Prologue

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It happens the second she steps back inside the newly rebuilt walls of Konoha. She's never had a problem like it before and, as such, she didn't notice it right away. Too high on the victory of the war, too pleased so many people managed to survive (not Obito, not Neji, not her own arm) to really take note of that one stark difference. And, dear Sage, is it a stark difference. Had she been paying attention as any ninja worth their salt does, she might have noticed right away. Might have spotted the extra face in the crowd, the extra body existing in her village. Had it not been the end of everything and the beginning of forever, Naruto's sure she'd had noticed.

But no. Instead, it isn't until the next day, when Sasuke has darkened her hospital room with his presence, that Naruto recognises the very, very obvious dilemma that sits within the palm of her hands. And that is putting it politely.

Lying in the hospital with a stump for an arm, a perfect mirror to Sasuke (if he were blonde and, you know, female), Naruto doesn't even bother looking up. Instead, she cheerfully heralds him into her current room, adjusting the blanket that sprawl across her legs. Sakura's off with Shizune, studying the substance that once made up the Zetsu clones in hopes of producing a prosthetic arm for her. Then, if Naruto's adaptive body took to it, they could go about creating more for all the ninja that'd suffered in the war. She's happy to be a science experiment if it has the potential to help people (and gets her a new arm). Even if it doesn't work, she won't let a lack of an arm stop her from becoming Hokage, for continuing to protect the tentative peace the world currently resides in. Haku'd been able to use hand-seals with only one hand, right? Then she must be able to do the same thing with practice! Naruto's a lot of things, but someone defeated by impossible odds is not one of them. Hopefully, Sakura-chan will manage it though. If only because it'd been her right arm Naruto'd blown off. She kinda needed that one to start signing documents when she becomes Hokage. That or she'll have to begin practicing with her left hand... Staring down at the limb in question, Naruto chews on her lip, eyebrows puckered.

Sasuke's irritated huff has her looking up again, struck by the sudden memory that her bastard of a best friend could write with both hands. Maybe he has some tips!

Then her brain actually registers what her eyes are seeing.

The scream that escapes her lips is, Naruto will admit, a little embarrassing. With how Sasuke clamps his remaining hand down over one ear and scowls, it's probably a bit worse than she thinks.

Maybe she's cracked. Maybe it a panic attack that's only hitting now, now that she's stepped off the battlefield and into what can only be 'civilian life in comparison.

The medics rush into the room, yelling and arguing and ushering Sasuke out. One theorises that it's trauma, that she shouldn't have seen Sasuke so soon after their fight to the death. The one that never actually resulted in any knows otherwise. She doesn't have a problem with Sasuke, doesn't have a problem with the ninja she's lost an arm to. She faced down Nagato after he had killed Kakashi-sensei and she'd still managed to accept him. No, Sasuke isn't the problem, not at all.

The undead shade of his elder brother floating next to him?

Yeah, that's what she has a problem with.

EDIT (30.12.18) Tentatively rewriting and updating... maybe.

Tsume

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