Chapter 3: The Silent Guardian Awakens

As I tore out of the entrance from the front yard of the Academy, I couldn't care less how people would react to a small child crying hysterically while he was running away from something just because my Academy application has been rejected. I was brawling my oceanic blue eyes out because I realized that I wouldn't be able to become a Shinobi like Onii-san was able to despite him being bullied by other people especially children often for a particular reason. Even worse, I also concluded that I wouldn't be able to join him on his personal journey to greatness not only as his dear brother, but also his classmate and teammate after all.

I continued sobbing more but harder as my crystal-clear tears dribbled out of my oceanic blue eyes while some made contact with my light neutral skin which quickly evaporated within a minute or so. The tears which came into contact with my clothes especially my blue shirt made blot-like stains while the the wet spots on my shoulders and chest began to darken a bit making the dark and slighter blue colors slightly contrast. It felt like it had been forever since I have been running non-stop unaware of what was going on around me because everything was practically a gigantic blur to me.

Before I realized it, I was standing on a slab of red bricks in front of an onyx-colored structure in the shape of a kunai with names engraved on it. I dropped to my knees panting heavily as I put both of my hands against the rough surface of the slab of bricks to keep myself balanced and continued to wail loudly out of anger and sadness. Still unaware of my surroundings, I felt something resting on one of my shoulders. I stood up in an instant, reflexively spinning around, startled, just to discover a deeply concerned Iruka-sensei standing in front of me.

I suddenly lunged toward him before he could say anything and wrapped my small arms around his slightly broad chest. I proceeded to bury my head in his arms sobbing hysterically again. Instinctively, Iruka-sensei wrapped one of his strong, sturdy arms around my small body and used the other one to stroke my head repeatedly while his fingers ran through my slightly wavy blonde hair in an attempt to calm me down.

Several hours has passed by even if it's noon already and I managed to calm down a bit with assistance from Iruka-sensei despite the fact I looked like an absolute mess due to my bloodshot oceanic blue eyes and the red, swollen areas around them. I finally took a couple of steps backward as Iruka-sensei let me go and looked at him to apologize as I signed to him,"Iruka-sensei, I'm sorry for being like this."

Iruka-sensei shook his head as he smiled before he signed back to me,"It's okay, Kurisu. Do you feel a bit better now?"

I shrugged my shoulders as I signed slightly sluggish,"I think so, but I'm still sad."

Iruka-sensei frowned a little bit and walked past me to sit on the slab of red bricks and made a 'come here' motion to me. I nodded my head at him as I walked toward the spot next to Iruka and sat besides him still slightly depressed.

He asked me a question, signing to me,"Kurisu, have I told you one of my stories about when I was in the Academy?"

I shook my head in response to him before he began preparing himself to tell his short story to me as he started signing slowly at the same time,"I was seven when I first entered the Academy and I had recently lost my parents. I had a tough time fitting in and I was the class clown in my classes even though my classmates teased me just because I was different. I got in trouble often just because I wanted to be recognized by my classmates and other people. It was a tough time for me but everything somehow eventually became better for me in the end. That is of course, in a good way, and I'm thankful to have friends including you and Naruto."

Once he was finished signing, his story imprinted deep within my mind elicited a small smile from me acknowledging the fact my sensei recognized Onii-san and I as his dear friends. I replied by signing back to Iruka-sensei as I flashed a small grin at him,"I'm glad you're friends with both of us and I'm thankful for that as well."

My response in return elicited a small grin from Iruka-sensei matching mine as we continued to converse with each other all day long.


It was almost sunset when Iruka-sensei realized that it was getting rather late and informed me that we should leave to go home. I let him know that I planned to stay here for a bit while to be alone and that I'd be coming home soon. Other than that, I also told him to let Onii-san know that I'll be coming home soon. He almost disagreed with my proposition despite him being extremely protective especially when it comes to Naruto and I, but reluctantly accepted it since he assumed that I needed to spend some time alone in order to collect my thoughts. He then departed thus leaving me alone at the memorial park by myself, and I continued to sit on the slab of red bricks as I watched the beautiful sunset disappear in the horizon gradually.

When I was finally finished admiring the lovely sunset, I gathered all of my courage and peeled myself away from the slab of red bricks surrounding the onyx-colored structure in the middle that I had been sitting on for a long time. I made grunting sounds as I got up on my feet and took a couple of steps away from the spot before I experienced an epiphany causing me to freeze momentarily. At that moment, I realized that I was the one holding the keys to the apartment. Without wasting a single minute or so, I began running back toward home to our apartment in hopes that Onii-san wouldn't go completely mental just because I forgot about the fact it's dinner time right now.

"Make a mental note to myself: get a duplicate copy of the keys for the apartment and give them to Onii-san." I thought to myself.

When I finally got to the front door of our apartment on the top-level of the apartment building, I was panting and sweating heavily as my face quickly became red. Sweat rolled off the blond strands of my hair and the smooth surface of my forehead and face. I buckled as I took the opportunity to catch my breath while I was looking at the floor briefly before something in the corners of my eyes captivated my attention so I shifted my attention to the right as I straightened back up to see what it was.

I caught the sight of Naruto and Iruka-sensei walking toward me from the opposite side of the complex building on the same level at a short distance. I turned slightly to the left to face them completely. I raised my hand and arm up to wave at them excitedly although I knew they weren't paying attention to me. Based on my observations, they apparently seemed to be fully immersed in the conversations exchanged between them at the moment while they made gestures toward each other playfully. Once they realized that I was standing in front of them next to the entrance to our apartment waving, Naruto and Iruka-sensei waved back to me before Naruto ran toward me to give me a surprise hug and I somehow saw it coming so I braced myself beforehand.

"Otouto-san!" He shouted with glee as he took a couple of steps backward. He began speaking quickly to me excitedly while I tried to catch every single word he said to me,"Guess what? I had an awesome day at the academy on my first day and I got to make brand new friends! It was so cool! But, where were you? Why weren't you in class today? Did something happen to you?"

It was quite overwhelming to absorb all of the information I gathered from Naruto by reading his lips but I somehow managed to succeed at making out what he just told me which caused something to twinge in my heart immediately. My facial expressions went from cheerful to completely somber in a matter of seconds as I shifted my attention from Naruto to Iruka who is now standing besides him and heard what he exactly said to me.

"So Iruka-sensei hasn't told him yet?" I wondered to myself as I begged him through my oceanic blue eyes with a 'help me' facial expression to answer Onii-san's question for me.

Fortunately, he somehow picked up on my body language and interjected himself into our conversation with a gentle voice as he put one of his hands on Naruto's right shoulder causing him to turn around to look at Iruka-sensei,"Hey, Naruto. Why don't I explain what happened today to your brother instead? He had a really long day today."

I quietly sighed with a sense of relief since I was apparently not in the mood to explain to Onii-san about what exactly happened as I handed Iruka-sensei the apartment keys after he quickly signed to me that he needed the key so they both could let themselves into the apartment. They walked in the kitchen to sit at the table together once I came into the apartment through the front door which is linked to the kitchen directly and sharply turned left to walk through the kitchen door into the hall toward the bedroom, before I turned right to enter the bathroom.

It had been a really rough day for me today so I decided to strip myself naked and take a really quick shower which relieved some tensions in my muscles throughout my body helping me feel much more relaxed in the end. Once I was done, I turned off the water and grabbed one of the bathroom towels and quickly dried myself off. I slipped into my PJs and returned to the kitchen to find a very angry Naruto. I managed to catch what he said the moment I entered the room, but kept myself hidden so both of them wouldn't notice that I was observing them.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HE CANNOT BE A SHINOBI?!" Naruto roared angrily as he pounded both of his fists on the very surface of the sturdy, wooden table hard enough to make a loud thump sound which made me jump a bit. Iruka-sensei appeared to be making extra efforts to calm Naruto down, although it seems to be failing for some reason, as he continued to explain to him why I couldn't be able to become a Shinobi.

"Dammit, Iruka-sensei! Couldn't there be something you could do to help him?!" Naruto shouted loudly. Iruka-sensei slowly shook his head in response to his question as I leaned against the wall next to the kitchen door, slumping a bit and feeling much more depressed than I ever have felt in my life.

Naruto was staring down at the floor intensely with despair plastered on his face before he quietly began to whisper softly,"Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka-sensei in turn, looked at him while he raised one of his eyebrows in wonderment,"Uh?"

Naruto began speaking softly to him again, "Do you know my dream is to become the Hokage?"

Iruka shook his head while he looked at him again incredulously with curiosity as he began wondering what Naruto was going to say next. At the same time, Naruto tensed his fists more as his fingernails dug into the skin of his palms until he drew blood unintentionally.

"I want to do everything in my power to help him become a Shinobi...even if that means having to give up my dreams of being the Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed loudly so Iruka could hear what he said to him.

I gasped bewildered not understanding why Onii-san would give up his dreams just for me. Meanwhile, Iruka-sensei became confused about why Naruto would say such thing to Iruka-sensei so he presented him with a simple question in mind as he spoke to him firmly, "Why would you give up your dreams just to help him achieve something that's considered impossible to do?"

A big smile slowly crept on Naruto's face as he looked up to face Iruka before he struck his arm out in front of him. He then turned his fist counterclockwise slightly with his thumb sticking out as he spoke loudly with pride,"It's...because he just happens to be my brother and brothers don't leave each other behind! Dattebayo!"

Once he was finished speaking, he flashed his toothy smile at Iruka-sensei leaving him completely stunned.

"Naruto..." Iruka finally whispered softly while being still in daze as crystal-clear tears seeped from my oceanic blue eyes before I began sobbing quietly because I was truly glad that I have a wonderful brother who just stuck up for me.

Iruka-sensei wasn't honestly prepared for his response as seeing that he was left completely stunned. Unbeknownst to me, Iruka-sensei knew Naruto was the host of the nine-tailed beast, Kyuubi and held displaced anger toward it which slowly began dissolving to absolute nothingness. He eventually began to look at him in a different light soon immediately after he finally was able to wrap his mind around what Naruto just told him.

To him, Naruto was now a human being with feelings who seemed to understand what the true meaning of family was about and that he was merely a victim like the others were from six years ago who deserved much better than he was given credit. Iruka then regained his composure before finally managing to speak up after noticing my presence as he began signing as he spoke,"Okay, Naruto. I'll see what I can do for Kurisu."

Naruto and I gasped happily before we both lunged at Iruka-sensei and tackled him down on the floor as he laughed with glee holding both of us in his arms because of Naruto's reaction to the fact he never noticed my presence the whole time.


Iruka had to depart for home since it was already ten at night and I took the opportunity to cook myself dinner while Onii-san went into the bathroom to take a long bath. I quickly consumed my dinner in record time, walked to the metallic sink to wash my dish, and put it in the dishwasher before I closed the lid carefully. Afterwards, I happily skipped in the hall through the kitchen door with a toothy smile and entered the bedroom before I jumped on the bed with joy acknowledging that Iruka-sensei was willing to see if he could do anything so I could finally become a Shinobi at last.

I cocked my head to the left to see Onii-san entering the bedroom in his PJs yawning sleepily as he crawled into bed next to me before I signed to him,"You ready to sleep?"

He nodded his head at me briefly and pretty soon, he was snoring loudly although I was fortunate to be Deaf so the fact he has a tendency to snore doesn't seem to bother me. However, I was having trouble sleeping not because of him, but rather due to being preoccupied with something that was on my mind so I silently slipped out of bed to head to the tiny balcony which was located at the end of the room in the opposite direction from our bed. I quickly opened the door and tried to close it as quietly as possible once I was outside then placed my hands on the metallic rail as I became lost in thought once I began star-gazing.

My most favorite part about star-gazing is how beautiful the star-clustered night skies are as a whole surrounding the luminous silver moon which bathes everything completely in pure, white moonlight. I might not be a nocturnal person, but it was so beautiful that I would definitely stay up all night long just to admire the beauty of the tiny stars and the large, silvery moon bursting and radiating with energy. Suddenly, I saw a shooting star zooming through the pitch-black night skies occupied by countless stars before remembering a sequence of imagery events popping into my mind afterwards.


[Flashback]

"Do you know what you should do when you see a shooting star?" Iruka-sensei signed to me.

I shook my head and signed back to him,"No, what should I do?"

Iruka-sensei then smiled as he began to explain to me what I should do while he signed to me,"Kurisu, whenever you see a shooting star, you should make a wish upon on it. If you do so, your wish could come true in the end."

I was a little taken aback when he said that and replied back with curiosity as I signed rapidly with a slight grin on my face,"Really, Iruka-sensei?!"

Iruka-sensei smiled as he nodded his head in response to what I just inquired him and placed one of his hands on my head, rubbing it while he signed with his other hand,"Yes, Kurisu."

I immediately flashed him a toothy smile and I couldn't care less whether I looked like an idiot or not in front of him. I was merely glad just because I had a wish in mind that I hope would eventually come true someday. That is, to become a great Shinobi.


[Present Time]

I refocused my attention on the spot where the shooting star disappeared as I put my hands together to pray and made a wish before it was too late.

"Kami, I pray that I would be able to become a great Shinobi and succeed!" I thought loudly to myself and before I knew it, moments has had passed by quickly and the winds had picked up, beginning to brush against my skin, and making me shiver a little as I quickly wrapped my arms around my chest.

Surely, it was getting cold outside since it was fall time already so I decided to head back inside before I crawl into my bed. I eventually fell asleep dreaming about what the future would hold for me as a Shinobi.

Meanwhile, a soft, feminine voice I failed to detect because I was already asleep long before then echoed gently into my mind,"Your wish has been granted, my child."