Heat

Shikaikou slept peacefully again, and Shikamaru was afraid to lay him down, she knew her hormones had changed her thought process. She worried about things that never would have even occurred to her when she was male. She only knew something strange was happening to her baby and she wanted it fixed now. Naruto gently rubbed her shoulders and she looked up at him. "We will find answers, I swear koibito."

Shikamaru nodded as she watched their son sleeping, "I know Naruto, I'm just scared, is there anyway to ask Kyuubi?" Naruto shrugged but answered, "I'll try koi."

Naruto went back to their room, closing his eyes he sat down and concentrating inwardly. Soon he felt a shift and opening his eyes he saw the long dark tunnel. As he headed down the tunnel he heard her, "Hello kit... got questions?" He soon saw the huge bars and the nine-tail fox pacing, she sat as he approached and then with a raspy growl she asked, "Not easy watching a kit is it?"

Naruto never dreamed he'd be relieved to see the large fox, but as long as she was here she couldn't be in his son. "What has happened to Shikaikou? Why has he changed?" The fox chuckled.

"You thought you would change every year, different then the puny humans by your relationship with me, and your child would be weak like theirs? Your mate has changed just by being yours and yet you are shocked by your kit being different from their fragile offspring. None of the other Jinchuuriki have produced offspring, some died too young others weren't strong enough. You alone have produced a child." Naruto listened in horror as he found he had caused his child to be like him, different, and an outcast.

"No, no it can't be... NO damn you!" All he heard was the raspy chuckles as everything went black and he woke to Shikamaru touching his face.

Naruto looked up into her concerned face. "Naruto... please, Naruto are you alright?" He reached up to touch her face. Tears slipping down his whiskered cheeks, "Shika... it's all my fault. Our son is like that because I'm a Jinchuuriki, Kyuubi said I'm the first one to produce a child, Shikaikou is this way because I couldn't hold back when I was in heat." Shikamaru laid their sleeping son beside his father on the futon. Laying half across him she rained kissing on his face.

"Naruto, koi... you didn't know. Shikaikou will always be loved, he has you to guide him. He won't be alone." Naruto wrapped his arms around Shikamaru and buried his face in her sweet smelling hair. "Never leave us, please koibito. It would kill me. We need you, we both need you."

Shikamaru pulled away to look into his bright blue eyes, letting her hand caress his cheek, her thumb tracing his whiskers. "I love you so much Naruto. Only Kami will drive me from your side. Shikaikou and any other child we have will be loved and protected. We will tell Tsunade about this, but regardless he is Nara. We will protect our own." The fact that Shikamaru had changed had changed absolutely nothing in her ferocious need to protect her mate and their child. She would figure this out, she just needed to think.

The couple turned when they heard a voice, there at the door Shikamaru had left open when she ran hearing her husband screaming his denials was Shikaku, "Always... Naruto. And you, Shikaikou and any other child Kami gives you, are Nara. Let Kami worry about the future son. We will worry about today. Your son is healthy and happy. And most of all he is loved." With tears in her eyes Shikamaru nodded.

Naruto didn't know what the future held, but he knew with the love of his family and his friends they would go on. He would carry on, watching over his village and family. He was Naruto Uzamaki Nara of Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.