Darkseid of the Moon
Sasuke
Fourteen: I'm Sorry
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A muscular shady figure leaned towards a mahogany door to press his ear against the fancily-embraided wood. Not a single sound echoed back. The hooded man in black robes gave the door a little knock to confirm that no one was inside. He scoffed before muttering, "Naruto, are you in there?"
No response.
"He's not here, Lady Hokage," the man said turning back to stare at three figures standing under the foggy rain. The sole female approached the door. As soon as she was out of the downpour, she dropped her hood to reveal short dark blue hair, smooth pale skin and a pair of lilac eyes.
With a single hand sign, the pregnant Hokage channelled chakra to her temples, causing veins to bulge around her eyes, "He's not here, but there's definitely a Genjutsu over the apartment room's door."
"We expected nothing less from Naruto, Milady, which is why we brought Kazama," upon mention of his name, the cloaked figure donning a white and red porcelain pangolin mask approached. He bowed, "Dispel the Genjutsu."
"Of course, it'll only take a sec-," a sword drilled into the wood. Kazama reached for his own sword. Someone grabbed the blade, pulled out a kunai and held it to the ANBU member's neck.
"This doesn't appear to be your house, Milady," the man in black commented.
"Sasuke," Hinata's eyes widened. The Uchiha had swapped Kazama's sword with his body. A pair of multi-coloured eyes pierced the back of the pangolin man's head, "I didn't know you were in the village… how did you get back so quickly?"
"You're asking someone capable of opening portals in space and time how they traversed such a long distance so quickly… hm?" Sasuke glared the ANBU soldier down, "Now then, my question remains unanswered. What are you doing here, Your Highness?"
Hinata responded formally, "Naruto has abandoned us, thus branding himself a Missing-Nin, it's the Hokage's duty to collect all his stuff so it can be used to track him," before she could finish her sentence, Sasuke threw the pangolin aside and sheathed his kunai knife. He pulled his sword out of the door frame.
"You might be a good Hyuuga, but you're not a good Hokage," Sasuke explained.
"Excuse me?" Hinata scowled.
"Hokage are supposed to be good at lying, Your Majesty, I would've been able to see your bullshit without the light of my eyes… plus, Naruto told me you chased him out," Sasuke dispelled Naruto's Genjutsu, "He also told me to take care of his place for him, so there's no way you're getting in here, My Liege."
"That's enough Sasuke, I'm your Hokage now, so how about you fucking show-,"
The Uchiha spun on his heels, "No, no, no, don't swear, Hinata. It's the equivalent of watching a baby shove a whole foot in its mouth, you know it can do it but watching its spine bend like that is unnatural in every way, shape and form. Your tough act doesn't work on me – and I don't really want to know why you're putting this tough act on, neither do I care, but you're not my Hokage. Thanks to Kakashi and Naruto granting me ambassadorial diplomatic immunity, I've got more power in this village in this left eye than you do in your whole body… now step back so I can close the door," he bowed, "Hinata-Sama," the door shut.
"You kicked him out too, you know," Hinata yelled through the door. Sasuke froze. The one-armed Uchiha glared the Hyuuga down, daring her to elaborate on her statement, "You voted me into this position, you gave me the power to kick him out… you're just as guilty as I…"
The Hokage shut up when the elite shinobi's eyes went from onyx to red and purple, "This position? Do you really consider yourself a Hokage? No… don't put yourself on such a high horse, Hinata-Sama. The only reason I voted for you was because right now the person most deserving of that title wasn't in the right state of mind to bear it and neither was the village to see him bear it. Hokage? Do you have any idea what that position actually stands for? Konoha is supposed to be a family, and the Hokage is supposed to protect that family, not break it up. The position of Hokage takes decades of preparation to qualify for. The First Hokage was the strongest shinobi of his time, the Second his brother, the Third his student, the Fourth the Third's student, and so was the Fifth, and the Sixth student of the Fourth… were you Kakashi's student? No. Did you risk life and limb for this village? Did you cry ash, blood and sweat for the ground you stand on? No. The only thing you've done to deserve that role was be born into the Hyuuga Clan, be the village's good girl for a couple of years, and be one half of the Elemental Nation's greatest power couple… oh wait, you fucked that part up too, didn't you?" Sasuke turned to return to the apartment building.
"You guys can go home," Hinata instructed her guards.
"Ma'am, are you-,"
"I'm sure," the Hokage said stepping into Naruto's home. The three shady figures vanished into the foggy rain, "Don't just walk away from me, look at me… I said look at me!" Hinata slapped Sasuke's back. Her petite frame, tiny hands, pregnant waddle and innocent voice didn't help her in her quest to impose fear on the Uchiha, but nonetheless, he stopped and turned to her.
"What? What could you possibly say to me that would outmatch what I told you out there?"
Sasuke stopped when he noticed that the raindrops had been blended with tears. Her reddish-lilac eyes lifted to stare into his multicoloured irises, "Being Hokage is about making the difficult decisions that no one else can possibly make. As much as I would have loved to keep Naruto in this village, the job of the Hyuuga Clan and the Hokage is the stabilise the village and calm its citizens and there was no other way to do that other than to get rid of Naruto!"
"Sure, skip making him rebuild the village, skip making him pay the village back-,"
"I panicked!" Hinata roared. The scream echoed off the walls, "How? How would Naruto pay the village back when he's… as you said, risked life and limb, cried, sweat and bled for this village. You saw that thirteen-to-two majority, the village doesn't want Naruto anymore, they've never wanted Naruto and I didn't want to make it seem like I was favouring Naruto by-,"
Sasuke grabbed Hinata's forearm. She looked up at him through teary eyes, "You fucked up… it wasn't the village's fault, it wasn't Naruto's fault, there's no one you can turn to now. Now… I know that when we were sixteen and you were living a life of luxury, you felt like you had zero responsibilities, but now you're an adult, you're twenty-years-old, both the Hyuuga and the Uchiha Clan have been massacred practically to extinction so if there's anyone who should understand what you're going through it's me… so let me tell you what you need to get through that skull of yours, Hinata. You. Fucked. Up. You had responsibilities to Naruto to wait for him for a year, but you chose to get engaged to one of his best friends. That's a fuck up. You had the responsibility, no, the common courtesy to tell him that you know you broke his heart and his promise, but you didn't and that resulted in us having a shell of Naruto in the fight against Thanos. That's a fuck up. You had the responsibility over the past four months to tell him that you understand that the death of Kiba was not his fault and that you forgive him, but you chose to keep quiet and mentally destroy my best friend. That's a fuck up! With me, searching for the Otsutsuki Clan, Sakura, trying to turn the Uchiha Household into a home, and half our top Jounin turned to dust, you had the responsibility as pseudo-Hokage to calm everyone down and tell them we'd find a way to get everyone back, but instead you got rid of Naruto and now he's in an entirely different universe. So, own that shit, say it with me. I. Fucked. Up."
Hinata ripped away from the one-armed shinobi and said, "I'm not taking advice from a man who missed his own wife's miscarriage."
A moment of realisation.
Sasuke's eyes widened, "What?"
"… That's not what I meant."
He grabbed Hinata's collar, she screamed, "What did you say about my Sakura?" Tenten heard Hinata's screams and rushed into the building to push Sasuke off. The shinobi landed on his feet. He turned to Tenten and yelled, "Where's Sakura?"
Tenten didn't respond.
Sasuke sprinted out of the room.
"Are you okay, Lady Hokage?" Tenten questioned. Hinata lowered herself onto one of Naruto's sofas and sighed.
"I fucked up."
.
The Uchiha burst through the tall hospital doors to see the pink-haired woman with hands over her head. Sasuke slowly approached her, "Sakura?" upon hearing his voice, the kunoichi dropped her hands from her face, slowly opened her eyes, and painfully propped her upper body up using her elbows.
"Sasuke-kun," her eyes widened, "You're back," she commented.
"Naruto brought me here… he told me you needed me," the Uchiha hesitated.
"Naruto? I… I told him not to bother you. I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun… where… where is he?"
"He's long gone, Sakura… he's no longer in this universe," Sasuke explained unravelling the bandages around his forehead. He pulled his hair back and tied the bandages into a ponytail to avoid having any hair cover his black eyes. The younger male took a seat on the stool at Sakura's side, "It's just us two now."
"No longer in this universe? What do you mean? When is he coming back?" Sakura groaned before falling back onto the bed.
"He went to go fight Thanos… I don't think he's coming back," his hand slowly crept onto hers. Sakura tried to pull away, but Sasuke's long fingers twirled around hers. Sasuke yanked on her hand, she crumbled around his appendage. Curling up into a ball that trickled tears onto his pale wrist.
"Kami, it's just all going from bad-to-worse isn't it for you. I'm so sorry, I just wish I could have done more to keep him here… but Hinata and…" their eyes locked onto each other. Hers were so worn and drained of emerald, whilst his were so ripe and full of onyx. Sakura hyperventilated slightly before trying to relax onto her pillow, "I was hoping to surprise you when you got back by naming him Itachi, hopefully that would've made you happy again, and hopefully he would've grown up to change the world like he did."
Sasuke stuttered, "Make… make me happy again?"
"Happy like you were before the Uchiha Massacre, as happy as you were when you had a family again, I wanted us to have a family again."
"Did the doctors say what happened?"
"Tsunade says she's not 100% sure, but her best guess would be a bit of my body and chakra recovering from the trauma of fighting Thanos, mixed with the enhancement pills I was taking before I found out I was pregnant. She says it was probably just bad timing."
"So, it was Thanos's fault."
"That's… that's a very, very vague way to put it, Sasuke-kun," Sakura warned.
Sasuke pushed the stool back, "Thanos took Itachi from me?"
"Sasuke, no!" the shinobi paused, "Sasuke-kun, I know you're not one for emotions and being emotionally there for someone, but right now I need someone, and I need that someone to be calm."
Surprisingly, without much protesting, Sasuke picked his stool up and sat down next to his wife, "I-I am sorry for my outburst, Sakura-chan… what do you need from me?"
Sakura froze for a second when she realised what just happened. She yelled at Sasuke and Sasuke obeyed. The pink-haired kunoichi paused to rethink what she was going to say, she hadn't actually planned for her raised voice to work, "Right now, I just need your time… right now I just need you," she shot him a little nod. Sasuke nodded back slightly, "So… what did you find on your trip?"
Sasuke stuttered at her question, "My… trip?"
"Yeah, I mean you've been gone for over a year, and more recently a day, so I thought you'd have learned a few things about yourself in the meantime, after all that's why you left, isn't it?" Sakura wondered, "I'm sure you have hundreds of stories to keep me entertained… Sasuke-kun?"
"The Otsutsuki Clan is back," Sasuke whispered.
"What do you mean?" the pink-haired kunoichi lifted herself off the drenched bed.
"No, please rest," he gently lowered his wife. Sasuke stood up and placed his hands behind his head, "It took both Naruto and me to defeat just one… and there's five of them… I can't fight all five of them alone."
Sakura clutched Sasuke's poncho, pulling him onto the seat, "Calm down," she pleaded, "You're not alone. I'm here."
"You're here? No, you're not, you're in no position to fight."
"Calm down, Sasuke-kun… Sasuke-kun, I'm saying look at me, because I want you to look into the eyes of someone who might calm you down," Sakura muttered. The Uchiha stared into her emerald eyes. Sakura trapped him in a state of serenity without the Sharingan. She put her hands over his ears before touching his forehead with hers, "Are you okay?"
Sasuke nodded briefly.
"Tsunade says Kakashi will probably be awake by the end of the week, and a fight is the perfect thing to get my mind off… all this, the worst thing I can do now is sit around and cry about what can't be changed, okay?" Sasuke gave another brief nod, they're foreheads still pressed against each other, "So think about it, with your speed and power, my healing, Kakashi's intelligence, and Sai's creativity, who needs Naruto?"
Sasuke chuckled, "We kinda do, but I get where you're coming from. We've also got the rest of Konoha on our side… there's no way we're letting five idiots defeat us, no matter what they're clan names are."
.
Five figures materialised from the Konoha Forest overseeing the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The three males stood on the edge of the point where forest met grasslands, the two women stood back, blending in with the natural foliage. Hiroki, the largest man slapped the top of a branch before muttering, "I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea what we're looking at."
Hideki folded his legs to sit on a nearby fallen log. He leaned in closer, "Konoha's Security System."
"They've got a couple of shinobi, nothing we can't handle," Hiroki scratched his back.
"Couple of shinobi, hundreds at the ready, an Uchiha, an Uzumaki, a Hatake for Hokage, the last remaining member of the Legendary Sannin, the Hyuuga Clan, and an invisible dome around the village that alerts every shinobi the second we step foot in it. Nothing we can handle."
Heiwa placed his foot on Hideki's fallen tree, "I could be in and out before they even noticed me."
"Save your strength… all of you, we can afford to wait for our chance to strike…" all five of them vanished into the thick vegetation.
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The night sky blanketed Konoha as Sasuke pushed Naruto's apartment door open. He tossed Naruto's keys onto the counter before flicking a light switch on to reveal an empty, slightly-cleaned up two-bedroom apartment. The Uchiha's one exposed eye scanned the room for a while.
Utter silence.
He kicked off his sandals and approached three scrolls that Naruto'd laid out on a nearby coffee table. Sasuke knelt over the wooden furniture piece. He activated his Sharingan to speed-read the scrolls in a few seconds. His eye deactivated.
"A Reanimation Jutsu, huh?"