(I don’t own Naruto or any of its characters. Please don’t sue me.)

Chp. 1 – A Glimpse

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“Daddy! Daddy! I want that!” Cried a little girl in Naruto’s arms. The little girl had long black hair that reached to the back of her knees. Her white eyes stared back at her father’s blue eyes with an eagerness that he himself hadn’t experienced in a while.

“Alright, go call your brother over and you both can have some.” The four year old girl scampered off to grab her thirteen year old brother. The blonde boy was looking at assorted weapons in another store.

“HIZASHI! Daddy says to come pick out some candy with me!” Hizashi looked at his little sister and picked her up and put her on his shoulders.

“Sakura, stop kicking me in the face!” The little girl giggled as she bounced on her brother’s shoulder. Even though Hizashi was only thirteen he resembled a boy of fifteen, and he had just graduated from the academy. Like his father before him he was not the brightest child, but he was determined. He was held back a year, but finally passed with some difficulty. This vacation to the Land of Grass was a reward for his hard work.

“Hey Dad!” Naruto looked at his children coming towards him. He saw his joyous daughter bouncing along happily. Naruto twisted the wedding band on his hand absentmindedly.

God Hinata, you would be so proud of how smart Sakura is. Naruto thought sadly. Hinata had died in the childbirth of his second child. Sakura would never meet her mother and know how much she loved her. Sakura would also never meet the woman for who she was named after. Naruto felt the tattoo on his left shoulder. Around the Anbu tattoo he had had a tattooist paint a pink outline over the familiar black swirls. It was his way of never forgetting Sakura and all she gave up for this damn village.

Naruto also felt the four year old tattoo encircling his wrist. Hinata always called to him saying, “You’re my Kyuubi. Never forget that.” Naruto looked at the black writing that stated My Kyuubi around his wrist and smiled. Naruto had lost all of the women in his life. He lost Hinata to child birth, he lost Sakura to suicide and he lost Tsunade to assassination.

Naruto’s dream had finally come to pass. He was Hokage. At age thirty-five he was the following in the Fourth’s footsteps. He hadn’t been able to live up to the name of Hokage as of yet, but every single villager present at his coronation had cheered and applauded. Since the death of Hinata Naruto had caused quite an uproar in the Hyuuga clan. Naruto loved Hinata; however he did not treasure her family’s values. When Hinata died Naruto severed his ties with the Hyuuga clan and changed his children’s name to Uzumaki instead of Hyuuga. He changed his will to give his children to Sasuke in the event of his death. Sasuke was a hunter nin now and he was twice as brutal. However, Naruto knew that if there was one person who would protect his children above all else it would be Sasuke. He didn’t mind that Sasuke was brutal, but he also knew that Sasuke may have been cold and brutal, but he was not as sadistic as Hiashi. Naruto would prefer his children be cold and brutal over sadistic any day.

Naruto had taken this vacation to the Land of Grass as his last chance to get out of the village before he took to the position of Hokage. He was going to enjoy it for all it was worth. Sasuke had come home to attend Naruto’s coronation and decided to tag along for the vacation.

“Hey Dad, where’s Uncle Sasuke?” Naruto was broken from his chain of thoughts of the last five years as his son spoke to him.

“I think he headed to the weapon’s supply. He wanted some authentic grass weapons to accompany his collection.” Hizashi nodded and bounded off to the weapons supply. Naruto joked around his children and told them that Uncle Sasuke kept a ‘collection’ of all the different types of weapons that all villages have. In truth, Sasuke wasn’t collecting; he was studying and doing recon. He would collect all sorts of weapons so that he could learn how to outmatch them in battle. Naruto thought a little white lie was in order so that his children did not become frightened of their godfather.

“Come Sakura; let’s see how many pieces of candy we can eat until we get sick.” Sakura jumped up and down at the idea. Naruto smiled and began to buy bundles and bundles of candy for his daughter.

When Hizashi found his Uncle he was surprised. While Naruto looked older and more mature, Sasuke looked paler and scarier.

Sasuke had been a hunter nin since Sakura died and he had become quite good at it. In order to do the things that hunter nin must he had embraced part of what made him an avenger. Where as Naruto wore his same basic black and orange outfit underneath his Hokage robes, Sasuke had changed his entire look altogether.

Sasuke’s headband cloth had ripped long ago, so he had replaced it with a long crimson ribbon that tied around his head and tousled his hair which had grown longer to reach his back. If one was looking at him from the back with his hair in a ponytail his profile was identical to dead older brother’s profile. Sasuke’s normal clothing consisted of long black pants and a black shirt. The short sleeved t-shirt let his arms covered in mesh to the wrist. Sasuke also wore black gloves to cover the burns on his hands after being captured for interrogation two years ago on a retrieval mission. He also now wore a navy, almost black trench coat with the Uchiha symbol printed on the back. Sasuke had also grown a small beard that resembled a goatee. Naruto had begged him long ago to shave the ugly thing off, but Sasuke liked it and continually refused. Sasuke bragged that the ladies loved a man with a beard, but Naruto knew the bitterness in the joke. Sasuke had never remarried or even dated since Sakura. He had become somewhat of a loner for the last half decade.

Hizashi adored his Uncle, because unlike his father, Sasuke never held back when it came to sparring. Once when Hizashi was sparring with his Uncle, Sasuke had broken three of his ribs and cut him across the chest.

Hizashi, even though he knew he shouldn’t have, saw his Uncle as a stronger and better nin than his own father. What he didn’t know was that Naruto held back only to help Hizashi. Naruto had learned through mistake after mistake that control and perseverance were harder to master than pure power. Sasuke never learned that lesson. For that reason Naruto was chosen as the Sixth Hokage instead of the Uchiha. While Sasuke may have been more powerful to the untrained eye, the elders saw him as unstable. And to a certain degree they weren’t wrong.

“Uncle!” Hizashi shouted as he approached the middle aged Uchiha. Sasuke turned his tall frame towards his godson.

“Your dad ready to leave?” Hizashi shook his head. What Hizashi never witnessed after that sparring lesson was the way Naruto almost killed his best friend.

Sasuke stood shakily at one end of the dojo as Hizashi was carted away to the hospital. “Have you lost what’s left of your Goddamn mind?” Naruto shouted.

“I didn’t mean-.”

“It doesn’t matter than you meant. SASUKE, you could’ve killed him! He’s just a child. He tried his best and you humiliated him and nearly killed him.”

“I got too into Naruto. For a second I forgot he wasn’t you. He fights so much like you……I saw you fighting me and always winning. I’m sorry.” Naruto was pulsing with orange chakra as he slammed Sasuke against the wooden wall of the training room.

“Do that again Sasuke and I won’t hesitate to send you to Sakura.” Sasuke’s eyes widened. Not because of what Naruto said, but because he saw in Naruto’s eyes that he actually meant it.

“You would kill me over an accident?” Sasuke asked with Naruto’s hand crushing his throat.

“I’ve done worse to people for less. Don’t forget what happened to Neji.” Sasuke nodded. Sasuke remembered when Naruto had tortured Neji with the seal of the Hyuuga clan. Neji had slapped Hizashi for correcting him on a jutsu. Neji was under pressure because Ino was suffering from a poisoning that occurred during a routine mission. Hizashi hadn’t meant to insult Neji, he just accidentally let it slip out. When Naruto heard about it he used the jutsu Hinata had taught him. Neji couldn’t walk for days due to the nerve damage done by Naruto. Medic nin said Neji was lucky that Naruto hadn’t done permanent damage.

Sasuke saw the energetic thirteen tugging at his long dark blue robes. Sasuke smiled and patted Hizashi on the head. “Let’s go meet up with your dad for lunch.” Hizashi nodded and walked along with his Uncle.

Sasuke’s thoughts returned to his wife. Sakura had been dead for five years and yet Sasuke couldn’t stop searching for her. Even though she was gone Sasuke always felt like she was still standing beside him. He had even tried to persuade Tsunade to unearth the grave to see if she was still buried. Tsunade had refused and sent Sasuke to Ibiki for evaluation on his current state of mind.

Sasuke remembered how happy she was until she killed Itachi that day. God, why didn’t I see it coming? I let her die because of you brother. Even in death you took the one thing I loved.

Sasuke thought back to the feel of her skin underneath his hands. He would trail his fingertips across her neck and watch as she giggled. Sasuke also remembered how she used to close her eyes when they made love. She never once looked at him, if she did she only looked at his eyes and only once he had donned the sharingan. She seemed to get lost in my eyes. But was it really my eyes she loved, or was it my brother’s? Was it all a lie!?

Sasuke thought back to how she would always cook his favorite meals and never complain once. She was strongest person he ever knew. She never once disappointed him, until she adamantly refused to try for children.

“Sakura?” Sakura turned over in Sasuke’s arms to look at him.

“Hmm?” She asked as she kissed his lips softly.

“I want a child.” Immediately he felt her go still in his arms. She turned her back to him as he curled around her small frame. “I want a little piece of you and me running around here.”

“You want to continue your damn clan.” She hissed. Sasuke frowned. She always used that as an excuse.

“No………well yes I’ve always wanted that, but I also want a child with your beautiful pink hair and my eyes. I want to see our child go through the academy.” Sakura didn’t turn over.

“Am I not enough for you?” Sasuke gritted his teeth then trailed his hand along her spine.

“You’ll never forgive me will you?” Sakura’s didn’t respond. “You’ll deny me a child because I…...”

“Because you stole mine.” Sasuke felt anger course through his veins.

He flipped her over and pinned her down so she couldn’t run away from the conversation.

“I wasn’t just yours it was his too.” Sakura gritted her teeth at him.

“So you meant to kill my child!? You took the one thing I wanted more than anything because it was also Itachi-.”

“Don’t say his name!?”

“WHY NOT!? WHY CAN’T I SAY HIS NAME?!” Sakura screamed in his face as he held her down.

“Because ever time you say it I’m reminded that you willingly loved him!”

“I also willingly left him! Are you keeping score? So I went and saved your ass, gave up everything for you and then I returned. Then you stole my child, and then I came back gave you what you wanted even after you took everything from me. Seems like you should apologize to me.”

“That’s all I do! I said I was sorry. I’ve said I was sorry every day we’ve been together.”

“Problem with saying sorry is that you have to mean it. I know somewhere deep inside Sasuke you were happy that day. Happy because you stopped Itachi from having what you want so badly. Happy even though you killed me inside. So drop it!” She shouted and kneed her husband in the groin as she wrapped the sheet around her torso and walked into the bathroom.

Naruto and Sasuke were walking along with the children to the ramen hut when Sasuke caught a glimpse of two children peering at the jewelry.

“Look Suya! Look at the pretty colors!” A little girl with black hair cried as she looked at the ruby pendant through the glass. The teenage boy smiled and asked for the man to bring it out for them to see. “Oh, it’s so pretty.” The young man asked the vendor how much and paid for the small necklace.

He clasped it around the child’s small neck. “There, now you have a necklace that matches Mom’s.” The little girl nodded excitedly. Sasuke smiled and then noticed the girl had pink streaks in her hair. As he was passing he saw the girl’s eyes. There were black and red and the same time. Sasuke saw the same swirl that he had seen all his life. Sasuke shook his head, sure that his mind was playing tricks. When he glimpsed back he saw the girl’s eyes were a pretty green instead.

“Are you coming Uncle Sasuke!” Hizashi yelled as the rest of his family entered the ramen hut.

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Hizashi nodded and headed inside. Sasuke stood holding his new weapons and watched as an older woman wearing a black robe came and crouched down and ran her fingers through the little girl’s hair. The woman was wearing a black mask with white lines painted around the eyes and lips. Her hair was long and black and swam around her ankles against the ground.

“Mommy! Mommy! Look at my new necklace. Tetsuya bought it for me.” The woman laughed and smiled as she picked up the child. The girl pulled a long silver chain from the robes of the mother and began to twirl it in her fingers. Sasuke activated the sharingan and zoomed in on the necklace. He dropped the weapons he was holding when he saw what it was. It was the simple silver design of Konoha.

The woman turned to the origin of all of the noise. She saw a tall man with weapons spilled around his feet. Sasuke met dark green eyes through the mask as he stepped forward without meaning to. The woman whispered a command to the older boy and he obediently took the little girl in his arms.

As quickly as they had been there all three of them vanished in the blink of an eye.

“Sakura?” Sasuke asked looking at the place where the woman was standing.

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Thanks to all of those who liked Lessons. I hope you'll liked Glimpse as much. Please R-e-V-i-E-w !! Thanks for reading.