Author's Note: Soo... I know you all hate me by now. It's been... what? 3 or 4 years since I last wrote anything?

By the way, I am so sorry for that! First of all, I lost all my writing mojo. Then, honestly, life hit me hard and I forgot about these stories until today. I signed in, which I'm surprised I still remembered my username and password, and started rereading all my old stuff. And I remembered all these stories and ideas that I had and I just couldn't stop myself from continuing them. So I guess I'm back!

Yay! Right? It's a yay?

-sweatdrop-

I sure hope so...

Well, since I'm back and all, I wrote chapter 3 today. I hope it's good enough for everyone's liking. My writing style may have changed a bit and I hope that's okay too... I'd like to think I got better, so hopefully I did. And I should keep up with this stuff from now on... Hopefully. I may be adding more to some of my other stories here soon, so be looking for that as well. (:

Anyways... onward!

"The baby will grow at an abnormal speed, due to the demon's chakra. Fox kits are born within nine weeks, while a human baby takes nine months. So it's not surprising that you're starting to get bigger after only a week," Tsunade explained to the distraught Naruto, who had thought something was wrong.

It had been a week since he had been admitted from the hospital into the Uchiha boy's care. Yesterday, the blonde had been in the shower (showering at Sasuke's felt… surprisingly not strange) when he had noticed that his normally flat belly was sporting an unnatural pooch…

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

The scream broke Sasuke from his sleep (it was only 7 in the morning, which was late for him, and somehow Naruto had woken up before he had) and he shot from his bed, sprinting down the hallway and skidding to a halt in front of the bathroom door, kicking it open. "Naruto!" he cried, afraid something bad had happened – like someone had snuck passed his traps and was in the house.

What he found surprised him.

A dripping wet blonde boy stood pouting infront of him, his towel wrapped loosely around his waist and threatening to fall off at any moment. Sasuke blinked in confusion. "What…?"

The blonde huffed and poked his stomach. "I'm getting fat!" he screeched. "I can't get fat this early! The baby's not supposed to show until two months into the pregnancy, right! Is there something wrong with the baby!" It didn't take the Sharingan to see how distraught the kitsune was. "Calm down, Naruto. We'll go see Tsunade and see what she has to say. But… Naruto…"

Confused, Naruto tilted his head, peering at Sasuke.

"What, teme?"

"Your towel just fell."

"My tow – what! Eek!"

Thus, the two ended where they were now – in a hospital room with Tsunade explaining the reasoning behind Naruto's suddenly becoming 'fat'. Honestly, the blonde didn't seem like he was too thrilled about the older woman's explanation.

"You mean I'm gonna have this thing way before I expected? What the hell, Baa-chan! Can't you slow it down or something! I'm not sure I can be ready in nine months, let alone nine weeks!"

A vein popped in Tsunade's temple.

"First of all, brat, that thing is a baby! Your baby, so you damn well better start calling it such! Secondly, no, I can't slow it down, because turns out Kyuubi's chakra is a helluva lot stronger than mine for one thing and for the other, I can't slow down a damn normal pregnancy! You want me to try to fuck with a demonic male pregnancy? Yeah, it's not happening, and you're just gonna have to deal with it!" The rant left Tsunade with her hands on her hips, leaning over so that she was the same height as the blonde jinchuuriki who was sitting on the bed in front of her. Said blonde jinchuuriki was also just staring at her completely slack jawed and confused. Then, slowly, his jaw closed and the boy gave Tsunade a look like he'd just turned into an adorable puppy, walked up to her wagging his tail happily, and she had kicked him across the road.

Broke a woman's heart, it did.

She sighed, one hand resting on her forehead with her elbow propped into her side. "Sorry, Naruto, sorry… I shouldn't have snapped like that."

"S'okay, Baa-chan…" he answered softly, cerulean eyes flicking to the tiled floor below them. For a few moments, the two of them (Sasuke hadn't been allowed into the examining room) were completely silent. "Tsunade… I'm not sure I can do this…" Tsunade bit her lip.

"Listen, Naruto, I know I pick on you and I know that you're young but… I also know you can pretty much do whatever you decide you want to do. I've seen you do it before. Having a child is a huge responsibility and it's gonna be tough, but you've always done well overcoming tough obstacles. Everyone agrees. No matter what happens, you never quit." The woman paused, staring at the top of Naruto's unruly head since the boy hadn't stopped staring the floor tiles down since she'd started speaking. Slowly, she stepped toward him, high heels clicking quietly, and sat on the bed next to the blonde, suddenly wrapping her arms around him. Naruto seemed surprised, glancing at her face. The woman just smiled back at him. "You can do this, Naruto."

Slowly, a smile formed on the blonde's lips, reaching his eyes a few seconds later. He buried his head into her chest, attaching to her waist as he hugged her back. "Thanks, Baa-chan… But what about the villagers? I mean, they hated me for so long… How are they gonna reach to a baby that's not only half-demonic, but half…"

The blonde didn't finish his sentence.

Tsunade didn't ask him to. She knew what he meant.

The woman frowned. She hadn't thought of the reaction the rest of the village would have… For the most part, the whole thing had been kept under wraps. Actually, the only villagers who knew were Ayame and Teuchi from Ichiraku's, and that was only because some teenagers couldn't keep their mouth shut (including Naruto). But they were trustworthy and they liked Naruto; they'd also heard the story of what had happened to the blonde, which was also due to some damn gossiping teenagers.

"Well, you'll just to deal with that when the time comes. Who knows? Maybe they'll accept the child no problem. I mean, they're starting to accept you, aren't they?" she asked, smiling in what she hoped was a comforting way. Naruto blinked, looking slightly confused for a moment before he slowly nodded.

"Yeah… Yeah, they are starting to like me better, aren't they?" The boy smiled at the thought, his eyes closing happily. "Thanks again Tsunade-obaa-chan! I can leave now, right?" Naruto was already hopping off the bed and walking toward the door to the hallway. Tsunade laughed a little and made a shooing gesture at him. "Yeah, hurry up and get out of here! I don't wanna see your face again until next week, got it?"

"Got it!" A mock salute was added with the call as he pulled the door open and ducked out into the hall.

Tsunade smiled fondly at the door before she sighed, rubbing her temples with both hands as she leaned against the bed. This whole situation was such a nightmare…

Outside the examining room, Sasuke leaned against the wall, arms crossed, one foot folded over the other, eyes closed. When Naruto exited the room, however, one eye popped open to stare at the blonde, silently asking what the diagnose was. Naruto smiled at the raven. "Everything's all good! Turns out that fox kits just take a lot less time to grow than human babies, so I don't have nine months – I have nine weeks until I have this thi – " here he remembered Tsunade's rant and wisely decided to change his wording; that woman had the ears of a fucking bat " – baby."

Naruto had started to walk down the hallway and Sasuke followed along side him.

Something was bothering the raven though. "But if it's only going to take nine weeks, does that mean that the baby isn't technically yours? That it's Kyuubi's?" The question stopped Naruto in his tracks which the raven hadn't expected, since he kept walking a few feet before he stopped and looked back at the blonde. He was staring at the tiles, a strange look on his face. "I… I hadn't thought of that…"

Shit.

Shit fuck shit.

Now he'd gone and upset the kitsune. Honestly, sometimes Sasuke just didn't think about others' feelings when he said something. The raven didn't have a lot of tact when it came to people, especially upset emotional people. But, of course, being the way he was, the Uchiha suppressed his feelings of guilt and just stared at Naruto.

"..Look, the baby's got to be yours. At least partly yours. It's growing in your body after all," the Uchiha boy offered, feeling not so bad when the blonde gave him a small smile and a nod.

"Right, of course! Of course it's mine! I dunno why I thought otherwise! C'mon, Sasuke, let's go home." The thought of home suddenly made him grin wildly. "Hey, I get to go home!" And Sasuke stared in horror as the blonde danced around happily at the thought of sleeping in his own bed. Horror and mild disgust. Did Naruto not realize that he resembled a dead chicken flopping in the wind when he danced?

He was also attracting a lot of attention with his dancing.

A lot of attention.

So much so that it was making the Uchiha boy uncomfortable and irritable. "Alright, Naruto, you can dance at your house. Quit attracting so much damn attention, dobe."

"Shut it, teme! I'll attract as much attention as I damn well please!" was the growled reply.

"Whatever. Idiot."

"Bastard!"

"Loser."

"Bastard!"

"You already used that one, you moron."

"Don't care! It just reinforced the fact that you're a damn bastard, and I hate you."

"Tch. Whatever, dobe."

"Teme!"

All of this sounded bad down to the nurses down the hallways, but when they actually took the time to look, all they saw was two friends grinning (or in Sasuke's case smirking) as they pushed and shoved each other down the hallways. Naruto would punch Sasuke in the shoulder, and Sasuke would trip the blonde – which sounded terrible, honestly, but the raven knew full well that Naruto could easily catch himself from totally falling, preventing the baby from any possible harm.

They were just two friends leaving the hospital together like everything was normal.

Like they're lives hadn't been completely altered by the last month.

It was almost like Naruto hadn't been captured and raped and nearly killed. It baffled everyone how the boy could run around and talk and laugh like someone hadn't forced him to do anything, like someone hadn't completely destroyed his pride and dignity.

But that was the thing about Naruto.

The incident hadn't destroyed his pride or his dignity or his ability to continue on with his life.

Sakura supposed that was why everyone liked Naruto so much. No matter how pain, how much misery, how much utter bullshit he went through, he took it then rose back up stronger than ever. Nothing could bring that kid down. She wished she could be like him; roll with the punches then shrug It off. Things got to her though, especially when they involved her friends. Was it a bad thing that while Naruto seemed fine about his situation, Sakura worried constantly about it? She was sure that wasn't healthy in the slightest. Maybe she should just let it go… If Naruto could let it go, then she should be able to.

The pink-haired kuniochi stared down sadly at her folded hands in her lap.

She couldn't stop thinking about it. Everything that had happened to him… The way Itachi had used him, what he'd taken from the blonde, what'd he left behind… She couldn't stand it. She hated that man. She hated him so much. It flared up inside her suddenly and she grit her teeth, squeezing her hands together tightly. If he came after Naruto – if he came anywhere near her friend again she would make sure that he wouldn't leave. Screw Sasuke and his vengeance; she had a reason to want him dead now too and she would help her former teammate take him down whether he protested or not.

"Sakura-chan? Hello? Are you alright?"

The voice startled her, snapping her out of her anger, and green eyes met the brilliant blue that stared at her both confused and worried. "Um… yeah, I'm fine. Why?" She played stupid, slapping on a smile that she hoped was convincing.

Naruto eyed her for a moment. "'Cause I just asked you like seven times if you wanted to go to the bath house with us." Oh, well, that was pretty suspicious… She laughed a little nervously, scratching her neck in a very Naruto-ish fashion.

"Oh! Sorry, I was thinking about something else. I'd love to and all but Tsunade wanted me back after we'd finished sparring. So maybe another time, Naruto?"

The blonde blinked at her then nodded once, smiling happily. "Yeah, definitely!" He then proceeded to turn to each individual there (Kiba, Lee, TenTen, and Neji) asking if they would be able to make it. As the group talked, Sakura just glanced between them, wondering if any of the others felt like she did. The girl couldn't honestly tell; they all acted like normal around him. Maybe that was the better thing to do – act like nothing had happened just like Naruto did.

Sakura sighed and stood, telling the group good-bye before she headed off toward the hospital.

In the end, no one went to the bath house because no one could make it for various reasons (other plans, a mission, etc.) and Naruto didn't want to go alone.

His apartment was creepily quiet. He really didn't like it.

Naruto had just arrived home and he already wished he would have accepted staying with Lee. The energetic taijutsu master had offered before he had run off to do 500 laps and 1000 sit-ups with Gai, saying that he would be done before dark and he would be honored if Naruto would stay with him. As much as he liked Lee, Naruto wasn't sure he could spend the entire night with him. That combined with the fact that he didn't want to trouble anyone made him decline the offer. Lee had been disappointed but he understood.

'Damnit… This place is creepy as fuck at night.' He shivered as he stripped out of his jacket and tossed it onto the floor, slipping out of his sandals and walking as quietly as being a ninja couldn't stop the occasional scary creaks the floorboards made when he stepped on them. One particularly creepy creak sounded exactly like someone scraping a kunai against his window (which he knew wasn't true because he'd snapped his head up at the only window in his apartment to check) and Naruto whimpered, forgetting about being quiet as he darted as quickly as possible to his bed, jumping from a few feet away so that he didn't have to get close to the space underneath like he expected someone to grab his ankle and drag him under.

Okay, so maybe he was a little shaken up.

It only ever happened when he was alone at night though. Part of him wished that he had never stopped staying with Sasuke after that first week. Having someone around helped calm his sudden fears that something was going to snatch him out of the dark.

Naruto had never been afraid of the dark or afraid of being alone for that matter.

He didn't like being alone, but he wasn't afraid of it. That tended to happen when you spent most of your life ostracized by the general population.

But, ever since his… ever since he'd been kidnapped, the boy had been genuinely afraid of being left alone. It really pissed the boy off to no end. He hated being afraid of something just because of Itachi. The name made his nose flare out and he growled out loud. And then he was blind-sided with the memory that he'd been very good about ignoring.

Naruto whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut tightly.

His hands fumbled for the blankets until he found them, pulling them up over his head and wrapping them tightly about himself, leaving his face open to the world. The kitsune looked a bit like an Eskimo as he curled against the bed, his eyes still squeezed so tightly together that he was getting a headache. He thought about other things; Sakura and Sasuke and sparring with his friends and eating ramen and beating the hell out of Kiba today and – and then the memory was safely tucked away again and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, finally settling down.

'It's just a memory… Just forget about it,' his brain told him, and he listened to it, finally calming down enough to let sleep take hold of him.

Normally, Sasuke didn't worry about his missions.

However, his recent missions had been guarding the outskirts of Konoha, searching for Akatsuki who may come searching for Naruto. So of course he had reason to be worried. After all, they had failed in protecting the jinchuuriki before and look at what had happened…

Sasuke cursed.

Damn Akatsuki and his brother to fucking hell.

The raven leapt into the trees, darting quickly around his target area like he did every couple minutes or so before he landed back where he had been previously. He pushed through some bushes, slowly walking around, ears straining to hear anything suspicious. All there was were birds and squirrels and general forest noises, which is all he ever got.

Half of him wanted them to come so he could kill them. The other half wanted them to stay as far away from the village as humanly possible and just forget that Naruto had a demon locked away inside him. Depending on the day, one half usually outweighed the other, but right now they were about even. Again he combed the area, again finding nothing unusual.

Maybe they wouldn't come back? Maybe they had realized they couldn't have Naruto no matter how much they tried.

Hn. He really doubted it.

His arms folded over his chest as he sighed, walking around the same circle he had been walking around the entire damn day. Honestly, he'd rather be guarding Naruto directly instead of combing the perimeter, but then he might miss out on the chance to rip Itachi's throat out . Morbid thoughts popped into his head about how many ways he could kill his brother, and a smile formed on his lips. So maybe he was a little twisted. So what? He could damn well be twisted if he wanted and it wasn't like anyone could read his thoughts anyways.

Something made a twig snap.

Immediately the boy was on high alert, his fantasies of his brother's death forgotten. His katana was in his hands faster than a blink and the Uchiha growled, glancing around quickly with his Sharingan flaring up in his eyes. Nothing stirred for a few moments until – crack! Another twig snapped and the Uchiha leapt in that direction, swinging at the intruder… who blocked his attack and jumped back shouting. "Sasuke, it's me! Shit!" TenTen snapped, kunai in hand as she crouched a few feet away from him.

The Uchiha stared, his eyes narrowing at her. "Well maybe you should have said something before walking up here." Honestly it was lucky to have been her – TenTen was one of the only people who could have a straight weapon on weapon fight, no jutsu or chakra, with the Uchiha and not end up seriously injured.

Anyone else would have been decapitated by his attack more than likely.

TenTen sighed, standing up and scratching the top of her head. "Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't sure where you were. But Hokage-sama wanted me to relieve you, so here I am!" She smiled at Sasuke, placing her hands on her hips. He eyed her for a moment before nodding, stepping passed her. The brunette watched him go before leaping up into the trees, combing through the area much like Sasuke had done.

When they separated, red eyes stared at Sasuke's back, watching him head back toward the village. His lips curled into a smile as he realized that neither of them had noticed his presence – how did they expect to guard the little blonde if they couldn't even find him? It was almost amusing with how sad it was.

He had actually wanted one of them to notice him. He had wanted Sasuke to notice him.

But, alas, Itachi had silently arrived as the weapon mistress made her entrance, distracting Sasuke from his duties of guarding the perimeter. Tsk, it seemed that Sasuke was always distracted by something. It made him weak, honestly. Ah well, the more distracted his little brother was the less likely Itachi was to have to deal with his nuisances and his cries of revenge and hatred, no matter how much they amused him so.

Oh well, it was probably for the better that he hadn't been noticed. After all, he had a date with a little blonde kitsune who he was sure had missed him oh so much.

End Note: So there it is, chapter 3 of Vulnerability! Hope it was to everyone's liking. Reviews and critique and ideas for story progression are always welcome!

Oh, here's a little fun fact:

I actually had part of this already written and waiting for me when I started it again today. I just started reading through old files and found this. Anyways, again I want to apologize for the very long wait, and I'm not sure this chapter makes up for it but I sure hope it does! I love you guys. :D