Chapter no.21

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Konoha Cemetery

It had been a few days since the Uchiha Massacre. Naruto was seething in rage at the moment. He had to use all of the willpower that he had built up over the years to stop himself from releasing his most deadly Katon jutsu upon everyone who was attending the funeral for the Uchiha Clan.

The reason for this silent rage?

Minato and the elders had decided to come and pay their respects for the fallen Uchiha, not only that but as the Hokage he had given a speech about how much of a tragedy the massacre was and how much Konoha would suffer from it.

Naruto knew that Minato probably saved many lives by ordering the massace and that he had made the right decision to stop the coup before it could begin. But he had made the right decision as the Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, not as his father. Naruto knew that the Hokage would have to do whatever was best for the village. However that also means that if the Hokage's own family stopped believing in 'the will of fire' then they would be eliminated as well.

That is what Minato did to his own son. The Yondaime had taken away half of Naruto's family from his. He had taken away Itachi by forcing his to slaughter his own clan, leaving only children and his mother alive, and forced him to become a nuke-nin. He had taken away Shisui with his inability to control his own advisors, letting Danzo run free. Minato should have known that the old war hawk would have tried to do something on his own, especially during a situation where the whole village's safety was at stake.

With these two actions he had lost his son.

It was raining now. It had been for the better part of the hour, but three figures could still be seen at the cemetery. All three of them were wearing black funeral attire. One was a beautiful older woman with black hair and pale skin. Her eyes were red from crying so much and had bags under them. The second was a young man with long blonde hair and was wearing an eyepatch over his right eye. The final one was a nine year old girl with empty black eyes and red puffy cheeks.

These three were Uchiha Mikoto, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, and Uchiha Satsuki.

The other Uchiha that had been left alive numbered no more than seven. Those who were old enough had already gone back to the compound, and those who weren't had already been escorted back to the orphanage.

All three of them were silent, not having the voice to speak from the amount of sobbing that they had done.

All three of them had different thought running through their minds.

'Why did it have to come to this? Fugaku had always been too prideful in the clan and wanted the Uchiha to spread their power and influence but...was this really the only way? Could things have turned out differently?' were Mikoto's thoughts.

'It this really what Konoha stands for? Fight side by side until their ideals start to waver from your own and then slaughter them just so they can't turn on you? Is this really what Ace and Shisui worked so hard for? I refuse to believe that this is all that there is to life...I shall live my life on my own terms until the day I die...freedom...family...and my own ideals...I shall live by those three things alone' was Naruto's declaration.

'Why? Why did Itachi do all of this? He put me to sleep with his genjutsu before I could find out why' Satsuki looked over to Naruto, 'I don't want to die like everybody else...if I die then Naruto-nii will be sad. I won't let his be sad. Never again, we promised that neither one of us would die. Was that the reason Itachi spared me?' Satsuki didn't know what to think of everything that her happened but she did know one thing, if she died her Naruto-nii would be sad and if Naruto died she would be sad. She would never let either of those things happen.

The massacre had hit them all hard, incredibly so. They were still picking up the pieces that Itachi had shattered and still would be for a long time to come.

That was when Mikoto started sobbing again. She fell to her knees and the tears started pouring down her face, mixing with the raindrops so they were barely noticeable. Naruto quickly got down on one knee and embraced her. He noticed he had been doing this a lot ever since her first saw her again the day after the massacre. Normally he would blush at the contact, but this wasn't one of her motherly hugs or the ones where she would press her assets onto his back. No this was serious. He had never seen Mikoto so broken before.

For now he just let her cry into his chest while stroking her hair, not uttering a single word. There were no words that could fix how she was feeling.

Satsuki was standing behind them, staring at her mother intently. She was jealous that she wasn't the one being embraced, but she understood. Her mother was taking things really badly.

After Mikoto started to calm down a bit Naruto decided they should get back to the compound, after all it was pouring out, "Mikoto, Satsuki...let's head home. I think we've spent enough time her today and the rain doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon...you'll catch a cold at this rate. Besides someone's got to look out for you two now."

Both of them nodded at his words.

Mikoto smiled for the first time since the massacre happened, it was rare for anyone to get a glimpse at Naruto's gentle and caring side. With that they left the cemetery to head back to the Uchiha Compound, Mikoto not ever letting go of Naruto's hand.