Memories

This story was inspired by Lena Coakley's 'Mirror Image' I was just trying to see some of her methods but ended up copying most of her work. So I'm really sorry for all those who expected a lot out of this story and are welcome to flame me. And please! Those who want to help me please give me some pointers on what I could do to improve my writing, I really want to improve!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or most of the dialogues in this story (haha...)

The one thing that Naruto always wished was to be able to once again see was his mother. He always carried around his mother's pendant that had a picture of him and his mother in a meadow surrounded by flowers. He would always close his eyes and think back to all the moments that he had shared with her. This was his favorite thing to always do and sometimes he would spend the whole day in bed thinking about those moments. When he opened his blue eyes then he would see the pendant around his neck and once again be reminded that she was no more. The sorrow and the pain at knowing that she would never hold him again was something that had become a part of his life.

It was disquieting, however, to come across an object that would remind him of her. His heart would feel pain and he always had to excuse himself in moments like this. These memories always brought pain and he would always spill tears upon remembering them. He avoided going much around the house since everything always reminded him of her. He would always walk with his head down and eyes scrunched always trying to keep his mind occupied even through the school and never paid much attention to others. His teachers and friends didn't say much obviously feeling pity for him and he hated it.

Of course he also took to ignoring them and stayed alone always thinking of his mother.

"Are you okay?" his father asked him. "Your grades are slipping and you hardly seem to come out from your room." Naruto just walked across the hallway, ignoring him like he never even existed. "You need to go out and get on with your…" His dad turned around and found no one there, "life."

Naruto sat down on his bed and punched the wall of his room. "What would you know about losing someone?"

"You always came home late obviously cheating with other women…she deserved better. I can see that now. But I never used to think like this. I was so naïve back then. I was always living under my mother's protection thinking that my life was a fairy tale. For all I know, you never even loved me or mom."

Naruto had to control himself whenever he was with his dad. At first he didn't want anything to do with the man unless it involved killing him. Whenever he would touch him he wasn't sure how he controlled himself. All he could feel was rage. When he tried to speak, his words came out forced and rude. He knew that he was being rude, but he didn't care since he wanted to do more than just be rude to the man. Mommy had an accident and is no more, he had said. The casual tone in his voice had woken a rage inside Naruto that he didn't even know existed. This wasn't his father. This was a monster.

"Can I come in?"

Naruto was on his bed doing his homework. Right near his bed on the desk was a photo of his mother with a white dress sitting on a rock smiling with the evening sun behind her. That was the last photo she had taken just before she had died. Now it was only just another memory of her.

"Not now," said Naruto, ignoring him and continuing with his work.

"We need to talk."

"I know what you want to talk about-you look different. You should get out more."

"Come on. I just want to talk to you, son. We are a family."

"Well the only family I ever had was my mother." Naruto closed his books and slipped inside his bed.

His father knocked again obviously hurt. At one time they had been close but this man had to realize that his real father had died a long time ago.

"How can you say that son? Don't you remember all those camping trips, the baseball matches? I still know that you like drawing, playing games and remember that girl you used to like. And I still remember that cool handshake you showed me. I'm still your dad."

Naruto had to clench his fists to stop himself from shouting at him. "Whatever. Just go away."

It had only been a month since his mother's dead. Yet he saw his father flirting around with a lot of other women. Once he found his father in bed with another woman, the very same bed his mother had been using a month ago, "Hey, Naruto, you need anything?" he had asked.

All his ties with his father had broken that day and the only thing he now saw was a filthy man with no dignity, a monster.

"We got to move on son," his father said. "The dead won't come back."

He clenched his spoon and had to use every ounce of control he had not to kill him. For a moment he considered shouting at him, but it was too much trouble. Besides, he wasn't worth it.

"It's okay to be sad," his father said. "Maybe you will miss her sometimes. But you got to try to forget her. It's hard but if you try you can. Very slowly, you will stop remembering her…"

Naruto glared at his father but the father failed to notice. "We'll get through this," he said, "Time heals all wounds."

"Mom's on the news again," his father called.

"Turn it off," Naruto said but his father kept on watching. Above the television, the face of his mother with a smile on her face was being displayed.

His father kept on watching while drinking a beer. He had the same blue eyes as Naruto , and the hair was a bit longer compared to Naruto's own blonde hair but the family resemblance was still there.

Mr. Kurama, a short Chinese man with a pot-belly was being taken away in a vehicle.

"That's her killer" his father said.

Naruto stared at the man's face and what shocked him the most were the eyes. They didn't seem that of a killer but a different emotion was swirling in them that Naruto just couldn't figure out.

His father continued talking to himself. "Serves him right for killing her…" his tone seemed disgusted but his facial emotions completely betrayed his own voice since they seemed kind of relieved that she was not here anymore.

In the dining room, holding a spoon in his hands something broke inside of Naruto upon seeing is father's fake emotion. Naruto closed his eyes. "Shut up…" he said.

His father just looked at him with squinted eyes and spoke in a harsh tone. "What?"

Normally he would have stayed quiet. Once, when he was little, while defending his mother from his drunken father he had been beaten up and he hadn't dared to defy his father when he was drunk ever again.

His grip on the spoon tightened. He tried not to let the rage show on his face, but all the bottled up anger came up and forced a look of anger into his face. His father didn't miss it.

"Do you have anything to say to me?"

Naruto just kept on glaring. His father moved forward right in front of him.

"What you angry for boy? You got a problem?"

Naruto set his spoon down and began walking away. He didn't want another argument with this monster.

He heard his father snort, "A coward, just like that woman."

Naruto's eyes went wide and for a moment everything stopped for him. He didn't know what happened but he was walking away a moment ago and suddenly he found himself over his father who had fallen unconscious with a nasty bruise on his right cheek.

Naruto stared at the man, still wanting to do more. Suddenly Naruto thought he understood why his father seemed so expressionless about his mother's death. He was expressionless because inside he was really happy. Happy that he was now free to do anything he wanted, way down he was thankful to Mr. Kurama for freeing him from his burden.

The first thing Naruto saw upon opening his eyes were the white ceilings of a hospital. He didn't remember much after hearing his father's comment but he knew that he had done something drastic. When he had learned of his mother's death, he had cried and cried. The world seemed dull and he felt alone. Everyone seemed different. They all would look upon him with pity. Why wasn't his mother there? Why did she have to die?

When Naruto met Mr. Kurama, it was in the prison. A new prison had been just built, and Naruto had to travel a bit from school to visit him. The prison seemed quiet and the only people he could see were men in blue uniforms. Mr. Kurama was sitting there, with an orange dress, obviously for the prisoners. He would have avoided Naruto, but Naruto had come to visit him and was staring intently at him like trying to figure out something.

"Naruto," he said in a soft mumble, "I'm sorry…I mean…Do you know me?"

"I saw you on TV."

"Oh, ok." The two stood in silence for a moment.

"You shouldn't have come," he said.

"I had to," said Naruto and then they fell into another silence.

"This is very strange for me, very strange," he said, staring at him. "I knew that she had a son, but, well to be honest, I didn't want to meet you. I…I thought it would be better not to see you. It's very strange," he repeated, then added, "You look so different."

"I do?"

"Yes, your face. The way you are talking to me. Everything is different from what I expected." He paused. "I understand, you know. You have every right to hate me and I … I know you do." A policeman came up and told them that meeting time was over. "I'd better go."

On impulse, Naruto abruptly stood up. "I knew I wouldn't be able to hate you," he said, "but I was hoping, when I saw you I'd be able to somehow."

Mr. Kurama stopped in his tracks. "But you don't."

"No." Naruto took a hold of his pendant around his neck. "My mom-I guess you know died in the accident."

"Yes."

"Sometimes I think if I had stopped her that night, she would still be alive." The two stood in silence. Then naruto said, "Do you think so too?

"I think," Mr. Kurama's voice began to falter, but he looked at him straight on, "I think that death has something to be said for it, there's no need to get out of bed for it, wherever we may be it comes to us."

"I'm sorry," said Naruto. He didn't ask any more questions since he already had known the answer to his question but just wasn't ready to accept it.

Naruto opened the pendant as he watched Mr. Kurama being taken away. He looked at it and once again saw the picture of him and his mother in a meadow surrounded by flowers. Then he closed it and secured it around his neck. On his way out he smiled for the first time in a long while.

He placed a hand on his left chest.

His mom was here, he thought. And then he walked towards home.