Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A/N: Hm... the chapters keep turning out a little short now don't they? I'm not meaning for it, but hey, be glad I'm updating! I'm glad I'm updating again. I was really starting to get frustrated with it. :)

Well, here's chapter 15. Enjoy.

Things soon became pretty routine at the Uchiha mansion. Another week had passed since Sasuke's departure, and all of Konoha was really beginning to wonder exactly where the Uchiha boy had gone and why. Naruto had hit a point where all he felt he could do was wait, and with nothing better to do, he was actually fairly patient about it. He knew, without knowing how he knew, that Sasuke would return to him. Yes, sometimes Naruto worried, and yes sometimes he got angry, but still he waited.

Despite his many efforts at trying to explain to them that he would most definitely not be running away again any time soon, Naruto was now being put under constant watch. Constant, constant watch. A set of eyes had to be on him at all times. It was really starting to get annoying, but he figured he had endured worse in the past, so surely he could endure this now.

Also, this free time gave him a chance to "hang out with his girl pals," as Sakura put it, but Naruto didn't really want to be around his "girl pals." Of course, he was glad to see them whenever he got the chance, but right now, the only thing he could really think about was Sasuke.

Naruto had nightmares. Horrible nightmares. Even worse than the ones of Itachi cutting the babies out of his belly. He dreamt of Sasuke, having seizures on the floor, and screaming in terrible agony. And he had nightmares of Sasuke leaving. Naruto would be on the ground in the pouring rain, covered in blood from having his babies, which were both dead, and he would reach out toward the Uchiha, but Sasuke would only turn his back on him and walk away. And Naruto worried; was that to be his fate? For Sasuke to leave him bleeding, and for their babies to die?

Naruto felt sick every time he thought about it, but it was altogether possible that Sasuke was hurt, wherever he was. Or being tortured, or even dead already. Maybe Sasuke's mind or body was being controlled. Or maybe he just didn't care about Naruto anymore. Maybe he was sick. He had been acting awfully strangely lately, before he left. But more importantly he wondered, where was Sasuke now, and what was he thinking about? Why had he even left Konoha and Naruto in the first place?

It was not just his worry for Sasuke that was bothering him though. Stubbornly, Naruto sat in frustration, thinking of all the things gone wrong in his life. For example, he was five months pregnant, he was stuck in the form of a woman, physically and emotionally, and also, he had a nine-tailed fox demon living inside of him and talking to him inside his head. Of course, that last was nothing new, but none the less, Kyuubi could get annoying as hell sometimes.

With all this on his plate, and Sakura wanted to have a slumber party of all things. Naruto was exhausted at the very thought of it.

On the whole, however, the party actually turned out rather well.

Naruto went shopping with Sakura to buy food for the party guests - not to mention they were out of food at the mansion anyway. Afterwards, they went back to the mansion and set up for the party. After a while, the girls began to arrive, and each of them showed up one by one dressed in pajamas and with a sleeping bag tucked under one of their arms and a pillow under the other. Each of them grinned widely whenever he or Sakura answered the door.

Soon, they settled down in the living room with snacks and drinks, chatting idly about unimportant things. Naruto was happy to discover that he could forget about Sasuke for a little while, even if it were only to last a single night. He was also surprised to find that he really enjoyed being around the girls again. It was almost like old times, back when they had known him as just Ayako-chan, and before anyone had known that he was pregnant. It was actually rather nice.

Tenten was there, and Hinata as well, of course. Also, Ino was there, Kiba's older sister Hana was there, and even Hinata's little sister Hanabi as well. There were also other girls there who Naruto had never met before, but he was a bit surprised to find that they each knew him. Then he remembered that the whole village knew of him by now. All together, there were about a dozen or so of them there, including Naruto, and it seemed just the right amount; there were not so few of them as to make it anything less than an actual party, but there were not so many of them as to drive Naruto crazy.

They all slept in sleeping bags in the living room that night, despite the mansion having enough rooms for each of them to have a bed of their own. The next morning, they had a humongous breakfast of pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs of all kinds, biscuits, toast, cereal, and anything else the girls could possibly see as a breakfast food. Also, there were stranger foods served as well, such as potato chips, peanut butter sandwiches, and grilled cheeses. And Naruto, who felt like he deserved to be at least a little spoiled, convinced one of the girls to sneak him some ramen without letting Sakura know.

On the whole, the little get together went rather well, and despite his initial discomfort toward the idea, Naruto found himself eager for another. Sakura noted the look on his face and commented, "That's the first time I've seen an actual smile in weeks. So I guess you had a good time?"

His smile warmed a bit. "Yes, actually, I did."

She rested a hand on his arm and said, "I'm glad."

They spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up the large mess all those girls had made the night before, and Naruto found that rather tiring, and it dampened his eagerness to have another party a bit. Once they were finally finished, Sakura insisted that Naruto needed to go clothes shopping again, seeing as the maternity clothes he had purchased not so long ago were already getting tight. Naruto, however, was completely exhausted, and after supper, Sakura allowed him to go to bed.

Before lying down to sleep, Naruto sat at the edge of his bed for a moment and glanced around at his multi-colored paint-splashed walls. He smiled at the memory of the paint fight, but shed a tear at the thought of Sasuke. He missed him so much. Why hadn't Sasuke contacted him yet, to at least say that he was doing alright?

For the first time in almost 24 hours, Naruto worried about the Uchiha, and the Kyuubi boy went to sleep that night with little nightmares already beginning to form in his mind.

Another week passed. Naruto was more impatient than ever. How could Sasuke do this to him? How?! He found himself on the very verge of an emotional breakdown every moment of the day, but he supposed that was normal for a pregnant teenager, especially one who's boyfriend was missing. (However, Naruto was slightly amused at the thought of referring to Sasuke as his boyfriend.)

Naruto was surprised that Sakura put up with him. The tiny pink haired girl endured his ranting and outbursts as calmly as she would if they were conversing about the weather or flowers or something. Naruto wasn't sure how she did it, but he was sort of glad she did; he didn't know where he'd be without Sakura there to support him. Sakura did eventually make him go clothes shopping though, and it gave Naruto a headache, but in the end he was glad that they had gone; he really had been outgrowing his clothes.

It was a few days later when Naruto began to yearn for company. He hadn't seen anyone other than Sakura since that slumber party, and he missed his other friends, like Rock Lee, and sometimes he even missed Kakashi. Sakura was surprisingly agreeable when he asked to have other people watch over him. She said that it was understandable, and she wrote to the Hokage about it. Both Naruto and Sakura knew that it might be a few days before Tsunade was able to write back, but they didn't mind, seeing as they had the time.

Three days later they received a letter from the Hokage saying that things had, thankfully, calmed down a lot in Konoha since the last time they had heard anything from her - she was actually getting four hours of sleep a night rather than the usual one or two, and she even remembered to get something to eat every now and then. Tsunade also said that it was fine if Naruto wanted to trade Sakura in for someone else, seeing as how Kakashi and Guy didn't have as much to do anymore. Also, she suggested to write Hiashi if Naruto was really that desperate for company. Sakura and Naruto wrote back, thanking her and saying that they were glad things were not as busy anymore, and also that Naruto would not mind if she wrote to Hiashi for him.

That very same day, none other than Kakashi Hatake himself stood in the doorway of the Uchiha mansion. When he held up his hand in the usual salute and greeted them with the usual, "Yo," Naruto actually hugged the guy. Kakashi stuck around for two or three days, reading his little orange books and pilfering all the food he possibly could from the kitchen and such, then Iruka took a day off teaching the younger students to be with Naruto. Together they laughed and talked like old times - even though Naruto's rough laughter had turned to inappropriate sort of giggles that even made Iruka wince every now and then.

Next to be his "babysitter" was Might Guy, who thankfully brought Lee along with him, and Naruto was actually able to sit and spend time with his old friend. Random outbursts and all, Naruto was glad for Rock Lee's company.

And finally, Hiashi watched over him. The man was as quiet and as serious as ever, but even so, Naruto was glad to have him around. Hinata came with Hiashi on his first day, just to say hello and chat for a while, then she left, and Naruto was allowed to sit in blissful silence and read a book. As was usual for him, Hiashi sat himself outside the front door, and Naruto was able to pick up the book he had stopped reading the day that Sasuke had left. Naruto realized with a start that that had been the last time he had read a book, and now he didn't even really remember what this one was about. With a quiet little sigh, he flipped back to page one and started over.

Days flew by with still no word from Sasuke. Naruto's pregnancy was approaching six months, and yet his babies had no father to be here for them. Despite having friends over and more people to talk to, and despite the fact that things were calming down in Konoha, Naruto still worried. Sasuke was gone, and the Kyuubi boy hadn't yet forgotten that there was still a man out there somewhere who had, at one point, wanted his babies dead. Then one day Naruto put two and two together and began to fret that Sasuke's sudden disappearance might have something to do with the man who had wanted to hurt their babies.

The nightmares of Itachi returned with a vengeance, but this time they involved more of Sasuke being injured or killed rather than Naruto or Naruto's babies. Sakura, who still took a few turns watching over Naruto every now and again, wrote Tsunade about the nightmares, and the Hokage herself came to the mansion to give Naruto another check up. She said that everything was normal and that he was doing just fine, and also that this would continue as long as Naruto kept taking his medicine. She also gave him some different medicine to calm his nerves, in hopes that the nightmares would stop.

Not long afterward, other people started watching over Naruto, rather than Sakura or Kakashi or Guy. Now also was Ino, Hinata, Kiba, and even Neji. None of them really considered it so much as "babysitting," however, but more as just hanging out or talking. Naruto wondered, at first, what he and Neji would talk about, and why the hell the Hyuga would even want to watch over Naruto in the first place, but it actually wasn't nearly as awkward as he'd thought it would be. Actually, it was much like having Hiashi there, except Neji kept his eyes open for rather long periods of time instead of keeping them closed half the time he was there, and Neji also stayed inside the house, rather than sitting out by the door.

Hiashi was the one watching over him when finally Naruto finished his book. It was a cold night, seeing as it was the middle of autumn already, and there was a bright fire blazing in the huge fireplace in the living room. Naruto sat in a couch nearby, and when finally he finished the very last page, he set the book aside and stared into the flames, deep in thought about the things he had just read. Then he heard the door open and shut, and it was unusual for Hiashi to come inside the house while on watch, unless something had happened. Naruto stood to see who was at the door, seeing as it would have been awkward to turn himself around that far to look from where he was sitting.

And there he was; Sasuke Uchiha, standing there in the mansion.

"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, not bothering to hide his relief. He ran around the couch with the intention to give the Uchiha a hug - well, more like fly into his arms, really - but Sasuke's expression stopped him mid-step.

Sasuke's face was covered in dirt and blood, as was the rest of his skin. There was a small cut on one cheek, and a larger one on his left forearm that looked like it might need immediate attention. Those weren't the things that worried Naruto though. The boy's eyes were dead and far off, as if he weren't really all there. His movements - Naruto's brain had failed to register them before then - were slow and hesitant. Now that he was standing still, Sasuke barely moved at all, even to blink. He looked so… helpless.

"Sasuke…?" Naruto whispered quietly. He meant for his voice to come out evenly, but it cracked halfway through Sasuke's name. It had been so long since Naruto had seen him - he had dreamed of seeing Sasuke's face every night since he had gone, but it was not this face Naruto wanted to see.... Sasuke just wasn't Sasuke at the moment.

The Uchiha's eyes were the only things that moved, and when they came to Naruto's face they filled with tears, and that shocked the hell out of Naruto, twisting a knife of pain in his gut. Sasuke's hurt was his own hurt, and he couldn't recall ever seeing Sasuke cry before. It took a moment to realize that tears had welled up in his own very wide-eyes.

"I know the killer," Sasuke whispered then. "I know who wants to kill our babies."

Naruto was speechless. Wasn't that a good thing? Why would Sasuke be so upset at that? Wouldn't the Uchiha normally be out there kicking bad guy ass instead of standing here before Naruto, crying of all things? Naruto took a reluctant step toward the boy, and without further explanation, Sasuke's body seemed to move on it's own. He practically stumbled into Naruto's arms - another painful fact; Naruto had never known Sasuke to stumble before, even when at his weakest.

Sasuke was sobbing - horrible, heart wrenching sobs of pain that Naruto had never imagined coming from the usually cool collective Uchiha. Naruto didn't press for Sasuke to explain. The only thing he was able to do at that moment was give a little distressed cry of his own, and hold Sasuke as close to him as possible. Sasuke continued to cry on Naruto's shoulders, and clung to his frail, pregnant body.

"It's my fault," Sasuke whispered in despair. "It's all my fault…."