After the pain

Disclaimer: Don’t own them; if I did they would be cooperating with me better.


Reemu-chan: Thank yu, I love the cute stuff too. Gaara will be explained a bit below, and the 'fanclub' will return, . Temari will start to et back to her old self in a bit, (Watch out girls)

FireKitty: THank you, that means a lot.

Darkness lives: Yes many questions, well stay tuned. *Grins*

sailor mercury: Thants great! Thanks.

ms. tuesday: I shall try to keep you entertained.

slain lord baki: Yes, it takes a while and unfortunatly with summer almost here it might start to be longer, do not worry I will not abandon the fic.

Thank you again every one for your notes.


** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chapter twelve

Kankuro sighed heavily as he dismissed yet another worried villager.

Getting up from his usual chair that sat to the left of Gaara’s desk the puppet master slowly stretched, while individually cracking every one of his vertebra before walking over to the offices window and peered outside.

The same sight that had greeted him for the last three days was still there.

A wall of churning sand surrounded the perimeter of Sana and rose over a hundred feet into the air.
It was like being in the eye of a very violent storm.
Here in the center it was quite, almost eerily so. The sand never encroached on the village walls.

Many feared that Gaara had either gone mad or lost the battle with the demon that was sealed inside of him.

Kankuro knew that later was impossible, Gaara had once told him that since he and the demon Shukaku had bonded the Tanuki no longer wished harm on anyone.

As for his younger brother going mad.
That was a different story; there was no telling what the volatile redhead would do if he believed his sister was lost to him.

The puppet master wished he could tell Gaara that Temari was alive where ever she was. But he knew he couldn’t even if he knew it too be true; there was no way he could reveal how he came by this knowledge.

He shook his head sadly, what a family they made.
Promises, fears and secrets kept them from ever being completely honest with one another. With himself withholding the most, all because of a promise.

Like how he knew after spending much more time with Gaara then Temari did, just how much his older sibling meant to the younger.
Even if he did not show it Gaara, contrary to popular belief had feelings, well some any way.

Maybe it was because Temari was the only female in Gaara’s life that he was almost obsessive about how he protected her Kankuro mussed.
It was hard to say, he had a feeling it was more then that but the younger boy had never given any indication of another reason

A knock sounded on the office door interrupting the painted man’s thoughts.

“Come.” He called.

He moved back to the desk as the door swung open revealing Gaara’s currant office assistant, a young brown haired man named Jajiki who walked in with several scrolls in his arms.

“Several more of our people along with a traveling merchant have appeared.” The young man informed Kankuro. I also have some papers that were supposed to be looked over by the Kazkage.”

“Were any of the new arrivals injured?” Kankuro asked as he reached for the scrolls.
This was the part he hated more when his brother disappeared, paper work.
As Gaara’s second he was obligated to at least look at all the reports that came in when the Kazkage was unavailable to do so.

“Just the usual nausea sir.” Came the reply to his question.

The painted jonin allowed a half smile to touch his lips.
Every so often over the last three days someone who had been unlucky enough to have been caught in the sand storm would be dumped in a rather undignified heap just inside the village gates.

Alive and unharmed.

That fact alone gave Kankuro some reassurance that Gaara hadn’t completely gone off the deep end. Yet.
As long as the younger man was going out of his way not to harm any one there was hope he would still come out of this, for lack of a better word, tantrum in one piece and as his usual self.

Hopefully it would all be over soon, after all how long could even a demon vessel keep up with that kind of chakra output?

“Sir, may I ask you something?” Jajiki asked.

Kankuro looked up from that scroll he was opening.

“Of course.”

“Why aren’t you sitting behind the desk?”
The young man obviously thought the way his boss’s right hand was sitting; having to twist his upper body in order to use the desk surface for any kind of writing had to be very uncomfortable.
When in fact it didn’t bother the painted jonin in the slightest.

It wasn’t the question the puppet master had expected, but at least it was a refreshing one.

“My brother is the Kazkage not I,. I would not presume to take his place in any way.” He gave the young man a pointed look before turning his attention back to the scroll he held.
“We will simply manage his affairs until his return.”

“Of course.” Jajiki bowed and left the office.

‘You better get back to normal soon Gaara. We need to continue our search for Temari and I’m NOT doing all your paper work for you.’
Kankuro grumbled at his absent brother.

* ** * * * * * * * * * *


Temari concentrated on taking deep even breaths, she could do this.
She had been having a good day, a good twenty hours actually.

Yesterday afternoon she had fallen asleep on Naruto’s couch and hadn’t stirred again until her host had come home from work.
Naruto had then made an excellent dinner and they enjoyed a pleasant evening together before heading off to bed.
It still amazed her that after sleeping most of the day she had still been tired enough to drop off almost immediately.
Best of all she didn’t dream at all and had woke up refreshed and feeling much more energetic.

Her goofy blonde host had already left for training by the time she got up but he had left a note saying he would see her at noon and told her not to over do it.

She had actually laughed at the letter he was worse then her brothers.
But not wanting to end up like she had the day before she had confined herself to doing a couple loads of laundry and sweeping the floors.
Even if she did still find it weird that she was liking house work.

The rest of the time she had gone through several series of stretching exercises, she wanted to get back to her training as soon as she could but seeing as her body just wasn’t up for it yet she figured stretching was at the least a good start and did not require a large amount of energy.

She had been quite bored all morning so her mind had started to wander.

She knew that her brothers would have been notified of her where a bouts by now.
It usually only took a messenger two days at the most to go between the two villages so more then likely the over bearing duo would be on their way to Konoha by now.

As much as Temari wanted to rejoin her brothers she was not looking forward to Kankuro teasing her about letting her self get captured.
And he would do it too, especially since she had decided to keep most of the details to herself.
She would much rather take his joking then his pity.

The only draw back to her decision was that she had to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Her two siblings were far too observant for her to get away with acting as she had the day before.
And if Gaara demanded an explanation for why she was as jumpy as a rabbit she wouldn’t have any other choice but to tell him the whole story.

So after going out to lunch with Naruto she had once again insisted on heading back to his place on her own.
But first she had decided to take a detour and just wander around a bit, she had to get used to interacting with people on her own again.

And that was how she had gotten to where she now stood staring up at the Konoha hospital.

The logical side of her brain told her she really needed to go in and have that pregnancy test like the old woman Auna had told her too.
The same logic said it would be better to do that here rather then in Sana and before her brothers showed up.

It was the other more terrified part that didn’t want to know, that argued that with all the injuries and blood loss she had sustained it would be impossible so why go through the whole embarrassing process.

So now Temari stood rooted to the spot trying to decide what to do.

“Temari-san.”

The sand ninja nearly jumped out of her skin as the greeting took her by surprise.

“I’m sorry if I startled you.” Hinata chuckled softly as she approached.

Upon recognizing the Hyuga the blonde kunoichi relaxed and even managed a wobbly smile.

“I’m afraid you caught me daydreaming she told the pale eyed woman.

Hinata smiled in understanding.

“You’re alone.” Temari commented having noticed the absence of Hinata’s two children.

“Yes, they’re at home with Shino today. I was just on my way to take my shift at the hospital.” She replied.

“You’re a medic-nin?”

“Yes, I’ve found a better use for my talents and blood limit.”

‘Ask her you’re comfortable around her.’ Temari’s inner voice suggested.

Deciding that it was a valid point, asking Hinata would be a lot easier than asking a complete stranger Temari cleared her throat.

“Actually, I was trying to work up the nerve to go in there myself.” She admitted softly.

“Oh, are you feeling alright?” Hinata’s voice was filled with concern.

“I am still getting tired rather quickly.” Temari admitted. “But there is actually a different reason.”
She bit her lip and hoped she wasn’t going to start blushing again.

“And what would that be?” The Hyuga asked gently.

“Well…. I was… um… hoping…wanting to find out if I’m…um.. Pregnant.”

And she blushed!
She couldn’t help it.

‘Maybe it would have been better if I was talking to a complete stranger.’

“OH! You think you’re pregnant?” Hinata asked clapping her hands together happily.

Her reaction was not what Temari was expecting and it completely threw her off.

“It’s… well it is possible and I just want to be sure…. You know in case there is a problem.”

‘THAT A STUPID THING TO SAY!’ She could have hit herself when the last words left her mouth.

‘I can’t help it, she threw me off!’

‘Now it sounds like your exited or hopeful or something.’

‘Well I’m certainly not going to tell her the truth!’

Temari’s inner debate was interrupted when Hinata linked arms with her.

“I can take care of that for you.” Hinata assured her as she drug Temari towards the hospital building.

Having no idea how to get out of the situation now that she was in it,
The blonde jonin had no choice but to go along for the ride.

Twenty minuets later the rather shell shocked Sand Kunoichi found her self alone in an examination room nervously waiting on the Hyuga woman.

A moment later Hinata breezed through the door, now sporting a white coat over her clothing.

“Good you’re changed, Hop up on the table.” She instructed.

Temari did as she was told, although she had no idea why she had to wear the drafty hospital gown.

“So you mentioned the other day that you had suffered some extensive injuries.”

Temari nodded

“Can you tell me what they were?”

“I’m not actually sure what all of them were; cracked wrist, broken ribs for sure, and more then likely at least some internal injuries.” Temari murmured, trying not to think about it too much.

“Naruto refused to tell me.” She hurried to explain when Hinata gave her a questioning look. “All he would say was that I was lucky to be alive.”

“I see.” Hinata said as the veins around her eyes started to stand out as she activated her blood limit. “In that case I better give you a full check up.”

That comment made Temari a little nervous, she had no idea what the Hyuga would find and what conclusions she, might come too.

“Some of your chakra paths are blocked or being inhibited slightly. Give me a second to fix that.”

Her pale hands moved quickly, Temari barely felt the finger tip touches that were used on various points about her body.

“Much better, now I can see better.” Hinata hummed, more to her self then Temari.

“It looks like you lost an awful lot of blood and your chakra is still very low.”

Temari nodded her understanding, no surprise there.

A smile suddenly replaced the frown of concentration on Hinata’s face.

“Amazing!”

“What?”

“You were right Tamari, you’re pregnant.”

Temari blinked, stunned she felt herself freeze up. She had no idea how to react.

The medic-nin didn’t seem to notice.
“Given the condition you’re in and the obvious trauma suffered, it’s a miracle that you didn’t miscarry.”

Temari completely blanked out as the Medic continued to talk while she finished the examination.
Nothing registered; her mind was numb, unable to absorb anything at all.

“Temari?”

A hand shaking her shoulder brought her senses back to the proceedings.

“Hm…. What?”

“Does that sound right?”

“What?” Confused she made eye contact with Hinata.

“You’re a little over two weeks along, is that what you were expecting?”

“Mmm.. Hmm.” She hoped that the sound was enough of an affirmative as the rest of her voice was not willing to cooperate.

“You’re very surprised aren’t you?” Hinata asked gently as she gave Temari’s shoulder a squeeze.

Nodding the blonde could only hang her head and stare at her hands.

“I almost died, it shouldn’t be possible.” She mumbled more to herself then to the woman standing next to her.

She was dismayed when she saw a teardrop land on her clasped hands.
Was she crying?

“They did more then beat you didn’t they.” Hinata stated as she sat beside Temari and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

The blonde’s head snapped up, her eyes wide.

“There is some scar tissue, nothing serious it won’t interfere with giving birth or any future intimate relations.” Hinata assured her.

Temari buried her now flaming face in her hands.

‘She knows! I didn’t want anyone to find out!’

“It’s not your fault Temari; it’s a risk we all take in this profession.” Hinata said, miss reading the blondes reactions.
“I’m sure he’ll understand.” She soothed giving Temari a one armed hug.

‘Who is she talking about?’ Temari wondered as she finally let her hands drop back to her lap.

‘My brothers? No she said he not they.’
‘Wait! She doesn’t think….’

“You and your baby survived, focus on that and I’m sure the two of you can work through it.” The younger woman advised.

‘She does! She thinks I’m involved with someone back home.’

‘Of coarse she does stupid. Naruto’s the only one who knows how long you were held.’

Taking several deep breaths she tried to assimilate this new turn of events.

‘I think I can handle that.’

‘Now get out of here before you say something stupid and she guesses the truth!’

“Thank you Hinata-san, I guess the news was a little more of a surprise them I thought it would be.” Temari told the medic-nin as she got to her feet.

The sand jonin was proud of her self when she managed to keep her voice even; she even managed a smile, sort of.

“I better get going; I wouldn’t want to keep you from your other patients.” She continued as she reached for her pants.

“It was no trouble at all, I’m glad I could help.” Hinata replied. “But remember to take it easy. Your body is still very weak, don’t put any strain on your self for a while okay.”

Temari nodded her head even though the Hyuga’s words barely registered.

Hinata got to her feet as well and headed for the door.

“If you need anything at all or just want to talk don’t hesitate to call me.”

“I won’t.” Temari managed to reply as she tied the string in the waist band of her pants.

‘I won’t be calling fore help.’ She thought. ‘I’m not a complete invalid.’

“I’ll see you later then.” With a wave Hinata was gone.

Temari quickly finished dressing and left the hospital as quickly as she could.

She kept a fast pace all the way back to Naruto’s apartment.
During the ten minuet walk she refused to think about anything other then putting one foot in front of the other.

And she was successful until she was once again inside the flat and sitting on the couch staring at the closed balcony doors.

That’s when the reality of the situation slowly started to sink in.
Then she found her self swamped with a myriad of emotions, thoughts, fears and denials.

“This can’t be happening to me.” She whispered.

Curling into a fetal position there was nothing she could do but sob.

** * * * * * * * *

Hinata was very happy for Temari there was nothing more amazing then bringing a new life into the world. But at the same time she felt a touch of disappointment.

After watching the way the kunoichi from sand interacted with Naruto and he with her on their little joined shopping excursion.
The former heir to the Hyuga clan had started to hope that maybe there was something growing between the two of them.

Hinata loved Naruto like a brother and enjoyed a very close relationship with him.
Although neither of them ever spoke of it she knew the sunny blonde felt the same way, they were family.

Because of this the pale eyed woman knew he was very lonely and had been hoping that he would find someone to love.

It had been years since the kitsune vessel had been in any sort of a romantic relationship and it had not ended well.
Hinata feared that the bad experience had turned him off of trying to find someone to share his life with.

Hinata sighed as she finished filling out a file for Temari and moved to flip through the list of duties she had for the day.

Temari was obviously involved with some one in her home country, or had been at least.

The medic-nin stopped and tapped her pen against her lips; she had not missed the slight tensing of the sand jonin’s body when Hinata had mentioned the baby’s father.

The pen ended up between her teeth as the byakugan user mauled over the idea of finding a way to question Temari further about that particular subject in the near future.

Finally she decided to stop and see the blonde in the next few days to have a nice visit without any children or men present.

Satisfied with that plan of action Hinata happily started her rounds.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“But Senseiiiiiiiiiiii.” The girl whined, not for the first time that day.

“Meeka, for the last time. I can not AND will not have you transferred to another team.” Naruto stated firmly.

It was the second time that day the new Genin had managed to corner him and beg to be moved to a different cell.

“But I don’t want to have to see that jerk every day!” Meeka retorted stomping her foot for emphasis.

“Toya apologized so I don’t see the problem.” Naruto returned as he continued walking.

“I hate him!” The girl shrieked as she jumped into his path to stop him from leaving.

Sighing he knelt down so he was closer to her eye level.
It amazed him that Meeka’s group had passed their teachers test with the way the girl was going on about her teammate.

“Listen to me Meeka, this is the one and only time I’m going to say this and then we will not talk about it again.”

The girl looked at him sullenly and folded her arms in front of her.

“If you are going to be a ninja there will be many times that you will have to work with people that you don’t like. So right now you have two options; you can either learn to work with Youri, Toya or…..”

He watched her green eyes light up hopefully.

“You can quit.” He finished bluntly.

He had to bite back a chuckle at the chocked look on her face.
What did she expect him to say?
He was in no position to play favorites and he wouldn’t have moved her even if he could, she needed to learn.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!”

“Those are your options, no negotiation.”

The girl looked totally crest fallen, her arms fell to her sides and she stared at her feet.
After a short silence she mumbled.

“I won’t quit.”

Naruto did smile then. “That’s my girl.”

He ruffled her Kelly colored hair as he got back to his feet.

“You should head home for super before your Aunt and Uncle start to worry.”

But the girl didn’t budge.
And as much as Naruto wanted to get home he couldn’t leave the girl looking so dejected. Call it a weakness.

“Want to know a secret?” He asked leaning down as he lowered his voice almost to a whisper.

It wasn’t really a secret but what the hell; she was too young to know that.

“A secret?” She asked, her eyes lifting to meet his.

“When I was first put on my team, Sasuke and I hated each other.”

Meeka’s mouth dropped. “But…but you’re best friends! Every one says so.” She protested.

“Sure, now we are. It didn’t start out that way though.”

A frown quickly replaced her shocked expression.

“But I don’t want to be friends with Youri, Toya.” She stated.

Naruto chuckled as he straightened; he should have known it wouldn’t be that easy with this girl.

“Then why don’t you just focus on improving and working on your team work skills. If you work hard enough I bet you can surpass him, even if you are a year behind.”
He told her with a wave as he turned to reassume his walk home.

He didn’t miss the sparkle that appeared in the girls eyes at his suggestion.

‘I probably shouldn’t have said that.’ He decided when Meeka headed off with an almost gleeful grin on her face.

‘Poor Toya.’

Shrugging he continued on his way.

‘O well, it will keep the boy on his toes. It will be very interesting to see them in their chunin exams. Those two will make one hell of a team if they ever learn to get along.’

Chuckling at the thought Naruto quickened his pace.
He was late getting home as some last minuet mission reports had come in and he had to at least look them over before calling it a night.
Normally staying late was not a problem, but since he had a house guest it was not sitting well with him.

He hoped that Temari had at least gone ahead and eaten without him.
It was already eight o’clock he realized as he glanced at his watch and most of Konoha had retired indoors for the evening.
He was also looking forward to just relaxing a bit, he had had a small nagging head ache most of the day and it was starting to wear on him.

Five minuets later he was unlocking the door to his apartment.
Pushing the door open he was surprised to find the flat as dark as it was out side.

‘Temari must have gone to bed early I guess she’s still not quite back on her feet yet.’

He pushed aside the disappointment he felt at not being able to see her before he retired for the night. In just two days he had gotten used to her being in his home and he found he was enjoying the company, probably more then he should as it was a temporary situation.

Shedding his sandals and quietly closing the door he made his way to the kitchen where he switched on the small light over the stove.
No sense in accidentally waking up his house guest he decided.

Grabbing an apple off the counter he munched on it while he opened the fridge and tried to decide what to eat.
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and straightened to look over at the living room area.

A slight smile touched his lips when he spotted Temari curled up on the couch.

‘She fell asleep again.’

Closing the fridge he finished his fruit then decided to move his guest to the bedroom.
He knew from experience that the couch wasn’t all that comfortable.

It wasn’t until he was beside her and leaning down to pick her up that he saw the remnants of tears reflecting the light from the kitchen.

“What the hell?”

Brushing aside some stray locks of hair that had escaped her braid he inspected her face closer and found that her eyes were puffy and red from crying.
Something had obviously happened to upset her and he wanted to know what it was.

Kneeling down beside the couch he gently rubbed her shoulder and side.

“Temari, wake up Babe.” He called softly.

It took a few moments for her to respond and for her eyes to slowly flutter open.

“Naruto.” A faint smile accompanied her greeting.

“What’s wrong Babe?” He asked as he continued to stroke her side.

Her brows furrowed in confusion at his question.

“You’ve been crying.” He clarified his hand leaving her shoulder and moving to touch a finger to her cheek.

She was obviously not yet completely awake because it seemed to take her a moment to remember what had upset her.

‘Maybe it wasn’t a big deal in the first place. I’m probably just getting paranoid.’ He decided as she pushed herself into a sitting position while he pulled back to sit on the floor so as not to crowd her.

Temari’s eyes moved around the dimly lit room as if trying to find the answer to his question.
Naruto was just about convinced that there was nothing really wrong when her eyes suddenly started filling up with tears.

“Temari what…” She threw herself off the couch and into his arms before he could finish the question.

‘Here we go again.’ He sighed silently as she began crying in earnest.

It wasn’t that he had anything against crying in general hell, as far a he was concerned Temari had good reason to blubber away all she wanted.
It was just that she had been doing so well after that first night back in Konoha that he had figured that she had pretty much gotten her balance back.
It looked like he had been wrong.

And then there was the fact that he felt like he wasn’t doing very much to help her. He wanted to comfort and reassure her but he didn’t really think that just holding her until she stopped crying was really all that helpful.

He wished there was something he could actually do, taking some sort of action was always easier then just sitting there with her soaking the front of his shirt.
Not that he minded holding her, quite the opposite in fact. He would love to hold her more often. It was just…..

He felt so powerless when she was like this.

It took the young man a few minuets to realize that his thoughts had kind of wandered off on their own.
The only good thing was that Temari wasn’t crying nearly as hard as she had been at first.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” He finally asked gently.

She hiccupped once and her tears seemed to subside a little more.

“My life is over.” She mumbled against his chest.

“Hey, that’s not true.” He protested quietly as he gave her a light squeeze before starting to rub small circles on her lower back.

“Things will get better you just have to give it a little time that’s all.”

He felt her fingers at his back start to tangle in the material of his shirt, a sure sign that something was still bothering her.
Taking a deep breath before slowly releasing it Naruto decided not to ask her what was wrong, again.
It never seemed to work any way, So far Temari had always ended up telling him what was troubling her, eventually.
It made little sense to do anything until she was ready, even if that meant all he could do was simply sit and hold her until she finished calming down.
What was one more sleepless night.

Temari’s fingers tightened at his back momentarily but it took Naruto a moment to realize that she had also spoken again.
But he completely missed what ever it was she had said.

“What was that Temari?” He asked, even as a part of him found it strange that he had not heard her, with his hearing he could pick up a sound from miles away at times.

He was distracted from that thought when Temari pulled away from him slightly.
There was a sinking sensation in his gut when she brought her arms up to her chest defensively, even if she didn’t move off of his lap.
She turned her face away from him so that her flaxen bangs hid her face from his view.

“I’m pregnant.” She whispered softly.

Naruto froze.
His body tensing.

Something wasn’t right; he thought he heard her say……
But that wasn’t possible…

‘UM technically.’

Okay so it was possible, but the odds.
Well he had no idea what the odds were, but hell! It shouldn’t have happened, not after all the damage her body had taken.
His mind raced through all the medical training he had received, trying to remember anything about conception and the like.
He came up with a total blank and then realized that it wasn’t the time to be trying to figure out how it was possible, because it obviously was.

“Temari….” His voice was ruff and he was also at a loss for words.

She visibly flinched away from him.
Lifting his right hand he gently grasped her chin, wanting to see her face, to look into her eyes.

“Don’t.” She entreated, moving away from his touch before she slid off of his lap as well.
She moved to sit with her arms wrapped around her upraised knees.

A chill swept through his body as she effectively shut him out with a single word.

Part of him wanted to pull away from her as well, to leave her to deal with her own problems. It really didn’t have anything to do with him any way it reasoned.
If she didn’t want his help fine, he would leave her to her own devices.

But he stayed, she was hurting.
The pain rolled off of her being in waves he could feel them.
And no one should be left alone when they were feeling like that.
He knew, he had experienced it many times.

And besides the more optimistic side of him pointed out, it was the first time she had moved away from his touch since the first day he had found her.

“Temari listen,” He moved to rest a hand on her feet. “It’s going to be alright.” He tried to sound as reassuring as he could.

But once again she refused to let him touch her as she moved her legs away.

“Don’t touch me.” Her voice was void of emotion.

A kick in the stomach would have been less painful for the kitsune vessel.

He unconsciously took her rejection personally, as he tried desperately to figure out what he had done to cause her to turn away from him.
Especially considering that at first she had been the one to seek physical contact and comfort from him.

It was then that Temari chose to speak; revealing to the confused young man some of how her distraught mind was working.

“You think I’m disgusting don’t you.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. Her voice was flat and empty of emotion.

“What?!” Naruto’s brow furrowed, where had that come from?

“There’s no way to hide it now,” Her silver eyes stared off into space as her body started rocking back and forth. “Everyone will know.”

Naruto cocked his head, trying to decide where she was going with that particular line of thought.

“I feel dirty, like I was violated all over again.” Tears started to form in her eyes yet again. “I don’t know anything about babies, how am I supposed to take care of it?”

She didn’t give Naruto a chance to answer before her voice turned hard and angry.

“Bastards!” She spat, “I’m going to fucking kill them.” Her lips twisted in an evil, almost deranged smile. “Yup, kill them dead, one at a time…..nice. And. Slow.”

When she then switched back to being teary eyed, Naruto seriously started to question her sanity.
Nothing she said made any sense, at least not when it was put all together.

Upset he could deal with, anger was understandable as was a blubbering incoherent individual.
But all of those variations mixed together were starting to scare him.

Once she got started Temari never paused long enough to let him say or do anything, in fact it was like she was no longer even aware of his presence.

The blonde shinobi was starting to consider sending for Tsunade, she would know what to do.
And yet he hesitated, he knew Temari wouldn’t want any attention drawn to her.
The kunoichi suddenly surged to her feet and started to pace around the room, her hands moving wildly as she continued to ramble.

He also got to his feet and moved to turn on another light so he could see her more clearly. He tried talking to her several times but she always cut him off.
And he was also having trouble keeping up with her rapidly changing emotions.

‘Torture, yup torture is good.” She rubbed her hands together almost gleefully. Long and slow, make them scream for once.”

“This can not be happening, it’s impossible. There is no way it could have survived.”

“I’m dreaming that’s it, another freaking nightmare.”
Her head nodded vigorously as she agreed with herself and that’s when Naruto decided he needed help.

He headed for the door then decided that he probably shouldn’t leave her alone so he figured sending a clone was a better idea.

He had just formed the first sign of the jutsu when….

“Naruto.”

He turned to find Temari now standing behind him instead of rapidly marching around the room. And for the first time since she had moved into his arms she was looking him directly in the eye.
Her silver eyes full of pain and uncertainty.

“Naruto.” Her lower lip trembled as she took a small step towards him.

“I’m scared.” She confessed her voice hoarse.

Naruto dropped the partly formed jutsu and slowly reached a tentative hand towards her. He wasn’t sure what he would do if she turned away from him again.

“I know you are Temari.”

But this time she didn’t hesitate, her pale cold hand slid into his and she moved willingly when he gently drew her towards him.

“I don’t know what to do.” She whispered before burying her face in his chest.

“You’re going to be just fine Temari.” Naruto told her as he once again wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “But you need to calm down now.”

He felt her nod against his chest and her body relaxed a little against him.
Taking a couple deep breaths Naruto was just glad he had somehow managed to weather the emotional storm the slight woman had created as easily as she wielded her giant fan to form whirl winds.

After a few moments of silence he decided that the best thing to do now would be to get the woman in his arms into bed, she was exhausted and obviously not thinking straight.
A good nights rest would do a world of good, for them both.
He wasn’t sure if he could handle another go round like that.

“You need to get some sleep.” He told her. “Then you can take a fresh look at this in the morning.”

With that said he reluctantly stepped back releasing his hold on her, intent on getting her comfortable and settled for the night.
But Temari remained rooted to the spot.

“What’s to look at?” She intoned flatly. “I’m pregnant, like millions of women before me. Only instead of a loving partner I get knocked up by four Fuckers intent on getting their jollies off me by force because it just so happens that they get off on hearing a woman scream.”

Naruto had no idea what to say to that so he just captured one of her hands and gave it what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze.

“I should have died, but instead here I am and……” Her eyes suddenly widened as if a realization had just come to her. A moment later her breathing started to increase.

“Oh my God, Oh my God!”

“Temari snap out of it.” Naruto tightened his grip on the hand he was holding in a desperate attempt to get her attention as she started going into panic mode again.

“I can’t even tell him, I can’t, I don’t know.”

Naruto had no idea what she was babbling about now but he knew he was loosing ground fast.

“Girl, you have got to calm down.” He told her as he waved a hand in front of her face.

He did manage to get her to look at him but she had already worked herself onto the brink of hysterics again, to the point where she was almost hyperventilating.

“I can’t do this, I can’t do this!” Her voice was shrill, panicked.

“Take me to the hospital.” She demanded in the next breath as she pulled her hand away from him and started fanning her self with both her hands.

Naruto was immediately concerned.

“What’s wrong Temari?”

Was she not feeling well? Or was this just another piece of her raving he wondered.

“I can’t! I can’t! We have to go. Take me to the hospital, take me now!”

Naruto’s eyes widened in horror as her rambling suddenly started to make sense.
Temari wanted to go to the hospital. He shook his head.
She wasn’t actually considering…………

Somehow he managed to get a hold of her shoulders.

“Temari you have to listen to me, you need to calm down and think about this before you do anything.” He told her firmly.

“NO!” She screamed as she tried to pull out of his grasp. “I’d be better off DEAD!”

Whether it was her words or the night had finally taken its toll was hard to say, but Naruto snapped.

His hands slid down to grasp her upper arms and tightened, holding her in place.

“THAT’S ENOUGH WOMAN!” He bellowed as he gave her a firm shake.

Temari’s eyes snapped up to his.

“Don’t talk like that way, your stronger then that.’ He told her with a growl.

Her breath caught in her throat for a moment as she felt the anger rolling off of him in waves as his chakra momentarily flared.

“But I.”

“NO! No, buts life tends to get shitty, get used to it.”

“But I can’t….”

“Can’t or wont.” He hissed.

Her silver eyes got wider as he seemed to bare his teeth at her.

“Now you listen and you listen good! You have an innocent life inside of you; it had nothing to do with what happened! Now if you decide you don’t want it fine, that’s up to you. But you will NOT go off half cocked and do something that you might regret.”

Temari’s mouth opened and closed several times but no sound came out.

Naruto was still steaming mad.
Leaning down so that their noses almost touched he spoke again.

“Once you have calmed down you are going to rationally think about this situation, then and only then will you make a decision. Do you understand me?” His voice was still harsh.
But as soon as she nodded his grip on her arms loosened and he stepped away from her.

As quickly as it had come he felt his anger drain away. He didn’t want to examine the cause for his reaction very closely so he shoved all thought of that aside.

Naruto’s conscience was already bugging him, telling him that he had been too harsh and he needed to apologize for the things that he said.

He told the voice to take a hike the same way he would if it had been Kyubi talking.
Before he could get in an argument with himself he saw Temari start to droop.

She wads obviously very tired as her legs started to wobble and she almost collapsed in front of him.
Without hesitation he picked her up bridal style and carried her towards the bedroom.

The blonde decided she must not be too upset with him, at least not yet because she looped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder as he walked.

“Why did this happen to me?” She whispered.

“You’re asking the wrong person Babe.” Was his only reply as he set her on the edge of the bed so he could free one hand to pull the covers back.

He had to get some space between them.
But Temari refused to let go of him when he tried to untangle her arms from around his neck, so with a sigh he ended up sitting down himself with her once again in his lap.

“You need to get some sleep Temari.” He told her, his voice once again had returned to normal even if his insides were still in knots.

“I can’t sleep.” She muttered. “My head won’t stop spinning.”

As much as Naruto needed to put some distance between them he couldn’t leave her if she was still upset, so he shifted her position slightly and started gently rubbing her back.
The soothing motion was completely at odds with his tense body.

When she finally started to relax he channeled a small amount of chakra into his finger tips and carefully touched several pressure points on the back of her neck.

Moments later she was fast asleep.
He then settled her into bed and tucked the blankets around her body.
The sleeping jutsu he had used was a medical technique used to put patients into a deep dreamless sleep.
It allowed a good eight hours of uninterrupted rest to allow the body to regenerate.

Taking one last look to be sure she was comfortable Naruto quietly closed the bedroom door behind him as he exited the room.

He then headed out the balcony door; He needed to take a run to clear his head.

* * * * * * * *& * * * * * * *

Well there you guys have the longest chapter yet as a thank you for all of your feed back.

Until next time. Legilmyth