...
"If Naruto and Sasuke have children, we can call them Mordred and Galahad," Sakura whispers to him one day during class.
He pauses from doodling in his notebook to shoot Kono-sensei a wary look. The teacher is currently hissing through clenched teeth at Naruto—which will probably turn into a shouting match—so he considers Sakura's silly remark.
"I doubt the game will go on that long," he says even as Akamaru lets out a thoughtful sound from his lap.
He ends up being wrong of course, and the game really does carry on that far.
("How?" He asks, taking care to speak quietly to avoid disturbing the bundle in his lap.
"I made them sign a contract when we became genin," Sakura tells him smugly.
She's holding her own precious cargo, and he lets out a soft laugh. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke would honor such a deal if they hadn't wanted to name their kids after knights.
He strokes Mordred's cheek lightly, taking amusement in the way the little face scrunches up at the feeling. Sakura reaches over to pinch his arm without jostling Galahad.
"If you make him scream again, I won't help you this time," Sakura says.
Save me, Akamaru whines while pawing at his leg frantically.
He smirks down at the ninken. Attached to Akamaru's tail is a tiny fist. Slobbering on the other tiny fist is a toddler clothed in puppy-themed pajamas. Narrow eyes gaze into his, daring him to order the toddler to let go.
He gently pushes the brat away from Akamaru with his foot. The ninken lets out a sigh of relief, and the brat starts pouting. He snorts as the brat turns away with arms crossed.
"Too bad you didn't go with Florence," Sakura sighs. "We could have a complete set of mini-knights."
"I will never name any of my kids Florence," he says firmly. "I regret ever telling you about that.")
He's not the only one who thought their game would end at some point. From what Ma says later, most of their parents assumed they'd eventually give in to academy brainwashing.
His mother also laughed while telling him this, so he's not sure if Ma ever believed it was just a phase.
(It was never a phase. The adults look at the swords and childish spouting of honor and justice with the word "samurai" on their tongues but never find an outside influence. Konoha has no idea what will end up hitting it)
The Uchiha Incident goes down much differently than it should have. It comes as a shock considering Sakura and he never came up with a way to divert the event. They tried their best, but it simply wasn't possible for a bunch of six and seven year olds.
("We've got our hooks in Itachi and Shisui, but there's nothing we can do," Sakura hisses, throwing two cards down. "We're still too young to make a difference."
"I'll talk to Ma about giving Itachi lessons on psychological trauma," he offers, unable to think of anything else.
Ino silently grabs a card from Sakura. The Yamanaka puts two cards down and offers her remaining card to him. He frowns at the three cards in his hands.
"Looks like you're the old maid," Ino says breezily.)
In the end, the Uchiha Incident does not refer to Itachi slaughtering the clan and leaving the village. What happens is the "murder" of every Uchiha elder during a suspicious meeting, the body of Danzo being discovered next to them, and Shisui gaining an eyepatch.
He has a theory involving Shisui's special Sharingan ability, but he knows well enough to leave it alone.
They hide it well, but he's too attuned to Uchiha body language to think that Shisui and Itachi's bowed heads are out of anything other than satisfaction. His mother remains a grim figure throughout the incident, but there's a proud gleam in her eye.
Fugaku, from the one time he's seen the man, bows his head out of fear. He can't say he blames the Uchiha head; his mother gets more terrifying by the day.
As for Sasuke—
"I'm going to overhaul the police force," Sasuke vows over breakfast.
He pauses with a piece of leftover deer meat hovering near his mouth. Itachi and Shisui decline to say anything, choosing to hum peaceably while Ma lets out an acknowledging grunt.
"Why?" He asks when no one else does.
"I've been looking over reports for them during the," Sasuke nods in place of words and he nods back, "but everything's a mess. Everything. When I try to bring it up, they just tell me to forget about it. None of them are doing their jobs."
He spots a familiar gleam in Sasuke's eye. It's the Sakura look, he thinks, and holds his breath.
"Everyone in the police force deserves to die," Sasuke utters.
It's said so darkly and seriously that it causes Shisui to actually choke. Itachi hurries to save Shisui's life, and Ma laughs until she cries. Sasuke smirks ominously, and he wonders if the massacre has only been averted for the moment.
This is your fault, Akamaru tells him from the floor. He makes a face at the ninken.
Slander. He has nothing to do with the Uchiha Incident and Sasuke's crusade against the police force. If anything, Ino's the one that looks suspiciously smug.
(Later, he will eventually realize while he's drinking some water that technically everything is his fault; he's the one who started the game in the first place. He'll spit the water out into someone's face, leading to an international incident)
With most of the Uchiha still alive and no sign of Obito or Madara, life progresses relatively peacefully. Relatively, because while they might be nearing genin age, they're still—
Lancelot sneers and throws the mission objective onto the ground. The sound of breaking glass echoes around the training ground, and the spell to defeat Morgana is ruined.
"Get him!" Nimue says ruthlessly.
Lacelot neatly avoids Nimue's staff aimed at his legs only to run into Bedwyr and Lionel's ambush of palm strikes. An explosive tag counterattacks the ambush, sending all three knights flying backwards.
"What are you doing, Lancelot? Don't support the enemy!" King Arturus bellows, sword waving threateningly in the sunlight.
"Wait, is this about the bentos? Are you mad because we forgot you didn't like natto?" Gingalin asks.
Lancelot's scowl indicates that Gingalin hit the mark. Myrddin covers her face and lets out a frustrated noise. Nimue's eyes roll, and Bedwyr stammers out an apology.
"Either meet my demands or fight me," Lancelot taunts, posing coolly with a reverse styled sword.
"I have neither food nor restraint! I shall fight you!" Brunor announces.
"Oh for—Brunor, don't encourage him!" Myrddin cries.
Brunor unsheathes his sword and dashes away. Lancelot barely gets a sword up in time to block, and a squawking King Arturus rushes to join in. The rest of the knights are left to either join or get out of the way.
"Can't be helped. Lancelot's just like that. Only a moron would get in the way now," Tristan drawls.
"I respect a man that chooses to fight for food," Percival says admiringly.
"I can't respect someone who would destroy his own brother's birthday gift," Lionel scoffs.
The remains of the glass wind chime glitter mockingly. It had taken a solid month for everyone to agree on a collective gift for Itachi, and it only took Sasuke one selfish moment to break it.
"That wasn't the gift we bought. Why? The one we bought had no brown spots on it," Kay says, sliding in-between Percival and Lionel.
"Figures. The real one was probably switched out with another when we were looking at decorations," Tristan sighs.
"Lancelot only pretended to destroy it by using a fake? But didn't he have to order one just like it ahead of time? And isn't that pretty expensive?" Percival asks
"He'd do it, the dramatic bastard," he says, laughing.
The five of them watch the messy brawl for a long moment. Flashes of blades glint through the madness, and he feels his heart speed up. There are so many openings one could take advantage of.
What a bunch of noise over nothing, Gaheris barks, we should show them what a fight means.
"Sounds good," he grins, unsheathing his sword.
Kay brushes his shoulder in solidarity, and Tristan lets out a groan. Whenever he gets involved, the intensity of the fights tends to climb to astounding levels. He also has a habit of making sure all the knights get involved.
He leaps forward with a laugh; Gaheris and Kay are only half a step behind him. His blood sings, and Lancelot's blade meets his. He thinks, I am Gawain. He has never been happier.
("Hey, Kiba," Lord Hokage says through squinted eyes, "why do I have forms for an orphanage, a food reserve, a food stand, and a clinic?"
He scratches the back of his head and wonders how to phrase his statement to sound less like an impulse and better thought-out. Akamaru nudges him, and he just shrugs his shoulders.
"Konoha's a nice place, but there's a lot of problems outside of it. I want to see if I can help a little bit with our nation's less fortunate," he says.
He doesn't say that he's decided to take his name of Gawain seriously, doesn't say that this is just the start of helping those struggling in poverty. That he woke up one day and realized he finally has enough to share.
"I'm assuming you know how much these will cost," Lord Hokage mutters, tapping the huge paper stack.
Even if the food stand and clinic are low budget, he will be losing money. The orphanage and food reserve will be a constant a drain on him, and there will not be enough revenue from his other properties to make up for it. Not to mention the fees, building costs, and taxes.
"I've already got it figured out," he promises.
The initial cost will be heavy, and he'll probably end up taxing his clan a little bit more. Both Shikamaru and Sakura have given him ideas on how to recover however. Hopefully the little orphans like farming and vineyards.
"I'll forward these to the Daimyo," Lord Hokage says. "That guy's an idiot, so it'll take a while for him to get all the paperwork together."
It's amazing that the Hokage knows the Daimyo won't reject any of his requests considering granting a ninja clan that much land outside of Konoha wouldn't have been possible before.
"Schedule a meeting with me to talk about the details, and I'll see about getting you assistance for this," Lord Hokage says, waving a paper with the words 'orphanage' written on it.
He bites his tongue before he blurts out, "I'm not going to be brainwashing them to be ninja."
"I'll get with Sakura," he says instead, taking the generous offer for what it is. "Thanks, King Arturus."
Lord Hokage smiles, and he feels terrible for ever doubting Naruto. Konoha has undergone a new direction, so much so that he's here trying to get orphanages and low cost clinics built instead of preparing for the next war.
It's a long road from here, but you're doing good, Akamaru tells him warmly.)
He still ends up in Team 8, and Sakura still goes to Team 7. In fact, everyone ends up in their original teams, but he doesn't call it fate. He rather suspects the higher ups are trying to make sure they can't contaminate other genin with their ideals.
Kurenai-sensei finds Team 8 weird but charming. Kakashi alternates between pretending to hate Team 7 and egging them on. Asuma still ends up with Shikamaru as a pet project, and Gai gets converted. That last one is as scary as it sounds.
"Lee wants you to give Gai-sensei a name," Tenten says dully, eyes glazed over with trauma.
"If Itachi and Shisui don't get one, neither does Gai," he replies.
Akamaru curls up in Tenten's lap to comfort her, and he rubs her back as Tenten tries and fails to recount her day. He feels for her; Tenten is the only sane member of Team 9.
Sakura and he stick to their "no new members" plan all the way until Suna's invasion. To be fair, he can't exactly turn down the request.
"Aren't you supposed to be attacking us?" He asks, staring down at the blood covered rooftop.
He tries not to flinch as those blank green eyes dig into him. Shino shifts to stand in front of him protectively. He's glad Akamaru isn't here; his partner is much safer with Kurenai-sensei than with him.
"Arturus promised," is all Gaara says.
Gaara, a crazy demon host that is currently part of the enemy forces trying to kill his people, wants to join the Knights of the Round Table. He wants to laugh. This is too hilarious.
He takes a deep breath to calm his nerves. Damn you, Naruto, he thinks viciously.
"Right, so first things first. Shayari," he says.
"I'm aware," Gaara says harshly. "Justice and respecting Mother."
He inhales sharply and begins coughing. Just what did Naruto say to Gaara? Shino's back leans into his arm, and he gets his act together.
"Right, welcome Sir Bors," he says, not even attempting to think it through, "first rule of the Knights is no killing other Knights." He lies without remorse.
He gives a short, to-the-point introduction of the Knights of the Round Table. Gaara's unwavering, unblinking eyes make it the hardest speech he's ever given.
"Considering Suna invaded Konoha, our first mission together is to defend Konoha. I hope you like killing Sand ninja," he says, ready to move at any sign of averseness.
The sudden mad look of ecstasy answers his non-question, and he's left following a trail of blood with Shino. Surprisingly enough, Gaara attacks only the ninja from Sand, and the only Suna ninja to survive meeting Gaara is Kankuro and Temari.
"Safir," he points at the tied up Temari, "because I like the name."
"What the hell," Sasuke says, tense and teeth bared towards Gaara.
The jinchuriki stares back at Sasuke expressionlessly. Shino keeps a shoulder brushed against his, and he takes comfort in the fact that he's not the only one out of his depth.
"Dagonet," he points to the unconscious Kankuro, "because I need a fool to make me laugh."
"What. The. Hell," Sasuke repeats brokenly.
The Third Hokage survives the attack, and many Suna ninja surrender at the news of their jinchuriki defecting. Naruto somehow manages to convince the Hokage that, "No, he can live with me. It'll be awesome, just you see. He's gonna be an awesome knight!"
("I'm a puppeteer. My father was the Kazekage," Kankuro bemoans. "I'm not supposed to be living with tree people."
"Say something funny," he says, re-tying his armguard.
Cousin Sode's new prototype has some problems with the straps. He'll have to warn her about them. Luckily, it looks like Akamaru's experimental sword holster is working just fine.
"My life is a joke," Kankuro says miserably.
He throws back his head and laughs.)
The Sand siblings get the defector treatment, meaning lots of mistrust and watching. Still, the bizarre sight of Gaara walking around Konoha with a sword made of sand gradually becomes the new normal.
The craziness that Team Fighting Dreamers gets up to becomes far more worrying actually.
Naruto lands next to him as Sakura heals his bleeding nose. Sasuke rushes off to back up Shino and Akamaru who are currently keeping the enemy away. Shino's so angry he can hear the buzzing from here and the sound drowns out Akamaru's cursing.
"This is—" Naruto gestures to a Sasuke look-alike behind him.
"Lamorak," Sakura immediately says.
He throws his hands up in the air and lets her have her way.
That's the end of the mini-series for now. Thank you everyone that's left a review here or on the main story.