MigiHōhō?
Naruto sat alone next to the river his feet dipped into the water. Since Sasuke left to gain power he just didn't have the same enthusiasm for life, it felt almost like a piece of him was missing. He'd shut himself away from the rest of the world, shunning his friends and even the closest person he had to family: Iruka. It had been 7 weeks since he had failed to retrieve his best friend, his first bond, his eternal rival but the feelings he had were still raw. He felt a failure, he'd let down Sakura, himself, the village and most importantly Sasuke.
A shadow appeared beside him on the bank and he looked up. The figure was a plump woman in a all white cloak apart from the letters 'S' and 'H' in a black circle. The hood was down reviling her pale blonde hair and rosy cheeks; she was around mid twenties and seemed to have a warm glow surrounding her. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she said her voice sounding melodic, Naruto shook his head in awe of this beautiful women. "My feet are killing" she continued, she then removed her cloak revealing a large baby bump. Naruto felt very at ease with this woman and felt no reason not to talk to the sweet lady. "How far along are you?" Naruto enquired quietly, feeling uncharacteristically shy, she smiled lightly, "oh, around seven months now". Naruto nodded, "you must be very excited" he stated, "I am, very, what's your name child?" she paused waiting for his name, "I'm Naruto", "well, Naruto, I'm Atatakai but you can just call me Kai" Naruto nodded with a slight smile. "You don't seem very happy" she asked putting her hand onto his back comfortingly, somehow this slightest of touch made Naruto feel he could trust this woman with his darkest of secrets. "I'm not particularly", he looked up into her light blue eyes, feeling calmed he spilled all of his feeling to Kai "I'm a failure, I'm not powerful enough, and no one understands".
Kai enveloped him into a tight hug, the side of his head was pressed to her chest, the sound of her heartbeat lulled him into a relaxed state. "When I was young, my village got pillaged by missing nin, I was about your age and my parents were brutally slaughtered, right in front of my eyes" Naruto pulled away and looked up at her, shocked by what she had said. Kai remained still and her face kept a neutral expression, "I felt exactly the way you did, and what's more the need for revenge consumed me", she stopped and took Naruto's hand, "I know how hard it is" she finished looking at him directly in the eyes. "Why are you telling me this?" Naruto managed to whisper out, she ignored his question and stood slowly up, "just know, Naruto, that you're not alone in this world, I'm staying in the Odayakana inn, if you want to visit me at any time, and please do!" she said with a smile that made her eyes light up.
A few days later and Naruto was still thinking about Kai, he was quite interested about her story and he'd decided to go see her after his daily visit to Ichiraku's, he sat down and smiled up at Teuchi. "One bowl of miso, please, old man!" he said quite cheerfully, just the thought of going to see Kai made him feel a little better, she had an aura around her which he could only describe as 'safe'. "Coming right up, Naruto, glad to see you with a smile on your face!" Teuchi commented joyfully, "Well I have a feeling things are going to get better, very soon" said, mostly to himself. Several minutes later and he was tucking into his ramen only pausing to look up when he felt someone's presence beside him, "Hello, Naruto, how are you feeling?", "Better" he admitted to Iruka, "well, I was hoping to find you here, I have a few jobs you could help me with", "Eh! I sort of had plans already", "not to worry then!" Iruka said, not minding at all, he'd asked only for Naruto's sake, he'd though that he might need something to take his mind of Sasuke. There was a comfortable silence between the two as they sat and ate, "you not going to tell me what your plans are then?" Iruka asked genuinely interested, "oh, sorry, I'm going to visit Kai at the Odayakana inn" he told him. "Kai? Who's this then?" Iruka wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "Ew! Not like that! She's like twenty seven or something! Plus she's pregnant" said with his face scrunched up. "How do you know her then?" Iruka said confused. "She was tired yesterday and sat down beside me on the river bank and we just started talking, she's very nice, she must be a visitor, she was wearing a white cloak with a symbol I didn't recognise", Iruka put his finger to his lips in thought, "the 'Shiro Hikari' are in town, did she have blue eyes and blonde hair?" Iruka questioned. "Yeah! What are the 'Shiro Hikari'?" Naruto asked wanting to know more about Kai. "Must be them, the hair and eyes are a clan trait I guess, they're ninja priests and nuns, they live in the sound mountains but often travel, from what I've heard they are more powerful than you can imagine, but only use it in defence", he paused for air, " they are very exclusive and secretive but they have huge influence, as a matter of fact, they are visiting to talk to the council about a treaty between sand, leaf and sound" Iruka stopped their, honestly his knowledge of them was limited.
Naruto had finished already and was still sat their only to listen to Iruka, and what Iruka had told him only made him more eager to see Kai, he squirmed in his seat, " Well, If I find out anything more I'll tell you!" he got up and took out his frog purse. "I'll pay for it Naruto" Iruka said good heartedly "I'll see you later?" "Thank you! And definitely" Naruto grinned and sped away into the direction of the inn.
When he reached the inn he noticed the amount of people in white cloaks, all of whom seemed very busy all going in a particular direction. He reached the front desk and pressed the bell, an old woman came from out of the back room and approached him, "Yes? Dear", she asked kindly, Naruto sighed in relief, glad that she didn't hold any resentment for him because of the Kyuubi. "I'm here to visit one of the nuns? She's a pregnant woman called 'Atatakai'" he looked at the woman expectantly. She skimmed her finger down the list of guests, "ah, room number 14, follow me please" she made off down the narrow passage to the left of the foyer, Naruto followed closely falling in step. "Here we are" she smiled and knocked twice, "yes?" came a voice from within, "Kinjo-san? Uzumaki Naruto is here to see you" Naruto was unsurprised that she knew his name; it was common knowledge after all. A woman came to the door; she had a western style pure white dress that went to just above the knees, she smiled at the owner and Naruto "Sister Kinjo is in the meditating room, would you like to come in and wait Naruto?" Naruto saw no reason not to and thanked the lady and entered the room bidding goodbye to the old woman.
There was three futon's in the corner of the room and a table in the middle which already had a man sat at it, drinking the tea which was poured out for two. The woman who had greeted him placed her hand on his back and guided him to the table, Naruto took note that this woman was also pregnant, "Sit and have some tea" she smiled that same calm, unworried smile that Kai had displayed a lot. The woman sat beside the man with the golden curly locks and poured out tea and slid it over to him, "I you made quite an impression on sister Atatakai, she told me about you", "she did?" Naruto was surprised, they'd only spoken briefly, "where are my manners?" the woman giggled, "my name is Hakucho Sato, just call me cho!" she stopped and nodded to the man beside her, "and this is Chairo Sato, don't think he's being rude! He has taken a vow of silence for this week" she explained. Naruto glanced up at him, and Chairo gave a small smile, "oh". "If you don't mind me asking" Naruto said with a small blush, "it's just I heard you were monks and yet you and Kai are pregnant, and you're married to Sato-san!" Hakucho giggled a little, "Well, Naruto, we're not a religion, we only worship the earth in a way, and we just try our best to bring peace to the land" she nodded, "but you're right, we do have our similarities to a religion, but we have different reasoning, you see, we are children of the earth and not God, and the reason Chairo has taken a vow of silence is that of a enlightenment reason, sort of meditation, it's quite hard to put it simply!" she ended brightly. Naruto felt excitement bubble up, "My teacher, he said you were very powerful!" he said his curiosity beginning to feel overwhelming. "He'd be right" her eyes lit up, "but we never use it, that's the way of the Shiro Hikari".
I'm going to have to stop here! I'm writing too much! Well hope you enjoyed this chapter, I really appreciate any review, thanks!
Name meanings:
Atatakai- warm
Hakucho- Swan
Chairo- Brown