Just a little something that came to me early one morning last Oct.. I don't Naruto or any characters from it.

Kyuushi Ni Isshou

Naruto and Hinata were enjoying a mid-day picnic outside their summer home. Their children, Kichou and Heri, were sleeping peacefully in the house. Suddenly, Naruto tensed as he sensed someone watching them.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled. "Watch out!" But it was too late, as a series of kunai ripped into her soft flesh. The nins had attacked suddenly, not leaving time to prepare a defense. Naruto had only been married to Hinata for 9 years, and now this. Fueled by overwhelming sadness and anger, Naruto ripped into the their attackers with a series of blood-red rasengans. The hunter-nins wouldn't need their fancy disposal methods to hide the secrets the bodies of these ninjas once held. Jigoku, if it weren't for the overwhelming presence of the residual chakra from the rasengans, they would be hard pressed to prove a battle had even taken place.

But, none of that mattered now. Naruto's heart had been ripped asunder. His beloved aisai, his love since his academy days, was lying on the floor motionless. His "most precious person" since the day he first saw her was still. When he first met her he had realized just how special she was. To him, she was more than a "shy weird girl". She was his everything. Watching her laying there, motionless, the meaning of his life started to ebb away. If it weren't for their children, he might have seriously considered jigai. Instead, he was starting to formulate ways to explain to their two girls why their mommy wouldn't be in their lives the way she used to be. It would be tough, he knew. They were only 6 and 8. Why did life have to be so unfair? No child should have to go without both parents. At least his would have one, unlike him, who had to go through life without ever really getting to know who his parents were. He would make sure that they would always have something to remember her.

He was interrupted by Kyūbi no Yōkō's gruff voice. "If you really miss her that much, I could show you the medical jutsus I've seen med-nins use."

"Huh?" Naruto thought. "You, the nine-tailed fox demon, bothered to remember medical jutsus?"

"Yes, I did. And I've seen jutsus to put the best med-nins in Konoha to shame. If you want her back, I'll teach you. But, you will have to use only your own chakra for it to work, as mine only works towards death and destruction."

"Fine, but what's in it for you?"

"I get this insufferable shroud of sadness that's surrounding me like a death mist lifted from me."

"That's it?"

"Kit, that's enough. I've destroyed hundreds of lives and never felt like this. And frankly, I don't ever want to feel it again."

Two hours later, a thoroughly exhausted Naruto lay in bed watching the slow, even cadence of his beloved aisai's breathing, marveling at the wonder that was Hinata.


O yasumi nasai, juu imouto. Aishiteru.