Those Who Are Lost
Chapter 26
The Way of the Ninja
Hello there my fellow fanfictioners! It's been a long time hasn't it?
I apologise for going dark for so long. It took me a long time to recover from my grandfather's passing and for quite some time I lost the inspiration to write at all. Since that time, I have actually moved to Japan!
Took me a few months to sort my life out but I am now somewhat settled and back in the mood to write once more. I had several attempted drafts of what I wanted this chapter to be. In particular it was the final confrontation that stumped me. It took me so long to think about how I wanted to handle it as I prefer to take a reasonable approach to my combat scenes. I tried to be realistic about what I thought would or could happen given the circumstances so please don't be too harsh on me.
In all likelihood this will be the final chapter of this story though I am undecided as to whether I will post a small epilogue chapter to explain current goings on in Konoha.
Now then, enough of my senseless prattling and let's get on with the story. I present to you the final chapter of Those Who Are Lost.
THE VALLEY OF THE END
It was the most peculiar sensation. The feeling of such concentrated chakra encasing her forelimbs. It was like sliding her arms into warm water but with a thicker consistency more akin to jelly.
It was strange but also comforting, like putting on a favorite pair of gloves already fraying with the passage of time. Or perhaps it was more akin to feeling of warm sunlight on her skin.
It was difficult to describe. It was somehow all of these things but also none of them.
Himawari wasn't quite sure how she had managed it in the first place, the manifestation seeming a natural act drawn up from the depths of her own subconscious.
Perhaps it was something I knew long ago and had simply forgotten.
The chakra constructs did not frighten her though and she raised her arms into one of the fighting stances taught to her by Sasuke. An imitation of the Hyuuga clan's style based off of his own observations.
This time though her body seemed to adjust to the stance in a dozen or so subtle ways. It was as if her muscle memory had taken over and where before she had felt awkward now the stance felt completely natural.
Something had changed inside of her. It was as if her body had remembered things that her mind could not.
"Your ninja way?" The voice that emanated from the mess of scorched flesh that was Toyohisa's throat was deep and grumbling, reminiscent of two boulders being ground against one another slowly.
The words were spoken with such scorn and malice that Himawari fought the urge to flinch.
Himawari couldn't help but grimace each time the half-skull's jaw moved, exposing charred gums and blackened teeth to the moonlight.
"What a nauseating sentiment." The thing that had once been a man croaked. The smell of burning flesh and the half man, half skeleton thing's demonic appearance made Himawari want to vomit. Biting back the bile, she instead gritted her teeth and set herself to face her hunter.
"It's just you. You're the last one." She breathed, ignoring the cracking sound of bone as Toyohisa, his spinal column now exposed to the torchlight, cocked his head in curiosity.
"When I beat you, this will all be over once and for all." The promise whispered past her lips, conveying all of her hatred and the skeleton-man thing's teeth clacked together in response.
"This isn't over for you little one. Far from it. We will never be finished with you." Toyohisa promised darkly before setting himself against her.
The abomination didn't so much run as he loped in her general direction. The hilt of his sword had long since fused into the flesh of his body, melted by the heat of Amaterasu. Nevertheless, this did not stop the Jashinist from wielding his whole arm as if it were the blade.
Himawari soon found herself on the defensive. The damage done to her foe's body by the black flames was extensive but Toyohisa seemed inundated to his injuries and powered his movements with the sheer force of his zealotry. Himawari and the Sword of Oto danced back and forth across the platform.
Though slowed by his injuries, Toyohisa remained an incredible threat. His blade flashed silver in the moonlight with each swing of his arm, promising death each time. More than that, his very body proved a danger. The black flames of Amaterasu cared not whom they burned and with every attack that Himawari dodged, the black flames eating away at Toyohisa seemed to leap out, as if searching for fresher prey.
It was all Himawari could do to evade the madman's attacks. The whole time, Toyohisa cackled, his cruel and distorted laughter a plague upon her senses. It was a dangerous game and one which the Hyuuga knew she couldn't play forever. She was exhausted and it would only take one mistake for the Jashinist to cut her life short forever.
And then it happened. In the midst of backstepping away from a slash aimed at bisecting her from the waist down, Himawari lost her footing. Toyohisa's blade missed her midriff by little more than a breath before immediately swinging around and up to be brought down and cleave her in half. It all happened in the time it took for her to register what had happened.
Time seemed to slow for Himawari in that moment. Her arms came up of their own accord, the chakra constructs roaring as they moved to intercept the strike.
With a great clash of sparks, the blade rebounded off of one of the panda heads. Himawari blinked in shock as Toyhohisa stumbled backwards.
Her stupefaction almost cost her though as the madman recovered almost instantaneously before moving in for the kill once more. Once more muscle memory took over and Himawari let it. She ducked under the blade as Toyohisa's next strike aimed to decapitate her. Twisting out of the way, she struck mid-evade.
Her palm struck out. Amaterasu wasted no time either and the black fire leapt toward her, trying to find purchase on her flesh only to be deterred by the glowing blue chakra which encased her arms. The black flames could not penetrate the protective coating of chakra and so Himawari was able to strike at her opponent unhindered.
A sickening crack resonated through the air as Himawari's palm connected with Toyohisa's exposed thigh bone. She had already completed her evasion and retreated several steps before Toyohisa knew what had happened.
When he did, the swordsman let out a roar of agony as his thighbone snapped and he went tumbling to the ground.
Unwilling to risk making a move in case it was a trap, Himawari kept her guard up and watched her opponent carefully as he slowly rose.
"A good strike child." Toyohisa crowed, rising slowly. His skeletal features grinning in her direction.
"It seems the Uchiha bastard was able to teach you a few tricks after all." His words dripped with mockery, speaking to her as if she were a simpleton. "But in the end it doesn't matter. I am blessed by Lord Jashin's power. His gift of immortality is mine! I will always heal! I will always rise!"
"Are you so sure about that?" Himawari replied impassively, her Byakugan flitting up and down his form, seeing a thousand possible chakra combinations. Tohoyhisa cackled stepping forward to renew his assault with a self-assuredness most would've found frightening. That confidence disintegrated when he tried to take a step forward only to immediately plummet to the floor.
"What?!" Toyohisa's sound of alarm was only understandable she supposed. He had been so confident that his Lord's gift would protect him that he made the assumption that his leg would've repaired itself. Which was why he now stared at his leg in pure shock. The bone remained splintered and broken, his limb refusing to obey his mental commands.
"What kind of heretical witchcraft is this?!" The scarlet swordsman roared, his tone filled with incandescent rage and with just a twinge of fear.
"The power of the Hyuuga is mine monster. I don't care what power you or your god possess." Himawari informed him coldly, her posture relaxed even as the Sword of Oto struggled back to his feet, cursing his useless limb all the while.
"It won't help you here. Not against my eye."
This time she went on the attack. Rushing forward, Himawari smoothly sidestepped another of Toyohisa's strikes, now clumsy due to his extensive injuries. Quick as a snake, her palms struck out again, slamming into the Sword of Oto's outstretched and exposed elbow. There was a horrendous scream on Toyohisa's part, mostly born of fear, as his lower arm was torn off completely and went sailing away into the night sky.
The limb took his blade with it.
"You think this is a fight." Himawari bit out, neatly stepping out of the way of a wild strike from Toyohisa's other arm.
"This isn't a fight." She continued even as she danced around her opponent. Toyohisa swung wildly like an injured predator, desperately lashing out.
She could see it so clearly now. Where others had bright blue chakra networks, pulsating from the cores of their being outwards, Toyohisa was the complete opposite. His network was dark red, pulsing inwards towards his core in sickly flashes of scarlet light. The Jashinist's core itself was a sick, black, twisted thing. Horrifically misshapen and exuding a malice which made her Byakugan itch. It also meant that she knew exactly what to do.
"You little bitch!" Toyohisa screeched, chasing after her, his teeth clacking in a violent attempt to close his jaws around her throat.
Himawari avoided the attack with ease, striking out with her fingers in rapid succession as retaliation. Where her fingers made contact, her body protected from Amaterasu by the panda-like chakra constructs, Toyohisa would scream and lose control of that portion of his body.
Just the slightest touch was enough to render his nerve endings and muscles unusable.
"This isn't a fight." Himawari reminded him softly. Another strike with both palms ripped the man's other arm off. His body reacting in a far more violent manner than she expected.
His chakra network is an abomination that's why.
A few more strikes and Toyohisa was reduced to an armless creature on his knees. His legs beyond his control due to a few more palm strikes.
The only thing she had left him were the muscles in his neck, head and what remained of his lungs.
"This is an execution." She thought that, after everything that this man and his compatriots had done, she would feel vindicated about what she had reduced him to. That perhaps satisfaction or some sort of vicious joy would sing through her heart and soul.
Instead, as she gazed upon the ruin that was Toyohisa, all Himawari felt was pity for the man.
Pity for what he had done to himself in pursuit of immortality and power.
Pity for what she had done to him.
"You think you've won?" The thing that had been Toyohisa wheezed, struggling to heal himself from the catastrophic damage inflicted upon him by both the Byakugan and the Sharingan. "You think that you can escape the Master's reach?!"
"I do." Himawari replied shortly.
She wasted no more time and made her final strike, both palms flying out to smack against Toyohisa's corrupted chakra core. His heart.
An almost demonic shriek howled through the air as the black thing that had been Toyhisa's heart seemed to implode upon itself. The Jashinist continued to scream throughout the whole process even as his flesh and organs turned to ash beneath Himawari's gaze, leaving nothing but blackened, burning bone behind. Himawari took a few steps backwards before losing her balance and falling down as what was left of Toyohisa reached out for her, fingerbones like talons trying one final attempt to exact revenge upon her.
Her chakra constructs shattered into a million pieces and she kept scrambling backwards.
It took another moment but then the motion of Toyohisa's arm stopped.
It was over.
Even the shriek had finished leaving nothing but the sound of the wind in her ears.
There was nothing left of the Jashinist warrior-priest save for his burning skeleton, frozen like a statue. Even now the fires of Amaterasu seemed to have grown bored and began to idly lick at the towers' damp floorboards.
For a moment Himawari simply stared at Toyohisa's skeletal remains, numb to everything around her. The silver fire in her socket faded away though her pupil remained a pale lavender. The orb no longer azure blue as it once had been.
"Himawari…" Her name, softly spoken from Sasuke's lips snapped her out of her trance and she turned to face him.
Sasuke lay against the pillar, his body slack and his head lolled to one side. One eye, now shining onyx, gazed at her while the other remained closed from sheer exhaustion. During her duel with Toyohisa he had obviously been working on the sword which had kept him impaled to the main tower. The blade, now lay in a large pool of blood next to him. Along with a large portion of his shoulder.
Himawari struggled to her feet, ignoring the uncontrollable shaking of her limbs from her fall into the cold black waters of the lake. Even now, the adrenaline that had kept her going all this time was starting to fade and she could feel the creeping cold attacking her nerves. The ache in her bones from her impact with the water and at least a dozen other minor injuries and pains began screaming for her attention.
None of that mattered when she noted the extent of Sasuke's injuries and the white pallor of his skin.
"Sasuke!" Himawari gasped, stumbling over to him. The shinobi was in a terrible state, covered in blood and bruises. His left cheek was swollen and bruised and blood dribbled from between his lips down his chin. The huge rent from his shoulder blade to his hip was bleeding profusely and his shoulder where he had been impaled looked as if it were hanging onto him by little more than a few strands of sinew.
Himawari tried to run but she found her limbs were growing increasingly unresponsive. By the time she made it over to the Uchiha the pallor of his skin had begun to turn much paler.
Clenching her jaw tightly to stop her teeth from chattering, Himawari wiped away the tears gathering in her eye and sank to her knees in front of him.
"You did good Himawari…" Sasuke began, his gaze focused on her. His gaze was warm even though his voice was strained. Saying nothing in response, Himawari reached out and placed her hands over Sasuke's torso wound, her face set with grim determination. The Uchiha let out a low hiss of agony as she pressed harshly into his flesh in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.
"I'm so proud of you." Sasuke mumbled softly. Despite the cold winds at this height, he felt strangely warm.
Even now, at the end, she's trying to help me.
"Himawari… you need to get out of here." He told her gently. Her head was lowered and her whole frame was shaking. He could feel her tears hitting his thighs as she knelt between them trying so desperately to keep him alive.
It's no use. She doesn't know any medical jutsu and I'm all out of chakra. This is the end of my story.
"Himawari." He told her gently, reaching out with his good hand to brush away a stray lock of her hair before letting the limb fall limply to his side.
This is my final chapter.
"It's okay kid." Sasuke told her, keeping his tone genteel. He needed to use what few minutes he had left to help her.
Helping her has been the only truly selfless thing I've done with my life.
"You need to go. Get out of this place of death and misery."
I can send her to Konoha. Once in the Leaf, Naruto will take care of her. He'll love this kid. Especially when he sees how she inhales her ramen.
The thought made his lips twitch in amusement. He might've even smiled if it wouldn't hurt so much to do so.
In a weird kind of way he supposed that this was fitting. The only way he could've seen himself going. Here at the Valley of the End. This was the place where his life as a shinobi of the Leaf had ended. The place where he had reforged the old bonds he had broken.
Not a bad end to the tale of Sasuke the Wanderer.
"No." The word was spoken so firmly that it broke Sasuke out of his thoughts. Looking at Himawari, he noticed the tears continued to fall onto his legs but her shoulders had stopped shaking. Her hands were covered in crimson as his lifeblood stained her skin.
"I'm not going to make it. My injuries are too great." He told her. "You need to make your way to—"
"Shut up." Himawari hissed and the strength of those words shocked him. He watched mutely as she raised her head. Tears streamed down her cheeks, even from her empty socket and he felt his blood freeze when he saw the change.
Her once sky-blue eye had become an almost violent lavender. He could feel the anger and the desperation emanating from the orb as she glared at him.
Swallowing, an act which made him nearly gag on the blood in his mouth, Sasuke tried once more.
"Himawari. You need to leave me." He stopped in his tracks when she shook her head fiercely.
"I said shut up." The words were said with such force that the Uchiha's next words died in his throat. He found he could only stare at her.
"You. Are. Not. Going. To. Die." Himawari said punctuating each word to make sure she got her point across.
This stupid man.
The thought flashed across the forefront of her mind and it made her even angrier.
"I won't let you die." Even as she spoke her eye shined brighter, her Byakugan activating of its own accord and Sasuke noticed the small spark of silver chakra fire glow within the depths of Himawari's missing eye even as the violent lavender swirled and morphed into molten silver.
"All this time." Himawari choked out. Sasuke's gaze slid over her lips; his ears filled with the weak, dull thudding of his own failing heart.
"All this time spent on the run. Fleeing for my life and all in the name of searching for a family and a past that I was never sure if I wanted to remember." Once she started, the words just kept spilling forth unbidden and Himawari found she couldn't stop herself any longer.
Wiping her tears away with the back of her sleeve, Himawari bared her teeth and glared at him, her eye shining in the torchlight. "This time though, this time I am sure of what I want."
"This time I am decided." Her hands started to glow faintly blue as she channeled her chakra into the appendages.
That won't do anything. Sasuke thought wearily. It was a good effort and he wished that that alone was enough. He knew better though.
This girl is a true ninja.
"Family are the people who are there for you. The people who care for you and don't judge you for the things you have and haven't done. The people who see you for all your flaws and still accept you." Himawari continued to speak and Sasuke found himself transfixed by her. Her eye was moving rapidly, flitting up and down his wounds so quickly that the Uchiha couldn't be sure that it was actually moving at all.
What is she doing?
"Himawari—" The word came out slurred and strained. He could feel his strength fading quickly. Already blackness was beginning to creep in at the corners of his vision.
"I love you." Himawari almost spat the words at him, she said them with such anger.
This whole world...
The bitter thought ran through her mind unbidden and once it started it wouldn't stop.
This world has only ever taken from me. Turn after turn.
"Look at everything you've done for me. You could've walked away when we met but you didn't. You could've left me behind but you didn't. You came to save me when anyone else would've told you it was hopeless or mad to try but you did it anyway."
Not this time though.
"You fed me. Trained me. You protected me and never judged me." Every sentence was punctuated with a bite that would make most flinch but the Uchiha was too weak to react to it. He could feel his eyes beginning to droop.
She could see it now. His chakra system. All the little interconnecting lights that made up his body. Her Byakugan showed her all the damage done to the Uchiha. She could see what needed to be done. All the broken connections.
"You are my family, Sasuke Uchiha. You are the father I never had and you're the family I choose." Himawari kept on talking, forcing more and more chakra down her arms, through her fingers and into Sasuke's wounds. Her fingers began to move. Tipped in chakra she began tapping the broken chakra points before slamming her palms against the injuries in order to seal the injuries and repair the connections.
Those without a Byakugan would've seen something altogether different. More shocking to behold. Himawari's blood tipped fingers moved, they began flitting over the Uchiha's body with a speed that made them appear to be little more than a blur. Wreathed in chakra, as Himawari's fingers moved, stabbing back and forth, Sasuke's injuries closed themselves up.
Slow at first, the healing sped up as Himawari's work continued. She began with Sasuke's torso and soon the injury there sealed itself leaving only a faint white line of fresh skin where his flesh had been separated.
The world can keep taking whatever else it wants from me but not you. I won't let it take you from me as well!
"You belong to me!" Himawari finished her thought with an outspoken gasp.
She wasn't sure how long she knelt there, trying so desperately to heal her protector. Himawari wasn't even sure if any of what she was doing was making a difference but she couldn't afford to think about that.
So she kept working in a trance like state. It was the only way she could keep going.
"You're my family." She kept repeating under her breath, refusing to look at Sasuke even as she worked. She was too afraid of what she might see. When she reached his arm, the young Hyuuga couldn't help but wince at the wet, snapping sound of his muscle sinews reconnecting themselves to his bone even as his arm rejoined his shoulder.
All that time she kept repeating the words. "You're my family."
It became a lifeline to her. A mantra. Something to focus on so that she wouldn't have to look at him. Because Himawari was terrified of what she might find if she were to look up at him.
"I am not going to let my family die!" Those last words weren't so much spoken as they were screamed.
She had finally finished.
There was nothing.
No sound save for the wind and her heaving breaths.
Himawari's hands fell into her lap and she stared at them dully even as she felt the power of the Byakugan recede and the world bled back into its usual spectrum. Sasuke remained silent and when the young girl gazed up at him, her eye widened in horror. The Uchiha's head had fallen forward, his features covered by dark, bloodied shaggy hair.
Worse still, she couldn't see any signs of life. Sasuke was incredibly still save for the dripping of blood from his lips onto his chest and her hands.
"Sasuke?"
There was no reply.
No.
It wasn't fair.
No.
"Sasuke?" The name left her lips broken, her voice cracking on the final syllable.
There was no reply. No movement.
No.
"Sasuke please." Her voice had broken now and Himawari could feel it.
The pain rose up from deep inside her. She could feel the tears gathering as her vison began to blur.
It's not fair!
Nothing in this life was.
"Sasuke..." The word came out strangled and Himawari felt her strength leaving her. It had taken everything. Everything to help him and it had still not been enough.
"No, Sasuke please!" This time her words were filled with a keen mourning and she was no longer Himawari Uchiha, the young but dangerous kunoichi.
Now she was just Himawari. The little girl. All alone in a world filled with nothing but pain and tragedy.
"Sasuke please don't go." The Hyuuga sobbed, crawling forward to rest against the man's chest. Her shaking arms reached out, snaking around the shinobi's waist and she held herself tight against him.
"Please don't leave me." She whispered into his chest, her eye shut tight. "You're my family Sasuke."
"You're my family too." The words were spoken so quietly that she thought she had imagined them. That in her grief she had heard only what she so desperately wanted to hear.
Then she felt his arms encircle her. Raising her head slowly, Himawari opened her eyes and met Sasuke's gaze. The Uchiha stared back at her, his expression warm though filled with pain and exhaustion.
He held her close to him even as he leant down to murmur in her ear. His words like a prayer.
"You're my family too Himawari."
Some time later (HI NO KUNI- THE LAND OF FIRE CAPITAL)
"You sure you want to do this?" Sasuke asked of her, repeating the question for what seemed to Himawari to be the millionth time.
The Hyuuga couldn't help but roll her eye in exasperation before turning to face the man more fully after about the twentieth twitch. Sasuke sat next to her, his hands on his lap, fists clenched. During their time together she had learned to read all the minor tics that the Uchiha possessed that indicated his emotions. Right now, his hands and the occasional twitch in his cheek told her that he was extremely nervous about their current situation.
Himawari reached over and patted his wrist with a small smile on her face.
"I've never been surer of anything in my life." The Hyuuga informed him primly, enjoying the grimace he so badly tried to keep hidden.
Both of them turned their attention back to the glass screen divider separating them from the government office employee. The employee was busy shuffling a stack of documents, occasionally stopping to stamp or write something.
This cycle of activity continued unabated for a few hours before, finally, the employee lifted her head and regarded the two of them warmly.
"Lord Uchiha?" The woman, Suki (according to her nametag), called for him.
"Last chance to back out. Most people would run away screaming at this point." Sasuke mumbled out from between clenched teeth even as he got to his feet. There was a part of him that was truly terrified that Himawari would wise up and run away.
This whole business was a stupid idea in any case.
He had been crazy to suggest it. The girl had been even crazier to accept it, nevermind that she did so with an abundance of enthusiasm.
"Why would I do that?" Himawari questioned with a light laugh, hopping to her feet to join him. Her gaze contained such warmth that Sasuke couldn't help but smile himself. Of course, that amounted to little more than a smirk to those who did not know him well but he could also feel his muscles relaxing as her expression helped bleed the tension out of him.
"My family name is seen as nothing more than a curse by most people." The Uchiha informed her, watching her carefully to see how she responded to that. Himawari snorted and shook her head.
"Most people are idiots. It's not a curse." Himawari flushed as soon as she said the words, noting how the woman on the other side of the serving glass raised her eyebrow archly.
"No?" Sasuke prodded in amusement, observing how Suki was watching this exchange with no small amount of interest. Shinobi were a rarity in the capital and they were, most likely, the most interesting applicants she had dealt with in some time.
"It's a blessing." Those words froze him in his tracks for a moment. Sasuke's brain struggled to comprehend that.
I wonder how long it has been since someone viewed my clan's name as a positive thing?
"Well okay then." Turning back to the counter, Sasuke removed a small seal from one of his pouches before rubbing it in the provided ink and stamping the document. The woman behind the counter made a copy of the document for him and then bowed deeply.
"Congratulations on the adoption Lord Uchiha." Suki informed him before turning slightly and bowing just as deeply to Himawari. "And to you as well Lady Uchiha."
Sasuke motioned for her to take the document and Himawari did so, her fingers shaking slightly as they made contact with the sheaf of paper.
There was a lot of forms and legal jargon but her interest was drawn to a small family tree that had been amended to place her name beneath Sasuke's and next to another by the name of Mikoto.
I'm his daughter. I actually have a family now.
The thought blew her away and she could only stand there dumbly.
"Welcome to the clan, Himawari Uchiha." Sasuke congratulated her, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently. Himawari stared at her name, now in blank ink on the government document. It felt so surreal that the first thing that she did upon shaking herself out of her stupor was to quickly pinch herself to make sure that it wasn't all another dream.
Wincing at the pinching and ignoring Sasuke's quizzically raised eyebrow, Himawari grinned up at him, her cheeks flushed with joy and her eye shining.
"So, what do I call you then? Dad?" Himawari pondered with a finger on her chin. Upon hearing the 'D' word, Sasuke let out a snort of amusement and mock-glared at her, his eyes twinkling merrily.
"You can call me whatever you like." He informed her after schooling his expression once more. They left the government office and began meandering their way down the city street. The sky had turned a burnt orange as the sun began to set and the streets were becoming livelier as well. The duo had no particular destination in mind so Sasuke was happy to follow in Himawari's footsteps as she set down a random path.
At least it had appeared random until the faint smell of food reached his nostrils.
"I want to celebrate." Himawari told him after a few moments of silence had passed. Sasuke's response was to simply let out a small 'Hn' before lapsing back into silence once more. Himawari said nothing else, content to wait for him to make the next move as they walked down the city streets.
"Okay. What do you want?" Sasuke finally said with a defeated sigh and a shake of his head. Himawari responded by skipping lightly whilst clapping her hands together and giving him a big grin in answer. Her face was all that Sasuke needed to know exactly what she was thinking and he gave another big sigh.
"Ramen then, I take it?" He managed to bite out, already grimacing at the thought of the dish.
Why did it have to be ramen?
Himawari let out a whoop of victory and danced around him while he walked down the street. Nearby pedestrians gazed on in curiosity at the girl's boundless energy as they passed them.
"I'm already regretting this." Sasuke muttered before reaching out and grabbing Himawari by the shoulder and dragging her back to his side. Himawari simply laughed, the sound pure and sweet to his ears.
"Too late father." Himawari teased him in a singsong voice. That word brought him to a screeching halt and a few moments later Himawari stopped and turned back to stare at him.
The young girl tilted her head slightly in askance, causing her long dark hair to spill over her shoulder. Her lavender eye practically glowed in the late afternoon sun. The color definitely suited her over the cerulean she had once possessed.
For the briefest of moments, when Himawari had said father the world had stopped and he could've sworn he'd seen her again. Amongst the pedestrians, in the crowd he could've sworn that he had seen the pink hair and onyx eyes of his illusory daughter Mikoto.
It had been just a split-second, then the crowds had moved and the illusion shattered. The girl was gone.
"Nope, definitely not that." Sasuke murmured softly, directing his smile to Himawari who remained oblivious to what had just transpired, engrossed as she was with beginning to list all of the ingredients that she wanted in her first, second and third ramen bowls.
"But maybe we can start with Dad?" He suggested as she had a few moments earlier and Himawari grinned toothily at him. The young girl bounded over to him, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him down the street in search of food.
"Then let's go eat, Dad. I'm starving."
And Sasuke Uchiha let his new daughter drag him into a brighter future than any he could have imagined.
So…
What did you guys think? Too little? Too much?
I know that you're probably wondering about what was going on with the Leaf and how everyone is going to react to Sasuke and Himawari and their situation. I thought long and hard about that and in the end, I decided that the best thing to do would be to make such resolutions part of the sequel that I am planning to write.
It also wasn't my longest or most descriptive chapter but I decided in the end to just get to the point of what I wanted to say and this is what spewed forth.
Now there may be a review or two pointing out why Sarada didn't appear on the Family tree and, in my mind, the reasoning went like this. He had no knowledge of Sarada being born and Sakura never applied to put her on the tree. Perhaps Sakura placed Sarada on the Haruno tree instead, we'll have to see.
Also with regards to Himawari's healing of Sasuke. It was indeed implausible and it is something that will be explained in greater detail in the sequel as well as covering Sasuke's thoughts on what she was able to do. I pride myself on trying to make Naruto as realistic as it can be in the context of the show. I promise I do have an explanation but I just couldn't fit it into the flow of this final chapter.
I am already working on the sequel which is entitled Those Who Are Found which will cover the duo's return to the Leaf and other such shenanigans. I'm also not finished with Oto or the mysterious Master. If you guys have any ideas or questions you'd like to see covered or resolved in the sequel then please feel free to hit me up. Maybe I forgot to cover something and I will do so in the sequel.
If you enjoyed this fic and/or this chapter I would really appreciate it if you left a review. I thoroughly enjoy reading them (good and/or bad).
In the meantime, I did post a one shot about Himawari and Sasuke which takes place after the ending of Those Who Are Lost entitled Kitai.
Hope to hear your thoughts on Kitai and I hope to see you all in Those Who Are Found.
