Chapter 11
I don't own Naruto, or a song that is in this chapter
Naruto's Baby Chapter 11
Today was Sakura's day off, and she was about to go see Sasuke at the hospital. He would be there for a while longer, and she wanted her Sasuke to know that she was there for him, no matter what. "Sakura! There's someone at the door for you," her mother shouted from downstairs as she was getting ready. Sakura was confused and wondered who would visit her. "Okay, I'm on my way down."
The pink haired girl hurried downstairs to see who it was and when she saw Naruto, she blinked, "Hey Naruto, I'm just-" She was cut off but the sound of a popper.
Naruto smiled and began singing; "This is your singing telegram, I hope it finds you well, You're invited to a party 'cause we think you're really swell, Ai-chan is turning one year old, so help us celebrate. The cake will be delicious, The festivities first-rate. There will be games and dancing, Bob for apples, cut a rug, and when the party's over, We'll gather 'round for a group hug, no need to bring a gift. Being there will be enough, Birthdays mean having fun with friends, not getting lots of stuff. It won't be the same without you. So we hope that you say yes. So, please, oh please R.S.V.P. and come, and be our guest!" Naruto ended the song with a written invitation with the location of the party and the time.
Sakura was taken aback by the sudden singing from her teammate, and she didn't know how to respond. In honesty, she was surprised that the baby survived its first year with Naruto as her parent. "I'll have to think about it," she said as her eye twitched. Naruto was just smiling and suddenly vanished, being a shadow clone. I wonder how many people will get this telegram; Sakura asked herself as she headed out to the hospital.
Naruto's clones had gone around to all of his friends and gave the same telegram that Sakura, Sasuke, and even Kakashi had received. Naruto got a few 'yeses' from his buddies. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, said they were going.
Naruto sent a telegram to Kiba, and it was while he was walking Akamaru and Shino was with him. Naruto gave the invite to Kiba and had forgotten about Shino, but said he could come as well.
Hinata was sent one as well but at the most strange time. She was visiting Neji and Senji, and they were leaving the Hyuga compound when Naruto's telegram started. He began singing his invitation to Hinata, and after he was finished, he smiled nervously, "I guess you can come as well Neji if you want," he said.
"Wait, you have a child as well?" Neji asked.
"Yep. Her name is Ai…didn't you hear the telegram? I spend all night writing it," Naruto said. Neji didn't comment on it aside from, "we'll come," he said. The clone vanished, and Hinta was as bashful as ever. "Y-you d-don't have to go with me Neji-nii-san," she said. Neji smirked, "it's not for me, Senji needs more interaction with children his age," he said.
The boy looked up, and Neji smiled at him. The long hair male knelt down and patted his son's hand, "do you wanna go to a party?" He asked. The boy smiled and nodded. "Yes, Papa!" Neji knew he treated his son so badly, but after his fight with Naruto, and talking with Hiashi-sama, he felt like he could finally accept his son and his place in his life, and appreciate him more.
The invitations reached Rock Lee and Gai-sensei, but they didn't know if they could go because Lee was worried about his surgery, but they only told Naruto that they would try to go.
Konohamaru and his friends got an invite as well, and they wanted to go to a party.
Tsunade even got one while she was trying to do some research in her new hokage office, and while she didn't appreciate the brash invitation, she accepted the invite for Zuko. "Shizune, party on Saturday for Ai Uzumaki. Make sure Zuko has bathed and is ready before then! I'll be pulling all-nighters!"
"Yesh ma'am!" Shizune said.
The hardest people Naruto had tried to invite were the kids that Ai spent time with at Daycare. He didn't do the telegram song with them.
He knocked on the door to one of the children's house. A plump woman came out, and she eyed Naruto cautiously. "Yeah? What do you want?" She asked.
"Hello, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and my child goes to daycare with your daughter, Tenma," he said and held the invitation out and bowed, "I would be grateful if you and your child could come celebrate Ai's first birthday with us," he said. The woman snatched the invitation, read it, and ripped it up. "As if my daughter will play with your child ever again," she said and slammed the door in his face. He looked distraught, but then he had to cheer himself up. One person not going wasn't going to ruin it for his child's big party. No way! He wouldn't allow it.
Though it didn't end with just that lady. He went to other children's houses and gave their parents the invitation, but they were all rejected. Naruto was getting more and more deflated with every rejected. After the fifth rejection, he decided to stop sending out the invitations to the parents of the children who go to Ai's daycare.
Sakura walked to Sasuke's room and before she even opened the door, she heard a crash and Sasuke yelling. "SHUT UP!" Sasuke had grabbed hold of the Naruto clone and looked very furious. Sakura gasped, and when the clone vanished, Sasuke relaxed a bit.
"Sasuke? What happened?" She asked.
"He sent a damn clone and began singing!" Sasuke said in an angry tone.
"Oh, that? That's his way of sending you an invitation to his kid's first birthday party," she said and looked around and saw the same invitation she received. "Here," Sakura said, but Sasuke smacked it out of her hand. She winced and asked, "why did you do that?"
"I'm not going to waste my time and go to some damn brat's birthday party," he said, "especially a brat who belongs to him."
Sakura looked at Sasuke with concerned eyes, but she changed them and smirked, "yeah, I guess going to a baby's birthday isn't exactly what we should be doing with our time," Sakura said as she crumbled up the invitation and threw it in the trash, along with hers.
"Shame on you both," it was Kakashi, and he was still in the hospital still from his own injuries. Sakura and Sasuke both turned to him and saw the disappointment in his visible eye. His arms were crossed as he leaned at the door's edge. "Naruto's working hard to throw his child's first birthday and you two throw away the invitations like it was garbage," he said. "I'm not telling you to go or not, but have some respect. He wants to give his child things he's never had and I'm sure you two have taken for granted. It's not every day that someone celebrates their first birthday ever."
Sakura looked guilty, and Sasuke just looked bitter. "It's just-"
"Sakura, are you really going to give me an excuse?" Kakashi asked. "I'll have you know that while you might dislike Naruto, you have no reason to hate his child. Either one of you. You never blame the child for whatever crimes their parents did or didn't do. That's a lesson that doesn't teach in the academy." Kakashi actually took this as personal attack. He loved Ai like his own and to see his students act like jerks toward Naruto and toward Ai. It made him sick. "Do or don't come, I'm sure Ai will have fun being around the people who care about her and her family either way," Kakashi said and closed the door as he left.
Sakura was reconsidering going, but Sasuke was firm on not going on some dumb party for a baby who shouldn't even have been born.
Saturday was there before anyone knew it. Sakura was coming out of her home with a small gift for the baby when she saw Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji heading her way. "Hey Sakura, you going to the party as well?" Ino asked. She had a few gift boxes for the baby, as did Shikamaru and Choji.
"Yeah…You guys were invited as well?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah! Naruto said there would be cake!" Choji said excitedly. "I got the baby a butterfly toy."
"I'm giving the kid some new blankets and pillows. She probably likes naps like I do," Shikamaru said. "Though I don't know how the kid sleeps with Naruto as her dad," he said seriously. Ino rolled her eyes and said, "I told my mom about the party, and we went baby clothes shopping, and she helped me pick up some really cute dresses for her, what did you get her Sakura?"
Sakura looked at her gift and saw how small it looked in comparison to their gifts. "It's a bow."
Ino raised an eyebrow, "just one bow? For her hair? Not a set at least?" Sakura shook her head. "I don't want to go honestly. Sasuke won't there so if you're going to see him, you're out of luck," Sakura said, looking a bit smug but Ino actually shook her head. "That's your teammate's child Sakura. I would think that you would want to be there for him. I know you don't like him, but that's really harsh," Ino said and walked around her. "Come on guys; we're going to be late if we don't hurry," she said. Shikamaru and Choji followed their female teammate, leaving Sakura to feel horrible.
So Sakura ran down the street and headed for the closest store that would sell anything for kids, and when she did, she looked around for anything for a baby. The problem was, she didn't know what to buy really. What would a one-year-old need? She found a cute set of baby hats and bibs from a popular anime and decided that it was 'good enough.' She went over and paid for it before she ran out to go to the party.
The party was set for Saturday at 3 pm. From a distance, she could see Iruka-sensei messing with some pink decorations. "Iruka-sensei!" Sakura shouted with the bag in her hand. Sakura saw Hinata, Neji and some boy who resembled Neji, and he was being carried by Neji, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji who looked as distraught as the other guests. Kiba and Akamaru turned to leave, as did Shino, who was with him, but they seemed like they were leaving. Sakura blinked and asked, "how late to the party am I? Did I miss it?"
"There is no party," Iruka said solemnly. "It's canceled."
"What? Why?" Sakura asked.
"Ai's in the hospital," Iruka replied as he was getting the decorations down from the trees that it was attached to. "I just found out earlier that Ai got really sick last night and was admitted to the hospital this morning."
Sakura's eyes widen, "she's sick? That's horrible," she commented. "do you know with what?"
"I haven't seen her since a few days ago, and she was healthy then. After I get this cleaned up, I'm going to go see her in the infirmary," Iruka said and turned to everyone who was still around, "thank you all for coming today. I'm sorry there is no party, though," Iruka said sincerely.
"We understand, it's just a shame that she had to miss her own birthday," Ino said. "I'll try to visit her once she's in the clear and can have visitors but please give these to her," Ino said as she laid the boxes on the table. Everyone began leaving their presents on the table, even Sakura, who team ten noticed that she went out and bought something.
Iruka smiled because to him; it meant Ai wasn't going to grow up without having some form of friends, and it meant that Naruto had friends who cared.
Sakura was telling herself that she was only visiting Sasuke. She walked into the hospital and approached the front desk, "Hi, I'm here to visit Sasuke," she said.
"Of course miss," the nurse said, and before Sakura was about to leave, she asked the nurse, "and I would like to ask about another patient. Her name is Ai Uzumaki; maybe she's in the children's ward?" She asked. The nurse looked her up on the computer and nodded, "she's been admitted but she's not allowed to have visitors at the time."
"Okay then, thank you," Sakura said and headed toward Sasuke's room. No visitors? Whatever she has it must be contagious. It wouldn't surprise me if Naruto got her sick somehow. He's so unclean at times. It's really a health hazard.
She got on the elevator to go to Sasuke's floor, but saw the child's ward button was on the third floor. Sakura shrugged and thought maybe she could at least see Naruto and ask him what had happened. When she got to the floor, she didn't need long to find Naruto, staring into space and looking depressed. Of course, this is his child. He's worried sick about her. "Hey Naruto," Sakura said and Naruto looked over. He stood up, "Hey Sakura," the life in his voice was gone.
"I…uh heard Ai was in the hospital. Did she get sick?" Sakura asked. Naruto nodded, "she had a really high fever and some strange spots started to appear on her body," he said.
"Spots? Like the chickenpox?" She asked.
"I don't know, maybe," Naruto said. "I was told I couldn't see her just yet."
"How long have you been here?" She asked him.
"About…I guess since three in the morning."
Sakura was taken back. Naruto had been for over twelve hours, and they still hadn't told him what was going on? That was really alarming. "That's not all; I just got out since Tsunade wanted to examine me as well to see if I gave her the sickness. I didn't because I'm not sick."
"That doesn't mean you're not a carrier," Sakura said. "Anyways, I'm here to visit Sasuke anyways. I just thought I'd stop by and see how the baby was doing." Sakura said. "I'll see you later Naruto." She walked away from her teammate and back to the elevator and headed to Sasuke's floor.