Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any recognizable feature from the Naruto verse. Those belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
This story is inspired by Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen, Fade to Black by iaso, and Worm Charming by GremlinSR. No pairings. Centers on found family and the mess that is a ninja village.
Planting seeds
Prologue
He was making his way back to the meeting point. His part of the mission had been a success. He was injured, his chakra burnt out and his shadow whispered bitter promises on his ear, but he had got the damn intell. 'Paper and ink', his shadow told him. 'Is it really worth it?'
He ignored it. It chanted sweet nothings from the deep recesses of his mind every time he took a step and his muscles burnt. It promised sleep and peace and none of the ever present weight on his soul would follow them, but Ensui held firm.
The mission was a success.
'So why did his chest hurt?'
(One of his shadows had pierced a child. He had clung to the merchant's robes and his Shadow Shroud had pierced them both. His screams would ring on Ensui's ears for years to come and he deserved it. Damn them. Damn Konoha. Damn him.)
He was thinking this when a sound, wheezing and rough, pierced the air. Where did it come from?
In another world, in another life, Ensui Nara turned right. And a life that had just begun was put to rest all too soon and history went down as we know it today, but that world is not this one. And so with such a tiny, minuscule change like deciding whether to turn to follow the itch on his hand or not, a single man changed the course of history. Or, better said, this history.
If he had turned right he would have walked a few meters to discover a cat, small and skittish with its fur damaged by the fire. A tiny creature for such a big ruckus. He would see the cat and think that perhaps it was time for him to have a pet, damaged and all, because even on this life Ensui Nara is a compassionate soul, better hidden in the shadows he's so well known for, and a cat does not bring that much attention anyway. In every life a shinobi's soul ached, but on this one Ensui Nara contented himself with finding a tiny, furry survivor after such a pointless carnage. He would see the cat and his heart would ache, so he would carry it on his pockets and pointedly ignore the looks sent his way.
He would never find the upturned bark of a three, nor the other scared creature hidden and hurting in the shadows. Sunrise will come and go and another creature would end its watch, too tired and hurt to put much of a fight.
In every universe Ensui will save a life that night, but not in every one it will be a human life. It all comes down to a choice, even the ones we are not concious we made.
And yet in this life, Ensui Nara turned left and never knew of the changes that single step would make. He would never know the itch on his hand will remake maps and and avoid a war, neither will he ever think back on that night and imagine he could have ever walked away and left another child to die.
Ensui had always had a weakness for abandoned, helpless things. This would not be the first, nor the last time that he'd brought home a stray.
(He could have walked away, but there were screams on his ears and blood on his hands. 'What does one single child matter?' his shadow had questioned, and just like that Ensui knew he could not turn away.)
It would be the first time he'll bring a stray child, and as he will soon know, it will also be the last. Parenthood, he will discover, is not just feeding and watering with the occasional visit to the doctors. It will come to no surprise to him why his clansmen only ever have one, with the occasional two thrown in.
As a single parent he will feel entirely justified on limiting himself to one - and not one of his blood, too, because baby Naras are nothing if not trouble - because he has no shame in admitting he would have felt entirely lost if he didn't have his sister in law there to pick up his slack.
Daughters are troublesome, but this is one trouble he chose, fully aware the consequences it would bring for his life, even if he didn't yet know his personal choice would affect the world at large latter on. Naras are geniuses, but even they get caught off guard by the curveballs a child throws faster than a Kiri nin in a snip.