#i immediately stole her shoes and weapon afterwards

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

Karlach is very very nice tree and I am a squirrel heh

If you need help with the game just ask because before BG3 I had no idea about the playstyle either-

god yeah me too, i want to climb onto Karlach's back and hang from her shoulders she is my favorite and i love her

thank you!!! i'm very slowly getting the hang of it (not that i'm good by any stretch), but i'm having fun!!

[meliaaizawa]

MARRIAGE CELEBRATION

Sho and Mei’s loved ones throw them a little party.

Word count: enough to put a page break

*Meiya’s POV*

I sleepily opened my eyes to the light coming from the window. There was a slight breach in the curtains, letting in just enough light, angled to perfectly hit my face. As my mind and body woke up, I began to notice my surroundings more. I felt the soft, steady breath of Shota breathing on the back of my neck, and I suddenly remembered that I was married… not that I had forgotten… but I just assumed I was dreaming. I was weighed down by his arm over me, but I managed to shift and turn around so that I was now facing him. He stirred a little bit in his sleep and barely opened his eyes to see me looking at him before closing them again and pulling me closer into him, falling back asleep. Though I was wide awake and would’ve normally been out of bed by now, I nestled into his chest, closing my eyes and wanting to stay in his arms forever.

A couple hours passed, and I dozed off a few times, but was reawakened again by a kiss on my forehead. I opened my eyes to see Shota looking sleepily at me. “Morning,” I said softly. “Mmm,” he replied sleepily before releasing me from his hold and stretching. I stretched as well and rolled out of bed. Since the paperwork came back sooner than we had expected, I hadn’t moved all of my things into Sho’s apartment yet, including my clothes, so I stole a shirt and pair of pants from him and went into the kitchen to make some coffee. Shota finally crawled out of bed too and joined me in the kitchen, as the scent of fresh coffee drew him there. I poured him a cup and handed it to him, smiling as he wordlessly took it and began sipping as he sat down at the kitchen table.

I poured myself a cup and sat down across from him, resting my feet on the chair next to me. We sat in a comfortable silence, just looking at each other and enjoying each other’s company. As I eventually reached the bottom of my coffee cup, I was the first to break the silence. “I guess we should tell everyone that we’re officially married,” I said, still not quite believing it as I said it. Shota sipped the last bit of his coffee and nodded. “That would be smart,” he said, simply. I stood up and reached for his cup to wash it, but he kept his grip on it and reached for mine instead. “I’ve got it,” he said, taking both cups and walking over to the sink. As he washed the cups I walked up to him, got on my tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” I said lovingly before turning to head to the door.

As I sat on the floor and laced up my shoes, Shota gave me a quizzical look as if questioning where I was going. “I have to go back to the old apartment to get dressed… I don’t want to show up to your parent’s house looking like this,” I answered his look. He shrugged and said, “you look fine,” as I got up and looked at him smugly. “I’ll be back soon,” I said, turning towards the door, until I was gently stopped by Sho’s hand on my arm, turning me back towards him as he leaned down to kiss me. “Ok,” he said afterwards, with a cute small smile on his face, making me grin as I opened the door and headed out. I walked to my old apartment, as it wasn’t terribly far, smiling like an idiot the whole way there.

I went into the apartment, closing the door behind me. The lights were off, so apparently my old roommate wasn’t home. I turned on the lights, and the first thing I saw was the approved paperwork for our marriage. I walked up to the table where it was sitting and read. “Shota and Meiya Aizawa.” I would never get over seeing my name with his last name behind it. I went and took a shower, then chose one of my favorite long, flowery dresses to wear. As promised, I was back at our apartment soon, brining our marriage certificate and an already-packed box of clothes with me. When I got back to our apartment, I set the papers on the table, then headed back to our bedroom. I opened up the drawers in the dresser that were designated to be mine and began transferring some of my clothes when the bathroom door opened.

“Can you give me a hand?” I heard Sho ask. I turned to see him standing in the doorway wearing a button up shirt, holding the two ends of his black tie around his neck. I looked at him with raised eyebrows and smile. “You’re dressing up?” I asked in a surprised tone. “Tch, don’t get used to it,” he grumbled, slightly embarrassed, making me smile even wider. I went over to him and tied his tie before looking him over. “Perfect,” I said, smiling up at his uncovered face, as his hair was halfway up. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously at me as he looked me over. He didn’t need to say anything out loud for me to know he was complimenting me. “You ready?” he asked, and I nodded. I slipped our papers carefully into my purse before we headed out of the apartment.

I held onto Sho’s arm as we walked together toward the transit station to go to the Aizawa’s residence. It wasn’t terribly far from our apartment, but since we would have to make several stops today to see everyone, we decided to take public transportation. I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest out of nervousness of seeing Sho’s parents. His mother had always been kind to me, but, frankly, his father scared me. He often wore an expressionless face or one with a small scowl to it, which is where Sho gets it from…. But unlike Shota, I have no idea how to read his father’s expressions, so I always feel like they’re negative ones towards me. Sho must’ve noticed my hands fidgeting in my lap, as he put his hand on my knee and patted it reassuringly.

We arrived at the house and walked up to the door, with me at Sho’s side. He knocked on the door, and to our surprise, it was answered by Hizashi. “YOOOO!!!! It’s way past lunchtime, I was starting to think ya were too busy to show up!!!!!” he said with a wink. I smiled at the surprise of seeing him, while Sho’s eyebrows furrowed. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “We invited him and some others to come over and celebrate you two!” Shota’s mother said, appearing at the door as Hizashi stepped to the side. “Some others?” I asked, as Sho’s mom stepped aside too, to reveal all our closest friends and family standing inside.

My mom, Hizashi, Sho’s parents, Tamashi, and also Obo’s parents were all standing inside. “Everyone’s here!!” I said, excitedly grabbing onto Sho’s arm and looking up at him as we walked in. He looked around at everyone wide-eyed, apparently as surprised as I was. “Your mommas have been planning this little shindig, calling me nonstop to see if you were married yet. I got Tamashi to hit me up once the paperwork had been approved and then BOOM, here we are to celebrate you two lovebirds!” Hizashi explained in his usual animated fashion. I smiled a bit nervously and noticed Shota bow before everyone, so I joined him. “Thank you all for coming,” he said before straightening himself. As we did so, Sho’s mom had her arms wrapped around both of us. “Welcome to the family, Mei,” she said kindly.

As she let go, her husband approached us, and I found myself bowing again, nervously. I eased up when I felt his gentle hand on my shoulder, so I straightened back up and looked at him. “I trust no one more than you to look after Shota. Stick with him,” he said, matter-of-factly, letting go of my shoulder. “No matter how difficult he may be,” he added, looking judgmentally at his son, though somehow, I could make out the faintest hint of a smirk. I next locked eyes with my mother, who I went to with open arms, hugging her tightly. “I’m so excited for you both,” she said, as she tightly held me. I was doing fine with my emotions until I heard a slight quiver in her voice. “Thank you, mom,” I said as she let me go and I wiped her eyes before wiping mine.

She then turned to Shota, still standing next to me. “Please take care of our Mei,” she said, looking up at him, with her hand on his forearm. He smiled smally and nodded. “I will,” he said, looking at me out of the corner of his eye and subtly reaching for my hand to hold it. As mom stepped aside, Obo’s parents stepped forward, and I immediately began to feel the tears I had wiped come back. “Oboro would’ve been so happy for you… but we are too,” Momakumo said to me, her eyes glassy. I wrapped my arms around her, crying into her shoulder more than I had planned to. After she let go, I was soon wrapped in the arms of Papakumo, who was always like a dad to me. “So happy for you, kiddo,” he said as he held me, kissing the top of my head

“Oboro always respected you. He loved Mei as if she were his other half, but I know he would rest easy knowing that you are the one who’s really her other half,” Obo’s dad then said to Shota. Sho smiled sadly at her and said, “I appreciate that,” shortly, but genuinely. I could tell he was sad, though he showed no signs of crying. I held onto his arm and squeezed it, letting him know I was with him through it. Hizashi was the next to approach us, with his demeanor more serious than it was upon our arrival. “While we’re on the topic… Obo wanted me to give this to you. We had been compiling it together just in case you guys ever got together,” he said, handing us a wooden box that I immediately recognized to have once belonged to Oboro.

I looked down at the box, and looked up to Shota, who gave me a nod as if to say, “you open it.” I opened the box and saw around 10 or so polaroid photos from our school days. I blushed upon seeing the photo directly on top. We were on the rooftop, probably after lunch. Shota was laying flat on his back, sleeping, and I was sitting a bit away looking at him with my sketchbook and pencil in hand. “Mei drawing her favorite subject” was what the caption in Obo’s handwriting said at the bottom of the photo. The next photo we pulled out was one where Sho and I got tangled together in his capture weapon during a class exercise. We were tied so tightly together that Ushiwaka-sensei had to cut the bonds to separate us. “Tying the knot already lol” the caption said.

Nearly all of the photos were candid, and I don’t remember any of them being taken… Me falling asleep on Shota’s shoulder on a bus ride, Shota and I studying together by ourselves at the library, me sharing my bento lunch with Sho… all with some kind of cheesy caption from Obo. “Poor boy doesn’t know he’s in love.” “The lovebirds on a study date.” “Meizawa.” was what a few of them read. “Meizawa?” I asked after getting to the photo with that caption, which was of me and Sho from behind, walking home from school together. “Oh, yeah, that’s the ship name we had for you two… quite a few of our classmates were in on it too,” Hizashi said, looking toward Tamashi, who was in our class. She nodded and said, “yeah, a lot of us thought you worked well together, and look at you now!” I looked up at Shota to see his reaction, and I could see a small hint of a smile. “Thank you for passing this along to us,” Shota said sincerely, looking up from the box. I jumped into Hizashi’s arms, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Thanks, Zashi… this is perfect,” I said as he hugged me back.

After he let go, I hugged Tamashi, thanking her for all her support through the years. “I’m going to miss you, roomie,” she said as I hugged her. “But you belong with Shota,” she added, using his first name for the first time as she smiled at him. “Ok, now that everyone has greeted our newlyweds, the festivities can begin!” Sho’s mom spoke up. “I heard that ramen was one of Mei and Shota’s favorite things to eat together, so we have a ramen bar set up in the kitchen,” she added. “And when everyone’s ramen has settled and their inner rockstar can’t stay inside any longer, I brought my karaoke machine from the radio station to hook up,” Hizashi said to my delight. I heard Shota sigh. “Oh no…” he said, in his tired tone. “Oh YES…” I said, smirking up at him as I hugged him from the side, just so happy that he was my husband and that there was no escaping now.

[i-am-made-of-memoriies]

The Will of Fire (Part two)

Summary: Sarada is the firstborn of the renewed Uchiha clan. Sure, she is different from the Uchiha who preceded her, but by how much? This story follows Sarada’s life and the trials and tribulations she goes through. (Two shot)

A/N: And here’s part two! Look, Uchiha eye hacks are weird so when you get to that part of the fic, bear with me. I tried my best.

Part 1

“Come on Kohei!” Sakura coaxed, holding the spoon to the three year old’s mouth, “You have to eat some of it!”

“Mama no!” Kohei insisted, shaking his head defiantly, “I want Sarda-neechan to feed me!”

“Kohei sweetie, it’s Sarada, and she’s out on a mission. Please eat. She’d want you to.”

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Sarada sneezed. Must be someone talking about me. She thought, adjusting her pack on her back. She was the captain of her first mission. Though she was still a chunin, Naruto-sama had entrusted her because of her recently fully-awakened sharingan.

“If worse comes to worse, you can always hypnotize them into doing the right thing.” Sarada remembered Naruto’s words before she left for the mission. Though he was right, Sarada was really hoping that she wouldn’t have to resort to those measures.

“Sarada-taicho,” the shortest of her subordinates started, “I can sense the Tsurigakure ninja approaching quickly. Shall we fight them?”

“According to the bingo books, they should be an easy fight.” She replied, reaching for her newly acquired katana, “Why don’t we indulge them?”

The the chunin assembled in a fighting position with Sarada in the front.

“Akoto,” she ordered, motioning to the chunin she had previously spoke to, “Stand in the back. As the healer on this team, we can’t afford having you hurt.”

“Yes Sarada-taicho.” Akoto replied, making her way to the back of the formation.

Sarada activated her sharingan and quickly scanned the area. She saw the Tsuri ninja and almost chuckled. Their chakra levels were ridiculously low and they were already arguing. Being a good shinobi, Sarada knew not to immediately judge ninja by their first appearance, but she was more than positive that they weren’t hiding their chakra.

The sub-par ninja came into the clearing, weapons brandished in the least intimidating way possible.

“You are Konoha ninja!” The supposed leader exclaimed, “We will take your precious information now and you will fail your mission while we will triumph!”

Sarada used the shunshin jutsu to appear right behind the trio.

“Didn’t you ever learn not to announce your plan before executing it?” She asked icily.

The Tsuri ninja turned their heads slowly, finally turning around and looking into Sarada’s spinning tomoe.

Akoto stifled a giggle as the trio of pathetic ninja fell like sandbags to the ground.

“I should have let you guys do a bit of the fighting.” Sarada apologized, “It’s just that they were so easy to take down, I would have been unnecessarily drawing out the fight by not taking action.”

“It’s okay taicho.” The tallest of the chunin, Yuji smiled, reassuring Sarada.

“We’re almost at Sunagakure, let’s get this scroll there and be done.” Sarada took out her long braid and coiled the wavy hair into a bun. That braid kept slapping me anyway. She thought.

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“Good job you four.” Naruto placed their mission report on his desk and smiled, “I knew you wouldn’t let me down Sarada.”

Sarada grinned. She realized that today was probably the best day to ask the question she’d wanted to ask since she joined the academy. The question she’d wanted to ask since Boruto selfishly took her father as his sishou, and stole him from her. She’d moved passed the feeling of jealousy and realized that having her father as a sishou probably wasn’t the greatest idea for her, since she wanted to follow a far different path.

Once the other chunin had left, Sarada took a deep breath and walked closer to Naruto. “Hokage-sama,” she started, trying to make her voice as solid and confident as possible, “I was wondering if you would take me on as your apprentice. I understand that you don’t have much time, but I promise to work hard and carry on the will of fire.”

Naruto looked rather surprised for a second before his lips curved into a smile. “With the rapid development I’ve seen from you and the deep care for your comrades and your village, I would be happy to teach you.”

Sarada tried her best not to scream. “Thank you so much Naruto-shishou!” She exclaimed, “I promise to never slack off!”

“I’ll hold you to that.” He glanced at his packed schedule and sighed, “Let’s meet on Sunday at noon. I’ll take you to Ichiraku’s afterwards.”

“I’ll see you then.” Sarada practically skipped out of the office. She ran back home, wanting to tell her parents and Kohei as soon as possible.

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“Mama, Papa, Kohei!” She exclaimed happily as she burst through the door, “Guess what?”

Sakura looked up from her medical textbook and smiled at her daughter, “Well you seem mighty happy, it must be something good!”

“Yeah!” Kohei agreed, grinning with his little toddler smile, “Sarada-nee chan is awesome!”

“Thank you Kohei.” Sarada gave her little brother a hug, “Naruto-sama agreed to be my sishou!”

“That’s wonderful sweetie!” Sakura beamed, “First you fully awaken your sharingan, then you captain your first mission, then Naruto decides to be your sishou, this seems to be quite the amazing month! Let’s go eat something special as a family.”

“You’re just saying that so you don’t have to cook dinner.” Sasuke muttered, placing Kohei on his waist.

“I was going to go to that really fancy sushi restaurant, but if you want my sub-par cooking, it’s up to you.”

Sasuke looked away. “Hn.”

“Anyway, freshen up Sarada-chan. Put on something nice too.”

Sarada opened the door to her room, smiling at the uchiwa painted on her door. She really hoped that she made her ancestors proud.

Sarada pulled on her embroidered tunic and adjusted the back so the uchiwa was centered. Then she chose her favorite black pants and flats.

“I’m ready mama!” She called, standing in front of the door.

Sakura came bustling down the stairs, trying to put Kohei’s shoes on while he kicked and flailed.

“I’ve got it mama.” Sarada came to the rescue as she sat Kohei on her lap and slid the shoes on with ease. “Let’s go get something to eat, ‘kay?” She tickled her brother’s stomach and placed him on her shoulders.

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“Now that you three are back from your respective training excursions,” Naruto started, smiling at Sarada, Boruto, and Mitsuki, “I want to send you on a mission. It’s A rank, but I believe that you will be able to handle it.”

“Mitsuki, you will be in charge of medical ninjutsu and healing, since Sakura’s your apprentice, and as for Sarada and Boruto, you guys will just beat up the bad guys.”

“Sounds good sishou.” Sarada replied, “I heard that there has been some previous interaction with the village we will be going to, Jomae no Sato right?”

“Yes, back when I was a genin, they sent a kunoichi to infiltrate, but she-ehm, was good friends with Kakashi and committed suicide instead of following her village.”

“Do they still feel hostile towards the leaf?” Sarada wasn’t necessarily worried since she fully trusted her teammates, but it would be a lot easier if everyone was friendly.

“They haven’t shown blatant outward hostility, but given the fact that we are stealing information from them, they’ll be angry if they ever find out.” Naruto rolled up the mission scroll and handed it to Sarada, “I will be trusting this with you. Remember, your job is to get into their information storage room, steal the scroll in question, now this is your part Sarada, I need you to make an exact replica with your sharingan. Once the replica is made, place it where you found the original and high-tail it out of there. Try not to involve in combat, but you have my permission to do whatever’s necessary.”

“Yes sir!” The three said in unison.

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It was entirely her fault. Sarada looked at the blood soaked battlefield, where the unconscious bodies of her teammates lay prone to further damage. She wasn’t able to protect them, and her replica was faulty. If her teammates, the people that lay closest to her heart, were to die, she would have practically killed them. She would have killed her best friends. As she desperately held back tears, a sharp, debilitating pain blossomed behind her eyes, forcing her to scream in agony and fall to her knees. It felt as if someone was tugging at her eyes and dicing them into pieces. All Sarada could see was a searing white; at this point she wasn’t entirely sure if she was screaming anymore, for all she knew she could be dead in hell. All she could think of is her teammates blood on her hands, and the way her parents and shisou would look at her with disappointed eyes. Naruto had trusted her and she had failed. She didn’t deserve to follow her dream. She didn’t deserve to ever become Hokage!

Suddenly the pain subsided. Sarada opened her eyes, gasping when she realized that the world was clearer than it had even been with her sharingan. She didn’t linger on that thought long though because she soon saw the figures of her assailants. They were smirking at her teammates fallen bodies, making rage bubble and boil in Sarada’s body. She stepped closer to ninja, wiping blood off her face. Where that blood came from, and to whom it belonged, she didn’t know, nor did she care. All she cared about was killing those sons of bitches. She wanted them to feel the pain she did, all the guilt and terror she had been subjected to in the past hour, she wanted to unleash on them tenfold. Suddenly, she realized that she could. She looked into their eyes, instinctively pulling them into a genjutsu. She marveled at the plane, embracing the blood red sky and the amount of torture she’d be able to subject them to in this new world.

They were tied to stakes as Sarada repeatedly stabbed them, using any material she could imagine. In her rage, she didn’t notice how truly evil she was being. For once in her life, all she could think about was doing harm to people.

After what seemed like ages, she broke the genjutsu. She looked at her teammates, noticing that their blood had hardly spread, meaning that her genjutsu had lasted mere seconds, not hours.

Suddenly the implications of what she had done caught up to her. She was hit by a wave of severe nausea and proceeded to empty her stomach on the ground in front of her. Getting over her sudden sickness, she hoisted her teammates onto her shoulders and began to make her way back to the village. She ignored the searing pain that plagued every part of her body and forced herself forward.

Finally the gates were in view. She practically sobbed once she saw the beautiful village she called home, and used the last of her energy to walk into the village before collapsing.

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Everything hurt. Not as much as it did before she passed out, but it still hurt. Sarada forced her eyes open, just to quickly shut them again once she saw the bright, white lights.

“Sarada, you’re awake.” A familiar voice said from beside her bed.

Sarada opened her eyes again and turned her head to see the person who spoke. It was Naruto. Sarada fought back the strong urge to cry. “I failed, shishou.”

She whispered, her throat felt like sandpaper.

“You did your absolute best.” Naruto replied, patting Sarada’s hand, “Boruto and Mitsuki haven’t woken up yet, but would you like to tell me what happened? I already struck an alliance with Jomoe no Sato once they realized that the scroll you took originally belonged to the leaf village, so don’t worry.”

Sarada sighed in relief. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, trying not to visibly cringe in pain.

“The mission went well up until we took the scroll.” She started, taking a sip of water from the glass beside her bed. With a far less painful throat, she continued louder, “Somehow the guard knew we were in there despite completely cloaking our chakra. When we heard his footsteps, I made the replica really quickly, and messed up a bit. The guard noticed that and sent their top ninja to intercept us. We tried really hard to fight them, but there were three of us and ten of them, all jonin or tokubetsu jonin level. Mitsuki and Boruto got hurt first, then something weird happened. For some reason it’s kind of foggy, but my eyes started to really hurt. And I mean like really hurt. After that, I can’t really remember what happened. All I know it that I missed only about three seconds, but the enemy ninja were dead once I regained-well, vision.”

Sarada turned to look at Naruto’s expression. Instead of looking disappointed, he looked slightly frightened. “I’m going to get Sasuke.” He announced, “I suppose I don’t have to tell you to stay put.”

Sarada leaned back into the pillows and closed her eyes, drifting into blissful unconsciousness until she was awoken by someone lightly shaking her. She opened her eyes again, noting how it was substantially less painful.

“Papa.” She whispered, hugging her father as tightly as she could.

Sasuke looked affectionately at his daughter before switching to a more serious expression.

“Activate your sharingan.” He commanded, looking Sarada dead in the eye.

Sarada did as she was told, noting the clarity in her vision.

“Now try to do the same thing again.”

She looked at her father with a confused expression, but ultimately followed his instructions. Instead of having nothing happen as she expected, her vision became clearer, and some of the pain returned.

Sasuke handed Sarada a handheld mirror. “What you see in that mirror is the next stage of the sharingan, called the mangekyo sharingan. I had hoped you would never have to get to this stage, but I will take you to the Nakano Shrine once you are discharged.”

Sarada looked at her reflection, gasping when she saw that her eyes were not the three tomoe she was accustomed to, but instead a black cherry blossom in a red background. “What can I do with the mangekyo sharingan?” She asked, blinking several times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“From your description, it seems like you can use the Tsukiyomi like your uncle Itachi.” Sasuke replied placing the mirror on the bedside table, “We will talk more about it once you have recovered, Sakura and Kohei want to see you.”

Right on cue, two pink haired, green eyed people came into the room, both rushing in for a hug.

“Sarada-neechan!” Kohei exclaimed, hugging his big sister, “You’re going to get better right?”

“Of course!” Sarada said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, “I’ll better before you know it!”

“Well I can make that happen Sarada sweetie.” Sakura said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “Now that you’re out of critical condition when I can’t operate on you because you’re family, that rule is crap anyway, I can fix you up so you’re good as new. Those doctors don’t know what they’re doing. Trust your mama!”

Sarada nodded, eager to feel at least a little less crappy.

Sakura leaned over her daughter and smiled, placing her calloused palms on Sarada’s abdomen. “I’m so proud of you sweetie.”

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Sarada was well aware of the rules of the mangekyo sharingan: don’t use it unless absolutely necessary and be careful to not lose control or you may harm those close to you, but she really wanted to stick Boruto into a Tsukiyomi of him tripping over a rock for all of eternity. It would be so very hilarious and not to mention, Sarada would be able to practice using the technique. The only way she was allowed to practice was using regular genjutsu and trying to replicate the terrain. It was far from the same though.

At the moment, she was in charge of training her favorite Shin clone named Kenji. More than anything, she wanted to help him with his mangekyo sharingan, but she was not allowed.

“The best use of your sharingan disguising it with transformation jutsu then getting your enemy to look into your eyes, effectively trapping them in genjutsu.” She instructed, demonstrating the transformation technique on her eyes, “Now I want you to try it on Boruto.”

“Wait!” Boruto exclaimed indignantly, “Why can’t Kenji try it on you?!”

“Because I’m a sharingan weilder baka-Boruto. I might accidentally reverse the genjutsu and hurt him.”

“Fine.” Boruto pouted, tensing his muscles in anticipation.

Kenji looked at Boruto, his eyes a natural brown. As soon as the two had made eye contact, Boruto crumpled to the ground like a drunk.

“Have I hurt him?” Kenji asked monotonously, “Kabuto told me to feel remorse if I have injured someone.”

“No, he’s fine.” Sarada assured, slapping the Uzumaki.

Boruto woke up with a jolt. “Damn you, Sarada-teme!” He exclaimed, “You only did that to humiliate me!”

“That wasn’t the only reason…” She teased, helping her teammate to his feet.

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Kenji was dead. His death didn’t come as a surprise, in fact, many Shin clones were dying because of some unknown illness that ran in their genes. Despite the forewarning, Sarada was still devastated. Kenji was the closest person Sarada had to an apprentice and he held a close place in her heart as a second brother, even if Kenji didn’t have the capacity to love her. His blunt personality reminded her of Mitsuki, and the fact that she could get along with a Shin clone meant that she was moving on from her childhood grievances.

“Sarada-san?” One of the workers at the orphanage called her name, “If Uchiha Sarada would report to Kabuto-sama’s office, he has something to tell her.”

Sarada stood up and made her way through the brightly painted hallways and towards Kabuto’s office.

“Ah, Sarada!” Kabuto exclaimed, motioning for her to come through the doorway, “As you’ve probably heard, our lovely Kenji has passed away.” His unnaturally pale face dropped in sadness, “Before he died though, he did something rather uncharacteristic for a Shin clone. He showed emotion and asked if he could give you his eyes as a gift.”

“H-he did?” Sarada asked incredulously, “He knew what that would imply, since we were practically siblings?”

“I believe that he did understand that if he gave you his eyes, you would achieve the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.” Kabuto replied knowingly. He swiveled around in his rolling chair and rummaged through his file cabinets. When he had turned back around, he was holding two vials filled with some kind of preserving serum and a sharingan eye suspended in the center. He looked at the vials with a melancholy expression.

“I hope they serve you well.” He said, handing the vials to Sarada.

“Thank you.” She replied, walking towards the cemetery.

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She knew she had spent at least an hour sitting in front of Kenji’s grave, thanking him profusely for the gift, shedding tears over the fact that she would never see him again, and reminiscing over his sadly brief life.

As she was about to stand up and leave, Shizune placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Sakura told me about what happened.” She wrapped the girl in a warm and loving embrace, “I know this isn’t what you want to be talking about right now, but we need to plan the implant surgery.”

Sarada nodded, wiping away tears. She took a shaky breath, “When’s the earliest date that we can do it? I just want to get it over with.”

“We can perform the surgery today if you would like.” Shizune replied, placing her hands on Sarada’s shoulders.

“I-I would like that.��� Sarada combed her long black hair out of her face and straightened her glasses. “May I go home first and spend the day with my family?”

“Of course. Report to the hospital at seven o’clock tonight.”

Sarada nodded and began to walk to the Uchiha complex. She had just lost someone she considered family, and she wanted nothing but to be around the rest of her family, to make sure she didn’t lose them.

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“Kohei!” She called, running towards her little brother, “How was your day?”

“Mama said that she’d start training me soon since I’m gonna go to the academy next year!” He said enthusiastically, “Did ya know that I’m five now Sarada-neechan?” He held up five chubby fingers, “That’s a whole hand!”

“I heard!” She walked with him to the front door, “Once you start training and get really strong, you can spar with me.” Thoughts of the spars she had with Kenji flashed in her mind, causing her to frown.

“What’s wrong oneechan?” He looked at her worriedly with his big green eyes, “Are ya hungry? Mama’s making dinner.”

“That’s great. Dinner will make me feel all better.” She smiled brightly at her little brother, “You always know how to fix things, don’t you?”

“Yep!” Sarada couldn’t resist the urge to squeeze him tightly.

“I will always love you Kohei.” She whispered, her cheek right on top of his soft, pink hair.

------------------------------------

The mission was supposed to be very dangerous. That’s why Naruto had sent Sarada, Mitsuki, Boruto, and Mirai as they were the most promising ninja of their generation.

“Our job is simply to take out the enemies where they stand.” Mirai instructed, looking at the new team seven with her large red eyes, “There is absolutely no time to reason or speak with the enemies. This is purely an assassination mission.”

“If it’s an assassination mission, why aren’t ANBU members doing it?” Boruto crossed his arms indignantly, “Silent killing isn’t really my style.”

Sarada decided to mess with Boruto a bit. Using a simple shunshin jutsu, she appeared behind Boruto, “It is my style.” She whispered icily, flashing her sharingan.

“What the hell Sarada?! That was really scary!”

“Stop messing around.” Mirai said with a serious tone. “If you’re not going to take this mission seriously, we can turn back right now and Hokage-sama can hear all about how his prestigious student and his son were simply too immature to handle the mission they were assigned to. As for the reason no ANBU were assigned, they’re all out on their respective missions.”

“Sorry taicho.” Boruto and Sarada apologized in unison, glaring at each other.

“My teammates can be strange sometimes.” Mitsuki spoke on their behalf, “I don’t understand their behavior fully, but I believe that it is called rivalry. I am yet to find someone I would consider a rival.”

“That’s great Mitsuki. Let’s get back to the mission now.” Boruto patted his teammate on the back. “So can I come out and blow everything to bits with my flashy moves? Then the enemies will be so scared that they’ll let us kill them without any hesitation!”

“You sound just like your gennin self. You really haven’t changed at all.” Sarada looked at Boruto disapprovingly, “And no. Didn’t you hear taicho? This is a silent killing mission.”

“Fine, fine.” Boruto whined. “You seem like you’re in a particularly deadly mood, why don’t you do the assassination?”

“I think I will.” Sarada hissed, pulling on the black gloves her mother had given her.

All it took was one glance from Sarada and the enemies were trapped in her genjutsu. Without sparing them a minute, Mitsuki plunged his kunai into each of their hearts, killing them instantly.

“Good job you two.” Mirai commended, “Now Boruto and I will dispose of the bodies.”

“Does this mean I get to burn shit?” Boruto asked enthusiastically.

“Yes.” Mirai sighed, “Yes it does.”

The two leaned over the corpses, Mirai incinerating them with her signature Sarutobi jutsu and Boruto just threw whatever flame jutsus he had picked up at the bodies.

“Careful you idiot!” Sarada exclaimed, dodging an errant spark, “You’re supposed to incinerate the bodies not us.”

“Sorry Sarada-teme.” Boruto said with mock remorse.

Finally, a mission had gone without a hitch.

-------------------------------------

“Great, so we finish an S class mission successfully, but return to a goddamn attack?” Boruto exclaimed incredulously, “Nothing can ever go right can it?”

“No it can’t.” Sarada agreed, making her way through the rubble that was the west side of the village. “Did the civilians evacuate?”

A jonin stepped towards Sarada, “I believe that most of them have exited the village, but there might be some people left behind.”

“I’ll find them and evacuate them.” Sarada replied, “I’m sure my parents would be happy to take out the enemy.”

“Sasuke and Sakura-sama are already on it.” The jonin replied. A look of horror passed over his face, “Sakura-sama was in the middle of a load of laundry when she was called to defend the village, so she’s-well….irritated.”

“And their son, Kohei?” Sarada asked worriedly, roundhouse kicking on of the enemy’s subordinates into a building.

“He evacuated safely with the rest of the Konoha Academy underclassmen.”

“Thank god. I’m going to scour the village. Boruto, you deal with these annoying pests.” She motioned towards the dozens of Tsurigakure ninja that had decided to attack the leaf village. “I think they’re bitter about that time my team took out their ‘best’ shinobi.”

Sarada hoped that this attack would be as easy to stop as the one all those years ago, but a nagging voice in the back of her head told her differently.

Running through the damage, Sarada spotted a congregation of people. Upon arriving, she noticed that the civilians were circling around someone. After she pushed her way to the center, she noticed the nanadaime.

“Sarada!” He exclaimed with relief, “I’m glad you, Boruto, Mitsuki, and Mirai made it home safely. As you can see, we’re in a bit of a tight-”

Naruto was interrupted by a falling boulder. In the split second before it hit, Sarada had to make a decision. Judging from the size and angle of the rock, it would hit mostly civilians, but still injure the nanadaime. Sarada knew her duty was to protect the hokage with her life, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she was responsible for the deaths of a myriad of civilians. Confident enough that Naruto could protect himself, Sarada activated her cherry-blossom pink susanoo for the first time and shielded the civilians.

Just as she had hoped, Naruto flash-stepped out of the way just in time, leaving everyone unharmed.

“That was an impressive maneuver.” Naruto commended his student, “I’m glad you made the right choice.”

-----------------------------------

After the Tsurigakure ninja had been dealt with and subsequently severely punished, Naruto called Sarada to his office.

“Since you have been my student, you have proven that you possess all of the traits necessary for the ideal Konoha shinobi. The will of fire seems to run very strongly in you and you never fail to protect a comrade. You wield your sharingan with grace and use your chakra enhanced strength expertly. I have no doubt you’ll represent the village spectacularly as the next Hokage.” Naruto gave Sarada a warm smile.

Sarada felt faint. Really, really faint. She was going to be the next Hokage. Oh god. The next Hokage. Like the. Next. Hokage. “Naruto-sama…” she began shakily, “I can’t believe-oh my lord, thank you! I promise to never let the village down and to protect it with my life! I mean it!”

---------------------------------------

The rosy hues of morning filled Sarada’s bedroom, bathing her bed in a soft light. She opened her eyes and smiled with anticipation since today was the day she’d become Hokage.

Stepping off her bed, she put her red glasses on and moved towards her wardrobe, knowing exactly what she would wear.

You should look formal but not overdressed. Sarada remembered her mother’s words, picking out her burgundy tunic, soft, black pants, and of course, her Hokage robe.

“Sarada!” Sakura called from downstairs, “Breakfast’s ready. You don’t want to be late for your big day!

“Coming Mama!” She replied, walking out of her room and to the kitchen. A warm plate of eggs, toast, and fruit sat waiting for Sarada at the table.

“I can’t believe my girl has gotten so grown up.” Sakura sighed, squeezing her oldest child, “Eat up sweetie. You want to be well fed so that you can show everyone how great the Uchihas are!”

“Oh, okay mama!” Sarada exclaimed after a moment of thought, “I’m going to become the greatest Hokage!”

“I have no doubt darling.” Sakura fought back tears of joy as she saw her daughter walk out of the house, white robe fluttering behind her. The first Uchiha Hokage.

[12redsky34]

Confused

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

FanFiction.net - This story

Hey guys! It seems every one of you enjoyed chapter one, so here's chapter 2! I unfortunately do not have a preview for the third bonus chapter, but it is definitely coming, so don't worry about that. One of you asked if this would be in Natsu's point of view, and you will be pleased to know it definitely is! We get to see what he was thinking and his view of the situation here, so enjoy!

Natsu was confused.

And not the kind of confused where he could punch the problem to make it leave then eat twice his weight in food and sleep until he forgot all about said problem, nor was it the kind where if he ignored it for long enough it would go away and leave him alone.

He was pretty sure punching and/or ignoring his best friend, partner and love would really make her upset and angry, and that was the last thing he wanted. Not to mention he absolutely despised the idea of hurting her in any way. Just the thought of it made him sick.

Speaking of Lucy, he had walked into the guild that day and almost immediately spotted her talking to Levy near the back of the main hall. He almost always knew where she was if they were anywhere near each other. He had considered going over to say hi to the two, but one look at the heated conversation they were having told him he would get bored very quickly. It was only too obvious they were talking about some book.

So he decided to eat instead. He may have also punched Gray a few times while doing so. What could he say, the guy annoyed him to no end. Those punches eventually led to a brawl, as usual. During the fight, he snuck glances at his blonde-haired partner and noticed her conversation with Levy had taken a turn down a road definitely not involving books. At least not entirely. Lucy looked crestfallen for some reason, and it looked like her blue-haired best friend was trying her hardest to keep her from crying.

While he appreciated his guildmate's efforts to do what he was slacking on at the moment, he felt a surge of concern and immediately made to approach the table and find out what was going on with Lucy. He only made it two steps before someone grabbed his collar and dragged him towards one of the back doors leading behind the guild, and while he thrashed and complained loudly, his captor didn't let go until they were standing in the courtyard.

The Fire Dragon Slayer spun around, assuming it was Gray and ready to punch him, but paused when he saw it was Gajeel standing there with his arms crossed looking simultaneously bored and irritated. Seeing the other male obviously didn't want to fight, Natsu scowled and relaxed slightly from his battle stance.

"What do you want, Metal Head?" He growled, more than irritated that he had been prevented from trying to comfort his partner.

"I'm making Levy's job easier."

Um… That made no sense to Natsu, no matter which way he turned it in his head.

"What?" He narrowed his eyes, brows furrowing. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look, I know you and Shrimp are planning something, and that it has everything to do with Bunny Girl. Whatever they just finished talking about, I know for a fact she'll want to talk to you about it." The raven-haired man grunted, scowling and tapping his foot impatiently as if he had something else to do other than babysit Natsu.

"What? What would they be talking about that she'd want to-"

"There you are, Natsu!" The woman they had been discussing (well, one of them anyway) interrupted him, striding through the open space with a determined look on her face. Gajeel's annoying scowl turned into an equally if not more infuriating smirk, and he chuckled his queer laugh.

"Gi hee. What took ya so long Shrimp?" He teased, sharp fangs glinting in the sunlight.

"I was looking for Natsu, thank you very much Gajeel." Levy quipped, crossing her arms. "Now, go away. Me and Natsu have some things to talk about."

"Yeah yeah, you go ahead with your little schemes. Try not to break Bunny Girl while you're at it, it's annoying when she's upset." He replied gruffly, striding back into the guild and slamming the door shut. Despite his harsh statement, Natsu knew Gajeel was just using tough words to hide his gooey interior. He was almost as intent on finding and beating up anyone who made the girl upset as Natsu was. He let his expression soften at the thought. The guild really loved his partner, even if she didn't think they did.

"Natsu Dragneel! I can't believe you kissed Lucy just to steal cotton candy from her!" Levy scolded, making the male stiffen and blush in mortification.

"H-Huh?" He stammered dumbly, eyes blown wide. "Wha… How did you find out?!" He settled for asking, wondering if someone had seen them and nattered off to her.

"How else? Lucy told me." Levy replied. Ah. That was the most reasonable and likely explanation. "And I'm kind of annoyed neither of you told me. Especially you." She added, puffing her cheeks out. It was cute, but when Lucy did it she made it way cuter. That's why he loved to annoy her so much.

"W-Well, I… I wasn't exactly thinking about it at the time, so…" He trailed off helplessly, looking at a pebble in front of his shoe. He wondered if kicking it would make him look even more like the shy dork he really was when it came to romance.

"And that is part of why I want to talk to you. Why did you kiss her?" Levy demanded, hands propped on her hips.

"I… Don't know." He admitted quietly, eyes averted to the side. "After I did it I hoped she would show me if she liked it or not, but… I dunno… I couldn't tell." He pouted behind his scarf, a little put down by the memory. She hadn't kicked him like he expected her to, but she hadn't kissed him back or asked for another one any time after the whole event, so he wasn't so sure he would call that a victory on his part. More like a stalemate. A stalemate he didn't know how to break in his favour, if it was even possible in the first place.

This whole situation was a confusing battle of emotions he didn't know what to do with, as if he was given weapons he had never seen or heard of before and was expected to use them like an expert on the first try. He knew from experience that was pretty much impossible. So he stopped trying after the first go-around, at least for now.

"Natsu, you can't just do that and not do anything else afterwards!" Levy scolded, frowning disapprovingly at him.

"Then what was I supposed to do?!" Natsu asked desperately. He had found somewhat unexpected help in Levy when trying to find ways to figure out what to do about his feelings for the resident Celestial Mage, and they had talked a couple times already about what he should do but neither agreeing on a solution as of yet.

She had suggested romantic dates and flowers and gifts, and while he wouldn't mind the gifting part, he vetoed the idea of acting romantic for the sake of winning Lucy's heart. He had argued that he wanted Lucy to love him for who he was, and as desperate as he was for her to return his feelings of affection, he refused to turn towards acting like someone he wasn't to get it.

He had suggested taking her on a mission and bringing it up somehow then (just winging it, basically) but Levy had quickly struck down that idea, her most compelling argument being that Lucy was very unlikely to appreciate him telling her how he felt in the middle of a fight with a ragtag bunch of bandits or something. He begrudgingly agreed.

"Definitely not leave her hanging! She was about to get very upset today about the whole thing you know!" Levy snapped. Natsu flinched like he had been struck, eyes filling with worry and a vague horror.

"She-She was crying about me kissing her?" He asked, heart sinking in his ribcage as he remembered that his partner did indeed look very close to bursting into tears before he was dragged outside. "Oh Mavis. I knew it. She doesn't like me that way. She probably hates me now. I mean, I think that was her first kiss and I basically stole it from her. Fuck. What am I gonna do to make it up to her? Will she ever look at me the same way again? Dammit. I really messed up. Maybe some gold will make her happy. Girls like shiny things, right? Yeah, gold will-" He had begun muttering to himself and pacing in small circles, panicking over the new findings and trying to find a way to resolve the situation. A small hand on his chest stopped him, however, and he noticed Levy had stepped forward to halt him in his tracks.

"Calm down, Natsu. Lucy doesn't hate you." She said firmly but soothingly. Natsu swallowed but nodded silently. "She was upset because you kissed her and did nothing afterwards, not because of the kiss itself." She explained. "She didn't know what to make of it, and she certainly didn't know if you were actually interested in her from just one kiss."

"Oh." Natsu murmured, not knowing what else to say. It made sense to him. He was exactly the same. Her lack of a reaction made him doubt himself, and he kept quiet and refrained from any further action. This really was a stalemate, he mused silently.

"Now, since I refuse to be the one to tell Lu-chan that you like her, as much as I want to, you have to suck it up, be a man, and tell her yourself. Take her somewhere nice or somewhere you're both comfortable, and tell her." Levy said with a no-business tone, poking Natsu in the chest. "Tell her you're sorry for making her confused. Even if she doesn't like you back, it's something she should know." Natsu nodded, but he wasn't convinced.

"But if she knows and doesn't like me… what will that do to us? Will either of us be able to look at each other the same way again?" He asked helplessly, his main and most crushing fear in this situation coming to the surface. Fear had been a foreign concept to him until his fight with Gildarts in the S-class exam, and while he better understood it now, he still struggled in the area of dealing with it.

Most of the time punching the thing that scared him made it go away, but it wasn't an option in this situation.

"Honestly. At this rate, you're never going to find out one way or the other." Levy sighed. Natsu agreed, but it didn't make it any better. "Look at it this way; would you rather ask her and know you had at least tried getting her to be with you, and maybe even reap positive rewards from it, or would you keep silent and forever ask yourself 'what if', never knowing for sure what her feelings for you are?"

She made a good point. One he couldn't argue with. And one he knew the answer to.

"I'd rather ask her." He replied strongly, fists clenching at his sides. He knew all too well what things like 'what if's did to people, spending too much time as a kid asking himself what would happen if things had been different, if he would have still been with Igneel. Over time he accepted that it was what it was, and that life had just dealt him his proverbial cards and left him with the hand he had now. And while he missed Igneel with all his heart, he was glad to have his friends and family and, in more recent years, Lucy, by his side.

Part of him was now afraid to ask the 'what if'. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what a life without Lucy would be like, and if fate had handed him a different deck, he didn't know if he would have met the wonderful woman that had planted herself in his life like the brightest star in the sky that was always there every night without fail.

"Good." Levy nodded, grinning approvingly. "Now go! Don't think, just do!" She exclaimed, shooing him back towards the guild. "She's most likely back at her apartment, so that's where you'll find her. I'd better be haring positive results from you tomorrow!" She almost threatened, and Natsu grinned without a verbal reply as he re-entered the guild.

"This better work by morning, or I owe Mira a lot of money…" Levy muttered to herself.

Natsu walked down the streets towards Lucy's apartment, formulating a rough plan of action in his head as he followed her scent back to her place. Even if Lucy had not gone back home, he had memorised her scent thoroughly by now and would have had no problems tracking her through Magnolia. Her path never strayed from the direction of her apartment, however, so he was safe in assuming she was indeed home.

He didn't have any details to flesh out his plan, but he had always been a man of action, so he didn't worry too much. For now, his plan consisted of going to her place, making sure they were alone, and just telling her outright that he liked her. Or maybe he would go straight to love. He didn't know yet.

Levy had seemed surprised when he admitted his love for the Celestial Mage, and asked him how long he felt that way. He hadn't been sure himself when exactly he had fallen for her, but part of him felt like he had loved her from the start. Maybe not the way he did now, but he had definitely loved her as a friend and partner, someone he could rely on and who he knew relied on him.

Eventually those feelings had only grown and strengthened into what he felt in the present. He knew for certain that there would be no one else for him, that she was his lifelong Mate. But he also knew that if she rejected him (and crushed him in the process), he would rather she be happy than force her into being with him just because it would tear him apart to see her with someone else.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he noticed he had arrived at Lucy's apartment and jumped up to her windowsill almost completely unconsciously. He slid the window open, smiling to find it unlocked, and hopped inside, shutting it behind him as he did a quick perusal of his surroundings.

Lucy was sitting at her desk, writing in her notebook and pausing occasionally to think before resuming. Natsu stood staring at her for several minutes, entranced by the image of her hair gleaming in the sunlight coming through the window like spun threads of gold. She looked so peaceful sitting there in her little apartment.

He cleared his throat, opening his mouth to speak, but she heard him and jumped with a squeak before turning around to face him.

"Oh, it's you Natsu." She breathed, hand going to her chest and a small smile gracing her face. "Don't scare me like that." She playfully scolded, turning back to her notebook. Natsu stood there dumbly for a few minutes, staring at her and contemplating the best way to initiate his plan.

After several moments of prolonged silence and virtually no movement on his part, Lucy turned around to face him again, this time with a confused frown.

"Natsu? Is something wrong?" She asked worriedly, brow furrowed as she looked him up and down. Nasu looked at her then, and as their eyes met, everything he had planned on saying to her vanished like smoke being blown away in the wind.

His body moved without conscious thought. With long, determined strides, he walked up to where she was seated at her desk and grabbed her upper arm, ignoring her startled squeak as he tugged her to her feet. He swept in, squeezing his eyes shut as their lips met, and he tried his hardest to convey everything he couldn't find words for in the way he moved against her.

He tensed slightly, preparing for a kick to the face or somewhere equally painful, but he jolted slightly when slim fingers reached up to tangle in his hair and pull him closer. He growled, the sound rumbling through their connected lips as he leaned forwards, his hands going around her waist and pulling her snug against his body. Her little mewl at the action emboldened the pink-haired male, and he grinned, daring a peek at her only to see her own eyes closed as she sank against him and his touch.

They broke away, panting slightly, and Natsu almost wanted to crow in victory. If her returning the kiss wasn't a simultaneous return of his feelings, he didn't know what was.

"N… Natsu?" She breathed, voice cracking.

"Lucy, I love you." He interrupted before she could overthink what had happened. Her eyes widened significantly and he belatedly realised his blunt statement probably wasn't much better, and he started to panic again. "L-Like, I love you love you. As in, I love everyone in the guild, but as a family, y'know? The way I love you is different and stuff. And I've felt this way for ages but we always had something going on and I really wanted to find Igneel but now everything's kinda slowed down and I've had time to think I realised I wanted to, um, pursue you? Ugh that sounds terrible now I've said it-"

"Natsu…"

"A-And when I kissed you at the fair I wasn't thinking about it you just looked really cute and I wanted to know what it was like and I realised I'm such a jerk for kissing you and not telling you what it meant, especially since it was your first kiss-"

"Uh, Natsu-"

"But Levy told me off for being a wimp and even if you don't love me back that's fine, okay maybe not really, it would kill me if you chose someone else, but I would deal with it because I want you to be happy and if you're happy with someone else then I'd rather that happen than force you to be with me and be miserable for the rest of your life-"

"Natsu!"

He clicked his jaw shut at her shout, hurriedly hunching his shoulders to hide his blush in his scarf. Though he wasn't sure it was entirely effective since he felt like his whole head was about to light on fire.

He was more embarrassed that he ended up spewing everything he could put into words at her like some word fountain or something like that, but he hoped that despite his obvious inexperience and nervousness that she more or less understood what he was telling her.

"You… You love me?" Came the tentative question from his blonde partner, and he lifted his eyes to meet hers from their previous position looking at their feet. He nodded resolutely, knowing that now his feelings were out in the open, he had no reason to lie to her. He just hoped she didn't go running for the hills, or he wasn't sure he would know what to do with himself.

"I love you, Luce. Even if you move on and forget about me, I'll never love anyone else." He rumbled, making sure she saw he was completely serious and not pulling a prank on her. He didn't want there to be any more confusion between them about their feelings for each other.

Luckily it seemed luck was on his side for once, because in the next moment Lucy was practically jumping into his arms and kissing him like he'd never been kissed before. His arms immediately went back around her waist and he made a low noise of pleasure, loving how it felt to have her pressed against him like this.

It was heaven.

They broke away again, and Natsu gazed at her beaming smile with hope in his eyes.

"Does that mean you love me too?" He asked tentatively, grinning when she nodded wordlessly, her hair bobbing everywhere with the force of her movements. Joyful tears glistened at the corners of her eyes, and as Natsu leaned in for another kiss, he lifted his hands to wipe away the few drops that escaped her control.

Feeling a surge of playfulness, giddy from his elation at finding out his love returned his feelings wholeheartedly, he lifted her and spun her around, grinning into her neck and her surprised shriek and giggles while she grabbed at his shoulders for support. He tripped and fell onto her bed, the blonde landing on top of him and knocking the breath from his lungs.

Natsu hardly cared. The woman he loved was in his arms, smiling at him like she won the lottery and he was the reason behind it, and he didn't think he had ever been happier in his life.

"I love you so much, Luce." He murmured, smiling up at her as her hair fell around their faces like a golden curtain. A few strands landed on his mouth, and he blew them away, grinning at her giggle at his actions.

"I love you too, Natsu." She replied, voice thick with emotions he could barely even begin to name. He gave her a nuzzle with the tip of his nose, purring deep in his chest when she returned the action all to willingly and added stolen little kisses here and there.

They spent some time like that, swapping words of devotion and love and interrupting each other for kisses.

And as the sun began to set, neither noticing as they engaged in a tickle fight, both knew without a doubt that there would be no more confusion about their relationship with each other from there on out.

[electraposts]

AIC WHATSIT 25  POSSIBLY

“Please concentrate. I need you to be as precise as possible.”

Sakura tried to neaten her posture, but it was already perfect.

“I didn't know she was following me until she spoke.” Sasuke was perfectly professional. His hands probably weren't clammy at all. “I couldn't visually follow the movement she made.”

“With Sharingan?”

The Sandaime might have been the slightest bit incredulous.

Sasuke's jaw was a little tenser. “Yes, Sandaime-sama. With the Sharingan.” He adjusted his footing every so slightly. “The suspect collided with Gaara-san, and then as far as I could tell, both disappeared.”

“Indeed.” He tapped his fingers on the desk just once. “Please repeat once more her words, with tone and body language as you remember them.”

Sasuke dutifully repeated the conversation for the second time, though this time he neglected to mention that she had mussed his hair afterwards. That was a shame, because it was the best part, as far as she was concerned. Was his hair cute that way?

Was the Sandaime making eye contact with someone behind them? Sakura didn't let herself look. After a moment, the feeling that he wasn't paying them full attention fled when his attention came to rest on her. “You have had the most extensive interactions with Uzumaki-san in Wave, Sakura-chan.” She shook, a little. “Please give me your honest impressions of her at the time, not those you formed with new information after returning to Konoha.”

She took a shaky breath. “I thought she was intelligent, kind, and reliable. I also thought she was frivolous, self-centered, and socially intense.”

“Intense?” The Sandaime raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

Sakura remembered the toothy grin that had not fit Aiko-san's image. “At times, she seemed more affectionate to us than was warranted by our brief acquaintance,” she said slowly. That wasn't quite it, but she couldn't think of a better way to phrase the oddity that had twinged at her. “Or maybe it was disproportionate investment?” she tried. “She expressed concern for our team's well-being and cohesion that doesn't make sense coming from an unrelated shinobi, and pushed the boundaries of reasonable behavior from the civilian she was portraying.”

“Did any particular interaction give you a strong sense that something was unusual?”

She didn't have to think about it long. She'd gone over this in her head more than once, trying to pinpoint anything that would have given away the civilian charade. “The conversations we had the first night,” Sakura admitted. “I'm not sure what exactly struck me as so odd. The conversational content was mostly normal- she asked about our families, gave some compliments, and talked about how she knew Tsunami-san.” She snuck a glance at Naruto. He was looking forward, at the wall.

“The blatantly odd thing was that she was shocked to see Naruto,” Sakura said quietly. She resisted the urge to look at her shoes. “Uzumaki-san dropped her teacup, and then invited him to join us. Not long after, she had a conversation with Tsunami-san in the hallway, addressing her concerns about Naruto's health.”

Sasuke shot her a sideways look with a question. He hadn't read her report, and she hadn't mentioned that aloud.

She avoided making eye contact and put her chin up a little higher.

“I thought Uzumaki-san was just a friendly person when she asked us about our lives and families. But Uzumaki-san is related to Naruto. Somehow. So she was almost certainly more interested in Naruto, and being nice to Sasuke and I to obscure her focus,” Sakura put forward. “She was trying to gather information about him in specific.” She cleared her throat.

That stung, a little. She'd thought... it had felt nice to think that she was someone's favorite. And Uzumaki-san had offered her career advice, not Naruto or Sasuke. That wasn't like Kakashi-sensei at all. She hadn't even seen him since he told her to follow Sasuke during the invasion. Of course, most of the senior jounin were suddenly missing. But she... she didn't think he was dead. Someone would have told her.

Sandaime-sama was already moving on, turning his attention to Naruto. Sakura tore her attention away from her sadness and anxiety and back to the less painful immediate topic.

'Aiko-san didn't care about what I said when I talked about my family. She only asked me questions so that it wouldn't seem odd when she talked to Naruto.'

Of course Aiko-san had asked about family. That would be the reasonable thing to do if she was surprised to see a relative. She had to have recognized him by his features. That probably meant she knew who his parents were? Or that he had a strong Uzumaki resemblance, Sakura decided. Aiko-san hadn't really asked about parents... lack of interest? That strongly fit with the theory that Aiko had recognized Naruto by one or both of his parents.

She stole a glance at her teammate. He did have unconventional features. His coloring was unusual, but it was the shape of his face that was just a bit foreign. Did Aiko-san's face look like his? She strained, but couldn't exactly remember. She needed side by side comparison. If Naruto looked a lot like Aiko-san...

'I probably would have noticed,' Sakura thought dryly. 'I saw them next to each other a lot. So unless Naruto is the only one of the two with distinctive Uzumaki traits, that must mean that it was the parental recognition.'

The really weird thing... if asking about siblings wasn't just idle conversation, then... why would she do that? That only made sense if she thought Naruto should have a sibling, or was invested in knowing if he had one. Or knowing if he knew he had -

Her mouth opened in an O.

She looked up, blinking quickly and trying to catch on to where the conversation had gone. Naruto was still talking to the Sandaime, relating something about his training with Jiraiya and Aiko-san sitting in on it. That was a surprise to her, but it made a sinking kind of sense with the theory she had to get out into the open.

It burst out of her without any decorum. “Aiko-san wanted to know about Naruto's family because-”

“Haruno-san,” a voice snapped out, shouting enough to cover her voice. “Do not interrupt your Hokage.”

She jerked.

A jounin she'd seen around was giving her a stern look. How long had he been in the office?

Everyone was looking at her. She felt her face flush scarlet with embarrassment at her rudeness, but the shame was fighting with the urgency to share her theory. “But,” she tried. “There was – I had a thought.” Her voice piped down to nearly nothing.

“It's quite alright, Genma-san.” The Sandaime was giving her an intense look. His tone was paternal, but she wasn't soothed. “Sakura-chan is a agitated by events, as we all are.” He gave her a smile. “Genma, would you escort her out for a breath of fresh air? I think we could all use a moment. Once you return, I'd like to hear your thought, Sakura-chan.”

Meek and embarrassed, she avoided looking at her teammates and allowed the jounin to lead her out. She'd been so disruptive that she'd been removed from the briefing. That was... she was never going to let Ino-pig know that her temper was still so poor.

“Haruno-chan, let's have a walk,” the jounin- Genma? Genma-san- said, so gently that it was almost certainly an apology for shouting at her. “Have you ever seen the jounin breakroom?”

'Obviously not! Do I look like a jounin?'

She gave him a smile. “No, sir.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets and gave her a grin as he started walking in a way she'd never gone before. It was incredibly goofy. Against her conscious desire, she found her shoulders relaxing a bit.

“You know, I've gotten excited enough to mouth off in a debriefing,” he confided. “It happens.”

Sakura managed a weak laugh and trotted at his left side. “Naruto does it a lot. I'm sorry. I'm not usually like that.”

“I believe it,” he said generously. “Hold up, we better be quiet for a while. You don't want to disturb people working in this area.” He held open a stairwell door for her, but jogged up the stairs fast enough that he passed her again before he reached the exit. He unlocked it by typing a number string in faster than she could see. The door buzzed and he held it open for her. They passed a desk with two senior shinobi who watched them walk by silently.

'This is definitely not a place where I belong.'

She didn't know if she wanted to slink or to try to look confident. She settled for trying to look a lot less interested in their surroundings than she was. It was hard, when they kept passing doors with names she didn't understand and spiderwebbing seals that she wanted to take a closer look at.

“Most of this belongs to offices you've never heard of,” Genma said quietly. “Maybe you'll find yourself in one of them, someday.”

Sakura gave him a polite look to hide her doubt. On the jounin floor? She was talented enough to make chuunin, for sure. But jounin? Probably not.

He chuckled, so her thoughts probably hadn't been as hidden as she'd hoped. “Oh, you might be surprised.” Genma-san opened a sliding down and sauntered inside. She followed a step behind and pulled the door shut automatically.

The room was noticeably warmer than the hallway. It was actually very comfortable. It had big windows and a ring of soft seating. There were three coffee machines crowded onto the counter space, which was somewhat ominous.

“This is the jounin lounge?” Sakura asked, even though she was pretty sure.

Genma-san plopped down in a puddle of light from a tall window. His adam apple moved as he adjusted the senbon in his mouth- when had he put a weapon in his mouth? Ew. “Yupp,” Genma-san verified. He closed his eyes.

He was... a little weirder than she'd thought. Sakura picked a seat reasonably close and sat primly, smoothing her dress over her knees. “It's empty.”

Genma-san snorted. “Sure is. It has chairs, too. Anything else that you spot?”

Sakura pursed her lips, because obviously she had been politely prompting for information about why it was empty and how he'd known that. But... well. It was all above her clearance. So he'd probably understood and chosen not to answer, she reasoned.

“What was it, earlier?” Genma-san cracked an eye open to peer at her. He seemed only mildly curious. “What was so interesting you started shouting over the Hokage?”

She winced at that description, but it wasn't wrong. “We know that Uzumaki-san is related to Naruto,” Sakura started.

All she got in response was a nod and a sort of 'go on,' wave.

She licked her lips. “Uzumaki-san knew Naruto on sight, which implied it was by resemblance. That could either mean a general clan resemblance, or a resemblance to a specific person, likely a parent. She asked about family casually, but was not interested in pushing for details about parents. That implies that she knew who the parent was, because she would have been trying to establish that person's identity if she was trying to figure out how Naruto was related to her.”

Genma-san opened his eyes. He was watching her impassively. Something in her hindbrain twinged a warning that something wasn't right, but she couldn't stop now.

“So she knew Naruto on sight, by his resemblance to a parent.” By this point she was talking fast enough that Iruka-sensei would have asked her to calm down. “She asked about siblings- why would she do that? Either she wants to know if he has them, or she suspected or knew that he has at least one sibling. She seemed surprised that he said no- she actually asked that twice.”

Sakura took a quick breath. “So she really thought Naruto had a sibling and she was surprised to hear that he didn't. So. That probably means that she has strong reason to think he has a sibling. She could just be wrong. But if she's not wrong? She probably knew details about this person, and they're probably older than Naruto. She wasn't trying to find out if this person existed, she wanted either current details or to find out what Naruto knew about this person. And he knew nothing. That's very odd, if he really has a sibling. Why would she know if he doesn't know?”

Sakura knew her pitch was unpleasantly high but the panic of realization was back again. “Because she's the sibling. That's how they're related. She didn't know about Naruto, so when she met him, she wanted to know if he knew about her.”

Sakura stopped, breathing hard. It took her a moment to realize that Genma was giving her only a small, mildly incredulous smile.

“That's...” he shook his head gently. “That's remarkably well-done, Sakura-san.” Genma-san pulled the senbon out of his teeth and twirled it.

She looked at him. “You're not surprised,” Sakura said. “You... had the same idea? Does the Hokage think so too?”

The Jounin let out a whistle.  “Kid, you're going to go places with a brain like that.” He crossed an ankle over his thigh. “But where you're not going is back to that office to share your theory.”

Sakura stared. “That sounds like you're going to kill me.”

Genma-san didn't laugh. “We're investigating the possibility of treason, Haruno-san.” His voice was suddenly, painfully weary. “I hope you understand the serious nature of what you've stumbled upon here.”

Wait, what? Her thoughts were roaring, but self preservation had finally hopped forward to keep Sakura's face blank. Treason? Aiko-san couldn't be a traitor unless she'd been a shinobi of Konohagakure. And surely they would have recognized her if she had been- she hadn't even changed her name.

'Whatever is going on... it isn't Aiko-san who is in trouble.'

“Yes,” Genma-san said. “Consider this your notification that your speculation is classified. Speak to no one, unless the Hokage tells you differently.” He sniffed once and stood up. “I think it's about time to go back, don't you?”

'No one?' Sakura wondered, mechanically following. 'Not... tell no one except your jounin-sensei? Did he just... leave that out? Or if Kakashi-sensei not supposed to know about this? Is that why he didn't come to this meeting- they thought he might think the same thing that I did?'

She didn't say a word. But... by the time they reached the Sandaime's secretary to ask approval to enter, Sakura was concentrating on one question:

'I wonder if Naruto could tell me who his parents are. I thought they must be dead. But the Sandaime wouldn't waste his time investigating possible treason from dead people.'

When the door opened, she saw the Sandaime look at Genma-san too quickly for Sasuke and Naruto to catch. Genma-san did... something fast with his right hand that Sakura couldn't see.

She plastered on a smile.

“Are you feeling better?” the Sandaime asked kindly.

Sakura nodded, and slipped into an apologetic bow to hide her face. “Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. Please excuse me.”

“It's no trouble.” He was making uncomfortably direct eye contact when she lifted her head. “You returned at a good time, Sakura-chan. I was just asking your teammates if they had any questions and concerns?”

Naruto threw his hand up and waved. “The Yondaime!”

“That's a rumor,” Sasuke-kun muttered, leaving off the “idiot”.

“Kiba said Ino said-” Naruto started arguing. She lost interest. She could ask Ino directly and get better information than Naruto would report.

Sakura pressed her lips together and tried not to be too obvious about looking Naruto over. In profile, he was... kind of cute, she grudgingly admitted. In a girly way. Maybe his nose could be a match to Aiko-san's. Was their eye shape the same? She snapped back to paying attention when Naruto broke semi-dignified reporting posture in order to plant both hands on the Sandaime's desk.

“It's not a rumor that you fought the other Hokage, right old man?” He grinned obnoxiously.

Sakura winced.

Her teammate leaned his weight onto the Hokage's desk and let his feet come off the ground. “That's true, right?” Naruto wiggled his butt. She looked away hastily. God, he was so embarrassing!

“Get down, idiot!” Sasuke-kun hissed. He grabbed Naruto's collar and yanked the team disaster back to his feet. Naruto went with a squawk and immediately tried to jab Sasuke-kun in the gut.

The Sandaime watched the tussle with impassive fondness. “That's true, Naruto,” he agreed. He pulled open a drawer and extracted his pipe. “Orochimaru revived past Hokage. However, his control was broken.” He lit up his pipe. “Thank you for coming, team 7. I believe the mission desk downstairs has work for you. After that, please report to the hospital for your check-up appointments. You will be getting a full physical, with x-rays and bloodwork, so be prepared. Goodbye.”

All three genin saluted on reflex. Sakura was halfway out the door before she realized that the Sandaime hadn't answered Naruto's question.

She woke up. Aiko moved slowly, smoothing down the futon cover again and again with her palms to get the wrinkles out. She stood and grimaced at the taste in her mouth. Mission number one was to brush her teeth. The toothbrush was- where had she left the damn thing? It wasn't in the cup to the right of her sink, it wasn't sitting on the rim, it wasn't-

“This is just sad,” Sanbi commented. “You must plan better if you will attempt this lifestyle.”

He was right. Aiko flinched and fed her own restored chakra to the Rinnegan. Her purple toothbrush innocently looked back at her from where it was balanced on top of her face wash.

“Why did I do that?” Aiko frowned and tried not to make eye contact with her reflection as she cleaned her mouth. “That's a stupid place to put a toothbrush.”

“I usually do my best not to wonder,” Sanbi said contemplatively. “Last week, you left it on top of the clothes washer. Also, the lid to the nori that you misplaced last night? It is actually under the sofa.”

That didn't sound right, but she didn't remember well enough to argue. Aiko caught her mirror self's creepy eye and frowned automatically. When she spat out the foam, she conscientiously put the toothbrush into the cup where it was supposed to live. “Stay,” she muttered.

When she made her bleary way out to the kitchen, Aiko paused. It was weird to see someone else there. “Good morning,” she decided. “How was your night?”

Gaara didn't look at her directly. In the clear light of day, the stains and wrinkles on his clothes were apparent, as was the sallow quality of his skin.

'Has anyone taught this child about hygiene?' Aiko wondered. 'He doesn't seem to take care of himself well.'

He needed to be outfitted. She should delegate it- but he was her kid. She needed to take care of him.

She ruffled his hair as she walked past- or she tried to, anyway. She scraped her fingers on a cloud of sand.

She checked Gaara's face. He seemed more resigned than wary or standoffish... She didn't think he'd been the one to push her away. So Aiko raised an eyebrow and slowly, deliberately reached past the slowly churning resistance to run her fingers through his rough hair. Two guesses as to what the grainy texture at the base of the strands was- “You need a bath, little one.” She stepped directly in front of him and pulled her hands back to herself. She made a note to wash her hands- there were old, spare bis of people in that sand. Gross.

'I wonder if I can get him clean sand. Can sand be washed? His sand should be washed.'

Gaara was watching her with slightly narrowed eyes, but he didn't seem to outright reject the idea of a bath.

“After we eat breakfast, I would like for you to shower and borrow some of my clothes. Once you're out, we can go shopping for your personal effects and have what you're wearing now washed.” She waited for a response.

He opened his mouth after a protracted silence. “Fine.”

'Oh my god, he's talking to me.'

She beamed at him. That was the first word of the day, and it was a good one.

“You are alarming that child.”

Aiko toned her grin down to something more dignified and turned to scavenge for breakfast. She filled the rice cooker halfway and turned it on- oh, that was going to take a while... The fridge held 5 eggs, some more cabbage and onion, soy sauce, mirin... Milk. Not much else.

Well then. They were going to eat scrambled eggs with chopped onion and cabbage on top of rice. And then she was going to find more vegetables, because he needed to get on a healthy diet.

Which reminded her...

'I need to contact Konoha and politely remind them that I expect the accommodations for my puppies to include age appropriate amounts and variety of nutrients. None of that gruel bullshit. I'm not doing that to their people.'

Sanbi sighed.

“Breakfast is going to take a while. Let's go find something you can borrow, okay?” Aiko didn't wait for a response. It was enough to know that he followed her to her bedroom and stood in the doorway while she dug through the cheap plastic drawer set in her closet. She scavenged two long-sleeved t shirts. Neither of them really seemed like his style- they were both slightly stretchy material. One was red, the other dark blue. As for pants- The only thing that seemed remotely plausible was a pair of the dark gray uniform pants. They might even be fine- it was the smallest size available. They were a little long on her, but all her height was through the torso. So.... Probably okay?

She held the options up for his perusal. “Can you stand to wear this for a few hours?” She held eye contact until he shrugged.

That was probably the best answer she was going to get, so she shepherded him into the bathroom. “Gaara, please use my shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Oh, a clean washcloth, just a second...” She pulled her loofah out of the shower and tossed it in the sink. She found a threadbare pink washcloth  in the second drawer, which would do. She held it out until Gaara unfolded his arms to take it from her.

His brow was furrowed.

'Does... He does know how to take a shower, right?' Aiko hovered a moment, unsure. 'He is nearly a feral kid. And from a city with severe water use restrictions. It's... it's pretty possible that he's never used a shower.'

Well then. She stepped into the shower area and glanced back to make sure she had his attention. “This dial adjusts the temperature. I have it at a heat I like, but you can move it to anything. I'll start the water-” she did just that. A gentle rumbling echoed out of the pipes. She took the showerhead off of the hook and angled it to show him the green button underneath. “When you want the water to spray, press this button to turn it on. Press it again to turn it off. When you're done, you can turn all the water off with this lever. If you don't remember, just leave it and I'll get it.”

That... That felt pretty through. Could there be something else?

Um. Towels. She only had two, and one was still damp from her shower before bed. So she pulled the other off the rack and draped it within reach of the shower. “You can use this.” Aiko pursed her lips. “I'll be in the front room, taking care of morning mail, breakfast, and starting a list of supplies we need for the house. If you think of anything, you can add it to the list once you're done. Please take your time- the rice won't be ready for 40 minutes anyway.” She hovered, but that was it. Aiko ran a hand through her hair. “I'll see you when you're done.”

Gaara took a slightly appalling hour in the shower, judging from when the water started to when it cut off, but she wasn't entirely certain he had actually taken a shower until he padded around the corner with soggy hair, wearing both of her shirts at once. They were soaked around the neckline.

She did not sigh. She got up, found a big, soft kitchen towel, and gestured him into the tiled room. He came, frowning slightly.

“I want to dry your hair, okay?”

Gaara looked as though he was considering commenting, but settled for a nod. It was just like when she'd hugged him: he started off stiff and aloof, and relaxed in bits and pieces until he was actually leaning his head back into the towel. It was with slight regret that Aiko finished and pulled the cloth away.

She managed to get him fed and tug him out the door within fifteen minutes. The workday was starting around them- genin and chuunin were reporting to the missions office, and scattered civilians were taking their bleary-eyed walks to the fishing docks or construction sites.

'The stores are not open at this hour.'

Aiko felt slightly stupid.

“It's earlier than I realized,” Aiko eventually admitted.

Gaara probably thought that his reaction was subtle, but even in her peripheral she saw him steal a quick glance at her.

“Let's go to my office. It's still closer to the shopping areas, anyway.”

When she walked in, chuunin scattered. Saito was presiding over the office staff as they began hauling the day's mission scrolls to the front desk. She gave Aiko only the briefest of glances, but a coltish genin hauling the enormous master binder of staff looked incredibly alarmed to see her.

'You'd think it would not be a surprise that the Mizukage is occasionally in the Mizukage's office.'

Sanbi huffed. “Very occasionally, as it were.”

Dickhead. She had other things going on, alright?

She pressed her lips together sourly and walked past. The clock in her office claimed it was 6:34. When a frightfully thin genin with light brown hair brought in a tray with coffee at 6:39, Aiko was reading details on the construction report for the repaired bridge. She tried to make eye contact and smile, but the boy ducked his head and set the coffee on her desk as far from her as possible.

Gaara watched this happen, perfectly still on the straight-backed chair across from her desk.

Aiko resisted the urge to sigh. “Thank you,” she said. “I need a few things. First off, let's add a cup of tea to my morning order whenever Gaara-kun comes with me to the office. Secondly, tell Saito-san that I'd like to locate a couch and a short table for the back wall, as soon as is reasonably possible. And when Mira-san comes in, she should have a list of medical personnel in the village. I want that list fleshed out with contact information and someone to guide me to each address on the list. I want to tour every clinic and hospital today, preferably before 3pm.”

He repeated the orders silently back, mouth moving.

That was... well. A bit unusual, but okay. Aiko waited patiently.

The genin blinked rapidly and then nodded. “Yes.” He tapped his fingers against the now-empty tray he'd brought her coffee on. 3 taps, 5 taps, 3 taps, and then he forcibly stilled his fingers. “Will that be all?”

“Yes.” She managed a smile, because she was starting to suspect that his ticks had nothing to do with her. “Goodbye.”

He left without further comment, which was oddly funny for a reason she couldn't put it in words.

Aiko shook it off and went back to her reading. Gaara had initially turned down all offers of entertainment, but after about an hour he drifted to look at the bookshelves on the wall. When she set down the last invoices for the dock materials, he was a good twenty pages into a book of Kirigakure's political history.

'I need to read that one,' Aiko remembered, slightly guiltily. She knew what Konohagakure cared to teach, but it probably wasn't the same or as detailed.

Ah well. It was nice to see the tension off of Gaara's face. He seemed more peaceful than she'd ever seen, with a boring book and the second teapot of the day set by his side.

He looked up and caught her smiling at him. Gaara frowned instinctively. But after a moment, he seemed to deliberately wipe the negativity off of his features and give her a nod.

She nodded back and then pulled out Mifune's letters again to reread them and implant the details into her memory. Then she drafted a letter to Konohagakure.

At 9, she took Gaara out for the basic supplies of clothes and toiletries and groceries. He was completely disinterested. She gave up on getting his approval for most things and simply picked out a combination of the practical and the whimsical. He didn't seem to have any interest in decorating his room, but it was just too bleak to leave without anything personal. It might have been too ambitious, but she had a small bookshelf and a miniature table added to the huge order to be brought to the house and assembled while she was at work. Hopefully he would find something he wanted to put on them... But just in case he didn't, she picked out a few potted plants of various sizes.

In mid-morning and the early afternoon, she spent her time touring small clinics and checked in on the main hospital. She took her masterlist of persons and places with her and made notes of impressions and facts after each encounter. She left swirling eddies of terrified and confused medical workers in her wake, but that couldn't really be helped. It was going to take time for the general populace to feel safe around a Mizukage. In the meantime, she had work to do.

They needed everything, frankly. They needed more doctors and nurses, they needed better training, more and better medicine, more and better facilities and equipment. The project would have to be approached in starts and stops, but it had to be started.

She called in the man whose half-remembered name started with “Yama” and had a meeting about the contents she needed him to draft in proposals and letters to Mifune. Gaara watched on with surprising engagement for a 12-year old. Granted, he was a 12 year old who would have become Kazekage by 14 in another world, so maybe she ought to be making a concerted effort towards furthering his education with the assumption that he had political ambitions. The meeting ended at 3, at which point she took the time for a good, long stretch and surreptitiously found out that her assistant's full name was 'Yamagi'.

'After lunch, I need to make a chart of my administrative personnel and make sure I know who is reporting to whom, so I can make any changes necessary and keep bad combinations apart.'

Oh. After lunch, huh. That should have been hours ago.

“I'm hungry,” Aiko said, in a tone of realization. Had she... She looked at her ward guiltily. “Gaara, I forgot to feed you. Are you hungry?”

He gave her his full attention. “I am not a cat.”

Well, yeah. She was aware of that. Cats could feed themselves.

'It's time for a break.'

Aiko stood up and laced her fingers over her head, reaching as far up as she could reach. She felt the stretch down her sides and shoulderblades. “Let's take the afternoon,” she said. “A late lunch, and some kind of outing. There's a library I want to visit, and we could see a park, museum, go for a run or do some training- what do you like?”

Gaara just looked at her, as thought he had no idea what to do with this question.

She swallowed. “I'll pick lunch, and you can think on that while we eat.” She crossed the room to pull open the door and call for her secretary. Mira-san came instead, holding what must be the finalized copies of mission reports from the first shift, ready for her notarization and pending filing.

Aiko felt oddly guilty for saying it, but- “I'll be out of the office for several hours. I'll return between 6 and 7.”

“You have a meeting with Terumi-san at 6:30,” Mira said sternly.

She gave the older woman a look, raising her left eyebrow. “I'm aware,” Aiko said simply. She held out a hand. After a moment, Mira passed over the binder. “Thank you. That will be all.”

She locked up the office from inside. Gaara watched, apparently disinterested. When she held out her hand to him, however, he grabbed it with enough force to turn her fingers white and that somehow turned into something that was almost a hug. Aiko smoothed down his hair with her free hand and did not comment on the desperate force with which he pressed his head into her collarbones. She had meant to hiraishin them away quickly, but she ended up just holding him until he started to lean his head away.  

Aiko took them to Grass.

Gaara stepped away quickly in the sunshine, but he didn't pull his hand free. So she kept hold of it. They walked down the city streets of an area she was only passingly familiar with until they found a cafe that looked half-decent. Aiko picked a soup, salad, and sandwich meal with coffee, but Gaara seemed more comfortable with more traditional, home-styled offerings. He ate all his tsukemono- he liked sour and bitter flavors, then?- and the soup and broiled fish, but he left a good portion of his rice.

The libraries in Grass's civilian capital were impressive stone buildings, haughty and dark against the skyline. Gaara drifted along behind her while she collected a few things from the architectural college's library, one tome from the medical college's building, and then finally perked up when she went to the general library. She glanced down at him, fussing with the canvas strap of her bag. It was digging into her shoulder from the weight of the books inside, but she could fit a few more things.

“Anything you want,” Aiko promised lightly. “I'll be at that table reading. Why don't you have a look around? Pick at least one book out. You can take more, but I'll be coming back next week. So you can always get something else then.”

True to her word, she set to reading in the enforced quiet of the public areas and let him explore without her hovering or guiding. He didn't go far, which was a little saddening, but it did make it easier to keep an eye on him until she got too immersed into what she was reading about foundations and frames.

'I should have listened to Yamato more,' she regretted. 'Over the years, he's told me a lot offhand. I wouldn't be starting off with so little understanding if I'd paid attention.'

She definitely couldn't ask him now- not about architecture in general, and certainly not for clues about how to improve and use her Mokuton. Obito had been right that she could use it, and with a lot more stamina than Yamato. But her control was just sad. She needed a lot of practice, and she needed a lot more understanding of what she should be trying to do.

Pursuing it as a side project was the best solution. Using Mokuton would drastically increase speed and decrease costs associated with importing materials and skilled labor. There was minimal danger in commissioning Yamato for many of the building projects. But some things were in areas where he couldn't be trusted, or would need to have secret floor plans, and definitely couldn't afford to have any of the deliberate weakness that he might be tempted to plant.

She knew Yamato. He was not going to rig an orphanage or footbridge to fall. But he would sabotage government buildings, and bring back information about important locations of food and water supplies, of electrical lines and other such infrastructural weak points.

Gaara was sitting beside her with a closed book on the table in front of him when she looked up. She checked her watch compulsively- 5:30.

They still had some time, then. She tapped her fingers on the table and smiled at him. “Is there anything you want to do?” She held out her hand for his book, intending to put it with hers.

Gaara put his hand on it and slid it away from her. His bony hand covered the title protectively.

Aiko blinked. “Sorry. I wasn't trying to take your things. I just thought I'd carry it for you.”

He looked at her heavy canvas bag and then away. Stubborn baby.

“Let's get you your own book bag,” Aiko decided. She stood up and headed for the checkout counter, relieved that he followed. “And then?”

She didn't actually expect him to answer. So it was surprisingly thrilling to hear him say, “What kind of museum?”

They used her forged library card to check out all the books like the criminal she was, found him a dark blue bag in a store meant for the university students, and then used their remaining half an hour in a museum detailing the history of the local castle and the series of clans who had inhabited it. She thought Gaara might actually want to see the castle- she promised him that they would do that when they returned the next week.

There wasn't, like, an official tour or anything. The castle was still inhabited. But they were shinobi, they could break in.

'Or I guess I could request it, as the Mizukage?' she vaguely considered. Probably not. That would complicate things. Sometimes it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. It was best to just be so sneaky that no one would know they'd been by.

Her office was just as she'd left it, but when she unlocked the door, she found a couch in the hallway immediately outside. Aiko poked her head out and looked around- there were some other small additions further down: a table, a vase with flowers, a lamp, some small pillows. Huh. That was good service. When she began hauling items in, Gaara assisted without comment. She was walking backwards with one end of the couch when Mei entered the area. The older woman raised an eyebrow, but she swooped in to help Gaara without comment.

“Good evening, Mizukage-sama,” Mei said. “May I be of further assistance?”

Aiko walked past to grab the lamp and set it on the table. Gaara was already putting the pillows on the couch. “No,” she said, belatedly. “I don't think so.” She paused. “Ah, did you submit a request for refreshments on your way in?”

“No. I will do so immediately. Coffee, and....” Mei let her voice trail off, looking at Gaara implacably.

He looked at Aiko. She nodded, trying to prompt him to speak for himself.

“Water will be fine,” he said.

She resisted the urge to tell him he was doing a very good job. He probably wouldn't respond well to that. Instead, she just nodded and dithered for a moment over where she should sit. She'd like to sit with Gaara on the couch, but... that seemed more appropriate for less relaxed times. This was an informal meeting with Mei, but Mei was not her friend.

Aiko sat behind her desk and gestured Gaara to the couch so that Mei could take the seating he'd been haunting all day.

When Mei returned, she expressed no more curiosity about Gaara than she'd demonstrated last night, at their longer discussion at Aiko's home. At first, Aiko noticed Gaara listening intently to their conversation. But it was truly boring stuff- dossiers on possible diplomats, information of Hunter-nin and Black-Ops procedural minutia- and after a while he began alternating between his library book and taking neat, deliberate notes on a pad of office paper. She needed to get him notebooks, then.

After Mei left, Aiko took the piles of paperwork with her to the couch and did her reading and stamping there. Mira-san had gone home, as well as most of the day staff. But one of the skeleton crew waiting for the last mission reports of the day trotted in and out, bearing coffee and water and tea. When asked, they went out and returned with steaming curry for dinner. She and Gaara ate there, as the sun went down and drafts of various letters and proposals were sent in for Aiko's approval at the end of the office day. Before 8, all of her in-going correspondence had been dealt with, reports read, requests for the following day filed, and the changes to her schedule approved. She led Gaara out past the front desk as security came by to lock the building for the night.

It was dark. Like, really dark. The city lights weren't on yet- it hadn't been prioritized. But there were some lanterns burning in attempts to entice customers into the few restaurants open, and ambient noise that kept the city from being too creepily empty.

At home, it was something of a relief to see that the genin team she'd had take her things home had done a nice job with putting away groceries and filling up Gaara's bedroom and adding his toiletries to the bathroom. Someone had even added some things of their own volition- she'd need to find out who was responsible for realizing she was out of floss and replacing it. That was thorough and thoughtful.

'I wonder what dad is doing in Konoha.' She curled up on a cushion in front of the in-ground firepit without lighting it. 'The Sandaime can't possibly trust him yet. Will he reach out to Naruto right away?'

Would Naruto even deal well with that? Would-

“However interesting those troubles, you do not have the leisure time to struggle with them. You have many fascinating problems of your own. Shall I list them?”

'You're a mediocre and mean turtle.'

There wasn't much heat in the insult, because he was right. She needed to remember that she served Kirigakure's people, not Konoha's. She didn't have to be cruel, but she couldn't waste away resources and energy that her people needed.

“Gaara,” she managed. She didn't have to look over to know he was paying attention. “Do you have any ideas about what you would like to do? You don't have to do any kind of shinobi work for us- it's probably inadvisable unless you decide you don't want to return to Suna at all. But you should probably be contributing while you're staying here. It sort of looks like nepotism if I have everyone but my kid helping out, you know?”

It took nearly a minute for Gaara to decide to come closer. Aiko reflected that he walked like a cat: near silent, and with an aloofness that said his chosen path had absolutely nothing to do with anyone else who might be in the room.

“Apprentice,” he said.

Aiko actually turned to look at him so he could fully appreciate the way she was contorting her face. She didn't know what emotion it was conveying, but it was definitely moving in an interesting way. “I would like clarification.”

“I'm going back to Suna.” Gaara's lip curled, and teeth peered out. “Eventually.”

She waited.

He seemed to think that was enough.

It was not enough. “That's your choice,” Aiko said as patiently as she could manage. “Weird, but okay. Who are you apprenticing to and why? Or are you asking for an apprentice?”

“You.” The word was spat out, to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. “You're like me, but they listen to you. I need to be able to do that as well. Show me how to make them respect me. I'm the only one Sunagakure has who is strong enough to lead.”

She leaned back on her cushion and braced her weight on her palms. “That sounds like the opposite of what I asked for,” Aiko countered. “I asked how you might contribute to Kirigakure, you're saying that you want a lot of my time and attention.” She shook her head, feeling the weight of her hair swaying behind her. “Make it worth my while, and we can talk.”

Gaara crossed his stick-thin, anemic arms, ad tried to look tall. “Kirigakure will benefit from competent leadership in Sunagakure.”

“Probably. How can you know you'll be a competent leader?”

He scoffed. “Is it your teaching abilities that you doubt, or my capacity for learning?”

“I doubt a lot of things,” Aiko rebuffed. “The time and attention I can dedicate to your education, your emotional capacity to bond with civilians, the likelihood that Sunagakure's citizens are going to react as Kirigakure's have, and yes, my ability to teach you to govern given that I have a style you are not suited to, and I'm making shit up as I go.” She paused. “Constantly,” Aiko stressed. “I don't know what I'm doing. I can't teach you how to manage a city because I'm still learning. I encounter a problem, I seek out information and attempt to predict future problems and work to preempt them. I can teach you how I think and problem-solve, but I can't teach you how to do that job.”

“My current skill-set is killing people,” Gaara said flatly. “Whatever you have to teach me can't make me worse.”

That was just untrue, but sort of sweet in naivety. “I could teach you about-” Aiko stopped, remembered how young Gaara was, and frowned. “There's a lot I can't teach you about. But fine. I'll consider your proposal with a trial period.” She pulled her hands onto her lap and leaned forward. “You work for me, now.”

“How long is this trial period?” Gaara asked.

She tilted her jaw up. “As long as it needs to be.”

“That's not good enough.” He was turning a bit red, pupils dilating in the darkness. “I can't be away from Sunagakure indefinitely, nor can they mistakenly think me a traitor.”

They held eye contact. Aiko kept waiting for him to turn away or change expression, to either back down or become aggressive. But he just matched her stare.

She cracked a smile. “Fair enough.” She gave him a half-bow. “It's a deal, then. I'll make sure that doesn't happen. I will either accept or reject you as an apprentice within a month.”

He took a moment and then bowed uncertainly. “Uzumaki-shishou?” Gaara asked. “Aiko-sama?”

Both of those were weird and markedly more responsible and adult-sounding than she felt, but one was significantly less weird to hear. “Aiko-sama,” she confirmed. Ugh. So weird. “We are both going to be learning on our feet, Gaara. Tomorrow I want you to accompany and assist an architectural specialist. I think that your sand could be very useful for his construction project. Demonstrate your abilities, learn from him. I'll expect you in my office at 4pm for a detailed report of his thoughts and what you've understood.” She stretched. “I'll have someone take you to him at 8 tomorrow morning. Be ready to take direction.”

If she'd told that to Sasuke at that age, she would have gotten a sneer. Naruto? Whining. But Gaara only nodded.

It was a little unnerving. But she went about her night as if she wasn't bothered by the compliance. She answered some letters, sent an updated set of orders to the third border post with a courier, and showered before bed. Even in the hot water, she couldn't relax. Eventually she gave up and wrapped her towel around her body and laid on top of her sheets. The damp towel and her sopping her made her cold and uncomfortable.

“I really should hang this towel up so that it dries,” Aiko said to herself. But she couldn't find the energy to move, even to unwrap the towel and push it off the bed. Whatever. She closed her eyes, dreading everything. She let the Rinnegan sleep.

Some of the tenseness in her neck washed away with the sinus pain she hadn't exactly noticed building over the course of the day. She stared bleakly into the darkness for a while. There was a pressure in her chest. It wasn't like something sitting on her body. It was like there was something small and hard pushing outwards inside of her breastbone, trying to open up a space to contain... something. Anything.

It was difficult to muster the give-a-damn to finish getting ready for bed, when her body felt so heavy and tired. Eventually, she contorted enough to reach her fingers along the wall along her head and flip off the lights. It was hard to know how long it took for her to fall asleep.

[i-am-made-of-memoriies]

The Will of Fire (part 2)

A/N: Would you look at that? I’ve finished my first two-shot! Yipee!

Part one

“Come on Kohei!” Sakura coaxed, holding the spoon to the three year old’s mouth, “You have to eat some of it!”

“Mama no!” Kohei insisted, shaking his head defiantly, “I want Sarda-neechan to feed me!”

“Kohei sweetie, it’s Sarada, and she’s out on a mission. Please eat. She’d want you to.”

Sarada sneezed. Must be someone talking about me. She thought, adjusting her pack on her back. She was the captain of her first mission. Though she was still a chunin, Naruto-sama had entrusted her because of her recently fully-awakened sharingan.

“If worse comes to worse, you can always hypnotize them into doing the right thing.” Sarada remembered Naruto’s words before she left for the mission. Though he was right, Sarada was really hoping that she wouldn’t have to resort to those measures.

“Sarada-taicho,” the shortest of her subordinates started, “I can sense the Tsurigakure ninja approaching quickly. Shall we fight them?”

“According to the bingo books, they should be an easy fight.” She replied, reaching for her newly acquired katana, “Why don’t we indulge them?”

The the chunin assembled in a fighting position with Sarada in the front.

“Akoto,” she ordered, motioning to the chunin she had previously spoke to, “Stand in the back. As the healer on this team, we can’t afford having you hurt.”

“Yes Sarada-taicho.” Akoto replied, making her way to the back of the formation.

Sarada activated her sharingan and quickly scanned the area. She saw the Tsuri ninja and almost chuckled. Their chakra levels were ridiculously low and they were already arguing. Being a good shinobi, Sarada knew not to immediately judge ninja by their first appearance, but she was more than positive that they weren’t hiding their chakra.

The sub-par ninja came into the clearing, weapons brandished in the least intimidating way possible.

“You are Konoha ninja!” The supposed leader exclaimed, “We will take your precious information now and you will fail your mission while we will triumph!”

Sarada used the shunshin jutsu to appear right behind the trio.

“Didn’t you ever learn not to announce your plan before executing it?” She asked icily.

The Tsuri ninja turned their heads slowly, finally turning around and looking into Sarada’s spinning tomoe.

Akoto stifled a giggle as the trio of pathetic ninja fell like sandbags to the ground.

“I should have let you guys do a bit of the fighting.” Sarada apologized, “It’s just that they were so easy to take down, I would have been unnecessarily drawing out the fight by not taking action.”

“It’s okay taicho.” The tallest of the chunin, Yuji smiled, reassuring Sarada.

“We’re almost at Sunagakure, let’s get this scroll there and be done.” Sarada took out her long braid and coiled the wavy hair into a bun. That braid kept slapping me anyway. She thought.

“Good job you four.” Naruto placed their mission report on his desk and smiled, “I knew you wouldn’t let me down Sarada.”

Sarada grinned. She realized that today was probably the best day to ask the question she’d wanted to ask since she joined the academy. The question she’d wanted to ask since Boruto selfishly took her father as his sishou, and stole him from her. She’d moved passed the feeling of jealousy and realized that having her father as a sishou probably wasn’t the greatest idea for her, since she wanted to follow a far different path.

Once the other chunin had left, Sarada took a deep breath and walked closer to Naruto. “Hokage-sama,” she started, trying to make her voice as solid and confident as possible, “I was wondering if you would take me on as your apprentice. I understand that you don’t have much time, but I promise to work hard and carry on the will of fire.”

Naruto looked rather surprised for a second before his lips curved into a smile. “With the rapid development I’ve seen from you and the deep care for your comrades and your village, I would be happy to teach you.”

Sarada tried her best not to scream. “Thank you so much Naruto-shishou!” She exclaimed, “I promise to never slack off!”

“I’ll hold you to that.” He glanced at his packed schedule and sighed, “Let’s meet on Sunday at noon. I’ll take you to Ichiraku’s afterwards.”

“I’ll see you then.” Sarada practically skipped out of the office. She ran back home, wanting to tell her parents and Kohei as soon as possible.

“Mama, Papa, Kohei!” She exclaimed happily as she burst through the door, “Guess what?”

Sakura looked up from her medical textbook and smiled at her daughter, “Well you seem mighty happy, it must be something good!”

“Yeah!” Kohei agreed, grinning with his little toddler smile, “Sarada-nee chan is awesome!”

“Thank you Kohei.” Sarada gave her little brother a hug, “Naruto-sama agreed to be my sishou!”

“That’s wonderful sweetie!” Sakura beamed, “First you fully awaken your sharingan, then you captain your first mission, then Naruto decides to be your sishou, this seems to be quite the amazing month! Let’s go eat something special as a family.”

“You’re just saying that so you don’t have to cook dinner.” Sasuke muttered, placing Kohei on his waist.

“I was going to go to that really fancy sushi restaurant, but if you want my sub-par cooking, it’s up to you.”

Sasuke looked away. “Hn.”

“Anyway, freshen up Sarada-chan. Put on something nice too.”

Sarada opened the door to her room, smiling at the uchiwa painted on her door. She really hoped that she made her ancestors proud.

Sarada pulled on her embroidered tunic and adjusted the back so the uchiwa was centered. Then she chose her favorite black pants and flats.

“I’m ready mama!” She called, standing in front of the door.

Sakura came bustling down the stairs, trying to put Kohei’s shoes on while he kicked and flailed.

“I’ve got it mama.” Sarada came to the rescue as she sat Kohei on her lap and slid the shoes on with ease. “Let’s go get something to eat, ‘kay?” She tickled her brother’s stomach and placed him on her shoulders.

“Now that you three are back from your respective training excursions,” Naruto started, smiling at Sarada, Boruto, and Mitsuki, “I want to send you on a mission. It’s A rank, but I believe that you will be able to handle it.”

“Mitsuki, you will be in charge of medical ninjutsu and healing, since Sakura’s your apprentice, and as for Sarada and Boruto, you guys will just beat up the bad guys.”

“Sounds good sishou.” Sarada replied, “I heard that there has been some previous interaction with the village we will be going to, Jomae no Sato right?”

“Yes, back when I was a genin, they sent a kunoichi to infiltrate, but she-ehm, was good friends with Kakashi and committed suicide instead of following her village.”

“Do they still feel hostile towards the leaf?” Sarada wasn’t necessarily worried since she fully trusted her teammates, but it would be a lot easier if everyone was friendly.

“They haven’t shown blatant outward hostility, but given the fact that we are stealing information from them, they’ll be angry if they ever find out.” Naruto rolled up the mission scroll and handed it to Sarada, “I will be trusting this with you. Remember, your job is to get into their information storage room, steal the scroll in question, now this is your part Sarada, I need you to make an exact replica with your sharingan. Once the replica is made, place it where you found the original and high-tail it out of there. Try not to involve in combat, but you have my permission to do whatever’s necessary.”

“Yes sir!” The three said in unison.

It was entirely her fault. Sarada looked at the blood soaked battlefield, where the unconscious bodies of her teammates lay prone to further damage. She wasn’t able to protect them, and her replica was faulty. If her teammates, the people that lay closest to her heart, were to die, she would have practically killed them. She would have killed her best friends. As she desperately held back tears, a sharp, debilitating pain blossomed behind her eyes, forcing her to scream in agony and fall to her knees. It felt as if someone was tugging at her eyes and dicing them into pieces. All Sarada could see was a searing white; at this point she wasn’t entirely sure if she was screaming anymore, for all she knew she could be dead in hell. All she could think of is her teammates blood on her hands, and the way her parents and shisou would look at her with disappointed eyes. Naruto had trusted her and she had failed. She didn’t deserve to follow her dream. She didn’t deserve to ever become Hokage!

Suddenly the pain subsided. Sarada opened her eyes, gasping when she realized that the world was clearer than it had even been with her sharingan. She didn’t linger on that thought long though because she soon saw the figures of her assailants. They were smirking at her teammates fallen bodies, making rage bubble and boil in Sarada’s body. She stepped closer to ninja, wiping blood off her face. Where that blood came from, and to whom it belonged, she didn’t know, nor did she care. All she cared about was killing those sons of bitches. She wanted them to feel the pain she did, all the guilt and terror she had been subjected to in the past hour, she wanted to unleash on them tenfold. Suddenly, she realized that she could. She looked into their eyes, instinctively pulling them into a genjutsu. She marveled at the plane, embracing the blood red sky and the amount of torture she’d be able to subject them to in this new world.

They were tied to stakes as Sarada repeatedly stabbed them, using any material she could imagine. In her rage, she didn’t notice how truly evil she was being. For once in her life, all she could think about was doing harm to people.

After what seemed like ages, she broke the genjutsu. She looked at her teammates, noticing that their blood had hardly spread, meaning that her genjutsu had lasted mere seconds, not hours.

Suddenly the implications of what she had done caught up to her. She was hit by a wave of severe nausea and proceeded to empty her stomach on the ground in front of her. Getting over her sudden sickness, she hoisted her teammates onto her shoulders and began to make her way back to the village. She ignored the searing pain that plagued every part of her body and forced herself forward.

Finally the gates were in view. She practically sobbed once she saw the beautiful village she called home, and used the last of her energy to walk into the village before collapsing.

Everything hurt. Not as much as it did before she passed out, but it still hurt. Sarada forced her eyes open, just to quickly shut them again once she saw the bright, white lights.

“Sarada, you’re awake.” A familiar voice said from beside her bed.

Sarada opened her eyes again and turned her head to see the person who spoke. It was Naruto. Sarada fought back the strong urge to cry. “I failed shishou.”

She whispered, her throat felt like sandpaper.

“You did your absolute best.” Naruto replied, patting Sarada’s hand, “Boruto and Mitsuki haven’t woken up yet, but would you like to tell me what happened. I already struck an alliance with Jomoe no Sato once they realized that the scroll you took originally belonged to the leaf village, so don’t worry.”

Sarada sighed in relief. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, trying not to visibly cringe in pain.

“The mission went well up until we took the scroll.” She started, taking a sip of water from the glass beside her bed. With a far less painful throat, she continued louder, “Somehow the guard knew we were in there despite completely cloaking our chakra. When we heard his footsteps, I made the replica really quickly, and messed up a bit. The guard noticed that and sent their top ninja to intercept us. We tried really hard to fight them, but there were three of us and ten of them, all jonin or tokubetsu jonin level. Mitsuki and Boruto got hurt first, then something weird happened. For some reason it’s kind of foggy, but my eyes started to really hurt. And I mean like really hurt. After that, I can’t really remember what happened. All I know it that I missed only about three seconds, but the enemy ninja were dead once I regained-well, vision.”

Sarada turned to look at Naruto’s expression. Instead of looking disappointed, he looked slightly frightened. “I’m going to get Sasuke.” He announced, “I suppose I don’t have to tell you to stay put.”

Sarada leaned back into the pillows and closed her eyes, drifting into blissful unconsciousness until she was awoken by someone lightly shaking her. She opened her eyes again, noting how it was substantially less painful.

“Papa.” She whispered, hugging her father as tightly as she could.

Sasuke looked affectionately at his daughter before switching to a more serious expression.

“Activate your sharingan.” He commanded, looking Sarada dead in the eye.

Sarada did as she was told, noting the clarity in her vision.

“Now try to do the same thing again.”

She looked at her father with a confused expression, but ultimately followed his instructions. Instead of having nothing happen as she expected, her vision became clearer, and some of the pain returned.

Sasuke handed Sarada a handheld mirror. “What you see in that mirror is the next stage of the sharingan, called the mangekyo sharingan. I had hoped you would never have to get to this stage, but I will take you to the Nakano Shrine once you are discharged.”

Sarada looked at her reflection, gasping when she saw that her eyes were not the three tomoe she was accustomed to, but instead a black cherry blossom in a red background. “What can I do with the mangekyo sharingan?” She asked, blinking several times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“From your description, it seems like you can use the Tsukiyomi like your uncle Itachi.” Sasuke replied placing the mirror on the bedside table, “We will talk more about it once you have recovered, Sakura and Kohei want to see you.”

Right on cue, two pink haired, green eyed people came into the room, both rushing in for a hug.

“Sarada-neechan!” Kohei exclaimed, hugging his big sister, “You’re going to get better right?”

“Of course!” Sarada said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, “I’ll better before you know it!”

“Well I can make that happen Sarada sweetie.” Sakura said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “Now that you’re out of critical condition when I can’t operate on you because you’re family, that rule is crap anyway, I can fix you up so you’re good as new. Those doctors don’t know what they’re doing. Trust your mama!”

Sarada nodded, eager to feel at least a little less crappy.

Sakura leaned over her daughter and smiled, placing her calloused palms on Sarada’s abdomen. “I’m so proud of you sweetie.”

Sarada was well aware of the rules of the mangekyo sharingan: don’t use it unless absolutely necessary and be careful to not lose control or you may harm those close to you, but she really wanted to stick Boruto into a Tsukiyomi of him tripping over a rock for all of eternity. It would be so very hilarious and not to mention, Sarada would be able to practice using the technique. The only way she was allowed to practice was using regular genjutsu and trying to replicate the terrain. It was far from the same though.

At the moment, she was in charge of training her favorite Shin clone named Kenji. More than anything, she wanted to help him with his mangekyo sharingan, but she was not allowed.

“The best use of your sharingan disguising it with transformation jutsu then getting your enemy to look into your eyes, effectively trapping them in genjutsu.” She instructed, demonstrating the transformation technique on her eyes, “Now I want you to try it on Boruto.”

“Wait!” Boruto exclaimed indignantly, “Why can’t Kenji try it on you?!”

“Because I’m a sharingan weilder baka-Boruto. I might accidentally reverse the genjutsu and hurt him.”

“Fine.” Boruto pouted, tensing his muscles in anticipation.

Kenji looked at Boruto, his eyes a natural brown. As soon as the two had made eye contact, Boruto crumpled to the ground like a drunk.

“Have I hurt him?” Kenji asked monotonously, “Kabuto told me to feel remorse if I have injured someone.”

“No, he’s fine.” Sarada assured, slapping the Uzumaki.

Boruto woke up with a jolt. “Damn you Sarada-teme!” He exclaimed, “You only did that to humiliate me!”

“That wasn’t the only reason…” She teased, helping her teammate to his feet.

Kenji was dead. His death didn’t come as a surprise, in fact, many Shin clones were dying because of some unknown illness that ran in their genes. Despite the forewarning, Sarada was still devastated. Kenji was the closest person Sarada had to an apprentice and he held a close place in her heart as a second brother, even if Kenji didn’t have the capacity to love her. His blunt personality reminded her of Mitsuki, and the fact that she could get along with a Shin clone meant that she was moving on from her childhood grievances.

“Sarada-san?” One of the workers at the orphanage called her name, “If Uchiha Sarada would report to Kabuto-sama’s office, he has something to tell her.”

Sarada stood up and made her way through the brightly painted hallways and towards Kabuto’s office.

“Ah, Sarada!” Kabuto exclaimed, motioning for her to come through the doorway, “As you’ve probably heard, our lovely Kenji has passed away.” His unnaturally pale face dropped in sadness, “Before he died though, he did something rather uncharacteristic for a Shin clone. He showed emotion and asked if he could give you his eyes as a gift.”

“H-he did?” Sarada asked incredulously, “He knew what that would imply, since we were practically siblings?”

“I believe that he did understand that if he gave you his eyes, you would achieve the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.” Kabuto replied knowingly. He swiveled around in his rolling chair and rummaged through his file cabinets. When he had turned back around, he was holding two vials filled with some kind of preserving serum and a sharingan eye suspended in the center. He looked at the vials with a melancholy expression.

“I hope they serve you well.” He said, handing the vials to Sarada.

“Thank you.” She replied, walking towards the cemetery.

She knew she had spent at least an hour sitting in front of Kenji’s grave, thanking him profusely for the gift, shedding tears over the fact that she would never see him again, and reminiscing over his sadly brief life.

As she was about to stand up and leave, Shizune placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Sakura told me about what happened.” She wrapped the girl in a warm and loving embrace, “I know this isn’t what you want to be talking about right now, but we need to plan the implant surgery.”

Sarada nodded, wiping away tears. She took a shaky breath, “When’s the earliest date that we can do it? I just want to get it over with.”

“We can perform the surgery today if you would like.” Shizune replied, placing her hands on Sarada’s shoulders.

“I-I would like that.” Sarada combed her long black hair out of her face and straightened her glasses. “May I go home first and spend the day with my family?”

“Of course. Report to the hospital at seven o’clock tonight.”

Sarada nodded and began to walk to the Uchiha complex. She had just lost someone she considered family, and she wanted nothing but to be around the rest of her family, to make sure she didn’t lose them.

“Kohei!” She called, running towards her little brother, “How was your day?”

“Mama said that she’d start training me soon since I’m gonna go to the academy next year!” He said enthusiastically, “Did ya know that I’m five now Sarada-neechan?” He held up five chubby fingers, “That’s a whole hand!”

“I heard!” She walked with him to the front door, “Once you start training and get really strong, you can spar with me.” Thoughts of the spars she had with Kenji flashed in her mind, causing her to frown.

“What’s wrong oneechan?” He looked at her worriedly with his big green eyes, “Are ya hungry? Mama’s making dinner.”

“That’s great. Dinner will make me feel all better.” She smiled brightly at her little brother, “You always know how to fix things, don’t you?”

“Yep!” Sarada couldn’t resist the urge to squeeze him tightly.

“I will always love you Kohei.” She whispered, her cheek right on top of his soft, pink hair.

The mission was supposed to be very dangerous. That’s why Naruto had sent Sarada, Mitsuki, Boruto, and Mirai as they were the most promising ninja of their generation.

“Our job is simply to take out the enemies where they stand.” Mirai instructed, looking at the new team seven with her large red eyes, “There is absolutely no time to reason or speak with the enemies. This is purely an assassination mission.”

“If it’s an assassination mission, why aren’t ANBU members doing it?” Boruto crossed his arms indignantly, “Silent killing isn’t really my style.”

Sarada decided to mess with Boruto a bit. Using a simple shunshin jutsu, she appeared behind Boruto, “It is my style.” She whispered icily, flashing her sharingan.

“What the hell Sarada?! That was really scary!”

“Stop messing around.” Mirai said with a serious tone. “If you’re not going to take this mission seriously, we can turn back right now and Hokage-sama can hear all about how his prestigious student and his son were simply too immature to handle the mission they were assigned to. As for the reason no ANBU were assigned, they’re all out on their respective missions.”

“Sorry taicho.” Boruto and Sarada apologized in unison, glaring at each other.

“My teammates can be strange sometimes.” Mitsuki spoke on their behalf, “I don’t understand their behavior fully, but I believe that it is called rivalry. I am yet to find someone I would consider a rival.”

“That’s great Mitsuki. Let’s get back to the mission now.” Boruto patted his teammate on the back. “So can I come out and blow everything to bits with my flashy moves? Then the enemies will be so scared that they’ll let us kill them without any hesitation!”

“You sound just like your gennin self. You really haven’t changed at all.” Sarada looked at Boruto disapprovingly, “And no. Didn’t you hear taicho? This is a silent killing mission.”

“Fine, fine.” Boruto whined. “You seem like you’re in a particularly deadly mood, why don’t you do the assassination?”

“I think I will.” Sarada hissed, pulling on the black gloves her mother had given her.

All it took was one glance from Sarada and the enemies were trapped in her genjutsu. Without sparing them a minute, Mitsuki plunged his kunai into each of their hearts, killing them instantly.

“Good job you two.” Mirai commended, “Now Boruto and I will dispose of the bodies.”

“Does this mean I get to burn shit?” Boruto asked enthusiastically.

“Yes.” Mirai sighed, “Yes it does.”

The two leaned over the corpses, Mirai incinerating them with her signature Sarutobi jutsu and Boruto just threw whatever flame jutsus he had picked up at the bodies.

“Careful you idiot!” Sarada exclaimed, dodging an errant spark, “You’re supposed to incinerate the bodies not us.”

“Sorry Sarada-teme.” Boruto said with mock remorse.

Finally, a mission had gone without a hitch.

“Great, so we finish an S class mission successfully, but return to a goddamn attack?” Boruto exclaimed incredulously, “Nothing can ever go right can it?”

“No it can’t.” Sarada agreed, making her way through the rubble that was the west side of the village. “Did the civilians evacuate?”

A jonin stepped towards Sarada, “I believe that most of them have exited the village, but there might be some people left behind.”

“I’ll find them and evacuate them.” Sarada replied, “I’m sure my parents would be happy to take out the enemy.”

“Sasuke and Sakura-sama are already on it.” The jonin replied. A look of horror passed over his face, “Sakura-sama was in the middle of a load of laundry when she was called to defend the village, so she’s-well….irritated.”

“And their son, Kohei?” Sarada asked worriedly, roundhouse kicking on of the enemy’s subordinates into a building.

“He evacuated safely with the rest of the Konoha Academy underclassmen.”

“Thank god. I’m going to scour the village. Boruto, you deal with these annoying pests.” She motioned towards the dozens of Tsurigakure ninja that had decided to attack the leaf village. “I think they’re bitter about that time my team took out their ‘best’ shinobi.”

Sarada hoped that this attack would be as easy to stop as the one all those years ago, but a nagging voice in the back of her head told her differently.

Running through the damage, Sarada spotted a congregation of people. Upon arriving, she noticed that the civilians were circling around someone. After she pushed her way to the center, she noticed the nanadaime.

“Sarada!” He exclaimed with relief, “I’m glad you, Boruto, Mitsuki, and Mirai made it home safely. As you can see, we’re in a bit of a tight-”

Naruto was interrupted by a falling boulder. In the split second before it hit, Sarada had to make a decision. Judging from the size and angle of the rock, it would hit mostly civilians, but still injure the nanadaime. Sarada knew her duty was to protect the hokage with her life, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she was responsible for the deaths of a myriad of civilians. Confident enough that Naruto could protect himself, Sarada activated her cherry-blossom pink susanoo for the first time and shielded the civilians.

Just as she had hoped, Naruto flash-stepped out of the way just in time, leaving everyone unharmed.

“That was an impressive maneuver.” Naruto commended his student, “I’m glad you made the right choice.”

After the Tsurigakure ninja had been dealt with and subsequently severely punished, Naruto called Sarada to his office.

“Since you have been my student, you have proven that you possess all of the traits necessary for the ideal Konoha shinobi. The will of fire seems to run very strongly in you and you never fail to protect a comrade. You wield your sharingan with grace and use your chakra enhanced strength expertly. I have no doubt you’ll represent the village spectacularly as the next Hokage.” Naruto gave Sarada a warm smile.

Sarada felt faint. Really, really faint. She was going to be the next Hokage. Oh god. The next Hokage. Like the. Next. Hokage. “Naruto-sama…” she began shakily, “I can’t believe-oh my lord, thank you! I promise to never let the village down and to protect it with my life! I mean it!”

The rosy hues of morning filled Sarada’s bedroom, bathing her bed in a soft light. She opened her eyes and smiled with anticipation since today was the day she’d become Hokage.

Stepping off her bed, she put her red glasses on and moved towards her wardrobe, knowing exactly what she would wear.

You should look formal but not overdressed. Sarada remembered her mother’s words, picking out her burgundy tunic, soft, black pants, and of course, her Hokage robe.

“Sarada!” Sakura called from downstairs, “Breakfast’s ready. You don’t want to be late for your big day!

“Coming Mama!” She replied, walking out of her room and to the kitchen. A warm plate of eggs, toast, and fruit sat waiting for Sarada at the table.

“I can’t believe my girl has gotten so grown up.” Sakura sighed, squeezing her oldest child, “Eat up sweetie. You want to be well fed so that you can show everyone how great the Uchihas are!”

“Of course!” Sarada exclaimed, smiling brightly, “I’m going to become the greatest Hokage!”

“I have no doubt darling.” Sakura fought back tears of joy as she saw her daughter walk out of the house, white robe fluttering behind her. The first Uchiha Hokage.