Epilogue

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Reminder: This is the epilogue for Animal Oxymoron please read animal oxymoron by me (Blackchimeras1127) before continuing.

As always R&R

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In a small forest clearing on a bright morning

A small chipmunk scurried across the ruble of the forest. Everything was in ruins. All his food stores were blown away with the mini apocalypse in the forest. He wormed his way in between many fallen logs that had once been proud trees. The only thing that remained unchanging was a small cave at one end of the clearing. On top of one of the highest fallen logs he surveyed the damage done to his territory. His nose twitched as he picked up a faintly familiar scent. He quickly ran on his small legs to the scent was strongest. A hill emitted the scent. He sniffed again. It was still familiar. He remembered food along with this scent. His small claws climbed onto the top of the small hill. The hill was soft and moved willingly to his claws movements. He noticed a change in texture on one end of the hill. He hopped to that end and snuggled next to it. It was soft and warm. Then he noticed the hill was moving. The hill seemed to move up and down so slowly but his sensitive feet felt the slow breathing of the hill.

The girl felt small claws dig into her clothes next to her head. The small animal poked its nose into her hair and then against her neck. It tickled and she moved her hand. The chipmunk scurried away. He did not comprehend the small hill was a small girl. Her hand ached. She shoved herself into a sitting position. Her clothes were huge and she wondered where she had gotten them. She pulled back the sleeves of her over large shirt. Healthy white flesh greeted her eyes. Her arms looked like babies skin. In the back of her mind she wondered if her arms should be like that. If they should somehow be scared or mutilated, but they weren't. Uncertain she recalled she also had a wound or injury on her side. She rubbed her hand against her side, she felt nothing. For the first time she took in her surroundings. A small clearing was filled with fallen trees and stones. She saw something white a little ways away.

Crawling like she had new legs she stumbled by the white object. She brushed some dirt and grass away from it. A feline tiger mask was what she held in her hands. Reminiscence of who she was came back to her. She could not remember anything else. Not how she had found herself in this state what her life as ninja or assassin was like. Not who she had met. Not who she cared about. Not if she had any enemies. She clutched the mask with all her might. She cried into it. After her eyes dried with no more tears to shed, her focus was on a blood red symbol. "Line" she breathed only faint memories of smell and emotion came to her mind, loyalty was the strongest. "You summoned me," said a hidden voice. "Where are you?" she asked small chips of memory images came to her.

"You must believe that I am beside you," said the same royal and majestic voice. "Believe," she muttered. She needed something to give her some answers. A wind blew shifting the leaves in a bush by her side. Golden eyes peered at her. It was him the tiger Line. She simply smiled as more memories flooded her mind. The illusion of finally stopping the rushing water of her confusion felt cool and comforting. "Why don't you come and lie down beside me Line, it has been a long time since you did that," she pleaded. The wind seemed to shift the bushes into a tigers shaking head. "No Tanar, I am no longer here I was murdered remember" said Line. She nodded those painful memories also came back. "Can you help me at all Line?" she wondered. "The mask has most of the answers, I will always appear for a short time when you call, remember your own power and believe Tanar, believe" The wind died away and the blurry image of the tiger disappeared from the bush.

She glanced again at the mask. She turned it over. The mask was big but being a curious child she placed it on her face. She opened her blue eyes and looked through the mask. She saw a man with messy gray hair and his headband covered one of his eyes. A mask clung from his neck to just above his nose. She blinked and the image faded. She saw the destruction around her. A small boy with long black hair was at the end of a clearing. She flattened herself against a log and scarcely breathed. She peeked through a hole in the log. The boy was looking around and suddenly he said "byakugan eye." Veins began to appear around his eyes and he looked around again. His piercing gaze rested on her. He saw her so she stood up. His surprise was painfully obvious in his eyes. She waved shyly. "who are you?" she asked, he retorted "did you do this?" She shrugged as she leaped by him. He took a small step away from her. "I guess I did why?" His eyes returned to normal. He mused aloud "well you like my age and this is enough destruction for only a high level ninja." She leaned against a tree "Age isn't everything"

He turned toward her "I'm only seven but I can see with my eyes that you need answers." She staggered away form the tree in shock. She glanced at herself. She lifted her hands and looked at her body. She did in fact look seven years old. She was young again. It had worked whatever it was, she couldn't remember but it worked. Then why did she feel so sad. The boy was right she did need answers and Line was not here to help her. The boy seemed to notice her desolation and shifted uncomfortably. He had the greatest urge to comfort her. She glanced up into his stare. He was stunned by her great courage at calculating him. He bowed "I am Hyuga Neji" she looked away "I am Tanar" He straightened and weighted, when she would not continue he pointed out "Usually it is customary to give a full name." She continued to gaze away. After a while she pleaded "Can you help me." He was slightly startled with her abruptness and her belief in him. He shook his head and she sighed. "I need to go find some answers and my heart is telling me I must first go to the Mizukage" she pondered. Neji thought fast, if she knew the Mizukage then she had to be special. He didn't know who she really was but she looked so exhausted just staring off into the distance like that. She seemed so lost. "Maybe it is your fate to go to the Mizukage, but until then I would like to extend the cadet branch's of the village hidden in the leaves hospitality to you."

Her shoulders slumped over, now she looked pitiful. She considered the fact that the cadet branches sounded familiar as did the village hidden in the leaves. Her mind flashed back to the man with gray hair and another image appeared of an old man in white and red along with a young with huge eye-brows. She smiled quietly at Neji "I would like that thank you." Neji nodded and lent her his hand to lean on. She thought as she left the clearing how she would believe. She would start anew and find the answers. She clutched the white mask in her other hand tightly.

At the academy that same morning

"So tell me again how we got from the middle of the forest to back at the academy" asked a purple haired woman. Nuna was stilled bemused how someone or something had knocked out Gai, Iruka, the Hokage herself, and Kakashi and then transported them back here. The Hokage was sitting down and pulled out his pipe from his mouth. He sighed and explained. "A very large tiger spirit was summoned by Tanar and whisked us away back to the academy before the forest could destroy itself with us still inside it." Iruka was teaching classes so he was gone. Gai was beside Nuna on a cushion while Kakashi leaned against a window. He strained the only eye that was not covered by the headband to look at the forest. A large gap in the forest was where Tanar and they had been that night. He had been restrained by orders from the Hokage from returning to the forest. He listened quietly to the Hokage's news. "I will destroy the forbidden seed scroll it is to dangerous for even me, As for ninja Tanar her body was probably mashed to pieces if not by the scroll's power then by the forest or the tiger spirit. My advice is to forget Tanar, she's dead"

Kakashi shifted. How could he believe her dead. First Obito then her. She was about to be with him. Now he felt the cold chill of envy of those ignorant citizens. They did not know the fine detailed threads of the blanket that was misery in life. The normal populace did not know the heartache of such cruelty. He wished now as he had one night in a cave he wished for the courage to act on his feelings. The kiss on the cheek she had given him had not satisfied his sudden ravenous hunger for her company. The ninja inside of him struggled against the man over her. The man and the ninja wanted one thing in common so much did they want more then a kiss. The ninja was afraid of her ease in manipulating other men. The effortlessness in beckoning the Sanin to her mouth disturbed the copy ninja. The man was ignorant and still yearned for more. He was hers and she was his he wanted her to have deepened the intensity of the night in the cave from sorrow to passion. The man in his own anguish knew he was a fool to think and want her to change her sorrow in love so fast and fickly against her best tiger friend.

The fates remained forever cruel to him. His belief in always pursuing his Shinobi way had faltered when he was around Tanar. His tigress had made him wonder if he wanted to be a blood spilling machine. He was free because of his doubt of being a ninja. He was not a monster when he was at Tanar's side. He believed she was not a monster when he was around either. Why was she gone? She had said that night that had the forbidden seed had bloomed only to wither on the branch. But he believed that the flower he had seen had bloomed only to be crushed by his own hands. He believed he would go back and look for a body. He believed if there was not one then she was alive. Belief was all that he had left. He had taught her to believe against fate.

Can you love a monster?

Can you love one yourself?

The rose is of love

The lotus of power

The violet of beauty

The seed has the option to bloom at all

The mind the heaven

The body the earth

The two make the world

"How was the book?"- Tanar