Disclaimer: Not for profit, and I frown upon that kind of thing.
Mistakes and Mochi
*Mochi - Japanese rice cake made when rice is pounded into a paste, traditionally made and eaten for New Years and the ceremony mochitsuki. The way I am using mochi in this fic is actually referring to Mochi Ice Cream, where ice cream is stuffed in a soft mochi wrap and eaten as a dessert. These are two very different things, but in this fic for simplicity I will refer to mochi ice cream as just mochi. if you are interested in finding out what mochi ice cream tastes like, head over to your neighborhood Trader Joes, they have it in the ice cream section!
CHAPTER 1: The Death of a Princess
The entire village mourned for her.
As soon as the news came it was like a desolate fog settled in the air, swirling around the villagers and choking the joy from them. Sasuke could feel it too, couldn't escape the cloying grief surrounding him even if he'd wanted to. It's suffocating; and the cruel, hardened part of him that would never really go away just wished they could all move on.
All Konoha shinobi were assembled and briefed as soon as the messenger arrived with the news. Normally, Sasuke suspected that the Hokage had the duty of relaying this kind of information to his or her subordinates, but it was impossible to expect him to be able to do it, given the circumstances. When Tsunade showed up instead a murmur passed through the gathered crowd. Beside him Sakura frowned, sitting up straighter in her seat. As soon as the Fifth Hokage delivered the news Sakura dissolved to disbelieving gasps, and then tears.
"I have to go see him," she'd announced, glancing Sasuke's way. He was stunned himself, silently calculating the effects of this news and trying in vain to sort through his emotions. Sasuke caught her eye and his throat closed off. He nodded, but stayed where he was. She gave him a look—it may have been disappointment, or grief—and the next moment she was gone.
Sasuke couldn't stay any longer than her, but left on his own, to be alone and process. He was no stranger to death, but picturing her face in his mind he couldn't imagine her no longer alive. It troubled him.
That was when he noticed that the air in the village had turned stale and cold, how no one spoke above a whisper and hung their heads low in their own private sadness. Word had spread quickly, and in their hushed voices they spoke of her like they had known her themselves.
"The eldest daughter of the Hyuga Clan," some called her. "She was so young. What a terrible tragedy."
"No! Not the Hokage's wife! Such a sweet, quiet thing. Tell me it isn't true!" Others knew her in tandem with him, had seen her glowing and smiling by his side as he floated through the village just the way he was always meant to, Hokage robes billowing around his ankles, hair a shocking halo of light, bright as the sun.
"And our young Hokage's son," they said, for once not even noticing the last Uchiha walking just behind them. "What became of him? Tell me he isn't dead, too!"
"No, kidnapped! They attacked her and the boy on their way back here from Sunagakure! She gave her life to protect him, is what I heard."
So that's where he is, Sasuke thought. Surely he left as soon as he got the news, went to rescue their son and avenge his wife's death. Sasuke couldn't picture him as an avenger, with hate filling those blue eyes and corrupting his pure, white soul. He couldn't think about it, had to think of something else.
Except—
The only thing he could think of is so dark and twisted and wrong and awful that he couldn't even let himself think it. He closed his eyes as soon as he reached his apartment, sinking to the couch and letting his hair fall into his face when he lied down, trying desperately not to think the terrible thing.
A terrible sound started, slowly echoing louder and louder as he lied there. He knew what it was, but the sound of it still sent shivers up his spine. Their howling was uncontained, raw grief in pure sound form.
He couldn't imagine how the rest of the village was handling the dueling howls, synching together in their combined sorrow. They were too much to escape; he could do nothing but lie there and try in vain to stop picturing her, stop thinking about the anguish in Kiba and Akamaru's howls, how their throats must burn with the intensity of each long, pain-filled wail.
He must have fallen asleep at some point, though he didn't remember it happening, because the next thing he knew there's frantic knocking at his door. The howling had stopped.
Bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam!
No pattern or method, just incessant knocking, and he should have known who it was before he opened the door but he didn't, and the sight of him catches Sasuke completely off guard.
It's not as though he hadn't seen Naruto—he's the Hokage, Sasuke saw him every time he was given a new mission—it was just the first time in a long time he saw Naruto as raw and broken as he was now.
His eyes were red and watery, messy streaks down his face where tears had splattered. The edges of his sleeves were dirty, his hair unruly and lackluster with no hat or forehead protector to tame it. He was wearing his old clothes, the ones he wore before he became the leader of the village, before he became a husband and father. It's almost too much to bear.
"Sasuke!" he said as soon as he opened the door. His voice cracked and broke, like he'd spent all day screaming his throat raw. He looked exhausted. Sasuke didn't know why he was there.
There's something manic in his expression, in the way he clenched his fists and jaw when he looked into Sasuke's eyes. Something deep in Sasuke that he thought he'd killed burnt with life, but he pushed it aside and let him in.
"I'm sorry," was the first thing that he managed to say, and it sounded pitiful and wrong even to his ears, and he winced in time with Naruto. They stood awkwardly in the entrance hall, because Naruto must be there for a reason, right? He wouldn't have come to Sasuke's apartment the day he found out his wife was dead for no reason.
"I—" he started, and Sasuke didn't know where to stand or look, whether he should just pretend the past few years never happened, pretend like that night never—
"I have a mission for you," he finally croaked out, avoiding Sasuke's gaze. He stared towards the ground, bangs obscuring his eyes. "They won't let me go. They won't let me go get Nori back."
It took Sasuke longer than he would like to admit to piece together that Nori was the name of Naruto's…son. He'd seen the kid plenty of times, sitting in Naruto's lap, running around the village, or held in his mother's arms. Sasuke tried not to think about it, because thinking about it for too long revealed his truth—he wasn't a good person. He thought he had come to terms with it years ago but when he saw that child, blond like his father with pale Hyuuga eyes from his mother, his stomach curdled and burnt, and he couldn't think about why.
He asked himself time and time again why he stayed in the village and could never find an answer he liked. It was like he was drawn there, like gravity kept him prisoner in a place where he was faced with his mistakes every day and every day grew to hate himself a little more.
"They're making me take a break from Hokage duties. Kakashi's taking over," Naruto explained, though every word sounded like it was gasped from a parched throat.
"Why?" Sasuke found himself asking, still trying to process why Naruto was there, in his apartment, after all this time.
"I'm too emotional," he gritted his teeth, twisting his sleeve as he tightened a hand around his arm. "They think I'm gonna do something rash. If I go to get Nori back I'll—"
He hesitated, and Sasuke thought about him getting revenge against the people who murdered his wife and kidnapped his child and shivered—he couldn't imagine the rage Naruto could muster if he really meant it. Maybe the elders were right not to send him, if just to keep him safe.
"I don't know what I'd do," he grunted. "It doesn't matter. They won't let me go. They won't listen. Neji can't go either. They've got him locked up until he calms down."
"What about you?" Sasuke wasn't sure exactly what he was asking, but it came out all on it's own. He could still read Naruto, even after all this time. Sometimes he thought he could read Naruto's emotions better than he could read his own.
"I'm—" Naruto swallowed thickly and winced. Sasuke wanted to yell at him for abusing himself so badly, for stubbornly coming to see him after all this time, and for something like this. "I just want my son back. Sasuke, please."
He finally caught Sasuke's gaze and Sasuke had never seen so much fear in someone's face. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Naruto was feeling—a man who just lost his wife and is unable go to his child. Sasuke could never understand that, and he felt the terrible thought trying to taunt him again.
"You're one of the only people I trust to bring him home safe. I know this is—it's a lot to ask. From you, especially, after—I know—" he trailed off, biting his lip and turning back to the ground.
"I'll go," Sasuke replied.
He had a feeling he was going to regret it, but maybe if he saved her son he wouldn't feel like he owed her so much.
It wasn't a normal mission. Sasuke wasn't even sure it was sanctioned by Kakashi, who was working as the Hokage while they forced Naruto on a break.
He was ready in minutes and arrived at the exit of the village in time with his other teammates. He'd expected the two of them to be going with him, and they didn't seem all that surprised to see him there either. No one said a word. They nodded to each other and Akamaru let out a low whine, stopping instantly when Kiba placed a hand on his fur and climbed onto him. The Inuzuka had tearstains running down his cheeks to match Naruto's and Sasuke felt like he could still hear the haunting echo of the howls.
He glanced at the last member of their team.
Shino wore no expression, face obscured by his usual glasses and hood. And yet Sasuke could feel intense anger coming off of him in waves. His skin seemed to vibrate, clacking beneath his clothes, like he was just anxious to kill whoever had dared harm his gentle, innocent teammate.
Sasuke knew they were surely worried about her son, too. The child must know them better than any other genin. They probably visited their old teammate constantly, checking in on her condition and playing with her child. Their anger towards the murderers who'd killed her could only be intensified at the knowledge that the same nin were the ones holding her one and only offspring.
He would let them take care of the boy when it came time to collect him. Surely the child would panic at the sight of Sasuke—just another stranger in his eyes.
Sasuke would take care of the ninja holding him. He wasn't worried about the mission, or the enemies they were facing. He hadn't had a real fight since the last time he and Naruto sparred—and he could barely remember how many years had passed since then.
The enemies were Shinobi from a small, very recently formed village that the reconnaissance nin claimed to be called Dorogakure, Village Hidden in Mud. It was settled in Land of Rivers, just on the border of Land of Fire. She and the child had to cross through the area on their way back from Sungakure, unaware that Dorogakure had recently been formed by a group of outlaws with no ties to any other countries or villages. They discovered her identity and the identity of her son and foolishly decided to use them as hostages to overtake Konoha. They had killed her when she tried to fight them and escape, had outnumbered her and used her son to weaken her resolve.
Only one in their party had been allowed to leave, a Hyuuga who'd been escorting them back to the village, and he'd brought the news back to Konoha, as well as informing them that the Dorogakure nin had killed every other shinobi in their group and taken the child hostage, awaiting a response from the Hokage.
Sasuke couldn't imagine the kinds of idiots in this so-called village. They'd had no idea what they were getting themselves into, and murdering her was the one thing that sealed their fate. Even without his own, albeit twisted, desire to avenge her death, he was sure Kiba and Shino had plans of their own for her murderers.
He wished it weren't that way, but he was relieved that Naruto was being held back, being kept a great distance from the people who took his wife from him.
Naruto Uzumaki had forgiven a great number of unforgivable acts and irredeemable souls in his lifetime but he was human and if there was one thing Sasuke understood it was revenge and the way it ate at your mind until there was barely anything left.
He wouldn't wish it on anyone, least of all Naruto.
It didn't bother him much; he was already too far gone. He just couldn't get her face out of his mind. It was like every time he closed his eyes he saw her and it felt like the guilt would eat him alive.
"Sasuke… Thank you," he'd said, shoulders and eyelids drooping like they'd been held up by strings. He was exhausted, but had come all the way out to ask Sasuke personally to bring his son back. After all this time, after everything Sasuke had done to drive them apart, Naruto still trusted him that much.
"Don't mention it," he replied, and looked away because the guilt threatened to swallow him whole. After all this time…and Sasuke still wanted him.
He shook the thoughts away and leapt over a winding branch, following close behind Kiba and Shino. They were moving fast, nothing to slow them down and enough conviction between the three of them to keep them going until they reached their destination. Sasuke had no doubts that the mission would be complete by the end of the night.
The terrain changed quickly as they moved, muggier and warmer, with less hills than were around Konoha. It was unfamiliar land, though each of them had been through the area before they had never stopped long enough to have a good sense of the place. It was a disadvantage, but one they knew they would have to risk.
Naruto had given him instructions to find Dorogakure before he'd gone, and Shino and Kiba had clearly been informed as well. The instructions were vague, as the village was hidden and new, and no one truly knew where the village's nin were staying. They came upon a river, the water a murky brown, just as Naruto had described it would be.
"I went through this place once, with Jiraiya. It's just on the outside of Land of Fire and I remember that there were a lot of rivers, all coming together from different directions. Jiraiya kept trying to explain how each one had different water because it came from different places but I wasn't paying attention. We think this Dorogakure place is right where the brown and yellow rivers meet, because that's closest to where—to—"
"The place they were attacked," Sasuke finished, eager to head out and begin the mission.
Naruto nodded. Sasuke could barely believe he could keep his head up; he looked too exhausted to be capable of it. He knew that Naruto wouldn't be able to sleep until he knew the fate of his son, but he wished he could force him to get some rest anyway.
"Once you reach the meeting of the rivers you'll have to find the rest of the way on your own."
They followed the brown river barely an hour before it widened and the sounds of another river joining with it could be heard. They stayed in the trees because the mud was thick and would only slow them down. Akamaru paused and both he and Kiba sniffed the air. Sasuke saw the fur on Akamaru's back rise as he started to growl.
"We're close," Shino murmured. Sasuke could sense his bloodlust and felt his own adrenaline rushing, ready for a fight. He hoped it wouldn't be over too quickly.
They moved carefully and quietly, the light from the moon and stars obscured by the canopy of trees overhead. The loudest sound was the rushing of the water. Sasuke could hear plenty of bugs but none seemed to bother them; he wondered how much control Shino had over bugs that weren't his family's.
"Where are they?" Kiba snarled. They'd reached a wide bank and the trees tapered off as they moved towards the water. The ground shifted beneath their feet. Sasuke focused a small amount of chakra to keep himself from slipping.
It bothered him how barren it seemed, no buildings or bases anywhere, not even any bridges to cross over the water. Something flashed in his memory—Orochimaru's hideouts hadn't been easy to see from above either. Below the mud?
He hadn't thought he would need to, but he activated his sharingan. It was just in time to notice the pinpoints of chakra surrounding them before the mud began to move.
"They're underground. Look out!" He shouted, leaping into the air as a muddy hand sprang from the ground trying to latch around his ankle. He landed on a grassy bank; Kiba and Akamaru in a small tree while Shino swarmed bugs around his feet to keep the mud away. It seemed like the mud itself moved, took shape and separated from the pits of mud all around them. The enemy ninja rose from the ground and other emerged dripping and deformed from the water.
They're like Suigetsu, Sasuke realized as the shinobi closest to him formed an arm out of mud where none had been before. Their clothing and skin was mud-covered, even the ones who had come from the river. There were about twenty that had revealed themselves and he could sense more underground—he had been right about a hidden base—they wore no headbands or village markers that he could see, but it had to be them.
"You're the Dorogakure nin?" he asked. Akamaru growled and barked.
"So the Konoha's Hokage has sent you to negotiate," one of the mud-covered ninja spoke up. He looked no different than all the others, and was standing a bit back, closer to the water.
"The famous, last Uchiha," he continued, smirking. Sasuke glared.
"There will be no negotiations. Our mission is simple: retrieve the Hokage's son at any cost. Get rid of any who might be in the way." Akamaru barked twice.
"Just here for the boy? You aren't here to disband Dorogakure?" he was still smirking, and it was starting to really piss Sasuke off. He could sense the tingling of electricity underneath his skin, feel his chakra building. "Does Konoha's leader only care about himself, not the good of the people?"
"Land of Fire and Land of Rivers will deal with you later. It isn't our concern," Shino replied, and Sasuke glanced his way to find that he had already made his move. Good, then Sasuke would stop waiting around too.
Everything happened at once: three of the Mud nin dropped to the ground screaming, Akamaru leapt forward with Kiba just behind him and locked his jaws on one of their necks. Sasuke saw an opportunity and moved swiftly to the one who had been talking. He had a hand around the man's throat before he could even stop smirking.
"Where is the boy?" he asked, squeezing tight as the sounds of screams and squishing mud filled his ears. The shinobi started to melt back into mud, to the ground, but Sasuke activated amaterasu in time to stop him before he went down all the way. He screamed as the black flames licked his body. Another enemy tried to attack him and Sasuke pushed the ninja into him, catching him on fire as well.
Just before he fell to the ground he glanced back towards the largest part of the river and Sasuke followed his gaze. He squinted in the darkness and at a distance saw a structure in the water—a dam, naturally made with sticks and logs. It must have been blocking the entrance to their underground building. He turned to tell Shino but found the bug-nin otherwise engaged. There were two Mud nin writhing on the ground, swarmed by bugs. Sasuke had never seen Shino so brutal.
"Did you kill her?" Kiba screamed, clawing at a man with an already bloodied face as his dog ripped into a man lying on the ground.
Sasuke was beginning to think there would be nothing left of Dorgakure once they were finished with it. It was better that way—her murderers would be wiped off the planet and Naruto would never need to face it himself. He couldn't imagine what might have happened if Neji was there with them.
"Kiba, the entrance—" he tried to say, but it seemed the dog nin couldn't hear him, so caught up in his own fight. Sasuke deflected an attack aimed at him with his katana, sheathing it without hesitation and glancing from his companions to the dam where surely Naruto's son was being held. He started towards it himself, allowing Shino and Kiba their bloody revenge, then paused.
He was on the mission for Naruto, but he was on it for himself too, to make himself feel even with her, less guilty, somehow. He didn't know if he could face rescuing her son. He had expected Shino or Kiba to take care of that as he bloodied his own hands in the name of making things right for her. Still, he couldn't leave the child…
He started towards the dam slowly, keeping watch for any other enemies, and then suddenly a huge wave of chakra came rushing over him—from the direction of the dam.
He heard a scream, a child's scream, and his body moved on it's own, racing to the widest part of the river and over the dam, searching frantically to find the entrance. He blasted apart the dam with a fireball and found a hidden door leading down, underneath the water. His heart was pounding in his ears; if something happened to the child, if Sasuke was too late to save him, if somehow he didn't—
"Nori is all I have now. Please, Sasuke, I—I'm begging! Bring him back to me no matter what!"
Sasuke raced through the hallways, using the terrible power of the chakra as a guide until he could hear a commotion at the end of a hallway. The walls were shattered and the ceilings were rattling with the power coming from the room. A few of the Dorogakure nin were fleeing from something and Sasuke felt his mouth going dry as he raced closer, turning a corner into a room to see what was responsible for the immense chakra. It wasn't what he had expected.
Sasuke had seen Nori plenty of times. The first time he saw him was in Naruto's office, asleep in his mother's arms. He was only a week old, and when Sasuke entered the room to deliver a report Naruto had been smiling the softest, happiest smile Sasuke had ever seen while staring at the bundle in his wife's arms. He was shocked, even though he knew he shouldn't have been. Everyone had been waiting for Hinata to pop and the news had travelled fast when she had finally given birth a week before. But, hearing about Naruto's child and seeing him were two very different things. Naruto had turned to him with bright, excited eyes, like he couldn't wait to show Sasuke his baby and Sasuke had quickly nodded, bowed and left with the excuse that he would return later, pretending as he left that he couldn't see the hurt in his Hokage's eyes.
Once, he had promised to spend time with Sakura, only to show up at her house to find her playing with the child on the floor. She smiled and said that Naruto and Hinata left him with her so they could have a night off, and she was glad Sasuke was there so he could help her watch him. One look at the tiny boy with Naruto's bright blond hair and he had to leave, made excuses that he knew Sakura could see through, went home and drank until he couldn't think about the past anymore.
Sasuke ran into mother and child in the village time and again, on the street and in the grocery store. She always smiled kindly and said hello, instructing the child to do the same once he was old enough. Every time Sasuke looked at him he hid himself behind his mother's legs and murmured hello in a tiny, nervous voice. Sasuke's chest ached every single time it happened, until he took to going grocery shopping late at night so they surely wouldn't be there.
The child spent time in Naruto office often, with and without his mother. He hid behind his father instead of mother when Sasuke appeared, peering up at him with wide, pale eyes. Seeing them together was the worst.
He may have inherited his mother's kekkei genkai but the shape of his eyes was just the same as Naruto. His hair was longer, but spiked the same way Naruto's did, and was the same shade of blond. He was timid, at least whenever Sasuke saw him, with a sweet disposition and a calm demeanor. That was the child Sasuke remembered.
This was not that child.
The child before him was more monster than boy, with chakra swirling about him like whips, crashing into the walls and ceilings and taking chunks out everywhere they touched. The boy's hair no longer drooped but stood upright with the force of the power swirling around him. His byakugan wasn't activated but he was on all fours in the center of the room, mouth open and fangs bared. One of the whips of chakra surged red and bubbly, and he understood what was happening in an instant.
All thoughts of Naruto and Hinata flew from his mind—Nori was the one who was in danger. The sweet boy he knew before had been replaced by an out of control beast, and if he didn't stop it soon he would be hurt by his own power. He could already see the strain it was putting on his body—he would probably sleep for days once it was over. Sasuke didn't know how or why, but somehow the child had access to all nine Tailed Beasts, and they were taking over just like the fox used to take Naruto.
He dodged a swirling tail and activated his sharingan. It didn't take much to get Nori to look into his eyes, and then suddenly he found himself inside the child's mind, just like he'd done with Naruto all those years ago.
"We don't need to all come out to protect him! Someone pull back, it's too much."
"What if they try to hurt him again? He can control us!"
"I'll kill whoever touches Naruto's son! Rip 'em apart!"
"Don't worry, don't worry, he can handle it!"
Sasuke found himself in the center of a room filled with the beasts. They were all screaming at each other, arguing and pushing and trying to be heard. They were so consumed with it they didn't even notice him there.
"He was injured! This wouldn't have happened if we'd come out sooner!"
"It's just a scratch, Matatabi. He's fine!"
Sasuke heard a quiet sobbing and looked down, heart catching in his chest to see Nori curled up into a ball at the center of the behemoth monsters, whimpering in fear as they argued over him.
"Shut it!" he shouted, and one by one the beasts stopped arguing, staring at him as he glared at each of them.
"You're scaring him," he added, bending down to gently place a hand on the child's back. He flinched at first, then slowly turned around sniffing with tears in his eyes. He started crying harder when he saw Sasuke and at first Sasuke panicked, thinking surely the child grew even more frightened with this strangers appearance, but the next moment he threw his tiny arms around Sasuke's shoulders and hugged him close, tucking his face into the crook of Sasuke's neck.
A million emotions fluttered through Sasuke all at once, but he ignored them for a moment and wrapped his arms around Nori's back, picking him up and holding him as he glared at the fox.
"He's way too young to be able to control all of you at once. What were you thinking?"
All nine beasts started talking at once, but the fox quickly cut them off.
"Quiet!" he shouted. They died down and he stared at Sasuke appraisingly. Then suddenly he grinned. "I remember you, the Uchiha with the mean eyes! It's the first time we were called upon to protect him, so we didn't know what to expect. He was in danger and we reacted without thinking. It turned out alright, you came to get him."
"You're lucky it was me and not someone else!"
"Hehehe, I bet you're right. Anyway, get him home safe to Naruto. He's been through a lot, poor kid. Hmmm, but you and Naruto know something about losing your parents, don't you? You can both help him get past it."
Sasuke wanted to correct him, to explain that it wasn't his place to help her son with anything, that he had no place intruding on Naruto's life even if she was gone, but instead he just nodded and glanced down at the child in his arms.
Nori seemed to have fallen asleep and Sasuke closed his eyes. When he opened them again he was back in the base and Nori was lying asleep on the ground. Everything was quiet, though the damage to the room, and the base, was extensive.
As Sasuke carefully picked Nori up he noticed a small slice on the side of the child's neck; it wasn't even bleeding. He glanced around the room at the damage—the huge chunks of the walls and ceiling that had been torn out by the tails and the huge, surging chakra, and shook his head. All this for a scratch? Only Naruto's son would be able to make such a mess…
When he reached the entrance and climbed back to the muddy shore of the river he knew the fight was over. There wasn't a sound but the rushing water and he could see Shino, Kiba and Akamaru on the edge of the trees on the far side of the bank, illuminated by the faint pink glow of the rising sun.
He walked over to them quickly, careful not to jostle Nori too much, though he knew the kid would be out for at least several more hours. Kiba was leaning on Akamaru and looked injured, but alive. Shino glanced at him as he approached; he didn't have a scratch on him.
"Nori isn't hurt, right?" Kiba asked, a worried edge to his voice. "I felt that huge chakra a while ago. I'd never felt something like that before. It was out of control."
"Nori is fine. Just a scratch. Don't worry about the chakra, I took care of it."
"We should head back," Shino nodded. He sounded almost tired, but maybe he now that he had gotten his revenge he allowed himself to feel his grief.
"Are they all gone?" Sasuke asked, looking back to the mud, spotting shapes and lumps of bodies scattered across the riverbank. He couldn't say he was surprised that Shino and Kiba killed them all, but he pitied them at the same time. It didn't matter if the person was your enemy, taking a life was still taking a life.
"We're taking one back with us," Shino answered, moving to the side to reveal a body-shaped mass of bugs, wiggling and struggling and trapped inside a crawling prison.
"For Neji," Kiba grunted, carefully mounting Akamaru and heading back in the direction of the village. The light had finally reached the tops of the trees and Sasuke saw the mud and water splashed with red blood. Dorogakure and the men who killed her were gone.
It should have taken them about a day to get back, with Kiba injured, Shino's prisoner, and Sasuke carrying a sleeping Nori, but Naruto met them halfway.
Sasuke thought several times about letting Shino or Kiba carry Nori; they knew him better than he did, after all, but every time he considered asking one of them it didn't seem like the right time. Not to mention Nori was comfortable and warm in his arms, and he didn't want to disturb him. He just tried to ignore the guilt that wracked him as he held her child, to keep from thinking the terrible thing, and told himself that it was perfectly okay for his chest to feel warm and fuzzy with a child in his arms—even if he'd never experienced the sensation before.
Regardless, that was how Naruto found them. Sasuke spotted him a ways up the road, and as soon as he saw Naruto, Naruto saw them.
"Nori!" he shouted, picking up speed, running at them as fast as he could so he could reach his son and make sure he was okay. Naruto had just about reached them, panting and out of breath, when Sasuke said calmly,
"He's fine, Naruto. He's okay."
Naruto skidded to a halt just in front of Sasuke, face as devastated and messy as he'd last seen—if not worse. And yet the moment he saw his son and Sasuke handed him over, careful not to wake him, he smiled as tears bubbled in his eyes again. He held his son close to him, folding to the ground and stroking the blond hair so much like his own. Sasuke was so absorbed in Naruto's suffering that he didn't even notice Neji appearing just behind him, casting a sad glance at the last trace of Hinata he'd ever get before turning to Shino and taking their captive away, back on to the village.
"He—" Sasuke started, unsure whether he should interrupt Naruto's reunion with his son after losing his wife. "He might sleep for a while, but he should be okay. Have Sakura or Tsunade look at him when you get back to the village."
He paused, hesitating, unable to look at Naruto and unable to look away. Finally he sighed and turned towards the road to the village.
"Sasuke!" Naruto cried, and he turned around in a flash. Naruto's bright blue eyes poured into him, tore him up right to his very soul. "Thank you—thank you for bringing him back safe."
Sasuke winced and hoped Naruto wouldn't see. He closed his eyes and turned away.
Don't thank me, he thought desperately, hating himself for thinking the terrible thought and for thinking that rescuing her son would absolve him of any guilt when the only thing he could think since the moment he knew about her death was,
Maybe if she's gone, he can be mine.
Ahhhhh, the smell of new fic in the air!
Welcome to Mistakes and Mochi, my first SasuNaru kidfic! I haven't written a real multi-chapter in a while, so bear with me guys. I'm trying not to post chapters without already having written at least part of the next chapter, so hopefully the break between chapters won't be too overwhelming. Dunno how long this is gonna be yet, but it's certainly going to be slow-build angst here for a while.
If you're wondering why Neji is alive, here's my answer:
A) This is probably my last chance to write a fic with him in it, and since I'm killing off Hinata I feel like I should probably have at least one Hyuuga live on. B) I needed a rival for Sasuke, and while Sai and Gaara usually work pretty nicely, because of the plot here, Neji is the perrrfect rival not only for Naruto's attention but for Nori's as well. C) Because I'm sad Neji is gone and gonna stay in denial about it and D) Because I wanted to.
Anyway, with that said, let me know what you guys think! -KeikoPanda102