Shadowed Sun

Heart

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When Kurama told me that the invasion was taken care of, I wasted little time in teleporting to Naruto. Kurama and Naruto had been staying in contact (which was both a good thing and a bad thing) throughout the training session and invasion. Naruto, it had seemed, had asked Kurama to keep me out of the invasion as a favor to him.

Kurama, it had seemed, had agreed.

I'll spare you the tongue-lashing I had given Kurama. I knew that he would probably try to keep me out of the invasion, regardless of Naruto's opinion. His reasoning being that I wasn't needed—seeing how no one would die anyway.

I still didn't like it, but it would do me no good to simmer about it.

I appeared at Naruto and Sasuke's side in a flash of red, after Konoha had already celebrated his return and begun the rebuilding of Konoha.

The moment Naruto realized I was back, he hurtled himself at me, picking me up and swinging me around with a happy cheer. "Miwako-chan!"

"Aniki," I responded, a cross between embarrassment and contentedness. When he was done, and had finally set me down, I rolled my eyes and gave him a tight hug. "I take it everyone is okay now?"

"Yeah. Did Kurama fill you in?"

"You could say that. How are you doing, Sasuke?"

Sasuke spared me a glance, his eyes lingering a moment or two longer than necessary on me. "Fine."

"He is not," Naruto returned, glaring at Sasuke. "Show her!"

Sasuke folded his arms across his chest.

"Show me what?"

Then Sasuke stubbornly looked away for several seconds. Silence fell between the three of us, as worry and suspicion began to claw at me. Naruto glared at Sasuke in the silence. "Quit being an ass. You know we can trust her."

"It's not that I don't trust her," Sasuke snapped. "It's just—"

He abruptly fell silent, anger flaring across his face before he forced his expression into indifference. He clenched his hands into fists and relaxed them soon after. Hesitantly, I reached out to him and placed a hesitant hand on top of his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Sasuke sighed. "... I... I arrived back in Konoha earlier than Naruto. Naruto destroyed our food supply (and I was not eating theirs), so I asked for a re-summon. Naruto didn't arrive until after Pein had... destroyed most of Konoha. I, on the other hand, arrived just prior to his final attack. I found Kakashi-sensei, and I..."

He stopped, his brow furrowing and lips tugging down. "He died. I saw him die for me. He died so I could live, and he died just before Pein's final attack, and then Naruto showed up, and..."

A cold feeling had settled into the pit of my stomach at Sasuke's words. Unable to help myself, I reached out for him, grasping his hands—knowing he didn't care for physical contact, but knowing he needed it anyway. He needed a reminder that no, he was not alone, and yes, this is reality. I had a feeling that what was coming would be something horrible for him.

I had a feeling that level of pain he felt, that level of guilt, was enough...

... was enough to open a new world of pain for him.

Sasuke looked down at my hands, wrapped around his, and Naruto stepped closer to us. Naruto brushed his shoulder against Sasuke's, and that's when Sasuke looked back up at me.