I Do Not Own Naruto


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Pollination


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"Kakashi," Sasuke said when the meeting was concluded and Sakura was hurrying off to have her chat with Kushina about jinchūriki pregnancies and a few other girl things he knew that her guardian couldn't talk to her about. Sasuke still had nightmares about her first period; which had had him panicking, and Naruto in a frenzy; it had been his fourteenth birthday and they had all been at his house, Sakura started bleeding and… well, the birthday was then spent at Naruto's with Minato and Itachi telling them about women's anatomy while Sakura was having a similar chat with Kushina and Izumi, and Kakashi was away on an ANBU mission.

Not his best birthday memory, but definitely one which highlighted the fact that Sakura was very different from him and Naruto.

"Yes," his silver mentor turned towards him then and Sasuke motioned for them to go walking. He didn't want to have this talk but he knew it was needed.

"Sakura doesn't… she doesn't know," Sasuke said, he was trying to think of how to put it but he didn't know how. Kakashi looked a little confused and he sighed as he dragged a hand through his hair and tried to elaborate.

One thing he never did was actually talk about what he did in the ANBU when he went off on his solo missions. Naruto and Sakura thought he was training or something, and he wanted to keep it that way. The last thing he needed was his wife-to-be and his adoptive brother doing was looking at him for the monster he really was. Also, he didn't talk to anyone after his debriefings about what it was he actually did, and he would really like to keep it that way.

"What doesn't she know?"

"The other missions I do," Sasuke finally managed and understanding dawned in her guardian's eyes.

"Sasuke, how long have you…" Kakashi stated.

"I let them think I was training," he admitted. She and Naruto had been so focused on getting Isobu and Kurama to work with them and be friends with their Tailed Beasts that he just… well, he had let them think he was also a chūnin and he hadn't ever let them think he was the most like a monster out of the three of them. Sasuke just… he didn't want them to look at him differently; Izumi did, and he didn't like it.

"Sasuke, why?"

"They are jinchūriki, they had other matters on their minds," he stated truthfully. Being jinchūriki made them both valuable to the Leaf and he knew if the Root director had it his way they'd be locked up. But Sakura and Naruto were two very willful people; and they were slightly innocent compared to him. The missions they took were tailored to their abilities, and they weren't likely to be captured in those mission. Not that they would be captured even if they were sent on the impossible missions. However, jinchūriki stood out; always, mostly because they were so rare, and because of this he had kept his darker skills and darker missions to himself.

"And you still don't want them to know," Kakashi sighed.

"Aa," he nodded. Besides; everyone knew Naruto couldn't keep secrets to save his life!

"Sasuke…" Kakashi glared at him and Sasuke looked back at the very man who had roped him into the darker missions of the ANBU.

"I wanted to tell them, but now, no," he admitted. He had wanted to tell them the first time he had killed a man, to be specific he had killed a wealthy daimyo in the Land of Sound, slit his throat, fought with the Orochimaru who had come for him and slipped away with nothing more than a few scrapes and an obsessed snake hunting him. However when he had returned home he had been sick for days after his first kill, he hadn't seen Sakura or Naruto, and he had kept it to himself after that. Sasuke no longer got ill after assassinations, or the other missions he was sent on, but they weren't pleasant missions and would have his guts in knots for days after. He went around Sakura mostly after those missions, she was… soothing, in a simple word to describe her, she was soothing for him to be around after those missions.

"You're going to have to tell her eventually," Kakashi pointed out.

"No," Sasuke said firmly.

"Things like this Sasuke, they never stay secret," Kakashi assured him and he shrugged.

"It's been this way for a while, and I'll keep it this way," he said firmly.

"Alright, but when she finds out, I'm not protecting your ass, I won't tell her though," Kakashi informed him.

"Thank you," he nodded and they walked together for a bit longer in silence.

"I never meant for you to become elite in those missions," Kakashi finally admitted. He shrugged.

"It's not a problem, someone has to do them," he said absently. He fully believed that someone had to do them, and believing that was about the only reason he did them. Just like Itachi was in line to be the Fifth Hokage at this moment, someone had to do that job as well. Sasuke believed it was just a job, even on the nights it had him waking in a cold sweat and sneaking over to the Hatake household. He was strong enough to work in the darkness, it wouldn't consume him with his friends and family here to pull him out of it when it got to be a little too much for him.

"I don't think I ever should have chosen you to be my protégée for those missions," Kakashi admitted.

"I had the talent," Sasuke replied. He knew this, he had the natural darkness in him, and he had a knack for killing, and he didn't mind the jobs as much anymore. They were just missions to him, and they were usually behind enemy lines, they were dangerous, they were hard, and they were some of the most challenging missions there were. And a dark, sick, twisted part of him loved the challenge of them.


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Sakura found herself sitting at Kushina's kitchen table with a cup of tea warming her fingers though Sakura wasn't overly fond of tea. She had questions, and sadly, she wanted answers as she sat there looking at the warm liquid in her fingers.

"So, what do you want to know about?" Kushina asked her as she sat at the table. Sakura looked up to the smiling red woman and felt herself relax slightly as she looked back at her tea.

"Um… jinchūriki pregnancies…" she muttered.

"Oh," Kushina blinked and Sakura felt herself turning the color of Kushina's hair as she sat there trying not to fidget uncomfortably.

Kushina was like an aunt to her, and Izumi like a sister, and Tsunade was like a crazy wild aunt; and when Sakura had girl problems and needed motherly advice she usually found herself at Kushina's place, or Tsunade's current hang out, or at Izumi's asking her questions. She never asked Kakashi anything feminine related; not because he wouldn't know, but rather because it would make things awkward between them and he'd still end up sending her to Kushina's. Sakura had been mortified when her first period came and she had to learn about tampons, while the boys were sitting in the kitchen with Itachi and Minato and she was in the bathroom upstairs.

There were other things which had had Sakura running to Kushina for answers; puberty had fucking sucked for her needless to say.

And the worst part of it was she didn't get anything!

She was an A-cup in the breast department, she didn't have hips, legs, or curves; so to speak, and her womanly charms which were supposed to come, well… they were still lacking in a lot of ways. The only thing that had really changed was her voice, it had matured, and the rest of her… well, compared to her friends Sakura was pathetically, painfully, underdeveloped.

But still, puberty had been her worst enemy when it had come with a roaring vengeance upon her.

And that had led to a lot of afternoons in Kushina's kitchen asking her questions and trying not to leap of a cliff in mortification at some of what she was asking. Kushina was always her first choice for advice, Izumi was too sisterly and Tsunade was a little too wild.

"Well, they're not really all that different from normal pregnancies, other than the seal holding the Tailed Beast is weakened greatly. You will be at your most vulnerable at birth, and the Tailed Beast; even if they don't like you, are protective of the baby and want to come out at birth as well to defend," Kushina explained. Sakura trembled a little as she rested a hand on her stomach where Isobu was napping.

"The night I birthed Naruto was a very bad night," Kushina admitted.

"What?" Sakura looked up to the redhead then.

"Not only was it excruciatingly painful, and everything in my body hurt; even breathing, but I had to go to the ruins, there was a sealing squad all in the birthing area; in case Kurama decided to make a break for it since my seal was weakened, and they all saw me give birth to Naruto, humiliating. But Kurama did break free that night," Kushina admitted which had Sakura tremble slightly again as she looked at the redhead.

"Well, to be more specific, someone killed the sealing squad, my midwife and then released my seal; it hurt so much I barely remember it. The only reason Naruto wasn't killed was I was still birthing him," Kushina admitted.

"Thankfully Minato came to my rescue, he got me and Naruto out of there, and then he got Kurama in a different valley.

"We couldn't reseal Kurama in me, we tried that a little after my labor, so Minato decided to seal all of Kurama in Naruto. It was terrifying to be honest, but I'm glad it's worked out this way," Kushina admitted and Sakura's hand tightened on her stomach. She didn't want to give Isobu up to any child of hers' because it… it was painful to be a jinchūriki. Very painful, and though she had her true friends, outside of 'her group' she was scorned by the civilians of her village, and she would never want that to happen to any child of hers'. It didn't help matters that her children were apparently going to be Uchiha children; the civilians really didn't like the Uchiha for some reason.

"Why does the seal weaken? And can we stop it?" Sakura asked.

"The seal weakens because the chakra you're using on the seal is diverted to protecting the baby in you, you have to remember that you are a normal human before you are a jinchūriki in some ways. And a woman's body is designed to protect babies and birth them, naturally a woman's chakra is diverted to the protection of the womb. But because you are a jinchūriki your body is already naturally diverting chakra to protect the Tailed Beast within you.

"So now your body is doing what it would naturally do if you were pregnant, and then when you really become pregnant it will be confused but it will always choose your baby over the Tailed Beast," Kushina admitted to her.

"Will my baby… be different?" she asked.

"No, though Naruto did come out with Kurama's whiskers," Kushina giggled and Sakura smiled slightly as she felt herself relax and then opening up about her other fears about what pregnancy would do to her and her seal.

Her seal wasn't stable like Naruto's was, though Minato had fixed it up as best he could with Sasuke's help, there hadn't been a lot they could do to change it. And so she had actually been forced to befriend Isobu in the beginning so he didn't get released on a wild rampage. That had hurt like hell, but she had accomplished it, and once she and Isobu were friends they had started having an annual reseal from Minato that was yearly, and Naruto and Kurama didn't even need this reseal.

Now she was to be pregnant with an unstable seal and Isobu within her, pregnancy made her very nervous, even if she didn't want to admit it as she talked this over with Kushina.


That's all for now folks!

Enjoy Blooming in Darkness! =)