Kei-Kei Yuki: Now before some of you get started with me for creating a new story, this is not a new story, yet a story which I once posted over here, yet deleted it. But I kept it posted over on ao3 and have recently decided to continue it, though with some changes. First off let me say, there will be no Boruto Generation. What do I mean? Meaning none of the kids in canon will appear in this story, since some of them, even though I tried, just didn't fit within my story. Really you guys, I tried as I know some of you hate OC's. This is a parallel universe, so in a way, the OC's kids are opposite counterparts from their canon counterparts.
A/N: Also, with permission, I borrowed a few kids/characters from fanart I've seen over on DeviantArt and will post the link to those pictures down below when they appear in certain chapters. I'm also combining this fic with: This Is Our World, Through Our Eyes. Question and this is for all the reader's decisions, but should Kakashi and Iruka have a child in this fic? Yes or No?
Pairings: Naruko x Sasuke, Fem!Iruka x Kakashi, Sakura x Lee, Hinata x Kiba, and the rest are canon.
Beta: Ana-DaughterofHades
Prolong-Sasuke and Naruko: Final Battle
Landmarks were destroyed, the sun sat on the horizon, and the tired, bloodied, and beaten down shinobi's lied resting next to each other, each sporting a missing arm. Before the final clash, each remembered the first time they ever took in the other's existence.
A little blonde girl was racing to meet Iruka at Ichiraku, when she paused, spotting a boy around her age sitting all by his himself. His presence emitted a strong familiar sense of loneliness. Naruko remembered standing there, just staring at the boy, and suddenly, she felt a connection to him. A small part of her wanted to reach out to that lonely little boy, but when he saw her, he frowned at her presence, causing her to retract her footsteps. Sticking her tongue out at the rude boy, she had continued on to her destination.
For Sasuke, it was after classes had finished at the academy and all the parents came to pick up their children. Sasuke was about to make his way home by himself when he spotted her. A lonely little girl, sitting on the swings. She watched as parents and siblings came and picked up the other children, while she had no one. Sasuke found himself lost in the depth of her eyes, a bright shade of blue whose beauty was outshined by the pain of loneliness that filled her heart.
"You know, when I first saw you, I thought you were a pretty girl." Despite not being able to lift a finger, Naruko still had the energy to tease him.
"... Dumbass." Sasuke briefly closed his eyes, missing the old days when they used to casually bicker and argue with each other. The days where she would break into his apartment, babbling her mouth off at him, taking over his kitchen, and afterward would drag him off to train together. Sasuke never understood Naruko's sudden interest to grow closer to him, shortly after they were assigned to the same team. When he had questioned her if she was growing feelings for him like Sakura, this earned him a hard kick in the balls and a black eye.
'Why the hell would I like a girly bastard like you?!' she angrily yelled at his face, eyes of disgust pointed at him. Sasuke was satisfied, able to confirm that she definitely had no stupid romantic affections for him, but that still left questions unanswered. Even after all this time, he still wondered what her motivation and intention of growing closer to him were. In the academy, Naruko wore her grudge and hatred towards him like a badge of honor.
"Ne, want to know why I suddenly appeared in your apartment that one day when we were still genin? Why I suddenly decided to grow closer to you, despite my strong feelings of distaste towards you?" Naruko always had this strange ability to be able to read his mind, so Sasuke wasn't shocked when she voiced his feelings out loud.
"It was after the day I had confronted Kakashi-sensei. I told him how people's eyes speak to me and how I saw darkness lurking in yours. That if something wasn't done, I was afraid of the road you may walk down in the future. I couldn't let you descend into darkness, not before I defeated you fair and square. But mostly because you are my teammate, my friend, and above all... my most special person." The sincerity in her eyes, the genuine emotion expressed in her voice, her heartfelt actions, was all too much for Sasuke.
To have one person risk so much on his behalf. To go through so much effort, pain, and heartache just to save him. There was only one other person who would risk so much for his sake and that was Itachi, but even he was gone. Sasuke had lost so much in his life that nothing but darkness was left to consume him, but... Darkness cannot stand without the Light.
Sasuke than remembered the words she had said during their last confrontation. "'I promise, Sasuke, I'll bring happiness and warmth into your life! No matter what obstacle I'll have to face. I'll show you that no matter how dark and cruel this world can be, there is hope! Because without you, there's no me. The day you die, I'll die alongside with you." Sasuke remembered how he scoffed at her words, turning his back towards her. He thought of Naruko as naive, foolish, someone who did not understand the cruelty of the world. Though now that he thought back on it, it wasn't Naruko who was the naive and foolish one, it was him.
"Just what am I to you anyway?!" Sasuke remembered screaming at her during the first battle that they fought. She bared her fangs at him; her whisker birthmarks had deepened, red angry kitsune eyes glaring at him.
"You are someone important to me, you dumbass bastard!" she yelled, before charging at him. Now that Sasuke thought about it, Naruko had always considered him someone important to her, not simply just her friend, but someone special.
"What the hell do you want from me? Just why are you so fixated on me?!"
"Even after all this time, you still don't know, just how special you are to me, Uchiha Sasuke."
"You know, First Lady-obaachan said to me that we are bound by a bond stronger than friendship. That no matter how many times we are reborn, no matter what world we are born into, we will always be bound together. Simply because one cannot live without the other. We are inseparable, bastard. So I will always chase after you, Sasuke. Always." Naruko closed her eyes and uttered softly.
Sasuke remembered how he once viewed Naruko as an annoyance, who everytime he turned his head there she was in all her bright orange glory. Pulling pranks, goofing off, and causing trouble, only to be scolded and yelled at by Iruka-sensei, who was the only one able to catch the sneaky little prankster.
After they became a team and the more time he started to spend with Naruko, memories of his family started to resurface. Memories that he thought he buried deep down in his heart. Soon he started to view the members of Team Seven as his family. They became important to him. He wanted to protect them. He wanted to protect her. He couldn't see her get hurt. He couldn't see himself living on without her. These were all emotions that he tried to bury, to wipe away, but nevertheless, they still existed.
She always tried to so hard to gain others' attention, always fought so hard to prove herself, pushing herself to become stronger but not for the sake of power. She did everything so she could protect those who she held dear, to gain the recognition of the villagers, and... to save him.
"I... lost."
"Hehehe, finally the great Uchiha Sasuke falls to the defeat of the awesome Uzumaki Naruko!" Naruko grinned. It was the same grin that always replayed in his head when he thought about all the bonds that he had severed When his past came to hunt him. When the pain became unbearable. Just thinking of Naruko made everything vanish and be replaced with warmth. It was a weakness he once tried to destroy, but Naruko made that impossible, by always reaching out to him. Despite all the things he had done, she never once gave up on him, nor would she ever.
"Oh, by the way, Sasuke..."
"Hn." Sasuke honestly didn't know how Naruko still had the strength and energy to talk, knowing she was feeling just as much pain as he was currently.
"Did ya really have to cut my hair, ya stinking bastard?!" True enough, amidst their battle, Sasuke had managed to slice the long blonde locks that Naruko had grown out. Now her hair barely even reached her shoulders and was cut unevenly. "That ass is so mine when we get back, ya girly-haired bastard!" yelled the angry blonde. Sasuke held back a chuckle at how familiar everything felt and simply replied with,
"Hn." Sasuke smirked before adding, "Whatever you say, dobe."
End of Prolong