Honesty
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. I'm glad that everyone enjoyed the lemon. I have some new stories up, if anyone is interested. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Notation: I'm not sure if Jugo went to an Academy. I'm assuming he didn't though. It would have been very dangerous for the other kids, if he had.
Chapter 13
A few days later, Sasuke was quite content. He was currently lounging on the couch, laying next to Jugo. They were watching some movie. Sasuke couldn't be bothered to remember the name.
Jugo was behind him and they were curled up together. Sasuke's eyes were half closed in contentment. His lover was caressing him and giving him informal massages. He was completely relaxed.
"So how are things going at the Academy?" Jugo asks as he slides his hand underneath Sasuke's shirt and caresses his abs.
"Not bad. Mostly the kids want to learn how to make fireballs and are trying to cut each other's eyes out with kunais. I remember those days. It's really a miracle that we have had zero fatalities thus far in the Academy's history, when you think about it." He muses.
Jugo nods. He made no real comment on it though. He had never really had a chance to go to an Academy. His rages meant that it would have been too dangerous for him to be around other children.
"Zero fatalities is a very good thing in this instance." Jugo replies as he places a kiss to Sasuke's neck.
"Fuck. I'm sorry. I forgot. You never went to an Academy, did you? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw that in your face." Sasuke says.
"I didn't go, but it's alright. I can hardly begrudge you the few happy childhood memories that you do have. It doesn't matter anyway. Though I did want to talk to you about that." The gentle giant replies.
Sasuke turns around and raises an eyebrow. Talk to him about what? About the Academy? That didn't make any sense.
"What do you mean?" The last Uchiha dares himself to ask.
"Well about the subject of children in general. I know that you want to restore your Clan, but I can't really help you do that." He says.
Sasuke blinks. He hadn't really been thinking about that much since he and Jugo became involved. He was right though. Two men just couldn't make a baby together. The closest they could come was surrogacy.
"It's alright. I got into this relationship knowing that. I just figured that eventually, we'd use surrogates." Sasuke admits.
"Even if one of us was a woman, it wouldn't be a good idea for me to have any biological children. They might inherit my rages. I don't want to put a kid through that. Surrogacy is the best option, realistically." Jugo says.
Sasuke sighs. He places a kiss against his lover's forehead. Logically, he knew that Jugo was right. It was at best a fifty/fifty shot if any of his children would inherit his rages. Still it was sad to hear that. Jugo was a very loving and gentle person most of the time. It wasn't his fault that biology had dealt him an unusual hand.
"I'm sorry. I suppose it doesn't really matter if their yours by blood or not. When I choose to revive my Clan, as far as I'm concerned you are their second father. It doesn't matter who carries them or who sires them. Family is about more than just blood." Sasuke tells him.
"You are very kind when you want to be." Jugo muses.
"Only for you and don't you dare tell the loser. He'd never let me live it down." Sasuke mutters and Jugo laughs.
The orange haired man pauses for a moment and Sasuke tilts his head to the side curiously. He could tell that there was something else on his lover's mind. Something important.
"I was thinking that maybe we could ask Karin, if she would be willing to be our surrogate or at least one of them. We know her. We can trust her. That way the biological mother could be in the child or children's lives. Plus she does have her healing and sensory abilities. Those could be useful if they were passed on." Jugo says.
"You wouldn't be concerned about her trying to use the child as a way to get closer to me?" Sasuke asks with a raised eyebrow.
He wasn't sure if he would be nearly as trusting in Jugo's position. It was clear that Karin had a thing for him. Hell, she still might have a thing for him. She wasn't a bad person, but she could be a little obsessive.
"Oh she might try something, but I'm not worried. I don't have a reason to be jealous." The gentle giant insists.
"That's good to hear." Sasuke says as he kisses Jugo.
Jugo returns it. Sasuke felt his hands wrap for his ass. Ever since they became lovers, Jugo was a bit more…assertive when it come to touching him. Sauske didn't mind it. He liked it really.
"Because I know she can't do what I do for you." He says simply.
Sasuke wasn't entirely certain, but there seemed to be just a hint of smugness to that tone. Jugo didn't usually do smug. He had more or less two or three states of being. Kind and gentle was the first. Homicidal manic was the second. And of course there was his favorite, the very attentive lover.
Smugness just hadn't been a factor. Well it hadn't been till now. Sasuke's curiosity was aroused. He had to ask. (Anyone would have really.)
"And what is it that you can do for me, that she can't?" Sasuke asks in amusement.
"She can't remember your favorite food. She can't chase your nightmares away. She can't get you fully aroused without taking any clothes off, by touching you in just the right way. And as far as I know, she has never given you three orgasms in one night before." Jugo says.
Sasuke blinks. He didn't know how to respond to that exactly. It was all true, but still rather shocking to hear him speak so bluntly about it. Maybe words were more supplementary in this case than anything else.
He smiles and pins Jugo underneath him. Sasuke quickly kisses him and reaches for the waist band of his pants. Jugo might deny it, but he was definitely jealous. It was a smug jealousy, but it was still there.
"That's all very true. When you put it that way, I think you deserve a reward for being such an attentive lover." He says.
Before Sasuke could explain what this reward was going to be, Itachi comes skidding into the room. A loud crash is heard, as a vase gets knocked over by a rather frantic feline. The puppy was chasing a stray cat.
"BAD, ITACHI! BAD! Don't chase the cat!" Sasuke growls.
"He started it!" The ninja dog protests and skids to a halt, when he realizes his Master was less than pleased with him.
Sasuke sighs. Unbelievable. He had just been cockblocked by a puppy! If the original Itachi was still alive, he would be laughing at him.
"He's just a stray cat. Now, go pick up the broken vase or you won't get any of those biscuits that you like so much." Jugo warns him.
Itachi whines and immediately goes to pick up the vase. Sasuke just shakes his head. It was still a rather surreal scene.
"Do I still get my reward?" Jugo asks hopefully.
"Maybe later. In our room, after the door is locked. Where certain furballs can't come rushing in and knocking over vases." The last Uchiha says with a sigh.
Jugo sighs and nods. Well that was a good point. Maybe the living room wasn't the best place for romance.
A few days later, Jugo stops by the Academy on his way home from the Naras. He decides to walk his lover home. By this time, people were used to seeing them together. Though Sasuke didn't think that people knew they were together, together yet. Apparently, that was a mistaken assumption on his part.
"Friend Sasuke! Friend Jugo! It's so good to see you guys. I'm so happy for you. The power of love and the power of youth are beautiful things!" Lee says.
Jugo looks at Sasuke a little helplessly. He vaguely knew who Lee was. He wasn't sure if he would consider him a friend, but he wasn't an enemy. The last Uchiha twitches in annoyance.
"Thanks Lee. Would you mind not screaming that loud enough for the entire Fire Country to hear you? Wait. How did you find out about us anyway?" Sasuke demands.
"Well I overheard Suigetsu and Karin talking about it at the Ramen Shop a couple days ago. Don't worry. I'm sure that most people won't have a problem with your relationship because you're two men. Love is love." He says happily.
Sasuke rubs the back of his head sheepishly. Oh good God, why him? Why was he surrounded by so many fucking idiots?
"That's very kind of you to say. If you don't mind, we've both had a long day at work and just want to get home. Give our best wishes to your Sensei." Jugo says diplomatically.
"I will be sure to do that!" Lee says and strikes a heroic pose.
Sasuke and Jugo both wince at his blindingly bright teeth. The two of them head off as quickly as they possibly could while still having it viewed as being relatively polite. Sheesh.
"Is he always like that?" Jugo asks.
"Always. He's a good guy. He just really needs to lose the spandex and watch where he flashes his teeth. A new haircut probably wouldn't hurt either. I really wish he would drop the springtime of youth garbage as well. But other than that he's fine. He's probably the best Taijutsu ninja we have." The last Uchiha says.
"Yeah. I get that impression. Should we go talk to Karin?" He asks.
Sasuke nods. He heads off with Jugo to find Karin. Thankfully, she was still in her house and not on hospital duty yet. Sasuke knocks on her door and the red head immediately answers.
"Hey, Sasuke! Hey, Jugo!" She greets them.
"Hey, Karin. We have a favor to ask you. A really big favor actually." Sasuke says as he heads inside the house with Jugo following him.
"Alright. What is it?" The young ninja asks.
Sasuke gestures for her to sit down. This wasn't something that they should spring on her, while she was standing. That would be too cruel.
"Well as you know, Sasuke wants to restore his Clan. We just have a problem. Obviously, we can't make a baby on our own. We were hoping that maybe you would consent to being one of our surrogates. Maybe the only one. It just depends if you'd be willing and how many children you'd be willing to have." Jugo explains.,
Sasuke had to hand it to his lover, he was very tactful. He probably would have been a Hell of a lot more blunt. It was likely a good thing that Jugo had broken the news so gently though, Karin looked pretty shell-shocked.
"You want me to have Sasuke's baby?!" She asks.
"Karin, don't get too excited. We aren't conceiving it through traditional means. Jugo might not look it, but he can be pretty possessive and I don't want to lead you on." Sasuke says.
Karin blinks when she notices that Jugo's arms immediately wrapped around Sasuke's waist at that announcement. Damn. She didn't know the gentle giant had it in him.
"Y-es, I understood that it was going to be through a more scientific than romantic method. Still I'm honored that you would trust me enough to carry your child, but I have some questions." She answers him.
"Alright. What are they?" Jugo asks and smiles when Sasuke leans into his hold.
Karin couldn't believe this. Sasuke was actually asking her to have his baby (possibly babies) and his lover was okay with this. This entire experience was so surreal, but she decides it would be a good idea to see what she was signing up for.
"Would the child or children know that I'm their mother?" The red head asks.
"We talked about that. Yes, if you want them to know. If you don't, then we'll come up with something. Ideally, they would. I would prefer them to know who their birth mother is. It's just less traumatic on them that way and more honest." Sasuke replies.
Karin nods. Honestly, she was impressed with the amount of planning the two of them had apparently put into this. She had thought that Sasuke would just charge into fatherhood, without really thinking through the potential consequences of using surrogates. It seemed that wasn't the case.
"Well I guess I'd like the kid to know. I mean it feels like lying otherwise. But how are you going to explain the whole having two fathers thing?" She asks.
Sasuke shrugs. Honestly, the kid was going to be a ninja. He or she was likely to be breathing fireballs before they graduated the Academy. Having two fathers seemed pretty easy to understand when compared to that.
"He or she is going to be a ninja. I'm sure they can handle it. Besides, it just means extra birthday presents." Sasuke reasons.
"Well that's true. Alright. Um when were you thinking about doing this exactly?" She asks.
"We didn't discuss that yet. We wanted to make sure you were okay with it or that we could find a willing surrogate, first. I'll go talk to Tsunade and see what she says. That sneaky witch owes me. Can you believe she head shrunk me just to figure out if I liked men?" Sasuke demands.
Karin just shrugs. Well it was pretty hard to get inside Sasuke's head. The man was extremely private. She felt like she hardly knew him outside of battle situations, honestly.
"That was wrong of her to do. But be honest. If she had just asked, would you have told her the truth?" The red head inquires.
"That's completely besides the point. It just further shows that this village should never be fully trusted. I don't really get what Itachi saw in this village, but I'm not going to spit on his last wishes." The raven haired man says with a shrug.
"Arf! Arf! Well it has lots of cats to chase, lots of people give me belly rubs, and good places to bury bones." He says.
"I meant the other Itachi…" Sasuke says.
Itachi looks at him in confusion. Other Itachi? What was Master Sasuke talking about? There was only one of him. He hadn't figured out how to make clones yet.
"You were named after his brother." Jugo explains and the puppy ohhhs.
The next day, Sasuke goes to the hospital. He figured it was best to do this on his own. Besides, Jugo had work that day and so did Karin.
"Oh Sasuke. What are you doing here?" The busty blonde asks in confusion.
"I talked to Karin about it. She agreed to be my surrogate. I would like to know how soon we could start." He states simply.
Tsunade falls over in shock. Sasuke smirks. Karin he would give the courtesy of telling to sit down before dropping that bombshell, Tsunade not so much. She deserved it for trying to be sneaky. Sasuke hoped she got some bruises out of that fall.
"You what?!" The Hokage demands.
"I said that I talked to Karin. She has agreed to be my surrogate. I love Jugo, but we can't make a baby together in the traditional way. That means you are going to assist us by performing the necessary procedures to ensure that Karin is able to help us." He says firmly.
Tsunade blinks. She knew that he wanted to restore his Clan. She just didn't think that he'd want to do it this soon.
"Are you sure that you are ready for this? You just got back not that long ago. Wouldn't it be better to wait until the dust settles some more before jumping into fatherhood?" She asks.
Sasuke shakes his head. No. He was tired of waiting for things to get better. If the Leaf had a problem with him being a father, he'd just burn the village to the ground.
He was sure that Itachi would understand, as long as he didn't actually kill anyone. They could always rebuild. The last Uchiha was certain that they'd get the point after a few fireballs and Chidoris were thrown.
"I'm not going to wait for them to accept me. Their opinions are irrelevant. The only people's opinions who matter to me are Jugo's, the rest of Taka's, Naruto, Itachi's, and our future family's." He answers her.
"…Right. The dog." She says.
"Yes, the dog. He's a ninja dog. Itachi is very bright. We are still working on getting him to not chase cats though. It's an instinct, I guess. A bit annoying really, but other than that he's very well behaved." Sasuke observes.
Tsunade shakes her head in amusement. The dog was really the least of her worries. She wasn't entirely certain it was a good idea to restore the Uchiha Clan yet. (Or possibly ever really.)
"Yes, I'm sure he's a good dog. But a baby is not a dog. It's a lot more responsibility and you are so young Sasuke. Maybe it would be better to wait a few years." She suggests.
"Tsunade, I'm not waiting. If you refuse to perform the necessary procedures, I will just go to another village and find someone who will. If I'm willing to pay them enough money, they will do it and money isn't an issue for me." Sasuke hisses.
She sighs and smacks her forehead. For goodness sake's, Sasuke was almost as stubborn as Naruto. There was just no talking him out of anything, once he set his mind to it.
"Fine. I'll do it, but don't get baby crazy right away. Just one for now." She warns him.
"I don't think that's your call to make, but fine. When can we start?" Sasuke demands.
She bites her lower lip. The Hokage couldn't believe she was actually agreeing to this. This was just playing with fire. There were a million ways this could go wrong, but he was right.
If he went to another village, they would perform the procedure. It wasn't exactly some top secret medical advancement of the Leaf. Any village with a decent hospital could manage it.
"We can start tomorrow. I just hope that you know what you are signing up for. I really do not think that you are ready to be a parent." The blonde warns him.
"I really don't think that's any of your business. I'm not going to be manipulated by this village any longer. We'll be here first thing in the morning." Sasuke growls as he walks off.
Really sometimes Sasuke wondered if maybe Naruto had placed a tracker on him because the hyper blonde bumps into him a few minutes later. His irritation must have shown on his face. Naruto didn't hesitate to ask him what was wrong.
"Bastard, why do you look like you want to kill someone?" Naruto asks.
"It's a long story. Tsunade thought that she knew better than I did about what I was and wasn't ready for. Short version? We are going to use Karin as our surrogate and going for treatments tomorrow." He states.
Naruto blinks. He had always known that Sasuke wanted kids in theory, but theory was a lot different than having them in reality. It was just really hard to picture the bastard as a dad.
"Whoa. I didn't realize you two were THAT serious." The blonde muses.
"We are. But I would do it even if we weren't. This is important to me." Sasuke says.
"So is he okay with all this? I mean won't he be jealous?" The blonde asks.
Sasuke sighs. He had been concerned about that as well. But Jugo seemed okay with it. Besides, he knew that Sasuke wasn't into Karin that way.
"He says he is. Jugo has never lied to me before. So I believe him when he tells me that. Either way, I'm not going to give him any reason to feel jealous. Karin is just helping us. She's not going to be my lover or anything like that." The last Uchiha says.
"Well that's really nice of her. I mean pregnancy can be really hard on a woman. She's going to be vomiting and going through labor for you guys. So you should be extra nice to her. Well actually you should just be nice to her. I've never really seen you do nice before." The boisterous ninja observes thoughtfully and Sasuke just rolls his eyes at that assessment.
Honestly, Naruto was such an idiot sometimes. Of course, Sasuke didn't expect anything less from his best friend, but still. This was a serious occasion and should be treated as such.
"Keep making cracks like that and I will rescind your godfather status." The raven haired ninja informs him.
"My godfather status? Wait. Are you serious?! You want me to be the godfather of your kid?!" Naruto exclaims.
Sasuke nods. Who else was he going to ask? Naruto was his best friend. (Well besides Jugo.) It just made sense to ask him.
"Yes, don't make me regret it. Hopefully, if the worst case scenario happens, it will be after they leave babyhood behind. I don't want you to drop my kid on their head and screw them up for life or something. You are such a klutz." The other man says.
Naruto twitches. Sasuke really could be such a bastard sometimes. Only he could ask someone to be the Godfather for his kid and still insult them.
"Hmpf! You are such a jerk. I don't know how Jugo puts up with you." He grumbles.
"Oh he likes putting up with me. He likes it a lot actually, but we aren't here to discuss my sex life. We are discussing whether or not you will be the godfather to my children." Sasuke says.
"Bastard, I did not want to know about your sex life! I guess he must be doing something right though. I mean you seem less bitchy since you got with him." Naruto informs him.
Oh he so did not just call him that. Sasuke Uchiha was not bitchy. He might be broody or irritated, but never bitchy. Oh yeah. Naruto needed his daily ass kicking.
"Is that your way of saying you want to train? I guess I've been pretty neglectful lately. You are down to about two or three beatings a week." Sasuke states.
"Ha! You are delusional. There is no way that you could ever beat me, let alone two or three times a week. I guess he must have screwed your brains out or something. That's the only logical explanation for why you would say something that ridiculous." The blonde says with a nod.
"That wasn't a bad pun, but you are still getting your ass kicked." Sasuke says as he teleports to the training grounds and Naruto quickly follows him.
Sasuke smiles when they arrive. It was nice to know that some things would never change. Naruto would always take the bait for a training session. Jugo was apparently going to try to seduce him from now on. Suigetsu and Karin would still bicker like cats and dogs.
It was nice to have some stability in his life. He couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something though. What was it?
"REOWWWW!" A cat cries out as it goes flying past Sasuke with Itachi in hot pursuit.
Oh yeah. That was it. And Itachi would apparently always chase cats. As he was saying, it was nice to know that certain things could be counted on no matter what.
Idly, he hoped that his future son or daughter liked dogs, snakes, and hawks. She or he would have a ninja dog and have to deal with his summons after all. Oh well. He'd worry about that later.