Blood is Thicker Chapter 5
A/N: Thank you to all who faved and followed! Here's a new chapter for ya, kiddies! Please enjoy and review!
Guest: Thank you! That's very kind of you to say!
M Night Seiran: Well I'm certainly glad you enjoy the GaaHina! I sometimes worry my pairings won't go over so well :) As for the "-chan" I believe I'm going to use it on more light-hearted occasions. In Japan, not using a "chan" or "san" indicates that the people speaking are intimate or know each other on a personal level. Because their discussion was so serious, I decided to leave out the "-chan". And yes, I don't know if Karin knows, but I've come up with a scenario anyhow.
Nocturnal Shinobi: Yes, one can only imagine the shenanigans Naruto could get into at the Haruno household! Thanks for the review :)
bankai777: Haha, the Konoha 11's future kids are a little further ahead! I hope you don't want both twins to be named Kushina? Lol, thank you for the review! ;)
: The Narusaku will take center stage in the next chapter or so, with Hinata's "arc" shall we say is getting pretty much wrapped up right now. The Hinata stuff is mostly for setup, as this fic is still pretty young! And as for Karin, I realize what you're saying, however Karin isn't making any decisions, and is heavily supervised. At best, she is stamping papers and filing d-rank mission info and other trivial things. I apologize for the confusion! Thank you for taking the time to review and follow ;)
After walking Sakura home from dinner, Naruto decided to take the long way to his apartment building, perfectly happy to gaze a bit more at the night sky. Upon arriving at his building, he simply leaped to his floor, going through a hallway window that was always open, as it didn't have any coverings. Perhaps it was for ninja convenience?
Once Naruto had finally gotten in his apartment and happily she's his jacket and threw it on the couch, there was a knock on the door.
It was Hinata.
"Naruto, may I come in?" she asked determinedly. Naruto could only nod, a little confused by her behavior.
"I've recently made a decision." she said, sitting on his breakfast stool. "I'm going to marry Gaara."
"What? Gaara? Why would you do that?"
Hinata sighed. "Several reasons. First, because I really don't want to be clan leader. Second, because I want a new start."
"It doesn't sound like you love him, Hinata."
"I don't. But he offered me a chance to have a clean slate and decide things for myself, and I think I deserve that."
"Why would he make such an offer? Hinata, you should be with the one you love."
Hinata whirled to face him, her eyes angry.
"I CAN'T!"
Naruto's eyes widened in realization. Becoming the 6-tailed must have made him forget the fact she had feelings for him.
"I know you don't feel the same. And I'm happy that you're happy, even if I'm sad it's not with me, but I want a new start, Naruto! Even if I don't love Gaara, I love the fact I can be...freer if I take this opportunity!"
"How did this come about?" Naruto asked, a little confused, considering he wasn't aware they knew each other.
Hinata eyes looked a little hurt, and she turned away. Naruto saw the navy hair move as she shook her head.
"We met in the Victory Camp," she said slowly before heading for the door. "Look, Naruto, I...I hope you can forgive me, but you're happy now. I want to be happy too. Don't be mad at Gaara either. He's doing me a huge service."
Hinata walked out the door with that, leaving Naruto a little dumbfounded. He sat down on his couch, scratching his head a little. He supposed he couldn't stop her from doing as she wished but he couldn't help but feel a little bad about the whole situation. Other than a few inklings of regret about how it was handled, Naruto felt the whole thing was in a way...resolved.
Hinata dashed through the streets with a smile on her face as the sun began to rise. She felt a little free already, after finally letting go of big part of her life. Now, she was ready to let go of even more. She ran up the stairs of the hotel Gaara was staying at, and arrived at his door before she knew it. Next thing she knew, Gaara was opening the door, his face glowing with the light from the rising sun coming in through his window. Hinata could see Temari in the background.
"I'll do it!"
A couple hours later, a different redhead, Karin looked sadly at the toilet she had just puked in. She stood and flushed, not looking at the mess. However, she did look at herself in the mirror. Her already difficult to tame hair was a little matted from not yet being brushed and Karin was very pale.
There was a soft knock at the door.
"S..Sai, could you please go away?"
"You're sick, Karin?"
"I know, I'll just go see Sakura, she's a medic, right?"
"But what about working with Tsunade-sama?"
Karin put her hands on her head, sighed and opened the door. Sai was rather taken aback by her appearance, she was even still in her pajamas.
"Can you just tell her I feel under the weather?"
Sai nodded, appearing the slightest bit confused.
Later, Sakura sat outside Sai's bathroom pinching her nose. She had banished Sai to his room for "medical privacy", and took over from there.
"Ok, you can come in," Karin called.
Sakura opened the door and immediately stepped in. Karin pointed to the object on the sink. "It..it's positive."
Sakura picked it up and examined it. "Sometimes they're wrong. Maybe we should go see my mother..."
"No! No, I..I just, for some reason you're the only one I trust with this right now!"
Sakura sighed. "I suppose I could examine you, but seeing my mother would get you a definite answer. So when was it?"
"Right before the war, but really I barely remember... As much as I was into him, he kinda forced himself on me. It didn't even mean anything to him. After he tried to kill me, I didn't even think it could be possible."
Sakura nodded, and went to examine her with a jutsu she'd read about and even seen her mother perform many times.
"There's definitely something there... I'm not certain how old. Like I said, my mother is an expert."
However, Karin looked about green as she lunged for the toilet. Sakura quickly grabbed her hair and pulled it back. After emptying her stomach yet again, Karin sat against the wall, rubbing her temples. Sakura sat next to her, with a little concern.
"What do I do?"
Sakura wearily opened Naruto's apartment door, and flopped down on his couch. Coming out of the kitchen with some instant ramen, Naruto smiles happily and kissed her head.
"Oh goody! It's Sakura-chan! I was worried you were Hinata!" he said, plopping down next to her. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows.
"Why would you think I was Hinata?"
Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head. "She kinda barged in to inform me that she's going to marry Gaara."
"Marry Gaara? Hinata? Are you sure?"
"She said she wanted to get a clean slate since I'm with you now."
Sakura was a bit surprised. "Well I certainly never saw THAT coming."
Naruto set down his empty ramen cup, and put his arm around Sakura.
"So what brings you to my neck of the woods? It can't be the gossip, I hear Ino is pretty good at it."
Sakura ran her hands through her hair. "It's actually more gossip. Karin wanted me to tell you something."
"Shoot."
"She's...pregnant."
It was Naruto's turn to furrow his brows. "Is it what I think it is?"
"Yes, it's the return of the Uchiha."
Naruto stood at this, running his hand through his hair and pacing around his living room thinking. "I don't know if we should be happy we can honor Sasuke and try to make sure he's nothing like his father-"
"Hey! It could be a girl!"
"Not with my luck... Or, if we should be scared he'll be just like his old man no matter what?"
"But not scared about the fact Karin is 17..." Sakura deadpanned. "Or about what Tsunade will say."
"Leave Baa-chan to me, I can't let her do anything to Sasuke's child. I couldn't bring him back, the least I can do is protect his kid."
Sakura felt her heart break with what he said. "Naruto, nobody blames you for not bringing Sasuke back..." she said softly, almost a whisper. She stood to join him, her green eyes looking up into his blue eyes. "He wasn't the same Sasuke to bring back."
"I promised to..." Naruto said drawing her close. She wrapped her arms around his back tightly.
"I don't care anymore... I..I was 12, I didn't know better what it would do, and I was selfish. But I'm going to be selfish now, and request that you try to move past him."
Naruto sat back down on the couch, and said very sadly, "I'll try."
Sakura sat back down as well and rested her head on his shoulder. The two sat together this way for awhile, with Sakura even falling asleep for a bit. Naruto just watched her and sat quietly with his thoughts. His peers lives kept getting stranger and stranger it would seem. He didn't like it.
Even his normal life was different. Tsunade didn't send him on many missions anymore. Many were below him she argued. Sure, he had Sakura now. It seemed like his shining light at the moment.
He didn't like thinking about the war. Yet, it seemed to affect just about everything now. A day couldn't go by without at least one reference. It unsettled him.
However, there was one thing Naruto missed. Sometimes he'd sit and daydream, but he likes to think it was the dreams at night where he'd see his parents again. He'd like to believe that he really was talking to his parents when he slept. That or he was very imaginative... He wasn't quite sure, and apparently neither was Kurama.
Eventually, Naruto shook Sakura awake, kissed her goodbye and went to visit his parents for the night.
A/N: Done!
I realize that their is a lot of concern about Narusaku. Don't worry, they are coming into center stage! It was even that concern that inspired me to throw in the last bit about their visit!
Next time, Naruto meets Sakura's family! Are you listening, Nocturnal Shinobi? ;)
Thank you for reading! Please be kind and leave a review ;)
Peace, Love and Ramen Noodles!
-MyHikari