Current mood:	sleepy
Entry tags:	fan-fanworks, other naruto fics

More fic (formatting fixed now I hope)
'Nother piece of the Teamwork fan-fanfic -- this one doesn't end at a particular point, just at where I've gotten too sleepy to keep writing anything else tonight. Wish I had a proper section-break, but in the meantime here's what I've got... happy reading I hope!

Same warning as before: R for Kyuubi's mouth...
also, apparently completely unformatted 'cause LJ's being a pain and not accepting RTF formatting and I'm soooo too tired to go through and hand-code HTML. Will have to repost later when (a) finished and (b) conscious...
ETA: Awake again. ^_^ Taking a stab at HTMLizing...

Continued from over here

Silently, Sakura cursed Inner Sakura with everything she was worth. DO NOT PROVOKE THE IMMORTAL DEMON, she shouted at herself a minute too late. He thinks you are ONE step removed from crunchy naked rats. You couldn't run fast enough even if you weren't the size of a beached whale right now. And he thinks pain and screaming is a turn-on. DO NOT provoke the --

His butt wiggled in the air, like a kitten getting ready to pounce.

--oh SHIT--

She knew screaming was the worst possible thing she could have done. She knew it; the Uchiha grounds were large enough and empty enough that no one could hear her, and it fed into all the Kyuubi's prey-instincts. But she couldn't seem to stop screaming, as though her body had a mind of its own and both she and Inner Sakura were helpless to stop it.

She saw a flash of far too many teeth grinning under blood-red eyes as it lunged.

Ninja training did far too little good when the thing she was fighting wasn't human and didn't have human limits on reflexes. It had her hands pinned over her head in less than a heartbeat, in a grip like a steel vise, and the claws on its feet were prickling at her thighs, and it grinned into her screaming face before the other hand came down claws-first.

Everything tore free at once, and the air was shockingly cold against her skin, a horrible belly-knotting reminder of how vulnerable her child was, barely shielded from the Kyuubi's claws by the too-easily-torn shield of her flesh.

Inner Sakura protested, Dammit, that was the last maternity dress that still fit over that huge belly! And Sasuke hates that girly pink overall thing with the bows--

Sakura screamed back at her, Shut the hell up and pray he's not going to tear the baby out next! The tears on her face were burning, and so was her throat; there was nothing she could do but scream--

There was another rip, and a crack, and the sofa cushion slid alarmingly. And then the Kyuubi scooped her up, sofa cushion and all, and plumped her onto her side in the nest. It kept her hands pinned with contemptuous ease, and crouched behind her, rumbling deep in its throat, and she felt the prickle of claws at the back of her neck, and she couldn't help screaming again at the sound of another sharp savage rip.

"Shut up," it rumbled with a warning squeeze of her wrists that made her bones grate together, as a few more rips and jerks tore the last shreds of her maternity dress away from her arms and left it scattered about the nest. "Don't make yourself whelp too soon, bitch. So damn weak and crushable..."

Make MYSELF...? Who the hell is scaring me half to death and stripping me naked in order to either rape me or gut me and--

--don'tprovokethedemon--don'tprovokethedemon--DAMMIT NARUTO YOUR ASS IS SO UNBELIEVABLY TOAST IF I LIVE THROUGH THIS -- STOP provoking the DEMON--!

Sakura bit down hard on her own tongue, managing to mute the sounds she was making to frantic gulping whimpering sounds, but it was closer to obedience than screaming. The Kyuubi leaned over her shoulder and studied her face, sniffing at her ear and cheek, planting its free hand on the side of her skull, and Sakura screwed her eyes shut and tried to tell herself she was ready to die.

It kept her head still with that one solid hand, claws tangled in her hair, and then tentatively lapped at the tear-tracks streaking her face. That shocked Sakura's eyes open again, and she strained the edges of her vision trying to stare out of the corner of her eyes at a soft pink tongue and fangs far too close to her eye socket.

It was still rumbling like a thunderstorm, licking the tears from her face, one hand pinning her wrists and the other keeping her from breaking its nose with panic-stricken thrashing.

"Stupid flower-bitch," the Kyuubi rumbled. "Sunbeam all over you, in a nice nest I went and made myself, no stupid not-furs to block out the sunbeam even -- and you're scared so witless you're leaking. What else do you want?"

Sakura gulped down air as though she'd just run a marathon, and tried to scrape her frantically scrambling brain back together.

...No pain. Not bleeding. It didn't even scratch me.

How the hell I got this naked that fast and it didn't even scratch me --

never mind, back to the point -- I'm not bleeding, if it wanted me bleeding I would be, if it wanted me screaming it sure as hell knows how to get that-- so--

--so what it wants is me, naked, in the nest, in the sunbeam...

--the sadistic son of a bitch was just PLAYING with me...! Just screwing with me, more like -- I ought to tear its head off--

heh. Like there's any chance in hell I'd manage that, and Naruto would miss his skull...

but-- somewhere inside that fuzzy little messed-up head, somewhere where monster brains work, 'naked' and 'sunbeam' mean 'good' -- so this is supposed to mean 'good,' so...

the bastard was trying to comfort me...? Screwed it up like hell, but-- it's not human, it doesn't understand... and it's at least trying not to break me-- it doesn't want me dead just for the hell of it--

The rush of relief was strong enough that the world actually swam gray in front of her eyes for a moment. The Kyuubi sensed it somehow -- pulse, scent, something -- and shook her pinned arms sharply: "Don't do that," it growled, sounding almost alarmed. "What was that? --Anyway, stop doing that!"

...No reason on earth an immortal fox demon would know about fainting, Sakura reminded herself, on the verge of falling apart in absolute hysterics. Laughter, tears, screaming, raging, the works -- except that she knew that when it came to throwing temper tantrums, the Kyuubi would so win. Without even trying.

It took all the years of training in misdirection that she'd ever had, but she fought her heart rate down, fought her breathing back to normal, forced her body to go limp and unresisting in his hands.

The tears were a little harder to control, but she focused on the unexpected softness of its -- his -- tongue, the rumbles she was trying to convince herself were meant for purrs from an animal the size of major geological features, the warm tickles of his breath on her tear-damp cheeks.

The Kyuubi let her wrists go, but kept her head pinned in place, because he was still intent on cleaning her face for her. It was almost like the way mother cats pinned squalling kittens for a washing whether they knew what was good for them or not. Sakura tried to think what kittens did besides pathetic squalling, and couldn't come up with much.

"Is this the part where I mew at you to let me go?" she asked with the half of her mouth that wasn't shoved into the nest.

The sound he made belonged to thunderstorms and other world-shaking phenomena; a sound like that shouldn't have fit inside the body of her goofy, ramen-slurping, warmly human lover. It was only when he made the sneezing face that she realized that the Kyuubi was laughing at her.

He took his paw -- his hand -- off her head and licked her cheek again, then shoved his head under the crook of her elbow and nestled his cheek against the hollow between her ribs and hips. The tip of his tongue lapped at the side of her belly, at the distended swell where once her waist had dipped inward instead, and he rumbled, "Scratch."

"Huh...?"

He butted his head against her elbow, then snuggled close enough to drowsily lick at her belly again, all but shaking the room with that rumbling purr. "I said, scratch. I lick, you scratch."

Bemused, Sakura lifted her hand and began scratching the Kyuubi's head, where his fox ears would have been. His eyes went half-slitted and his tongue lolled out like a happy dog's, and he wriggled in sheer bliss.

"Ohhhhh, yeah," the Kyuubi sighed, and suddenly there wasn't so much difference between the host and the inhabitant anymore. Sakura couldn't fight off a sudden, giddy attack of giggles.

He gave her a nonplussed look, and put a paw -- a hand -- on her belly, trying to keep his pillow still, grumbling under his breath but careful not to use the claws. "Stop that."

"You're tickling me," she gasped, still shaking with the tangle of giggles and the aftermath of sheer terror. "How am I supposed to not laugh when you're all fluffy and licky and -- and--"

It just looked at her, and all the laughter knotted into a solid cold lump in her throat.

"Right," it said, smugly, and flopped half-across her again, his head shoved under her arm to encourage the scratching, searching for the most cushiony and warm spot to rest. Ribs were hard and poky, of course, and so were hips, and he wanted to keep licking her belly, which logically meant that her breasts were the best pillows available. Regardless of the fact that they ached fiercely with any pressure, because her milk was coming in.

Sakura thought about protesting, thought about the look, and tried to quietly reach and stretch and wriggle until she could ooze away from the pressure, shifting his head more toward the mound of her belly instead.

"Your bodies are so damn awkward," it rumbled, crawling over her to spoon itself against her front instead, snuggling his head against the hollow between her breasts and belly and twining their legs together for warmth. "No fur, all those poky bony spots, nothing bends enough or in the right directions, no tails for keeping balance--"

Sakura picked up the pace on the ear-scratching, and it cut him off mid-rant.

After a long panting minute, the Kyuubi admitted a little sulkily, "Fingers... fingers are good. I can approve of fingers."

"Glad to hear it," Sakura said, hoping her face was straight enough, and hoping nobody else had ever been stupid enough to risk teaching a demon about sarcasm. Apparently that was a vain hope, from the way he rolled bloody eyes at her, but the ear-scratches clearly made it not worth protesting at the moment.

Now that the last of the adrenaline was fading away, Sakura's body felt like a lead weight; the exhaustion of aftermath and chakra-drain ached at the hollow of her bones. Her hand was shaking, she realized when the Kyuubi gave her a sleepy look.

"Now what is it?"

"Fight or flight reflex," Sakura managed. "Couldn't do either... so--"

And then her belly knotted up, and that sent an entirely different wash of panic through her. Dammit -- dammit, not yet, I told Sasuke I'd be fine, I can't NOT be fine, he'll despise me for being so weak, for letting the Kyuubi get to me, he didn't think I could handle it--

"Stop that," the Kyuubi growled.

"Don't you think I want to?" Sakura snapped, too frantic to stop and think. "I -- damn it, you scared the shit out of me, this is your fault, you--"

There was a paw-hand on her hip again, and the Kyuubi rolled her onto her back and sniffed at her huge taut belly, nudging a band of tense muscles with his nose, tasting her skin with that hot soft tongue. If she hadn't been in the middle of panic-stricken near-hysteria, it might have been erotic. As it was, all she wanted was her maternity dress back in one piece, so she wouldn't have to face Tsunade's wrath completely naked.

The Kyuubi climbed over and rolled her onto her side again, and nosed a pile of nest-bedding toward the small of her back. Then he crouched on all fours in front of her and began licking her belly firmly, all but rattling the windows with that deep bass rumble. His chakra was as bright as a bonfire around him, and Sakura blinked and scrubbed at her eyes, because she could have sworn she saw fiery tails.

...She was seeing fiery tails, because they were reaching toward her. She bit back a scream when the tails wrapped around her; but it didn't burn like she'd half-feared. It was wild, fierce, crackling with energy -- but it didn't burn; it was almost like being danced on by the sunbeam, hot and shimmering but not painful at all.

"Oh," Sakura breathed, astonished. "Oh, that's... nice..."

The Kyuubi barely paused in its licking. "Good. Scratch more."

Somehow, Sakura valiantly gulped back a snicker, and reached a hand over to scratch at the Kyuubi's soft golden fur. --Hair. Hair. It was still Naruto's body, for all that her chakra-awareness was telling her there was a fire-bright fox crouched in front of her, licking her pregnant belly for comfort and warming her drained, depleted reserves with a fluffy almost-blanket of 'tails' of pure energy.

Between the warmth of his almost-there tails and the sunbeam and the sheer human exhaustion above the chakra-depletion, she must have drowsed off for a while; the sun was angling across her eyelids when she woke again, and for a moment Sakura was fuzzily confused that the Kyuubi hadn't woken her when her sleeping hand stopped the ear-scritches.

Then she realized he was asleep too, curled up against her, forepaws -- hands -- and cheek propped on her belly; he must have fallen asleep still licking. Her belly was faintly drool-sticky, and she made a face at that, but she wasn't cramping anymore -- in fact, she ached less than she had in a long time. Sakura vaguely wondered if she could get the Kyuubi to lick her back for her while he was busy washing things.

When the Kyuubi was sleeping, it was harder to tell the difference from Naruto -- they both sprawled at random, and they both drooled, and without the ageless flame burning in crimson eyes and fanged teeth in a far too knowing grin and those restless, not-human movements, there really wasn't much visible from the outside. She stroked his hair lightly, experimentally, and got a groggy snuffling half-snore that could have been Naruto's too; Sakura bit her lip to keep from giggling and disturbing his, er, not-a-cat-nap in the sunbeam.

Even without the tails manifested, his chakra was still bubbling away so brightly that she almost wished someone had invented the equivalent of sunglasses for chakra-senses; it wasn't sight that she used, not like the Uchiha or the Hyuuga, but as a healer-nin she'd been trained to feel the flow of chakra in the patients she touched, which carried over to the demon sleeping on her belly.

It was a little like being slept on by a furnace. Her belly always felt a bit feverish, overheated and overstuffed, because of the warm little body wriggling and squirming inside, and the way the baby's body temperature warmed hers from within. Having that life-heat redoubled from the outside along with such a surfeit of chakra was almost too intense, and Sakura wondered for a brief mad moment if that was where the phrase 'buns in the oven' had come from anyway: the feeling of being baked, or baking away, or both at once...

She tried to breathe deeply and relax, to take the quiet time -- and the brimming-over example faintly snoring on her bulge -- for her chakra-building meditation. Her back was cold, though, and her feet were colder -- the Kyuubi would have said something grouchy about the lack of fur, but considering he'd stripped her version of fur off without so much as a by-your-leave, she wasn't inclined to hear it from him just then. There were a couple of largish pieces of her poor mangled dress in toe-reach, and she tugged them closer, then wriggled her toes under them -- oooh, that was much better; they'd been soaking up the sunbeam too. Now if she could only find some way to warm her back; her belly was nicely relaxed from the warmth, but her back was aching as sullenly as ever...

She twisted carefully, trying not to move more than her shoulders to keep from disturbing the napping demon drooling on her belly, and looked around for any other pieces of fabric that had survived the nest-building spree enough to use as a blanket. Sofa guts -- the good tablecloth in five or six chunks -- the second-best tablecloth was mostly just tatters -- over there was something that looked suspiciously like it had once been a wedding present from Gai-sensei; it was astoundingly, excessively green, and for once Sakura was inclined to forgive the Kyuubi's taste in things to shred... then more sofa guts...

She carefully eased her way up onto an elbow to look above the rim of the nest, and then screamed.

The Kyuubi was awake in an instant, on all fours with claws and fangs bared, snarling -- and then blinking, and looking back and forth between Sakura and the silent, motionless Sasuke, sitting with his hands templed in front of his face, still as a statue in a surviving wooden chair that had been dismissed as unsuitable for nest-building.

"...What?" he snarled, still crouched to spring, still fueled by the instinct that said to fight when the breeding mate screamed like that.

Sakura was still screaming, and trying to clutch at the shreds of her dress, and shaking all over, the humiliation like molten lead pouring down her back and puddling in her belly. Oh, God -- oh, God, he was sitting there watching that, looking at me-- looking at me like this, so bloated and disgusting and-- and-- that son of a bitch, HE'S at least supposed to be human! Why didn't he look away or -- or bring me a blanket or -- anything besides staring -- like he was too horrified to react, too repulsed to look away, or-- or--

Frustrated, the Kyuubi demanded of Sasuke, "What's bitten the flower-bitch now?"

"How should I know?" Sasuke asked, still watching them. "You're the one who was supposed to be guarding her, not sound asleep in the middle of that -- that -- sofa-explosion..."

"Is that a challenge?" The Kyuubi's voice had dropped an octave.

"Should it be?" Sasuke wasn't backing down in the slightest. "What kind of alpha sleeps unguarded with his childing mate vulnerable? If I had been anyone else--"

"--if you had been anyone else, bitch, I would have smelled the difference and you'd have been dead."

"And if I'd been my brother?"

"Just as dead."

"I wonder," Sasuke said, his voice as cold as stone.

"You need convincing?"

"Stop it!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs, clinging to the biggest piece of her dress and trying to stop shaking. "Stop it, both of you, we don't need to do this again--"

Sasuke wouldn't bow his head and bare his throat for the Kyuubi, but for Sakura he would, staring off into a corner instead. The Kyuubi rumbled a little, his claws gouging the floor even through the padding of the nest, then sank down onto his haunches again and half-sneezed his vexation.

"And I'd just gotten her to stop screaming the first time round," he grumbled to himself. "You lot don't even know how to bask properly. It's a sunbeam. How do you not know what to do with a sunbeam?"

He reached over and pulled the scrap of dress away from her; Sakura choked on a sound halfway between outrage and humiliation, and frantically tried to hide as much as she could behind hands that were too small to conceal her body's distortion and fistfuls of nest-fluff that simply tumbled and slid.

The Kyuubi cocked its head to one side, then the other, baffled and increasingly frustrated. "What the hell...?"

"Give me my dress," Sakura said, not sure herself whether it was a plea or a demand. "What you left of it. It's mine. Give it back--"

"Why?"

If the confusion in its voice hadn't been just as obvious as the inhumanly slit pupils, Sakura would have screamed. As it was, she wasn't far from it. "Because humans don't go naked around each other! It's humiliating! Especially when -- when I'm --"

"He's our mate," the Kyuubi replied with a growl. "He's not an outsider. You said we could go naked here."

"I said you could -- Dammit, just give me the dress!" The tears were starting to win; Sakura scrubbed a hand across her eyes fiercely, then scrambled to find another even remotely concealing shred of cloth in the mess of the nest.

Sasuke's shirt dangled in front of her; she blinked at it for a moment, then snatched it out of his hand and struggled into it. It would cover her top half, but it wouldn't fit over her belly despite tugging; Sakura tried to tell herself it was good enough, despite the uncomfortable feeling it just made her girth that much more obvious.

Shirtless, sitting on his heels beside her, beautiful and pale and cold as a sculpted porcelain statue, Sasuke asked, "Do you want me to take him outside and let you rest?"

Sakura burst into tears.

Both of them flinched, and then looked at each other, warily checking to see if the other had any idea what had just gone wrong. Neither of them was going to admit that it was obscurely reassuring to be equally in the dark for once, because at least it meant there was nothing obvious that one of them had overlooked and the other could use as taunting-weaponry for the next year or two. With their mutual confusion settled, they looked back at Sakura.

Naruto would immediately have given her a hug, Sasuke knew that much. And the Kyuubi had Naruto's body for the day. "Hug her," he muttered. "Carefully. Gently. No claws, no pressure upon her belly--"

"Picky," the Kyuubi retorted. "Why don't you?"

"Because she doesn't freeze when you touch her," Sasuke said, more bleakly than he meant to.

The Kyuubi snorted. "No, she just screams and tries to hit and kick and bite things. That's obviously so much better." But still, he padded over and crouched and set a careful paw-hand atop her bent head.

She didn't pull away; the Kyuubi glanced back at Sasuke, who flicked a hand in a shooing gesture, and so he leaned forward and tried to lick at her cheeks again. It was harder when she had her hands free to hide behind. With a deep sigh, he snuffled at her hands, then at her ears, then decided that licking the pathetic amount of fur she had managed to grow would have to be better than nothing.

When she felt his tongue at the nape of her neck, licking upward into her hair, she made a sound like a whistling teakettle, high and shrill, and swatted at him indignantly. The Kyuubi caught her wrist and grinned, and leaned close enough to lick at her cheek. Sakura wavered for a moment, and then flung her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his throat as though he were Naruto.

The Kyuubi rolled his eyes sideways toward her, then rubbed his cheek against the crown of her head, both hands on the floor for balance, like an overgrown and somewhat startled dog being hugged by a toddler.

Continued over here...