Birthday Wish

Kitty's (Author) Note: This is a birthday present for a special friend, loyal follower in my stories and all time good reviewer. Her name is Sukki18 and her stories are really amazing. Happy birthday Sukki18, I hope that you enjoy this little present I came up with for you. Sorry that it is late.

The story takes place after shippunden, the usual characters are eighteen and over depending on their age differences. I do not take credit for any of the Naruto Characters. You all know who the credit goes to for the makings of Naruto. However, I do take full credit for the following:

Chi – the Chikage and main character of this story.

Chikage – a Kage position.

Yamigakure no Sato – the village hidden in the dark, aka Dark Village.

Chi looked around her, helplessly aiming to avoid the confrontation of the villagers of Yamigakure. The whole entire village knows what today's date is, none of them have ever forgotten. No, their memories are incredibly long as the entire village is made up of ninjas rather than a mix of ninjas and civilians. Why must days like today be so awfully complicated? Chi already knew why. Birthdays are an important thing to celebrate and those of high status, like Chi, have to be celebrated throughout the entire village. It has been, and always will be, Yamigakure no Sato's tradition.

Sneakily, she scurried around the corner and headed for the tall tower at the village's centre. It was not a small tower. With five towering floors and the large red kanji symbol of Kage hanging on the middle of the building, it was not a small tower at all. Chi smiled when she spotted the tower, but it vanished when she heard a lot of hushed voices just around the corner. Swallowing, she crept close to the corner and peered around. The whole village had gathered what she had planned and had pooled around the front of the Kage building waiting for her.

With no other choice, Chi quickly performed a teleportation jutsu to get inside of her office. Opening her eyes she found herself within the safety of her office. Sighing she sank gratefully into the chair and then swivelled around to the window that overlooked some of the village. The scenery was bright, cheerful and definitely not how Yamigakure is actually veered by outsiders. No other villages believe that the Yami village is nothing but a dark village within only minds of killing. That is not true. Yamigakure is a vibrant place with the essential needs of family, love and having to kill to survive. In fact, they are just like every other village.

It will not take her people long to discover that she had used a jutsu to escape them. They would either come bombing into the building, not literally, and then would drag her outside to celebrate the day of her birth. Her seventeenth actually. A time of great joy where no experiences are open to her. Yeah, she was just not that overjoyed at the prospect whereas everyone else is.

'Hiding again this year?'

Chi jumped in the air with surprise and turned around to face the white-silver hair of Konoha's very own Hatake Kakashi. With him were his team and a bunch of others. Her ice blue eyes widened upon the sight of them. Uzumaki Naruto stood there beaming. Haruno Sakura was smiling with friendliness. Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Choji all wore smiles of open friendliness. Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata and Aburame Shino stood there in front of Rock Lee, Hyuga Neji and Tenten. The only one that Chi could not see smiling was Aburame as his coat covered his mouth. It looks like Kakashi was in charge of the lot of them as there were no more adults, around his age anyway.

Some others were from Konoha's alliance, Suna. Temari, a female with four blonde pigtails, stood confidently with her fan strapped to her back. She was smiling. The other beside her was Kankuro, a puppeteer and he was also smiling. Chi loved to tease him, especially with his face paint. Chi then saw the Kazekage, Gaara, standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He stood behind Naruto but appearing the more in charge kind of guy. His eyes held warmth rather than a distant coldness. He was smiling at her. She couldn't help but smile.

'Kakashi-san, you scared me,' Chi said placing a hand to her heart to steady it. 'Next time, make some noise.'

'That wouldn't be the point of sneaking now would it?' he said closing his eyes in a smile.

Chi pouted and slipped back into her comfortable seat. 'Is there a reason for all of you to be here?'

Naruto was suddenly grinning as brightly as the sun. Thing is, he was not the only one. The others had decided to grin mischievously and secretly. Suddenly she had a nasty feeling about them being here. Her eyes widened slightly and she gripped the armrests tightly.

Are they here about my birthday? How do they even know it's my birthday?

But then again, she could just be making assumptions. She sighed mentally. Of course she should be making assumptions. Outside this very building is the entire village waiting for her to come out so they can congratulate her on her birthday and so that she can enjoy it to its fullest. Is that the reason that they are all here? Are they here to celebrate her birthday also? She swallowed, suddenly hoping that she had not come to the Chikage tower at all. Things were starting to look bad for her.

'We were invited here by the villagers,' Kakashi explained, but he did not elaborate on why they had invited the lot of them.

Chi already knew what why the villagers had invited them. It has to do with nothing else but her birthday. They were very aware that Chi has not got many friends in Yami, but outside, yeah she's got quite a lot. And it seems that they were not going to leave out her friends hen her birthday is concerned. She slumped back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. Since her friends are here, there is no way that she is getting out of celebrating her birthday. Why on earth do her villagers want her to celebrate this very day?

She lowered her eyes to look at them. 'To get me to celebrate my birthday, right?'

'That's right, Chi-chan,' Sakura piped up.

Chi raised an eyebrow. 'I could be really mean and say that I am not acting as your friend right now.' The others looked at her with surprise. She suddenly laughed. 'I'm joking. I don't think I can actually act as Chikage in front of you. Not today anyway.'

'Why not today?' Kankuro asked, quite intrigued and confused.

'My villagers named this day a holiday. No one is allowed to shop or work, just celebrate. That includes me.'

'Yet you are here, obviously working on the day off. Do you not like birthdays?'

'Definitely not,' Chi answered and looked away. 'But I cannot avoid it this time. You're all here and I'm going to have to celebrate with you.'

'Damn straight,' Naruto said stepping forward.

'First is first,' Ino said stepping up. 'It's time to dress up.'

Chi gulped down her nerves, suddenly very nervous. Dress up as in, getting in a dress or wearing something pretty? She couldn't do that. She's only ever been a kunoichi. She has never worn a skirt, dress or even worn make-up. So how the hell was she going to get dressed up when she does not only know nothing about it but she also fears the very two words?

A few hours later and Chi knew exactly what the term 'dress up' means. She stood in front of a floor length mirror wearing a white dress that clung to her midriff but turned loose below her hips. The dress ended at mid-thigh and the dress sparkled. It was strapless and to make up for the emptiness at the top, glitter was smeared over the skin and even on the face and arms. She resembled a white dressed fairy, minus the wings. Her long red hair trailed down her back and ended just where her dress did. In truth she actually liked the outfit, but she still felt a little uncomfortable.

'Absolutely beautiful,' Temari breathed with a smile.

Turning, the white dress swirled around Chi's thighs until they settled a moment later. 'Really?' the red head asked shyly as heat crept to her cheeks.

'Absolutely,' the other girls agreed.

'Just remember,' Temari said sternly. 'You are still the Chikage and I advise you to always stay at Gaara's side.'

'Are you trying to promote something, Temari-san?'

She smiled. 'Never mind that, just stay with him, okay?'

'Temari's right. Since you are both Kages, it's always better for the pair of you to stay together,' Sakura agreed.

Why oh why do they keep saying that?

In fact, they have been saying that ever since Chi and Gaara became quite close. As they are both young Kages, they grew quite close, always advising each other and helping out if there is something that the other is struggling to understand. Promoting the status of the other village, or is it truly something else that they are trying to work on?

'Come on, let's go meet the boys,' Tenten said happily.

Meeting the boys was easier said than done. Chi was absolutely nervous. Nerve wrecking even. She couldn't go through with it at all. But the girls kept encouraging her. This was her birthday after all. She really shouldn't give this up. But she has to stay with Gaara the whole time. Really close friends, but she likes him an awful lot. It's torture to be with him the whole entire day. She doesn't even know how much he likes her, or if he even likes her as more than a friend. Now she has to spend the whole entire day with him, just because they're both Kages and are already friendly with each other?

They waited for them in the main lobby on the ground floor of the Kage tower. They had gotten changed there as well. The girls had brought the dress from Chi's house. Now as she waited for the boys to arrive, her nerves started to play up even more. She suddenly didn't think she could do this. She really couldn't. In such a dress that is not exactly covering but rather emphasising to be noticed, Chi felt her whole body become hot in nervousness and embarrassment.

'I can't do this,' Chi suddenly announced and went to turn back. She didn't even notice the boys gawking at her at the entrance to the hallway.

Gaara, the only one who seemed to be not paralyzed, grabbed her by the upper arm and turned her to face him. 'No, you're seeing this through.'

She stared up at him with wide eyes. 'I can't…' Realising who was holding her, looking at her, and definitely noticing what she was wearing, she blushed and looked away so she didn't have to look up at him and see what was going through his mind.

'This is your birthday, Chi-san, and you are looking as beautiful as ever. At least allow your people to see that you are willing to celebrate. Even a Kage has to have time for fun rather than working constantly.' There was a knowing smile on his face as he looked at her. It was as if he had experienced the same thing. Knowing that he very well has been in the same predicament, she nodded and allowed him to steer her outside the tower doors.

As soon as the villager's realised it was their Chikage standing before them, they erupted into thunderous cheering that was almost deafening. A smile blossomed on Chi's face at the mass amount of people that were willing for her to celebrate the most important day of her life. Everyone from her village, her friends from outside villages, are all here, willing to celebrate the day with her. And not allowing her to skip out on it either. Why was there such nervousness before now? Why had Chi been so fearful of celebrating this day with her village and her friends? Looking into herself now, she understood that there was nothing to fear. Just that she was simply running away from the past. After all, she lost her family the day she was born and she saw her birth as cursed and definitely not joyous.

Putting that all behind her, she stepped out of the building and looked up to the pleasant clear sky. Nothing was going to ruin this day for her, not even her past. No, she'd rather look forward to the future and knowing that this is what her parents would have wanted. Enjoy the day of her birth, do not see it as a curse or a cause of losing something vitally important, and spend it wisely with friends and those that she cares about and those that care about her.

Something snapped into place inside of her. It was almost as if this acceptance had finally fitted the puzzle within her together. All this time the only thing that she had been missing was just acceptance. Not from others, but acceptance of herself, of who she is, of the day of her birth. Closing her eyes, she held onto her complete self, aware that tears of completeness, acceptance, love and joy fell from her eyes.

This is what she had been missing all this time. Never again will she lose that. No longer will she look upon her birth in such a way.

Mother, Father, I finally understand. Everything I could possibly want is right here beside me. I hope you can see. Everything I need is right here, in my heart, just as the two of you will always be. I am finally complete. Acceptance, the one thing I thought I would never allow myself, I finally accepted myself.

We love you, Chi…

Chi's eyes opened wide in surprise. She turned around and looked up at the top of the Chikage building. Highlighted by the sun, two figures stood with hands clasped with each other. A man with red hair and silver eyes and a woman with long red hair and ice blue eyes. They were both smiling. They were not opaque, no they were faded out and Chi could see through them. They were not physical beings. They were ghosts, spirits of the dearly departed. The knowledge of who they are brought fresh tears to Chi's eyes.

For once in all of her life, she finally got to see them. She finally got to see the man and woman who had given birth to her seventeen years ago. Now with this, everything is complete. For her birthday she finally has everything she could possibly want or need. Seeing her parents, it's the best present anyone could ever be gifted with. Seeing them completed her long time birthday wish.