Here's a sligtly longer chapter...sorry they were so short before but that'sthe way I decided to cut it up....loved writing tis chapter....anyway enjoy! Also word length wise this is my longest fanfic! My normal subscribers must be getting pissed because I'm neglecting them but oh well I haven't attached to a story like this in a long while and my muse is focused here....for the most part :)
Chapter 9- A Realization Brings a Friend
"Naruto! Why am I here? Why are you here? What's going on?!" Lottie shouted with the conviction she was about to get what she had been striving for only to have it taken away by him.
Naruto was just as mad because he just saved her life and she was offended and he was about to tell her off when she started to shout again, "Wait, the last time I got here it was due to physical contact! Why the fuck were you touching me! No one touches me with out my permission and gets away with it!" Lottie went up to him and slapped him with her full strength backed with chakra stored in her muscles to give it an extra oomph.
It was too much and he was knocked back through the hall unconscious. She was so mad that she didn't notice Kyuubi grinning in the corner. Kyuubi made a sound to get Lottie's attention. When Lottie turned she calmed down considerably.
"Hello Kyuubi. How's it going? I mean for what it's worth in a stupid container," Lottie asked shooting a nasty look at Naruto who was starting to stir.
"Terrible as usual…but you could make it better," Kyuubi said deviously.
"That's great! What can I do for you?" Lottie said sincerely.
"You see that tab that says seal? I need you to remove that and I'll be free from this container," Kyuubi said.
"What'll happen to Naruto if I do this?"
"He might die but do you really care?"
"I-"she was about to answer when Naruto came up and hit her square across the jaw.
"What are you thinking you bastard? Do you hate humans that much that you would kill thousands by letting him out?" Naruto shouted at Lottie who was rubbing her jaw.
"You didn't even hear my response yet but you know what maybe I will release the closest thing I've had to a father!" She marched up to the seal and had a hand just under the paper when Naruto grabbed her wrist.
"Didn't you learn your lesson about touching me?" Lottie said coolly. She took her hand away from the paper to punch him just like Naruto had planned.
Just as she was about to hit him he said, "Wait, and before you hit me and take down the seal think about this." He paused to make sure he had Lottie's attention. "Could you really unleash this guy on the people who took care of you all night to make sure you were all right? Could you have him kill the people who held your hand to comfort you and made sure you were never alone?"
"What are you talking about?" Lottie said tearing up. "No one cares about me… no one would do that for me!" Her tears were replaced with outrage at such ludicrous lies.
"Don't you remember last night? Sakura, Sai and even Kakashi came and held your hand in shifts all night! Think back to yesterday," Naruto said.
"Why would they do that? I know that if hey were doing that they were only doing it because Tsunadae ordered them to be nice to me! I heard the whole conversation in the hospital!" Lottie accused and then continued, "Why would they even need to?" At this point Lottie was putting her fist down. "The last thing I remember was arguing with you guys about my mask and then nothing…No; I didn't blow up did I? Is that why they were-"she stopped abruptly her eyes getting wide when muttering to herself she continued, "There were dreams… dreams…dreams…" She trailed off after falling back onto the floor.
Naruto looked at her like she was insane. Why would she explode? He tried to get closer to her and just when he was face to face to her was when she finally noticed him and scrambled away and into Kyuubi's cage. When she felt Kyuubi's fur she turned into it and started to cry not caring that Naruto saw. Kyuubi just let her cry feeling bad for his kit and possibly his rescuer.
"Why are you crying? That's no fair when we're arguing!" Naruto shouted which caused Kyuubi to growl at him. "Okay, okay calm down…if it helps you didn't blow up. Sakura thinks they gave you the wrong ramen and coupled with unknown factors it was too much a shock for your body so you collapsed. Then they took you back to your place and stayed with you all night in shifts and right now is mine."
Lottie just looked at him through the hairs on Kyuubi. She just remembered part of her dream in the cave with the people but then she remembered the warmth and it calmed her down. She snuggled close to Kyuubi and walked out of the cage. "I'm sorry Kyuubi dono, I can't let you out right now. I need to find some things out but one day I will let you out so you and my demon sama may be reunited one day I promise." She then turned to Naruto and said, "Are you sure that's what happened?"
"I swear," Naruto said solemnly.
"So why are you here and why did you touch me? I thought you hated me."
"I was forced to take a shift because you're in my team and I must protect you no matter what. I touched you because you were about to die."
"You didn't let me die! How could you? You know that's what I've been wanting! Don't tell me you didn't because I know you picked that up in Tsunadae's office you baka!" Naruto seemed to turn bright red with fury at Lottie's words.
"You're a coward you know that? Instead of opening up to people and try to get to know them you shrink away and want to kill yourself! You're trying to take away bonds people made with you! That's the worst thing a person can do!" Naruto yelled at her.
"How dare you say that to me?! You have no idea what I've been through! You've no idea what the worst thing a person can do is!" Lottie yelled accusingly. She was steaming mad when she continued, "But I know and I've lived through them and if I say it's all right for me too die then by all that exists it's time for me to fucking die!"
"Then why don't you just kill yourself and save everyone the trouble!" Naruto said rashly. He instantly regretted his words, especially when Lottie's eyes became distant in memory and he got dragged along since they were technically inside of him.
-Flashback
Lottie's sitting next to a small newly started campfire by herself. She's nine now and just escaped from the cave where she was tortured. The flames cast shadows on her, hiding the fact her clothes are virtually non existent rags that can't cover the multiple cuts that envelop most of her body, there are so many they're basically replacing the clothes she had lost.
The cuts were healing rapidly but they were still almost fresh and tender. The areas not covered in cuts were covered in fresh blood, both hers and her enemies but that too was slowly being absorbed into her skin. Every time she saw the blood whimpers of horror escaped from her lips.
Lottie moves slightly to another sitting position but stops and cries out due to the pain it causes. Even though she doesn't really feel the physical pain the psychological pain is a bitch and almost all too blame for the outburst. She starts crying softly and gradually it becomes body racking sobs.
While sobbing she screams out, "Why me? Why did this happen to me?! No one cares about me or what happens to me! Doesn't being raped and tortured with out anyone in the universe noticing proof of that? Why can't this all just end? Why must I live through this torture?!" As she screams out to the universe her profession of loneliness an idea instantly forms in her mind. She knows what she must do now.
Lottie looks for the knife they used on her and she used to kill the vermin who hurt her in the cave. When she finally finds it she sticks the blade in fire to burn away the remnants of their blood. She didn't want anything from them inside her even after death. Even though it was an irrational thought she didn't care and watched as the knife became black in the fire.
Naruto as an apparition watches in horror at it all. He doesn't know what she's planning on doing yet and just as he starts wonder she sticks the knife to her throat saying softly to herself with tears tracing the cuts on her face, "I have so many cuts already… what's just one more?"
As he reaches out to stop her, forgetting he is only in a memory, she starts to push down to cut through the skin but then suddenly a red aura appears behind her and grabs her hand before she is able to make more than a small nick at her throat.
Lottie struggles as hard as she can to get the knife across her throat. She gives up after trying for an hour and drops the knife and tries to jump into the fire but suddenly rain comes from the red aura, putting out the fire before she could even put a foot in it. Naruto could see the red aura start to take shape as a fox with white markings but Lottie is still oblivious to what's causing her inability to kill herself.
"Why? Why can't I kill myself? I'm so alone… I want to go back to the demon realms…I want to go back to my home…I want to be loved again and not get hurt…I want to be free of everything!" she starts sobbing again.
"You can never be free… not if you actively try to kill yourself and not try to defend yourself," the fox behind her said soothingly. Lottie looks around to see who said that…the voice was so familiar to her but she still couldn't pinpoint it. When she turned around no one was there.
"Who's there? Why won't you let me die? What business is it to you?! Please leave me be!" Lottie started to panic at someone finding her like this. She was sure she would be dragged away and tortured like she had been before and she had no strength to defend herself right now.
"If you try and kill yourself you will never return to the demon realms. Think upon it my child… if you truly want to see your beloved home again seek not for your death but for your life," with that the fox disappeared, leaving the young girl cold, hurt and by her self.
Naruto wished he could comfort her because he now understood. He may not have felt the same exact pain but it was similar enough. He had always been alone and when something happened nobody ever cared. At least now he knew he had people that cared about him but she didn't know if she had anybody and on the contrary she knew no one really cared for her. That all the caring from before was a façade, that it was all based on orders from the hokage.
Carefully he walked around the charred wood to where little Lottie was sobbing at the inability to be happy. Sobbing for having to live with the knowledge of what happened but having to live with it and having to constantly keep from dying on top of it. To always have to live with it alone because she could never turn to a human. To humans who destroyed everything good she ever had! Even before all of this had happened to her she knew it she couldn't remain with demon sama because she was human! It was then she knew for sure humans were the enemy… that she was the enemy and even she would need to bow in to herself some time.
-End flash back and slowly change to mental state
As Naruto walked over to her the surrounding slowly changed to a barren desert and people Lottie had defeated in the past appeared looking on with hatred in their eyes this included all the citizens of Konoha but Sakura, Kakashi, Tsunadae, Lee and even he himself stood out the most, each face distorted with hate and fury, but the hurt curled up Lottie remained the same.
She was still sobbing and she was all alone. Naruto was suddenly in a green field filled with those who acknowledged him, which helped him live and grow and gave him a sense of peace and happiness. He started to run towards Lottie's desert and when he got there the people with hate in their eyes stood guard to make sure no one got close. Naruto started to run toward Lottie shouting her name over and over again.
Not until Naruto reached the wall of people did Lottie look up from her ball and start to notice someone calling her name. She didn't know what was going on as a person was pushing through the crowd towards her. Only when the person broke through the crowd did she recognize the orange jump suit and blond hair. "Naruto," she whispered, her mind was numb.
As he came running closer ten people sprung from the ground. Two were the hunters that had killed her family and the rest were from the cave. Naruto didn't pause as he continued to run towards her while still shouting, "Lottie! I'm coming for you, don't worry Lottie! You're not alone Lottie! Lottie!"
Lottie saw the monsters start toward Naruto intending to hurt him and Lottie shouted out, "Naruto watch out!" Only then did Naruto notice the people coming toward him with evil intent but he kept coming. When they finally caught up to each other instead of fighting Naruto quickly jumped over them to get to Lottie.
He continued to run, closing the distance between Lottie and himself quickly but the people were gaining on him too. Naruto knew that if they caught him it would be all over for both him and Lottie.
Just as one of the people was about to grab Naruto, Naruto got on his knees and grabbed Lottie's shoulder. The people stopped immediately. Naruto looked into Lottie's eyes and sincerely said, "Lottie, you're not alone any more…I mean it and I promise we'll always be friends. I'll protect you so things like that never happen again. Trust me."
"Why? Why do this for me?" she whispered, afraid at what he would say but looked him straight in the eyes.
"Because I know what it's like to be alone. Growing up no one acknowledged and I was always alone. No one cared what happened to me but I'd always had hoped someone would notice. Then one day Iruka sensei acknowledged me and it was the best thing that had ever happened and slowly more and more people acknowledged me and I was so happy," Naruto said softly, looking at her with gentle sincere eyes.
To Naruto's surprise Lottie grabbed out to him a clung to him in a tight hug. Instantly all the people disappeared from the desert in a poof of smoke making it so she and Naruto were left alone. Lottie looked him in the eyes a little longer to ensure he was genuinely sincere. When she was satisfied with her conclusion that he was truly sincere with his words she relaxed her grip a bit, put her head on his shoulder and started to cry away her loneliness silently.
Naruto was stiff for a moment but relaxed into the embrace and wrapped his arms around her so she was curled into the circle of his body. He started to rub comforting circles on her back as she cried and each time he finished a circle a couple blades of grass would pop up under them.
Finally when she stopped crying they were sitting on a patch of solid dark green grass. At this point Lottie was sitting cross legged next to Naruto with her head on his shoulder and squeezing his hand with her own. She no longer looked like the nine year old abused version of herself in rags and cuts but the girl Naruto had known dressed in solid black, covering her entire body, as she had the day of her fight the only difference was she didn't hide her face or hair. "Thank you…Naruto," she muttered while blushing.
"No problem," Naruto replied looking down, a blush on his cheeks as well for some reason.
Naruto thought that Lottie must have changed a lot but when he looked at her from the corners of his eyes however he saw the nine year old girl scarred and scared underneath and knew it would take a lot more than right now to make that girl go away. It would take time and tests to prove to her that she could forget what happened in the past and live in the present to trust those around her.
They sat together for awhile just looking into space. Neither could tell how long it had been so they didn't know if it had been a few minutes or several hours or maybe even days. They both found the silence tranquil so it went undisturbed until the earth started to shake.
Suddenly they were in the dripping hall of Kyuubi still holding hands when the hall started to shake as well. They both looked panicked as Kyuubi started to laugh and said, "It looks like you two love birds are being shaken awake." Just as Kyuubi stopped speaking they were out of the hall and in Lottie's apartment surrounded by team seven and Tsunadae, their hands no longer holding on to each other.
-End mental state
I really need critiques and such so please review...also if you have any suggestions at what you want team seven's first mssion with Lottie should be please don't hesitate to tell me because I can't really think of one at present and I already set it up that they go on a mission....so yeah
