Normal

"Speech"

Thought

Kyuubi

Warnings:I do not own Naruto. Rated "M" for language and adult situations.

Chapter 69: Was it all a dream

Midoriko woke with a start. She sat up in the lavish bedroom her Master afforded her. The red cotton sheets of Midoriko's bed were soaked with the sweat from her dream. The woman placed a hand over her pregnant belly and she sighed heavily. The Master had been very kind to allow her to stay in his palace in her condition. It wasn't often a pregnant woman, with no husband she could remember, could find someone that would take her in off the streets, let alone treat her like a queen.

Midoriko got out of the overly large bed, pulling her silk kimono on around her. The winter had come early to the village the Master protected. She would not wish to show disrespect for the Master if she were to catch a cold. The woman wrapped her arms around her shoulders and walked to the balcony. Her mind was racing with the dreams of something she couldn't place. Images of the blonde boy and his friends haunted her dreams and the roar of the beast that echoed in her nightmares. Other faces haunted her, but none of them had plagued her as much as the blonde boy with the piercing blue eyes.

Midoriko rested her hand on her swollen belly and felt the baby kick her. "I take it you are hungry." Her hand received another kick in response. The woman smiled. "Then I suppose I will have to sneak my way down stairs for a bite to eat."

It was always cold in the hallways of the palace of the Mizukage, but she had become used to the chill from the constant presence of water around the palace. The gardens that surrounded her chamber always looked beautiful bathed in the moonlight. Midoriko stopped for a moment to appreciate the beauty, but the growing child in her belly had other ideas. He was hungry and kicked her from the inside to make his mother very aware of his displeasure with her stopping to admire the gardens. "If you could see the garden, my little one, you wouldn't be so impatient."

Some thought Midoriko crazy for talking to her unborn child this way, but the Mizukage had told the servants to allow her this small comfort. After all, she had no memory of how she got into the predicament she was in. The first thing she could remember was waking up a few months ago in the lavish bedroom she had been sleeping in for most of the duration of her stay.

Her lord and savior, as far as she was concerned, regaled her with the story of how he had been returning from a trip to the Hidden Sound village, when he came across her beaten and bruised form clutching the Leaf village headband in her hand. He surmised that she had been attacked by those evil bastards and left for dead.

When she had woken up from her traumatic experience and found out she was carrying a child, he had suggest that in the condition he had found her, it was a possibility the Leaf ninja did more than beat her within an inch of her life. At first her mind would not accept such a thing. As the weeks went past her, she made the conscious choice that regardless of the possibilities of the father's actions; it was not the child's fault. She would keep the child.

At first the Mizukage seemed concerned by her choice to have an unknown man's baby. Midoriko had smiled and placed a hand on her not so swollen belly at the time. "This is a new beginning I can look forward to. What better way to start a new life?" She had flashed the Mizukage a disarming smile.

"As long as you are happy." He stated in a quiet tone. Midoriko had been given quarters outside the palace, but after a raid on the small, but powerful village of the Mist, the Mizukage had her moved to the Mizukage palace for her protection. He had even given her a body guard of her very own. He was tall and looked like a shark in human clothing. Midoriko and Kisame had become friends for the most part. They had an understanding. He would give her all the freedom she wanted, as long as he went with her everywhere. It did not, however, stop her from sneaking away in the still of the night for a late night snack. She would always come back to her room with something for him as an apology for sneaking away.

A few weeks ago, before the weather turned cold, Midoriko had been feeling very closed in by the Mizukage. She wanted to walk in the sun and feel the grass between her toes. She didn't know how she knew how to sneak so well, but she was able to slip past her constant body guard; past the guards at the main gate of the palace and to one of the grassy training fields where she had flopped into the lush grass and soaked in the sun.

There was something so calming about that day. Then that damn hunter Nin went and ruined if for her. He had dropped from the trees beside her. She jumped with the sounds and vibrations of his foot falls. She stared at the raven masked man. A swirl like tattoo on his shoulder. His black onyx hair seemed to defy gravity sticking out atop the mask. Midoriko gazed at the man and could almost feel something that she needed to feel. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but by the time she stood up, her stalwart, and somewhat late, body guard had arrived and chased the raven masked man away.

She had many nightmares that night. There were lots of birds in her dreams. Soft motherly voice that told her to wake up from the nightmare along with the roaring of a wounded animal. Though the beast that was in her dreams sounded fierce at times, she could come close to seeing its great shape in her dream and almost touch its snout. There was a mournful howl that echoed through her mind. The woman shook away the memories of the great beast. It only tore at her heart to know there was an animal in pain.

Midoriko was still sneaking towards the kitchen of the palace, when a cold male voice sounded behind her. "You should not be out of bed, my dear girl."

Midoriko jumped and turned to face the Mizukage. She immediately bowed. "I am sorry my lord, but the little one was hungry and I did not wish to wake Kisame-san."

The man in the orange mask gazed over her. "You had another nightmare."

The woman bowed a little lower. "Yes my Lord."

He placed a hand under her chin to raise her eyes to his. She couldn't see the one exposed eye. But she stared at him with her eyes lowered. There was something that told her he was disappointed in her, but not angry. "My dear girl," he chuckled, "it is natural to have such dreams when one is so close to birth."

Midoriko put her hand on his. "It was not that kind of nightmare, my Lord. It was... about that boy again. Why does he haunt my dreams so?" Tears threatened to fall from her face.

The Mizukage whipped her tears away from her cheek. "Don't worry about the boy, my dear Midoriko. You have other things you should worry about." He placed his hand on her stomach and the baby seemed to become agitated and shrink away from his touch. The man behind the mask scowled. The baby knew danger even before it was born.

Midoriko let out a hard breath and braced herself on the man in front of her. "He is most hungry my Lord. I think I should make haste to the kitchens before he kicks his way out." She smiled.

"I will go wake Kisame to attend to you." The Mizukage stepped back away from Midoriko.

"Allow him his rest My Lord. I will be fine. I DO know my way around the palace, and I DO know how to cook my own meals. I am pregnant, my Lord, not dead."

This brought a grin to the man behind the mask. Though her memories of who she was were sealed away, her cheeky stubbornness seemed to have prevailed. "As you wish my dear Midoriko. I will allow your freedom tonight. But I expect you to wake Kisame in the future when you feel the need for a late night stroll through the palace."

"Yes my Lord." She bowed.

The Mizukage stepped back into the shadow from where he came. Midoriko put a hand on her belly. "Why must you squirm like that when he is near? He has been nothing but kind to us. But I understand how you feel, Little One, he scares me too."

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Midoriko brought back a small bento box for the now awake and annoyed Kisame. He stood at the doors of her chamber glowering down at her. This wasn't the first time he had slept through her late night expeditions to the kitchens, but it was the first time he had gotten caught by the Mizukage. Midoriko smiled up at the tall man at her door. "I am sorry Kisame-san." She handed him the bento she had made for him in apology.

"The agreement was not to get caught and I would stay out from under your feet." He continued to glare at her and snatched the bento box from her.

"I said I was sorry. I was doing fine until... Well since you are awake, you already know who caught me." Midoriko shrugged. "I couldn't help it. Little One was hungry and I was going to die if I didn't have ramen. I have yet to figure out why its ramen that I crave so. I don't even like ramen."

Kisame opened the bento box. "Pregnant women crave odd things. I remember my mother telling me that she craved shark fin soup all the time."

Midoriko looked at Kisame with a worried expression. "My little one is going to be a noodle."

Kisame had to chuckle. He knew the father of her baby. If anything, the child growing in her belly craved ramen like his father. "I doubt your child will be a noodle."

Midoriko took a deep breath in relief. She put a hand on his arm. "You are right, of course. He is too big to be a noodle."

"So," the tall fish man took a bite of the sashimi she had brought for him, "how much longer do I have to endure your late night walks?"

"The healer woman the Lord Mizukage brought for me said it was only a few weeks at most or any second at worst." She padded her stomach. "I will be glad to meet my Little One." Midoriko opened the door to her room. "I hope he was not angry with you." She smiled sadly.

Kisame chewed through some rice to answer her. "Don't worry about me Lady Midoriko. He's been angrier at me before and I survived that tirade. I am sure I can survive his anger this time."

"Thank you Kisame-san." She stepped into her room. "Good night."