鉄
の
知
覚
||| Adamantine Litmus |||
By: Chocolate Carnival
2021
Fandom: Naruto
Genre: Dark Eroticism, Canon Divergence,
Romance, Drama, Dark Fic, Genin Era to Adult Fic, Two Kekkei Genkai! Sasuke
Different Father! Sasuke, Character Study, Clan Lore, Childhood Love, Blood and Gore,
Different Events than in Canon, Team 7! Hinata & Shikamaru
Pairing: 団扇 佐助||Uchiha Sasuke,奈良 鹿丸 Nara Shikamaru
Hello My Honeys!
I've finally finished my summer course, yay! So I can concentrate on writing again! I've wanted to explore an in-depths, long, ShikaSasu fic for SOOO long that I've finally decided to pull up my socks and play with one. Plus, this story was inspired by all the multiple bloodline Naruto fics I've seen out there.
I've always wanted to see Sasuke with two, too, WITHOUT overpowering him immediately or creating a unbelievable plot. Thus, we have this gem. This will be a slow-burn story, however and it will be a long fic because it will be parsing through the entire childhood to adulthood story with a focus on the Nara Clan, Shikamaru, Shikaku and Sasuke.
So, don't worry about the pairing right now...it'll only come into play much later if some of my readers are a bit surprised and weary of it. :) I do promise though, that M/M is my specialty so please look forward to the development and so forth.
Forgot to add, I'll be playing with the idea of Nara Fixation that the lovely JMariusG in her Sunflower Seeds series. It honestly creates such a unique perspective on a Clan not really explored by authors.
Other than that, please enjoy...hehe.
'He will come ordained in veiled darkness and green carnations, an abandoned fawn cloaked in singular monomania and the silvered kiss of the moon. Born of scorn and secreted genesis, his twin bloodline will craft a prophesied match in the generational grandmaster.'
~ Nara Prophecy
強一: Time's Iridium Hiss
Like metallurgic ice and woodland steel, the midnight cover of dancing platinum dust echoed somnolently in the heavy, creeping, darkness. Ebbing and flowing at the stir of a young babe's rousing cries, a strange reflection of rainstorm silver particles glittered vibrantly beneath the gibbous gasp of a Sharingan-red moon.
Born in the midst of July summer amongst the heavy, humid, rain and screaming cicadas; the summery season seemed to electrify the 60th Year of Konohagakura's founding festival. For Uchiha Mikoto however, second-time mother and Matriarch of her Clan, she could only bite back the instinctive need to shield and protect the tiny bundle in her arms as several exhausted tremors crept across already chakra-strained limbs.
Distinct Clan-black orbs were watching in sorrowed regret as her closest confidant and friend traced complex seals and haunting Uzumaki swirls on the ritual floor a few feet away from her.
Deep in the bowels of the silent Hokage Tower, the seven-month pregnant wife of the Yondaime and illegitimate daughter of Uchiha Madara conspired to topple the unwavering pride of the village's second founding Clan. The thirty-one-year-old found herself sagging exhaustedly in the circle of her own ink-stained spiral, hoping against hope no pain or harm could ever darken the vibrant kaleidoscope of colour contained in her little one's soul.
She was still fatigued from Sasuke's birth three days ago, the mournful knowledge that he was not of Fugaku's blood a secret she had struggled to conceal from the Patriarch since his conception…even when the Head of the Clan showed nothing but iced apathy at the prospect of raising another child.
The fact that her youngest looked so much like her but held the obvious non-clan traces of his biological father was a curse she could not bring herself to condemn the little one for…regardless of the circumstances surrounding his genesis. It was—.
"The seal, Miko-chan, won't last forever." The red-haired mother-to-be warned, calligraphy brush dipping into an elegant red suzuri stained with chakra-green ink and the blood of a pureblood Uchiha as she brushed another set of runic characters around the complex seal woven so meticulously on the floor. "It's bound to unravel once little Sasu-chan's chakra is stronger than yours. And going by his parentage, it won't be long—."
"Hai."
"He's already showing signs of his father's Kekkei Genkai too, rather strong for a new-born—."
"I know," Mikoto interrupted a second time, her long raven-blue bangs tumbling forward to conceal the bitter sting of regret reflected in the now Sharingan-red spiral of her eyes. The second-time mother could not conceal the loving regard she directed at the peek of her youngest's curious non-Uchiha eyes blinking open at the sound of her voice, however.
He was such a beautiful child, his enchantingly thick raven-blue hair a stark juxtaposition to the kohl and soot brushing up against long black lashes. Her precious little one, her darling little Sasuke, a silverstorm miracle born of the moon, the wind and tempestial earth…was such a sweet child that she could only smile in wistful amusement as Kushina's unique violet eyes shimmered with softened instinct the moment the Uzumaki mother found herself the subject of the boy's large, unique, eyes.
"It'll be such a shame to hide them," Kushina noted mournfully, long fingertips ticking across baby-soft cheeks as the little one squirmed restlessly in his dark blue blankets — tiny legs and fists quite adamant in escaping their current restrictive imprisonment. She was so very careful and gentle in taking the babe from his mother's arms, laying the precious treasure in the centre of her most intricate seal before stepping back momentarily to assess the maelstrom green precision inscribed by her hand.
"He's beautiful." The red-haired kunoichi noted in wonderment, smiling with pure delight as little Sasuke frowned mightily at the disobedience of his young limbs. "I wonder if my Naru-chan will be so quiet." She mused, knowing instinctively it would be a scarce possibility simply by the heavy Uzushio and Kyūbi chakra her offspring would have running through his veins.
Continuing with the last of her work however, the soon-to-be mother was careful not to distress the little Uchiha's clearly restless movement as gentle fingertips rested delicately atop the silken threads of his genetically blue-black tresses.
"Hush, little Sasu-chan. Aunty Kushina is almost finished." The redhead cooed, straightening the boy's cashmere blue blanket and carefully tucking him into his swaddle a little more securely as she rose her brush to inscribe a delicate green waxing crescent on his left temple and a waning one on his right. She could understand why Mikoto asked this favour of her, knowing intimately the pain of being labelled illegitimate in a bloodline-obsessed Clan.
She wasn't going to condemn an innocent to a lifetime of discrimination and hate whilst he was too young to understand his physical differences, never mind curse her dearest friend to experience exile from the only home she had ever known.
"A-are you sure it won't hurt him? Kushina, I—."
"No." The Uzumaki was quick to reassure, placing no blame on the Matriarch's obvious sorrow trailing a river of silvery tears down fever-flushed cheeks.
"He might be a bit startled by the change in his chakra nature but it won't hurt him…promise." It was too soon for Mikoto to be taking the burden of providing the grounding chakra for this ritual, Kushina thought, but she could understand her friend's quiet insistence on doing this herself before the rest of her Clan and the Elders learned of her trespass.
Fugaku may already suspect, but—.
Putting her sealing implements aside and counting out the fifty-three hand-seal array she needed to complete the fūinjutsu, Uzumaki Kushina carefully and lovingly coaxed a flash of Uchiha fire and moonbright yin through her own coils as the abrupt and startling echo of her bloodstained palm slammed down on the complex green array.
The reverberation of her shout was only accentuated by the haunting rush of wind and a single tremor shaking the earth, the change in hypnotic magnetism sure to be fizzing through the tinniest of the three occupants' blood before the straining pressure flitted and changed his once tea-green and earthen-black chakra to a more distinct Uchiha violet-blue beneath Mikoto's Sharingan gaze.
Sasuke's frightened wail and newly revealed Uchiha black eyes were startlingly wide in surprise, his obvious distress reaching across the distance to disturb Mikoto's currently sealed frame as she forced herself passed the restrictive draw on her limbs and swiftly crossed the forbidden distance that separated them.
She couldn't take it anymore, her little one crying openly at the scare by now as he refused to calm even at the arrival of her presence. The Matriarch spent no time in bending down to lift the little one into her arms, gently and lovingly rocking his squirming frame against her chest until his wailing distress settled down into more quiet, drawn-out, breaths.
Large onyx orbs fluttered in fatigued exhaustion as he blinked at his mother, Mikoto swaying on her feet from the loss of her unusually constrained chakra reserves as she reached down to lay a grateful palm on Kushina's now shaking shoulder.
"Thank you, Kushina. I—." Waving the black-haired Matriarch's words aside with a quiet shake of her head, the Uzumaki shakily forced herself to stand despite her disjointed equilibrium before she wiped away several droplets of sweat clinging to her forehead. Her long crimson locks were swaying against her calves as she clung to Mikoto's waist for several moments of reprieve, desperately trying to re-establish a connection to her own chakra reserves amidst the stir of darkness and danger in the pit of her stomach.
The vibrant, red-haired, kunoichi really hadn't expected the sealing to take so much out of her, neither her powerful friend as she noted the obvious spots of unnatural red clinging to the raven-haired Matriarch's formerly pale cheeks. The thirty-one-year-old mother was shivering feverishly against her slightly shorter frame, her chakra obviously dangerously drained through the conduit Kushina created as the two of them slowly made their way out of the Hokage Tower and towards the hospital instead.
The Founding Festival was still in full swing regardless of the silvery rainstorm dancing on the wind, the excitable chatter and joyful screams of the civilians a vibrant backdrop to the treason they just knowingly committed. The snap of Minato's large, traditional, blue umbrella instantly shielded Mikoto and Sasuke from the ragging storm as her husband offered her a sorrowful smile and silently escorted the three of them to their destination.
Watching with a quiet smile as her friend bent down to momentarily fix her new-born's blankets and shield him from the nip of the wind, Mikoto was quick to press a kiss to the babe's now startlingly calm brows as Kushina decided it was not time yet to inform Mikoto that she didn't think her seal would hold past Sasu-chan's thirteenth birthday.
He seemed a little too wilful, she mused. He would never be made of just Uchiha fire and moonswept yin—.
Regardless of what was to come however, Kushina was well aware that Mikoto would make sure her child was loved…even with the possibility of his seal unravelling and uncovering secrets currently best left unspoken in the depths of Konoha.
It made Kushina reach down for the treasure growing so effervescently and far-too-quickly in her own stomach, a gentle palm smoothing lovingly over her protruding stomach as widely smiling features happily exposed the love and care she hoped to impart on her little one the moment he was born.
If there was one thing Kushina realized after this escapade, it was that she would protect her son just as fiercely as Mikoto protected both hers.
. . .
The earth had shifted from beneath his feet since that night, the very shadows coming alive around him as the screaming ache of a bitter genjutsu unsealed a thousand-and-one resurrections and subsequent murders in the depths of his still-developing mind. Uchiha Sasuke was utterly destroyed in hopelessness, watching over and over and over again, as his Kaa-chan fell by his Nii-san's hand—.
Bitter blank eyes were gazing at the sliding rivulets of rain pitter-pattering against the grey windowpane beside his solitary hospital bed, the heavy afternoon darkness casting silently crying black eyes in flimmers of kohl and dust as the seven-year-old survivor of Konoha's most shameful massacre found himself struggling to calm the screaming panic unfurling deep beneath unnaturally pale skin.
Sasuke's hands were clammy and cold from the constantly evolving nightmares he experienced, trembling fingertips grasping numbly at the scratchy white sheets settled around his waist as he turned his head in the direction of the deceptively soothing rain outside. He was staring…unknowingly…at the minutes, hours, days…months…that blurred in a monochrome sanguine madness inside the depths of his mind.
The last of his Clan was still in a state of disbelief two weeks after the event, not entirely sure if what he saw was real or if he was merely caught in a constant loop of nightmares no one had the ability to break—.
He could still taste it, however, the shockingly metallic vapour of blood and darkness tainting the air, a surge of silver platinum dust and rain spraying arterial red on Kaa-chan's beloved tatami floors—.
"Nnngh!" Unconsciously biting back the rising scream bubbling in the back of his throat, Sasuke had no control over the languidly bleeding cut his canines dug into a constantly abused bottom lip.
There was so little here able to distract him from the disgusting unprofessional gossip that followed him since the day he was admitted, the nurses taking turns in nattering stories of hatred and speculation about his Clan when they thought he was sleeping and unaware of his surroundings. Yet, all it did, all they did…was bring forth a flood of recollections he would rather sell his soul to forget.
The strange tea-green lacquer of his nails, a phenomenon his mother told him originated from the crescent moon seal on each of his temples; were lifting to tug restlessly at the long, twin, chin-length bangs tickling the unnatural paleness of his cheeks. The ragged locks were dirty and mussed, unabashedly curled in the creeping winter humidity as the second-last survivor his Clan squeezed achingly tear-encrusted lashes shut in a desperate attempt to ease the searing, shameful, shattering of his childlike soul.
It was shameful to cry, Tou-san scolded him once. In fact, it was one of the few memories Sasuke had of the elder Uchiha not subjecting him to one form, or another, of brewing ice and dismissal in his onyx black gaze—.
"Are you sure you wish to do this, Shikaku?" A low voice suddenly interrupted his quiet and silent sphere. The distinct sound of the Hokage's rumble a presence Sasuke had grown used to over the last few days as steady but deliberately sounded footsteps approached the other side of his door.
"The council has already made a strategic stance against Mikoto's Will. They do not see her placement of the boy in your Clan as benevolent, merely a way to empower your own stance—."
Shifting his attention away from the bitter insanity slowly consuming the depths of his mind, Sasuke drew himself up just enough to sit with his back against the iron bedrail behind him.
The languid but disrespectful hum of the other presence's subsequent reply finally seemed to silence the constant chattering nurses outside, a proper sense of hospital melancholy now settling down in its vacated space as a distinct but warm Shinobi chakra lengthened the shadows in his room and brushed a tentative awareness against his own.
Sasuke hid the fact that he knew his shadowed guards were shifting nervously in his periphery at the sensation, their concealed presence certainly not as trained or contained as they would have been were he a shinobi or elite himself.
"Be that as it may," the apathetic baritone continued. "I'm not leaving another child in their grasp. Nara protect their own."
"I see," The Sandaime's voice hummed, startling Sasuke slightly from his subsequent daze as he gazed at the door to his room creaking open beneath the touch of gnarled fingertips. The distinct hat and white robes that followed were a sight he had grown increasingly familiar with, the new and unexpected sensation of curiosity rising inside him coming from the tall, pony-tailed, shinobi that followed in the Hokage's wake.
"Ah! You're awake, Sasuke. Did you manage to get some rest today?" Turning his attention in the direction of the elder clasping his arms behind his back, the seven-year-old shrunk in on himself slightly as he found himself scrutinized by the Hokage's pitying gaze. He didn't deign the question important enough for an answer, in fact forgetting that he hadn't spoken a single word since the events of that night as he turned his gaze in the direction of the man his mother always, secretly, and far away from his father and Clan walls, told him would protect him if something happened to her.
Not the Clan she had said, but her specifically—.
"This is Nara Shikaku, my Jōnin Commander and Head of the Nara Clan" The Hokage continued. "I'm sure your mother told you about him?" At his hesitant nod, the elder Sarutobi offered a sorrowful smile before reaching for a kiseru in the billowing sleeves of his robes. There was a visible wrinkle of strain accentuating the corner of his ancient eyes, the man quietly but quickly explaining to the young Uchiha that the hospital was finally ready to let him go.
Before Sasuke could balk at the thought of returning to the land of his kin, the compound now bathed in nothing but blood and dead phantoms — the Nara Head swiftly but silently drew his horrified attention away from the Hokage by stepping into the direct line of his sight.
"Don't worry, Sasuke. You'll be coming home with me," The dark-haired man said softly, his frighteningly deep baritone warm and kind despite the terrifying scars dug into the side of his face. The sharp but surprising languid tiredness reflected in his eyes was what finally set the adolescent at ease, the seven-year-old strangely drawn to the elder shinobi's shadowed presence as he forced himself to drop the sheets from his waist and stand on wobbly legs to obey the man's unhurried beckon.
When the Nara reached out to ruffle the top of Sasuke's head however, he was forced to take a terrified and unexpected step back. He had always been unsure of what to expect in the presence of others, knowing instinctively that no one liked to interact, touch or talk to him in the Clan besides his mother and Nii-san. It was—.
"Easy there, little Uchiha." The Jōnin Commander rumbled, his tall frame slinking lithely to settle on his haunches so he could look his charge straight in the eye. The wild but fitting deerskin cloak settled over the shoulders of his flak-jacket drew attention to his rightful position as Head of the Nara Clan, dark green armguards flexing momentarily at his sides before he rested his forearms against his thighs in a much more relaxed position.
Everything in the older man's posture was lazy but surprisingly aware of his surroundings, stilling the younger Uchiha's growing unease as he recognized the sharpness and intelligence reflected in the Clan Head's gaze. The man's forest-dark eyes were like his father's when Uchiha Fugaku was at work, his warm palm coming to rest on Sasuke's trembling shoulder instead as a quiet frown hardened Shikaku's features at the Hokage's presence still hovering by the side of his vacated bed.
"I know things are hard and confusing to accept right now. It's alright, I don't expect you to…it will come in time when you're ready." The Nara said softly. "But I promise you, as I promised your mother when she asked, that I will look after you as if you are my own." Seeing the confused but shy tilt of the boy's head, the spiky-haired shinobi lifted a palm to stroke his beard in contemplative thought.
"Uchiha Mikoto was a close friend of my family for years," He smiled. "As such, she became as much a part it as she did yours." His non-judgemental and quiet earnestness was something Sasuke could find no hidden agenda or lie within as he nodded quietly in acquiescence. He desperately wanted to escape the clinical coldness of this place after all, to step away from the icy detachment and slowly descending madness spiralling in the depths of his mind—.
When Shikaku-san ruffled his bangs in a gentle caress, Sasuke's unusually starved senses tried not to lean into the touch or expose the frenetic bloom of colour on his cheeks. He didn't want to be rude or short with someone who considered Kaa-chan family, even if the seven-year-old had never visited their house or seen the Nara up close.
Recognizing the strange flicker of confusion that crossed the man's features at the sight of the small silver crescents hidden on his temples behind his long bangs, Sasuke parted his lips with a frightened gasp before a quiet flick of the man's finger settled on his own lips in a signal for silence.
Those hooded dark eyes were drawn in the direction of the Hokage now staring out the window with his back to them, indicating it was perhaps not something to be discussed in another's presence as he rose to tall, imposing, height.
"Come along," The Jōnin muttered, hand held out for Sasuke to take as he tipped his head in the Hokage's direction. "We'll have the paperwork settled tomorrow afternoon, Hokage-sama."
"Let the council know our decision to take Uchiha Sasuke in was unanimous. The Nara elders will not be opposed." With that, Sasuke, aware and weary of the underlying tension now drawing taut between the two powerful men, hesitantly gripped the older man's rough palm and tilted his head towards the ground.
He was using his free hand to smooth down the mess of his twin, chin-length bangs. Kaa-chan often reminded him to not let others see the chakra marks that had been tattooed into his temples, their presence a secret meant to be kept in the family until their silvery hue turned the same tea-green of his nails. It would—.
"I hope you like yakitori with seasoned rice," Shikaku suddenly said, leading them towards the entrance of the hospital before stopping by a room filled with standard winter weather cloaks. "My wife has decided to serve it specially tonight with tomato salad."
"She's very excited to meet you." Standing still in apathetic silence as the Nara Head draped a warm cloak over his shoulders and pulled the hood over his head to shield him from the rain outside, Sasuke couldn't quite conceal the perk of interest consuming his features at the mention of tomatoes and seasoned rice.
He hadn't eaten in what felt forever, even when—.
"How troublesome," His escort rumbled next to him, having caught the quirk of the Uchiha's lips as he drew the boy firmly but gently against his side. His stride was long but languid, slowing for Sasuke to keep up without straining as he headed in the direction of the Nara Forest Kaa-chan often told him about.
"I do hope you're less of a yakitori fiend than Shikamaru. He'll eat us out of the house one of these days." Sasuke smiled at the man's dismay for the first time in what felt like forever, briefly recalling one of the few faces at the Academy that never seemed to chase after him or annoy him. The dark-haired boy, Shikamaru, always seemed to fall asleep under the shade of a tree Sasuke liked to spend his breaks in the boughs of.
It felt like a lifetime ago now, he frowned, that he had enjoyed the silent but comforting company. Before everything simply shattered—.
. . .
"Have you washed up, Shikamaru? Your father will be home any minute now and I'd like to get dinner started." Breathing a heavy sigh at the shrill but predictable cry coming from the kitchen doorway situated just down the hall from his current position, little seven-year-old Nara Shikamaru languidly turned on his side in a better napping position as he wilfully ignored the troublesome irritation saturating Okaa-san's voice.
He was sprawled in the traditional living room beside the silent shōgi game he and Tou-san had been playing the night before the elder Nara got called away with messenger hawk. It was the first time he had ever seen his father's expertly controlled emotions twist in such pained sorrow and sheer determination, especially since Okaa-san told him earlier that day that he'd be having a new brother—.
Not one in her stomach as he had balked first, but one taken in the by the Nara—.
Frowning softly in confusion as he recalled the unusual but quietly noticeable tension that had been infusing the village not long after the previous time Tou-san had been summoned away unexpectedly when already at home…two weeks ago, a far-too-bright mind contemplated the noticeable classmate that had disappeared from the Academy roster with no explanation.
The teachers and shinobi overseeing the classes had been struggling to hide the shadowed cloud that seemed to link their interactions every day since then, a red flag Shikamaru found far too easy to link to the increased ANBU patrols around the Clan estate and long hours Tou-san seemed to be working.
Shikamaru had always known he was purposefully lazy, hiding his sharp gaze and quick mind behind a sleepy façade and nonchalant grumpiness that not even the prospect of good grades and praise could prise from his hands. Yet, he missed the quiet contentment and joy he found in observing the clouds on a good day.
The soft shade on his skin, a warm breeze rustling through large Hashirama trees and, sometimes, the stilled chakra of companions by his side. Chōji's crinkling chip bag and calm enjoyment, Ino's irritating natter on flowers or the silent Uchiha he, more often than not, noticed in the boughs of his favourite tree at the Academy.
The dark-haired boy had yet to say a single word to him however, despite the strange draw Shika felt to the boy's presence—.
"Shikamaru! I won't ask you again!" Comically flailing awake from the doze he had unconsciously slipped into, the seven-year-old Nara languidly pulled his face from the side of a lovely alpaca plush Tou-san had given him for his birthday a month ago. The maple and vanilla fur had been harvested in the mountains of Kumogakure, providing a soft wind-spun fragrance and giving surface more supple and soft than any feather pillow he had ever felt—.
"Shikamaru?!"
"Troublesome," He moaned, small hands instinctively pulling the plush against his chest as he slipped passed the open fusuma doors and into the washroom down the hall. Just as his bare feet crossed the threshold from completing task and onto the polished hardwood floor instead, the front door clicked opened.
"Tadaima, Yoshino-chan, Shikamaru!" Tou-san's voice reverberated through the house, freezing the small seven-year-old in place a few feet from the front door. He had just been about to move into the kitchen at his mother's insistence, the artificial light of the hallway creating a searing beacon of brightness above him as it automatically strengthened and stretched the instinctive reach of his shadow.
Shikaku's Heir shivered unexpectedly at his father's arrival, unable to breathe a proper reply to the familiar greeting when previously droopy eyes shimmered in surprise alertness at the unexpectedly cloaked bundle that stepped into the genkan beside the towering Nara Head.
The heavy cream fabric and hood of a weather-resistant shinobi cloak was far too large on the boy's small frame, haunting black eyes – now ringed in a telling, sleepless, kohl – flickering in brief recognition as they collided with soft copper-ochre. Shikamaru couldn't help but tremble at the flimmering lightning strike the earnest acknowledgement created, a tingling and painful chakra charge travelling all the way from the top of his head to the tips of his toes and reaching into the cosmic beyond—.
"Tou-san?! I—" Shika whimpered, frightened by the unexpected sensation of his natural yin chakra slipping from his grasp. His shadow viciously and immediately leapt forward without his consent, stretching further and tauter than he had ever been able to guide it during a hot summer day as it crossed the eight-meter distance between them and latched possessively onto the platinum penumbra cast by Uchiha Sasuke.
"Nnngh!" It felt so strange, a sting drawing rigid between the tip of his heart and the pit of his stomach as a pained gasp echoed from peony-parted lips. A flood of emotions, not his own, were leeching into the depths of the seven-year-old's soul. Tears were instantly pricking the corner of his eyes, a black hole of sheer terror and despair swirling against his senses as—.
"P-Papa!"
"Shikamaru?" Shikaku was momentarily frozen by the sight, arms dropping away from Sasuke's shoulders where he had been unfastening the clips of the cloak from the boy's neck. That was…he had never seen that happen in his Clan before, even as a young Patrairch surrounded by destruction and war. It was—.
"Shit!" Rushing forward to press the centre of his palm in against his son's forehead, Shikaku was quick to forge a flare of yang into his hand as he struggled to counterbalance their home's now restless and reaching darkness. It took far too much power on his part to distract Shika's instinct to possess however, the boy swaying confusedly at the influx of chakra flooding his veins as his power eventually drained and retreated back into its rightful place.
Ignoring the frozen form of his wife that had just meandered into the hallway, the thirty-eight-year-old Nara Patrairch carefully reached forward to gather his child into his arms as he settled him against his hip. Simultaneously kneeling before the Uchiha's now startled but surprisingly unaffected expression, those sharp black eyes flicked curiously to the droopy, ponytailed, head immediately resting against Shikaku's shoulder.
It was the first time the Nara noticed the little Uchiha smile of his own accord, small feet shifting on their tippy-toes to politely hang his own cloak on the hook beside the door. The seven-year-old looked far more broken and grown than his age should allow, graciously bending down to pick up the alpaca toy his son had dropped — probably having used it as a pillow to nap on as he was wont to do these days.
"H-he looks l-like you." Sasuke said softly, voice strained and ragged from several weeks of howling grief and bitter silence. "Y-you should be p-proud." Something painful and dark in the quietly immature voice alerted Shikaku to a memory the boy didn't want to recall, the elder's free hand automatically reaching forward to lay atop Sasuke's genetically wild but oh-so-soft Uchiha locks.
Turning his attention towards the sound of footsteps crossing the wooden floor behind him, Shikaku stood with languid and lazy limbs as he shifted a now openly dozing Shikamaru against his hip and pulled the new addition to their family to his side.
Yoshino's expression was quietly solemn but deeply understanding as she stepped forward, returning his previous evening greeting with a kiss to the man's scarred cheek before she too dropped to her knee to welcome the quiet, dark-haired, boy cautiously having twined his fingers in Shikaku's deerskin cloak.
"Welcome home, Sasuke-kun. I hope you're hungry," The Matriarch smiled, beckoning her now three boys into the kitchen after she instructed the new arrivals to washup.
By the seriously contemplative expression crossing her husband's features and Shikamaru — immediately dropping his head onto the table in a low-energy groan despite the flicker of strange alertness she saw him train on little Sasuke — the Nara mother could already tell things were about to get 'troublesome'.
Still, Yoshino was glad…her Beloved had finally managed to pry the last Uchiha from the restrictive grip the Hokage had tried to bind the boy to the village with even if Mikoto had named her and Shikaku his godparents. At the time, neither of them questioned why the Uchiha Matriarch chose someone outside her Clan for the task, yet it seems they would have to look deeper into the request with Sasuke's reaction to Shikaku's affection earlier.
Something…something didn't seem quite as it seemed within the main Uchiha family line.
Now...time to guess Sasuke's father! Hehe, first one gets a cookie and mention from me in the author's note. I've placed subtle clues and symbolism throughout the first chapter.
Thank you so much, my Honeys, for reading. It makes me happy as always. Please let me know what you think, this story means a lot to me because it will be more general in the beginning with many character interactions.
See my Honeys again soon, hopefully, with another update or story. :)