AN: So, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed and I hope you all enjoy this chapter. So please, tell me what you think.

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Heritage Arc.

Eternal Spiral.

Chapter 6: Starlights Part I.

"Nee-chan!"

Naruto looked up from where she was reading a book on fūinjutsu, her back leaned against a large tree on Tazuna and his families new property. The dark blue dress she wore was a gift from Tsunami, and it had little orange blossoms on it. Along with Jiraiya she had been staying with the family for two weeks now.

She hadn't wanted to intrude on them, they'd actually intended to stay at a hotel in the village, but Tsunami had insisted. Reluctant at first, she and Jiraiya agreed to stay until they were able to move on.

The last few weeks had been a rather peaceful, she actually couldn't recall a year she'd been more at peace. Inari had grown since she'd last seen him. He was taller and no longer wore his hat as much. She'd thought he was about twelve, but in reality the boy was only turning ten come December 25th.

"Inari," she replied with a smile. She closed her book and placed it in her lap. "What's up?"

Inari smiled back and replied, "Mom wanted to know if you were up to shopping today. You know, for the babies."

Naruto leaned further against the tree, stretched her legs out in front of her, and placed a hand on her large extended stomach.

"I thought we'd already gotten everything," she said, and Inari shrugged.

"I guess not," he said.

Over the weeks since they had arrived, news of the Hero of Wave's return had sparked through the village like wildfire. News that she was expecting twins had spread just as fast, and gifts of baby clothes, toys, along with baskets of food kept arriving.

Add this to the things his mother had taken Naru to get, he didn't see what else there was to buy. The baby wasn't due till January, or late December seeing as the local doctor said twins were known to come a few weeks early.

"Alright Otouto, let's go meet Tsunami," Naruto said and slowly began to rise from the ground. It wasn't easy with all the extra weight. Inari had to help her, else she probably would've lost her balance halfway up.

"Careful, Naru-neechan," Inari said with a short laugh.

Naruto rolled her eyes at the amusement in her honorary brother's voice, and the two took off for the house which wasn't far from the tree she'd been reading under. In fact the tree was only in the backyard, close to the water where she'd seen Inari and Tazuna fish from. As they got closer to the front area, Naruto stopped short. Her eyes grew wide and she bit back a gasp. Standing there talking to Jiraiya, Tazuna, and Tsunami was a tall man with familiar with silver hair.

"Hey, isn't that your sensei?" Inari asked, eyes wide.

Naruto knew at that moment, from Jiraiya's wince and the fact Inari wasn't being quiet, that Kakashi had heard his outburst. As if in slow motion the man turned to face them, and it was almost comical how big Kakashi's lone eye became. She began to fear that it would pop out at any moment.

"Naru-to!" he exclaimed, blinking. "You're...you...what, how?"

Turning to the Toad sannin, Kakashi narrowed his eye. "Jiraiya, please tell me that is a really realistic disguise."

Jiraiya's eyes widened and he tried to find the right words to say. On one hand, Kakashi's reaction couldn't be worse than when the village found out. Or when the Uchiha boy himself was told; he had no idea when that would be though, when he'd asked Naru she'd gone silent and looked ready to cry.

Eventually he understood she wanted to wait until the twins were a little older, and not as defenseless. He figured she meant around four or five, which was usually how old children from clans like the Uchiha or Hyūga were when they began training.

The idea of not telling Sasuke hurt his goddaughter a lot, but she didn't see much choice. She saw how much danger they could be in from enemy ninja of the Uchiha's, the Akatsuki, and even Orochimaru who seemed to obsess over the Sharingan.

Worse case scenario – If he did get Sasuke's body he'd eventually need a new one with the Sharingan, and Jiraiya saw the logic in Naru's thought process. His old teammate was sick enough to try taking the twins for his own purposes.

Given Orochimaru's track record with infant experimentation, whatever the man subjected them to they'd likely not survive. He was surprised to find Naru didn't think Orochimaru would get Sasuke's body, apparently she thought she knew Sasuke well enough to know he'd never allow that.

"I could, but I'd be lying," Jiraiya said. Kakashi's eye narrowed dangerously and Jiraiya scoffed. "Don't look at me like that, I had no idea she was even seeing anyone until she told me she was pregnant."

Kakashi glare eased up only slightly, thinking of how Minato-sensei would have taken this new turn of events. What worried him was who the father was, and so he turned his attention back to his student.

"Naruto, who..." he trailed off and Naruto smiled faintly. He took time to notice that she'd grown since he'd last seen her. Not just the fact she was pregnant, but she'd begun developing into a women in the time away.

She was a little taller, and was loosing the baby fat she still had. Her hair was also longer, and even though it was tied back in a braid, it still fell to just below her knees. She wore a dark blue dress with lace three quarter sleeves, and little orange blossom flowers. Orange and blue (no matter the shade) had always been colors associated with the sunset blonde.

Naruto smiled sheepishly as she answered, "Funny story that. Long story short though, I've sort of, kind of, been seeing Sasuke."

Kakashi blinked, her words not exactly sinking in the moment she said the words. "Sasuke? You were in a relationship with Sasuke? But that makes no sense, Naru. You can't be but eight or nine months now."

"Close, but I'm barely into my eighth month. And we weren't, aren't..." She groaned, placing a hand on her forehead before lowering it and shaking her head. "You know what, I don't know what we are! This whole thing is new."

"In other words she's been sleeping with the enemy," Jiraiya added for Kakashi's benefit. This only earned a harsh glare from Naruto, which could have out done her mother and made him wonder if she'd taken lessons from that Hyūga girl she was friends with.

"I see," Kakashi said, his mind trying to absorb this new information.

He had seen the chemistry between Naruto and Sasuke. Hell, it had been there before they'd become Team Seven. He also knew from the Sandaime that they'd been friends before Itachi killed the clan, and the trauma from it had driven Sasuke to break those ties with her.

He knew the girl had been there the day Itachi had killed the clan, and had suffered similar to Sasuke the effects of the Mangekyō Sharingan. The drama between the insane love triangle of this generations Team Seven had outdone the one he remembered from his own team.

Usually it went girl likes mysterious boy, who likes no one, and hyper boys like girl who doesn't return his feelings.

In this case it was a little different.

Girl likes stoic-mysterious boy, who likes hyper-mysterious girl while in denial, who likes stoic-mysterious boy but doesn't know it, who tries to befriend girl who fangirls over stoic-mysterious boy.

If that made any since, it was an odd unique triangle.

In the end Kakashi had known Sakura didn't have a prayer of winning Sasuke over. Because Sasuke had already been won, even if he didn't admit it. Kakashi had realized this after the battle in Wave with Zabuza and Haku. But after Sasuke left for power he'd not dreamed his two students would have hidden rendezvous.

He also wasn't expecting to come to Wave on this mission with Sakura, Ino, and Chōji (who were still genin after the last chūnin exams) and find a heavily pregnant Naru.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you alright?" he heard Naruto say hesitantly. "You've just been staring at me."

Blinking, Kakashi finally gave an eye-smile while he smiled under his mask.

"Well, I guess Sasuke did reach one goal of restoring his clan."

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Naruto stared down at the two bodies that laid beside each other. One a missing-nin that many called a demon, the other a boy who she could have easily called a friend. Haku's past reminded her a lot of her own, but was also quite a bit different. She didn't know how she could have handled knowing her parents only for her father to kill her mother and attempt to kill her.

"Naruto, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled from where she knelt over Sasuke. "He's alive, Sasuke's alive!"

Kakashi watched as Naruto stiffened, her once shattered blue eyes brightening to their usual bright sky hue.

"Sasuke?" she muttered to herself and turned, blonde hair flying around her as she took off in a fast jog to her teammates and fell to onto her knees on Sasuke's other side.

Kakashi followed after her, realizing that the relationship between his blonde and raven haired students was more difficult than he'd once thought. It was only strengthened when he saw Sasuke, still looking a little like a pin-cushion, begin to sit up only for Naruto to grab him into a hug.

He didn't miss the look that passed Sakura's green eyes. It was a mix of envy, confusion, realization and strong denial.

"I thought you were dead you stupid duck-ass jerk!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke groaned, but didn't move to push her off.

"Naruto, you're going to hurt him! Those senbon are still there," Sakura reprimanded, and Naru jerked back a second later.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Truthfully, it had been a little uncomfortable, but on the other hand it had been a long time since Naru had been this close to him. He sort of missed being hugged, by anyone, but he'd never admit that so he said nothing.

Kakashi sighed as he watched this. He'd had his suspicions when he'd met them, but now he felt older. He knew relationships between team members were common, and love triangles were common as well. But none were more legendary then Team Seven.

He knew from experience how unlucky Team Seven truly was, and this was the first Team Seven in years. Nearly two decades actually, he thought to himself. He just hoped for his students sake everything ended well, but in the pit of his stomach he wasn't so sure they could break from the Team Seven curse.

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"So it's twins?" Kakashi asked, sitting at the table and eating lunch with the family. It seemed Tsunami and Tazuna had basically adopted Naruto into their family, though not by legal means.

Naruto nodded, lowering her chop-sticks back to her plate.

"Yes, I've been to the doctor in town and he confirmed it. Kyūbi was the one who told me first though."

"Kyūbi?" he questioned, startled.

Naruto laughed, shaking her head.

"I know, and don't worry. The fox isn't all that bad, though he's far from gentle either. I think he has his reasons for disliking humans, though I've not asked. It's not like he can actually do anything, the seal is even more advanced then Konoha thinks. Especially since it was developed by Uzumaki seal masters."

Kakashi nodded. That was news to him. He'd believed the seal was created by Minato, but now he realized how foolish that was. He'd have to have created it before that day to use it last minute as he had, and it took years to build a working seal of the level Naru's was.

Minato may have done things to help finish it, being a genius in sealing on the level of an Uzumaki, but even he couldn't come up with something like that on the spur of the moment. Or in less then three years. It had taken him nearly four to make the Hiraishin what it was today.

"So, why are you here sensei?" Naru asked after a moment. "A mission?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Yes, a C-Rank to escort a merchant here. I figured being in the area I'd come see Tazuna, and ran into Jiraiya," he said. "I'm here with Sakura, Ino, and Chōji. Seeing as you and Sasuke..."

Kakashi stopped, seeing the flash of sadness in Naruto's eyes at Sasuke's name he regretted mentioning the Uchiha avenger. "Shikamaru is a chūnin now, so until the next exam those three will act as a team."

Naruto nodded, and bit her lip as she realized something.

"Um, where are they now?"

"In town with the client. Otherwise they're at the hotel. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning," he replied, raising an eyebrow. "Why? Do you want to see them?"

Naruto's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea," she said. "I don't want anyone from home to know. I didn't even want you to know, but it's kind of hard to hide once you saw me. I still have Akatsuki to worry about and the last thing I need is them knowing my weaknesses."

She sighed, and rested her hands around a cup of tea in front of her. "My mother's seal was less advanced than my own, but the same weakness that befell her seal applies to mine. The last thing I want is for Akatsuki to repeat history."

Kakashi frowned, remembering what had happened fifteen years ago all to clearly. He understood where she was coming from.

"And Sasuke?" he asked in a low voice.

Naruto sighed.

"I want to tell him. Kami knows I do, I can't help but think that maybe he'll come home and stop trying to shoulder all the weight of avenging his family if he knew. But another part of me is terrified that revenge is the only thing he'll respond to, and he'll not care about me and the babies. Mostly I can't tell him yet because of Orochimaru. It's just not safe."

Naruto looked up at her sensei, forcing tears back from her eyes.

"You know how that man is about the Sharingan. If there is even a little chance they'll awaken their bloodline he'll want them. Between my own fear of rejection, Orochimaru, and Akatsuki finding out I just can't tell him yet. Hopefully he wont hate me for keeping it from him."

Kakashi looked at the blonde and nodded.

"I understand, and I wont tell anyone, Naru. I promise, though I don't think you'll have to worry too much about Sasuke rejecting you. He may actually strive to protect you more, and Uchiha's have always been possessive people."

Naruto smiled, nodding.

"Thanks, Sensei."

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EDITED: 7/27/16.