Third Pov____________

It was the honorable third Hokage' s funeral, nearly the whole village had gathered to mourn the loss of their leader.

Konohamaru, the thirds grandson was crying his body shaking , his friend Naruto was also crying as he comforted the younger kid.

But Uzumaki Akumi stood silently her gaze fixed on the memorial that was placed.

It was unnerving to say the least. When she first heard of the news her strict facade slipped. She spouted out angry yells calling her informants liars and trying to shake the deceased man. Kept telling him that it wasn't funny and begging him to wake up.

But after that incident she had been painfully quite. Her gaze would at times be distant and she stayed close to her brother.

Her teammates were concerned, she had been opening up to them and all of a sudden she was blocking them out again. it had been days since she had last spoke.

"Akumi the funeral is over." Naruto sniffled as he tugged on his sister's shirt. He felt the tears swell up again as he saw his sister's slow and emotionless reaction.

It reminded him of how she would act when they lived in the orphanage and after he had moved back in with her after rehabilitation.

she gave a slow nodded and started walking to their apartment. "Naruto, don't you think akumiis taking the Hokage's death to hard?" Sakura whispered to her teammate.

"Were you guys close to him?" Sasuke asked noticing Naruto reaction to the news as well.

Naruto bit his lower lip.

"Yeah, she is taking his death pretty hard. But then again he was the only one that was there for her then." He mumbled.

"Then? You mean what happened in the orphanage?" Sasuke asked and Naruto shook his head.

"No, I mean the aftermath of it." he mumbled looking down at the ground.

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Flashback

Akumi had been healed, but there were several chakra suppression seals on her and she was curled up in the corner of a cell.

The civilian council was vivid and thirsty for the blood of what they called a unstable psychotic murder.

Timoro Detsume had been tortured, placed on trial and was on her way to serving her death sentence. But she wasn't the cause of the uproar.

instead the civilian council focused on Akumi, calling her the kyubi whore who manipulated the good citizen Timoro and forced her to do the demons bidding.

They spread elaborate stories about how the Kyubi was probably laughing at all of Konoha as his vessel and whore destroyed the village orphanage and turned it into a mass graveyard.

The small child wasn't really affected by the fear in people's eyes or their mistreatment and often mistaked them for kindness.

They could throw food on the ground, spit on it and she would think of them as kind and generous people for giving her free food.

This appalled the old Hokage. After her arrest that was done publically to place the civilians minds at ease. The old man would go to the child's cell everyday to teach her the difference from right and wrong.

At first she wouldn't understand being that they were so different than the norms she was used to.

Why was stabbing someone until they stopped moving so bad? Yes you had to throw them in a hole later on but in the end you could have done it because you loved them and that was good ... right?

As she slowly realized things, it began to plague her. The concept of death scared her more now. It was wrong and wasn't normal for parents to murder their children.

At night she would cry so loudly that her cell mates would complain about not being able to sleep in days.

She adjusted to the prison life quickly being that she was used to a routine life.

The Hokage was busy finding a loophole for the girl, making her bloodline carrier and a valuable survivor was enough to evade the death sentence but she didn't have many supporters.

But there were laws placed by the daimyo that even the Hokage couldn't ignore.

The old man paced and looked for a way out and he found it.

Her bloodline and a status of Shinobi could not only take her away from the clutches of the civilian council but keep her safe. The shinobi council understood what had transpired and weren't fooled by the rumors.

"Akumi, the Hokage wants to speak with you."

akumi looked up and nodded. "okay, Fugaku-sama. are you going to take me to his office?" she whispered clutching the hem of her shirt.

The Uchiha patriarch nodded as he opened the cell door.

He looked at the child with pity as she quietly followed after him. He opened the cell door and she quietly took his hand.

He lead her to an interrogation room where she greeted the old man with a quiet hello.

"Akumi, I know theses past few weeks have been hard with Naruto in the hospital and the new information that you've learned." he spoke calmly.

"You know they want to blame you instead of letting Timoro take the full blame. And I've finally come up with a solution. You'll be joining my shinobi ranks and be taught the shinobi arts." he stated and her eyes widened.

"Shinobi, that's what mama used to be, they kill people and are the village soliders. I..... I don't want to kill, I don't want to fight, I never want to touch another kunai or weapon ever again." her voice squeaked and her breathing became labored.

The old man frowned. "They will kill you akumi, you know this, they fear your abilities and will kill you. What about Naruto, when he wakes up he will have no one, what about you, you have so much to live for. I promised myself and your parents I'd protect you and I've failed so far but I won't let either of you die on my watch." the old man's eyes became hard.

She began crying her shoulder trembling she unconsciously rubbed her hands on her thighs.

"But old man, I don't want to hurt people, I never want to kill again, I can't forget their screams and faces. At night I still hear them begging me to stop, I can still feel their warm blood all over my body and it makes me feel dirty. I don't like it, I hate it, please I'd rather die. I've seen too many... I have too much blood on my hands." she began to sob her voice trembling as she spoke. She was afraid of herself and wanted to run away.

He gently grabbed her hands. " I too have my hands coated in blood, I've been to wars and fought, I fought for the future of the village, my clan and my family. I too hear their voices and see their faces at night. but when you fight to protect what's precious to you it's okay. You aren't like Timoro, she may have told you to call her mother but she isn't your mother, her crimes aren't yours. You were taken advantage from." his voice was calm, stern and filled with authority, she listened to every word he said.

"Fighting and killing to protect your precious family and those you love isn't a crime. You aren't a murder, You saved your brother and yourself. Uzumaki Akumi and Uzumaki Naruto would be dead had you not acted. It's okay to want to be selfish and want to save yourself. Our hands might be dirty but our hearts are clean and pure. We didn't do it out of spite, anger or vengeance much less out of malice."

"Even if your hands are dirty with blood your still a good person akumi, you have a pure heart and feeling guilty is okay . it means your still human." he finished off as she bursted into tears. he pulled her in into an embrace.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to be killed with Timoro, I want to live and see my nii-chan I don't want to kill people but I'll be a shinobi, I'll be a shinobi if it means I get to live!"
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"After Timoro's arrest, Akumi underwent major surgeries to correct the badly healed bones, and other abnormalities caused by that woman's constant abuse. I was, I was in a coma." Naruto stated his voice was calm.

Sakura and Sasuke listened closely when Naruto brought up his childhood, they were curious and wanted to know more.

"I had been starved and malnourished so badly half my organs shut down long before I was attacked, I'd lost so much blood and had been beaten so badly the nurses and doctors didn't even know what to do. They called in torture specialist to help them treat me and even they were horrified at how I looked."

sakura gulped at what Naruto said, she couldn't fathom how bad it was. Torture specialist were usually very unaffected by gore but for even them to be taken back, it must've been bad.

"I was in a coma for an entire year, By the time I woke up my sister was already a shinobi, she hates killing. She sometimes tries and scrub her skin off to try and take the blood off. " he added.

Sasuke couldn't help but remember the wave mission when Naruto mentioned Akumi' s hate of killing.

"The police chief Fugaku and the old man filled me in on most of what had happened while I was in a coma." Naruto stated and Sasuke froze.

"Fugaku, as In Uchiha Fugaku?" he asked and Naruto cocked a brow. "I don't remember his last name, but I haven't seen him since I was little. He had black hair and frown lines." Naruto stated.

"That....... That was my father. He was murdered five years ago along with the rest of my clan." Sasuke muttered and Sakura slowly glanced at him.

Sasuke and Naruto both had the same expression on their face one of anguish and pain. It tugged on her heart strings, she couldn't help but feel like a jerk, she used to treat Naruto badly and hit him, and She would treat Sasuke like some Ultimate Trophy to show off and have. She was realizing that she hadn't ever been considerate of their situations. She felt bad and guilty.

"He was a good guy, ya know. He was really kind to Akumi. Used to always visit her while she was locked up in prison. she also told me he'd bring home made bento's from his wife so she could eat sometimes. She's been looking for him for a few years now. Guess she wasn't told he died." Naruto mumbled looking down a few tears trickling the side of his eyes.

Sasuke too was bitting his lip trying hard to control his emotions. Maybe his stern cold father was a better person than he originally thought.

"Not alot of people like us, ya know. I'm the demon and she's the demon whore who kills and apparently does my bidding. Because of our kekkei genkai some people started rumors saying it was us who made Timoro do what she did but..... we were just another set of victims."

"People aren't that aggressive towards me, but they really hate her....... It took me three months to walk again and one to get the machines off me. The old man was always there, he protected us. He protected us from the civilian council, from other shinobi and made sure Timoro couldn't get to us again. He made sure we had a home, had anbu escort. He also made sure we had a fridge full of food and money. " Naruto says in a calm voice.

"Everytime we were scared we would latch onto his Hokage robes and it felt like the safest place in the world. He was our shield against everybody that tried to harm us. I managed to escape the bigger backlash of the incident but Akumi didn't, he protected her from everyone and even herself. " Naruto sniffled.

"We both have this paranoia that she someway gunna return and hurt us, we know she's dead but the shit she put us through still manages to make us wake up in the middle of the night and make us think we are back in the orphanage. I guess that's why I always eat an insane amount of food all the time, I guess I'm afraid that this is all a dream and that i'll open my eyes and I'll be back in that bed begging to be fed and hearing her walk down the hall to the room I'm in. It's the same for Akumi." Naruto looks down.

Sasuke and Sakura listen to him in shock and disbelief. They never really thought their happy go lucky teammate was so mentally scared.

"Timoro feared the Hokage, she feared him and that's why even if it's just subconsciously we latched onto him. That's why we were so close to him, and that he never really showed a underline interest in our abilities. To some we were as good as breeding stock for new Uzumaki and to reform the Uzumaki clan." Naruto sighed.

"I guess I've said too much. " he muttered. Sakura instantly hugged him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry for how I've treated you. I was so naive and dear god you've been through hell and back. I was a self centered brat and I want to you to know that no matter what you can count on me, I'm your friend and no matter what you can lean on me for support!" sakura stammered out as she cried.

she cried for his harsh life, for the inequalities and all the shit he and Akumi went through, because he was such a good honest person who didn't deserve what happened to him.

Naruto felt his chest ache, he felt happy and he wanted to cry. Guess the old man was right, maybe he could find people to trust.

"I'm here for you too." Sasuke stated placing his hand on his friends arm. Tears had swelled in the corner of Sasuke' s eyes .

"Now let's go get Akumi, I'll make sure she also knows that no matter what ill be there for her too, I don't care what happens, I care for you two with all my heart and I want her to know that she doesn't have to deal with the loss of the Hokage alone, we will be her shoulders to lean on." sakura wiped her tears.

Sasuke looked down. He felt a tug on his chest, Naruto and Akumi had spilled nearly their whole live out to them. They too went through the same kind of emotional trauma he went through. Maybe he should trust them too, maybe he would lay his burdens out to his three friends and let them in.

Maybe he didn't have to face his own demons alone.

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I think this is a good stopping point. I just typed the entire chapter and to be honest i wanted to bring team 7 closer.

Sasuke is also opening up. and btw I can't stand how emotionless they make him and Sakura in fan fiction. in the anime and manga they clearly show they care for Naruto slowly but surely. sakura willing to drop out of the chunin exam because she wants Naruto to achieve his 'silly' dream.

Sasuke seeing Naruto as his best friend who is loud and annoying but he cares about.

my lil children don't get enough credit in fanfics tbh

comment what you think, I love having to analysis this alt Naruto child good

rosymalik