Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Flowers in the Sand ❯ Chapter 19

-ponders how many people want to kill me now that Sasuke has been revealed as a bad guy…-

 

Chapter 19

 

“Sir, you are being ridiculous. There is no one else here who can help Sakura with the birthing of her baby. If we take the Jinchuriki and begin the extraction, there will be no one to assist should any problems arise. And if we don't have Naruto's wife and child in good health when he arrives here…”

 

Kabuto nodded. The medic-nin in him knew well the truth behind Sasuke's words. “As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. Getting our hands on Naruto and thus Kyuubi is our number one priority. Should anything happen to Sakura or the infant… he would most likely let the Nine-tails loose in his body and let it rampage us. We would never survive.”

 

“But neither would he,” Sasuke pointed out. “It would undoubtedly be a lose-lose situation.”

 

The silver-haired spy sighed. “Very well. We will postpone the extraction until after Sakura is delivered of her child. In the meantime, bring the Jinchuriki to me for a moment. I wish to view this deepened seal for myself.”

 

Sasuke bowed. “As you wish.” He vanished.

 

Soon… soon my efforts will come to fruition…

 

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“Urrrrghhhh! Dammit, that one hurt like hell!”

 

Safaia wiped the beads of sweat off Sakura's forehead. “You have to be getting closer,” she said, almost pleading with her laboring friend. “Your language has been getting worse.”

 

Sakura lay back on the mat as the pain lessened. “If Naruto were here,” she chuckled breathlessly, “he'd be cursing more than I am.”

 

A sudden knock on the door preceded it opening to reveal Sasuke. Safaia glowered at him. “Do you mind? A woman is trying to have a baby here!”

 

“I am well aware of that,” Sasuke said dryly. “But Kabuto wishes to see you. You will be allowed to return shortly. He has agreed to let you help Sakura deliver.”

 

“But I don't know anything about birthing babies!”

 

Sakura smiled at her friend. “Don't worry about it. As a medic-nin, I do, so I'll just tell you what you need to do, okay? Just go and come back, so I don't have to give birth to this kid alone!”

 

“Let's go,” Sasuke said as he put an arm around Safaia's slender waist and “flickered” them back to Kabuto's room.

 

Safaia blinked several times, trying to regain her equilibrium. What just happened?

 

“Welcome, Jinchuriki,” Kabuto drawled as he stepped closer to her. “I won't keep you from your friend for very long. After all, we can't have anything bad happening to our little pawn, can we?”

 

“You're a monster,” Safaia hissed, narrowing her eyes at him and wishing very much that she were able to rip out his throat for even looking at Sakura.

 

Kabuto chuckled. “Ironic words, coming from a creature like you. But I will keep this visit short. I merely want to look at the seal upon your back.”

 

Safaia looked down at the sapphire blue gown she was wearing. How does he expect to do that? I'm not about to take off my clothes…

 

Sasuke turned her around and held her still as Kabuto stepped forward. Deftly, he sliced through the thin material with a kunai, exposing her back to just barely above her hips. Safaia cried out in surprise and embarrassment.

 

However, Kabuto's mind was clearly only on the black markings on her lower back. “Fools… they thought to seal Gobi away permanently.”

 

Sasuke, however, couldn't pry his eyes away from the smooth, pale flesh Kabuto's kunai had revealed. “Is it possible to unseal it then and release Gobi?” he managed to ask the other man.

 

Kabuto laughed- a rather wicked sound. “Observe.” He bit his thumb and wiped a trail of blood down the middle of the seal- and right down Safaia's spine. She shuddered in revulsion at his touch.

 

Making some quick seals, Kabuto placed his fingertips in a specific position around the edge of the main seal. “Fuuja Houin Kaiin!”

 

Safaia screamed in pain as the black marks on her back turned firey red. The outermost marks retracted, leaving only two seal circles on her skin. Sasuke tightened his grip on her. “Did it work?” he asked Kabuto.

 

“I merely unsealed the first level,” Kabuto smiled. “Gobi is now awake, but she won't be able to take over the woman's body. We don't want her killing us all before we can extract her.” He waved Sasuke off as he turned back to his medical equipment. “Take her back. She is ready for the extraction now, once the brat is born.”

 

Sasuke bowed in acknowledgement as he picked up the whimpering girl and carried her back to Sakura's room.

 

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Naruto landed lithely on the tree branch next to Shikamaru. Temari landed on his other side. “I want suggestions. Whatever will allow us to get in, get Sakura and Safaia, and get out with the least amount of bloodshed.”

 

Temari raised a blonde eyebrow at him. “You don't want to kill Kabuto?”

 

“I will kill Kabuto. I don't want any of you to be injured in the process of the rescue.”

 

Shikamaru crouched on the branch and took up his familiar “thinking” pose. Temari simply stared at the entrance to Orochimaru's lair as she thought things through in her mind.

 

After a few moments' silence, Shikamaru opened his eyes. Ino grinned at Chouji from their perch a few trees away. “He's thought of something!”

 

“This should be good,” Chouji chuckled back.

 

“Neji.” The white-eyed man appeared next to Shikamaru. “See how well-manned the place is. That will give me placement of where our enemies and potential traps will be.”

 

Neji nodded. He looked at the entrance. “Byakkugan!” Several moments passed before he spoke again. “There are at least three dozen guards between us and the girls. It looks like they are being held in the southeast corner of the building.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Something seems… off.”

 

Naruto looked at him in concern. “What? Is Sakura okay?”

 

Neji shook his head slightly. “I can't say for certain, but it looks like she's sitting down, leaning against a wall. Her chakra levels are high, but her circulation is focusing on her abdomen. I… I wonder if she's…”

 

“She's in labor,” Temari scowled. “Dammit. I was afraid of that.”

 

“She's what?” Naruto cried. “You're kidding me, right?”

 

“We knew it was a possiblity,” Shikamaru told him. “Temari and I both have put that into our calculations, and figured it into our plan.”

 

Kiba whistled in appreciation from his branch position next to Akamaru. “I'm glad those two are on our side, Akamaru.” The white dog whuffed in agreement.

 

“We, meaning the nine of us,” Shikamaru began, “will focus our efforts on taking out the guardsmen and finding Kabuto. If we can finish him off, then the remaining members of Akatsuki will be vulnerable- they won't have a leader to control them nor the intelligence to continue hunting down and extracting Bijus.”

 

“The nine of you,” Gaara echoed, noticing that Naruto's mind was completely off somewhere else- more than likely on his laboring wife. “Then you want Naruto and I to find the women and get them out while the rest of you are distracting Kabuto?”

 

Temari looked thoughtful. “I worry about trying to move Sakura while she's in labor. We don't know how far along she's progressed- if we try to move her and she's nearly ready to push…”

 

“That will have to be up to Sakura,” Shikamaru told his wife. “Only she will know if she feels like she can go. Unless Naruto would rather wait for her to deliver her child and then try to rescue the three of them.”

 

Naruto glanced at the entrance, worry evident on his very serious face. “You didn't mention the other option,” he told his friend.

 

Shikamaru winced. “I didn't want to because it's more risky. I thought getting Sakura and Safaia out of there was your first priority.”

 

“Sakura is in labor- we don't know how much longer it will be until she has the baby. Right?”

 

Almost everyone nodded. “The other option is to deal with Kabuto first- defeat him and then take the girls back to Konoha.”

 

“But that will put everyone at risk- not just the nine of us,” Temari pointed out. “You and Gaara are Kages. We can't risk losing either one of you in battle.”

 

Gaara and Naruto exchanged significant glances. “We were named Kages for a reason,” Gaara replied. “And it was not because we let others fight our battles for us.”

 

“You're forgetting Sasuke,” Tenten reminded them. “He's in there too.”

 

“We will treat him as we would any other traitor,” Neji announced, narrowing his eyes. “We'll capture him and take him back to Konoha for trial and sentencing.”

 

“If any of you happen upon Sasuke, do not kill him,” Naruto clarified, giving Neji a rather direct look. “If he attacks you, only defend yourself- he is not to be harmed. I will deal with him personally, once I'm finished with Kabuto.”

 

“Yes, sir,” came a chorus of agreement from the nine shinobi.

 

“Same formation,” Shikamaru instructed. “My team will go first. Lee, I want you to join Temari's team and help take out those coming up from behind. When we find Sakura and Safaia, Ino, Temari, and Tenten will stay with them and help them until Kabuto is flushed out. Then Gaara and Naruto can focus on fighting Kabuto without worrying about their safety.”

 

Everyone nodded. “Let's end this,” Naruto said, his voice deadly serious.

 

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“Breathe… come on, fore-head girl, breathe!” Sakura growled at herself as she panted.

 

Safaia lay unconscious in the corner, covered in a spare blanket that had been left in the room. The unsealing had hurt her both physically and spiritually, and her body had simply retreated into unconsciousness to heal. However, that left Sakura to deliver her child alone.

 

And she found it to be even more difficult than she had imagined. Naruto! I am SO going to kill you when I see you again!

 

Well, maybe not kill, but at least maim him- certain parts of him, maybe. Now was not the time to be plotting his dismemberment- she had more pressing business, literally.

 

The pressure had built to the point of unbearableness, so it must finally be time to push. She had tried to delay it, so she wouldn't have to give birth in Orochimaru's lair, but apparently her child was as stubborn as its father was. Well, fine then. Let's get this over with!

 

By now, she was wearing only the thin satiny slip that had been under her dress. The rest of her clothing had been removed and tossed aside, because it was too hot to wear once the contractions started getting really bad, and because she had more freedom of movement in just the slip.

 

Having scooted herself back against the wall earlier and padded her back with some extra towels, Sakura now lifted her knees and focused her attention on what she needed to do. As the contraction built, she wrapped her arms around each knee and pushed as hard as she could. As the pain lessened slightly, she relaxed and made ready to do it over again with the next one.

 

Over and over she fought to bring her child into the world. For seemingly-endless contractions she pushed, sweat trickling down her temples and beading her brow. The fabric of her thin slip clung to her skin as she labored.

 

She lost count of how many contractions had passed, but she was starting to think that the birth wasn't progressing as it should. She knew first labors generally took longer than subsequent deliveries, but she felt like she had been pushing for hours. Was her baby stuck? Was something wrong?

 

She felt down to see if the child was crowning yet but couldn't feel anything. The baby wasn't even there yet? What was happening? Or worse, what wasn't happening? Sakura fought off the beginning twinges of panic.

 

Glancing over at the unconscious girl in the corner, she began to feel even more helpless. Poor Safaia- even if she had been awake, would she be able to help? What had Kabuto done to her?

 

Tears slipped down Sakura's cheeks as she continued her exhausting ordeal. Deep breath and push… push… push… and relax… Deep breath and push…

 

Naruto… where are you?

 

-oOo-oOo-oOo-

 

A/N: Fuuja Houin Kaiin- “Evil Sealing Method Release” (I think)

 

Sorry this chapter is shorter, but it just seemed like a good spot to pause. I'll try and get the next chapter up by tonight, but it may be as late as tomorrow. Thank you, everyone, for your wonderful reviews! They inspire me to keep going!