(9 months later)
Itachi stood outside the bedroom, pacing nervously. Yasu had insisted on delivering on her own, but Itachi was worried about her. This was her first time, there was very little she could get to by way of medical assistance, and there was so much that could go wrong…and the screams of pain from behind the door were hardly reassuring.
"She'll be fine."
Itachi turned. His friend's wife, Hataru, was walking towards him with an armful of towels.
"I'm going in to help her," Hataru continued. "However stubborn she may be, it's not wise to deliver alone. Women instinctively know what to do, but still…"
Itachi nodded and stepped aside. Hataru pushed open the door and slid through, closing it firmly behind her.
Disheartened, Itachi went downstairs and saw his friend, Kensuki, sitting on the couch with a glass of…
"Is that rum?" Itachi asked slowly.
Kensuki shook his head. "Nah, just apple juice."
Itachi sighed and found the carton of juice in the refrigerator and began drinking directly from it.
Kensuki smiled as a particularly harsh scream sounded from above. "Let's celebrate manhood. Want beer?"
OOOOOOOO
Tsunade sighed and glanced at her stomach. She was in for some serious trouble in a few months; Shizune had broken it to her brutally that she was pregnant, and everyone's favorite Copy Ninja was the father. Tsunade had almost passed out, and Kakashi had sworn a bit and walked back and forth, sputtering and spewing curses.
"Well, at least you're only thirty," Kakashi had tried. Tsunade had just about bashed his head in, and Kakashi had then slunk away to nurse his injuries. Shizune had offered to tell them if it was a boy or a girl, but Tsunade had told Shizune to leave it a mystery.
Kakashi laid a hand on her stomach.
"She keeps kicking."
"She?" Tsunade repeated. "No way-it's a boy."
"With that kick? Gotta be a girl," Kakashi countered.
"Mother's intuition," Tsunade said. "Boy."
Kakashi smiled and pulled her up off of the couch. "Six months now," he mused. "Does anyone else know?"
"Just Shizune and the elders," Tsunade said. "A few of the jounin close to me."
Kakashi nodded. "Whatever. You have the most rights as the mother."
Tsunade sighed. "The baby is healthy. Shizune takes a look every week, and so far so good. No problems at all."
"Good."
Tsunade sighed again. "I'm starting to think you gave me triplets," she groaned. "I feel so weighted down…"
Kakashi smiled. "Congrats, Mommy."
Tsunade glared. "Do you need a concussion?"
"…No…"
"Then don't get smart with me."
OOOOOOOOO
"Itachi!!"
Itachi started at the sound of Hataru's voice. "What? Is Yasu-?"
A grin split Hataru's face. "It's a girl."
Itachi bolted up the stairs, past Hataru, and into the bedroom. Yasu was lying back against a pillow, a small baby wrapped in a towel against her chest.
"Meet Yumiko," Yasu said softly. Itachi sat down next to Yasu, looking at her face.
"She has your eyes and my hair," he said, looking for the flashes of red that would indicate Sharingan. Sure enough, they were there. Itachi smiled, watching the red dance across the girl's eyes.
"And my face," Yasu said. "Look at the angles."
Itachi's smile widened. "A new dawn…she's you, Yasu. She'll continue Akatsuki after you."
Yasu nodded. "Hey, what time is it?"
Itachi parted the thick curtains for a moment. When he turned back to Yasu, he was smiling.
"The sun is coming up now. She was born at dawn, and she is the dawn of the Akatsuki."
OOOOOOOOO
Orochimaru was angsting. Badly.
He had slipped through Kabuto's fingers and escaped to the roof of his complex. He knew Kabuto was probably worried sick; that was why he had left a trail of blood that dead-ended at a window he had left open. He felt like giving someone a heart attack as well.
"Orochimaru-sama, don't you ever scare me like that again! The blood, the window, the-oooooh, I ought to spank you!"
Orochimaru shrugged. "What good would it do you?"
Kabuto visibly recoiled. Orochimaru had done…nothing. Normally he would have backhanded Kabuto, struck him in some way, or at the very least told him off. Instead he just sat there. Kabuto slowly walked over to Orochimaru and put his arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"What's wrong?"
Orochimaru shoved him away and turned to the side. "Leave me alone."
"Masochist," Kabuto muttered. "Are you hurt? Did someone-?"
"Kabuto, I told you to leave me alone."
Kabuto sighed. "Should I drag you back?"
"Kabuto, watch your tongue."
Kabuto sighed again, leaned forward and caught both of Orochimaru's wrists in his hands.
"Naughty, you," he scolded, and pulled Orochimaru up. This only earned him a painful kick to the shins, and Orochimaru's leg snaked around and kicked his knees out. Kabuto used Orochimaru as leverage and swung up over the sannin's head. As Kabuto moved, he could feel warm blood soaking his fingers, especially as he moved farther up Orochimaru's arms.
"Orochimaru-sama!" he cried. "You've been cutting yourself! Again! When are you going to learn-?"
"Shut your mouth!"
Kabuto sighed as Orochimaru kicked him again, but he didn't relent in his hold. "You've been up here for hours! Have you been…all that time…?"
Orochimaru shrugged. "Call me a masochist if you will, but it feels good…I'd almost forgotten what pain is."
Kabuto sighed again. "Stop moping!"
Orochimaru had no answer. He was miserable, but what could he do? There really wasn't anything…
"Come on," Kabuto said gruffly, and began dragging Orochimaru behind him. "Itachi's here."
Orochimaru sighed and yanked his hands out of Kabuto's. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Stop making it worse, you'll think I did it and I'll never hear the end of it from you."
"You never will," Kabuto said dryly. "Not until you stop moping."
"Oh, joy."
OOOOOOOOOO
Itachi was pacing again, simply trying to work off excess nervous energy. Yasu held Yumiko in her arms, slowly rocking the child, trying to put her to sleep.
"Itachi."
Itachi turned to Orochimaru and immediately noticed the blood on his arms.
"You're wounded," he said dryly. "What did you do?"
"Yeah, about that…" Orochimaru said slowly. "Mission, I guess you could say."
More like "mission prove emo-ness", Kabuto thought, but he said nothing. Itachi was emo king; couldn't he see-?
"You have a child," Orochimaru commented. Yasu nodded and held out Yumiko.
"See that?" she said smugly, showing off the girls' bloodline. "That's Sharingan, and the Yuuhi and Kurosaki bloodline. Powerful blood; she is the future of the Akatsuki. We wanted to tell you that we're not completely out of this yet. And we want to form an alliance."
Orochimaru's eyebrows arched. "I see…we are both weak, so if we join each other we can gain strength."
For a moment Kabuto thought he was going to refuse; his arms crossed and he shifted his weight to his left hip.
Then he spoke those three fateful words.
"Talk to me."
OOOOOOOOOO
(3 Months later)
Tsunade felt an especially sharp kick to her side and groaned. Kakashi looked at her in concern.
"Your due date is in two weeks," he said. "And the baby's really been kicking…"
Tsunade nodded. "I think-oooooh!"
Kakashi turned to her in a flash, helping her to a chair and sitting her down.
Tsunade nodded again.
"And so it begins…"
A/N: Sorry about all the time skips…nothing else important enough happens to make less time skips, so I just did this…sorry if it got a little confusing. And sorry it's so late…some stuff came up. I'll live, though…the next chapter should come quicker, though, so don't kill me yet! Thanks, all!!