A/N: A lot to say...firstly, thank you SO much for the amazing responses! Consider this my thanks :)

I had a lot of varied reactions to last chapter. Some thought that Minato and Kushina weren't angry enough at the villagers, others thought that Naruto was more mature about it all than he should have been, and a couple even thought Hiruzen was a manipulative bastard.

Let me just say this: I plan on changing chapter 3 a bit, mainly to replace the English verbal tics with 'ttebayo and 'ttebane, which was an issue I was really unsure of how to handle. Again, your feedback helped me sort it out, and for that I am very grateful.

I remember saying that the Uzumaki family would NOT be all happy without any issues. If that isn't at least strongly hinted at in this chapter, rest assured that conflict will happen. Consider this the "honeymoon" period where they're all so grateful to be together again that they'll let everything slide-which is Truth In Television, by the way.

For anyone who does not understand Japanese honorifics well, just type "Japanese honorifics" into Wikipedia and all of your questions will be answered. Hopefully.

Further stuff will be elaborated on in the note after the chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: The Road Not Taken

It was strange how battle could bring Kakashi's mind into focus and order, Hiruzen noticed. Where it left many people shaken, it had the opposite effect on an already shaken mind.

The world was strange like that, he had long since decided.

As the off-white haired jounin explained the situation to a bewildered Sasuke, the aging Hokage saw something he had long hoped for. If only the circumstances were different...

Hiruzen couldn't describe how he could see the hope in Sasuke's eyes. Their very dark grey color matched the boy's mood and mindset in a way that was as chilling as it was fitting. It was a feint, reluctant hope, but it was there.

It pained him to be the one to crush it. That was a cruelty which wounded the heart of anyone that could feel. But it had to be done before the hope grew into a bubble that would break the boy when it popped.

"I know what you're thinking, Sasuke-kun," Hiruzen began. "But I believe the only reason Minato and Kushina are alive right now is due to the very unique circumstances surrounding their deaths. I am certain none of the Uchiha clan died in such a way," he concluded with a depressing finality.

Sasuke's shoulders drooped so slightly that only a trained, observant shinobi would notice. Or a psychologist, Hiruzen mentally added. He so wished he could have forced the boy into grief counseling, but in a bizarre twist of irony, Sasuke held the rights of a clan head and clan heir. Despite being a young boy, he had the right to refuse treatment. Hiruzen had tried to change Konoha's clan treaty, but the Hyuuga quickly vetoed such efforts every time.

There were several reasons Hiashi could have had in doing so, some of which were actually valid. Hiruzen was forced to watch helplessly as Sasuke suffered from an affliction more severe than those of wounded shinobi that had lost their legs.

He just hoped that it wouldn't end in tragedy.

Naruto's calm faded quickly after the Hokage left the room. He was beyond nervous, both because of what was about to happen and because he had no idea what to do.

The idea of family was a distant thing, something observed only in glimpses, because it hurt too much otherwise. How members of a family interacted with one another was something he only understood on a specific case-by-case basis.

Like understanding that four multiplied by seven equaled 28, but if it was five instead of four, and if he had no idea how multiplication worked.

Even if he was capable of understanding, he usually tried not to, to avoid the inevitable pain that came with such musings.

And deep down, he realized that he had a strong urge to yell at his father, even if he understood the reasoning behind the Fourth Hokage's actions.

He was angry, nervous, worried, and excited all at the same time, and it was making him crazy.

Shoving open the window, he gulped down some fresh air to calm his nerves, even if only a little. The sight of his village, with shinobi of all kinds and ranks running about with various tasks soothed him. Forgetting about his own predicament, he found escape in the fully understood knowledge of shinobi jumping around with purpose and instructions. Unlike him, they had tasks, with clearly set rules and contingencies. He lost himself in the view.

Until he saw them. One was adorned in the familiar red and white robes of the Hokage, but the other two made his mind screech to a sudden halt. Somewhere in his mind, he knew that they were his parents, but he could barely think at the moment.

He recognized the Fourth easily, but his mother was something entirely new: long, red hair, pale skin, and a slim frame.

They walked towards the main entrance until he lost sight of them. Like being broken from a trance, he shook his head and stepped back from the window.

He couldn't believe this was happening; he couldn't mentally grasp the reality he was now placed in.

However, Naruto was never one for such wordiness, and simply summed up his mental state with a short, hesitantly-thought word.

What...?

A series of knocks on the door shook him from his thoughts. He looked at the door questioningly, as if the wooden construction held the answers to his oddly blank mind. A second later, realization hit, and he remembered what was going on.

Screw this, Naruto decided. He wasn't going let being scared and nervous make him a quivering wreck. He'd just beaten a goddamn giant demon to a pulp without a second thought. He crossed his arms (which were shaking, but he ignored that) and called out: "C-come in!"

Mentally cursing himself for sounding like an idiot, he saw the door open. "Sarutobi-jiji" walked in first, eying Naruto with both apprehension and fondness.

His parents walked in, not seeing him until fully in the room. Hiruzen closed the door softly.

He had no idea what to say, even if he was confident that he could say it without stuttering. The determination he held a mere few seconds ago was largely gone, but nothing filled the void.

Unless he counted uncertainty, which gripped him like an icy hand around the heart.

Hiruzen noticed both parents and child had the same looks on their faces. They were both waiting for the other to make the move, as they were entirely uncertain who should make the first move.

"I realize that there is no easy way to do this," he spoke, weakening the tension as their eyes were redirected at him. "But I believe Minato has something to say first."

The man in question flinched slightly in remembrance. "R-right," he said. He shifted his gaze back to his son. Before, he had known exactly what he would say. Now that he was looking Naruto in the eye, he had difficulty putting one foot in front of the other.

He, too, had faced down a giant demon of incredible power without hesitation.

Just like his son, he acknowledged that this was much, much harder. He took a knee to bring his eyes down to Naruto's level. "Naruto," he said, staring into a shade of blue almost exactly like his own. "You have every right to be angry with me." The change in his son's expression was so slight that someone else would have missed it. "I won't apologize for the decision I made on the night you were born," Minato continued, finding it easier to speak as he went on, "but I cannot apologize enough for the pain and suffering that decision has cost you."

Naruto stared at him with an uncertain wonder in his eyes. "You're an incredibly brave, strong, and kind person, Naruto," Minato said with conviction. "You deserve far better than what you've been given. I am so sorry," he concluded, unable to find the words to explain how he felt. He noticed the tears falling from Naruto's eyes at about the same time he noticed the ones falling from his.

For a while, he waited for Naruto to react one way or another. He was prepared to be yelled at, and a part of him wanted to be. The rest of him believed that he deserved to be.

He was so shocked, however ridiculous the notion was to the others in the room, when Naruto wrapped his arms around his father in a tight hug, burying his head into the crook of the man's shoulder.

Finally overcoming his surprise, Minato returned the embrace with the same enthusiasm. It was surreal—he had held the minute-old Naruto less than two days ago, yet now the boy was a short pre-teen. That didn't make it any less nice, and he found that he didn't want to let go.

He was slightly surprised when he felt Kushina's arms wrap around them; he hadn't heard her coming. It took him a moment to realize that this was the first time they had been truly together as a family, and the thought both sobered his spirits and lifted them. He didn't bother trying to deal with the contradiction.

They didn't say anything for a while, and as they embraced each other, they didn't need to. When they finally did break apart to arm's length, they noticed that the Third was gone.

Kushina cupped her son's cheek, softly rubbing it with her thumb. "I know this is a lot to deal with, Naruto," she said, her voice less steady than she had hoped. "And we're confused too. But we'll get through it together. I promise."

She could hardly believe how much he resembled her husband. Despite his facial features being much closer to hers, the hair and eyes were quite distinctive. The whisker marks were a rather adorable touch, in her eyes.

Naruto's tears continued to flow, but he obviously wasn't sad. Though most of his features were blank, his lips were curled slightly upwards. "L-Like a team?"

Having seen his memories (an experience she equated to receiving the memories of a thousand shadow clones at once), she realized that a "team" was the closest idea to family that he intuitively understood. "Yes, Naruto, exactly like a team." She smiled at the thought, and at him.

She saw the acceptance (and joy, much to her own) on his face. Kushina could relish in the moment for a long time, but the silence still felt awkward. She had no idea what to say, or what they should do. Recalling her memories of him, she thought of the one thing that never failed to cheer her son up and smirked. "I hear you've got quite the appetite for ramen," she suggested, "and that a certain place in Konoha makes the best ramen."

His mouth formed an expression between surprise and happiness, though it was Minato who spoke next. "Oh god, between the two of you..."

Sasuke had long since assumed his "do not bother me" mood as he walked with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura to a damaged building. Donned in the flak vest that only those with the rank of chuunin or above were allowed to wear, he carried a bundle of wooden planks on his shoulder. Doing D-rank missions at half-pay to help repair the village from the recent attack was a small blessing for him, providing a much-needed outlet for his physical energy.

He was conflicted on the inside, insatiably angry at the unfairness of it all and yet also inexplicably happy. No, not happy, he corrected due to his long-time disassociation with the word, but satisfied. He'd been promoted to chuunin on his first attempt at taking the exams, despite being a rookie genin. Such an occurrence was very unusual.

But it wasn't nearly enough, he knew. Itachi had passed the Chuunin Exams when he was ten. By age 13, he was an ANBU captain. Thinking about it brought him back to that night...

He'd lost his parents, his family, and every relative all at once—then he was forced to relive it all again half a dozen times by his monster of a brother.

The brother he had once looked up to more than anything.

The pain of it all threatened to consume him whole constantly in the months following the massacre. He had learned to bury it with anger and desire for revenge to escape that pain, but...

Something had changed.

Gaara had claimed that the pain of loneliness and hatred led to more power. At the time, it was hard to prove him wrong—Sasuke was outmatched, and for a while, so was Naruto.

But Naruto had realized it around the same time he had. Protecting people, fighting to save the ones you loved gave you a kind of strength unlike any other.

He'd witnessed it first-hand when Naruto—Naruto, of all people—proceeded to beat Gaara into the ground.

And when Gaara lay defeated, so did his philosophy. As if driving the point home, Gaara admitted that he was wrong.

Sasuke had been forced to question what he held as obvious truth after the events of that day, in more ways than one. Had Naruto grown from the Academy's dunce to someone capable of defeating a monster like Gaara by finding strength through his bonds? Had he been stunting his growth by shunning his?

But Itachi is nothing like Naruto, and has always been incredibly strong. And Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage, Sasuke's mind countered.

But did that just mean that Itachi was just insanely talented, and Naruto was right? After all, he recalled, Naruto had never displayed any talent in the Academy. If inherited ability was responsible for Naruto's growth, it would have been obvious back then.

He thought back to all of their time together, especially during their dangerous missions. Their maneuver to rescue Kakashi-sensei had been driven by a desire to protect one's team—he recognized the feeling now. His awakening of the sharingan was the same. And then, against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death...he'd performed a feat he'd never successfully done before, after being shaken into action by Naruto's incredible feat of stopping the giant snake.

It was so obvious now—at the very least, Naruto's path was just as successful as Gaara's.

But the difference was that Naruto was happy and driven. Gaara was spiteful and, at times, insane.

He and Naruto had protected their precious people against all the odds. That overwhelming pain of losing the ones you loved was denied by their drive to protect.

And with a smile, he realized something that pleased him a great deal: following Naruto's path would go completely against everything Itachi had wanted. He still wanted to kill the bastard, but he would no longer be Itachi's plaything. He would live his life as he saw fit, and when he was strong enough, he would reject everything Itachi stood for even as he delivered the killing blow.

The thought of it...that path, Sasuke realized, was incredibly satisfying, far more so than revenge at any cost. And if Naruto truly was right—and Sasuke had every reason to believe it after Gaara's total defeat—he'd get his revenge sooner, too.

Both Sakura and Kakashi noticed Sasuke's smile, but neither commented on it. Kakashi was pleased to see that the smile was softer than one fueled by negative emotion. He'd wait to see what thoughts lay beneath it.

Naruto getting his family back still weighed on Sasuke's mind, but the Uchiha now felt more disappointed than spiteful. It was definitely unfair, but Naruto had shown him both how to get an even greater revenge on Itachi and a path to greater strength. He was too happy right now—though Sasuke wouldn't associate himself with that word—to care enough about Naruto's reunion. When he did think of it now, he still had that great yearning to be reunited with his parents, fueling an anger at Itachi.

But this anger was different from the one that drove his previous self-destructive, almost self-loathing mentality. Though Sasuke didn't consciously realize it, it was anger at Itachi for the massacre inflicted upon his parents and the Uchiha clan as a whole rather than rage to cover up the pain of his loss.

This kind of anger bred determination in a way that made the other kind seem pitiful, and Sasuke was basking in the emotional high of it. It was liberating for a boy who had been almost constantly kept depression at bay with wild, unfocused rage.

It was something he had only experienced before in the heat of battle. But now that he could focus on the feeling and self-induce it, it was like a drug that he would crave.

He absentmindedly set the wood down next to the workers when they reached their destination. "That's the last of it for now," Kakashi-sensei said. "How about some lunch?"

Smile still on his face, Sasuke nodded.

A/N: Okay, about Sasuke:

No, I did not pull that out of my ass, at least from a character development perspective. Sasuke DID show signs of reform all throughout the Chuunin Exam Arc, especially during his fights with Orochimaru and Gaara. It wasn't until Itachi beat the crap out of Sasuke and then brutually Mind Raped him (again) that Sasuke went crazy.

That said, I did originally write that scene as Sasuke flipping out at something Kakashi says as advice about revenge (it made sense in context), until I remembered/realized that Sasuke's character was NOT like that at that point in time.

As for Naruto-no, he's NEVER been very angry at his dad (and most certainly never at his mom). The canon example during the Invasion of Pain happened during Naruto's darkest hour, with him under extreme stress and pain...and all that happening after being put through an emotional meat-grinder.

I figured Minato giving a very sincere apology for what he put Naruto through would curtail nearly all of the anger before it truly got started.

Now: I'm going to bring up something here that will probably not sit right with some of you: at this time, I plan on writing Itachi as if he truly is the monster that the manga made out to be for a long, long time. The reason for that is that, not only does everything make a LOT more sense that way (I'm too lazy to explain why right now), but it also prevents the entire leaderships of Konoha AND Uchiha clan seem stupid and insane beyond belief. No offense to canon!Itachi intended.

So, some questions if you want to answer them:

1) How was Naruto's characterization handled both before and during the reunion?

2) How well was the reunion handled?

3) Was Sasuke's character development believable here? How do you think it should progress from here?

4) What was your favorite part(s) of the chapter?

5) What was your least favorite part(s) of the chapter?

6) Any suggestions or ideas?

Please review! It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, which puts me in a writing mood. You guys are awesome =)