I do not own Glee or Naruto. So a couple of things, I usually only update once a week and on Friday's. That's not set in stone, but it's generally how it works :). For those of you who may have questions about my other stories please check out my profile, I talk about what's going on with them in there.

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Chapter 1

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The first thing that Quinn became aware of as she regained consciousness is that she felt warm and safe. The darkness envelops her completely but it doesn't frighten her, in fact she draws strength from it. There was also a sound, she couldn't quite place it, but if she had to guess she would say it sounded like a heartbeat, but that didn't make sense. Why would she be hearing a heartbeat, especially when she was almost positive that it wasn't hers? Whatever it was, that sound, more than anything else, made her feel safe.

It was weird. She had died, she knew that much and it wasn't like she had any real idea about what death would actually be like, but this was so different than anything she had ever imagined. There was no fluffy clouds with robed people playing harps, there was no golden throne of God and choirs of countless angels. She would have almost felt a little let down if she didn't feel so content. On the other hand, she considers, there was no fire and brimstone or an angry red goat man with a pitchfork, so that was a rather large plus.

No if this was death, just darkness, warmth, safety, and most importantly that sound, that steady rhythmic beating sound that right now was everything to her, then death wasn't so bad. She wouldn't mind spending eternity like this. It's not what she would have imagined death to be, but right now she felt truly at peace.

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Quinn wasn't sure how much time had passed, she didn't particularly care either. The comfort and the warmth and the beating sound were still there and that was all that really mattered. Her space had progressively gotten smaller but she wasn't worried about that, it was snug, but not tight. And she had discovered that she wasn't alone in here.

She couldn't really communicate with the other person but they shared the occasional touch to let each other know they were there and Quinn found herself feeling a strong connection to this other person, a closeness that she'd never shared with anyone before. Whoever this other person was, Quinn just knew in her heart that they were special and that they cared about her.

The first time they had touched it had startled Quinn. She hadn't realized that she wasn't alone so it had been a bit of a shock to discover otherwise, especially with all the time that had passed… or she thought had passed. Time really had no meaning here. But even still, just touching the other person hadn't been what had really startled her. It was the rush of… life… energy… she had no way to really describe it. But whatever it was had surged through her and had started a change in her body that was foreign to her in every way. Not that it was bad, quite the opposite, this new energy that was now flowing through her completed her in a way that she didn't even know she needed. It was like finding a missing puzzle piece that she hadn't even realized was missing and she had her companion to thank for it.

The only thing she didn't find all that appealing about her companion was their incessant need to move around. Quinn, for the most part was content to relax in this strange afterlife, but her companion never sat still for as long as she would like.

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She still found her consciousness fading in and out at times but for the most part she was becoming more aware of her surroundings. Sometimes, if she really strained hard, she thought she could make out other people talking, but she couldn't quite hear what they were saying and besides that, it sounded like gibberish.

But the vibrations of their voices were pleasant, almost as pleasant as the beating sound in the background and so she didn't mind it when they appeared. Sometimes she even thought she heard singing as well, the most beautiful voice that Quinn had ever heard, and she had heard Rachel Berry sing so that was saying something. She loved it when the singing came along, maybe she had just spent too much time in glee club, but she could listen to and feel the vibrations when they sang for eternity.

Really, considering how she had died, considering all of the mistakes she had made, considering where she was always worried she would go, especially with her feelings for Rachel being as strong as they were, this warm, dark, little paradise she had found herself in was pretty good. For the first time in a long time she felt happy and safe. Two feelings that were extremely rare for her and all she knew was that she didn't want it to ever end.

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Something was wrong.

There was a change and she could almost sense the distress coming from her companion. Something was changing, her world was shifting. She reaches out to her companion hoping to provide them some comfort, but in what felt like the blink of an eye, they were gone. She felt herself begin to move and then she felt like she was being compressed and then strangled.

What was happening, what was wrong?

Was she being cast out of heaven, had God decided that she wasn't good enough anymore? She began to panic, she couldn't breathe, something was choking her, wrapping around her neck and strangling her. And then, suddenly, everything was cold and she could finally breathe. She tried to open her eyes but she couldn't, and there was a baby crying, why was there a baby crying, shouldn't someone go help it or comfort it, or something? And where was her companion, they were missing, they could be in trouble, she had no idea where they were but she could almost sense their distress. She had to help them, they were important to her.

Okay… she needed to stay calm, this was scary, but if she panicked then she was no good to anyone. She needed to remain calm and figure out what was going on. But it didn't help matters that she couldn't even open her eyes. Wherever she was, it was cold and bright, because she was absolutely freezing and even with her eyes shut she could feel the light blasting her. She felt herself being wiped down by large hands almost the size of her entire body, they were gentle with her but she didn't know them so she tried to struggle. She may as well have tried to move a mountain for all the good it did her.

People were talking hurriedly, it was too loud, especially compared to the silence of the dark and the steady rhythmic beating that had accompanied it as well. That sound had been muffled and comforting, but all the sounds out here were loud and sharp and hurt her ears. She identified at least four other people in this room, five if she counted the person holding her. She didn't know how she knew they were all there, she just did.

They were speaking, but it made absolutely no sense, she had no idea what they were saying, because whatever it was it wasn't English. They didn't sound angry though, maybe a little urgent, but definitely not angry which was a good thing. If they weren't angry then maybe she could reason with them, find her friend and then they could escape.

She finally manages to open her eyes, but it's all blurry and bright and kind of hurts, almost like staring directly into the sun. She tries to call out for help, but she can't, her voice isn't working. She's being wrapped in something, a blanket she thinks, it was better than nothing, but nowhere near the warmth and comfort that her other home had been.

She wanted to go back, this wasn't fair, they couldn't do this to her, they couldn't give her paradise and the just rip it away. God or the universe or whatever existed out there had already killed her once, wasn't that enough, couldn't they just let her rest? What was happening to her, she was so weak, she could barely even move her head? The last time she had been this scared was the car crash.

She felt herself being passed off to and carried in the arms of another giant. Her vision is still blurry but she can tell that this one had long blond hair and blue eyes and he was speaking that strange language to her, using a very soft and careful tone, almost like he was trying to comfort her. She had absolutely no idea who he was but the vibrations from his voice were familiar, he may have been one of the people she could occasionally hear. She tries to speak to him but all that came out of her mouth was an awkward little squawk. She feels her world rumble as he chuckles at her and then she is handed off to yet another giant.

It's at this moment, that she finally gains her bearings and her world comes into a bit more focus. She's being held in the arms of a giant woman with brown hair that is matted down to her forehead by sweat and her eyes are puffy and red, but she's beaming down at her. Holding her closely in one of her arms. Across from Quinn being held in the other arm was a crying baby. And when Quinn looked over at the rather large baby the energy that had started to flow within her when she and her companion had first touched reacts to the baby's presence and Quinn instantly knew that the child was her companion.

And then the woman spoke and Quinn's world stopped because she had become intimately familiar with the sound and the vibrations of that voice. It was the same voice who she thought she could hear singing on occasion. The woman had tears streaming down her face but she seemed happy. Quinn had to know, who was she? Who was this woman that held her, whom she had heard sing?

She hears the familiar male voice speak, once again using that strange language. 'Why can't they speak English?' Quinn thinks a little petulantly. Then the woman speaks, answering back while looking at the baby."

"いの、なまい は いのです。"

"と、そのほかの?" The man says sounding a little choked up, but there is still a questioning lilt to his voice.

The woman smiles down at her and despite herself Quinn feels her chest fill with warmth. If she didn't know better she would say that this woman loved her. The look that the woman was giving her, it was the same look that Quinn could remember giving to Beth right after she had been born.

The woman says something else, this time to her, it has a slightly mocking tone to it almost like it was baby talk, but that made no sense and she still had no idea of what was actually being said. However the man must have thought that it was funny because he laughs.

The woman hums, "あの。。。なまい は。。。 りんです。"

Whatever else they were saying was drowned out by the unsettling realization of where she was. She couldn't believe she hadn't realized it before, it seemed so obvious now, but to be fair it's not like it made any sense in the first place and she had no idea of how it had happened, but she now knew what was going on with her.

She had just been born.

Again.

Literally.

And the reason she felt so helpless was because she was. She was completely and totally helpless in this little body. She wasn't sure what to think at this point, the only thought that did come to mind was 'Oh fuck.'

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Inoichi Yamanaka stared down helplessly at his beautiful wife as she squeezed his hand so tightly that he had to send a surge of chakra through it to keep her from crushing it. But he didn't care, his only real concern was for her, her and the two lives she was currently bringing into this world.

Twins, he couldn't believe it, the whole thing was a huge mystery because originally there had only been just the one child. Then one day about three months ago Megumi had felt a surge of chakra rush through her, strong enough to bring her to her knees and strong enough that even he had felt it from across the room. He was at her side in an instant and they had rushed to the hospital, terrified that this might have been some kind of failed assassination attempt, after all he had just retired from the position as the Head Konoha's Intelligence Department earlier this year and had made quite a few enemies during that time. They had even been worried enough to bring it to the attention of the Hokage himself. And when they arrived at the hospital they discovered something… unexplainable, Megumi was now carrying two children instead of one.

The concept of twins wasn't new of course, but the appearance of this new child had them all baffled. The baby had been too far along to have formed a twin, especially one that looked to be at the exact same stage of development as they had been. Test after test had been performed, and while Megumi had not been thrilled with how invasive some of them had been, they had to be sure that this newcomer wasn't a threat to them or their baby. The Hokage himself had assisted the medical shinobi with their seal work just to be sure. The shinobi world was full of dangers, sometimes hidden in plain sight, but after weeks and weeks of testing and retesting they found that the new child was just that, a child.

The spirits or the gods or whatever existed in the heavens had for some reason decided to bless them with another child and both he and Megumi couldn't have been more excited. The medical shinobi and the Fourth had hypothesized that somehow, from somewhere, a foreign chakra had been introduced into Megumi's system. This strange chakra had then followed her Chakra system to the baby that she carried inside of her. From there it had taken a strand of DNA from the baby growing inside of her and then used that to replicate and create a body for itself, a perfect replica of their child. And despite their best efforts, neither he, Chouza, nor even Shikaku had been able to locate this mystery Chakra's source.

There were other factors involved that they had no clue about, things they couldn't explain, like how Megumi's body had not only accommodated the newcomer but had assisted it as well in making a place for it inside of her. When it was all said and done you would never have known that this was anything other than your run of the mill set of twins. However, none of the mysteries involved mattered in the end, at least not to Inoichi and Megumi, the newcomer posed no threat to them or anyone as far as they could tell and so they just accepted that they were going to have two babies instead of just one. They were Shinobi, stranger things had happened… maybe not to them, but certainly somewhere out there. Right? Once they had accepted that, it was easy and they quickly came to love and worry about this new child just as much as the first one.

Others in the village hierarchy weren't so accepting though. Lord Danzo, for instance, had wanted to abort both children and have them studied, he wanted to find out exactly what had happened and he had his supporters too. Inoichi had flat out told the Hokage, Danzo, the village elders and council that anyone who tried it would die. He would kill them without hesitation or mercy. That conversation had been… he was going to go with intense.

It was actually a little scary how quickly the whole thing had almost escalated into a full blown civil war. Because while Danzo had had his supporters, Inoichi had had his own. Luckily for him and his side the Hokage had been one of them, and while there were checks and balances in their system of government at the end of the day they were a dictatorship, not a democracy, and the Hokage was the final word on any issue.

Inoichi knew that they were lucky the fourth was so kind hearted because there was ample reason for Minato Namikaze to view this newcomer as a possible threat. And he knew that if it came down to a fight there was no doubt in Inoichi's mind that the other man would have wiped the floor with him as well as anyone else in the room that was stupid enough to actually fight him. It was a fight that Inoichi was well aware that he couldn't have won.

He had agreed however that the child should be monitored, it would be foolish not to. But he made it perfectly clear that this child, his child, would be watched over by him and his wife, while under the protection of the Yamanaka clan. Which also meant by extension, and pretty much without saying, that the Akimichi and the Nara clans protection as well.

The history of the three clans dated back to a time before the hidden villages, before even the elemental nations. Back when the Yamanaka's and the Nara's had served as vassals to the Akimichi in what was then known as the Land of Vines in what was now a part of the north western border of the modern day land of fire. And generally speaking it was rare to find an issue that the three clans didn't side with each other on.

There were seven people total in the delivery room, which was covered from the ceiling to the floor and all of the walls with various seals as well as a couple of medical machines to monitor the birth of this mystery child. Megumi was not pleased with any of this in any way, shape, or form but the mystery surrounding the baby meant that there was little choice in the matter. At the very least it was with people Inoichi felt they could trust and Megumi was getting the best medical care currently available in the village. They couldn't have done any better even if Lady Tsunade herself had shown up.

Currently the room was occupied by himself and Megumi of course, and then there was the doctor. Assisting her was another medical-nin that had been chosen for not only their skill but their discretion. And then finally the Hokage as well as two of his Anbu guards. And just outside in the waiting room were his best friends, Chouza and Shikaku, with their wives and various other members of the Yamanaka clan.

When the Fourth Hokage had arrived he had kept it brief. "I am so sorry about all of this, this should be a happy occasion for you and your family but here I am intruding on this moment. I promise I won't stay any longer than I have to, I just need to make sure everything is safe and I want you to know that that includes your children, okay? And hey, at least with it being me monitoring the situation those old crones that I work with won't have any reason to doubt that this was anything more than a new life coming into this world. At least not without questioning my abilities and defying me directly."

This, more than anything else, provided some comfort to both parents because not even Danzo, who was well known to bend the rules to get achieve his goals, would be stupid enough to defy the fourth directly, no matter what concerns or designs he may have. The fourth kept a much tighter rein on his advisors than the third had. And after the fourth had said his piece he moved off to a corner and as far out of the way as possible.

"You're doing great sweetheart, you're so doing great, you're almost there." Inoichi says to his wife encouragingly.

"It hurts…" She groans back as another contraction hits.

"I know, but you are doing so great, you can do this-"

"The first baby is coming." doctor interrupts, "Megumi, I want you to give it one more big push, okay, you're almost there."

Megumi just nods her head and then does as instructed and in a matter of seconds his first child is born. A daughter, he was thrilled. Through all of the testing and the poking and the prodding, they had miraculously managed to keep the gender of their babies a surprise. A little girl, his first little girl, he watches as the assistant takes care of cleaning up the baby before handing her to him.

"Is that the one?" the Hokage asks, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

The doctor shakes her head, before turning back to her work.

The next child comes with complications. 'Of course it does.' Inoichi thinks dryly in the back of his mind, hidden behind all of the panic as he holds his eldest daughter close to his chest, whispering calming words to her as she cries, telling her that she had such a bright future to look forward to and a family here who loved her and would protect her.

The next child's umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. The doctor moves into action, barking out orders to her assistant, they act quickly and one easy emergency C-section later and their second child is brought into the world and neither mother nor daughter are any worse for the wear.

"You won't even have a scar." The doctor promises as she finishes running her glowing green palms over the last of the incision.

However Megumi isn't paying any attention to that. "Let me see my babies." she says with an exhausted gasp and so Inoichi hands her their eldest squalling daughter. "Shhh, shh, shhhh, it's okay baby, it's okay. I'm your mommy. Oh it's okay, you just let it all out, you've got something to say and we're going to listen, huh-"

Inoichi turns his attention to his other daughter who is being cleaned up by the doctor. "How is she doing, is she okay? She's being awfully quiet over there." He asks concerned for a multitude of reasons.

"She's doing just fine." The doctor says handing her over to Inoichi, who cradles her in his arms.

"Well, it seems to me that you have two perfectly normal, healthy, baby girls." The Hokage says stepping towards them, a kind smile on his face and his blue eyes alight with joy for them. "Just make sure to keep me informed if anything unusual happens in the future and with that I think we can call this whole issue closed."

"Thank you lord Hokage." Inoichi says, releasing a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding as relief floods through him.

The Hokage places a hand on his shoulder. "Congratulations to the both of you, you are truly blessed." And with that the Hokage and his bodyguards are gone, leaving the family to have their first moments together in private.

"Hey sweetheart, hey, I'm your daddy and I promise you, everything is going to be okay, alright." He whispers down to her softly. "I love you, I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to ever love someone and it doesn't matter where you came from… all that matters is that you're here."

Her little blue eyes are darting everywhere, but not focusing on any particular thing. She gives a tiny squawk as if answering him, her face all scrunched up and serious. He didn't think a newborn baby could have such a serious expression but this one somehow manages it.

"Can I see her?" Megumi asks, cradling the first baby in her left arm.

Inoichi nods, "Here you go." He says as he carefully passes her their second child.

Megumi takes the child and looks down at her, tears of joy streaming down her face. They were perfect in every single way, and other than a brief scare that was easily overcome, both babies were healthy and with Hokage's parting words they were now safe as well.

"I wish Kenichi could be here." Megumi says softly.

Kenichi was Megumi's younger brother and the two of them had always been close. He had gone missing about four months ago, and was presumed dead seeing that none of his team had returned from their mission either.

"I know, I do too… What are their names?" Inoichi asks her, wanting to get her mind off of her brother and onto happier things and since Megumi had carried them and given birth to them, it only seemed fair that she got to name them.

Megumi looks down at their crying eldest before looking up at him meaningfully. "Ino, her name is Ino."

You could have hit him over the head with a hammer and it still wouldn't have hit him the same way as that had. Ino, his namesake, his eldest. Ino. No word had ever been invented that could possibly describe what that meant to him.

"And the other?" He asks, his voice cracking with emotion.

Megumi looks down at the youngest daughter, who is looking at them, her face as fierce as it was possible for a newborn's face to be, as if trying to study them and the world around her. "Look at her face, it's just so serious, isn't it?"

Inoichi chuckles to himself, because he had noticed the same thing.

"Um… her name is… Rin."

Inoichi chuckles lightly at that. Rin, it could mean severe or cold, but it could also mean dignified, which was definitely fitting. She was so quiet, as if all this crying and baby nonsense was beneath her.

Rin gurgles.

"I think she likes it. I know I do, both of them are great names." He says as he leans in and captures his wife's lips with his own for a brief kiss. "Ino and Rin Yamanaka, two perfect names for two perfect little girls."

"You're not disappointed?" Megumi asks, "Chouza and Shikaku both had sons and I know you wanted your kids to grow up friends with theirs. Be the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho…"

"Nothing's changed with that, boys or girls, they can still be friends. I'm not disappointed, not in the slightest, I'm happier than I have ever been."

Megumi looks up at him, smiling. "Me too."

Suddenly Rin begins to cry, "Oh, oh, oh, there she goes, I knew she had voice somewhere in there." Megumi says sweetly, her own barely above a whisper. Inoichi takes Ino from her and begins to rock her back and forth and Ino finally begins to calm down as she rests in his arms. Meanwhile Megumi starts to sing softly to Rin, who starts to cry even harder.