Meanwhile, at the Uzumaki household, Boruto and Himawari both gazed up at Amai in awe after proper introductions had been made.
"So you're Sarada's aunt?" The blond-haired boy asked.
"That's right. I was married to her uncle before he passed away, many years ago." Amai replied as she shifted the unconscious Nozomi in her arms.
Sarada looked a bit miffed, "How did I not know about you?"
"Because it's technically classified information that only the Hokage and the Jounin Counsel have known about." Shikamaru answered, "Although I'm guessing that's about to change."
Amai nodded, "We were planning to move here today anyway. Things just got a little..."
"Chaotic?" Sakura asked with a wry smile as she held her arms out in a silent offer to look after Nozomi.
"To say the least..." Amai replied as she passed Nozomi over to her sister-in-law before smiling at Sarada, "We've met before Sarada-chan. You just don't remember. I think the last time I saw you was when you were about four-years-old, before you started wearing glasses."
"Oh that's right!" Sakura said, "You were in Konoha on the day Sarada got sick back then. You really helped me out at that time."
"Before I wore glasses? That must've been a really long time ago..." Sarada said.
Amai nodded, "You were very sick, and when your fever finally broke, we realized that you'd suffered damage to your vision, so you probably don't remember seeing me."
"Wait, that's why I wear glasses?!" Sarada exclaimed.
"You didn't know?" Amai asked in confusion. Sarada shook her head.
"I just thought it was hereditary or something."
Amai smiled in dry amusement, "Well, I can't say that poor eyesight is something that the Uchiha are immune to by any means. Itachi-kun was blind by the time he passed."
"Wasn't that because of his Mangekyou Sharingan though?" Sakura asked.
"Technically, yes, but my point still stands." Amai replied. She placed a hand on Sarada's head, "Still, you've really gotten big, Sarada-chan. And you look so much like your father." She knelt down to see Sarada's face better and then smiled, "But you know, I think the shape of your eyes is more similar to Sakura-chan's."
"Eh? Really?" Sarada asked.
"Yes." Amai said with a smile, "Trust me, there are very few people who could possibly know the eyes of the Uchiha better than I do." She turned and looked at where Dango and Tamana were sitting on the couch, "Dango and Tamana's eyes are of similar shape to their father's, but there's a slight roundness there that they got from me." Grief and concern crossed the woman's features as she took note of Tamana rubbing at her eyes. "Thank goodness that Aiko-chan has the Mangekyou Sharingan... I shudder to think what would've happened to us all otherwise. I'm not incapable of fighting if I have to, but faced with a member of the Ōtsutsuki..."
"Yeah." Sakura said with a nod, "Without her Susano'o and a means to contact Sasuke-kun..." She walked closer to Amai and lowered her voice, "Is Tamana-chan okay? She seems pretty shaken up."
Amai's eyes saddened slightly, "Tamana has always been a sensitive child. She gets that from her father. However, unlike myself or Itachi-kun, this is the first time in their sixteen years of life that either of them has ever witnessed death in combat. While the fact they've been able to live this long without experiencing that makes me happy, for it to have been somebody so close to them... Koujirou-kun was the closest thing to a father that they've ever known."
"What do you mean, Auntie?" Boruto asked.
"Ah, I guess you wouldn't know." Amai replied with a wry smile, "My husband Itachi, who was Sasuke-kun's older brother, passed away shortly after I became pregnant with the twins, so they never got the chance to meet him."
"Just like Mirai-neechan..." Boruto replied.
"Mirai?" Amai asked in confusion before realization crossed her face, "Oh, you must mean Sarutobi Mirai, Sarutobi Asuma's daughter. Yes. They both died while protecting Konoha from the same organization, the Akatsuki."
"The Akatsuki?" Sarada asked in confusion, having heard that name before. "Wasn't Uncle Itachi a member of that group?"
"To be more accurate, Itachi-kun was a spy that infiltrated the Akatsuki for Konoha's sake." Amai replied.
"So that's what Papa meant when he said that guy didn't know anything about Uncle Itachi..." Sarada said thoughtfully.
"Ah, I assume you're referring to the man called Shin, whom you faced with your parents." Amai replied, "I heard about that from Sakura-chan after the fact. For somebody who claimed to be fascinated by him, that man didn't know a single thing about Itachi-kun."
At that moment, the door opened and Sasuke walked in with Aiko.
"Aiko-chan!" Amai exclaimed with concern, hurrying over to her, "Are you...?"
Aiko smiled weakly. "I'll manage. I'm sorry for worrying you."
"To think that there was another survivor of the Uchiha besides Papa..." Sarada said in amazement as she walked up to Aiko with Boruto and Himawari.
Aiko smiled sadly at Sarada. "Yes. My name was removed from the clan registry when my father died. Things were... pretty complicated when Sasuke-niichan and I were young. My mother couldn't go back to the clan that she had been born in, and she feared for my safety, so she took me to live elsewhere in the Land of Fire. As a result, there is no evidence that I ever lived here."
"No, that's not quite right." Shikamaru said, stepping forward with something under his arm, "There might be more proof in the old Uchiha Storage Unit in the bunkers, but, at the very least, I did find this at my house." He held out a framed photograph to Aiko, whose eyes widened at the sight.
"Oh my. You still have this, Shikamaru-san? I had nearly forgotten about it myself until I started packing for the move."
"What is it?" Sarada asked curiously, peering over Aiko's hands with Boruto while Sasuke looked over her shoulder. It was of four children, two about Sarada and Boruto's age, and the other two about Himawari's age, standing on a stage. Three of them were standing on a podium while the other was standing beside it. A little girl was standing at the top of the podium, cradling a gold trophy in her arms and beaming happily. Despite standing on the top tier, her head was still lower than that of the young boy with charcoal-colored hair standing beside her, smiling tranquilly whilst holding a silver trophy. The protector on his forehead was proof that he was already a shinobi. On the lowest tier was a boy with spiky black hair and sharp brown eyes, holding a bronze-colored trophy and looking uncertain as to whether he was happy or annoyed. Like the little girl, standing on the tier didn't help him to stand above the brunette girl beside him, who was also beaming despite not being on the podium, a shiny medal around her neck.
"This photo is from a really long time ago." Aiko explained, "Maybe four months or so before I left Konoha." She pointed to the little girl at the top of the podium, "This is me..." Her finger moved to the boy with the ash-colored hair, "And then this is your uncle, Itachi-niichan." She moved her finger to the other boy, "This is Shikamaru-san... And then this girl is Uchiha Izumi. Someone that your uncle and I were both close to."
"What is this from? I don't remember." Naruto asked as he looked over Boruto and Sarada's heads.
Aiko laughed, "You wouldn't. I doubt that you participated." She smiled fondly at the photo, "This is from a shogi tournament that was held when we were kids, at the suggestion of Nara Shikaku, the father of Shikamaru-san. He proposed holding a tournament among the children of Konoha to discover who the brightest minds of the next generation were. Back then, early graduation from the Academy had only just been abolished, so only post-war graduates, academy students, and those who were due to enter the Academy the following term were allowed to enter. For that reason, Itachi-niichan's best friend, Uchiha Shisui, wasn't able to enter." She smiled wryly, "In truth, I think Shikaku-san suggested it in part because he thought that removing my mother from her post in the Hokage's Office after your father's death had been a terrible mistake."
"Why was she removed?" Sarada asked.
"One of the higher-ups at that time bore a deep hatred toward my parents and I, because my mother had left her own clan, the clan that he was from, when she married my father." Aiko replied, "My mother was supposed to marry the next head of her clan, but she hadn't been given a say in this matter, so when she and my father eloped and she became a member of the Uchiha... well... more than a few people were ticked off about it. That particular higher-up had a tendency to abuse the power of his position for his own needs, thus, he tended to make life hard for my family as much as possible. Although that's not to say he held any great love for the Uchiha in general."
"That man should've been dealt with long before the Gokage Council." Sakura said with a shake of her head, "I don't know why Lord Third never did anything beyond putting him under house arrest."
"It's possible that he used Kotoamatsukami to prevent Sandaime from taking further action against him. It's not as if he had any respect for Lord Third's authority." Aiko remarked, "But that's beside the point. In the eyes of my mother's clan, I was nothing more than a parasite. Someone who should never have existed. Shikaku-san was close with my mother and wanted to give me a chance to prove that I was every inch her daughter. At that time, there was still a sense of rivalry amongst the various clans of Konoha. Thus, the tournament provided a setting where the best and brightest of each clan could show off their intellectual abilities, although the official purpose was to scout out talent amongst the children of the village to determine who might be well-suited to joining Shikaku-san's division later on. The preliminary tournament was divided into four groups, according to age. Those who were ages 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, and 15-19, which was the age of the oldest postwar graduate. The winner and runner-up of each group went on to the final tournament. The youngest age group went first, and then from there, those who advanced were allowed to watch the matches of those older than them, to prevent the younger ones from being at a severe disadvantage. Shikamaru-san and I were the finalists from the first group, and then Itachi-niichan and Izumi-neechan were the finalists from the second group. I don't really remember who the other four were all that well. It was so long ago. In the end, the final match came down to Itachi-niichan and I."
"And you beat him?" Sakura said incredulously. "When you were six?"
Aiko laughed, "We were competing in shogi, not ninjutsu."
"Wasn't he in the ANBU by that point?" Sakura asked.
"Okay, point taken." Aiko said with a sweat-drop. "It was a very long match. Itachi-niichan had the advantage with regards to talent for battlefield analysis, so to speak, and responding to a situation, but I inherited my mother's talent for behavioral analysis, which allowed me to overtake him in the end. Rather than responding to things as they happened, I was able to read several steps ahead."
"I kind of remember this..." Sakura said. "I was in the tournament too. I lost to Shikamaru and then played a loser's match against Sasuke-kun to determine third place for the preliminaries."
"Oh yeah, Sasuke-niichan had been my opponent just before Shikamaru-san." Aiko said thoughtfully, "He had no real interest in shogi. I'm pretty sure he only entered because Itachi-niichan had." She added with a sweat-drop. "Who was it that won that match? I can't remember."
"It was me." Sasuke replied before adding, "But looking back, I'm pretty sure Sakura let me win."
"I couldn't help it!" Sakura admitted, "You were so moody about losing to Aiko! I couldn't stand to see you like that!"
Aiko laughed softly, "He probably only entered in the first place because Itachi-niichan had, and I imagine that Itachi-niichan had been compelled by Uncle Fugaku to do so. Neither of them had a great deal of interest in shogi. Then again, I'm pretty sure Izumi-neechan only entered because she wanted to impress Itachi-niichan."
"Did it work?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Probably not." Aiko said with an amused smile and a shake of her head, "Itachi-niichan wasn't the type to judge somebody's worth by their talent. Even so, Izumi-neechan was really happy with herself for making it into the top four."
"Eh..." Tamana said with interest as she walked over with Dango to look at the photo with the others, "So this is what Papa looked like when he was young?"
"You've seen pictures of your father as a child before, Tamana." Amai said in confusion.
"Yeah, but most of those are from before he became a chuunin." Her daughter replied.
"True. That's probably because he had a tendency to overwork himself." Amai said, her smile a mixture of fondness and amusement. "He went nearly six months without taking a single day off after passing his Exam."
"Tamana, how are your eyes?" Sasuke asked abruptly.
"The eye drops Aunt Sakura gave to me helped." His niece answered, "But my vision blurs every now and then."
Sasuke nodded, "Just take it easy for now. And when you feel the awakening reach completion, let me know."
"Awakening?" Tamana asked in confusion.
"You'll know when it happens." Sasuke replied vaguely.
"Speaking of which, is Nozomi okay, Aiko-chan?" Naruto asked, "She's been out cold this whole time."
"That's not unusual." His friend said calmly. "The Sharingan puts a great deal of strain on the user's chakra. Most children who awakened it at Nozomi's age couldn't maintain it for even a full minute. Izumi-neechan accidentally activated hers at the Academy once, prior to Itachi-niichan's graduation, and he had to carry her to the infirmary."
"When do you think she'll wake up?" Sakura asked.
"It's hard to say." Aiko said with a shrug, "It depends largely on the child's chakra reserves, as well as the time of day. When I awakened mine, I slept until the following morning, but when I awakened it, it was only a few hours before I would've gone to bed anyway. Itachi-niichan awakened his when he was a bit older than I was, but he had already developed his chakra reserves far above that of the average child his age, even for our clan. As a result, he was able to avoid passing out."
"But why did she awaken it all of a sudden?" Boruto asked, "Is that normal for somebody her age?"
"I wouldn't say it's 'normal', but... The Sharingan is different from the Byakugan." Aiko replied, "Awakening it has nothing to do with talent or training. Its awakening is believed to be triggered by emotional pain, so it can be awakened at any age, at least in theory. Tamana-chan was only four when she awakened hers."
"Really, what happened?" Boruto asked curiously.
"Boruto!" Sarada chided.
"No, it's okay." Tamana said with a gentle smile, "I awakened my Sharingan after coming to understand the reason why I had never met Papa."
"Something like that?" Kawaki asked skeptically from his place on the other couch.
"Tamana has always been a sensitive child." Amai explained, "In that regard, she's very like Itachi-kun."
Kawaki didn't respond to this, being as he knew literally nothing about Sarada's uncle.
"What about you, Sarada?" Boruto asked, having literally no idea about what had happened at that time.
Sarada sweat-dropped, an annoyed look crossing her face, "I awakened mine when Suigetsu-san totally screwed something up..."
"Huh?" Boruto said in confusion.
"No." Sasuke said suddenly, "It was before that."
"Huh?" At this, Sarada turned and looked at her father.
"When you entered the tower the day before that, your Sharingan was active." He looked down sadly, "That was why... I..."
"Eh? At that time?" Sarada asked in surprise.
"Seriously?" Naruto asked, "Her Sharingan wasn't active when she took off ahead of Chou-Chou and I."
"I didn't even notice it!" Sarada exclaimed.
"Eh?" Aiko said in confusion, before suddenly setting the photograph aside and placing her hands on Sarada's shoulders, kneeling down so that their faces were level. "Sarada-chan, please, tell me everything you remember about that time. In particular, what you were thinking and feeling."
"Huh?" Sarada asked in confusion before carefully obeying, "Well let's see... All I was really thinking about was getting to see Papa for the first time since I was little. I was really excited about it. That was why I left Lord Seventh and Chou-Chou behind, which, in retrospect, was a dumb move on my part." She looked up in confusion as she noticed Aiko's eyes shining with excitement. "What? What is it?"
"This is amazing!" Aiko exclaimed as she stood back up, "Throughout the history of our clan, there are a few records of cases where the Sharingan might have been awakened by something other than psychological trauma, but as they all took place in the heat of battle, it was difficult to tell. In your case, Sarada-chan, there is no guessing! Your Sharingan was definitely awakened by positive emotions! That proof completely uproots everything we've ever thought about the Sharingan!"
"Eh? But I read in the clan files that the Sharingan awakens as a result of the brain producing a special kind of chakra in response to psychological trauma." Sarada said.
Aiko snorted at this. "Yes, that was the theory proposed by the Second Hokage. Because he was such an expert on the Uchiha." She remarked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Uh, I take it you don't have the highest opinion of Lord Second." Sakura said with a sweat-drop.
"No, I don't." Aiko replied frankly, "But to be fair, he knew exactly how I felt about him. While you guys were stuck battling Kaguya in a different time-space, he and the other Hokage came back to the village to speak with me. He wanted to hear my thoughts since I was the only other Uchiha alive at the time. Well, that and... it's not like they had anything better to do. I mean, they were kind of stuck. What were they supposed to do during that time? Sit around playing cards? Actually, when I think about it, hadn't Lord Fourth's arms been severed by that point?" Sakura laughed lightly at this and Aiko shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. Regardless of what I think of the man, the past is in the past, and we should leave it there. Honestly, I think our ancestors' mistakes have haunted us all for long enough, don't you?"
"Ya got that right-ttebayo!"
"Yes."
"Definitely." Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all said at once. Boruto, Sarada, and Himawari looked at each other in confusion while Kawaki raised a brow at this.
"Regardless, knowing this important information has fueled my ambition." Aiko replied as she reached back to pull her hair into a low ponytail.
"Hm? Ambition?" Naruto asked, and his childhood friend nodded.
"For a long time now, I've been thinking that when I came back to Konoha, I would like to do thorough research on the Sharingan." She explained, "Most of what we know comes from the clan's stone tablet, but that thing was severely edited by Kurozetsu, so I would hardly call it accurate, and besides, it seems that even our ancestor Hagoromo had some misgivings about the Sharingan. My mother taught me a lot about psychology. I want to use that knowledge to study the Sharingan properly, discover the real truth about it, and understand its secrets for the sake of future generations."
"Future generations?" Sarada asked with a raised brow. "The current generation is literally just Nozomi-chan, Dango-niisan, Tamana-neesan and I."
"Not quite..." Aiko said as she looked down at her stomach with a soft smile, placing a hand upon it. Sakura's eyes widened in realization.
"Aiko, are you...?"
"I just entered my second trimester." Aiko confirmed with a nod. "We were waiting for that marker to make the move. Perhaps, if we had come sooner, Koujirou-kun wouldn't have..." Tears lined her eyes as she smiled bittersweetly and shook her head, "But it doesn't matter. We can't go back and change it, and I know that he would prefer this to a possible miscarriage. He wasn't a shinobi, but... he possessed all of the courage and died with all of the honor of one." She carefully took her sleeping daughter from Sakura, cradling her close, "My mother once told me that there is no death more honorable for a shinobi... than that which comes while protecting one's child. He protected Nozomi, just as my parents protected me. And by protecting her, he protected part of our clan's future. I couldn't be more proud... that he was my husband."
All that we love and hold so dear
Could disappear one day without warning
We fear if we get too close to it
We'll lose it all in a heartbeat
You know the closer you get to something
The tougher it is to see it
And I'll never take it for granted
Let's go
Naruto smiled at his friend, "Well if research is what you want to do, Aiko, then I'll assign you to the Scientific Research Division as a special jonin."
"Huh? A special jonin?" Aiko said in surprise, "But Naruto-kun, I never actually became a genin."
"Uh, technically, you were unofficially registered as a genin when you started escorting Koujirou on his monthly trips to Konoha after the war." Kakashi remarked, "And you were promoted to Chuunin when I asked you to watch over the twins. Why do you think you kept receiving payments from the village?"
"The twins I knew about..." Aiko began, "But I thought the other paychecks were just support payments since both of my parents were killed in action."
"Well... those were included up until your twentieth birthday, yes." Kakashi said, "It wasn't like you could live off of the earnings of one C-rank mission a month."
"How is it even possible to be 'unofficially registered'?" She asked.
"Ah... it's kind of like when your mother was removed from the registration records after she 'retired'." Kakashi explained, "Only myself, Naruto, and Shikamaru knew about it, although we never mentioned your surname to Naruto because there wasn't much reason to. Simply put, you're not registered on paper, but you've been considered a shinobi of Konoha pretty much since the war ended. I did this out of concern regarding some of those left from Root."
"Gee, thanks for telling me..." Aiko remarked. "Still, I don't think I have the necessary experience to be a special jonin."
"You're too modest." Shikamaru assured her, "You've been guarding the twins for twelve years now, to say nothing of your missions prior to that."
"And as I recall," Kakashi added, "You beat Sasuke in a fight when you were twelve. To say nothing of your analytical abilities and talent for forming strategies." At this, he pointed at the photo from the tournament.
Aiko turned bright red with embarrassment at the mention of her fight with Sasuke, "Geez, you don't need to bring that up!"
"Why did you get into a fight with Papa?" Sarada asked, and Aiko looked away in embarrassment.
"...It was a childish lapse in judgment on my part." She said.
"To be fair, Sasuke started it by insulting your cooking." Naruto pointed out.
"Well, yes, but I didn't have to retaliate by punching him." Aiko replied.
"And yet, as I recall, you weren't the only one getting an earful from your mother about it." Sasuke remarked. Sakura chuckled nervously.
"Well anyway, you're going to be a special jonin, and that's that!" Naruto said before looking at the twins, "Dango, Tamana, what about you two? I know you've trained under Aiko-chan all this time, but you don't have to become shinobi if you don't want to. It's up to you."
Dango and Tamana looked at each other before they both smiled and Tamana instinctively clasped her brother's hand, a habit she'd had since they were infants.
"Our father dedicated his life to protecting this village." Tamana began, "That's why, even though we didn't grow up here, we've always felt that Konohagakure was our home. The home of the Uchiha."
"And it's for that reason that we both decided a long time ago that we would become shinobi as well, and protect this Village Hidden in the Leaves that our father loved." Dango finished.
Naruto grinned, "Then I guess that settles it! From here on out, the two of you are ninja of the Hidden Leaf!"
"That said, we'll need to find a team for them." Shikamaru remarked.
"Well, technically, Team 10 has an opening, doesn't it?" Naruto asked.
"Chou-chou is boy crazy..." Shikamaru replied, causing Naruto to sweat-drop. "Besides, even if we stuck Tamana there, we don't have another team with an opening for Dango."
"Now I pity Sandaime for having to figure out who to team up Sasuke-kun with when we were kids." Sakura said with a sweat-drop. "In the end, he just went for creating a team that was perfectly balanced in terms of abilities..."
"There was also the fact that the three of you are cloaked in chakra that drew you together like magnets." Aiko remarked, "Knowing Lord Third, he probably had some awareness of that."
"I don't get it." Boruto said cluelessly, "What exactly is the problem with girls being on the team?"
"The fact that girls have a tendency to... Well... stare at Oniichan." Tamana said bluntly, "You're supposed to be able to rely on your teammates. That's not possible if they're distracted by your very existence."
Naruto sweat-dropped and grinned awkwardly, "Well... we'll figure it out... in the meantime, we need to get things ready to officially welcome the Uchiha Clan back to Konoha for real-ttebayo!"
"Which I'm guessing is going to mean a meeting of the Jounin Council." Amai said as she began to pull up her long braid.
"Okaasan..." Tamana began eagerly, "While you do that, do you mind if Oniichan and I...?"
"Yes, go ahead." Amai told her daughter as she secured her hair, "I know that that's all you two have wanted to do since we arrived. However, you're going to be needed at this meeting, so when you're done, come directly to the Hokage's office. It will take a little bit of time to assemble all of the members, so you'll be fine as long as you don't dawdle."
"Going by the current time, you two probably have until about 2:30." Shikamaru added.
"Understood." The teenagers replied in unison.
This chapter is just kind of filler, but it's necessary filler!