Notes
Set somewhere in the not-to-distant, future. ^_^;
"Long time, no see Madara", a voice calls out. If you were listening, you'd note that there's something odd about the voice, like it's coming from very close, yet far away. Or maybe that it's filled with the kind incongruence you get when someone is trying to sound cheerful while wearing a dangerous expression.
Madara though, instantly recognises it, snapping his head around. "What's wrong Natsume?", before he corrects himself, with a simple to him, explanation, "Ah, not Natsume. Reiko."
"How rude", Reiko laughs. "I'm a Natsume too."
"But a very different kind, although you both have a tendency for trouble, though you always charged in head first, where as he gets dragged into it over and over again."
"It made life so much more interesting, besides it would have come anyway. I just met it on my own terms."
"On the subject of trouble", Madara practically purrs. "You wouldn't happen to remember the name of the rather troublesome ayakashi that your grandson is dealing with at the moment?"
"Troublesome, to bring out me?" Reiko responds wryly before pulling her way through the bag.
"He'll come if I call him." She states unapologetically, as she shifts through the pages. "But this should be his name", she says as she shows the paper to Madara for him to memorise.
"NATSUME~" Tanuma's voice calls across the hills.
"I guess that is my queue to leave", Reiko says wistfully.
"Wait!" Madara says urgently. "Are you happier now?"
"Well, sometimes, it's interesting being dragged into trouble too", she laughs, "still you better work hard as a body guard, for my happiness!" she adds on before she fades away leaving only a sleeping Natsume, whose friends are drawing near.
"How did you know which name was the right one?" Tanuma asks, face wrinkled with worry, "You said it yourself, it was your grandmother and not yourself that dealt with him before, and I would of thought his spell to try and make you forget recent things would of made you less likely to remember not more."
"It was a dream." Natsume says, his eyes focused in the distance. "I get them sometimes, of my grandmother's life and memories." He then turns to smile at Tanuma. "But it was only when I heard you calling me in the distance that I remembered why I needed to wake up."