I own nothing
Prologue
Naru Namikaze started awake.
Her heart was pounding. The room around her was dark. The only glimmers of light slipped under the door from the lamps in the hall outside.
She'd had the dream again. It was the same every time.
The tiny nine-year-old pushed back her heavy bedcovers. She shivered as her bare feet hit the cold wooden floor. Sounds echoed from downstairs the strong, comforting voice of her father and the answering guffaws of his friends in the study.
Pale lace curtains fluttered at her window as Naru pulled open the bedroom door. She crept down the hall, a ghostly figure in her nightgown. A floorboard creaked underneath her as she passed her mother's room.
Naru froze, waiting for a stern word to send her back to bed.
Silence. Another roar of laughter from the men downstairs. Either her mother was asleep already or pretending to be.
As Naru hurried down the long staircase, the smooth wood of banister felt like polished bronze under her small hands. She stopped in the doorway of the study, transfixed by the sight of her father.
Minato Namikaze stood before the window, lit by the glow of the firelight. A circle of men sat listening to him, captured by his ardor the way Naru usually was. He spoke passionately of his new grand idea. Naru didn't understand it, but she knew if her father believed in it, it must be something wonderful.
Peering around the door, she recognized one of the faces in the crowd. It was Lord Uchiha, a dour, aristocratic man with none of her father's energy or life. Lord Uchiha's son, Sasuke, was a pasty, stuck-up little boy with no sense of humor. Naru thought he was rather horrible, but she tried to be nice to him. She thought she might be horrible, too, if she had parents like Lord and Lady Uchiha.
Instead she had her father, who understood her completely. Naru wrapped her hands around the doorknob and leaned on the solid wooden door, waiting for him to notice her.
"Minato," said Lord Uchiha, "you have finally lost your senses."
"This venture is impossible," agreed another man, his mustache twitching.
Minato Namikaze smiled a grin that made Naru feel warn inside. How could anyone disagree with him about anything?
"For some," Naru's father said. "Gentleman, the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible."
Naru pondered this.
"That is the kind of thinking could ruin you," said a man in an ill-fitting black suit, shaking his head.
"I'm willing to take that chance," Minato said passionately. "Imagine trading posts in Kumogakure, Sunagakure, Yukigakure . . ."
He waved his arms, imagining the exotic faraway ports, and his gaze drifted across the room and fell on Naru. Immediately he stopped speaking and crossed the room to her. The other men turned and saw the tiny blond child standing at the door in her nightgown. Naru's Father crouched beside her and put his warm hands on her trembling shoulders.
"The nightmare again?" he asked kindly.
Naru nodded, thinking of an immaterial fox and a talking hare. Minato took one of her hands in his and turned to his guests.
"I won't be long," he said.
Naru leaned on his shoulder as he carried her up the long staircase. Her mother would have been scandalized if Naru had shown up in the middle of one of her parties. She would have sent her straight back to bed on her own. But Father understood. He always understood, he was always there for her.
Minato tucked the bedclothes around Naru again and sat down on the bed beside her.
"Tell me about it," he said, patting her hand.
"I'm falling down a dark hole," Naru said, "and then I see strange creatures . . . ." She faltered. It all sounded too peculiar to believe, but her father listened with a serious, attentive expression on his face.
"What kind of creatures?" he asked.
"Well, there's a dodo bird," said Naru, "a rabbit in a waistcoat, a smiling fox-"
"I didn't know foxes could smile," her father said.
"Neither did I," said Naru, but she can could see the smiling fox in her head as clear as day, as well as the smile left behind when the rest of the fox disappeared. She shivered. It was so very odd. "Oh, and there's a blue caterpillar," she said, remembering the large puffy mushroom it sat on.
"Blue caterpillar," Minato said gravely. "Hmmm."
Naru gave him a worried look. "Do you think I've gone round the bend?"
He father felt her forehead, looking just like their family doctor when she was checking for a fever. He made the doctor's "bad news" face and said, "I'm afraid so." Naru's eyes widened, but he went on. "You're mad. Bonkers. Off your head. But I'll tell you a secret . . . all the best people are."
He grinned at her, and Naru couldn't help but smile back. She leaned against him with a little sigh.
"It was only a dream, Naru," he went on. "Nothing can harm you there. But if you get too frightened, you can always wake up. Like this." Suddenly he pinched her arm, not very hard, but it made her shriek with surprise. Giggling, she pitched him back, and he laughed, tousling her hair.
"Exactly," he said. "You see? Nothing to worry about. It's only a dream." He kissed her forehead and fluffed the pillows around her as he stood up.
"Thank you, Father," Naru whispered.
But as she listened to his footsteps going back down the stairs, a shivery feeling ran across her skin.
How could a dream be so very real?