Start Again M*therf**kers

“Naruto…what is that?”

The question was filled with barely restrained fury, aimed at their idiot of a teammate. Naruto squeaked and spun around to face his companions, who were staring at him with raised eyebrows. Sasuke was more amused than anything, though his stoic face gave nothing away, the mirth in his uncovered dark eye was apparent. On the other hand, Sakura was glaring at him so hard that Naruto was afraid that he would combust into flames –with her Sharingan she might just burn him alive with Amaterasu. Clearing his throat, Naruto opened his mouth to try and save face because really, his recent actions were stupidly reckless.

“More like, who is that?” Sasuke, the utter asshole, corrected as he eyed the wiggling forms under his cloak.

Naruto had used a seal to conceal his little guests since they couldn’t use any ninjutsu and attempted –keyword, attempted –to hide them under his ratty cloak. Seriously, this fucking cloak was giving him more problems than the actual kids! The shitty thing had been more than big enough before it got wet. That stupid fucking merchant didn’t tell him it would shrink in the rain –like what the actual fuck, the man was selling cloaks in the middle of Amegakure, where it fucking rained all the time. When Naruto found that stupid businessman again, he was going Rasengan him into the fucking Moon. Maybe Kaguya would ram his ass into the sun when he tried to sell her his shitty cloaks.

“No on-nothing-! Right, nothing is here!” Naruto stuttered out nervously, his voice wobbly and uneasy as he tried to excuse his latest bout of utter idiocy.

By Sakura and Sasuke's unimpressed expressions, Naruto gathered that it didn’t work.

‘No shit.’

“You know, arsebreath,” The lump right near his hidden tail spoke up all of sudden –Naruto resisted the urge to bash his head against the wall. Of course, this brat of a child would talk while he was trying to sneak them in, “if you were just going to hide us then you shouldn’t have brought us along at all.”

Sakura raised an inquisitive eyebrow, as she mouthed the word ‘arsebreath’ as if to check if she wasn’t hearing things. A snort unwillingly left her lips but she hastily pulled herself together as a serious look overtook her features, “Alright, whoever’s there, come out. We won’t hurt you…can’t say the same for arsebreath here.”

The last part was a whispered threat that Naruto took very seriously –maybe it would be in his eulogy.

Threat aside, Naruto did send a betrayed look toward Sakura for the repeated childish insult. To which, the other redhead responded with a smile full of teeth.

The kid pulled away from Naruto’s side, still concealed. The sound of shoes tapping against the ground was his only identifier which was followed by the numerous scattering of feet as the fetus’ little friends moved with him, “Cool, as long as it’s not us.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes on the kids. As much as Naruto had a bleeding heart and would have brought anyone with a tragic backstory into Uzushio, something just felt off about these ones. With a silent pulse of chakra resonance, the seals on the kids disrupted and fizzled away. The kids’ forms slowly revealed themselves to Team 7 –Naruto watched with a sheepish smile on his face while the other two stared at the kids, completely dumbfounded. That is until their faces morphed into a caricature of anger and disbelief.

“Explain.”

“Ahh, Sakura-chan, please don’t look at me like that!” The half-animal boy squeaked out in terror. Sakura’s face always took on Madara’s distinct bloodthirsty, holier-than-thou expression when she was pissed and ready to punch her way through her problems, “Alright, alright, I’ll tell you! Ahem-! You see what happened was…”

“What?!” The kid squawked in slight fear, staggering a few steps away from the hooded figure, “Why the hell would we go anywhere with you?! You’re probably just gonna take us to come unknown location to kill us and then eat our bodies! Or are you gonna use our dead bodies for something creepier?! Oh my god, are you a pervert?!”

Naruto’s eyes widened in shock, as his arms flailed in the air, “NO! What the hell, you brat! I’m not a fucking weirdo! What the hell is wrong with you?!” He tried to dissuade the kid from his, frankly, disturbing thoughts.

The banana-dressed figure stumbled back as he tried to backtrack and run away from the supposed pervert and creep –weren’t those two words synonymous –while the other kids behind him scrambled up to do the same. Naruto stared blankly at the kids retreating forms for a moment before his brain kicked into high gear and he took off after them. His brain was Kurama, who was cackling like the asshole, he certainly was.

‘These kids- hahaha- keep them Fishcake!’ The demon fox laughed heartily while Naruto’s eye twitched in irritation.

The trio of kids had made it pretty far; Naruto’s delay had given them the extra time needed to put a significant amount of distance between the two parties. As much as the blond was impressed, he was equally pissed off by the fact that he was now playing chase with a bunch of babies. Not to mention the fact that his tail was pressed uncomfortably into his pants because his fucking seal died on him, and he wasn’t very confident about this stupid ratty cloak hiding his peculiarities away for very long.

“Hah, hah, fuck, crap, my stamina is shit, what the fuck-!” The half-fox panted as he pushed himself further –he definitely couldn’t lose sight of them.

‘Why exactly are you so hell-bent on taking them to Uzushio, brat?’

“I-I…I don’t know but they remind me of something…” Naruto muttered under his breath, his vision fogged up from the cold and rain, “…they remind me of a promise I made long ago.”

The animal-eared boy perked up when he caught sight of the banana suits turning the corner of an alley and running further. They were probably trying to get Naruto off their tail while slowly making their way back home, wherever that was. Huffing out an exhausted breath, two shadow clones appeared beside him, without another word they split off in different directions. Naruto continued to follow the kids as-is while his clones moved to block any exits and alternate routes which would either force them to go back to their home or retreat to an unfamiliar setting. If they were cautious enough, they might go with the latter but they were still kids so a safe space would be more appealing to them than being somewhere strange.

Naruto snapped his attention back to the running trio when he saw them disappear around another bend. He yipped while taking a detour, knowing the two paths would meet up at a singular point –he had been in Ame for a few days and was able to map out the area quite well. It had been a necessity if Naruto wanted to survive more than a day within the Ame. Travelling also became less of a burden on Naruto since he could easily move through the village without arousing any suspicion. He narrowed his eyes and took a different turn as his mind was suddenly assaulted with his clone’s memories, he grinned in triumph as he used shunshin to appear where his clone once was.

Naruto looked around the area with widened eyes, taking in the brightly lit cave with curiosity and fondness –he remembered some people from the Allied Forces doing the same with lanterns of various shades just because there was nothing else to do. Naruto ran his azure eyes over the three panting kids near the entrance of the cave as a mischievous smile lit up his whiskered face. Stealthily, the redhead crept towards the children, their backs to him as he popped up behind them.

“Boo.”

The trio of orphans shrieked and threw themselves away from him. They fell onto the wet ground and started clambering away from him –Naruto’s nose wrinkled at the acrid smell of fear that wafted off the kids. The Uzumaki raised his hands in surrender for a moment before lifting his hood slightly; he revealed his childlike face, red hair spilling over his shoulders, but kept the cloak covering his ears as he removed the re-breather from his mouth.

“Yo!”

The trio froze at the sight of his face, Naruto couldn’t see their faces because of the bulbous masks they were wearing but he was sure that they were staring with gaping wide mouths. This continued for a bit, the melodious pitter-patter of rain colliding against the water-soaked ground was the only sound between him and the trio of kids. Suddenly feeling awkward as the stretch of aborted silence drew longer, Naruto hooked his fingers at the back of his head in forced nonchalance. The cloak parted at his actions, displaying the standard shinobi wears underneath. Several articles of clothing had stitching of blue, gold, and white while the red Uzumaki spiral stood proudly on the vest pocket of his black flak jacket.

“You-…you’re just a kid…” One of the kiddos whispered, breaking the stalling silence as they continued to stare at him, “Ohmygod! Are you one of those people that are adults in children’s bodies? Ahh-you’re actually an adult preying on poor innocent, unsuspecting children! You’re a pervert!”

‘Perceptive brat or idiotically lucky brat?’ Kurama muttered softly as he observed the unknown child carefully.

Naruto would have commended the child for getting the first part of his observation right if he wasn’t holding himself back from tackling the little arse-sniffer. Did he really have to add the second part?

Naruto’s eyes almost bulged straight out of his head from how wide his eye socket stretched, “EHHH?! No, you fuc-! What the actual fuck, kid?!”

‘Not far from the truth, Fishcake.’ Kurama cackled loudly.

‘I’m not a pervert!’ Naruto pouted.

‘Even your Uchiha would agree with the kid on that.’

‘Go die in a ditch, fleabag!’

“What did you expect?! I thought you were a midget shinobi! Not a fucking kid!” The boy yelled back with equal fervent as the redhead.

Naruto could physically feel the numerous veins that popped along his temples, “Midget-? Why I outta-!”

Before he could retort, the sound of growling permeated the area as a malnourished dog made its presence known. It skidded between the gaggle of kids and Naruto, hunched over protectively as it tried to defend its family –the near-silent call of Chibi-chan getting lost in the rain. Naruto narrowed his azure eyes on the dog, pupils slitting unnoticeably as he flashed a fang and growled low in his throat. The dog whimpered and backed down in submission but it still stayed crouching in front of its owners.

‘What a loyal mutt…’

Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance and reeled himself in before any of the kids noticed his less-than-human features. The redhead had never gotten a hold of his…animal instincts yet so things like this tended to happen. Naruto forced himself to calm down as he cleared his throat; he was suddenly feeling self-conscious about how he looked. After all, he didn’t need the kids thinking he was a mere child and a feral animal, “Well I’m not a pedophile so that’s that…anyway- who are you kids?”

There was another moment of silence.

Then one of the kids –presumably the one who spoke to him earlier –stood up on shaky legs, slipping slightly on the wet ground as he shooed the dog away and marched determinedly towards the half-animal boy. When he was less than a meter away from Naruto did he choose to speak, his voice coming out muffled but clearer this time, “That place…? The place you were talking about, where is it?”

Naruto bit his lip in contemplation while scratching his cheek before sighing softly, his gaze hardened as he stared at the other kid, “Uzushio.”

“Uzu-”

“It was destroyed about six years ago.”

The banana-dressed boy faltered in shock, his shoulders hunching as he dropped his head low. Naruto blinked at the gesture, taking it as a sign of apology without actually saying the words, and continued on unbothered, “But-…we’re rebuilding, trying to start something new…something…away from the war that destroyed it in the first place. Heh-…hah, I’m not actually supposed to be telling you this, ya know, dangerous times and all that shit…-but we’re gonna open it up for people who need a place to call home, so I guess it’s fine.”

“Ame-!” The boy suddenly shouted, cutting off Naruto’s ramblings, “…Amegakure is our home. We’re-…I’m not gonna just abandon it like that.”

“I never asked you to.” The redhead chose to say instead, his tone serious and holding none of its previous teasings. “But you asked me to teach you and that’s my answer. Currently, where I’m from, it’s safer than Amegakure.”

“Look, I’m not gonna force you. If you accept, I’ll teach you as much as possible and you can leave with no strings attached. You can come back to Ame and do whatever it is you wanna do or you can travel to some distant land where this stupid fucking war didn’t reach and live out the rest of your days like that.” Naruto continued, undeterred by the non-response and fierce in his reasoning –he had to make this clear to the kid whether he wanted to hear it or not.

The kid was quiet, probably thinking about what to say or just devising another plan to run away. If he did that again, then Naruto would let him and his companions leave without a fuss. The redhead wouldn’t force his help on someone who didn’t want it and as much as Kurama liked to call him out on his bullshit –this was different with people who clearly needed help and refused it. For people like Gaara, Sasuke, and Neji, it was different because Naruto hadn’t cared about the repercussions of his actions as long as he saved them but these kids…needed someone they could trust. They didn’t need someone to force them into something they might later regret and possibly become resentful over.

“…you said that you weren’t supposed to tell us about this place so why did you?” The kid asked, veering into a different choice of topic.

Naruto snorted at his tactic before a simple but true smile appeared on his whiskered face, “You wanted my help so I told you.”

The three Ame orphans found themselves transfixed on that smile, eyes widening in awe and hearts beating faster and faster the longer they stared. All of a sudden, one of the other kids stood up, bypassing the little boy in front of Naruto so that they could reach him. The redhead left his body as open as possible, showing no signs of hostility as he waited for the kid to talk. Except…the kid didn’t speak. They slowly reached for their bulky helmet, unclipping the headgear with a hiss of compressed air and singing metal, revealing a face that was too familiar to disregard.

‘Oi, oi, Naruto…isn’t that-’

‘Yeah, Kurama.’ Naruto agreed numbly as he stared at the purple-haired little girl with widened amber eyes.

“Hello…” The little girl greeted, her eyes tracing over his form shyly, “…my name is Konan.”

‘Aw, crap.’

Naruto floundered a bit on what to do –he didn’t even think he’d see himself in this situation or ever meeting this person, especially when she was so young, “N-Nice to meet you, Konan. My name is Naruto.”

“Your name is fishcake-?” The still-masked boy asked, a snort echoing around them before he broke into boisterous laughter.

‘If I’m not mistaken, then that’s-’ The redhead thought to himself, his eyes subtly sliding from one child to the next before settling on the last, slightly cowering, child, “Oi, kid, you doing good down there?”

The kid jerked in surprise, startled and fearful at being addressed so openly by some unknown shinobi before scrambling to his feet –stumbling one too many times in the process, much to Naruto’s inner despair. It was like watching a baby deer trying to walk for the first time which, in itself, was terribly adorable but also so heart-achingly pitiful to the point where Naruto just wanted to wrap the kid in bubble wrap and hide him away forever. The redhead waited patiently for the kid to right himself, slowly turning his head this way and that as if he was trying to find something. Naruto deftly narrowed his eyes on the kid in suspicion as he shambled towards the half-animal boy, his arm already reaching out for Konan, who grabbed him and tugged him close.

A sick feeling settled in his gut.

The helmet was taken off in a similar manner as Konan, revealing a head of dark red hair –a shade not unlike the hair adorning Naruto’s own head. With his heart beating a tattoo inside the cavity of his chest, Naruto ran his eyes in an almost desperate fashion over the much smaller boy’s body before landing on a face that was decades younger than the last time the animal-eared boy saw him.

A face that had bandages covering his eyes.

“H-Hello…” The redheaded boy whispered shyly and a bit fearful, “…my name is Nagato.”

‘Nagato…’ Naruto thought desperately, despair lacing his thoughts as dozens of plans crashed down within the safety of his mind, ‘…where are your eyes, Nagato?’

Of course, Naruto wasn’t so callous and stupid to ask that to the kid’s face. Instead, he plastered a totally-not-strained happy smile on his tanned face, a welcoming aura basically pouring from his body, “Hello, Nagato. My name is Naruto.”

The small boy nodded his head, “I-I heard…” Nagato seemed to briefly hesitate before he spoke once again, a bit of steel –so nostalgic, so familiar to the Nagato he remembered –in his voice which for some reason made him proud, “I wanted to ask…about your hair.”

Naruto barely faltered at the question, though his eyes did narrow on the seemingly blind kid standing in front of him, “What about it, kid?”

“It’s red…” The kid murmured under his breath but Naruto caught it.

‘What the-’

He didn’t show his uneasiness and gently asked, “How do you know that?”

“I can…feel it, I guess…” Nagato whispered out shyly, his pale face flushing which made him look a cherry. Naruto wanted to die from the unintentional cuteness emanating from the little boy. Who knew that Nagato –fucking Pain of all people –had been so cute, if a bit creepy, in his youth, “It feels…just like mine.”

‘Is that sensing…?’ The redhead asked the old demon fox.

Even Kurama looked confused, even a little impressed at the little Uzumaki, ‘I never heard of such a sensing ability, Fishcake. Then again, your little kit spent his entire life with the Rinnegan so maybe it was one of his abilities that had been pushed aside to compensate for those stupid, cursed eyes.’

'Huh…’ Naruto muttered in his head, ‘…better not ask now.’

The jinchūriki resolved to not tease that boy about how easily he blushed –seriously that would feel like a crime at this point “The Uzumaki Clan was famous for having red hair.”

“Uzumaki Clan…?” Nagato echoed, the name falling gently from his lips. Naruto knew it was a valid inquiry, after all, if he had been in the kid’s shoes, he would have done the same thing but with much more enthusiasm and fewer manners.

“They were the majority clan in Uzushio.” He admitted solemnly with a frown on his cherubic face, “You’re young so you probably don’t remember the place or maybe your parents left before that whole shit-show took place but it was known for its abundance of redheads. The place is really safe…safer than Amegakure is, especially now. Plus, you’re family, kid. I’m not gonna leave ya and ya little friends like this, though if you wanna stay then I’m not gonna force you to come with me.”

Nagato visibly swallowed at his explanation, “Will I see you again…?”

Naruto smiled a small smile, the one that was melancholic but happy all the same, “Course, kid. I’ll make sure to visit often if you decide to stay and I’ll still teach you.”

The little redhead released a shuddering breath, clinging to the cloth of Konan’s suit tightly while the purple-haired girl stared with barely concealed worry. All the while, the still-covered boy watched quietly, his body frozen as he took in the scene in front of him. He groaned loudly, drawing the other three people’s attention before dislodging his own helmet, “Fine! We’ll go to wherever this Uzushio place is!”

Naruto grinned unabashedly, the other two children following suit –the sight made him want to coo and cry with happiness.

“But-!” The little orange-haired boy stopped their celebrating prematurely, “You have to promise that nothing bad will happen to us.”

“Promise!”

The three kids faltered at this immediate reply, two gazes filled with suspicion while the last one’s face just had awe written across it, “Seriously?”

“As serious as an angry medic-nin!” Naruto declared boldly, fist-pumping the air, “I always keep my promises, dattebayo! Never forget it!”

Like Naruto ever had the intention of letting the Ame Orphans get hurt in the first place –promise or not.

Sakura stared at Naruto, one olive green eye twitching from the unnecessary stress that her teammate was causing her, “You stole them?”

Naruto’s face dropped at her words, “Hah?! Out of everything I just told you, what makes you think that I stole them?! They came with me of their own volition!”

“No child would ever willingly follow you,” Sasuke snubbed his partner, “especially dressed like that.”

“Hah! I knew he was a pervert!” The little orange-haired kid yelled in triumph.

There was the sound of a loud thwack and hissed out ‘shut up’ from the little girl beside him.

“I saved them from a couple of scumbags!” Naruto vehemently defended his honor, he was not going to stand here and let them slander him like this, “And I asked them to come with me! I told them straight up what they were getting into. If anything, you should ask this little troll doll why they so easily followed some stranger to the middle of nowhere.” He shouted while pointing at the orange-haired boy.

“Hmpf-! You said you would teach us ninjutsu.” The little orange-haired boy huffed, a pout on his lips.

Sakura blanched at the boy’s words while Sasuke stared at the kid as if he was an imbecile –funnily enough, it was a look he often directed towards Naruto, “Kid…that’s equivalent to taking candy from a stranger.” The quiet but stern voice caused the kid to freeze in place, his brown eyes widening as they shot to Sasuke’s still form.

“Don’t you know anything about stranger danger kid?” The Uchiha asked, his tone flat as his eye bored into the kid’s eyes, “The shinobi are at war and won’t hesitate to use orphans like you to get what they want, yet you walked into the arms of one, without hesitation.”

The orange-haired kid gulped at the intensity of the Uchiha, “I-…if this shitpiss is a bad guy then at least he would teach us something before he kills us…or use us, I guess. We’d have a way to fight, even if we are a means to an end. We…no, I-…I’ll be able to protect them.” The boy’s brown eyes lit up with determination, a dark promise swirling in the depths of them, “I’d have a way to bring peace and end the war so we don’t have to…live like this. So…even if this fruitcake –this stupidly helpful shinobi reject…is just using us then at least we get something out of it.”

Sasuke regarded the kid coldly, his gaze barely leaving the almost-shivering form of the orange-haired child before something like approval gleamed in his singular dark eye, “Alright…they can stay.”

The kid blinked his eyes in shock, “You were evaluating me.” He stated bleakly, an indentation of awe and fear in his voice. The other boy didn’t look much older than him yet his eye…his eye betrayed a life filled with so many hardships, and anguish, things that showed that he was wise beyond his years.

The Uchiha hummed in answer, “We can’t just let anyone within our barrier.”

“And if I had failed…?” The question left his mouth before he could stop it, the kid winced and debated fleeing as a dark look overtook Sasuke’s eye.

“I would have killed you.”

The admission was blunt and callous, his tone holding no sympathy or worry as he considered the child before him. Sasuke was not a nice person. Obviously, he showed a healthy amount of care toward his comrades. Sakura and Naruto were the only ones who received the full force of his concern and paranoia and –dare he say –love but that was it. Unknowns and enemies suffered under his suspicion, his hate, and his indifference completely. Children were no exception. Even if he had promised Naruto to be better and had joined his idiot lover’s savior crusade, it didn’t make him any more inclined to save every single person they came across. But this kid, he reminded Sasuke too much of Naruto…if the dolt had the slightest bit of darkness in his personality at this age. It was giving him flashbacks of simpler times.

Sasuke could see it in those innocent brown eyes –the absolute want, no, need to be something stronger and bigger than all of the threats out there, the need for revenge, the need to protect, and the slight god complex. Sasuke could see that something was on the precipitate of flowering. A change blossoming within the boy that would eventually turn into something extremely powerful and influential –something that brought up old feelings and memories that Sasuke just wanted to crush beneath his bootheel.

Sasuke knew that the kid was worth it to train.

“So, kid, what’s your name?”

“Yahiko, sir!”

Meanwhile:

“Would it kill them to stop insulting me?! Sasuke-teme, you’re supposed to defend my honor!”

Sasuke wisely ignored Naruto like it was his god-given gift.

“Na-ru-to~ is that a dog~?”

“Ack, Sakura-chan! Please, don’t kill me-!”

Team 7 walked in stifling silence.

Naruto was currently moving through the newly built streets of Uzushio. Sasuke and Sakura flanked his sides with stoic expressions on their faces. For the former, the sight was nothing out of the ordinary for anyone who didn’t really know Sasuke. But Naruto knew Sasuke and, normally, he could read something in Sasuke’s eye as his frame naturally curved into Naruto’s while he let down his guard. However, that wasn’t there now. No, Naruto couldn’t read a thing from his lover. Sakura, on the other hand, was terrifyingly obtuse as she ignored him in favor of staring vacantly at the semi-built structures lining Uzushio’s land. An undercurrent of anxiety thrummed beneath Naruto’s skin as he tried to come up with some sort of explanation, an excuse, or a reason before he resigned himself to the stifling silence.

Naruto didn’t dare to stare at their inscrutable faces. It was an expression he hated. It was something he never wanted to see on the faces of his loved ones -not on Sasuke and Sakura. He had seen it too many times on the faces of shinobi who had given up, those who had succumbed to the moon, and on those who had died –like Kakashi when he was dying with that hol- Naruto shook that thought away before he could sink into another depressive episode

Naruto sighed and looked up at the dark sky, easily skipping over the bright moon; his habit of not looking at the moon didn’t break in the slightest since they left their hellhole of a future. A small soft smile graced his cherubic face as he took in all the lights streaming through the streets, streetlights adorned with the Uzushio banners they had found in one of the old temples –fairy lights connected all the poles together, giving the whole street a comforting feel while familiar lanterns hung from the ends of the poles.

“So…nice night, huh...”

‘I’m an idiot.’ Naruto concluded and resisted the urge to face-palm his face with a fucking brick. Maybe knocking himself out would have been a better option for all of them.

When his pathetic attempt at dissolving the tension reaped no benefits, the redhead turned his attention toward the village. He took in everything they managed to build in one year with awe as a sense of contentment settled lightly in his chest. The village was a far cry from what it used to be –completely inadequate from the images Uzushio projects –but all the demolished houses and debris had been swept away with Kurama’s help and his clones were set on constructing new buildings so that it wasn’t all bad.

‘Things would move quicker if you mastered that fool’s Mokuton, Fishcake.’ Kurama’s voice rumbled in his head, his tone mocking and filled with amusement.

Naruto pouted at the snide comment, ‘The thing is hard to control, dattebayo! At least I managed to stop those stupid trees from randomly popping up all the time!’

The redhead grimaced when he remembered those mornings, being restrained by the Mokuton because he was subconsciously expelling his nature chakra like mad. It was a habit he had been forced to break unless he wanted to wake up one day with a branch stuck up his ass. During the war with Kaguya, Naruto had constantly been using nature chakra to hide in plain sight and to sense where the enemies were so that they could survive another day. He had to teach himself not to do that now since they were out of Kaguya’s War. Naruto still didn’t have Yamato-taichou’s or the Shodaime’s control which meant he couldn’t use the house-building techniques yet. It sucked but, at least, they had an endless supply of wood now.

Naruto hardly twitched as he was assaulted with a couple of his clones’ memories but he did visibly grimace at the content. It was truly a wonder, the shadow clone jutsu. The redhead thought back to his time with the Nidaime, he reflected on his interactions with the man and pondered on whether Tobirama knew what he was doing when he invented the technique. Because Naruto could confidently say that he was dumb. There was no question about it –though it might have something more to do with his short attention span and hyperactive tendencies. The point was that Naruto knew he was an idiot.

But he was not that dumb.

‘Seems like you don’t share that one brain cell of yours with the rest of your clones, Fishcake.’

‘For once, I agree with you, fleabag.’

“Naruto, why are you making your face like that?” Sakura finally interjected, breaking the tense silence as both of his teammates turned their attention to him. Naruto staunchly resisted the urge to jump up and down and celebrate.

The redhead winced at the question before answering in a blank voice, “When I found out about Nagato’s…condition, I sent some clones to Madara’s creepy cave to spy on him.”

“What?” Sasuke intoned sharply, his gaze cutting with how angry he was by his words.

“Just to spy, Sas! I explicitly told them not to engage with your ancestor or the hench-plant.” Naruto insisted but even he could see the faults in his plan, “But, ya know, how like I’m a kid again, so I have…eh, like all this energy to expel-”

“Your clones got bored.” Sasuke deadpanned.

“Not bored per sa-!” At the Uchiha’s blank look, the redhead conceded, “Alright they got bored.”

Sakura cleared her throat to get their attention back on topic, “What happened, Naruto?”

“The aloe vera plant found out someone was spying on them…” The redhead lamented with tears streaming down his whiskered face, “…so my clones used the Oiroke no Jutsu to seduce him as a distraction.”

“What.”

“Oi, didn’t boss tell us not to slack off,” One Naruto clone asked as he stared at two other clones playing pattycake, his face was the epitome of boredom.

The boss had created five clones in total for the mission as soon as they saw the condition that Nagato had been in and they had left Ame as soon as possible. Naruto didn’t know how long the kid had been like that but if it was recent then maybe the clones could somehow retrieve the eyes from whoever took them. Though they had a strong feeling it was either Uchiha Misfit or Mr. Hello-I’m-A-Sentient-Plant.

The clones had arrived at Madara’s dank cave and hunkered down for a possible long-term mission. However, they hadn’t accounted for their newly reinstated childlike energy that basically spewed out from their pores. So after a couple of hours of sitting in silence, watching the cave entrance until the sun went down and the moon was well into the sky, the clones finally broke. Each one entertained themselves in various activities, not unlike the things they did in their lonely childhood. That was until Zetsu sensed them.

“Shit-!” Clone one cursed as he eyed the hench-plant from between the large leaves. They had all occupied the branches of the trees surrounding the cave while smothering their chakra signatures, “Boss is gonna kill us.”

“Ah, crap,” Another clone hissed as the Kaguya’s personal plant goon got closer to where they were located then pointed at the middle clone, “well, you’re the leader. Tell us what to do.”

“Why me-!” The middle clone hissed back, a confused angry look on his face –it was the look a person got when they were constipated and didn’t know why.

“‘Cause I said so,” The clone declared before side-glancing at the others then quickly spat out, “If any of you agree that he should be the leader then say ‘I’.”

“I.” They intoned simultaneously.

“What the actual fuck guys-?!” The middle clone said aghast, his jaw hanging open, “This is so not a democracy. I didn’t even fucking run.”

One clone stepped into his space with a horrifyingly scared look on his face, twitching eye and all, “It’s a dictatorship. Your dictatorship. So start dictating a plan or we’re all screwed-!”

 At that moment, the middle clone sensed the weed creeping upon them, “Fuck, shit, motherfucking Sage’s saggy balls-”

“Wow, creative.”

“-okay but I’m so gonna kill all of you when this is over.” The middle clone stressed as he tried to think of a way to distract the hench-plant, “Alright, we’re gonna do what we do best when it comes to diverting attention.”

“Are you serious?” One clone asked with an incredulous look on his face.

“I mean, it did work on Kag-...the moon bitch that one time.”

“That was because we caught her off-guard!”

“And Kakashi-sensei.”

“He was a bona fide pervert! Of course, it was gonna work on him!”

“Enough!” Leader-clone-sama snapped before jerking his head towards the plant that was boring its beady eyes in their direction, “Do. It. Now.” The clone murmured before he used the Oiroke no Jutsu.

With barely a poof of smoke, the five clones transformed.

The leader-clone turned into the older sexy female Naruto version of himself. He shifted around to get used to the change, checking his body to make sure that nothing was wrong before turning his attention to the other clones.

“Fucking hell, guys! I said thought I said to use the sexy jutsu!”

Three of the clones had taken the forms of their dead friends.

“Wait, wait, wait!”

Naruto pouted at the interruption before whining, “Sakura-chan, I was just getting to the good part!”

The redhead just hit him with one of her signature deadly glares, “Your stupid clones turned into our dead friends, what the fuck, Naruto?”

Then Sakura’s glare sharpened into something deadlier as she reached and grabbed onto Naruto’s shirt collar, dragging him towards her while barely holding in her urge to throttle him, “Did you use Ino’s form?”

“Uhhhh…no-” He squawked as Sakura moved to strangle him.

Sasuke sighed and removed his boyfriend from Sakura’s deadly hold –as much as he wanted to let it happen, they needed the idiot alive, “Sakura, kill him later. We need to know if our mission is in danger of being found out by our enemies.” Then he turned his attention to his redheaded idiot of a lover, “What the fuck, Naruto?”

“I’m sorry.” The animal-eared boy shot back sarcastically, his voice hoarse from his near-death-by-strangulation, “I told them to skive off and then take the sexy forms of our dear dead friends to distract the moon bitch’s failed attempt at gardening! I apologize for my mistake, Sasuke!”

“It’s a fucking miracle those idiots weren’t caught.” Sasuke sighed before looking up at the sky for guidance.

“Why the fuck do you look like that?!” The leader clone hissed quietly, her voice almost pitching into a screech from how irritated she was.

“You said to do what we do best when we distract people,” The Ino lookalike recalled while thoughtfully tapping her chin with her index finger, “Ino was pretty distracting and I didn’t want to look like you. Y’know, we really gotta add some variety in these. Same old blond Naru doesn’t do it for everyone.” The girl pointed out sagely.

The one henged as Hinata laughed and nodded her head, long dark hair swaying with the movement, “Right? I was thinking the same!”

“I know right!” The last one was a transformed Neji, who everyone just stared at for a moment before breaking out into an overblown argument.

“Why are you Neji?!”

The Neji-clone looked so put off by the negative attention that he actually pouted –with that face on, he looked like the sage’s gift to man, “What? The walking plant man could have other inclinations.”

“But-…why Neji?” The leader-Naruto-clone whined like a child –seriously, she was the last one who should have been captain of this sinking ship.

The Neji-clone raised an eyebrow at the other clones, “Are you guys serious? I mean, I know that we’re on the dumb side of the intelligence scale but we’re not that dumb!”

“What…are you talking about?” Ino-clone drawled out with an uncomfortable look on her face.

“Neji was fucking hot!” He bellowed out heatedly, a heady blush spreading across his pale cheek as he practically huffed out smoke. It was the look on his face –exactly like the perverted one that Ero-sennin used to wear –that made all the clones shudder. That was something that should have never been on Neji’s beautifully crafted pale features.

“Alright, stop there!” Sasuke shouted loudly, a broody- well, broodier –frown on his cherubic face. His voice had pitched onto a higher octave, practically declaring his irritation, “You thought Neji was hot?”

Naruto stared at the Uchiha with a blank look before his face burst into flames, “W-what? No!” He stuttered out, lying like the lying liar that he definitely was, “Why do you care? Neji’s…y’know- ack! Like he’s super…dead.”

“Naruto, you suck at lying! It’s all over your face!” Sasuke called him out with a frown on his face and then pouted lightly. The Uchiha crouched onto his haunches and covered his face with one arm while drawing in the dirt with the other, “I’m your boyfriend. I need to know these things.”

The sound of Naruto’s heart being struck was heard by every single person on the island –which doesn’t sound impressive considering the sheer lack of people on Uzushio but the few people that were actually here were, in fact, spread out quite far from each other. So, it was definitely impressive how far ‘Naruto-easily-collapses-because-my-boyfriend-acted cute’ was broadcasted.

“Alright!” Naruto surrendered as he threw his arms out in defeat, “I thought Neji was hot but that was like most of the kiddy population in the village then.”

Sakura looked off to the side before whispering, “They’re probably gonna need marriage counseling after this.”

“Why?” Sasuke looked so confused that his face see-sawed between anger and shock multiple times, “You were so like-uhh”

“Like what?” Naruto raised an eyebrow as he waited for his boyfriend to finish what he wanted to say.

Sakura’s eyebrows slowly reached her hairline before she snorted at the look on both of their faces. A particularly evil smirk stretched across childish lips as the redhead eyed the couple with amusement, “Oh-…now it’s getting good.”

“I don’t know…like you were always talking about getting stronger and being Hokage,” The Uchiha surmised as he thought back to their childhood, before mumbling out childishly, “and you were an idiot about literally everything. Not to mention that stupid jutsu of yours.”

“I was dumb and determined,” Naruto enunciated slowly for his dense boyfriend, “Not dead, you jackass!”

Every single person who thought it was Naruto who was oblivious should spend some one-on-one time with Sasuke alone.

“Alright, point made.” The leader-clone accepted the defeat proudly before pointing at the innocuous potted plant, “Oh sage, I’m gonna regret asking but…why are you a plant?”

Two eyes and a mouth appeared on the stained brown pot encasing the plant, “Well, your plan might not work if Aloe-Vera-san turns out to be asexual so this is the back-up.”

“You’re a plant.” Ino deadpanned.

“I’m one of Su-su’s kind actually,” The plant smirked at the other clones, “an Aloe-Vera plant so they definitely can’t kill me now.”

‘What an idiot.’ They thought collectively as they stared at the henged-plant-clone.

“Well, good luck seducing him!” The plank waved at them before going completely still –they continued to stare at the potted plant for a minute longer then turned to leave without another word.

“Naruto…” Sasuke call out softly, his voice carefully concealed of all his emotions.

“Yes, Sasuke!” The animal-eared boy chirped brightly, furry ears wiggling and tail wagging about.

“You’re never making our plans in the future.”

“Yes, Sasuke.”

“One more thing before we get this shitshow going,” The leader-clone stated quietly while eyeing the hench-plant through the thick foliage, “No weird stuff between the Hinata and Neji clones.”

“What-?” Neji’s jaw dropped in shock at his leader’s words.

Hinata was gaping in the same way, along with the whole trademark blush and index-pointing thing, “Why leader-sama have you forsaken us in such a way?!” The clone whined.

“Aren’t they far-related though?” The Ino clone asked with a quizzical pout on her lips.

“I mean it.” The leader-clone growled out at the Hyuga cousins, then turned her attention towards the other blond, “And where the hell did you get your information from? Aren’t we the same person? Hinata and Neji are cousins born from a pair of twins. They’re as close as the relation could get, idiot.”

“Ehh…not as close-”

“Don’t say anything.” The leader-clone hissed out with a wild look in his blue eyes, “I don’t need to know what kind of nasty thing you were going to say, which I’m sure involves Itachi and Sasuke in some way so shut it. And no Sasuke-explaining is gonna change that.”

‘I’ve already heard some nightmarish stuff from some of the other shinobi during the war that I want to be bleached from my mind.’ The Naruto-clone thought viciously.

“What does that mean?” The Uchiha asked with narrowed eyes, his Sharingan spinning angrily.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend then prepared for another rant as if they hadn’t already had this conversation before –multiple times in fact, “I mean that no matter how much you say that the Uchiha Clan doesn’t have incest because they marry mainline and branch families, I’m still not gonna believe you, teme.”

Sasuke’s face screwed up at the whiskered boy’s words, “But it isn’t incest!” He disagreed loudly.

All the while, Sakura had a contemplative look on her face. “Itachi and Sasuke…huh…” A curiously devious blush stained her cheeks.

“If you have the same last name with the same blood running through your veins then it’s considered incest, teme.” The redhead retorted with a smirk.

“Then what does that say about your clan, dobe?” The dark-haired boy sneered.

“Hehe…oh, diverting now, are you? Okay, I’ll bite-” Naruto chuckled hoarsely –and as many times as they’ve had this argument, it always ended up like this, “The Uzumaki clan had a variety of clans and outsiders married in all the time.”

“Tch…-”

“Your clan was so paranoid about your eyeballs that most of your marriages stayed in the family.” The redhead explained, holding nothing back, “And the ones that got partners that weren’t Uchiha were kicked out or isolated. Far-related or not, it’s still incest, teme. Face it, Sasuke. Your family tree is basically shaped like a fucking diamond.”

“Urgghh! You’re so fucking annoying!” Sasuke gritted out as he messed up his long hair.

“And this round goes to-” Sakura announced loudly as she made drumming noises with her mouth, her index fingers acting as drumsticks, “NARUTO!”

“So…who’s up first?” The Ino clone asked brightly, but the devious look in her pale blue eyes was evident, “I think it should be our brave and smart leader. I mean, it’s obvious that leader-sama should set an example for all of us so that we know what we’re supposed to do. A guide, of sorts.”

“I didn’t even sign up for this bullsh-”

“Yes, it should be leader-sama!” The Hinata clone shouted –all too happy to sacrifice the one for the many.

The Neji clone clicked his tongue, looking away with a pout before wiggling shyly, “Leader-sama should be happy to give his life for ours.”

“Hah?! What the hell, you guys?” Naruto-one exclaimed with anger and betrayal before turning her attention to the only male clone, “And you?! What’s with that shitty acting?! Neji would have rather stabbed the tenketsu point at his heart than act like that!”

“Shut it and go be our tribute before we’re all fucking dead meat!” The Ino clone shouted before sending the leader-clone flying with a swift kick.

This thing was…all the clones were still in the trees, specifically standing on branches that were extremely slippery, and not to mention but Naruto’s chakra control had slipped a bit since they came to the past so the clone…fell. Out of the tree and straight down. Leader-sama toppled through the canopy of trees and leaves and landed right in front of the hench-plant –butt-naked, shivering, and bursting with copious amounts of anger.

“Crap…” That was the only thing the Ino clone could say before she shuffled back into the safety of the leaf coverage. All the clones’ chakra seamlessly melded into the nature chakra surrounding them, leaving leader-sama as the odd one out.

Naruto groaned loudly as she slowly blinked away the blurriness from her vision. Her head swayed from side to side, whether it was to shake away her urge to vomit or to check her surroundings –she didn’t know, it could be both –but whatever she was going to do next was halted when a fuzzy figure entered her line of sight. Azure eyes fluttered rapidly as leader-Naruto tried to figure out who was standing over her when she came face to face with black, white, and creepy searing yellow eyes. Strangling the scream in her throat, Naruto placed a dazed but seductive smile on her face as she shifted onto her side. Her sizable assets moved sensually as they bobbed and bounced under her cupped arms, drawing the plant’s gaze to them.

“Ara, ara~” Naruto whispered lowly, her eyes half-lidded as she stared at the creature, “What’s a handsome fella like you doing here…all alone~”

“Pfft-!”

Sakura snorted before bursting out into laughter, clutching her stomach as she doubled over and fell to the ground. She didn’t even bother to catch herself or get up, just laid on the ground and flopped around like a dying fish, all the while cackling like a mad witch.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him as if asking, ‘Seriously?’

“What?” Naruto pouted childishly and looked away, “Those lines always worked in Ero-sennin’s stupid porn books.”

“Ohmysage-! Hahah-did-…do-pfft-you use lines like that on Sasuke-” Sakura could barely get the words out as she fought with her own amusement, “-and you two still slept together?! Hahahaha!”

Sasuke’s eye twitched.

“And you…-you’re seducing the plant? Like that?” The redhead panted out through her bouts of laughter, “If that plant wasn’t asexual before then he sure as hell is now!”

Naruto whined as his ears drooped sadly.

The hench-plant stared at the very naked Naruto with blank creepy yellow eyes.

And Naruto took that as her signal to continue.

The blond girl dropped her bosom lower, hitching her hips higher as she crawled towards the tone-toned plant man. Her slow movement gave attention to her shifting shoulders as they alternated between high and low rises; there was a smirk curled on the edge of her lips as she looked up at Zetsu from beneath her dark blond eyelashes. Naruto delicately planted her hand on his bare feet –which was gross as hell, like what the fuck dude, if you’re not gonna be clean then wears shoes –and when he didn’t reject her soft touch, she continued with her act. She seductively slid the palms of her warm hands up the length of his legs, skillfully skimming any bits she wasn’t fond of touching. Naruto’s pressed her voluptuous body tightly against the other’s body as he followed the path of her hands. Anything that poked her on the way was tactfully concluded to be thorns because of Zetsu’s plant biology –and nothing else.

There wasn’t a hair-breathe of space between them when she was finally standing on her feet once again, her naked body mused tightly against organic plant matter. Naruto turned her head, face carefully concealed of the utter disgust lying underneath until yellow beady eyes were staring straight into her azure ones.

Naruto repressed a shudder –when this was over, and if she wasn’t dead then she was going to take a kunai to her own throat. No one should live after experiencing such trauma.

“Will you entertain me, Aloe-Vera-sama~?”

As she spoke, her hand playfully walked up the plant man’s chest slowly before settling on the side of their jaw, where she languidly petted and lightly scratched the patch of skin(?). Naruto wrenched the plant plotter’s head to face only her when he began to drift, her thumb soothing circles across his cheek before she slowly leaned into him. All the while, the blond had stretched out her senses to look for the other clones because surely they wouldn’t leave her alone, with nature’s one-night-stand that should have definitely been aborted.

When she came up empty, Naruto twitched.

Suddenly, Zetsu’s hands latched onto the sides of her head and squeezed. She could see the utter apathy in his sinister yellow eyes.

‘Well I’m a ride-or-die type of person and if I’m gonna die anyway then I’m taking you guys down with me.’ She thought spitefully with a shrug, ‘After all…hell hath no fury like a woman scorned motherfuckers!’

“GUYS, IT DIDN’T WORK!”

With that, Zetsu snapped –his attention and her neck in one go as he raced off toward the other clones.

One by one the plant man caught the clones.

“Leader-sama!” Hinata-clone cried out as she was impaled from the back.

“I’m too hot to die!” The Neji lookalike screamed like a little bitch –he should have been tortured for his terrible acting –before he was killed.

“It would have been her if she’d just shut the fuck up!” The Ino clone shrieked one last time before Zetsu descended on her like a one-man-…sorry, one-plant army.

Zetsu went back to his creepy cave, unwilling to talk or even think about what happened that day.

Naruto blew out an exhausted breath while his shoulders hunched forwards tiredly and then moved to sit at the steps of one of the newly built houses. Sorting through his clones’ memories was as easy as breathing but his clones tend to go on a tangent, so feelings and injuries had to also be taken into consideration. And this set of clones had been quite eccentric –honestly, it would have been less trouble if he went there himself. Naruto’s ears twitched when he heard Sasuke and Sakura take their seat on either side of him, his tail wagging lightly as the warmth of his companions seeped into both sides of his body.

“I have so many questions,” Sakura said blankly.

Naruto just sighed tiredly, “Me too.”

Subconsciously, Sakura gently grabbed his tail and pulled it onto her lap as she started to slowly run her hand through the deep red fur. Besides a twitch of his ear, Naruto didn’t move at the action. It had become common for both of his teammates to suddenly snatch his fuzzy appendage or scratch his ears, especially when they were upset. He started to purr lightly at the soft touch, swaying a bit and leaning into the caress.

“Didn’t know that you could seduce someone like that though,” Sakura pointed out with a small snort, “Sasuke was positively burning with jealously.”

Sasuke scoffed at her snub, looking away with a pout on his lips, “Tch…as if…”

“Where did you learn all that stuff anyway?”

Naruto huffed out a heated breath, proud and a little bit embarrassed, “Ero-sennin taught me a lot of things when we went on that three-year trip.”

“What.” Sasuke deadpanned, a grip of cold fury taking over his body even as he kept his impersonal disposition.

Sakura disguised her impending laugh as a cough before covering her mouth, ‘Protective Boyfriend Mode: Activated.’

“Yeah, I mean, Ero-sennin was like the biggest pervert I knew. He blew Kakashi-sensei out of the water and everything so you know he was a big deal.” The animal-eared boy went on to say with an indulgent smile on his face, “We used to always go to onsens because he wanted new material for his pervy books.”

That made Sakura crack.

“Sometimes he used to check into brothels and while he was busy doing whatever, I hung out with some of the girls when they were on break, ya know. They gave really good advice on how to improve and showed me some techniques too. I thought it would be awesome to learn since I change into a woman so often.” Naruto explained before going solemn, “Plus…I wanted to make missions for the kunoichis a bit easier, ya know because they’re mostly sent for honey-pot missions. So I thought if I could send my transformed clones, it would be better.”

A hoarse chuckle left his mouth, “Before all this shit went down, I told Baa-chan about it and she gave me this really sad smile. It was something I’d only ever seen when she…talked about her brother and that Dan guy. I was set to take over some of Kurenai-sensei’s missions since she was pregnant but then Pain…and then everything else just went poof, ya know.”

“Oh…Naruto…” Sakura sighed at her idiotically thoughtful friend –he had always been so stupidly caring, it’s what they loved about him.

“Oh! There was also this time where I used Oiroke no Jutsu and Ero-sennin tried to grope me because he totally thought I was a sexy lady.” Naruto cackled as if remembering a fond memory –and not something absolutely creepy and definitely illegal, “He always used to ask me to use it when he needed new stuff to write or draw about.”

‘I’m gonna murder that old pervert when I see him!’ Sakura and Sasuke thought in tandem.

After that whole fiasco –which Naruto was entirely oblivious to regarding his teammates’ actual thoughts on his old teacher –they had fallen into a comfortable silence, though the hovering darkness about their guests still lingered along the edges of their consciousness. The crickets’ chirping resonated around them while the wind whistled by, it sounded so much like a lullaby that it threatened to put all of them to sleep. Uzushio was positively humming in recent days, the clean-up and construction making her happier than ever –so much so that Naruto and Sakura could feel her warmth envelop their hearts. At one point, even Sasuke said that he felt an inexplicable comfort heat up in his chest.

“Ya know…Shi-…h-hah…Shikamaru would have known what to do…” Naruto murmured, breath stuttering at his old friend’s name. He thought back to his impulsive actions with the Ame Orphans, “He would have planned for this already, must have already planned for this but I…I can’t remember. We didn’t even keep anything from our old bodies. Hah-…fucking damnit, did I just fucking screw us over by bringing them here.”

Sasuke and Sakura stayed quiet. They weren’t sure about what to say or do. This whole trip had been so reckless in the first place, what with them being high from the final battle and filled with fresh grief from their loved ones’ deaths. And sure, they memorized all of Shikamaru’s plans but most of those had taken into account everything after the Second Shinobi War. Even if their friend had the foresight to plan for anything before that, they hadn’t been informed of anything regarding it. Shikamaru always kept his greatest and most complex plans close to his heart –plans that died with him.

“Sage-damnit-!” Naruto choked up as unshed tears glistened in his eyes. He clenched his fists at his side to prevent them from drifting into his hair. The urge to tug harshly on the strands was great but his ears were quite sensitive and the last time he harmed them was terrible.

Without a word, Sasuke reached over and pulled Naruto towards him. The redhead burrowed deeply into his chest, breath hitching slightly but he never cried –he hadn’t been doing that for years. “We’re all in unknown territory right now and as dangerous as it was to simply bring them to Uzushio, I don’t blame you…not really.”

Naruto stayed where he was but with a flick of his ear, Sasuke knew he was listening.

“You wouldn’t have been you if you didn’t offer those kids a place in Uzushio, Naruto. Even if you knew that they were our old enemies beforehand, you would have still done it.” The Uchiha chuckled under his breath, the sound was strained, “It’s what I hate and love about you.”

“But…they’re just kids,” Sasuke muttered as he stared out at their unfinished home, “Just a couple of kids in a war, with nowhere else to go so I understand why you did it. Though I’d appreciate it if you give us a little warning the next time you do something like this. Because as much as I sympathize with any child, my point with Yahiko still stands that I would have killed him. No one, bar you two, is an exception to me because you both are my top priority.”

“Aww, you do have a heart, Sasuke.” Sakura mocked with a smirk before turning her attention to her half-animal friend. She scowled at the boy, “A little warning is right, Naruto. You have clones for a reason, arsebreath. Use them for stuff like this.”

Naruto groaned softly at the new nickname, “You’re never gonna let that go, Sakura-chan.”

“Nope.” Sakura piped up, popping the ‘p’ pettily.

“I’ll remember to send you a message clone when I bring the next hoard of orphans home.” Naruto snorted in amusement, imagining the look on his teammates’ faces as if he did bring a bunch of kids home without telling them. He was sure that Sakura would kill him on the stop and that Sasuke would happily help her.

“Please don’t,” Sasuke stated tensely.

Naruto pulled away slightly from his lover’s side just to see the indignant pout on that pale face he loved so much. The redhead snorted loudly before he turned around and snuggled back into Sasuke’s arms. Naruto sighed near silently then spoke into the comfort of his lover’s chest, his voice coming out soft and muffled as his eyes grew heavy, “Before I even knew it was them…I remembered that promise I made with Nagato, all those years ago. And I thought…we all know pain. Sage, we’ve experienced so much pain and at that moment I just wanted that pain to stop, ya know. Not just for me but for everyone…even if it was just for a little bit.”

“Hn.” The Uchiha grumbled as he absentmindedly stroked his arm, “We’ll do that then.”

Naruto blinked sluggishly, the soothing touches were putting him to sleep, “Hmm…what?”

“We’ll stop their pain, even if it’s just for a little bit.”

Sakura smiled at the two of them –her emerald eyes glazed as she thought of her own lover, now lost to the world. However, the memories were oh-so-sweet that she couldn’t help but get lost in them. She acknowledged what they were saying, how tough this whole changing the future thing was going to be, especially since they had lost most of their team, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.

‘H-hey…Sakura…you b-better build that house for us, alright-’

After all, Sakura had too much riding on her to be scared.

“What are you gonna do about the whole time-travel thing though?” Sakura asked.

Naruto blinked the sleepiness from his eyes, shifting in Sasuke’s arms to give his best friend his attention, as he sluggishly asked, “Hmm…what’d you mean, Kura?”

“Those kids aren’t stupid, Naru…” Sasuke mumbled softly, “They’re going to ask how we know the things we know or where we learned our techniques. Not to mention, our plans are going to involve them whether we want to or not, especially if you want to keep them safe.”

Sakura hummed in agreement as she threaded her fingers through red fur, the tail in her hand swayed happily under her ministrations, “…Nagato’s eyes…we don’t know who took them. It could have been Madara but why would he double back on his plan like that? The Rinnegan is like a myth to the shinobi but it would take one person knowing for all the nations to start sniffing around and steal the eyes.”

“Maybe it wasn’t Madara who took them…” Naruto hummed as he thought back to Kaguya, “Zetsu has shown he would do anything to bring her back. Madara is just another pawn so it wouldn’t be shocking to find out he took the Rinnegan and hid it somewhere else.”

“In someone else,” Sasuke stated bluntly.

Sakura frowned as she cupped her chin, “If that’s it then things are changing already. The ripple effect of us being shoved in the past is bearing fruit.”

“Do you think the person playing Tobi will change?”

Their resident Uchiha sighed as he dug his face into red hair that smelt like sunshine and nature, “Obito was a fixed point. The war wouldn’t have happened without him so that is an event that should take place. Even if it doesn’t, it won’t hurt to keep an eye on all of them but that’s a long time from now.”

“Yeah…plus we’ve got our own problem right here to take care of,” The Uzuchiha scowled as she thought back to the condition of the orphans, especially Nagato, “Nagato’s eyes…I don’t know how he survived for so long with his eyes in such a state but it’s a miracle he didn’t die.”

The animal-eared boy whined slightly, his pointed fang cut into his lip when he bit down without thinking, “Sage-…Nagato looked so tiny and frail when I first saw him and the dirty bandages-! It had…it has blood on it…”

“The kid probably dressed it himself after they took his eyes.” The Uchiha murmured as he tightened his grip on Naruto’s shoulder for a moment, his dark eye was burning with restrained rage, “Whoever stole the Rinnegan, left Nagato for dead. Probably hoped the kid would die…”

Sakura yawned and stretched widely as she stood up from the steps, “I’ll start working on Nagato’s health tomorrow. The kid needs sleep for now and he isn’t in immediate danger but Naruto…you still haven’t told us what to do about us and our situation?”

The redhead let out a weary sigh, breathing in deeply and catching the smell of smoke and ash mixed with ozone –the scent always calmed his heart and mind, “We’ll tell them.”

“Naruto-!”

“Keeping secrets is the last thing we need, Sakura.” He stated firmly with a steely look in his azure eyes, “Secrets cost us too many lives as it is.”

She backed down after that with a frown on her childish face.

Naruto smiled softly –almost sleepily –at his friend, “I’m not saying that we tell them now but in the future…we’ll have to bring them in. Plus, you know that I suck at lying, heh, I’ll probably be the one to rat us out anyway.”

The redhead laughed at his own inability to properly deceive people, but his teammates could see the shadows clouding in deep blue eyes. Of course, they remembered what keeping secrets did to him from the abandoned childhood to the lost legacy, basically, all the abuse and neglect he suffered because of secrets. They knew that hiding something big from the kids was the last thing Naruto wanted to do. Sasuke and Sakura could relate to their own respective childhoods and lives –the Uchiha Clan massacre and Sakura’s own hidden lineage.

“And my appearance…” The animal-eared boy smirked deviously, his furry ears twitching in delight even as his eyes drooped with sleepiness, “…well I’m not opposed to a bit of trolling.”

Sasuke’s eyes glazed over, not listening to his lover, as he thought back to the time before the massacre –all the secret meetings, his brother’s avoidance, and sometimes cold behavior, Shisui’s suicide, the elders scheming, and the council’s plan to get rid of them. All those secrets that festered had led to his clan’s downfall, his brother’s unfortunate fate, and his own spiral into near-insanity. Sasuke grimaced sourly at his thoughts; he’d rather not have that in a place that they were calling home. Naruto was right in that sense. Secrets bred lies and anything built from lies was fragile and amounted to nothing but sorrow.

Sasuke startled slightly at the feeling of two fingers rapping twice along the length of his spine. Dark eyes blinked slowly for a moment before moving toward the steadily sleeping lump against his chest, Sasuke stared at Naruto for a long while –not registering anything outside of his lover. His heart stuttered in his chest before Sasuke clutched at Naruto tighter, hugging him close to his chest as his unappealing thoughts left just as quickly as they came.

“Naruto!”

“H-huh-? What-” Naruto snorted awake, drool already collected on his chin and Sasuke’s shirt. Said Uchiha refused to admit how cute the disgusting act actually was on his lover.

Sakura narrowed her green eyes on her best friend, making them look more venomous, “You…came back without your seal on.” She enunciated slowly, watching as he tensed under her words and penetrating stare.

“Uhm-well…you see-ahem…the thing is that my seal maybe, kinda, sorta, fizzled…out.” Naruto fumbled his way into an explanation, all the while dislodging his boyfriend’s arms from around him and edging away from the other redhead.

Sakura's eye muscles did that spasm thing when she got super pissed.

Naruto gulped in fear, ‘I’m screwed.’

‘So screwed.’ Kurama echoed with a cackle.

“And you stayed out like that!” She bellowed and took off after him just as he made a run for it, her face as red as her hair, “I saw that ratty cloak as well! You bought that shitty thing to hide! What if you had been caught?! All the nations would have heard about it already, they would have started a manhunt for you, idiot!”

“Ah! I’m sorry, Sakura-chan!” The animal-eared boy screamed out as he pushed full gear to get away from the raging girl, “I wanted to get the mission done and Ame was the last place and I didn’t want to get wet all over again and it seemed like a good idea at the time!”

“Your ideas are shit! Just look at what your clones did!”

“Please don’t kill me-! Ack!”

“Heh…still no match for my punch, eh.”

Sasuke watched with blank eyes –at least his teammates didn’t change, despite all the emotional, physical, and psychological trauma they’d experienced.

The next day, Sakura made good on her words because as soon as Nagato had woken up, she dragged him off to her temporary clinic for a check-up. Leaving the little boy to her torture techniques, Sasuke and Naruto had started on their own day by overseeing the rebuilding of the inner village with a few hundred clones in tow. After they had cleaned out the debris earlier that year, they started on the outskirts of the island and had managed to completely restore the outer ring –the towers had been the first thing they tackled, they had needed the barriers up as quickly as possible. For the construction, they used schematics from one of the underground archives to help them. Most of the structures followed the simple traditional Japanese housing plans while the more extravagant stuff was left for the districts that heavily catered towards the royal line and the clan compounds.

If there was one thing that Naruto loved about Uzushio was that the place never had an absence of life. From the visions the island sent to them, it was always loud and vibrant, the people and the atmosphere –it was a place that chibi Naruto would have fit right in with. Filled with an abundance of color for the exuberant people and tranquil enough for the more silent brooding types. Uzushio was a place that was open to all sorts of people and while a place could never be perfect –after all, they agreed with sacrificing their princesses periodically to seal the Kurama, they had a very distinct red-light district, they had murderers and they were mercenaries –but it was still better than some of the other villages that were still at war.

Naruto eyed his clones closely as they moved a couple of logs toward the river that ran through the island. The redhead had them on the task of reconstructing the bridges and while he would have normally done the job with Kurama’s help, he couldn’t exactly do that because of the little girl clutching onto him. He could proudly declare that he got the better option with Konan, unlike that little orange-haired punk that had taken a liking to Sasuke. Yahiko, that little shit, only came around to annoy him and then pissed off while cackling like a maniac –he already had enough of those in his life. Apparently, messing with him was something that his lover and the boy bonded over. With Nagato out of commission for a while, Konan had attached herself to him, not that he can complain but it did hinder his ability to make their work go faster. Naruto couldn’t really let Kurama out until they told the kiddos.

Not to mention, he was forced to wear that shitty cloak again because of his ears and tail.

“So Konan-chan…you want to learn something?”

The casually asked question made the girl stall for a bit before her head whipped up to face him. Her amber eyes were glinting brightly, happy and eager to learn from Naruto which almost made him smirk. He had to quickly choke his ego back to its regular size before he spoke again –he didn’t need to come off smug, he was going to be a teacher after all. The redhead plopped down on the ground, and crossed his legs before he motioned for the girl to do the same. Konan did so, but with much more grace than him while Naruto considered her abilities –from the past that is.

‘That old pervert was her teacher, right?’ Kurama asked with a yawn as he settled down for a nap.

‘Hmm…yes. She used those paper attacks if I remember correctly.’ Naruto thought back to the times they had engaged with her, ‘She was extremely intelligent as well and her ninjutsu was exceedingly versatile and durable. Konan was very powerful but I think I can give her a little push to top her past life...heh…I wonder if I can outdo Ero-sennin.’

Kurama snorted.

“Alright!” Naruto clapped loudly, a bright grin on his whiskered face –the sound made Konan flinch but that didn’t lessen her excitement, “What do you like?”

Konan tilted her head to the side in confusion, hesitating on whether to take him seriously or not before conceding with a sigh. Her amber gaze softened as she spoke, “Erm…I guess I like origami.”

The redhead hummed lightly, “Anything else…”

“I like onigiri even if I’ve only had it once and…I-…I like being with Yahiko and Nagato.” She admitted a bit shyly, her tone wistful and full of fondness, “In Ame, it’s always raining and our cave had always been so cold.”

Naruto’s soft smile encouraged her to continue.

“Before we found Nagato, Yahiko and I were always a bit distant. We had stuck together out of survival rather than any form of friendship so it was always awkward but then Nagato came in and he was so helpless. Yahiko was so angry the first time I brought him in, we were already suffering so much without needing an extra mouth to feed but I convinced him to let Nagato stay.” Konan giggled under her breath, “Yahiko got attached. He said that Nagato was like one of those stray kittens and as much as he believed in his whole ‘survival of the fittest’ motto, he has a heart.”

Naruto smiled forlornly at the kid’s, almost adult, plaintiveness.

“During the worst rainy days, we’d huddle up under this one big blanket that we managed to sneak from this mean old lady. And we’d tell each other stories about anything and everything. Yahiko always talked about a hero or god coming to Ame and saving all of us from the war while Nagato told us stories that his parents used to tell him.” The purple-haired girl murmured as she swayed slightly to an unknown tune, “I told them about an angel…a person that watched over a dying village from afar and protected it, someone who saw those pitiful people and saved them.”

‘Huh…guess that’s where she got her inspiration from.’

Konan went quiet after that but Naruto noticed her watching eyes as if she was waiting for a negative reaction but he just smiled widely, “That’s good. It’s nice to have something to hang onto, Konan-chan. I have another question…why do you want to learn ninjutsu?”

“I want to protect Yahiko and Nagato.” The kid hadn’t even taken a second to think before answering. Naruto was kind of proud of her unwavering loyalty to her friends, “Yahiko-…he wants to protect us as well. But he also wants to protect everyone else. He wants to bring peace to Ame. He wants to put a stop to wars and I admire him for that. Yahiko has a big resolve and I know that he’ll pull it off but sometimes…he can never see what’s in front of him. I want to protect him from that. And Nagato…he’s so small even though he’s our age. He already suffered so much and he never speaks most of the time. He doesn’t like fighting at all, doesn’t like pain and death and I don’t want to force him to choose that. So I want to become strong enough to shoulder that for Nagato and to stand equally with Yahiko.”

‘Kid is way too smart for five years old, Fishcake.’ Kurama muttered as he eyed the little girl through his vessel’s eyes.

‘Yeah…’ Naruto said solemnly –this was what he didn’t want, he didn’t want children with those eyes.

Those eyes that said ‘I’ve been through hell, I’m barely hanging on, I’m not broken'.

“Okay, kid, I’ll train you.” Naruto grinned wildly, masking his pain and regret with a closed-eye smile, “But I’m gonna put ya through the wringer, dattebayo!”

Konan beamed just as savagely, “Bring it on, shitty shinobi!”

“Oi!”

Sakura sighed as she fiddled with what little medical supplies she had. Her boys had swiped a few things from a bunch of unsuspecting victims while she had savaged and found some old stuff from the Uzushio medical centers –most of which had been rusted and beyond repair but she made do wherever she could. Picking up a pair of semi-okay scissors, she turned around to face her patient who was shuffling nervously on his feet as if he didn’t know what to do. Not that Sakura could blame him, of course.

After all, she was an eight-year-old playing doctor with another kid’s eyes –or lack thereof.

“Sit down, Nagato.” The redhead sighed as she slowly guided him to sit on an old futon.

The smaller redheaded boy seemed to panic for a bit as he allowed himself to be gently manhandled onto the soft bedding. Nagato was obviously skeptical and afraid –more afraid than anything else –about letting some unknown person move near him with a dangerous sharp object. Sakura felt for the kid, really she did but she needed to check on his wounds. She needed to know if he had a chance of a transplant in the future or if the area was too scarred for any improvement.

“I know you’re scared, kid.” Sakura stated bluntly when she registered the utter fear pouring from his body in droves, “But I’m going to need you to stop shaking.”

“What-…” The boy swallowed as he tried to speak again, louder this time, “…what are you gonna do to me?”

“Certainly nothing that you’re thinking of.” She deadpanned as she callously moved into his space, pointy object in tow, “Your eyes were plucked out. You were supposed to get medical help and didn’t.”

Nagato flinched and let out a shaky breath as his thin arms trembled under the force of his terror. Her response had hardly assuaged him and Sakura came to a realization that this kid didn’t know her. He didn’t know ‘Sakura: Student of Tsunade, the one who had surpassed the Sannin’. He didn’t know that she was the best of the best. He didn’t know that despite her caustic attitude, she was always gentle with her patients. He didn’t know that sometimes the lives of her patients superseded her own.

Not like all of her patients before him. Not like Naruto and Sasuke.

Gulping down a shaky breath, Sakura placed the scissors on the ground next to the futon and folded her hands on her lap. She had never been good with words. At least, ones that didn’t require a noticeable amount of aggression but she was better than Sasuke –that had to count for something –and she always knew that if her words didn’t come through, then her friends would. They understood her without having to poke and prod and Sakura ascertained that she became complacent in that right. It wasn’t a bad thing per se–who wouldn’t want that type of connection with their loved ones –but it led to situations like this.

Where a patient, a kid, was afraid of her…

When Sakura discerned that the kid was less fearful, did she finally speak, “Sorry…for being insensitive, Nagato.”

The redhead let out a small whimper but otherwise didn’t say anything.

“Alright-” Sakura exhaled a heavy breath as she shifted away from the kid and settled down, “This is not to going work…okay, um, let’s see, uhh-when I was younger, I used to go…hah, like out of my way to be nice to people. I was…really meek and I got bullied for it, especially for my wider-than-usual forehead.” She snorted awkwardly, remembering Ino’s insults –they were like a balm to her wounds now, “I thought that if I was nicer then people would be nicer in turn, you know. Like, do unto others as you would have them do unto you and all that. That’s a load of bullshit by the way-”

Nagato shuffled as he tried to discretely listen to her. Tried being the operative word but Sakura let him be.

“Anyway…so I tried to do that for years but the other kids were so cruel.” She stated distantly as she remembered her past, “Thoughtlessly putting other kids down without any regard. Their words were always so cutting and for a kid like me, filled with so much insecurity from others and my parents…it was like hell on Earth.” Sakura smiled unconsciously, her eyes falling into a half-lid as melancholy filled her heart,  “But there was this one time, I was hiding in this large hedge way from the other kids when this little girl came barreling through. She had the palest, most beautiful blond hair I had ever seen with matching pale blue eyes to match. She had been exploring…looking for flowers when she noticed me digging through the dirt.”

Sakura giggled slightly, her hand slowly inching towards her chest. She rubbed a particularly achy spot as she recalled the blond from a future long gone, “She hated dirt, got all prissy about it even though she loved gardening which always made me laugh because when she saw me, tunneling through the mud and grime like some kind of mole-rat, she couldn’t help herself and decided to intervene. At least, that’s what she told me. However, I didn’t see it like that. All I knew was that I was being insulted by this really pretty girl and I started to cry.”

“You cried…?”

The sudden inquiry didn’t startle Sakura. Instead, she hummed in acknowledgment as continued on, undeterred, “She kind of freaked out for a bit and then dropped to the ground and hugged me.”

“She sat down in the dirt even though she hated it…” Nagato murmured softly.

“Mhm-hmm…I ugly-cried all over her new shirt too and she didn’t kill me which was awesome.” Sakura laughed into the palm of her hand, “After that…she told me to stand up for myself. To be mean, to give as good as I got. It was something I took very seriously. I adopted it as part of my personality and it defined me I guess. And for so long, that was my approach for so many things, I guess. It got me in trouble with my parents, teachers, and my close friends, a lot…but I felt like myself. I felt in control.”

Nagato was quiet for a moment, “Why-…why are you telling me this?” His voice got quieter the longer he spoke but Sakura listened without interrupting.

“Because I, sometimes, forget that people don’t know me.”

“Huh?” Nagato turned to face her, her voice guiding him, with a look of surprise splayed clearly across his face –the boy hardly needed eyes to be expressive, not when his face was such an open book.

“I’m brash and have no care for how people see me but-” Sakura pouted because seriously, her attitude was hardly the problem, “-when it comes to my patients, I try to be gentler. That was something I forget because all the people I’ve treated over the years, got used to me. I got used to it and I was callous with you. I scared you.”

“Yo-you didn’t scare me…” The kid mumbled shyly, a blush forming on pale cheeks.

Sakura huffed out a choked laugh but otherwise didn’t say anything to agree or disagree with the other’s words.

The redheaded girl snatched the scissors from the ground and moved slowly toward the other. She kept her movements obvious and loud as she approached, not wanting to startle Nagato again and make him panic, again, “Can I…check your eyes now?”

Nagato was quiet for a moment before he nodded in answer. Resisting the urge to beam, Sakura shuffled her body closer to the smaller boy with outstretched hands. She gently glided her fingertips across the side of his face, giving the boy an indication that she was near and going to start before she got to work on the bandages covering the top half of his face. The room was filled with the near-silent snip, snip of the rusted scissors which was followed by a hiss from Sakura. She clenched her teeth in agitation as she peeled the cloth away from Nagato’s face, revealing gaping, scarred holes. There was no eyelids present which meant they were ripped out as well which confirmed the fact that Nagato wasn’t supposed to survive after his eyes were taken.

“When did this happen, Nagato?” Sakura asked softly, her voice cautious and lacking any sort of pity as she analyzed the old wounds –the last thing the kid needed was to be treated as if there was something wrong with him.

The redhead shifted uneasily under her ministrations but answered nonetheless, “After my parents-…I was on my own for a while after I left home. I don’t know how long it had been, maybe a couple of months, when a ninja attacked me.” His throat closed up all of a sudden, making it hard for him to breathe as he tried to speak.

Noticing this, Sakura pulled away and slowly set her hands on Nagato’s bony shoulders. He flinched when she started to massage the tension in his muscles but he slowly settled into himself once again. Nagato swayed slightly, leaning into her touch but apart from that calmed down enough for her to let go but not enough to continue her examination.

“Are you okay?” Sakura questioned softly.

Nagato nodded and breathed out a quiet sigh, flexing and pulling on his fingers, “Y-yeah, I’m g-good. I just-…I can’t-I don’t remember much from…that time.”

“You don’t have to tell me about what happened, Nagato.” The redheaded girl reassured the other gently, “I just needed to know when you got the injury. How old are you, Nagato?”

“Five…” He mumbled as he twisted his fingers in between the hem of his ratted shirt.

Sakura bit her lip, stomping down her urge to scream out her aggravation. She hated this. Watching this kid –this kid who had been stripped of his eyes and left for dead –fumble around fearfully made her want to hunt down the person who left him like this and string them up with their intestines. Instead, Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself down and let it out before she spoke again, “Okay, well, your nerves scarred over and won’t cause you any harm in the future which…is a miracle in itself. However, you won’t be able to ever get a transplant. You’re going to be blind for the rest of your life.”

The redheaded boy froze at the news. Sakura cracked her knuckles nervously as she waited for the inevitable breakdown. She couldn’t imagine how the kid was feeling –she couldn’t comprehend the feeling of ever losing one of her basic senses. As old and experienced as she was, her vision meant everything to her and if she had one day woken up blind, she really didn’t know what she would do.

Nagato sniffled lightly, his button nose turning red as his lips trembled but there were no tears –the kid would never shed tears again. He crossed his arms over each other, hands rubbing his forearms as he hugged himself tightly, “I-I knew…that I would always be blind but-”

‘It’s hitting him now.’ She noted sadly, ‘Nagato had to push down all those feelings and move forward because even if he was blind, he was still alive.’

Sakura carefully stood up from the futon and left the room serving as a temporary medical center. She let him have a moment to himself as she grabbed a couple of blank pages and started noting the boy’s condition –she needed a file for him in case something did go wrong in the future. While Nagato’s internal wounds had healed as best as it could, things could take an abrupt turn and she needed to be ready for any possibility. The boy had raw bruising and burns from the tight bandages which she could heal in no time but otherwise, he was fine, if a bit underfed but that was common with war orphans –Yahiko and Konan looked the same. As for Nagato’s mental health…well, from the flinching and the panic attacks, she gathered he didn’t like touch all that much. That had been the reason why Sakura had left him on his own –people react differently during panic attacks and it didn’t help that his trauma resolves around physical contact.

All Team 7 could do now was look out for the kids. They needed to make sure the Ame Orphans were given the proper care they deserved.

Deciding not to leave the boy alone for too long –lest intrusive thoughts start taking over, she knew how terrible it could get –Sakura grabbed a roll of clean bandages and stalked back into the room, “Nagato, I’m going to heal the bruising around your face and replace your bandages, alright.” She announced as she approached the, now, calmer boy.

Nagato swallowed loudly before nodding his head shakily and whispered a quiet alright. It was kind of heartbreaking to hear.

Green chakra gathered in Sakura’s hands as she placed them over the boy’s skin, the bruising slowly faded and the minor cuts stitched back together. The red welts turned purple to blue then yellow before settling on a pale tone that matched the rest of Nagato’s skin. Sakura didn’t instantly heal the kid’s wound, just accelerated his own healing process which always took less chakra, for both of them. When everything looked better –well, as better as one could look with gouged-out holes in their head –she pulled away and settled back on the futon. Sakura slowly unrolled the dressings and started covering the scarred tissue, tugging the gauze around the kid’s head while making sure it wasn’t too tight or too loose.

“Um…Sakura-san…your hair is red.”

The unexpected pronouncement of her hair color made Sakura’s green eyes narrow in suspicion. She had never disclosed what color her hair was during the time she had been with either of the kids and while she knew that Yahiko or Konan could have told him –she didn’t think it was that. And what he said didn’t sound like a question. Nagato sounded so sure in his assessment that he could actually see the color himself which was stupid because the kid was physically blind and by her examination, would stay like that.

“Yeah.” Sakura answered casually as if his words didn’t shake her for a moment, “Why are you asking, kid?”

“You’re like me then,” Nagato stated with awe and pride in his voice.

Sakura raised an eyebrow at his declaration, barely resisting asking what the hell he meant. She forced herself to focus on her task and not think about how weird that was. The redhead wondered if Naruto had faced the same thing and just forgot to mention it to her and Sasuke –sage knows how forgettable that boy was on a regular day.

When she finally finished Nagato’s dressings, the redheaded girl relaxed on the futon and muttered a slightly tired, “Done.”

She sighed, flexing her fingers before stretching her arms in the air. Sakura had woken up early so she could tend to Nagato and while that normally wouldn’t be a cause for concern, the day before had really wrung her out. From manning the construction, what with Naruto out of Uzushio, to worrying about her perpetually late and utterly dunce teammate, then to staying up late with Sasuke –Sakura was already tired and the day hadn’t even started yet.

“Where are…my friends?” Nagato asked hesitantly, his voice as painfully shy as ever.

Sakura got up from the futon and proceeded to stretch her legs before answering, “Um, Yahiko hounded Sasuke to train him and Konan latched onto Naruto, I presume for training as well. There’s a rule of not sparring or doing any ninjutsu in the village so they might be on the outskirts of the island.”

“Oh…”

The redhead bent down, touching her toes and groaning all the while –she might have gotten a new body, a child’s body, but that didn’t stop kinks from sinking in. Heck, she felt the same age as before the whole time travel bullshit.

“…do I have to train too?”

Sakura frowned at the other’s tone, “None of us are going to force any of you to train. It’s a choice that has to be made solely by you.” She chose to say instead.

‘After all, there’s nothing worse than being forced to do something you don’t want to do.’

Nagato went quiet.

The Uzuchiha slowly rose from her position, rolling her muscles as she straightened her body to face the little Uzumaki boy, who was nervous twiddling his thumbs and shuffling about on the futon. She narrowed her emerald eyes on him but waited patiently for him to speak –she didn’t want to just bulldoze over his words.

“I-…I’m always scared.” Nagato admitted softly, his lips downturned in a frown, “I don’t…-I don’t like violence and fighting. But Yahiko always tells me…that I’m too sensitive and that I’m not gonna last in the world-”

Sakura’s thoughts froze, “What.”

The redhead looked visibly startled at the interruption, “-oh, um, Yahiko, he always goes on about survival of the fittest and all that. He said that I wouldn’t last a day out on my own.”

‘That little brat-’ The Uzuchiha scowled, ‘Wait until I get my hands on him. I’ll wring his tiny neck-’

“But…he told me that because I’m too weak to protect myself, then he’ll protect me,” Nagato revealed quietly, a small smile blooming on his face. It was a barely-there smile –couldn’t even be categorized as a smile in terms of what a smile was defined as –yet it was like Sakura was seeing Nagato for the first time.

‘Huh… I wonder if the old Nagato smiled as you did. A smile so similar to the ones Sasuke gives to Naruto when he isn’t looking.’ She thought to herself, her mind taking her back to the day of Pain’s invasion, ‘Ahh, your pain- I get it now Nagato.’

“I don’t want Yahiko or Konan to protect me.” Nagato suddenly declared, steel sliding into his voice, “I don’t want to stand aside and watch their backs. I want to stand beside them.”

Sakura raised an amused eyebrow at the announcement. It was pretty ballsy for someone who was just admitted to being a scaredy-cat. Nagato's face was practically fuming with his words, his skin matching the color of his hair, “Sakura-san, can you train me?”

All the air in her body left at the sudden question. Sakura exhaled another breath, it was shaky at best with how unbalanced she felt and, maybe, she shouldn’t be so surprised –the kid only really knew her at this point. And with how Naruto and Sasuke already got their hands full with their own little students, she was the last option available as a teacher. At least, in Nagato’s mind.

But Sakura had promised herself to never take on another student.

Not after-

The Uzuchiha clenched her teeth as she gazed at the hopeful, damaged cherubic face before her. It reminded her too much of another hopeful face –one that was older, doe eyes imploring and a face that had always been filled with such despair –and Sakura caved like a flimsy house of cards.

With her resolve shattered in the face of Nagato’s determination –so much like Naruto’s, so much like Ino’s, so much like her dear Ren’s –Sakura responded with an uneasy, “Okay, Nagato.”

Sakura knew that her former student would make his way into her dreams tonight.

“Sakura-san, could you tell me more stories about you and that pretty blond girl?”

But…maybe…it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Sure, kid.”

Yeah. Maybe, she could finally bury her demons.

“Naruto! It’s your turn to make dinner!”

“Hah! Why the hell should I make dinner?!” Naruto whined childishly as he tugged his cloak over his head properly. He really acted the age he looked which was pathetic, especially compared to the actual children they now had.

Sakura clicked her tongue at the other redhead, “It’s your turn, jackass.”

“I have been on the road for three months! Three months with no breaks! And as soon as I come home, I’m greeted with chores! Fucking chores!” The redhead cried out dramatically as if she said something blasphemous, “This is slander! Tyranny! Absolute bullshit, I tell ya!”

The redheaded girl just raised an eyebrow and pointed her finger toward their little kitchenette, “Now.”

Naruto shivered at the venom in Sakura’s voice, those poisonous green eyes seared into his soul, and his tail flopped under his cloak while his ears lowered in submission. Between the two of them, everyone knew who the predator was and who the prey was. The redhead whined in the back of his throat as he lumbered to the sink where the vegetables were waiting for him. He gagged in disgust at the thought of eating the various shades of green in front of him. If there was one thing that stayed consistent with Naruto, it was his intense dislike for anything healthy.

‘Ah, maybe I could-’

“And no ramen!”

Naruto pouted and cried inwardly at the unfairness of it all. Kurama just cackled like the asshole he was.

‘Shut down, just like that!’

The animal-eared boy sulked as he began to methodically rinse the vegetables under cold water while picking at the bad bits to throw away. Naruto’s ears wiggled happily under his cloak hood as he allowed himself to preen when he realized the sink tap didn’t blow up in his face this time. The house they currently inhabited was one of the first ones they had built from scratch and while the blueprints had been extremely helpful for the layout, the plumbing and electricity had been up in air. He had been in charge of making sure all the plumbing in the house and island worked while Sakura worked on the electricity. Sasuke had been scouring for information at the time so he had been no help whatsoever –not like he would have helped if given the choice.

It was safe to say that Naruto did not have a good time.

Team 7’s time as genin, doing menial tasks, had nothing on this shit.

The plumbing system had been a bitch to set up with no more than five leaks and bust pipes a day. Naruto had refused help the entire time, standing on the point of wanting to do it himself. He had held his position firmly until the toilet got backed up from a minor diarrhea accident –Naruto’s fault by the way –before he bailed to the mainland. The Uzumaki had swiped some books and blueprints on installations for pipelines from some stores without getting caught and if he snatched some ramen cups along the way then nobody was the wiser.

‘I’m fricking awesome, Kurama!’ Naruto cheered in his head, his tail swishing from side to side.

Kurama just grumbled at his vessel’s over-exuberance.

In the meantime, Sasuke cleared the dining room and eating table of all the scrolls and sealing equipment littered everywhere while Sakura fetched some more chairs and cutlery for the meal. The Ame orphans had taken to exploring the island; provided they stayed away from the more dangerous and dilapidated areas so Team 7 had enough time to sort everything out before they came back inside.

Naruto sighed tiredly as he unpacked the defrosted udon noodles he had managed to ‘procure’. The miso broth was simmering on the little stovetop, not up to the boil he wanted but just enough for the noodles to properly cook. Simultaneously, the whiskered boy created a clone to check on the fishcakes he had popped into the oven and the chicken that was frying on the other stove. Naruto had decided to cook Miso Nikomi Udon for everyone –it was getting a bit chilly which made it the right time to make it. He rolled his shoulders and tapped the knife twice on the cutting board before he began to chop through the greens, mushrooms, and tofu efficiently.

If there was one thing that Naruto learned explicitly how to do, all on his own –it was cooking.

As an orphan with hardly a dime to his name, other than the monthly payout for being parentless, Naruto had to make do with what he had.  Most of that time that had been store-bought ramen which had been easy to make and cheap on Gama-chan, but that changed when the aunties in the Akaa-san started giving him a meager amount of food spoils. Naruto had decided to save up on his money and started cooking on his own. There were multiple tragic accidents as a result and many times he debated just giving up so that he didn’t end up wasting precious food again but Naruto was stubborn as hell and pushed through.

It was a skill Naruto was extremely proud to have –something that was his own, something he learned on his own.

“Oi, Boss, this is done.” The clone at his side called out as he pointed at the chicken.

“Alright, start getting the bowls ready ‘cause I’m almost done here,” Naruto stated softly as he transferred the diced-up goods into the frying pan with the chicken.

The half-fox boy took in a deep breath, inhaling the slightly spicy fragrance of the noodle soup –he had opted for something more direct in terms of taste. It wasn’t too spicy for the kids though, but it would settle warm and heavy in everyone’s stomach. Naruto’s ears swiveled attentively when he caught the distant thundering of footsteps getting closer. Making sure his cloak was secured properly on his head and that his tail was tucked in good –he could have used the henge seal but he wasn’t really in the mood –before the kiddos burst in.

“Sasuke-san!” Yahiko bellowed loudly, a grin wide on his childish face, “Sakura-san! Turdpile! We’re back!”

“Oi! Why the hell do they get the nice greeting, you twat?!” Naruto’s eyes twitched at the blatant disrespect.

The little orange-haired menace smirked deviously at him before turning his head away, deeming the other redhead as insignificant and not worth his time. Naruto gritted his teeth and reeled himself back, he’d rather not have to explain to Sasuke and Sakura why there was a dead child in their living room. Oh, but he so wanted to lunge across the room and strangle the little gremlin. Nagato looked as shy as ever with a new set of bandages tied around his head. The underlying uncomfortable layer that he always seemed to exude was gone which was progress for everyone. And-

“Konan-chan~!” The half-fox boy squealed loudly as he launched himself at his student, “My lovely disciple!”’

The purple-haired girl flushed and beamed brightly at the attention and his words, graciously accepting his pawing and fussing while Yahiko gave him the stink eye. Konan giggled lightly, noticing the tension and dislike stemming in the air between her friend and her sensei. She pulled away from Naruto so that she could help guide Nagato to a chair at the dining table where Sasuke was already sitting. The dark-haired boy inclined his head in greeting before going back to his tea –Naruto had scolded him for trying to swipe some coffee earlier so he had to settle for tea. Seriously though, it was nearing seven in the night and the idiot wanted to drink coffee.

Naruto sighed in exasperation when he noticed his lover’s subtle pout. Most people would have missed it but he has known Sasuke since he was an actual child, Naruto was privy to many things concerning his lover at this point, “Stop pouting, Sasuke, and help me put the food on the table.”

“Can’t you use a clone-” Sasuke muttered childishly but still got up to help me out.

“Tsk, tsk, teme, who was the one who told me that overly relying on my clones is a bad thing.” The whiskered boy chastised his lover in disappointment as a smirk edged on his lips.

Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance and sent a searing glare his way. Naruto just snorted in answer and started plating the food for the dark-haired boy to serve –he’s been on the other side of that glare for years so it really doesn’t have an effect on him anymore. Not to mention, the other things that were so much worse and so much deadlier than mere glares so it hardly ruffled his feathers at this point.

Just as Naruto opened his mouth to call out to his third teammate, Sakura came strutting into the dining room with a couple of chairs stacked in her arms. She set down the three chairs with barely a breath lost before she took a seat with a huff. The younger kids fell in line as they settled into their seats while murmuring something under their breath.

“Sakura-san…” Nagato called out softly, a small smile brightening his pale features while Yahiko and Konan spoke amongst themselves.

The redheaded girl smiled in turn –it was a soft little thing that reminded Naruto of another young boy at the end of that look, “Just call me Sakura, Nagato-kun.”

Nagato flushed and mouthed a muted ‘oh’ before he drew himself together once more, “Um…-”

Whatever the kid was going to say was cut off when Sasuke and Naruto set bowls, already full of noodle soup, in front of everyone before they took their respective seats. A chorus of ‘itadakimasu’ rang out from around the table before all of them dug into their food. Naruto groaned when the noodles touched his tongue –the favor was just right for him –as he slurped the whole bowl into his gullet. He even took his time to chew the vegetables, instead of swallowing them as if they were Sakura’s soldier pills.

“Oiishī~” Konan sighed happily as she slowly chewed her noodles while taking sips of the broth.

Nagato smiled and nodded in agreement. The kid looked like he was doing well when it came to food since he was able to hold the chopsticks and eat without assistance, “It’s really good, Naruto-san.” He stated sincerely.

Naruto flushed slightly at the attention. He swiftly turned his head away from them so that they couldn’t see his expression –there was a small humble smile on his lips as he muttered, “Thanks, kiddos.”

“Hah-” Yahiko huffed indignantly, “I guess…it’s alright.”

The little menace smirked as he narrowed in on the redheaded boy, “It’s good enough for a jerkoff like you.”

The Uzumaki’s eye twitched at the insult towards him and his food –his delicacy was not just ‘good enough’. It was motherfucking sublime! And he was going to show this mini demon child what’s up even if it meant shoving the whole pot down his scrawny little throat.

“You creepy bast-” Naruto’s voice was cut off when Sasuke gave him a pointed look.

The redhead puffed out in annoyance and settled back into his seat. Naruto didn’t even notice how he had been almost all the way off his chair, ready to pounce on the little cretin and claw his eyes out.

‘Hmpf-’ Kurama scoffed in his mind, making his discontent known, ‘-tamed by an Uchiha. What a joke! Hah!’

Naruto tactfully ignored the sour old fox.

Sakura gave her boys a familiar look of amusement which was accompanied by a blatant cackle when Naruto sulked and refused to look at his lover –same old, same old. The redheaded girl blew a couple of stray hairs out of her face as she brought her chopsticks full of noodles to her face. Maybe she should finally cut her hair. It was getting too long for her to handle and the untamable mess was hard to manage; not to mention, the Madara’s comments were getting irritating. Sakura could only hit her teammates so many times before they reached the concerning part of the HP bar.

Sakura sighed as the homely and familiar flavor of the noodles and broth settled in her mouth, soaking into her tongue and taste buds.  She proceeded to shove a medley of fried vegetables –she was surprised Naruto even added the things –chicken and fish into her mouth along with the noodles. The redhead refrained from squealing aloud as she happily munched on the food. If there was one thing that she was extremely grateful for, it was Naruto’s ability to cook.

Hastily swallowing down the morsels in her mouth, “Hey Naruto, where did you get some of this stuff? ‘Cause I know that the villages and stands along the coast don’t have some of these things.”

Naruto paused in the endless inhaling of his food, and quickly chewed on his food before speaking –huh, manners –to her, “Ya really think I went around for the network only.”

“I bet that you’d kill yourself on ramen.” Sasuke piped in unhelpfully while his lover glowered at him.

“That sounds like an awesome way to die.” The whiskered boy puffed out, absolutely offended that his dear friends would bet on him –then again, this wasn’t the first time so maybe it was time for him to find new friends.

“Actually-” Naruto paused dramatically as if waiting for something but when no one reacted, he pouted slightly and continued, “-I gathered a ton of ingredients across the nations, some of the stuff I found was really cool. I didn’t even have to pay for most of them ‘cause most of the farmers gave them to me in exchange for manual labor.”

Konan’s eyes brightened at his answer, “Naruto-sa-um…can I come with you next time you leave the island?” Her question was loud and clear, but the nervousness of it was heard.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the request. While he wasn’t opposed to the idea, networking and learning about the nations was a skill that would come quite handy for the girl but he wasn’t certain of his ability to protect her outside of the island, especially with the ongoing war. Sure, Naruto had the power to do it but Team 7 was working on being discreet and working under Zetsu’s radar. The kids not being in the know didn’t help their situation.

There was also the fact that Team 7 was fundamentally weaker in their new bodies –that really put a damper on a lot that there initially wanted to do.

“Ano…” Naruto scratched an area too close to his furry ears, the appendages twitched at the action which caused the hood of the cloak to shift slightly, “-I don’t know about that Konan-chan-”

At the despondent face of one little purple-haired girl, Naruto amended his statement.

“-I mean, of course, I want to take ya but it’s dangerous out there and I’d rather not have you in the line of fire, kiddo.” The redhead stated with a frown on his brow.

Yahiko clicked his tongue at the whiskered boy’s words, “So what, we’ve been living in the heart of the war just fine before you kidnapped us.”

“Kidnapped?!” Naruto spluttered in aghast.

“Yes, you all did,” Sakura stated calmly as she sipped on a cup of steaming tea. She’d step in while her idiot friend got himself together, “And now that we’re here, you all don’t have to do it anymore.”’

The orange-haired boy’s face screwed up at her words, “You said that you would let us go whenever we wanted.”

“And we will.” The redheaded girl continued, not even fazed at Yahiko’s mounting annoyance and bratty behavior, “We’re not your captors. You freely came here to be trained, in a place isolated from the war and that is what we’re going to be doing. If you want to leave, fine by us, you can leave.”

Sakura set her cup on the table, the resolute sound that ran around them emphasized her next statement, “But all of you are under our care now which means we’re responsible for your lives. None of you are leaving here without some form of basic training, be it taijutsu or ninjutsu. Your lives mean more than a bit of exploration in this war-torn world, Yahiko.”

Sasuke copied his teammate as he placed his own cup down, “You know the realities of war Yahiko. You can go out after you have a way to protect yourself and your friends. That goes for all of you.”

Wanting to dissipate the sudden serious atmosphere, “Konan-chan, I’ll take you, all of you, exploring. I promise and I never break my promises, dattebayo.”

Konan's previous worried and sadden features smoothened out as she smiled softly at the redhead’s beaming face and declaration. She nodded in acquiescence and let the argument go, though, from Yahiko’s frown, she knew that the other would be sulking for a while.

Everyone fell silent for a moment. Eating and thinking over what was said in tandem.

“Um-…ahem-” Nagato cleared his throat uncomfortably before attempting to speak again, “Sasuke-san…you don’t have red hair.”

Another deafening silence rained down on all of them as they turned their heads towards the smallest member –hah! Yahiko could shove it! Naruto wasn’t the shortest –of this little group. Nagato squirmed visibly in his seat at the sudden attention. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the little redhead, remembering the question being directed at her as well which was weird. The certainty in Nagato’s words in knowing what color their hair was, was a little disconcerting especially when it came from a blind kid who they had never seen before –at least in this timeline.

Sasuke didn’t show his any of his discomfit but Naruto and Sakura were fluent in his speech so they knew he was unnerved by the sudden statement. The Uchiha prided himself in seeing beyond what others could with his eyes so as to face someone who could see without their eyes –well, it was weird for all of them.

Meanwhile, Naruto was freaking out, ‘I didn’t fucking tell them!’

“I don’t have red hair.” Sasuke affirmed tonelessly while Yahiko and Konan shared a panicked look over Nagato’s head, “Why are you asking?”

“You are not an Uzumaki like Naruto-san and Sakura-san.” Nagato stated plaintively, deviating from the question entirely, “You are like Yahiko and Konan.”

Sakura’s emerald eyes widened, and the vapid poisonous green darted towards her suddenly shrinking teammate. She glared at the boy and with pure force of will and knowing the idiot for so long, she signaled him with just her eyes and expressions, ‘You fucking knew about this. Why didn’t you tell us?!’

‘I forgot! I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me!’ Naruto cried out at his female teammate.

‘Why, why do you attract all the weirdoes, Naruto?!’ The other redhead called out as she eyed the way Sasuke and Nagato spoke to each other –Yahiko and Konan were sweating a bunch for some reason.

‘But he’s like cute-creepy, right? We can still keep him, right?’ The animal-eared boy asked with a pout, his eyes widening making his face look even more childish –and somehow feminine, eh, must be the Yondaime’s genes –Sakura could almost see the other’s tail wagging.

Her eye twitched.

“How do you know that I’m not an Uzumaki, Nagato?” Sasuke asked calmly then went right back to sipping his tea.

“You don’t feel like me or Naruto-san or Sakura-san.”

The Uchiha almost spat his tea out at the boy’s reason. Luckily, he had more dignity than that and quickly swallowed the liquid in his mouth, though the beverage didn’t help soothe his suddenly parched throat. Sasuke pointedly coughed and placed his cup on the table, “You’re right. I’m from another clan.”

Yahiko perked up at that tidbit of information, “Really? What clan, Sasuke?”

“I’d rather not disclose that information right now, Yahiko.” The dark-haired boy was quick to shut down the kid before he could start prying –once he started, he didn’t stop. The kid would make a good intelligence gatherer and if he had the stomach for it, he could easily work in T & I.

“Since you can feel me,” Sakura rejoined the conversation seamlessly, “then I should tell you that I’m only half-Uzumaki, Nagato.”

“Hm-mhm-just because someone is an Uzumaki, doesn’t guarantee they would have red hair although it is a defining feature.” Naruto interjected with a hum as he swirled his tea around with a spoon, “Along with the purple eyes. I had-I remember this kid who was half-Uzumaki but had blond hair and blue eyes.”

“Yeah, his father had freakishly strong genes,” Sakura muttered in amusement, barely stopping herself from snorting into her drink.

Sakura didn’t know what the Yondaime drank in his youth but it was strong enough to affect Naruto which was frankly ridiculous. Seriously though, generations of Uzumaki heritage –Kushina-san was a goddamn princess on top of that! –was beaten by a scrawny orphan boy. Sakura’s own family had been marrying outside the two major clans for decades and they still kept the Uzumaki hair, diluted as it was. Namikaze Minato was something else alright.

“That nifty ability of yours Nagato is called senjutsu.” Naruto stated while tapping the side of his cup with a slightly sharpened nail, “I have it as well and while the fundamentals between our two abilities are the same, the way it’s executed is different. I’m guessing that you’ve had it before your eyes…-your sensing should be stronger than before.”

Nagato looked eager enough despite the uncomfortable topic surrounding his eyes. The other kids also looked immensely interested, so the whiskered boy continued, “Because you’re blind, your other senses are heightened to make up for your lack of sight. This includes your senjutsu.”

“Do you want to become a shinobi?” Sasuke asked softly, his tone wasn’t exactly gentle but it did lack its characteristic blunt coldness.

Nagato looked down and pressed his lips together, his forehead creasing together in worry before he raised his head once more. He nodded his head in resolution at the other’s question, “I want to protect Yahiko and Konan.”’

“Who-”

“Sakura-san already agreed to teach me!” The redhead burst out before the question could even be uttered in full.

Heads turned towards the medic-nin, who was casually sipping her tea, completely unbothered by the sudden attention being heaped on her being. Sakura didn’t miss the subtle looks of worry that her teammates darted in her direction –they knew how broken she was after Ren so her taking on Nagato was a cause of concern for them.

But Sakura just shrugged and stated, “He asked and I said yes. Plus, he has potential and I think he could top me as the first blind medic-nin.”

A slightly demonic grin spread across her otherwise angelic features, “I’ll train him to be the best of the best.”

Naruto was silent for a moment before a smirk stretched across his petal lips. He guffawed loudly, the sound manic as it resonated around the dining room. Even Sasuke’s perfect visage cracked as he smiled a small devious smile because they knew well enough that anyone under their care would come out to be just as vicious as them.

The Ame Orphans were in for a real treat.

“Alright now, since that’s outta the way,” Naruto sighed as he collapsed on the gigantic mass of futons and blankets, “it’s time to sleep.”

The whiskered boy yawned widely as he shifted onto his back so that he was facing the white ceiling. As much as Naruto didn’t want to move from his position, he was currently lying on his tail which was incredibly uncomfortable –an understatement of the century there. He sluggishly peeled off his cloak, revealing his twitching furry ears, which were followed by the rest of his clothes. Naruto let out a noise of relief and contentment when he finally managed to free his captured tail from its restraint. The fuzzy appendage swayed high in the air, almost curious as if it was a pet seeing the outside world for the first time. Though, with how it acted most of the time, his tail might as well be a pet.

Naruto groaned as he stretched towards the small cabinet near the futons and hastily grabbed a brush from one of the drawers. The half-fox began to comb through his long hair when the door opened and closed with an obvious clack. Naruto didn’t need to look up when he felt the presence of his lover saddle behind him, quietly prying the brush from his hands. Azure eyes blinked drowsily as the bristles ran soothingly through the strands of his red hair, carefully moving around the protruding ears on his head. When pale hands moved from his hair to his tail, a soft rumble erupted in his chest and escaped from his throat in tiny panting breaths. His bushy black-red tail was gently handled as the whiskers of the brush moved through the fur from base to tip.

Sasuke placed the brush back in its rightful place before he moved to gather some clothes for the lover’s bare form –an oversized yukata should be fine. The trio hadn’t gotten around to buying their own clothes and was still using the abandoned wares from the island. Buying clothes was expensive and cost money that they didn't really have. The Uzushio vaults had been raided completely –clan secrets and sealing techniques had been more important to the islanders so any money was left severely unprotected as compared to the rest of the stuff. Team 7 had yet to find ways of getting any sort of funds between rebuilding the village, starting a spy network, and keeping an eye out for their particularly irritating weed problem.

And now, their dilemma on money just got pushed up on their list of things to do since they acquired three kids.

The Uchiha huffed out a breath as he quickly wrapped Naruto in the soft material while trying to make sure the idiot didn’t crack his head open falling over from the lack of sleep, “Naru…”

That was the other frustrating thing –their ages and bodies.

Team 7 was at their core adults in the bodies of children. Their mental fortitude was beyond what others could even comprehend but their bodies were still just that of babes without any former training whatsoever. A genin –heck, an academy student –could measure up to them with how they currently were, which irritated Sasuke to no end. As someone who threw a fit over Naruto’s progress as a child, this was just insulting on another level.

They had all of the knowledge as adults but they couldn’t use it, lest they overwork their childish bodies and take ten steps back in favor of a measly one step forward. While their experience was shot to the moon, their bodies were fresh from the trauma that molded their beings and pushed them forward –they were weaker. They needed more sleep, food, and water to survive. The training their bodies suffered through hell for during the war and Kaguya’s purge had been wiped clean.

It was fucking annoying.

Naruto had been on the road for months, and used multiple clones with no breaks –that included any fights he got in and sleep he disregarded. Then there were the events of yesterday to take into account and the subsequent night that didn’t involve nearly as much sleep as they needed or wanted. It’s no wonder why the knucklehead was so tired right now.

“Naru, I’m not letting you sleep on the floor.” Sasuke stated bluntly as he walked over to his lover’s sprawled form, “Get in the bed, now.”

Naruto whined loudly as he turned onto his side and curled into himself, outright ignoring the other boy as he went back to sleep. The Uchiha’s right eyebrow twitched under his mounting irritation which he was about to unleash on his numbskull boyfriend when the door opened and closed with a clack. His dark eye flittered upwards to meet emerald irises that were glinting with amusement. Sakura shamelessly divulged herself of her clothes as she strolled further into the room –the level of ease they all had with each other was something they barely even thought about now. After all, they’ve seen each other vulnerable in other worse conditions too many times to count so what was a little nudity and skin-ship?

“Did you tuck the little gremlins in, Kura-chan?” Naruto suddenly asked.

Sasuke snapped his eyes towards his boyfriend as he roused from sleep, rubbing his eyes in an adorable manner that should be completely illegal. The redhead yawned loudly, his maw openly and fully revealing sharp canines that never failed to make the Uchiha flush a bright cheery red. The bushy tail he had just combed through flicked outwards in attention before it, too, swayed drowsily like its owner. Sasuke had to reel himself in, stopping his urge to tackle the half-fox boy just so he could run in fingers through the fur again.

“Mhm-hm…” Sakura murmured as she pulled on a semi-fitting sleeping shirt and one of Sasuke’s boxers, “We kinda just shoved them into one of the finished rooms yesterday because of a certain someone-” She glared hotly at the whiskered boy, who had the decency to blush and apologize for his impulsive actions, “-thankfully, your clones managed to sort something out for them. I wanted to see them tucked in and sleeping. Sage knows, kids their age would have trouble sleeping because of all the bullshit going on.”

With that said, Sakura plopped down and sprawled on the mass of blankets. Naruto crawled into what Sasuke realized was basically a nest, tail twisting high in the air and ears fluttering lazily, and curled his small body around her slightly taller figure. The other redhead hummed softly before she turned on her side, hand reaching out for Naruto as she began to lightly scratch and stroke the areas around his furry ears. The whiskered boy purred loudly, the rumbling sound was like a lulling calm after the proverbial storm –it made Sasuke want to drop down and sleep for the rest of his life.

Sasuke quickly changed into a set of clean sleep clothes and joined the two redheads on the warm pile of blankets and limbs. He situated himself on Naruto’s other side, caging the half-fox in, which he seemed to really like if the loud thrill was anything to go by. Sasuke leaned in close, shoving his nose into the soft red hair of his lover as he slide his arm around the other boy’s stomach. The scent of grass, sunshine, and citrus was subtle but wholly there; he breathed it in as if it was the air he needed to live on.

“Is this-” Naruto spoke up, his words hitching in his throat, “we have kids now. Crazy, right?”

The redhead laughed humorlessly, the sound was hoarse and tinged with grief and sleep.

“Hmm…” Sakura sighed loudly, it echoed around the closed room, “Not the way I wanted kids but I’ll take it, I guess.”

“You always said you wanted children, Sakura. Here’s your chance.” Sasuke deadpanned as he coiled his arm tighter around Naruto.

Sakura snorted, though it lacked any amusement, “I didn’t think I would become a parent while looking like a child myself.”

“Or without Ino.”

The admission from Naruto was soft and said without thinking but it rang true and it made all of them freeze.

“Yeah…” The redhead answered after some time of them stewing in silence. Her tone was equally as soft and strained, sorrow dripping from each letter of the word.

Naruto whimpered slightly at the onslaught of negative emotions, “Sorry, Sakura.”

Sakura didn’t say anything in return. Naruto and Sasuke surmised that she wouldn’t talk or answer any questions they had about the redhead’s dead lover –she held an unfathomable amount of guilt for a reason they had yet to discern. But they knew that in time, Sakura would tell them whether it was because she was ready or when it became too much to handle.

Sasuke slowly stroked the stomach under his hand, the touch light and gentle, and elicited a small whine and purr from his half-fox lover. He tapped his index and middle finger twice against the soft pudgy skin before he curled up even tighter against Naruto’s back. The other boy hummed in answer and interlaced his own fingers with Sasuke’s and then slowly drifted off back to sleep. Sakura continued to run her fingers through Naruto’s hair, albeit subconsciously while she attempted to get some sleep. A bout of exhaustion swept through all of them, drawing them to a familiar darkness as their eyes shuttered and fell closed.

Team 7 hoped their dreams were empty tonight.

Meanwhile:

Near the cave housing, one hench-plant, and a creepy-not-dead-ancestor, a very suspicious aloe vera potted plant was dancing in the moonlight. It was a very…smug-like dance and definitely had nothing to do with the intruders from earlier that day.

Not at all.