AN: So, here is the next chapter. Some have wondered about Sasuke, so this chapter has quite a bit about where he is and how is doing. Hopefully you all like this chapter and I hope to hear from you.
Enjoy!
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Heritage Arc.
Eternal Spiral.
Chapter 5: The Sun.
"Sasuke!" a blonde girl yelled as she ran through a forested area close to the Uchiha complex. It was where she'd first met Sasuke, and recognized one of her Anbu guards for who he was, Uchiha Itachi. A boy, around six frowned as he ran after his friend, a light apparent in his eyes that wouldn't be there in years to come.
"Naru, wait up!" Sasuke exclaimed as he followed her out of the trees, past the Uchiha compound, and towards the lake and pier.
"It's not my fault if you're slow, Sasuke-kun!" she yelled back as she ran towards the end of the pier.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and followed after her, a small smile on his face. Even though they had been friends for nearly a year now the girl was still a mystery to him. The first time they'd met he'd been unsure if it was a girl, her hair had been so short and spiky.
But she'd been growing it back out recently, and it now fell to her mid back, and was straighter while her bangs weren't the spiky mess they'd once been. She'd started pulling the chin length bangs away from her face with a single blue clip on the left side.
Though he hadn't admitted it to her or anyone else, she was his best friend.
Sasuke was thrown from his thoughts when he heard a short scream and splash. Looking towards Naruto he saw her disappear under the water, and he realized as he got closer she must had slipped on the pier. The wood was wet and slippery from the last rain storm, and he nearly slipped a few times running to help her.
"Naruto!" he yelled.
"Sasu -" Her head went back under as she flailed around. "Help!"
With shock he realized she wasn't swimming as her head went back under and she didn't resurface. Bubbles appeared on the surface of the water, which he stared at in horror.
'She can't swim!' he thought. Without thinking he jumped into the water and began searching for his blonde friend.
'Where is she!' he thought as he looked around. He turned and caught a flash of bright blonde hair floating around and began swimming towards it.
Soon his arm hooked around the slim waist of the sunset blonde and he pulled her to the surface.
As they broke the surface he took a deep breath and pulled her towards the pier, he saw Itachi running towards them, dressed in his Anbu gear. He sighed in relief, knowing his brother would help him and Naruto, but the fact Naruto still hadn't moved when he reached her further into his brother grip, worried him.
In a dark room, sparsely decorated, black eyes snapped open. Unlike the boy in the dream, this one had colder eyes, eyes which were guarded and seemed to lack any true emotion. Yet at the same time they read with grief, pain, and regret.
Sitting up slowly, the raven haired boy placed his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes to shake the memory. The dream hadn't been a dream at all, but a memory from when he'd been a child. Before the Massacre, before he'd cut most ties with his best friend in order to protect her.
Back then he'd been unsure from what he was protecting her from. He'd told himself later it was from Itachi, and in some aspect it was true. He'd always been afraid Itachi would come back and take away his only friend, take Naruto away like he did their parents and other clan members.
Years later that nightmare had almost become a reality when he'd heard that Itachi had come looking for Naruto after the Chūnin Exams. Now he knew that it wasn't just Itachi he was trying to protect Naruto from, it was from himself.
'In order to gain these eyes – you must kill your best friend.'
Sasuke released a painful breath from his lungs, his head lowered, and his eyes becoming drenched in painful emotion. Hadn't he listened to the words of a madman? He'd listened to his brother and later he'd listened to promises of Orochimaru.
He'd tried to gain the power of the Mangekyō, he'd tried to cover his heart in ice as he shoved through his best friends heart – Naruto's heart. Or at least, it would have been her heart had she not deflected his hand a few inches higher.
The damage was done though. She may not have known it, but the whole time his hand was inside her chest his own heart felt as if it had exploded as well. He may deny it, he may call it a whim as to why he let her live after the clash of his curse seal enhanced Chidori and her Kyūbi enhanced Rasengan.
But in reality, as he'd stood above her, and the rain had begun to poor down, his knees collapsing under him as he was forced to his knees with his head hanging over hers – he knew he had to leave. He had to leave, because he didn't want to hurt her anymore. He finally knew in that moment she was more then his best friend.
He loved her, and he always would, but he also couldn't allow himself to be near her. When he was he didn't obsess as much about avenging his clan and that was dangerous. He couldn't let it go. He had to kill Itachi, he had to avenge his clan. He could never rest until he did, not with the nightmare of history repeating itself.
Of his brother returning years down the road, when he'd settled down and started a family (hopefully with Naruto), only to take it all away from him. But he hadn't counted on his heart continuing to hurt even though he knew she was still alive. If she hadn't been he would have known.
He'd always been able to tell when something was wrong with her. Even the dumb blonde act she played as a defense mechanism at times couldn't fool him. It never truly had. Finding her after she'd left Konoha with the toad sannin, Jiraiya, hadn't been easy at first. But he had managed every time she came close enough to Rice and Otogakure.
As he'd told her on the first night seven month ago, he wasn't caged. He could come and go with relative freedom, but if he was gone for longer then a week. Well, he didn't know exactly how Orochimaru would react, but he didn't feel like finding out. Right now he couldn't match the sannin, but his training had come far.
Soon he'd have enough power to kill Itachi and Orochimaru. If the old snake sannin thought he was going to take his body for his own, he was sadly mistaken. He'd never had any intention of allowing that, this was simply a means to and end.
It had been some time since he'd last seen Naruto though. Usually he met her once every month, and those nights kept him going and sane. Sometimes they didn't even do anything intimate, as those nights weren't meant to simply have sex. There were many times they did, but also many times they simply sat together and held small conversations.
Those nights were escapes and time to remind themselves the other was still alive. The last time they'd met had been outside of Rice Country, and she'd told him they were heading towards the Land of Water next, which was a distance from Oto.
He could have made it there, but recently Orochimaru had begun training him more and he had less time to leave for a few days. In these last few months the dreams of his past with Naru and dreams of her in general were more often.
But the dream he'd just woken from was the first that involved Itachi in any way. He recalled clearly what had happened after Itachi had pulled her and him out of the water. Itachi had given Naruto CPR, and Sasuke had watched closely, listening to Itachi as he explained the importance of the technique in case he ever needed it in the future.
If it would help Naruto he'd been willing to learn anything back then.
Once Naruto had spat up the water in her lung, Sasuke had smiled widely and then frowned, and bluntly asked her how she'd not known how to swim at nearly six years old. Sometimes he'd forgotten she was an orphan. The following week he'd taught her himself how to swim.
'Sasuke-kun, I'm sorry for scaring you, I didn't mean to fall off the pier.'
'I wasn't scared! I was angry.'
Giggle. 'Yes, if you say so.'
Sasuke sighed, and leaned back against the wall behind his bed.
'I want to protect her so badly, but I keep hurting her don't I?' he thought to himself, his heart clinching in his chest.
"I'll never be worthy of forgiveness, Naru, but I swear I'll try everything to earn it, nonetheless."
He had to, after all she was his sun.
Without her he wasn't sure what he was living for, besides the desire to avenge and protect. A twisted sense of moral, even he saw the irony in those two being in the same sentence.
As it was, what was the moon without the sun?
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November.
Naruto wasn't sure why they chose now to leave Uzu no Kuni, but they had. Currently she was in her seventh month of pregnancy, and they had been staying in Whirlpool for about three months.
In those three months they had tried cleaning up Uzushio as much as possible. Jiraiya did most of the grunt work, and Naruto wasn't comfortable making Shadow Clones. Getting all the memories was one thing, but the fact the clones were exact clones, down to the fact she was pregnant weirded her out.
She learned the first time the hard way; every time a clone dispersed it sent a strange shiver down her spine, and while it didn't hurt the baby or cause pain, it was not pleasant either. Like a cold chill, or when people said someone was walking over your grave – an old saying she'd heard once or twice.
Jiraiya said it wouldn't hurt her or the babies, but if it made her uncomfortable then not to do it. Personally, Naruto was just happy there was no sign of Akatsuki. The last thing she wanted was to put herself and her babies in danger. Not to mention she pretty much had no access to chakra at her current stage of pregnancy. It made her feel unbelievably vulnerable.
Making it to Wave was easy enough, they still had the boat they'd rented. Finding Tazuna was also easy and it seemed Naruto was recognized by many who recalled the heroine who'd fought on the bridge years before against two ninja and Gato.
"Oh, you're pregnant!" one woman exclaimed when they asked for directions. It seemed Tazuna had moved his family to a place a little nicer, leaving their old one until Inari was older and inherited it for his family should he marry.
Come to think of it, Inari should be around twelve or so now, she thought absentmindedly.
"Uh, yes," she said, coming from her thoughts. "Seven months now."
The woman smiled, and didn't even bat an eyelash at how young Naru was. It was true, Naruto was rather young. But she supposed in the elemental nations it wasn't unusual. Some girls were married young, around her age actually, and Naruto was fifteen.
For shinobi it was even more common. Seeing as Shinobi had shorter life spans most of the time. Many were lucky to make it into their twenties, so starting families at younger ages was expected. Not to mention, though she was only fifteen, the Hitai-ate on her forehead showed that she was indeed an adult. And she had been for years.
Naruto had grown, mostly in the stomach area. She was rather large, which Jiraiya learned the hard way she was sensitive about. It was painfully obvious she was expecting, given she looked at if she'd swallowed a beach ball or two.
She wore a royal blue kimono with small white, red, orange, and silver dragonfly's decorating it, along with the Uzumaki spiral on the back. For once her hair was not only pulled back by the clip, which held the left side of her bangs back, but by an orange ribbon which held the back into a low ponytail.
"Do you know the gender yet?" the woman asked, and Naruto wondered if everyone asked such questions upon meeting a pregnant stranger. Even if this woman knew who she was because of the bridge that was named after her.
"No, not yet," she admitted, and the woman smiled and nodded.
"I see, well Tazuna and his family moved into a home in that direction. It's the only one for about a quarter mile so you should find it easily enough," the woman said, pointing them in the right direction.
"Thanks you," Jiraiya said, and the two left quickly.
Looking at Naruto, Jiraiya sighed.
"You know, this won't be easy even after the babies are born," he said, bringing up a topic he'd been wanting to for a while.
Naruto sighed. "I know, I have to protect them and myself."
Jiraiya nodded.
"This was probably one of the worst times for it, but at least you safe now and happy," he said.
Naruto smiled in agreement.
"Yes. I just hope they're healthy. I'll worry about everything else after they are born."
Jiraiya smirked after a moment.
"For your sake, I hope they take more after you. God knows we don't need two more Uchiha's born with a stick up their ass."
Naruto sighed, her eye twitching.
She would have hit the man, but part of her agreed. It seemed to be an ailment of the main two clans of Konoha, Uchiha, and Hyūga. Though she'd noticed the Hyūga seemed to have an entire tree stuck up theirs opposed to most Uchiha.
Coming out of her thoughts Naru noticed they were soon to reach a house, on the large size, but not too large. Big enough for a small family, with enough room to spare.
Smiling, Naruto stopped and looked at Jiraiya.
"We're here."
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EDITED: 7/26/16.