Naruto broke into a violent coughing fit. His face turned as red as his scarf while he frantically grabbed Kushina's arm.
"Mom! Mom, what are you even saying?! That was just you and Aunt Mikoto joking around, right? And I'm a boy! Besides, Hinata... Hinata is...!"
He kept talking, flustered and panicked, stealing nervous glances at Hinata, who was already frozen in place, as red as a boiling kettle, shrinking in on herself like she might disappear entirely.
Sasuke, on the other hand, looked like his brain had just been struck by lightning.
Calm, composed Sasuke Uchiha, who rarely showed more than a faint frown, had completely lost his cool.
"Childhood... childhood betrothal?!" The stoic mask on his face cracked open wide. A faint blush spread across his normally pale cheeks, and even the tips of his ears turned bright red.
Even the Mangekyo Sharingan could not hide the shock and embarrassment in his eyes. Kushina's enthusiastic patting nearly made him stumble.
"I... I have never heard anything like that!" His voice pitched higher than usual, and he unconsciously stepped backward, the cool Uchiha image collapsing entirely.
Minato cleared his throat softly beside them, unable to hide a helpless smile. It was the gentle, resigned smile of a husband long used to his wife blurting out stories that left younger generations bewildered.
He stepped forward and patted Kushina's shoulder, trying to calm her excitement. "Kushina, let's not bring up decades-old jokes and frighten them. Sasuke is one of Naruto's closest companions, almost like a brother."
Turning to Sasuke, Minato offered an apologetic smile, warm and sincere. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. Mikoto really was Kushina's closest friend in the village. They were inseparable, so seeing you again brought back many memories."
His words softened the awkwardness left hanging in the air.
Kushina blinked, realized her enthusiasm had exploded a little too strongly, then laughed heartily as she rubbed her forehead. Seeing Sasuke's rare, thoroughly flustered expression only amused her more.
"Oh wow, I really scared you, didn't I? You're just like your father, blushing so easily."
She toned down her overwhelming aura a tiny bit, but the affection in her eyes never faded.
"Mikoto raised you boys well. I can feel it, Sasuke." Her voice softened into a heartfelt warmth. "Fugaku and Mikoto would be so proud of how strong you've become."
This time, when she reached out, she only smoothed the hair she had mussed earlier. The gesture was gentle, warm, and full of the tenderness she used to show her own unborn son.
This chaotic moment of family recognition, which began explosively, finally settled into a quiet, heartfelt warmth thanks to Minato's calmness and Kushina's sincerity.
In the silence that followed, an old bond stretched across time, life, and death. It carried a mixture of grief, love, and the deep affection one held for the children of beloved friends.
Then Kushina asked, curiosity returning, "Right... how are Mikoto and Fugaku now?"
Sasuke's expression instantly darkened. Naruto stepped in to recount the tragedy of the Uchiha Clan.
Minato's face shifted from gentle concern to a cold, icy fury. His fist trembled as he listened, strands of golden hair falling over eyes that no longer held their usual soft glow.
The village he died protecting had allowed such a massacre, and it had happened only shortly after he and Kushina lost their lives.
Fugaku. Mikoto. The comrades who had once been like family.
But Kushina reacted even more sharply. The shock hit her first, but grief crashed over her like a tidal wave.
Her bright blue eyes, once blazing like living fire, filled with raw, unbearable pain.
Mikoto. Her closest friend. The woman who made her rice balls, who giggled with her about future children, who gently teased her, who held her hand through pregnancy, who promised they would become in-laws someday.
"Mikoto..." Kushina's voice cracked into a whisper.
All the joy she had felt from seeing Naruto again, from meeting Hinata and Sasuke, shattered in a heartbeat under the weight of the truth.
The news arrived years too late, stabbing her heart like a blade.
Without warning, she moved.
Fast as a sudden gust of wind, she wrapped Sasuke in her arms.
"Sasuke!"
Her embrace was fierce, crushing, overflowing with every ounce of love she had ever felt for Mikoto, for Naruto, for the people she cherished.
She held him like she was trying to shield him from every sorrow he had suffered.
Her tears streamed down her face unchecked, hotter and heavier than when she hugged Naruto earlier.
"My little Sasuke..." Kushina sobbed brokenly. "You've suffered so much."
Her grief was not only for Sasuke but for Mikoto. For the friend she had loved like a sister. For the children Mikoto had treasured.
She remembered Mikoto's proud smile as she held newborn Sasuke. She remembered the soft laughs they shared when they joked about future families.
And now, one son had run from his pain, and the other had carried the entire weight of a massacre on his shoulders.
"Forgive me... forgive me..." Kushina cried, her voice trembling with guilt. "I couldn't protect Mikoto. I couldn't protect you or your brother. If I had been alive... if I had been there... she..."
She broke down completely.
Sasuke's body stiffened at the sudden embrace.
He had lived so long with pain fermenting inside him, layering itself tighter and tighter around his heart. He had wrapped every fragile part of himself in cold iron so nothing could touch him.
He had forgotten what this kind of warmth felt like.
The warmth of an adult.
The warmth of someone who cared deeply.
The warmth of a mother's voice, even if she wasn't his own.
Kushina's trembling body, her tears soaking into his clothes, the pain and love in her voice, all of it crashed into him at once.
Something inside him cracked.
His throat tightened. His vision blurred faintly. His breath shook.
He didn't hug her back, but his hands curled into trembling fists at his sides.
The walls he had built around himself didn't break, but they shuddered silently.
And in that moment, Sasuke finally understood why, when he was a child, his parents had shown such strange affection toward a lonely little boy named Naruto.
Because this feeling...
This warmth...
Was exactly what they would have given him, if they had lived.