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Chapter Text

Kushina's rumbling stomach is doing its level best to cut her customary Monday market run short and dragging to Teuchi's for a (very) late lunch when a warm familiar voice calls to her.

"Good morning, Kushina-san. How are you today?"

She's already smiling as she turns. "Good morning, Mikoto-san! I'm doing fine, what about you?"

"Awfully busy, I'm afraid," Mikoto smiles with a philosophical tilt to her eyebrows. "I'm sorry I don't have much time to talk, in fact."

"Aw..." Kushina makes a face. "It's been a while since we had an all-girls night, y'know."

"I know," Mikoto replies, sounding earnestly apologetic, then blinks in what a stranger might mistake for a sudden realization. "I might make some time for a tea tomorrow, now that I think about it - is 10:30 alright for you?"

Kushina hesitates - Mikoto knows Kushina dedicates her mornings to fūinjutsu, and now that she pays attention she notices there's a hollowness in Mikoto's expression, a mask worn to fool somebody who doesn't know her like Kushina. "Sure!" She replies, doubling down on her glad smile to hide her vague unease. "I can drop by the Inuzuka compound on my way home to let Tsume know."

"There is no need to," Mikoto smiles politely. "I hear she is readying herself for a mission - I would not want to disturb her preparations."

"If you say so," Kushina shrugs, deliberately keeping tension away from her gestures. Mission or not, Tsume would gladly find the time for a quick chat - it's been a while since Mikoto brought Sasuke over to either of their homes, and even more since they were invited to Mikoto's. What is going on? "Usual place?"

"I will have the reservation made," Mikoto nods with a polite this conversation is over smile. "See you tomorrow, then."

* * *

Kushina is so worried she gets to the tea parlor early - and the fact Mikoto isn't already waiting for her at their booth does nothing to soothe her nerves. She's glad their favorite tea place serves enough shinobi that nobody bats an eye as she sets up a quick privacy seal around her booth, the outside world quickly turning into fuzzy blotches of color and indistinct noise.

Thankfully it's not long before a Mikoto-shaped blur drops by the counter to order then confidently steps through the privacy seal's boundary. "Good morning, Kushina-san," she nods in greeting, worry bleeding into her poise now that she's safe from prying eyes. "I apologize for interrupting your sealwork. Everything's alright with Naruto-kun, I hope?"

Kushina waves dismissively at the apology - they both know the hour of the appointment was a deliberate signal of urgency. "He's being an adorable hellion, nothing out of the ordinary. How are Itachi-kun and Sasuke-kun doing?"

"Sasuke is doing fine," Mikoto smiles as she takes place opposite Kushina, a brief glimpse of serenity. "He was always motivated by Itachi's example, but Naruto-kun's play-rivalry is making him eager for schoolwork. I'm so proud of him. Itachi..." the smile fades. "He's shutting me out - shutting everybody out more and more. He knows he's one of the best hopes for our clan, and he's shouldering everything Fugaku and the elders shove unto him without a word to anyone except for textbook manners. After Shisui's death... they were very close," her gaze drifts off, heavy with worry. "Itachi is strong, but he should not have to be this strong at his age."

Kushina's heart aches for her friend. She puts a hand on the table, palm up to offer contact, but Mikoto's hands remain on her lap.

It takes some time for Mikoto to speak again, gaze low. "I... may not be able to forgive my clan for putting Itachi up to this."

Kushina's eyes tighten, feeling the pain in her words. "Mikoto..."

"I may not be able to forgive Fugaku, " slips out of Mikoto's mouth in a shameful breath.

The words knock the breath out of Kushina. Mikoto has never been the kind of woman that blinds herself to her husband's flaws and mistakes, but her trust and loyalty never faltered like this before. Kushina reaches for comforting words as she takes in the cracks in her friend's composure. "I'm certain you and Fugaku will find a way through this, Mikoto."

Mikoto's eyes tighten for a brief moment. "I can only hope."

A cold shiver runs down Kushina's spine. There's something in her brittle tone she does not like . "...what do you mean?"

Mikoto hesitates. "The clan is restless, frustrated... paranoid. A paranoid police force in a mistrustful public... that's a recipe for disaster." Her words are barely above a tightly controlled whisper, and even then it's obvious there are big things she's not saying. "I can only hope my fears are unfounded, Kushina; that the tension will be resolved before something... irreversible happens." Her shoulders drop a fraction of an inch in the hint of a sigh; when she finally meets Kushina's eyes, her exhaustion is palpable. "You're the only one I can entrust my true feelings to, Kushina. I cannot express how grateful I am for your friendship."

Kushina is humbled by Mikoto's words, but she frowns thinking of their common friend. "Tsume would never-"

Mikoto shakes her head minutely. "What I just said is critical intel about a noble clan, and she's all but sworn to report it to her clan head. I won't force her to choose between me and her clan."

Kushina opens her mouth, then closes it again as she notices a blurry waiter patiently waiting outside the seal. She thrusts an arm through the boundary and gestures for him to approach, both kunoichi schooling their expressions to greet him with politeness.

When he is gone, Mikoto is quick to reach for her cup, finding comfort in the scalding hot tea. Kushina hangs her head, nervously drumming her fingers on the table as she lets her own tea cool down a bit. "Tsunade would never let the situation spin out of control."

"I can tell she's doing her best," Mikoto concedes, but the blankness in her tone is a clear signal of how little she thinks it matters, "but there's all kinds of bureaucratic nonsense that makes me think someone in her staff is deliberately stalling negotiations. I know how that sounds, but I swear there's something shady going on." Mikoto adds, as if Kushina could ever doubt her judgment - which in turns unnerves Kushina even more. The term negotiation doesn't help either, suggesting outright opposition.

"What do you mean, stalling?" Why would anyone in the village willingly increase internal tensions like that?

There's a displeased twist in Mikoto's lips. "Appointments are being moved and canceled with so little forewarning nobody within the clan can argue it's not a deliberate insult anymore."

Kushina frowns; there's something deeply weird about this whole situation. "Tsunade-"

"I know Tsunade wouldn't have any of this," Mikoto interrupts her, "but she can't cancel other vital meetings for our officially unscheduled ones without being accused of favoritism toward the most maligned clan in Konoha."

Kushina scratches her forehead, bewildered. "But who would plan such a thing?" Who would benefit from driving such a wedge among the village clans?

"Your guess is as good as mine," she replies, but her eyes are tight around the corners. "The scheduling errors always seem to come from assistants' honest mistakes or for somewhat legitimate reasons, which means any accusation of deliberate meddling..."

"...would make the accuser sound paranoid." To be honest, Kushina herself might have doubted if anyone but Mikoto would have come to her with a similar accusation. "Damn."

Mikoto just nods, staring into her tea.

Kushina leans forward and covers one of Mikoto's hands with hers. "We'll find a solution, Mikoto. I'm here for you, whatever you need."

That gets her a smile, but a small and hollow one.

* * *

Less than a week passes before Kushina is startled awake by a sudden noise in her dark bedroom. She's scanning her surroundings for danger even before her brain fully kicks into gear - no suspicious noise and no movement except for a scroll gently rolling to a halt at the foot of her futon. The scroll looks like a jōnin report scroll, but the seal is unmarked which makes her think Anbu - nobody but Kakashi would have been able to throw something in her room without triggering the house's protection seals anyway, which she can feel are standing strong and undisturbed.

Ears open for any contradiction to her conclusions, she carefully picks the scroll up and opens it. The details clearly identifying the document as a heavily redacted Anbu report are blacked out as well, but she helped Minato with enough paperwork to recognize the document's structure and choice of words. The idea of Kakashi smuggling an Anbu report to her in the middle of the night instead of coming to talk in person is already alarming, and every word she's able to read in the lamppost light filtering through her window ties a knot in her guts.

Uchiha compound

methodical slaughter

single survivor

Kushina's shaking hand flies to her mouth, the taste of bile in her throat.

Chapter Text

The funerals are... eerie.

Kushina attended the rites for the fallen of the Kyūbi rampage and the Third War, but they can't quite compare. The heartrending loss of Mikoto is there, but Kushina feels so... hollow. Disconnected. How do you deal with an entire clan being wiped out overnight? How do you face the fact a whole district of bustling activity was turned into a slaughterhouse while your son slept peacefully not half a mile from it? What about the pompous bastards that, for all their solemnity, look relieved? If Kushina hadn't been with Naruto, her sweet boy bawling his eyes out for his beloved Auntie Mikoto, she wouldn't have trusted her odds of going the entire day without bashing someone's face in. So whenever a passerby gives them a funny look, or a clan head lets some impatience seep through their mask of propriety - I have better things to do with my time clearly written in their eyes - she lets her son's crying pull her back into the respectful grieving Mikoto and her clan deserve. Today exists to respect their memory.

There will be time to exact terrible vengeance tomorrow.

Kushina doesn't notice Kakashi until he reaches down to tousle Naruto's head. "Have you considered adopting Sasuke-kun?" He mutters in the way of greeting, quiet enough that Naruto can't possibly hear him over his own sobbing.

Kushina bites down a halfhearted remark about lateness - every shinobi with Anbu-level clearance has been working non-stop since the massacre, kept going via soldier pills and just enough rest so they don't drop dead from exhaustion. She just huffs at his question, confused. The kid isn't here, obviously - the medics haven't even allowed visits yet, let alone having Sasuke out of the hospital.

"There is pressure to make him live in the Uchiha district," Kakashi adds, voice between blank and casual.

The idea of Sasuke confined in the mansion where his parents were murdered before his eyes makes Kushina's blood boil. "That's not funny," she snarls under her breath, and immediately regrets it - her brain jumped from "mad near Kakashi" to "Kakashi being a troll" without conscious thought. Stupid. She carefully puts her burning fury away once more. Not yet.

"It really isn't." There's steel in his voice and in his exhausted eye when she meets his gaze, but he softens when he sees the apology written on Kushina's stricken face.

"I'll look into it," Kushina mutters. She can't promise more than this right now, not with one hand around Naruto's and the other closed into a white-knuckled fist, and Kakashi thankfully doesn't ask her to.

* * *

She would have never thought that keeping a lid on killing intent against fellow Konoha shinobi - in a full-fledged assembly with clan heads and civilian representatives, no less - could be so hard. She can only focus on keeping her temper steady as she's scrutinized like a dangerous specimen, isolated in the middle of the council hall like she's a suspect of a crime instead of a trusted family friend petitioning for the adoption of an orphan.

"I would also like to point out that everybody present has lived through a compelling reason why putting Uchiha Sasuke under your roof is not a good idea," Danzo casually points out, not tired of putting out bullshit objections all morning from his place at the left of Tsunade. Even worse, all elders and civilian representatives in the peanut gallery hang on every slimy word of his like he's the second coming of the Sage, some of the latter nodding even as they clearly have no idea what he's talking about.

Kushina cannot honestly believe this man. "Are you saying Sasuke-kun would try to control the-?"

"Mind your words, Uzumaki-san." Danzo glances meaningfully at the civilians members of the assembly. "Despite your... familiarity with the incident, the event is heavily classified." Again, half of the assembly joins him in a stern look at Kushina.

Her hands clench into fists, knuckles itching to bash Danzo's thick skull in. How dare he-

"Speaking as someone familiar with special security details," Kakashi speaks up from one of the few seats not reserved to elders and clan heads, tone and expression eerily blank, "I see little problem in stacking multiple individuals of interest in the same secure house - a house still sporting defenses adequate to shelter a Kage during wartime, might I add. Should anyone worry about Sasuke learning dangerous Uchiha jutsu, having him live outside the Uchiha District would undoubtedly be a relief - any access to such techniques would be significantly limited and easy to monitor besides." Kushina doesn't know where this last point comes from, honestly, but it gives Danzo pause so she loves it.

It barely buys a few second before the asshole rallies once more, unfortunately. "You would keep the future of the Uchiha from his birthright?" Danzo raises an eyebrow in what it's probably supposed to be mild outrage, the motherf-

Kushina bites her lip, feels blood pooling in her shaking fists. Keeping herself from strangling Danzo where he sits is all she can do right now. First he accuses Sasuke of being a danger to Naruto because of his Sharingan, then he "defends" his access to clan jutsu? All to keep Sasuke, a child the same age of her son, stewing in his own misery? How can he stand looking himself in the mirror?

Kakashi shrugs casually. "I am just pointing out that his potential access to... problematic jutsu would be easier to track." His face is an unreadable stone mask - he has to appear neutral, Kushina realizes, detached, lest Danzo will interrupt and accuse him on basis of his feelings as well. "I am also under the impression that living with a friend and a trusted guardian would make him less likely of being in need of special observation in the future. Could you confirm that, Tsunade-sama? Has the psych eval team reached a consensus?"

Tsunade's own facade slips for half a second, showing a glimpse of gratitude toward Kakashi. "They have," she declares. "They have strict instructions for short-term hospital treatment, but their long-term assessment is that once Uchiha Sasuke is healthy enough for discharge he would greatly benefit from a stable, healthy home life."

"I wouldn't dream to object to a medic's wisdom," Danzo lies, like a liar, "but I would loathe to overburden a kunoichi with as many responsibilities as Uzumaki-san." He must be referring to the Fox again, despite all the talk of classified bullshit. "Certainly there are preferable alternatives that wouldn't weigh as much on someone with much on her mind already - maybe too much, one could say."

Now he plays concerned, the piece of shit. "I am asking for this, councilman," Kushina all but snarls, spitting his title like an insult. A dark, horrible thought stirs in the back of her mind. But how would a Konoha councilman, of everybody, benefit from this shitshow?

"Your devotion to your late friend does you credit, Uzumaki-san," Danzo replies, cool as a fucking cucumber under Kushina's furious glare, "I just posit that this is an important decision with deep ramifications that should not be made in the wake of overwhelming grief." Again with the fake-ass concern-

Tsunade speaks up before Kushina can say something she'd regret. "Would you object to an evaluation under direct Hokage oversight, Uzumaki-san?"

Kushina hates the formality and the implied doubts about her judgment, but now Tsunade is not the friend that oversaw Kushina's recovery and would personally turn anyone hurting Naruto into red paste - if Kushina didn't get to them first - but she's the woman under the Godaime hat, and it wouldn't do to show any favoritism to Kushina. So she stamps out her frustration in order to answer her with somewhat resembling an even tone. "Of course I wouldn't, Hokage-sama."

"Very well," Tsunade replies with finality. "Specialized professionals will ascertain whether this solution is the best for everybody involved." And not meddling old bastards, Kushina can almost hear. "I will oversee the process and personally take the final decision when their report is ready," she declares, somewhat pointedly. "This meeting is adjourned."

Danzo has the decency not to overtly gainsay the Hokage in full assembly, at least, and Kushina slowly, carefully, starts to let some of her anger go.

Chapter Text

In spite of Tsunade's direct oversight, the following days are chock-full of bullshit. The young medic in charge of the evaluation seem suicidally determined to test the limits of Kushina's patience (the woman really risked a few teeth when she genuinely asked "Would you say your goal in this stuation is replacing the patient's late mother?") and an entire team of desk-shinobi is tasked with drafting piles of paperwork specifically designed to ensure Kushina has no access to Sasuke's assets except for an extremely detailed and honestly insulting requisition form for compensation off a minor's inheritance (as if things she did or would do for Sasuke incurred any debt whatsoever).

Still, she holds onto the memory of Mikoto as a compass and she carries on, channeling her poise and propriety as best as she can.

The medical nonsense becomes significantly more bearable when a very mellow older man takes over the psych eval; he explains his younger colleague was finally given some well-deserved paid leave, which sounds like the typical shinobi "the problem was solved, don't press the issue" blatant lie so Kushina doesn't investigate further - it's not like she's objecting to the man's smooth professionalism after all, and somewhere in the medic's mild smile there's a hint of steel that makes her… reluctant to step on his toes unduly.

How did the saying go again? Don't provoke the man holding the scalpel?

* * *

Kushina is very grateful Tsunade's "final decision" doesn't entail another full village assembly; Kushina drops by the Hokage main office, with only Tsunade herself and Shizune as witnesses - not counting the Kage's hidden security detail, of course - and after half a dozen signatures in as many scrolls, one of which she gets to finally keep, Tsunade congratulates her with a sigh that's at least three parts of annoyance at procedure to one part exhausted relief. Kushina offers a genuinely sympathetic smile, hyper-aware of the weight of the scroll in her pocket.

As soon as Kushina knows the date of Sasuke's discharge, she writes a note to the Academy teachers forewarning them of her son's absence; Naruto has been growing increasingly more restless as they big day approaches, there is no way he'll listen to one word his teachers say the day Sasuke moves in with them.

When the time comes, the mellow medic takes her aside as Naruto glomps Sasuke; the man subtly slides a small container in her hand. "The boy suffers from frequent night terrors," he explains, "one pinch mixed in water or milk before bedtime will help him sleep through the night." She has come to respect the man - his way of talking about Sasuke can be eerily impersonal at times, but it's still way better than the hushed, meaningful whispers of many strangers. Kushina nods gratefully, and the man leaves with one of his textbook polite smiles.

The three of them don't attract unusual attention - at least, not more than a fully hyper Naruto usually entails - but Kushina can't help but feel the eyes of the entire village on them; she tunes in on her son's idle chatter to focus on what's really important, staying on Sasuke's other side so there are no strangers stepping in the boy's personal space. Sasuke looks somewhat tense, dodging eye contact and burrowing his hands in his pockets to hide his fidgeting, but the morning is beautiful and the walk home is uneventful, so Kushina sends a prayer to Amaterasu in thanks for small blessings.

If refraining from scooping Sasuke up and holding him to her chest for a month was hard in public, it takes conscious effort not to do so as soon as she closes the front door behind them - she's fairly confident Sasuke is both too numb and raw at the same time for her to make a big deal out of it. She smiles warmly at him instead. "Anything to eat or drink, Sasuke-kun?" The only reply is a vague "hn," but it sounds like a negative one, so… "Let me show you your room, then."

Sasuke follows her without a word. Naruto run excitedly ahead, and he's outright bouncing in place by the time they get to the door next to his own bedroom.

It's not until Kushina's hand brushes the door that an unbidden memory knocks the wind out of her; for a moment she can feel Minato's hand on her growing belly, she hears Minato's soft whisper promising an unborn Naruto a sibling. She screws her eyes shut and leans on the door to hide her stricken face to the children - her children now, by law if not by blood - and forces her breath steady, letting the moment pass.

Her hand doesn't shake as she opens the door to Sasuke's bedroom.

Naruto all but shoves Sasuke in, finding no resistance, and starts racing across the room as he explores; the bedroom is the same size as his, and the furniture fairly similar, but Kushina realizes this is the only room in the house Naruto has never set foot in - the house has a proper guest bedroom, after all, and Naruto's friends always share his room during sleepovers.

This room always had a different purpose, and for a moment it's all Kushina can do, not to show how raw she feels as Sasuke takes his first tentative steps in the room consecrated to a broken dream.

Sasuke looks as mildly overwhelmed as she feels as they watch Naruto open every drawer and closet in the room; after a moment, Kushina gathers herself enough to point out where she temporarily put all the things Tsunade-handpicked shinobi brought over from Sasuke's old room. The boy's gaze vaguely follows Naruto in his investigation.

"Don't make a mess of Sasuke-kun's things, Naruto," she gently warns him; her favorite blond menace shoots back an apologetic gaze, hand rubbing the back of his head, but Sasuke himself barely reacts.

"I'm going to get a head start on lunch, y'know," Kushina eventually announces; she got up early specifically to pick up fresh tomatoes at the market, after all.

* * *

Kushina is halfway through her lunch when she faces the fact she should do something about Sasuke having barely touched his food.

Kakashi jokes that food is the true Uzumaki love language, but that isn't honestly far from the truth; she doesn't honestly know whether it's related to the high vitality and chakra capacity of her clan or something that started with Kushina herself - Mito-sama wasn't like that, as far as she knew - but both her and Naruto wolf down staggering amounts of food compared to, well, anybody she knows, and can power through almost anything if supplied with enough calories.

She knows it's not the same for everybody, and she is obviously aware of the entity of trauma Sasuke went through, but it's still a gut punch to see Sasuke idly chase the tomato salad around his plate, the katsuoboshi onigiri sitting untouched to one side. That is the moment when Kushina starts to genuinely feel out of her depth; Naruto has always been a handful but physical affection and, yes, food are surefire ways to comfort him in a pinch, and she was never in charge of Kakashi's physical wellbeing. Sasuke, on the other hand, never struck her as a particularly touchy-feely kind of kid, and whenever she had him over the boy was usually famished after either a busy day at the Academy or many hours keeping up with Naruto's boundless energy, so Kushina isn't really experienced in dealing with a Sasuke unwilling to touch his favorite food.

Kushina is considering how to best approach the matter when Naruto, having already cleaned up his plate, slowly reaches for one of Sasuke's onigiri. She opens her mouth, but before she can stop him Sasuke lightly slaps his hand away from his plate and picks up the onigiri himself, leveling an aggressively unimpressed look at her son - possibly the most emotion he displayed in front of Kushina since… Before. Naruto's very mature reply is showing Sasuke his tongue but he laughs it off, eliciting hints of exasperated fondness in Sasuke's expression.

Kushina lets out a slightly exaggerated sigh. "That was rude, Naruto," she chides him, then picks up her last onigiri and takes a big bite out of it. Sasuke doesn't quite meet her eyes, but echoes her with an aloof "hn" and follows suit; he chews slowly, but she sees him perk up ever so slightly as he recognizes the familiar flavor. He ends up letting Naruto eat one of his onigiri, but she guesses that's alright - he gets through the salad as Naruto makes short work of the richer food, and it's not like Sasuke had many chances to tire himself out lately.

She smiles warmly at him when Sasuke's plate is finally empty. "Did you have enough, Sasuke-kun?"

The boy just meets her gaze for a split second before hiding half his face with his cup of water, but he nods politely. "Thank you, Kushina-obasan."

She lets the boys scamper off as she cleans the dishes, and she's slowly starting to relax with the familiarity of the moment when she hears Naruto yelp. It's not a pained sound, but a pointed one - Sasuke is being rougher than Naruto expects. The dishes are quickly forgotten as she gets to the engawa with a few swift strides.

When she gets in sight of the boys they are locked in a staredown in the middle of the garden; Naruto is pouting, barely winded, while Sasuke is openly glaring at him, arms crossed and breath ragged. Ah, that would do it - Sasuke's stamina is faltering already and he's frustrated he can't keep up with Naruto. Normally he'd chide Sasuke for not admitting vulnerability instead of banking on Naruto's utter unability to hold a grudge, but… maybe another time. "Can you help me with something, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke levels a last sidelong glare at Naruto before jumping to her with what looks a bit like relief; Naruto blows a raspberry at his back and starts climbing his favorite larch, pout already shifting into a focused frown. Sasuke glances down at her wet apron (that she forgot she's still wearing) before tentatively meeting her gaze. "With… the dishes?"

Kushina pretends she needs to focus to take her apron off for a moment - she didn't think it past breaking off the boys' standoff, to be honest, but if he only asked for Sasuke's help with chores he might get the message he's expected to earn his keep or something. Maybe… "I thought you could help me tidying up your things? It won't take long, and it will help you find them faster than if I did it on my own." Sasuke is way more organized than Naruto after all, by nurture if not by nature.

The serious boy glances in the general direction of the bedrooms with a thoughtful frown, then nods and head towards his room. Kushina looks up to Naruto with an apologetic smile, but he's already engrossed in scanning the nearby rooftops for birds and cats from his vantage point, small feet kicking back and forth as the summer breeze ruffles his hair. Bless his pure, uncomplicated soul.

Turns out Sasuke divides most his clothes strictly by training-grade outfits, garments for polite occasions and casual clothes; there is no worn-out-favorite-turned-into-pajamas kind of shirt, but she can't tell if his parents were too distinguished to repurpose clothes like that - Mikoto certainly wasn't that kind of person before marrying Fugaku, but she had definitely started to put more effort into appearances lately - or the shinobi rummaging in Sasuke's old room had just left his oldest things behind. Still, Sasuke doesn't seem to notice anything important missing, so Kushina just brings pile after pile of clothes on the clean futon and lets Sasuke divide them as he sees fit. She'll need to eventually either buy a bookcase or repurpose some shelving from the rest of the house, since it turns out Sasuke also had a lot of reading material in his room - but that's a worry for later.

They're almost done sorting clothes when Kushina sees Sasuke hunched over a slightly worn pastel shirt in a bird pattern she never saw on him; his eyes are unfocused, his left hand opening and closing against the cloth as if to feel its texture, or to grab onto something. His expression is eerily blank.

He doesn't react to Kushina quietly walking around him to kneel at his side. She tentatively reaches for his shoulder; he flinches ever so slightly at the contact but doesn't tense up further, nor he leans away. Kushina tries combing the short hair on the nape of his neck with her fingers, and Sasuke's own hand stills against the shirt.

After a moment, the boy shifts to lean against her side; he takes a long, shuddering breath, and some of the tension around his shoulders finally relaxes. She can tell there's still so much weight on those little shoulders, so many things tightly wound up within his heart. But she is there for him, and he knows it, and in that moment that's all she can ask for.

* * *

Kushina stirs awake that same night, an uneasy feeling coiling in her gut.

Was that noise…

Another sob reaches her ears. No, it wasn't a dream.

Kushina quietly rolls to her feet, suddenly remembering the drug the medic had given her that morning, and curses under her breath. She hastily rummages in her discarded clothes, finding… nothing. Did she leave the container in the kitchen? In the medicine cabinet? She mentally kicks herself for forgetting.

She softly pads out of her room, hoping Naruto hasn't woken up. She might still figure it out.

Both Sasuke's and Naruto's bedroom doors are open.

Fuck.

She closes her eyes and focuses on her hearing… two breathing children, not quite sleeping but not quite awake either, very close to each other.

Kushina peeks in Sasuke's room.

Naruto is draped over Sasuke as a weighted blanket, mumbling softly under his breath as he settles down. Sasuke's closed eyes are twitching, but his furrowed brow is relaxing, his breathing evening out.

Kushina smiles softly, eyes misty with love and gratitude, and silently closes the door.

They might still figure it out.