#and see you next week

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Ch.9: No lies (2)

Naruto feels her laugh before he can even hear it. 

“I don’t think y-you’ll be able to feel anything y-yet.” Hinata covers his hand with hers and Naruto moves his thumb over her stomach. It is barely noticeable, but there is a bump in her abdomen that was not there before. 

His baby is in there.

He has found himself in a better mood than he thought possible. His pain is a mere afterthought and he has begun training without a problem. Kiba had joked with him the second time his ass had touched the ground. 

Eyes wide, surprise evident on his face. “The mind really does wonders, don’t you think?" 

Sakura worried he might be forcing himself too much. "There should be a limit.” And yes, but also no. 

He had limits before, and now those limits are broken. He feels himself with a newfound power, with a newfound purpose. 

Until his father sits him down in a room -just the two of them again- in order to check his seal. And then, like a bucket of cold water, he remembers. The ordeals he had to endure, his child should endure. The pains he went through, his child would go through. He ought to protect his child, and yet… 

He locks eyes with his father for barely a second and his father gives him a reassuring smile. He knows nothing of what Naruto is thinking, because he has not shared these worries with anyone else, and yet, Naruto knows with certainty that his father would understand.

Out of everyone in the clan, out of everyone in his family. Out of everyone ever. He had to endure these same feelings alone. 

And Naruto has never ever thanked him.

His father made it seem like Naruto’s hardships were just a part of life. Unavoidable and something to be tackled on. And with his father by his side, nothing seemed too much of a hurdle. 

Naruto owes this man everything and then some. 

And he is terrified of going through this with his child. 

Minato moves his hand with expertise and startles and stops the moment Naruto says, “I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, dad, but thank you.”

Minato tilts his head in confusion and Naruto feels a bubbly laugh wanting to come out. “You know… for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Son…”

“I have never thanked you, have I?”

Minato’s hands come to his thighs and he frowns. What is there to thank? If anything, Minato feels like he owes still, owes so much he will never be able to repay this debt. “There is nothing to thank, son.”

Naruto stays silent for a second, feeling his tongue stiff and heavy inside his mouth. “How am I supposed to care for a child that will have to go through… what I went through?”

It’s a whisper. A confession. And if there is anything Minato can do for his son right now, is to reassure him. That whatever he went through will somehow make him fitter to raise his child than Minato could with him. That… knowing what happens to the body will be an asset when his child starts to grow. That, maybe, by some miracle, this child will be exempt from this. That everything will be all right. Minato wants to utter these words and feel satisfied, but he knows those would be lies or half-truths. And the way Naruto is looking at him, with a semblance of calm that cracks every now and then, lets Minato know that he wants the truth. And although Minato looks down, ashamed of himself, he knows at least this is the one thing that helped him overcome the many nights where he cooed Naruto to sleep, where his whimpers accompanied Minato through the nights, where his worsening condition kept him up until the sun would rise and he would have to wipe down his tears and face a new day. 

Because sometimes he also needed to reassure himself that he was not a monster. That he wasn’t a bad father. 

“I am sure you will try your best raising your child.”

Naruto looks somewhat disappointed, as if he was expecting some kind of secret that could lift the heavy rock sitting on his chest. As if expecting more was his mistake. What kind of wisdom did he really want? Lies, he realizes. And his father is giving him the truth. Like always. He ponders a second, and although he understands, he worries still.

“You think that will be enough?”

“… do you resent me in any way?”

Naruto whips his head in disbelief. If he resented him? His father? Minato? Him? How on earth would he ever resent the man that did his best…

A wave of nostalgia and relief washes over him as he realizes that, well, it seems to be enough. “I would never,” Naruto whispers, and Minato hides his eyes from him, writes down on the notebook next to him. A long winded paragraph that doesn’t seem to end. Naruto can’t read what’s in it. 

And Naruto realizes that in the same way that he had things he had never talked with his father, there seemed to be questions his father had never seemed to be able to ask him either. 

“I would never resent you, dad. I am forever grateful.”

His voice breaks and he has to look up to keep the tears from falling. A hundred thank yous wouldn’t suffice. A day kneeling to show gratitude wouldn’t be enough. His chin trembles and he whimpers a thank you he thinks he should have said sooner. 

Minato grabs Naruto’s hand, brings it to his face and shakes his head no. Eyes closed and a painful expression on his face, he says nothing. He is unable to say anything. 

And Naruto is just glad to have said those words now. 

⁂⁂⁂

Hinata stares at her reflection on the mirror. The bump on her abdomen is noticeable when she is naked now -although it is still mostly hidden when she is clothed- and she can’t help but stare. 

Her hands travel to her abdomen and she moves them up and down, to the sides, she covers the bump and then she locks eyes with herself in the mirror. 

Pregnant.

She is pregnant with Naruto’s child. 

Her child. 

She had heard the words and taken the news with nonchalance. It hadn’t really registered. With Naruto’s condition up in the air and her mind elsewhere, she had just nodded along. She hadn’t really understood. Even now, she is only beginning to.

She puts on her robes and heads to bed. She misses Naruto, but knowing he’s now able to take care of the clan business as usual fills her with reassurance. He’s fine.

He’s fine. He’s fine. 

At least for now. 

Lord Minato and Sakura still keep checking in on him and Hinata has seen with her own eyes how Naruto is now able to fight like before, but… there is a deep seated worry buried inside of her that only rests when he brings her into his arms. And Hinata is terrified to think too much about it. 

She realizes she fell asleep the moment she startles when her husband comes into bed.

“I woke you up?” He whispers, still unsure if he did or not. Hinata rustles and moves to be able to see his face. “Sorry about that, go back to sleep.”

He kisses her temple, her forehead, and then accommodates himself next to her. His hands travel around her body and he brings her head to his chest before sighing. His other hand rests on her stomach, where he has made it a habit to rub his thumb over her bump before sleeping. 

But Hinata is restless. Because she misses him in a way that a hug just makes her hungrier. 

“N-Naruto?”

He hums as an answer.

“Are you t-tired?”

He misses the longing in her voice and he mistakes her question as worry over his well-being. “Nothing to worry about, love." 

So Hinata stays with her eyes open, staring at his chest. And she tries again. Her hand to his chest this time, "S-Sakura said we could be i-intimate…”

Naruto has his eyes closed and it takes him a second to understand what Hinata is trying to say. Yes, Sakura said that. And Hinata had kept her eyes glued to the floor when Naruto had asked whether they could have sex or not. The memory makes him chuckle, and then Hinata’s mouth finds his neck and Naruto’s brain understands everything immediately. 

It takes him less than a second to press his hands into her body and bring her even closer to him. 

He’s hard already. 

“If you feel,” he starts, as his mouth bites and sucks on her skin, “If you feel anything weird, you gotta tell me." 

Hinata shudders as his hands start touching her beneath the clothes and she nods and mewls a yes as his body raises over hers.

"If,” Hinaya moans, “if you’re t-tired-”

“Love, I thought you meant tired as in getting back to work,” his hands find her breasts and Hinata’s head shoots back with her mouth open, “Why would I ever get tired of touching my wife?" 

His mouth falls to her chest and Hinata grasps his hair, her nails drag over his scalp and Naruto moves upwards, gives her open-mouthed and sloppy kisses that only make him more impatient. 

He brings his hand between her open legs, but Hinata stops him. 

"Ah, now,” she gasps, her breasts rising and falling under the moonlight, shining with Naruto’s slobber over them, “can we- c-can you just p-put it in?" 

Naruto drags his hands over her legs, her thighs. 

"I m-m-miss you.”

And he has to reign over himself not to throw himself over his pregnant wife. He undoes his belt and brings himself closer to her. His penis shines with precum and he slides it over her, the friction alone could be enough to make him cum. 

“I love you,” he whispers, soft and low. Hinata’s hand covers his own hand over her thigh and Naruto feels the urge to cry. 

“I l-love you." 

Naruto brings his hand down and guides himself inside. The feeling is familiar and warm and new and everything he needs right now. 

Hinata raises her hips to accommodate herself and Naruto moves in and out a couple of times. "You all right?" 

His voice is coarse and low and it sends shivers down her spine. She nods. 

"You can go f-f-faster.”

Naruto closes his eyes and he looks like he’s in pain. His hips move faster, and Hinata feels herself contracting around him. 

Her legs cross behind him and Naruto’s hands dig into Hinata’s thighs. The sound of their bodies is enough for Hinata to lose herself. 

She’s moaning, she’s sure, and she can’t look away from Naruto’s body. Slightly leaner, but still very much full of strength. The muscles on his torso tense and relax as he moves and Hinata finds it mesmerizing. His sweat finds its way down his muscles and Hinata wants to lick him clean. 

She finds herself surprised at the turn her brain has taken, but then Naruto presses into her, then leaves and presses harder, and she knows he’s about to cum. 

His release feels warm inside of her and the way his hands cling to her waist make her want to eat him whole. He stays inside of her a while, as his breathing calms down, as his hips give a last couple of lazy thrusts. 

He brings Hinata’s hand to his lips, then pulls out and sits on his heels. Hinata’s legs close together, in a slow movement Naruto finds terribly sensual. After a couple of seconds, sure enough, his seed spills and he stares. 

He moves to Hinata, peppering kisses along the way, touching everywhere he can. His hand rests on her stomach and he rests his head on his palm.

“How do you feel?”

Hinata chuckles at his worried face, her hand drags over his whisker marks. “I feel v-very good, thank you.”

He laughs at her attitude, then buries his head on her neck, earning a string of giggles as he brings her body closer to him. 

“How d-do you feel?”

Naruto feels the chilly air around him, can hear the rustling of the leaves outside, can even hear some footsteps far away from them. He feels great. But then he feels her heat, and her sweaty skin against his, her eyes on him, and Hinata’s eyes squint as she smiles, his erection against her leg. 

“Oh, I feel fantastic,” Naruto shares and Hinata covers her face as she laughs at his antics. 

He kisses her through her hands, on her hands, on her hair. “Can we go again?" 

Hinata hooks her arms around him, kisses him with fervor before whispering a yes. Time and time again, yes. 

Hinata starts to turn around, but Naruto stops her mid-way. One of her legs resting on the ground, her other hooked around Naruto’s waist. 

"Gotta practice for when you get bigger,” he smiles, as his hand travels around her abdomen. “Everything all right?”

Hinata rests on her side, turns slightly to look at him, “Yes." 

It feels tighter. Not uncomfortable, not weird. Just tighter. And both of them moan as Naruto penetrates her. His hand grabs her leg tight to himself and the other he moves from her stomach to her clitoris. 

Hinata’s head shoots back the moment his hand touches her there. Naruto brings the fluids from where they are connected upwards and he begins to massage in tandem with his thrusts. He earns himself red markings on his thigh, as Hinata grabs onto himself to keep her from screaming out.

From here he can see her bump clearer, and knowing he is the reason for that is enough to make him want to thrust in deep. Deeper. Her breasts bounce and he leans over, he catches Hinata mid-moan. 

He doesn’t stop moving his hand, and when Hinata falls as her arm gets too tired, Naruto buries his head on her chest, moaning against her skin. 

Hinata comes first. She hugs Naruto as she does, and her hips move as she rides her high down. Naruto comes as she clamps down on him, he groans and bites down on her skin, and brings his face to hers, he attempts to kiss her as he squeezes out every last bit of semen he can. He doesn’t need to, he does it anyway.

They snuggle and Naruto hugs his wife from the back. Rests his hands on her abdomen. He makes sure she’s comfortable, he makes sure she’s warm. 

He gives her one last kiss on her cheek. "Good night.”

Hinata hugs his arm and accommodates herself to stay the closest she can to him. His hand drags over her stomach and Hinata joins him. 

Their baby. 

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Ch.9: No lies (1)

Naruto’s body gets better with time, but it is a slow process. His father doesn’t show it in front of others, but whenever they are alone, his worry seeps out of him in waves that make Naruto feel guilty. 

But saying sorry only makes his father look more anguished, so he stops soon after. 

“Jiraiya should be arriving soon. The last time he contacted me he was two weeks away from here… that was a while ago, though.”

Naruto nods as his father presses his hand along his bare torso, and thinks of his godfather hurrying but getting distracted along the way. He smirks. His grandfather loves him and cares about him, but he also trusts Minato’s ability and his own research. 

Naruto has long stopped believing an answer will arrive with Jiraiya, nevermind a cure. His father has always been the one with hope, so he always gets disappointed when Jiraiya arrives with research and information that’s helpful but not the end-it-all kind of panacea his father still believes to be out there… waiting to be found.

Naruto trusts his body and his training and the hours he has spent honing his every fiber and being into being resilient. He trusts the hours his father has spent reading every book available and his godfather travelling far and wide to get his hands on any type of knowledge that looks promising. If he has made it this far, it has been thanks to them.

But there is no cure for him. Because he’s not sick. 

And although it has been hard for him to come to terms with it, he understands where he stands in all of this now. What he can and can not do. He wakes and meditates, then meditates again before sleeping, and each time he reminds himself of who he is, of what being himself means. 

He has a duty and a purpose and a debt with his father, with his family, with his clan and with his people. And he will see it through. 

But nowadays, at night, when Hinata makes sure that Neji goes through with the releasing of his chakras and then they cuddle before they go to sleep. Naruto is able to feel a new kind of desperation sitting at the pit of his stomach. 

“Does Hinata know about Neji and… her father?”

“Yes.”

And yet she says nothing. He owes her another apology, and somehow he thinks that she won’t like to hear it. 

“Grandma Mito…”

“Working herself ragged… as well as Shikamaru and everyone else, really.”

“Have they been able to share what I told you about?”

“Yes. Lord Gaara said the same thing, but you know… not much to go off with.”

Naruto remembers the red eyes staring back at him and the black dots around the pupil. The sharingan. A technique unique to the Uchiha, a terribly powerful clan that threatened the world with their ability to control the Beasts without the need for a vessel… which meant their demise at the hands of every other clan alive that saw them as a threat. 

A murdered clan that had been lost to history. A power that meant their complete destruction… or so they thought. 

What do you look for when the records have no more information about their abilities or their history?

The only thing they can know for sure is that they have a motive for wanting the Beast Tamers dead. But now they can only wait for whatever these remnants of the past have planned for them. 

At least until they regain their footing and start the hunt back. 

So a truce is in place and like never before, the Beast Tamers’ clans seem to be working together. And this seeming camaraderie only makes Naruto shudder with unease.

Minato rises before the door opens and Hinata stands there, looking at Naruto like he could be gone any second now. He smiles. 

His father walks to Hinata and whispers things Naruto can’t catch, but by the time he has put his kimono back on Hinata is by his side. 

Neji is not with her today and Sai sits outside their room, Minato exchanges whispers with him, too. 

“Ready for our walk?” Naruto asks with a tone dripping with energy, but his body is slow, and although he is now able to move on his own, he still has to mask the pain that courses through him. 

“Yes.” And Hinata is next to him, supporting him as he stands.

He has been regaining his strength and he has been adamant on moving his muscles on his own. Sakura shrugged at his request and told everyone that Naruto had always been the person that knew himself best. Everyone still worries over him, and having Hinata by his side, anxiously glancing towards him does make him feel somewhat guilty of forcing himself to get better at an accelerated rate, but…

Shikamaru has shared with him the current state of affairs and now is the prime time for the Beast Tamers’ clans to be attacked. Naruto and Shikamaru can only hope that the first clans to be targeted are those worse than them, but there are little guarantees of anything at this point. 

So he bites down the pain. He has felt worse, that’s for sure, and that’s the energy he tries to channel through him. He hasn’t tried to use the Beast’s chakra yet, but he knows his body wouldn’t be able to channel the energy correctly anyways. He needs to reach a point in which using that is an option, an option that will not leave him on the ground gasping for air and writhing in pain. 

Hinata always accompanies him with the calmest of airs, although her eyes washing over Naruto every once in a while are enough to give her away. What else has Naruto lost thinking that her body language is enough of a tell tale? 

“Hey,” she knows and she hasn’t talked to him about her father, and he wonders… whether she would rather not talk about it to spare him the worry. Much like himself when he tried to deal with this without her knowledge. “I’m sorry about the letters with your father.”

Hinata stops for a second and then keeps on walking as if nothing happened, “Please, d-don’t worry about it.”

But he does. “I wanted to tell you, but… have you read them?”

Hinata nods her head once, a short movement that Naruto can tell comes from her being embarrassed about the contents of said letters. It’s not like she wrote them, though. 

Hiashi just wanted a source of information and since his own daughter was in the heart of a clan that prized privacy over many other things… it stood to reason that he would want to get something out of this. But Naruto couldn’t bring himself to put Hinata in such a position, even less as he got to know her and realized that she was not like her father at all. 

So Neji took over with only a nod. Nothing ever got out of that room and Neji listened and shared all he knew without reservation. Naruto had to say he had been surprised at his attitude. 

“I know it would put you in a tight spot, so that’s why… well, I got help from Neji. He wrote the letters in your stead, the same way you would with your own penmanship. I… wavered about this whole thing once, shared with him my insecurities about hiding this from you, but he told me that I was right in doing this and that he thought you would be better off without contacting your father again, and well, seeing as he never contacted you to know about… you, made it feel like he was right. If he would have ever asked about you or made an attempt to talk to you, I would have told you immediately, I want you to know that.”

Hinata stares at their intertwined arms and then looks up at him. “I know,” she whispers. She also knows her father wouldn’t do that. Neji was right- is right, she is better off not knowing about her father, and if Neji is the one writing the letters, then at least, “Neji d-doesn’t give him any v-vital i-information, right?”

“No. He does a pretty good job with the reports Shikamaru gives him regarding the clan’s standing with the outside, so- well, no, there is nothing in the letters that your father couldn’t know just poking his nose around.”

“Good.”

“I don’t want to lie to you ever again- rather, I don’t want to hide things from you ever again. I promise that. I owe you that.”

There is a strained silence before Hinata asks, with a tremble in her voice, “Will you be a-all right?” 

And Naruto’s first reaction is to smile and nod, reassure her that he will be fine and this is only temporary. But he senses her question is a little more nuanced than that. “I will. I will recover from this, it hurts and it sucks but it has improved greatly and we are already making preparations to prevent this from ever happening again, so yes, I will be all right.”

“H-how will this a-affect you?”

“We don’t know yet. It most likely had an impact on my body. None of the seals and training I go through are made to withstand a forceful tearing of the Beast, but they did help me withstand this whole thing. If I am here now it’s because of my dad and my training… as for what comes after this, well, we are waiting for me to recover and be able to perform as usual before my dad performs a deeper check on the seal. He’s actually hoping my godfather brings some sort of help that will enhance my seal or whatever, but…” Naruto sighs and battles with himself whether he should even share this with Hinata, seeing as he can’t even bring himself to discuss this sort of thing with his own father. But he did just tell her he didn’t want to hide anything from her, so. “I don’t think my godfather will bring anything that could change my current situation, Hinata. I don’t think there is anything out there that can give me a normal life span.”

Naruto feels himself be dragged to a stop, and Hinata doesn’t look him in the eyes, “What does th-that mean?”

“It means… I don’t think there is a cure to having the Nine-Tails inside of me.”

She says nothing, but this time her eyes find his and she stares, something bubbling up inside her.

And somehow Naruto panics, “That- That doesn’t mean I will give up on trying any new thing that comes to my attention. Nor does it mean I will, I don’t know, stop undergoing my chakra release sessions, or doing my meditations or anything like that, okay? I will still try to-”

“I’m pregnant.”

It takes him a moment to process the words that leave his wife’s mouth. His eyes seem unable to tear themselves from her face, trying to make sense of her words. 

“Excuse me?”

“I’m p-pregnant.”

There is a rush of feelings Naruto can’t seem to recognize. There is the strangled feeling of desperation first, overwhelmed after by anxiousness and worry, but they all disappear in an instant as he realizes that he is going to be a father. 

A father. Him. 

His child. 

His arms find Hinata’s waist and he envelops her in a tight hug, buries his face in her hair and breathes her in. 

Their child. 

“Congratulations,” he says, voice full of emotion, and Hinata’s arms find his body and slowly hugs him back. 

“Congratulations,” he says again, and his chest starts to rumble, as a laugh starts to find its way outside. He puts distance between them and cups Hinata’s face with his hands. Her eyes shine under the setting sun and Naruto can’t control the smile on his face. 

He forgets everything in that moment.

His struggles, the future, his anxiousness, his role as clan leader, his role as vessel. For the first time in forever, his brain forgets to remind him that his body hurts, the pain fog that floats around him disappears. 

He is just a soon to be father with the woman he loves in his arms and the news of a baby coming is all he can think about. 

And this moment he treasures. Even after they reach their room, even after he presses his ear to Hinata’s stomach -who laughs at his antics-, even after they go to sleep and Hinata’s soft breath washes over his chest. 

The room gets dark and his mind reels everything he dared to forget in a rush. His smile doesn’t falter, and his heart still feels full of happiness. But he cries. 

He is euphoric at the news, and can now gather what all those whispered conversations were about. He brings Hinata closer to him, kisses the top of her head. 

He smiles still, but his eyes are wide open, and he just stares into the darkness of their room.