Iteration

‘Iteration’ is part of the space saga that began with ‘In the cold of space you find the heat of suns’ and continues in ‘Tales in Tarrasade’. There is also a one-shot ‘Silver Leaf Tales: Tying the knot’.

Thanks to Small Fox for being my beta. For this story he has also been my muse, suggesting a number of the ideas that have evolved to create this arc.

Thank you to those readers who have taken time to write a review or send an email, particularly those who regularly review.

Apologies if the characters have grown differently in their new environment.

This is posted in the Naruto/Sasuke section because it is part of a Naru/Sasu/Naru space saga. However, it does feature many other pairings (and a few threesomes). Apologies to those who are expecting Naruto/Sasuke or Sasuke/Naruto every chapter.

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Chapter sixteen: Vigil

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Iruka could see that something was bothering Konohamaru. He was still in the kitchen when breakfast was over and Ranmaru had left for his training session with Asuma.

He put thoughts of a morning cuddle with Kakashi aside. Not that the man was capable of just a cuddle.

“Would you like to make me a fresh pot of tea, Kono-kun?” Iruka asked.

Konohamaru happily complied. They sat opposite each other. Iruka poured the tea.

“What is bothering you, Kono-kun? Is it something between you and Ranmaru?”

“No,” he replied anxiously. “Has Ranmaru mentioned anything?”

Iruka smiled at him. “No. He thinks you are wonderful. He goes misty-eyed every time your name is mentioned.”

Konohamaru blushed. “I am sure that isn’t true.” He glanced at Iruka and then looked away. “I love him. He’s special.”

“He loves you too, Kono-kun,” Iruka assured him. “What the two of you have is special. So, if it isn’t Ranmaru, what is bothering you?”

Konohamaru sighed. “I have been visiting my family,” he admitted. “First Grandfather and then the others. Yesterday I went to see Grandma Biwako. And, well, I was telling her about the children and, well, she got interested.”

Iruka wondered where Konohamaru was going. He had a feeling he was not going to like it.

“She started asking all these questions and, well, now she wants to come and see you.”

“Your grandmother wishes to come to see me about the Uchiha children,” Iruka stated, coldly.

Konohamaru flushed a deep red. “She knows a lot about children. She used to be a teacher. She ran a school. Now other people ask her how they should run their schools. Maybe she wants to help.”

Then the pieces clicked together in Iruka’s head. “This is your grandmother like Hiruzen-sama is your grandfather? They are your mother’s parents?”

He nodded. “But they haven’t been together for standards. They haven’t been together since my mother was a little girl. I don’t know what happened. They never speak. Grandma Biwako won’t even be in the same room as Grandfather.”

Iruka could guess the reason. Hiruzen had given his baby son, her baby son, to Uchiha. “Did you just mention the litter, Kono-kun?” he asked.

Konohamaru scowled. “She asked a lot of questions. I think I mentioned Ayame. Oh, and I said we couldn’t find a school for Akemi that he did not hate. Then she asked whether there were any other children and who their parents were. Are you all right, Iruka-sensei?”

Iruka pulled himself together. “I am fine. She sounds rather scary,” he admitted.

“Grandma Biwako? She can be scary but only if she has a reason.”

Stealing her child seemed a pretty good reason to Iruka.

“Will you see her, Iruka-sensei? I would really appreciate it if you would.”

“Yes, Konohamaru, of course I will. Please contact her and assure her that I will be in touch soon.”


Iruka was about to go to find Sasuke when Asuma himself walked into the kitchen. He sauntered over to the faucet and poured himself a cup of water.

“You seen Choza, Iruka-san?” he asked. He raised his cup to Konohamaru.

“Not yet, Asuma-san,” Iruka replied. “He is probably still in his room. You know how he likes to sleep in.”

Konohamaru was frowning. “I thought Ranmaru was training with you,” he observed.

Asuma shook his head. “Naruto told me he was going to the infirmary to have the thing in his head seen to.”


Iruka watched confusion give way to disbelief on Konohamaru’s face.

“Did you know it was this morning, Iruka-sensei?” he asked.

“No,” Iruka answered him. He scowled at Asuma. “Perhaps Asuma-san has got it wrong. Maybe it was just more tests.”

Asuma, to give him credit, caught on immediately. “Yes, you know what it is like when people are relaying other people’s messages. It was probably Rin-san suddenly deciding she wanted more data.”

Konohamaru relaxed a little. “That is probably it,” he agreed, “but I think I will go to the infirmary and check that he is all right.” He stood up. “Please excuse me Iruka-sensei, Asuma-san.”

Iruka let him go. Having Asuma turn up at that exact moment was far too good an opportunity to miss.

“Please sit down, Asuma-san,” he said.

Asuma looked suspicious. “What have I done?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Iruka assured him “But we do have a problem.”

Asuma took one of the chairs opposite.

Iruka took a deep breath. “Konohamaru was telling me about his visit to his grandmother, Biwako-san. He had been telling her about the children, all of them, and Biwako-san has asked to see me.”

Asuma was silent.

Iruka waited. Finally he gave up. “I apologise for implying that this information was relevant to you, Asuma-san. It was presumptuous of me. I know you have no family other than Uchiha.”

The big man gave a shuddering sigh. “Only that isn’t true. It would have been true if Hiruzen-sama had kept his word but he didn’t. He told me.” He looked away. “What kind of mother gives her child away?”

“Perhaps the kind who didn’t have a choice and never spoke to the child’s father again after it happened,” suggested Iruka. “Or I think that’s a possibility from what Konohamaru was telling me. Not that Kono-kun knows why she hates him so.”

Asuma still would not look at him. “Please meet with her, Iruka-san, and find out what she wants. I trust you not to offer her anything without discussing it with Sasuke-sama and with me.”

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Konohamaru found himself walking swiftly towards the infirmary. It was not like Asuma-san or Naruto-san to make errors; conveying information accurately was too important.

If Ranmaru was in the infirmary having the kill-net deactivated, why had he not been told? None of the reasons he could think of were comfortable ones.

Then Dan-san tried to cut him off as he entered the infirmary. It confirmed his worst suspicions. Konohamaru tried to push past him and began calling Ranmaru’s name.

Then Naruto was there holding his shoulders.

“Stop,” he ordered.

Konohamaru stopped struggling, there was no point with Naruto holding him, and he was silent because of the look in Naruto’s eyes.

“He is unconscious. Rin-san has given him the nanobots,” Naruto told him. “Now we have to wait.”

Konohamaru felt the tears running down his cheeks. “He might not wake up,” he whispered.

“He might not wake up,” Naruto confirmed. “He did not want you to know that. He also did not want to know in advance which day it was going to happen.”

So Ranmaru had left the kitchen thinking he was going to train with Asuma. It made Konohamaru feel better that Ranmaru had not lied to him. Then he felt even worse. Why was he thinking about himself when Ranmaru could be dying?

“He wanted to spare you this,” Naruto reminded him.

“How long?” Konohamaru asked.

“I do not know,” Naruto admitted. “I will wait with you,” he added.


They sat side by side. They had been there about ten minutes when Sasuke appeared and sat down beside Naruto. Konohamaru realised that someone, perhaps Dan, had told him that Konohamaru knew.

He did wonder why Sasuke did not sit beside him but then Inari arrived and Konohamaru realised that Sasuke had left the seat for him. Inari squeezed his hand.

Then Tayuya came in followed by Sumaru. They sat on the floor.

“Iruka-sensei says he and the others will wait in the kitchen,” Tayuya told him.

Konohamaru nodded.

But then Haku arrived. He came over and hugged Konohamaru.

“I had to come,” he whispered and sat opposite.


No one moved. No one went to ask questions. Inari never let go of his hand.


After a long, long time Rin came out.

“His brain scan looks normal,” she announced. “We are going to try and wake him.”

Konohamaru was on his feet. Rin gestured that he should follow.


Ranmaru was on a treatment bed, like the one he had laid on in the infirmary on the Silver Leaf. Was it really only two divs? How could he have come to love someone so deeply in such a short time?

Rin pressed the hypospray to Ranmaru’s neck.

Konohamaru took one, small hand and squeezed it gently.

Eyelashes fluttered and huge brown eyes opened. Then there was that smile, that wonderful smile.

“Kono-chan, you’re here,” Ranmaru whispered.

Konohamaru kissed him gently on the lips. “Of course I am, Ran-chan.”

---

Iruka was relieved that it was over. He found himself thinking back to other horribly memorable incidents: Kazuki almost dying in the gestator; Sasuke being missing on Chanx; that appalling night in the unit when Kakashi was convinced Naruto was going to die and that Sasuke would be taken away from him.

It did no good to think about such things. Ranmaru appeared fine. He and Konohamaru were in Ranmaru’s room, probably fucking.

Iruka doubted that contacting his grandmother was uppermost in Konohamaru’s mind. He decided to contact Biwako-san himself.


He found himself with an appointment to meet her the next day; the woman was impossible to say no to. He had to find Kakashi and apologise for needing one of the secure meeting rooms on short notice.

Luckily Kakashi saw nothing odd in Konohamaru’s grandmother wanting to speak with Iruka.


Next day Iruka was more careful than usual in selecting his clothes. With fifteen minutes to go he checked his hair, his Uchiha pin and his ring and made his way to the secure meeting room to find Kakashi himself in the control room and Fu on meet and greet.

“She may want to talk about something confidential,” Iruka told Kakashi. “No listening in,” he insisted.


Biwako-san had dark hair and eyes like Konohamaru. She had her hair pulled back from her face and into a very long tail that fell from the crown. She was on age retard but had started to age; Iruka estimated that she was about eighty.

Asuma favoured her, as did Konohamaru. It was strange that they could look unalike yet both resemble her.

Fu brought them tea, winked at Iruka and left.

“I am honoured that you should request this meeting, Biwako-san,” Iruka began.

“Konohamaru speaks most highly of you, Iruka-san,” Biwako replied.

Iruka steeled himself, “How may I help you, Biwako-san?”

“I would like to tell you a story, Iruka-san,” she admitted.

“I would very much like to hear it, Biwako-san,” Iruka responded.

She took a sip of tea and then placed the tea cup carefully on the table.

“Once there was a girl. She grew up ambitious. She had great plans. She escaped her parochial home planet by becoming a spacer, which was even rarer in her day than today. She worked hard and saved her credit. A decade passed. She became a captain with her own ship.

“Then she met a remarkable man. He was building an organisation, a fleet. She agreed to ally her ship to his. Slowly they became friends and then lovers. Her plans were subsumed by his and she did not mind, because they were happy.

“Then, when she was forty, he said that he wanted children. She was surprised, he had not shown interest in children before, but she decided that it was because he was thirty standards older than her and was therefore feeling the need to procreate.

“They were comfortable but not rich. The company was successful but small. They would have had to sell ships to pay for a designed baby and a gestator, so they made the baby the old fashioned way. It was a girl. The woman loved her child. The man appeared to love his partner and the child. They were happy.

“Then he wanted another child. This time he insisted on a boy, so they had his sperm screened and the woman was inseminated with male-only sperm. They had a boy. He was beautiful and the woman loved him very much.

“But the man was becoming distant. He spent every moment building his company. No matter how hard he worked the company stayed small. He did not have the connections he needed to break through and grow the company to the next stage.

“Then, one day, the woman woke up and her beautiful, beloved, little boy was gone.

“The man had given him to Uchiha. It was done. There was no way of getting him back.

“And she realised that was why he had insisted on the second child being a boy and that even watching his son grow up for three standards had not changed his mind. His company meant more to him than his son, or her, or his daughter, ever could.

“So she took her daughter and left. He did not try to stop her. He gave her a lump of credit and a slice of the company, which she promptly sold. She built a new life for herself and her daughter. She studied and became a teacher.

“But she did not take her daughter away from Tarrasade and she did not teach her to hate her father.

“The woman always wondered if that had been the correct decision, particularly when her daughter joined her father’s company and especially when she became pregnant unexpectedly because she chose her father rather than her mother to raise the child.

“Which he did surprisingly well.

“Then, when her daughter’s son, her grandson, was fourteen his grandfather persuaded him to join Uchiha. The woman was incensed. How dare he do such a thing? How dare he send her grandson to the monsters who had taken her child?

“For the first time in thirty-three standards she went into the man’s presence and faced him. She thought about killing him but she did not. She begged him to stop their grandson promising himself to Uchiha.

“He refused. He insisted it was in their grandson’s best interest. Then he told her that he knew the fate of their son; that he was a senior member of the new Uchiha.

“He even told her his new name.”

The woman stopped. She sipped her tea.

Iruka was about to say that he was familiar with some aspects of her story and see where their conversation took them. Instead the door opened and Asuma entered.

“I listened,” he said simply. He sat down. “Seven standards ago, after Sasuke went to cat, Hiruzen-sama told me who I had been before I was Uchiha. He broke his oath and, by doing so, made me break mine. Sasuke-sama knows. He has accepted that the fault was not mine.” He looked at her. “What do you want?”

Biwako looked at him. “To be a grandmother to this strange family that is the new Uchiha, which already includes my grandchild. Konohamaru speaks so fondly of you all. Even so, it has taken me four standards to accept how different this new Uchiha is from the old.”

She turned to Iruka. “I could set up and run the school you need. From what Konohamaru has told me, your principles of education and mine would not clash. I have specialised in the education of children in spacer families.”

“We can never be mother and son,” Asuma said suddenly.

Biwako studied him and nodded. “I understand that,” she agreed.

“We cannot find the right school for Akemi,” Asuma admitted. “I think Misora could adapt to some of the schools we have seen but he cannot. He either fights the other boys and is asked to leave or is just deeply unhappy. We have resorted to teaching them at home. We know they need contact with other children but they are precious to Uchiha and that means we cannot send them to an ordinary, local school.”

“I am willing to help you with the school even if that the only role I ever fulfil,” Biwako assured them.

“I shall speak with Sasuke-sama,” Iruka promised.


Afterwards, when Asuma was walking Biwako-san out, Iruka went to find Kakashi in the control room.

“How long have you known?” he asked.

Kakashi shook his head. “This morning, when Asuma told me. You have known for much longer,” he observed.

Iruka tried unsuccessfully not to flush with embarrassment. “It wasn’t my secret to tell, ‘Kashi,” he replied.

Kakashi pulled him into his lap. “I know that.” He kissed him. “I am so proud of you, Ir-chan.”

---

Konohamaru was not sure how it had happened so quickly. Within five days Grandma Biwako had a large apartment in the guest quarters. Two of the rooms were set aside for when Akemi and Misora came for lessons. In another of the rooms were the plans for the Uchiha School.

Ranmaru went in eagerly before him. Something had happened when Ranmaru had met Grandma Biwako; he had immediately taken to her and she had responded by treating him like another grandson. Ranmaru soaked up the affection and praise she gave him like parched ground took in water.

“Obaachan, we are here,” he called.

Grandma Biwako came out of the kitchen smiling. Ranmaru hugged her and she ruffled his hair.

“Shall we get going?” she asked.

This was the day they were going to show her around the household and, most importantly, take her to the playroom.


There had already been a slightly strained meeting between Kiba and Biwako. Konohamaru did not need Ranmaru to tell him that Kiba was worried that Biwako-san was going to tell him he was raising the children badly. They had talked about scheduling the first visit for the afternoon, when Naruto was there, but Biwako herself had insisted that it should be when Kiba was supervising the playroom.

After greetings had been exchanged, Kiba and Biwako sat in the rocking chairs while Konohamaru and Ranmaru played with the children.

Konohamaru made sure he was close enough to eavesdrop.

“You have created an impressive learning environment, Kiba-san,” Grandma Biwako said after observing the children in silence for some time.

“Thank you, Biwako-san. It has evolved as we have tried to meet the children’s needs,” Kiba answered.

There was another, longer silence. Grandma Biwako seemed absorbed in her efforts to watch all ten children at the same time.

“You and Naruto-san have raised them from birth?” She queried after about ten minutes.

“With help from others,” Kiba replied, “but it has mostly been me and Naruto. Ry-chan came to us a little later than the others.”

“You adopted a tenth?” Grandma Biwako checked, her tone incredulous.

“Naruto brought him home after visiting an orphanage,” Kiba admitted.

She shook her head and chuckled. “You are amazing, Kiba-san. They look wonderfully happy and extremely lively. Exactly how clever is that dark-haired one playing with the blond one with the tail?”

“His name is Haru. The blond one with the tail is Kazuki,” Kiba told her. “We have not tried to measure. Shikamaru-san says there is no point, because none of the standard tests will go up that far.”

“Shikamaru-san?” Grandma Biwako queried.

“Haru’s genetic father. Shika-san is a type seven genius,” Kiba answered.

Grandma Biwako frowned. “I thought the typed genius traits were not heritable.”

Kiba shrugged. “Maybe it is chance. Maybe he had the potential and being with Shika-san has fulfilled it. Maybe he isn’t clever enough to be considered a typed genius. Shika-san doesn’t think he is a type seven.”

There was another long silence.

“The hybrid children are most interesting,” Grandma Biwako admitted. “A traditional education will not work for such kinaesthetic learners. Their spacial awareness is obviously incredibly well developed. Have you thought of how you are going to use their senses of hearing and smell to help them learn?”

Kiba considered. “No, but we could. Naruto and I both rely on those senses a great deal.”

Another silence followed that Grandma Biwako finally broke.

“This is, without exception, the most fascinating group of children I have ever met, seen or heard of. If you could see any way of allowing me to help in any way with their education, Kiba-san, I would be grateful to the end of my days.”

Konohamaru could not resist looking to see Kiba’s reaction. He swelled with pride.

“It would be an honour, Biwako-san,” he replied.

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‘Tales in Tarrasade’ tale 14 (posted 19 Sept 2010) is set across chapters 14-16 of ‘Iteration’.

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