Chapter Eight

"Are you serious?!?" Toorima questioned hugging Serenity awkwardly. It had been another two months that they had been in hiding from Sasuke and Madara. Kisame was really getting into the whole prospect of being a father. Right now he was off to market to get more food.

Back to the matter at hand, Toorima who was now five months pregnant and had a small baby bump, looked at her snow leopard teammate and noticed it then. The feline had a baby bump of its own. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked hugging the large animal again. 'It's kind of embarrassing.' The leopard thought in reply. Chaos guiltily cleared his throat and walked into the kitchen.

'You child is going to need a companion and my child will serve as that.' Serenity explained and looked down at her swollen stomach. Toorima hugged her again and stood up. 'I'm hungry. Come on.' She thought looking down at her pregnant friend. Serenity stood up and followed her into the kitchen. Chaos was on his way out with a raw steak and dropped it in front of his mate. She licked his cheek and began eating her fill.

Toorima giggled and stepped around the love scene when Chaos had started to groom Serenity. In the kitchen she scrounged for something to eat. For the strangest reason she was craving apricots. To her dismay there wasn't any fruit at all left in the house. It wasn't fully unexpected. All she wanted to eat anymore was fruit and meat. Kisame had forced her to eat some vegetables to make sure she was getting a balanced diet, but more than anything else she wanted seedless green grapes.

Settling for a large portion of watermelon Toorima headed back into the living room where she occupied the couch. Her hair was pulled back in a low pony tail and she was wearing sweats. The longer the child grew in her womb the more she came to love them. Sure the morning sickness sucked and the weird food cravings were a bother, but there was a child growing inside of her. Her baby didn't change her feelings for Sasuke. She still hated him and wanted him to die a very slow, very painful death.

The door swung open and Toorima set her bowl down to run to Kisame. He had his arms full of groceries so she ran to his back and gave him an awkward hug. Since her stomach bulged all her hugs are awkward. Kisame didn't mind and chuckled shutting the door with his foot. "Why don't you let me set these down so you can hug me properly?" He asked.

Toorima gave one more tight squeeze before letting him go. Then she followed him into the kitchen. He set the bags on the counter and turned to face her. They embraced each other passionately for a moment. Kisame broke off and placed his hand on her round bulge with a smile on his face. That made Toorima so happy. Whenever Kisame showed any form of care for her love child she was overjoyed.

"Oh! Did you bring any apricots?" She asked and scurried over to the bag pulling things out right and left till she found what she was looking for. Kisame laughed and came around pulling one of the bags to him. He reached in and pulled out a small bag of apricots. "Yay!" Toorima squealed and grabbed them rushing from the room. The shark-nin laughed again and put away the groceries. It was odd to be cooped up in a house playing daddy rather than be out killing people.

Sounds of distress came from the living room and Kisame sighed. By the time he had entered the living room Toorima had already ran to the bathroom to be sick, two eaten and one half eaten apricot on the coffee table. Serenity too was sitting in a corner whimpering and Chaos was there nuzzling her.

Kisame took a deep breath before he walked into the bathroom. Toorima was crouched over the toilet with tears streaking her face. She hurled again and Kisame came over to rub her back. Her hair was back in a ponytail so at least that was out of the way. "This baby is pretty picky about what it will eat." Toorima whispered softly and gave Kisame a bright smile, wiping the vomit from the side of her mouth.

Toorima stood up shakily and wobbled. "I think I'll take a quick shower and go to bed." She said placing her hand on Kisames shoulder as he was still kneeling at her side. The large man nodded once and stood to leave. She grabbed his arm. "Don't you want to join me?" Her voice was devilish and her tail was swishing back and forth excitedly. Kisame arched an eyebrow. In the two months they have been in hiding she had never once allowed anything more than kissing and now she wanted to shower together. Hey, he was a man, an exceptionally large man, and he was not about to argue.

Needing help to get the sweatshirt off Toorima moved close to Kisame and held her arms up. He got the hint immedietly and pulled it over her head. Then he removed the spaghetti strap under that. Toorima slid her hands under Kisames shirt while he took it off and caressed his broad muscular chest. Unable to bend over very far Kisame also helped Toorima with her pants before taking off his own.

Toorima turned on the water and stepped in first inviting Kisame to follow her with an alluring smile. Kisame climbed in quickly behind her. His arms quickly captured her in a tender embrace and he pressed his blue lips to hers gently. The water sprayed off her back and felt wonderful to her aching muscles. Better than that was the wonderful feeling of Kisames lips against hers.

There was a sharp pain in her stomach and she gasped harshly. Right before she could fall and hit her head on the side of the tub Kisame caught her and she was out like a light. Kisame was surprisingly able to keep calm. This wasn't the first time she had blacked out because of the baby. Whenever it moved around to much it would cause her a great amount of pain and she body and mind would shut down to keep from registering too much of the pain. But why did it have to happen now? Kisame closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

Kisame climbed out of the shower and changed the setting as if to take a bath. Then he grabbed a wash cloth and cleaned Toorima before dressing her and pulling on his pants. He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom where he laid her on the bed and shut out the light. As quietly as he could he made his way back to the bed and crawled in next to Toorima falling asleep almost instantly.

Snore. Kisame was getting a very nice rest in. No nightmares to plague his sleep. That was until a large crash pulled him forcefully from his sleep. He looked around confused, trying to let his eyes adjust to the darkness in the room. The bedroom door was shut but there was light shining in from the living room. Someone was very obviously bustling about in that room.

With a heavy sigh Kisame crawled out of bed and entered the room, closing his eyes on the brightness. "What's going on?" He asked raising his hand to cover his eyes. "It's Serenity. Lucky bitch is having her baby already." Toorima answered and moved about collecting blankets and pillows depressed over the fact that she still had about four months to go and that her friends had kept this secret from her for so long. She cleared her negative thoughts and focused on helping Serenity in this time of need so she ran into the kitchen to get a basin of water.

Kisame waited till his eyes adjusted before he moved his hand to look. Serenity looked half dead lying on her side on the floor. Chaos stood over her licking her cheek and nuzzling her, a clear sign of affection. Toorima re-entered the room with a large bowl full of water and a few wash clothes. She bent down the best she could to place the bowl on the ground and got on her knees petting the large furry stomach in front of her.

The shark-nin totally out of his element cleared his throat and took a shy step forward. "Its fine Kisame, you'll only get in the way. Go kill someone or something." Toorima told him waving a hand behind her dismissively. Kisame was about to protest when the large snow leopard howled in pain and started to breath faster. He left the room swiftly before he could hear or see anything else that might freak him out.

Outside in the cool night air Kisame took a deep breath. What was he supposed to do now, half-naked and weaponless? Oh well, the least he could do, would be to freshen up on some of his jutsu. Having made a firm decision Kisame ran his hand through his tousled blue hair and walked in the direction of the nearest body of water.

~Back in the living room of their small house Toorima sat waiting as Serenity continued her labor. Toorima and even poor Chaos knew everything that she was going through because they could read her mind. Serenity had told Chaos a hundred times he didn't have to be there but as a faithful mate he stayed by her side and bore through it with her.

Finally the baby leopard was out. It was female and hairless. It was so tiny and ugly, that it was cute. Mew. Mew. The little one started its first cries and Serenity took a few deep breaths. Chaos whispered her encouraging words and Toorima carefully cleaned the baby animal. Then she gently set it by its mother. It was very small, much smaller than she would have expected it to be.

'Her name shall be Kasumi, meaning mist. She will serve as the mist that covers your unborn child for both their lives.' Serenity said gently and licked her baby as it continued its cries. Toorima felt a tear come to her eye as her faithful companion, teammate, and friend honored her in such a way.

It didn't take long afterward that Serenity passed out from exhaustion and Chaos lay down beside her and closed his eyes too. The tiny baby had found one of her mother's nipples and drank its fill and it now was also resting cuddled close to her mother for heat. Toorima herself was worn out and tired so she got up slowly and made her way back to her room.

Flicking off the light she made her way blindly to the bed and collapsed down upon it. Her long hair fell around her like a veil. Pushing her hair away from her face she sat up to grab the heavy comforter. She was just about to be out when she heard the door creak open and someone came in. They pulled the cover back and climbed in behind her. Assuming it was Kisame Toorima turned and snuggled into his chest. There was something wrong with this picture. Kisame was a much bigger, much more muscular man than the one that was now occupying her bed with her. Before she could scream a hand clasped over her mouth.

"I found you." Sasuke said with more emotion in his voice than she believed him capable of. "It took nearly five months but I found you." Toorima started to panic and her hands pulled desperately at the hand over her mouth. "Calm down." Sasuke ordered and Toorima did the opposite, freaking out to the max. "If you don't stop you are going to hurt our child!" Sasuke said to her in a heated voice. She hated the way he said "our child" but stopped her hysteria for her child's sake.

"I have not come to take you back. Yet." He took a steady breath and continued. "I do not need you pulling another stupid trick to get away from me and harm my child. I am letting you stay here until you have safely given birth. Then I will come for you and my heir." He explained in a voice like poison. Toorimas thought immedietly went to Kisame and it must have showed on her face. "My subordinates are keeping your precious love occupied at the moment. Don't worry my sweet kitten; he will not be harmed seeing as he is going to be the one to protect you in my absence." Sasuke said and was clearly not happy with the idea of another man around his prize. But his main concern was the unborn baby that would help to restore his clan growing inside her room and he didn't need her committing suicide or something because he killed the man she loved.

After that Sasuke placed his hand gently on Toorimas stomach and she growled, unhappy he was touching her again. He chuckled. "Oh how I miss your rebelliousness. And these." He said rubbing her ears. Damn the purrs that came from her throat. She couldn't stop them. Her ears were her most sensitive spot and it drove her insane having them rubbed or scratched.

The door crashed open and Kisame came storming in. Sasuke was gone faster than a flash of lightning leaving Toorima alone in the bed. Before she was even fully aware of what was going on she stumbled to Kisame and clung to him sobbing into his chest. It clearly wasn't the nightmare she was hoping it was seeing as her ears were still tingling.

"It's ok. Their gone now." Kisame said rubbing Toorimas back. He carefully picked her up and carried her to the bed, laying her down and crawling in front of her. Kisame pulled Toorima close and she cried in his embrace until she finally fell asleep. The man was patient with her rubbed her cheek till she fell unconscious. Soon he too was fast asleep holding his woman like the survival of the world depended on it.

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Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!

~Lady Toorima