Thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter! Sorry to say that I am pretty busy right now, which means that the pace of updates is going to stay slow for a while.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

"I'd like to talk with Naruto, please."

Iruka looked doubtfully at the Uchiha who stood on his doorstep. He had never admitted it to anyone, but even back when Sasuke had been under his care as a teacher, the boy had made him just a little bit nervous (how many eleven-year olds out there do everything perfectly? Never smile? Sit and glower in the back of the classroom?).

Now, at eighteen, Sasuke was taller than Iruka by a good three inches, and gave off the aura of a man who had killed one of the world's most dangerous S-class criminals before being, in some countries, legally able to drink.

It was only made freakier by the fact that he was asking to see Naruto so politely.

Iruka shook his head quickly, trying to pull himself together. "Sorry, Sasuke-kun. Naruto said no visitors."

Sasuke produced a piece of paper. "This is from the Hokage. She said Naruto has to see me."

Iruka took the paper gingerly and looked it over. "Ok," he said. "Come in. I'll go find him."

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Naruto was out behind the house training. Iruka watched as he worked his way through a series of elegant, slow movements – all the more difficult because of how much concentration had to be focused into them, although only a fighter would be able to recognize such a thing.

At least he's keeping to the Hokage's order of light exercise, with no chakra… Iruka thought. Even though he claims he can't possibly be pregnant.

"Naruto!" He called. "Come inside! I've made tea!"

Naruto nodded. He picked up his towel from where he had thrown it over a tree limb previously, and wiped the sweat from his eyes.

"Sasuke!" He said, as he entered the living room. He scowled. "Iruka, you didn't tell me he was here."

Iruka smiled apologetically. "Show him the letter, Sasuke, or he'll bolt."

Sasuke handed the missive to Naruto, standing impassively while the blonde read it.

"Ok," Naruto said, finally, throwing himself down on the couch. "This is too stupid. Sasuke, what do you want to talk about?"

Sasuke cleared his throat. He looked meaningfully at Iruka, hoping to send the teacher the message that he would like some privacy. But Iruka simply stared back, until Naruto said. 'It's ok."

"Alright," the teacher said. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."

The two boys sat opposite each other in the living room, waiting.

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto, why did Kakashi make us study sex-ed today?"

"What?"

"He made us practice putting condoms on a banana," Sasuke said, through gritted teeth. "Sai had to do it three times. Sakura did it twice, even though she was excused from the assignment-" Sasuke recalled briefly the horrifying scene – Sakura had claimed that it was important for modern girls to know about contraception and how to negotiate its usage in a relationship – then proved she didn't need the training anyway, by performing the activity using only her teeth. Sasuke was pretty sure she had been watching him while she did it, trying to gauge his reaction: maybe trying to be flirty. "On the other hand, Kakashi made me practice it until we ran out of condoms. Any idea why, Naruto? He told me to go and ask you why." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Do you have anything you want to tell me?"

Naruto flopped over on the couch. He dragged his hand along the carpet. "Not particularly," he said.

"Did you read the Hokage's letter?"

"Yeah… but listen, Sasuke, it's totally messed up."

"What is?"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he sat back up on the couch properly. "Now, don't freak out," he said.

Sasuke waited.

"So, the old bag says she can't turn me back into a guy because she thinks I might be pregnant."

Sasuke gaped.

"Hold on," Naruto said, holding up a hand. "I'm definitely not, though – I just have to wait around long enough for her to realize that she's made a mistake. I think this is her excuse for not being able to turn me back into a g…"

"You're pregnant?"

"No, you're not listening."

"There's no way the best medical-ninja in the world would misdiagnose a pregnancy, Naruto."

"Yeah?" Naruto snapped. "Well, she misdiagnosed this one."

Sasuke felt like he was about to fall out of his chair. He was a ninja, damn it! A ninja with a great sense of balance! Ninja like him didn't fall out of chairs!

With effort, he pulled himself together slightly. "Is it mine?" He asked, bluntly.

"No, you moron, because I'm. Not. Pregnant."

Sasuke paused to reformulate the question. "Ok. Fine. How far along does the Hokage mistakenly think that you are?"

Naruto folded his arms across his chest. "About a month."

"Ok… now, one month ago, did we or did we not have sex?"

Naruto blushed. "I guess we did."

"Ok." Sasuke said, painstakingly slowly. Oh God, he thought, my child is going to have a retard for a mother. "Now, Naruto – this is the crucial question. Have you ever had sex with any one other than me?"

"No! Geez! What do you take me for?"

"Right. So, if you were pregnant, and the Hokage hadn't made a mistake…" Sasuke let the question hang.

"It would be yours. Teme." Naruto looked furious. "I can't believe you're even asking me this."

"We should get married."

"WHAT? NO! Are you a fucking moron?"
Sasuke shook his head. "I mean, you're having my kid."

"Thank you, Uchiha-sama, for that fascinating analysis of the situation," Naruto drawled. "I can't believe that you're acting as crazy as the rest of them."

"Why is that so crazy?"

"Because. I. Am. Not. Pregnant. And, even if I were, I am not a fucking girl!"
Sasuke shrugged. "Guys can get married in Konoha too, you know. To each other."

Naruto stood up, looked around frantically, and then sat down. "That's besides the point! I don't want to marry another guy! I don't want to get married, period! I want my own body back and then I want my regular life back! Do you get it?" He was starting to raise his voice, and Sasuke found himself arguing back.

"Well, dobe, you can't freaking have it back, can you? Cause we're going to have a kid now! You've gotta… we've gotta be parents, or something!"

Naruto looked ready to punch him, and then, with a gasp, he sat back down, hard, on the couch. Sasuke saw tears leaking down the blonde's cheeks.

"I know!" Naruto shouted "I know, I know, I know, ok?"

"Ok," Sasuke said. He felt totally confused about what to do, so he shifted over to sit beside Naruto. He tried to touch his shoulder and Naruto startled back so violently that Sasuke put his hands firmly on his lap.

They were still like that; twenty minutes later, when Iruka crept cautiously back into the room with a tray of tea. They drank together in strained silence. Iruka looked back and forth between the faces of the two boys, Naruto's tear-streaked and Sasuke's looking expressionless as always – though perhaps just a little shell-shocked. If Sasuke's hurt him, Iruka thought passionately, I don't care if he is the last Uchiha, I'll rip him limb from limb and…

Sasuke, feeling Iruka's angry glare focused on him, responded by looking steadily at the teacher, trying to reassure him. It's good that Naruto has Iruka, he was thinking –

"Hey, Naruto," he said. "Let's go for a walk."

"What?"

"Come on." He stood up and took Naruto's hand, pulling him to his feet. "You'll feel better if we walk around for a while."

xoxoxoxoxoxo

They passed the cedar trees that were planted around the back of Iruka's property and walked over a small bridge that linked the quiet residential quarter where the teacher lived to the outskirts of the forest where most of the training fields were located.

Sasuke looked up at the sky. It was a perfect blue day, warm but not overly hot, and the colors of the plants stood out in stark relief, as if they were brighter than usual. He glanced at Naruto, stumbling along next to him, his face still puffy from crying but beginning to look calmer.

The whole thing was a shock, to be sure – but was it wrong to be just a little bit happy? Even when Naruto was feeling so miserable? After all, here was the boy he had been in love with for such a long time, who he'd tried to give up on and failed to give up on every night for three years in Sound, who he had just thought might be irretrievably getting farther away from him – and now he was saying that he was pregnant, that they were going to have a family, and surely this was a thing that bound them together so tightly that the blond would never be able to escape from him again –

It was as if those childhood goals he had made for himself were once more becoming a real possibility, like the stars were shifting back into alignment. Hadn't he wanted to rebuild his clan? He'd given up on that when he'd realized that he was gay- given up on it a second time, in his heart, when he realized that he loved Naruto. Now he could rebuild his clan and -

Wait a minute. Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks. Naruto, who had been walking a step or two behind, saw the change in his body language and began to feel afraid almost without thinking. Whenever Sasuke began to look so angry and so withdrawn, there was only one possible reason.

"What is it?" He asked, coming around to stand in front of Sasuke.

Sasuke only looked at him. He wouldn't answer, although both knew what he was thinking. Itachi.

He isn't dead yet. And he always swore he would destroy the clan. Sasuke looked at Naruto, suddenly fearful. My baby. And wouldn't Itachi come and destroy it?

He didn't know where Itachi was hiding. For months before the destruction of Sound he had been searching, and at that time he had had the use of Orochimaru's spies and information gathering systems at his full disposal as well. Sound's network had been as developed as Konoha's, if not more – Orochimaru had been mistrustful of everyone and everything, and had relied as much on superior information as on fear to keep his troops in line and his activities running smoothly.

He had tried to get more information out of Kabuto on their last mission: several times, in fact, before he had killed him. But Kabuto had been wary of Sasuke betraying the New Sound – betraying him by running away again, leaving them without a leader – and so he had meted out little bits of rumor, slowly, trying to whet Sasuke's interest and drag him along. Sasuke had been fairly certain that what Kabuto knew was limited, in any case – he had said that Itachi was in hiding far to the East – that all of Akatsuki was dormant after their failure to capture the nine bijuu, and that he believed they were biding their time as they rebuilt their energy.

Kabuto had mentioned one other thing that had caught Sasuke's attention- that messengers from Akatsuki had visited Kabuto a year prior, before Sound had yet been destroyed, and that they had been the ones to suggest to him a potion that would grant the user Sharingan, and to give Kabuto the necessary knowledge with which to begin his research.

This had struck Sasuke as extremely improbable, since he knew that a good part of the Sharigan's value lay in the scarceness of it. An organization - like Akatsuki, or Konoha, now – that had an Uchiha member, held a great advantage over those that didn't. Therefore, it made no sense for such an organization to go looking for technology that would make the bloodline limit more accessible.

Sasuke tried to think. He could go on a journey, hunt Itachi down and kill him, once and for all. Or he could stay close to Konoha and protect Naruto, who would be weak because of the pregnancy, and who might be targeted now that he held the Uchiha heir.

Or he could stay near Naruto and wait, knowing that Itachi was likely to come.

He smiled softly. Naruto saw the expression and shuddered.

Naruto will never be safe anyway unless Itachi is dead. Better to take advantage of this opportunity…

And started, ever so slightly, when Naruto touched his sleeve.

"Sasuke," he said. "Don't worry about him. Don't think about Itachi, ok?"

Sasuke looked at the blonde and wondered, for once, how someone who knew him so well could sometimes understand so little. To tell Sasuke not to think about Itachi was like telling the moon not to follow the sun, to stop chasing its arc through the sky every evening.

"Sorry," he told Naruto, and smiled, trying to look reassuring.

Naruto knew that the smile was fake, and he didn't answer.

They walked in silence to the northern edge of the training fields, and then they turned, walking towards the northwest gate of the village.

When they reached the gate, a voice called out to them. Neji, TenTen, Ino and Shikamaru were standing together. From their wet, sticky clothing, it was obvious that they had been out training.

"Naruto!" Ino called. "Sasuke! What are you guys doing out here?"

"Just taking a walk," Naruto said.

"Hey, what happened to you, anyway? Sakura says you've been put on medical leave for, like, a year – are you sick?" Her eyes scanned up and down Naruto's body. "You look ok, though. At least, you're walking around, and everything."

Sasuke started to say something, but Naruto cut him off. "I'm fine, Ino. Thanks for asking. It's just a… chakra flow issue. The Hokage says it'll take a while to fix it."

"Oh? Well, if it's a chakra flow problem, that makes sense – a ninja who's having trouble accessing their chakra is pretty useless after all… but Naruto, that sounds really serious…" Ino babbled.

"Chakra flow?" Asked Neji.

Before Naruto had a chance to respond, Neji had activated his Byakugan and was looking at him, trying to ascertain just exactly in which way his chakra was moving improperly.

"What?" He gasped, unable to keep the shock out of his voice. He started at Naruto for a minute, and then looked at Sasuke. "You?"

In response, Sasuke reached an arm around Naruto's thin shoulders, pulling her close to his chest. Ino and TenTen looked shocked, Shikamaru nonplussed, and Neji grunted in reply. Naruto started shrieking.

"Hey! You asshole! What do you think you're doing!"

"Might as well break the news," Sasuke said. He turned to the group. "We're having a baby."

"Oh my God…" Ino murmured.

Then, with effort, they recollected themselves.

"Hey! That's great!"

"Congratulations!"

"When is it due?!"

TenTen and Ino descending on Naruto in a flurry of activity, hugging him, asking questions, and dancing around as if the fact that their until recently male classmate had just managed to get himself knocked up was absolutely the best news they had heard in months. Shikamaru, Neji, and Sasuke found themselves pushed to the side, and they watched the girls with dubious expressions.

Finally, Neji spoke.

"Nice going, Uchiha."

Sasuke glared.

Naruto was looking a bit flustered by the girls' obvious excitement. Sasuke wondered if he should rescue him.

"Sorry," he said, grabbing Naruto's hand and pulling him away. "We have to go."

xoxoxoxoxoxo

"Teme! Why did you say that!"

"When did you want to tell them?"

"I dunno," Naruto spluttered. "I guess I was sorta hoping I wouldn't have to."

Sasuke looked at him blankly. "Wouldn't have to? You're gonna get as big as a boat! How were you going to avoid it?"

Naruto whined. In order to avoid meeting anyone else, he had pulled Sasuke down a side street, back towards Iruka's house. "I dunno…"

"And besides, those guys are your friends, right? Don't you think they'd be hurt if they didn't hear it from you first?"

"First of all," Naruto huffed, "they're not just my friends, they're your friends too."

Sasuke doubted that, but he let Naruto continue.

"And secondly, I just needed some time to think about it first, ok?"

Sasuke sighed. "Sorry."

"What?"

"Sorry, ok?" He looked at Naruto. "Look, I'm actually happy that you're pregnant, ok?"

"What???"

"Don't yell, Dobe! I know you don't feel the same way, so I'm sorry, but I'm glad you're pregnant and I wanted to tell people about it!"

Naruto shook his head. "I can't believe it. Who would have thought Uchiha Sasuke to have a touchy-feely side?"

Sasuke must have been embarrassed, because instead of rising to the bait he merely looked away.

"You wouldn't feel that way if you were the one who got pregnant, though."

"What?" Sasuke snorted. "That's the weirdest thing I ever heard."

"Well, try to imagine that and then you'll know how I feel. Teme."

Sasuke couldn't imagine. It was just crazy. His thoughts were more focused on the fact that Naruto was pregnant, and on how to make up with the blonde as quickly as possible, so that they could get on to planning a life together. He tried to think of a response that would calm the boy down.

"I wouldn't mind it," he said, eventually. "If you were the father."

"Shut up! Asshole!" Naruto whirled and Sasuke saw that the blonde was preparing to attack him. I can't respond, he thought. He kept his hands to his sides until he saw how much force Naruto was putting behind his punch, and then he put his hands up to protect his head.

The force of the hit pushed him back a few inches, his feet sliding in the dirt of the road.

"Don't make up cheesy romantic bullshit like that and think I'm gonna buy it!" Naruto yelled. He raised his hand and prepared to charge again. Sasuke could feel the chakra level in Naruto's body beginning to rise.

"Shit, Naruto, don't do that, it's bad for the…" He blocked again as a rain or kicks came down on him, the blond seemingly attacking him without strategy, furiously.

"Fight back, you asshole!" Naruto hissed.

Sasuke activated his sharigan. He had to, in order to see quickly enough to grab Naruto's hand, and leg, stopping them in mid-air. He transferred his grip to Naruto's two wrists, holding the girl far enough away from him that her kicks had difficultly reaching.

"Calm down!" He said. "For God's sake, calm down Naruto!"

The blonde panted and glared. Sasuke held him immobile for three, four, and then five minutes (earning some odd stares from the fish-seller who passed by them on his way down the street) before the his breathing slowed enough that Sasuke thought it was safe to release him.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

By the time they made it back to Iruka's, they were both angry, sweaty, and tired. The teacher looked at the two figures without comment as they entered the house, and then Naruto pushed by him and went into the bedroom upstairs.

"I'll come again tomorrow." Sasuke promised.

"Don't bother!" Naruto yelled, from over his shoulder.

Iruka narrowed his eyes and glared at Sasuke. "What did you do to make him so upset?"

Sasuke glared back. "None of your business." He turned to go, but then looked back.

"I told him I was glad he was pregnant, and asked if he wanted to marry me."

Iruka's eyes opened wide. "That would make him mad."

"I know, but I still wanted to say it."

The teacher watched in surprise as the Uchiha's broad, navy-clad back, as Sasuke turned and walked away down the street. Then he shut the door, turning back to the sounds of Naruto cursing as he bumped things around in his bedroom.
They both seemed very young.