He was trapped. His arms and legs nailed to the floor. Furious red clouds stormed angrily around him as he felt excruciating pain. Red mist brutally ripped out of his abdomen. The Kyuubi….Kurama howled. Bleeding red eyes of the beast stared at him. The beast grew until he was enormous. A baby wailed as he heard a piercing scream from a woman. He was the baby. Red hair fanned out under the woman who had her head thrown back, floating in mid air. He wailed in anguish with outstretched arms, trying to grab onto her, but no matter how much he stretched he couldn't touch her. She drifted farther and farther away until she disappeared, leaving the gut wrenching wails behind.

Naruto woke up with a start, drenched in sweat, shaking. Anguish filled his whole being at the memory, and for the first time in his life, curled up in his bed as the curtains of the window above his bed billowed in the night breeze, letting in streaks of moonlight that illuminated his form, Naruto cried for want of his mother. For the maternal womb he could sob into. For those arms to encircle him and tell him everything would be alright. He'd never felt such a feeling of utter loss before.

"So what you're saying is that you don't care what rank mission it is, even a D rank mission as long as it gets you out of the village?" Tsunade looked at the state of the boy in front of her. Puffy dark rings under tired eyes that had dulled to the color of pale sky, the once sturdy frame now drooping and unsteady. She looked in shock at the boy she'd come to look at as her own grandchild.

"Yes." Naruto had not been faring well since that night. The night he gained and lost everything. Naruto was not one to give up on anything. He would fight to get what he wanted, he always had. Because he knew that nothing would ever be given to him freely. He had always had to work to be acknowledged and then befriended. He'd fought hard to bring Sasuke back to the village. But this was one time he couldn't fight because it would be wrong. Sasuke was married and he loved his wife. Naruto was the third wheel. That was certainly made clear by Sasuke who had lost no time in leaving the village for a mission after that night.

But that was two weeks ago and Naruto could feel the strain now. He wanted so badly to see Sasuke, to talk to him, to touch him, to hold him. And he was afraid of these over powering desires. So he needed to get away before Sasuke came back.

"Tsunade Sam-a," Sakura entered the Hokage's room and hesitated as she noticed Naruto sitting at the table. Tsunade didn't miss the stiffness in Naruto's posture at her entry. She also noted that Naruto didn't turn around to greet Sakura, or even acknowledge her for that matter. Furthermore, she noted the dark circles around Sakura's eyes. Something was going on and she didn't like the conclusion her mind was supplying her with. Tsunade had known that despite Sakura's marriage to Sasuke, Naruto still hadn't been able to let go of the torch he held for her all of these years. She had also seen Sakura's "enthusiasm" for lack of a better word, for Sasuke diminish after their wedding. Attributing it to the novelty of being with Sasuke finally having worn out, Tsunade hadn't thought much of it, but every once in a while she couldn't help but wonder if Sakura ever regretted her decision of jumping too soon into a relationship with Sasuke, of never having given Naruto a chance. Now, noticing their awkwardness around each other; adding to it, the fact that Sasuke was conveniently out of town, and she was beginning to see things she didn't want to. But Naruto was with Hinata, and he would never cheat on her. Cheat on anyone for that matter. So she tried to convince herself. It was after all the better alternative.

"I'll come back later," Sakura excused herself and left, shutting the door behind her but leaving behind the tension she'd created when she entered.

Naruto was a wreck. He knew of Sakura's betrayal, but somehow, what he'd done seemed a hundred times worse to him. He needed to get out, fast.

Before he could voice out his plea, however, they were interrupted by a scream outside the door.

"Sakura!" Shizune ran to the girl who'd collapsed outside the Hokage's door. The door burst open and Tsunade walked out, Naruto in tow.

Tsunade watched as, with a cry of alarm, Naruto launched forward and bent down to cradle Sakura's unconscious form. Shizune called for a stretcher and asked someone to call Sasuke.

"He's out on a mission!" Naruto replied frantically.

"No he's back, he's on his way down the corridor, to report to the Hokage," someone, one of the staff, yelled.

Naruto froze. A couple of them picked Sakura up and out of Naruto's arms. He barely registered the change. He couldn't be here. He couldn't see Sasuke now, not in this situation. While everyone was busy placing Sakura on a more comfortable platform Naruto quietly slipped out.

By the time Naruto had stopped running he'd reached the park near the academy. He found himself moving to sit on the old swing. The one he used to swing on through his academy days. As it swung back and forth like the ticking of a clock, Naruto remembered the little boy who was shunned, hated, discarded. The little boy who tried to hard to get people to see him, it hurt. When had he become this person who ran away from those who freely loved and accepted him? He was disgusted with himself.

As he got up to walk away, he didn't notice another lone figure, equally distraught, equally disgusted with themselves, walk past him.

They both walked down their own paths, pausing to look up at the dark, cloudy, foreboding sky. A storm lurked in the vicinity, and when it hit, it would probably uproot a lot of lives.

Naruto made his way up the steps of his apartment, with each step, his legs getting heavier, like there were rocks tied to them, until they collapsed under him. He had a strange sense of floating and then sharp pain, and then everything went blank.

Tsunade was getting too old for her job, she thought. She'd not had so many shocks in her life as she had in the past twenty four hours and she hoped to god that it ended here because she didn't think she could handle any more. Infact, shocked didn't even begin to cover what Tsunade felt at the moment. Never in her very long life, had she ever come across such a situation. And never had she been at a loss for words as she did now. She had three patients under her care, all three of them, high profile shinobi, few of her finest, all three of their lives impossibly intertwined, and all three of them in the very same situation. One had passed out outside her office, the other, outside their home, and the third had simply walked into her office last evening, a complete wreck, and outright confessed her situation to her. She didn't even want to begin delving into the first two cases. Not only had she been proved utterly wrong about her assumptions of the day before, the reports in front of her insinuated a situation far worse that she'd imagined. As much of a shock as it had been to discover the truth, though there was still a fair amount of speculation on her part, she was quiet confident she understood the situation quite clearly now. And she hated to admit that it should not have come as a surprise to anyone who knew the parties involved. Just the way in which this situation had decided to unravel, however, was what was devastating.

She had no idea how she was going to break this news to Naruto.

So she decided to deal with the easier situation first, which was laughable because this situation, while better than the other two, could possibly evoke the worst possible reaction in the shinobi world.

A soft knock interrupted her thought. It was time.

"Come in."

"Ohayo Gozaimasu Tsunade Sama, you asked to see me?"

Tsunade's face hardened, "Yes Neji, please have a seat. There is something I need to discuss with you."

Neji, ever the polite, respectful well bred shinobi, gracefully took a seat opposite the Hokage.

"Hinata's pregnant." The effect was instantaneous. Tsunade looked at the man sitting across her with cold hard eyes as he turned white as a sheet. "And you're the father."