THE DICHOTOMY OF FAMILY AND GENETICS

Naruto never though much about her own family – her background never seemed important to her; a moments carelessness meant she got one whether she wanted one or not. All of a sudden, she finds herself missing what she had never had, and what she had never missed, before. SasuNaru (FemNaru), slight GaaSaku, ShikaIno, KakaRin, JiraTsu, MinaKushi, & YahiKonan.

CHAPTER IV
~ NINE DAYS ~

Your baby blues,
So full of wonder,
Your curly cue's,
Your contagious smile,
And as I watch,
You start to grow up,
All I can do is hold you tight...

"Naruto!"

Sasuke began to give the red-haired girl a gentle shake of the shoulders, feeling panic rising in his gut; all those horror stories he'd read on the internet when he first began taking an interest in his child were flashing into his mind; paralysis and death by far and away the worst. He felt someone pulling her away and turned to face the blonde midwife herself.

"What happened? What's wrong with her?" he demanded quickly.

The woman forced him into the chair beside the bed before turning to Naruto and checking her pulse breathing and all manner of other things as Fuu fumbled with the small infant wailing in the background. Sasuke watched as she seemed to breathe easier, and moved to remove the stained, messy sheets Naruto was slumbering atop.

Sasuke repeated his question again as Tsunade replaced the sheets with some new ones; Naruto had been lying on top of the covers rather than the mattress itself, and it was easier to just pull them out and replace them over her than move her to another bed. Tsunade tucked town the corners, brushing Naruto's fringe from her eyes almost nostalgically before turning to face him.

"Sasuke, if you have to ask what happened, you'd better hope to god your daughter gets her mother's brains; Naruto's just given birth. I can guarantee from personal experience it's enough to turn the liveliest girl into an exhausted mess for a while. She was a little on the petite side in the first place, so given her age and the length of time this took, she's entitled to feeling a little konked out" she replied with a grin.

She turned to Fuu, who was approaching them both with a small pink wrapped bundle that seemed to have calmed down since it's rather uncomfortable welcome to the world. He reached forward even as he shrunk back in alarm as Fuu handed the mass of flesh and blankets to him. He looked down at the tiny girl and gave her face a critical eye.

She was a clone of her mother in more than her lungs, apparently. She had blue eyes, but those weren't guaranteed to stay just yet, and she had a small fuzzy patch of red hair; she had his face shape though, and nose – he'd seen pictures of himself and his brothers as babies, and his daughter had a very similar structure. She didn't seem very impressed with him if the squashed baby glare on her features was anything to go by.

He couldn't honestly say she was exactly pretty; she looked more like a wrinkled red sausage with eyes than anything else, but holding such a tiny person was breathtaking in and of itself. The fact that the tiny red sausage was his tiny person – his and Naruto's – was even more amazing. Holding her took a little getting used to, and she fussed for several minuets before he finally had hold of her in a position that was comfortable – he guessed he had the guidance of Tsunade to thank for that. He didn't dare try to move with her – instead remaining firmly planted on the chair; he was terrified he would drop her.

She fidgeted into sleep, and her fist latched onto his pinkie as he dangled it over the edge of the blanket towards her; it just managed to clamp around the thin digit of skin and bone. God, she was so small! He'd thought she would have been bigger from the size Naruto's belly had been, but Tsunade claimed that wasn't unusual. He'd also been certain the baby would have been a boy; Naruto would be unbearably smug when she woke up.

Naruto had first felt their daughter moving around as the muscles inside her began to contract on the early hours of the 29th, she'd begun to feel actual pain yesterday afternoon, and she had finally given birth only a few minuets ago. It was now 6am – Halloween. 27 hours of what had looked like nothing but a lot of pain and discomfort, even if the result had been completely different

Thinking about it that way, he wasn't about to wake her; she fully deserved to sleep as much as she wanted to. He should probably call his parents and Sakura, but he didn't want to leave the room; aside from the fascination with his tiny daughter, he wanted to be in the room when Naruto woke up.

Eventually, he had to leave the room, on Tsunade's orders. Apparently he had been turning into a vampire, and had been forced to go find a drink of something containing energy. He thought it would be more useful for Naruto to get the energy drink in a drip or something, but he wasn't going to argue with the monster of a woman; she'd whacked the back of his head when he hesitated, and he just knew she had been restraining herself.

Tsunade also wanted to take the little girl into the neonatal ward for a proper check up since she was almost two weeks early. Not deeming it a very wise thing to argue with a midwife, he let her do what she wanted and headed out into the hallway. After swilling back some disgusting black coffee tasting more like diesel from a vending machine near the phones, he picked up the receiver, inserted his money and dialled the number.

He didn't have to wait very long for the phone to be snatched from the hook like an Osprey snatching a fish from the sea.

"What happened? Is she all right? Is it over? Do I owe Itachi money? Is your hand broken? Why didn't you call earli-"
"Obito, get off the phone! You're just getting in the way!"
"Shut up Pinky! I'm family, I take prece- Dude, don't glare at me like that!"
"Then don't talk to my girlfriend like that."

Gaara? Gaara was at his house? Gaara never came to his house – he found Obito too annoying.

"Fine! Just stop the glar-"

There was some shouting as his father removed the phone from Obito's grasp, and Itachi's voice came onto the end of the phone instead.

"Sorry Sasuke, they're a little strung out"
"They're strung out?"

Sasuke snorted incredulously; those poor people. How horrible it must have been to sit and wait for his girlfriend to tear herself apart and to exhaust herself to the point of unconsciousness. Really. It sounded absolutely terrible.

"Yes well, we haven't had much information; Mother is already on her way up. You should be glad she forbade the others from joining her."
"I am..." Sasuke replied with as much sincerity as he could muster – it wasn't much, perhaps more diesel was in order.

"Well?"
"Oh, right, tell Obito he owes you money – Naruto was right, a girl."
"I knew it – that'll teach the idiot to make bets... What time did she go into labour? Sakura told us she hadn't started this morning..."
"About five I think, it was six by the time it was all over; they had to induce though. I think if it had been any later Tsunade would have had her in the surgery room"

He couldn't see, but he knew Itachi was sombrely nodding along to what he was saying; he could hear Sakura and Obito demanding more information.

"How's Naruto?"
"Dead to the world; she fell asleep a few seconds after the whole mess was done."
"I can imagine; how long was she in labour altogether?"
"Start to finish, 27 hours, but the actual labour bit was only about an hour"

Itachi relayed the information, and he heard Sakura's loud squeal of delight through the phone, though he was certain that she was some distance from it. He smirked when he heard Obito's wail of despair at the news of loosing his money.

Sasuke was panicking; he was not usually prone to panic, but the situation he found himself in was one where panic fell on even the oldest of grown men; soothing a crying baby for the first time.

His daughter had been quiet and sleepy for a couple of hours, but about five minuets ago she had jerked awake. She had stared at him for a few moments, making small fussing noises, before opening her mouth, swallowing a large amount of air, and begun to scream and bawl her little lungs out at a pitch that rivalled those reached by her mother.

He stood frozen to the spot on the verge of giving up; he had fed her after Tsunade had brought her back from her check up under the woman's supervision, and he didn't think digestion took two hours, even for a baby. Besides, he had checked, and she didn't need changing. Burping was out because she'd already done that earlier – he wished he had listened when Tsunade told him to put a towel on his shoulder.

He had tried feeding her again, but she had batted the bottle of formulated milk from his hand with the slap of her strong but tiny hands. He had rubbed circles on her back, and after checking to make sure no one was going to sneak up on him he had even made that shushing movement, the jiggly one. Nothing worked.

He stared at the ceiling, silently begging divine intervention as the wailing infant tugged on his hair violently – oh yes, she was definitely Naruto's kid. He glanced to his girlfriend, hoping she was going to miraculously awaken with all the noise. Weren't women supposed to be good with babies? If Naruto woke up, maybe she'd be able to tell what was wrong...

No – Naruto needed sleep. He could figure this out on his own. He glanced back at the squalling girl in his arms; he checked her temperature again with the back of one hand. She was not too cold, and despite her angry red face, she wasn't hot either. He racked his brains as the baby squirmed in his hold, trying to think of something that could be wrong.

"Sasuke, you're not holding her properly!"

Sasuke whirled to the doorway to find his mother moving swiftly across the room towards him; relief flooded him almost instantly as she took the baby from him, and he caught the slight difference in the way her arms held his daughter.

"It wasn't much, but her head was a little unsupported, and she needs that at the moment" his mother explained.

Sasuke nodded vigorously, drinking up the information his mother was supplying him with. She went on to tell him the little human could probably sense his own unease in holding her, and that was probably what started the fussing in the first place. He felt terrible for a moment, and then she told him his father had the same problem when his brothers had been born.

He watched as his mother made a much more practised shushing motion, with fewer jigs than his own; his fascination turned to alarm when she handed the baby back to him with a smile.

"Don't bounce her so much – you're wobbling her head all over the place" she instructed as he warily took over the motion; he made the correction, and she smiled approvingly, taking a seat in one of the chairs ion the room.

"Itachi called me on the way over; did Tsunade say anything about how long it would take her to wake up?" she asked, keeping an eye on him as he moved about, gently calming the tiny girl – he seemed to be having a little more success now.

"She just said she would need a lot of it – even I could tell it was really hard on her, and I can't even take an aspirin without checking the label three times" he mumbled, not wanting to make any loud noises. His daughter was making a yawning face now, and he was eager to get her back to sleep. He liked seeing her awake, but he'd had enough of awake an hour or so ago.

Mere moments after the thought entered his head, the baby's eyes drooped closed, and her quiet breathing filled the air instead. She curled towards him in her sleep a little as he made to put her back in the mobile incubator-bed thing, her tiny fists gripping his shirt, and felt the alarm rising again.

"Well, it seems you've passed her test, which is more than I can say for you; you wouldn't let your father near you for two weeks, and he had an idea of what he was doing" his mother joked quietly.

Sasuke sent her a pleading glance that would not have seen by anyone other than Naruto.

"Just sit back down you goose – she'll let go eventually."

Sasuke sat down in the chair beside her, doing his best not to disturb the little girl, though it probably didn't matter – another of Naruto's influences was showing in her. She was completely oblivious to the world now. He envied that ability to fall asleep almost immediately; he sometimes lay awake till early morning, tossing and turning as he waited for sleep to come.

"I thought she'd never stop crying" he said, letting out a low, hushed expulsion of breathy relief.

His mother smiled at him with the beginnings of s smirk.
"It's good that you tried everything you could think of, but sometimes babies just need to cry"

Sasuke stared at her in disbelieving horror.

"Pardon?"
"Think of it as sulking, but noisy, or the way Naruto throws that toy fox of hers at her wardrobe when she's frustrated; babies can't really shout, or move very much, so they cry instead. Sometimes you'll just have to let it pass."

Sasuke stared at her, then at the baby he held; he hoped to god the girl wasn't a sulker, because he didn't know if he could just let noise like that pass. She was too loud! People would complain! He suddenly became very aware of the daunting burden floating around them with startling clarity; he got the feeling that patience was a key part of being a parent and that was not very reassuring.

Neither he nor Naruto were very patient people in the first place, and babies – he was realising after only a few hours of being a parent - required a lot of patience. No wonder all those older couples had looked down their noses at them at the pre-natal class; their disapproval had nothing to do with their physical age as he had thought.

All things considered, if a couple could get pregnant at their age, then physically there was no denying they were ready for it. The disapproval came from the emotional side – he hadn't even considered the amount of patience he would have to drag up, and he was getting flashes of other things now too; his daughters crying had demanded every ounce of his attention.

He hadn't had an inch of space to concern himself with anything else – if he did, it had been in the context of stopping whatever her discomfort had been. Apparently, babies demanded infinite amounts of attention. He glanced down at the girl, who was still curled towards his chest looking rather contented in her pink blanket.

She looked very small, and he reminded himself of how easy it had been to cause her discomfort; his mother had altered the position of her arms by mere millimetres it seemed in comparison to his own. He had a radically clearer understanding of how easy it was for a baby to be hurt, even minorly.

He suddenly felt suffocated by the terrifying prospect in front of him, and it must have shown on his face, because his mother placed an arm around his shoulders, careful to avoid squashing her granddaughter. He leaned his forehead onto her shoulder for a few moments, welcoming the reassurance that everything would work out eventually, before letting up.

He took another glance down at his daughter, and concentrated on her instead of the new worries they would now have to add to their others; focusing on the tiny sleeping red-haired girl, he felt something else smothering him as she shuffled closer again in her sleep. That minuscule, unconscious action was enough for him to believe that despite the terror she brought with her, it wouldn't be as bad as he had first thought. "Damn it, why couldn't you have been a boy?" Obito complained, giving Sasuke's daughter a petulant glare.

The little girl ignored him in favour of the bottle of formula milk Sakura was feeding her. She had immediately snapped up the job when they had arrived the day after his mother's visit, most likely so she wouldn't be obliged to offer assistance with other, smellier, messier tasks that still scared Sasuke. Itachi rolled his eyes at the antics of his twin.

"stop making that face at her; she'll get your bad habits" Sakura snapped.
"Both of you stop it – Sasuke's still sleeping" Itachi interrupted, throwing a pointed glance to the youngest Uchiha.

Sasuke was slumped in one chair, his head lolling onto one shoulder, barley snoring. Unbeknownst to him, that had been the reason for the visit today; since Naruto had fallen into her own sleep he had been up almost 36 extra hours on top of those spent waiting for the whole process to start.

The moment Itachi had entered the room, he had taken charge and forced him to give his daughter to someone else for a few moments, and sit down. It had taken little more than three minuets for him to fall asleep. He didn't argue that Naruto had done most of the work, but Sasuke tended to forget about his own health when he worried, or had other pressing matters to worry about.

Sakura blushed sheepishly, and laid the baby back down in the cot. Itachi gave the baby a contemplative glance; she was a nice baby, he decided. She only screamed her lungs out when something was incredibly wrong – even when she needed changing she only made loud fussing noises. He hoped that meant his niece had his brother's brains – Naruto wasn't stupid, but she forgot to think things through sometimes.

He turned back to the gruesome twosome at the sound of noise; Gaara sat in the chair beside Sasuke, blocking the mayhem out with Naruto's music player, and the other two had started arguing again. Why couldn't those two just communicate like normal people? What on earth were they arguing about now?

"Can you keep your voices down?" he grumbled, a warning tone in his voice that went completely unnoticed.

After one particularly loud protest from Obito, any hope of letting Sasuke get any more shut eye was thrown out of the window; he jerked awake mumbling about plugs, looking around in alarm. Itachi wasn't worried about Naruto being woken before she had gotten enough of her own rest – the fact she could sleep through her daughter's screaming was proof she was completely oblivious to their presence.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sasuke asked the terrible two, a glare that raised even Itachi's eyebrows own his face; Sakura and Obito paled, and their mouths instantly closed.

"How are you feeling?" Itachi asked, ignoring the other two once again.

Sasuke grunted in reply; he couldn't say he was pleased that his brother had forced him into sleep (not that there had been much forcing), but he did feel a lot better for the rest. It was an improvement on the short burst he had been living off from the diesel-machine further down the corridor. He glanced down at the baby, and noted that her eyes were still blue.

They had dimmed in colour to a steely grey blue, but flecks of Naruto's aquamarine ones cold still be seen if he caught them in the right kind of light. He was certain that none of his relatives had blue eyes, but Naruto's were a complete mystery. Blue eyes were not common in fire country, and Naruto had gotten hers from someone.

He guessed that his daughter had too – if they didn't continue to darken that was. She stared up at him before a flicker of something crossed her face and she flapped her arms towards his face, clenching and unclenching her fingers expectantly. She gurgled when he picked her up, and immediately tugged on the hair hang on the side of his face.

"That's so cute! She recognises you! She knows you're her daddy!" Sakura piped in delight.
"Actually, babies will accept care from just about anyone this young – they won't develop central relationships like that until they get a bit older"

Sakura glared at Obito.
"Shut up; we all know you have a psychology degree. You didn't have to ruin the moment!" she snapped.

Sasuke ignored them once again, trying to gently unclench his daughters fist – the tugging really was painfully uncomfortable, and while he was all for keeping the little girl entertained, he'd rather it did not involve tugging his hair out strand by strand. The noise, he was going to have to do something about – He didn't want Naruto waking up before she was ready to.

He cast a calculating glance over the girl, check for any adverse effect from exposure to the two loons who had fallen into yet another argument. He couldn't see any, but he couldn't be sure – he was probably over-reacting a little from waking up, but there was probably a reason people said babies and children were impressionable. He liked Sakura, and he grudgingly admitted that Obito wasn't al that bad, but together they were a terror. He couldn't have them making the midget a terror too.

In his still-sleepy mind, his reasoning made perfect sense, so he proceeded to follow the train of thought.

"Out."

Obito and Sakura protested loudly when they were ordered from the room, but Itachi seemed to be having the same train of thought, and he let an expulsion of relief when his older brother all but man handles them from the room. A happy gurgling came from the little girl, and he wondered if she was returning the sentiments.

He glanced down again, and fount her gumming her fingers in fascination – maybe not. Sighing, he crossed to the window and stared out at the city, trying to distract himself. Tsunade had told him not to worry about Naruto's lack of awareness, but he didn't feel right experiencing these moments by himself. As far as he had believed, this was supposed to be a joint thing right now. That was what he had been inadvertently taught by his own parents at any rate.

He knew what Naruto would have done – she would have yelled curses at them and thrown them out herself, the grinned at him as soon as they were gone. He looked back down at his daughter and frowned; if he hadn't seen pictures of himself as a baby, he wouldn't have been able to tell he had played any part in making her. He hoped her eye's kept darkening. It was all well and good she had his baby-nose, but that wasn't exactly easy to pick out, or to comment on.

There was a knock at the door, and he turned to find the paediatrician standing in the doorway. He guessed that meant it was time for the girl to go back to the baby ward; much to his displeasure he was not free to hold onto her as much as he wanted to. He laid her back down in the incubator, and the man grinned at him.

"You can come pick her up again in a couple of hours; I want to run a couple more tests just to make sure we haven't missed anything – it's standard stuff" he smiled, grinning widely.

Sasuke was taken aback for a moment – it was the first time he had actually spoken to the man himself. Tsunade had told him most of the details, but she had other patients. It was therefore the first time he saw the grin, and found himself shaking off familiarity. He shook the feeling off nonchalantly, feeling more concerned with the tests people kept talking about.

"What kind of tests? Do you mean those bone marrow things?" he asked, trying to think of medical dramas he had seen on TV.

"What? Oh no! Nothing that serious! We're just going to give her immune system another check, her vitamin levels, make sure everything's doing what it should. She was doing fine yesterday, so I don't think you have anything to worry about – I just prefer to be safe than sorry."

Sasuke relaxed a little – he had never liked the look of those bone tests, and knowing he was just over reacting was a relief.

"You can come by to visit you know; don't be such a stranger kid" he grinned again, and Sasuke caught a look at his eyes – once again he shook off familiarity, avoiding the man's gaze to cast a sidelong glance at his still slumbering girlfriend.

The man left, taking the incubator containing the baby with him, and Sasuke plopped down at the edge of the bed Naruto slept in; her stomach was almost completely flat now, after almost two days since the baby's birth. One of the nurses – the green haired one possibly – had pulled the tangles out of her hair, and her skin was no longer as pale as it had been. That was probably good.

He felt a yawn threatening to fight free from his throat, but gritted his teeth, felling it build up in his tear ducts instead – he hated yawning, even if there was no-one in the room to see his sleepiness. He was doing a heck of a lot better than Naruto was. That being said, he still felt like he was going to collapse; not caring if his actions would earn him remonstrations from Tsunade later, he laid down on the few inches of space atop the covers beside Naruto.

With a last glance at her sleeping face, he quickly fell asleep.

Naruto felt something slumped beside her, and she could feel someone's warm breath on her face. For a few brief moments, she though she was back at the flat she shared with Sakura, or at Sasuke's house (she didn't question the identity of the lump – no one else had the stupidity to try it). Then she felt the significant absence of the little tyke that had been playing havoc with her insides for the past nine months.

Holy crap on a cracker! Eyed open wide, she tried to jerk herself upright, but even on the few inches of the hospital bed he had stolen, Sasuke still managed to flail in his sleep. An arm was spread over her flatter belly, and while she was awake, she didn't feel like running any marathons in the near future. With a glare at Sasuke, she pushed against his shoulder with one hand.

She frowned at the abnormal amount of effort the action required, but his precarious position on the edge of the bed made up for any misgivings – slowly he slumped towards the edge of the bed, hanging over it till the change of mass balance was subjected to gravity, and he fell with a clatter to the floor. There was a startled yelp, and he jerked up.

He looked around in confusion before finally catching sight of her; Naruto almost laughed at him when his jaw dropped in uncharacteristic blatancy, but she was too busy wondering where her daughter had disappeared to. There was no sign of her in the room, which she didn't like. Didn't doctors leave babies with their parents when they could?

"You're awake" Sasuke stated fragment of his relief in his voice.

Naruto ignored him, busy glancing around the room till she was distracted by the feeling of being pulled into a restrained but still crushing embrace. Hello Joe, what was this? Why the sudden display of affection? She let the surprise pass and basked in the rare display for a few moments, returning it before turning back to the matter at hand.

"What happened? Where is she?"

She kept her questions short and to the point, but they still seemed to come out in a garbled rush, as if they were all part of one long word – how Sasuke managed to differentiate between them was beyond her.

"Tsunade says you were just sleeping, but you were out for a day and a half" he informed her; Naruto nodded to indicate her brain was processing the information.

"Where is she?" she asked immediately, wanting to get to her primary concern.

If the damn kid wasn't in the pink of health after all that gut wrenching work, then she would be having serious issues with someone – she wasn't quite sure who that would be, but someone would face her wrath if their was one molecule of skin out of place on her daughters tiny face. It felt odd to feel so protective about someone she had yet to meet face to face, but she ignored that thought.

"On the baby ward – the doctors want to give her a few routine checks since she was early, but they let her out for a few hours in a mobile incubator each day."

Before she could ask, he had already picked up one of the hospital dressing gowns on the end of her bed and handed it to her. She swung her feet over the edge slowly as she pulled it on – she felt like her bones had been sucked dry, but she didn't want to wait for a mobile incubator. She bit her lip for a few moments before swallowing her pride and stretching out her hands pointedly.

She was glad for the lack of usual satirical comment as Sasuke helped her to her feet. She gripped his arm till her knuckled turned white, feeling one arm around her waist as she shuffled slowly out of the room. She kept her eyes on the signs, and occasionally Sasuke's direction, instead of the throbbing ache in her lower abdomen.

Damn it, she was not doing that hellish process ever again.

Sasuke gently steered her around one corner, and she caught sight of a windowed wall in the new hallway they had walked into. Heading for the glass, her pace quickened to that of a normal walking speed – it definitely smarted, but again the pain was ignored. Pressing her face up against the glass she scanned her eyes around rows of incubators that greeted them.

She immediately eliminated the bundles of green and blue – those were probably boys – and concentrated on the pink and purple ones. The labels were no use – they still didn't have a name for the little tyke yet – and she didn't really know what kind of identifying features she was looking for.

"Which one is she?" she asked, her eyes still almost in contact with the glass itself as they darted around the rows – her fist clenched on Sasuke's upper arm as a painful wave of tiredness crept slowly through her, but she gritted her teeth. She was not leaving till she had seen her daughter damn it all.

Sasuke glanced at her hand, and then sighed in resignation before turning to the rows of babies him; he scanned for a few moments before recognition flickered onto his face.

"...That's her."

He pointed to a red haired baby on the second row from the window; her pink cover clashed horribly with it, and her limbs shifted in her sleep, filling every inch of the incubator. She seemed to be asleep, but Naruto was transfixed. Bother her hands pressed up against the glass, as if trying to phase through it as she leaned forward, trying to get a better look at her daughter.

"Damn, she has my hair – I wanted her to have black hair" Naruto whispered, feeling something beginning to make a choke in her words as she stared at the little girl. That was her daughter, and she had the same bight, rusty cadmium hair as she did. There was something incredible about that for some reason. There was no questioning who she was, or who – in Obito's words – her 'mama' was.

"Why?" Sasuke asked, in response to her short whisper.

"Cuz black goes with anything – I don't like pink, but I'd liked to have had the option of wearing it. It looks awful with red hair like this..." she gestured absently to her unusually free flowing hair – someone had unfastened her bunches at some point. The remark was not very strong; despite Naruto's complaints about her hair colour it looked absolutely perfect on the little girl.

Sasuke gave a small, quiet grunt in reply before going quiet again.

Naruto was beginning to grow frustrated with the glass – she wanted to go in a pick her up, but the room looked so hospital-y and official and anti-germ that she wondered if she would be able to. She couldn't keep standing her forever, much as the thought appealed to her at the moment. Another shot of pain and weariness spiked through her, as if to reinforce the notion.

"Sasuke, can we go in?" she asked, looking up towards him.

Much to her surprise, he was gone; she blinked and looked around. She usually notice things like that; she had been so absorbed in the little red-head that she hadn't even notice him taking his arm from her waist, and the sudden lack of support it had provided. Her legs felt heavier, and she wondered how she had missed it. Her daughter shuffled in her sleep, and dragged her eyes back to peering through the glass.

She didn't know how long she stood there waiting, but it passed in a blur; her eyes were transfixed on the tiny human on the other side of the glass. It must have been at least ten minuets, because she could absently feel her legs getting heavier and heavier. She gripped the seam where the glass joined the wall with as much grip as she could when she felt herself getting close to her limit.

She would not be beaten by something as menial as exhaustion; she was going to stand there all day if she had to. She could do it without any complaint too. Much to her irritation, her personal opinions didn't seem to be considered, and she hissed a low curse as she felt her legs give out, clawing at the almost invisible sill on the window with her fingers for support.

The impact she had been expecting didn't come - someone caught her before it could come. She knew immediately that it was not Sasuke, and angled her head to get a view of her apparent rescuer.

The man had blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked both familiar and surprised. He stared at her for a few moments, before the surprise dissipated a little. Naruto let out a shriek when, without any warning, he picked her up and carried her down the hallway. Dear god, she looked like a freaking defenceless damsel being carried like this!

"Hey, what the hell are you doing mister? Put me down before I rip your ears off bozo!" she demanded, trying to wriggle out of his hold. She tried glaring at him, but even the Mikoto-glare didn't work on him. He continued to carry her down the hallway.

"I was busy you ass! Take me back to the baby room! I swear to god, I'll set Sasuke on you! I'll tell him you groped me! He'll kill you y'know! He's possessive! For the love of god, put me down you yellow-headed weirdo before I-"

Her vocalisations stopped as the man deposited her in a wheelchair. Naruto stared at her new surroundings in shock, before looking back at the man her jaw dropped in confusion. He said nothing for a few moments, waiting for her brain to catch up; Naruto's faced paled, and she felt panic rising.

"Holy mackerel... I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it, I swear! I mean, I did then, but-"

She was cut off by a burst of laughter from the man - he almost doubled over. Naruto felt a flush as bright as her hair creeping up to her cheeks, and buried her head in her hands, feeling rather foolish.

The man didn't seem to take her seriously - in fact he was still chuckling to himself as he took the back handles of the chair and pushed her back towards the glass. Eventually he calmed down enough to introduce himself.

"I'm Dr. Namikaze; I'm the head of paediatrics around here. I've been looking after your daughter; my mother asked me to keep an eye on her. I've been bringing her back and forth to your room, so I recognised you. It's nice to see you up and about - if anything it'll be some new conversation. Your boyfriend isn't much of a talker is he?"

Naruto shook her head dumbly; she could feel the grin on his face even before she looked up at him in surprise.

"You're Tsunade's son?" she asked, her eyes widening - she knew that one of Tsunade's kids worked in the hospital, but she hadn't mentioned him being head of a department. She hadn't even told her what he looked like; now she understood the familiarity. His hair was brighter than Tsunade's, but not by much.

He nodded, steering her around a corner - she found herself back in the baby hall. She could see Sasuke's head dipping around frantically too. Urgh; she had forgotten about him. He was going to freak out when he caught sight of the stupid wheelchair.

He didn't fail to live up to her expectations; as soon as he saw her, his eyes visibly widened, and he shot a glance at the man pushing the chair, silently demanding an explanation. The blonde woman behind him stared at her son in surprise.

"Minato?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I was passing by and caught her before her feet gave out - you have a stubborn patient mother. You should have heard her when I took her to get a wheelchair..."

He caught Sasuke's confused eyes, and had to mask his snort in a cough. Sasuke raised an eyebrow but didn't ask - for Tsunade had begun speaking again, this time in a reprimanding voice.

"Naruto, what on earth possessed you to walk over here? I would have though you would be able to tell you weren't up for too much activity just yet..."

She turned her glare onto Sasuke, who had the good sense to look a fraction intimidated.
"And you! You shouldn't have helped her out of the room! It's a good thing Minato was passing when he did!"

Naruto stretched in the chair - she already felt sleepy again, and it put things in perspective again. She still hadn't gotten the chance to hold her daughter, and there was no way she would be able to avoid going back to bed with Tsunade on the prowl.

"I thought it was the better option; she was going to leave either way, so I though it was better to go with her. The only reason I didn't catch her was because I was looking for you" Sasuke replied to Tsunade's scolding.

She stared at him for a few speculative moments, before turning a stern gaze on Naruto.

"And you? What's your excuse?" she asked.
"Nurses take to long; Can I go in there?" she turned the question to Minato, gesturing through the glass with one hand.

He choked back another snort at the suppressed frustration on his mothers face before replying.

"You'll have to put some scrubs on to keep from passing anything to the other babies, but I think that will be all right as long as you don't try walking in there yourself" he grinned.

Her reply was not a grin, but a wide smile; she was so concerned with his reply that she completely missed the small flicker on his face.

He opened his mouth, and then shook his head to himself, entering a side room with her, Sasuke followed close behind. After being trussed up in the blue overalls, Sasuke took hold of the chair, and pushed her down the rows. Naruto had all but forgotten about the blonde man, her mind solely on the red haired baby she slowly drew closer to the incubator.

Indeed, she barley noticed him when he opened the side with the aid of a nurse, and gently picked up the tiny girl. Naruto was surprised to find her arms already held out expectantly when he placed the baby in them; everything about this was so surreal, but she found that she didn't mind at all.

She stared down at the tiny baby, adjusting her arms a little before Sasuke or Minato could tell her to support the girls head. The baby, roused from sleep, gave her a half-lidded petulant glare. She clearly didn't like being woken up, but what drew Naruto's attention were her eye's - they were blue, like hers, but at the same time they weren't.

She could see bright flecks in them, but there was a foreign slate-blue colour dominating them. That had to be from her one of her unknown relatives - Sasuke's family all hard dark eyes, bordering on black. The nameless girl continued to stare up at her, then reached a chubby little hand towards her nose.

Naruto held out one finger towards it - the tiny fingers barely managed to grasp it, but there was one heck of a grip in them. She gurgled and stared at her with more interest; Naruto caught a flash of the bright flecks in her eyes, and bit her lip.

She pulled the baby up towards her shoulder a little, remembering absently to keep one hand on the back of her head, pulling her closer and dipping her head so Sasuke wouldn't see the building globs of liquid salt at the corners of her eyes. It would be the sixth time in her life she could remember crying.

The first time was when she was about five years old, and Sasuke's grandfather had died - she couldn't remember what she had said when she had been told, but it had offended him a lot. She didn't remember the details, but she remembered feeling awful because she had made him so upset.

The third time had been about two years ago; it had been in the middle of a god awful argument with Sasuke, in the middle of his living room. She had thrown her saxophone at Orochimaru a day later when his demands became a bit much for her frazzled brain to handle. Instead of being mad he had smirked triumphant and ordered her to spill her guts. It didn't really help, but it calmed her.

That calm involuntarily led to the fourth episode of tears; about a month later, she had gone out with Sakura and Tayuya and Gaara and some other friends from her school to try get her mind off Sasuke. She had bumped into Sai, one thing led to another, and she had woken up in his bed the next morning.

She didn't even have the excuse of being drunk - she wasn't a big drinker, so she had avoided it. The tears had sprung when events had caught up with her. She didn't really care that it had been her first time having sex - what bothered her was that the only reason she had done so was because Sai looked like Sasuke.

Sai had been nice - he completely understood the whole affair, and it was on his advice that she go visit Sasuke, and swallow her pride. She had changed, showered, and opened the door to do just that only to find Sasuke on her doorstep. She had been stunned for a few moments before blurting everything out.

'I had sex with Sai because he looks like you and I broke my saxophone and everything turned to crap and I can't even remember why' had been her precise words - she had never been one to beat about the bush, but that was remarkably blunt, even for her. It was an indicator of how much of her rationality had dribble out through the bottom of her skull at the time.

For his part, Sasuke had take the outburst remarkably well considering she had been bawling her eyes out for the fifth time as she babbled everything out. She had sat on the sofa beside him, blubbing her eyes out for most of the day as they talked everything out.

They had been dimming, but when Sasuke had had enough of all the stupidity and kissed her, they had welled up in a fresh storm and the force she had hugged him with had thrown them both from the sofa onto the floor.

All these instances seemed to centre on the most important moments in her life, but they weren't as poignant as her second experience with tears; it had been when she was eight years old. She knew she had no parents - there was no was she couldn't, growing up in a care home, but she had begun to be curious about the circumstances.

Iruka didn't believe in sugar-coating things, and he employed an 'old enough to ask, old enough to know' policy on most things. He had told her she had been found in a box on the doorstep with her fox, crystal necklace, and the note with her name on.

She had been holding onto romanticised ideas that they had died, or had left her with the intention of coming back for her, but that had shattered them, and she had never managed to shake of there rage that ad formed in her eyed and dripped down her cheeks.

But this moment the sixth moment, seemed to tower above even that; actually holding this tiny baby, this minuscule girl, knowing that she was hers, that she shared her blood was above all of that. The red-headed girl curled towards her, and a sob escaped from her throat.

She could hear Minato asked Sasuke some alarmed questions, but they were almost inaudible. Everything seemed to centre about the tiny redhead. She barley heard Sasuke calling her, and acknowledged him with a small noise in her throat, reluctant to raise her head for her two companions to see the tear marks.

"Tsunade is indicating that she wants you back in bed - she has to go back in the incubator" he told her quietly. Her fingers clenched involuntarily around the horribly clashing pink blanket for a brief second, but she handed the baby back to Minato after a quick, gentle squeeze.

A pointed look at Sasuke told him to get her out of the room before she decided to ignore Tsunade's advice, and he wheeled her back to the side room, and then back to her room after removing the blue scrubs.

Back in her room, seated on the bed with her knees partly drawn towards her, her mind was still on the tiny baby that was her daughter till a creak of springs told her Sasuke was half seated beside her.

"She screams almost as loud as you" he told her, jerking a smile from her lips; she burrowed her face on her knees, tilting her head towards him.

She was Sasuke's too, she remembered. Something about her nose and face shape reminded her of him. A little pointed, instead of her rounded features. Now that she gave the matter some thought, she wasn't as much of a clone as she had first thought - Sasuke was just more subtle, as usual.

"And she's stubborn - she kept screaming the day before yesterday. It wasn't until my mother came and gave me a quick glimpse of Baby Care 101 that she calmed down. She takes after 'Mama' more, trust me" he said it with such sincerity that she almost laughed, and then her breath processed one word.

Feeling like being emotional again she mad a small noise akin to a mewl, and threw her arms around his neck. She felt her arms shaking almost in time with his own as he returned the gesture, but ignored it.

As screwed up as everything in the past nine months and the past few days had been, everything seemed to have fallen peacefully into place.

Naruto stared at the tiny baby lying in the bassinet, staring up at her with the generic blue eyes of all babies. It was so strange to see her other than an incubator or someone's arms, or even inside her. She had been carting the brat around all this time, it felt almost abnormal to be so light in comparison.

She was leaving the hospital today, having spent a week getting some of her energy back. Sasuke had a crick in his neck from sleeping in the chair so much. The tiny redhead had slept soundly, and only woken once in all those mornings screaming for food – Sasuke was right about her lungs, but she seemed to be a quiet baby otherwise.

After that first, almost surreal experience of holding her daughter for the first time, she had developed a terrified fear of dropping her. Sasuke had laughed at her face as she'd tried to get breastfeeding right – it clicked in the end somehow though, and now their daughter immediately fell sleep after a tiny burp each time she was fed.

"Sakura says the chance; she'll meet us at that Coffee near the school - Hinata and Neji are coming with some of the people from your school to say hi" Sasuke said entering the room.

"What about your parents?" she asked, still leaning over the bassinet; the tiny baby was watching her in fascination.

Did she know she was her mother? That they were family? Family; it was completely different to what she had created for herself. Not that the bonds she had with Sakura and Sasuke's family weren't strong, they were, but... it was still different. A good different though - it made her wonder if her own parents had felt like this (if only for the briefest of moments) before dumping her at the orphanage.

"My mother threatened to come by, but since we're leaving in an hour anyway I said we'd pop by with Hell Spawn here after meeting Sakura and the others" he said, with a nod towards the baby as he finished packing up some of Naruto's things.

"'Hell Spawn?'" Naruto asked in a neutral tone, but her eyes were glinting.
"We can't keep calling her 'she' Naruto; until we can think of a name, I'm calling her 'Hell Spawn'" Sasuke told her defensively.
"Hell Spawn?'" Naruto repeated dangerously.

Sasuke was either oblivious to the tone, or ignored it if the look of incredulity on his face was anything to go by.
"With hair and lungs like that? It's perfect, besides, remember who her parents are?"

Naruto gave a conceding grunt; he was right, as good a name as it was, they needed to think of a proper name for her. Pondering all the thoughts she'd had so far on the subject, she popped one of the tofu cubes she had brought with her in her mouth.

She'd had no desire for them the day she had woken up, but the craving was back with a vengeance; she wasn't even sure it was a craving any more. As she munched on the substance she found herself staring at the box of tofu, remembering Tayuya's jokes about foxes.

She'd looked some of the legends up on the internet, and found them fascinating. The ones about nine-tailed foxes had especially fascinated her; old and wise in comparison to the lesser tailed tricksters. The demon in one story, albeit more of an enemy than a hero, had particularly caught her interest.

"Tamamo" she said out of the blue, still staring at the Tupperware trapped tofu.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Isn't the name of a fox in one of those folk tales? The one that killed an emperor or something?" he asked.

"It sounds nice; I think it suits her. Her eyes are glittery, and her hair is really bright too..." Naruto mumbled to herself.
"She suits the name of an evil emperor-killing fox-demon because her hair is bright and her eyes glitter a bit?" Sasuke asked, thoroughly confused by her private mumblings.

"And wouldn't that be read as 'Egg'? Were not calling her 'Egg'."

Naruto looked up, then realised she had been talking to herself and explaining the path that had led her to the name.

"Not 'Egg' you idiot, 'Gem'! I meant the Kanji for 'Gem'! Gems are bright, and they sparkle! I dunno about the 'Mo' ... I still need to think on that part, but 'Tama' is perfect!" Naruto explained, gently pulling the baby's arms through the sleeves of the tiny mauve coat in her hand. She already wore the pale purple outfit she had picked out with Mikoto months ago, with the three pale-lemon foxes on the front.

Sasuke listened, and then glanced at the small baby. She was making grabs for the end of Naruto's bunches as her mother leaned over the bassinet, fastening the coat. Her own hair was incredibly bright, but still identical in shade to Naruto's rusty shade, and the light from the window highlighted the lapis flecks in them - and her solid determination to grab one of the strands.

When Naruto had finished he picked up the baby, her eyes bright with curiosity, sitting down on the bed and making doubly certain she was secure in his arm – Sasuke was as paranoid of dropping her as Naruto was. The small baby made a grab for the long strands of his fringe on either side of his face ad he glanced down.

"I think it suits her" he said agreed quietly.

Naruto grinned, and plopped down next to him looking over his shoulder to smile at the tiny redhead. Her hair hadn't been trapped in its usual ties as tightly as usual, the bunches were low like Tsunade's.

Naruto grinned as she bent to look the girl in the eye - distracted from Sasuke's fringe, she grabbed at the loose strands, framing her mothers face, missing by a few inches.

"Then, she's Tamamo. Uzumaki Tamamo. What do you think kid? Does that pass your standards?" she grinned at the baby, leaning further towards her.

The newly named Tamamo stared at her mother, frowned in concentration, before launching a tiny, chubby fist towards the free-flowing strands like a pouncing animal, finally succeeding in grasping a few. She played with them in her fingers, before tugging in curiosity. Naruto hissed as the strands were pulled, and the baby gave a happy gurgle.

"I'll take that as a yes then Hell Spawn" she muttered, trying to free her hair from the girls grip.
Sasuke snickered.

For those who want to suggest a kanji character for the last syllable of Tamamo's name, feel free to supply any suggestions - I took the name from an actual story about a fox demon who seduced an emperor, and when I sent the kanji into wikitionary, it said the last bit meant 'algae'.

Unless anyone can think of anything better, her name is going to look like this in japanese: うずまき, 玉藻 (Uzumaki, Tamamo). I was going to call her Kyuuko, but 'Gem' sounded better than 'Ninth Child', so I picked Tamamo instead.

Hope you liked this chapter. I got Minato in this chapter, so things are going to speed up a bit from now on (please bear with me on how soap-opera the plot is going to be in the future - it'll be ebntertaining at the very least!).

If you liked, you know which button to press!
Nat.
xxx