Hey guys, so this is the chapter which I was so excited to make you all read. Now that I'm posting it, I feel kinda nervous about how you will all feel about it. Author's jitters? Haha... I'm doing my updates this week a day early since tomorrow I'm going to be swamped with a final exam and I know I won't have the time to post it. So, enjoy the early update!
Thank you again to Hannahneko and gunslayer12 for your continuous reviews. I love reading your opinion on this story. Also, I get your point of view on the whole apologizing thing on the previous chapter gunslayer12, and I'm honestly glad that you mentioned it. I believe it will actually work at my advantage for the chapter following this one!
Anyways, this chapter should shed some light on Riko's past and more. I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Too good of a manga to be written, even less drawn, by me ;)
Six years old Riko was standing in the middle of a crowd. Her clan had gathered at her grandfather's request. Holding her mom's hand, the young girl looked around to see where her dad was but with all these adults around, it was impossible to spot him.
The crowd grew quiet as Riko's grandfather appeared in the middle. Once everyone was quiet, the old man began.
"Thank you all for meeting me here on such a short notice. I have reunited all of you here to speak of a very important matter. As you all know, I am growing old and the time of my reign over this clan is coming to an end. Soon, I will need to name my successor."
Roughly half of the crowd started applauding and whispering the name 'Ayumu', Riko's dad. However, the old man began to speak again.
"However, it is to my regret that I declare that my son, Ayumu Ryuu, will not be named as my successor. In fact, as long as I live, I will make sure that my son will not rule this clan due to his idealistic ways of thinking."
Harsh whispering started again in the crowd. Young Riko looked up at her mother and asked: "Mommy, what does it mean?"
Her only response was to look down sadly at her child. Suddenly, yelling shot up from the crowd and the clan started becoming quite aggressive. Some agreed with the old man's decision, others did not.
The crowd started to move and push around, leading to Riko's separation from her mother. The crowd started to swirl around her as she called out for her mother.
Suddenly, Riko was standing in a doorway, listening to her father speaking to some men. They whispered harshly, asking for justice and revenge as Ayumu tried to calm them down. They talked about how unfair the old man's ways were. They asked to rebel. They even talked about protecting Ayumu as his life could be in danger. With a slight smile, the man told them how touched he was by their concerned but refused any kind of protection.
A hand touched lightly the young girl's shoulder. Looking up, she saw her mother bending over her protectively. Quietly, she told Riko:
"Why don't we go make supper for these nice gentlemen?"
The girl nodded quickly and they both walked toward the kitchen. While bringing some food for her mother to cut, Riko asked:
"Mommy, why does grandfather hate us? Did we do something wrong?"
The mother kneeled down in front of her and while brushing away her daughter's hair from her face, she answered sadly:
"No dear. Your grandfather simply does not agree with your father's dream. We did nothing wrong."
"But daddy wants to allow our clan to befriend with the rest of Konoha. Is it that bad to be friends with them?"
"No dear. In fact, it seems like a wonderful idea."
Everything swirled around Riko, as if caught in a tornado.
"Mommy?!" cried out the girl again.
When her surrounding settled down, the girl was sitting in her bed in the dark. First thing she knew an explosion was heard down stairs. Running out in the hallway, Riko noticed several masked men running in the house with weapons such as explosive tags, kunais, and shurikens. As she was about to scream out, someone grabbed her from behind and holding her in his arm, they escaped through a window at the back of the house.
"Everything will be fine honey," said the man whom she recognised as her father. In front of them, she could see her mother also running ahead.
"Where are we going?"
Before her father could answer her, they both dropped roughly on the ground.
"Ayumu!" screamed in terror Riko's mother. She ran back quickly to her husband.
"You need to go on without me Sayuri. Take Riko with you!" urged Ayumu.
"NO! We're not leaving you! You...you can't leave us! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME!..." started Riko in tears.
Coughing up blood, her father tried to smile.
"It's okay dear," he said reassuringly. "I'll always be with you."
He whipped with his left thumb the blood coming out of his mouth, raised his right sleeve and brushed the blood on the head of dragon tattoo that was hidden there. Making a quick hand sign, he made the tattoo come alive. It first swirled around the young girl then, sneaking under her shirt, it transformed back into a tattoo on her skin, taking the exact position it once had on his old owner. The girl could feel a slight burn where the whole tattoo took place.
"He is now linked to you Riko. He will be your closest friend and your guardian. This is my way of staying with you."
Shortly after Ayumu said this, voices started to be heard behind them.
"Daddy..." said Riko.
But she was swiftly grabbed by her mother who began running again.
The environment began shifting again. Before everything became blurry, Riko saw her dad fall asleep peacefully on the ground.
"DADDY!"
When the surrounding calmed down, they were almost at the Hokage's building. However, a man jumped in front of Sayuri who was still holding Riko protectively. The man did a hand sign and backed up. Almost instantly, the mother threw her daughter on the ground. Something was wrong.
Sitting up, Riko looked up in fear. "Mommy, what's wrong?"
But the woman did not hear her question. In fact, she did not see her poor terrified daughter on the ground. What she saw was a masked man holding a giant shuriken in one hand. Without realizing it, Sayuri had been caught in a genjutsu. The mother jumped on whom she thought was the enemy, wrapped her hands around his neck and yelled out in rage:
"YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED AYUMU! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Under her, barely breathing, Riko wrapped her small hands around her mother's arms.
"...mommy...stop..." she barely managed to say.
A storm was violently raging outside. It was really hard to sleep with the terrible noise it made, especially for Kakashi. Every time he saw a flash of lightning, almost instantly he would hear a very loud booming sound. He knew the storm was right above them and couldn't wait till it would make its way past the village.
FLASH. BOOM.
The man finally gave up on sleeping until the storm was gone. Sitting up in his bed, he watched the outside scenery through the window. While doing so, his thoughts drifted off to yesterday. As much as he had a good time at the pleasure house, as much as he hated himself now. Thinking again about it made him angry with himself.
His thoughts were soon interrupted by a noise that caught his attention. Listening carefully, he finally heard it:
"No... don't kill me..."
FLASH. BOOM.
"It's me...please..."
Kakashi got up and walked around his room. The noise led him to the door leading to Riko's room. Unsure what to do, mostly because of last evening's events, Kakashi opted for knocking. He waited, waiting for an answer but only heard:
"I didn't kill him...help...!"
Worried, Kakashi opened the door. The room was dark and he wasn't sure where she was.
FLASH. BOOM.
During the last flash of lightning, the man managed to locate the girl in her bed. Walking up slowly, he called out her name softly. Still not getting any answers, he kneed down by her side.
"Help...someone..."
FLASH. BOOM.
During that brief moment, he managed to see her clearly. She was sweating heavily and trashing. Whatever her nightmare was, it seemed to be pretty nasty. Kakashi suddenly felt the urge to help her. Softly, he grabbed her shoulder and tried to wake her up.
Young Riko's vision was starting to darken. She was suffocating and there was nothing she could do. Behind her, she could hear the man who casted the genjutsu laugh loudly.
Through his laugh, Riko heard another voice that she did not recognize:
"Riko. You need to wake up."
The other man's laugh suddenly stopped.
"Enough!" another man's voice was heard.
Sayuri was suddenly pulled away by a man with golden hair and wearing a white and red cape. With a hand sign, he broke the genjutsu and laid the unconscious woman on the ground. He then came to the young girl who was breathing heavily.
"Riko. You're having a nightmare. Wake up." Again the unknown voice could be heard.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come to help you before. Are you okay kid?" the man softly asked.
The girl shook her head and started crying more than ever. Without Riko noticing, her surrounding shifted again. Next thing she knew, she was in a small apartment prepared by the Hokage himself. Walking around in the dark, the young girl started looking and calling for her mother. She started feeling suffocated, knowing that something was wrong. Breathing heavily, she started to shake in fear.
"Riko. It's me, Kakashi. Wake up," the unknown voice said from nowhere.
Turning the corner leading to her mother's room, Riko noticed that the door was just slightly open. She first knocked on it, waiting for the permission to come in.
"Mommy? I'm scared…" said the girl when her mother didn't answer.
Still not getting an answer, Riko pushed the door open. There, on the ground, she saw her mother lying in a puddle of blood with a kunai in her stomach. Running to her, she dropped to ground and started shaking the woman.
"Mommy! Mommy! Wake up! You need to wake up!" she yelled out, crying more than ever. "You...you can't leave me alone! Mommy, I'm scared!"
"Riko! It's all a nightmare! Whatever you are seeing is just a dream!" said the unknown voice in panic.
A nightmare? If only this had been a nightmare…
Kakashi had started panicking. Riko had started breathing heavily, shaking and crying all while still thrashing around. He was worried that she would eventually hurt herself or worse, have a heart attack.
"Riko! It's all a nightmare! Whatever you are seeing is just a dream!" he almost yelled out while shaking her more firmly.
With a loud gasp, the girl finally woke up. She sat up and was breathing heavily while looking in front of her with her eyes wide open. She then hid her face and started crying.
"Riko… it's okay now. You're safe here," softly said Kakashi, trying to reassure her while brushing her shoulder.
FLASH. BOOM.
The sudden thunder scared the girl and her first reaction was to jump toward the man for protection. Surprised by her sudden reaction, he wrapped his arms around her protectively.
"They're all dead and I couldn't do anything," she sobbed.
"It's okay. Everything will be okay…" he continued to whisper.
She tightened her grip around him. "Please don't leave me. I'm scared…"
"I won't," Kakashi promised.
Sitting there, holding her, the man started thinking about how this was a side of her that he had never seen. She seemed actually vulnerable compared to her usual quiet and emotionless self. This may be in fact the real her which she was trying so desperately to hide from everyone. At that moment, he promised to himself that he would help her come out of her shell. He wanted to help her face her fears.
Right there and then, he realized that he did not only feel curious about her. In fact, he may actually care more about her than he ever thought.
This is it for this chapter! I hope it was as good as I made it seem!
As per usual: share the love, write a review! (Maybe I should find another catch phrase hahaha)
Thank you for reading this far!
