Don't tell Sasuke

Lunch meeting

"Hn." The young Uchiha grunts while still looking incredibly irritated and annoyed. I looked at him and smiled softly, he looked incredibly similar to Itachi. The feeling it gave me was warming my insides, oh how I missed running my hands through the long raven hair.

"It's nice to meet you neighbour, I'm Hotaru." I looked him over once before quickly averting my eyes to not seem too suspicious. "Let's get going!"

As I followed them down the roads I thought about Itachi's number one rule: Sasuke must not find out that I was pregnant with his brother's child. Itachi told me that Sasuke could easily decide that he could use me to get to him.

Itachi didn't tell me much about his clan. I know that it's only him and Sasuke left. I know a terrible thing happened, and Itachi has some major regret surrounding the event. He never told me what happened, but the way he avoids talking about it I knew it must have been terrible. Itachi and Sasuke left on the worst terms possible. I didn't press the issue further, but being around his brother made me nervous I was going to slip up, and then Itachi and the baby would both be in danger.

"Hotaru! Good afternoon!" A familiar voice called to me. I looked up to see we were close to the same ramen shop from yesterday. I took a deep wiff of it and waved back to Sakura.

"I asked if we could have it here... you know, for the cravings." He whispered the last part while giving a side glance to Sasuke. I blushed out of embarrassment as I realized he was bound to tell everyone in the village of my pregnancy.

"Thank you Naruto, you have been a great friend." He gave a small blush in return, and quickly looked back forwards with a wide smile.

It seemed that Ino's team and Naruto's team were here, along with their team's sensai. There was Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji with their sensai Asuma. Then Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi. Naruto seemed to break the ice for me when he told everyone about how I had forgotten my room number and we had to try all the locks only to find out the number was on the key the entire time. Everyone laughed or chuckled in some way, except for Sasuke who only looked annoyed.

"Hey Sasuke cheer up it was a funny story."

"The only funny thing about it is that you came out on top for idiocracy between the two of you." Naruto suddenly looked angry and pointed his finger in Sasuke's face.

"There is no need to be rude to Hotaru, she has done nothing wrong."

"She found someone more stupid than her to help her, you're both a danger to society." I was honestly hurt by his words, but at the same time happy Naruto was standing up for me, and suddenly there were tears threatening to spill over. I scowled to myself to pull it together. I was confusing myself, was I crying becuase I was hurt or was it becuase I was happy.

"She is not stupid -- Hotaru are you okay?" He suddenly looked my way as one of the tears broke free and ran down my face. I laughed and waved him off.

"I'm fine! I'm just starving for some ramen! It's taking a long time don't you think?" I smiled wiping the tear away quickly.

"You bastard, you made her cry!"

"No No! Naruto, it wasnt him, please don't fight. It's just the..." I trailed off hoping he would understand, but he was only a child and my hopes fell on deaf ears. He still looked confused, so Sakura elbowed him in the side and whispered something.

"Babies do that too?" He questioned me, I sighed. And Sakura and Ino smashed him in the head at the same time. "Ow, ow, I'm sorry!"

"Baby?" Kakashi questioned, I looked at him sheepishly. I wasn't sure if him knowing would make my process, to becoming official in the village, more challenging or not.

"I said I needed to talk to the Hokage.." I whispered to him.

"How's it make you feel Sasuke, to make a pregnant woman cry." Naruto asked, but the food was placed down infront of us and everyone chose that moment to eat and be silent. Except that was, for Naruto who for a while glared Sasuke down as Sasuke ate his ramen. "Hotaru will you be watching the Chunin exams? We are all taking part in them! Will you watch us?" He seemed to talk and eat and breath all at the same time. At least he was eating now.

"Hmmhm. *slurp* It's why I chose to come during this time *slurp* I've never seen a ninja battle before." I wiped my mouth with a napkin. It wasn't entirely true, I once saw Itachi fighting someone, but he grew upset at me that I was there and told me to leave. He came back to me with blood all over him that night. It was that day that I saw those red eyes and he told me about his clan.

"So you don't know how to perform jutsus?" Naruto asked amazed. I shook my head. Itachi made efforts for me to learn taijutsus as a form of defense. He didn't like the idea of me using ninjutsu, but that was before I was pregnant.

"No, but I know my way around a kuni. It was what I used to keep us safe on the journey here. You know, in case of bandits."

"Us?" Came the voice of kakashi, he was leaning back in his chair with an empty bowl infront of him. I blushed looking down at my bowl.

"Me and the baby." My blushed deepened at saying it out loud from pure embarrassment.

"A kuni? Cool, maybe we could spar!" Naruto exclaimed. It was quickly followed by two fists to his head.

"Idiot! You can't! You could hurt the baby." Ino rolled her eyes at just how idiotic she found Naruto sometimes.

"Sorry Naruto but they're right. I learned how to defend myself for the baby and that alone. Besides I already know that I could never become a ninja, I'm too old..."

"You're not too old. Maybe I could train you?" I rose an eyebrow. "You know to see if you're holding your kuni right and maybe show you how to set traps or something simple like that? Konoha is safe, but what if you want to go back to your family and visit?" They all looked towards me for an answer and I thought about it for a second. Itachi had taught me the most basics of everything, and if Naruto did have something more to share with me it wouldn't hurt to learn.

"Yeah, that sounds nice. But only after the Chunin exams, I don't want you wasting your time on me while you could be training."

"If you really want to" began Kakashi, "we can provide you with basic scrolls to learn from in the mean time." I smiled and waved my hands infront of me.

"Really, it's not a big deal, I'm not a ninja like you guys and I'm perfectly okay with that."

"But Naruto is right" Shikamaru stated. "You should be able to defend yourself with more than just a kuni. A life in a ninja village can often be dangerous." I nodded thoughtfully to them all, and a second bowl was placed down infront of me and I was on top of it swallowing quickly.

When everyone was done we all paid and left the shop. People broke off to head their own way home, all except for Sasuke and Naruto and I.

"Hotaru, I could show you some tricks now if you want or maybe you could just watch me train?" He looked so desperate for attention I couldn't say no.

"Hmm sure. I could use a bit of a walk for exercise anyway." We began walking in another direction with a quick goodbye to Sasuke, but he turned with us.

"What's the big idea Sasuke?" Naruto yelled at the other boy.

"I want to make sure you don't kill her is all," he grunted and continued to follow us.