Aoba's Picture.

Aoba returns after the war to the Forgotten Island in the hope of finding any information on the girl whose memory he met there many years ago…

This is my 1st story – I hope you like it. No sex orX-rated scenes in this at all – just a nice feel-good story. These characters deserve the chance to be together in some way ^_^

Chapter One – Return to The Forgotten Island.

Aoba's ship approaches the shore line of the Forgotten Island and the party lowers down a small boat into which they enter and then disembark. The row up towards the boat and when they are close enough, jump into the warm water and pulling the boat, wade towards the shoreline.

It is a beautiful as it was before, Aoba thought. He lets the crew rest and they decide to catch some fish and barbeque them on the beach. Aoba makes his excuses and goes in search of the small hut he saw before. The jungle was teeming with large creatures and life – the atmosphere was full of vitality and goodness. Its so different to before. It doesn't take too long until he finds the hut and as he enters it, he takes his time to examine her room.

On the table, he sees her picture and his heart skips a beat. He carefully picks it up and takes her in. Her beautiful red hair, her eyes, her smile… why did they have such little time?

Putting the picture in the pocket in his jacket, he turns and leaves. All that was left of her when he saw her was her thoughts as the ultimate summoning animal consumed her that time ago and now the creature was destroyed, so was she. The 3rd Shinobi War had been the most difficult fighting aspect of his life but knowing there was no chance of seeing her was the hardest thing he had to live with. He was drawn back here, he didn't know why but he knew he had to return and even though 10 years had passed, he found himself back here upon scientific research regarding the summoning creatures.

He felt the picture against him with each step he took and felt lighter, happiest he had been in years. Along the way he collected some pieces of dry branches and approached the party on the beach, surrounding a large, warm fire and the sweet smell of cooked fish. He placed the wood near to them, sat down and joined them. One member had brought some sake and together they ate, drank and laughed until the small hours of the morning.

Later the next morning, Aoba woke up with a stiff neck and realised he'd somehow managed to use a smooth stone as a pillow.^_^ He got up slowly and laughed at himself - it had been ages since he had even had a drink and slept in such a relaxed way.

Making sure it wasn't a dream, he reach inside his jacket pocket and took out her picture – the scientist's grouped around her seemed to be smiling with him and he beamed back. As he was about to put the picture back into his pocket, one of the other party member's spoke to him and said:

"Hey Aoba, what does that symbol on that piece of paper mean?"

"Sorry?"

"The symbol?"

He turned the picture over and stunned, answered the scientists's question:

"It's a seal…

a Torii Seal?"

She had a Torii Seal on the back of this picture – why? He looked so utterly perplexed that the scientist looked concerned and offered to get Aoba a sedative. He smiled and said no. He just kept looking at the seal… hoping…