Next instalment then, hey.

NARUTO

Naruto walked through the forage he was so used to; ignoring the 'protective detail' he had been assigned. Apparently, the eight tailed Jinchuriki was training on a continuously moving island and he was assigned to train at mount Myokubu. The reason why he was blatantly ignoring Kakashi was simple – he was mad at him…Jiraiya too.

He really wanted to be at home with his kids – not that they were at his apartment, but still, anywhere his kids were was home. He let a brief smile flit across his lips. He had been with them for all of a month before they decided his youngest was stable enough to not need such constant chakra monitoring and adjustment via the Kyuubi. Although it had been hell figuring out how to take care of so many screaming babies, he was still missing them.

"Okay, Naruto." Kakashi drawled, "Time to start your training. And remember the faster we get this done, the quicker you can get back to those cute little kids of yours." He eye-smiled.

"They're only cute some of the time." Naruto mumbled. "The rest of the time, they're little demons."

"Oh?" Kakashi asked with humour. "They take after you then?"

"Oi!" Naruto yelled. "Just hurry up and show me a damned Jutsu. I've got a sick kid to get back to!"

"Okay, let's start with something simple, ne, like extending the range of your wind chakra. The more you can manipulate it, the better the range and the power will be."

Naruto nodded, creating a hundred bunshin and getting down to business. Even though he had some great attacks, they were limited. It was time he collected more of an arsenal. Over the next month he planned to fully learn the Shunshin, alongside his seals, build a better grasp on Sennin mode and finally gain some cool attacks!

As it turned out, his Dad's Resengan was not a complete Jutsu. It was just the beginning of something much greater. The reason, however, for it being unfinished, was that it became too unstable to maintain and would backfire if Minato added any elemental chakra to it. Maybe because of this, Naruto had decided that controlling his element thoroughly came first.

First it was splitting a leaf. It seemed simple enough, but the process of turning chakra into a cutting edge proved extremely difficult. He supposed he should be grateful that his elemental affinity was to the air around him and he therefore had an endless supply to manipulate. Kakashi had said that wind was the rarest and most difficult to control, but somehow, Naruto thought something as ferocious as igniting or pulling the water from a leaf would be much more difficult.

It was on the seventh day that he found out his secondary element was earth. It was when he was getting frustrated with imagining the air slicing against each other and thumped the ground with the image still fresh in his mind that it was discovered. As if sensing him, the earth rose up in a wave, folding back upon itself. Kakashi's eyes widened at the display. After all, it could only be Naruto that managed to control his secondary element before his first

With the image of what was in Naruto's mind revealed to him, Kakashi decided that he perhaps needed to be a little more specific in his teachings. Earth may require one brute strength burst of chakra, but wind was two currents slicing continuously against each other. Needless to say, the blond's training had kicked up a gear after that. The worst thing was that Naruto seemed to be able to create a vacuum with the air, that just so happened to cause both him and Kakashi some wounds.

"Damn it, Naruto!" Kakashi panted, thankful at least, for his Sharingan that pulled him into another dimension before the worst of the explosion had hit him.

"I just wondered what would happen!" Naruto panicked, pulling himself off the ground from where he had been slung.

"Something bad, so don't do it again!" He snapped before sighing. "Just think next time, okay, Naruto. Maybe I should give you a few days to actually read up on elements before putting them into practice."

Naruto looked up with a huge smile on his face; his injuries long forgotten. "Really, Sensei?" The blond was already imagining the time he could spend with his kids. They must have forgotten his face by now!

"Yeah, come on." Kakashi drawled, leading the way back to the dank cave hidden behind a waterfall.

NARUTO

Sakura stifled a gasp as pain shot through her abdomen. She knew she wasn't in labour as it was far too early. She knew that these were Braxton Hicks contractions. She also knew that even if they were real, there would be no one to take her to the hospital. She was alone in the large, empty Uchiha compound. Always alone and so utterly depressed. She knew she may not have much of a right, after all that Naruto had been through and still coming out of it with that stupidly large grin of his.

Wouldn't life have been so much simpler if she had fallen in love with him, instead?

Another pain rushed through her and she made a mental note to book an appointment at the hospital tomorrow for a check-up. It was three in the morning; so, she figured it would be later on today. She let a small smile flit across her face. She really was quite easy to please; just small things like the difference of dates affecting time. Slowly, though, her eyebrows creased in worry. She was pretty mush at 37 weeks, but she would rather get herself checked out. She didn't want anything to be wrong with her little Kimiko.

Sakura sighed in her bed, pulling her legs further toward herself as she lay on her side. She tried to calm herself down, but the tears rolled down her face anyway. Sasuke was still locked up in the hospital. He was heavily guarded. He had had some sort of shutdown, spending most of his time shouting or sitting staring into nothingness. Slight emotions crossed his face, but unfortunately, she had no idea what they meant. That was Naruto's department…or used to be.

She wished she could go home. Back to her Mother and Father's and pretend like none of this had happened. She wanted to live the fairy tale, but now she faced the harsh reality that she may end up being a single Mum. Her Mother promised to help her once the baby was born, but she had told her not to leave her marital home and persevere with her relationship. No matter what happened to Sasuke, she was the head of the Uchiha family until he returned.

As another false contraction twitched in her abdomen she let out a sob and buried her head into her pillow. What had she gotten herself into?

NARUTO

It had been a long hard day of training when they both returned to the giant wooden structure built into the side of the cliff that had once been the cave behind the waterfall. It was mid-September and the air had started to get that frozen quality to it, so Naruto had been glad to come in against the howling echo of the wind reverberating around the cave; so different from the glowing light beyond the wooden door they had come to.

"Tadaima." Naruto called softly.

"Okaeri." Was answered back, just as softly, from the lone person sat in the dull shadows that were flickering over the room; a scroll open in his lap.

Naruto looked up with a big smile, the earlier tiredness seeming to fade away. He had been announcing himself home for years and he was still getting used to someone being there to welcome him back. He didn't need to say anything as Itachi poured him a tea as he bounced into the room and flopped beside him on the sofa. He barely registered Itachi gesturing to Kakashi if he also wanted a cup and getting the familiar declination from the older male.

"You learn anything new whilst we were out?" Naruto asked a bit too loudly, causing Kakashi to wince and Itachi to smirk at his misfortune before facing the blond.

"Hello to you, too, Naruto-kun. Did you have a good day training?"

Kakashi with his head down, skulked off into the hideout, intending for an impromptu bath and to cuddle down with Iruka until the nightmare of the next day. The blond could most definitely be a handful, but during training he was downright dangerous. Not only were they adding new elemental attacks to his repertoire, but the training with the Kyuubi's chakra was taking its toll. They had sent Tenzou back earlier because of how tiring it was for him to help the blond stabilise it.

"Never mind that, what did you find? You have that air of impatience about you. I know you found something!" Naruto about bounced in his seat.

"How very observant, Naruto-kun." Itachi acknowledged, a slight upturn to his lips as he set the now rolled up scroll in front of the blond on the table, beside his cooling tea.

Naruto looked calmly at Itachi, slowly bringing the cup to his lips and taking a long gulp. The liquid was hot down his throat but he didn't flinch as he swapped the tea for the scroll, a bit nervous at what he might find. Itachi had partially witnessed the release of the seal and had lived through it in his own system. His knowledge was greater, despite the effectiveness of Naruto's ability to decode seals. Slowly he unrolled the scroll and his eyes widened slightly.

The problem that Naruto had was the seal was both made for storage and preservation but managed to be self-sufficient. When a storage seal was released, it was supposed to completely release the contents. Somehow it managed to rejuvenate itself, like an endless amount of demonic chakra. How could the snake make a storage seal with endless rejuvenation without the presence of demonic chakra? It was almost impossible; something similar to perpetual motion.

However, Naruto had overlooked one stupid little link – the reason it was self-sufficient.

The seal not only contained the harmful bloodline of the cursed clan of Juugo, but also Orochimaru's chakra, will and consciousness that much he knew. Somehow, Orochimaru had split his consciousness like a bunshin, but gave it the cursed seal chakra, which stabilised it into a separate entity. Almost like cloning himself as a parasite so he could continue to live within someone; leaching off of their chakra with the attachment of a cursed seal. After all, every clone would have a 'half life'.

Naruto blinked up at Itachi. The dark haired man looked at him blankly; obviously not liking the fact that Orochimaru was inside him, like he had been with his brother – just as Kyuubi was inside Naruto. Now Orochimaru was out of Sasuke, the seal should be easier to break, in theory. They only hoped that the madness of Orochimaru being killed off might make the cursed seal easier to bear. However…without the snake controlling it, it could go the complete other way.

After all, Naruto had never dealt with a seal harnessing Senjutsu chakra.

NARUTO

"Stop being a pussy, Sakura and push!"

"Shut up Ino-pig! You try pushing out a frigging giant-headed baby!"

"She must have your forehead, billboard-brow." Ino snickered.

"Damn you, Ino!" Sakura cried as another wave of pain shot through her.

"Push!"

Sakura was two weeks past her due date when she went into labour. She was huge, her feet were swelled to twice their size and she was in pain. The pregnancy was most definitely a bad one. If Sasuke could drag his ass away from whatever his selfish problem was to be here, she would grind his stupid smug face into dust for doing this to her. She certainly wouldn't be doing it for him again. The bastard.

"Aghhhh!"

"That's good, Sakura!" Ino called, gripping her hand tightly.

She was surprised the girl was still here for her, talking her through this in her own way; being in the place Sasuke should be. Ino had seen her coming from the hospital after a check-up at 38 weeks. Her baby wasn't in the right position and needed manual readjusting. She was carrying her shopping and the bag had split. She had just stopped and stared at her groceries littering the ground. Ino hadn't left her side since. Even taking to sleeping in one of her many spare rooms.

"It fucking hurts Ino! Agghh!"

"I know forehead, but you can do this, come on."

"One more push should do it, Sakura-chan." Shizune supplied. "She's crowning. So on the next contraction, just give me a big push."

Sakura nodded breathlessly as Ino brushed the hair out of her eyes, looking into the dull blue of her first friend. Her best friend.

"I'm so sorry Inooo!" Sakura screamed, pushing.

"Don't worry about that, okay. Just push."

"I am pushing! Agghhh!"

Breathless, Sakura panted as a new scream was heard in the room; loud and piercing.

"Sakura, you did it." Ino smiled brightly. "She's a bit disgusting, but I'm sure once she's cleaned up, she'll be beautiful, ne." She winked.

"Ino." Sakura gripped the hand that went to release hers, looking up at her instead of at her baby that was being checked over. "You're my best friend, you know that. I love you, you know." She insisted with conviction in her eyes, before she turned away to her crying child with a huge smile on her face as Shizune handed her over, leaving Ino gaping like a fish.

"It's best to let her try and suckle." The medical ninja informed her. "It sometimes helps with the afterbirth."

"O-Okay, am I holding her right?" Sakura looked terrified.

"Of course. As long as you support her head, she'll suckle by herself. It's instinct." Shizune soothed.

"Yeah?" Sakura broke out into a grin, looking down at the barely there dark hair of her little girl. Somehow, the pain seemed worth it.

A few days later, Sakura went to show Sasuke his child. He just stared at the baby, fast asleep and wrapped up in the blankets, for an excessive amount of time. He slowly and hesitatingly reached his hand out to the child before he flinched away, as if a current had passed through to him. He growled and killing intent rose in the air, before he was restricted by ANBU, his cursed seal battling with the chakra suppressors.

Kimiko screamed at the top of her lungs as Sakura shook. It was the last time she brought her child to the hospital to see her Father.

NARUTO

Kakashi was thankful that Itachi had discovered Senjustu chakra in the curse seal, because quite frankly, it gave him the day off. Maybe even a week. He smirked behind his mask as he snuck back into bed behind his dolphin. At six, it was way too early and he missed teasing his cute fiancé in the morning. Not that the man had accepted his proposal yet, but he figured that they had been a little busy. He had barely begun falling back to sleep before he heard the wailing of one, then more babies coming through the monitor Iruka had on his side.

Honestly, Kakashi thought, what did he need that for?

Iruka made to get up, but Kakashi growled, throwing the kunai under his pillow at the damned thing, smashing it to pieces and pulling the Chunin back down to the bed.

"Kakashi, what did you do that for?" Iruka tiredly shouted.

"Shut up and go back to sleep." Kakashi mumbled. "Training's cancelled, so Naruto can get them."

Iruka blinked at his sleepy boyfriend and smiled down at him, curling into him more and laying his head against his shoulder. They could use the sleep. Kakashi smiled under his mask and pulled the younger man closer, wrapping his arms around him. He would wake up in a better way later…a much better way. The pervert let his mind wonder as he fell to sleep, thinking about the best way to wake up his much loved Iruka-sensei~.

Meanwhile, Naruto left Itachi heating the milk – all of them, whilst he happily went to greet his cute little kids. However, he was very thankful for shadow clones; they definitely made looking after a brood that much easier. With cheerfulness that shouldn't be allowed so early, each of his kids were picked up and cuddled, tickled and twirled by a respective Naruto. It had been so long since he got to greet his children first thing in the morning.

Especially his tiny Momoe. She still wasn't as strong as the others and sometimes refused to wake up for her food. He had five beautiful girls and two adorable boys. Despite what Yamato-taicho thought, none of them looked remotely similar in his eyes. It didn't take him that long to name them. He had so much love in his heart and most of his naming choices were based off of this.

Of course, he did kind of name some of them based on how they looked, like Tsukiko. She looked so much like her uncle Itachi to him. He didn't know if it was because of the way she hardly cried or her colouring or her tiny nose; there was just something about her that screamed intelligence. Hikari was delivered just after her and she was always giggling happily. Suki was the oldest, followed by Sayomi, then the first boy, Sora. Yuuki was the youngest boy, delivered just before his little miracle.

Carrying his children into the kitchen, each of himselves picked up a bottle, warmed to perfection by the magnificent Uchiha and settled down to feed them. Itachi noted the loving smile on the blonds faces as he meticulously observed each child. Calmly, he finished the breakfast he was preparing and sat at the table, starting to eat the simple rice dish he had made.

"Not gonna wait for me, hey?" One of the Naruto's playfully jibed, to which he ignored. "Course not; he's a bastard." One Naruto answered the other with an overly large smile, chuckling. "Is that right? Is your Uncle 'Tachi a bastard?" The Naruto holding Sayomi cooed at her, even though she was busy suckling and had no concept of what he was saying. Another Naruto chuckled and Itachi has to stop his eyebrow from twitching at the absurdity of it.

Half an hour later, Naruto sat down to eat, a hot cup of tea placed in front of him as Itachi sat next to him as he ate. Naruto regarded him; his eyesight not great, but refusing to implant the eyes of murdered Uchiha. At least Tsunade had isolated the problem with his health. It was a rare disorder that could be managed, but coupled with the cursed seal, which they now realised was channelling nature chakra, it was killing him.

"I guess we should head to Konoha, ne Itachi. We'll need Ero-senin's help with this for sure." Naruto spoke around the last mouthful of his food.

Taking his hand, Naruto reversed summoned them to Jiraiya, who happened to be in the Hokage's office. Barely avoiding the paperweight that lodged itself in the wall behind him, Naruto rubbed the back of his head guiltily. Itachi merely stood as a tanto was placed deceptively close to his jugular, before Tsunade waved her ANBU off.

"Brat!" Tsunade thundered. "Don't think you can just pop in here whenever you want!"

"Hehe, sorry Baa-chan." Naruto half-heartedly apologised, before he stood straight and serious. "Ero-senin," Naruto addressed, "Itachi found the link for the cursed seal. We need to examine Juugo, Hakage-sama; the seal is sustained by Senjutsu. It's the only explanation."

Tsunade stood up suddenly. "If that's the case…" Her eyes narrowed. "Then Itachi-kun may have less time than I thought. On the other hand, if we can remove it, his illness may not be as permanent as we first speculated. I will have to examine Sasuke to be sure, but if my theory is correct, he might be having the same detrimental effect on his chakra coils, also."

"Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked; requiring clarification as panic started to rise within him. Sasuke was still his little brother. He clutched at his own curse mark as it shot a pain through him at his surfacing emotions.

"There was once a case many, many years ago. A Hyuuga and Uchiha had a child, but the child died several years after awakening her Sharingan. Her body deteriorated rapidly as the two different chakras battled with one another. She was given regular chakra transfusions to attempt to stabilise her, but it was futile. The two clans have been separate ever since."

"What? Why would that happen?" Naruto asked confused.

"It's something to do with a chemical that is released on awakening the Sharingan." Itachi stated calmly. "Almost like turning on a ruthless machine that attacks anything foreign. It's theory of why Genjutsu is made useless against any Sharingan wielder – because it stops another's chakra from manipulating our own… There is a possibility that another ocular Dojutsu was seen as a threat."

"Exactly, and whilst the potent Uchiha chakra can dominate that of even Orochimaru, nature chakra is a different, dangerous chakra entirely." Tsunade continued. "Whilst the Sharingan is dormant, the host will be fine, but with that of another dominating influence, the two abilities will fight with one eventually wearing down the other, or…"

"The host dying." Naruto stated, taking a step back and looking at Tsunade as if he had been slapped.

NARUTO

Sasuke was only vaguely aware of what was going on in his surroundings. His emotions seemed to cause his mind to warp. One moment he was quietly contemplating and the next, the whole world felt like it was on fire, or maybe it was just him. He couldn't tell the difference anymore. He still only knew one thing as true. Konoha had betrayed him and even if it meant he had to die with it, he would burn it to the ground for the injustice it had done to him.

NARUTO

I'll try to update more frequently now; I promise!

TIMELINE

October - (Late) SasuNaru begins.

November - (Early) Pregnant, (Around 10th) Party, (Mid) Day mission, SasuIno (Late) Mission starts.

December - (Early) Mission ends, Sakura Pregnant, (Week later) SasuSaku marriage told, Naruto moves teams, (Late) Failed visits, Observe NejiHina, KakaNaru talk.

January - (Early) Kakashi makes a lie, NejiHina told to be false. (Mid) Sakura tries visiting. (Week later) last failed visit.

February - (Early) Questions of father stop, (Mid) Sakura's baby's sex, Sasu rapes Naru, Naru moves. (Late) Meets Sakura, Stops training.

March - (Mid) Finds Itachi, Saves Itachi, finds Itachi's curse seal, InoSaku talk, Stag do (interrogation), SasuSaku wedding, ItaNaru consummated, Naruto taken out of Konoha, the aftermath (Late) In world of summons

April - (Mid) Found answer to Kyuubi's seal

May - (Early-Mid) Shizune, Tsunade and Ino in the world of summons. (Mid) NejiHina

June - (Early) Attack on Konoha. (Late) In cabin.

July – (Mid) Naruto's induction date,Attack during induction.

August - (Early) Naru's due date. (Mid) In world of summons (Late) Sakura regretting and training.

September - (Early) Sakura's due date. Figuring out the seal (Mid) Kimiko born

In order of occurrences (bold is this chapter), tell me if I've missed anything and I'll add more as it's revealed.