A/N: Oh my gosh! I didn't think I owuld update it this quickly but! here I am with another chapter. I have an idea of where I'm going with this, but I don't like to set things in stone. I like to let the characters tell me where to go, so that's what I'm doing. anyway, enjoy!

6 months later

Sasuke was somewhere deep in the Land of Wind when a messenger bird from Konoha landed on his shoulder. Frowning, he took the proffered scroll and watched as the bird leapt back into the cloudless sky, lazily arcing up and east toward the Leaf. He turned his gaze toward the scroll in his hand, noting that it was slightly different from the ones he usually received , before giving a small shrug of his shoulders and opening it. He had just enough time to recognize the formula for a summoning jutsu before a loud pop sounded and a very angry shadow clone of Naruto appeared before him.

"Wha-" was all he was able to get out before the clone grabbed him by the collar and they were both snatched up by a reverse summoning jutsu. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself, still tightly gripped by the clone, standing in the Hokage's office. Kakashi was sitting behind the cluttered desk, beetle black eyes staring at him with an unreadable emotion. Sakura was leaning against the same desk, her emerald eyes swimming with tears and her fists clenched tightly at her sides. Sasuke swept his eyes left and spotted the original Naruto by the far edge of the windows, his sharp features in profile and head tilted away as if he was forcing himself to look out on the village and not the scene in the room. A figure seemed to huddle in the shadow Naruto cast, but, as though sensing his attention, hesitantly stepped into the fading afternoon light. Sasuke's breath hitched and his heart stopped.

It was Hinata, and she was pregnant. A sharp spike of jealousy pierced him, and the possessiveness that surged through his blood at the thought of Naruto touching her, kissing her, being inside her left him breathless. It was pathetic, he thought angrily, that he still wanted her, needed her, so badly when she had obviously had no trouble letting go of him.

Sasuke shoved the clone away from him with a sneer, favoring the people around him with the same look and adjusting his now rumpled clothes. Forcing himself to look anywhere but at Hinata, he cut his eyes at Kakashi instead.

"Why am I here, exactly?" He asked the silver haired man. Kakashi sighed dramatically and leaned back in his chair, indulging in a cat like stretch as he did so. Sakura huffed quietly with impatience.

"You'll have to ask Naruto that question, Sasuke. I know a little less about it than you do, apparently." He said with an exaggerated lift of his eyebrows. Sasuke scowled and scoffed.

"I don't even know what's going on, Kakashi, so how can you know less about it than I do when I don't even know what it is?" He snapped. Kakashi shrugged carelessly, and Sasuke bit back a growl. He had nearly forgotten how annoying his old sensei could be, and the reminder was not exactly welcome.

"Well, Naruto?" The blond's already tense shoulders seemed to become even stiffer for the slightest moment before he turned to face the room. Unlike his clone, who was blatantly angry, Naruto looked as though sadness and anger were fighting a battle for control of his normally smiling features. When he glanced at Hinata, sadness seemed to take the forefront, but when his eyes settled on Sasuke, anger had taken quiet control. The two rivals simply stated at each other in utter silence for what seemed like a small eternity before Naruto closed his eyes and shook his head, a bitter chuckle escaping him. Sasuke's frown deepened.

"You were never going to tell me, were you, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, the question more like a statement. Four pairs of eyes were focused on Naruto, two in complete confusion and two in dawning comprehension. Sasuke was rooted to the spot, a terrifying realization forming a knot in his throat that grew with every agonizing second. His eyes flickered to Hinata, took in her swelling belly, and mentally calculated how far along she was. It couldn't be...

"Tell you what?" He asked, barely flinching when the shadow clone suddenly grabbed him again and slammed him into the wall, too busy trying to convince himself that there was no possible way Naruto could know about Hinata and him, no possible way the child inside her could be his, but even as he thought that, his mind summoned images of their last time together and of him coming deep inside her, and he knew deep in his bones what it was Naruto brought him home for.

"Why didn't you tell me you were fucking Hinata?" The clone snarled, whisker marks growing jagged and eyes glowing red. His eyes widened, and he could hear Sakura gasp loudly. Sasuke felt his Sharingan activate, but he made no other motion, choosing instead to keep his eyes on the original Naruto, who was watching silently, and Hinata, who was staring at the scene before her with wide worried eyes.

"What makes you think I've slept with her?" The question was barely out of his mouth before he was being lifted up and slammed against the wall again. The force of impact had him gritting his teeth, and spidery cracks spread along the wall behind him.

"Because that's your baby inside her, you bastard," Naruto answered bitterly, and Sasuke felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

"What?" He knew his voice came out breathy and hesitant, but he couldn't help that now. It was one thing to suspect her child belonged to him but quite another to hear the words spit out like kunai in his direction, every syllable confirmation that, once again, he'd hurt someone precious to him with his actions.

Hinata caught his gaze, a small, reassuring smile that was just for him briefly touching her lips, and the knot in his throat grew and grew until he thought his neck would explode from the pressure of it. Even now, with everything imploding around her, she sought to comfort him.

"Wait, wait just a minute, Naruto! You can't accuse Sasuke and Hinata of sleeping together just like that. I mean...when would they have had the time?" For once, Sasuke was grateful for his pink haired friend's inability to believe half of what came out of Naruto's mouth. She was standing there, green eyes darting between the three of them, the clone having been dispelled by Naruto when she started speaking, hands clenched and shaking faintly at her sides. None of them said anything, so she forged on.

"I mean - I...Hinata has never made her feelings for you a secret, so why would she have sex with someone the exact opposite of you?" Sakura reasoned, unaware that she was directly saying something Sasuke had tormented himself with for years. He kept his eyes trained on Hinata and rested his aching body against the wall. That last slam had really had some force behind it.

"Hinata and I haven't been intimate yet," Naruto confessed, an embarrassed flush coloring his whiskered cheeks, "so when she told me she was pregnant, I thought maybe someone had, you know, forced her," Naruto glanced down at the woman next to him, an aching anger lingering in his cerulean eyes. He swallowed hard.

"So, I went into sage mode when she was sleeping to see if I could figure out the chakra of the baby's parents, and that's when I found Sasuke's chakra in the baby along with Hinata's. That's how I know it's his baby," Naruto finished lamely, glaring down at his feet.

"Is it true, Sasuke? Are you the father of Hinata's child?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke found himself closing his eyes against the emotion he heard in her voice. As always, it seemed he was destined to hurt her.

He looked to Hinata for guidance, hoping she would see the veiled desperation in his dark eyes and let him know one way or the other what she wanted him to do. Did she want him in her life? Would she want to raise their child together, or was she hoping to continue on with Naruto? Sasuke was sure the blond still loved her and wanted to be with her; she could still have that happiness if she would just tell him what to do. But all he saw in her eyes was trust. She was trusting him to decide, and he was scared that he wasn't strong enough to make the right choice.

"Sakura...it - it's true. I got Hinata pregnant," he heard himself saying, but he was too busy noting Hinata's reaction to care about what the rest of his former team was doing. Did he make the right choice? Would she hate him for claiming his child?

Her face was utterly unreadable after his confession, her only tell the slight widening of her eyes, as though she had expected a completely different response from him, but then she was casting her eyes down and folding her hands in front of her demurely, and Sasuke's attention was suddenly on Naruto who had taken several long strides and was now less than an inch away from him, glaring at him with tears in his blue eyes. This close, Sasuke could see the individual situations in his friend's eyes.

Blue and blood red eyes caught and held, glaring intensely for long moments.

"If you mess this up, if you even think about hurting her the way you have Sakura, I'll kill you," Naruto growled, eyes flashing red and chakra spiking dangerously before he flashed out of the room, leaving a deafening silence behind him. Sasuke let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and tried to calm his pounding heart. For a moment, for the briefest second, he was sure Naruto was going to tear him apart in his rage, and Sasuke knew he didn't have it in him to fight back. There were many times he had deserved to die, and that was just another in what he was sure would be a very long list.

"Hinata, why don't you take Sasuke back to your apartment? I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about. I'll give you two a few days alone before we start making any decisions," Kakashi said, shooting Sakura a look that plainly told her to be quiet as he stood and ushered the two dark haired ninja out of his office. The door shut behind them with a quiet click, and Sasuke coukd hear Sakura's distraught voice arguing with Kakashi's calmer one. He sighed, exhausted beyond belief.

"You don't live at the Hyuuga compound anymore," he asked as he followed Hinata out onto the busy streets. He absently admired the way the setting sun glimmered I'm her swaying midnight hair as she walked in front of him and ignored the startled looks the two of them garnered from passing shinobi.

"I - I left the compound a few months ago," she answered softly, and he knew that meant she had been kicked out. She was without her clan because of him. He opened his mouth, intending to say something, anything, to make her feel better, but she was suddenly turning down a quiet street and leading him to a modest apartment complex, and before he knew it, they were walking into the home she had made for herself.

The door shut and locked with quiet finality, and for the first time in six months it was just him and her.