Still unable to get Sasuke out of my mind several days later I found myself striding through the streets and straight into the Hokage's office where he was holding a meeting with the village elders to discuss what was to be done about the Uchiha massacre and Sasuke's upbringing.
"I will care for Sasuke Uchiha. Please, leave his care in my hands." I announced clearly and with perfect clarity, entering the room to the chagrin of the guards who failed to keep me out. "I shall take Sasuke under my protection and ensure that he has everything he needs." The old man narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at me, the other two elders spluttering at my impertinence whilst Danzo merely scowled at me before speaking.
"You have enough to deal with without the added responsibility of the Uchiha boy. He will be taken under the care of a home with other orphans and I shall keep a close eye on him. When he is older, I shall take him under my own wing." My lips pressed into a thin line as I continued walking forwards, not stopping until I stood before the four elders.
"I do not believe you understood my tone, Danzo." I spoke, clearing my throat to ensure that no misunderstanding was made between us all. "It was not an offer or a suggestion. I will be Sasuke's guardian until he is of an age to take care of himself without adult assistance. What he needs is nurture. Not strangers smothering him with sympathy or your beastly claws digging into his mind. Leave the boy alone, I shall take care of him." Danzo's expression soured as we glowered at one another but I turned my face away from him, focusing on the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, I have raised Naruto on my own since he was a baby and I understand the kind of pain that Sasuke is experiencing right now. My own clan was destroyed and I watched my mother die a slow and painful death, more than that, I know plenty about love and loss. I can help him."
"There is truth to your words, but are you certain you are capable? The Uchiha brother, Itachi is still at large and may yet return to finish what he started. The boy will need protecting."
"No one is more qualified than I am." I refused to take no for an answer. I would act on my own if I had to but right now, all I cared about was Sasuke. "He doesn't have to move anywhere, he can have his own place, his own space and I shall simply make sure he eats well and has everything he needs. For a ninja like me, I can easily be in two places at once. I'll raise them both like they were my own, I won't let you down old man." Our eyes met and Sarutobi considered me carefully, studying the determined expression I wore. Finally he spoke.
"I agree that the best course of action to take is to interfere as little as possible." He announced, dipping his head and I finally relaxed, giving a grateful smile to him. "Yume has proved herself a great shinobi ninja and an exceptional caregiver. Perhaps in this instance, all that the Uchiha boy needs is a woman's touch." And thus it was decided that I would become Sasuke's official guardian. After the documents were signed I took them to go and see him. He no longer lived in his parents' house as it was deemed too traumatic for him.
He now lived in a small apartment on his own close to the academy and when I knocked on the door, I could sense the grief and pain he carried inside. The door opened and he looked up at me, not giving a single expression. "What do you want?"
"Can I come in? We need to talk Sasuke. There are some things that I need you to sign for me." I told him gently and he glared at me a moment longer before walking away. I took this as the invitation to come in so I closed the door behind me and walked inside. It was plain and simple but clean and well kept. The Hokage had done well to find him such a place so quickly. "These documents, you should read them and these I need you to sign but the choice must be yours. I don't want to push this on you Sasuke." I told him kindly so he snatched the papers that I held out to him and read through them.
"What is this? What is going on?!" He demanded to know, wearing an angry expression with his dark eyes simmering. "My guardian? This has to be a joke! Why would they make you of all people my guardian?" Paper flew everywhere as he flung it aside, turning his back to me. "I don't need your help, I don't need anything from anyone I can manage all on my own." For a moment I just stood there, trying to find the right words.
"I asked them to let me be your guardian, Sasuke." I spoke and I saw him make a movement of surprise, head turning slightly. "I knew that you would want your space, so I insisted that they let me take care of you as and when you need. I'm not going to be replacing your parents, Sasuke, I'm going to be here to make sure that you're okay. I'll start by making some food, you look like you haven't eaten in a while."
"I'm not hungry." His stomach betrayed him, rumbling loudly so I smiled knowingly and cooked up the most delicious meal I could with what he had, making sure that I did not burn a single thing and balanced the flavours properly before I set it down on the table. Begrudgingly Sasuke came and sat down, knowing that he wasn't going to win this argument and picked at the food. He didn't eat all of it but he ate enough to settle my worries and I put the rest away to save for later in case he got hungry after I left. "I don't want you here. I don't need you."
"Maybe not now, but you will. I know you will." I told him honestly as I stood in the kitchenette, arms folded as I watched him. "You may not believe me, but I understand a little of what you're going through."
"No you don't! Everyone says that, they say that they understand, that they lost people too, but they don't understand!" He suddenly snapped, yelling and with a kick he turned over the table, making everything that was on it like his plate crash to the floor and shatter. I didn't even flinch, letting him use up the rage he'd been concealing. "Nobody knows how it feels to be so betrayed by their own brother, no one can know what it's like to have everyone you know suddenly gone, wiped out in a single night! You don't understand, so don't lie! You're not even here, you're just a doppelganger. Why would you waste your time on an orphan like me? I bet you're really with that idiot Naruto right now because he's your real responsibility. You're just doing this because you pity me!" With a roar he punched forwards and his fist crashed into my gut with enough force to jolt me.
When I didn't disappear he stopped, freezing in place as he realised that it really was me. Without a word I knelt down and placed my arms around him, drawing him into my embrace and placed a hand over his head as he stood there limply. "I do understand, Sasuke. I know the same level of pain as you feel right now. My own clan was destroyed, I lost my home and my mother then I lost other people who were precious to me. I've watched friends die in war, buried their bodies and sometimes not even have bodies to bury. I'm not pitying you, Sasuke, I'm telling you that it's alright to feel this way, it's not a weakness." His small body began to tremble and I could feel his tears drip down my skin as he struggled. "I'm the only one who can understand what it means to lose everything, so you don't have to pretend with me. That mask you're wearing? You can take it off when you're with me, I'll accept anything you throw at me, be it pain, anger, grief, rage. I don't care. Let me take all of your suffering and hide it away within me instead. I'll protect you from now on, Sasuke. I won't let you be haunted by this for long."
By the time I stopped talking Sasuke was sobbing freely into me, arms wrapped around my neck and face buried into my shoulder and I cradled him like a child, holding him until he had cried himself to sleep. Naruto was already in bed so I carried Sasuke up to his little room and made him comfortable, watching over him all night to make sure he didn't get any nightmares and in the morning, he woke up to the smell of pancakes. He stopped, blinking at me as I turned around and smiled, glad to see him awake. "Good morning Sasuke! I made pancakes, do you like them sweet or savoury?"
"You're still here." He deadpanned and I chuckled, placing his breakfast down on the table which I had fixed whilst he was sleeping. "Shouldn't you be back with your nephew by now?"
"Probably but since there's no school today, he's sleeping in. Besides, I have a doppelganger watching over him and I have plenty of seals about the house to make sure he doesn't get into trouble. I'm an expert with handling Naruto by now, I did raise him myself, ya know." Sasuke came and sat down at the table, looking at the pancakes before turning his face away but I pestered him until he ate at least one.
"You're a pain." I ignored his rude comment and began to tell him that I expected him to eat a healthy and balanced diet. I'd already restocked his cupboards with sensible foods and plenty of fruit and vegetables, wanting him to have a variety of options.
"Do you know how to cook Sasuke? If not then I can leave a cookbook with you whenever I have to go on a mission or I'll arrange for someone else to make meals for you." I asked him however he told me that he could manage simple meals and learning wasn't hard. He was intelligent, so I allowed myself not to worry about his diet. I pottered around for a bit, making sure everything was clean and making mental notes on things that needed doing. There seemed to be a leak in the roof so I gathered what I needed before heading up there to fix it, hammering new tiles in so that he wouldn't be flooded every time it rained.
"What are you doing now?" Sasuke asked with an exasperated sigh as he climbed up onto the roof with me.
"Oh hey Sasuke, I was just fixing your roof. You have a few loose tiles here and there. Be careful, it's not all that stable." I warned him as he walked over and I continued to hammer in the nails, making sure that everything was perfectly aligned. "It's not a difficult job, here I'll show you. Grab those nails there and I'll hold them in place whilst you hammer them in." Unable to come up with an excuse Sasuke found himself helping me with the roof, replacing all the old and broken tiles until we were almost done. All the while I had talked to him about the academy, wanting to know what he excelled at and if he had anything he struggled with.
"Not particularly, everything comes easily to me." Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly without any enthusiasm or pride, making me look up.
"Is that why you find it boring?" Taken aback Sasuke jerked, looking at me quickly however his sudden movement jarred a tile out of place and it slipped, throwing him off the edge of the roof. "Sasuke!" I plunged after him, hand grabbing his wrist and pulled him into me as we fell several floors down but I angled myself and pushed off the wall with a powerful kick, springing across the street to the other building before then climbing my way back up to the roof, landing safely back where we started as I held Sasuke in my arms, cradling him protectively. "Are you alright? Did you scratch yourself or anything during the fall?"
"No. I'm fine. Put me down." Exhaling with relief I placed Sasuke down on a secure patch then dusted him off, fussing for a moment before he swiped my hand away in irritation. "I would have been fine on my own, I don't need you to rescue me."
"But Sasuke, of course I had to rescue you." I answered him, kneeling down and looking him directly in the eye. "It makes me feel better when I can help you, so let me rescue you every now and then, okay? Good boy." Smiling I ruffled his hair before drawing back, fixing that last tile before returning inside with him close behind me. "I know this isn't exactly what you want Sasuke, but at least think about it for me, please? If you won't let me be your guardian then I dread to think who else they'll place in charge of your care, and I definitely do not want to think about that slimy moron Danzo trying to get hold of you. Just, think about it. Promise me that?" I asked, pushing the documents across to him on the table and after a short pause, Sasuke nodded. "Thank you."
"It was you who rescued me from the Uchiha compound. Wasn't it?" He asked me so I paused at the door, hesitating a moment before I turned my head to give him a sweet smile. For a moment Sasuke just stared at me, his eyes focusing on my hair and the way it travelled past my hips and to the back of my knees, fluttering on the breeze which came through the open door. I wasn't supposed to tell him, however I could see in his gaze that he knew. He knew it had been me. "I'll probably say no." He warned me but I just smiled further with a little giggle.
"That's okay. I'll probably still keep on coming back anyway. You're stuck with me either way, Sasuke. Might as well make it official." With a wink I disappeared with a flicker of my red hair behind me, vanishing and leaving Sasuke alone to brood for a while. Naruto was still asleep back home so I slipped in without him even noticing that I was gone. I'll tell him everything that happened when he wakes up, but for now I just have to wait and see what Sasuke decides to do.