Generation Change
Summary: Three by three it always was and always will be. And Chouji watches generations change. OneShot, Stand-alone-sequel to "Variation of a Theme". For ImCutePoison.
Warning: difficult-to-follow timeline
Set: story-unrelated, post-"Variation of a Theme", future-fic.
Disclaimer: Standards apply.
The summer sun was losing strength.
The flock of birds passing Hidden Leaf on its way south was another indicator at the fact that summer was slowly turning to fall. But the air still was warm and carried the unique smell of stone and forest and people still sat outside in the cafés in the evening, talking and laughing and watching others passing by.
From the top of the Hokage's tower, the city looked like a toy landscape.
There was a reason Chouji was standing on the roof of the highest building in Konoha, catching the last rays of sunlight and watching the tiny people move in the streets. The reason was a bit taller than him, rather thin and muscled, had strikingly blond hair and piercing, blue eyes. Naruto Uzumaki, Sixth Generation Fire Shadow of the village of Hidden Leaf, leaned over the railing right next to him. They met on the roof often. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they remained silent. Today was one of the days they just leaned onto the railing next to each other, each one lost in his own thoughts.
Watching Naruto from the corners of his eyes, Chouji couldn't help but wonder.
This tall man was the boy who had saved the village Chouji called his home many times even though the villagers resented him for what he was, still threw hate and prejudice at him again and again and did nothing to make him feel welcome. And yet, Naruto was here, and he had given everything he had for a village that hadn't given him anything in return.
Konoha had killed his parents. Konoha had taken away his only and best friend. Konoha had shattered his heart and had abandoned him, had welcomed him with spite and anger and resentment. Konoha forbade him to search for the one who was responsible for his best friend´s defection, Konoha had used him to fight Pain and Akatsuki, Konoha had killed his teacher and destroyed his childhood. Chouji would have been able to continue the list on and on. And yet, Naruto loved their village. He worked for it, lived for it, loved it. What he did, he did it for this village and its inhabitants. He fought and protected and sacrificed.
-v-
There are different ways of servitude and not all of them are what people call the way of the shinobi. There are the people who dream of being heroes, who join the ranks of Konoha nin and fulfill their duty for three years. Then, they leave again, find a safe job, a house and a wife and see their duty towards their village as accomplished. There are those who pay their share to their society without ever fighting, too. They fight everyday life instead, struggle on from day to day and week to week and still are an essential part of the village's life. Those are the normal people, the bakers and cleaners and shop assistants and nurses and flower vendors and cooks and builders. And there are the people who spend their days in the Shinobi community without ever leaving the village once. They are needed, too; they coordinate mission requests, organize meetings and do the paperwork so other shinobi can leave for missions. But none of these ways of serving compares to the way true shinobi live.
The only thing they live for is their village.
Those people are ready to sacrifice their life and their sanity to the monster that calls itself Hidden Leaf. It devours its children without compassion, uses them and spits them out mangled and bloody and bruised and broken. It never offers more than what they have (a home, a life, a purpose) and yet many people are willing to leave behind everything in order to heed its will.
Chouji is one of them.
He knows what it means to serve this village. Throughout the years he has lost family and friends, has spent weeks away from home, has bled and suffered for the only concept worth staying alive for: for his hometown. Chouji has seen people come and leave, has seen people live and die and leaders rise and fall. He has lost his teacher and many other people. He has almost lost a team-mate to an illness and his best friend to insanity. He has watched his first genin squad fall apart, shatter and rise again and has found love when he never expected life to have it in store for him. Chouji is one of the most loyal shinobi Hidden Leaf has, though he never thinks like that. He wouldn't see himself as special, either. He fulfills his duty. This – the reluctance to see himself as special, the knowledge that he is just one of several – is what makes him a good shinobi, even though there are fighters far younger and far more enthusiastic than him. He makes up the missing youth by experience and loyalty. And strength, both in spirit and in body. Yes, Chouji knows how to serve.
But in his eyes there is no one more self-sacrificing, loyal and strong than Naruto Uzumaki.
-v-
As the shadows grew longer in the streets and a cool wind announced falling darkness, Chouji pulled out a bag of chocolate mints and offered Naruto some. Surprised, Naruto stared at the colorful, rustling bag in his hands. Then he smiled.
"Thanks."
Chouji grinned and took a few mints himself.
"Was there a special reason you wanted to talk to me?"
"Oh." Naruto grinned sheepishly and scratched his head. He looked exactly like the boy he once had been and Chouji wondered if he had even changed one bit. He still looked like Naruto, spoke like Naruto and reacted like Naruto as if time had passed him entirely. As if there never was a war, a time of cease-fire, a time of reconstruction. As if the last fourty years had been nothing but peaceful, like the last twenty years had been.
"How's your old genin team?"
Chouji smiled and felt his heart twinge painfully. But it was a tiny pang, the faint hurt of an old scar.
"They aren't genin anymore, Naruto."
"Of course not." Naruto shook his head. "Aren't they even…"
"Shirogane was promoted to special-jounin last month. You should know since it was your signature. Though I guess you can't remember every single shinobi."
"Of course I remember him," Naruto answered and turned around, leaning back onto the railing and looking at Chouji. "Rinji will have to prove himself further, his probation time hasn't ended yet. I'm sure he'll be an excellent addition to our ranks, whatever path he decides to take, but the Elders want to keep him close for some time further. I hope he understands."
"He does. He's not stupid. He knows it's the consequence of him going AWOL for seven years."
Naruto sighed. "At least…"
Not finishing his sentence, he stared up into the clear sky, his expression remote again. Chouji again felt the guilty relief that his student, at least, hadn't joined any band of missing-nin, hadn't attempted to kill his team mates and hadn't attacked Konoha. Yes, Rinji had practically defected. He had disappeared for seven years. He had disobeyed his orders, had broken the codex and left. But he had neither turned on them nor joined the enemy, and this, Chouji supposed, could be counted as a plus. So should he be happy that he obviously had trained his students well enough for them not to turn on their home village or should he feel guilty that it had happened, and that it had happened again?
-v-
If Chouji was ever to admit it he would confess he never had believed his third student would ever return. History, after all, had a way of repeating itself.
Tsunade-Sama, Jiraiya-San, Orochimaru.
Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke.
Risa, Shirogane, Rinji.
If two are a couple three are a crowd and one too many or one too little. Four people could get along just fine, two as well. Apparently something was wrong with the way Konoha paired up her children because in every generation one of them ended up being a traitor to the village and all his loved ones. Orochimaru left and fought Konoha and his old family and friends until his death, and his betrayal shattered the hearts of the three people nearest to him into a million pieces that never had been able to be repaired again. Sasuke defected, joined Orochimaru, joined Akatsuki, founded his own group of missing-nin and spent his days plotting his revenge on the town that had made his brother kill his entire family. Again, three people had stayed behind with broken hearts, but they, at least, had been able to somehow continue on, even though it had taken them years to do so. And Rinji simply left, leaving behind his twin sister, his best friend and his teacher, and had only returned seven years later.
But he had returned.
He walked into Konoha like he never had been away. But Konoha had changed, and Rinji had changed as well. He looked older, and perhaps calmer, and somehow peaceful. A white streak in his dark hair told about fights and injuries and the lines around his eyes belonged to a man much older than he was. He was thin and wiry, a man shaped by life as well as by training. A silver scar covered his upper arm; at the same place his twin sister still carried an ANBU tattoo. His first encounter was with the guards at the gate. His second with the Hokage. Then, he spent two weeks in a small cell in the ANBU complex, being questioned. Chouji still remembers the evening he heard of Rinji's return: Naruto came to tell him personally.
-v-
"Chouji. Come."
Chouji is used to orders and he doesn't question his superior when his voice carries this certain note. Kiba would have argued, Shikamaru would have moaned, Neji and Tenten would have demanded answers. Chouji is patient enough to know when to ask questions and when to follow orders. He follows Naruto down the hallways and guard-rooms into the lowly lit cell complex wordlessly. Naruto walks briskly and Chouji can see the taught set of his shoulders. With a mixture between worry and curiosity he approaches the door which he is lead to by his Hokage. The window is almost too small to see anything through.
But the dark hair and the calm expression are unmistakable. If possible, Rinji and Risa have become even more alike in the last years.
Sakura would have punched the living soul out of the home comer, Ino would have had millions of questions. Lee would have welcomed him enthusiastically, Hinata would have quietly asked how long he planned to stay and Shino would have said absolutely nothing. A younger Naruto would first have punched him and then welcomed him home. Chouji doesn't know what the Hokage has done but Rinji is amazingly intact and doesn't flinch at the sight of his superior. Rather the opposite: the two men exchange brief glances and in Rinji's eyes Chouji reads something that almost makes jealousy rise in his throat. He pushes it down – who, if not Naruto, should be able to handle a lost sheep? – and enters the room. He doesn't yell or ask questions or glare angrily. In fact, he doesn't even think of the different possibilities he has to greet his lost student. Instead, he knocks him on the head and then hugs him tightly and tells him it is good to see him again.
And, as Naruto has already done, he does the thing that is more important than welcoming or yelling or screaming or asking: he forgives Rinji.
-v-
Pain was written on Naruto's features as the man stared into the darkening sky. Pain, but peace, too, and Chouji thought Naruto had waited for a long, long time to be able to welcome someone back. To be able to lead back a lost soul, to greet a lost friend and watch him return into the arms of their home town.
He had waited for a long time to be able to forgive someone's betrayal.
-v-
Chouji had gotten to know Naruto well over the past years. He still remembered the boy nobody wanted to play with and who caused ruckus every day. Today Chouji knew it was a scream for attention but back then, he only thought it was weird. Funny, sometimes, and annoying on other times. But he never actually talked to Naruto until Shikamaru directed a word at the orange-clad boy for the first time. They never saw greater happiness on a child's face as on Naruto Uzumaki's when he realized they were really asking him to join them for their lunch break.
Chouji had known him as a tough fighter and hyper-energetic child who fought like there was no tomorrow, like nothing else mattered than proving himself to the audience. He watched with awe as Naruto beat the Hyuuga prodigy, had felt pride swell as he stayed behind to engage the enemy so Naruto could catch up with Sasuke and had had the honor of fighting by his side a few times already. Since Naruto took up the mantle of the Hokage he had watched him even more carefully. They had become something akin to friends, even though Naruto still spent most of his time alone or with Sakura and Kakashi and Chouji's best friends still were Shikamaru and Ino.
Time hadn't passed his best friends without altering them, as Chouji had changed, too.
He loved to tease Shikamaru about the fact that his best friend had thrown overboard all his dreams of averagely pretty women and two children and a quiet life and such – and had married Ino. Chouji figured Shikamaru hadn't actually seen Ino as a woman until she stopped behaving like one. It still was hard to believe that their girly, exuberant friend really had joined ANBU. But Shikamaru should have realized where the wind was blowing from when he saw Ino's mask for the first time: it was a stag. Of course, he needed three more years until he got to grips with that horrible intellect of his and asked her out. Chouji still met Shikamaru at every possibility, and Ino, too, but of all other shinobi of his generation Naruto was the one he saw most often. Maybe it was because they were similar.
And after Rinji disappeared Chouji had even more common ground to talk about with Naruto, even though the blonde outright refused. "Don't go after him. Leave him be. As long as he doesn't join missing-nin, I don't have to declare him one. Just wait, Chouji." That was the only thing Naruto said and that definitely was not what Chouji wanted to hear. And oh, how desperately did he want to talk to the only person who could understand his fears! Sasuke had left, too, and Naruto had tried to bring him back various times. Chouji had accompanied him the first time and he lively remembered what it had felt like when he regained consciousness. Naruto had come back home like that four times.
The fourth time, he had been in the hospital for the longest time.
Nobody knew what had happened, neither between Naruto and Sasuke nor between Sakura and Naruto. But before Naruto had returned for the fourth time he had been a broken, bitter man who had lost his faith in his way of shinobi. When Naruto left the hospital for the fourth time he didn't seem as broken as he had before. The ghosts that had been haunting him seemed to have disappeared – or, if only, diminished in numbers – and, for the first time, he seemed alive again. Whatever had happened, whatever Sakura had told him (somehow Chouji couldn't imagine Sakura had hit him that time); he had found the strength to go on. To move forward, a strength neither Tsunade-Hime nor Jiraiya-San ever had found. Naruto accepted the position as Sixth Generation. He threw himself headfirst into work but his smile seemed less empty than before. And whenever he saw Sakura, light returned into his eyes. Sasuke had been what had separated them, now he drew them closer together. Until, one day, Hidden Leaf celebrated the first wedding ceremony in which the groom was the most powerful man of the continent.
Still, sometimes, Chouji saw shadows fall over Naruto's eyes when he thought nobody noticed. They flitted across the surface and were gone as quickly as they had appeared. But Chouji knew one thing: Naruto might have had accepted Sasuke's betrayal. But he never had forgiven him for it.
And, worst of all: he had never forgiven himself.
-v-
Risa. Shirogane.
How is he supposed to tell them? Chouji broods over the dilemma for thirteen hours. He could have asked Naruto, maybe, or Kakashi. But he is the one who has to make the decision so ultimately there is no way he can push it onto others. When he forgets eating during dinner, Masumi, who probably has long realized something is wrong, only smiles, kisses him and tells him she knows he will do the right thing. That night, he loves her desperately, overwhelmed by her love and acceptance, and slips out of their bedroom after she has fallen asleep in his arms. The kitchen doesn't offer any comfort, as it normally does. The night is dark and the moon and stars are hidden behind the clouds and he wanders through the village aimlessly. As night finally fades away he finds himself at the training grounds his old team has used so often. A sound makes him stop in his tracks and he approaches carefully, though he knows what he will see.
And really. Two shinobi are already there, using the early morning hours for a sparring session. But these shinobi are painfully familiar to Chouji and his heart contracts as he recognizes Risa and Shirogane.
They aren't training in the true sense of the word. Since Risa recovered from her coma she hasn't been strong enough to join the Konoha shinobi ranks again, much less than taking up her old post as ANBU. But she still seems to train regularly because her movements are fluid and elegant. Shirogane moves quicker, in ragged, broken patterns that are his trademark. There is nothing elegant in his fighting style – it is a lethal, dangerous dance. His shoulder-long, blond hair is pulled back into a ponytail. But when he spars with Risa, the harshness becomes softer. The edges are smoothed out and his lethality becomes something that almost resembles grace. In every movement, every glance, his love for the dark-haired woman in front of him is mirrored. And Risa answers his wordless glances, mirrors his feeling in every movement. She isn't as quick as she once has been, not yet as agile and strong as before. But she doesn't need to. Shirogane compliments her as she always complimented him and together, they are perfect. At least that's how it seems like to Chouji. Shirogane's hits never once brush Risa's skin too hard and her face is open and defenseless as she answers his challenges with swiftness and determination. And in the way her eyes light up Chouji can see the little girl she once has been, always tagging behind her brother, trying to smooth out the tensions in his and Shirogane's relationship, always trying to keep the balance in their team. Her eyes speak of volumes of love.
Chouji decides in the blink of an eye.
"Good Morning," he says as he enters the training grounds. The sparring session comes to an abrupt stop as the small, fragile, dark-haired woman and the tall, blonde man pause in their actions.
"Good Morning, Chouji-Sensei," both answer and smile. They smile like they haven't in a long, long time and Chouji finds he is unable to say anything. He just stares at them, takes in their slightly tousled hair, Shirogane's calm face, Risa's lithe figure.
"Rinji is back."
It didn't take more words to make a world fall apart.
-v-
"And again, five years have passed," Chouji mused, watching the clouds from the roof of their usual meeting point. Next to him, cross-legged on the ground, Naruto was reading a scroll and barely glanced upwards. But from the corners of his eyes Chouji could see a smile build up on the man's face.
Spring was unfurling in all its splendour. The Sakura trees were blooming in beautiful pink and white, enriching the air with a scent so sweet and full of longing it almost brought tears to his eyes. From the plaza beyond, voices echoed towards the sky. A group of kids were dashing all around while a desperate young teacher was trying to hold them together.
"Time moves so fast, doesn't it? How's Masumi and the little one?"
"Both Masumi and Yuzuru are fine, thank you. She's got her hands full, that little one is a bundle of energy and nerves!"
"It's a child's job to keep its parents on the tips of their toes. Not that I'd be the one to speak."
A short silence fell. Naruto still had his head bowed over the scroll.
"Did you never consider children, Sakura and you?"
As if he had expected the question, he lifted his head and stared past Chouji absentmindedly. "We thought about it. But several reasons counted against it."
"Like what?"
If there once had been something like a barrier between the two of them it now had long gone. Life had a habit of bringing people together in strange ways. Naruto, not offended by Chouji's direct question, twisted the thin band of gold at his right index finger and sighed.
"This village, Chouji. It has a habit of devouring its children. Have you ever thought of it?"
Of course Chouji had. He had done so even more for the last three years, now that he had a son himself.
"I love Konoha with everything I have," Naruto continued. "And whatever I do, I'll protect this town and these people. But I don't think I could do so if I had a child myself."
It wasn't the bottom of the problem but Chouji let it be. Naruto changed the topic, aware of the fact that they were moving on dangerous ground.
"How are Rinji, Shirogane and Risa?"
Somehow they always got back at Chouji's first genin team once in a while. It had been what had brought them together. It had evolved from shared concern and mutual worry. And from love. Somehow the love had extended from teacher to friend and before both had noticed Risa, Rinji and Shirogane themselves had inserted themselves into their bond, acting towards Naruto like they acted towards Chouji, seeing him as much as their former teacher as they saw Chouji. Sometimes Chouji felt jealousy rise in his throat like acid. How could Naruto, who hadn't even trained them himself, give so much love to this broken, shattered team of his that wasn't even a team anymore? How could Naruto, who hadn't had anything to do with their education and training except for the fact that he was their remote superior, deserve Chouji's children's love? But the answer was simple. For Shirogane, Naruto was an example, a model on how to act towards his returned team-mate. For Rinji, he was a role model, someone he strove to be like. For Risa, Naruto was like a father, more than Chouji could ever be because he was her teacher. And Naruto did deserve their love. If anyone deserved it unconditionally it was Naruto. So, in a sense, he had children of his own, even though he had adopted them at an older age. While Chouji, who had always seen his first genin team as his children, had to learn that they didn't belong to him. Strange. Letting go never had been that hard again, not with any other one of his genin teams. Now that Chouji had a son himself he could understand that Naruto would want to hold on to these children.
And he didn't only love Rinji, Risa and Shirogane. Naruto loved every single person in the village of Hidden Leaf. It would always remain a mystery to Chouji: how could Naruto give and give his love without ever asking for something in return and never run dry? But the jealousy always faded and the realization came:
This was Naruto they were talking of.
"Their teamwork gets better with every passing day. They'll be perfect soon."
-v-
They didn't mend a broken relationship.
What had happened – jealousy, love, rivalry, abandonment – it had been final and total, had severed ties as effortlessly as a hot knife cut through butter. No. Chouji's children didn't mend their relationship. Instead, they form a new bond.
And it's beautiful to watch.
Chouji has to confess – he is afraid. Afraid of how Risa and Shirogane will react to Rinji's return, how Rinji will be able to cope with whatever has happened while he was gone. In the end, he shouldn't have wasted time. Because Risa refuses to see her twin, just as Shirogane has refused to see Risa while she was in the hospital. Three weeks pass until Rinji is released by the Council and only Naruto, Shirogane and Chouji visit him.
Chouji isn't there when Shirogane goes to see his former teammate for the first time. But he knows both of them. They could have been best friends if only Rinji would have been able to cast aside his rivalry and jealousy. They could have been a perfect team if only Shirogane would have dared to give more of himself to Rinji. Now they meet again, years after they have parted. ANBU on guard duty report a long period of silence. Finally, Rinji speaks.
"I won't say I'm sorry."
Shirogane answers equally cool.
"I won't either."
More silence ensues. Then:
"Is Risa okay?"
"She hasn't been okay since you left."
"It was for her."
"Idiot! You know what she did when you left? She went and joined ANBU! She got herself almost killed a hundred times, the last time almost lethally with a poisonous sword! She fell into a coma and didn't wake for half a year and when she did her body was so ruined she'll never be able to work as a shinobi again! None of that would have happened if you hadn't left!"
Rinji needs a few minutes to digest the avalanche of accusations Shirogane has bombarded him with. He is as surprised of hearing so many words spill from Shirogane's lips as Shirogane himself is. When he finally responds, his voice sounds hollow.
"I didn't know what else to do than to leave. I just wanted her to be happy… And you, too."
"That makes two of us. But for Risa to be happy we have to be happy, too. So you're staying with us from now on."
And, just like that, that is it.
Even though sand seems to be the only thing that survives in a desert, plants can grow on the hot surface. Like desert flowers, their relationship should be able to find a new source of life and maybe, it soon will gain color and strength. These souls that were intended to be one all along and that have been separated for such a long time should be able to melt into one again as soon as they have learned to accept each other the way they are. At least that is what Chouji thinks. He is proven right the day Rinji leaves the Main building's cell block. Shirogane waits for him at the end of the corridor. When he stepps aside, Risa's small figure appears from behind him.
Chouji still finds it amazing how strong this fragile woman can be. But Rinji holds his sister as tight as Risa holds him.
-v-
If nothing else, Naruto and Chouji had common ground to talk about. Maybe that was what made their relationship so easy.
But one day Naruto came up with an entirely different topic.
"Do you still remember the question I asked you twenty-five years ago, Chouji?"
Chouji was transported back in time immediately. His throat suddenly felt like dry parchment and his heart beat painfully. He nodded.
"I asked for your opinion and told you I'd ask again in twenty-five years. Now, the time has come."
The summer sun is warm and the wind is cool and caressing. The world is alive with colors, scents and sounds. A moching-bird calls out for its mate and the green foliage of the forest's trees rustles in the evening wind. Above the forest, in a sky so blue it resembles Naruto's eyes, a hawk circles gracefully. Chouji's eyes burn.
"It should have been Konohamaru," Naruto continued quietly. His voice echoed with the same sudden pang of sadness Chouji felt. Konohamaru died on a mission seventeen years ago. "But it wasn't meant to be. So I'll ask you again. Chouji Akimichi, do you think your former student Shirogane Jin is suited and prepared to be named the Seventh Generation Fire Shadow?"
-v-
Three by three.
Six generations have ruled the village of Hidden Leaf. Six generations have led this town, have loved it and lived for it.
Three generations have done so in times of construction and war. Three generations have led out of a personal feeling of responsibility and duty and have achieved numerous things: the grandeur of the name of Hidden Leafs, the safety that is in a carefully prepared and overseen government, the glory of a victorious war. Three generations have died for the protection of their village.
Three generations have seen war, was well, but also times of peace and happiness. Three generations have led out of necessity and yet have left tales to tell children in front of the fire place. The Fourth hadn't wanted to be Hokage but had taken up the post anyway and had saved the village from the jinchuuriki by sealing it into the child that once would be the most loyal shinobi of all. The Fifth had watched everyone she love either die or break and had tried to run from her own responsibility. She, too, had saved Hidden Leaf when Pain attacked and had been a mother to the child that had been left by everyone else. And exactly this child, Naruto, hadn't wanted to take up the position anymore when he finally had been offered his dream. Trice he had tried to find Sasuke and each time Konoha had tried to put obstacles in his way and he had reached a point in which he broke, just like the Fourth and the Fifth had broken. But he had become the Sixth Generation and he had led Hidden Leaf from war into a new era of peace. Those three generations, as well, had protected Konoha Gakure no matter what and had died for it. Naruto was the last one.
And as Chouji stared at his friend wordlessly, history turned a page in its great storybook.
Shirogane never displayed a preference for the Hokage's position. Rather the opposite. He preferred to stay what he was: an anonymous shinobi, a loyal defender of his village but by no means anyone special. But he never had opposed it openly, either. He probably never had thought the burden of leading his home village would fall onto his shoulders one day.
It was what would characterize the new generations' trinity. Three generations had led out of responsibility, three out of necessity. Now the time had come to lead despite both.
-v-
The sky is blue and the sun shines the day Chouji gives away the girl that is like a daughter to him.
Risa is twenty-seven now and there are lines around her eyes and darkness inside them, visible scars on her bare arms and invisible ones on her heart. And yet - she is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Shirogane and Rinji wait at the end of the dais with only the Sixth Generation, his wife and Chouji's wife with them. Shirogane's blond hair shines in the afternoon sun and his blue eyes are smiling more freely than they have done in the past ten years. He is tall, even taller than Rinji. But it's not the thing that differentiates them, those two tall, brooding boys that have caused Chouji so much joy and heart-ache. Rinji's dark hair is a stark contrast to Shirogane's pale hair and skin and he looks exactly like his twin sister: the same, almond-shaped eyes, the oval of their faces, the all-knowing, much-too-wise expression for their age. But what distinguishes Rinji and Shirogane is only their outer appearance. In their hearts, they are the same. As is Risa, the third in their circle. Three hearts and one soul.
And the summer forest sings its song as Chouji leads Risa down the green meadow towards her former team-mates; her husband-to-be and her twin brother.
-v-
Here it begins, a new era.
Chouji looks at Naruto and sees a child in a grown man and an old man in a young face.
Or has it already begun long ago?
And he feels it so strongly that tears come to his eyes: there is a happy ending waiting for those three at the end of their tale.
It might not always be visible behind the bends and curves their path might take. It might be clouded by everyday life, by backlashes of fate and hidden in time. By difficulties and fights and devastation and sadness. But in the end, those three will be fine. They definitely will be. They have separated and suffered and loved and hated and they still are here and they are together. They will be fine.
And generations change.
A/N: Speak about three by threes. I needed three attempts to get this the way I wanted it to be and three days until it had its final form. ImCutePoison, this was supposed to be your New Year's gift. I hope you don't mind it's two months late!