Chapter 9: Ayame's Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


Teuchi walks inside of the home that belongs to Naruto. He came here before to collect on a debt Naruto created after a certain eating spree, but it never looked this nice. What he sees in the home now is the work of his daughter Ayame's house cleaning. So you can imagine his shock seeing the apartment room as it is.

"I guess she was doing some cleaning," he says before heading towards the bedroom to place Ayame in. Laying her down in Naruto's bed, Teuchi exits the bedroom to approach Naruto. "Now, about Ayame..."

"You mentioned something about having to tell me something," he says, plopping down on his couch. Teuchi sits in a chair opposite him.

"I never told anyone this, except for Tsunade-sama and her assistant, the one with the dark hair," Teuchi says, beginning his explanation. "There are times where I would go out on trips to other villages and try to expand my business... The first time I've ever tried so was three years ago, back when you had just left... Ayame couldn't help but lament over your leave and began to shirk her chores, so maybe that was a sign for me to have stayed."

"What happened?" Naruto asks suddenly.

"When I was going to leave the village, I had her go in my place. I wanted to cheer her up by letting her leave the village more often... I never would have thought that would happen..." At this point he lowers his head further into his legs. "Ayame was kidnapped while away."

Naruto gasps in shock. A part of him grows angry hearing someone tried to hurt Ayame, again. Teuchi continues with, "I tried to go looking for her, but I could find nothing. That's when I begged the Hokage to prepare a search party for her, but before I could she returned! A man brought her back explaining that she was kidnapped and turned into a slave. I couldn't thank him enough for his help, even when he disappeared and left the village. Tsunade checked her body over and put her through psychiatrist treatment.

"Her mind had been completely broken, so much so she was a complete slave. Whoever captured her had put her mind through hell, but left her pureness untouched." He pauses for a moment to wallow in depression.

"Why didn't they take..." Naruto pauses after that, looking away with shame. "...You know..."

"I asked Hokage-sama that... She told me slaves are more valuable when they're virgins," he replies, which enrages Naruto even more. "But her mind had been broken into being a sex slave she wouldn't be able to return to a normal life.

"That's why Tsunade-sama and her team erased her memories of enslavement and made up a story for her when she came to," he says, finishing his story about Ayame's condition.

"I see..." Naruto says, thinking about it a little bit. 'That's why she performed those tasks and said those words...' "Wait, how did Oba-chan erase her memories? Is that possible?"

"The mind is a specialty belonging to the Yamanaka clan, so it's possible," Teuchi tells him. He goes 'oh' and nods, remembering Ino.

"But then, why is she acting like this now? Her memories are gone, again," Naruto asks.

"They say memories last eternally inside of one's mind. Memories that are erased even are merely buried." His wise statement confuses the poor teen a bit. "I've seen the bump on her head; a blow that hard must have caused her memories to resurface in a way, and you saving her must have made her forge her feelings for you into a master-slave relationship."

Naruto, his mind having been fried from all this thinking, says, "Teuchi-san, I'm a ninja and even I didn't understand that. Are you saying Ayame loved me before all of this?"

"You'd be surprise what you find out if you open your eyes a little," Teuchi replies. "Yeah. Ayame was really in love with you, just like that other girl who faints around you all the time."

Hearing that, Naruto begins to think back a little; all those smiles she gave him, that free coupon she slipped him, that one time she played footsies with him, and everytime she glared at Hinata. She really does love him. "Ayame... You loved me all this time... Why didn't I see it?"

"Anyway, you've been helping her through this so far... I leave her in your hands." With those words ringing in Naruto's ears, Teuchi rises up from his seat and heads for the door.

"Eh?" Naruto rises up and runs to him. "Wait! You're leaving her with me? Even after everything you know?"

Teuchi turns around and places his right hand onto Naruto's left shoulder. With a soft smile on his face, he says, "Maybe it's too much of me to ask you to take care of a girl who just suddenly caught you up in something serious, but the fact of the matter is you are the only one who can reach her emotionally. Since I know you care about her, I know you won't try anything to make her cry. I'll handle the ramen shop and hire some help so don't worry about me.

"Good luck, Naruto." These are his final words before he walks out the door and heads for his home.

Naruto sighs before closing the door, turning his eyes back to the room where Ayame is resting. He walks to the room, thinking, 'Maybe I can do something. She remembered something about ramen just by being around me... I just hope I can contain myself.'

As he enters his room, he sees Ayame waking up and rising on top of the bed. "Oh, Ayame."

"Naruto-sama!" she says with a happy smile. She quickly rushes to his side and hugs him. "I missed you! Where have you gone?"

"Well I-" Naruto pauses for a moment to try and remember what he did before coming here; he came here before when Ayame was dressed in a naked apron, a memory he blushes to, and then she said they were out of ramen so he ran out to get some. And then there's a block in his memory sort of like static fuzz. All that he can remember afterwards is finding Ayame in the forest unconscious. 'Why can't I remember what happened between?'

"Well, it doesn't matter. As long as you're with me now," she says, planting a soft kiss to his lips. Naruto doesn't hesitate to kiss her back, being more open to her now than ever.

'Eh, it doesn't matter. All that does is what's going on now.'

Later...

Elsewhere in the village Yusei and company are quickly packing up. Julia asks, "You got everything?"

In unison everyone responds, "Yes ma'am/old lady," except Yusei who throws in that little insult.

Ignoring it Julia turns around to face outside the building. The 5 workers including herself walk out the door casually, hoping to draw no attention to themselves. Yusei approaches Dante and asks, "Did you send the wolves to take care of that guy?"

"Yes," he replies with a wink.

"Good." And with that, they leave the village, without any look of suspicion.


Kenshin: That ends this chapter. Someone asked before if those ocs would return; the answer is no. They have little to no importance to the plot.

Yusei: I'm actually surprised TCM came back to this story. What was the change of heart?

Julia: Who knows what goes on in his mind?

Kenshin: Well Manabu does, but only enough to not spoil us.