Chapter 16 - The Truth.

Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.

THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM

Quick question unrelated to the chapter: Would you guys be interested in Jujutsu Kaisen stories? Possibly crossovers with Naruto? I just finished watching episode 21, and is currently waiting for more episode to be aired. Kinda depressed too, since I'll have to wait for a potential season 2 after they release episode 24… But I love that show, and I've thought about working on some stories. Would that be something that you could find interesting, or just boring?

A/N: There may have been a few people confused about why I've had this "Warning: The main character's age has been adjusted." thing in my author notes every chapter, well, it's because I forgot to remove it after the first couple of chapters. I just wanted it there so that if there were any people that joined in reading the story, at like… let's say chapter 4, then they knew somewhat what was going on. Why would people start reading there? Well, if you are someone like me that sometimes just googles for stories to read, then occasionally it isn't the first chapter it shows, but instead somewhere in the middle, but I guess now was a time for a change. Since I honestly doubt anyone would start reading a story 16 chapters in, so well, it's gone!

Sike

Warning: The main character's age may or may not have been adjusted. You have been warned.

(My beta is such an ass for putting this here… -_-)

Hokage's Office

"You wanted to speak with me?" Naruto asked as he entered the office after Hiruzen, both of them still clad in the funeral clothes they had been wearing during the ceremony for the fallen Uchiha around a half-hour earlier.

Hiruzen nodded his head in affirmative as he looked out over the rain falling across the village, "Hai, I felt like this would be a time as good as any. I have something I want to show to you, or rather give you."

Naruto raised a brow at that and tilted his head in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Instead of getting an answer though, Hiruzen just waved his hand, signaling for him to follow as he exited the office and walked down the corridor his office was placed in, not that long, but just until they got to the next door on the same side of the hallway. Pulling out a key from his pocket, he put it in the lock and turned until there could be heard an audible click, saying that the door was now unlocked.

Reaching for the doorknob, Hiruzen twisted it and pushed the door open to reveal an office room, just slightly smaller than the one he was using for his own Kage work. Entering the place, he looked around the empty room before turning around to face Naruto who just looked about in confusion

Noticing the visible confusion on his student's face, Hiruzen sighed and decided to explain what they were doing here, "The reason I brought you here is that this room is now yours. While Jiraiya is out of town, you're the main one responsible for looking after the important seals around the place, and I thought that it was about time you got a place where the various jobs and requests could be submitted. You can also use this as a study so that you have a bit of private space."

The blond's eyes widened slightly as he took another look at the room. It was true that it had been slightly annoying that every time he was at home, that an ANBU could just show up to summon him for a simple sealing job, "That's… very kind of you. Thank you. I suppose I could use a room to study in too, and it's quiet. What about furniture?"

Hiruzen pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, which he handed Naruto and explained, "I didn't know what exactly you'd like in here, I assumed that a desk and a chair were a necessity along with some curtains, so I already wrote that down."

Naruto nodded in agreement and started writing the first few things he could think of down on the paper. The first thing he had mentioned was three generously sized bookcases for the left wall in the room. He had picked this because he figured that he needed one to store everything that had to do with work, such as jobs and tasks, along with notes concerning progress. The next one would be for study material, notes on his personal seals, some notes on new jutsu and theories. And the last one was for actual books with already written down theories that you could borrow or buy from the library.

The next thing on the list he added, was a whiteboard for the right wall. This would allow him to work on sealing theory on a larger scale, where it wasn't just cramped down on a small piece of paper. He'd also be able to note down important appointments so that it would be easier to see and notice, in case he ever forgot about it.

The last things he mentioned were a couch for the corner, two chairs he could set in front of his desk in case he got any visitors, and some hooks to put up beside the door to hang up clothes. "That should be all, I can't think of anything else at the moment." Naruto sighed at last and handed back the piece of paper.

The Hokage nodded and inspected the list, "Yes, this should be doable. I'll make sure that all of this is set up and ready to utilize before next morning, we are a bit behind on some things that I'd like for you to start working on as soon as possible. I'll also make sure that you're supplied with a decent amount of scrolls and ink so that you won't lack anything."

Naruto just nodded at this and watched as the Hokage prepared to leave, but there was one thing about all of this that was bugging him. "Why now?"

Hiruzen raised a brow and turned away from the door to face his blond student, who was looking toward him with a questioning gaze, "Hmm?"

"I've been doing seal work for a couple of years now, but now of all times you decide to give me an office, a place to tie me down to."

The Hokage sighed and rubbed his beard slightly, "With the current situation, we need most of our strongest Shinobi within the village in case an enemy force decides to try anything. Furthermore, you're needed here for the remaining two Uchiha. I know you wanted to leave, and I'm happy I managed to convince you to stay and not go on some training trip where you'd probably be gone for years. Even if you decided to stay in the village, I wanted to keep you away from most missions out of the village."

"I'm still an ANBU! I'm nominated to become one of the next captains, what good would it do to just keep me in here? I'm of no use this way. What's the point of training until I collapse if I'm just going to do paperwork?" Naruto questioned while being utterly confused, he had just begun the most intense training of his life, and it seemingly had no meaning now.

"I didn't say you'd stop doing duties out of the village, trust me that is not the case. I just need you around here for Mikoto-san and Sasuke-kun. The village is also in need of your sealing jutsu skills, Jiraiya is, as you know, a useless pervertthat's never around. The point of what I'm trying to say is, we need you. The village, your family, and I all need you around this place until things have settled down. So don't worry, I have no plans of keeping you away from active duty; that would just be a waste of your talents." Hiruzen explained.

Naruto's eyes widened at the explanation and sighed while lowering his head, "I-I understand."

The old man walked over with a small smile, placing a hand on his young apprentice's shoulder, "I know this is a lot to take in, especially right after a funeral, but the wheels running the village mustn't stop for anything, we can't afford that. We're a clan down, one of the strongest clans in terms of military might, and we need our strength now more than ever. The circumstances around are just different in the way that means your strengths are needed in specific places."

"I get it, I really do. So where do we start? Or should I just wait until morning to figure out where I start?" Naruto asked out of curiosity, trying to hide the pang of sadness he felt at the mention of the funeral.

Patting the blond's shoulder before moving his hand away, Hirzuen spoke, "You'll get all the information you need in the morning, what I can tell you at the moment is that the hospital and the ANBU holding cells need some check-ups."

"Alright, I'll get to that first thing in the morning." Naruto nodded, while Hiruzen just gave his head a shake.

"Take the morning off tomorrow, we might need to make sure everything runs around in the village, but you've just been attending your surrogate family's funeral, take a bit of time to make sure everything is alright at home before you come here." Hiruzen finished and finally started to leave the room, but a slight smirk on his face stopped him.

"This will also make it easier to get the most out of our training, instead of making an ANBU go to get you, I can just come here and we can leave for our training area."

Naruto smirked in a similar way with a light chuckle, "Yeah, to optimize my beatdown, I get ya."

The sun had completely disappeared by the time Naruto got back home, he had taken his time getting home after Hiruzen had left his new office. Instead, he had stayed there for a little bit, trying to create a mental image of what the place would come to look like within the next few days. It was somewhat exciting, he had previously just used his old apartment to study in, but space had been a bit of a problem with scrolls and notes laying all over the place.

Which also made him think of something else he had completely forgotten. He could use this new room to hide his precious! Or well, the books that Mikoto wasn't supposed to see, at least. He should hide them in there, in some kind of locked and sealed away drawer, so that she'd never see them.

Aside from being in his office, he had also taken a small detour to go see the memorial stone. He had felt the need to go see Shisui, or well, go say a few things to him wherever he was. It was the place that Kakashi used to go see his old teammates that had passed away long ago too. So he decided to take a page out of his older brother figure's book, and go say a few things.

Most importantly, he had sworn to avenge him. It was his plan, what he strived to do more than almost anything else. He felt torn a bit, he wanted to be there day in and day out for his family, but he also wanted to make sure the ones he lost could rest in peace. He also wanted to figure out a way to get Itachi back, it just wasn't fair to him.

Itachi had stopped a civil war, along with the possibility of the next great war breaking out by killing his family. And he was getting shunned for it. He was now known as a criminal, while in reality, he made the biggest sacrifice for this village. It made him both angry and sad at the same time.

Sighing lightly, he put his sandals in the hallway and stretched with a yawn as he entered the kitchen. Like the last time he came home late, he could see the dishes in the sink from today's dinner, but with a missing plate that was probably Mikoto's. Which made him remember that the last time he came home late, she sat up and waited for him at the dining table, but the chairs were empty today. Had she already gone to bed? Not that he would blame her if she did, she had, after all, had a long day and was probably too exhausted, mentally, to even try and lecture him for being a fool.

He held onto that thought until he heard a few light sounds from inside the living room, 'Guess I wasn't off the hook that easily.' He thought to himself with a light sigh while walking toward the living room doorway, even if he'd probably get an earful for being late, again, he still wanted to check in on her if she, indeed, was the one awake.

As he entered the living room, there wasn't much to see except for a lamp turned on beside the couch, a bottle of sake along with a small cup on the coffee table, and a mop of jet-black hair sticking up from the couch's backrest. "Mikoto-basan?" He called out carefully, slowly walking around the couch.

The woman in question blinked a bit as she heard a voice from beside her, she had been drinking a bit of sake, but not that much. Her lack of awareness from her surroundings had been mostly due to the train of thoughts that had been rampaging through her mind, that she had subtly tried to calm down when the kids had been put to bed, by drinking a bit of sake.

Lifting up her face, she came face to face with the one person she had expected it to be. "You missed dinner. Again." She sighed out loud, a small frown on her face as she leaned back into the couch and faced down at the coffee table and away from him.

Naruto gulped a bit at that, and took a seat down next to her, "Are you okay? You look a bit… off. I'm sorry I'm home so late, I just had to go do a couple of things. Oji-san had some things he wanted to talk about and show me, so that took some time."

The raven-haired woman fell into a fit of giggles, holding her hands to her face. Though even as she seemed to be laughing, she looked anything but happy. It didn't look like she was having fun but instead looked like she was trying to conceal the need of crying with overbearing laughter.

"If I'm okay? Oh yeah, I'm fine, nothing there at all. It's not like, my entire family, my husband, is just laying in the ground rotting away at all." She laughed louder with this, seemingly forgetting that there were people sleeping in the house. Even as she laughed, there were still visible tears rolling down her cheeks from the corner of her eyes. Those she couldn't hide.

Naruto frowned visibly at that and looked over at her with a concerned look in his eyes. He slowly raised his hands to slowly guide hers away from hiding her face, "You don't have to pretend to be okay, I can see that you aren't. It'll only hurt more if you do, trust me." He spoke out softly, trying to be the most comforting version of himself that he could be, but he had always questioned his way with words.

"Then what was the point of even asking me in the first place? If you can clearly see that it hurts, why did you have to go ahead and point it out…" She sniffled and let her hands fall down, the sound of fake laughing dying down in a second as anything that had resembled the fakie happiness disappeared and left nothing but a hurting woman who did her best to put up a strong front.

The blond's eyes widened as he let go of her hands and looked away, "I'm sorry, that was stupid of me… I'll just-" As he was finishing his sentence, he had lifted himself up from the couch but felt something stopping him from going any further.

"N-No! Don't leave…" She said softly with her eyes digging into couch cushions beside her, but the tone of which she used felt so much more desperate, even if the words themselves weren't. As her fingers gently caught his wrist and kept him from walking away, she lifted her face up to look him in the eye. "I really don't want to be alone…Would you stay, please?"

It made him stop right in his tracks, she had never really asked anything of him before. Well, she had, there had been that hug once, but could that even count? And then of course some requests that weren't selfish, but meant just as much for others, as they were for herself. Like when they had talked about him being home more often, instead of constantly overdoing it with work. This was the first time, he had really seen this side of her since that day in the hospital.

She watched him closely, with a small relieved smile as he settled for dumbly nodding as he sat down again, her fingers still holding onto his wrist before moving down to hold onto his hand, "It's just so, surreal… They were here, not even a week ago. The Uchiha district was filled with life! There were people everywhere, and the police force was patrolling the streets, merchants in the district selling their goods, and now… It's all empty, all of the clan is gone except for their blood staining the compound walls…"

Naruto just sat and listened to her words with a frown on his face, which only increased as she at the end of her sentence, squeezed his hand even tighter and he could see fresh tears running down her face. "I know how it feels, I felt the same way when my parents died. An emptiness that had come to stay." He chuckled sourly.

It was then her mood seemed to get worse like the sadness was replaced by a wave of burning anger. Not an anger aimed at him, but more toward herself. The mention of emptiness, led to thoughts of being alone, being surrounded by nothing and no one. Just like her son would be. From that day onward, he would be alone, because of how useless she had been. Because of her weakness and that she hadn't been able to do anything whatsoever.

Her grip on his hand became painful, her teeth grit tightly together as she stared down into the couch with the images of her two sons flashing before her eyes, mental pictures from when they both had been small, and all the way up to the day before everything had crashed down around her. On the last day that they both had been smiling together. The last time they had actually been a family, and not some ripped apart picture like they were now, "At least you won't have to live with the failure of raising a cold-blooded killer... Not only did I fail as an Uchiha, but I failed as a parent… The clan's d-death is all on me. I might as well have wielded the blade myself since all their blood is one my hands!"

Her words managed to strike something within Naruto as well, but then he realized something quite quickly. She didn't know that he knew all of it and the truths behind it at all. He wasn't entirely sure whether or not he was allowed to tell her that he knew it, but he honestly had other things to worry about. And he wasn't going to let her put herself down like this, and insult both herself and her son. That wouldn't be fair at all, they had both tried, but the two of them along with Shisui was no match against the will of a hundred Uchiha ready to tip the power in their favor through revolution.

"Maybe not, but you won't either. Since you'll be living with the honor of raising the one guy, that was willing to sacrifice everything for those he loved. Which makes you, an incredible mother, and an amazing woman. And I won't ever let you think otherwise, am I understood?" He whispered out to her, looking down at her from the corner of his eyes with a serious look in the depths of his eyes, a fire that had been long gone sparking.

It took a bit before the words really settled within her as if they bounced back and forth in her mind before finally coming to a stop. The words being put together formed a sentence with a meaning that caused her to let out a gasp, as her head flew up a few inches away from his. Her red puffy eyes had widened to the point it seemed like they were about to bulge out of her head. Her mouth dropping open, as the realization hit her.

A very specific line of words in his sentence was the one that triggered it all. 'You'll be living with the honor of raising the one guy that was willing to sacrifice everything for those he loved.'

He knew…

She looked around, trying to see if she could spot Itachi hiding anywhere, but when she deemed that the coast was clear, she looked back to where the two teens had been fighting. Her eyes widened with worry as she watched what her son had done to his best friend.

Sprawled up against the porch, Naruto laid with his head hanging down with his chin resting against his chest. His eyes shut as a line of dried salvia trailed down from the corner of his mouth. In his shoulder, a kunai was firmly lodged in; warm blood spilled down his ANBU vest from his impaled skin.

"Naruto!" She called out and dropped to her knees beside him, Sasuke firmly placed against her as she used her free hand to check his pulse.

He was still alive. She sighed with relief as he placed a hand on his cheek, looking him over with worry.

'He's out of it, but the only damage he suffered was to his shoulder… Did Itachi use genjutsu on him?'

It was like a puzzle started coming together before her eyes, she had never understood why Itachi had left her, Sasuke, and Naruto alive. Well, Naruto wasn't that questionable, he hadn't had anything to do with the things the Uchiha had been planning, but he had gotten in the way of the massacre.

With her jaw-dropping open, she scooted a bit away on the couch, her deep onyx eyes locked onto his blue ones as she pulled her hands to herself again, "You k-know...He showed it to you, didn't he?" She whispered out the question, as she lowered her gaze in shame, her hands that had been clutching onto his, falling into her lap as her mind ran a mile a minute, trying to figure out whether or not Itachi had left some pieces out or just told him about everything.

Naruto sighed and turned his gaze down to the coffee table, "Yeah… He showed me everything. Down to every last detail, from when it started, to why he had to do what he did." He explained in a soft tone, reliving a few of the memories once again. It seemed to be like this every time he thought about something he had learned while inside this Tsukuyomi world Itachi had created with his new weird Sharingan. He would relive certain memories, it didn't always have to be the same ones, but they always left him with a headache.

Fighting the urge to grasp his forehead in an attempt to relieve the pain, he instead reached his hand over to take both of hers in his. He so desperately wanted to help her, to give her someone to vent to and let out all her pain against if she needed to. If he could, he'd take it all and shoulder it himself, because that would be the least he could do. Especially when it was her who had done the exact same thing for him when he had been a kid, someone he cared so deeply about, a person which was painful for him to see hurting the same way she did.

The person in question was having trouble trying to figure out what to do or say, her head felt like it was about to explode as her eyes darted all over her lap and hands. Naruto, he knew it all. Every single little detail, Itachi had shown it to him. How the Uchiha had acted, how they had cursed the village for shunning and pushing their clan away, how they had been planning on overthrowing the village by killing Sarutobi and replacing him with Fugaku as the new Hokage. And that they would do all of this… with the help of… The Kyuubi…

With a sudden move, she lashed out and quickly wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and held him in place, her arms trembling as he mumbled out desperately, "I-I would never never have let them do that! I would die before letting them use you… I would never hurt you! Please believe me, I would never ever do anything to hurt you…"

It felt like she was clinging to him for years, using all of her strength so that he wouldn't go away while believing she had been like everyone else. She wouldn't be able to handle that, that would be too much pain to endure, and she had no doubt that it would make every last bit of resolve she had left shatter like ice. She sat there, clinging for dear life until a very short sentence met her ears.

"I know."

It immediately made her head pull back, her face staring directly into his, half expecting to see some kind of cunning scowl of a face that had only said that to lure her away from her tight grasp so he could escape, but there wasn't anything resembling that at all. Instead, the only thing she saw was a pair of caring blue eyes and a comforting smile as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, a palm against the back of her head that dragged her entire form into the warm embrace again. "I've always trusted you with my life, and I always will. That will never change because when I had no one and I felt like I was nothing, you took me in and hit me on the head while telling me to stop spouting such nonsense.."

"You mean a lot to me, and it would kill me if they had hurt you just because they were selfish and arrogant." She whispered sorrowfully, clutching her arms around him again, seemingly melting into the warm, comforting, and most importantly, accepting embrace of her loveable blond idiot, who apparently hadn't ever doubted her, even for a second. Even if Itachi had shown everything, Naruto had still had faith in her. It made her shed tears softly against him, but they were not just sad ones, but a mix of pain and relief.

Naruto sat there patiently holding her, listening with a heavy heart to her sobbing, even if she needed to let the grief out, it was still a very painful sound to endure. He'd much rather hear her laugh and giggle as she had before, see a smile on her face as she shook her head at his antics, hear her hum a soft tune to one of her favorite songs as she cooked dinner, but he would still be here through it all, all the ups and downs. Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because he wanted to.

As he held her there while time passed, rubbing the back of her head soothingly, he started feeling the weight against his chest increasing, so he looked down, curiously, only to see the woman's eyes shut, dried tear stains on her cheek. As the increase of weight met him, it didn't last long before he heard the sound of heavy breathing, turning into very light snoring. It made him blush softly, as the realization hit him, that she had fallen asleep against him.

The blush disappeared a bit after that, as he settled for smiling slightly at the sight. At least she didn't look sad in her sleep. She actually looked more content than anything. He wondered why that was. 'Oh well, let's just…' With the plan in mind of moving her up to her bedroom so she could sleep, he tried to stand up and out of her grasp, but found himself unable to. The reason being… he found himself locked into place. The lock being made out of chakra metal locking him in place, and he was thus unable to lift himself off the couch. Or at least, that's what it felt like, as he was completely unable to escape her grasp.

With a nervous sweatdrop, he chuckled quietly to himself.

"Uh oh…"

There we go, chapter 16. I'll go ahead and write 17 right away, but first, please let me know what you think of the chapter.

Questions of the chapter:

Did you enjoy a more Naruto x Mikoto focused chapter, where they interact more like I made them do here?

Did the emotions feel okay to you? I tried to work my way around the five stages of grief, and show that Mikoto trusts him enough to show emotions, and even in her sleep longed for the comfort he could provide.

Do you think Naruto will stop after taking Danzo out? Would he go further? Expand his mission beyond the borders? Become a vigilante? A Nukenin?

Naruto isn't alone with hating the corruption, and the people who taint the world. There are obviously others with similar objectives, question is, do you think he'd accept help or do it all on his own?