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The Darkness within the Shadow	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1158 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 1-The Darkness within the Shadow
- 1
Author's note: My laptop pissed me off big time, so I finished this as a way to get rid of my frustration. This was something that developed through a conversation I had a little while ago and I finally decided to finish it, because fuck it all, I'm pissed off. I've got some big projects planned for the coming weeks (including updates for the ongoing stories) so you can look out for those. If you don't want that, that's cool too; maybe you're getting sick of my stories, that'd be reasonable.
Anyways, this is a sequel to The Shadow Strikes and if you haven't read the His Shadow series yet, you might want to do so to familiarise yourself with this setting. ALSO PAY ATTENTION TO THE WARNINGS!
Warnings: Tsunade's pov; established slash; canon divergent; mentioned MPreg; mentioned violence; time skips; Not for Sakura fans obviously; darkish Tsunade? Not sure how to describe her; she shares the shame morality level as Sasuke in this series, so take that however you will.
I hope you'll like this weird sequel! (Sorry if it sucks)

The Darkness within the Shadow
It didn't take her long to realise that Uchiha had dealt with the threat once and for all.
And she didn't mean Mizuki as the threat. Yes, he had definitely played a part in planning the attacks, but there was simply no way he had done all that on his own. The Hokage Tower was heavily monitored, even more so with the current Hokage being one of the last living Jinchuuriki, so there was no way someone like Mizuki would have been able to get close enough to get his hands on sensitive information. Someone would have taken notice of the odd presence or would have caught a glimpse of him, especially because Mizuki was no longer capable of using jutsu to hide his presence.
There had been at least one more person involved in these attacks and abduction attempts and whoever it was, they had also been found and dealt with, because the change in Uchiha was noticeable. Perhaps not to most people who didn't know him, but Tsunade had got to know him better throughout the years, and it was undeniable that Uchiha was somewhat more relaxed now, which meant that he had managed to catch everyone involved in this.
Yet only Mizuki had ended up in jail with his tongue missing and seemingly incapable of even writing something down. It was more than obvious that Mizuki had worked with someone, so the question remained: who? And why wasn't this person in prison when their deeds were considered high treason – even punishable by death?
"Who was the other person?" Tsunade asked bluntly, crossing her arms underneath her chest.
One month after Mizuki had been caught, she'd been invited to have dinner at Naruto's and Uchiha's place; something they often ended up doing. It was a good way for them to unwind after their stressful jobs had ended for the day and while she would never admit it aloud, spending time with the brat and his family eased some of the loneliness that had settled within her ever since Jiraiya had died. She might have lost everyone else in her life, but she still had Naruto and she was grateful for every moment they could spend together.
"I'm not in Naruto's office twenty-four seven so I wouldn't know who else was in the last team," Uchiha said dryly, referring to the mishap with a team Naruto had just told them about.
The blond man in question was currently outside, dealing with something Shikamaru had brought up. Shikamaru hadn't looked worried, merely exasperated, so it probably had to do with some paperwork Naruto still had to deal with – or which had popped up after the Hokage had already left the office.
One thing was for sure: she definitely did not miss the amount of paperwork that came with this job. Even the hospital's administration was like a breeze compared to the absolute shit storm that the Kage documents had been.
"I'm not talking about that," she said impatiently. "I'm talking about whoever was helping Mizuki. Who was it and why aren't they in prison?"
Uchiha raised an eyebrow and adjusted Ryoto better against his chest. The little boy was on the verge of falling asleep; his eyes drooping close every couple of seconds before he would stubbornly force them open again.
"Mizuki is in prison. He was the one who was behind the attacks; I told you about this," he remarked; his face and voice completely neutral.
She snorted. "Yeah, the brat might be naïve enough to believe you, but don't bullshit me, Uchiha. There is no way Mizuki could pull off all this on his own when he would have been caught the second he came too close to the Hokage Tower. So spill: who was it and why can't Naruto know about it?"
Naruto had only mentioned Mizuki and the brat was shit at lying to her, so she was certain that he was in the dark as well regarding the second person involved in this. That only made it more curious as to why Uchiha was keeping this second identity a secret.
"Why this sudden questioning? Naruto is safe – well, as safe as a Hokage can be, I suppose," he smiled cynically.
"Call it curiosity and concern about his wellbeing," she smiled thinly and leant forwards slightly. "You and Naruto dealt with these attacks for so long, it makes me really curious why there's only one person in prison for them right now. Especially when I know you're not the type to go soft on someone after they tried to harm Naruto."
Uchiha pressed his lips together; a faint hint of annoyance colouring his voice when he remarked, "You're not going to let this go."
"Glad we reached that understanding," she snorted. "So who was it and what did you do to them?"
"So certain I did something to them," he murmured, hushing Ryoto softly when the baby started to fuss a bit, smacking his tiny fist against Uchiha's chest.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop mistaking me for one of those dumb bimbos that will believe everything you say just because you're not ugly," she said unimpressed. "Let's stop playing this game, okay? I'm not in the mood for that."
Right when he opened his mouth, the sound of the front door closing reached them and Uchiha shook his head. "I'll stop by your office tomorrow," he muttered. "I'll tell you who it was then."
"Fine, but don't think I'll forget about this," she warned him. "I will find you if you think you can avoid me."
"I do wonder if you won't end up regretting not letting this rest, though," he said cryptically.
Naruto entered before she could question that odd remark. "Sorry about that," he said lightly and clapped his hands before sitting back down again, automatically taking Ryoto over again. "Apparently a kid from one of the new teams was trying to sneak into the office to leave his report behind. He didn't finish it on time."
"That at least we never had to fear from you," Tsunade smirked. "You wouldn't bother trying to finish it in the first place if you'd forgotten about it."
He gasped affronted. "Excuse me? I always delivered my reports on time!" he defended himself, letting Ryoto grab his index finger.
"True," she admitted and continued when he grinned triumphantly, "too bad I couldn't read it most of the time because of your horrendous handwriting."
"Excuse me?!"
"Told you," Uchiha said remorselessly. "Your handwriting is shit, usuratonkachi."
"Okay, seriously? Ganging up on me? When I'm the one who slaved in the kitchen to make you two a nice dinner?" Naruto huffed, puffing up his cheeks.
"Can you even read your own handwriting?" Tsunade asked interestedly. "Can the other Kage read it?"
"Of course I can read my own handwriting! And the other Kage can as well, because otherwise they would have said something about it already!"
"To be honest, I don't think Gaara would ever admit that you've got shitty handwriting," Uchiha snorted. "He rarely goes against you."
"Please, you and Gaara basically have the same personality. He'd be blunt about it if that was true!" Naruto scoffed.
No, he probably would not be. Uchiha could call himself lucky that Naruto only had eyes for him, Tsunade thought privately. Uchiha wasn't the only one charmed by Naruto after all – even if the brat was too oblivious to realise that.
"Managed to escape without making your other half suspicious?" Tsunade questioned dryly when Uchiha entered her office as silent as a shadow the next day.
Shinobi learnt to be quiet, because being noisy could literally lead to deadly consequences, but Uchiha was on a whole other level. It was only because she'd been expecting him that his sudden presence didn't startle her. He would have made an outstanding ANBU leader if he'd wanted to be one.
"Nara is making him go through all the documents he'd pushed to the side this week," Uchiha answered equally as dry and closed the door, adding a quick silencing ward over it.
That made her raise an eyebrow and turn around completely in her chair. She had suspected that the information would be sensitive, but so sensitive that he deemed it necessary to completely soundproof the room?
"So fess up: who was the second person helping Mizuki? Or who were they if it was a group and what did you do to them?" she demanded, closing the file she'd been working on for now.
He remained standing near the door. "Are you sure you want to know?"
"We're not going to start this game again, Uchiha, I'm not in the mood," she warned him. "I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't want to know obviously."
"You won't like the answer," he said darkly; his face completely shuttered off.
"Well, that's my problem to deal with then, isn't it?" she smiled thinly. "Who was it, Uchiha? I'm not asking again."
"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out for yourself yet," he said, cocking his head to the right. "I'd have expected you to have realised it by now."
"Thanks for the faith in my intelligence," she deadpanned. "But being evasive about it isn't going to help you. You think Naruto is stubborn? Try me."
"You haven't noticed someone is missing?" He smiled rather cynically suddenly. "Then again, I don't really blame you for not having taken notice of it. Guess their absence isn't really missed that much in the end."
Absence? Who was … A sudden chill settled deep within her and she brought out through numb lips, "Sakura? That can't be it."
"See, you figured it out after all," he said, but he wasn't smiling. Even a stone statue showed more motion than he did now.
"Why …" Her mind refused to wrap around the idea, the notion that the student she had taught for years, the young woman she'd expected to take over from her in the future, was the one who had helped …
"For all that people like to think that Naruto is the stupid one, she showed a remarkable amount of stupidity when she thought that making Naruto disappear would make me fall in love with her," Uchiha said flatly. "She was under the impression that my feelings for Naruto weren't genuine and getting him out of the picture would make me answer her feelings instead."
"I - " Tsunade could only sit there, rubbing her forehead, trying to understand how she could have judged Sakura this badly. Yes, she knew Sakura had crushed on Uchiha for years, but she had assumed that the pink haired woman had got over that crush eventually. There had been no point clinging onto that crush when everyone could see that Uchiha and Naruto were serious about each other.
But she hadn't given up apparently. Even worse, she had tried to come between them in the worst way imaginable, a way that had actively put the both of them in danger. The three of them, she corrected herself, thinking about innocent little Ryoto. How could Sakura have done this? How could she have let herself be swept away so much that she thought harming Naruto would lead to Uchiha falling in love with her?
How could she have been this stupid? And working together with Mizuki – she had to have known that Mizuki would have taken every chance at getting his revenge on Naruto. That desire had clearly shown itself in the vicious attacks and abduction attempts Naruto and Uchiha had had to deal with this past year.
"Why work with Mizuki? She should have known Mizuki was not going to hold back," she muttered, rubbing a hand over her mouth. There was a foul taste coating her mouth now, a taste she'd only experienced a few times before, the last time when she'd realised that Orochimaru was turning their back on them, going against everything she and Jiraiya had stood for.
The taste of betrayal.
It still tasted just as bitter as it had then.
"I do believe she was stupid enough to think that Mizuki wouldn't harm Naruto," Uchiha sneered. "But I also think she didn't really care what the consequences would end up being, as long as I would end up with her."
"I can't believe I judged her so badly," she mumbled, more to herself now. She had always prided herself on being a good judge of character, having chosen to give Naruto her necklace believing he could do what her first love and her brother had been unable to do. And he had done so, amazingly, coming out on the very top.
She'd become so good at judging people – so how had she messed up this badly with Sakura? How could she not have realised sooner that Sakura had to have been behind all of this? The type of information Mizuki had been in possession of was the type only people very close to Naruto could have got their hands on, either by being told about it or just not ringing any alarm bells if they were caught looking at the information.
"No point in beating yourself up over it," Uchiha said, unexpectedly sympathetic. "She never crossed my mind when Nara and I were running through a list of suspects." He breathed out slowly. "I suppose I was also naive to think she'd given up on bothering me."
"But to actually go as far as bring the two of you in danger …" Tsunade shook her head. "This goes beyond trying to flirt with you when you're married, Uchiha. She could have got the both of you killed. She could have got Ryoto-kun killed."
She'd been told about the sleeping powder in their house, the failed attempt at attacking them. There was no doubt in her mind Mizuki would have gone as far as killing the three of them if he had got the chance to do so. And Sakura had given him the means. She'd given him the information on a silver platter basically, thinking she could get away with it.
All because she apparently couldn't accept the fact that Uchiha would never return her feelings.
A broken heart hurt, Tsunade had more than enough experience with that. But there was trying to nurse a broken heart, trying to deal with the fact that your crush would never give you a second glance – and then there was actively planning to get the partner abducted, leading to his possible death.
She probably hadn't intended for Naruto to die; at least Tsunade hoped she hadn't misjudged Sakura that badly. But at the same time she should have known that involving Mizuki – a man who had tried to murder Naruto before – would never have ended well.
Yet she had done so, betraying her friends in the process, betraying everyone in Konoha. All for a stupid crush and a bruised pride.
"Don't think I don't know that," Uchiha said darkly. "I remember all too well who was at stake here."
"But she's on leave," Tsunade realised suddenly. "Gave up her position at the hospital around a month ago – why is she not in prison?"
Even if she hadn't wanted to actually harm Naruto, she had still put him in danger, had still betrayed secrets to an enemy. She'd given that very same enemy the power to kill Naruto by given him very sensitive information; that couldn't just be forgotten. This wasn't something that could be swept underneath the rug, not something they could forget about in a few years.
This went way beyond betrayal.
"For the same reason I didn't tell Naruto about this: I don't want him to know just how badly she betrayed him," Uchiha stated; his Sharingan briefly flashing up.
Which was … probably the best option, she admitted begrudgingly. Knowing how much Naruto trusted his friends, knowing how much he liked Sakura, this revelation would have devastated him for sure. This kind of betrayal went beyond anything he'd been forced to endure throughout his life.
"You let her get off easily," she said, frowning. Too easy for her liking. It didn't sit well with her, especially when she knew just how protective Uchiha was over Naruto.
To just let her leave without any form of punishment? That didn't feel right. Something wasn't right.
"Depends on how you look at it," he said and rolled her shoulders. "I told her to get the hell out of here and never show her face again. I warned her that if I ever find out she's planning something again, that'll be the last thing she'll ever do."
"You could have easily killed her. I know you've done it before," she said. "What's stopping you this time?"
She'd witnessed the state of some of the bodies Uchiha had dealt with. Some of those sights would make even a hardened ANBU member queasy. She had no problem with him being so remorseless, because sometimes it was them or you. To let her off that lightly, though? That she didn't understand.
"Naruto," Uchiha stated simply and she stared at him. "After what she's done, there's nothing more that I would have liked than to get rid of her. But I thought about Naruto and how he would start asking questions, how he would mourn if he found her body and I couldn't do that to him. I don't want him to ever know just how badly she betrayed him. He can't know about this, Tsunade-sama."
His eyes turned piercing, locking onto hers. "I don't give a shit about her, but I don't want Naruto to get hurt and knowing she's betrayed him like this would devastate him. I won't let her have that kind of power over him."
"She could die when she's 'travelling', though," Tsunade pointed out. "Naruto might start asking questions if she never shows up again."
"He might, but I'll be there to remind him that she's never really bothered to keep him updated," he said and shrugged. "Not our fault if she decides to spend the rest of her miserable life elsewhere."
"And you're okay with that? Her escaping punishment after all that she's done?" she asked sceptically.
"No, but unlike her, I don't want to hurt Naruto either," he said grimly. "And I never said she's fully escaping punishment. I've got my own ways to keep track of her and the second she steps out of line – it's over."
He left not too long after that, leaving Tsunade to brood about how things had gone so badly wrong in just one year.
If only she had realised sooner how delusional Sakura's crush had made her … And now she was out there, having escaped the worst punishment, ironically because of the very same person she had tried to kick out of the picture.
Tsunade agreed with Uchiha that it was best Naruto didn't know about this. It would absolutely devastate him, knowing that someone he'd considered a close friend had actively schemed with a criminal to abduct him. It didn't matter that Sakura most likely had never planned on having him killed. Working together with a criminal was already bad enough. But handing over sensitive information to a criminal known for having tried to kill Naruto in the past?
That went beyond anything that could be forgiven. This was something that could never be forgiven or forgotten. This was something that couldn't be left unpunished. Perhaps Uchiha's threat would keep Sakura subdued for now. But what in a few years? If she had thought Uchiha would fall in love with her if Naruto was out of the picture, what stopped her from thinking Uchiha wasn't so serious about the threat after all? What if she managed to find people even worse than Mizuki?
Everything could start all over again. The attacks, the abduction attempts … This wasn't a lame flirting attempt, an argument gone wrong.
This went deeper. Deeper than any betrayal they had felt before. By trying to hurt Naruto, she had hurt everyone who loved Naruto.
Tsunade commended Uchiha for his remarkable restraint, but on one thing she didn't agree with him: Sakura couldn't be left unpunished. Not with what she had tried to do, what she could try again if she grew confident enough.
No, Naruto didn't deserve to hurt over her – but neither did she deserve to live freely after the year of horror she'd forced Uchiha, Naruto and the rest of them through.
It had been easy to get some time off from the hospital. Naruto had grumbled and whined, complaining about how all his good healers were leaving the hospital one by one, but his face had softened when she mentioned wanting to travel around a bit, trying to find out what the appeal of it had been for Jiraiya.
It was a low blow, using Jiraiya like that, but she thought her old teammate would forgive her for using his name in vain if he knew why she'd done it. She doubted he would have been content to sit on the side lines, knowing what she knew.
So she went, travelling from one town to another, spending days in dense forests and hiding from sandstorms in the desert. Occasionally she sent letters to Naruto, assuring him everything was all right, that she was enjoying her time off, teasing him about all the paperwork he was forced to deal with.
She witnessed summer turning into autumn and autumn sinking deep into winter and the villages and the towns grew sparser and sparser, the further she travelled into the world. She thought about Jiraiya sometimes, about how he'd tried for years to convince her to join him on his travels. She'd never accepted the invitation, which even years after his death still filled her with immense regret.
Could he see her now, she wondered, see her traipsing over muddy paths and over rocky roads? What would he think then? Would he be proud of her? Would he tell her to just let it go and return to Konoha? He'd point out how hypocritical she was being now, always telling him that danger would find him on one of his many journeys, how he was risking his life far too much, even whilst being a shinobi.
He'd be right. But just as stubborn as he had been, just as stubborn she was now. She would not go back before she had done what she had set out as goal. No matter how long it would take, she would succeed. She'd accomplished much harder things than this after all.
Naruto's letter found her through a hawk on a sunny, but cold morning in late winter. Tsunade sat in a small café, a jutsu turning her hair a dark brown and her skin slightly tanner as she enjoyed a nice cup of tea, eating breakfast and watching other patrons enjoying theirs. There was a woman sitting in the corner, wrapped in a traveller's cloak which had seen better days, working through her own breakfast; her own cup of tea gently steaming on the corner of the table.
Baa-chan!
Guess what? Ryoto's going to become a big brother! Is this a big enough incentive to have you coming home again? Ryoto misses his baa-chan too, you know? Or well, his hii-obaa-chan, I guess!
Take care!
She snorted quietly, shaking her head and folding the letter to place it in her pocket. Well, she supposed after so many months, it was finally time to return home. If only because she only trusted herself to keep an eye on the brat now that he had got knocked up again. Who knew what would happen if she wasn't there to take care of him? Not to mention she wasn't about to let that jab to her age go by unpunished! Clearly Naruto was getting far too cheeky in her absence and she would need to remind him that Hokage or not, she wasn't going to let cheekiness slide!
Standing up, she gathered everything on her tray and made her way to the counter where the tired owner was doing the bookkeeping. On her way she accidentally walked into a table, making the cup and the dishes rattle loudly.
"I'm sorry! My sight isn't that good anymore," she smiled embarrassedly, putting her own tray down momentarily to get a better hold of it.
The pink haired woman looked up surprised before shaking her head bemused. "Oh no, it's okay! That can happen. Do you need any help?"
"No, no, I'll manage. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast," Tsunade smiled and heaved up the tray again, this time successfully making her way to the counter with it without running into another table.
When she left the little café, the pink haired woman drained the last of her tea. Tsunade smiled and pulled her cloak closer around her. It was finally time to go home again.
Naruto would never know the real reasons why Tsunade had travelled around for nearly two years. He would never know that thousands of miles away, his former teammate was slowly wasting away, unable to figure out how to cure the searing pain wrecking her body every day or find out why she was slowly losing the sensation in all her limbs.
Naruto would never know any of this, because Tsunade loved him too much to see him hurt. She wouldn't hurt him by killing the one who had betrayed him, but she had no problem making her ex-student suffer. It wasn't her fault if Sakura couldn't figure out the antidote on time; perhaps all those hours of studying underneath Tsunade had been useless after all.
And when Naruto greeted her as the first one when she stepped through the gates, holding a nearly three year old Ryoto on his hip and his robes still thick enough to hide his growing belly, Tsunade smiled and even let him get away with calling her great-grandmother; catching Uchiha's eyes across Naruto's shoulder.
People might call Uchiha Naruto's Shadow, but he wasn't the only one they had to look out for.
She'd do it all over again, if that meant keeping the only family she had still left safe.
The End
AN2: I hope I didn't make Tsunade too OOC but I figured she wouldn't let Sakura get off easily after knowing she betrayed Naruto. Hope it wasn't too awful!
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me!
I hope to see you all again in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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The Darkness within the Shadow