My heart skipped a beat and my whole body ran cold.

Jero…already in labor! Is he okay? They got the letter 15 minutes ago. It takes Konoha's fastest hawk to reach the coast in 1 hour.

I took a giant leap and landed about 10 meters in front of Yoshino. I leapt as fast as I could, tree to tree. "Jero! I'm coming!!"

The hospital was still 6 miles away as Jero paused to take a breath. Sitting on a branch of a tree facing Konoha Park, he panted hard rubbing his flat, aching stomach. Over the nine months of rest he had been storing large amounts of his chakra in and around the babies to protect them from harm. As he rubbed, he filtered chakra from his hand into the children to calm them as they squirmed uncomfortably inside him.

Just then another intense wave of stabbing pain took hold of his lower abdomen. He grabbed his stomach and screamed, alerting 3 academy students that were practicing their ninjutsu under the tree. Taro screamed back in terror, rushing to the tree and pulling out the handful of shuriken he had just thrown into it. "What did you do now?!" asked Yumi, clearly exasperated.

Taro fell on to his back after yanking out all of the shuriken. Pointing a trembling finger at the tree he cried, "Th-that tree screamed!! I swear! You guys have gotta believe me this time!"

"That's impossible! What have I told you about lying?!" Several Aritomos' accused, before poofing into a single one.

Panting, Jero tried desperately to calm the twins, only for another tearing pain to take hold of his stomach. He let out another scream of agony.

"See! I'll prove to you that a tree cannot feel pain, let alone scream." Said Yumi pulling out a kunai from her bag, and running the blade across the side of the tree, at the exact moment that Jero's cry rained over them.

Yumi screeched in panic, as Taro hopped around yelling 'I told you so's' in Aritomo's face. The flood of pain was too much for Jero to handle and he blacked out, tilted to the left, and fell off the branch.

Aritomo's dark eyes flashed red as he made three hand signs and cloned five copies of himself that leaped up and caught Jero in mid air. Carefully hoisting him down, Aritomo asked indignantly, "Is this your screaming tree?" Yumi stared in amazement. "Ohhh! Aritomo, look! It's an ANBU! He has the mask and tattoo and everything." She said pulling Jero's porcelain mask off his flushed face.

Taro leaned in and patted the fallen shinobi's cheek in an attempt to wake him up. "He doesn't look so good, Ari-kun. Do you think he's hurt?"

"He doesn't look hurt! No blood or anything! Maybe he's sick!" Yumi supposed, lifting Jero's arms that were still gripping his flat stomach. Aritomo's eyes flashed red once more. With his recently awakened sharingan he scanned Jero's body. Jero groaned; coming to, glad to feel that the pains had passed. Grabbing the backs of Yumi and Taro's robes, Aritomo leaped twenty yards back.

"Get away from him! He's using the art of transformation!" exclaimed Aritomo, totally confused about what he saw. Even though he looked like his normal self, Jero stood up with as much difficulty as an eight month pregnant male would. "Would you like some help, ANBU-san!?" Taro asked, pulling free from the grasp of the trembling Aritomo. Yumi followed and both of them helped Jero to his feet, as Aritomo looked on.

Jero tried to continue on his way, but was flooded by questions.

"Woah! Are you really an ANBU?" Uhh, yeah, but I…..

"Ohh! What kind of animal do you have on your mask?!" I think it's a ra-….

"Do you get to pick the animal?" Well I….

"Have you ever killed anyone?" "Of course he's killed people, Taro!!" Guys, look, I really gotta-…

"OK! How many people have you killed?" Well, There's….

"What are you?" Everybody turned to Aritomo, standing straight, his hands held at his sides, and his dark eyes staring straight at Jero.



But before Jero even had a chance to open his mouth several huge explosions detonated on various spots throughout Konoha making the ground beneath them tremble. Yumi and Taro huddled close to Jero as dozens of foreign shinobi flooded the city from over the Hokage Rock. Jero looked on in disbelief. "No…" he gasped under his breath as Yumi and Taro wimpered by his side. "We have to warn the others!!" he ordered Aritomo, who stood, eyes wide with shock and fear.

Aritomo nodded as tried to gulp down the nervous lump in his throat. "Follow me!" Jero said as he leaped away, Yumi and Taro by his side and Aritomo gaining quickly.

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New Chapter, Yeah!! Hope you enjoyed it. Please review and look forward to reading the next one! :)