I am so sorry, 15samcre, that I can't give you a happy ending yet. This will be a lot of hurt/comfort without comfort for a while… I write quite angst-filled stories usually!

Also, I have a beta! :) Please welcome: GiuliaZe! My awesome new beta :) Hope you like this new chapter, sorry about the length!

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The pain aches mildly for a while. Then it transforms into some great inferno in her womb. She weeps but not for the pain, that she can cope with.
They are dead.
No little chakra systems light up her world anymore, no little heartbeats will ever breath the sweet air of life. Sadness wells up in her but a wave of rage and the senseless need to destroy something overpowers everything that she is.
She has delivered two boys, that will never laugh. They will never run and never play. She will never tickle them or patch them up when a roughhouse becomes a brawl.
She has no path to follow, not when her life has turned upside down and nothing is as it was.
She is not who she was before.
Kakashi has changed her life. He gave her hope... of a life and a family... and of love. But as with all things, luck is not on her side. She hates him, irrationally but deeply. Underneath the sorrow and rage and grief, she knows it is not his fault nor hers. They are fixing her spine now, restoring the shattered remnants of her lower back. The fox had resorted to destroying her body so he could pour chakra into the coils of her unborn sons. He had eroded their pathways, melting their hearts and minds.
As much as Naruko hates Kakashi, it is nothing to Kyuubi. He means nothing to her now, he is merely a soon-to-be dead thing that may once have had a chance at her forgiveness. But it has no desire for forgiveness and she gives him none.
He is crouched in the back of the seal, far away from the cage entrance. He is cowering but never will he admit it. For she treads the dirty water, wreathed in black flames and shadowed eyes unknowable even after an eternity.
She is far along the path of hatred now and he has pushed her there. He has pushed her too far. For a mother, is a lit match in consideration to her children.* In her heart, her children are forever there and with rage like a forest fire. A prowling wolf poised to rip out throats at a broken hair on their pups. He dully remembers his own faint memories of his 'mother'. A true scary vixen, who fought off many demons and won, with just teeth and claws. All over an injury to her only kit.
He cowers and, though he will never admit, cries as electricity runs through him. She has sealed him in, as golden chains hold him down and the torii gates of Heaven pin him.

"In here, you will rot."

She turns and leaves him there, trapped under holy Shinto seals and wracked by pain.
He should have known better than to cross the path between mother and kit.

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Kakashi weeps as Naruko goes pale, the bright blood staining the white sheets under her. She is not dying but she was so close.
When she wakes, an hour later, he can see the anger in her eyes. She glares at him and he cannot fathom why.
Hours later, in the postnatal ward, they eye each other in the silence that stretches into eternity.
"Why did you do this?"
Her question breaks the silence and she looks away, eyeing the window that looks out over the village. He doesn't know what she is asking him for.
"What do you mean?"
She rounds on him, eyes fierce but tears streak her face in rivers of bitter salt.
"You know exactly what I mean! You gave me hope and a chance at life, only for it to be ripped from within me and… an-and I believed it…"

She sits silent now and he sits shocked, guilt replacing his oxygen. He has never meant for this to happen. But now there is hate between them and many years stretch ahead of them now.
She sleeps, lightly and fitfully but she sleeps. He does not follow her example, lying awake through the night in thought. He changes chairs, taking up residence in a hard oak chair that hurts his back but keeps him awake throughout the night. He thinks and muses and wishes he knew what to do in this situation. He doesn't know how to comfort and she is in dire need of comforting. She needs a mother but she does not have one. He cannot give her female guidance, nor parental guidance now.
Maybe Kurenai… Or Iruka…
He steels himself to face Iruka and he wishes Iruka will not carry out the threats of their previous meetings.

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The compound is quiet, as she basks in the moonlight in the herb garden outside her room. Kakashi, though she does not know it, lies in the same position on a bare futon, eyes clouded.
They both are so far apart but closer than ever.
She hates and he loves and they are both so very tired now.
She wants so desperately that unattainable dream he seemingly has handed her. She has forgotten to close herself up, losing herself in happiness and dreams of the future. They have not spoken a word in a week, merely working side by side in wordless deliberation.
She is bound to a man whom she had trusted and he had, -not willingly- her inner self whispers, taken it away. Ripped away the summer-haze that had been veiled over her eyes. She is too tired to care now and she falls into a fitful sleep, unconsciously missing the weight of her belly and the torso against her back.

She is far too broken to do this anymore but knows she must continue on.

Cause she's Uzumaki Naruko and she never…
Breaks…
A promise.

'Datte…Ba ne…' She whispers in her sleep and it carries across to him, in a crystal-clear moment.
He hears and he smiles. She is so like her mother, in ways she will never know.

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Sorry this chapter was so short! Ah… Gomen nasai!

Special Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I was so happy to read them and I will cherish them always! :)

* This is based on a Swedish proverb, meaning that 'Barn går från hjärtat och till hjärtat.' This literally translates as the child(ren) are always under the heart... Or 'mother love is a forest fire', depending on the area you live in. It means the protectiveness of a mother over her children. Also translated as children are passed from heart to heart.