Disclaimer: 'Naruto', with all its characters and plot, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
TWO
Nine months later and Kotoko has managed to escape the house and into the flower garden that feels like her papa. Frolicking through the new Spring blossoms, she can sense him watching her with a proud smile on his face. Kotoko knows he is proud because she finally learnt how to walk a few days ago- a feat she achieved before either of her brothers!
When she stops to sit in front of a particularly pretty sunflower, she hears the rustle behind her. A man steps into the clearing, followed by a woman and another man. She quickly pushes herself up onto her still slightly unsteady legs and tries to run back to the house, but one of them catches her.
He's the first one who came into the clearing and he has black hair like Papa, Hikaru and her. She can see that the other man has bright hair like Mama and Raiden, while the woman has pink hair. The woman is instantly her favourite.
The man that looks like her Papa lifts her so she's dangling in the air in front of him. His eyes are two different colours- one is a pretty purple and the other is black. She blinks, confused, as he says something to her.
"What is your name?" he repeats.
"U-"
"Oi, Sasuke! You can't just take someone's kid! What is wrong with you? What is a kid doing here anyway? I thought this was your brother's hidden base!" the blonde man shouts interrupting her.
"Shut up Naruto!" the woman cries and then the blonde man falls to the floor.
Kotoko starts to get scared. Suddenly, the man shakes her to get her attention.
"Your name?" he prompts.
Her eyes fill up with tears. "Kotoko." She can't hold them in and she bursts out crying.
Her mama is out shopping, but Hikaru is in charge of the house and he can hear her. Both her brothers burst out from the backdoor with kunai in their hands when they sense her distress.
"Let go of my sister, you pervy old man!" the oldest boy yells before launching himself at Sasuke's legs.
By the end of the scuffle, each of the strangers is restraining one child in their arms.
Natsuhime knows something is wrong when she enters an empty house, a sealing scroll full of groceries tucked in the obi of her yukata. After a quick scan, she can sense the chakras of her children outside with three other foreign auras. Fear immediately grips her and she rushes through the back door. If they were enemies of Itachi there was no way for her to defeat them, but she would do her best to give her children time to flee to the village, where a woman she knew promised to arrange for them to go to their uncle in Konoha.
Quickly running outside, she is confronted with the image of her children squirming and fighting against three trained ninja who seemed to be in their teens. Ice runs through her veins.
"Let go of my children, they know nothing of what you seek," she quickly announced, standing proudly in front of them.
The three ninja looked at each other thoughtfully before the one in the middle spoke.
"We will release them after you answer our questions."
"Fine."
"Mama!"
She smiled at her daughter. "Don't worry Kotoko, Mama won't let anything happen to you or your brothers, who better stop biting right now, we've talked about this Hikaru, okay?"
Her oldest son sends her a sheepish look but both stop struggling.
"How did you know Uchiha Itachi?" the man asked, looking impatient.
"I met Itachi when we were seven years old, he was injured and separated from his team on his first mission. My grandmother and I looked after him until he was able to return to Konoha."
"Did he come back here after that?"
"Yes."
"Why?" All three looked confused.
"Because this became his home?" she wasn't sure how to properly phrase their situation. "Who are you people? Are you…" Natsuhime squinted thoughtfully at the dark-haired man. "Are you Uchiha Sasuke?"
"That's none of your-" the pink-haired girl started.
"Yes, I am. And you?"
"My name is Namikaze Natsuhime. I've heard a lot about you, Sasuke-chan. Itachi was very fond of you." She watched in amusement as his eye ticked at the endearment.
"Namikaze…" the blonde boy whispered with a hint of awe in his tone, but she dismissed it.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes before glancing down at Kotoko in his arms. Realisation crossed his expression. "This was his home, you said. So you… were his lover."
"Yes, I was."
"For… For how long?"
Natsuhime looked down with a sad, melancholic smile on her face. "I loved him for fifteen years, Sasuke-chan. From the moment we met to the moment he died. In your arms you hold our youngest child, your niece, Uchiha Kotoko. On your right is our second eldest, Raiden, and to your left is our first born, Hikaru."
Each teen quickly put down their hostage when they became aware of their lineage. Her children ran instantly to her side, Kotoko straight into her arms with a small sob.
"Please, come in for tea. I would rather this be a peaceful meeting instead of hostile. You are the only living relative my children have left, Sasuke-chan."
Uchiha Sasuke, a man who is usually confident about all he does, was completely shocked. What he believed would be a secret base for his brother, the place he resided in when not with the Akatsuki, turned out to be so much more. Nii-san had left him family.
As he looked at the three children sitting across from him, he can see his clan in them. The eldest had Itachi's hair and the onyx eyes of an Uchiha, but his nose was more like Sasuke's and his mouth was his mother's. The second eldest, on the other hand, was like looking at Itachi as a child if he had Naruto's hair, blonde and spiking all over the place. Finally, the youngest resembled his own mother the most, minus the eyes, and hence had the closest features to himself. If they compared pictures of them at the same age, he was sure that his niece looked exactly like him but with green irises and longer hair.
"Here we are. Feel free to pour yourself a cup and have a biscuit." The woman- Natsuhime- set down the tray on the coffee table before taking a seat with her children. Naruto instantly helped himself to the homemade sweets but Sasuke was too busy observing the woman his brother had loved.
She was certainly beautiful, with long sunshine yellow hair and bright green eyes. Her skin was only lightly tanned, though her children where paler. She moved like a woman of grace.
They talked for a few hours about Itachi and how he had lived his life. Sasuke was pleased to know that his brother was not miserable to the end of his time. He had been loved and loved equally as much back.
"Will you come with us to Konoha?" he asked when the conversation was drawing to an end. "They belong there, in the compound of our ancestors. They could enter the academy and learn to protect themselves…"
"I heard that Konoha is still in ruins, Sasuke-chan. There is no point in moving to a place full of rubble. Plus, Hikaru is still too young to enter the academy, he has only just had his sixth birthday," Natsuhime rebutted.
"Excuse me, Natsuhime-san," the pink haired girl she now knew as Sakura interrupted, "but you must know that the Land of Earth is far too dangerous for Uchiha children to live in. We may be in a state of peace now, however, there are still many who would jump at having the power of the sharingan, especially after seeing what it could do in the war."
"You are correct," she sighed, sipping her tea. Kotoko was asleep on her lap and the two boys where playing a board game on the floor, chewing on dango sticks- an obsession they had inherited from their father. "I just don't think we are ready to leave this place yet."
Sasuke nodded in understanding. "They estimate that the rebuilding of Konoha will be finished in a year and a half. I will come again then and see if you are ready."
"Thank you, Sasuke-chan. But don't be a stranger, come visit when you can. You can teach the children many things I cannot."
On their way back to the Land of Fire, Naruto stopped them.
"Sakura, could you look up someone's DNA with this?" he held out a golden strand of hair.
"Naruto! How did you get that!" she cried in response, recognising it as Natsuhime's.
"It doesn't matter. Can you, Sakura? That lady, she said her last name is Namikaze. That was the name of my father, too. It could be possible that… she and those children are my family as well."
"Naruto…" She glanced at Sasuke who was looking pensively in the distance, as he had been the whole time, and back to her blonde teammate who had a crushingly hopeful expression on his face. "Yes, I can check it."
"Thank you."
The next time Sasuke visits, he comes alone. The oldest of his nephews, Hikaru, shows a great talent for the shinobi arts, much like his father before him (though he was certainly more boisterous about it). However, Raiden, the younger brother, turns out to be a pacifist. No matter how hard he tries, Sasuke is unable to coerce the blonde into sparring against his brother. Natsuhime tells him that it's not in the boy's nature to hurt others, that he only wants to live in peace. He will not be forced to become a ninja if he doesn't want to.
In a way, Raiden is the child who reminds him of Itachi the most.
If the choice was yours alone, Nii-san, would you have chosen to be a shinobi?
On Kotoko's second birthday, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto return to the cottage. The rebuilding of Konoha, including the Uchiha District, has finished, so the family would be able to move in at anytime. They don't mention this until after they've cut the little girl's plain vanilla cake (she wasn't a big fan of sweets, unlike her brothers). The three children play on the floor with Kotoko's gifts- a set of fans from Sasuke (traditional present), a pretty hair clip from Sakura (pink, her favourite colour), wooden shuriken from Naruto (who was hit on the head for the violent gift) and a mountain of toys from her mother and siblings.
They draw Natsuhime aside to break the news.
"I want to say that we will stay here," she says, tears in her eyes, "because this place is so special to me… and to Itachi. But Hikaru won't stop talking about how excited he is to enter the shinobi academy, to graduate with a hitai-ate like his Papa. I can't take that away from him because of my own selfishness. My children deserve all the opportunities in life that they wish for."
"So you will come?" Sasuke asks, trying to conceal his eagerness. The district was so quiet, still haunted by the ghosts of the old clan. He hopes that the new blood will bring a greater age for the Uchiha.
"Allow us a month to pack up (and say goodbye) and we will follow you to Konoha."
"Very well. I will prepare a home for your coming."
The family of four is moved into the main house of the Uchiha District, which had been rebuilt without its walls. They bring with them all their belongings.
Natsuhime plants one flower of each type from her meadow in the backyard, in hope that her deceased lover had followed them here to watch their children grow. Like before, they flourish into a wondrous garden. Itachi's shrine faces it from the living room.
The blonde is confronted by Naruto soon after the move. He brandishes the test results from the hair he had recklessly stolen.
"We're cousins," he says, tears in his eyes. "Directly. Your mother was my aunt. I've… never had a family before."
He, along with Sasuke, becomes a constant addition to her household, especially during dinner time.
The move to Konoha is not as painful as she believed it would be. Even now, she can sense Itachi's presence near her, living in the house that he grew up in. She doesn't need to imagine his joy in the resurrection of the Uchiha Clan, specifically after Sasuke's first, and only, daughter, Sarada, is born.
As her hair fades to silver, she watches Hikaru become the successor of the Nanadaime Hokage, the first Uchiha to ever claim the title. Alternatively, Raiden finds his skill in the field of arts, painting masterpieces that are sold all over the world, and then in diplomacy. She tries not to cry as he moves to the fire country capital to become the advisor of the daimyo. And her youngest, her beautiful Kotoko, becomes a medic like all the women in their family before her.
When she sees Itachi again, the years feel like nothing between them. They watch as the garden they cultivated so lovingly and sacrificed everything for flourishes.