Summary: We all often make mistakes. Nevertheless, it's best we take it in stride and use the acquired knowledge as experience for the future. Unfortunately, it's impossible to move on when you end up making the same mistake. Twice. SasuNaru.
CH09: Departure
"How're you feeling?" Sasuke questioned, taking note of Naruto's bleary eyes and slow, delayed movements.
In the process of raking Sasuke's strained shoulders with his small fingers, he momentarily paused to rub his right eye with a lethargic smile. "Mm, tired, numb," his coarse voice trembled as he absentmindedly ran his fingers over the damp exhibition of devastation pouring down the sides of Sasuke's face, wiping them away, silently hoping to erase the blatant sorrow.
Sasuke relished the contact, the radiation of Naruto's sparkling whirlpool of love running close, concentric circles around him. As he studied the outlay of features he spent many nights fantasizing about, obsessing over, memorizing, he denied himself the right to ravish those lips, out of respect for the phenomenal fight his love had just endured.
"I probably look how I feel—like absolute shit." Naruto chuckled, withdrawing his hand in jest and insecurely protecting his face from Sasuke's scrutinizing gape.
As Sasuke reached for Naruto's cold hand, lips that held a rich semblance to a smile enacted a ripple of magic. "You look beautiful," Sasuke whispered, combating unveiled blue eyes that exhumed for authenticity in glazed grey eyes. Absorbing the sincerity with a gracious smile, Naruto disentangled his hand from the captive cell and cupped Sasuke's cheek.
"Awe, boo… Have you gone to see Serenity, yet?" Naruto asked, the evident excitement filtering through his shining voice.
Buried maternal instincts were exposed more and more by the second as the brand new daughter they shared changed their scope on life.
Seeing a violent spark of Naruto's bottled bliss, Sasuke felt compelled to be honest with him. "No, not yet," the Uchiha admitted, his tone still low foggy from his battle with tears earlier.
"Can you go see her for me? Please?" Naruto asked, reducing the weight of his begging, trying not to nag the boy loyally pinned to his side.
Understanding his pride toward creating a small human being, Sasuke accepted, nodding. Suddenly, he felt a thrill that thrust him beyond the thinning air of the stratosphere. Breathless, he summed in his head that he had a newborn daughter.To hold, to love, to care for.
An indescribable feeling.
"I'll go if you promise to stay put and get some rest," Sasuke reasoned the ultimatum, listlessly stroking the tender lips that coiled into a smile.
"Ai Ai, Mon Capiton," Naruto weakly piped pulling the oxygen mask over his chin, relaxing his open lips. Sasuke planted a meaningful kiss on Naruto's temple, a leash of emotions binding him to the maternity wards' nursery.
…
"Oh, my God," Kushina wheezed as a stripe of guilt and admiration illuminated her sallow flesh. The fluorescent glow of the tube bulb above, shone on the solidarity of the situation boiling on her skin as a heaping gob of reality clobbered her with an indestructible force.
"She's so…" Her eyes welled with a wallop of brackish liquid as she touched the name tag with a bottomless consternation and a frightened amore. As she read 'Serenity' a rolling heat spread up from her back, through her neck and up to her cheeks. The name was gorgeous—fitting. Only something her impressively incisive son would produce. A stunning name for such a stunning creation.
"Beautiful… I'm, I'ma—" Her voice died along with all the past notions she had about protecting this life she had. All she wanted to do now was protect this defenseless infant to the best of her ability. Not the pathetically irresponsible job she had done with Naruto, it would be a renewed role, of a true, loving… "—Grandmother."
"Kushina's trembling hands journeyed to the pink cotton jumper, grazing the soft material, disbelieving of its palpable existence. She winced as she looked at the signature pale skin, sheer black hair matted against a soft skull, tiny hands curled into an innocent position, dainty parted lips. A fragile creature soundly sleeping—the slow and steady rise of her chest—was so marvelous. She felt the tears stroll down her hot skin as she viewed the mirror image of Sasuke, comparing her to a miniature snow white—beautiful and pure.
Her hands smoothed over the infant's belly, in shock. She moved her hands to the solid plastic container, holding on tightly. Slicked in an unretractable vortex, she was unable to draw her eyes away from the shape of the roundly chubby face that resembled the shape of Naruto's own. She was so pulled in; she couldn't feel the company of the other babies in the nursery, nor Minato beside her.
She glanced over at the likes of her rigid husband, affirming her choked beliefs. "Minato, look at her—this is what Naruto almost died for." Her frizzy red tresses twirled over twine-thin arms as she rolled the impossibly small hand on her own—her senses marveling.
"I think we should…keep her. She's our first granddaughter and she's so… innocent."
Just like Naruto said she would be.
"I love her," She mumbled, sniffling. A smile shattered her pleasant sadness as she drowned in Minato's gelid countenance. Undercover the currents of blankness, she thought her navy blue eyes were fooling her when Minato swallowed and looked unsurely at the new child.
"I'm not sure about the prospects of keeping the child," Minato muttered in his hallow chest as she basked with glorious fascination over the small infant as she peacefully slept.
Twirling the hospital bracelet, Kushina's face flooded with a tsunami of confusion. "What do you mean you're not sure about the prospects of keeping her? She's a fucking child, Minato, not a piece of luggage you despicable asshole," She whispered offensively, as the flare of repudiation boomeranged on the connection between them.
"It's complicated…" Minato averted his eyes away to no spot in particular, his mind fleeting from one lacerating thought to another, the neurons in his brain blasting him into a dimension of uncertainty.
"Minato, do you understand how tendentious what you're saying sounds?"
Minato shook his yellow locks, disconsolately, lowering his chin, blondness obscuring his mournful blue eyes.
"For once, can you stop thinking about you and maybe just this once consider Naruto? Sasuke? This is their child and… I feel," She glimpsed at the resting child and reformed her words. "No, I know, it would be wrong to strip them of this baby. It's theirs' and we have no right to try to take it away from them."
Minato actively listened but took no time to formulate no reply as he left the nursery.
"Minato, please, come back here. I'm not done speaking. Minato? Please I—" But his back disappeared past the glass that reflected an impending tragedy.
…
Sauntering into the nursery like the night of the living dead, luckily not intercepting Minato or Kushina on the way over. Sasuke's eyes rolled from edge to edge of the Safari designed walls, trying to discover the location of the new addition to his immediate Uchiha family. Figuring the tikes' variation was arranged in alphabetical order, he quickly rushed to the end of the sixth row, looking for the tag labeled Uchiha.
Reaching his destination, Sasuke fearfully peered at the tiny body as his breath dispersed in his throat like an atomic bomb. Swallowing hard, his gaze sweltered with a pulse of bonding love. Raising his elbow, curling his sweaty fingertips, he secured the small of her back and her head as he eased her from her rightful place. As he practiced the natural tactic of holding his baby safely, he wished Naruto could be here to see how wonderfully magnificent their daughter was. Unfortunately, he was still confined to a hospital bed in a guarded room, recuperating from labor complications. Naruto trusted him to meet their baby alone, so embodied enough love for the both of them combined.
Sweat trickled down his lower back as he touched the swell of her round cheeks, ensuring she was really there—in his arms living, breathing.
Parted lips came together as Sasuke wet the accumulated dryness present on his lips. His brain trailed into the possibilities—how could he possibly aid in the creation of something so perfect?
How could Naruto have endured such long torture even though he knew this beauty would be the result? How could she possibly look so much like him?
Jamming an axe into his thoughts, he witnessed Serenity gurgle and then fight to open her eyes.
Amazed—Sasuke had to control the convulsing wobble in his limbs as he gaped into a robin egg eyes that seemed deathly reminiscent to someone he knew, someone he knew very well.
'Your mother's eyes…'
Just like he had speculated what felt like millions of years ago.
He was right.
And to think Naruto didn't believe him...
A colossal grin branched from corner to corner of his lips. Serenity blinked, wordlessly wiggling in his arms, her pink booties brushing Sasuke's right arm. Tilting her head closer to his lips, Sasuke investigated Serenity's curious stare with amusement. A tickle of joy assaulted his heart as she gurgled one more time.
"Hey, daddy's little girl," Sasuke ruggedly whispered, his smile growing as her ears perked at the familiarity.
She knew that voice from somewhere before.
In the womb?
She seemed to recollect her prior knowledge of the voice that so smoothly penetrated the womb. Piecing the jagged puzzle piece together, a slow but confident smile lit her face like candle as she concluded that, yes, Sasuke Uchiha, the man holding her so fondly, was her father.
She remembered the nights the unseen voice that would read her stories, tell her stories, and give her endless life advice. When bedtime arrived, it was the voice that soothed her into a dark slumber when she couldn't a catch a few z's.
The person she would have to trust to protect her and care for the rest of her life.
Her father.
The fundamental person would shadow her in her time of need and spoil her until she thought she regularly deserved diamond toppings on her icecream.
She upcast her little hand to test out the feel of Sasuke's identically pale skin.
Sasuke's stomach knotted into fretfully jovial knot as he inferred with her curiosity by grabbing her hand kissing it lightly. Her toothless smile widened as she released a dandy sound from her throat. Sasuke took it as a sign to excel and kiss her on her cheek one after the other. Nuzzling her temple, Sasuke thought he would melt at the sound of her soft, glorious laugh that inexplicably paralleled her mom's.
His new family.
Sasuke had read somewhere on Wed MD that babies could smile shortly after they're born. Though it would be splendid, never in his life had he imagined that his own daughter would be the one smiling and laughing so soon. Truly stupendous—amazing.
"Daddy loves you baby," Sasuke mumbled with a compact air of conviction, his lips running along her sleek forehead as she laughed like there was no tomorrow. "It's so hard to believe we made you." Sasuke mused as her gleaming blue eyes smiled at him.
In Sasuke's next breath in the empty nursery room corroborated the thought that he never wanted to let her go for as long as he lived.
She was a piece of Naruto and a piece of him—a product of their love.
And he didn't want any part of their love to disappear.
Ever.
Unheedingly, a dark aura pressed at the door. Sasuke peeped at what drawled on the blissful exchange between him and his newborn daughter.
"Sasuke?" The pathetic whimpering voice that belonged to no other than his disgustingly submissive mother, accompanied by his emotionless hammer named Fugaku waltzed into the currently privatized nursery. Garbed in elegant clothing—a hand stitched Roberto Cavalli three piece suit, iced with alligator shoes was attached to his father. Bejewled Miu Miu heels was fitted on his epicurean mother, including an extravagant Ethiopian mesh shawl. Obviously where they were previously located somewhere that was too fancy to escape, even for the birth of Serenity and near death of Naruto.
Sasuke huddled next to Serenity's area, tucking her into his neck, a thick post of rancor pinching the skin of both Mikoto and Fugaku.
When Sasuke felt his baby's warm hands touch the space of his collar bone, it propelled him into defensive action. "Get the fuck out—now."
Mikoto's grey eyes displayed the scars of the mortally wounding statement. She attempted to support her reasoning. "But Sasuke—"
"No fucking buts—I don't want you anywhere near my baby," Sasuke's anger pulsated through the shell of cracking anger as felt his daughter constrict and loosen with the crescendo of the rising and falling wavelength of familial friction. Trying to avoid the baby from becoming fussy due to the injection of fear she received from the dynamic range of emotions he had just recently filed through, he rubbed her back assuring circles.
"She—" Sasuke refrained from using the name of Naruto had so wittily derived from the being of their relationship. They didn't deserve to know what her name was. They weren't her family. "Doesn't need you here. All she needs is me and Naruto. Not some kooky—fucked up version of a poor excuse for grandparents, parents, much less human beings," Sasuke tongue lashed in effective whip as he heard his absentee mother muffle a weak sniffle.
Fugaku, whose unfeeling face seemed to remain in the same expression from the time they entered the room up to this very second, chose to ignore Sasuke's orders with brazen disobedience. Advancing with the purpose of coming closer to the baby, he pulled Mikoto with him, every insult rolling off his back, as he crashed into a barrier of authentic hate.
"Stay awayfrom my child. I amnotgoing to fucking warn you again." A flutter of murderous intent became visible in the young Uchiha's eyes as the united spouses stepped away from the nursery bed tagged, 'Serenity, Uchiha.'
Mikoto couldn't mistake the ferociousness paling Sasuke's eyes—she had only seen it one other time before. When she suggested that it would probably be in his best interest to break up with Naruto. A major error on her part—especially when she feared Sasuke was going to snap her neck clear off her vertebrate.
As he verbally attested, his mother seemed to be the only adult to fathom the burnishment of the debacle. After their eyes connected, Fugaku did as well. Trembling with fearful understanding, Fugaku's distain converted to a cloaked mound of hurt.
"What's going on here?" A passing nurse wandered in with a copious amount of concern. She overlooked the two adults and focused on the youngest Uchiha as he emulated a human blanket holding his baby. "Is there a problem?"
"Can you please have them leave?" Sasuke quickly countered as Mikoto barely had time to swing around to the newly arrived nurse.
"This is my daughter and I don't want them to see her. Tell them to get out."
The petite woman that was faced with tough decisions the entire duration of her shift quickly sported the decision on the soft lines of her face. Eyeballing the older adults, she reported the legality of the situation. "He's legally next of kin since he's the father of the baby. He has direct authority over his child, along with the mother. I'm sorry." She really wasn't. "But I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
…
Glancing down at the petite figure of his son indolently, Minato grasped the handles of the mechanical hospital bed. The rhythmic chirps of the monitors harmonized in the room as the oldest Namikaze fixed his stare on Naruto with a lock.
He almost died.
It showed on usually vibrant face that looked faded into pale exhaustion though he was peacefully resting.
He looked like the real metaphor 'hospital death.'
Sighing, at the mass of the emotions baring down his shoulder, he felt Naruto shuffle in the bed below his chin.
The unfocused, sweet blue eyes that Minato had known for fifteen years, opened.
Minato felt his lips twitch with worry.
It was unbridled torture as Minato watched Naruto pull off his oxygen mask and smile like they were reunited after a long warring in no man's land. "Daddy, you're here."
The exponential beating of his heart sped up to a million miles an hour as he heard those damaging words.
Words that seared the soul.
Because initially he didn't want to step a foot in here to see his own son.
"Have you seen her yet?" Naruto painkiller slurred words asked.
Minato's lack of eye contact whispered a telling yes.
"She's beautiful isn't she?" Naruto's smile spread further across his face as he placed the mask against the left side of his jaw. Scrabbling his head into the pillow, he didn't really press his father. His speechlessness must be delaying him from proper the words to speak. Must have been.
"Can I… Can I keep her?" Naruto optimistically asked as he received the circulating oxygen as a response.
"Daddy, I asked you a question. Can I keep her?" Naruto reiterated with more forcefulness than before.
He sat up, pulling at the tubes and cords attached to the pumping machines. Water spewed from his tear ducts, but not quite leaving his eyes. His face reddened with terror as he noticed that Minato wouldn't even fucking look at him.
Minato grunted, opposed with the forces of morality and empathy combating for supremacy. Like an old dollar bill, he was torn between what Naruto and Kushina wanted and what he wanted. Essentially cornered, he and his inner confliction left the room ignoring the wounded Naruto cry after him, anger coating his screams.
He wanted to run out of the bed and catch up his father. He just wanted to shake him and make him understand.
This was HIS baby.
She grew inside him for nine, long months.
It was cruel and unusual punishment to just send her away for something that wasn't her fault.
It was harebrained mentality to continue on with life and just pretend that she never existed.
They were teaching him that he never had to deal with life's consequences because every mishap would just be swept under the rug.
Did this really threaten their lifestyle?
"Hey, I'm fucking talking to you!" The levees of rage shut tight as Naruto became a pleading mess. "Please…" he felt twin tears spill down his cheeks as he idly watched his father chicken out of answering the butchering question like a helpless bystander gazing upon a murder.
…
In the break of the afternoon, Minato discovered his head was splitting in two, lungs aching, feeling like he needed to make major amends.
With everyone.
He saw her and then everything he thought he was doing was bludgeoned to death and then blessed into a stoned grave, never to arise again.
All his thoughts of forcing Naruto into the adoption process. Gone. All thoughts of eventually forcing Naruto to separate from Sasuke. Gone. All thoughts of continuing this tumultuous affair with Fugaku… leaving.
When he rested his eyes on Serenity, everything in his heart rearranged—broke—and declared itself emotionally dead. Everything he wanted in this life seemed to be so trivial, so unimportant to what truly mattered now. This little girl needed a stable home, a support system that included both families, and blitzing ammunition of love that she couldn't avoid even if she tried.
All the deception and globs of disgusting greed and selfishness that he knew he had been exacting long before Naruto was ever with child. It was all a means to an end—Fugaku.
Shards of repentance plagued him as he walked further into the storage room stacked with various medical tools such as various lengths and widths of scalpels and ranging clamps. Looking at the rarity of sterilized metal, he thought that maybe he could mend everything, maybe he could change. With enough begging for Naruto's forgiveness and promise of a new tomorrow, he could become the man he once was instead of an imitation.
Serenity was worth it.
Her slick black hair and beautiful blue eyes rightfully deserved the best the world had to offer.
And it was his responsibility to provide that as much as Naruto was.
"Hey, I've been looking for you everywhere," the hedonistic demon, abbreviated as Fugaku Uchiha entered, bombarding Minato's revolutionary encounter with himself.
"Hey," A startled Minato felt himself being drawn in like a kitten being bated with a yarn ball as comforting arms traveled around the circumference of his waist, overpowering him like tractor trailer. Feeling himself being discharged from the wealth personal reform into a quicksand of temptation, he hugged Fugaku back, all the while cursing in his mind.
"How did you find me?"When I'm making the biggest decision of my life?
Fugaku smirked. "They say you can always hear the other half of your heart calling."
On the outside, Minato's slightly invulnerable azure eyes appeared unimpressed but on the inside, he was crying like a rain cloud.
"I-I" The blond stuttered like a bumbling fool as the maple haired man leaned in to catch a whiff of what his secret lover was talking about.
"You what?"
"I saw her."
Fugaku tried to withhold the adamant shock as he looked at the true love of his life in compact dim storage room, contemplating what this meant.
He didn't explain that he had tried to visit her but his son had prevented him seeing an inch of her. It would just prove how far they pushed their children, beyond the divide of hate. It was an embarrassing notion to consider.
"Her name's Serenity… and she's an example of the perfect princess." Minato swallowed then cleared his throat as if a boulder had gotten lodged in his esophagus. "Touching… Truly touching. You know, only Naruto could make something so beautiful?" He roughly exhaled, continuing. "She's really something to be proud of and I really could see that little girl becoming a part ofour life." Minato knew he initially sounded like he was talking in circles but he thought he resolutely reached his most important point.
Fugaku flinched with his fists inside the depths of his pockets tightening. "So you want Naruto to keep her?" he sounded like he despised the idea with a passion.
"I don't think Naruto should give her up for adoption, he almost—"
"Do you hear what you're saying?" Fugaku urgently grabbed Minato's shoulder as he carefully annunciated every syllable. His menacingly dark eyes hammered into Minato's enlightened blue eyes.
"Almost died, Fugaku." Minato asserted, his nostrils flaring.
"Minato. If you let them keep that baby, do you know what it will mean for our families?"
"I don't really care what it means."
"So you don't really care what happens to the life that you built for yourself? The life we built for ourselves?"
Minato's blond brows knitted behind his rugged fringe.
"I remember when we were younger, how much you said you wanted to be the protector of the town, no matter how hard you had to work, no matter how tough the road was."
Fugaku's hand outstretched to the warm cheeks of the confused man. "You never made even made a plan B because you were so adamant about becoming mayor. I distinctly remember the desire in your gorgeous eyes when you talked about it like it was a day away." Fugaku reminisced in a vague reverie of their childhood memories, the meditation daubing Minato like a fire hose.
Minato's stinging eyes reflected direct hatred as a daunting silence stretched between them.
"…Are you really willing to sacrifice everything for a child that our sons that no business creating?"
"I-"
"If the media find out Sasuke and Naruto are caring for a newborn child, they'll devour us."
Minato looked down, trying to escape the truth. "We'll be done and so will Sasuke and Naruto's life. They'll tear them to shreds, Minato. They won't be able to handle it."
"We can hire a crisis team. It's—"
"That'll hardly make a dent in our efforts," Fugaku put both hands on his face. "I don't want to see you fall from grace… again. Is that so wrong?"
He leaned forward, tilting Minato's chin up slightly, brutally covering the pink lips with his own. As their lips crashed together, Minato tried to shove Fugaku away but failed as lost feelings resurfaced chaining him in place as Fugaku's tongue swiped across his supple bottom lip. Allowing the contact, Minato felt their tongues battle for dominance temporarily before he conceded, allowing Fugaku to control the quick session. Massaging his lips against the elder Uchiha, he felt the immense yearning build in his soul leave his body without a note of departure. Watching himself fall back into the penitentiary of old habits, he knew that he had forgotten the difference between right and wrong.
'It'll be the end of us.'
…
"So you saw her? What does she look like? What did she do? Tell me, tell me, tell me!" An overjoyed Naruto demanded, rattling Sasuke's forearm like a magnitude nine earthquake, the biggest grin sprawled onto his beautifully fatigued face.
Sasuke gave a somnolent smile as he digested Naruto's happy state. Never in his life had he seen Naruto so enthusiastic about anything before. Not to mention, rash.
Sasuke didn't want to put a damper on the mood by telling Naruto that he hostilely shooed his parents from visiting their daughter. He just buried the damage from their hypocrisy underneath his skin as Naruto's happy parade marched on.
"Sasuke," Naruto whined, his parched blue eyes filled with unsaturated excitement.
"Yeah?" Sasuke answered, leaving the short swim with his thoughts.
"What happened? I wanna know."
Sasuke thought Naruto was going to break the foundation of the automatic bed with his energetic bouncing.
"Well she was asleep when I got there…"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh." Naruto nodded attentively.
Sasuke relived sharing the beautiful bonding with their daughter, emblazoning the memory in his mind. The lemon sanitizing stench tickled his nose as he continued on with the story. "It was so peaceful… So pure… For a second, I thought it was an angel napping… Until I looked at her nametag confirming that it was her."
Naruto was enraptured, goofy smile glued in place as he leaned over the edge of his hospital bed. "Mhmm."
"When I picked her up, she opened her eyes for the first time. And…and…" Sasuke stammered, tripping over the next few words.
"And what?" Naruto anxiously threw himself up; hanging on Sasuke's every word like a hiker clung to the edge of the cliff.
Smirking, Sasuke touched the swell of Naruto's plump cheeks, his eyes faithfully following the trace of his fingers. Naruto's breath hitched as he moved into the loving gesture, appreciating the delicateness Sasuke demonstrated. "Her eyes look just like yours."
"They-they look just like mine?" Naruto weakly pointed to himself, partially in disbelief, partially in surprise.
"Like a carbon copy," Sasuke reassured.
Overcome with a whirlwind of emotions, Naruto trembled as sucked up his bottom lip and chewed on it.
"Just like I said she would," Sasuke openly boasted, smirk growing.
"Nyah," Naruto stuck his tongue out, playfully annoyed. Pulling the loose muscle back into his mouth, he grabbed after Sasuke again. "What else happened after she woke up?"
"I called her and then… she smiled." Sasuke spoke so fondly that he couldn't interrupt the smile erupting on his face.
"She smiled? Really Sasuke?" Naruto squawked, writhing with eagerness. "She can smile?"
"Yeah, she's so… beautiful," Sasuke sighed out like it was just a long, drawn out fantasy.
Naruto loved to hear of Sasuke's rapture—see it on his face.
It meant that he loved their child as much as he did. It meant that he would never abandon them…
It made Naruto smile just thinking about it.
"It makes me so proud," Sasuke came to his feet, gently brushing Naruto's bangs aside embracing Naruto's jaw like a fine piece of china. "So excited," Sasuke kissed the tip of his nose. "And so much more in love." A final stray kiss then landed on Naruto's lips.
"I…love you." Naruto giggled, smearing wetness on Sasuke's cheeks like peanut butter.
Setting his forehead against Naruto's, Sasuke begged the question. "Hey, why are you crying?"
"Cause…" Naruto sniffled. "For the first time in a long time, I'm actually… happy."
…
Not missing a beat, Fugaku and Minato moseyed on, rattling Sasuke and Naruto into separation. Naruto tensed. These were the last people they wanted to see. On the edge of disturbance, he rested against the sets of pillows, trying to remain composed.
Sasuke looked at Naruto's inferior, fearful glances at the two men and realized there was something that he wasn't being told.
Obviously, it was important because Naruto seemed like he was going to implode from the capsizing pressure.
Sasuke captured Naruto's gaze and held it for a moment. Unbeknownst to him, he dripped a guilt conscious that made Sasuke worry like a squirrel without an acorn on a winter morning. He didn't even have a window of time to ask Naruto anything as the two worthless women marched in close behind them.
"Naruto," Fugaku began, standing by Minato that suggested that they were more than what they claimed to be. "We've decided the fate of Serenity."
"That's not even your decision to make," Naruto shot back, his voice wavering with an unidentifiable emotion.
"Please, don't speak. Just listen." Minato said to Naruto with a glance so fierce it would slice through any diamond with grace. The younger blond swished uncomfortably under the sea green knitted covers, his hand finding Sasuke's. He had a feeling he was going to need something to hold on to.
"No, you listen—we're not puppets. You just can't control us whenever an opportunity of convenience strikes," Sasuke seethed like a serpent that hadn't administered enough poison to his critically injured victims. Though a corrosive hole of nervousness burned him at the steak, he tried to prevent it from leaking to the outside.
Carnivores like Fugaku could smell fear like fresh, dripping blood.
Standing tall, Sasuke didn't want to give Fugaku any excuse to pounce like the lunatic he was.
"You may not be puppets but you are our flesh and blood. Naturally, we know what's best for you."
"We would never do anything to intentionally harm you," Minato added.
Naruto looked appalled as he almost choked on his spit. Was he fucking kidding?
"We want you to live a full life,freeof obstacles. You're still so both young. You have many years to thrive and mature into intelligent, prosperous adults. With that said, we insist you place that child up for adoption," Fugaku's voice lowered as his eyes darkened with an imperious nature. Not insisting but necessitating.
"And like I said before, I'm not giving her up," Sasuke said, his veins burning like a hot, electric-lit wires.
"It's not a choice—fool. You will do as you're told, not as you desire," Fugaku countered.
"Wait, we don't have to give her up for adoption. I'll take care of her. I'll work and I'll pay for everything she needs. I'll stay home with her. I'll raise her—by myself. I won't bother anybody—just please, please let me keep her," Naruto pleaded, his voice cracking like a thirsting desert ground, tears already free flowing like an eager summer stream.
"That's not an option," Fugaku bared down like a hammer, not only smashing ideas but crushing hopes and dreams.
Cringing, he couldn't help but wish Naruto wouldn't place such burdensome responsibilities on his shoulders alone. Such selflessness in his presence was most unusual and highly welcome.
If he were in their shoes, he would have been embracing this opportunity as a gift, as a blessing. But they were tied together at the soul—a force to be reckoned with like fire or wind. Something immortal that Fugaku secretly wished to destroy at the foundation.
If he didn't get to be happy—neither would they.
"Why not? I'm willing to raise her by myself while Sasuke's life continues interrupted." A dull ache blossomed from his lower body, specifically the fresh cesarean scar that went unnoticed until now, reminding him that this might be the only proof he had Serenity.
"That's wonderful but that's not my concern. I can't run the risk of anyone finding out."
Minato lowered his head, knowing what he really didn't want them to uncover.
"What?" Naruto asked, confusion scarring his face like a hunting blade.
"If you give her up—the records of her birth will be legally sealed. It will almost be like she was never born."
Kushina thrust her face into her left hand, praying that she could be awoken when this nightmare dissolved and everything reverted back to their former state of peacefulness. Times when she didn't see her beautiful child sob over a wound that would never heal.
You never get over losing a child.
"But she's my daughter… And I love her. I don't want to g-give her up. She needs me… She needs Sasuke," Naruto murmured, his red cheeks were puffy, tears fleeting from his sapphire eyes like meteor showers, raining down on the accepting Earth.
Sobbing, Naruto tried to swallow a pit of air with the most discreetness as he felt five pairs of eyes fixated on him like he was some strange circus attraction. Trembling, his lungs thrashing, his heart beat resounding in his ears, the ineffectiveness of the morphine and his newly forming headache mixed seamlessly. "They'll never love her the way we will… It won't be the same. I-It'll never be the same."
"I don't care what you say. I'm not giving Serenity up." Sasuke glared, his arrogantly defiant voice contrasting Naruto's soft convincing tone so drastically that the brashness caused something to snap in Fugaku. Something deep.
"You either concede and place her up for adoption, or I'll pay any goddamn judge I need to to get your rights revoked and give that twerp up myself!" Naruto flinched away from the yelling man as he quietly sniffled, a light breath squeezing out of him in surprise. He was so unyielding—so inflamed that the devil's minions at the gates of hell would fear his apocalyptic rage.
It seemed like he was more enraged about something beyond them but everything was too sudden and too explosive to be certain.
Did he really mean that?
Was he really planning on forcefully taking their daughter away if they didn't do it themselves?
"Shall you decide to take that route, and not sign the non-disclosure papers, not only will get rid of her myself, I'll separate you both," Fugaku warned, nabbing the breath right from their young body's as their eyes bulged out of their heads at the doubtfully idle threat. Naruto's hand shook harder than ever, his heart melting like inner core of the earth—what did he say? He was going… to do what? To them?
As he received the result he desired, his anger subsided like low tide. "I'll send you to a beautiful boarding school in Japan. While, I'mpositiveMinato will take pleasure you in sending you to a boarding school in Germany. Should that happen, there'll be no contact between you and Sasuke, whatsoever."
Like low tide, the displacement of shock and underlying sensation of loss crashed in like a wrecking ball.
Sasuke and Naruto were beyond speechless. It was almost like the words the once wanted to say were pried from their mouth with an icepick, leaving a vacancy that was unalterable. Naruto remained in place, the grip loosening on Sasuke's hand—exhibiting his loss of faith. Tears spilled over like flooded river as his cerulean eyes stared at Minato with a look of neglect—a gaping helplessness.
"It'll almost be like you two never met," Fugaku mentioned, feeling Minato wither at his side like a wilting flower. He knew this isn't what the Namikaze wanted but it was what was best for him.
Minato felt the blistering glimpse from his wife—not daring to even flinch in her direction.
With an aura like that, murder didn't seem out of the question…
She wasn't in sync with their demands but she knew there was nothing she could do to prevent this from occurring.
It was over between them—he knew it.
Naruto felt the pain double as his skin turned into thin sheets of ice.
This was the most harmful thing anyone had ever done to him… And he knew it was over. Either way they lost. Not only Serenity—but each other.
He was so fucking stupid… To think that having the baby would change something—maybe awaken something earnest and moral in them was naïve… He was too trusting—too trusting that they had a moral fiber in their entire body. He should've listened to Sasuke when he said nothing would change his father's mind. He should've listened to that little voice that told him to walk into the Planned Parenthood office and schedule the abortion. He should've. He should've. He should've. He should've. He should've. He should've. He should've.
But he didn't.
Because he was sofuckingstupid.
He always wanted to see the best in people, always looking for a way to forgive people for their mistakes, regardless of how big or small they were.
And this time, his immature stupidity cost him more than anything he ever had.
Anything that he had ever gained.
And now as he couldn't tell if he was breathing or not—he figured, he didn't deserve Sasuke. He didn't deserve anything. He deserved to be alone…
Everyone that got too close always got hurt.
Namely Sasuke.
"Now you have no objections?"
Sasuke didn't answer, not wanting to rattle the boat any more than he already had. His face was drawn, cloaked surprise and evident hurt molded in his gorgeous eyes.
Sasuke could feel Naruto generating waves of self-blame, rolling off like a powerful current.
Mikoto watched in terror as she witnessed something die inside of Naruto—a horrific death of innocence. Her son seemed to be amassing a chronic numbness that corroded his youth, forcing him to grow up ahead of his time. Her grey eyes released tears as she turned away, finding a hidden strength to leave the room first.
"Excellent. Case closed."
…
Sasuke had heard of the boarding schools in Germany and nothing good had run through the rumor telephone line. Depending on where Naruto enrolled, it could be a brutal experience. If it was a repressed religious society, there was a chance the older boys could use Naruto to relieve their experimental urges. Hazing, harassment, stereotypes, and potentially rape. Anything could happen to Naruto while he was out of his sight, out of his reach where he couldn't protect him. He would pretend to be tough, but after surrendering his daughter he would be in no position to defend himself. He would be a walking target for individuals looking for someone to take advantage of. Nothing disgusted him more than the thought of someone corrupting Naruto in that way—hurting him just because.
His lover could possibly become pregnant… With another man's child…
In the hospital cafeteria, Sasuke clutched the cup of coffee much too tightly as he interpreted everything said hours before nightfall.
Every hope and dream they had about a being a mother, a father—a family, was officially dead.
And Sasuke didn't know how long spent in the relatively empty mess hall wondering where to go from here.
…
Sasuke returned to the nursery, lingering in the door way, merely inhaling the mentally deteriorating scene of Naruto in a wheelchair, weakly holding a sleeping Serenity in his lap. Wrapped in a pink blanket, Naruto's fingers brushed the edge of her jaw with a motherly gentleness that only he could give. Her tiny hand was loosely wrapped around his right index finger as she deeply slept in her mother's arms. When he stepped out, she was smiling and actively playing with Naruto's fingers. Naruto must have rocked her back to sleep without even realizing it.
Observing that Naruto barely had enough energy to hold her up because he was in enormous amount of pain, Sasuke knew that he was so flabbergasted but depressed by her beauty he must have wanted to extend the visit for as long as he could bare the pain. Devastated, Sasuke felt his heart shatter when Naruto raised his forearm, bringing her forehead to his lips. Nuzzling into her impossibly smooth skin and satiny, flaxen black hair—his love was so evident, it hurt. It hurt Sasuke. It hurt Sasuke because it hurt Naruto.
"Naruto, don't you think you should get some rest?" Sasuke asked, walking into the room carefully. It wouldn't be long until the nurse would come to administer a shot of morphine so he could sleep through the night.
"Can I hold her just a little bit longer?" Naruto pleaded softly, looking at Sasuke with those impressionably influential blue irises that were laminated with fresh tears, trying to remind Sasuke this was one of the few times he would get to hold her. "Please?"
Sasuke's shoulders mollified as he joined them, knowing their child was with them on borrowed time.
…
April 16
Naruto had been under two day observation to ensure that his complications didn't hinder his recuperation. When he and Serenity had been cleared, Sasuke had taken them both home in a somber silence. With their leave, the hospital had been fully reopened to the public as the private security group dispersed, with full pay.
Even though the house seemed unwelcoming—cold and unfeeling, Shizune greeted Naruto with a congratulations banner, a hug, and an armory of kisses. She prepared a full play room and crib for the new baby in which she would a total of two nights. She told Naruto how she attempted to visit but was refused by hospital staff and security because they weren't related nor did she have certified clearance to visit him.
Naruto just smiled and nodded, not blaming her for not being present.
Thereafter, the woman dove into a tangent about how cute their baby was—how much she would become a by-product of Naruto charisma and Sasuke's love, a total prodigy. Unresponsive to the compliments, she perceived something was wrong, very wrong. Their eyes pooled with knowing pain on Naruto's bed as Sasuke spoke for the both of them when he told Shizune what happened the day their baby was born.
Feeling like she had been stabbed in her stomach, Shizune begged to know if there was anything she could do for them.
In unison, they both answered no.
…
April 17
The following day, Naruto tried tending to Serenity but failed. His C-section scar was so deep, he had 20 some-odd stitches knitted into his body. The pain so was impalpable, the drugs the doctor prescribed operated like horse tranquilizers. When she cried, Sasuke leapt into action even though Naruto tried to care for her instead. He urged Naruto to eat, take his blood thinners, his painkillers and rest—he would take care of her.
'I got her, babe," Sasuke would say.
He changed her diaper and dressed her in the purple onesie he had bought approximately seven months ago. It was the first stitch of baby clothes he had ever purchased. It was also the ploy he had used to divert Naruto's attention away from the engagement ring he had been hiding since the beginning of the week. It was a memento Sasuke used as motivation during the course of Naruto's difficult pregnancy to remind himself that he was a day closer to meeting his beautiful little girl.
Now that he saw it fit perfectly on the six pound, five ounce baby, he tried to pull his heart from the oceans of impending loss as he held her to her feet. Born with a full head of dark hair, a pair of killer blue eyes, and her mother's tenacious personality, he feared for who would adopt their child. A drug dealer? An alcoholic? A child molester?
There was no indication of who was seeking a child for adoption these days. It made Sasuke sore knowing that he had no way of selecting the family. No way of seeing her after they signed her away.
Standing her on her feet, she gave one of her characteristic smiles to her father. Picking her up from the changing table, he cracked a small smile of his own as he kissed her on her temple, inciting a soaring giggle from her.
Though she looked exactly like him—she was her mother's child.
Insightful and fluorescent like every ultraviolet ray of the sun.
Naruto in a nutshell.
His love, the mother of his child, his only confidant.
Dredging through the baby bag Shizune prepared, Sasuke pulled out a stuffed giraffe and went to Naruto's room. The blond boy was barely responsive to their arrival because he was doped up on the strong acetaminophens. Hazily, he lifted his head as Sasuke laid Serenity on her side next to her mother. "Hey, Serenity…" Naruto feebly cooed, kissing her on her forehead. As she made unintelligible noises, she fisted Naruto's brilliant yellow spikes, curious about her mom's hair. Laughing, Naruto tickled her tummy through the fabric, basking in the jovial giggles that followed.
"My baby girl." Naruto smiled a sad smile, as he reached out the arm that felt like a thousand tons and touched Sasuke. Understanding the nonverbal gesture, Sasuke joined Naruto on the bed, patting his leg tenderly.
"You okay?"
Naruto nodded, his sadness exceeding tears as he pulled his daughter close as possible—reveling in the warmth he was soon to lose.
…
Their parents spoke to them shortly ordering them to return home shortly after the process was complete. No phone calls to outside entities, no leaving city limits, or revealing the purpose of the adoption to the workers because most of the paper work had already been settled. Barely listening, they just collected all they needed and drove to the adoption agency with an uncoordinated surrealism to the event. As they sat in the parking lot, Sasuke's hands clenched on the steering, peering out into the humbly ginger skyline of the setting sun, realizing they were close to giving away everything they worked so hard for.
Everything that was dear to them…
Fighting against the clock of the closing time of the agency, Sasuke took his daughter out of the car, wrapped in a steep blue blanket like a prized gem.
Feeling like a tin of partially made jello, Naruto climbed out of the Audi, fatigue battling him for just a moment of shut eye. A moment that he hadn't got since he had gotten the order from asshole #1, 2, 3, and 4. He was stuck with awkward positions that wouldn't reopen his healing C-section scar, a drag of drowsiness, and limited choice of foods with a decreased appetite.
Carrying a concealed item in his hand, he walked beside Sasuke into the building that would caulk the opening of their fate.
"Let's go."
The homey interior structure of the agency boosted the mercury of confidence Naruto had for his sleeping child. The front room's aliment of sky blue sofas blended into the plaster cream walls as the cordial stack of magazines on the round center table added a comfortable atmosphere more than a stuffy, professional one. At least the process would be transitional for her—painless. Too bad he couldn't say the same thing for them.
A young blonde woman from the back room barreled toward them, asking them how she could help.
"Hi, um, we'd like to give our baby up for adoption." The words burned his tongue as he said them, though his mouth was forged into a polite smile.
Sasuke scanned Serenity's pale face stir as she looked up at him. Her slight alarm was comforted as she felt safe, her eyes locked with her dad.
"Um, sure," She smiled. "If it's okay… I'll take her." The women held out her arms expectantly.
Naruto felt a lump pile in his throat as he saw Sasuke resist her suggestion. Mistrusting grey eyes panned her out before meeting Naruto's compromising glances. Against his will and against his better judgment, Sasuke passed Serenity to the woman, feeling like chest was being cramped by a pair of pliers.
Serenity made a sound of disapproval as the woman juggled the thick blanket around her small body. Looking into the sheet, she felt like she was slapped by the adorableness of their newborn daughter, her mind not computing the possible reason this young couple would place this baby up for adoption.
Naruto stepped closer, shadowing over his baby, his daughter, the light of his life, Serenity.
"Hey, Baby. You know—you know, Mommy loves you very much… And Mommy would never choose to give you up…" Naruto sobbed, rubbing her small wrist, kissing her nose, stopping himself before he said something he couldn't take back. He whispered against the bridge of her nose, "I'm s-sorry." Naruto felt the tears bristle his eyes as he felt his body pike at the negative adrenaline bubbling inside him like boiling water. Calming himself, he moved aside, giving Sasuke a chanceto say goodbye.
Serenity's face skewed as Naruto stepped back, cries of fear ringing out as she extended her hand, yearning for a connection with her mom.
"Shhh," Sasuke soothed, wiping the tears from her delicate skin, leaning to kiss her on her forehead. She coughed a bit, but ceased crying.
"Daddy's little girl… I regret that I won't have the honor of being your father…" Sasuke paused, a sad curl to the edge of his lips, causing tears to stream down Naruto's face. The blond batted away the tears, almost denying that this was clipping his wings in mid-flight.
"I hope someday you can find it in your heart to forgive me, though I don't deserve it." Sasuke kissed her for the final time on her cheek, trying to smile for his daughter, so she wouldn't be scared. "I love you, little one…"
The women seemed overcome with emotion as she looked at the couple with watery eyes. "Um, I'll take her to Lydia, the caretaker."
"Wait," Naruto called to her back. "Can you give this to her? I, um, want her to have it." Naruto held out a pint sized little plush-toy fox with a black button nose.
Sasuke looked at it with a deep air of sadness as he remembered the toy from their childhood.
"It used to be my favorite toy to play with when I was younger…I called it Kyuubi." Naruto looked gently held it in his hands, making it obvious it was something special to him. "Please make sure she gets it," Naruto asked in quiet voice as she walked back to retrieve the toy.
"Of course." She smiled taking Serenity away.
And that was the last time they ever saw her.
…
The last of the afternoon's sunrays filtered through the blinds casting a holier-than-thou appearance on 'Ms. Lily's' the desk as they sat on the table.
"What kind of adoption are you seeking?" She asked, pressing her hands over blue stripped shirt blue button down from behind the desk. She took the time to fill out their names on the form, wondering what their back story was. These two boys were related to the mayor and the police chief, right?
As his eyes were blinded in the sun, Naruto felt his soul sizzle in the candid illumination, like this was some type of repentance for the sins he committed. Which was funny because he didn't feel any holier.
"A closed adoption…"
She shuffled through some papers. "When you sign up—"
"Can we please just have the papers?" Naruto asked, not really coveting for a conversation about adoption. He and Sasuke had done their research on adoption and adoption options months earlier and the last thing they needed was an in-depth run through of what they were already aware of.
"Um, certainly. How old are you two?" She drew up the paper work out of an organized folder, grabbing for two pens.
"15," Naruto answered.
"15," Sasuke muttered, his hand brushing Naruto's pulse and covering his hand. Though Naruto was faced straight ahead, he answered Sasuke's beckoning need for mild comfort as he squeezed the living daylights out of the spaces between Sasuke's fingers.
Sniffling, Naruto's hand darted for the pen. He signed his name at the bottom of the two papers that designated him to stay 100,000 feet away from Serenity at all times—and another that made this legal action irrevocable ten days' time.
Looking at his signature, he felt the need to change his name—leave, run, and hide in a place where he wasn't himself.
Within seconds, Sasuke did the same.
"Can she keep her name? Please? Naruto asked, as she took the papers. "I don't think it'd be right to change her name. It fits… She's Serenity."
Ms. Lily nodded. "I'll request it."
Knowing there was nothing left to be done—Naruto stood with a mute Sasuke. "Can you make sure she goes to a good home with someone that'll take care of her?" Naruto asked, his florid cheeks floodlit with the sun's auburn gleams, his eyes begging for reassurance and maybe some sign that he was doing something right.
She smiled, knowing these two were pushed into this by someone that didn't understand their overwhelming love. "I'll make sure it's the best."
Naruto moved his hair out of his sparkling blue eyes, nodding in gratitude. "T-thank you," he said feeling everything less than thankful.
…
As pitch darkness climbed upon them, the skies opened with tear droplets, saturating them as they sought cover under the verandah of the pool house they shared. Feeling the buckets of water drenching his clothes, Naruto reached into his white Aero hoodie for the keys, lips quivering. The floodgates ruptured as the scale of the situation detonated on impact. A canal worth of tears weathered his balance as he crumbled into the arms that swallowed him whole. Sobbing, his hands clung to the back of Sasuke's shirt, linking him to life so he didn't lose his identity trying to articulate something that made sense—trying to articulate something into making sense.
"Sasuke, s-shee's g-g-gone. S-she's gone. O-our daughter she's gone and we're never—g-going to s-see her again." Naruto sobbed, just short of wailing out in the wet, silent neighborhood, extirpating any hope that he would be normal again.
Because a piece of them died tonight that could never be resurrected.
"Ohmmyyg-god."
The keys clanked on the marble at their feet as Sasuke nuzzled into the soaked blond hair, tears pricking his eyes. Naruto shook like a leaf as the horror of his cries permanently etched into Sasuke's recollection as testament —
angel's do cry.
…
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