AN: Okay, I'm so sorry for the long wait. But if I'm being completely honest, I lost motivation to finish this chapter and lost my muse. I needed to focus on IRL stuff that's been taking up a lot of my time. So yeah. I'm surprised I was even able to finish this chapter as soon as I did. I used a few Japanese terms to make it feel more real, but I put parenthesis of what they meant and tried my best not to use them as much. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy it. :)
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Chapter 6
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"Mama?" Akane wondered, dumbstruck.
Both pink haired females were taken by surprised. Akane, because she didn't expect Sakura to be here. She just finished showering, merely in a bathrobe and her pink hair a wet mess. Sakura, because what Akane called her. Sakura paused for a moment, the words she rehearsed and practiced in her head, forgotten. Sakura raised a brow, knowing this was most likely a bad time.
It took Sakura a few seconds to shake out of her stupor.
"Sorry, I'll come back later – when you're ready," Sakura said politely. She gave a small wave and a curt smile before she was ready to leave. Akane immediately frowned, her arms extended and hoping to change her mind.
"No, no, no, it's fine! Don't worry about that! I don't really care, please come in! If you came by it must have been important, right? I was just combing my hair right now," Akane tried to persuade, hoping she would stay. She gave a small, awkward chuckle. Her grin grew as she grabbed ahold of Sakura's hand, attempting to pull her in.
"Well, it wasn't anything of major importance, but I did want to talk to you."
"Okay, okay, don't worry at all. I don't care if you're in here, really." She was so eager to get her inside and talk to her. She continued hold of her hand, hoping to usher into her apartment. Sakura smiled courteously, unable to refuse.
As Akane babbled on about random things from having to get up early, to the chuunin exams, to her living arrangements now, Sakura took notice of her features. As she glanced to Akane's face and hair and smile, she now realized, that yes, she looked exactly like her. It was uncanny, as though she was looking at a reflection of her past self as a genin.
Except her eyes, of course. Her eyes were showered in deep blue emotions, longing, and love – just like her father's. Her cheeks were also a little rounder than her own back then, more like Naruto's when he was a genin. Sakura took her eyes away, shaking out of her awe to address her.
"I would have suggested we go out today, but that might not be the best idea – people would ask questions and gossip," Sakura explained, and Akane nodded, understanding.
"Yeah, I get it. It's okay." Akane moved to her small kitchen. "Water? Tea?" she asked. Sakura shook her head.
"Water is fine, thank you." Sakura looked around, noticing the somewhat messy room. It wasn't a total mess, but she saw some clothes, bandages, and Akane's ninja weapons lying around the floor and table haphazardly. She didn't mention it however; she just observed. She also realized that other than that, the room was pretty plain, but it made sense considering the fact that she was only supposed to be here for the chuunin exams. Akane came back from her tiny kitchen with two glasses of water in her hand. She shoved some of her ninja weapons off her coffee table with her elbow (as recklessly as that looked to Sakura), before placing Sakura's glass down and taking a sip of her own. Akane took a seat, sitting cross legged on the floor.
"Papa already told me the news, by the way, that you're my… my Mama."
"Yes," she cut off. "That's what the results say, but we all know that you belong somewhere else, where you have a different life in a different world. I promise you, we will help you find your home," she reassured, a curt smile displayed on her features. Akane turned to Sakura for a moment, squaring her shoulder with a blank stare for several seconds. It took Akane some time to process Sakura's words, before her initial shock dissipated.
Akane's lips pursed, nodding silently. Her eyes moved to her hands that where clenched on her lap, knowing full well that Sakura was just doing what was necessary. Akane shouldn't make herself too comfortable here. A sad smile crawled up her face at the thought, the creases in her forehead and her eyes shrouded with regret.
"I'm sorry, if I messed everything up for you – if you're angry at me. Papa didn't want to admit it yesterday, but I could tell…"
Sakura frowned, realizing Akane's emotions were out in the open, so easy to read – the more she was with her, the more she realized how similar her personality was to Naruto's. In a way, it was endearing to see. Her mouth felt dry as she took in a deep breath at the thought, because another part of her feared this thought at the same time. She looked over to the girl that looked so much like her, a smile on her countenance.
"Hey, who said I was angry? I was just a little shocked – of course. It's not every day I find out about a child I had no idea existed. But I'm not angry – not at you. It's not your fault." Sakura left out the part that she was angry with herself more than anything – she was angry at her own situation and the cards she was dealt with. They were cards she handpicked herself, but it still seemed like she was given a bad hand.
Even so, Akane hesitantly nodded at her words, understanding but not really believing. A part of her still felt as though it was her fault.
Sakura noticed the somber expression on her, the dullness in her eyes, before standing up, moving closer to the girl.
"Hey, do you need help with your hair?" Sakura asked, hoping to change the subject, and realized her hair was incredibly wild when it was down.
"Yes please!" Akane's frown immediately shot up into a grin, running off into the bathroom to find her comb.
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Sakura grabbed Akane's pink tresses, trying to run a comb through them, tangles and all. Akane scrunched her face, this feeling all too familiar, only a little worse than what she remembered, knowing she was never the best at upkeeping her hair. Sakura's eyes bore concentration and focus, as if she was performing a very important medical procedure.
"Geez, when's the last time you combed your hair?" Sakura asked, growing a bit frustrated with Akane's pink locks. Akane in question blushed sheepishly, looking down to her crossed legs.
"Well, with the chuunin exams, I didn't really have time to worry about my hair," she explained bashfully. Sakura was more baffled by how thick her hair was, and how long it was, the comb seemingly fighting a losing battle. Sakura stuck her tongue out, in complete concentration.
This was going to take a while.
"You have so much hair. Why don't you just cut it then?" Sakura asked, finding it hard to comb through her hair but still making the effort. She fisted big strands of hair, and then combed the ends so she wouldn't hurt her. Sakura continued to fight and comb through tangles of pink hair, wondering how on earth a child of hers would leave it like this for so long.
She knew she wouldn't be the one to teach her child this. She would think she raised her girl better than that – at least, she hoped her mother from a different dimension would do so.
"Did your father do your hair or something?" Sakura rhetorically asked. Akane shook her head, blushing again, deciding to answer anyways.
"Well, no. I promise, it's not usually like this! I promise, back home, my Mama helped me with it. It's just been hard to manage while I'm on my own now. Not exactly the thing we do during the chuunin exams, or in Earth Country for that matter. I mean, kunoichi's hair from Iwagakure is still nice, just, well, mine was definitely different. A lot of people thought I had my hair like this for attention," Akane said. Sakura nodded, a deep frown forming. "But well, I didn't really have the time anyways," Akane continued to explain, embarrassed.
"It's fine, it's fine, I was just curious," Sakura laughed. Akane nodded, still blushing and still embarrassed. She should have figured, that no matter which Sakura there was, she would warn her about her wild pink hair. She didn't think that she would still ask her to cut her hair too.
But it just showed how nearly identical they were.
"Hey, you know, Mama always told me, that since I'm a ninja now, it would be easier if I cut it. Mama told me how much it got in the way during her chuunin exam, so she cut it off. And it was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders, so she could protect her teammates. She said it meant so much to do that, because it was her way of saying that she would become a better kunoichi because of it." Sakura stopped, her eyes wide for a second before she gave Akane a warm smile from above.
"You're right. And she's right, too. Your Mama sounds like she knows her stuff."
Akane giggled. "Mama always got kinda annoyed when I refused to cut my hair, because I was so stubborn," Akane giggled. But Sakura couldn't see, too busy brushing away the tangles. Akane winced when Sakura brushed a little too hard, Sakura apologizing afterwards. "She would lecture me all the time about how if I'm going to grow my hair so much, that I needed to actually take care of it. And if not, that it would be better if I just chopped it all off."
"Mind sharing why you never listened to her then?" Sakura wondered. Figures she would be stubborn like Naruto - and herself, to a certain extent. Akane giggled.
"Well, I like putting it in pig tails. Funny story about that, actually. Well, not really funny. Let's just say I thought Papa's sexy no jutsu was really cool, I wanted to have her hairstyle."
"His… what?" Sakura had to let go of her hair or else she would have surely ripped it out. "That baka, how could he let a little girl – his daughter – see that jutsu?" She had to remind herself that this Naruto, had not done that at all. But she knew, under the right circumstances, he most certainly would have been so reckless as to show her! Akane paid no mind, enjoying her reaction.
"It's actually a really funny story," Akane laughed, turning around and hoping to calm Sakura down. "But it's funny because my Mama actually had the same reaction." Sakura's anger subsided at that, her face heating at the idea in embarrassment. "Although, now I don't know if I should tell you," Akane said, trying to stop herself from chuckling at her reaction by covering her mouth. "I remember Papa was really scared when you found out about that."
"What happened?" Akane giggled louder, unable to hold in her fits of laughter any longer.
"Okay, okay. It started when I told him that some boys were picking on me. He wanted to help me feel better. But he figured if he said it, it would have been really lame – which it would have been, so I don't blame him. He ended up using the sexy no jutsu to teach me about... well... But she had clothes on, I promise! Papa wasn't that reckless!" Akane reassured, seeing the steam coming out of Sakura's ears the more she talked.
Akane laughed thinking of the memory despite herself.
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"Papa..." a little Akane cried, running to her father who was busy talking with a fellow villager – a merchant, complaining about how hard it was to work in the village now. Not something that Akane had a total grasp on. Naruto looked over to where he heard Akane yell, raising an eyebrow.
He smiled at the merchant. "I will do what I can to help you, in the mean time you will be compensated."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," the merchant said before he bowed and walked the opposite direction. Akane stopped her crying for a moment to look at the back of the merchant, wondering what they were talking about.
"What's wrong, Akane-chan?" Naruto asked, hoping to get her back on track. Akane remembered why she was crying, sniffling once more and wiping her tears.
"There were little boys that picked on me!" Akane cried out, turning back to her father.
"Did they hurt you?" he asked, his eyes serious, his hand on her shoulder. She shook her head.
"No, I beat them up, of course," Akane said, wiping tears enough to pat herself on the back at that. She was no sissy. "B-but still, they hurt my feelings. None of them liked my pig tails you did. They all said it was weird with my pink hair!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, before smiling at his little girl.
"Well, they have no idea what they're talking about! You have hair just like your mother, and she has one of the prettiest hair I've seen, just like your grandma too," Naruto tried to reason, remembering back to his mother's long red hair. Akane pouted, crossing her arms.
"Tell that to the dumb boys and girls in my class!" she pouted. "I hate them! They're just jealous that I'm better than them."
"Now, now, Akane-chan-"
"It's true! I'm so much cooler."
"That's no way to act, Akane-chan. You should know better. Give them a chance, they don't know any better," Naruto tried to reason with her.
"They couldn't even say it to my face. They were whispering about it, and laughing at me behind my back. They're all a bunch of cowards! They thought it was really sloppy," Akane said, scowling at the little kids who didn't know any better.
"Did you hear them say it to you?"
"Well… no, but they were looking at me!" Naruto sighed.
"Here, let me show you something." Naruto frowned, knowing he wouldn't be able to get to her. That was when an idea came up. he grinned. "Let's take you back to school, Akane-chan." Akane whined a bit, before Naruto gave her a look that said, "Don't try it." Akane pouted, before she nodded, stretching her arms up in hoping he could carry her.
"You're going to get way too big for this," Naruto laughed, before picking her up so she could sit over his shoulders.
As they approached the academy, Akane was surprised when they stopped by a woman with beautiful long, blonde hair, in two pigtails. Naruto put her down, before he gave a wry smile to the woman.
"Akane-chan!" the woman waved. Akane blushed, thinking this woman was so gorgeous. She wanted to be just like her.
"W-who are you?" she asked, hiding behind her father's robes.
"I'm... Um, I'm Naruko. I want you to know, you're so pretty, I love your pig tails. Don't ever change for anyone else. Because you're great as you are," Naruko said. Naruko moved to pick her up, beaming at the girl. Akane seemed mesmerized by the woman, feeling her soft blonde hair.
"Pretty," Akane couldn't help but say, wanting to do her hair just like Naruko. She wanted to be just like her.
"H-hey, Naruto! S-sexy no jutsu? By the academy? Really?" Iruka asked, hoping he would cut it out (they were by the Academy for crying out loud), before he spotted Naruto hoping he would shut up in front of Akane. Iruka moved closer, before realizing Akane was there too.
Naruto sighed.
"Sexy no... jutsu?" Akane wondered her head tilted. Naruko's eyebrow twitched, before letting the girl down and dispelling.
"Wait a sec... that was you, Papa, wasn't it?" Akane wondered, completely stunned. "Papa! Papa, how did you do that? Have you taught Nii-san that?"
"No, no, noooo," Naruto denied, knowing Sakura would kill him if he did. Iruka raised an eyebrow, accusingly. Naruto sheepishly smiled, scratching the back of his head.
Okay, so he might have taught him this particular jutsu. But white lies never hurt once in a while.
"Sexy no jutsu, sexy no jutsu, Papa teach me that!" Akane begged, while Naruto tried to shush her from screaming the jutsu so loudly.
"What have you done?" Iruka asked, trying to hold back a laugh despite himself. Naruto stammered, asking the same thing, knowing he was in for it now.
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"Naruto..." Sakura seethed.
"Yeah, that was how you said Papa's name." Sakura sighed, trying to recompose herself once more. She figured, at least he didn't actually teach her Sexy no Jutsu or anything like that. It was pointless to get angry now, unable to do much about that anyways. Sakura shook her head, deciding to get back to untangling Akane's pink mane.
"Well, I believe that." Both ended up laughing at the thought, Akane picturing it in her head, and Sakura trying to picture it – a part of her afraid to.
Once the laughter subsided, it was quiet for once; both in their own heads, both with a crazy amount of questions they were too apprehensive to ask.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" Sakura finally asked, still brushing through pink locks.
"It's about Sasuke-Ojisan, right?" Akane asked knowingly. Sakura paused, before slowly nodding.
"Yeah," she answered, because Akane's back was turned.
"I figured," Akane said, knowing that her uncle was a big part of Sakura's life, especially in this world it looked like. "Well, if you're curious, Ojisan (uncle) was still a big part of our lives." Sakura frowned, wondering what that meant for her here.
While Sasuke always left the village here, she wondered what it meant if he was still there with them. She wondered if it was the fact that things were different here, that caused it all – if it was her fault he left.
Akane continued, "But he always left. That is still the same. He still does the same thing he does now – with his missions. He still left Sarada-chan." Akane looked down to her water, watching the stillness of the water, except the one droplet that rolled down. Her fingers pressed against the glass of water, her lips pressed together. Sakura paused, taking a moment to attempt to look at Akane, her head tilted in hopes of reading Akane's expression – wondering if she was serious.
"Did he? Sarada-chan is still…?" Akane nodded, scratching her cheek.
"Yeah, she was still in that world. She looked a little different though, but she was still called the same. I'm guessing uncle still picked the name perhaps?" Akane shrugged, unsure where her name came from. "She stayed with us, when Sasuke-ojisan or Karin-obasan had to leave."
"Karin?" Akane nodded, her lips in a straight line. "She was... she couldn't be there all the time for Sarada-chan, and Sarada-chan hated them both for it. We were the best of friends. Well mostly," Akane said, a sad smile evident because she knew that same relationship couldn't be established here. She remembered when she first entered the chuunin exams, and was so excited when she saw her (there were differences from the Sarada she knew back home, but she still recognized her face), but was also disheartened when Sarada had no idea who she was.
Sakura nodded, understanding.
"So, just so you know, no matter what world, Ojisan will always have to leave," Akane said. "The last time he left with Oniisan."
"You had… an older brother?" Akane nodded, but furrowed her brows at her hair tugging a little in result.
"Yeah, Uncle is kind of doing to Nisan (big brother) what he is doing now with Boruto-kun. Nisan is the really smart one. He is the one who likes to study and know a lot of things, like you. Ojisan doesn't believe it, since he's Papa's child," Akane laughed. "I'm apparently more like Papa in that regard. I never particularly liked studying," Akane sheepishly chuckled, scratching the side of her head.
"Yeah, you remind me of Naruto," Sakura said, a small smile forming at the thought.
"You know, when I first saw that you were with Ojisan instead of Papa, I was really angry and sad, because it felt all wrong. I hated it, it was weird to me, especially since Ojisan would leave here and you felt pain from it. But, now that I see that Sarada-chan has all your love, well... I'm really happy for her, that she had you there for everything. I'm glad that at the very least, she has someone who is so close to her," Akane confessed, feeling like she was biting back tears.
Sakura stopped, giving that some thought. She never imagined a world where she wasn't so close with Sarada. They did everything together. She was basically her mother, which was one of the things she took pride in here. She would do anything for that child – her child.
"So I guess things changed here, huh. I'm glad the Sarada-chan in your world was surrounded by love."
"I think... I think why things turned out so differently... The reason why you fell for Papa sooner there, was because... I think it was because you realized it sooner that Uncle Sasuke could never change who he is, and over there, you didn't want him to have to change. You accepted uncle for who he is, and knew that you couldn't make him stay in the village, since that just wasn't him at all. But I remember you and uncle were still great friends. He still talked to you. I think you and Papa always did talk to him, actually, from what I remember. Like I remember one time, how you got super mad at both Papa and Uncle," Akane started, recalling the memory.
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Akane remembered waiting with her mother, Sakura busy with paperwork at the hospital while Akane was in a time out. Akane pouted, her arms crossed as she stared at her mother write down something, focused on her task.
"Akane-chan, don't you have homework to finish?" Sakura offered, stern and motherly.
"Mama," Akane whined. Sakura sighed, putting down her pen.
"Come on, Akane-chan. You know it's important to learn the shinobi rules," Sakura explained. Akane pouted, her lips in a small whimper before she tried to defend her actions of not studying.
"B-but Papa said the only rule I need to take to heart is to always protect my precious people and never give up!" Sakura sighed, a small snort resulting from her daughter's words. Of course. Before she had a chance to respond, she heard a screeching from the window. She stood immediately, seeing Naruto lurch through the window, Sasuke lugged on his back.
"What happened," Sakura demanded, moving to both as Naruto pleaded for Sakura to help Sasuke.
Akane never saw her father so concerned. She watched innocently, unable to understand what was going on, or what was wrong with her uncle.
"Please, Sakura-chan, help him. Something went wrong with the new jutsu," Naruto explained. And Sakura instantly helped Naruto get Sasuke on her desk, her checking his chakra levels before quickly beginning to perform medical ninjutsu.
"Naruto, Akane-chan is here." Naruto nodded, his eyes finally moving to his daughter, who stood wide eyed and not comprehending what was going on or what was wrong. He walked over to her before picking Akane up and taking her outside her office. They both sat on a bench, outside the room. Akane watched as her father fidgeted and wait, his knees moving up and down.
"Papa, what happened?" Akane asked, her tone scared that something really bad happened. Naruto paused, taking a moment to grin at Akane.
"Sorry, Akane-chan. I was just a little worried about your Uncle Sasuke. But Sakura-chan will save him, I know it. Don't worry, Akane-chan," Naruto said, placing her on his lap and rubbing her back in hopes to placate her. When he realized she was staring at him with concern, he tried to mask his apprehension and fear, but Akane could still feel it, having a bad feeling herself.
It took a while, but Sakura finally came out, wiping beads of sweat off her forehead, before she nearly fell from chakra depletion. Luckily, Naruto was there, catching her in his arms. Akane stood from the bench, calling to her mother.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto muttered her name with concern.
"Don't worry, he will live, I stabilized him for now," Sakura mumbled, ready for a long nap. "He needs rest. Ask a nurse to bring a gurney for him." Naruto did just that, calling for nurses to bring Sasuke into the infirmary.
"Neh, Sakura-chan, better if you both stay here, right? You're chakra levels are scary low" Naruto said. Sakura tiredly nodded, before Akane could hear light snores coming from her mother.
"Is Mama and Uncle going to be okay?" Akane asked. Naruto nodded, smiling and placing Sakura on a second gurney. He took Akane in his arms, following both his teammates.
"Yeah, she just needs to rest a bit," he reassured, ruffling her bright pink hair. Akane looked down to the floor, still unconvinced. "In the meantime, let's get them both food before they wake up. Right now, they're both out of chakra, so they'll need some nourishment," he suggested. Akane nodded, hoping she could do something to help them both.
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Akane went with her father to go get everyone food, knowing all their favorites and knowing they must have been starving.
They waited in stools, waiting for the food to be prepared.
"Akane-chan… what were you doing at the hospital with Sakura-chan at that time anyways? You're supposed to be in the academy," he realized, raising a brow.
"I... I snuck out of the academy during lunch," Akane said guiltily, her cheeks heating from embarrassment and knowing she didn't want to get in trouble. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "But don't worry, Mama said she would take me back after she finished paperwork. I had only missed a bit of lunch and recess at that time."
"Why did you sneak out?" he asked. Akane smiled, her chest rising with pride.
"Because! I won't learn anything there. You said hands on experience is the best, that's how you learned to become Hokage! So I'm taking your word for it!" Akane reasoned. Naruto sighed, shaking his head with a small laugh. His hand moved to his forehead, wondering how she managed to always manipulated his words like this.
"When I said that, I didn't mean you can just neglect your studies," Naruto tried to say, his brows furrowing and the creases on his forehead increasing as he tried to grasp how to teach her the importance of school. Akane still grinned.
"But didn't you barely study your books? Why do I have to? The most important thing for a ninja to do is protect their precious people, so all that other stuff isn't as important as getting stronger to do that, right?" Akane tried to convince. Naruto laughed, shaking his head and realizing that Akane seemed to be just like him in terms of not wanting to study. She was definitely as energetic as him, but having her own type of smarts.
"You're definitely smarter than me in getting what you want, you know." Akane looked at him oddly for a second, before giving him her best smile.
"That's because I'm cunning, right? That's the word Mama said I was!"
"You know, that may be true, but my situation was a little different," Naruto tried to explain.
"What do you mean, Papa?"
"You would know if you paid attention in class." Akane pouted. "If you applied yourself, you could definitely be Hokage."
"If I applied myself? Why? Because right now Niisan is ahead of me?" Akane said, furrowing her brows and pouting.
"Something tells me your brother doesn't want to be Hokage like you do," Naruto laughed. Akane frowned.
"But if he wanted to... he would have a better chance than me, right? Niisan was already able to get rasengan down by this time, right?" Akane asked, looking to the ground. Naruto frowned, starting to understand why she was feeling so down, why she was always so loud and wanting to get more attention. He smiled, kneeling down to give her a reassuring smile.
"Hey, hey, Shina is doing his own thing. And you're doing yours! You're pretty much at the top of your class too - well you would be if you go to class," Naruto lectured, eyeing her demandingly. Akane shrunk into her stool, pouting before squaring her shoulders and standing straighter, her fist clenched and ready to reason back.
"B-but, Papa! I'm... well, I'm training! Because I want to be stronger!" Akane said her arms high as she tried to flex her small biceps. Naruto laughed.
"Hey, you can someday. I wouldn't worry about that. But you need to actually stay in class." Akane nodded, finally relenting for now. Their discussion paused when their order was ready. Naruto smiled, thanking the cashier, before they both walked out the restaurant.
"You think Nii-san's mission will be long?" Akane looked up to her father, hoping he knew more about her brother and Sarada's mission.
"Hopefully not if he wants to keep traveling with Sasuke," Naruto laughed. "But something tells me your uncle is going to have to stay in Konoha for a while anyways."
"That means Nii-san and Sarada-chan will be here a lot, right? And Sarada-chan will be able to spend more time with her Papa?" Akane tried, hoping for the best. Naruto smiled, ruffling her pink hair.
"You're really considerate of other people's feelings, aren't you, Akane-chan? That's great," Naruto complimented. Akane looked up, a deep grin forming. "But yeah, I'm sure that will be the case." Akane smiled gratefully. "I wouldn't be surprised if they're already here, actually." Akane's face light up at the thought.
"But we better hurry before their food gets cold," Naruto said, kneeling down so he could give her a piggy back ride.
"Yay!" Akane cheered, before jumping on his back, and giggled all the way to the hospital.
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Once they arrived at the hospital, Naruto was stopped by a nurse, who wanted to discuss both his teammates conditions. Akane took that opportunity to run to the room they were in.
However, for a moment, she stopped outside the door, barely hearing Sasuke's voice. It was low and hard, but she remembered what she could make out.
"Sakura… thank you," Sasuke rasped. "You know, I really do respect you. You've become strong. And, and you're dear to me." Akane could hear Sakura's laugh.
"I'm sorry, for not being here more. I'm sorry," he continued.
There was a long silence between them, before she could hear Sakura give off another tired, but happy laugh.
"Sasuke-kun, this sounds so unlike you… but I appreciate it. I understand. I wouldn't have it any other way. I want you to be happy, too. But talk to your daughter, please. She really needs you at this time. She doesn't understand." She heard Sasuke grunt.
"I know."
Akane jumped, when she heard her father's voice behind her, mumbling because he had a piece of bread in his mouth.
"What are you doing, Akane-chan?" Naruto asked, quirking a brow. Akane sheepishly giggled, turning her back to the door and grinning.
"N-nothing!" she squealed, feeling as though she was caught red handed in ease dropping. Naruto walked to her, before picking her up and opening the door to see Sasuke's back turned away from Sakura, facing the window, while Sakura stared at the ceiling, before she looked over to Naruto and Akane and smiled.
"Naruto, Akane-chan," Sakura greeted, sitting up from her bed.
"Mama! Are you alright?" Akane asked. Sakura nodded. "Good!" she said, before Naruto decided to have some fun and put Akane on Sasuke's bed, so she could effectively jump on him and scream in his ear to make sure he was alright.
Sasuke merely grumbled something incoherent, while they all laughed.
"Uncle! What jutsu were you working on? Can you teach me something for once? You only teach Nii-san cool jutsu!" Akane asked. Sasuke grumbled again, peering at the little girl that tugged at his robes and his hair. She was like a monkey, jumping around.
"Maybe he'll finally teach you once you settle down, Akane-chan," Sakura laughed. Naruto laughed too, while Sasuke glared at the man, knowing he did this on purpose. He grabbed the girl by her shirt, giving a monotone stare before he sighed.
They all laughed, except Akane of course, who was feeling a little bratty, until they heard the knock on the door.
"Oh, that should be Shinachiku and Sarada-chan," Naruto thought aloud. "They're back form their mission earlier than expected."
Akane stopped whining, before the biggest grin rose as the door opened.
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Akane mewled in pain, feeling Sakura tug a little too hard at one point in combing her hair.
"Sorry about that. But I think I got all the tangles out at least! Hey, I'm going to try a different hair style, okay?" Sakura asked, hoping to change the topic. Hearing her story made her uneasy, shaky. She knew she would break even more, and she couldn't do that in front of Akane. Akane eyed her curiously, knowing something was wrong, but nodded regardless.
"Sure!" Akane said. Sakura nodded, taking a bobby pin from her own hair and placing it in her mouth, before combing Akane's long bangs to one side. She then took the bobby pin and pinned it in her hair, in hopes to keep her bangs at bay and in one side. Sakura took a moment to look at her handy work, before noticing the stray hair that failed to get pinned before she tried to comb said strand.
"Sarada-chan says she wants to be Hokage. And I guess… that would mean I wouldn't have a chance here, given my situation…" Akane started, breaking Sakura out of her concentration. "Still, my Mama and Papa taught me to never give up, so I will still become Hokage no matter what! That is my dream!" she declared, her eyes boring determination and her smile bringing warmth.
Sarada and Akane were very similar, in terms of their dream of being Hokage.
They both had Naruto's will, it would seem. Sakura smiled, a sad yet knowing smile at the thought.
"I don't doubt it. I have faith in both of you."
.
AN: If you would like to see how Akane looks before and after (along with her younger self), I posted them up on the Heaven and Earth forum. I also posted it on the Advancers forum. If you need specifics on where to find them, just pm me/review! ^_^
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed"— Ernest Hemingway – basically me, writing this chapter, except replace typewriter with laptop (this was the hardest, but most enjoyable one yet for me to write). xD
Since I'm almost to 200 reviews, I'll do something special for whoever is my 200th reviewer (as in either a request oneshot/something pertaining to this story/something along those lines). xD
Any feedback/if you could tell me what you think/if you have any questions, I would really appreciate it! :D Thanks everyone!
Update: I feel weird having a whole chapter 7 just dedicated to a whole AN without an actual update, and I don't want to review my own story to respond to everyone in the comment section, because that would be a little weird to do lol, but please hear me out when I make this tl;dr author's note.
I wanted to address a few anonymous reviewers since they don't have accounts (or are too lazy to log in?).
So, my mind set for this chapter was dealing with Sakura. As I stated before, I didn't explain exactly how Naruto and Sakura got together in Akane's world yet, or how exactly things came to be. No, it is not all Sakura's fault. No, it's not all Sasuke's fault. What I've been trying to do (and I suppose haven't succeeded in), was showing that not one person is to blame. The blame goes around to everyone. But not everyone can take the full blame for what is going on. That is the main thing I was trying to do. It's not solely Sakura's fault. It's not solely Sasuke's fault. It's not solely Naruto's fault. I just want to clarify, that a lot of this was in Akane's and Sakura's perspective. So, in Sakura's perspective, Sakura would definitely blame herself more than anything for everything that's happened. But of course, it's not all her fault, but that's just how she feels. It's like a lot of people blaming Naruto before because of the whole Naruto-Hinata situation (which makes sense I hope, since that portion was in his perspective). There's a lot of blame to go around, but in the perspective of the character I'm writing about, they're going to feel that it's their fault depending on how they look at it.
And I apologize that this doesn't completely follow the Gaiden. My reasoning for keeping Karin the mother in this, is because that is one of the main reasons I initially wrote this story. The Gaiden annoyed me, that the whole premise was, "who's the mommy?" It just made me sad for Sakura and Sarada because it just showed how messed up their situation was (like really? Sakura didn't know if Sasuke wore glasses? Is this for real?). This was kind of my response to that (this was also started in the middle of Gaiden, before it was revealed that Sakura was the mother), but it was still frustrating when I first read the chapters. But yeah, I had a lot of this planned out before that happened, so I apologize that it doesn't follow the canon completely. I apologize, but I hope you guys understand.
Also, as an anonymous reviewer said, I kind of go with what Sai said (in one of the chapters), that adding the "-kun" to Naruto's name would be really weird and wouldn't actually mean affection, but be more formal (especially if she suddenly started using it). I think her just saying Naruto would show how close she is with him. But yeah. That's my reasoning, and why I don't do that (in any of my stories actually). It kind of bothers me when she does say "Naruto-kun" in stories because it just doesn't feel right haha.
Regardless, I was blown away by all the comments I was receiving, along with all the comments people were having with each other in the review section. I absolutely love that you guys are having conversations and interpreting things differently, and giving your own thoughts and information to each other. That's actually really cool to see, and it honestly helps so much because reading everyone's comments and thoughts about the story help me improve and help me add and make this story better. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everyone commenting and sharing their opinions on how they feel about the chapters. I hope the fact that there are so many people having different perspectives etc., shows that I'm doing a good job at creating nuance etc. Maybe not but that is what I'm hoping for when writing this.
And since I'm already adding a lot with this way too long tl;dr post, I thought I might warn you guys, that next chapter, I'm going into more of that rage I had when first reading the Gaiden/ending. Admittedly, I wrote certain parts long before, so I don't know if it fits anymore with the overall theme of the story, but I still want to include it because… well, it's therapeutic for me (its mainly some of the stuff about the Naruto world in general, so it does kind of tie). I'm just asking you guys to trust me on this one, I'll keep doing what I can to give these characters depth (as much as I can/ been doing haha).
Also, as far as I know, you don't have to make an account on either of those sites to see those doodles haha. Also, I might make it longer than the initial 8 chapters (don't quote me on that)!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT (especially to those who actually read this lol)! Wouldn't blame you if you didn't (My new goal is to keep these AN's as concise and to the point as possible in the future). If you want to PM me/ review if you haven't already about anything I've said or want to discuss it further, I'd be happy to! ^^
Also, Nosferatu, you're the 200th reviewer. So if you have a request for another story or something, I'd be happy to do it (if you even want haha, if you don't that's cool too). I don't know if you have an actual account or anything like that, but if you'd like something please let me know however you can reach me (as of right now I think it's just review, but I have forums you can reach me from or, if you are able to make an account where I can pm you, you can pm me, that would be cool as well).