lostmoonchild: Here's this week's chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto so don't sue.
Chapter Forty Two
Naruto bit back a scream of pain as he struggled to move, feeling the bones in his leg grating against each other. He could feel the cool night air on the exposed skin and panted softly as he laid his head down on the grass. Kyuubi was working on healing his more serious wounds, leaving the less serious to fend for themselves until his chakra was replenished enough to heal him.
"That was too close for comfort. We were almost fucked seven ways to Sunday." Kyuubi commented once he was fairly certain Naruto was going to stop moving long enough for him to finish working on healing his host.
No shit. Naruto closed his eyes and felt his breath catch in his throat when a jolt of pain shot from his ribs. At least that bastard's dead.
Kyuubi growled softly in agreement, clearly pleased with Madara's death. He almost couldn't wait until they could get back to Konoha so he could tell his precious that one of the monsters was dead, that she no longer needed to be afraid of the more dangerous Uchiha. All that remained was Sasuke and as far as Kyuubi was concerned, that Uchiha was pathetic. He knew his precious Dark Temptation could hold her own against him if she were to ever gain control over her family's ultimate ability.
He recalled the first time any of them had used that ability although he was impressed that someone so young could already start accessing it. Measures would need to be taken, of course, but that wasn't anything Naruto couldn't handle. Maybe he should consider teaching the blonde about demon seals instead of just letting the blonde work with human seals. It wasn't like he didn't have the chakra for it but the trick would be doing it without anybody noticing.
Naruto sighed softly to himself as he stared up at the sky, fighting against unconsciousness. He was tired but falling asleep didn't seem overly appealing considering the fact that he was certain he had a concussion. Madara had been a royal pain in his ass to kill and keeping an eye on Sasuke to make sure that he didn't get a Chidori to the back didn't help matters any.
Some part of him felt guilty that he hadn't at least managed to capture Sasuke or make his fury known to the Uchiha. Maybe he realized that if Sasuke were to ever come back to Konoha, he'd be a dead man even if the council decided against having him killed. "Sleep, kit. I'll keep you safe." Kyuubi growled almost tenderly. "You have my word."
Yes. Sleep sounded so good right now since he was so tired and his chakra was basically gone. When he woke up, he could go back to his daughter and hold her tight. He wouldn't tell her that he had failed to make Sasuke pay, but perhaps he could tell her that Madara was dead. He knew how much she hated him for hurting the Bijuu so maybe that'd make her happy.
Sighing softly to himself, Naruto closed his eyes and allowed the darkness to overcome him.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like that Kairi woman was more than what she had allowed others to believe. Even after death it was plain to see that she had been about twenty steps ahead of everybody, Madara included. Just what exactly went on in that woman's head? Was it possible that whatever had gone on in Mishima's head was now going on in Hisoka's head? Would his host's daughter have to put up with the same thoughts her mother held?
The demon fox sighed softly to himself before focusing on Naruto's wounds. Measures would need to be taken to ensure that Naruto could get an easier access to his chakra. The seal that Yondaime had set up had done nothing but slow the process down. Sure, it allowed the demonic chakra to mix in with Naruto's natural chakra but it was a slow process that often left the blonde exhausted. No, a different variation would be needed.
"Why in the hell did you bring me here?" Naruto demanded.
"Shut up, brat." Kyuubi told the blonde calmly. "Listen up because I'm not going to repeat myself." Naruto slipped into the cage and leaned against the bars, knowing that nothing would happen to him. "What?" Naruto questioned.
"I'm going to teach you some highly dangerous seals that others of your kind will be pissed about." Kyuubi told him. "The seal your father created isn't working at its full potential."
"If you fuck with it then-"
"Then you could have more chakra at your disposal!" Kyuubi snapped at him. "Even I'm not cruel enough to leave a helpless kit without a parent. No, what we'll do is alter the seal slightly to better allow my chakra to get into your system."
Naruto stared blankly for a moment before asking, "Why? It seems to be working just fine."
"For what I want to teach you, you're going to need more of my chakra in order to keep it from backfiring. Humans generally aren't allowed to use what I want to teach you."
"Which is?"
"Demonic seals."
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
Poke. Poke. Poke.
"Stop poking my forehead."
Hisoka stared at Neji for a moment or two before answering, "Ten-Ten's here. She looks kinda scared so I made her some tea and gave her San to hold onto while I got you."
Neji slowly got up and sighed softly as he rubbed his forehead. He didn't bother wearing his headband at home and he had the feeling that even if he had, the girl would have hidden it somewhere just to keep him around. He didn't know why she was suddenly being so clingy and any attempts to find out from Naruto's other friends proved useless.
He stared at the girl and saw that she was wearing one of Naruto's jackets, clearly taking comfort. "Neji… Daddy's coming home soon, right?" Hisoka asked softly. "I like being here but I miss him."
"Yeah. He'll be home soon."
"Okay."
There was still doubt in her eyes and as Neji felt her hold his hand while they went out to where Ten-Ten was waiting, Neji offered a small smile. "Hi-chan, can you go to your room and play so Neji-kun and I can talk?" Ten-Ten questioned.
"M'kay. You wanna keep San until you're done? It's okay with me."
"Sure, honey. Thank you."
Smiling brightly, the girl skipped out of the room humming a lullaby. "Are you okay? Hisoka said you looked afraid." Neji asked as he sat down.
Ten-Ten forced a smile before answering as she fidgeted with San, "Well, I'm a little nervous but scared works okay too."
"What's wrong?"
Ten-Ten took a deep breath before answering, "I'm pregnant."
The world seemed to freeze as Neji stared at her, trying to understand those two life-altering words. "Pregnant?" Neji whispered in shock.
"Yeah, and you're the father."
"You're certain? I mean, you're absolutely positive that you're pregnant?"
He was never so grateful that Hisoka was out of the room or else he would have had to answer a few questions about where babies came from. Then again he was fairly certain that the girl was quietly listening so he'd need to keep his head about the whole thing. "I'm absolutely positive and I'm due for my first check up next week. I'd like it if you could be there." Ten-Ten answered.
Neji nodded before answering, "I love you."
The sound of somebody moving from the hallway told them that Hisoka was indeed watching and that Neji would have some questions to answer. "I love you too. You're not upset?" Ten-Ten asked.
"It makes two to make a baby and I'm going to do everything right. I swear it."
"So what're we going to do?"
"Well, I'd like for you to marry me for one then we'll take things one day at a time."
His arms wrapped around the woman's waist as she hugged him tightly. "You're taking this a lot better than what I thought you would." Ten-Ten teased softly as she lightly pecked his nose.
While it was tempting to give in to the temptation just to surrender completely to her, Neji knew he couldn't. At least not while Hisoka was conscious or in the house anyway. The poor girl was already scarred enough for life and he didn't need to add on to it. "We can't do anything now." Neji reminded the woman. "I love you though."
Softly kissing each other, Ten-Ten moved away from Neji and placed San back down on the couch. "I should get going. This pregnancy thing isn't nearly as easy as guys seem to think it is." Ten-Ten told him with a teasing look. "You know cause I'm going to be the one carrying around the baby and needing to eat right."
Neji escorted the woman to the door and offered her a small smile. "I'll see you later then. Thanks for telling me." Neji told her.
"You're the dad and you needed to know. Talk to you later."
Smiling softly, Ten-Ten left the house feeling considerably better. "You might as well come out now, Hisoka." Neji said with a sigh.
Hisoka slowly came out of her hiding spot and stared at him for a few moments. "You're going to be a daddy like my daddy?" Hisoka asked as Neji picked her up.
"Yes. Do you have any other questions?" Gods, please don't let her start asking where babies came from.
The girl stared blankly for a moment before answering, "No. You and Ten-Ten hugged and now you have a baby coming. Kankuro already told me that mommies and daddies have a special hug that makes babies."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. He also said that there are different kind of hugs. There's the good hugs that mommies and daddies give their kids and hugs that two people give each other just for fun."
Feeling like he had just narrowly escaped some kind of embarrassing talk, Neji breathed a sigh of relief. "Let's go to the library. You're running low on books." Neji sighed as he put the girl down.
With a laugh, Hisoka began spinning before running to the door causing the Hyuuga to groan when she crashed into it. He didn't know if the Bijuu chakra healed the girl's injuries but he prayed that she never killed as many brain cells as her father had over the years. Konoha just couldn't handle another demon charged idiot running around and expect to survive unscathed.
lostmoonchild: Okay, I swear I didn't know that Neji was gonna be a dad and as long as no changes are really made during the time I'm on meds we should be good to go. Anyway, I'll see you guys again next week and hopefully life and illness won't get in the way! Read and review!