Work Text:
Harpy hare.
/Mother, tell me you will stay. We’ll be far and fly away./
There was first a loud bang of the door hitting its hinges and then, a shattered glass followed by a yell before another scream broke out.
Simply, they were fighting again.
He looked over at his sister and as he had expected, she was under the covers, her knees drawn to her chest as her body shivered.
Dad yelled something very loudly near the stairs and it seemed like mom was throwing a plate to the wall as the shattering sound rang itself across the space, bouncing off the walls and making his sister shiver harder.
He wished he could go out and tell them to stop, he wished he could go out and be brave so that he’d sister wouldn’t be so scared but, going out was scary.
His parents were scary right now.
He stayed on his bed and curled up harder into himself, mimicking his sister’s position.
There were more yelling downstairs and some terribly screeched words that both of his parents rebuked them, if they said it and then, abruptly, it all stopped.
There was a tense silence. Eerily.
Sarada poked her head out of the covers and glanced at him before their bedroom door opened slightly and mom walked in, shaking and seemingly rumbled up, as if he was ready to topple over any second.
He leant against the door a little seemingly trying to catch his breath and for a moment, Boruto imagined him readying back up to go out and yell at dad again before he took a trembling step forward and grabbed the wall desperately when he swayed.
Immediately alert at the sight of his mother nearly falling over, he reached out, blanket twisting his limbs before mom glanced at him, then at Sarada who was looking at him in equal amount of worry.
“Mama?..” Sarada asked hesitantly as she crawled to the edge of her bed, not really daring to step on the floor as they both watched mom grab the chair on Boruto’s desk and heavily sitting on it, his one hand going to his face and pinching his eyes.
He was crying.
Anger, seething anger pulsed beneath his skin, making him dizzy with it as he scrambled to his feet, blanket all but forgotten; he crept near his mom and grabbed his arm, feeling his heart breaking when mom looked at him with his teary eyes and smiled before sneaking his hand at his back and pulling him close, breathing at his neck.
Mom called Sarada over, a whispered “come here.” Before she had too joined him at the other side of their mom who took both of them close and kissed the top of their heads, moving away a bit.
Boruto hated his dad.
Mom never cried, at any situation, no matter what.
Mom was strong.
Stronger than anyone.
Dad had made him cry.
Boruto hated him.
Mom wiped his eyes before glancing at both of them, smiling a little before becoming serious and holding himself together-
Covering up his hurt once more, just like how Boruto had seen him do countless other times.
“I love you both so, so much, okay?” He whispered, dark eyes looking at both of them earnestly. They were getting watery again, rivers rippling against the midnight sky.
Boruto’s heart skipped a beat.
He didn’t like how mom said he loved them.
“Mama!” Sarada whined next to him, crying over her quivering lips and her lopsided glasses before mom brought his hand and took the glasses off her face, wiping her tears and smiling.
“You two are going to stay with dad for a while-
“Where are you going?!” They both asked panicky, holding their breaths and counting the seconds mom stopped in slight surprise before sighing tiredly.
In their arguments, he’d always threatened dad to leave him-
/I did it once, Naruto, I can do it again!/
Boruto had never seen mom anywhere but at their side but, there had been a time, before he was born, before Sarada was born that mom hadn’t been there.
He could see it clearly in the haunted look in his eyes every time mom said he’d leave him.
Like how he was actually going to do it now.
“Just a little away.” Mom replied with a tiny, pained smile as if he didn’t want to leave either, but had to.
“No!” He yelled as Sarada started sobbing immediately, throwing herself at their mom’s middle and holding his waist tightly.
“I’ll visit, I promise.” Mom said but, Boruto knew it was a lie-
He was leaving dad.
He was leaving them.
“ you’re gonna leave us?” He asked despite knowing the answer, despite knowing that mom had had enough and there was no changing his mind this time.
Boruto knew how determination looked on his father.
Boruto knew how acceptance looked on his mother.
Mom took a shaky breath, his eyes watery again before caressing his head, pushing his bangs away and leaning to kiss his forehead, poking it lightly before his hand went back to Sarada’s shaking shoulders where she was crying over their mother’s lap.
In moments like this, when mom was visibly torn between comforting them, Boruto had seen him get frustrated and one time, audibly saying he wished he had his other arm-
Boruto was used to him doing almost anything with one hand.
Mom was perfect the way he was.
Even if he was leaving them.
“When will you come back?” He asked, acceptance draining him of his energy, emptiness replacing the void in his heart; Sarada wailed in mom’s chest, fisting her hands on his shirt, refusing to let go.
“Mom! No, you can’t leave!” She whispered brokenly as if her tears were going to solve this-
They had, in the past. Boruto had gotten in many troubles whereas she was the good kid and it was usually her tears that got him out of the devil hold of his father but never from the wrath of their mom.
He was immune to it.
She was two years younger than him, so, Boruto figured, she probably still didn’t really know what decided looked on mom.
How there was no changing his mind when he’d settled something.
In Boruto’s seven years old mind, it was rather funny how Sarada could tell the difference when mom went to a mission and when he was just leaving for good.
No coming back this time.
So, he grabbed his sister’s hand and tried to be strong for her when mom kissed them on the head again and moved to the door, gave them another lingering look before closing the door behind him.
Leaving them.
The house felt a little colder even though mom had never really been a good source of warmth anyways.
He had cold skin.
————
Sarada cried the entire night and then, as the morning came and they never heard the front door being open and shut, that stupid hope blossomed and after calming his sister down, settling her on his own bed and crept out of their shared bedroom, noticing the dim light and their father’s sprawled form on the couch without any blanket or pillow and a bottle of some smelly liquid near his hand.
The stupid hope thickened in his heart and for some split second, he thought that mom was still in his parent’s bedroom and dad probably hadn’t let him leave-
Leave them behind.
Dad loved mom. A lot.
He wouldn’t let him leave. Right?
He tiptoed to his parent’s bedroom, creaking the door open only to be met with a eerie emptiness, their closest door open and half of the items belonging to mom gone.
The hope cracked, his heart shattering and Boruto hated how he still thought he’d see mom in the kitchen, if he moved there and yet, when he did go, the place was empty except the broken shards of glass where the plates and cups had been shattered.
The house was colder.
The shadows between the doorframes and furnitures were taller.
The shattered pieces stared back at him.
His sister’s wails were a little louder.
Dad was a looser.
Mom had turned the place upside down and left them all a little colder.
————————
Dad was, for the lack of a better word, a mess.
Completely destroyed was what aunt Sakura had called him when she opened the door to their house and found Boruto on the kitchen chair because the floor was still a bit messy and apparently, dad just couldn’t muster enough energy to do anything other than sit on that couch and cry.
Sarada refused to leave their room.
She wasn’t crying anymore, she was angry.
He didn’t know if he preferred her crying.
She was quiet and no longer asked for mom, in fact, she was withdrawn to the point of frowning and throwing random things across the room when he told her that mom would come back for them.
He said he’d visit.
Aunt Sakura cleaned the place up, picking up broken shards of glass before yelling at dad to pull himself together and come to help her with the house.
Dad was jolted back to reality a few nights after aunt Sakura and grandpa Kakashi talked to him, taking him out of the house to the fresh air and leaving aunt Sakura behind to take care of them.
He did as he was told but, Sarada glared at everyone on sight.
“Baby, aren’t you hungry?” Aunt Sakura asked patiently after the third time Sarada didn’t answer to anything else.
Her head was smothered under the covers and her entire frame was hidden save for the tuff of black hair visible beneath them.
“No, auntie.” His five years old sister replied, her voice completely muffled by the thick blanket around her.
“But, baby, you need to eat.”
Sarada stiffened, her shoulders drawing up and her face emerged slightly along a hand that was extended to him.
He perked up, locking eyes with her and when her black eyes, so similar to the set of their mother’s, watered as well just like that time right before he had left, he quickly moved to her side.
Her hand wrapped tightly around his wrist and her watery eyes spilled over.
Seemingly after gaining some confidence with his hand in her grasp, she moved her eyes back to aunt Sakura’s concerned ones.
“Please, leave me alone.”
The room was dark. Aunt Sakura’s eyes shone a bright yellow as her smile strained and she got up to leave with a kiss to Sarada’s forehead and a ruffle on his hair.
———
Sarada huged dad.
Boruto couldn’t stand him.
Sarada blamed mom for leaving them and making dad look so sad that he couldn’t even bare to enter their- his now- bedroom and slept on the couch; Boruto had heard him cry to aunt Sakura that the entire house had lingering shadows of mom. That their- his, damn it Boruto- bedroom still smelt like him.
Boruto blamed dad for mom leaving them, if only he’d listen to him, if only he’d be good and didn’t go on mom’s nerves so much, if only they had never returned to Konoha, albeit how Sarada and dad loved the place-
Maybe, mom wouldn’t have left.
He hated this place. He hated it’s tall, green trees, the mountain with the face of dead people, knowing one day dad’s face will be one of them of the dead, hated the way people stared at mom as if he was a freak, hated how they called him names, hated how he never responded, hated how dad tried to cheer him up and failed and failed and failed-
Mom stopped smiling.
He started aging.
Dad cradled Sarada’s head on his chest and rocked them both back and forth.
Boruto stayed away.
He wanted mom to hug him.
He wanted dad to go after him, find him and make him come home again.
He wanted dad not to be there, comforting Sarada when his sister was angry at mom and screaming in dad’s chest when she really wanted mom to open the door, come in and tell them that it had been resolved.
It was okay, again.
Dad continued rocking Sarada.
Boruto hated how dad was crying.
————————
Two weeks later of dad trying to make Sarada come out of their room, of trying to talk to him and Boruto being silent like a ghost, after getting drunk one night and crying in the corner of their- his- bedroom on mom’s side of the bed, his pillow in his hands with his face buried in it-
They moved out to a different place.
The house was smaller, Sarada and him were no longer sharing a room and dad had a small space for himself with a small bed, new sheets and whole different closet that wouldn’t be big enough for two peoples’ clothes.
The kitchen didn’t have the items mom used all the time. In the cupboard, Boruto checked, was no longer the red mugs mom used to drink coffee in, the silverware that mom kept neatly in one of the higher drawers were not here and no matter how much Boruto looked for it, he couldn’t find the tea mom used to brew.
The tomato bushes that mom tended to everyday back in their last house had wilted and decayed.
Dad only managed to save some of mom’s roses, his headband, one Kunai and a necklace.
Plus a wedding ring.
He had ignored the shirt belonging to mom Sarada had stolen from their parents’ closet right before they left the house. She hid it under her pillow, smelling it when she woke up from a nightmare and refused to look for them.
She never looked for them. Mom was usually there.
Dad didn’t know how to cook, or, at least, he wasn’t great at it.
He tried, but like most other things, he failed.
Boruto stared at the window of his bedroom, and wondered when mom would come to visit.
———————
/ you can’t keep them all caged, they will fight and run away, mother, tell me so I say./
Sarada stopped being angry after the third month without mom, dad worked and worked and worked until the rings under his eyes were the same size as the wedding ring that he didn’t wear but carried on a necklace that he had only seen on him when he’d been shirtless and had just come out of the shower.
Boruto started academy.
He got good grades.
He wished mom was there to see them.
Sarada was a genius, so good, in fact, that she had flung several Kunais at once and each and every single one of them had hit their mark.
Boruto could’ve done a bit better but, he’d been far too happy for his sister to hear his teacher telling him that one of his weapons had flown high and no where near the mark.
Sarada wore bright colors, emptied out her closet and didn’t wear anything that resembled their mom.
“I can’t escape him anyways.” she had angrily said that night when dad was still in the Hokage office and hadn’t come home again.
“You don’t have to-
“You’re not the one with his face, Boruto!” She snarled, resembling their mom a bit more with her tone and how deadly she could be when she wanted to be.
He didn’t voice his opinion.
“So, you wanna wear things you don’t like?” He asked, choosing to ignore her comment and hence, saving his head from being severed by an angry sister.
Sometimes, he wished that he had been the one with the inheritance of their mom’s face, if only so that he’d be able to stare at himself in the mirror and miss him a little less.
Sarada scoffed. “I’ll get used to it.”
She did get used to it. It took another month but, even Boruto got used to seeing his usually sullen sister with bright colors of red, blue, yellow, orange and everything that resembled their dad.
If only the brightness of her clothes could hide the tears spilling over her eyes when she still buried her nose in mom’s shirt she had stolen to go to asleep at night, even if the smell had probably gone out at that point.
He wished he could he could have a piece of mom as well.
————————
One fateful night, dad came home so late that Sarada yelled at him for staying out and working to his bones, her arms flying to her waist and her expression the spitting image of mom.
Boruto stayed lingering on his doorframe, watching as dad’s eyes welled up, the rings under his eyes dark and dark and dark before he sobbed, a hand going to his mouth and his forehead creasing as if he was in pain.
Sarada shut up pretty quickly.
“You sound like him.” Dad said as he passed Sarada’s stunt form and disappeared in his room where mom’s presence wasn’t there anymore.
Sarada had scratched her face bloody.
—————————-
The only thing that indicated that underneath Sarada’s coldness and hatred for their mother was actually a strong love was when a girl with purple hair started to stop by all the time.
At first, she said that she was a friend of dad and she had come to take care of them a bit because he was busy and just couldn’t make time.
Then, she started to make food.
Then, she started cleaning around.
Eventually, after a year or so, she stayed and didn’t leave after dad came home.
Boruto had yelled and screamed from the moment she called her son.
He wasn’t her son.
/ I’d love to come but, my kids are at home./ she had told aunt Sakura, declining her offer of a hang out.
Aunt Sakura, the only woman Boruto could actually tolerate without feeling hostile and weary, had given the girl, Hinata, a look full of dismay.
It was the first time the seed was planted in his head, after Sarada had cried herself to sleep and he could sneak a look into the living room where Hinata and aunt Sakura was staying when auntie said it.
“They’re not your kids, Hinata.”
The purple haired girl scoffed, the expression so incredibly foreign when all he’d ever seen on her was a soft smile and kind, loving, clear eyes.
She seemed like the devil.
She flipped her hair behind her thin shoulder, drawing herself up and in the place of the innocent expression she always wore, the confident tilt of her chin stood bizarre.
“They’ll be.”
The bottom of his heart dropped and only by some invisible force, was he able to keep still. He gripped the door handles and shook in fury.
Aunt Sakura frowned hard, like the times when dad was drinking too much, like that time she had slapped dad across the face and told him that he’s a father and he and Sarada were his responsibilities.
“Sasuke is going to shred you alive.”
She smirked. “He’s not here, is he?”
Aunt Sakura shook her head, pink bangs falling over her beautiful face as she got up to leave. Boruto wished she’d stay and at least, she’d go after mom.
He didn’t want Hinata to be in their home.
“Don’t fuck around with him, Hinata.” Auntie said as she rounded, staring at the sitting woman in a different look. Her jade eyes were sharp, predatory. “He left Naruto, not his kids.”
She left without saying anything else.
God, did he love her.
Sarada didn’t believe him the morning after. She rolled her eyes much like how mom did when dad had done something stupid and he was having hard time not kicking him over it.
Sarada was screaming when he came back from academy.
Hinata was in the kitchen, drinking coffee in mom’s favorite mug.
“You’re not mom! You’ll never replace him!” She screamed and pushed her and somehow, against his struggles to calm her down and Hinata’s fake crying and how she whimpered that she didn’t know, Sarada managed to grab the mug and raised it above her head to smash it across the floor-
No.
Dad had stuff of mom everywhere that only he used, Sarada secretly slept on mom’s stolen shirt but, he…
He didn’t have anything other than that mug that he’d drink from when no one was watching.
He lunged for it, struggling against his sister’s grip before finally taking it away, cradling the only thing left of his mom to his chest as tears sprung in his eyes.
“You can’t take it away from me!, that’s all I have left of him!”
Hinata pursed her lips but, Sarada calmed down, her eyes filling with tears as she bowed her head and left for her room.
Hinata didn’t stay the night. He was glad.
Half way into the night, dad had talked to Sarada and him, sat them both down and opened up to them for the first month in four months-
“I love your mom more than my own life.” he said, his eyes blue and blue and the rings under them dark and dark. The other ring, silver and round was shining from the collar of his shirt, the steel colliding with the moonlight.
“you two and your mom are the only people I live for.“
“then, why don’t you go after him?!“ he had asked a bit too harshly and he’d only felt guilt, for once after mom left, when dad glanced at him and smiled tiredly.
Exhaustion so deep that didn’t belong to days and nights spent in his office was there, right beneath his skin and in the depths of the ocean of his eyes.
“he doesn’t want me to.“
For once, Sarada prompted in. “Can’t we go? He didn’t tell us anything!”
Dad shook his head vehemently, yellow brows drawing together and his eyes wild. “ you won’t go.” He said with harsh finality before the coldness was replaced with his shoulders slipping and warmth coming back to his face. “I can’t lose you too.”
Sarada deflated, her eyes getting wet again.
“He’ll come back..” dad promised before his eyes haunted over. “He’ll come back for you.”
“For you too.” Boruto said, figuring that his dad was, perhaps, feeling a bit lonely too without mom around.
Dad shook his head. “Nope, I messed up this time.” He said, smiling.
Dad ushered them to their beds after a while, kissing their heads and ruffling their hair before turning the lights off and drinking until he passed out on the couch.
Deep into the night, a teary eyed Sarada came knocking on his door with a clutched shirt, too big to belong to her but too small to belong to dad in her hands.
She offered it to him, struggling to explain at his bewildered expression.
“You said you didn’t have anything of mom with you.” She whispered before thrusting the cloth to his face. “We can share this.”
They curled up on his bed afterwards, somehow, despite getting bigger, still fitting on the same bed and around the shirt that was worn and dry and a little dirty from Sarada crying on it all the time-
Boruto fell asleep with the smell of his mother in his nostrils after months of being deprived; he didn’t have any nightmares that night.
———————————-
Sarada told dad about Hinata, Boruto told him what he had overheard and aunt Sakura backed them up.
“It’s bad enough that you let him leave-
“He told me!-
“I don’t give a fuck what he said.” Aunt Sakura interrupted from where they could see her from Sarada’s creaky door.
They were supposed to be sleeping but, oh well.
As long as the adults thought that way.
“You chased him around the globe and just…” auntie sighed deeply, her strong arms crossed over her chest and her frown deepening.
“What happened Naruto?” Asked grandpa Kakashi from where he was sitting on the other side of their kitchen table, the book he usually read shut for once beside him.
He looked a little angry.
Sarada shifted, pressing even more on the door and for a split second, Boruto feared the door might creak and they’d be discovered.
Thankfully, the thing kept it’s silence.
“Hinata.” Dad said after a while. “He said she was up to something, that she was fucking with him and I just..” he sighed, pushing his face into his hands and sighing again with a groan.
“I’m an idiot.” He released in a breath.
Grandpa Kakashi flicked him on the head. “How many times have I told you to trust him on these things?”
“She just seemed…”
“Innocent.” Auntie Sakura finished with a disappointed stare.
At his nod, auntie started to look a little guilty before grandpa Kakashi frowned at her.
A question.
“Well, you’d better start thinking of apologies because he’d be here in a couple of days, anyway.”
His heart stopped, Sarada stiffened beside him as if she was made of stone and none of them reacted when the chair screeched as dad pushed himself up, grandpa Kakashi just sighing as if he had already anticipated it.
“What do you mean?!” Dad thundered.
Auntie Sakura squared her shoulders. “I mean that I told him she was around and messing around with the kids.”
Dad gaped, his mouth opening and closing and his hands shaking with a teary eyed look.
“Great, he’s gonna level the village to the ground.” Grandpa Kakashi prompted enthusiastically.
He hated the hope blossoming in his chest, he hated how Sarada started crying with a huge smile on her face that hadn’t been there for the last few months-
He hated how the hope thickened and thickened like a sob squeezing his throat.
—————————-
/harpy hare where have you buried all your children?, tell me so I say./
It took a week for the door to be opened silently.
During the time, dad had started wearing his wedding ring on his finger again, still he was looking bone weary, he still shook with a slight tremor and now, kept eyeing the door, the windows, didn’t drink and stayed up as much as he could-
Watching, counting the seconds.
Sarada fidgeted a lot, being a crying little girl that she was one minute, and happy with a big smile on her face the next.
It was as if she didn’t know how to react anymore, be angry or glad that mom was coming home.
He was just trying to fall asleep at night so the days would go faster.
The door opened, a familiar Chakra filled the small space of their house and the coldness that had spread and never seemed to go away, warmed again.
Boruto swung his legs over but, before he could even move a muscle, the door to Sarada’s room had opened and his sister had not thought twice and ran to the door, colliding with a body and wailing.
She was screaming.
He opened his door and pulled it open, his eyes widening at the sight of his mom, who he had dreamt of seeing again, on the floor, on his knees with his one hand cradling his sister’s head as she buried herself in his neck, hands fisting his shirt, crying.
And she kept crying.
Mom kept cradling her head, fingers going into her black hair and smoothing her skull. She hadn’t allowed anyone that close for months.
Boruto stayed frozen.
Mom didn’t seem to have changed at all, even if dad had cut his hair short and stopped wearing casual clothes.
Mom’s hair was a bit longer, he’d pulled it into a very short ponytail and his dark bangs were framing his face.
He let go of Sarada’s head and motioned for him to cover over.
Boruto crushed himself into mom’s familiar warmth and cried for the first time after months of being strong.
——————
Sarada didn’t leave mom’s side, not once, since he came home, either holding his pant leg or a small piece of him as he moved around.
He asked when dad was coming home and when they shrugged, his dark features darkened a little bit more.
Sarada told him everything, from the moment Hinata had come to the second she left.
Boruto wished she wouldn’t, mom looked like he was on a very dangerous edge of a cliff and any second, he might fall and take everything with him.
He was masking it well, but Boruto knew what anger, pure fury, looked on mom.
After a while, feeding them and Boruto eating a bit too much because he’d missed his mom’s cooking and Sarada finally grasping mom’s hand and not letting go, he ushered them both to bed and kissed their forehead.
Boruto bit his sister and was the one to grab mom’s empty sleeve, his eyes staring up at his confused face before he started crying.
“Sunshine, what’s wrong?” He asked, kneeling down beside him as Sarada squirmed around and pressed herself to whatever part of my mom she could reach, he smoothed down her hair but his eyes were on him, concerned and loving.
He had missed it so much.
“Are you gonna leave?” He asked in a small voice, barely daring to voice his question.
Sarada cried, curling her arms around mom’s waist and holding on tight. “No! You can’t!” She snapped before something fell on her features, probably remembering that this little argument hadn’t gone well the last time and mom had left anyways.
“If you go, I’ll hate you!” She screamed as she let go of mom and sat on the bed, face to face and tearful.
Albeit, Sarada’s sudden confidence, Boruto didn’t dare hope and only clutched mom’s empty sleeve harder.
Mom smiled, soft and so him before poking her forehead. “If I did go, I’ll take you with me this time.” He said, a cold finality in his voice, his features blank.
“What about dad?..” she asked as Boruto made himself as small as he could so he’d fit inside mom’s chest and never, ever let go.
“I’ll talk to dad.” Mom replied before kissing her head and making her lay back down.
He pulled Boruto’s bangs back and kissed his forehead, his dark eyes lingering a little before he made a promise.
“I’m sorry, I should’ve never left you two.”
/you two./
Boruto reminded himself that he still hadn’t seen the state he had left dad in.
Dad could barely tolerate to look at Sarada without bursting into tears, could barely stay focused in their house and be a father even if he tried his hardest-
/they’re soulmates, it’s painful if one is gone./ auntie Sakura said.
Mom left the room, turned the light of their bedroom off and disappeared in the living room.
—————————
Naruto opened the door and froze.
Stilled.
Buckled over almost but managed to keep himself upward by clutching the edge of the wall and staring at the man in front of him, drinking the sight of him.
His heart kept skipping beats, as if it no longer knew how to react when Sasuke was in the same room as him.
The same hauntingly beautiful face that Sarada had mercilessly inherited, the unfair amount of lashes, bottomless pits for eyes and the pale, pale skin shining silver white in the moonlight.
He hadn’t had the heart to stare at night and at the moon for months.
He sagged a bit, exhaustion catching up to him at the sight of his lover being back.
His throat clogged up.
He was wearing the exact same expression on that terrible night he had left him.
/I’ll leave, Naruto and I’ll take the kids with me!/ he had screamed and Naruto’s dumb brain as caught on the last part, forgetting that Sasuke himself would leave too.
/take one step outside with my kids and I’ll kill you where you stand!/ he had yelled, somehow, in the heat of anger and hurt and betrayal, not hearing Kurama screaming inside his head that he was being dumb and stupid, that he was forgetting Sasuke-
Sasuke had stood with a blank face, nodding once before going to the kid’s room, coming out with a red, teary face and going out to the night.
Disappearing from his life.
Sasuke was staring back at him, his expression blank once more and Naruto couldn’t fuck up, wouldn’t fuck up.
He took a shaky step forward and Sasuke’s face changed into one of anger, his mouth opening and telling him he was stupid, how dare he allow Hinata into their house, how dare he ever let that woman anywhere near his children-
Naruto just kept looking at his face as his eyebrows twitched into a deep frown, his nose scrunching at a particular, fully pronounced word in anger, the slow heat of red going on his cheeks and ears and he stormed and stormed and stormed and Naruto was lost in the woods with a thunderstorm on the top of his head yet, he couldn’t stop staring as the clouds clashed and clashed until he reached the moon and brought both of his hands up to hold the shining diamond that dimmed but was always there-
“I’ve missed you so much.” He whispered against Sasuke’s stunt, unjust amount of beauty and pulled their lips together, feeling a tight knot loosening in his chest when Sasuke didn’t pull back or push him off.
He leant back, observing the acceptance on the pale features and the glistening shine on his lips after Naruto had barely held back from devouring his mouth.
He didn’t let go of his face, thumbs underneath the eyes holding so much emotion and rest of his fingers buried in the thick strands of hair.
“We can leave any time you want,” he said, watching for any reaction. “I could release Kurama, all you have to do is ask.” He said because he would.
There had been a hole so hollow and shallow and deep and hurting in his entire beings that he just didn’t know what to do with.
If Sasuke asked, he’d do anything.
Naruto couldn’t do approximately of anything without him.
“Sasuke, I can’t live like this,” he sobbed. “I can’t breathe without you.”
Every time he so much as placed a tiny amount of oxygen in his lungs, the hole throbbed, reminding him of its existence and that no matter how much Naruto tried, he’d never be able to fill that empty space.
The dark eyes, so cold and sharp just a second ago, warmed and softened. “You said-
“Forget whatever the fuck I said.” He sobbed, uncaring for the tears that came out of his eyes, into his mouth and rolled down his cheeks and jaw, some of them salty and painful against the scars on his face, dipping into the shallow ends.
“Hinata-
“I could start by killing her first.” He promised.
No one, except their children mattered.
No one.
He’d kill everyone.
Anyone.
“You don’t have to go to such extremes, now.” Sasuke said with a smile so small and delicate, Naruto crushed him to his chest, sobbing wholeheartedly, repeating over and over in his ear that Sasuke couldn’t leave him, just please no-
Don’t leave me.
I’d do anything, just, stay.
“I love you so much, don’t leave me.”
Sasuke kissed his jaw, where Naruto had buried his head. “I’m staying.”
The hole in his chest smoothed over, slowly filling.
——————-
Boruto pushed Sarada off himself and creaked the door open slightly, his sister jamming her head into his neck to see.
Dad was holding mom like he thought he’d disappear, if he let go.
His teary blue eyes locked onto them and he smiled like how he hadn’t in the last few months.
He pulled back from mom who turned and waved them over.
Sarada crushed into mom’s chest and didn’t let go.
Boruto didn’t do such extremes and only held onto his pant leg.
He knew what staying looked on mom, anyways.