10 Reunion or Separation

"Tou-chan!" the small boy shouted. He'd have startled his poor father if said father wasn't a world class shinobi and also pretending to be asleep so he could spend more time in bed with his wife.

"Seems you've been summoned" his bedmate said, sleepily.

"Maybe if I keep my eyes closed he'll get bored and go away."

"I can hear you, dattebayo!" the boy said before jumping on his father, causing the man to grunt at the additional weight.

"I'm up, I'm up. Now, what can I do for you?"

"Hima and I want you to play with us!"

"Sure, son, no problem but did you really have to wake me up for that? I don't have any missions today, it could have waited."

"No, it was too impor… im-por-tant" the boy sounded out as if the word was foreign to him.

"Oh, was it now?" the older man asked, only to see his son nodd sagaciously. "Fine, let's get breakfast and get ready for the day so I can take you both to the park."

"Yay!" the boy shouted, finally climbing off his dad and running out of the room.

"Good thing you didn't have any plans today."

"I actually did but seeing as how it involved activities that led to that little-" he stopped at his wife's glare, "bundle of love I could not picture my life without-" he stopped to see if it were sufficient and it was, the glare was gone, "maybe it was for the best."

"Probably, besides I'm not producing anymore Uzumaki anyway, Your clan must have been genetically inclined towards large headed babies."

"Gasp, I cannot believe you said that. Gasp, again." He said. "To make up for this slight to my ancestors, restitution must be paid."

"I had to push them out, restitution has been met."

"Sorry, it has not. My ancestors cry out for justice and I must follow through."

"You sound like the teme, husband."

"Oh harumph, harumph, harumph. Now, I must avenge that most grievous slight." he said with a glint in his eyes.

"Whatever you are planning, don't do it."

"But I must."

"I'm warning you, Naruto-kun."

"It takes some of the bite off the threat when you add kun, darling but all the same I will brave your wrath as my quest is righteous." he said as he tried to pin her to the bed to only have hold of a pillow, the seasoned kunoichi using a well timed substitution but her distraction didn't last long enough for her to escape as Naruto was immediately upon her, hugging her from behind.

"Now, I have you in my clutches." he said, starting to gentle move his hands across her body and kissing her neck, at the collar bone.

"Oh, whatever shall I do."

"TOU-CHAN, BREAKFAST!"

"Harumph. Why can't he be cute and quiet like Himawari."

"He's too much like you."

"I suppose so. Let me go feed him before he gets any louder."

Naruto, Boruto, and Himawari were having fun in the park when suddenly the ANBU and Hinata arrived. Naruto sensed their chakra but wasn't worried as he didn't sense any negative emotions. However, he was surprised when he was told that Jiraiya and Tsunade wanted to meet him outside the village. Although the location wasn't far, Naruto was curious why Jiraiya didn't send a toad instead of coming in person. He didn't have much time to think about it though and quickly said goodbye to his family before taking off. Boruto protested that big boys don't need kisses, not even on the top of their heads.

As he approached the designated location, he began to feel concerned. Instead of the expected two signatures, he detected five. One of them was significantly larger than the others, almost as large as he was when he was eighteen. Another one was familiar but weak, and the last one felt like that of a child, but surprisingly large. When he arrived at the clearing, he saw Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kisame, but the other two members of the party were not visible yet. He was puzzled as to why Kisame would be there, and nothing seemed to make sense. His confusion deepened when a little girl suddenly emerged from behind the adults and rushed towards him, executing a flying tackle that shocked everyone present. He instinctively caught the child, but only then did he get a good look at her. He saw something that disturbed him: eyes as blue as his, two whisker marks on each cheek, and long, stringy blonde hair.

"Hi, I'm Izumi." she said with a shy smile.

"Hi, Izumi-chan." he said, still not able to fully process what he's seeing.

"Naruto, we need to talk to you and… you aren't going to be happy but let us explain fully." Tsunade said. Naruto could only nod. Nothing made sense, no conclusion could come from the evidence he had, things he knew to be true, until the last member of the group revealed herself.

"How?" was all he managed to get out, but truthfully, he had so many questions. How was she alive? Why did she allow him to think she was dead? Why did she keep their child from him? Why did Jiraiya and Tsunade help? Did they know, and if so, how long? He was overwhelmed and couldn't process it all. He didn't know if he should be happy or livid, and he sure as hell couldn't manage to do both. He didn't even realize the few tears that had fallen from his eyes. All of this was too much for his heart. He had mourned his first love, and with effort and a good deal of patience from Hinata, managed to move on. But she was alive the entire time, alive but from the feel of her chakra, not well, at least not now. Every adult could see the war happening inside of Naruto as he tried to process all of this.

"Before we begin, maybe you should escort Izumi to the village with a shadow clone." Naruto nodded and created a clone seallessly, handing his daughter off to the construct.

"Wait" she said, getting out of the grasp of the clone and running toward Itachi, tears pouring down her face. "Can't you stay?"

"We talked about this, my time has come but you won't be alone and as long as you keep me in your heart, I'm never really gone, right?"

"Right."

"Besides, you have some younger siblings and you want to impress them, right?"

"Hai."

"Then dry your eyes, this isn't a sad day, sweetie. Remember, this isn't goodbye-"

"Just goodbye for now." Itachi smiled at her daughter before poking her in the forehead with her index and middle finger. The girl, in turn, smiled and returned to the clone, all watched as the pair depart, waiting for them to be out of earshot before they continued.

I was reversed summoned by the crows. That's how I survived Sasuke's jutsu."

"That's it? You were reversed summoned and never thought to let me know you weren't dead?"

"No. I had things in motion with the assumption I'd have died. I saw no reason to change course."

"No reason? None at all? Because I was just holding one. And how did you rope Baa-chan and Pervy Sage into this? Matter of fact, why didn't either of you tell me?"

"I couldn't, she was my patient, which I agreed to before I knew who the patient was. But I couldn't break privilege, not even for you."

"And what about you, Kyofu?"

"She convinced me it was for the best. The world was headed towards peace but it still needed you and that couldn't happen if you were distracted with your missing nin girlfriend."

"That was my fucking choice, Jiraiya."

"Even if it was, we couldn't take the risk you'd make the wrong one."

"So you let me think she was dead. You saw how messed up I was and you let it happen. Was your prophecy so important you'd ignore everything else?"

"No, it wasn't about the prophecy. You know what she's sacrificed, she made a request on how she wanted to live her last years. It may hurt but I felt she was owed this. It wasn't easy and I hated how much pain you were in but I stand by my decision."

"Oh, how honorable, Jiraiya. What about Izumi? Didn't I have a right to know her, for the first decade of her life to not be something I'm told about?"

Naruto was interrupted as Itachi had a sudden coughing fit. He was still angry but seeing the once powerful kunoichi so frail made his concern override it. Creating another shadow clone to leave with the other three, Naruto quickly picked Itachi up in a bridal carry and darted off; they needed to talk alone.

"So, Izumi-chan tell me a little about yourself." he said while carrying her on his back toward the village.

"Um… I like pocky but Kaa-chan won't let me eat much even though I know she sneaks some. I like to water plants. I want to be a kunoichi like Kaa-chan and I'm ok with shurikenjutsu and taijutsu but I prefer ninjutsu. I know some suiton from Kisame Oji-san but I wasn't allowed to learn more because I didn't practice chakra control enough."

"Ugh, chakra control exercises are the worse."

"They are! But Tsunade-baachan says it's important."

"It is, a lot of shinobi skills can be improved when you get better control of your chakra. So what else?"

"Jiraiya-Ojisan taught me some fuinjutsu but not much, he says you're better at it so it'd be best to learn from you."

"I'm pretty ok, I must admit. Most import thing is learning the basic, perfect calligraphy and imagination."

"Hai."

The pair move in silence for awhile, Naruto finding it difficult to speak as there's a lump in his throat. "Izumi-chan, I want you to know I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm sure your Kaa-chan had her reasons but if I'd known I'd been there for you, no matter what."

"Hai, Kaa-chan explained it. She says you have a hero's heart, that's why you can connect with people but if you knew about us you wouldn't want to be a hero anymore and instead focus on us. She said that with your help the world was becoming more like she'd always dreamed it'd be but in exchange we had to sacrifice time away from you."

"Oh, is that what she said?"

"Hai."

"Well, I don't know about being a hero, kiddo."

"Didn't you fight an alien on the moon to rescue a princess?"

"More or less."

"Sounds pretty heroic to me, Tou-san."

"I suppose it does. Hey, would you like to know a little bit about your brother and sister?"

"Hai."

"Well, first, there's Bolt. He looks a lot like me, so I guess he looks a lot like you too but don't tell him that, he's sensitive about looking girly. He's a bit loud and very enthusiastic."

"I have enough strength left to burn you with an Amaterasu, I am not produce that you just pick up and carry, Naruto Uzumaki." Itachi said as Naruto sat her down on a cliff in an out of the way mountainside.

"No, what you are is the most vexing woman to ever exist. Make me understand, Itachi. Why hide from me?"

"A lot of reasons, some of which we'd gone over. But it was partially because I didn't want to watch you watch me whither away."

"I wouldn't have cared, I'd been there for you."

"I understand that you would have taken care of me if I had asked you to, but I didn't want to burden you with my frailty. I know it was selfish of me to want to preserve your image of me as someone you respected and admired. I couldn't bear the thought of you seeing me like this every day, or worse yet, trying to find a solution when there wasn't one and feeling like you were failing me. I didn't want you to put your life on hold for me. You gave me ten more years of life than I was supposed to have, and you gave me a beautiful daughter. I wish I could have given you something in return."

"Itachi, all I ever wanted was you. I didn't need anything else."

"But what about after I was gone?"

"I don't know, I would have had to figure something out but you didn't need to socially engineer a preferred outcome."

"Why not, aren't you happy with Hinata?"

"Very much so."

"Good, then you wound up with the only other person that loved you as much as I did. If I couldn't be here to support you, to watch you become Hokage I wanted you to be with someone that could share in that experience, to be your strength when you needed it."

Naruto could only sigh. Itachi had such a convoluted way of thinking and it often centered on doing right by those she cared about while inflicting a good amount of pain on herself. She was a genius of a kunoichi and utterly unsuited for the shinobi lifestyle as it just twisted her in knots. He was awash in so many conflicting emotions about what she did but he knew she took no pleasure in it, truly trying to do what she felt was right.

The two individuals sat in silence, watching the sun slowly descending for the day. It reminded her of the times when she used to sit with him at the park, back when he was a lonely little boy. She had always been a comforting presence for him, and could soothe his wounded soul. The sunset also brought back memories of their time in Uzushio, where they found a moment of true honesty and intimacy during the greatest threat the shinobi world had ever faced. Their history had been bittersweet, but it was theirs alone. Now, ten years later, the first woman he ever loved was with him once again - the mother of his oldest child, his inspiration, and his guiding light. It was almost overwhelming to think that this time would be the last he would see of her. To have her for such a brief moment only to lose her again felt like a cruel twist of fate. Their relationship had always been plagued by bad timing and best intentions, as though fate itself had conspired against them.

Sensing that he was becoming increasingly distraught, Itachi turned toward Naruto and cupped his cheeks so that he would face her. She then kissed him. The kiss was not filled with searing passion, nor was it one of tender melancholy. It was a reassuring kiss, a sign that he would be okay. As she leaned against his forehead, she felt that her end was nearing. With the last of her strength, Itachi spoke her final words, "Goodbye, my love." And her chakra signature started weakening even more.

"N-no, this c-can't be happening."