Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This was written for entertainment purposes only.
Important A/N: Uh, hey. So it's September, and I promised to be done with this year+ project. Considering the fact that I ended the last chapter in such an unexplained place, the story needs closure. What you have here is a 456 word epilogue. This is not a chapter. This is an explanation of a little history, and a little future. So enjoy it for what it is, and flesh it out with a little imagination.
Epilogue
It was easier to resign than he expected. They didn't want him to, not the Hokage, not Genma, not Tenzou or Hayate or even Aoba, but they understood, and they let him go.
Kakashi just looked him in the eye and nodded silently.
They stayed in Seijuro's basement while Raidou found the apartment: four rooms plus a bathroom, in a well-kept-up building not too far from the western gate. Raidou tried for mostly in-village missions, or short ones if he had to leave. When they were overnight jobs, Naruto stayed with Seijuro.
They managed. His paychecks dropped significantly from before; fewer missions, lower class-level. His expenses increased, now that he was paying bills and food for two people. But he had savings from his years in ANBU, and they managed.
He drilled Naruto on techniques when he came back from school, made sure he did his homework and practiced his calligraphy. They went to movies, and to the park. He went to parent-teacher meetings, ignoring the sidelong glances and cold shoulders with a strength that Naruto noticed, even if Raidou didn't.
And he did notice when Naruto began carrying his head higher, his shoulders straighter.
It wasn't all good. He woke, sometimes, in the night, fearful because the squad's chakra signatures were nowhere near. He missed the missions and craved the adrenaline, the absolute awareness of self. When he found himself picking fights just for the rush, he took a two-week A-class. He left a change of clothes at Seijuro's place, and showered there before he went home.
The day after he resigned from ANBU, before he cleared out his things, he searched out Matsuda. He was wearing two wide, steel rings on his hand, his own and his teacher's. "This is yours."
Matsuda enfolded the third, nicked ring in his hand. No other words, and they went their own ways.
Their genin team had been no different from any other. Tension, competition, a little bit of young love. The rings had been a rather sentimental gift from their sensei, when they first became a team.
The war chewed them up and left them for dead when they were barely chuunin. Chizu died because of Raidou, and not even he would deny it. Tsushima-sensei was killed in the same skirmish—four jounin against three chuunin and their teacher, no contest. Raidou lost half his face, and Matsuda lost the only girl he'd yet managed to love.
The last day, standing outside the ANBU building in the pink glow of the rising sun, his squad and his friends flush from the farewell party, the last box under his arm and his hand in Naruto's, Raidou thought that this was not how he had expected to leave ANBU.
But it was certainly better.
A/N the Second: If there are terrible typos in there, it's because I'm really tired...so please forgive. But since my Internet and my time are all going bye-bye very soon, this is probably the best I can post for a while at least.
Info:
The whole Raidou/Matsuda backstory may possibly go up in a separate document, or as an addendum to this at some point in the future. (like everything else, it's a lot more than what's told here.)
There are a whole bunch of short pieces I've written that chronicle the years between where this story leaves off and when Naruto graduates Academy. Same deal as for the Raidou backstory.
And in terms of the massive revision I've been attempting: it's turning out a hell of a lot darker than I intended. And longer. And it's straying from the outline, so I can't re-use stuff straight up from here. If anyone is interested in it, I may post the first few chapters and some of the scenes from later on (because I like it a whole lot more than this version). But whether or not it will ever be finished is very up in the air.
Lastly: Thank you all for reading, and reviewing, and sticking with this through the massive waits and the changes and my apparent inability to follow a schedule. It has meant a lot to me. You've been awesome.