AN: Thanks for coming back! Sorry I'm a day late in updating. I had two English papers to write and a Biochem test to study for. So, it was for a good cause! ^.^

And to Me and Gaara 4ever, You make me laugh like Tres Loco.

And to Thomas Drovin, Honestly, I didn't think about that, but thanks for the idea. ^.^

And to Repentless Wind, Ah, yes. I'm excited for the Jounin exams too! They will be a lot of fun. I took a little bit from Tenth Kingdom and put it in the trials. ^.^ you should recognize it when it comes up, but that will be a little while yet.

And to Azura Soul Reaver, Thanks. ^.^

And to Gaaras1Girl, Well, I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you. Jk. No, just read on. :D

And to princessSiyaka, Don't be mean Rox. You don't have to flaunt the fact that you edit it for me. Although, I hope you do like the end of the chapter.Editor's note (but I love being evil :) it makes life more interesting!!! Love ~ princessSiyaka/Rox)

And to Rubyparker93, Your welcome on the your welcome on the thank you. ^.^ I sounded a bit like Jack Sparrow, did I not? And your guessing would be right.

And to Permanently Lost In Thought, It's updated! I hope you like it.

Special thanks to Permanently Lost In Thought for adding this story to your faves! WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!!! ^o^P

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters etc. You know the drill

Chapter 2: Matsuri

Flashback

Four Months after the Prophecy Meeting

Matsuri was eight and a half months along and felt as big as a barn, which made her moody and mad at everyone. She was sick of Gaara moping around because he missed Cordi. She was sick of Temari, who always gave her annoyed glances whenever she passed. And she was sick of Kankuro in general. The fact that her pregnancy pained her, and she was pregnant because of him piled onto her pissed-off-edness at her husband. He was useless, helpless, and ugly. Honestly, Matsuri had no idea how she had ever thought he was attractive, in the first place. Her desperate hopes were that her child didn't end up with his looks, and she wished this from the deepest chambers of her heart.

Today was officially too hot. Well, at least it was to her. It was rounding the end of December, so everyone else was somewhat comfortable in the desert. They might have been a little cold, but not much. Not Matsuri, though, oh no. It seemed so hot that she sometimes thought she was in Hell, or at least an oven.

"TEMARI!" Matsuri called down, yelling as hard as she could.

Temari, who was downstairs in the kitchen, rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what Matsuri was going to ask for. Slowly, she went to the cupboard and grabbed a glass, then lazily filled it with ice and water.

"TEMARI, GET YOUR ASS UP HERE!!!" Matsuri screamed down.

"I'M COMING!!!" Temari yelled back, a disgusted snarl ironed on her lips. Her shoulders sagged as she started to slowly walk towards the upstairs, where Matsuri was currently bed-ridden, due to the late stage of pregnancy. "That little brat should learn some patience," she mumbled to herself. Temari really missed Cordi, knowing that if she was around Cordi wouldn't take any of Matsuri's crap, and probably slap her silly if Matsuri tried anything like this.

"Temari?" Matsuri called again, but this time she sounded pained and unsure.

"Yes, what is it?" Temari asked, walking into her room, only to see Matsuri curled into a ball, breathing hard, trying to hold back a cry. She quickly set the glass down on the nightstand, and checked Matsuri. "Is it the baby?" Temari asked, rubbing Matsuri's back to calm her. Matsuri nodded her response, her eyes squeezed tightly. As soon as Matsuri could move, Temari helped her out of the bed, noticing that this was the real deal as soon as she saw the wet sheets. Suddenly, she realized the distance their house was from the hospital and cursed her luck. She'd have to help Matsuri walk a mile, which would take forever, not adding the time the contractions would eat up. "Come on, we've got a ways to go," Temari sighed.

As soon as they got outside though, Temari was practically jumping for joy. A taxi carriage sat outside at the street corner. "Sir! Excuse me, sir!" Temari yelled down to the carriage driver. He looked over at her, seeing Temari practically dragging Matsuri to the carriage, she was running so fast. "My sister-in-law is in labor. Could you take us to the hospital?" Temari asked, watching the driver's face go from confusion to serious. He nodded his head, helped them into the carriage, and as soon as they were secured, he sped off to the hospital near the center of Suna. They made it in practically record time. "Thanks for the haste," Temari told him, handing him several dollars. He nodded and helped her ease Matsuri out of the carriage, and then they were off.

It didn't take long to get Matsuri a room. As soon as the nurses at the front desk saw her, she was practically rushed into a wheel chair and sped down to the maternity ward, leaving Temari with some paperwork, which Temari filled out quickly and turned in. She followed the signs to the maternity ward, and asked the nurses there where Matsuri Subaku's room was. The nurses pointed her to a room at the end of the hall, near the family waiting room. Before entering, she created two shadow clones, and sent them to find her brothers.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I hate this!" Lynne sighed, slamming down an empty box of crackers. They had been stuck in the wilderness for months. The last human contact they had was at least a month ago. That was when they went to a local village to get supplies. But now it was winter, and they were huddled up in a cave with a bon fire, courtesy of the dragons. They couldn't leave the cave in case of a blizzard, which was somewhat common where they were.

It was a good thing that when they got lost, they were on their way to the Rocky Mountains , and were planning to go skiing sometime while they were vacationing, otherwise they wouldn't have been prepared with the proper clothes for the winter. Lynne was currently wearing her rabbit boots, which she special ordered from a Native American tribe in Alaska that uses all parts of the animal if one is killed. She had bought Rox a pair as a birthday present a couple years ago, which Rox was wearing. Fred was wearing her usual Uggs, while Ronni wore her old beat up pair of snow boots. Cordi never went anywhere without her boots. She had five pairs, and they were her favorite shoes to wear. She was wearing the pair of platform gray knit boots, today. They all wore jeans, and three layers of shirts to keep their vitals from freezing.

"Well, get used to it," Rox muttered, stoking the fire a little bit, only to then pick a little at her freshly cooked deer meat on a stick.

"But I can barely function like this. I can't eat anything because it's all meat …" Lynne complained, a disgusted frown plastered on her face.

"And again we state the fact 'It really pays to be vegetarian,'" Cordi stated, giving her a smug smile. She took a large chunk of meat off her stick then said, "Oh, my God, this is delicious!" laughing a little at what had just happened, knowing Lynne would think she was baiting her.

"It's not funny!" Lynne growled. "That poor animal had a family! He had a purpose!"

"Yeah, to feed us," Fred stated in a bored tone. They could hear the dragons start to laugh outside the cave. They were obviously listening in on the debate.

"That is totally barbaric!" Lynne scolded her. Fred just rolled her eyes and continued eating.

"Well, that rabbit had a family and a purpose," Ronni stated out of the blue.

"Huh?" Lynne asked, looking over at Ronni.

"The boots you're wearing. They're made of rabbit, right?" Ronni stated, gesturing with her elbow over to Lynne's boots. Lynne pursed her lips silently. "That rabbit had a family and a purpose too. What makes the rabbit any different than the deer?"

"We aren't using every last bit of the deer because we need to. We're just using it for food! It completely demoralizes its life," Lynne replied.

"You don't think stepping on a rabbit's remains demoralizes the rabbit's life?" Cordi asked, completely confused.

"Well, yeah – no – shut up," Lynne glowered, making the rest of the group laugh.

"Here, just try it," Rox offered, giving Lynne a stick with a small thing of meat.

"No, it's beneath me," Lynne stated, sticking up her nose.

"But wearing those boots isn't?" Fred asked. Lynne glared at her, then tossed off her boots and replaced them with tennis shoes.

"Humans are strange creatures, are they not?" Nessie asked the other dragons.

"You're telling me," Gryffin chuckled.

Matsuri had been in labor for hours. Kankuro had gotten there as soon as he heard his child was on the way. Gaara was a little late due to paperwork. Kankuro had been in the room with her for fourteen of the fifteen hours, cheering her on through every contraction. But when the baby started to crown, the sight made him sick and had to leave. "YOU'RE A WIMP!!! YOU BASTARD!!!" they could hear Matsuri yell at him as he ran to the closest bathroom to relieve his stomach. Gaara followed him in to make sure he was ok. It wasn't the first time she had flaunted her colorful language to her husband that day. She had been yelling at him since he arrived, telling him what an asshole he was because he did this to her.

As soon as Gaara opened the door to the Men's room, he could hear Kankuro retching in one of the stalls. He smirked and leaned against the sinks, arms crossed, waiting for his brother. "That bad, huh?" Gaara asked, biting his lip to hold back his urge to laugh. Kankuro walked out of the stall, wiping a piece of toilet paper over his mouth and shooting Gaara an annoyed glare. Gaara couldn't help but chuckle. "You know, it's strange. You can deal with dead bodies, but the birth of your own child sends you running for the lavatory?"

Kankuro frowned at him and asked, "You remember that alien clip Cordi showed us a while ago? You know, the one with the alien coming out of the stomach?" Gaara nodded, remembering the clip had made him feel slightly nauseous when he watched it. "It was a lot like that. Just more intense with the blood and guts, and the screaming …" Kankuro rambled, "not to mention the movement in the belly."

Gaara's face turned into a disgusted frown, and said, "Thanks for that beautiful mental picture."

"Don't make fun of me next time," Kankuro ordered.

"You're planning for more?" Gaara asked, a disturbed and confused expression lighting his features.

Kankuro shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know," he stated.

Gaara frowned. He never saw Kankuro with any children in the first place. Not until Matsuri got pregnant, then Gaara's view had obviously changed of his brother and fatherhood. But more than one? That didn't seem very Kankuro to Gaara at all. He shrugged the issue aside. No need to ponder on the future at the moment. "Come on. Why don't you wait with us out in the waiting room? If she's crowned, she can't be too long," Gaara asked, placing a gently hand on his brother's shoulder. Kankuro nodded, and followed Gaara out to sit with Temari. Well, not really sitting. More like pacing. It helped him focus on it rather than his nerves.

Gaara let out a small laugh at his brother's fidgeting, which earned a small glare. Kankuro then proceeded to grab a seat next to Temari, only to get elbowed to in the side. She gestured over to Matsuri's room, where Kankuro saw a nurse walking out in blood scrubs, holding a small pink bundle. Her surgical mask was down, and she was smiling at him, which calmed his nerves as he stood up and walked over to her.

"You have a baby girl, Lord Kankuro," the nurse stated, showing him his daughter.

Kankuro couldn't hold back a smile as he looked down at his daughter, gently taking her out of the nurse's arms. All he could think is that he had to have done something right to have a daughter as beautiful as her. She had a small cherubic head with silky dark brown hair on the top of her head. "Thank you," he whispered to the nurse, giving her a genuine smile, before looking down at his daughter again. He turned around to face his siblings, who were standing too, and smiling at Kankuro.

Temari was the first to approach and look at the baby. "Aw! She's so adorable!" Temari squealed, flexing her index finger in the newborn's face, and making funny faces, while cooing a little.

Suddenly, the baby started crying, making the Subakus' faces fall. Not just crying, wailing at the top of her lungs. "Temari, what did you do now?" Gaara asked in an annoyed tone, stepping forward as if to step between Temari and the baby.

"It wasn't …" Temari started, only to be interrupted by the siren announcing a flat-line. They looked up from the baby to see three doctors run bay and into Matsuri's room, where the monotonous blaring was coming from.

"Hold the baby," Kankuro ordered, handing his daughter to Temari. She took the baby, as Kankuro ran to Matsuri's room. All he could see was the flurry of doctors around Matsuri's death-like body. "Matsuri," he gasped, trying to walk over to his wife.

"HEY! GET HIM OUT OF HERE!!" one of the male doctors ordered, gesturing to Kankuro in the door way.

One of the nurses (different nurse than before) jumped to action and proceeded to try and usher him out. "Sir, you need to leave," she stated in a belittling tone.

"That's my wife in there. The HELL I'm leaving!" Kankuro yelled in her face, and tried to get around her.

She stepped in front of him, blocking his way. "Sir, I cannot permit you in here. We are trying to save you wife's life," the nurse snarled. "Go sit down."

His eyes narrowed, showing how pissed off he was at the short nurse in front of him. He calmed suddenly, realizing that now was no time to be arguing. He bit his lip and started to ask if Matsuri would be alright, but the nurse slammed the door in his face, leaving him in the hallway, feeling slightly lost and very pissed off. After standing, staring at the door for a while, he turned and sat back down, putting his head in his hands. He could feel that this was not going to end well. The wailing from his daughter didn't help a bit.

Temari tried her hardest to calm the child, bouncing a little and rocking back and forth while muttering "Sssshhhhhhhh. Everything will be alright." Though, to all of the Subaku's, the outlook was very grim, and it was obvious Temari was not persuading the baby to think otherwise. Even though Temari got her to calm down, the blare of the flat line was not going away, making all of their hearts fall slowly.

Suddenly another nurse walked out, her face grim. Kankuro stood to talk to her, Temari and Gaara right behind him. "I'm sorry," the nurse apologized, her face full of pity and sympathy. Kankuro's face was frozen, except for a tear that fell down his cheek. "There was nothing we could do for her. Her excessive pushing to get the baby out caused a large splenic artery aneurysm, which made her lose a lot of blood. A rupture like hers is rarely recovered from," the nurse explained.

All Kankuro could do was nod, trying his hardest to process the information. He didn't want her apologies. He wanted his wife. "May I go in?" he asked, holding back the flood of emotions threatening to rip his mind apart. The nurse nodded and let him pass into Matsuri's room. He walked through seeing Matsuri lying on the bed, a death-like pallor covering her skin. Her glass-like eyes were still open, looking nowhere in particular.

"Name: Subaku, Matsuri. Age: seventeen. Date and Time of death: December 29th, 2009 2:00 am," the doctor intoned, scribbling the information on a clipboard.

Kankuro grabbed a seat by her bedside, ignoring the doctor in the background. He closed her eyes, making her stare less creepy. "Just another week and you would have been eighteen," he chuckled to himself, trying to make this whole depressing situation a little better. His face fell as memories of their time together flooded his mind, and he was then hit with a reminder of her death like being hit by a truck. And just like that, he was reduced to a puddle of tears. He held onto her hand, and sobbed like a lost child. His back shuddered as he let out a harsh breath. If only I had been there. If I had been there, this might not have happened. He knew there was no truth to the thoughts, but placing blame on himself made him have some closure.

"Lord Kankuro?" a small voice asked. He looked up to see the nurse who had handed him his daughter standing before him. To her, he looked pitiful. She understood why, but his broken gaze made her feel extremely sorry for him and sorry that she had to interrupt his mourning. "I need the name of your daughter, sir," she explained in the same small endearing voice as when she called him.

Kankuro closed his eyes, thinking of a name. Suddenly he remembered what Matsuri always said before she had gotten pregnant. "If I ever have a daughter, I want her named Yukina. It was my mother's name," he recalled her saying time and time again.

"Yukina. Yukina Subaku is her name," Kankuro replied, his voice raspy from the sobbing. The nurse nodded, and turned away to give him his private time to mourn his wife.

"Gaara, it's been a week," Temari stated, rocking the baby back and forth. Gaara sat at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper and eating dumplings. "This can't be healthy. He hasn't come out of his room the entire time. Yukina hasn't seen her dad since she was born." She paused a little bit, waiting for Gaara to say something. When he didn't, she rounded on him and asked, "Are you even listening to me!?"

"No," Gaara stated in a bored to. Temari let out an exasperated sigh, muttering something along the lines of "men." "Look, he just lost his wife. Give him time," Gaara stated.

"Well Yukina just lost her mother. They both need each other now. He has responsibilities he's ignoring," Temari stated, gesturing to the bundle in her arms. "Here, take her. I'll go upstairs and talk to him," she said, handing Gaara the baby bundle. As soon as he had her securely, Temari walked out of the kitchen.

Gaara couldn't help but think of the fact, just a couple years ago, the thought of Gaara of the Desert holding a baby was such a perverse thought no one dared think about it. He saw Yukina's bright green eyes staring up at him, expectantly and curiously. As soon as he knew Temari couldn't see him, he crossed his eyes, wincing in his left eye, and stuck out his tongue. Yukina let out a giggle, making Gaara smirk. He gently placed a finger over his lips. "Sh. Uncle Gaara is supposed to be the serious stoic one," he stated, smiling a little. Yukina quieted down, giving Gaara a curious look. She was only a week old, and already so much like her uncle.

Matsuri's death is fourth death of this family. Some higher power must want it to be just the three of us, Gaara thought. Then he looked down towards Yukina as she reached up for a lock of his hair. Well, four of us, now.

AN: Thanks for reading! I hoped you liked this chapter. Please remember to review.