NHRK Chapter 53

Sarada hadn’t a clue what Naruto meant with ‘something he had to speak with her about.’

Her mind wandered from all the possibilities it could be.

One possibility in particular, struck a chord within her and couldn’t escape her thoughts…

The possibility that it would be her turn for him to…give special training to.

It filled her with both excitement and a surprising amount of nervousness.

She wasn’t the same girl as she was before she met Naruto.

She wouldn’t do anything for strength.

She wouldn’t betray the village just as this…Sasuke did, nor would she commit the atrocities equal to the ones her brother had.

She wouldn’t have even done this if it were anyone but Naruto!

She wasn’t a whore who’d sell her own body just to get stronger.

She was Sarada Uchiha….

And she wouldn’t mind surrendering her body just once to Naruto for his stupid pleasurable wants and lustful needs.

She blushed, heat rising to her head.

“You okay?” Naruto asked from beside her.

She almost jumped as she’d remembered that he was still there, walking her home. “YesI’mfineWhywouldn’dIbe?”

Her words jumbled into one.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. “Alright…what is it?”

He grabbed her hand and stopped her in her tracks, which subsequently made her blush even more.

“What is what?” Sarada said, pretending to be fine when she’s most definitely not.

“Something’s clearly going through your mind right now,” Naruto deadpanned, “I’d appreciate it if you tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m not thinking about anything!” Sarada yelled, drawing attention to both of them from the onlookers in their proximity.

Naruto grabbed her arm and shunshin’ed them both away, using the far slower movement technique than the one he was used to.

They were now in an alley way. Alone.

Sarada grew even more red.

‘He wants to do it right here?!’ her mind conjured up.

All she could do was close her eyes and wait for him to…ravish her, right then and there.

It didn’t happen.

“Seriously, what is up with you?” Naruto asked.

Sarada blinked one eye open. “You’re…not going to ravish me?”

Naruto spluttered with indignation.

And Sarada wanted the earth to swallow her whole when she realised she’d said those thoughts out loud.

“Wh–what made you think I would do that?!” Naruto exclaimed.

Sarada looked away. “Well you did it with Sakura. I mean all she had to do was drop the towel she was holding.”

Naruto blushed crimson, matching Sarada’s current state.

“She told you about the specifics?!” Naruto said, “Why would she do that?!”

Sarada looked at him like he was stupid. “To hold it over us with her ‘feminine superiority’ duh. I still can’t believe that she was the first one to get you.”

Naruto chose to ignore that last comment.

“I’m not going to do anything of the sort to you,” He said.

Opposite from the relieved reaction he thought he would get, Sarada suddenly looked irritated.

“What did you say?” Sarada growled.

“...I’m not going to do anything of the sort to you?” Naruto repeated, still lost.

She stepped on his toes, hard, hard enough for him to feel it even through his reinforced body.

“Hey stop that,” Naruto said.

Then Sarada yanked him by the collar of his jacket and attacked his mouth with her own.

When they separated, Sarada glared at him, Sharingan eyes flashing and tomoe swirling. “When did I say that I didn’t want it?”

Naruto stepped back in alarm. “But–”

“But what? I don’t like you? I’m your rival’s alternate female self?” Sarada interrupted, “I don’t care about that, about any of that. I’ll learn from his and your expereince from it, but like hell am I going to stay weaker than him forever.”

She gestured to his bandaged arm. “He did that to you. I won’t do the same but I want to be able to do the same. I want to stand by your side, Naruto, as an equal. It’s…my new obsession now.”

Naruto stared at her, stunned. “Why do you need that level of strength?”

“So I can have your back anytime and anywhere, duh,” Sarada answered as if it was obvious. Then she whispered to herself: “I can also marry you as an equal.”

“What was that?” Naruto asked.

“It’s nothing,” Sarada blushed before refocusing on the topic at hand. “I want you to…do what you did with Sakura to me but…”

She gestured around. “I just didn’t expect it to be here, is all.”

“We’re not going to have sex here!” Naruto clarified, blushing profusely. “Anyone could just walk by and see us!”

Sarada looked at him for a moment before a playful smirk appeared on her face. “Junior there says otherwise.”

“Huh?” Naruto said.

Then he looked down.

Sure enough.

“Dammit!” He said, covering himself, “It’s because of your talk of sex here. I had no such intentions!”

Sarada chuckled. “What did you bring me here for then?”

Naruto took a few more moments to regain his bearing, much to Sarada’s amusement, before he spoke. “I have something that will greatly concern you and your mother. I just wanted to make sure you were prepared.”

Sarada’s posture stiffened and her eyes gained a new alertness that showed her she was paying every attention to the words he said.

“Is it Itachi?” she asked.

Naruto was speechless for a moment. “Well…yeah. You’re pretty sharp, huh?”

Sarada rolled her eyes. “What happened? Did you encounter him? Did he hurt you?”

“Answering in order, I was partaking in the Kiri civil war when his organisation sent people after the bijuu that was freed, yes I encountered him along with his partner, and have more faith in me will you?” Naruto said.

Sarada blinked, eyes roving over his very being before nodding to herself to confirm that he was in one piece.

It was Naruto’s turn to roll his eyes. “Whatever, I just wanted you to know beforehand.”

“I’m fine with it, I’ve moved on from my brother’s shadows,” Sarada said, though there was still a tinge of…something in her eyes that said she was still affected by it, though it didn’t hold as much sway over her than before.

Naruto nodded. “Good.”

Then he touched her shoulder and with a yellow flash, they were in the Uchiha compound, her mother’s current residence in particular.

“Since when did you place a Hiraishin seal here?!” Sarada exclaimed.

“When I asked your mother about it,” Naruto shrugged and she glared at him as she usually did.

“Naruto-kun?” A voice called out from the kitchen.

Naruto smiled. “Aunt Mikoto, I’m home!”

“This isn’t your home, baka!” Sarada retorted.

Mikoto ran over to envelop him in a hug anyway. “Welcome home, Naruto-kun!”

Sarada’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance as she saw that her sensei and friend were enjoying this platonic gesture of love much more than he should.

She came over and kicked his shin.

“Ow!” Naruto yelped as he separated.

Mikoto only giggled as a mother would when seeing her two children bickering. “What brings you here, Naruto-kun?”

“Ah, Hiruzen should be here–” Naruto tried to say before he was interrupted by a knock on the door. “-that’s him. What impeccable timing.”

It was a moment later when the four were all sitting around the living room table, each on various sofas and couches before Naruto got to the brunt of the situation.

“Anyhow, like Jiji has explained, I encountered Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Kakuzu in Kiri.”

Mikoto looked horrified as she jumped up to come over to him.

Naruto took on a look of bewilderment as she promptly sat to his side and ran her hands over various parts of his body, checking every nook and cranny for injuries.

He understood, as he’d just named three S-ranked missing nin that was famous even to those outside of their home countries.

Each thought disappeared into legend and withered away by time, not in an organisation filled with monsters of their calibre.

“I’m fine,” Naruto said, eye flicking towards Sarada, who had a mixture of irritation and gratification on her face. As if annoyed by her mother’s closeness with her friend and thankful that someone was as worried about him as she was, perhaps even more so.

“Ahem,” Hiruzen interrupted their…interesting dynamic as he tried to prevent the conversation from derailing. “I can confirm that Naruto-kun is fine. Please let him finish what he has to say.”

Mikoto nodded and stopped fiddling around with his arm but she didn’t return to her previous seat and chose to remain by his side.

Such closeness to such unearthly beauty would have rattled him…if he didn’t live with Kushina Uzumaki.

Naruto coughed into his fist. “Right. Well I fought them. Most of them are dead.”

A sharp intake of breath was heard by both Mikoto and Sarada whilst Hiruzen took out his pipe casually as he’d heard about it before.

Yet the declaration that he took on three S-ranked shinobi and won put him up there with the likes of Hanzo of the Salamander.

Mikoto and Sarada knew that Naruto was strong but they didn’t expect him to just…casually say that he not only got out of a fight with three S-ranks alive but had won instead…It was almost unbelievable to their ears.

Even for Sarada who had seen his abilities first hand, she should’ve expected such a result but it was different to think that she knew he was strong, than to have it confirmed before her eyes.

“...and Itachi?” Sarada asked, not sure which answer she preferred to hear.

“He’s in a sub-dimensional space, alive but unconscious in this scroll,” Naruto said, casually holding up a small hand-sized scroll as if it didn’t contain one of the most dangerous people on the planet within.

The sharp intake of breath was heard again as Hiruzen proceeded to light his pipe and smoke. As he breathed out a jet of fumes, he met Naruto’s eyes, or where he thought they were beneath the blindfold before he nodded.

“I’m going to release him here,” Naruto informed the Uchiha’s. “As he is still a part of your clan, and absolved of his crimes, you have the final say over what to do with him.”

It took a moment for the Uchihas to recollect themselves before Mikoto gave a shaky nod.

“Do it,” she said.

Naruto unfolded the scroll and with a few mutters underneath his breath, Itachi’s unconscious body appeared on the floor with a puff of smoke.

Sarada had a hand over the handle of her sword whilst Mikoto let out a cry of suppressed grief.

She’d never expected to see her son again.

Ever.

Now he was here, before her very eyes, perhaps given a chance for a new life and to redeem himself from the blood he’d spilt.

It only took a few seconds before Itachi began to twitch and his eyes started to blink open. Then he instinctively gave a full scan of his surroundings.

…before stopping at the sight of his mother and sister, widening in shock.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“...Itachi?” Mikoto croaked.

Itachi still looked lost before he quickly sent a pulse of chakra through him, testing to see if he was put into a genjutsu.

Ironic because he was normally the one putting others in genjutsus…Terrifying, almost inescapable genjutsus.

Once confirmed that this wasn’t a figment of his imagination, he stared at his mother in suppressed, almost hollow disbelief, as if knowing that it was true but not being able to believe it.

“...Mother?” He responded.

Then he felt a fist meeting his chin with a strength that left him rattled and almost seeing stars.

“Sarada!” He heard his mother cry out.

Itachi took only a second to regain himself, a veteran of combat as he was, before he processed what just happened.

His eyes snapped back to the one who threw the punch…

…and met the tearful eyes of his crying sister.

“I’ve been waiting to do that my entire life,” she said before she stormed off.

It was then he quickly processed the other presences in the room. One being the Hokage and the other being…him.

The monster with a blindfold.

The monster proceeded to get up from his seat, nodding at Hiruzen before following after Sarada.

Itachi wanted with every fibre of his being to get someone that powerful away from his sister but knew he neither had the strength nor the right to enforce such a thing.

He was distracted, however, as he quickly found himself in the arms of his mother, engulfing him with a possessiveness that it was as if he’d disappear if she didn’t hold on as tightly as she did.

“You’re home,” she whispered into his ear.

And that was the final straw. Itachi felt himself shaking, as if finally done rebooting from his fugue-like state.

“M–mother,” he simply said, yet the arms he had around her followed and he was finally home once more.

He had questions. So many questions. His survival, his mission, his…situation…

He was sure that was why Hiruzen was here.

But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

He enveloped his mother tighter to himself.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Naruto found Sarada on the rooftop of her house, staring into the now setting sun as if it had offended her by going about its natural cycle when she was feeling her world turn upside down.

Naruto walked towards her and sat by her side, staring at the sun as well, though in appreciation rather than scorn.

“I’m sorry for not telling you about his presence earlier,” Naruto said, “I wanted to break the news to you and your mother at the same time. She had the right to know, as Matriarch of the house.”

Sarada shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I don’t care about that. It’s just…seeing him here, after chasing him for so long…”

She needn’t say much more as Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder and brought her towards him. She tensed only for a moment before leaning into him in acceptance.

Then she clutched him close, holding on to him as she shook with emotion suppressed for years upon years.

“I hate him but–” she choked, “but–why do I feel glad that he’s okay?”

Naruto was silent as he chose to listen.

“Why does he have the right to be okay? After what he’d done? No matter the reason behind his actions, he still killed everyone,” she sobbed, “Why, then, did I not end his life then and there and chose to punch him instead?!”

Naruto had instinctively placed a privacy seal around him before she started this, else he’d be worried if their entire neighbour had heard Sarada’s cries of frustration.

Now, it was just her and him. She would say whatever she wanted and needed to say and he would try his best to comfort her.

And tell him she did, for an hour, for two hours, for three.

The sun would long set before she was done.

The sun would long implode from within before he would leave her side when she was hurting.

By the end, she was done with the words she’d given out, and she felt lighter, as if sharing the burden she had for so long with someone else for the first time.

She was beyond glad that the person she shared it with was him of all people. She trusted him…more than she thought she was able to trust anyone. He made her trust him by barging into her life unapologetically and making it…more than just a tale of blood and vengeance.

She leaned into him one final time before saying her next words.

“Thank you, Naruto, for saving me.”

Naruto smiled at her, heartwarming and full of genuine care as it always contained.

“Thank you, for letting me save you, and for saving me in return,” Naruto replied back.

She closed her eyes one final time for the night, and drifted off to sleep.

Naruto chuckled as he tucked her into the blanket that were his arms.

“Thank you for giving her time to calm down,” Naruto said into the air once he made sure that she was asleep, deactivating the privacy wards in the meantime.

“I…It was the least I can do,” a voice replied back.

One could blink and see nothing at all but the two Konoha-nin, and another blink would see them three, an extra raven hair man standing behind them, no longer in his akatsuki attire.

“Mikoto and Hiruzen-sama told me what you did for my family…and for me…” Itachi whispered.

Naruto nodded quietly, careful not to disrupt Sarada’s peaceful slumber.

Then Itachi did something that surprised him.

The raven haired man got on his knees and bowed his head all the way to the tiled roofs of the rooftop.

“I cannot express the gratitude I feel, and I am now aware of how…wrong I was in my approach to make Sarada strong,” He said.

Naruto blinked at him from underneath his covered eyes but didn’t say anything to make him get up from his position.

Itachi didn’t mind. He’d stay in this position forever.

“Aunt Mikoto begged me to bring you back alive, you know?” Naruto said, “she told me that if I ever encountered you, to try my best to allow her to see you again. Now you are here.”

Naruto’s voice was still quiet yet his words were terrifying. It was as if capturing and bringing back an S-ranked such as him alive was something this man would do on a sunday evening as a menial task.

“I wasn’t sure myself on what I’d do if I even saw you,” Naruto continued, “but I see now that your soul is closer to the light than it is to the dark. I understand your story now, more than just the words told to me. You had a choice back then, to pick your clan or your village and you chose the village whilst sparing your mother and sister.”

Itachi stiffened.

“I cannot decide what I would have done in your shoes, but I would not have killed as you did, even for reasons you think are beyond your control,” Naruto said, “But you were a piece controlled from the dark, as I’m sure you now know.”

Itachi could only give a nod to the floor.

Madara.

“Whatever the case, I have no right to judge you, nor your actions. I did what I did because I thought it was right. You owe me nothing, not even your gratitude, because I do not need it.” Naruto said.

Then he unfolded his blindfolds.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

Itachi did and he felt his own eyes widen when meeting the ones that stared back at him.

Itachi knew now, why even Hiruzen told him to tread lightly before Naruto Hagoromo, even if he didn’t already know from his experience in fighting him himself.

Naruto stared at him, and the rising moonlight from behind Itachi reflected the eerie glow of his Rinnegan eyes.

The eyes of Kami, more terrifying than those of Pain’s.

“Here lies your redemption Itachi,” Naruto said, gesturing to the person asleep in his arms, “Do not waste it. It may never come again.”

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-