25

On the carriage to the border, Sasuke fell asleep, holding his sword, and had a dream.

He dreamed that he was still a child, sitting at the table, and his mother stared at him in such a gentle and loving way with a pair of black eyes.

He complained: "Why does father never look at me?"

His mother smiled, as if she was going to tell him a big secret: "Guess what? When I am with him, he is always talking about you, Sasuke!"

He was surprised and continued to ask:"Will he still look at me if I'm not good at Ninjutsu?"

She laughed, holding him against her bosom: "Your father and I, we will love you no matter what. Even if you became a little bad boy someday, you are still our baby."

That's his most vivid memory of "happiness".

Then the picture turned into a wedding scene of Sakura and him. She was wearing a white wedding dress, and her beauty let the the bouquet in her hands cast into the shade.

Sakura, with her green eyes filled with obsession, nearly piety, looked at him tearing, "Sasuke, you know, I will love you all my life and never let go of your hands forever."

It may also be called "happiness" at that time.

However, why was it? Why did his movement suddenly disappear before he truly felt it?

Those tears in her eyes did make his heart a little tighter. But they never got a chance to actually drip on his heart. They just evaporated without a slight trace of salt.

He did have a yearning for family and happiness once before. His parents' figures clinging to each other were solidified into a mysterious and beautiful crystal in his eyes. - But the crystal was finally smashed to pieces, and was never able to repair again.

Unable to reconcile, unable to yield. So he hated, he certainly hated everything. His hatred not only tormented his soul, but eventually became the soul itself. It was not only to his gentle and cruel brother, but also to the mocking fate that compelled him to reconcile and yield.

He can certainly not! How could he!

But for a man, he succumbed at the end. To Naruto and the village and the world.

And at the moment of his surrender, there was something lying dead inside him.

As a symbol, he accepted Sakura, a woman that the whole world request him to love. Sakura was a political bridle on the neck of Uchiha family. Sakura was a gift sent out by Sakura herself, a valuable gift whose repayment had been designated. Whether it was a bridle or a gift, he can only accept. It was obviously not fair to her, but he was too lazy to choose another way of life rather than drowning into the absurd misfortune along with her.

And his new and tinkered life was no longer mysterious or beautiful, but an ugly, mediocre, long, and unpleasant postiche with occasional brightness.

Until... Until -

He felt pain in his chest and suddenly opened his eyes.

At the moment, Sarada was about to cover him with blankets. She did not seem to predict that her father would wake up, so her movement out of kindness was immediately stiff. She blinked with dismay, then threw the blanket on him, stubbornly moving away her black eyes.

The carriage rattled with a slight bump. Sasuke looked at his own daughter, and her distant eyes after her lenses. He suddenly found that she had really grown up. She was a sixteen-year-old girl.

He cannot help but study her carefully as if it was his first time to really discover this fact. Sarada was born with black hair and eyes, but her face was just like younger Sakura. It surprised him that the time has passed for so many years without him knowing it.

Feeling weird to be stared, Sarada glanced at him and whispered: "Excuse me... but is there anything strange about me? "

- Sasuke agreed to leave Konoha the very night, so she laid down her mind about the Hinata. She was now more nervous than angry because of the awareness that she herself killed father's bird.

Sasuke looked at her. He got a lot of hidden words, but ended up saying, "You'd better sleep now. As a ninja, you must know how to keep strength."

Naruto yawned and walked out of the library. He worked days and nights these days, so had to go to the kitchen to get some coffee. Seeing his daughter Himawari sitting on the sofa and looking out the window when passing through the living room, he asked with laughter:

"Why don't you sleep, my little ninja?"

It was late at night, but the little girl had not even a bit of a sleepy look. She turned her head and smile at her father's yawning face: "Daddy, the big Ninja like you doesn't go to bed, so do I."

Naruto, pretending to be angry, held her in arms and rubbed her warm hair: "Of course our big Ninjas must stay up, so that you kids can get to sleep tight, don't you?"

Himawari laughs in his arms, twisted her body, and held his arms at last, relying in his wide and warm arms: "I'm not sleepy, and I'm so happy to see daddy at home that I don't need any dream, either!"

"You little excuses!" Naruto put his chin on her head and laughed happily.

He had a stubble on his chin, so Himawari felt a little itchy but satisfied as well, and her little hands clutched his sleeves.

Naruto was almost a stranger to her since she was born. Boruto often complained that he had been ignored since primary school, but in fact, Himawari didn't have any memory of father's accompany at all .

The days like now in which she can meet Naruto and act like a spoiled child in his arms, was just a dream that she had given up long time ago.

She couldn't help looking out the window to the quiet moon, and said with a sign, "Daddy, why do you change? You've never been so nice to me before."

Naruto was stunned. Her words hit his chest with pain. He thought a little and smiled bitterly: "maybe... It's because you dad is a fool that can't learn a lesson until he experienced it personally."

Himawari shook her head, and her soft hair rubbed on him, "Daddy, you're not a fool - if it is so, our village will suffer."

"Thank you for your praise!" He laughed, and then quieted down, using fingers to slowly smooth her hair. "Himawari... Do you hate me for your mother? You see, Boruto has not yet forgiven me."

Himawari got silent. Those thoughts appeared when she was alone had come back in her mind again. There were Hinata's sadness, Sasuke's smile, Sakura's tears, and Sarada's anger.

At last, she put her soft hands on her father's rough ones, with her eyes looking at the cool, gentle moonlight. She said in a comforting tone:

"I think it's good for you and mom to separate like this. So you can all be free, aren't you?

"But what about you?" Naruto frowned, "don't you need your family?"

"Me..?" Himawari paused a little and smiled, "I don't need nothing. I shall grow up."

Naruto looked down at her quiet appearance and there was clenched pain attacked his heart. How could a young kid like her understand the feeling of enjoying the moon in the midnight? But she took after Hinata too much.

One of his bitterest emotions was surging in the heart, but he ended up holding her tight and whispering softly: "Himawari, my pumpkin, you really need to sleep, OK?"