Chapter 30

Her Niece, Sarada

Before Kotomi knew it, her foster son, Mitsuki was going to become a ninja soon. He would be put in a three man squad when the time comes. It brought her back to the days when her brother and herself were first becoming ninjas.

It was the time of the parent-teacher conferences. Kotomi remembered Orochimaru saying that she would be in his place for this kind of thing since he can't step foot into the village.

Kotomi was sitting next to Mitsuki on a couch while sitting across from his teacher, Shino Aburame. He was one of her brother's classmates who hardly got noticed since he was so quiet and blended into the background a lot.

Shino was reading through some papers. "I understand that you are Mitsuki's foster parent under Orochimaru."

Kotomi nodded. "Yeah. Since he can't be here, I'm here as Mitsuki's guardian. You can tell me how he's doing, what he needs to improve on. I'm actually curious."

"Mitsuki is an exceptional student. He works flawlessly in ninjutsu. I say the only thing he needs to work on is his social skills."

"I'm sure that will develop over time. I know that he hangs out with Boruto a lot. They're practically inseparable." Kotomi remembered that Mitsuki had mentioned to her that Boruto might be his sun. She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but she just assumed that he wanted to be close friends with him.

"I'm aware of that. He just needs a bigger network of people."

Kotomi squeezed her lips while looking up. "How ironic that the guy who barely spoke to anyone back in the day is giving this kind of advice."

Shino started to look depressed. "Why must you bring that up..?"

"Mother." Mitsuki spoke up. "Did Shino-sensei not talk much in his past?"

"Not at all. He looked mopey looking, always wearing a jacket that covered most of his face. I'm still trying to get used to seeing his mouth."

"Kotomi..." Shino said dejectedly. "We're supposed to be talking about Mitsuki right now."

Kotomi started laughing while rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry! I got carried away! Please continue!" The conference continued, both having a mutual understanding about how Mitsuki was doing in school.

***

After the conference, Kotomi and Mitsuki stepped out of the room. While walking towards the exit, they bumped into two familiar faces.

"Onee-san! Sarada! Nice to see you!" Kotomi greeted.

Sakura gave her a smile. "Nice to see you as well, Kotomi-chan. Did you just get out of the parent-teacher conference?"

Kotomi nodded. "Yeah. His teacher updated me about how he's doing in the academy."

Sakura stared at Mitsuki. "So he's your foster son, huh? Mitsuki, right?"

"That's right!" Kotomi turned to a young girl with short black hair wearing red glasses. "How have you been, Sarada?"

Sarada gave her aunt a smile. "I've been doing well, auntie. Mama and I are headed to see Shino-sensei for our parent-teacher conference."

"I don't want to keep you two from that. We can always meet up later to continue talking."

"By the way, auntie. Where's Kojiro?"

"He's at home with his dad."

Sakura smiled at her. "Konohamaru helps out a lot with your son, doesn't he?"

Kotomi smiled to herself. "He takes care of Kojiro by himself whenever he can. I know that his schedule will be a lot busier once these kids become ninjas."

Sarada looked somewhat down, feeling mixed emotions. She was happy that her cousin always gets to spend quality time with his dad, but what about her? When will she see her dad?

"We're going to head in now. Feel free to stop by later if you have time." Sakura said.

"Right! See you later, you two!" The four went their separate ways. Sakura and Sarada went into the building while Kotomi and Mitsuki were on their way back home.

"Mother." Mitsuki spoke up. "Is it alright if I meet up with Boruto right now?"

Kotomi nodded. "Of course. Just be home by dinner time."

"Understood." Not even a second later, Mistsuki vanished from sight.

Kotomi shook her head with a smile while letting out a sigh. "He's such a cute kid."

***

The kids in the academy graduated, and officially became genin. Kotomi was extremely happy with the news that Konohamaru's squad had Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki. She thought they made a perfect team.

Some days went by, things were peaceful. Kotomi was at home washing the dishes while Kojiro was occupied playing with his toy cars.

The little boy snapped out of his playing trance as he heard a knock on the door. "Mommy! There's someone at the door!"

Kotomi turned off the sink, drying off her last dish. "I'll get it in a second!"

Walking towards the door, Kotomi opened the door, not expecting to see her niece there. "Sarada! What brings you here?" She noticed that Sarada looked really down about something. "What's wrong?"

Sarada lowered her head. "I want to talk to you about something, auntie..."

Seeing that it was serious, Kotomi nodded. "Come on in. Let's talk about it." Sarada stepped inside of Kotomi's house, closing the door behind her.

Kojiro saw the sight of Sarada, his eyes started sparkling. "Nee-chan! Let's play together! Look! I have my cars out!"

Kotomi shook her head. "Kojiro. Your cousin can't play yet. She needs to do something first."

Kojiro started pouting, but nodded. "Ok..."

Her son went into his room to play by himself. Kotomi and Sarada were sitting on the couch. "What do you need to talk about, Sarada?"

Sarada clammed up, swallowing her words. "Auntie... I said awful things to mama..."

Kotomi arched an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"I confronted mama about her not really being papa's wife. It's because I feel like mama isn't really my real mother. Because of what I said, she accidentally destroyed the house, and ended up in the hospital due to fainting."

Kotomi's eyes widen. "What?!" She covered her mouth, not meaning to raise her voice. "I'll... Visit Sakura later. But please tell me why you don't think she's your mom. I don't understand."

Sarada's eyes wavered. "I don't understand it myself. I just feel like their relationship is weird. Papa is never home, and mama doesn't really talk about papa too much. I... I want to know about papa. Auntie, I know you've told me some things about papa before, but... Can you tell me more about him?"

Kotomi was restricted from Sasuke himself from telling her niece the real truth of what Sasuke has done in the past. She had to think of the positive things about her brother.

Thinking to herself, Kotomi spoke up. "I've told you about it a million times, but your papa, my older brother and I were really close. When we were young, your papa couldn't stand me. If I think about it, he acted like a total brat." She laughed to herself. "But over time, he started to finally open up to me more, so I got to see how my older brother was really like instead of him always giving me the cold shoulder. He was always reserved and aloof around most people, but around me. He would act either like a caring big brother or a self-centered brat who thinks he knows it all. When he acted like that, it got under my skin big time."

Sarada sweatdropped. "It's... Interesting how papa was like acting like as an older brother."

"When I was really little, I was under the impression that he hated me. But he was just acting like that since he was jealous of me getting all the attention instead of him. But anywho... Even though he acts like he doesn't care about those in his life, he actually cares a whole lot about them. Me, your mother, Naruto, and of course you. In the inside, my brother is a big softie who has trouble showing it. And I mean a lot of trouble showing it since he didn't even know how to comfort me most times."

Sarada was trying to take her aunt's words in. "But I haven't even seen papa. Would he... Even recognize who I am?"

Sasuke hasn't seen Sarada since she was really little, still in diapers little. She felt unsure if he would recognize her. "I'm not going to lie... It might take him a little bit. But I'm sure once he takes a good look at you, he will know who you are right away. Even though he's been away from quite sometime now, I know that he always has you in the back of his mind."

Sarada lowered her head. "Auntie... I was thinking of going to find papa. I have tons of questions to ask him."

Kotomi didn't have much room to talk since she did something similar like that in the past. "If you think I'm going to stop you, I won't. I understand completely that you want to see your father. Do what you need to do, but please get permission first."

Sarada nodded. "I will."

Kotomi embraced Sarada from the side. "It will be ok. I believe that you will see your dad soon enough. And I'll visit your mother in the hospital to keep an eye on her, so you don't have to worry, ok?"

Sarada nodded sadly. "Thank you..."

***

Hearing that Sarada had left the village with one of her friends and Naruto, Kotomi headed over to the hospital to see how Sakura was doing.

Kotomi was able to leave Kojiro with Konohamaru since he wasn't busy during this time. It made her happy to know that she had a reliable husband to count on.

Entering Sakura's hospital room, Kotomi saw someone else there talking with Sakura. The woman soon made her leave, leaving Kotomi and Sakura in the room by themselves.

Kotomi went over to a stool nearby, sitting down. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel better than earlier."

"That's good to hear." Kotomi paused for a moment. "I assume that you heard about Sarada."

Sakura nodded. "I just got filled in. She thinks I'm not her real mother." She lowered her eyes. "I can understand why she thinks that. I didn't explain it well last time, and instead got angry about it."

Kotomi swallowed. "I'm sure if you explain it to her, it will start to make sense to her. She's a smart girl, so I'm sure she'll understand."

"You're right." Sakura looked up at Kotomi. "Kotomi-chan. Can you not tell anyone that I'll be going to where my daughter is? I'm technically not supposed to leave the hospital right now, but I feel like I need to go over to her right away."

Completing understanding her feelings, Kotomi nodded. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"Thank you, Kotomi-chan! I'll explain everything to Sarada thoroughly this time!" Kotomi smiled at the sight of her older sister boosting herself up with confidence.

***

Later that day, Konohamaru had to go out since Naruto had returned with Sasuke, so they were having an important discussion in the hokage's office.

Kotomi was at home, washing the dishes once more. Kojiro was watching one of his favorite shows, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He slightly jumped as he heard the door knock. "Mommy! Someone's at the door!"

Kotomi arched an eyebrow, turning off the sink. "I wonder who that could be at this time of night?"

Opening the door, Kotomi saw her older brother standing there. He looked much different the last time she saw him. Both of them stared at each other in surprise, looking like they were having flashbacks.

Sasuke still looked a bit surprised at her. The clothes she was wearing reminded him of the old days. "You look just like mother..."

Kotomi couldn't help but smile at that. "Well... I am mother's twin after all."

Sasuke slightly chuckled. "You are."

"It's funny, because I was just about to say that you look so similar to father. You've gotten so old, Onii-san." Kotomi started to laugh. Sasuke didn't seemed fazed by that, waiting for his sister to calm her laughter. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you would be spending quality time with Sakura and Sarada?"

"I was heading to them right after I got done talking with Naruto, but when I went to where the house was, it wasn't there anymore."

Kotomi started laughing harder. "I totally forgot about that! Your wife will have to explain that to you!"

"Do you know where they live right now?"

"Yeah, they stopped by earlier to tell me where they're currently staying. I'll give you the directions to it."

"Thanks, imoto."

"No problem! I'll grab some paper and a pen real quick to give you the address!"

Just when Kotomi was turning around, she soon stopped herself from tripping over her two year old who was right behind her. "Mommy, who are you talking to?"

Kotomi put her hand over her chest. "My goodness, Kojiro! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm sorry..." Kojiro looked over to Sasuke who was lingering in the doorway. He started to tear up, clinging onto Kotomi's leg. "Why is that scary man there?!"

Kotomi was holding in her laughter, knowing it was a bad time to laugh about this. She picked up her small son, trying to calm him down. "It's ok, Kojiro. That's just your Uncle Sasuke."

Kojiro looked over to Sasuke, blinking at him. "Uncle Sasuke..? But mommy... He doesn't have the duckbutt hair."

At that point, Kotomi couldn't hold in her laughter any longer and started bawling on the spot. "That's when he was younger, Kojiro!" Wiping the corner of her eye, she turned to Sasuke. "I showed him pictures of you since I wanted to have him know who you are."

Sasuke was just staring at Kojiro, his eyes averting to Kotomi. "You're a mother now?"

"I have been for a while. You would've known that if you at least visited once in a while." Kotomi paused for a moment. "So yeah... You have a nephew, Onii-san."

Being held by Kotomi, Kojiro smiled sweetly. "My name is Kojiro and I'm two years old!"

Sasuke smiled back. "Nice to meet you."

"Hey Uncle Sasuke, why did you get rid of your duckbutt hair?"

Sasuke let out a defeated sigh. "I figured it was time I let it grow out."

Kotomi snorted. "Adorable kid, isn't he?"

"He looks a lot like you."

"I could say the same with Sarada looking a lot like you." Kotomi just remembered what she had to do. "Whoops! We were so busy talking that I didn't even give you the directions yet! Hold on for just a second, Onii-san. I'll be right back!"

Kotomi rushed back and forth towards a table and the front door. She handed Sasuke a piece of paper. He read it, putting it inside of his pocket. "Thanks, imoto."

"No problem. If you're going to stay in the village for a bit, you should come by again. I'll even make your favorite dishes that I used to make you."

Sasuke gave his sister a smile. "I look forward to that." He paused for a moment. "Goodnight, imoto. Kojiro."

"Goodnight, Onii-san."

Kojiro started waving. "Bye Uncle Sasuke!" With that, Sasuke vanished from sight.

Closing the door behind her, Kotomi let out a happy sigh. "He's finally back."

Kojiro gently tapped on Kotomi's shoulder. "Mommy... When is daddy coming home?"

"I'm sure he'll be home soon. The hokage must've kept him a little longer."

"When will Onii-chan be home?"

Knowing that Mitsuki sometimes stays out late, Kotomi wasn't sure herself. "Onii-chan will be home soon too. As for you, young man. You should get ready for bed."

Kojiro let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes. "I'm not even tired..."

Kotomi giggled. "Sure you aren't." Still holding him in her arms, she headed her way to his room.

Knowing that Konohomaru will be home any minute, she wondered where Mitsuki might be, and where he goes sometimes. She hoped that he wasn't doing anything bad, but he was a good kid to not do anything rash. It was hard to be a parent at times.

A/N: We get to see a bit of an aunt/niece relationship between Kotomi and Sarada. Since I had this character in my head for so long, I also think of Sarada as a niece. I'm surprised at myself that I've written this much, I didn't think I would write this many chapters!