Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Imperial_Dragon: Yes, Sasuke is indeed starting to understand. However I don't think his 'logical reasoning' is about to let him go save Takeshi. In fact, because Sasuke is the type of person who believes thinking with the heart is a weakness. I reckon he's going to have a hard time battling with himself.

Inksprout: Thanks for your awesome review. I'm glad you're enjoying my story. I thought about leaving the side stories out but find that it was almost impossible. The side stories will all tie into the ending, and hopefully no holes will be noticed. I hope I don't disappoint in future chapters ^_^

Guess who just turned 20 years old? That's right, on the 27th I turned old!

Notes: Due to the oddly large amount of PMs I feel that I should let you all know that I am not homosexual but like many people feel sexual attraction to the same sex. I always wondered how my parents would feel should I go into a same sex relationship. My mother told me that as long as I didn't show any PDA in front of her she would be ok. My Dad has yet to comment but I should think he'd be fine.

Bright Blood in Blonde Hair

Hinata looked up at her friend with the utmost fear.

Sakura watched as her large eyes began to water, her mind spinning with what she had just said.

"W-What are you saying? S-Sakura… what?" Her voice came out strangled and breathless.

Sakura bit her pale rose lips and glanced to the left. Her hands shook as she picked up Hinata's chart.

The room was silent. The curtains drifted in the breeze making a little 'click' sound whenever they touched the wall, the clock across from the bed ticked and tocked every second. The people in the halls laughed and coughed and sneezed. Someone dropped something metal on the cold tiled floor and the sound echoed, bashing against the white blinding walls and making its way to their ears.

She was buying time. Sakura had sent a young hospital worker to find Sasuke. This was not news that one should hear alone.

"Um, Hinata… this is your third trip to the hospital in six months." Sakura whispered, a bead of sweat trailed from her temple and down her cheek. She licked her suddenly dry lips.

Her friends face was void of any colour. She laid there on the propped up bed, silent and unmoving, her eyes now fixed on the wall across from her. Her eyes, her skin, her almost white lips, unmoving and silent; just like a doll Sakura noticed. A lifeless doll.

"You were in here the first time because you, um, were injured on a mission?" A low class mission nevertheless. She had just been escorting some exchange students back to their land when the attack had occurred. 7:3 was not a fair fight.

Sakura's heart thumped, she closed her eyes for a split second and almost jumped when Hinata spoke.

"Did I lose the baby?" Her words were spoken with so much heartache that they hurt Sakura. Her friend was in pain and yet at this moment she could do nothing.

This baby was the first good thing to happen to her and she…

Sakura was about to speak when the familiar sound of heavy footsteps turned towards their room.

Whipping her head around, causing a few pink strands of hair to come loose in her bun, "Sasuke. Please have a seat."

She watched his eyes focus on his wife, for the first time in a long time Sakura had notice the fear that hid itself well behind the stoic facade.

A fear she hadn't seen since Taro's life threatening birth. Taro had gotten stuck in the birth canal and had almost died. If it hadn't have been for the last minute surgery Sasuke's youngest might not have made it, nor would his wife.

Sasuke sat down in the uncomfortable grey leather seat, his hand lay on top of Hinata's pale cold one.

"What is this about Sakura?" His eyes watched her like a tiger; any movement, anything he didn't like, and he would pounce on her and tear her apart.

"T-There…" Sakura shook her head. She was a medi-nin and these two… three… before her were not her friends they were her patients. They needed to know that whatever they choose she, as their medic, would do whatever it took to keep them safe and sound.

But she would almost tell them the news they didn't want to hear, give them options they don't want to discuss, and even perform operations on them that they hoped never to have.

She was their medic. Not their friend.

She took a deep breath.

"Your wife is having an abnormal pregnancy." Her voice clear and calm and professional, "It appears that while she is indeed pregnant the baby is not residing in her womb. After checking carefully it appears the baby is in her fallopian tube. This is called an ectopic pregnancy. "

She watched as Hinata's head whipped towards her, her shock and fear written clearly on her distraught face.

Sasuke remained on the calm side of things, "How did this happen?" He asked.

"The egg spends four to five days going down the fallopian tube towards the womb, however if the tube has been damaged in some way or form, or even if the tube is too narrow, the egg may implant itself within the tube."

Hinata's eyes watered once again, it seemed that all she did was cry these last few weeks.

"What caused this?" Sasuke asked looking Sakura clear in the eye.

"There are a number of reasons to what could have caused this. Some of those are from using fertility drugs, smoking, it increases your chances the older you get, and if you-"

"Had a caesarean." Hinata whispered. She had yet to let any tears fall and Sakura knew she was trying to hold on until they had, or rather she, had left.

Sasuke's head snapped from looking at Hinata back to Sakura, "Is this true?" he asked, his words cold and coated in poison.

"Yes." Sakura replied.

Sasuke didn't need to say more, his eyes said everything that he was holding back.

It's your fault. You did this.

"What should we do?" Hinata whispered, looking at Sakura. "What are the chances?"

"There are very few successful ectopic pregnancies. In 95% of all cases in which the mother had gone through with the pregnancy the baby died before being able to live outside the womb and the mother suffered from a ruptured fallopian tube."

Hinata's sad white lavender eyes looked into her lime green ones, "I'm asking as a friend Sakura. What do you think we should do?"

She had been hoping to avoid it, coming from a medic sounded professional but coming from a friend? It sounded different.

"Hinata, I believe your best chance of survival would be to terminate."

Hinata looked away while Sasuke looked hatefully at her, "It's a very minor, non invasive keyhole surgery. We make a small cut, go in and remove the egg."

There it was again.

Silence.

"The egg? Sakura, the egg is a living bundle of cells. It feels pain." A silver gleaming tear slipped down her pale cheek. "I can't give permission to 'remove' it. I can't sign anything to let you go in and kill my child before they've had a chance to survive."

Sakura bit her lip, she didn't want to say it, but it needed to be said. "Hinata, should you refuse to sign the papers at anytime during your pregnancy in which your health is in danger we will remove the egg. With or without your permission."

"And mine?" Sasuke asked, his jaw clearly clenched. "As the father, don't I have a say in this?"

"Sasuke," Hinata whispered. "No. No you don't." Sakura watched as Sasuke's eyes widened in shock.

"Understand Hinata. Going through with this is dangerous. And you will be on bed rest for the most of your pregnancy. The fetus will need to come out as soon as it is able to survive on its own."

Sakura walked out the room but stopped and turned around, she bit her lip, "Merry Christmas, by the way." Her unspoken words hung in the air, 'Please be careful.'

Today she will go see her son. Today was his birthday. And tomorrow will mark his death, and Christmas morning.

Takeshi was dragged out of his cell by a large man with fat fingers gripping his wrists. He might cause bruises with his harsh grip.

He was being taken for a test.

He was hardly twenty meters away from the testing room in which he was taken and strapped to a chair. His arms and legs were freed from the rope, but tied using thick metal cuffs.

All of a sudden there was a bright blinding light that burned his eyes. Even has he shut them out of shock he could see the dancing white spots that teased him so.

They had removed his blind fold. And weeks/days in the dark had caused his eyes to become sensitive to the light. Like a blind person able to see.

"Ya became a nigh' lova, have ya boy?" A rough, uneducated voice spoke to him from his side, his laugh boomed through the bright room sending chills up his spine. "W'll ya mightn have ta worry bout th't soon. I's he'rd ya's ben pa'd for."

"Paid for?" He asked, his voice raw from lack of water, he blinked several more times, his eyes slowly becoming used to the light once more.

The room was bigger than he had expected. On the left of his a tall large bearded man stood, his deep red hair dirty and matted, his skin filthy, and his brown small eyes dull and sick looking. His long blue shirt was ripped and torn, blood stained the shirt with small splatters in his baggy brown pants.

Behind the man was a dirty bed, small blood stains littered it telling Takeshi that they don't care much for cleanliness. An IV machine, large amounts of needles and a hospital gown were all together.

On his right he noticed a young, beautiful woman, with shoulder length dark blue hair and light blue eyes. She was clean, wearing a white medic coat, a black pencil skirt and red heels.

There were many objects he had never seen before. Things that you were more likely to find in a torture chamber then in a hospital area or in a normal house, well… not at his home anyway but still…

There was vials filled with blood, all clearly labeled, a wall with numerous knifes and what looked like a nut cracker…

Her light blue eyes caught his dark ones, "Don't fret young one." She smiled and Takeshi could see it. Behind her pretty looks and young age she was cold, she was a killer. But not just any kind. She enjoyed it like a sport, watched her prey, starved them, torment them, break them, and sell them. She liked them trapped and scared.

Her voice was clear and he remembered who she was.

He glared at her, "You're the one who was selling us." He said.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You remember me?" She giggled the sound so sweet that it made his stomach turn, "How very thoughtful of you." She slandered towards him, her heels clicking with each step.

"C'n I's go no Mis?" The large man asked. She didn't take her eyes off of Takeshi, "Yes, yes go you fat slob." She said in a kind voice, "please change your shirt before you come back." Her eyes became a cold blue as she looked up to the man, "Otherwise I'll take another finger." She sweetly said.

Takeshi didn't take his eyes off the predator in front of him but the heavy steps he heard told him that the man was scared but also unhappy. The quick shuffle and the heaviness always gave emotions away.

Her eyes were back on him, her bloodlust and insanity so clear that it burned into his mind. One of her long soft fingers trailed down his face from his temple to his chin. Clean nail polished made the short nail shine in the light.

"My you are a handsome one. You and your cellmate." Her eyes lit up with joy and she smiled, "How lucky of me. All the pretty boys I want."

She gripped his jaw in her hand in a swift motion, her nails dug into his skin, cutting it and causing him to bleed. "But we're not here to talk are we? Oh no, no, no, no. My sweet. My love. We're here for you."

She turned and went over to the stack of needles, returning with an empty vial and a large thick needle, that didn't seem to have been used before, well he hoped it hadn't been used before…

She stood close enough for him to be able to breathe in her deep rich scent. She smelled like blood and death but something more powerful overwhelmed them, the sterile coolness that could be smelled in hospitals. There was also dirt and grass. The scent confused him greatly.

He felt the coldness of the thick needle that pressed against his dirty skin. They're eyes stayed connected as she slowly pressed it in to his arm, he couldn't help a flicker of pain as she pulled the blood out.

Takeshi knew she saw it. Her eye lit up in a dark feral way that showed him the real her.

He couldn't help but want to strangle her. Those eyes and her sick sadistic smile on her pretty lips caused his mind to whirl with fury.

She had filled the tube of blood but left the needle hanging there.

"You think you're strong. You think you should have better than this. You think someone will save you." She whispered her poisoned words to him.

He felt nothing, said nothing.

"I want you to know they won't."She giggled in a childish way, like she just told someone she had a crush on them.

"No one will find you. No one will ever find you. You will never get out. You will never be able to leave here." She grabbed the needle and pushed it in deeper, probing his veins. He grunted from the pain and she gave him a sad smile that hid something wicked behind it.

"You will never leave here alive." She whispered cruelly.

"You," He hissed, his pain turning to anger quickly, "I will kill you one day." His eyes narrowed at her, his anger locked with her wickedness.

A moment was paused before she threw her head back and laughed heartily, like he told her the funniest joke ever.

She suddenly stopped and looked at him, she pulled the needle out slowly, something in her eyes scared Takeshi. Like she was building in excitement.

She bit her lip and told him, "You will never leave here in one piece. And if you should, you won't be able to harm even a fly."

She angered him insanely, "you think you'll win?" He hissed, "I think that you will lose. I'll burn your body if I have to. I'll tie you down," Her eyes got wider and brighter, "And I'll watch as you scream and cry and beg. But I won't he-"

He gasped.

Suddenly his mind went blank, but not before he heard her speak one last time.

"Oh shit."

She sat there, looking over his limp body hunched over, the blood trickling from the wound she created in his chest. She sighed, "Well if you hadn't have gotten me so excited." She whispered to him. She had just stabbed him in the chest with the needle in her excitement.

Getting up she pulled out the needle and looked at it. "I'm very pleased with this. You have a nice dark blood." She watched the blood in the tube mesmerized by it, "Well I guess I should heal you."

She bit her lip but couldn't help but laugh out loud, her cold shrill laughter bounced off the walls, "I can't believe it Takeshi Uchiha? Well this is interesting! A Uchiha without a Sharingan. Like a kitty without claws. We need you. Well parts of you anyway." She smirked at the near dead body.

Pushing the head up she planted a hard kiss, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. "I think I'll keep you for myself, just for a bit longer. There is so much I want to learn." Placing her hands upon his wounded chest she healed him. "After all… how often does a Uchiha Hyuuga hybrid just fall into your lap?"

Christmas came and Hinata stayed on bed rest, doing as little as possible, Sasuke had moved the Christmas tree into their bedroom so she wouldn't have had to get up to join them in the living room.

Instead of meeting up with their friends in the village they… invited themselves over to the Uchiha compound.

The bright green Christmas tree covered in Katsu and Taro's decorations and brightly coloured wrapped presents sat under the tree.

Presents continued to sit under there, the labels all said the same thing 'To Takeshi' and they will sit there until he came home.

Sasuke sat back one night and thought about it. Was there ever a time when he had been attracted to the same sex?

No. There hadn't been.

But there was that one time when Naruto had kissed him during class one day.

Sasuke couldn't help a scowl that appeared on his face. There he was in his living room sitting alone close to midnight thinking about his friend kissing him.

'Not that it was any good. Wasn't even a kiss.' Sasuke reasoned with himself. Though most of their classmates would say it was.

He remembered how his cheeks burned and his heart thumped.

Out of pure disgust.

Somewhere in their house a little clock ticked, something beeped, and a blue light came from Taro's nightlight.

And Sasuke sat in his black pajamas alone.

"I don't understand you." He muttered aloud. His dark eyes tired and wanting to shut, yet he kept coming back to that moment when Naruto and he touched lips.

Sasuke imagined Takeshi sitting across from him like he had done so many late nights. They would talk about training, weapons, and the Justus's they had been practicing.

He sighed, "I didn't know you at all did I?" He whispered, his dark eyes locking onto a picture of a young Takeshi holding his baby sister. "Didn't ask you how your day was, didn't ask about your friends."

Once more the kiss he shared with Naruto came to mind. Burning cheeks, thumping heart, his sudden hate for the blonde haired boy and yet the want to avoid and see him at the same time.

"Did you feel the same? Hmm?" He looked away from the picture, "Did I cause this? Ruin our family? No, couldn't have. All I tried to do was protect us."

"Protect us?" A soft whisper came from the doorway. His beautiful wife stood there in her dressing gown. "Protect us Sasuke? Or to protect the family name?"

"What are you doing up Hinata? You should stay in bed." He glared at his wife, putting herself in danger like that.

"Well? The name or the family Sasuke?"

"The family name Hinata. Go back to bed."

She nodded her head. "Ok." She turned back she stopped. She needed to say this. Her back was still turned to him, "Sasuke. There wouldn't be a family name without a family would there? Takeshi, he is family. Even without the name."

He watched her go back to bed.

"You're right, you know that." He whispered lowly. "You always are." But he couldn't tell her that. He just couldn't. "I love you."

A clock chimed in the village; it was New Year's Day.

Naruto had managed to get away from the crowds of people that demanded his attention on this last night of the year.

Sakura was mingling with their close friends and he saw their youngest Jiro talking to a girl, his cheeks flashing a pale pink. He didn't see Sushi anywhere, he didn't even know if she had come.

Naruto bit his lip, he was glad she didn't in a way. He loved his daughter more than life itself but during this time of the year he couldn't look at her, he didn't want to.

The guilt he felt was as vast as the ocean but he couldn't help it.

With just a few minutes to go before the start of a new year Naruto shrugged off anyone trying to get his attention. There was something more important.

He grabbed an extra bowl of the soba noodles and made his way towards the cemetery. The snow hindered him slightly but he didn't mind. There was only a half moon tonight but it was enough to light a silver path.

There on the fourth row and a few down was a grave. Wiping the snow away as if he would some food from his sons face.

Yukio Uzumaki

Beloved son and brother

Taken too soon from this world

To join the other

Naruto stood in front of the grave. His son wasn't there, just a decomposed body. "I wanted to wish you a happy New Year." He sat down, "Soba noodles?" He smiled. After ten years the tear had stopped coming but his heart broke every time he came to the grave site.

He couldn't find them! He couldn't see either of them; he hoped that they hadn't been hurt.

People all around him were bleeding from deep wounds, small cuts, and head injuries. They were his people. To guide them and protect them was his job but he had failed. They had taken many people with them, people he would never be able to recover.

He'd been looking for longer than ten minutes, the second he had heard that Sushi and Yukio weren't among those who made it to the safe place. His heart had stopped and he had acted on fear.

A father's fear.

A fear that they would be missing, hurt, captured, laying on the dirty ground dying alone.

He felt a bit of his fear lessen when he saw her pinkish blonde hair, but it came back in bouts of thousands when he noticed she was alone.

As he got closer he could see she was bleeding, her hair was covered in dry blood on the left side from a deep gash, and she sported a small cut on her neck.

He reached her and she latched on to him, "Daddy," she cried her eyes blurred with tears and her face wet with them. "Daddy, I let go." She cried harder.

Naruto gripped her shoulders, where was his son? "Where is he baby? Where's Yukio?"

Naruto watched in complete horror as she turned her head to look behind her, following her he saw a small body, unmoving.

He didn't think much about it as he shoved his daughter out of his way, she fell to the ground cutting her hands and knees on some small shrapnel.

Hovering over his son's tiny body he touched the bloodied cheek, completely cold.

"I tried Daddy." She whispered, "I really tried."

"Why did you let go?" He asked her coldly.

He picked up his sons lifeless body and cradled him his blue eyes blistering with hate and burning with tears.

The battle, which had only just ended, had taken someone he loved. He had driven out the intruders but he hadn't won.

He had lost.

"I didn't mean to Daddy," she cried, "Daddy I'm so sorry. I let go. I thought he was behind me. Daddy?"

He couldn't look at her. Couldn't speak to her. And a thought blared hatefully in his mind, a thought that would cause him so much guilt in years to come, 'I wish it was her.'

Naruto was shaken out of her memoires by the sound of a clock chiming, shouts of "Happy New Year' rang throughout the village.

Naruto noticed he wasn't alone in the grave yard, those who have lost friends and family came to share the New Year with their loved ones as well.

And as he looked around there at the end of the row was the beautiful woman he had ever seen. In her long red dress and large white winter coat, with her grass green eyes and soft pink hair.

They looked at each other and a tear slipped down her cheek, she smiled as she walked over to join him.

"Happy New Year." She whispered to him. He gave her a sad smile, "Happy New Year."

Sushi looked out her window in the weeks since her friend had gone missing she had changed. Her hair hangs down dully and like straw, she had circles under her once bright eyes, she had lost weight.

Takeshi was the only person, aside her mother and father, who knew what really happened that say her brother died. He kept her sane, made her happy, made her laugh.

He was her lifeline.

What will she do if he doesn't come back?

Suddenly Sushi felt the familiar felling as her gut launched. Bile welled up in her throat as she hurried to the bathroom.

Any food she had eaten that day came up and splashed into the toilet.

She cried. Her body ached, her heart felt ripped, and her soul was destroyed.

She laughed in a sad way, looking at herself in the mirror.

It hurt her more than she could ever say, her father was no doubt in a cemetery offering soba noodles to a grave stone when he could be here with her eating and talking.

She hung her head in shame, "Why don't you love me, Dad?"

"I thought I'd buy you flowers, do you like them?" She whispered in his ear. "Very much so." He answered. Takeshi knew if he wanted to live he had to play by her rules.

"You pushed me aside. You've always pushed me aside. That's why I'm leaving. This house, with the two of us in it, its poison." Sushi would not cry, she couldn't because it was the truth.

"Naruto I believe Takeshi is alive. I can't leave Hinata's side just yet."

"The room was covered in a yellow candle glow, her cheeks burned bright red and she avoided eye contact with most of the males. It made me notice her. Taro, your mother was the one person I ever cared more about than the Uchiha name. And that is why I'm doing this. Because I love her."