Stark Residence, Malibu — October 9 to 14
---
The house was vast.
Silent.
Too silent.
Naruto had woken up earlier than usual.
He hadn't dreamed, but his body had felt something unspoken — a vibration in the air, an underlying imbalance.
Tony hadn't come home that night. No messages. No alerts.
But that wasn't what worried Naruto.
It was the smell of whiskey. Barely dried. Lingering all the way to the kitchen.
And the absence of music.
—
He found Pepper in the kitchen. Wearing a beige robe, a file clutched tightly to her chest, glasses askew on her nose. She startled slightly when she saw him.
"You're not sleeping either?" she asked.
Naruto shook his head.
"I dreamed of a fight I never had. And you?"
She smiled faintly.
"Of a man who forgets he's mortal."
He sat down across from her.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
She looked at him for a long moment.
"Not yet. But… I think you understand what it's like. Loving someone who's exhausting himself trying to save himself."
—
In the days that followed, Naruto and Pepper kept running into each other.
She handled the administrative load — contracts, legal threats, corporate fires.
He maintained defenses, sensors, security drones, and chakra-charged energy cells.
But the space between their worlds became a refuge — a place to speak when Tony was elsewhere… or too present, yet unreachable.
"He's becoming colder," she said one evening.
"No. He's becoming transparent. And he doesn't know how to hide it."
"He's drinking more. Staring at his reflection longer. And he avoids the medical scans."
"He wants to disappear before anyone sees him dying."
They didn't cry.
They understood.
—
"You know," Pepper murmured during an impromptu dinner, "I always wished I had a younger brother."
Naruto looked up. He hadn't expected a confession.
"Why?"
"Because a brother doesn't look at you like a superior. Or a woman to pursue. He sees you as a compass. As someone worth protecting… even when she's strong."
Naruto didn't answer right away.
He stood, placed his hand on the table, then looked her straight in the eyes.
"You're my sister. Not by blood, but by what we've chosen to protect."
She swallowed a quiet emotion.
"And you… I see you as a brother. Not because you saved me. Because you know how to see without judging."
He smiled.
"And because I'll make you noodles every Sunday."
She finally laughed — openly, freely.
—
A few days later, they were in the garden, beneath the shade of an old pine tree Tony had planted "to make karma more tolerable."
Naruto was carving a small fūinjutsu into a stone — a protective seal.
"What is it?" Pepper asked.
"An anchor. For you. If something happens to me… activate it. It will absorb any hostile energy discharge within ten meters. A silent shield."
She took it in her hand. She felt the gentle warmth of his chakra flow through it.
"Why are you giving this to me now?"
"Because time betrays us faster than our enemies."
She clenched it in her palm.
"And you? Do you have a shield?"
Naruto closed his eyes.
"I have two. You… and him."
—
That night, in the common room, she fell asleep on the couch, a half-read file resting on her chest.
Naruto covered her with a blanket and sat beside her until dawn.
Kurama whispered:
> "You're building a family here, Naruto. Stronger than the one from your vanished world."
Naruto replied softly:
"Because this time… I want it to last."