To Protect His Dream…

Twelve Days Ago: (3rd person's point of view)

"Team 1 is assigned to you. Nara Inomaru, Uchiha Shishui, and Uchiha Sakura are under your care now."

"Why me? I am the last person who should be their sensei."

Naruto sighed and handed the folder with the children's stats to his friend, the protégée of the Hokage herself, Haruno Sakura. "Come on Sakura-chan, you're smarter than that!"

She frowned at the blond-haired fox boy before looking over the papers. "The children are geniuses, Naruto. I can't risk them finding out…" She placed the folder down and pushed it towards her close friend.

Naruto slammed his fist down on the table and glared at her. "Sakura-chan, right now, he is not here in Konoha Village. He is going after one of the most wanted S-criminal out there…"

"Which was your mission in the first place…"

"No Sakura!" He crossed his arms and squinted at her, his face scrunching up as he nodded his head. "It's been so many years, Sakura. So many years…I am not going to take that away from him." His eyes softened as he reminisced a distant memory and softly added, "Isn't that what you said before?"

"Naruto…"

"You had the chance to keep Uchiha Sasuke here in Konoha. You had the chance, Sakura, and yet…you chose to do something else." The soon-to-be Hokage walked over to the pink-haired kunoichi and pulled her into a hug. "You sacrificed so much for him…why can't you let yourself feel a little bit of happiness?"

"I don't want to be selfish, Naruto." Sakura hugged herself and bit her lips. "I don't want to be selfish."

He let go of the embrace to stare incredulously at her. "Selfish? Selfish? That's the last thing anyone would say about you." Naruto shook his head and chuckled, "For someone with a big forehead, you sure are slow."

Sakura turned away to look out the window. The cherry blossom tree stood silent in her garden, the pink leaves slowly fluttering from the many branches. "I was so selfish when we were twelve. You guys had dreams…and I had nothing. Just a crush that I still can't get over…"

"Sakura-chan, please. You are not twelve anymore. You are 26 years old." He stared out the window too, admiring how the many flowers were blossoming under the bright sun. "Fourteen years ago, we were placed in the same team with him…Uchiha Sasuke. And a lot happened that year. We became his precious people, and for that, we were at risk."

"…the Mangekyou Sharingan…" she whispered.

"I don't think Sasuke left to gain power, although that's what he wanted us to believe. He's Mr. Cool Guy…doesn't want anyone to know that he's anything but strong. Sakura, listen, you know in your heart the reason why he left."

"… 'Arigato'…" Sakura shook her head and blinked her eyes, trying to push back the tears that were pooling in her eyes. "It took me a while to figure out why he said that."

Naruto nodded his head, his expression serious. "He was thanking you for being his friend, his close friend…one of his precious people. He left us so that we won't be at risk to be sacrificed for the Mangekyou Sharingan. Even though we didn't agree with his choice, he firmly believed that going to Orochimaru was the better thing for him to do. He would rather give in and sacrifice himself for power than sacrifice us…"

Sakura smiled as the memories came flooding back to her. "And yet we didn't understand him, Naruto. We developed our own special jutsus to help him."

"Eleven years ago, just as we were crossing the borders of Konoha…"

"The Valley of the End…and he was there, waiting for us…"

"And then…YOU KNOCKED ME OUT!" Naruto started flapping his hands as tears ran down his cheeks. "Sakura-chan, why did you do that!"

She sweat dropped as Naruto started wailing, reminding her of her other over-exuberant friend, Rock Lee. "See, dobe," Sakura smiled wryly at her prankster friend, "I was prepared to leave. I already got clearance from Tsunade to go out on my own and learn medical techniques from other countries…you, on the other hand, just packed a lot of instant ramen and didn't tell anyone where you were going to go or the fact that you were even going out of the Leaf Village in the first place. So of course, I had to get you back or you would have been declared a missing nin."

"You still haven't told me or anyone else what happened during those three years that you were gone."

"That's between him and me…" she softly replied.

"And then…I got that letter from him…and to my surprise, when I met up with you guys at the Valley of the End…you were pregnant. At least you guys didn't keep me out of that one."

Sakura turned to Naruto and smiled sadly at him. "I wanted his children to be born in Konoha. And he also wanted you to watch the completion of one of his dreams."

"…it was actually more about your dream, Sakura…" he shook his head at his former teammate. "He wanted me to witness you achieving your dream. Your dream of being with him…as a family."

"So many things happened that day, Naruto…"

"Yeah…it was a good thing you sent me to wash the twins while you had your alone time with Sasuke. Otherwise, Itachi would have known about them."

"Sasuke-kun was so scared when his brother showed up. And I don't mean scared like frozen with fear. He was scared that Itachi would hurt his babies. And I made the decision when I saw him forming the Chidori and Itachi just standing there, relaxed and amused." Sakura turned to Naruto and picked up the folder, weighing it in her hand. "Sasuke-kun was right…his brother had a huge advantage due to the Mangekyou Sharingan…and the only thing I could do was to help him gain it. It wasn't right to keep him here in the Leaf Village…not when his security and that of his friends are at risk due to Itachi. I wasn't going to take his dream, not of revenge but of safety and security, away from him."

"Sakura-chan, you already missed so many years of your children's life."

"His children, Naruto. His children." She shook her head sadly. "They are not my children…"

"No, they are your children. Please Sakura-chan, let them spend time with you…even if you don't want to reveal that you are their mother. They still think you are dead. Well, technically, you did die. And thanks to you, Sasuke activated the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"I have to use a high-end genjutsu to change my appearance…hmmm…but wait, why are you putting them in a team already instead of waiting for graduation day?"

Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Uchiha Shishui and Uchiha Sakura have already activated the full Sharingan. They already know a lot of high-level jutsus and thus would need a sensei to guide them in the proper usage of such dangerous techniques. Iruka-sensei can't give them the attention and guidance that they would need."

Sakura sighed and cocked her head to one side. "What about Inomaru?"

The blond-haired shinobi nodded his head to show that he was getting to that part. "Inomaru turns out to be a genius like his father but he is so lazy that he probably would fail the graduating Henge test because he would be sleeping while standing up and not executing the jutsu. Ino would end up yelling at him, then at Shikamaru, and force the two to do chores for a whole month…so this saves a lot of people a lot of trouble and you would be doing Shikamaru and Ino a favor by accepting."

Naruto grinned at Sakura as he continued, "Besides you, the only other candidates for their sensei is Kakashi-sensei, Gai-san, or me, since the twins need someone who knows a lot about the Sharingan and its capabilities and weaknesses. However, I can't do it because I am getting trained by Tsunade-obaachan and Ero-sennin on Hokage duties. Kakashi-sensei would probably be deployed on another S-rank mission. And do you really want your children to be trained by Gai? They might start acting like him!"

Sakura looked at the papers in the folder one more time before coming to a decision. I hope Sasuke-kun doesn't find out. Not until he has fulfilled all of his dreams-I don't want him to lose the Mangekyou Sharingan before killing his brother…

"Fine, Naruto. I'll do it. Team 1 is now under my care."

I don't own Naruto. I am not making any money off of this fanfic so please don't sue me. I'm just a poor college student. Please review if you like the fanfic. Warning: this is going to be a long fanfic. Here's some explanation: The Time that I put in the top is the time from the Prologue-so its going backwards. So for each consecutive chapter, it will go down- so next chapter will be eleven days ago, ten days ago…until it reaches to the time in the prologue. Each chapter will be one day later. Also, I hope this clears some confusion up. Sakura was killed by Sasuke…but thanks to a special jutsu, which will be explained later, she is still alive. But now…the children might have killed her since two Chidoris went into her body instead of just one-so she may not survive… PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!