Never Leave Me - Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Suigetsu had quickly decided that sitting just outside the borders of Konoha waiting for an Akatsuki member to show up was boring; mind-numbingly boring. His only source of entertainment for the last month was bugging Karin, and even that was getting old quickly. He glanced over at their leader who was silently brooding as his eyes scanned the forest over and over.
“Hey, why do you think the Akatsuki kidnapped Naruto in the first place? He didn’t seem that special.” Karin asked no one as she leaned back on her hands and stared at the sparse blue sky peeking through the tree tops.
Suigetsu was about to insult her stupidity when it dawned on him as well, but couldn’t resist the natural impulse to set the redhead off. “Thinkin’ about Blondie, huh? Sasuke should be happy you finally gave on him.”
A slight tick in one of her finely shaped eyebrows was the only warning before Karin let out an angered screech and swung, splashing the water from Suigetsu’s face onto the ground behind him.
He chuckled as his head rematerialized. “Bulls-eye, huh?”
Karin hissed at him, rearing up for another hit when Sasuke sent her a silent glare; a chill went down her spine and she plopped back down on the ground where she’d been sitting. She let out a tired sigh as Sasuke turned back to his look-out. “I mean, yea, he had copious amounts of chakra, it was ridiculous, but what could they want with him?” She ran a hand through her hair and worried her bottom lip a bit. “It doesn’t make sense what they could have had planned for him, especially locked up like that; nor why they’d come after him again.” She caught her own slip. “Ah, not that I’m saying this is a bad idea, I just can’t wrap my head around it.”
“Naruto is special.” It was the first thing Sasuke had said in two days; his words had been short, clipped, or near nonexistent in the last month.
Karin frowned, that cleared up nothing for her.
Sasuke offered no more information as he glared at the tree line, just daring his brother to try and silently slip past him. He’d been thinking about Naruto near non-stop since the Konoha group had taken him away, and Karin wasn’t helping because the answers to all the questions she was asking were exactly what he was thinking about. If the Akatsuki were unable to extract the Kyuubi for whatever their original plan was why bother keeping Naruto? They could have killed him so Konoha couldn’t use him to fight. Why the rape? Perhaps it was to break him and manipulate him to work on their side, that way they’d still have the Kyuubi’s power on their side. There were so many questions and so many things that didn’t make sense. His only chances of getting answers was either Naruto or an Akatsuki member, and he doubted either would be willing to give him a clear answer; Naruto could be quite stubborn.
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Naruto groaned into the toilet bowl. This baby hated him more that the triplets had, lately he’d constantly had his head hanging over a toilet; he couldn’t keep anything down. Tsunade had given him a medicine to reduce the morning sickness because it certainly wasn’t healthy that he couldn’t retain nutrition for the fetus, but it wasn’t working, so she was working on making something stronger for him. He hoped that she’d hurry because he was hungry and the acidic taste on the back of his tongue just made him even more nauseous.
Iruka stood in the bathroom door worrying a dishcloth in his hands as he frowned down at the blond.
“Iruka-sensei, I’ll be fine.”
The older man darted his eyes away as if ashamed before looking at the teen again. “I know you don’t want to hear this Naruto, but maybe you should seriously consider an abortion. At this rate you’ll both die.”
Naruto sighed into the porcelain bowl, watching the water ripple. “Can you send someone to check if baa-chan’s finished that new medicine?”
Iruka furrowed his brow at being brushed off, but let it slide because he knew Naruto didn’t want to have an abortion and he wasn’t up for arguing about it. He stepped forward and reached into the medicine cabinet, pulling out cinnamon flavored mouth wash, and set it down on the floor beside the boy before leaving for the living room.
Sakura, Sai, and Kakashi sat in the living room entertaining the triplets. Well actually Kakashi was asleep on the couch, which was a bad idea. Sakura sat back on the floor with Daisuke in her lap, muffling her giggles as Ginji and Rin played with the sleeping man.
Ginji had a large mischievous grin on his face, rivaling his mother’s, as he placed objects on the masked man’s face. There was already a foam cut out of large red lips over the man’s mouth, circles of gold glitter over his cheeks, and the black-eyed boy was currently working on placing stickers everywhere else, including the man’s headband.
Rin had a very concentrated and serious look on her face as she played with the spiky silver hair. There were several clumps of silver hair spiked with pink and purple glitter glue, as well as strategically placed rainbow colored barrettes, and colorful little butterfly clips. She was currently working on making tiny braids out of the longer hair, ending each braid with a plastic flower barrette.
Iruka simply shook his head at the sight, he’d warned the Jounin several times not to fall asleep around the triplets. “Sai, would you mind going to see if Hokage-sama has finished that medicine for Naruto?”
The pale boy gave a curt nod and left.
Kakashi began to stir, and with a cry of delight Ginji jumped off the couch, taking his supplies with him, while Rin finished the last braid and jumped down as well. The three toddlers then disappeared into the kitchen just as the Jounin came fully awake.
Iruka placed his hands on his hips as Sakura finally lost control and started laughing. “I told you not to fall asleep.
Kakashi reached up and pulled one of the stickers from his face. “I see.”
Sakura squealed as she jumped to her feet. “I need a camera!”
Kakashi ran his fingers over the foam lips before tugging one corner of them, only to find it glued to his mask. “It’s just some stickers.” He murmured.
The pink haired girl returned with a flash of light, followed by several more as she clicked away on the camera.
Iruka smiled at the other man in amusement. “No it’s not.”
“This is great; I have to go show Naruto.” Sakura giggled as she flipped through the pictures she’d scooped up off the ground. She dropped the camera on top of the TV and rushed towards the bathroom. “Naruto! You have to see this!”
Iruka picked up the one picture Sakura had missed and passed it to the silver haired man.
Kakashi’s one eye widened slightly before he let out a slight chuckle.
“That’s glitter glue, you know.” Iruka pointed out.
“I’ll survive.” Kakashi shrugged.
There was a knock on the front door before Sai let himself and the Hokage inside without waiting for an answer.
Tsunade took a couple steps towards the bathroom before pausing to stare at Kakashi; she let out a snort, before rudely pointing at the man and letting out a loud laugh. After a moment for the Jounin’s expense, she quieted down and continued her trek to the bathroom, chuckling all the way.
Iruka shook his head and made his way in to the kitchen.
The triplets were balanced on a stepstool; Ginji was tottering on the edge while he fought to scrub the gold glitter from his hands, Rin stood between her brothers while Daisuke helped her wash and gently scrub the purple and pink glitter from her peach skin.
“Getting rid of the evidence?” Iruka mused.
Only Ginji turned to look at him, nearly toppling off the stool in the process. “Duh.” He chirped before turning back to scrubbing his hands.
Iruka approached them, stepping up beside the blond boy to protect him from falling, and took the scrub brush from his hand. “You’re scrubbing too hard, Ginji, look at your hands.” He murmured as he held one of the small, bright red hands. “Here, let’s use this.” He reached towards the back of the sink and grabbed the extra strong dish soap instead of the normal hand soap they had been using. “You too, Daisuke.” He poured some over Rin’s hands first before Ginji’s, then replaced the bottle on the back of the sink. “And let’s use this.” He took the scrub brush from Daisuke’s hands and handed him a sponge instead before taking one for himself. “Use the rough side gently, just like you were with the brush.” The Chuunin explained as he started cleaning Ginji’s hands.
This is how Tsunade found them, all four leaning over the sink. “I gave Naruto the new medicine; he should be able to hold down some food in about an hour. If not, bring him to the hospital.”
Iruka smiled at her from over his shoulder as he continued to help the little blond boy wash his hands. “Thank you, Tsunade-sama, I will.”
“Good luck.” Tsunade gave a jerked nod and left.
“Iruka, can I use your shower?” Kakashi asked, popping his head in the room. He’d managed to remove the stickers from his face as well as all of the hair things.
Iruka turned slightly pink before nodding his consent.
Two hours later the large group of eight sat around the dinner table, Naruto’s dinner light for his empty stomach.
Kakashi still had some glitter in his hair, but was otherwise back to normal. “Feeling better, Naruto?”
“Yea, I want to inhale this food I’m so hungry, but I know I shouldn’t.” He sipped the plain miso soup and turned to the three toddlers. “So you guys had fun playing with Kakashi-sensei this afternoon?” He grinned.
“I wish he was a heavier sleeper, I wanted to draw on his face.” Ginji pouted into his rice bowl.
Naruto laughed. “You shouldn’t be drawing on anyone’s face Ginji, and no more glue, especially not in people’s hair.” He looked over at Rin here, smiling in assurance as the quiet girl squatted in her chair. He reached out and ran his fingers through her silky hair, his eyes softening. “It’s all right Ri-Ri, neither Kakashi-sensei nor I are angry and he got the glue out without any trouble.”
Rin looked up at the silver haired man and Kakashi nodded at her. “Sorry.” She murmured quietly before sitting up and continuing to eat.
“They didn’t do anything wrong.” Daisuke announced. “What kind of shinobi can sleep through something like that anyway? Besides, maybe the glitter left in his hair will start a conversation and he can get a girlfriend so he’ll stop staring at Iruka-sensei’s butt.”
Ginji and Rin giggled into their food. Kakashi was staring wide-eyed at the little black haired boy while Iruka blushed bright red. Naruto blinked at his son before laughing at the two adults’ faces, and then Sakura followed suit. Sai simply sat back and smiled at all of them.
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“Should we go after him?” Kisame asked impatiently.
“No, leave him be. Naruto is indeed pregnant, he’ll get better care in Konoha then he would with us. When the time comes we will take back our offspring.”
“We may not have to wait that long, Pein-sama.” Itachi announced. “When Deidra and I retrieved Naruto I noticed four other chakra signatures in the house, three of which were small children.”
“Is that so?” The man in the shadows seemed happily interested in this new information. “Go gather what information you can on them and their parentage; see if they’re of any use to us.”
“Yes sir.”