Chapter 112: Family
Satsuki slowly opened her eyes to a familiar ceiling... more precisely, the ceiling of the traditional Japanese room at home where she often spent time.
Outside the window, the faint but clear sound of birdsong drifted in—the distinctive calls of early morning.
She slowly sat up, the blanket covering her sliding off. Almost instinctively, with the drowsy dependence that comes upon waking, she unconsciously spoke the name of the person she most wanted to see at this moment.
"Naruto..."
"Hey, you're awake?" That familiar, incredibly reassuring voice immediately responded from nearby. "Sleep well? Did you have any nightmares?"
Satsuki turned her head toward the voice and saw Naruto sitting cross-legged on the tatami mats not far away, back against the wall, holding what appeared to be a rather thick novel. The title on the cover read—"Battle Through the Heavens."
Satsuki vaguely remembered this being one of the books from her father's study bookshelf.
Hearing her wake up, Naruto naturally closed the book and casually placed it on the tatami beside him, then stood up and walked over.
"Since you fell asleep while we were walking outside yesterday, I had to carry you back here," he explained. "You didn't even eat dinner yesterday—you must be hungry, right? Get up and wash up first. I have something to show you."
Only then did Satsuki fully wake up, realizing she was currently in the traditional room adjacent to the living room where she and Naruto had warmed themselves by the fire, drank tea, and chatted to pass time yesterday afternoon—not in her own bedroom.
This realization made her heart leap with tension and panic. He... he didn't take me to my own room? Then did he... did he ever go in there? Did he see... that thing...?
She carefully looked up, tentatively calling out softly, "Naruto..."
"Hmm? What's wrong?" Naruto stopped walking and looked at her with a completely natural expression, showing no signs of anything unusual or teasing.
Looking carefully at Naruto's unchanged, consistently straightforward expression, Satsuki's anxious heart finally quietly settled, and a sense of relief washed over her.
It seems... he probably never went in there...
She quickly lowered her head to hide her earlier loss of composure, muttering softly, "It's... it's nothing..."
While she was still immersed in the drowsiness of just waking up and slight guilt, she found Naruto had decisively taken her hand and pulled her up with some force.
"Come on, stop spacing out and get up!" Naruto's face wore a mischievous smile. "There's a 'surprise' waiting for you outside."
Seeing Naruto's expression that clearly hid a secret, Satsuki became even more puzzled, but she had no intention of struggling free. She simply let Naruto hold her hand and lead her step by step out of the room toward the living room.
Then—
A voice that she thought she would only be able to hear in dreams for a long time to come—incredibly familiar and gentle—clearly reached her ears.
"Good morning, Satsuki."
Satsuki's pupils suddenly contracted as she stared wide-eyed, her entire body freezing in place as if hit by a binding jutsu!
This voice... she was far too familiar with it! It was her mother's voice!
She looked incredulously toward the dining table in the living room—and there, sitting, were two people!
It was her parents, whom she thought were still unconscious in the hospital and had even been declared by doctors as possibly never waking up—Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku.
They seemed to be waiting for Satsuki to join them for breakfast. Her father Fugaku sat there, his eyes not as sharp as usual but showing fatigue, his complexion somewhat haggard and pale.
And her mother Mikoto... although she wore the gentle smile most familiar to Satsuki, her reddened and even slightly swollen eyes silently told of the crying she must have done after waking up.
Satsuki was completely stunned, her brain instantly overloaded, unable to process this information that exceeded her understanding.
She instinctively gripped Naruto's arm tightly beside her, seeking confirmation from him with extreme uncertainty in a small voice.
"...Naruto... can you... can you see them? That is...?"
"Yes," Naruto responded with an incredibly certain and reassuring tone. "Uncle and Aunt have returned. Welcome home."
"But... but the doctor said yesterday that they... how could this...?" Satsuki still couldn't believe it, the massive shock leaving her incoherent.
"Maybe it's a miracle. It seems like... anyway, let's go over first? If you check for yourself, won't you know whether it's an illusion or a dream?"
Naruto had almost blurted out "even without me, you won't be alone anymore," but remembering last night's wildly soaring bond level that even broke through the system's limits, he swallowed those words back down.
Satsuki's heart was full of confusion. She walked forward carefully, step by step.
Seeing her daughter's cautious, fearful expression—as if afraid the scene before her would shatter at the slightest touch—Mikoto's heart ached terribly. She couldn't hold back any longer and reached out first, tightly grasping Satsuki's cold little hand.
Transmitting that real, warm sensation to her. She didn't say any comforting words, only gazed at her daughter with incredibly gentle eyes, silently telling her that this was real—Mom was here, and Dad was here too.
The familiar temperature and strength from her mother's palm, and the gentleness in her mother's eyes that, although filled with heartache, exhaustion, and sadness, was undeniably real, finally completely shattered the last uncertainty and fear in Satsuki's heart.
The massive stone that had been pressing on her heart, almost suffocating her, crashed down and shattered to pieces at this moment!
In its place came surging, overwhelming joy that instantly swept through her entire being—the wild happiness of something lost being found again!
"...Mom!"
With a cry tinged with sobs, Satsuki threw herself into Mikoto's embrace, as if trying to merge herself into this regained warmth.
Once again, because of family, Satsuki began crying loudly again. But this time the tears were scalding, full of immense relief and joyful release.
She cried so intensely that even Fugaku behind her, who had always taught her to be strong and endure, didn't frown at all. He just watched his little daughter with eyes that had grown somewhat weathered after experiencing great upheaval, filled with heartache and guilt.
Watching this reunion scene, Naruto's long-suspended heart finally settled back into place, and the guilt in his heart finally dissipated somewhat, replaced by genuine relief and satisfaction.
Thank goodness... finally... even after experiencing the night of the massacre, Satsuki could still have her parents' companionship and wouldn't have to bear everything alone anymore...
However, just as this heartwarming atmosphere reached its peak—Satsuki, who had been crying loudly in her mother's arms, suddenly stopped without warning.
She abruptly raised her head from Mikoto's embrace, almost with a kind of panicked urgency like searching for a lifeline, suddenly turning her head and quickly scanning the surroundings before finally focusing precisely on that figure who had been quietly standing not far away—
She looked at Naruto.
Naruto's relieved smile hadn't had time to fade when he suddenly met Satsuki's gaze.
This look made his body instantly freeze in place.
Because...
Satsuki's eyes, which had just been full of reunion joy and tears, were no longer filled with happiness, but... panic!
What's wrong?
Naruto's heart filled with confusion and sudden unease. Pure fear was tightly coiling around Satsuki's heart, even overwhelming the immense joy of reuniting with her parents.
She... was afraid?
Satsuki was indeed afraid. When her parents appeared safely before her eyes and the "uniqueness" that had driven her to desperation suddenly disappeared, a deeper fear gnawed at her heart.
If her parents had returned and everything was "back to normal," then what did her desperate, almost begging dependence on Naruto yesterday mean? Where was the foundation for that "promise" that had pulled her back from the edge of the abyss?
She was afraid of losing that unique "cornerstone" that supported her!
Afraid that after losing that extreme situation where she "absolutely needed" him, she would also lose the "qualification" and "reason" to naturally stay by Naruto's side and monopolize all his attention.
Under her parents' puzzled and confused gazes, Satsuki gently broke free from her mother's embrace. With her head lowered, she slowly walked step by step to stand before Naruto.
Finally, she stopped in front of Naruto, still not daring to look up at him, only murmuring in a voice so faint it was almost inaudible, confused and helpless, "Naruto... you... I... what should I do..."
She slowly raised her hand and tightly gripped the sleeves of Naruto's arms. Then, under her parents' increasingly surprised gazes, she suddenly raised her head and cried out with despair in her sobbing voice:
"Naruto... please... don't leave!"
When Naruto met those eyes that had been thoroughly washed by tears and were filled with panic and pleading, he clearly understood the deeper, unspoken question.
'Will you still want me? Do I... still have a reason to stay by your side now?'
She was afraid. Afraid that Naruto would think the "mission was complete" and "crisis resolved," and thus naturally leave her. She was afraid of losing this newly obtained, precious, unique connection that she treasured like a gem.