Family
By: Song
Summary: Naruto is a forgiving person. It's because most of his family has tried to kill him.
A/U: I found this half finished on my jump drive- so I finished it and posted.

People often wonder why I can be so forgiving. Well, its kinda hard not to when your most precious people are the ones who have tried to kill you. Being angry takes up so much time and energy you don't have anything left for the really important things in life- like living.

It all started with the Kyuubi attack. The night I was born. (Doesn't it allways?) My father sealed away the Kyuubi into my stomach after my mother had died from some complications of birth... and being a jinchuriki. (Damn. Who'da thunk it!) Most of the village blamed me for all the deaths. That included the two men whom are the closest things to parents that I'll ever have.

One for the death of his family- and the other, for the death of his sensei.

Iruka was the first one. It wasn't until I stole the forbiden scroll that things had turned out.

He was going to murder me in my bed... but he didn't. I mean, he was there and everything. Kunai in hand- the perfect chance to rid the world of such a thing as me.

But he didn't.

Maybe he couldn't.

I don't know exactly why he never went through with his plan, like I do with Kakashi. Iruka only says "Its because we're the same." He still won't let me call him Kaa-san, either. At least, not when any body other than Kakashi is around... Kakashi just thinks its cute. But I call him Tou-san at home too (and he lets me!), so I figure all is good.

Speaking about Kakashi, I told him that I knew about his attempt on my life after he moved in with Iruka. (In real families big issues should be out in the open- so that's where I brought it!) He seemed ashamed. I asked him why he didn't do it. Why he didn't go through with his plan to kill me. (I was questioning myself at the time. Sasuke had just left and my retreival mission had failed. I was depressed! It would get anyone down, even a cheery person like me.)

He looked at me- sharingan closed and told me that as much as he hated the kyuubi, he loved his sensei more and that he couldn't kill his sensei's only child. Yondiame was so much more for him than a teacher. He was a father. And that as much as he wanted too- he couldn't kill the one who in a different time and another place would have been his honorary little brother.

True, he's more of an honorary father now than anything else now- but somehow I don't think that the man who sired me would disaprove.

Next came Gaara. He's something of a very close cousin. He was what I would have become. Venting his frustration to prove his worth. I'm just glad he got his priorities right in the end.

And now Sasuke.

Sasuke.

I can understand his anger- don't get me wrong there- I just don't understand his motive. Revenge begets nothing. Just a feeling of... emptyness. I've talked it over with the kyuubi too, and he agrees. He told me that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth makes the whole world blind and toothless. You'd be suprized at how much a few melenia of knowledge is. He won't tell me where he learned that- he'll always defer by saying something about a very wize monk he once knew.

I'm getting off topic.

Now that Itachi is dead, and he's turned his sights on Konoha. He's missed the point entirely. His family wasn't as perfect as it seemed, and even if Konoha no Sato is to blame, at least in part- destroying it won't solve anything. It won't bring his family back. With the knowledge that he has now, it won't even bring back the ideal image he thought his lost ancestry was. And yet, I can't hate him for it. Even for all that he's done. If Kakashi and Iru-Kaa-san can forgive me for the part I played in the pain that was caused them and love me all the same- than I can too.

So yeah, I still love Sasuke. How can I not? He is my brother. He is family.

He just hasn't learned it yet.

Fin