Mending The Past To A Better Future

Chp 34. Fire in the Suna Sky pt. 1

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The past year had been one of the most eventful in Obito's life, and not even because he himself had so much going on. No, more like, he knew people who had interesting lives, and by proxy, that made his own life interesting.

For starters, it felt like everyone he knew and their sisters were having kids this year. Shikaku Nara, Chouza Akimichi, and Inoichi Yamanaka had all had children just recently, and while it hadn't been surprising to see the famed Ino-Shika-Cho trio being in synchronicity for everything, including the births of their clan heirs, it was just the fact that it paved the way for all the other clan heads, too. There was the Hyuugas - Hiashi had Hinata-chan now. The Inuzukas had welcomed a new pup - his name was Kiba. The Aburames had another silent baby, and if Obito remembered correctly, his name was Shino, and bugs already adored him. Itachi had a baby brother now -- his name was Sasuke, and he was absolutely adorable with ten tiny toes and ten tiny fingers to match with the cutest smile and the softest hair. Although for whatever reason, he was adamant about being held by only his mother and brother and cried whenever Fugaku and Shisui tried to pick him up. That made him a little less cute, Obito thought. Shisui doted on Sasuke in a way only an older cousin could, and even though his missions were long and hard, he never pasted anything but a real smile on his face when visiting his youngest cousin.

The clan had not shut up about Sasuke-kun for nearly months. It was to be expected, of course. Sasuke was the son of the clan head, which made him important in the Uchiha's eyes. Nearly all of the village elders and clan members had visited the main family compound at some point to drop off gifts for the baby.

But when Sasuke had been out and kicking for nearly two months, Kushina and Minato had been having a child of their own.

It was an odd day when they'd told him. They'd told him and Kakashi together, and Kakashi for some reason or the other looked highly uncomfortable. At first, he'd assumed it was because the silver haired prodigy still had shards of that metaphorical stick up his ass and couldn't stand within a five feet radius of anything gurgling and small, but Minato had seemed just as bothered as his student.

And that wasn't to say that Minato had been excited - because he surely had. The joy on his face couldn't have been faked, but there was also a level of concern layered in there somewhere.

Obito had passed it off as fatherly worry for the child of a Kage, who would no doubt be targeted from the get go but sometimes he was uncertain.

Kushina didn't share any of Minato's reservations though. She was outwardly bursting with joy, and she had all the excuses in the world to give in to her abnormal ramen cravings, and Minato had no urge to tell her to do otherwise.

As far as pregnancies went, though, no one actually knew that Kushina was pregnant. Obito wasn't quite sure how she'd managed to hide it as long as she had, but she did, and Minato had warned him and Kakashi quite clearly that it was an S-rank secret that they weren't allowed to disclose to anyone under any circumstances.

Even Naruto and Rin? Kakashi had asked, his dark eyes searching Minato's blue eyes with deeper meaning embedded in them.

Even Naruto and Rin, Minato had said, his normally cheerful face as serious as Obito had ever seen it. Or at least, not until the baby was born safely.

And that had been that.

During Kushina's second trimester, Minato had been officially named Hokage much to Obito's pleasure. It had been a true honor watching his Sensei accept the hat in front of the entire village. He, Kakashi, Itachi, Shisui, and some of the kids of their graduating class like Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, and Anko had gone together to watch the whole ceremony.