*Warning: Violence and Murder scene*

Devastation

Keiko held Naruto's hand as they walked up the sidewalk to their house. Neither one said a word but they were both happy and content after returning home from their week long honeymoon in Greece. She smiled when he turned to kiss her before unlocking the front door. There was no hiding anymore. The wedding bands on their fingers and her ever growing baby belly would not allow them to keep it a secret any longer.

"What in the hell happened here?" Naruto muttered when he opened the door.

"What's wrong? Oh, god," Keiko gasped after she peeked around him.

Their house had been broken into and totally destroyed. Nothing had been stolen, but everything was demolished. In the living room, the furniture had been over turned and all the cushions ripped apart with the stuffing pulled out. The television was smashed and lying on the floor. The people had even gone as far as to rip every book on the shelves apart. Anything that could be broken lay on the floor in pieces. The same kind of annihilation had taken place in the kitchen. All of the dishes had been pulled from the cabinets and smashed on the kitchen floor. An ax had been used to chop up the kitchen table.

"Oh, no! My office! Sweetie, call the police!" Keiko yelled behind her as she ran to her office. She knew who did this because there was nothing stolen and the demolition was very personal. She was glad they were not at home when he arrived and did this. Considering the anger demonstrated by the extent of the damage she's seen so far, she would guess that she would definitely be dead and probably Naruto too.

Keiko took a deep breath and opened the door to her office. The same wreckage awaited here as well with something new and emotionally devastating added. Words had been spray painted on the walls in red spray paint. Bitch, freak, pervert, and the list goes on and gets even worse of the derogatory adjectives that covered the walls of her ruined office. She was thankful she kept all of her patient files and important information in locked filing cabinets which had been overturned but not opened. Her chin dropped to her chest as the tears burned her eyes. Child molester. What? She stared at the word spray painted on the floor beneath her feet.

"The cops are on their way. Oh, dear god," Naruto mumbled when he walked into her office. "You know who did this don't you?"

"Yes. I know," she answered in a barely audible voice.

"I'm going upstairs to see what the damage is like up there," he said, leaving her alone in the decimated, vandalized office.

Keiko stood there looking around the office with tears falling down her face. She closed her eyes so she would not have to see any more of the ugly words blaring at her from the walls in the bloody red paint. She felt an arm go around her neck and another slide around her belly. Thinking it was her husband who had moved behind her to hold her, she relaxed into the body and knew immediately that something was wrong. This was not Naruto.

"Oh, my god…you can't be pregnant," the male voice said in her ear as his hand moved over her enlarged abdomen.

Keiko's eyes snapped open and fear grabbed hold of her so strongly she could not breathe. Iruka. Why was he still here? How long had he been here waiting for them to return? The fear within her morphed into full blown terror while he tightened his grip on her body that he held in an uncomfortably intimate way against his. He flexed the muscle in his forearm that was pressed firmly against her neck, and she was no longer able to breathe easily as he cut off her air supply. She felt the baby move within her while she struggled for air.

"Please, don't kill me. Don't hurt my baby," she implored him, feeling something wet dripping on her shoulder. Was he crying? Her lungs inhaled deeply to get the oxygen they so desperately needed when he released her. She was jerked around to look at him face to face.

Tears ran down Iruka's haggard, worn face as he stared at her. What had happened to this man? He was so kind and loving when she had first met him. He had been so easy to fall in love with. His hands cupped her cheeks as he stared at her making her feel increasingly uncomfortable and downright afraid of him.

Keiko closed her eyes wondering where Naruto and the police officers were. She was reluctant to scream because he had already tried to choke her once and he still had his hands on her. She did not want him to do anything to hurt the baby either. Her body trembled when his hands returned to her belly to push and prod on it.

"I feel it moving. Oh, Keiko, it's amazing," he whispered, holding his hand over the spot where the baby was kicking. "I'm sorry."

"What?" she inquired, her eyes popping open wide.

"I'm sorry I could never give you a child. It was my fault. I blamed you to feel better about it, but it was my fault. I never felt like much of a man after I could never get you pregnant. I never told I went to the doctor and found it really was me and not you," he said, looking at her face as he continued to rub her belly.

Keiko pulled out of his grip and backed away from him. Fury had exploded within her instantly because the man had just inadvertently stepped on an emotional mine with his admission. She remembered the arguments they once had, sometimes on a daily basis, about her not being able to get pregnant. He yelled at her that she was to blame because there was something wrong with her body. She was told it was because of her that they failed time and time again to have a child. When that argument wore out and she began refusing to have sex with him because of his increasing violence in bed, he started accusing her of having affairs with other men. Eventually the fighting just stopped. Neither one of them cared anymore about the relationship and let it begin to die. They tolerated the other's existence in a quiet panic wishing there was a way out. Then he found his opportunity. He deserted them to be with his friend and once again lover. It all makes so much sense now.

"Upstairs is just as bad and …what the hell are you doing here?" Naruto demanded when he saw his father standing in Keiko's office staring at her. "Why are you still here?"

"Is it yours?" Iruka asked, pointing at Keiko's belly.

Keiko jumped back as if he had touched her. She watched her new husband glare at the man in front of him so hard she would swear his eyes were turning red with anger. Without a doubt his tanned face was turning red with the anger that boiled inside of him and seemed to be getting darker by the second.

"Why the hell can't you just leave us alone?" the younger man snarled.

Before he knew what was happening, Iruka punched Naruto and leg swept him to send him crashing down to the floor. The old man had been practicing apparently. He jumped back to his feet swinging at his father but missing which caught him completely off guard. He could not figure out what was happening here. How can the bastard be dodging him? With a roundhouse kick, he caught him in the ribs hearing a satisfying snapping sound to signify a few of them had at least cracked and were most likely broken. A wicked grin tugged at his mouth when Iruka went down to his knees bellowing in pain like bull.

Keiko grabbed the cast iron sculpture of the Eiffel Tower off the floor after she tripped over it. This thing was unbelievably heavy. It also had a four inch spire on the top that was surprisingly sharp on the end. She watched the men tussle with each other. It was shocking how evenly matched they were at this time. Memories flowed through her consciousness like water down a stream. Thoughts of the good times were mixed with the bad which only seemed to amplify the emotional hurt and feed the rage growing within her. Her baby moved inside of her as if to remind her of what lies ahead in her future. She looked at her handsome blond husband fighting the evil that haunted them and seemed as if he would never go away. Suddenly she did not feel anything as her emotions went completely numb. She glared at the dark haired man she had loved so much once but who was now a nuisance and threat to her happiness and her new family.

"NO!" Keiko screamed when Iruka punched Naruto and sent him flying backwards.

Acting on the anger and loathing seething within her, she rushed forward with the deadly sculpture in her hand. Hitting her knees to avoid being grabbed by his hands, she thrust the weighty thing upward aiming for his heart with the spire. She dropped it and rolled out of the way before the dangerous object and him came crashing down on her. In a disturbing and macabre accident, the sculpture landed on its bottom in an upright position with Iruka firmly impaled on that damnable spire. Keiko stared at the horrifying scene in disbelieve. How could she have just done that?

"Honey, don't look at him," Naruto said, pulling her into his chest and turning his back on the scene.

The police officers finally arrived and it was the same two who had been sent to break up the graduation party.

"What the hell happened here?" Kamizuki muttered as he stepped into the office.

Hagane was squatted down in front of the dead man draped limply on the two foot tall sculpture of the Eiffel Tower. He looked up at his partner who was on the phone calling for a crime scene investigation team. Both officers just shook their heads as they glanced around the room.

"The rest of the house is torn up as well. He's the one that did it," Naruto said, jerking his chin toward the dead man to indicate him.

"Who killed him?" Hagane inquired, standing up.

"I did," Keiko admitted, stepping away from her husband.

"You did?" the officer asked incredulously. He did not believe her.

Keiko cried out when it suddenly felt like she was being squeezed around the belly by a large invisible hand. She dropped to her knees, hugging her belly.

"Call an ambulance!" Naruto yelled at the stunned cop while he knelt down beside her. "Calm down, just calm down."

Keiko held on to him with one arm while she kept the other around her belly. She could not feel the baby moving at this time. What she could feel was that her body was having contractions. No, it's too soon. This can't be happening. She took long deep breaths, fighting back the fear and the pain.

Soon the yard and house was covered up by police officers, investigators, and nosey neighbors. When the ambulance arrived, they were instructed to drive up on the lawn to get to the door. After Keiko was loaded into the ambulance to be taken to the hospital, Naruto found Shikamaru and his parents in the crowd to ask them to go to the hospital to be with her. Shikamaru stayed with him while his parents went to the hospital. He would have to stay behind to answer questions. When he was finally released and allowed to go to the hospital, the sun was coming up.

Shikaku was waiting at the front doors of the emergency room when his son and Naruto arrived. He led them to the waiting room where Yoshino and Tsunade were talking. The doctor hugged the overwrought and frightened father to be to try to calm him down.

"She's all right and so is the baby," Tsunade began hoping that would help ease his distress a bit. She took a deep breath before explaining the rest. "The contractions have stopped for now. I don't know how long it will stay that way. If she has the baby this early it won't survive. I will monitor her closely and hold this thing off as long as possible. I am hoping with complete bed rest we can make it wait at least another six weeks. At thirty weeks the baby has a ninety percent survival chance."

Naruto sat down heavily in one of the chairs to allow the information to sink in.

"What about Keiko? How is this going to effect her?" he asked, staring into the sympathetic amber eyes of the doctor.

"The pregnancy was already hard on her body because you know as well as I do that she's not a young mother. I'm not sure what a lot of the long term effects will be in all honesty. I will say that I doubt she will be able to bear any more children," Tsunade told him in a blunt open manner.

"Doctor? Your patient is awake. She's asking for her husband," a dark haired nurse informed her.

"Thank you, Shizune. Naruto, come on," she said, taking him by the hand to lead him to the room.

The Naras stared at their son as if he had all the answers to what just happened. What had their friend, Keiko, been hiding from them? Why was Naruto being referred to as her husband and the father of her baby? What didn't they know about their son's best friend?

"Mom, Dad, let me explain..."

Keiko was lying on her side in the bed absentmindedly massaging her belly. She had pushed all thoughts from her mind except for the baby. They were having a little boy. Tsunade had pointed that out when she was conducting the ultrasound to make sure the baby was all right. She was now at twenty two weeks. Still way too early for the baby to survive; and if by some slim chance he did live, he would have terrible long lasting health problems. She angrily swiped at the tear that slid down her cheek.

The door squeaked as it open and she raised her eyes to look into a much loved pair of bright blue eyes. She held out her arms like a child to him because she needed the comfort of his arms around her. A loud sigh escaped her as he moved onto the bed with her to hold her in his arms. She buried her face in his shirt holding onto him tightly.

"Guess what, sweetie? We're having a boy," she said, feeling his arms tighten around her briefly.

"A son," Naruto murmured with his lips against her forehead. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at Tsunade who was smiling at him.

"We'll get your boy here safely. I promise," she assured him. "I'll leave you two alone now."

"Keiko, I – " he began but she cut off the words by kissing him.

"Just don't say anything. Right now just hold me. We will figure the rest out later," she told him, snuggling against his chest. She didn't want to talk, or think, or do anything except be with him.