Why Orange?

There will be spoilers for chapter 356 in today's author note.

{Kyuubi}: Why are you shivering?

{T.W.}: Combination of Kabuto's freakyness and cold.

{Itachi}: It's almost in summer and you live in a tropical zone, How can you be cold?

{T.W.}: If you'd look out the window you'd see that it's raining, now here's a question for you weasel-boy; how do I get to the school where I post my fics?

{Sai}: You ride your bike and, oh. You got rained on so (pinches T.W.'s shirt) you're a little damp at the moment.

{T.W.}: Yup, now did anyone else who read Chapter 356 have creepy 'fangirl Sakura' flashbacks when they saw Karin's hair color? I know it's red and not pink but still, the resemblence to Sakura when she was still intolerable for me is a little too weird.

{Kyuubi}: What about your new obsession?

{T.W.}: Suigetsu? I was kinda expecting his hair color but Juugo's was a pleasant surprise. Now show of hands, how many of my readers hope that Deidara and Tobi at least cause some major damage to Ducky (a.k.a. Sasuke) before he kills them cause let's face it, he's gonna survive and Deidara, or Tobi, or both are gonna die. This fight is gonna kick ass.

Now on to my review replies:

Casso Sorry no preggers lemons though I might make a one shot for you, maybe.

dana I'm so glad you liked the addition of Sai into the ItaKyu equation.

Silent-Serpent You're good, as a matter of fact they will have a few abilities that will be discussed by Naruto and Kyuubi after the kids are born.

Damp Quit dying on me!(pouts) I can't tell if you're glad or not about the triplets.

yaoigurl106 That chapter is one of my favorites, it's just too bad it wasn't Sasuke and Naruto instead of Sasuke and Sai.

StarAWings You have my complete and utter sympathy, I hate shopping for those torture devices, you need more tissues huh? Well here(gives you huge refridgerator box full of tissues) I hope that covers it.

ValiumofVitium Wow, I'm speechless and flattered beyond belief. Thank you so much.

Okay that'll do it, as stated before if I didn't reply to you here it's cause I couldn't think of anything to say or cause I already replied via e-mail.

{Itachi}: Isn't it lazy to reply in your author's notes?

{T.W.}: Probably but it's easier for me. Now on to the chapter, it's gonna start off with the end of the baby shower so it might be a little boring. I'll put a row of bold x-es after the baby shower scene.

'thoughts'

Chapter 36 Baby Shower
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Naruto looked around at the baby shower guests playing 'Find the Clean Diaper', most of whom were female. Except for Naruto, the only men there were Iruka, because Naruto is his son, and Kakashi, because Iruka threatened and bribed him. All the other male friends of the blond had dropped off their gifts and dragged Sasuke away to a bar. Naruto didn't blame them for ditching, he'd have done the exact thing if he could. He would much rather be trading insults with the guys than surrounded by chattering women, who were discussing men, clothes, make-up, and other girly persuits. 'At least Sakura-chan didn't go overboard with decorating and didn't do pink.' The decorations for the baby shower echoed the nursery's color scheme and were restricted to streamers and ballons.

Naruto looked at a very uncomfortable Kakashi seated next to him, "You know I could probably convince Iruka-tou-san to let you go join Sasuke and the others if you want to escape Kakashi-sensei."

The copy-ninja looked at Naruto's sympathetic expression and shook his head, "No I'll stay. After all you need more than one ally in this situation."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What did Iruka-tou-san promise you if you stuck around for the whole thing?"

Kakashi put on a wounded act, "You don't believe that I'm staying out of loyalty for my former student?"

"Not for one second. What was the bribe?"

All I'm saying is that it involves whipped cream body shots."

Naruto chuckled and shook his head at his old sensei and engaged the man in a discussion of weaponry.

Sakura walked over to them, "Okay Naruto it's time to open the gifts and then everyone will go home."

'Thank Kami-sama!' Naruto grinned at her, "Well what are we waiting for!"

Sakura chuckled at his enthusiasm as he hauled himself out of the recliner he'd been sitting in and went over to the gift area. He decided to open the gifts from largest to smallest and Jiraya's gift was the biggest thing there. Naruto peeled away the paper, revealing a crib of pale blond wood and a matching changing table. He ran a hand over the silky wood of the crib and smiled at Tsunade, "He got a changing table but no diapers?"

She grimaced and muttered about needing to be more expansive in her gift buying instructions. Naruto chuckled and moved on to the gift Neji and Gaara had sent. It was a crib made of dark cherry wood, a baby monitor, and diapers. Iruka's gift was an ebony wood crib and when Naruto opened Tsunade's gift he saw a blond wood crib identical to the one from Jiraya.

A rocking chair came from Shikamaru, a stroller and a selection of rattles came from Shino, the gift from Kiba was a truly HUGE stuffed gorilla that was almost as big as one of the cribs, Sakura gave him a care package of clothes, toys, baby shampoo, and cloth diapers set inside a baby tub. Ibiki had dropped off a big light purple stuffed bunny, and Akamaru's name had been written on the tag of a big stuffed dog. A basket full of diapers, wet wipes, baby powder, and diaper rash cream came from Udon by way of Moegi, Kurenai gave him three baby mobiles and diapers, Hinata gave him diapers, clothes, and baby booties she had knitted her self.

Naruto turned boiled lobster red and glared at Ino when he opened her gift of a breast pump, and he laughed when he saw the tiny leg weights and orange leg warmers from Lee, and the three tiny spandex suits from Guy. Choji gave him some baby bottles and gift certificates for baby food after weaning. Three sets of real kunai and shuriken and a diaper bag fuul of essentials came from Anko, who shrugged at the looks she got from several guests and said, "There's no way you can tell me that kids of Naruto's and Sasuke's won't be using weapons when they're older."

Kankuro's gift was a set of fox and wolf hand puppets, TenTen gave oversized rubber toy kunai and shuriken, a box of clothes, pacifiers, and teething rings came from Konohamaru, and Shizune gave him some fox plushie blankets she'd made.

Temari had sent him a stack of baby towels and blankets. Fox plushies came from Ebisu, Raido, and Moegi, and three wolf plushies in different colors came from Asuma. Yamato gave him a teddy bear, a CD of lullabyes came from Sai, a fox doll came from Genma, and everyone had given him diapers.

Naruto was now peeling away the wrapping paper on the last gift, which was from Kakashi. The paper fell away from a simple dark wood box. Naruto opened it to reveal three gold lockets with a combination of the Uzumaki swirl and the Uchiha fan etched on the front. Naruto gasped and looked up at the silver haired jonin, who smiled and told Naruto to open the lockets. Inside was a picture of Naruto and Sasuke smiling at the camera from each other's arms and on the inside front was inscribed 'All Our Love'. Naruto glomped Kakashi with hormone triggered tears in his eyes. Kakashi patted the blond on the back and said, "There's a voucher for the jewelers so you can get the lockets inscribed with the babies' names."

Naruto hugged him tighter muttering a thank you and the copy ninja recieved many gooey looks from the attending females, but, in Kakashi's opinion, the best reaction to his gift was Iruka's. The academy teacher smiled and gave Kakashi a smoldering look that said 'You are sooo getting laid when we get home.'
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Naruto let kakashi go and Sakura shooed everyone out and looked at Naruto, "Go take a nap, I know you must be exausted after all that," before he left she gave him a quick hug, "Thanks for indulging us girls."

She then shooed him upstairs and went about cleaning up the party mess. She had just finished when Sasuke came through the front door. The Uchiha raised an eyebrow at the four cribs and the huge pile of diapers in the living room. He looked over his shoulder at Sakura, "Are we actually going to use this many diapers?"

She chuckled, "Believe me Sasuke-kun, you can never have enough diapers and you'll probably go through all of those in two months."

"Hn. Where's Naruto?"

"I sent him upstair to get some rest."

The brunette nodded and went upstairs to the bedroom. Naruto was sleeping curled up on his side, cuddling a pillow. Sasuke smiled, slid into bed behind him, and placed a hand on the prodigeous bulge of Naruto's stomache. The blond stirred, "Mmm 'Suke?"

The Uchiha nuzzled Naruto's neck and murmered, "Shh go back to sleep, I'm right here."

Naruto settled back down and Sasuke fell asleep breathing in the scent of his usuratonkachi.
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4 weeks later

Sasuke returned from the store with a surprise for Naruto to find the blond throwing pillows against the wall visicously. He set the bag down and cautiously approached his pregnant husband. In the last four weeks Naruto's mood swings had gone through the roof and Sasuke thought it was probably because Naruto wasn't allowed to work in any way and the forced inactivity was driving the blond bonkers.

"Naruto?"

The blond snarled, "What!"

"What did the pillows do?"

"It's not what they did, it's what they didn't do."

"Okay so what didn't they do?"

"No matter how I arrange them or how I lay on them, my backache won't go away and since I can't sit comfortable my legs are cramping."

Naruto ripped a pillow in half and Sasuke edged closer to him, "Why don't you sit down and I'll try to sooth the backache?"

Naruto whirled to face him, "Really? You'd do that for me?"

Sasuke nodded warily and Naruto glomped him, "You're the best husband! Thank you."

The blond sat down and Sasuke began kneading his back. After a few minutes Naruto relaxed into the massage and, when Sasuke eased a particularly tense muscle, Naruto arched his back and moaned. Sasuke chuckled, finished the massage, and nuzzled Naruto's neck, "Feel better?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Good then, I've got something to show you."

"What is it?"

Sasuke got up and retrieved the surprise, "I went by the store for some more popcorn and I saw this," he handed the bag to Naruto. The blond dug into the bag and pulled out a small painting of a pair of wolves watching over three wolf cubs. Naruto stared at it for a moment then, he burst into tears. Sasuke fought down panic and cupped Naruto's cheek, "If you don't like it I can take it back."

Naruto shook his head and wailed, "I love it!"

Sasuke watched, horrified as Naruto's tears increased, "Okay if you like it then why are you crying?"

"Because it's so beautiful and soon that'll be us."

Naruto flung himself into Sasuke's arms, burried his face against the Uchiha's shoulder, and continued sobbing. Sasuke forced away the urge to run to Tsunade begging for a mission and wrapped his arms around his weeping husband to wait out the tears.
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1 week later

Sasuke was shaken awake by a very insistant Naruto.

"Mmm what is it?"

"I want something to eat."

The brunette looked at the bedside clock; it read 3 a.m. He yawned, "I'll go make some popcorn."

"I don't want plain popcorn."

Sasuke eyed Naruto, "Then what do you want?"

"Oysters, diced chicken liver, onions, pickles, kiwi, and pinapple in a mint cream sauce over kettle corn."

Sasuke nearly gagged, "Where am I going to find all that this time of night?"

"I don't know but please get me some, pleeeease?"

Naruto brought out the deadly Uzumaki puppy eyes. Sasuke groaned, got up to dress, and went downstairs. He opened the door to a raging downpour, grabbed an umbrella, and trudged to an all night market.

He got home with the hideous concoction, went upstairs, and gave it to Naruto, who squealed, kissed Sasuke, and devoured the disgusting treat. Sasuke was halfway back to sleep when Naruto cuddled up to him, murmered thank you, and conked out again. The Uchiha kissed the top of the blond's head. 'The things I do for you.'
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1 week later

Naruto was heading to the kitchen for breakfast, Sasuke following closely, when a knock sounded at the front door. The blond went to the door and opened it, revealing a blood soaked Kisame.
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I thought it was time for a cliffie.

{Itachi}: And just why is Kisame blood soaked?

{T.W.}:(hides behind Kyuubi and Sai)You'll have to wait and see just like everyone else.

{Itachi}:(raises and eyebrow) Excuse me?

{T.W.}: Eeep! Kyuubi, Sai help me please?

{Sai}: She can't tell you, it would ruin the surprise.

{Itachi}: She'd better tell me or I'll give her a surprise, and unpleasant one.

{Kyuubi}:(pouts)But I want to be surprised, do you want me to go away so she can spoil it for you?

{Sai}:(puppy eyes)Do you really want to know so badly that you'd send Kyuubi-kun away?

{Itachi}:(staring at his two ukes) Never mind the reason Kisame is covered in blood (grabs Kyuubi's face and kisses him and sticks his hand down Sai's pants)

{T.W.}: Phew! Thank you Kyuubi and Sai. Okay most of the baby shower gift ideas came from reviewers on ff.net so I'm gonna thank them here as well as on ff.net. So thank you to Spiderweb, elloshort, Distant-Kit, SpottedShadow2947, mscs3, mikoamaya-hikari, frogger666, jazzylin-sama, Red Asatari, A Slice above the others, SilverDragon-Kerinthia, and the members of Dragon Fairies: DIF, DFF, Wonton, and Randa and a special thank you goes to ranma hibiki who gave me the idea to ask my reviewers on ff.net for what they'd give the babies if they could give them anything.

Now as for the mood swing scene and the craving in the middle of the night scene, you can thank or blame my mom for them, she requested both. Please review if you can? Ja ne!