Chapter Fourteen

Rebirth

From somewhere off in the distance I heard muffled voices talking. My body felt like it weighed a ton with another ton being pressed down on me. Everything hurt inside and out; my broken heart I think is what hurt the most.

'Sasuke' That word, that name, wouldn't leave me alone. I give one long sigh of sorrow to let the voices know that I was semi-awake and alive. "Sasu-ke" I whispered through a mouth full of dried blood, my lips heavily chapped.

"Naruto" One of the voices said, I recognized it as Iruka Sensei's. "It's alright naruto, Sasuke's sleeping right beside you." Something soft and tiny hit me across the cheek causing me to smile happily

"Itachi" I gasped out opening my eyes to see the little bundle of joy in his arms. "I'm so glad he's safe! Thank you, Iruka, for taking care of Itachi for us…and not telling the… not telling everyone about what happened." Even though most of the town was on my side once more there were some elders who blamed me for the attack on the village. The elders who called my son an abomination…I bet they would have handed him over to pein without question.

Then it happened, as silence once more filled the room my stomach let out a tremendous growl. I groaned and pushed myself deeper against the pillows "Soo…hungry…dying….gah!" I reached my hand up towards the ceiling as if to grab hold of 'the light'.

"Naruto, Stop being such a little drama queen, the nurse has just gone to get you and Sasuke something warm to eat." Iruka sat down on the foot of my bed "And hopefully Sasuke's vision isn't as bad as they say it is." Then he smiled up at me "And please don't thank me. It was a real honor to get to know this little boy. He was so calm…wish I could say about Kakashi. "He blushed, letting some of his hair fall from his ponytail to hide his face "he was talking so fast when he saw your clone it reminded me of when he asked me to marry him. Took him five times before I could understand what he was saying.

"I'm glad to see you're acting like yourself so soon after what happened too. The villagers have helped repaired the damage done to the manor in the month that you two have been out."

My eyes snapped open; I jumped up from the bed "A MONTH!!! IRUKA SENSEI YOU MEAN TO TELL ME I'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR A WHOLE MONTH!!?!" I pulled the IV from my arm, oxygen from my nose, and other tubes from my body "no no no no no no!!! I have to get training again…I need to get to know my son more!!" Tears filled my eyes "What if he doesn't know me now…he's become so attached to you."

"Hey hey hey calm down Naruto!" Iruka ordered as he gently pushed me back down onto the bed. "Itachi knows the both of you, we hardly left you and Sasukes side, if at most he looks at me like a brother, same with Kakashi. He cried when ever I took him to far from you, the nurses and doctors ended up bringing in a small bed for me to sleep on at night since I couldn't take Itachi from the room without him screaming and crying, he didn't want to be away from you two, poor Kakashi is going to kill my ass when you two are signed to leave and Itachi goes with you guys" Iruka tossed his head back and let out a deep groan. "Anyway, that aside, you have nothing to worry about, and I wouldn't think of training if I were you, Itachi is going to need a lot of your attention, as is Sasuke , most of all if he really is mostly blind"

"Sasuke's blind…" I asked in disbelief as I shot a glance over to my beloved. He did, in fact, have heavy bandages wrapped over his eyes "How can that be Iruka Sensei? I thought it took years of wear and tear for that to happen?" That's what had happened to Sasuke's brother so why did it happen so prematurely for Sasuke?

I wanted to hold little Itachi so badly but my strength had yet to return to me. I realized just how tired I was and fell back against the pillows; a groan of pain and stiffness escaping my lips "Is there anything we can do for him now?"

Iruka shook his head sadly "Just hope that he'll recover on his own. I guess his advanced level sharingon tore his vision down to almost the end, the fighting didn't help either if he had used a normal mangakiyo rather than his strain he would have been fine." He pulled the blankets back up over me "Why don't you rest a little more? I'll wake you once the nurse gets back."

Iruka Sensei was clearly worried about my husband and me. "I've rested for a whole month. Don't you think I'm allowed to be awake?" I looked over to Sasuke. I couldn't believe that he had been in this state for almost a month now with no improvement.

Deep in the pits of my soul I felt a shadow of guilt slither. It said over and over 'this is your fault…all your fault…your fault' and somehow, though I already felt so bad, I felt even worse for feeling bad. Who's to say this wouldn't have happened anyway; regardless if I had left the village or not?

Iruka got down on his knees next to me, coping sasuke's move he rested his forehead against mine "Naru-Chan, stop kicking yourself, it has nothing to do with you why Sasuke is like this, Sasuke is hurt because he wanted to protect you and Itachi" He sighed deeply "if anything it's mine and Kakashis fault for not knowing of the attack sooner, we were going to your house anyway, but we stopped by the store to get you some treats. A small gift for you and the baby." Tears filled his gently brown eyes "If I hadn't insisted that we stop we would have made it before the attack; while you were still giving birth." One of his tears rolled down his flushed cheek; splashing onto mine.

I reached up and wiped his tears away "Sensei" I really didn't know what to say to him. How could I make him see that this wasn't his fault either? I settled on joking "I probably would have eaten you or something if you had come in while I was giving birth. Man that was the worst thing I have ever gone through." I laughed, rubbing itachi's tiny head "Consider yourself lucky that you don't have to go through that."

"That's the Naruto I love. Always the joker." Iruka laughed, holding little Itachi's small hand in his. "In all truth I envy you, I would give anything to have a kid of my own, even Kakashi said he wouldn't mind one, but I don't want to adopt, it would just feel wrong to me, calling someone's kid my own, when deep down I would know that it wasn't." He paused for a minute or two; just playfully bouncing Itachi, earning a small giggles now and then. "The time I spent watching you and Sasuke love and care for Itachi before he was born made me want my own that much more, so thanks to this little one, once you two are up and ready to go, and Itachi is back with you Tsunade said that she'd see what she could do as far as giving me and Kakashi the chance to have our own!"

I sat up quickly "Oh Iruka Sensei!! That's really wonderful." Smirking, I poked him in the stomach "Just you wait. It's 'wonderful' to have a little thing kicking and squirming and growing inside you." I held my hands out for my son "and enjoy the birth too, that's really the best part of the whole thing." The way I said that I was half joking and half serious. It really was the best part of the whole thing; to be able to hold your baby for the very first time after so long. "And you know that if it doesn't work out, you always have Itachi…would you like to be his godfather?"

"That would mean a lot to me Naruto." Iruka said as tears filled his eyes once more. He place Itachi into my arms.

"Yeah yeah smiles all around now will you shut up!" Sasuke groaned, moving onto his side to face us. They way he was laying I could tell that he was trying to focus in on us. He would move back a little bit, pause, and then move forward.

"Oh good." Tsunade baa-chan exclaimed opening the sliding door "You both are up. I was just about ready to pull the plugs from you both if you kept using up our space." I shot her annoyed glare before she continued "You'll get your meals after a little bit. I had the nurse go and do some paper work for me so I could see you two."

I gave sasuke a quiet apology before giving my full attention to the Hokage. "Why did you come all this way just to see us? Besides the obvious reason of wanting to get out of doing your work again." She was nothing like the old man. She was always behind on her paperwork, forever drinking, and had a temper that could have scared the first Itachi.

"I've grown rather fond of the two of you." She retaliated "Your godfather was a good friend of mine so I guess you should thank him that I even treated your mutilated bodies." The busty woman leaned down over sasuke "Iruka if you wouldn't mind would you help naruto over here? I'm going to uncover Sasuke's eyes."

Sasuke let out a sharp intake of breath as Tsunade raised the bed into the sitting position. His wounds were coated with Pein's chakara; I assumed that had some help in his pain. Perhaps even in why his eyes were in such bad condition.

I allowed myself to be lifted from the bed and placed next to my husband. Tsunade stepped back, the bloody bandages draping across her hands and arms. "Sasuke?" I rubbed his cheek softly, hoping that it didn't hurt him too terribly. I was lucky, I had the healing power of the Kyuubi with me, Sasuke, however, had to rely on his body's slow ability to heal. "Sasuke can you see me?" I struggled to get the words out, my throat dry from the fear of the answer I would get.

"AH!" he screamed "IT BURNS!!" then broke out in a painful laugh "oh wait; it's just your face." He leaned forward and gave me a soft kiss "I can see better out of my right eye but at least I can see. Only thing is…you're half black and white." He looked from me to Tsunade.

"Good to know you can see." She said, throwing away the bandages "I worked too damn hard to fix your eyes to say you couldn't see." She and Iruka both helped move me back to my own bed "I'll see about the 'black and white' thing after you two eat and rest a little while more."

"Thank you Tsunade baa Sama." I sat back against my pillows once more, holding little Itachi safely in my arms. "Iruka…if you wouldn't mind…co

uld you show me some things about taking care of him? What he likes and doesn't like, how to feed and change him, how to dress him." I trailed away; it really felt like I wasn't this boy's mother at all but a complete stranger. Truth be told I was surprised he was letting me hold him.

"Trust me Naruto not even I know all that." Iruka laughed and played with Itachi's hand. "Just be sure to clean him really good. The rash he had just gone away…that's kind of my fault. I let Kakashi feel me up while I changed him last week."

"Sense! That was more than I wanted to know." I blushed right along with him. "You keep this up and you'll be worse than Pervy Sage." I wouldn't be shocked if he did; after all, he lived with Kakashi now who was a huge fan of Pervy Sage's work. "Thanks for all your help." I looked him square in the eye "I feel as if I have been reborn. Given another chance to do things right."