Ashes were scattered silently as all attending lowered their heads in respect to say their prayers. The sands and ashes mixed in the wind and flew past those who gathered to mourn.
No black veils were worn. In Suna, they saw no reason in specific clothes to see the dead in public. They brought food for a feast instead of flowers, and after this time of grieving, their lives would be celebrated, but the deafening silence was the same at this moment. No one wanted to think of their loved ones dying. No one wanted to lose someone.
The silence was broken by a baby's cry.
"Shhh…" Hinata whispered, rocking her infant son. "Shukaku-san, I don't think this is funny." She quietly scolded the beast that she was sure woke her sleeping newborn just to make a scene during the ceremony.
Gaara glanced over but couldn't step away from leading the war loss ceremony to help her.
Hinata rubbed his back, and he calmed immediately, confirming her suspicion that Shukaku caused his outburst. "It's alright." Hinata hummed quietly to him until he fell back to sleep.
His birth was traumatic. They induced labor. Hinata fainted after he was born. She didn't even get to hear him cry. Gaara panicked, initially believing she passed, but once assured that she was fine, just worn out, he was ready, and the medic transferred Shukaku to their dying son. All three of them were non-responsive for nearly two days. Hinata was the first to recover. When she woke up, her infant was in a little clear box next to her with tubes everywhere, but he was well enough to make it through. Gaara spent another day unresponsive, but it was induced to make sure he healed enough to forgo any more chakra rerouting.
Hinata was by his bed with their baby in his little medical box when he woke up. He was tiny and pale with a mess of dark hair and Hyuga pupil-less eyes with a slight tint of green. He spent most of his time sleeping. People came to visit but had to keep their distance and be very clean. All Hinata wanted to do was hold him, but it would have to wait.
"We never picked a name," Hinata whispered to Gaara, placing her finger through one of the little holes to put her finger in his tiny hand. "He's gone all this time without a name."
Gaara reached his hand idly toward the plastic. "Temari says he's 'damn lucky.'"
"Kouki," Hinata whispered.
Gaara agreed. "Kouki… Hyuga."
"I think Suna no Kouki is plenty. He is 'of the sand' just like his father." A tiny tanuki sat on her lap. It was either a joke, or Shukaku simply had less chakra to work with.
"We will need to send word that he was born." Gaara rolled to his side with some effort. Touching the plastic casing, but never dared to touch the soft skin just through the openings.
"Baki-san was here this morning. The council is furious. The Suna-Hyuga sent word to Konoha, which means that we should expect family and Naruto." Gaara grimaced. Hinata giggled. "I bet my father is seeing red. He doesn't like secrets being kept from him. The council likes it even less." Hinata smiled warmly at the little bundle in the box. "But we are all okay, and that is what matters."
With Kouki with his father at the hospital, Hinata felt healthy enough to deal with the issues head-on, against Gaara's wishes, but he was in much worse shape than she was. Once the pregnancy was over, her health returned with help from her medic.
And she had a furious council to face.
"Are you sure you want to do this now? With both of them… together?" Temari asked once more.
"This is the best way to do it. Don't worry too much. The Hokage is here to support me, I have solid reasons for my secrecy, and I'm still operating on hormones." Temari smiled and opened the door to the council room where the Suna council, her father, a few Konoha-Hyuga council members, and Naruto sat waiting for her.
Before Hinata could be bombarded with questions, she started. "I want to make it clear that at no point did we lie." A few loud scoffs sounded off. She felt her hormonal attitude rising. "I was very ill, just as I said. We, however, never revealed that I was pregnant for a good reason."
"And what exactly is that reason? What is such a good reason that you hid your pregnancy for a full nine months." The speaker of the Suna council scoffed.
"Seven and a half." Hinata corrected. The room fell silent. "Even less than that. I wasn't aware of the first six weeks, which is the main reason we haven't said anything. There were problems with the pregnancy, and we thought it was best to keep it quiet because of the high chance of miscarriage or stillbirth. We didn't want plans made for a child that had such a low chance to even be born."
"You didn't carry to term?" The council didn't have any information which helped her arguments. They had less to work with.
"You should have asked for the clan's help." The Konoha-Hyuga council head barked sternly.
"I did, just the clan I was the head of," Hinata answered. "We had full intention of coming to the Suna council. We waited until we had more definitive answers, and my health was stable. I couldn't handle the stress of having fruitless arguments." Hinata only paused long enough to take a breath. "Then Gaara went to war, and not long after, I went into early labor. Then he came back in no condition to be debating either."
The speaker's face hardened. "Yes, and how is our Kazekage since he's been so silent about his and the beast's condition."
The second bomb was ready. "Shukaku-san had to be transferred to our son." The room exploded. Suddenly, the child being hidden was no longer the issue.
"What!" The councilmen protested. "We weren't consulted!"
"Unacceptable!" Hiashi barked.
"They were both dying!" Hinata announced over the rush. "There was no time to consult, and there was no time to consider all the offenses it might bring." Hinata glared at her father.
"You had no right to make that decision." The Suna councilmen barked.
"I didn't make it. Your Kage did." Hinata snapped.
"Woah, let's all chill out here." Naruto stood up. "It's important that we remember both Gaara and…"
"Kouki." Hinata filled.
"… Kouki are healthy." Naruto moved up beside her. "I'm sure all the details can wait until they are both out of the hospital. And I feel the need to remind the Hyuga from Konoha this is not their problem." Hiashi ground his perfect teeth. "This matter was already decided when they were married. The child cannot be branded as he's the heir to the Suna faction of the Hyuga and Gaara's son." Naruto reminded them. "You guys are here to welcome the baby. That's it."
Hinata was relieved that Naruto was there to control them. They were going to try to get around it, but him making it so clearly made it much easier.
"We are all surprised. I know I certainly am. Gaara is an awful liar. So I don't think they kept this with any ill intent. If I was having a kid, and we weren't sure if it would live, I'm not sure I would want to talk about it constantly."
"Hokage-sama, surely you appreciate our concern with all this secrecy and the concern with the one tails being transferred without our knowledge." The councilmen tried.
"Gaara couldn't house Shukaku-san. We aren't sure if it was his removal or Gaara's healing after, but their chakra refused to rejoin. The chakra drain would have killed Gaara in a few days or maybe even hours. If it wasn't Kouki-san, the next choice would have likely been me or anyone else available and compatible." Hinata filled. "It had to be a quick decision, or else you would have had a dead Kage with me, or someone else would have been the vessel for Shukaku. In the end, I'm sure we would still be having this pointless argument over whether or not you should have been informed first." Hinata snapped more at the end when she felt her anger rise.
"How are they doing now?" Hanabi asked, changing the tone.
Hinata smiled. "Much better. Gaara should regain his full strength soon, and Kouki will need to spend a while more in the hospital as he was so premature for his development stage. My medic has informed me that having Shukaku to boost his chakra is strengthening him, and he is developing twice as fast as he was." Hanabi sat back, satisfied with breaking the angry tension, while their father continued to seethe.
"I think this should be handled when Gaara can be part of the conversation." Naruto pressed. "And Konoha has no reason to be concerned, as it is a Suna citizen in question." He gave a pointed look to Hiashi.
The councilman was annoyed and defeated. "We will talk about this matter once the Kage has his health, but we want to be informed of any pregnancies in the future."
"There is no need to worry about that. There won't be any." Hinata declared instantly.
"It's customary for the head to have more than one…" The Konoha Hyuga council started.
"Let me rephrase." Hinata cut him off. "There can't be anymore." The room fell silent. "My pregnancy caused complications. I can't have any more children." Hinata paused to let it sink in. "Kouki-san will have to do." She wasn't telling the whole truth. She couldn't bear children. She still had her eggs, but she couldn't have any in her womb. Its chakra was scared and rendered it inhabitable. Not that Gaara would let her try again.
"Well, we will… talk about this all later." The councilmen muttered.