he noticed a thin layer of dust on some of his belongings.

He threw his backpack on his bed and sat down. He reached for his cell phone that was on a bookcase by his bed. It was dead since he always left it behind when he went on missions. He grabbed the charger and plugged it into an outlet by his bed.

"There this way Sakura-chan can get a hold of me if she needs too."

He look around his quiet apartment. It wasn't necessarily dirty, it was just hot and dusty. He was lucky that Sakura had come over before he had left to help him clean up. All he really had to do now was let the apartment air out and wipe all the dust off his furniture. It was a simple enough task, but he couldn't help but frowned at the thought. Cleaning wasn't one of his favorite things to do.

"Well there's no point in beating around the bush. I need to get this done before I let Sakura-chan come in here."

With that said he got up and walked over to the window by his bed. He opened it and then flipped a switch on the wall that turned on his air conditioner.

"There that should at least take care of the suffocating feeling this place has."

Naruto then walked to his kitchen sink, bent down, and opened the cabinets below it. He pulled out a crate that had cleaning supplies in them. He never really kept anything like this in his place before but Sakura changed that. She had left this box behind on her last visits.

"Alright let's get things started," sighed Naruto as he prepared for his cleaning mission at hand.


Shikamaru stood outside Naruto's apartment building with two soft drink cans in his hands. He looked up to see Naruto's open window.

"Looks like he's home," said Shikamaru as he made his way towards the stairs.

Halfway up he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He moved one soft drink over to his other hand and pulled out his phone from his. He checked the screen, it was a text from Ino.

"Shikamaru I've been trying to get ahold of Sakura for a while now and she isn't answering her phone. Since you're heading over to see Naruto can you make sure everything is alright with her?

Call me as soon as you find out what's up with her. Love you lots tiger."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"God she's so troublesome," muttered Shikamaru as he continued his trek up towards Naruto's apartment.

He reached the top of the stairs and Naruto's door wide open. Shikamaru peered inside his friend's apartment. The smell of pine cleaner was everywhere. He stepped inside to find rags and buckets of cleaning supplies everywhere. He carefully watched his step as he made his way to Naruto's bedroom.

"Yo, Naruto where you at?"

Shikamaru heard the toilet flush and the water from the sink turn on. Naruto emerged soon afterwards.

"Shikamaru?"

"Who else would it be?"

"Smart ass."

"Here catch," replied Shikamaru as he threw Naruto one of the cold soft drinks.

"Oh wow thanks, I really need this right now."

Both friends sat side by side on Naruto's bed. Naruto rubbed the cool can across his forehead before opening it up. He chugged most of it in one gulp.

"Someone was thirsty."

"Yeah it's so hot today."

"Tell me about it. My place was a freaking sauna when I got home last night. You'd think it would be cooler since it was nighttime, but no it was like walking onto the surface of the freaking sun."

"Nice," said Naruto as he drank the rest of his soft drink.

"So then what's the occasion? Is Sakura coming over to inspect your place or what?"

"No I just need to clean all this dust off my furniture. You know Sakura-chan has bad allergies"

"So you spend the night at her place right?

"Yeah, why?

"Well Ino has apparently been trying to get ahold of her for a while now. I just got a concerned text from her when I was coming up the stairs. Sakura hasn't responded to any of her phone calls. She wanted me to make sure that everything was alright."

"I left her just fine, she's probably still asleep to tell you the truth. She, kind of, had a rough night last night."

"Please spare me Naruto, I'm not in the mood to hear about your sex capades."

"Oh no, it's not that, I mean we did have sex, and it was amazing, but sex isn't what I was referring to."

"You don't say? Well that's a first."

"Ha ha, but this is serious."

"Alright, no more jokes, scout's honor."

"..."

"So then what's going on, is she okay?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes?"

"Now what kind of freaking answer is that?"

"A complicated one," groaned Naruto. "It's some heavy stuff Shikamaru, I'm just trying to process how to tell you."

"This conversation is going down the road I was not expecting."

"Yeah well prepare yourself because it's about to get crazier."

Shikamaru didn't respond since he was taking a swig of his beverage.

"Alright, it's best if I just spit it out, so here goes, Sakura-chan is pregnant."

Shikamaru instantly choked on his drink, he began coughing profusely while hitting his chest in an attempt to clear his throat.

"She's what?! Are you serious!?"

"Yeah, she most definitely is preggers."

"How'd you find out, did she flat out tell?"

"No, I found the pregnancy test in the bathroom trash. The Kyuubi confirmed that she really is pregnant. She was puking her guts out earlier this morning, that's what I meant when I said she had had a rough night."

There was an awkward silence between the two young shinobi as they sat side by side on Naruto's bed. Neither one of them knew what to say. Finally, after what seemed like forever Shikamaru spoke.

"You're right. That is some pretty heavy stuff. So what happened after you found the pregnancy test?"

"I was going to ask her what the hell was going on, but she had fallen asleep while I was still in the shower. When I heard her throwing up I confronted her. She broke down soon afterwards, she was a wreck Shikamaru."

"Shit…"

"Yeah, can you believe she was terrified to tell?"

"I guess that's understandable, having to inform someone about this kind of news is no joke."

"I know, she really feels like she's ruined my dreams of being Hokage."

"I wouldn't necessarily say ruin, but things are going to have to be put on hold. That's not a bad thing either, you did tell her that, right?"

"I did. I told her that Baa-chan would most definitely work with me. Thankfully she listened, and when all was said and done she felt a lot better. So I guess for right now everything between us is ok."

"So what's your long term plan?"

"Shit if I know."

"Well let's fix that, shall we?"

"Sure, knock yourself out, anything you come up with is going to be better than what I have because I'm drawing a blank here."

"Well there are two major things you need to think about. One, you guys don't live together, and both your apartments are pretty small. Your's is a little bit bigger than Sakura's, but once the baby gets here you guys can't live here, there just isn't enough room. So you're going to have to find a bigger place. Two, in order to get a bigger place you're going to have to have some money saved aside, and you don't have too much time to save up, so you're going to need to take more missions to make up for it."

"That actually sounds pretty straightforward. It's nothing too complicated, I agree that we need to get a bigger apartment, it's just kind of weird, you know. I envisioned myself getting the balls to ask Sakura to move in with me next summer, but now I'm not only moving in with her, but with a baby, crazy huh?"

"Most definitely," said Shikamaru as he checked his phone, it was vibrating.

"Shit it's Ino. She's gonna be pissed that I haven't gotten back to her."

Shikamaru reluctantly opened his phone preparing himself for a lecture.

"Hey there pumpkin, I was just about to call you."

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle when he heard Shikamaru's very out of character greeting. He could tell right away that Ino wasn't falling for his act either as she began to scold him loudly over the phone.

"I swear Ino you're going to be solely responsible for me go partially deaf in one ear."

"What was that Mr.?!"

"Please can we not argue?"

"You could have just called me like I asked you to."

"Well I was going to, but I kind of got into an interesting conversation and it slipped my mind okay."

"Heaven's no, something slipped that steel-trap mind of yours? Who would ever think of such a thing could happen."

"Nice sweetheart."

"You know it sugar, so then what's going on? Is Sakura over there?"

"No, Naruto is pretty sure that she's still at home asleep."

"So did Naruto mention any interesting news?"

"Funny you should ask."

"Oh my god, are you serious, he told you!"

"Well that depends, I'm not sure if I should be giving out such private information you know."

"Oh my gosh Shikamaru would you stop being an ass?! Just tell me, what you know!"

"Fine, I know Sakura is pregnant, there you happy?"

"Oh my God I have to know the details, is Naruto okay, what happened, how in the world did Sakura tell him?!"

"Okay hold it right there, I'm not going to play mediator here. If you want to find out what's going on maybe you should go visit Sakura. I'll stay here with Naruto."

"You're right I should totally do that!"

"Well there you go, glad I could help."

"Wait, I just had a fantastic idea, head on over to the shop when you're done at the Treasury Office."

"It sounds like you're going to send me on an errand, if so I'll pass."

"Hush Mr., I'll see you soon okay?"

"Sure thing."

"Thanks sugar, love you."

"Love you too."

Shikamaru closed his phone and place it back in his pocket. He looked up to find Naruto giving him a big goofy grin.

"You two argue like a married couple, I swear you were made for each other."

"That woman knows how to get under my skin. She knows exactly what buttons to push to rile me up, but what can I say, I love her."

"Awe isn't that the sweetest thing ever."

"Alright enough already," groaned Shikamaru.

"So have you been to the Treasury Office to pick up your part of the mission?"

"No, you caught me before I left."

"I haven't gone yet either, wanna go together?"

"Sure that sounds cool. Just let me get my keys and phone okay."

Naruto grabbed his things and looked at his phones battery; it had enough juice to last him on his short trip. He put his things in his pocket and headed outside with Shikamaru. Both friends made their way down the stairs. Shikamaru laughed out loud at one of Naruto's jokes. The young jinchuuriki watched as his best friend laughed and he couldn't help but smile. He finally started feeling like himself and he truly believed Shikamaru's words, everything really would be okay.


Sakura woke up to find herself alone in bed. She sat up and looked around her bedroom. Her boyfriend was nowhere in sight.

"Naruto where are you?"

She waited patiently for a reply but Naruto never answered.

"Where could he possibly be? I hope everything's okay."

Sakura looked at her alarm clock it was 11:15am. She had really slept in. She was about to get out of bed when something by her alarm clock caught her attention. It was a small piece of paper. She picked it up and read it.

Sakura-chan don't worry everything is fine, I didn't want to wake you. I have some errands to run today so I'll be busy. I'll see you later on today though. If you need me please call me. I'll have my phone on me. I love you both.

Naruto.

She was about to re-read the letter when her phone began to ring. She could tell that it was Ino, what with the ringtone she gave her. She answered it but before she could even say hello she heard Ino barking an order at her.

"Open your door I'm coming up the stairs!"

Sakura sprang out of bed and headed for the door. She could hear Ino's footsteps coming down the hallway. She opened the door just in time to see Ino jump towards her and hugged her tightly.

"Oh my god Sakura I just heard that Naruto knows! I didn't think you had the guts to tell him right away! Congratulations girl, you did it," squealed Ino.

Sakura squeeze Ino tightly. The two best friends held onto each other for a few moments, but Ino's constant jumping up and down was causing Sakura to get a little nauseated so she let go of her friend who was beyond eager to talk.

"So what happened? I tried to get as much as I could out of Shikamaru, but he wasn't into being a mediator, so he told me to come over, which is a pretty good idea come to think about it."

"Leave it to him to come up with a good idea."

"That boy is indeed a smart cookie."

"Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be at the flower shop?"

"Yes, but I decided I needed an hour lunch so I closed up. In all reality I ate in the backroom before I left, but enough about me, let's talk about you," said Ino as she grabbed Sakura by the wrist. She pulled her towards her bedroom and together they sat on the soft mattress. So come on I'm dying to know what happened."

"Well I acted like a feral animal when I saw Naruto. I tackled him as soon as I saw him, we shared some amazing welcome home sex."

"You and me both sister, but I'll tell you about that later," giggled Ino.

"Well after we were done we showered, and that's when I started to panic. Naruto could tell something was up with me, but I was able to convince him that I was alright. That is until I woke up nauseated as all hell."

"Oh man that sucks."

"Tell me about it, I made so much of a commotion that Naruto noticed, and that's when it happened."

"What?"

"He confronted me with the pregnancy test I have taken. He found it in the trash can."

"No way."

"Yes way, god I was so mortified Ino."

"I don't blame you, I mean I would have thought there would have been a little bit of time before you told him, but for him to find out that way isn't ideal at all."

"I know, I was going to go with your advice about letting him get back into his routine, but as you can see things didn't turn out that way."

"So then what?"

"Well we talked. I told him how I was feeling and he listened. Ino I'm so lucky, he was so understanding, he wasn't mad at me, and he was mature for once."

"Are you sure you're talking about Naruto?"

"I know right, but he really handled everything well and after we were done talking I felt more at ease."

"Wow. That really is crazy Sakura, so you guys are good?"

"Yeah we're good. I'm sure we'll be able to talk a lot more later on today."

"Well this is great, I'm so glad that you guys were able to talk. Sure it didn't happen the way you thought it was going to happen, but it's best that you're both on the same page, because it makes the news I have even better."

"And what news is that?"

"Well would you believe that this is the first time in four months that everyone is home. All our friends teams are here in the village. So I decided to have a last minute party at my place tonight in celebration."

"A party?"

"Yeah it'll be nice to catch up with everybody. It's been forever since we've all been back at home at the same time. Plus it'll be good for you and Naruto to just relax a little, you know."

"That sounds really nice Ino, but I don't want anyone else to know I'm pregnant okay."

"That's fine I understand, my lips are sealed," said Ino as she pretended to zip her mouth shut. "Well I better be heading back to the shop. I don't want the regulars telling my parents about my lunch break. So I'll see you tonight okay?"

"That you will," said Sakura as she walked Ino out. "Call me when you're heading home okay."

"Sure thing," replied Ino.

The blonde haired kunoichi turned the corner in Sakura's apartment hallway and was gone.