Child of the Leaf
Chapter Twenty Two Part Two
by
operadeglace
"Hey… you look nice."
"Y-you do too, Kiba."
Sakura hastily wiped the tears from her eyes that she tried to pass off as tears of joy. Kiba tugged at the collar of his formal attire uncomfortably as he neared her.
"Nah. I hate wearing this stuff." The Inuzuka male snorts, scratching his head casually.
"If it wasn't for Hinata getting married, I'd be shirtless." He smirked boyishly as he swore he saw Sakura blush a little, clearing her throat before speaking.
"So, uh, what can I help you with?" The pink haired woman turns her eyes towards the happy couple who were saying their good byes to their wedding guests.
"If you're coming by to tell me I should leave my husband…" She laughs softly, her eyes ever trained on her former team mate and his new bride. "Sai beat you to the punch."
"Geez!" Kiba laughs sharply in response. "That guy has even less of a filter than I do…"
A few moments of silence transpire between them as they watch Naruto and Hinata in their merriment before the burly ninja starts to speak once more.
"So… why'd you let Naruto go?"
Sakura flinches at his question, then answers with a response that Kiba was not prepared for.
"Naruto deserves to be happy…"
–
Hinata fell asleep on Kiba's shoulder while he sat, gently stoking the fire with a long stick.
A feral, triumphant grin spread across his face as his eyes turned up to look at the shadow clone spying on them from atop a high tree branch.
A moment later, the blonde clone was gone.
A few hours earlier, in Konohagakure…
With Ayaka's door slightly ajar, Shinachiku easily popped his head in to survey the situation with his girlfriend. To his dismay, she looked like she was still resting peacefully, so he decided not to disturb her slumber, opting instead to poke his head back into his mother's room once more.
"Are you sure that you don't want me to get you anything for now?" His green eyes sparkle with admiration. He had just spent an entire hour finding out that his mother was just as amazing as he could ever dream she'd be.
She was a medic-nin, like he was!
When she was in good health, she volunteered her services to the hospital.
She was part of the legendary team that ended the great ninja war.
She was, like he made in his mental note the first time he saw her, one of the prettiest ladies he had ever seen…
"No, I'm fine, sweetheart." Sakura smiles kindly at her son. As she began folding Naruto's white cloak on her lap, her eyes snapped open, as if she had an idea. "Wait, Shinachiku! Can you actually do two things for me?"
She held the Seventh's coat towards him.
"Can you give this to Naruto for me? I heard from my old sensei that it looks just like the coat your grandfather Minato wore when he was also Hokage…" Shina's eyes grew as wide as ramen bowls as he tenderly took the white cloak form his mother. "This is very precious to your father, so it'd be nice if returned it to him."
"Wow… my grandfather was Hokage, too…" He whispered in awe, shifting the folded material in his hands.
"Okay, the second thing I need you to do is very important as well." Sakura waves her hand to focus her son's attention back on her. "Please find Sarada and take her home. I should be released in the morning, so I just need you to practice those big brother babysitting skills for just one more night." The pale woman pulls boy's head down so she could give his cheek a tender kiss.
"I… I love you, Shinachiku." Sakura sighs, tears brimming at the water line of her eyes. "I always have."
Shinachiku's smile sparkles with life, almost stealing her breath away at its brilliance.
"Thanks, Mom. Now, get some rest."
Outside of the room, Shinachiku let out a deep breath that he had been holding. He was emotionally exhausted from the chaotic quagmire of a day that he was experiencing.
"Now, where is that sister of mine..?"
For some odd reason, he couldn't find his bespectacled, little sister anywhere in the entire Hospital. He decided to peek in on his Ayaka-chan to see if she was awake, and if she could use her sensory skills to find Sarada.
"She's still sleeping." He whispers to himself, checking on her through a crack in the door. "I'll come back later… Sarada is probably still in the hospital somewhere. I told her to tell me if she was ready to leave."
Shinachiku holds the Hokage's cape to his chest as he decides to fulfill his mother's other request.
–
Bolt was a little more tolerant of his father's presence after he saved the girl he liked by giving her some of his blood.
"Thanks, old man." Bolt bids farewell to Naruto as the Hokage smiles and waves before setting to the rooftops for faster travel across the city. It was at that time that his shadow clone had picked up on two interesting chakra signatures that were leaving the front gates of Konoha.
One was his wife, Hinata, whom he was currently searching for, and the other was that of his genin days chum, Kiba.
"Follow them… but keep hidden." Was Naruto's suspicious reply to his copy over mental connection, who nodded and took off after the runaways.
The shadow clone found it easy to keep downwind of the dog nin's nose, but he wasn't sure how he was escaping his estranged significant others' rather problematic and all-seeing sensory technique. Upon closer inspection, he could see her eyes clouding with tears, and his guilt was piqued once more. The clone, being a facet of Naruto himself, knew that the tears and sadness were because of his loud mouth, and the strong feelings he still held for Sakura…
Then she tripped.
Worry touched his mind as she lost all visuals of her. Before he could see where she had disappeared to, Kiba rounded on him and slammed the Hokage's double into a tree.
"Go away, Naruto." The large man growled menacingly, bearing his fangs at the clone. "If you can't tell, your wife is trying to leave you."
The Seventh was taken aback at how angry his friend was with him.
"It's all just a big misunderstanding…"
"Oh? Is it? I'm one of your oldest friends, one of your first ones, and I know exactly how much you love Sakura."
"I love Hinata. I'm married to her…"
He should have been angry that his friend liked his wife, but he did the same towards his best friend's wife, and it caused him to shrivel back like a coward.
"I want you to give her to me to protect." The dark haired ninja growled in a commanding voice.
"NO!" He shouts at the top of his lungs. "I'm not just going to hand you my f*cking wife!" Kiba's expression turns more serious, his arms settling under his chest as he began to speak again.
"Sakura still loves you." The dog nin says suddenly, changing the direction and momentum of their bantering.
"…" Naruto was rendered silent as his heart hummed. Sakura's voice echoed in his remembrance.
"I still love you…"
"At your wedding, she and I were the only one's celebrating on the outside, but mourning on the inside." Kiba continues with a solemn expression. " I could smell the grief rolling off of her, and since her dead beat husband was nowhere to be found, being the amazing friend that I am, I comforted her…"
"You b*stard… if you laid a hand on her–" Naruto's fists clenched angrily. Even though this version of him was a shadow clone, he seemed to be channeling all of Naruto's emotions, anger swirling about him in a danger cloud of chakra.
"I asked Sakura why she let you go."
Then the anger morphed into guilt.
"She said, 'Naruto deserves to be happy'."
Then regret.
"I felt like an idiot, because I had no clue what she really freaking meant until long after Hinata had bid me farewell and rode off with you into the sunset…" Kiba's fang-like teeth glinted in the oncoming twilight as he spoke. "I realized that Sakura did exactly what I did… we sacrificed our true loves for the people we thought would make them happier than we ever could."
The Hokage slumped against the bark of the tree. His heart thumped against the rough wood.
"It was the hardest thing to do, but so noble, if you ask me." Kiba's voice turned into a passionate, heartfelt plea. "I think now it is your turn to do the same for her."
It was then that Naruto realized precisely what the Inuzuka was saying, and the choice that he was forcing him to make at that second.
"Let me take care of Hinata, because I will love her with all I got."
He wanted him to let go of his wife so that she could get what she deserved, and what he truly couldn't give her.
"If you let anything happen to her… I will kill you, Kiba."
"Yeah, right. I'd like to see you try!"
Even if it hurt… he decided to let Hinata go.
She deserved to be happy.
But, he felt like dying.
The Naruto that stayed in Konohagakure was in his office with only the light of the moon illuminating the space. He sat in the cold darkness, his head in his arms on his desk, quiet sobs escaping him. Recent events involving his newly separated wife circling about his thoughts, mixing with feelings of sadness and inadequacy.
It was cold, and he was now very much alone. His children hated him, with good reason. His love was still married to his best friend… and he was acting as pathetic as he had grown to be, all these years.
Pathetic.
Alone.
Afraid.
Cold.
Then the noise of the door opening broke into the quiet dark.
"Dad..? Are you there?"
It was Shinachiku. Naruto decided to act like he was asleep so that he could avoid his new found son in order to continue his wallowing in peace.
"Oh, he's sleeping."
A familiar warmth flooded his heart as he heard the sadness in his child's voice, and then the warmth covered his body. His eyes shot open to find that Shinachiku had covered his shoulders with his white cloak.
"Shina… chiku."
The young sand nin turns the lights on, causing his father to groan, covering his reddened, water logged eyes, shielding them from the sudden brightness.
"Sorry for waking you, Dad! Mom just wanted me to give that back to you!" Shinachiku flashes one of his father's trademark grins as he nervously waves and begins to leave. "Uhm, I'm sorry for bothering you! I'll let you get back to your nap…"
"No! Wait!" Naruto swiftly moves to his eldest and grabs his shoulder. "Don't go! I…well…"
"I have a little free time right now." The Seventh rubs his eyes with his sleeve before mirroring his son's grin and patting his back. "I'm going to take you on a tour of Konoha!"
Shina's hands hug his own midsection as his stomach growls, sounding much like a cat if someone sat on it's tail.
"Sounds like you need something to eat." Naruto laughs as he leads the younger boy out of his office. "What would you like to stuff in your face before we see the sights?"
"Ramen." He responds, a fast as lightning. "It's kind of my favorite thing to eat."
"Boy, you really are my son, aren't you?"
As the two blondes exited the room, the elder one couldn't help but feel hope and peace pool into the recesses of his aching heart, filling the cracks and wounds slowly, but surely.
-The End of Chapter 22 Part 2.
–Story by ODG
–
I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's long, and pieced together from a month of working on it, so it may not make much sense. :) Thank you to all who left such kind reviews!
