Warning: Unbetaed, Present tense
As this is my first Naruto fanfiction, I thought I should start with something easy and simple. So no fight, no romance, no drama. It was supposed to be an Uchiha!fluff but somehow I think it turned out a bit angsty… meh.
Seven-year-old Sasuke sleeps peacefully at the table, his dinner is half-eaten. The child-sized chopsticks still lies in his little hand, his left cheek glues to the table and the rice sticks to his face. His breathing is even, and his chakra is stable, albeit very low. Mikoto sighs tiredly, in a way mothers usually do when their child does something silly for the umpteenth time.
"It's the third time this week that he's fallen asleep during dinner and it's only Thursday, Fugaku. Are you sure we should let him continue training this hard?"
Her husband just resumes eating with closed eyes, seemingly not intending to answer her question. Their eldest son, Itachi is watching his little brother with visible concern, his usually stoic face now shows furrowed brows and thin lips.
Mikoto stands up to go over her youngest to wake him up. She stops, however, when suddenly purple smoke appears around the sleeping child and all occupants of the room freeze as a new, overwhelmingly powerful electric chakra replaces the tiny, tranquil one. The three Uchiha jump farther from the unknown person and take up fighting stances.
"For the Sage's sake, Sakura, why the hell did you throw that damn scroll at me-" the coughing voice cuts off as the smoke clears out and the person looks around the room. Mikoto has to inhale sharply as soon as she sees the stranger-well, not so stranger anymore.
"Sasuke?" she whispers. The grown-up man turns his one visible pitch-black eye to her and it widens. Shock appears on his clearly Uchiha-like feature and elegant lips open.
"Kaa-san?" the voice, which is low but silky and very pleasant to listen to, is almost hesitant as if the owner isn't sure of himself.
The mother puts her right hand over her mouth and dark eyes begin to tear up.
"Oh my gosh, you're really him?" she asks and takes a few steps towards him. "Oh, look at you, you've grown so much. You're an adult now. But how?"
Sasuke looks around once again, his gaze lingers at his father and his currently adolescent brother. He closes his eyes and sighs. Memories from the passed few minutes come back.
"This is the scroll?" Sakura asked, her eyes skipped through the item they'd found.
"Aa."
"Hm," she hummed, glancing briefly at him. "It says we can travel to the time we miss the most. The one we wish to visit once again. For only twenty minutes, though."
Familiar faces flashed inside his mind and he didn't notice his wife slyly grinned at him lopsidedly. Carefully opening the scroll, she called out his name.
"Sasuke-kun, catch."
The Uchiha looked at her but all he could see was the opened scroll nearing him. Catching it with ease, he scowled.
"What are you-" he couldn't finish his sentence as smoke erupted around him.
The next time he opens his eyes, they're filled with understanding and something akin to sorrow. "So this is what she meant… the time period I truly want to visit again, huh."
He looks up at his mother, feature softens, and the next question comes out almost timidly, "Can I hug you, Kaa-san?"
This throws Mikoto off guard, but after hearing the hoping undertone of her youngest, her heart clenches and can't deny this simple request. So she takes three large steps towards him and envelops him in a large, motherly hug. One single arm circles her waist and pulls her closer as he hides his face in her neck and if Mikoto wasn't a kunoichi in the past, she might have missed what he says next.
"Thirteen years… I haven't heard your voice for what feels like an eternity, Kaa-san."
Her maternal instincts were right, as she quickly realises that something is wrong. Very, very wrong. The wetness on her blouse tells even more and she instinctively tightens her embrace and starts caressing his shoulder-length dark blue hair.
"Kaa-san, don't worry. He will come back – my past self, I mean. I only have twenty minutes here…"
"Shush, you. Let me just hug you. You clearly look like you need this," she reprimands gently and begins to rock herself and her son with light movements as they sit there, hugging each other desperately. True, she does worry for her little angel, but seeing the older version of her Sasuke looking so sad and shaken, she can't help but feel the strong urge to comfort him.
She carefully takes a moment to inspect him more closely. He's clearly grown into a powerful man, if his strong chakra is anything to go by. He still has the same colour of hair as he has as a child, she muses as she pats it, and it's as spiky as ever. His long, black cloak hides most of his body, so she's not sure how much his physique resembles his father, but surely he must have the same, lightly muscular body as Fugaku-
Her heart stops for a moment as she her right hand finds void place when she reaches his left side.
"Where is your left arm, Sasuke?"
The question sends a strange kind of panic among the two other Uchiha man in the room and they approach them. She feels Sasuke winces slightly.
"Aah. I… lost it. A replacement was offered, though, but I didn't want it. My missing arm is the reminder of my past crimes."
…
Hugging his mother, after so many years, causes him to feel myriad of emotions, but the strongest is sadness. How much he missed feeling the warmness of her body, her caresses and the sweet floral scent of her perfume, he has just realised. She is smaller than he remembers, but that's something expected, seeing how he is now a grown-up man and she's a female, causing her to be tinier than him. Still, being able to wrap his arm around her and feeling her almost disappearing in his embrace feels strange. Her voice is as enchanting as it was so long time ago and he's certain that with her lullabies, he'd have no nightmares or troubles with sleeping.
Goddammit, he missed his mother so much that it almost hurts.
"What crimes, Sasuke?" she pries gently and leans away from their embrace in order to lift his black cape and see the place of her son's missing arm. What catches her attention is the Konoha forehead protector hanging from his belt, with a horizontal slash in the middle of it. Her eyes widen in realisation.
"Oh."
He also leans back, his legs crossed as he reaches and touches his hitai-ate, memories come back in a rush.
"It's fine," he says finally. "The current Hokage and his successor had already pardoned my crimes. I'm free to go back to Konoha."
"But you don't want," the voice of his much younger brother fills in the silence after his speech. Even the younger Itachi seems to know him well.
"No. I'd committed too many wrong deeds to just settle down in Konoha. I wanted to show atonement, so currently, I'm wandering around the Elemental Nations, helping people and protecting the village only from the shadows."
Sasuke is pulled into another warm hug and he lays his forehead to his mother's shoulder once again.
"You're a brave boy, Sasuke, but don't cause too much misery for yourself. You're a human, too, and we all make mistakes. Nevertheless, you also deserve happiness.
"Say, how old are you right now?" Mikoto asks.
"Twenty-one."
"Still so young… Are you alone during your travelling or at least someone is with you?"
Sasuke's right eye flickers to his mother's black ones and she swears she saw the tiniest amount of blush on his face.
"My wife," he mumbles as he buries his face in her shoulder again and Mikoto can feel her eyes widen. She leans away from their hug and claps her hands together in front of her chest.
(Sasuke feels faintly betrayed, as his currently slightly flushed face is now visible to his father and his brother.)
"Oh! You're married! Congratulation, Sasuke," she smiles. Her face shines with mirth. "What kind of person is she?"
"Is she worthy to the Uchiha name?" his father's voice interrupts and Sasuke feels nostalgia. He hasn't heard his voice in a long time.
Sasuke nods, "She is. Sakura – my wife – is one of the strongest kunoichi in all of the Elemental Nations, and the second best med-nin. She was the apprentice of one of the future Hokage and holds great influence in politics because of it. She can be annoying, violent and sometimes overly loud. But," his lips curl upwards slightly. "She's really kind and protective of her precious people," he hesitates a little before the next words. "I care for her."
"But not love?" Mikoto asks quietly. Sasuke shakes his head slightly.
"I've long lost the ability to love someone, Kaa-san. Ever since that night…" he realises something hastily and wisely quietens himself. He really shouldn't tell so much about the future, even if the chances that his past self may have a better future ahead of him. The information he's told them are already bad enough, he cannot allow to slip even more. Sasuke will seriously have a world or two with Sakura for causing him this difficult situation.
Mikoto exchanges a glance with her husband. Fugaku tilts his head slightly before looking directly at his son's eye.
"How is the clan, Sasuke?"
He just stares for a few moments at his father before he answers.
"Very few of members."
Fugaku furrows his brows as he becomes more and more certain about what could've possibly happened in his future son's past.
"Elaborate," he commands. Sasuke feels renewed respect towards his father – no doubt he was made for leading. Something about his sheer presence and tone tells him to answer. And he just does that unconsciously, swearing for his momentary carelessness at a later date.
"Currently, I'm the only alive Uchiha the Elemental Nations know."
Sasuke, when he sees the (understandable) shock on his family members' face, decides to drop another bombshell.
"What they don't know is that another one is on her way to this world."
This causes Mikoto to overcome her shock and moments later she squeals excitedly.
"You mean… I'm about to become a grandmother?"
It is a bit worrying how seemingly easily she got over the fact that literally there's no Uchiha clan anymore, but the shine in her eyes makes Sasuke to forget it. He nods.
"Sakura is eight months pregnant with our daughter, Sarada."
Silence overtakes their conversation.
"'Sarada'?" Itachi asks amusedly.
"… why are you naming your daughter as salad?" Fugaku asks hesitantly. Surely his son doesn't like tomato salad so much to commit such a foolish deed, right?
Embarrassment crosses Sasuke's face and the next moments, Mikoto along with Fugaku and Itachi ascertains that he's truly our Sasuke, because the pouting expression he puts on is exactly like his younger version's.
"The name does not come from 'salad', no matter how much I like tomato salad. Her name comes from an ancient goddess of wisdom and arts, Saraswati."
Mikoto's lips quirks at his pouting tone because finally she found something that resembles to her little angel. It's ephemeral as she notices the worried and sad expression.
"What will I do if I can't love her, Kaa-san? That girl…. she certainly doesn't deserve that."
She's still debating in her mind as to how to tell her son that no matter what he thinks, the love of a parent for their child comes unconsciously and naturally, when Itachi solves the problem.
Poke.
Sasuke's eye widens and snaps his head upwards when he feels the familiar pressure on his forehead. Staring dumbly at his twelve years old brother (he's older, dammit, how comes Itachi can still just go and poke on his forehead?), he raises his right hand to massage the sore point. Itachi smiles, as gently and kindly as the times when he departed.
"Everything will be fine, Sasuke. Have a little faith in yourself. You will come to love your daughter, just as much as I did the moment I could hold you in my arms when you were born."
The same words as Sakura's, yet how is it possible that he can finally believe in them?
"Heh."
Sasuke looks down to shield his (slightly dampened) eyes.
"Thanks, Nii-san."
He missed his brother, too. What he wouldn't give to have them back to life…
"It's almost time to leave," he says when he feels sure enough that he won't have shaking voice.
Mikoto quickly pulls her son in another bear hug and whispers into his ears, "We love you, Sasuke. Live a long and happy life, for our sake, too."
"Kaa-san… and Tou-san. Just one more thing," he really shouldn't be the one who tell this, but he has to.
"Sometimes, a long conversation is better than fighting."
Mikoto squeezes her hug just when he is covered with purple smoke again and the sleeping form of the young Sasuke appears in her arms. She watches for long minutes his peaceful expression, without any hint of misery, and his little chest as it rises and falls, before turning to her husband, uncharacteristic seriousness flows from her.
"I think it's about to think over this plan thoroughly. And talk with the Hokage earnestly, pride be damned."
Because she will see flying pigs earlier than let either of her sons have this kind of sad and cruel fate. She can't save the older Sasuke anymore, but there's still hope for the younger one.
…
~Omake~
…
The moment Sakura sees the younger, sleeping version of her husband, she slaps a hand over the mouth of a certain redhead instinctively. Sure enough, a muffed squeal is heard behind her hand. She glares daggers at the woman.
"Damn it Karin, are you that out of your mind? Do you really want to risk waking up Sasuke-kun?" she whispers harshly.
She faintly realises that this was not written in that scroll. It was indicated that it's not advised to use in battles, but to think that another body (a younger one, on top of that) will appear certainly is a surprise. But really, it shouldn't have been, seeing as there were the characters for 'replacement' inside the scroll.
The redhead returns the glare just as heatedly as she pulls away Sakura's hand and retorts (quietly, of course).
"Shut up, pinky. There's no way I wouldn't scream if I can see such a cute version of Sasuke."
Sakura rolls her eyes as she nears the boy. Said boy is cutely sits next to a lab desk (where Sasuke-kun sat earlier) while his left cheek is propped on top of it. Small stripe of saliva is coming out of his mouth, creating a tiny puddle on the table top.
"I wonder if my child will be just as cute as he was," Sakura muses and places a hand over her swollen belly. Karin snorts in an unladylike manner.
"As if she will be this cute, she is your child. It's bound to be ugly, so don't get your hopes up."
Sakura looks at her with a raised eyebrow and the redhead realises her mistake.
"Oh, no. Scratch that. She's Sasuke's daughter, she won't be anything else than beautiful. You should feel lucky, ya know."
Sakura chuckles lightly, "Yeah sure." While they aren't the best of friends, the two kunoichi have learned to tolerate each other and know when the other teases the other. Sakura's sure that it's the case this time, too.
She catches a glimpse of the small rice on his cheeks and she resists the urge to coo over the cuteness and the need to wipe it off. That would cause him to awake and it's better if he just sleeps through this twenty minutes.
Luckily, no accident happened while waiting and Sasuke arrives safely. When he sees Sakura, he reaches out and pulls closer her to him while putting his right hand over her belly. Karin leaves the room to allow them privacy, muttering 'You should be grateful that I want Sasuke to be happy and won't bitching' sullenly.
Sasuke places his right ear over the place where Sakura's heart is, listening to the rhythmical beating. He found out recently that this is one of the only sounds that can calm him down – the proof that she is alive and well. Over the time they travelled together, she unconsciously became his most precious person, and even if he can't quite love her, she's the one he cares most.
"Thank you," for giving me a chance to meet with them.
Bewildered, she looks down, "For what, Sasuke-kun?"
He doesn't answer and instead glares at her.
"How did you know I was thinking about the past? Why did you even throw that damn scroll at me? I just made some serious changes, Sakura."
His wife smiles sadly and her eyes soften.
"The anniversary of your parents' death is here soon, Sasuke-kun. It wasn't hard guess what you think so often latterly. And your face told me everything. I know you enough now to realise what different expressions mean what," she answers, raking her hand through his hair and revealing his Rinnegan left eye.
"Hn," he grumbles and pulls (carefully, avoiding putting pressure on her abdomen) into a tight hug and rests his head on the same spot as before.
"By the way, you were very cute as a child, Darling," she says sweetly and he practically feels her smirk as his eyes twitch.
She can be really annoying.
…
~END~
…
A/N: And thus, canon became non-massacre AU! :D (Because Mama Bear Mikoto will protect her sons)
A few facts about the fanfic:
1) I do not know where the name Sarada comes from. (I read the 'Saraswati' version first and liked it the best, so I'll stick with it. And naming your child as salad is seriously degrading, in my opinion.) Also, in Naruto, there are a lot of characters/jutsus that have the name of a god/goddess, so I think it fits, too. (Eg. Mikoto, Kushina, Susanoo, Amaterasu, Izuna etc)
2) Sasuke may seem OOC, but I think if someone would be able to draw emotions out of him, it'd be Mikoto, Itachi or Fugaku (tho I'm not sure of the latter). So he's a little expressive here but that's due to being with his (long lost) family.
3) Sasuke, Sakura and Karin were in one of Orochimaru's laboratory, as Sakura's due date is nears. (canon information! :D)
4) Lambo's (KHR) Ten Year Bazooka was influential on my imagination when I searched for a method for time travel.
5) Fugaku and the clan have been planning the coup by now, that's what I meant when he thought he kind of know what could've happened in Sasuke's past (the coup wasn't successful).
On a side note, I've always liked Mikoto. A kind, loving and understanding mother, so perfect for both Itachi and Sasuke. (Because, seriously, they needed someone like her so much in the middle of the stuck-up, overly prideful Uchiha clan (don't get me wrong, I still love them, they are my favourite clan. But they can be morons sometimes…))
Posted: 31/03/2017