~~~~~Chapter fifteen~~~~~

Madara couldn't protect her. He also couldn't protect his brother. He had broken his promise to her. He let her die. He had let her leave his grasp. He couldn't believe he had lost her to the Senju.

Izuna was right. The Senju can't be trusted. Nao was too kind. She wanted them to have peace with each other without casualties. He felt that she was wrong. How could she want peace with them when it was they who killed her? It was even the Senju who killed Izuna, and he couldn't protect him even if it happened right in front of his eyes.

He clenched his fist and awakened Izuna's eyes which he gave to him. He barged into the meeting room and told them that they would fight once more with the Senju but something was not right.

His fellow clansmen merely stared at him with cold-blooded eyes. They shook their heads. "Madara-sama, with all due respect, we are tired of fighting with the Senju, and we would like to negotiate with them in order to have peace," their representative said.

Madara's eyes narrowed at them. "That's absurd! We can't do that. The Senju can't be trusted!" he shouted. He was furious. How could they even try to do this?

"Madara-sama, we've lost our allies. We can't afford to lose more men by battling them."

The Kuzuryu clan had cut their ties with the Uchiha clan after having been informed of Nao's death after all. The Shirogane clan was on the verge of attacking them after they had been informed of her death.

"You—"

"Madara-sama, we must tell you to calm down. The entire class has agreed on this. If you don't, we are prepared to brand you a traitor and replace the clan leader."

"No! I will not allow this!"

"THEN SO BE IT!"

—•—•—•—•—

Uchiha Nao awoke to a dark place. She seemed to be floating inside a hollow space which had no way to measure the depth of it. It definitely wasn't heaven or hell, merely an empty space. She touched her stomach and tried to recall all that happened after she blacked out.

She casted a forbidden jutsu upon herself, to save her child and herself. She wouldn't allow their child to die.

She knew that it would be cruel to Madara if she left him alone, but she had to do it. That was her resolve.

Suddenly, she woke up.

As she looked around, she couldn't help but feel that the place looked familiar. She had woken up in a forest but she couldn't help but feel that she had gone there before.

Then she realized it.

Of course it was familiar! She just went through time but this was their special place. She smiled warmly at the thought.

She wondered what the village looked like at this time period, and she walked to the direction of it.

She gasped as the village came into view. A lot has changed since then of course, but it looked really nice, peaceful and without constant war. She was glad.

She could see that there were two men guarding the gates and approached them. Looking up at her, the two had wondering expressions on their faces.

She gave them a friendly smile. "I would like to be a citizen here."

They looked at each other for a moment and turned back to her. "Well, one of us will take you to the hokage then. You can talk to him about it."

She nodded and followed one of them to the hokage tower. The guard knocked on the door, and a "come in" was heard from inside.

They went in and she saw a man, quite young, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hokage-sama," the guard said, "this lady said that she wants to become a citizen here."

He looked at her in interest. "A new citizen huh...Well, that's quite rare. Please state the reasons why you want to stay here, and I will check with the elders if they would agree to you staying here. After that, if they approve, we would assign one of our jōnin to you to assure us that you are not someone suspicious."

"Very well," she answered. "You see, I am from a small and kind of unknown village and expecting a child. I don't really feel safe in a village with only a few people who can fight or are ninjas, so I want to be a citizen here to assure the safety of my child, as I can't really fight when I'm pregnant."

"I see. I am Minato Namikaze, the fourth hokage of Konohagakure. It is nice to meet you then. What is your name?"

"It's Tsugumi Karino, sir," she said, making up a name.

He nodded and went to relay the information to the elders.

After several minutes, he came back to Nao who was sitting on one of the chairs in the hokage's office.

"I have good news for you. You are allowed to stay here as a citizen."

She smiled. "Is that so? Thank you, Hokage-sama. Is it alright if I go to the hospital first to check on my baby's health? It was quite a rough journey going here."

He nodded. "Well, welcome to Konoha, Karino-san."

"Thank you."

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N

So to the guys who've guessed what would happen since it was pretty predictable, congrats to you! XD