Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟗𝟓| "Lesser of two evils"

CHAPTER 95 — LESSER OF TWO EVILS
══════════════════

FOUR YEARS AGO

His gaze was transfixed by the smile that adorned her features. A blessing, he considered it to be, it'd never fail to stun him how each time she smiled, it felt as though it was the first time he had ever laid his eyes upon an image he wanted to wake up to every single day of his life.

Sasuke thought himself to be indecisive, yet the moment he met Dawn he had never felt so sure of anything in his life. That an existence of another was all the reassurance he ever needed to believe that good did come out of life, that the days he spent pushing through dark and distorted memories of loneliness and abandonment would be worth the suffering so long he'd find her in the end. His life felt like a long journey of obstacles and he was simply a lost individual unaware of what to do or how to act, his only source of direction being an unknown emotion that, despite the countless diversions, always led back to her.

He understood. Sasuke understood why he struggled and continued to endure even when things inevitably sloped downhill into a deeper hole with no way of being able to turn back. Little did he know that she'd follow him into that hole even if it meant that she'd be trapped with him for a long time, all the stakes against them, yet they had all the time in the world when they were together.

And there was nowhere else he'd rather be.

"Right, Sasuke?" Dawn looked at him expectantly.

He looked at her, distracted by the flour that stained her cheek, the chocolate on her nose and an egg shell in her hair. Was he curious as to how she managed to make herself a mess in under a few minutes? Yes. Was he going to question it? No. Not at all.

"Uh..." Sasuke looked at her eager eyes before glancing at Hitomi who gripped a wooden spoon, threateningly slapping it against her hand. He shuddered and opted some help from Jiro who was snoring away.

Great. He gulped, before plucking the shell out of her hair. "You have an egg shell in your hair."

"I do?" Dawn mumbled, touching the tip of her hair that nearly reached her elbow before blowing a strand away from her face. "I wonder how that got there. I didn't even touch an egg."

"Well?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow, one hand on her waist. "Answer her."

Sasuke refrained from muttering a few profanities and flicking her the bird, deciding that he'd ask Dawn to repeat her question instead. "What was your question, again? I was day dreaming." About you.

"Well, Hitomi established that she wanted to open her second bakery in Ame since it apparently seems very gloomy there and her treats will cheer everyone up, and since I'm her co-leader, she wants to make you the secret-bearer." Dawn grinned, rolling on her heels excitedly.

Sasuke blinked. "A secret-bearer? What's that?"

Hitomi let out an over-exaggerated sigh. "It means, that in under any circumstance something happens to Dawn and I, such as one of our secret meetings to take over the world but pretend you didn't hear that, you will legally be granted access to all my recipes and secrets to every single treat I make."

Her words sunk in and Sasuke couldn't help but feel strangely moved by the fact Hitomi would trust him with something like that, especially considering their... odd relationship and her tendencies to rile him up. He underestimated the effect her respect would have on him.