Parthenogenesis

A/N: This is a little off-plot, and yet not. It's also short. *bad TRG, bad!* but there will be another update tomorrow, so that's not too bad, aye?

Also, I've very pleased with the reviews. They make me giggle like a small school girl. *giggle* Ya'll are all wonderful!

Chapter 11: Naruto’s Philosophy

“Naruto?” began Sasuke as they were heading home from their very informative meeting with the Hokage.

“Hmmm?” asked Naruto, caught up in his own personal thoughts. Kami knows he had enough reason to be so distracted- he had just found out that he was pregnant for pete’s sake!

“How do you handle it? Living here with no hope to be able to fulfill your dreams?” Sasuke asked. He had always imagined that he had it worse than Naruto. He had once had a family, but they were all killed by Itachi. He knew them, so he missed them sorely. His whole life was dedicated to avenging them. Naruto, however, had never known his family and so Sasuke had always imagined that he hurt less with their absence. But then the Uchiha found out about the Kyuubi and the villagers’ hate of the boy, and his opinion of Naruto increased- they were equals in suffering. And now this? These laws limited Naruto’s life so severely that Sasuke could not see how Naruto could smile all the time.

Speaking of smiles, Naruto’s face lit up in one right now. “What are you talking about, Sasuke? There’s always hope!” said the blond-headed boy happily.

“Naruto, you don’t have to lie to me. If those…laws,” he almost called them torture devices, “applied to me, I would have left Konoha for good a long time ago.”

Naruto thought about this for a few minutes in silence as they continued down the street. No one was paying any attention to their conversation, so they could talk as normal villagers, as long as they didn’t reveal anything dangerous. Finally Naruto answered the question. “There were times…on my bad days…my darkest hours - as cliché as it sounds - where I lost track of my hope. I considered leaving, but then, as I packed my bags, I realized that leaving would be running away, and I won’t be a coward. I won’t let them control my personality too. There were other times when I was so lonely…so very lonely…and I wished I could just end it. I thought about taking my life too, but I came up with the same answer as I did for running away- I would not let them make me into a coward. So I stayed.”

“You could’ve had a better life. You could’ve found someone who wanted you,” was Sasuke’s retort.

“I don’t need someone to want me, Sasuke. They need me here.”

Sasuke nearly laughed at this. They needed him? “Naruto, they’ve turned you into a scapegoat for all their problems. They don’t need you; they’re using you.”

“That may be how you see things, but from my prospective, they need me. It may be the wrong way to look at it, but it’s the only way I have.” Naruto looked into Sasuke’s coal-black eyes. They urged him to further explain his philosophy.

“As we’re walking down the street, don’t pay attention to me. Pay attention to the people we pass. Take a short glimpse into their lives.”

A bit confused, Sasuke followed Naruto’s instructions. At this time, they were passing a house. Inside, shouting could be heard, even through the thick walls. A door was thrown open and the argument came out into the street. A husband was yelling at his wife, cursing and hollering. The wife was in tears in the doorway, screaming, “Don’t leave us! Think of your children!” As Naruto passed by in his terribly-bright orange vest, the man caught sight of him. The man’s anger at his wife disappeared to be replaced with repulsion of the demon container. Naruto simply glanced up at the woman and the man jumped in front of his wife, shielding her from view. The man apparently felt the need to protect the woman from the ‘demon.’ As Naruto walked past, Sasuke heard the husband apologizing to his wife. Had Naruto just ended their fight with merely his presence?

Intrigued, the Uchiha continued to watch the people around him. As they passed children, their parents pulled them into hugs or gave them other forms of affection. Other parents that had been neglecting watching over their children began to search for them to be sure they were safe and to put them back under their watchful eyes. They wouldn’t want their children turning out like that parentless monster, now would they?

And still further down the road, they came across a bar. A fight between drunk civilians and shinobi alike had broken out and was spilling out onto the street. Yet, as soon as Naruto was in sight, they all stopped punching each other and shot their hateful glances at Naruto instead of the person they were just trying to punch into the ground. Several gave their opponents a helping hand up as they all turned, united, to glare at the demon container as he passed.

Believing Sasuke had gotten a good idea of what he was talking about, Naruto took to the roof tops and didn’t stop until he was atop of the Third’s head. If he was going to teach Sasuke his philosophy, then being on “The Professor’s” head should be a good thing, right?

When Sasuke landed beside him, Naruto looked out over all of Konoha.

“You see, Sasuke, this village needs me, scapegoat or not. For some, I serve as a reminder that tomorrow, there may be another attack. Tomorrow, their family may not be alive. In a day, they may not have any precious people left, and so they hold them closer. Arguments are forgotten, hate is redirected, and all that is left between them is their own special bonds. For others, I serve as a constant threat. They believe that at any given moment, Kyuubi may burst from my belly button and destroy the village. It unites them, like nothing but a common enemy could. They can, while I’m around, forget their other differences and get along. Maybe I am just a scapegoat, but that’s my job. It’s all I have, Sasuke. That’s why I stay here.” Naruto looked back at Sasuke for his reaction.

“That’s a pretty messed up way of thinking, dobe.”

Naruto laughed humorlessly, “Yeah, it is, isn’t it.”

“BUT, it does have some intelligence to it, very unlike you. Who taught you to think like that?”

“I’m not the smartest person, teme, you know that, but something like this can’t be taught. You just have to make it up as you go. It’s kind of a ‘don’t look at the ramen bowl half empty’ sorta thing. You have to look at the bowl as if it is still half full of ramen. Search out the positive.”

“Still, these laws…they’re unfair.”

“There’s nothing fair about politics, teme, whatever you may think. Someone always has more power, and someone is always neglected because they’re the minority. But the laws are not too bad.”

Sasuke fully stared at Naruto in incredibility. For a moment, he could envision Naruto a little older with Hokage robes billowing in the breeze above the stone faces. He could see those whisker marks adorning a new head of rock beside the Fifth’s face. Sasuke could hear Naruto bringing happiness and understanding to Konoha. He could almost feel it within Naruto- the ability and power to be Hokage. Was Naruto really as foolish as everyone believed? Sasuke was witnessing right then a moment when Naruto seemed to be wiser than all of them. A genius of circumstance and experience, they could call him.

Naruto laughed at the shock on Sasuke’s face. He took it to be about his previous statement, which it partially was. “No really, they’re not that bad. For one, they could have just killed me or locked me in jail all my life. Some of them wanted to do that. For two, like I said, there is always hope. The laws can be changed, and if I prove myself enough, I can gain enough support to get some of the restrictions removed. Apart from that, the laws have loopholes I can use. Like the fourth law: ‘Naruto Uzumaki may never rise above the rank of Jounin.’ The law does not say that I can’t be more powerful than a Jounin, so I can still train and become as powerful as a Hokage for when I can finally convince them to let me become the Rokudaime. Another, law five says I can’t marry or have sex. However, it wasn’t made until after I had traveled with Ero-sannin (who made sure I had a…well-rounded education, if you can imagine), so I got to experience…yeah…all that.” Sasuke gave him an odd look at that, “And because it states specifically that the law is there to prevent me from reproducing, it can be logically argued that I can still have…yeah…with a…um…guy…Not that it matters anymore now that you’ve already knocked me up.”

Sasuke’s brow twitched at Naruto’s crude, yet accurate way of describing the recent turn of events. He barely managed to keep himself from hitting the mother…er..father…er…carrier of his children.

It was then that it hit Sasuke: He was going to be a father! Of little helpless beings that would be solely dependent on Naruto and himself. Sasuke’s brow furrowed in thought, shock, and worry.

Naruto noticed the change come over Sasuke. “What’s wrong, teme?”

Sasuke looked into those deep pools of blue that Naruto called eyes. “It’s just too much to consider at once. Yesterday, I had just decided to give up my dream of reviving my clan, and then today, I find out that I am already on my way of fulfilling that dream. I’m going to be a parent, dobe, and so are you.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” sung Naruto, looking at Sasuke in disbelief. “You’re not allowed to be all…expressive and shit. I was just expecting a ‘hn.’ A typical Uchiha reply, you know, teme?”

“Hn,” said the Uchiha, sending Naruto a dark look.

Naruto started joyfully laughing. “There’s the Teme I know! This just might work out.”

Above the village of Konoha, atop of one of the most brilliant Hokage’s ever to live, black and blue orbs met in a silent agreement as the Uchiha’s hand came up to Naruto’s belly to be placed over his…no…their… unborn children. They would make this work. And the warm look in Naruto’s blue eyes made the Uchiha give a small smile. ‘There’s always hope. We can cope with this..together.’

A/N: Once the boys leave Konoha, the plot should finally speed up a bit, slowing down only to develop their relationship further. If you have any events you’d like to see happen, tell me please. They could serve as some very interesting inspiration.

Anyway, I kind of sense that I’m gonna have some mixed reactions to this chapter- some ‘Hey, that’s great’ responses and some ‘Are you on crack?’ (which I wasn't/am not) ones too.

So, this was chapter 11. I have only 14 chapters pre-written, and my schedule's jam-packed with things to do this week, and that's even staying up to 1am and getting up at 7am. Next week it should slow down considerably, and maybe you'll get some new chapters after my prewritten ones run out.