Being a Yazkuza's Bride

Chapter 18: Family



Slowly he turned around, wishing above all this wasn't just a cruel dream, but a smile slowly bloomed on his face when he saw a brunette man standing in the doorway.



"Iruka…?"



For a second Naruto wondered if he was seeing a ghost, but when the older man smiled and slowly walked towards him, enveloping the blonde in a reassuring hug, he knew it wasn't a dream. Just for that moment Naruto allowed himself to forget about his situation and simply enjoy the moment. Not for long, however…



The realization hit him like a ton of bricks: what was Iruka doing here? In Las Vegas of all places?



Reluctantly he pushed the older brunette away from him, looking up at those big brown eyes with confusion. "What's going on, Iruka?" he asked.



The older man sighed, taking Naruto's hands into his own and leading him to the leather couch to sit down. He nodded towards the redhead who slowly walked out of the room, leaving the other two in privacy. For a while the awkward silence consumed them both, with Iruka biting his bottom lip, and Naruto's knees starting to shake in anticipation. Everything that had happened so far didn't make sense! Orochimaru kidnapping him out of resentment, selling him for money, being bought and brought to Vegas, and now meeting Iruka here of all places!



He wanted to know what was going on!



Iruka was able to tell how impatient the blonde was getting. "I'm sorry you have been put through all of this, Naruto," the brunette said, slowly looking him up and down as if to assess that he was okay.



Naruto however felt numb, all the emotions running through him the last few days had tired him out, and this was really taking the biscuit. It was only sheer will that was really keeping him awake, or he would have fainted as soon as he saw Iruka.



"What is going on Iruka, please I just want to know what is happening!"



"Oh, if only I knew how to explain this…" the brunette sighed out in defeat. "I had told him not to leave this so long…"



This had the blonde even more riled up. "Not to leave what so long? 'Who' do you mean by that?" Naruto was slowly starting to get fed up with all of this; he knew that Iruka was hiding something, and he wanted to know what was going on.



The older man looked up at him with sad brown eyes. "I don't really know how to tell you this Naruto, but you do have a family. You aren't an orphan…"



Naruto just gaped at him in disbelief. "What...?"



OoOoOoOoOoOoO



The sun was rising over the horizon, painting the darkened sky with splatters of purple and pink, turning the cotton wool clouds ever more orange towards the horizon. It really was a beautiful sight but completely wasted on the raven-haired man sitting in the flying jet. Right now he was drowning in his own thoughts. They had lost the trail after capturing Orochimaru in Taipei, the bastard had been right… Naruto had gone, slipped through his fingers at the last minute.



In vain Shikamaru had hacked, and searched, for Naruto, and Kakashi hadn't stopped calling every person. Tugging at the reigns of every contact they knew for information, but nothing. He sighed, rubbing his hands against his eyes to rub away the fragments of sleep clinging to him.



"Sasuke…"



He looked up, seeing Kakashi standing in front of him with a mobile in his hand, "It's Itachi…"



Great, another headache, that's just what he needed. With another heavy sigh Sasuke took the phone off the silver-haired man and pressed the phone against his ear. "Itachi," he mumbled.



"I've been hearing a lot of talk, little brother…"



"I'm sure you have," he replied.



"I'm guessing by that you still haven't found your precious one, have you, Otouto?"



"No… I haven't," kami, he felt like a child again. Reaching out for his aniki for comfort on those cold lonely days in that hallowed Manson. When Sasuke had been younger his brother had been the only person he loved and trusted; as he grew up that changed. That love turned into contempt. Now he felt like he needed that comfort again. Sasuke had never been so lost before…



"Sasuke…" Itachi whispered, noticing the slight tremor in his little brother's voice.



"I can't find him!" he shouted into the phone.



"Calm down Otouto…" Itachi said.



"But-" but his older brother cut him off with a calming 'Shhhh'. "You know I'm always here for you, don't you Otouto?" it was one of those things that Itachi used to say him to when he was younger. Those words always used to reassure him, and it did so even now.



"…Aniki…"



"You know I could help you, little brother…"



"Can you?" there was a pause and then a light chuckle.



"For a price I'll move the heavens themselves, little brother."



Of course the fucker wouldn't offer help without wanting something in return.



OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO



"What…?"



It was the most perplexing thing that Naruto had ever heard, he wasn't an orphan… did that mean what he thought it meant?



"What do you mean?" he asked dumbly.



"Oh, this is so complicated…" Iruka hissed out in frustration. "But I guess the only place to start is to start at the beginning…" he said slowly with a smile.



"Yeah…"



"Okay, to start off simply… I knew your father."



To say the least the blonde was stunned, "…you what?"



"Let me explain, it was a long time ago… nearly 25 years. Your father and I came from a different world, the only reason we even became friends was because I got a scholarship to the same school he went. You see he was a courageous guy, loud and boisterous, just like you, and one day when I was getting picked on by a bunch of bullies he saved me, and we just became friends. His name was Namikaze Minato," Iruka said and handed the blonde a small faded photograph.



It was worn with time, and rough around the middle where it had been folded. The photograph depicted a young man, possibly no older than 15-16, just a teenager, but the resemblance to Naruto himself was uncanny. His skin was a lighter shade to Naruto's own tanned one, but they both had the same sunshine blonde hair and deep blue eyes; there was a huge grin on the man's face, and he had his arms around a much younger Iruka. They both wore crisp black school uniforms, obviously having a lot of fun.



"Minato…" Naruto murmured to himself quietly as he looked down at the picture of his 'father'.



"Minato was a great guy, but his background was… not so clean…" he said hesitantly. "He was part of an old Yakuza family, one of 8 brothers. Yet being part of the Yakuza was something that Minato was never really proud of; he always tried to distance himself from his family, but you can't run away from the Yakuza…"



Naruto didn't say anything, and Iruka decided it was best to continue, better to tell him everything now. "He never agreed with his family and they often fought, this got worse when Minato fell in love with a daughter of a rival clan. She was your mother, Uzumaki Kushina, daughter and heiress of the Uzu Family."



He handed Naruto another worn picture, this time it showed his father and a red-haired girl. She was a pretty little thing, a few inches shorter than his father, with bright green eyes and light tan to her complexion. She had a wide grin on her face, and even from the picture he could tell that the girl had a lot of spunk. So she was his mother.



"Their love was a bit like a Romeo and Juliet story… meeting in secret, hiding their love from everyone… but then Kushina fell pregnant. She was only 17…"



Naruto was hanging on to Iruka's every single word. "It was obviously unexpected for both of them, and being so young they didn't know what to do. Turning to their families wasn't an option, getting disowned would probably be the least of their problems, death would be more likely…"



The blonde's blue eyes widened in disbelief. "T-they would have been…?" he stuttered.



"It would be seen as dishonourable, Kushina had been promised to another man. Their families were feuding, and to hear that their Uzu clan's heiress was pregnant with their rival family's child would not be something that any of them would have accepted."



"So… what did they do?" the blonde asked.



"They ran of course, went into hiding. I tried to help as much as I could but your father didn't want to pull me into danger as well. We lost connection for a while, then about 7 months later I got a call from him asking me to be your godfather, I was happy and accepted. He died two weeks later…"



Naruto barely managed to suppress a gasp from escaping. "How…?"



"Assassins from the Uzu clan."



"And 'm-mo'…" he didn't really know if it was right to call this person, this 'Kushina', 'mother' yet. He didn't even know her.



"I thought she had died as well… for a long time I had thought that both of you had died," he looked down at his hands sadly. "If I had known then maybe I would have been able to help her, but I didn't know. I can only imagine how scared she must have been, pregnant and alone…"



The guilt had been eating at Iruka's mind for years. He never stopped thinking about the 'what ifs' and 'maybes'. If he had been there, if only he had tried harder to find her instead of simply assuming that Kushina had died together with his best-friend. Then maybe things wouldn't have turned out so tragically.



"I don't exactly know what happened, but she died in childbirth, just having enough energy to name you. You were sent to an orphanage… and you already know about that…" subconsciously Naruto reached up to his scarred cheeks at the memory of that horrid place.



"When I spotted you scurrying through that dirty alleyway by the school, I thought I was seeing a ghost. I thought I was seeing Minato again!" Iruka continued with a sad chuckle. "I wasn't sure if it really was you, but I wasn't going to let some poor kid roam the streets, so I contacted social services and managed to foster you… from there you already know what happened."



The younger man nodded in understanding, but then he frowned in confusion. "But wait, you said that M-Minato came from a large family, did anyone else ever know about me? Did you ever tell them?" Naruto would always ask himself when he was younger, hiding under dirty beds from those carers, or behind dustbins sheltering from the cold nights when he lived on the streets, if there was anyone out there he could call family.



Anyone at all who would love him.



"No… I couldn't. Your father had made me promise, and even when I found you I had sworn that I would keep you out of the gang life, but you still somehow managed to get pulled into it…"



Naruto shuddered when he thought back to his mistakes; he really had been a bastard when he was younger. Running around stealing, drinking, smoking, and fighting just for the fun of it. He had been a delinquent, with Iruka having to bail him out of every turn, and he was thankful for that. He wasn't angry that Iruka hadn't contacted his 'family', there wouldn't have been another person he would rather have for a 'father'.



"Yet somehow they did manage to find you…" that part caught Naruto's attention; they had found him?



Iruka gave him a small smile. "It was that day I got shot, while we were in hospital after the surgery. You had been sleeping then, so I doubt you would even remember…



~Flashback~



Beep, beep, beep…



Darkness.



Beep, beep, beep…



It was a numbing darkness, the type that surrounded you, muffling all sound expect for that incessant beeping. His body felt heavy, as if he was being weighed down, no rather pressured like drowning. Iruka forced himself to wake, he knew he had to wake up, that beeping sound thrumbed against his skull, pain slowly made itself know.



Beep, beep, beep…



His mouth felt dry, as if he had swallowed a wad of cotton wool, but he couldn't move his mouth to wet his lips.



Beep, beep, beep…



He knew he had to wake up, in the back of his mind he knew there was something important he had to do. Naruto, he had to make sure that Naruto was okay. That gunshot, the smell of burning gun powder… the taste of metal on his lips...



The light wasn't bright but still stung his eyes, it was obviously night time. He hissed and tried to move, only to find his movement obstructed. There was a mask over his face, something to aid him to breathe, he had been shot but it seemed like it didn't seem too bad that he would need a breathing tube down his throat. Iruka tried to lift his hand, but found that something was holding him down; with some effort he glanced down and noticed a tuft of bright blonde hair laying on the edge of the hospital bed, and the small tanned hand gripping tightly onto his own.



A sigh of relief left the brunette, he was okay… Naruto was okay. Iruka was about to relax back into the bed when he noticed the looming figure standing in the open doorway. Fear gripped the injured man, and the beeping machine quickened a beat.



"Don't worry, I won't do anything…" that voice was cold, just like he remembered back from all those years ago.



Iruka tried to calm himself down as the man stepped inside the small room, and the brunette was surprised how little the tall man changed. His ruby red hair was much longer now, tied in a lose ponytail at the back, slanted steel blue eyes fixed on the blonde boy slumped in the chair. His pale face was pointed, almost vulpine, and expressionless.



Namikaze Kyuubi was beautiful, but it was a cold, untouchable beauty.



One that you could gaze up at in awe, but would burn you up if you looked at it too long. It was deceptive; the man appeared like a ruby red rose, but a poisonous snake hid under all that. He took his left hand out of pressed black trousers, and reached towards the boy. Iruka flinched when long piano fingers slowly went through those blonde locks, in an almost loving gesture. Although his facial features never revealed anything, it was never easy to read that man.



"He does look a lot like Otouto…"



Iruka's breath hitched, he knew, he KNEW! Now Iruka was panicking, what would he do, was there anything he could do?



"I could take him home, away from you, punish you for hiding him from me. Little Iruka, have you forgotten who I am? Did you think I would not know of my little brother's child?"



Iruka couldn't help but whimper, oh he had tried, he had tried so hard… but you can't run, you can't run from the Yakuza. Minato always used to say that…



"But I won't…"



Iruka stopped breathing.



"Otouto made it quite clear he didn't want anything to do with us, foolish boy, as if I cared whoever he fucked…" he hissed, biting out in frustration.



Once again silence consumed the occupants of the room, only broken by the beeping of the machine. Nothing was happening and Iruka was becoming more nervous as the minutes slipped by.



Then Kyuubi sighed, as if he had come to some sort of decision. "No matter what, family will always be family," he whispered. The red-haired man was looking at Iruka now, with a look that was foreign to his face. It might be placed as compassion though.



"Take care of him, little Iruka," he said and left the room as silently as a ghost.



~End Flashback~



"When he left I had found out that the hospital bills had been paid, and your record had been swept clean. Kyuubi took care of it all," Iruka said. "I hadn't spoken to him since."



"So how did you get in contact with him again?" Naruto asked.



"It was a few days ago when I went to visit you, you hadn't answered any of my calls and I was worried. I thought you might have gotten sick, or maybe even worse, that your date had gone terrible wrong. This was made even worse when you didn't answer when I was knocking on your door; my suspicion was only raised when that manager of yours also came to your place talking some bull about you pulling a double-shift and him picking up your clothes. It was ridiculous! So obviously I started investigating on my own."



Naruto almost laughed when he heard the absurdity that could only be described as Hatake Kakashi. It seemed like Sasuke had already been trying to find him…



"SASUKE!" he suddenly shouted.



"Sasuke? Who's that?" Iruka asked.



"Sasuke, oh kami, he must still be looking for me!" Naruto shouted out in panic, springing up from his sitting position.



"Calm down Naruto, tell me what is going on," Iruka asked again.



"Uchiha Sasuke, he's my- he's my… it's complicated…" it really was. Naruto didn't have a clue how to class their relationship, and so far he hadn't expected to be rescued.



"Uchiha Sasuke?" Iruka repeated. "The youngest son of Fugaku Uchiha, head of the Uchiha yakuza clan?" he asked.



"Er… yes?" he answered uncertainly.



Iruka sighed and slumped back into the soft upholstery. "Oh Naruto, the things you get yourself into…Kyuubi-sama is not going to be happy about this…"