The Past Comes Back

Konoha...

Naruto knew of Kushina and Mikoto's promise about their children, but there was something else in the diary that Itachi wants her to read. It was something she didn't know about. By sneaking into Konoha in places she was familiar with, she looked for the Uchiha Compound that was...well-away from the village. Isolated. This matched the information she pilfered indeed. She snuck in, hoping Sasuke wasn't in at the moment, and upon not feeling his chakra signature, he was out.

Probably being trained by Kakashi. Naruto snorted. What's new?

Anyways, this is convenient.

She went for the bedrooms that thankfully, had names on whose room was who's. Itachi's room is clearly a blank save for the standard furniture. Then there's Sasuke's room that clearly changed to suit a young man, not the boy he used to be. Then the parents' room that Fugaku and Mikoto shared.

She turned the room upside-down and then she began thinking. What places would a wife use to hide her secrets? Definitely NOT her underwear drawer or other obvious places...

And if Itachi knew of their relationship, then the safest place would be his room! She went to his seemingly empty room and looked around...until she found a picture frame on the inside of the closet, and the picture's frame was too thick than the norm for a very thin photo. It was a photo of a smiling Itachi in his younger days, carrying a toddler Sasuke. Cute. One would think he had brother complex but of course...

NOBODY would suspect THIS to be a hiding place. She took the picture frame out of the closet and opened it by lifting the securing hooks, and lifted the closing frame to find white Styrofoam and a cut big enough for a diary to be put in...and there it is!

She took the Diary and began reading. According to Itachi, his mother started a diary out of stress and grief for years about herself and her. Starting at...October 13. Two days after the sealing. It was about Mikoto grieving that her best friend was gone and most likely, her unborn baby because she knew Kushina was a Jinchuuriki. Since the birth went wrong and Kyuubi got loose, she thought both she and the child are dead until the Hokage made an announcement...that Uzumaki Naruto is the new Jinchuuriki and of the Yondaime's wish. But after that, everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Mikoto raged at the Hokage for telling everyone when Kushina's case was secret and now practically everyone wanted the poor baby dead and what a fool he was for exposing Naruto and now she'll live a horrible life with the reaction of the villagers as a result of his idiocy while the Hokage was subdued and horrified at the outcome, with everyone wanting her death. The most he could do was make her case an S-Class Secret punishable by public death. When she got home steaming, her husband and the clan made it clear that they are 'not to go near that monster'. And three days after that, the Council began accusing the clan unjustly and relocated them in isolation, causing the clan to stew due to the history of the elders with the Senju Clan.

Mikoto could not do a thing, except go out in Henge, and check on her in the orphanage. Upon seeing that Naruto was a horribly neglected baby, Mikoto used Sharingan on the caretakers to take care of all children without bias by hypnotism. She checks every year while making sure no Uchiha was near the Orphanage when she comes. But when Naruto was six, the caretakers somehow vanished and got replaced by horrible people who kicked her out, and got exposed to the animosity of the village, and learned early on of cruelty and pain. Around the same time, Itachi became ANBU. Mikoto tried looking for the caretakers she 'tweaked' but it was as if they didn't exist! She would have the new ones tweaked if only they didn't show animosity and kicked her out before she could.

Mikoto told Itachi the truth about Kushina and Naruto, and of their promise when he was five. She asked him to protect her and get to know his fiancée who truly needed a friend and someone she could turn to when everyone wishes her ill. Itachi did as told and as Karasu, he began looking after her.

Mikoto used that opportunity to have Itachi take on Guard Shifts to find where they went to, and to protect her, and through him, Mikoto could protect her. Naruto remembered of an ANBU who was smaller than anyone else take care of her. After five years in the orphanage and one year of cruelty, he was the first person to be nice to her. He taught her how to read and write when he could, and makes sure she eats a lot. "So that was him." she thought as she recalled her childhood. She knew him as Karasu.

Karasu was very kind, gentle and tender with her. He often comforted her when the villagers went too far, and for some reason, he always kisses her while saying 'it would blow her pain away'. Now that she looked back, when they were together, he would always kiss her whenever he could and tell her she was his, something Mikoto found really cute that Itachi cares for his fiancée and she could happily face Kushina in the afterlife knowing their promise was fulfilled and her son will protect her daughter from the hell that was Konoha. An adult's kiss that often got her wanting more. It was the first thing she associated with affection. But she forgot about that because her year with him was short-lived and all she remembered was the kiss.

He was her first friend. But a year later she never saw him ever again and he was gone when the massacre happened. Then she met the boys and forgot about him despite feeling that a part of her just died. But her friendship with her friends who stayed with her slowly healed her.

However, the details about the coup were written. Mikoto knew of the coup but because 'she's just a woman', she wasn't allowed to take part in the meetings but at least, Shisui tells her and since he, Itachi and herself wanted no part in it and she feared for her younger son. The coup will fail obviously and she knew a lot of people will die soon. She had asked the boys to secure the safety of the children at least, and of Naruto because the Hokage in her opinion, never really did anything. He assigns her guards when Itachi wasn't around but he was a poor judge of character and let ANBU who actually hated her 'look after her' and only move when she was near death from a beating just to make it look like they were doing their job.

'So this is what he wants me to find.' she muttered. 'He wants me to remember...' and know that at least, he was there for her. And he knows their mothers engaged them. He used his guard shift to get to know her and she never knew she was actually being courted. At a young age. Itachi is an adult by law as he was ANBU and a Genin since he was six. Despite his improbable age, he had the mindset of an adult because he was a ninja at a young age thus he was never a child that he should be at his age, and treated her like an 'adult woman' when courting her and kissing her to mark her as his, forgetting that unlike him who had to grow up fast, she is still an innocent child ignorant of the world and starved for kindness and affection, and she took what she could get. Sometimes the kisses were playfully chaste and a peck, sometimes the kisses are so deep and wonderful as he held her in her arms when they ended the day after a day of lessons.

However...before she could look back further as everything dawned upon her...

'What are you doing here?' Naruto twitched as she turned around to see Sasuke, now a young man and dressed like one. He also eyed the book. '...what's that?' he asked while ignoring what the hell she was wearing. From the back, it looks like a very improperly short dress with cuts and fishnets, but when she turned around, ye gads. It was a kind of dress that only covered the back, yet at her front, left little for imagination. She looked like she was wearing a halter top with thin strips holding it up, a brassiere-style zip-up cropped top with cups that covered only the underboob and her nipples. Then a frighteningly low-waist skirt that was only enough to cover her front and rear. Had he not seen the back, this was what he would see and never know it's a damn dress.

It doesn't help that she has a great, sexually-appealing figure and breasts big enough for manly hands to cup, just right.

All blood went up to his head in fact. The skinny dobe he used to know and put down became one hell of a beauty and her reputation was no secret either.

He sometimes wished that had he treated her nicer back when she was an ugly duckling due to malnutrition which wasn't her fault, he would have gotten the chance to have a swan who wasn't his annoying fangirl. Since the day at Wave when she mysteriously got healthy with glowing eyes, she was actually beautiful.

'I'm investigating under orders.' said Naruto, putting the diary...between her cleavage. 'You'll find out four days from now. We're doing this as quietly as we can. So kindly shut up so this does not reach the wrong ears. Toodles.' and she became dust in the air.

Wordlessly, Sasuke picked up the picture frame that clearly had a space to fit the book she had in, and when he looked at the picture...

He could have sworn this was a bad taste of illusion and smashed the frame, and ripped the picture apart.

There's no way that the monster in the frame could smile like that while holding him as a baby.

But why is Naruto investigating? And why is that book in this particular frame?

Is the Daimyo...investigating his clan's case?

If so, why ten years too late? This got him thinking and wondered what the hell was going on.

xxx

Back at Kaenjou...

At the training grounds, she felt awkward.

She was unsure what to do for the first time in years. 'Niisan?' Naruto croaked out while she and Genesis sat under a tree, with her hugging her knees beside him.

'What is it?' he asked her while not straying from his Loveless book.

'...I just found out something. I mean, what should I do about it?' Naruto asked nervously. 'While I had mother's memories about her promise with Mikoto, I never knew that she actually looked out for me but could not do much because of the clan, and had Itachi close to me. As a child I never understood but...now I know. The way he cares for me was...not as friends or my bodyguard...he was trying to make it clear that I'm his. And my first kiss wasn't accidentally Sasuke...it was Itachi. And my childhood memories came back and he was kissing me like I do with the men I had to deal with. And then I knew I want it yet in my work, it just wasn't good enough. It wasn't the same at all.'

'Because you loved Itachi who was Karasu.' Genesis pointed out. 'He showed you the love and care you wanted. You longed for. Only, he showed you a different type of love. A love between man and woman, not love between friends. And he's claiming you already as a child because you needed him. But of course, childhood memories slip us by. Heck, even I forget things considering how long I lived as I only focus on remembering what's important to me and my job I forgot my half my younger half of my life before I became Crimson.'

'So he would give me the last thing I want, niisan?' Naruto piped up with a shy blush while looking at him for advice.

'Of course.' Genesis smiled. 'Seize the day. And don't do 'that' in your work anymore now that he's here.' he reminded her. 'Now scat.' he said playfully as Naruto ran off. 'Whew.' he mused as he stood up. 'That puts an end to her disturbing behavior now that he's here. Heheh.' and he too, vanished.

xxx

In her room...Itachi was resting again and Naruto saw that his illness is acting up again and the food she left him eaten.

She forgot everything but now that she remembered her childhood with Karasu who was actually this man...she is his woman. She just forgot. She forgot that someone actually wanted her. Wanted to have her. The final thing she wanted.

'Okaeri.' he wheezed out. 'Did you find mother's diary?'

'Yes...it was hidden in the futon closet in your bedroom.' by his expression, he certainly didn't expect that. 'In a photo frame of you as a child holding a toddler Sasuke. She has a lot of information about the coup and other things. And...I remembered things I forgot as a child. She was watching me all along.' she sat beside him. 'Nee...'

'Hmm?'

'Did you really want me back then?' Naruto asked him while thinking of her memories that resurfaced. 'Or is it because Mikoto wanted you to help her keep your promise with my mother and played along?' that was one thing she feared. She feared that their year together is just an act and a lie just because Mikoto wanted a promise fulfilled and before her death, he would be there for her.

'I knew.' said Itachi. 'I watched over you. Got to know you. I knew I had to protect you and never let you out of my sight if I could and keep you with me. I made it clear you're mine. It wasn't just about honoring the promise of our mothers...you're mine and I felt it when I met you for the first time in six years. Our worlds were different. I who was an adult for years saw you as an adult too. I never saw you as a child but as a woman who was mine. Even in my exile and entry into Akatsuki, I protected you by stalling as it was my job to capture you with Kisame. And when I got that disease...and Tsunade would never cure someone like me, I had to give up on you because I would soon be a dead man. I would rather die without you remembering about us than cry out of losing me if you did remember. If I died, I wanted you to find someone else without ever remembering about us.'

'...is that so.' Naruto sighed softly. 'Then you're an idiot.' she grunted as she leaned onto his frame. 'If you die...I'll just go with you, that's all. I got everything I want. Love is all that I'm missing. If you die, I have nothing left to live for if the person who loves me is gone. Killing myself is pretty easy if it means I'll be with you.' Itachi turned to look at her and wrapped his right arm around her.

'Is that so...' he smiled. 'You're mine and you better know that.'

'Yeah.' Naruto smiled. 'Kiss me?' she requested and he obliged. As they kissed...Naruto knew this kiss was as sweet as her childhood.

The kisses she gets in sex with other men was worthless compared to this. There's no love in it after all.