Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Life Anew	By : Weatherwax Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1461 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Originally posted by me on Archive of Our Own website. I DO NOT OWN Naruto or any of its characters, neither make any profit from this, but Ishoo is mine. So is Amachi and other OC characters.

Chapter List
- 1-Life Anew
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 1
- 2
Oi Naruto, wake your lazy ass up!”
Sasuke pulled the blankets off in a fit of anger, and Naruto fell headfirst on the bedroom floor.
“Ouch, ttebayo!”
“Ouch nothing, it was YOUR idea to wake up this early on a Sunday to go see Hinata, now get moving, it’ the third time I call you and I am NOT reheating your ramen, it’s disgusting enough fresh!” Sasuke kicked him in the butt to mark his annoyance.
Naruto gathered himself yawning and wiping at his eyes, wondering if old Tsunade would mind him filing for divorce after less than a year of marriage. He loved Sasuke, but damn it, the man was bitchy early in the morning.
‘Yeah, but he was ALWAYS bitchy in the morning, he never hid that from anyone, kit. Stop feeling sorry for yourself’ Kurama whispered inside his mind, and he could hear the other tailed beasts laughing.
And THAT was another little present the Sage gave him without warning: he had the ability to use all of the tailed beasts’ chakra because they had ALL moved into him of their own accord; apparently they found living inside his body and watching his life immensely entertaining.
Worse part, Kurama was right and Sasuke had ALWAYS been a bitch in the mornings, it was just Naruto’s wishful thinking that it was all the revenge-driven angst that made him that way when they were kids. His husband was definitely NOT a morning person, and made it quite clear when they had slowly gone back to missions: he was perfectly all right with doing the most ridiculously easy, or the hardest (people being what they were, peace actually existed amongst the nations, but that didn’t deter criminals of every type from making everyday life a pain in the butt), as long as they did NOT involve waking up before at least 10 am.
Naruto scratched his belly, rising and dragging himself out of the bedroom. It really wasn’t fair, Sasuke had got the sweetest deal out after the war, being paired with Shikamaru and Kakashi and doing all the fun covert night missions, while he was forced to do all the damn boring bureaucratic jobs Tsunade ran away from in lieu of “Hokage training”. Yeah, like SHE had any…
His train of thought stopped as he smelled the ramen on the breakfast table, along with his annoyance.
“Oi, you made me breakfast! Thank you!” He hugged Sasuke from behind, almost dropping his black coffee.
“Hn. Drop my coffee and die.”
“I love you too, asshole” Naruto laughed, kissing his ear and settling down for his ramen. That was a plus in their relationship, Sasuke would always make him cup ramen for breakfast, saying it was because the milk was always so old it’d bite him if he went near it, but actually out of pure morning grogginess.
“Why the fuck did you agree to meet Hinata so early anyway, it’s not as if the orphanage is going anywhere.”
“Because I want to talk to her while the kids are in class, they take up all her time later. I wanna see how she’s hanging on; I hardly had time to really talk to her after the war.”
“You still feel guilty about Neji.” Sasuke went to the cupboard to refill his coffee mug, reminding himself to write another very heartfelt thank you letter for the steady supply of coffee beans from A. He had apologized for cutting off the Raikage’s arm, but was really surprised when the first bag of coffee had arrived with a note saying the Raikage had heard how horrible he felt in the morning, that he related to the feeling and wanted to share his own personal cure for it. Since then he grudgingly felt a sincere admiration for the man.
“Um, er. Yes. And for her.” Naruto was looking dejected now; Sasuke knew that was because Naruto knew that Sasuke was always uneasy around Hinata and her bottomless, heady love for her dobe. Not because of jealousy: both of them knew Naruto only had that kind of love for Sasuke; but because being around Hinata made Sasuke remember, deep in his bones, the idiot he had been for all those years, and all the pain and suffering his continuing stupidity had brought everyone.
“Go get dressed, dobe.” Sasuke’s face was hidden from him by his hair and the mug, but Naruto could sense his shame, so he finished the ramen quickly and went back to the bedroom quietly.
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The streets were already packed with people as they left Naruto’s apartment a few minutes later. It was the middle of fall season, and the sun shone brightly despite the cold. They made their way to the school quietly for a few blocks, and then heard the sound of running behind them.
“Oi! Ooooooiii Double-U!”
Sasuke covered his face with his palm while the dobe turned around to greet Konohamaru. Ok, it had been HIS idea to introduce Konoha to the northern habit of adding surnames when marrying, a common usage he learned in the land of Ice and something he found incredibly useful, since it made sure no clan names were lost when the couple being married had lost most of their relatives, which was a regular occurrence in such a harsh, unforgiving environment. It didn’t help that the people were fiercely aggressive and bloodthirsty, either – Sasuke almost giggled when he remembered Orochimaru’s band running for their lives with an entire village chasing them: he had to use crutches for weeks after they finally left the accursed place, even the oldest grannies were tough as teak, angry as rabid polar bears, and twice as ruthless – but the ink had barely dried on his and Naruto’s marriage contracts when Killer B started calling them “Double-U”, and even though Sasuke had put the fear of death in most villagers, Konohamaru, being almost a carbon-copy of his dobe, especially when it came to being clueless, had never stopped using the “affectionate nickname”, as Kakashi dubbed it.
“Konohamaru! I didn’t know you had come back already!” Naruto was throwing the young chunnin up in the air, laughing.
“I just got in, nii-san, was gonna get breakfast before going home when I saw you guys and decided to say hello. Eh, where are you going so early?”
“We’re gonna go see Hinata, wanna tag along?”
Konohamaru stopped on his tracks and went slightly pale.
“Uh, um, you’re going to the little-kids school then.”
Naruto caught the serious tone in Konohamaru’s voice and stopped. “Yeah, is there any trouble there? Is Hinata ok?”
“Uh, eh, Hinata is fine; it’s just that… eh… one of the orphans there is really weird.” Konohamaru was now looking at his feet, knowing it was a sensitive subject for Naruto.
“Kono-yarou, how can you say that about those little kids? We’re orphans too, remember?” Naruto was angry and more than a little hurt.
“Naruto, you don’t understand, it’s not like us, Hinata had to separate her from the rest of the kids, they’re afraid of her.”
Naruto looked completely shocked at Konohamaru. “Konohamaru…”
“Hn. Let’s go, dobe, I want to see that for myself.”
Sasuke pulled Naruto away, suddenly eager to get to the school. He felt the rage boiling inside him, the same rage he felt when he realized what Naruto had gone through when he was a kid. To think there was another, as lost and shunned as Naruto was, as lonely as he himself had been… it was not acceptable.
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They crossed the gates of the little compound that doubled as kindergarden and orphanage in silence, and were soon greeted by Hinata.
After the war, Hinata had decided to give up missions for a while and devote her time to the war orphans, along with leading her clan away from the old ways of branch and main houses. She said it made her feel more useful than shinobi work, but her friends knew how much Neji’s death had hurt her and all agreed that her peaceful nature needed the break from their violent routine.
She came to greet them wearing a simple pink apron over her regular clothing, a friendly smile in her face, but got serious as she saw both ninja’s angry faces.
“Naruto-kun? Sasuke? What’s wrong?”
“You drive a little kid who hasn’t got anyone away from everybody and you ask US what’s wrong? That’s not you, Hinata! How could you do something like that?” Naruto had angry tears welling on his eyes.
“Oh. Naruto-kun, it’s not like that, you don’t understand!” She said in a quavering voice.
“We understand, Hinata. We understand it too well” Sasuke said quietly, looking straight at her.
Hinata faced him and regained some of her composure.
“No, you DON’T. She almost killed another child, we HAD to keep her away from the others after that!” She roared at them.
“Baka! Why didn’t you talk to her? Ask her why?” Sasuke raged, immediately relating, while Naruto stared at her, unbelieving.
“BECAUSE SHE’S TWO YEARS OLD!” Hinata yelled.
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The three of them approached the little garden where the toddler played by herself. She was tall for a two year-old, not chubby, but slightly bigger than the others. She was lying on her stomach in a sandy patch, tickling quarry lice. She’d tickle the lice into a ball, roll it around delicately, and then watch as it stopped rolling.
“That little kid almost killed a five years old boy?” Naruto asked, amazed.
“Yes. The boy was a biter, he had already hurt some of the other kids, but then he decided to bite her leg. She didn’t cry or scream or anything, she just lifted an iron chair and banged it on his head until he passed out.” Hinata said, worry in her voice. “I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it, those chairs weight almost 25 pounds each.”
Sasuke watched the little girl as she watched the quarry lice intently. The small insect uncoiled, walked around a little, and ran straight to her finger again.
“She was defending herself, dattebayo! Nobody told me she was being attacked by a bully!” Naruto said firmly. “Is the boy all right, then?” He said, almost as an afterthought.
Sasuke watched as the quarry lice nudged the toddler’s finger until she sighed and tickled it again. She rolled the insect away, just as another came close and climbed on her thumb.
“Yes, his skull was cracked but he’s fine.” She said ironically.
“Naruto-kun, that is not the only issue. We have no idea where she came from. And she is different from the other children. Really, really… different.” Hinata said softly, turning to watch the little girl with sad eyes.
Sasuke watched as the girl blew softly on the insect in her thumb. It reared itself on its hind legs, she blew on it again and it fell backwards, rolling into a ball off her knuckle and into the sand. The first lice was already eagerly climbing her hand.
He was just too curious about the insects’ behavior. Was she related to the Aburame clan? She didn’t look like it, with her dark ash-blond pigtailed hair and extremely rosy complexion, but maybe the insects were a clue, and he activated his Sharingan.
“That… that… that’s IMPOSSIBLE” Sasuke gasped, trembling.
Hinata looked at him and nodded. “Same thing I thought when I used the Byakugan on her. But it obviously is.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Naruto asked loudly, clearly peeved that he couldn’t see.
“She has no chakra, Naruto.” Sasuke was examining the kid again, flabbergasted at what he saw.
The girl was perfectly fine, alive, and healthy, but there were no chakra pathways in her body whatsoever. The sharingan could see the outline of her physical body, but he could imagine Hinata’s shock when she saw it. The kid would be completely invisible to the Byakugan.
“WHAT?” Naruto was staring at the kid open mouthed when he yelled, and the child turned to face them, startled out of her play.
Sasuke fainted.
“Oi! Oi! Sasuke!” Naruto bent to raise him, worried to death. Hinata went to help.
“Hmmmm… I’m ok. I’m ok, stop fanning me!” Sasuke said, sitting up. His eyes widened then.
“Sowwy.”
The little girl was standing at the metal grate separating them, looking at Sasuke with a concerned look in her brown eyes. Naruto and Hinata looked at her, and she took a step backwards.
“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault.” Sasuke smiled at the little girl, and came closer to the grate. “What’s your name?”
“Ishoo!” She smiled and gave a very clumsy bow.
“Ishoo...” Sasuke’s eyes filled with unshed tears as he whispered “Of course”.
Naruto scratched his head as his teme smiled like an idiot. “Who gave her that name?” he asked Hinata.
“Um, no one. We found her in a rice field nearby after the war, and the first thing she did was say Ishoo and point to herself.”
Ishoo was currently staring intently at Naruto’s belly, and he felt more than a little uncomfortable.
“Hi, ttebayo!” He said, smiling at her hungry eyes. ‘Konohamaru was right, she is weird.’, he thought.
“Can I play with your puppy please?” Ishoo asked, fidgeting with her hands, a little embarrassed blush coloring her face even more.
“Heh heh, uh, my puppy?” Naruto looked completely lost for words.
“Yes. That puppy.” She pointed straight at where his seal used to be. “Please?”
Naruto froze, suddenly terrified of the little girl. ‘She can’t be asking that’ he thought.
Suddenly he felt the strangest thing, a warmth all over his mind, and closing his eyes he saw Kurama as he was when just a pup, all huge hopeful eyes and wagging tails. He opened his eyes and blurted out “Sure”.
The kid alighted with happiness.
“Thank you oni-san! Thank you thank you thank you!” she jumped and tried to hug him through the grate, then took a large breath and clapped. Naruto felt like a rushing wind passed through his whole body, and then Kurama was just there, yapping and jumping at her excitedly.
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Naruto fell shakily into a chair in Hinata’s office, and thankfully accepted a cup of tea from her assistant.
“Hinata… does Tsunade baa-chan know about this?” He could barely think straight after seeing a pint-sized Kurama simply jump out of him to play with a child he had met for the first time. He could still feel his link to Kurama, knew that he hadn’t entirely left him entirely, but what happened had shaken him to his core.
“She… she never did anything like that before…” Hinata also looked stunned. “Please… please don’t think ill of Ishoo-chan, though… she… she is different, but she never hurt or was mean to anyone except the boy that bit her, she’s strange, but she is little more than a baby…” her eyes were filling with tears.
“Hinata, I’m not angry at her. I seriously doubt Kurama would have… gone to play with her, if she was evil.”
Naruto took one of Hinata’s hands in his.
“It’s just… it’s just that the other children were so afraid of her when she hurt Tetsuo-chan…” she frowned. “And she… she saw it, Naruto-kun. She looked exactly like you did when the villagers shunned you, and she stayed away from them, so I put her away from the children, because she’s just so LITTLE to feel that sadness yet, Naruto-kun, I didn’t know what else to do, if Tsunade-sama knows… if she knows the girl isn’t human, she might want to kill her, and I… I can’t deal with it, Naruto-kun, I can’t let them kill her just for existing, I know she hurt Tetsuo-chan, but so many died in the war and it’s not even her FAULT!”
She was crying openly now, holding her head on her hands desperately.
“Hinata…” Naruto had come around the table and was now crouching beside her, trying to comfort her and feeling miserable himself. Hinata was right, Ishoo wasn’t human, even if she was almost a baby yet, and the fourth war was just too fresh for any of the Kages to feel safe letting her live. But then, maybe because of that, it’d be safer that way…
‘NO!’ Nine voices yelled in unison.
The pain he felt inside was so huge he fell on his back, whimpering.
‘HOW CAN YOU OF ALL PEOPLE DARE THINK THAT? HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING?’
His own body rebelled at his thoughts, his chakra suddenly burning painfully.
‘But… but how can we know she’s not a threat?’
‘I can’t believe that of the two of you, the Uchiha is able to understand and not you, Baka! Can’t you FEEL it in her?’ Kurama snarled.
“Sasuke…” he whimpered.
‘IT COMES. FEEL IT, CHILD!’ Nine voices commanded, in a joyous scream.
And suddenly the pain gave way to everything.
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Sasuke was sitting near Ishoo, under a pear tree. He had refused to go inside, using “watching Kurama” as an excuse to stay with the little girl.
“Ishoo-chan, Hinata-sama says you hurt someone the other day.” He watched the kid as she sat beside him and crossed her legs, Kurama happily curling in her lap. She was all sweaty and flustered, and the fox kit - ‘Who could ever see the Kyuubi as a kit’, Sasuke mused – panted. They had run around the garden for a full half hour.
“Mhhmmm. Tetsuo-chan.” She said noncomitally.
“Why did you hurt him?” He asked, looking at her eyes. Without activating the Sharingan, from this close he could see they looked exactly like human eyes, except for the fact that her iris seemed to have different colors on each layer, brown mostly, but vivid green, shocking orange, and metallic gold underneath, colors that appeared or disappeared as the muscular tissue moved. The very border of her iris was a deep navy blue. He forced himself not to look at the pupil.
“Tetsuo-chan was biting all the babies. The babies cried, I pushed him, and he bit me.” She held her head low.
“Why didn’t you call Hinata-sama?”
“Because he had to stop. Hinata-sama just takes him away, and then he comes back and bites again.”
“And then you stopped him.” It wasn’t a question, but she nodded.
“Hinata-sama says he was hurt real bad.”
“I had to make him stop biting. He bit me and bit me and bit me and I hurt him so he would stop.” She mumbled.
“Ishoo-chan, I know it hurt, but he could have died. Do you know what dying is?” Sasuke knew she might not understand, but he had to talk to her, and that was the only way he knew how. Hinata was right, she was small, so small.
“Yes”. She answered in a cold voice.
Sasuke trembled in fear, real fear then. He said, very carefully, “Tetsuo-chan could have died, Ishoo-chan.”.
She shivered, and then looked straight at him, sad anger in her face.
“No, he could not. Nothing dies, even if I hurt it bad. It just hurts, and he had to hurt to stop biting.”
The brown in her eyes was almost gone, faint specks in a myriad of colors. He shuddered, trying to remain calm, and looked at Kurama in her lap; the red kitsune pup was completely relaxed, and gave him an amused look.
Ishoo sighed, an adult sound, and delicately put Kurama on his arms, standing up.
“I’ll show you, but then I have to go back to being what I am now, or I won’t be able to help, and you and Naruto won’t be able to be my fathers. And I want that very much, Sasuke.”
He felt his mouth hang open. He had never told her his name.
She raised her hand, and a squirrel jumped from the pear tree to her hand, and bowed to her.
She turned to face him, and in a quick movement wrung the squirrel with her tiny hands, breaking all its bones. It didn’t even squeak.
Sasuke almost wet his pants in shock.
“Look at it with your purple eye.” She stretched her hands, the poor dead, mangled furball splayed across them.
Sasuke activated the Rinnegan and looked. The squirrel was alive. Completely, utterly crushed, broken, but his chakra remained, outlining the body as it should be.
Ishoo closed her eyes and drew a large breath. Sasuke saw everything around distort for a heartbeat, and then a little ball of white energy was spinning in her chest, first slowly, and then gaining speed as she held her breath.
He watched breathless as it spun faster and faster, the energy rising in frequency until it was invisible even to the Rinnegan. Ishoo then sobbed inwardly and he felt the unseen energy spread out through her arms into her hands. The squirrel’s body twisted and turned in her hands, making small popping noises as the very atoms that composed it rearranged themselves back around its chakra.
Ishoo left her breath out, and all Sasuke could see was color, all the colors the Rinnegan could see, jumbled and pulsing together. He cried out as the energy hit him, pushed him physically back and thrummed through his body and mind. He closed his eyes on instinct, his own breath knocked out of him while he held on his consciousness desperately. He could feel every single cell in his body bathed in it, could hear everything in and out of his body, from the proteins walking around carrying things inside his cells ‘Gods, proteins have little FEET, I never believed that when Kabuto talked about it’ to the thunderous flap of bird wings above, water gushing upwards the plants xylems like waterfalls in reverse, tiny roots plundering the earth under him, a cacophony of sounds as life itself, not the tiny part of it that was chakra, coursed through his body, mind and soul.
He could physically FEEL what it was like to be anything alive, made acquaintance with all the microscopic biota that not only lived, but was a part of him; could feel the entire circle of existence that happened on him, in him, WAS him, and through all that he could feel Kurama writhing and moaning in pleasure in his lap, could feel the oni’s energy rising in frequency to respond to what was going on inside it, and wondered how could anything alive be other than terrified at the size of the experience.
It felt like an eternity had passed, but eventually his senses dulled again to normal levels, and he gasped out, opening his teary eyes.
In front of him, Ishoo was again just a two year-old girl, looking very scared at him, with an extremely alive and very healthy squirrel sitting on her head.
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Naruto slowly felt the energy fade, and his heart almost crushed with the loss of it, but he realized it was stopping like the last drops of the first spring storm after a droughty winter, and that it was right for it to stop, to let the parched earth rest and absorb the water, lest it carried everything away.
He opened his eyes to see Hinata and Sakura fussing over him, looking terrified.
“Naruto-kun! Naruto-kun! Thank Gods, I thought you were having a seizure or something!” Hinata bent down to hug him, the fear having dried her previous tears.
“I’m fine. I’m… I’m fine.” Naruto patted her on the back and sat when she finally let go of him.
“Sakura-chan, why are you here?” He looked at her angry face.
“Making a fool of myself and leaving people who actually NEED me behind because of nothing, baka!” She raged and hit him over the head, before gathering her medical kit and stomping out.
“Uh, what was that for?” Naruto rubbed his head.
“You fell back and it looked like you had passed out. Sakura said you were only sleeping, that you were completely fine, but I was afraid…” Hinata said, blushing.
“Hinata-chan, I am really fine, seriously” he stopped. “Can you hear crying?”
‘Naruto, COME NOW! She needs you!’ He felt Kurama’s calling more than heard it, and as he saw the fox-puppy in the doorway he scrambled to his feet, running after it.
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They ran inside the small garden to find a very startled Sasuke standing up with the crying toddler in his arms, clumsily trying to soothe her.
“Naruto… Naruto help please… Ishoo-chan honey, I’m sorry, we’re here, we’re fine…”
Seeing the toddler crying and sobbing in his lover’s arms almost broke Naruto’s heart. He ran to put his arms around them, kissing the little girl as she grabbed his shirt with a little hand, holding Sasuke fast with the other.
“It’s ok baby, it’s ok…” he felt a sob on his throat as he hugged her, and knew. “Tou-chan’s here… Tou-chan’s here, dattebayo.”
Sasuke pulled him closer and kissed him deeply.
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“What?”
“She’s coming with us, I need a copy of her health records, whatever clothes she has…”
“Not many, we’re buying more” Sasuke interrupted, cradling the sleeping child.
“And I need you to write down what she eats and whatever we need to get her that she can’t be without. You know, diapers or stuff.”
“Naruto, she’s two, she doesn’t use diapers anymore, we have to get her a potty.” Sasuke had opened one of Hinata’s archives and was rummaging in it with one hand, after having balanced the toddler’s head on his shoulder.
“Ew.” Naruto made a face.
“Uh, guys? Would you sit down for a second?” Hinata was trying to stop Naruto from shuffling the papers in her desk.
“Oi Hinata-chan, where are your “How to take care of” leaflets? Kiba told me they have one on the pound for when people go get puppies or something, it’s in a box right at the front desk, you guys should really do stuff like them, Kiba said it’s really practical” Naruto rambled while looking through a stack of papers.
Hinata was trying to decide how to catch the two young men’s attention without waking up the sleeping child. ‘Calm down and think, Hinata. What would Sakura do?’
She sighed, knowing what Sakura would do. She hoped they would react the same as when she did it.
She calmly walked to Sasuke and hauled him to her desk by the ear.
“Ouch! Be careful, Hyuuga, you’ll wake her!” he hissed, letting himself drop on one of the chairs as she pulled on Naruto’s ear with her other hand.
“I am going to sit on my chair and the both of you will calmly explain to me what the hell is going on, or else.”
She let them go, composed herself and sat daintily on her chair, smoothing her apron and looking seriously at them.
Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other warily, as if deciding who would be the one doing the talking. Hinata heard a small thump as Naruto kicked Sasuke’s leg, saw the scowl on Sasuke’s face, Naruto’s frown, and after a whole minute of violent, but blissfully silent, interactions, Sasuke scowled again and started speaking.
“We’re adopting Ishoo-chan. We know what happened to Tetsuo-kun, she never meant to hurt him so much. She beat the crap out of him, but only because when she pushed him off from biting the other kids, he bit her. That is a perfectly reasonable reaction for a two year-old and nothing she should be segregated for. She’s adorable, we want her, and besides the kitsune refuses to return to Naruto’s body unless we keep her” – Kurama, currently sprawled out just inside Hinata’s office, let out a growl too deep for its current size – “and we need her documentation now. Yes, we will be informing the Hokage, and will follow all legal procedures, but right now all we want is the minimum paperwork and to go home, preferably before your lunch break.”
He looked at her haughtily.
Hinata put her hands on her face. “Look, I know you are both angry that she’s restricted from contact with the other children. I also know that she is a nice little girl. I do. I don’t want anything bad happening to her. But you guys have met her a couple of hours ago, you can’t just decide to become fathers of a child that you just met.”
“Why not? It’s not like it’s any different from having a baby, no one knows what kind of person their child is before it’s born, and yet nobody tells parents to leave their kids in the hospital and wait until they’re better acquainted.”
“Naruto-kun, that’s different.”
“Yes, it is different; we already know she’s kind, polite, and stronger than any other child her age. That is an advantage.” Sasuke said, scowling again.
“Sasuke-kun, she’s not even human. Can’t you see she’s safer here?” Hinata pleaded.
“Yes she is, she has chakra just like any of us, it’s just that hers has a higher frequency than ours, beyond what we can see, so it looks invisible to the Byakugan and the Sharingan. But not to the Rinnegan. I examined her with it while you were talking inside, and saw it.”
He had to hand it to Naruto, that was a brilliant and steel-proof lie. It solved all their immediate issues, at least until they could get Sakura on their side.
“Besides, Kabuto isn’t completely human anymore, neither is Orochimaru, and Tsunade baa-chan accepted BOTH of them back even though they’re criminals, ttebayo.”
Hinata knew when she was cornered. She had to give it to them, the Rinnegan thing made sense. So did the references to Kabuto and Orochimaru, even though Orochimaru’s jutsu had been sealed and Kabuto had been restricted from contact with anyone until his more blatant mutations had been removed. Which was a problem Ishoo didn’t have; people just saw her as another regular orphan.
She made her last draw.
“Guys, I’ll be honest with you. Ishoo-chan is really well-behaved for a two year-old, but even so she will be a handful. Children take most of the time from their parents, require more attention than almost anything, can be extremely annoying even when they are just being children, and basically demand any parent to make enormous sacrifices for them. I have learned all that in the short time I’ve been here, and I just take care of them here. Being a full-time parent can be overwhelming, and it is a lifetime commitment. No matter how angry, how tired, how exasperated you are, how much you miss your sleep, your free time, your routine, your freedom and your privacy, you cannot, ever, get rid of the responsibility. You have no way, really NO WAY OUT of being a parent and the only people responsible to how happy and balanced your child will be are YOU. Are you definitely sure you want this? And want this now? Please, please think about what YOU want before answering, not just what is best for her.”
They both looked at each other and then at their feet, for a long time.
Naruto thought about the way he was as a young child, about all the trouble he caused, all the times the old lady who raised him until he was 7 years old had to apologize for his behavior, all the work she went through for him. He thought of washing potties, of having to clean up after a child had drawn all over the walls, of spending nights awake and worried, of having to argue and say no even if the child cried her head off. Of having to make time to spend with a child, even if he was tired, or hurt, or had better things to do. Of having to be really quiet with Sasuke. Of not being able to fistfight in the house anymore – well, Sasuke would probably love that, he was always complaining when they broke something – or not being able to just walk around nude if he wanted – that one would probably not go down so well with him.
He also thought of being again in front of the Academy and standing, this time, among the parents as the children were admitted. Of not being alone when Sasuke was away on a mission. Of little drawings of him and Sasuke stuck on the refrigerator. Of buying blue popsicles and having who to share with that wasn’t Sasuke (who hated them). Most of all, he thought about the feeling he had when he saw Ishoo playing with the quarry lice, all alone, and how he himself felt when she was crying in Sasuke’s hands, and had grabbed him to come near her, and had hugged him, had hugged them both, and only then calmed down and slept.
He had felt sadness when her energy outburst from earlier passed; but as he held her with Sasuke, he felt the energy return, subdued, warm, seeping from her and settling deep in his heart. It felt exactly the same as when he had sensed Sasuke’s chakra at their final reunion to fight Madara, when they knew they were two sides of the same thing, the same energy.
He felt himself in her energy; but he also felt Sasuke in it, someway, and wondered if maybe in that battle almost a year ago there had been something, some kind of energy crash fallout that had mingled his and Sasuke’s essence and produced this strange little child.
He smirked at that; she was older than the war. But it sure felt so, and he wasn’t going to throw that away. Damn, he hadn’t given up on Sasuke, and the son of a bitch had not only repeatedly told him to give up but tried to kill him, resorting to kicking the living shit out of him when that didn’t work, and still frequently tried to reason with him using his fists, even though they were now respectably married and that every time they fought they had to replace half their furniture.
Even so, it took both of them to decide on this. He raised his head hoping like hell that Sasuke would be thinking along the same lines as he, and was relieved to see his teme hugging the sleeping little girl protectively and giving him a challenging glare.
Naruto found the mother hen stance incredibly amusing, especially coming from the former avenger, the terror of the five ninja nations, the man who killed Orochimaru, Danzou and his own brother without blinking his eye. He couldn’t stop the giggles if his life depended on it.
“Hn” Sasuke snarled. Naruto moved and nuzzled his nose, sat back and gave Hinata a huge grin.
“So, as we were saying, we need her medical records, clothes, other urgent personal stuff and things, and a list of stuff we have to get before we get home, please.”
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“Ok, first thing, finding a baby supply shop. Hmmmm, we could ask Ayame, it’s almost lunch time… raaaamen…”
“Mmmm… ohayo, Papa” Ishoo opened her eyes lazily and wiggled a little to rest her head better on his shoulder.
“Ohayo, baby. Naruto, remember what Hinata said about fatty foods before deciding to feed her crap.”
“Oi, I eat at Ichiraku’s since I was a baby, it’s healthy!”
“Hn, yeah, like the idea of turning Ishoo into a dobe like you is going to make me feed her there. No thanks, one braindead moron in the family is enough.”
“Hey, it’s not as if ALL I eat comes from Ichiraku!”
Sasuke gave him a considering look. “True. Remind me of throwing out all that instant crap when we get home.”
“Hey!”
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Life Anew