Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Grounded	By : djserani Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 2818 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Neji and Hinata were the first to land. Just inside the west gates, they waved at the guards on duty and stepped out. They found a tree to lean up against and when she would have sat separate, he pulled her up against him. “Do you think they don’t know?” he asked.
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted them to,” she said simply. She settled back into him. “Are we early?”
Neji chuckled. “I suspect we’re the first because we didn’t have to go far to get clean clothes.”
Hinata giggled. The giggles had finally calmed down when the shower they’d taken had started to get cold. “True, true. I only had to sneak down the hall. I wonder if my father knows yet…” she trailed off and spent some time idly stroking the top of Neji’s hand where it lay on her stomach.
“Do you want them?” she asked quietly.
“As many as you want.” He had, alone in his room, in the darkest hours of the quietest nights allowed himself to wonder what it would be like to have her as his wife. To love and raise children with. He’d always pictured many.
She smiled and laid her head back on his shoulder to look at him. “You might want to take that back. You do know we’re likely to have twins, right?”
He raised an eyebrow, but nodded anyway. “Yes, I know.” He rubbed her belly a little. “Let’s hope we can get married, though, before we do.”
She chuckled quietly, and nodded. “Yes, I think our discussion with my father about marriage will be enough for him for now.”
Neji chuckled quietly, then tapped her hand. A moment later, Sakura and Kakashi walked out through the gate.
“Yo!” Kakashi’s good eye crinkled above his mask and one hand waved. The other, instead of holding his normal Icha Icha was, in fact, holding Sakura’s hand. Hinata’s eyes widened, then she grinned.
She jumped up and ran over to Sakura. She threw a smile over at Kakashi as she flew by, pulling Sakura over towards the wall. Sakura glanced over her shoulder, but Kakashi was taking a seat next to Neji. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what they were saying.
“So…” Hinata began, a blush staining her cheeks.
Sakura blushed, too, but cleared her throat. “Well, I’m here, aren’t I?” She paused, then looked at Hinata. “Are you… feeling okay this morning?” She gave her a pointed look.
Hinata nodded. “My medical training is, of course, not as extensive as yours, but I was able to relieve some discomfort.”
Sakura smiled. “Good.” She leaned against the wall, her eyes trained on Kakashi. “Um, wow. I don’t even know where to begin. How are things with you and Neji?”
But Hinata didn’t get a chance to answer. Lee and Tenten came around the corner then, followed closely by Ino and Chouji and Shikamaru and Temari. Everyone stood a bit awkwardly for a moment. They all knew what the others had been up to. If they were here this morning, the women had managed what they’d set out to do. And perhaps that’s why it was so uncomfortable.
Even Kakashi was quiet for a moment, though as Sakura and Hinata had rejoined the group, he’d pulled Sakura close to him and held her hand. Lee, loud, boisterous Lee, was even subdued, his arms around Tenten and she with a blush on her face.
Finally, Temari spoke up and Sakura could have kissed her. “Okay, this is ridiculous. We all know what happened last night. Maybe not the details—” Someone snickered and she rolled her eyes. “—but that’s why we’re here now. I wonder if we need this many people to go after them.” She looked over at Kakashi.
“The intel we had as of yesterday put their numbers at close to 10, so it’s not a bad idea. I’d heard they lost one member, but he could have been replaced. There are certainly enough rogue ninja out there to fill in. We have huge bingo books full of them.” He paused and looked from one face to another. “These are rogue ninja, not just some random guys who are doing this. All of you are good, there’s no doubt about that, but so are they. So, yeah, it might just take all of us.”
“I will say this, though. And you need to think carefully about what I’m about to say. You have to be absolutely sure that you can still perform your duties.” Some of them looked angry, a few puzzled. “I had to.” He took Sakura’s hand. “My feelings will be different when I’m out there and Sakura’s with me. I will have to concentrate. Of course, part of that is because I really don’t want to get back to Konoha by air…” He ducked when she swiped at him. Everyone chuckled. “But it will be harder.” He chuckled. “Might be good practice since so many of you are teammates.”
He cleared his throat. “We’re heading to the border of the River Country. They’d been keeping to the river that divides Fire from River. That’s a place to start. Any questions?”
Temari spoke up. “Do we have to leave anything to identify them when we’re done?”
Kakashi chuckled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s move out.”

* * *

From her window in the Hokage offices, Tsunade watched them leave, a private smile on her face.
“I hope you know what you’re doing. Especially with Sakura,” Shizune said quietly.
Tsunade’s smile widened. “I do.” She turned back to her desk. “Let’s get this day started.”

* * *

They took to the trees and the women let the men get ahead. “So…” Tenten began.
“Geez, aren’t we passed the point of giggling like schoolgirls over a date?” Temari demanded.
Ino snickered. “No,” and the rest of them laughed with her. Temari sighed.
“Okay, okay. Wow, who’d of thought Chouji was capable of…that.” Ino’s cheeks colored. She waved a hand at her face.
Sakura sent her a sideways look. “That good, huh?”
Ino grinned. “Oh, my… yes. Is it warm this morning?”
They laughed again. “I don’t believe this.” Temari grumbled.
“Is Shikamaru not good, then?” This from Hinata.
Temari turned to stare at her. “Not you too!” But she gave up. “No, he was very good. Wow.”
“So, wait, not lazy?” Ino asked.
Temari laughed. “Definitely not.”
They all looked next to Tenten. “So, um, did he take the jumpsuit off?”
Tenten burst out laughing. “No.” When they looked at her in horror, she said, “I did.” The girls laughed with her.
“Hey!” someone shouted from ahead. “Stop talking about us!”
Temari shouted back, “Sure! When you do.”
There was no answer from the men, which only made the girls laugh harder. Ino bit her lip, but couldn’t hold it in any more. “Chouji and I are getting married.”
Sakura stopped dead and dropped from the trees. The other girls followed a second later. “What!?”
Ino grinned. “He asked me this morning.”
“Isn’t that kind of…fast?” Sakura raised an eyebrow.
“Oh come on, Forehead. How long have we known each other?” Sakura just continued to stare. “We’ve been teammates for years. What’s the big deal?” Ino squirmed. “And, well, there was last night.”
“I think she’s just wondering how you could go from ignoring him to marrying him in a day,” Hinata said quietly.
“Oh. Well.” And here, she blushed even brighter.
“And having sex does not guarantee marriage,” Sakura said, quietly.
The guys chose that moment to drop from the trees. “Everything alright?” Kakashi asked, more to Sakura than the group as a whole.
“Yes, sorry. You guys go ahead, we need a few minutes. We’ll catch up.” She smiled up into his eye and despite herself couldn’t stop the blush that spread at the look he gave her.
He nodded once. “Let’s go guys.” And he took to the trees once more.
The others reluctantly followed, one by one, except for Chouji. He’d seen Ino blushing. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
She smiled up at him. “I’m fine.” She touched his cheek. “I love you. Get going.”
“Okay,” he said reluctantly, then gave her a quick kiss before taking back to the trees.
Sakura considered her best friend. She couldn’t ignore the look in Ino’s eyes, couldn’t shrug off the change in her face when she looked at Chouji. “When?” was all she said.
Ino shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. Probably a long time. I’m willing to bet each of you were in a similar situation last night. He’s always just been there. Steady Chouji, you know? But last night, I felt things…” She paused and blushed again, then looked from one to the other.
Sakura blew out a breath. “Yeah,” then squirmed when they all looked at her. “What?”
“Well, he was your teacher, wasn’t he? I mean, I had a crush on Asuma, but that was different.” Ino raised an eyebrow.
“Was my teacher. I had this discussion with myself last night.” She sighed. “He’s not my teacher anymore, is he?” But Ino just stared at her another minute. “So, he’s just older than me. Besides, he didn’t exactly propose marriage or anything. We had sex, and I’m here.”
No one looked convinced, but at that moment, Tenten spoke up. “Don’t laugh. Lee was completely different than I ever imagined.” Sakura smiled at her gratefully and she smiled back. “I half expected him to jump up after it was over and strike a pose.” Now they did laugh. “But he was…serious, and tender and…” she fanned herself. “Is it warm this morning?”
They all laughed again. “Wow. A lot can change in a day, can’t it? One step. Just one thing happening.” There were answering nods. “Neji and I will likely be getting married soon,” Hinata continued. “He will go see my father when we get back.”
“Isn’t that kind of… old fashioned?” Temari raised an eyebrow.
Hinata shrugged in response. “Our clan is still very much steeped in tradition. Besides, we, um, didn’t use anything last night. We may need to find ourselves hurrying the wedding up a bit.”
Ino cleared her throat. “Yeah, um, neither did we.” Temari and Sakura smiled.
Tenten sucked in a breath and sat down, hard. “Oh, crap,” she said. Her hands went unconsciously to her belly and she stared off into space.
“What’s wrong?” Sakura hurried over to Tenten and started checking her over.
Tenten looked up at Sakura and grabbed a wrist. “No, I’m fine. Well, a little sore, but…” She shook her head. “I didn’t. Use anything, that is.” She looked up into Sakura’s face.
“Hey, it’s not the end of the world.” Sakura squatted next to her, smiled. “As long as you can manage to keep Gai-sensei from putting the baby into one of those jumpsuits.” She gave a mock shudder.
Tenten laughed. “Well, I guess I don’t know yet. When can you tell?” she asked Sakura.
Sakura smiled. “I can look now, but it can happen up to four days afterwards.” She moved her hands down over Tenten’s belly, channeled her chakra and they began to glow a soft green.
Sakura concentrated, searching for the small telltale bundle of chakra Tsunade had taught her to look for. She knew it would be present almost immediately after conception. And damned if it wasn’t. Tiny, almost non-existent, but there it was.
She kept her face still and looked up at Tenten. “Well?” Tenten prompted.
Sakura smiled. “No jumpsuits. Please.”
Tenten stared a moment, then, unbidden a smile spread across her face. “Wow. Um, well.” Her hands went back to her belly and she looked at the other girls. “How am I going to tell Lee? Geez, one night.” She shook her head and got to her feet.
Sakura looked at Ino and Hinata. “Would you like me to check you, too?” They both nodded, and she repeated what she’d done with Tenten.
“Well, Hinata, your father should have time to get used to the idea of marriage before you spring any children on him. There’s nothing there yet. But…” she stressed, “come see me in a few days.” Hinata nodded and smiled.
She turned to Ino. “I’m moving out.”
Ino stared at her. “What?”
“I’m moving out. No way am I sharing an apartment with the two of you and your kid.” Ino’s eyes went wide.
“Holy shit!” she said, then laughed.
Temari spoke up, “hey, um, if the impromptu clinic is over, the guys are way ahead.”
The women took to the trees again. The guys must not have been moving too fast because they caught up pretty quickly. Ino moved over next to Sakura. “What the hell am I going to say?”
Sakura looked at her friend. “I have no idea. I used it last night. I was convinced he was with me out of pity—at first.” Ino raised one eyebrow. Sakura sent an irritated glance over. “I said at first. When I told him that this morning in the shower, he got mad.” She sighed. “Anyway, there’s no chance for me.”
“That’s a good thing.” Ino fell silent, staring ahead and missed the wince from Sakura. “If I tell him before we get there, he’s going to try to keep me from doing anything. I want to protect the baby—” Her hand moved down to her belly again. “—but dammit, I didn’t do that last night to just end up sitting out anyway.”
Sakura pasted a smile on. “You’ll be fine. That little guy—or girl—is safe and cushy in there. I can tell Chouji that, too, if you think it’ll help.”
“Thanks. I need to think for a bit yet, though.” Sakura nodded and they both concentrated on travelling.
- 8
- 9
- 10
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