Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Beyond the River’s Edge	By : dolphina23 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 901 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own "Naruto" manga and anime, and I'm not earning any money writing this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Author’s Note:
I’m of the seemingly small community that believes rape, when done in a fic, is
supposed to be done the right way, or it’s vastly offensive. I don’t mind
reading it, if it’s part of the plot, like when there’s a change in a
character’s personality, a sudden fear of touch or to explain trust issues. They make sense. These other horrible
fictions, that comprise all but maybe two, turn the victim into some kind of
deviant who likes being raped halfway through (that is so much like all those
disgusting hentai anime that do the same thing, it’s not at all worth reading).
Either that or they somehow fall in love with the rapist (mainly when it’s a
SasuNaru fic), which, let me just say only makes sense if you combine the
trauma with Stockholm syndrome. If you don’t know what that is, please look it
up, it would take too long to explain here. Also, the stuff that should come
after: lack of self-esteem and self-worth, depression, possible
self-injury/suicidal ideations or the possibility of sex turning into near
prostitution because that’s how they see it now NEEDS to be researched a little
if the author wants to make it credible. Before you chew my head off at having
the gall to berate people on this topic, I
know what I’m talking about. The rape itself in a fic isn’t a problem,
generally, when done with tact and offering the full picture from start to
finish.
            Also, I
HATE the inclusion of words or terms like seme, uke or lime and lemon when
dealing with sex between two men. I’m not ragging on others that use it, just
letting you know you will never see
me describe it like that. I pride myself on researching when I cannot imagine
something and make it believable or when the situation calls for it, like with
medical terms and such, so the sex in my stories is as realistic as possible to
real sex, not movie, or yee gods, porn sex, which is in many fictions I’ve read
(the number is in the thousands by now). God, I’m rambling.

Warning:
Nonconsensual sexual situations and/or RAPE will come up in this story as well
as child abuse. Everything is done tactfully, but some readers may not wish to
view such trauma. If so, please go no further. For those of you that have
continued, welcome, the madhouse reigns supreme, at least until the dark knight
with pale skin and piercing eyes comes around to save the poor wretch I will
make of Naruto. Can you guess who it is? Shhh, I won’t tell if you won’t. Heh,
heh! But he’s not the only one to come to our sweet blonde jester’s aide. Some
of the characters may be out of context from the manga. The romance will come
much farther down the road and be as sweet as honey nectar on a summer wind.
Thank you for sticking through my torrential landslide of notes. Fly far and
fair well travelers, welcome to my romantic tragedy!

Please, for the love of all things sweet, strawberry
flavored anything and the hope of a starving artist (no, not literally
starving), please review! And thank you to everyone that did so last time!

Chapter     2

            Naruto
headed into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water since he wasn’t allowed soda
often and took it and the phone to his bedroom to call Sasuke. His father
headed into his study with the strange woman and closed the door. Naruto shook
his head at the strangeness of adults and started dialing. When Sasuke picked
up on the third ring, he smiled.
            “Too early?” Naruto asked.
            Naruto
heard Sasuke snort and he chuckled into the phone.
            “It’s only
too early when I say.”
            “Whatever,
you’re such a cheese,” Naruto told him.
            “Well,
maybe I won’t come over again.”
            Naruto
sputtered, “Who says I’m calling about that? I could be calling about the
history notes you forgot to give me.”
            They both
felt that having World History right before Phys. Ed. was a blessing, though it
was still a boring subject. Naruto wouldn’t mind, might even like it, if their
teacher wasn’t such a drone. Sasuke joked that the school was rich enough and
had enough geniuses as professors that the others had played a prank on the real history teacher by locking him in a
closet and replacing him with a robot at the beginning of the year. Naruto had
told him if that were really true
they would have smelled it by now, the school wasn’t big enough to hide a dead
body no matter what Kiba said.
            “What do
you mean forgot? It’s not my fault you stayed up painting Marimo instead of
studying.”
            Naruto made
a face into the phone and waited.
            Sasuke
sighed. “Don’t do that, I’ll bring them by when we go for a ride.”
            Naruto
instantly brightened up. “Yeah! I knew you cared!”
            Sasuke
rolled his eyes at the phone as he held it out a little away from his ear.
Obito, his cousin and adoptive parent, laughed softly as he reached for the
phone. Sasuke put it back to his ear for a moment.
            Not
really,” he quipped, “I just hate that face you make.”
            Naruto
ended up blowing a raspberry at Obito instead of Sasuke when he realized the
phone had already changed hands. Obito merely laughed good-naturedly.
            Let me talk to Kakashi, please,
Naruto.”
            “Okay! Oh,
wait, maybe we should wait until tomorrow,” he frowned remembering the
stranger.
            “Why?”
Obito asked curiously, glancing at Sasuke, who shrugged.
            “‘Cause Dad’s visiting with a strange lady, I don’t know her
name, and he’s not in a good mood.” Naruto cupped his hand over the phone and
added in a whisper, “I think she’s creepy. But, don’t tell him I said that!
He’ll think it’s rude.”
            Naruto,”
Obito replied patiently, “it is a bit
rude.”
            Then he
frowned trying to remember if Kakashi had mentioned anything this morning over
the phone about someone coming to visit. The fact that he was unhappy about it
and Naruto thought she was creepy had set off distant bells in his head. He
made a decision just as he heard Naruto begin to sing his name out, tired of
waiting for advice.
            “Naruto,
what does she look like?”
            “Um,” Naruto
scrunched up his eyes and stuck a finger in his mouth, thinking. “She’s got
long hair, real long, and it’s dark. Her eyes are brown and she’s got really white skin, like a ghost. There’s a couple of freckles on her chin and her eyes are
hard, which is why she’s creepy,” he babbled on.
            Obito
couldn’t distinctly recall anything from a description like that, but there had
been a woman from Minato’s past that he had termed ‘obsessive’, so much so that
he had needed to change towns to quiet her ranting fascination with him. As far
as he knew, Minato had never had that kind of reaction when speaking about or
visiting anyone else. This had been about a year before Naruto was born,
shortly prior to Minato escaping the woman by going on a world cruise, where he’d
met Naruto’s mother. Minato had never said anything more, about her or her
family, not even her given name. It pained him visibly whenever he mentioned
what little Obito and Kakashi had heard before. Obito shrugged, trying to rid
himself of the suspicious dread that had come up seemingly out of nowhere ever
since Naruto had started talking about this woman. But he didn’t know the
woman, for all he was certain of she could be a new editor or agent at the
magazine.
            “Is that
so? Go get him, Naruto. But, remember to knock first,” he said calmly.
            “Okay!”
            Obito could
hear the cheery edge seep back into Naruto’s voice now that someone he trusted
had given him reassurance. By the next day, he’d forget all about the woman.
Hopefully, everyone else would be able to do the same. Obito just couldn’t
shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. Naruto had good instincts when
it came to understanding people, even adults. Well, at least where it really
mattered. He was only twelve, so there was a lot of the world he had no
experience with yet, a thing that Minato both lamented and dreaded daily, he
knew. He shook his head to clear it when he heard a small hand rap sharply on
wood.
            “Dad?” Naruto called out. Minato came to the door and
cracked it open just enough to see out of.
            “Obito-san
is on the phone for you. He says it’s okay to interrupt.” Minato held his hand
out for the phone, frowning slightly and went to the living room, closing the
door to his study behind him. Naruto gave him an odd look but Minato waved him
away impatiently before turning to answer the call.
            Obito
smiled on his end at Naruto’s antics. The kid wasn’t beyond putting someone
else in front of the firing squad just in case Minato ever decided to start
being one of those irate, temperamental parents. It would never happen, which
made Naruto out to be some sort of overly dramatic teen before his time, but
Obito also knew that it was really all in fun.
            “Hello,”
Minato’s rich baritone came over the phone and Obito grinned wider. Kakashi
might be closer to the man’s trust, he had no problem with that, however Obito
could never seem to keep from feeling better himself whenever Minato was
present or his voice, calm and sure, came over the line. The man had always
been good at making even the most recalcitrant people around him feel like they
could accomplish anything if they did their best to work at it.
            “So, who’s
your new friend?” Obito joked.
            “She’s not
my friend,” Minato growled vehemently.
            “Okay,
okay, geez, I’m sorry! What’s up?” Obito balked and hurriedly tried to calm his
friend down.
            “I need you
to take Naruto with you instead of my picking Sasuke up. I don’t care if he
doesn’t make it to the stable today, just as long as he’s out of the house,”
Minato told him, fear leaking into his voice a little despite the control he
tried to exercise.
            Obito
looked at the phone for a moment before replacing it to his ear.
            “Uh, sure. Is everything okay with you?”
            “I’m fine.
I’ll be much better once that damn woman is out of my house. And, no, I don’t want
to talk about it. At least, not yet. If you do head to
Kakashi’s, just tell him I’ll cal him later.”
            “Yeah,
okay. Tell Naruto to be ready in about fifteen minutes and I’ll swing by.”
            Minato
sighed heavily in relief, something that was not lost on Obito.
            “Thank you,
Obito, he’ll be ready.” Minato hung up and stared at the phone for a minute,
lost in thought. He really hoped he could get rid of Sute before she did or
said something to upset Naruto. He wanted nothing more than to keep his family
safe, and with that grand dame of a manipulative bitch in the house that was
not going to be possible.
            “Naruto,
come out from behind the wall,” he called out finally, knowing his son’s habits
quite well.
            Naruto
stuck his head around the corner sheepishly to smile at his father.
            “Yeah, Dad?”
            “Obito will
be picking you up instead of my driving you. I’ve got an unexpected . . . guest
to see to. You’ll be alright riding with him and Sasuke?”
            “Of course!” Naruto scoffed then glanced keenly at his
father. “Will you?”
            Fof the
first time since arriving home to find an awful part of his past staring down
at him from his front stoop, Minato smiled.
            “I’ll be
fine. Now, go get ready. They’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”
            Naruto
smiled and headed for the front door instead.
            “I think
I’ll just wait outside. I’ve already got my riding clothes on anyway and I can
shower after, seeing as Sasuke and I’ll be working up a sweat soon anyhow.”
            Minato
shook his head at his son’s reasoning and headed back toward his study, his face
pulling gravely down at his eyes before he even turned the handle. He took a
deep, calming breath before entering to confront one of the biggest mistakes of
his life.
            “Kobayashi-san,
or has that changed by now? What do you want?” he asked roughly.
            Sute
blinked at him, surprised before recovering with a smooth, sensual smile and a
wink.
            “It hasn’t
changed, though I was married for a while,” her expression shifted to sorrow
then, pulling down her mouth and lowering her lids, although Minato couldn’t se
it in her eyes. The trouble with Sute was, no one saw anything in them, ever.
            “He died,
about a month before my son killed himself. He was sick for a while, but the
doctors could never find the real cause. They treated the symptoms as best they
could but only a few weeks of that and his body just . . . gave out,” she said
calmly.
            “I’m
sorry,” he mustered the effort to sound civil as he tried to empathize, but
this was Sute and he could only give so much before he risked being pulled into
her claws.
            Minato
supposed she was trying to sound sympathetic, but he’d been around her enough
to know she was a grand actress, if nothing else. As he thought, a smile spread
its way across her lips and she eyed him coolly.
            “But, your son is the picture of health, isn’t
he Minato? And he looks so much like you! I wonder if he has anything from his
mother in him,” she mused.
            “You leave
my son out of this, witch!” Minato growled a warning and had to restrain his
hands from cleaving into her throat. Fear restrained him. If he was gone,
whether in prison for shredding this despicable woman or should he die, there
would be no one left top watch out for Naruto. He trusted his friends,
especially Kakashi, but he would keep the world before his son and not his son
in the past, where he had had a father once. The front door opened then and he
heard Naruto call out a farewell before it closed again and Minato heaved a
sigh. He felt much better, knowing his son was safe with Obito and Sasuke.
            “I’ll make
some tea. And just so you know, he is very much like his mother, beautiful and
strong inside as well as an avid equestrian. He even has her temper,” Minato
told her smugly. He watched the color drain from her face suddenly, leaving her
looking even more pale, almost sick. Good, it went well with her wizened heart.
He smirked as he stalked off to the kitchen and came back later to see her
still fuming silently as he laid the tea out for them both.
            “You’re a
very cruel man, Minato. I came here to see you, because I missed you terribly,
and this is how you greet me?”
            Minato
stiffened at the rebuke and snarled at her.
            “I have
nothing to discuss with you, Sute. What went on between us ended a long time
ago. And if hadn’t wanted it to end so badly, you shouldn’t have tried to be so
controlling. And, oh yeah, maybe sleeping with several of my co-workers was a
bad idea too, come to think of it,” he sneered.
            Sute pulled
her lips up in a snarl and stalked towards him slowly, finger pointing towards
his chest.
            “And maybe
you should have paid more attention to me. Have you ever thought of that? I
wouldn’t have had to call you so much or go behind your back if you’d given me
what I needed!”
            Minato
scoffed and turned to pour himself a cup, leaving her to make her own.
            “If that’s
what you want to tell yourself, fine. It no longer has anything to do with me.”
            Sute raked
her fingers through her hair angrily before pouting and gliding to the table.
She poured herself a cup of tea and then threw it in Minato’s face. Minato
cried out and slid back from her when he felt the hot liquid reach his
unprotected skin.
            “You crazy bitch! What the hell is wrong with you? You come
here, tell me your husband who probably only married for money, is dead and now
this? Get the hell out of my house! I should never have let you in!”
            “But you
did! Which means you must still feel something. How dare you not give Naruto a
chance at having a real family!” she tried to argue with him again, sinking to
a desperate tactic.
            “Don’t
bring him into this! I told you, he has nothing to do with you! And neither do I, not anymore!” Minato yelled in her face.
            Sute
breathed in deeply and closed her eyes before opening them to glistening pools
of dark brown. They had always been intense, if only for the fact that Minato
had never been able to read them. He shuddered slightly, feeling some of what
he had given her so long ago ache at the sight. He turned away from her to face
his desk, trying to steady his breathing. He could not do this again. He could
not. She was dangerous and he had Naruto to think about now, not just himself.
He heard the napkins he’d brought with him being unfurled and more liquid
hitting the side of a cup. She held one out to him over his shoulder and he
took it somewhat gratefully, taking a huge sip before setting it on the edge of
the desk. She squeezed a hand around his upper arm and he closed his eyes
slowly, trying not to get lost in his memories of how it had been for them in
the beginning, before she had become so twisted. Or maybe she had always been
that way and he’d been too blinded by her beauty and those intense eyes to
bother noticing. Reaching down, he gulped down the rest of his tea and shook
himself from her, and his thoughts.
            “I think it
would be best I you left now,” he said quietly.
            His voice
sounded muffled in the hot room and he felt strangely disconnected. His vision
of her blurred a little and she seemed to smile. The smile grew as he canted to
the right a bit, catching himself on her arm before he fell to the floor. His
blood pressure must have risen while they were arguing. The doctor had told him
to be wary of too much stress. He’d laughed at his concern, telling him if he
didn’t want his patient stressed than he had to find a cure for teenaged
rebellion and work deadlines. Though, Naruto did not have the same aggressive
streak or feel misunderstood or think that he already knew what he needed to
about the world, so Minato felt safe in that regard. Safe; it was warm now but
not safe. Sute was still here and his pressure was up; he needed to get her out
of the house and call his doctor, before Naruto arrived home. His son had no
idea that he had a condition. Though high blood pressure didn’t run a great
risk at being disabling, the stress could be. He’d rather not have worried him,
so he’d kept quiet. He’d kept a lot of things quiet, from his son, from
Kakashi, whom he respected and trusted, from everyone. Now, he wished he hadn’t
as he focused in on Sute’s face. He couldn’t breath and the room had gone
shadowy and numb. She smiled at him, her mouth twisted and her eyes hollow and
burning with a frighteningly intense delight. He couldn’t breath and tried his
best to stay awake, to get to the phone not three feet away. Her hand gripping
his arm painfully kept him from it and he staggered, hit the edge of the desk
with his hip and fell. It should have hurt, but everything had gone numb. She
looked down on him with that same smile and for once in his life, since his
beloved’s death and he was left with a screaming newborn to raise without her,
Minato was truly, inescapably afraid.
            “He looks
so much like you, Minato,” she said again, crooning into his hair as she laid
him gently down onto the floor.
            “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him. He is my son after all,”
she assured him.
            “Don’t,”
he’d found his voice at last, “He’s not . . . Naruto . . . I love you.”
            She gazed
at him softly, clicking her tongue at him, “I love you too, my sweet one. I’ll
make sure to love him just as well. So you can rest now.”
            Minato felt
his eyes slide closed and he tried to pry them open again. But, it was too
late. Sute hummed softly to him as she stroked his hair, then calmly got up and
reached for the phone. She dialed for emergency assistance and said all the
right things and all in the right way to get them to hurry to her beloved’s
house. She knew they wouldn’t make in time, but as her mother had always
drilled into her, appearances were important.

            Sasuke
laughed, the sound ringing off the wooden stalls hollowly. It didn’t feel
menacing though, far from it. He was with Naruto, watching him pull faces at
his horse and laughing in the middle of them until he couldn’t move his mouth
right. It was hilarious. His cousin, Obito, grinned at Naruto and made gestures
and caricatures behind his back and Sasuke laughed again. Then he frowned and
stuck his tongue out at his cousin. Obito, mortally wounded, clutched at his
chest and fell against the stall door heavily. Naruto looked up at them
curiously and Sasuke rolled his eyes.
            “He’s being
overly dramatic again. I didn’t like him teasing you when you didn’t know about
it.”
            Naruto
looked askance at Obito, eyes wide then turned a devilish grin on Sasuke.
            “Oh, so
it’s okay for him to do it if I can see it?”
            “I didn’t
mean that!” Sasuke replied, indignant, his shoulders rising. “Anyway, if you
see it, you’d only lose your temper. Remember the last time that happened? I
had to pull two high school kids off you and help another two up from where
you’d laid them out! We can’t get into another fight. You’re Dad, and mine,” he
glanced at Obito out of the corner of his eye, who smiled tenderly at the title
he’d been dubbed by Sasuke a few years ago, even though he didn’t use it all
the time, “would kill us. Especially Obito, since it would be him we’d be
fighting.”
“Sorry, Dad,” he added when Obito had caught his attention
again, but then Sasuke opened his mouth wide in disgust. Obito had been
mimicking him! A wet towel hit Obito upside the head and Sasuke giggled a
little before catching himself, looking terrified at the sound rather than his
reaction. Naruto snickered and smirked at Obito’s dazed expression.
            “That’s
what you get for making fun of Sasuke. Don’t you know we’re best friends? You
can’t do that and not have me,” here he pointed to his chest proudly, “fight back
too!”
            Obito
raised his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, I give! You win. I promise not
to do anything to either of you at all today.”
            Sasuke
narrowed his eyes at Obito and growled low in his throat at the mention of only
one day’s reprieve. Obito whistled. He could not imagine what would happen if
someone actually tried to hurt Naruto. Sasuke might actually go as far as to
kill them. The thought should scare him, immensely, if only for the strange and
deep connection the boys seemed to have. But Obito wasn’t worried. He trusted
Sasuke, and Naruto. They had level heads and knew right from wrong. He’d found
a saving grace in Minato, and by extension Kakashi, when he’d first met Sasuke.
They were distant cousins and Obito had only seen him from pictures; that is,
until his parents and brother passed away five years ago. Minato had helped
save him from some pretty heavy issues when he’d first taken Sasuke in after
that, then had introduced him to Kakashi. Kakashi had been the one to save them
both from despair. But it was Naruto who had re-introduced smiles and laughter
and happiness. Only a spare few weeks after their deaths, Sasuke had demanded
to go back to school. He’d become somewhat difficult and Obito, harried at the
toll it was taking on him and his wife Rin, had rushed to agree. Kakashi had
warned him it was perhaps too early, and when Sasuke had come home dazed and
subdued, Obito had chastised himself roughly for jumping too far, too fast.
Sasuke had spoken up at dinner later, stating that he was special and important
and that his parents must have thought so or they would never have had him.
Then he’d gone on to say that if they had really known about his brother,
Itachi’s, illness, they would have done for him whatever they could, because
they would not have hesitated for Sasuke either. And Sasuke knew that Itachi
had been older, so they’d had more time to grow attached to and love him. Rin
had burst out laughing only to apologize when Sasuke stared at her with a
wounded look in his eyes.
            Obito had
asked, after having to clear his throat free from bubbling laughter of his own,
where exactly a seven year old learned all of this. He wanted to know so he
could take lessons. It wasn’t every day that a person gained that kind of
wisdom.
            “From
Naruto,” Sasuke said pleasantly, swinging his legs back and forth under the
table. He went back to eating his dinner as if he hadn’t said anything at all
remarkable until Rin called to him.
            “Sasuke,”
she asked hesitantly, “do you, by any chance mean Uzumaki Naruto?”
            Sasuke had
frowned and cocked his head.
            “I don’t
know. I don’t know his last name but he said I was special and that he just
wanted to be my friend, so I let him. And I felt loads better. He kept smiling
and saying things like we would be friends for all time, and he was going to
get a horse and I could ride it, but only me, because we were special together.
He said I was special,” Sasuke finished lightly and Rin smiled at Obito, eyes
shining brightly.
            “Well,”
Obito said, having to clear his throat again for the painful lump forming
there, “He’s a very smart boy, Naruto. You should listen to him.”
            The
friendship had blossomed from there and showed no signs of easing not that
anyone involved minded, especially not Sasuke. Obito thanked Minato silently
every time he got to see Naruto, with all that bright amusement and laughter.
There could never be a greater gift in Obito’s opinion, than anything, even a
stick figure drawing and a pale of plain water, as long as it came from that
boy. Shaking himself out of his reverie, Obito smiled and called them both
over. When they’d gotten close enough, and because they were still short enough
and still children, he lifted them up one under each arm and carried them
outside to the waiting afternoon sun, growling like a bear the whole way. The
sight of Kakashi, but even more distressing, the drying tears on his swollen
face, and Obito halted instantly.
            A giggling
Sasuke, who, like Naruto, could not see anything other than the bit of ground
beneath and directly in front, struggled a little.
            “Obito,” he
whined good-naturedly, “Either put us down or keep going till we get to
Kakashi’s office.”
            A riot of
giggles erupted from Naruto as he kicked his feet.
            “I’d rather
stay up, thanks Sasuke. Your cousin is the only one who can do this and it’s fun!”
            “Obito,”
Kakashi said thickly, “put Naruto down please.”
            The quiet
nature to Kakashi’s speech usually didn’t bother Obito, but today his voice was
so laden with despondency that it made his heart race right out of his chest
and back again. It hit him like nothing he’d ever felt save once, when he’d had
to explain to Sasuke about hi family. Sasuke tumbled to the ground after a
little wiggling and Naruto followed a bit clumsily afterward. Obito’s hands had
gone limp and he looked dazedly down at the boys.
            “Sorry,” he
mumbled and guided Sasuke away from Naruto and Kakashi. He knew that this was
going to be hard on a lot of people if it was what he thought, what he dreaded,
but Naruto would need Kakashi now more than ever if he was to survive it.
            “Naruto,
baby, come here,” Kakashi called but Naruto backed away, shaking his head
mutely, tears already forming in his eyes.
            “Where’s
Dad?” he cried plaintively, breathing growing more erratic as Kakashi waited it
out.
            “Naruto, I
need you to come here. Please,” he pleaded.
            Naruto
started forward and then felt Kakashi’s arms engulf him snugly. He had lost
sight of him, the tears drowning out the world in a colorful blur.
            “Naruto,
honey, your father won’t be coming to get you,” all the while Kakashi spoke,
pain wrapped iron bands around his chest and Naruto shook his head vehemently
against his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Naruto, but your father passed away a
little while ago.”
            “No!”
Naruto wailed and tried his best to fight the hold Kakashi had on him.      Kakashi was doing his best to keep that
hold, to keep him safe, just as he knew Minato would want of him. Naruto
struggled some more before collapsing, exhausted, to sob richly into the fabric
of his shirt. Kakashi let his eyes close and sighed against the young boy, sad
beyond words. When the tears had faded enough for Kakashi to feel safe pushing
Naruto away to look at him, the boy had become drowsy and bleary eyed. His lids
were already puffing out and his reddened cheeks were covered in sweat, salt
water and mucus.
            “I’ll take
you home, Naruto,” he told him quietly while sighing.
            Naruto
shook his head and opened his mouth, croaking at first then mouthing his jaw to
get it to work properly.
            “I want to
see him,” he managed finally.
            Kakashi
hated that he had to be the one to do anything more to hurt him. He shook his
head slowly. Naruto’s anger overtook the grief for a moment and his face
twisted only to dissolve into quivering chin and lips.
            “Why?” he
asked. Kakashi didn’t know if he was asking why his father had died so suddenly
or why he couldn’t see him. He opted to answer both, if only to help Naruto
gain some peace as early as possible before the rest of the grieving process
took hold.
            “He had a
condition called high blood pressure. It means his heart had trouble keeping
the blood flowing at the right speed. The doctors think his heart finally had
real trouble, even with the medicine and he had a heart attack. I’m sorry,
Naruto. It wouldn’t be good for you to see him now. He’s no longer here with
us. Do you understand? I’m going to take you home now and I promise that, even
though it won’t seem like it for a long time, you’ll be alright.” Kakashi
hugged Naruto to him tightly once more before picking up the twelve year old
body. Short for his age as he was, Naruto was still heavy and Kakashi grunted a
little. Naruto leaned his head heavily down on Kakashi’s shoulder and sighed
out another sob and hiccupped while he was carried to the car. Obito and Sasuke
were watching and Sasuke had trails of tears running freely down his cheeks to
disappear under his chin. He held Obito’s hand and Kakashi remembered the only
other time he’d seen him do it. How tragic the world was when two such young,
vibrant and innocent friends now had something such as this to bind them closer
together? It hit his heart stronger and more sharply than anything he had ever
felt before. Namikaze Minato, his friend and the father of the greatest person
he could ever know even young as he was now, had died.

            Naruto arrived
back at the house with Kakashi in hand. He’d not let go of it since Kakashi had
grasped it during the car ride, as if he were still small and depending on one
of his favorite people to guide him across the street. The door had been left
open and there were plastic and paper odds and ends from the paramedics
littering the floor. It was everywhere. Naruto hook constantly under Kakashi’s
fingers and didn’t make a sound. He allowed it as it could be Naruto’s way of
taking in everything he’d been told. Only if it persisted passed a certain
point would he begin to intervene. Even children should be allowed to go
through the stages of grief uninterrupted unless it was necessary, so it was
that he had been trained. He would watch Naruto, because, for Minato, that was
all he could do, now. They headed down the hallway toward Naruto’s room and
Kakashi was pulled to a stop in front of the master bedroom. Naruto stared
blankly at the door and reached a trembling hand to graze the wood above the
knob with his fingertips. His shoulders quivered more violently and Kakashi
reached down to force Naruto around to his own room. It was far too early for
it to be even close to going through his departed friends’ things. If need be,
Obito and he would take care of everything, the funeral, the cleaning out,
everything. He nudged Naruto until they had entered his room and Kakashi was
surprised to find it had changed since the last time he’d been in the house.
The walls were a deep green now, dark pine trees had been painted onto the
walls and a clear indigo sky was in the process of covering up some of the
fields, a little twinkling star winking on here and there along the landscape.
A waxing moon, nearly half full, brushed the sky near the ceiling and Kakashi
stood transfixed.
            “Naruto,
did you . . . did you do this?” he asked in awe, forgetting for a moment why
they were there.
            Naruto
smiled a little, eyes watery and lips fighting it strongly. His face crumpled a
bit before he regained control, at least as much as he could at this point.
Kakashi knelt down and kneaded his fingers into Naruto’s arms and shoulders for
a moment.
            “It’s
beautiful Naruto. I’m sure your father thought so too. He loves you, you know.
He still does, even though he’s gone.
I know it. You were the best thing he had ever done with his life. He told me
so himself. And you know I don’t lie,” Kakashi said gently.
            He got up
to peruse through the drawers and closet as Naruto bent his head down and shook
where he stood. Kakashi gathered up enough clothes for Naruto to spend the week
at house without having to come back. He took a suit of clothes from the closet
and the dress shoes he probably had never worn form the box he found on the
shelf and he packed them all away in Naruto’s red sports bag. The dark wood of
the furniture had accented the mural on the wall well without leaving the room
over-powering and he hoped Naruto would be able to continue it, to love it, as
much as he had always loved his father and
this house. He prayed silently that this time would pass quickly and he had a
chance to step away from the immense feelings that were surely running through
his head enough to come to terms with how his life had turned and twisted
recently.
            “Come,
Naruto. Unless there’s something you really want to take with you? Just for
now. We’ll come back again sometime, don’t worry.”
            Kakashi
left the statement as ambiguous he could, since he had no idea whether Minato
had been able to purchase the house fully, or whether there were old debts
needing to be paid, whether it was to be held in trust until Naruto reached
adulthood . . . Kakashi shook his head. He was marginalizing and escaping and
he knew it. They all would grieve first, hold a wake and a funeral, then he
would see about applying for full custody of Naruto. He was already Naruto’s
Godfather, but that only meant legal guardianship which could pose a problem
should Naruto’s mother come back into the picture someday. He didn’t want that
to happen, not that he would keep him from her should he want to see her, but .
. . Again he shook his head slowly and tapped Naruto on the shoulder. The boy
jumped slightly at the touch and gazed at Kakashi with glazed eyes. Kakashi
worried about that. Shock was not uncommon, even when a person was otherwise
uninjured. It was not just a cliché for someone to die of a broken heart or
from the shock of witnessing or hearing about a loved ones’ death, even without
a medical condition. Kakashi sniffed at the ridiculousness of his own thinking,
Naruto was not as fragile as that, just sad right now, deeply and achingly sad.
His thoughts and Naruto’s face pulled at his chest and Kakashi bent down to
murmur in his ear.
            “Naruto,” and he felt him startle a bit and gasp lightly.
“Naruto, do you want to take anything with you? Answer me, please, Naruto.”
Kakashi wanted to get him to focus on his voice, to answer something simple so
that he could be sure he would not have to watch him all night. Watch over him,
certainly, but a constant watch was too close to what happened inside
hospitals, with mental health professionals turned wardens and Kakashi would
not be able to bare that.
            “My art,
the books,” Naruto choked a little, and then managed a bit more strongly, “and
the paints. I’d like to paint. If I can, at your house, it always helps . . .
,” he faltered a little. Then he took a deep breath. Kakashi urged him to do it
again. “It always helps when I’m sad, or angry, or . . .”
            Okay,”
Kakashi said neutrally. “It’s fine if you want to paint at my house. Where are
they?”
            Naruto
crossed the room on quaking knees, jerkily drawing open a small cupboard next
to his night stand. Inside was a beautifully carved wooden box and Naruto took
it out and held it close as he walked back to Kakashi. Kakashi nodded and took
Naruto’s hand in his again, just for this once, and lead him out the door,
careful to close and lock it this time. He’d been given a key long ago by
Minato, in case he needed, his friend had said He’ never needed it, but it had
been nice to have. He hoped he might still be able to use it. He had always
felt pleasant, relaxed, more so than in any other place, at his friend’s home,
with his friend’s son playing jovially in a corner and a fire and Minato’s
good-natured conversation. Sometimes they drank together, or sat and talked of
many things. But always it was pleasant, and Kakashi would miss it. He allowed
a few tears to escape as he walked Naruto to the car. God,
how he missed his friend.

            The funeral
had been sedate and morose. Somber people in dark suits and fashionable dresses
with quiet words they probably would never use that way again, and many Naruto
had not known existed to his father, had come to pay their respects. They all
patted his head as if he were five or told him how sorry they were. And really,
Naruto hated it. He wanted to tell them that he wasn’t sorry. He was mad and
upset and he wanted them all to leave so he could say goodbye to his Dad on his
own. But he knew if he said those things his father would be upset with him.
Hearing his father’s words inside his head, all the things he had taught him,
was the only thing that saved Naruto from these people. That, and Sasuke’s
presence, unobtrusive and comforting, always just out of reach but near enough
in case he was wanted. Naruto was so very grateful for it. Kakashi and Obito
could stay as well. They had known Naruto’s father better than any of them,
even the ones who claimed to have been good
friends or trusted companions.
Naruto wanted to scoff at them when he heard that. Instead he went to go find
Kakashi and lean on him. It helped, a little. Sasuke wandering in to sit by his
other side helped even more. Neither of them said anything, except Obito, who
winked at him from the corner of the room and came over to stand near enough to
be heard without having to do more than murmur.
            “It’s
almost over Naruto, and then we can kick them all out.”
            Naruto
smiled thinly, and then, almost genuinely at him. Thank God for his
Obito-niisan, as he sometimes called him, with Sasuke’s permission of course.
Sasuke had smiled and hugged him with one arm when Naruto had asked. Then Obito
had nearly cried, then he had fake-cried, and then he had run them all home to tell Rin. Sometimes Naruto worried
about him, he was a little funny like that, but not today. When the last of the
guests had murmured a final apology and all that was left was Minato’s real
family, they began to clean up. Naruto felt the ache of the day, and the last
few days, in his entire body. He asked Kakashi if he could go for a nap.
Kakashi hesitated and then nodded.
            “But only a quick one, okay? I’m making dinner soon.” Naruto
nodded in turn and headed off to his room. Obito glanced up at him worriedly.
            “Are you
sure that’s wise, Kakashi? That’s the third one he’s had this week. It’s
becoming a habit.”
            Kakashi
held hand up to stop him.
            “I know
what I’m doing, Obito. It won’t become an issue. I’ll wake him in a little bit.
He won’t really know that it’s only been a short time until he’s up and, with
time, he won’t bother with it. He’ll come to me, or Sasuke or you, then.”
            Obito
relaxed then, because it made sense. Looking around when there was no rustling
of paper, since Kakashi and he had stopped moving, he watched Sasuke saunter
off after Naruto. They both shook their heads, and yet let tiny smiles free. If
anyone needed anyone more, it was Naruto needing Sasuke, just as Sasuke had
unconsciously called out to Naruto several years ago. A knock at the door
brought them both around and Kakashi gazed at it curiously. Obito frowned at
him.
            “Expecting
anyone else for the wake, Kakashi?”
            “No, and
the funeral was earlier so whoever it is, it’s too late now. I’m tired and they
can come back another day,” he said wearily.
            Opening the
door, Kakashi was faced with someone official looking and his confusion turned
to alarm as he spotted a serene, stately woman standing behind him, a somber
expression in place though it never reached her eyes. A sinking in the pit of
his stomach, and nausea threatened to claim what little he had forced down that
morning. He knew this person was not to be trusted, with anything. He also knew
that the official looking person was not here for him, and that terrified him
beyond measure.
            “Hatake
Kakashi?” the official stated clearly.
            “Yes?”
            “I’m here
to take custody of Uzumaki Naruto, on behalf of his biological mother,
Kobayashi Sute, formerly Uzumaki Sute.”
            He gestured
to the woman behind him, and for the second time in only a week, Kakashi felt
the ground crumble and hell opened a searing maw to rip his heart out from his
toes.

AN:: Remember what I said about
needing to keep her name in mind? That goes with her last name as well, not to
mention how each was first presented. Her first name, Sute, means forsaken
foundling. And that, ladies and
gentlemen, was the birth of a very, very . . . well I’ll let you picture it.
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Beyond the River’s Edge