主夫のサスケ

In this AU, Sasuke is brought back to Konoha similar as the canon series. He is interrogated for information on things like Orochimaru's research, the movements of Oto while he was affiliated with them, and any other information that may deem worth Konoha knowing. All of which he gives up willingly.

He is sentenced to one year probation in which he cannot leave the village, unless his presence is otherwise specifically required. He can do whatever he wants, missions included, as long as it's within Konoha.

Less than a house arrest, the probation is supposed to be an adjustment period to allow Sasuke to settle back into village life, situate the Uchiha estate, adjust to his lack of an arm, and focus on stabilizing his physical and mental health.

Now in Sakura's Story, we know that Sakura works on establishing help centers dedicated to helping children with their mental health and trauma across the shinobi nations. I like to think that within the village she was already pushing for better focus on mental health for shinobi.

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Part of this adjustment period is Sasuke receiving counseling, both for anything he experienced while he was away and for what he experienced as a child. When Anko heard they were trying to find the best choice for counselor for Sasuke upon his return, she very firmly volunteered. As someone who went through some fucked up shit as a kid, she’d been working on becoming trained to help other shinobi youth.

I think the potential student-mentor relationship between Sasuke and Anko, given their shared experiences with the curse mark and Orochimaru, is woefully underutilized and unexplored.

The first few months are bad. Despite having returned willingly to Konoha, Sasuke's mental health is a mess. After years of emotional and physical trauma and keeping his mental barriers locked tight, finally being in a position where he can potentially feel safe makes him pretty much shut down. (A common occurrence for people once they get out of unsafe environments into safe ones.) Anko starts helping him work through all the layers and layers of shit and baggage he has backed up in his brain.

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Interestingly enough, Sasuke finds himself spending a lot of time with Lee. Lee's energy reminds him a lot of Naruto and it begrudgingly endears Lee to him, only there’s something much more calming about sparring with Lee than Naruto. (Their dynamic comes to resemble Gai and Kakashi somewhat, but Lee is just a little sweeter and Sasuke just a little more serious.)

Sasuke and Sai oddly hit it off in their own strange way? There's a moment of tension between them on their first amicable reintroduction, but Sasuke has a much easier time communicating with him than Naruto and Sakura did upon meeting Sai. Even if Sasuke is wildly thrown off by the explicit and straight forward thing Sai often says.

As for Naruto and Sakura? They’re his most important people, always have been, even if he had to deny it to himself and others for years. Reconnecting with them isn’t... hard, but it’s awkward. Navigating this once familiar space, a space he spent so long rejecting feels strange and sometimes he feels ashamed or embarrassingly unworthy.

This entire relationship is built on the idea that he never genuinely tried to kill either Naruto or Sakura. It was either him putting on a show or him trying to convince himself he could, but he never would have gone through with it.

Sasuke also has much more meaningful moments with both of them individually where he apologizes to them. The terrible things he’s done and said are addressed and he makes it a goal to repent.

Sasuke enjoys talking about medical things with Sakura. He heard and learned a lot about medical science - especially dubious practices - while aligned with Oto, so they bond over talking about how fucked up some of the stories Sasuke shares. Sasuke gets a kick out of her mutual disgust, indignation, and reluctant intrigue. He also takes special interest in things she has to share about eyes.

While Sasuke will never not be Sasuke, his rekindling friendship with Naruto is, for the first time, not based on a foundation of pride and resentment. Naruto is still loud and annoying at times, but there’s also a feeling of freedom when they’re together. There’s nothing hanging over their heads anymore.

Nearing the end of his year, Sasuke begins to get increasingly restless. He's made wonders in his progress, but a lot of demons still pull at his subconscious.

He begins taking missions out of the village again, he and Sakura grow closer romantically, and life settles into something resembling peaceful, but the nagging itch that he's not doing enough is a persistent one.

In this AU, everyone doesn't settle into married life and have kids so early. Everyone has a bit more time as adults, a bit more time to figure themselves out and to court each other, before some of them finally have families years down the line.

During this, Sasuke catches wind of more and more ugliness in the world. He organizes with Tsunade to allow him to spend more time on long term missions targeting and working to uproot systems of severe crimes like human trafficking and slavery, something we see him doing a bit of in canon.

These missions can sometimes yield child victims and he corresponds regularly with Sakura and her health centers to organize for them to be taken in.

He's back and forth between Konoha and his missions over the years. Gone no where near as often as in canon, but sometimes gone for months at a time for particularly deep missions, but still works as a regular Leaf ninja on call for missions when he's home.

He does still struggle with a feeling of obligation and guilt sometimes due to his actions in the past, and there was maybe one year where he tried to isolate himself from the village partly for these reasons, another being because he felt his Sharingan drew enemies, but Naruto and Sakura set him straight. There weren’t about to him spiral back down to that abyss.

He is often accompanied by Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Lee, Anko, and a number of other of his friends in numerous situations over the years. He also accompanies Sakura on her rounds to check on centers' progress from time to time.

Team Taka no longer works with Orochimaru (because fuck that noise, is Orochimaru even alive in this AU??), and maybe join Konoha or work in Konoha affiliated establishments? (What do they do?? What are their goals??? Who knows, haven’t thought that far ahaha) Karin probably connects with Naruto over their shared Uzumaki lineage. Juugo might work in one of Sakura’s centers.

By the time Sasuke and Sakura finally decide to get married they've had years to address their pasts and spend time together.

It's when Sakura gets pregnant that Sasuke begins to reevaluate just exactly where he wants to be in life. He's spent so many years fighting. He's been fighting for recognition, revenge, redemption since before he was eight years old and realizes he... he's tired.

He's never allowed himself to rest because he's always felt like there was something he was supposed to be doing. And he realizes he doesn't want to fight to feel allowed to exist anymore.

He wants... He wants to be there for Sakura. He wants to be there for his baby. And with a little help from the Sakura and Anko, he learns that that's *okay*. That despite all the ugliness still out there, he has a right to put his own desire to be with his family first, that he can trust the good people in his life to take on the responsibility of helping save the world while he takes time to be there for the ones who need him.

Bonus Headcanons that come with this AU:

Hinata is still a ninja

Neji is alive

Tsunade is Hokage for longer instead of stepping down to let Kakashi take over

Mom aged Hinata get a Better Haircut

Yamato isn’t Orochimaru’s keeper