New Friends

Sasuke led Karasu and his group directly to the Hokage's office to meet with Naruto, opting for a stealth approach to avoid Karasu revealing the truth of his heritage to any of the Leaf's shinobi. They found the Hokage asleep at his desk, snoring loudly without a care in the world. Sasuke let out a sigh and walked over to his sleeping friend, slamming his hand down on the table beside Naruto's head to wake him.

"Wha-, Sasuke!" The sleepy Hokage shouted as he jumped up, sending several empty cups of instant ramen tumbling to the floor.

"Glad you're awake, there's some people here that you should meet," Sasuke said with a sly smile. Naruto looked at him with narrowed eyes, skeptical after being awakened so rudely.

"These young shinobi are not affiliated with any of the Hidden Villages, they're wanderers. They'd like to side with Konoha if you'll have them," Sasuke explained.

Naruto turned his attention to three other people in the room, blinking several times as he saw Karasu's strange garb. He looked each of them over carefully before saying anything.

"Who are they?" He asked Sasuke, rather than addressing the visitors to his office.

"Karasu is my nephew, the other two are his teammates, Usagi and Inu," Sasuke explained, indicating each of them as he mentioned their names.

"So you're Itachi's son, the one Sasuke told me about when we were still genin," Naruto said. Karasu replied with a short nod, reaching up to remove his mask.

"Wait, I thought you were an Uchiha. Why do you have eyes like the Hyuga?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"My mother was Hyuga," was all Karasu said, not wanting to stir up any trouble by revealing his mother's identity.

"You could easily pass as your father, aside from your eyes," the Hokage said.

Naruto was silent for a moment as he thought about what Karasu had said, apparently oblivious to the implications of what he had just been told.

"Wait, he's an Uchiha-Hyuga mix?!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, looking to Sasuke for the answer. Sasuke smiled and nodded, still finding Naruto's lax behavior and slowness to catch on comical after all these years.

"Whoa," was all Naruto could say before staring at Karasu silently, his jaw hanging part way open.

"Forgive my bluntness, Lord Hokage, but you still haven't given an answer as to whether or not you would be willing to accept us as Leaf shinobi," Karasu said, his tone polite.

"Sorry about that," the Hokage replied with a nervous chuckle.

"I'd love to be able to just draft you in, but I don't even know what skill level you guys are at. You're too old to go to the Academy, and the Chunin exams were canceled in the final round" Naruto added apologetically.

"We understand," Karasu replied.

"What about giving them a placement test, like the Village used to do in times of war. Consider it an extenuating circumstance," Sasuke suggested.

"I'll run it by Granny Tsunade, but I don't see why we couldn't do it that way," Naruto replied.

"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Karasu said as he and his team bowed.

"I'll have to get back to you on the matter in a day or two, do you have anywhere to stay while you're here?"

"I thought I'd let them stay with me tonight. I'm sure Sarada would like to meet her cousin," Sasuke replied.

"I have a cousin?" Karasu asked, finding it difficult to hide his own excitement.

"Yes, her name is Sarada. She recently became a genin, along with Naruto's son, Boruto," Sasuke replied with a light chuckle.

Sasuke and the others took their leave a few minutes later, leaving Naruto to figure out how to go about giving them a placement exam. Sasuke led his nephew's team back to his house, explaining to them a few things they might need to know about his wife and daughter. Karasu was glad to hear that his cousin was able to use the Sharingan, as it meant that the Uchiha blood still ran strong. Sasuke surprised them by knocking on the door of the house when they arrived.

"I'm not home very often. This is just my way of surprising them," he said with a small smile when he noticed Karasu's confused look.

The door swung open to reveal a pink-haired woman and a young girl with glasses. The woman seemed surprised to see Sasuke, though the girl kept a stern gaze on Karasu and his team.

"Who are they?" The girl asked while her father stepped forward to hug her mother.

"The masked one is your cousin, Karasu. The other two are his teammates, Inu and Usagi," Sasuke said in answer to his daughter's question.

"Can they stay here for the night, Sakura? I know it's sudden, but I didn't know where else to let them sleep until Naruto can get them situated,"

"Of course!" The pink-haired woman, Sakura, said.

"Why didn't you ever tell me Itachi had a son?" She asked Sasuke quietly as they entered the house. Sarada never took her eyes off of Karasu's group as they followed.

Karasu still had his mask on to hide his heritage, but he took it off once they were inside the house. Sarada and Sakura let out a gasp as they saw Karasu's face, thinking for a moment that he was his father. Karasu chuckled at their reaction, saying that the Hokage had had a similar reaction to seeing him without the mask.

"Why haven't we met you until now?" Sarada asked her cousin as her parents went to begin dinner.

"I would have come sooner if I knew I had a cousin, but I've been busy dismantling the Foundation," he replied.

"I know they were bad people, but the Foundation has been disbanded since shortly after the war," Sarada argued.

"They were ordered to disband, but many of their facilities never stopped their research and experiments," he explained.

"So you've been doing like my dad and protecting everyone from the shadows?" She asked him.

"My intentions weren't quite so noble," he said with a chuckle.

"I wanted revenge for what Danzo's men did to my mother, and I wanted to make sure they couldn't keep doing to others what they had done to us," he said.

Sarada picked up on the edge in his voice and quickly changed topics, asking about his upbringing instead. They talked until Sarada's parents called that dinner was ready, continuing their conversation between mouthfuls of food. After dinner, Sarada offered to let Usagi sleep in her room, suggesting that the boys take the living room. Everyone agreed, leaving Karasu and Inu in the living room as they retired to their own rooms. Inu decided to sleep outside, wanting to keep watch over his friends. Karasu took the couch, using his large cloak to cover himself. His last thoughts before finally falling asleep were of his newly met family, his heart longing to once more be able to enjoy that simple comfort after so many years of constant training and bloodshed.