Ashes were scattered silently as all attending quietly lower their head in respect to say their prayers. The sands and ashes mixed in the wind and flew past those who gathered to mourn.
No black veils were worn. In Suna, they saw no reason in specific clothes to see the dead in public. They brought food for a feast instead of flowers, and after this time of grieving, their lives would be celebrated, but the deafening silence was the same at this moment. No one wanted to think of their loved ones dying. No one wanted to lose someone.
The silence was broken with a baby's cry.
"Shhh..." Hinata whispered, rocking her infant son. "Shukaku-san I don't think this is funny." She quietly scolded the beast that she was sure woke her sleeping newborn just to make a scene during the ceremony.
Gaara glanced over but couldn't step away from leading the war loss ceremony to help her.
She rubbed his back, and he calmed immediately, confirming her suspicion that it had been Shukaku that had caused his outburst.
"It's alright." She hummed quietly to him until he had fallen back to sleep.
His birth had been traumatic. They induced labor. Hinata had fainted promptly after he was born. She didn't even get to hear him cry. Gaara panicked, initially believing she had passed, but once assured that she was fine, just worn out, he was ready, and the medic transferred Shukaku to their dying son. All three of them were non-responsive for nearly two days. Hinata was the first to recover. When she woke up, her infant was in a little clear box next to her with tubes everywhere, but he was well enough to make it through. Gaara spent another day unresponsive, but it was induced to make sure he healed enough to forgo any more chakra rerouting.
When he woke up, she was there by his bed with their baby in his little medical box. He was tiny and pale but had messy dark hair and Hyuga pupil-less eyes that were the slight tint of green.
He spent most of his time sleeping. People came to visit, but they had to keep their distance and be very clean. All Hinata wanted to do was hold him, but it would have to wait.
"We never picked a name." She whispered to Gaara placing her finger through one of the little holes to put her finger in his tiny hand. "He's gone all this time without a name."
Gaara reached his hand, idly toward the plastic. "Temari says he's 'damn lucky'."
"Kouki." She whispered.
He agreed. "Kouki… Hyuga."
"I think Suna no Kouki is plenty. He is 'of the sand' just like his father." A tiny tanuki sat on her lap. She wasn't sure it was a joke, or if Shukaku simply had less chakra to work with, she warned him that his priority was her son's safety.
"We will need to send word that he was born." Gaara rolled to his side with some effort. Touching the plastic casing but never dared to touch the soft skin just through the openings.
"Baki-san was here this morning. The council is furious." She started. "The Suna-Hyuga had to send word to Konoha, and I think that means that we should be expecting family and Naruto."
He grimaced, she giggled. "My father likely seeing red, he doesn't like secrets being kept from him, the council likes it even less."
She smiled warmly at the little bundle in the box. "But we are all okay, and that is what matters."
With her son with his father at the hospital, she was feeling healthy enough to deal with the issues head-on, against Gaara's wishes, of course, but to be honest, he was in much worse shape than she was. She was healed up, with some soreness. Once the pregnancy was over, her health returned with some help of her medic.
And she had a furious council to face.
"Are you sure you want to do this now? With both of them… together?" Temari mumbled once more.
That had already been a battle. She had decided it would be easier to address and bother her family and the Suna council at once. Her father had tried to claim it a clan matter. However, that had not gone well. They had already had this discussion before they were married, and she was not having it again now.
"This is the best way to do it. Don't worry too much. The Hokage is here to support me, I have solid reasons for my secrecy, and I'm still operating on hormones." Temari smiled at the small joke.
"All right, here we go." She huffed, opening the door to the council room. There the Suna council, her father, and the members of the council he brought, with the addition of Naruto, all sat waiting for her.
Her father was especially furious. She had refused to see him and made sure the guard knew no Hyuga were allowed near the baby unless they checked with her first. Her sister, of course, got to see him as soon as they arrived.
Before she could be bombarded with questions, she started. "I want to make it clear that at no point did we lie."
She heard a few loud scoffs. She felt her hormonal attitude rising. "I was very ill just as I said. We, however, never revealed that I was pregnant, for a good reason."
"And what exactly is that reason? What is such a good reason that you hid your pregnancy for a full 9 months." The speaker of the Suna council scoffed.
"Seven and a half." She corrected. The room fell silent. "Well even less than that. I wasn't aware of the first six weeks." She corrected herself. "Which is the main reason we haven't said anything. There were many problems with the pregnancy, and we thought it was best to keep it quiet because I had a very high chance of miscarriage or stillbirth. We wanted to make no plans for a child that had less than half of a chance to even be born."
"You didn't carry to term?" The speaker spoke cautiously. They had little information which helped her arguments. They had less to work with.
"You should have asked for the clan's help." The Konoha Hyuga council head sitting next to her father barked sternly.
"I did, just the clan I was the head of." She told him pointedly. Her sister suppressed her grin.
He almost looked insulted. Maybe it was her tone. She had grown her speaking skills since the last time they had argued. Then again, it could just be the hormones again.
"We had full intention of coming to the Suna council. We had hoped we could wait until we had more definitive answers, and my health was stable. I couldn't handle the stress of having fruitless arguments." She only paused long enough to take a breath. She wasn't waiting for a rebuttal. "However, then Gaara went to war, and not long after, I went into early labor. Then he came back, and he was in no condition to be debating either." She was dreading what she had to say next.
The speaker's face hardened. "Yes, and how is our Kazekage since he's been so silent about his and the beast's condition." She sighed. The second bomb was ready.
"Shukaku-san had to be transferred to our son," Hinata stated.
She felt the room explode. Suddenly the child being hidden was no longer the issue.
"What!" The councilmen protested. "We weren't consulted!"
"Unacceptable!" Her father barked.
"They were both dying!" She barked over the rush. "There was no time to consult, and there was no time to consider all the offenses it might bring." She glared at her father. She knew damn well that he would have rather let his grandson die than allow his bloodline to be a demon vessel.
"You had no right to make that decision." The Suna councilmen barked.
"I didn't make it. Your Kage did." She snapped.
"Woah, let's all chill out here." Naruto stood up, looking surprised and bewildered. "It's important that we remember that both Gaara and..." He looked at her for a name.
"Kouki." She filled.
"...Kouki are healthy." He moved up beside her. "I'm sure all the details can wait until they are both out of the hospital. And I feel the need to remind the Hyuga from Konoha this is not their problem." He looked over pointedly at her father and his group.
Her father looked like he might grind his perfect teeth.
"This matter was already decided when they were married. The child cannot be branded as he's the heir to the Suna faction of the Hyuga and Gaara's son." He reminded them. "You guys are here to welcome the baby. That's it."
Hinata was relieved that he was there to control them. She knew that they were going to try to get around it, but him making it so clearly made it much easier.
"We are all surprised. I know I certainly am. Gaara is a really bad liar." Hinata smiled at his unintended joke. "So I don't think they kept this with any ill intent. If I was having a kid and we weren't sure if it would live, I'm not sure that's all I would want to talk about constantly."
"Hokage-sama, surely you appreciate our concern with all this secrecy and the concern with the one tails being transferred without our knowledge." The councilmen tried.
"Gaara couldn't house Shukaku. We aren't sure if it was his removal or Gaara's healing after, but their chakra refused to rejoin. The chakra drain would have killed Gaara in a few days or maybe even hours. If it wasn't Kouki, the next choice would have likely been me or anyone else available and compatible." Hinata filled. "It had to be a quick decision, or else you would have had a dead Kage with me, or someone else would have been the vessel for Shukaku. In the end, I'm sure we would still be having this pointless argument over whether or not you should have been informed first." She snapped more at the end when she felt her anger rise.
"How are they doing now." Her sister asked politely, changing the tone.
She smiled. "Much better. Gaara should regain his full strength soon, and Kouki will need to spend a while more in the hospital as he was so premature for his development stage. My medic has informed me that having Shukaku to boost his chakra is strengthening him, and he is developing twice as fast as he was."
Hanabi sat back, satisfied with breaking the angry tension while their father continued to seeth.
"I think this should be handled when Gaara can be part of the conversation." Naruto pressed. "And Konoha has no reason to be concerned as it is a Suna citizen in question." He gave a pointed look to Hiashi.
The councilman looked annoyed and defeated. "We will talk about this matter once the Kage has his health, but we want to be informed of any pregnancies in the future."
"There is no need to worry about that. There won't be any." Hinata declared instantly.
"It's customary for the head to have more than one..." The Konoha Hyuga council started.
"Let me rephrase." She cut him off. "There can't be anymore."
The room fell silent.
"My harsh pregnancy caused complications. I can't have any more children." She paused to let it sink in. "Kouki-san will have to do." She felt a little pride in making them all feel so uncomfortable with the fact she had already come to terms with. She wasn't telling the whole truth. She couldn't bear children. She still had her eggs, but she couldn't have any in her womb. Its chakra was scared and rendered it inhabitable. Not that Gaara would have ever let her try again.
"Well, we will… talk about this all later." The councilmen muttered.
"Thank you." She told him, looking over to Temari, who looked surprised it had gone so well.