My Everything
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 16
For a week or two after the Honeymoon, everything was going normally. Sasuke would teach at the Academy and Naruko would perform her Hokage duties. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until Naruko realized she couldn't perform a Shadow Clone Jutsu.
"What the Hell?! That barely takes any chakra and I feel fine." She asks in stunned voice.
Sasuke was equally as baffled. His eyes narrow. The expecting father did not feel good about this. The odds of a perfectly healthy woman suddenly not able to use chakra for no obvious reason, were low.
"Let's get you to the hospital and have Tsunade have a look at you." He suggests.
"Yeah. That's probably a good idea." Naruko agrees.
A few minutes later, the newlyweds were at the hospital. Sasuke has Naruko wait in the waiting room and quickly finds the busty blonde medic. He was trying to keep from panicking, but it was hard.
Naruko and their family were his entire world. He couldn't lose her. He couldn't lose her after everything that they had been through. Surely, Tsunade would be able to tell what was wrong with her and fix it.
"Alright. Alright. I'll have a look at her. Naruko, please come to my exam room." The cinnamon eyed woman instructs and the couple follows Tsunade straight into the room she mentioned.
Tsunade frowns. She could see that Sasuke was only one or two breaths away from losing it and Naruko looked scared. That was just wrong. She had never known the boisterous young woman to be scared of anything. None of this was a good sign in her mind.
"I'll start by taking your vitals." Tsunade says as she does exactly that.
Hmm. That was strange. Her vitals all looked normal. Naruko looked perfectly healthy, yet she couldn't access her chakra.
"Do you have any idea what's wrong with her?" Sasuke asks nervously.
"No. Her vitals are normal. She hasn't recently expanded a great amount of chakra. It doesn't make any sense. I'm going to run a blood test." She reasons.
Naruko gulps. She might be Hokage, but that didn't mean she liked getting her blood taken. Yuck. She hated having her blood taken. It always creeped her out.
"Naruko, are you seriously going to be a big baby about having your blood taken?" Sasuke asks in amusement.
"Well yeah! It creeps me out!" She grumbles and Sasuke shakes his head.
He decides that the best way to ensure that Tsunade got the necessary blood sample was to distract his beautiful blonde. Fortunately, she was easily distracted and Sasuke knew exactly how he was going to do it. He kisses his wife.
Naruko smiles and returns the kiss. That was a bit unexpected, but she wasn't going to complain. Sasuke was a great kisser. Maybe he wanted to kiss it better in advance? Yeah. That must be it.
The medic shakes her head in amusement. Honestly, these two were always entertaining, if nothing else. She quickly takes the blood sample while Naruko was busy kissing Sasuke.
"There we go. All done." The elder ninja proclaims after a minute.
"Really? Wow. That was fast. Hey, wait a minute! Sasuke! You are such a sneaky bastard!" The sapphire eyed woman growls at him.
Sasuke just smirks. He wasn't going to apologize for it. Tsunade needed the blood sample and his methods kept Naruko from being difficult. That and a ninja should always expect the unexpected.
"Yes, really. We have to find out what is wrong. For that to be possible, she needed the blood sample. So I just helped her along. You can punish me later." Sasuke informs her.
"Damn right, I will! I'm definitely going to punish you for being such a sneaky bastard." The pregnant woman warns him.
"I'm trembling with….excitement." Sasuke retorts cockily.
Tsunade just shakes her head. Honestly, she had no idea she was going to do with them. They were the Leaf's most famous (or infamous) couple. It all really just depended on how you looked at it or who you asked. No matter what your view on their relationship was though, it was anything but ordinary.
"Well I think we all know how she got pregnant now. It's going to take a bit to get the results back. When I do though, I will let you know. Unless you would rather stay at the hospital until we get the results. That would probably be the smarter move, but I know that Naruko probably isn't going to agree." She says.
"Yeah. You're right about that. Hospitals freak me out." The Hokage confesses.
It was amazing really. Naruko was one of the strongest ninjas to have ever lived, yet in some ways she still acted like an Academy Student. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why Sasuke loved her so much. Somehow she still retained her childlike innocence, despite everything that she had been through. Despite everything that he had put her through.
"I'll take her home and make sure that she gets some rest. I'll chain her to the bed, if I have to." Sasuke says.
"You mean that you didn't already do that on your Honeymoon?" Tsunade asks sassily.
"Hmm actually we didn't. Maybe we should try chains, next time." Sasuke suggests and Naruko blushes deeply.
She mumbles something about perverted bastards and drags her husband off after her. Honestly, Sasuke could be such a bastard sometimes! She should totally kick his ass once her chakra came back!
"Oh now you're shy?" Sasuke asks with no small degree of mirth in his voice.
"I can't believe you just said that in front of Granny Tsunade!" The blonde protests in outrage.
Sasuke shrugs. He wasn't an exhibitionist and he was still angry with Shikamaru for walking in on them, but they were married. Everyone knew what married people did with each other.
Naruko was also pregnant. She was just starting to show now. If anyone had any doubts as the intimate nature of their relationship, that would certainly banish them. So he didn't see a reason to act like a blushing virgin now.
"Naruko, you're pregnant. I think that she knows what we do together." Sasuke replies as he scoops her up Bridal Style and carries her home.
Whether she liked it or not, she was going to get some rest. The eldest Uchiha wasn't sure what was wrong with her, but she was going to take it easy. Hopefully, the blood test would yield useful results.
There had to be something wrong with her. Why else would her chakra suddenly stop working? There had to be a reason and they were going to find out what it was. Together.
"I can walk." Naruko protests, but snuggles into his arms anyway.
"I'm sure you can, but let's not take any chances." He tells her as he carries her back to their home and to their bedroom.
Sasuke gently lays her on the bed and soon joins her. Then he throws the blanket over them and cuddles into his wife. She looked perfectly fine, but he knew that wasn't really the case. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
"How are you feeling? Be honest." He tells her.
"I feel fine. Warm. I always feel warm when you cuddle like that. Very cozy." She mumbles with a yawn and snuggles into him.
Sasuke was too worried about her to protest the cuddling label. That was how Naruko knew that her bastard was very close to losing it. She says and rests her head on his chest.
"It's all going to be fine. You'll see. Whatever this is, we'll get through it. We always do. Oh and in a couple months we'll know what gender the baby is. That will be fun and really help when it comes to picking out names." She says with a cheerful smile.
"Yeah. Knowing the gender will be helpful. Just don't pick out something stupid. I still don't know why you're parents named you after ramen. Though I guess it does help to explain your obsession with cheap noodles." He notes.
Naruko just gapes at Sasuke. How could he do that?! It was blasphemy! How could her loving husband continually insult ramen! It was just wrong!
"They are not cheap noodles! It's ramen. Say it with me, Sasuke. Ra-men." She tells him.
"Oh forgive me. How could I have ever besmirched your ramen?" Sasuke asks dryly.
"Because you are a bastard. Sooner or later though, I know that you'll come around and realize that ramen is awesome!" She informs him.
Sasuke just shakes his head. Well this was a good sign. Naruko was feeling well enough to banter with him. Maybe she wasn't that sick. Maybe everything would be okay after all.
Meanwhile the Daimyo were having a meeting. It had been a slow process, but they were sure that they were about to make headway. All of them were feeling rather pleased at this.
"She's been ingesting the poison for months in trace doses. We couldn't have her get sick right away. That would look too suspicious. Thankfully, Sasuke appears immune to the poison." The Fire Daimyo states.
"Good. If they both got sick at the same time, that would set off alarm bells. Perhaps we'll get lucky and the pregnancy will simply end and we won't have to kill her." The Earth Daimyo says.
The other Daimyos sadly shake their heads. As much as they would have all preferred that, they knew the truth. Naruko Uzumaki had to die and the sooner she did, the better of they would all be.
"Sadly, you know that's not happen. She's already too beloved. Sooner or later, she'll want to increase her political power. That's especially true now that she's married to the Uchiha. He'll want to ensure that a second massacre doesn't happen. He's far more ambitious than she is." The Wind Daimyo argues.
There were some depressed sighs of acknowledgement at what the Wind Daimyo had just said. They all knew he was right. First, they would have to get rid of Naruko. Then they would have to act quickly, before the Uchiha could get over his shock at her passing. Truthfully, they only had one opportunity to advert a disaster and they were all going to take it.
It didn't matter how distasteful this whole business was. Three lives was nothing in the grand scheme of things. The natural order of the world had to be preserved at all cause or else chaos would erupt. In the long run, they might very well be saving the world. Well at least that's what they thought they were doing anyway.
"It was a stroke of genius to poison the wells of the Uchiha District. No one else drinks the water from those wells, except them. So it minimized collateral damage." The Water Daimyo reasons.
"Indeed, it did. We are all rather fortunate that he never moved out of the District. Things would have been much more complicated, if he had." The Fire Daimyo replies.
The Lightning Daimyo nods his head in agreement. He wasn't entirely certain what they would have done, if that had been the case. One couldn't just assassinate a Hokage and an ninja of Sasuke's caliber easily, without racking up heavy causalities in the process.
"And so it begins." The Water Daimyo says simply.
A few days later, Tsunade frowns as she goes to the Uchiha District. She really didn't want to have the blonde make the trip to the hospital. She was apparently going to need to save all her strength.
"Granny Tsunade!" Naruko greets her happily from her position on the bed.
Sasuke was laying next to her. He glances at Tsunade warily. The busty blonde could only sigh at this. She couldn't blame him in the slightest for being nervous. His most precious person was possibly gravely ill and she might be the one to deliver him very bad news.
"Naruko. Sasuke." The medic greets them as she walks over towards them.
The Leaf Villager wasn't entirely certain how she was going to put this. Something was wrong and it wasn't natural. Still she wasn't entirely certain how it happened or what they would be able to do about it.
"The good news is you are perfectly healthy. Your chakra has been absorbing the poison." She says.
"POISON?!" They both shout in shocked voices.
"Yes, it seems that somehow you have been exposed to poison. Kurama didn't notice it because it's been a continual gradual exposure of trace amounts. Simply put, your chakra is burning through the poison. Your chakra combined with the Nine Tails regenerates fast enough that you didn't even notice any of the ill effects. Simply put, it's protecting you and your baby." The busty blonde tries to explain.
Naruko gulps. That meant she had been poisoned for a long time and not have noticed. She could have died or lost the baby and she wouldn't have even known why.
"Is there anything we can do?" Sasuke asks as he holds Naruko protectively.
"Well first we have to figure out what the source of all this poison is. She's clearly been exposed over a long-term period. She might have even been exposed for months. The amounts are so small, that neither of you would have been the wiser. For now, she shouldn't try to use any of her chakra and should get some rest. We will get to the bottom of this, I promise you that!" She assures them.
Sasuke wasn't so convinced. How could she possibly been poisoned for that long and not have known it? It was a damn miracle she was still alive, let alone their baby.
"Don't worry, bastard. Granny Tsunade is on the case." Naruko whispers and Sasuke nods.
He had to at least pretend to be more confident than he felt. The Uchiha couldn't imagine a world without his loveable "dumb" blonde. She and their family were his everything. He'd have nothing without them.
"Yeah. We'll figure it out." He murmurs.
"Yeah, we will. Believe it!" The blue eyed ninja says happily.
"Naruko, I can't believe you are still saying that. What are you twelve?" He teases her.
Naruko grumbles under her breath about stuck up bastards. This causes Sasuke to just shake his head and chuckle. She was still as feisty as ever. He wasn't going to lose her. He wouldn't let that happen.
"What about chakra transfers?" Sasuke asks her.
"Well I don't know if that's a good idea. It's not just Naruko's chakra that we have to consider. The Nine Tail's is also a crucial factor. It's hard to tell how Kurama's chakra would mix with someone else's." The blonde replies.
Sasuke frowns. That was a good point. It wasn't one that he liked hearing, but it was still a valid point.
"So what are we supposed to do?" Naruko asks.
"For now, you are on bed rest. I'm going to try my best to figure out what the source of all this poison is. Sasuke, make sure that she doesn't do something reckless." Tsunade commands him.
Naruko grumbles. She didn't know why they assumed she was going to do something reckless. It was one thing to do that before she was pregnant. It was something completely different when she had a baby growing inside her womb. She wasn't going to endanger their child needlessly.
"What about Sasuke though? I mean if I've been getting poisoned, he might be sick and not realize it." The pregnant woman points out.
"That's a good point. We'll have to get Sasuke tested as well. Sasuke, how are you feeling?" The medic asks.
"Other than worried about Naruko and our baby, fine. I don't feel any different, but you're right. I should get checked out anyway. Naruko, apparently doesn't feel any different either and she's been poisoned for possibly months." He says.
Tsunade nods. That was how she knew that he was really worried. Sasuke was almost never that cooperative. That was a bad sign. A very bad sign.
A little later that night, Sasuke smiles at his sleeping wife and kisses her forehead. Then the Uchiha gently climbs out of the bed. He was going to find a way to fix this.
Almost as soon as he climbed out of the bed, he heard the doorbell ring. He knew who it was. Shikamaru.
"Thanks for coming." Sasuke says after opening the door and he lets the lazy genius inside.
"No problem. Though I have to admit that I'm surprised you invited me to your house. I thought you were still mad at me about well everything." The cloud lover says.
Honestly, it had been the shock of his life when the messenger hawk had arrived at his house that day. It had come bearing a scroll from Sasuke. A scroll that said that the Uchiha Patriarch needed to speak with him immediately. That it was an emergency.
"This isn't a social call. Can you read medical results? It'll save us both some time, if I don't have to explain everything to you." Sasuke says as he hands them the results.
"Yes, I can read them." Shikamaru says as he glances over the chart and blinks.
"Well whoever got tested, clearly has been poisoned. I'm not sure what that has to do with us though." The Jonin responds.
Sasuke sighs. He hated asking for help. It went against his nature. For Naruko though, he would swallow his pride. If anyone could figure out what was going on, it would probably be Shikamaru. There was no doubt about it.
"Naruko was poisoned. We don't know who did it, but we know that she's been exposed to it for quite awhile. I'm going to get tested. If she was exposed, I probably was as well. She feels perfectly fine though. Her chakra has been burning off the poison. She can't use her chakra for anything else though. Naruko could even make a shadow clone." Sasuke informs him.
Shikamaru's eyes widen. Oh that wasn't good. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was second nature to their lovable Hokage at this point. It took almost no more effort for Naruko to produce a clone than to blink her eyes. This was serious.
"Do we have any potential theories about how this happened?" The lazy ninja inquires cautiously.
"Not yet. Clearly, she was getting exposed in the Leaf Village though. Other than our Honeymoon, we haven't really been anywhere else for awhile." Sasuke admits.
"And I doubt that you two left your Honeymoon Suite much while there. That probably allowed her to get some of it out of her system." Shikamaru muses.
Sasuke gives Shikamaru a dirty look at the not so subtle dirty look for that comment. It was rather easy to tell what he was implying. He was certainly not in the mood for dirty jokes.
"You're right. We didn't. Unlike you, I use my energy for something more than cloud watching." Sasuke snaps at him.
"Calm down. It was just a joke. Hmm. Well no one else in the village seems to be having issues with chakra. So we have to assume that the exposure was rather targeted. Likely whoever did this just wanted to hit you, but didn't realize you were immune to most poisons. So they got Naruko by mistake or she was viewed as collateral damage." The other ninja reasons.
The raven haired ninja frowns. That was a good point. No one else in the Leaf seemed to be suffering in the same way Naruko was. That meant that this had been targeted. Someone was targeting him, Naruko, or both of them.
"I doubt it's your food. You grow most of it yourself or are buying it from stores. Whoever did this would have no way of knowing which items you were going to grab and would have to risk poisoning others, if they did it that way." Shikamaru continues.
"That's true. I'm at a loss for how they did it. We need to figure it out though. If we can stop her from consuming the poison, then eventually it would filter out of her system. Like Tsunade said, her chakra is literally burning it out. Once she doesn't have to burn it, her chakra should work normally again." Sasuke theorizes.
The spiky haired ninja nods. As much as he might not be Sasuke's biggest fan, he knew that the Uchiha was smart. He was right. If they could figure out where Naruko was being exposed, they could solve this problem.
"She's doing okay otherwise though? She just can't use her chakra?" Shikamaru asks for confirmation.
"Yeah. That seems to be the case. It's really bizarre." Sasuke muses.
He found himself nodding in agreement. He had never heard of such a thing before. What kind of poison were they using? That or maybe it had to do with the fact Naruko had the Nine Tails inside her. That was likely what was causing her to react differently than how many people would.
"Was the baby hurt?" He asks somberly.
"No. The baby is fine. Naruko's chakra has been protecting it. As far as we can tell, she or he hasn't been impacted at all. It's a miracle really." Sasuke says.
It was at this point that Naruko woke up. She heard someone talking in living room and went to investigate. When she realizes it was Sasuke and Shikamaru, she hangs back and decides to ease drop.
Fortunately for her, they were too engrossed in her conversation to realize that someone was "spying" on them. Privately, she realizes that was a stroke of good luck for her. Sauske probably wouldn't take too kindly to her "accidentally" overhearing them.
That was just too bad for him though. She loved her bastard, but she was not a China Doll. They didn't need to protect her from the truth. She knew things were bad and didn't want the entire situation sugarcoated to make her feel better.
"So do we have any clue who is behind this?" She asks and that causes both men to jump.
"Naruko!" Sasuke scolds her slightly for sneaking up on them.
"Don't Naruko me. A ninja should be aware of their environment at all times. It's not my fault that you two weren't paying attention. I wanna know what is going on." She says firmly.
Shikamaru sighs. Naruko was correct about that much. They had allowed her to sneak up on them. They did kinda deserve it.
"We are still trying to figure out who is responsible, but we will." The cloud lover promises her.
"I know we will. Whoever did this is going to regret it. No one messes with me or may family." She says.
Sasuke smiles and kisses her cheek. That was right. When he found out who was responsible for this, he was going to tear them apart limb from limb. When he was done, there wouldn't be anything left to burry. He was going to make his wife's attackers wish that they had never been born.
"That's right." He agrees.