A/N: Have some platonic NaruSaku to make your night a little better!
After studying the girl closely for a day, Sasuke could say with certainty that she had some tie to Sakura.
But what was it? Was her soul reincarnated improperly? It couldn't be, given that she looked to be the same age as he, but perhaps her soul, instead of passing on, inhabited her body?
He'd been looking through the forbidden tome all morning, and yet he still couldn't say for certain. The answer was driving him mad, and he needed to find it.
"...and then I told him, 'Just jump!'" Naruto finished with a laugh. "Needless to say, we both got into a heap of trouble over that one."
Shien giggled right along, hiding her face with her fan. "That's hilarious. Oh, to have been there when that was happening. The poor queen must have burst a gasket!"
"We definitely got grounded for a while," he sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "But what about you? What about your childhood?"
The lady's smile faded some, but she continued to fan herself, thinking. "Okay, focus. What was her life like before you met…?"
After a moment of quiet, she replied, "Not… quite as happy as yours, I'm afraid."
The blond turned with a frown. "Is it okay to know?"
"Oh, of course it is," she responded immediately, shaking her head. "It's just… I was orphaned at a very young age. My adoptive mother, the one Sasuke-san met yesterday, found me among wreckage on a beach and took me back to her village with her. I very nearly died, but she managed to resuscitate me in time."
"Wow," he breathed as they sat down on a bench in the garden. "Your parents?"
"Died in a shipwreck," she answered with a touch of sadness. "I hardly recall them. I don't know my real name, nor my birthday, nor even how old I really am. Mother claims that she found me when I was about five or so, but... I'm not even sure I was that old. I can't remember a time before living with her, but every so often, flashbacks of my former life pop back up."
He listened with a solemn stare.
"Homeless, starving, relying on strangers for aid..." she continued, a faraway look in her eye. "I honestly don't know how I survived for so long."
"But you did," he responded softly, smiling when she looked up at him. "And you're here now."
"I did," she agreed. "It's not easy, though."
"It really isn't." Naruto shook his own head, a reminiscing frown on his face. "When my parents died, I was lost for a long time. I was lucky I had Sasuke, and his parents, but it felt... wrong. For a while there, I felt like an outsider, like I was some foreign leech relying on them for a new life."
"It was hard getting out of that mentality," he confessed with a chuckle. "Hell, sometimes I regress back to that way of thinking. But Sasuke was quick to remind me about why I was here. That my life still had purpose. That, even if my parents were gone, it didn't mean that I had to be too."
"I guess what I'm trying to say is, that us orphans, we have it bad." He continued. "But even though it feels like the world's stacked the deck against us, even when you wanna quit, you keep going. You find what motivates you, what gives you life again. And when you find it, you hold on tight, no matter how hard life tries to pull you off of it."
"Really, though, isn't living itself just a big middle finger to a world that wants to beat you down so hard you wanna give up the fight?" He pondered aloud to himself. "There's no greater victory in life than when you decide to continue, even when everything else wants you to end it. That in itself is the greatest rebellion of all, and yet it's also the most courageous one. Humans are already tenacious sons of bitches, even when our minds are poisoned to work against us."
She nodded slowly. "That... that makes sense."
"But then again, what do I know?" Naruto chuckled amusedly. "I'm just a big, dumb idiot. And don't try to tell me otherwise, 'cause we both know that's not true. It's my greatest weakness, and yet I can still manage to make it my greatest strength."
She let a tiny smile spread across her lips. "I must admit, it's a bit of a surprise hearing such wisdom come from you, Naruto."
"That's the glory of putting up a front," he winked at her. "Nobody would expect anything deep to come from someone who's always kidding around. And when they do give you something to think about, it shocks you so much that you have no choice but to listen and contemplate. Works better than breaking their bones and shouting at 'em! Maybe I should call it my Talk no Jutsu!"
She nodded once more, giggling into her hand. "It's definitely working."
He laughed a little bit before getting to his feet. When he helped her up, she hugged him, allowing him to envelop her.
"Man you're warm," she muttered into his shoulder.
"That's what Karin always used to say," his voice grew softer, as if fondly remembering something. "She always used to tell me that my chakra felt like sunshine."
"You remember her?" She was mildly surprised for a moment. Then she felt foolish. "Wait, of course he would. It's only been a month or so, after all."
"She arrived here when I was about fourteen," he explained, letting go of her in order to look into her eyes. "I was still trying to comfort Sasuke about... well, about Sakura's death, and we clicked almost immediately. Turns out she's one of my distant cousins. Crazy, right?"
"I'll say," Shien agreed. "Talk about a small world."
"Very small." He smiled sadly. "She was like the big sister I never had. She always looked out for me, even when I was being childish."
Shien paused for a moment. Naruto held a solemn quietness in his eyes, one that she'd never seen in him in any other time - except when he spoke about her, Sakura. His eyes were expressive; looking into them was like having a constant, small glimpse into his soul. It was just how he was. But this emotion... it unsettled something within her. It felt wrong.
"It must have crushed you when she... y'know," she said, gesturing loosely.
"It did." He agreed with a small sigh. "It still hurts. She was my family, Shien. And she just... threw it all away."
She nodded silently, placing a hand on his arm. When he looked up, her mouth formed a half-smile.
"It's hard now, but... it does lessen with time," she said. "Are you... angry?"
"With her? Kind of..." he admitted. "I mean, the ambush on the castle was one thing, but to hear that she's dead one minute, and then find out she's both alive and in the enemy ranks the next? I- I wanted to scream. And cry. And yell at her. I wanted to ask her why in the hell she ever became my friend if her end goal was to hurt us. If her goal was to hurt me."
"But then, Sasuke managed to calm me down. He smacked me upside the head and told me to stop being a baby about it. Told me that she would have done it anyway, even if we never met." He recalled. "And he was right. Karin wouldn't ever intentionally hurt me. She's my cousin, for goodness' sake. She was probably just following orders. Sucks that my own family would do that, but... but I can't blame her now. No matter how much it hurts now, she's my family, and I love her."
"Karin never mentioned anything about Naruto," she reflected with a frown. "Maybe she was trying to forget for a while. The burns on her back are still a grim reminder, but although those are fading, the memories won't... the damage won't..."
"But, well, anyway." He cleared his throat to change the subject. "My parents fought in the army when Sasuke and I were young. In one of their missions, their squadron was betrayed and a bomb went off, killing all but a few." He shakily sighed. "Kakashi-sensei was one of the only survivors. It still… really hurts him to talk about it. I think Aunt Mikoto called it… Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?"
Shien nodded slowly. "That would make sense," she observed.
"My mom was…" he paused, trying to find words as they clogged up his throat. "She was… awesome. Her hair was red as the Uchiha family crest and she was so fierce in everything she did. And my dad… people always tell me that I look exactly like my dad did."
As she studied him, his growing bangs framing his face did indeed remind her of what Minato used to look like. If he hadn't taken after Kushina's face so much, he'd be a dead ringer for his father.
"I miss them," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "But… at least I have Sasuke. And our friends. And Aunt Mikoto, and Uncle Fugaku. And Kakashi-sensei. They've… really helped a lot."
Shien smiled softly at him, gingerly placing her hand atop his. When he looked up with his cheeks going pink, she squeezed his fingers.
"For what it's worth, I think they would have been proud of what you grew up to be."
For a moment, Naruto's eyes widened and his lips parted, but then he nodded, a misty smile spreading across his sun-kissed face.
"How you've grown in my absence, Naruto," she realized with a soft gaze. "What else important have I missed?"
He startled her out of her thoughts with a pat on the back and a grin.
"C'mon, it's almost lunchtime," he said, steering her towards the door. "I've heard that we're having lotus salad, and believe me, you do not wanna miss the cook's lotus salad."
A/N: Please tell me what you thought!