Notes from Goldberry: Another update at last! I've been holding up this one, I'm afraid, as I was lacking any inspiration for the card "The Hermit" until last night when this idea hit me over the head. The following gush of writing is what you're about to read. Spoilers up to manga chapter 403 and incredibly AU. Basically a "what if" story. I truly hope you enjoy.
THE LAST PROMISE
"The Hermit"
His earliest memories are of his mother. Warm and soft with a voice that hums a melody over and over until he falls asleep. She's not really his mother though. She tells him so when he's old enough to ask but he doesn't really care. He calls her mama anyway and she smiles when she hears it.
They live in a little house in a forest, the trees so tall and dark it's sometimes hard to see the sky through the leaves. They have a stove and a fireplace and two rooms - one for him and one for his mother, with a tiny kitchen where she makes dinner for them. His mama is a good cook. She cuts and peels potatoes and mashes them just the way he likes.
She's special, too. She can do magic.
It's not like in his bedtime stories. It's not sparkly or even pretty. It involves smoke and hand movements and sometimes even weapons, the ones he's not allowed to touch. And sometimes, just sometimes, it's blood on paper and that is the kind that scares him. He'd seen it only once but he cried for hours afterwards and his mother had rocked him and told him it was alright, it was just to protect them.
A lot of what his mother does is to protect him.
He is never entirely sure what she's afraid of but he always feels safe so he forgets about it soon enough. He obeys the rules - not to go far from the house, not to talk to strangers. Except for his uncle, of course, because he's not really a stranger, even though he doesn't live with them.
Ranmaru loves his uncle, especially because Neji can pick him up with one hand and deposit him like a lost puppy at his mother's feet. His uncle teaches him things, too. How to walk quietly in the woods, how to disappear into your surroundings, how to mediate. Ranmaru is always sad and inconsolable when Neji has to leave. His uncle only visits about every other week and then only for a few days. His mother is sad too when Neji leaves but it's a few more years before Ran really understands why.
"Mama, who is this?"
His mother glances up from her book and blinks at him, slowly coming out of her world of words. Her expressions sets when she sees what he's holding and she closes the volume on her knees. She reaches over to pluck the photograph from his fingers and he jumps into her lap, snuggling into her as she holds the picture before them.
"It's your real mother," she says, and she is so calm that he's not bothered by the notion that the woman who hugs him and loves him is not the one who gave birth to him.
"What's her name?" he asks, because it's important to know your real mother's name.
"Hinata," his mama answers gently. "Her name was Hinata."
"She has eyes like me and Uncle Neji," he notices, pointing with a pudgy finger.
His mama nods, her breath ruffling his hair comfortingly. "Yes, she does."
He is seven when he sees death for the first time.
It's spring and his mother takes him to the river to catch fish. She throws little round blades into the water like sharp stars and the fish float to the top. It's his job to scoop them up into their basket so they can be cleaned and cooked for dinner that night. They catch six silver trout before his mother tells him that's enough and he splashes to the shore, excited. Six means his uncle will be coming to dinner night. If he was not, they would have only caught four.
After fishing, his mama catches him and forces him to take a bath, scrubbing his back and making sure his hair is clean before she lets him escape. Kneeling on the bank, she unwinds her twin buns and soaps her own hair, the long locks turning almost as black as his in the water. She's just finishing when Ranmaru sees her suddenly look up and a man appears across the river.
He's not doing anything, just standing there, watching them. The stranger glances at his mama before staring at him, his eyes narrowing when he notices the color of Ranmaru's. He's wearing something shiny on his forehead. A music note with a line through it .
His mother gets slowly to her feet.
"Ran," she says, "close your eyes."
He asks his uncle about it that night, when it's just the two of them, Neji sitting on the edge of his bed. Ranmaru is under the sheets, staring at the ceiling, trying not to remember the sight of the dead man's body, a ringed knife in his chest, red streams of blood drifting downstream.
"Why did she have to kill him? He… he didn't even say anything." It's not that he think's his mother did something bad. His mama would never hurt anyone without a reason, he just doesn't understand what that is.
His uncle's voice is low and hollow as usual, strangely soothing. "The man you saw today was not a friend, Ranmaru. Your mother knew that without hearing him speak." His uncle's gaze catches his and Ran relaxes into the familiar grey, so like his own. "You know that your mother is special, that she can do things other people cannot. One of those things is the ability to sense a person's intentions, to understand things about them just by being in their presence."
Ran feels his eyes widen. "Really?"
Neji nods once. "She has very good intuition and you must learn to trust that, even if you don't know why. Do you understand?"
"Yes." He pauses a moment, thinking. "That man didn't care about mama. He was only looking at me. He was going to hurt me, wasn't he?"
His uncle rests a hand on his shoulder and Ranmaru feels warmth spread outwards from the touch. His uncle is a quiet person and doesn't embrace him often so Ran cherishes the rare, heavy safety of Neji's palm.
"That's not for certain, but I believe at the very least he would have taken you, and he would have hurt your mother." Something flickers across his uncle's face at the last and Ranmaru's eyebrows draw together in a fierce expression.
"Then I'm glad Mama killed him," he says, almost defiantly. Neji only looks at him, unreadable.
"Me, too," he says, quietly.
Their voices wake him in the morning, both of them speaking softly in the kitchen, the sun just barely touching the forest floor. Ran stays in the living area, somehow knowing by their tone that their conversation is about him. He doesn't go back to his room though. He's curious and the incident at the river has only given him more questions.
"He didn't trip any of my alarms," his mother is saying. She is standing at the kitchen sink, gazing out the little window there. To Ranmaru, she seems sad somehow, small. "He must have disabled them all without setting any of them off. Even that nasty one with the four seals…" She trails off for a moment and his uncle shifts slightly from where he is leaning back against the counter top.
"It wasn't one of his though." Neji sounds as if he is repeating something they've already discussed. "You said he didn't have any piercings."
His mother looks over, smiling faintly. Ranmaru doesn't like it. The smile is self-deprecating and he's used to his mama being cheerful, confident. "No," she agrees, "it wasn't his. I would be dead if it had been and Ran would be halfway to him by now." Her expression crumbles suddenly and his uncle has her in his arms before Ranmaru even realizes he has moved. Neji holds her tightly, her head against his shoulder, one of his hands in her long hair.
"We knew this would be hard from the beginning," his uncle tells her softly. "For you most of all." He hesitates a moment. "If you think you can no longer do this…" His mother is already shaking her head and she pulls back a little to look up into his uncle's face. Ran is relieved to see she's not crying.
"It's not that, it's just…" Her mouth tightens briefly. "What if I'm not strong enough? If anything happens to that child, I…"
Neji tilts his head down until his forehead rests against hers and they stand there together, breathing the same breath.
"Nothing is going to happen to him, Tenten." There is steel in his uncle's voice. "We made a promise and we're going to keep it. That's all."
And then his mother lifts her head, Neji bends down, and they are kissing there in the sunlight. Ranmaru feels something odd turn in his chest and he sneaks back to his bedroom, trying to figure out if he's angry at Neji for loving his mother too, or pleased that he might finally have a father.
His uncle stays longer that spring, several weeks in a row, one of which he spends teaching Ranmaru. They go out into the forest, deeper than Ranmaru can go by himself, and his uncle sets up a makeshift target of dead logs and fallen timber.
"See that knot on the log near the middle?" he asks, handing Ranmaru one of the ringed knives he's seen his mother use. "Try and hit it. Throw from the blade."
Excitedly, he tries and misses. His uncle seems unconcerned. "Again," he instructs and hands over another knife. Ran spends the next few hours at target practice and by the end he's hit the middle a few times, but not every time. Neji seems neither disappointed nor pleased. "Keep practicing. I'll have your mother set up a target for you close to the house."
"Mama doesn't let me touch weapons," Ran tells him. His uncle's mouth curves very slightly.
"I'll talk to her."
They start towards the river then and Ran feels a little sick, thinking the stranger's corpse might still be there but they're upstream and there's nothing but gurgling water and smooth stones. There's a frog, too, bright green and watching them from the bank.
"Hi," Ran says to it. The frog ripbits and jumps into the water, swimming away. He glances over to find his uncle watching him carefully.
"Do you like frogs?" Neji asks, sitting down cross-legged as if he's going to meditate. Ran follows his lead.
"I guess."
"Has one ever talked to you before?"
Ran almost laughs until he sees his uncle's very serious expression. He blinks instead. "I don't think so. Animals don't talk, Uncle, except in stories."
"Most animals don't talk," Neji corrects. Ran blinks at him again.
"Really?"
"Yes." His uncle pauses then and Ran frowns, not used to seeing Neji hesitate. "Has your mother told you about ninja?"
Ran nods. "Yes. She tells me stories sometimes, about villages of them, about fights." He looks over at his uncle curiously. "Are there really ninja somewhere?"
"Yes, and sometimes they use animals, special creatures that can speak. If you come across one, you must tell me or your mother."
"Okay."
They mediate then, an exercise that makes Ran restless after a little while and he can't help but ask, "Mama is a ninja, isn't she?" He'd been thinking about it for awhile, actually. "And you too."
Neji opens his eyes and looks at him calmly. "Yes."
Ran plucks a few blades of grass near his leg. "Am I one, too?"
"Not yet, but you will be."
He glances up again, thrilled. "Really?"
Instead of answering, Neji looks out over the water, his long hair ruffling in the breeze. "Ran, being a ninja means different things to different people. Some people are born to it, others have to work at it. It's a way of life. Once you begin, you will never be just a child again. You'll learn things, you'll learn illusions and fighting and how to kill people." His uncle's pearl-gray gaze settles over him. "You were born to a shinobi's life, Ran, but things are different now. If you choose, you can forget about ninja and your mother and I will take you away from here, far away where you can grow up to be whatever you please."
Ran found he could not look away from his uncle's face. "And if I want to be a ninja?"
"Then your mother and I will train you. We've already begun but it will get much harder, and at the end of it will be something you must do, a task that has been waiting for you and will keep on waiting, until you are ready."
"What is it?"
"I will tell you when you've made your choice." Ran opens his mouth but his uncle stands abruptly, cutting him off. "Don't tell me right now. You should talk to your mother first and then, together, we'll hear your decision."
They sat around the low table in the living room and his mother brought out a box. It was one she'd kept in her closet ever since Ran could remember, on the highest shelf so he'd never been able to reach it. She opens it now and he can see that it's full of things.
"That's my real mother," Ran announces, pointing at the top picture. His mama nods and pulls the photo out, handing it to him. The woman in it is small, with pale skin and the gray eyes he knows so well. Her hair is long and black and she's smiling softly, her cheeks a little red as if she's embarrassed about something. Next to her, amazingly enough, is his uncle. A younger version of his uncle, but it's still clearly him. He's wearing a formal looking outfit and there's a sword strapped to his back. He looks every inch the ninja.
And there's a third person, a man standing at his real mother's side, flashing a 'v' at the camera and grinning. He has spiky blond hair and blue eyes and Ranmaru likes him instantly.
"Who is this?" he asks, showing his mother. Tenten smiles gently.
"That, Ran, is your father, Uzumaki Naruto, the Last Hokage of Konoha."
The box holds other revelations as well. That his uncle and his mama used to be on the same three-man team and that they had fought in the Last War that had destroyed Konoha and killed almost everyone, including his real father. His real mother had survived long enough to give birth to him and to appoint Tenten and Neji as his guardians. Knowing he would be hunted, they took him deep into the forest, spreading the rumor that he had died on the birthing bed, and had raised him in secret.
His mother touches his cheek. "Ran, the person who killed your father and destroyed Konoha. His name is Pain and, if you choose to become a ninja, he will be your adversary, the one you must kill. It will be your destiny, one day, to lead Konoha from the ashes."
"How?" he asks plaintively. He's overwhelmed but determined too. He knows now how much everyone has done for him, how many died so that he could live. He can't let them down.
His mama smiles. "I don't know, but you are Naruto's son and if anyone can do it, you can." She looks across the table at his uncle. "And we will help you. Neji and I will be your teammates."
Ran brightens at the prospect. "Our own three-man team?"
"Yes. We will teach you everything we know, and what we don't know, we'll learn together."
He throws himself into her arms and hugs her tightly, suddenly sure.
"Then I want to be a ninja, Mama."
He feels her smile and she hugs him back.
"Then it's time to start," she says.
He spends the next six years in training. His mother is a strict but cheerful teacher and shows him how to use every weapon imaginable, even things not normally considered weapons like tables and chairs and butter knives. He learns how to do calligraphy and how to hit what he aims at and his mother smiles and tells him to do it over again.
His uncle is even more stern and lets him get away with very little. Ran drills for hours on clan history and blood limits until he' s tired and irritable and then Neji forces him into meditation to clear his head.
It's when Neji teaches him about his eyes, though, that everything starts to seem real. He learns to activate the Byakugan and to see long distances, to see the chakra channels inside another person's body. Neji shows him the Gentle Fist and Ran spends several uncomfortable weeks with various tenketsu closed until he finally learns how to open them again on his own.
Ran is a fast learner and he tries hard but at thirteen he can feel an invisible deadline looming ahead of him. His three-man team is amazing and he loves them, but his mama and uncle are only getting older. At thirty-five they are almost past their prime as shinobi and Ran worries about how many more years they can wait before facing Pain.
He mentions something similar to them at the dinner table and his mother laughs prettily. "Oh Ran, don't worry about us getting old. Our team used to do everything late in life." She looks across the table at Neji, brown eyes sparkling, and his uncle sets down his drink.
"Old," he murmurs. He meets Tenten's gaze and his lips curve in that almost, not-quite smile. "Shall we show him how wrong he is?"
"Oh yes, please," his mother answers, getting up.
For the first time in years, Ranmaru sees his mother and uncle spar.
He's seen them fight before, of course, for the sake of example, but this is an all-out fight that topples trees and rends craters in the earth. Ranmaru sees the true power of the Gentle Fist for the first time and the elegance of the Kaiten. He is witness to his mother's ballerina grace as she sends scrolls spinning and makes dragons from smoke, creates storms of steel and sends them crashing to the earth.
And she shows him the blindspot, the single pinpoint where he might be hurt, where even his eyes cannot see.
"But no one will ever hit you there," she says, almost smugly. "I've protected Neji's back this long, and I will guard yours as well."
The fight is breathtaking and beautiful and Ran can see why they are teammates. They have an innate awareness of each other that makes it incredibly difficult for one of them to get the upper hand. Tenten knows all of Neji's tricks and Neji can see every move Tenten will make. They end the spar in a draw, both of theme exhausted and low on chakra.
They've been fighting for four hours.
"Still think we're old?" Tenten asks, grinning, as all three of them collapse on his mother's bed.
"I think I've been suitably chastised," he answers and she laughs, pressing a light kiss into his forehead.
"Don't worry about us, Ran," she tells him, more seriously. "We seem to have the uncanny ability to survive almost anything. We will be at your side on the day you face Pain. I promise."
And he believes her, because even after all these years, she's still his mama.
Neji takes him on his first mission when he is fourteen. He's much older than most shinobi on their first mission but his mother tells him that's not important now. Nothing is like it was.
They leave Tenten behind and she kisses them both before letting them go. It feels strange leaving her there alone and he suddenly understands how his uncle must have felt in those years he had come and gone from the house.
"You were going on missions all that time?" Ranmaru asks, as they jump from tree limb to tree limb, high above the forest floor.
"Yes. Surveillance mostly. I had to make sure no one knew we had taken you. It was easier for me to protect the two of you by staying away." Neji comes to a stop on a wide branch and Ranmaru lands near him, watching his uncle's face. "I wasn't very good with children either."
Ran smiles. "I think you did okay."
Neji looks over at him and, even though his expression doesn't change, Ran can tell he is smiling. He has learned to read his uncle very well over the years. "Your mother loved you the moment she held you, even though you weren't hers. Despite that, it was hard for her in the beginning. Your mother is a fighter but living alone with a baby frightened her. She was always afraid for you." He pauses, his voice lowering. "And I was always afraid I would return to find her dead and you taken, or worse. It…was a strange time, for the both of us."
"You were afraid?" Ran asks, because he's always thought of his uncle as fearless, unflappable. Even now, Neji's expression is impassive, as if he is speaking of something else entirely.
"Yes. You will come to understand, Ran, that fear is not an obstacle in and of itself. Sometimes it is just the fuel you need to overcome one."
Ran smiles slightly before sobering again. "Do you… ever regret it? You and my mother, you love each other but you were never really able to have a life together, have children of your own. Do you-" But his uncle's hand is suddenly on his shoulder and Ran freezes, surprised by the intent look on Neji's face.
"We regret nothing," his uncle tells him, almost fiercely. "You are our child, Ranmaru, and we are very proud of you. Never forget that."
Ran shuffles a little and hopes Neji can't see the tears in his eyes. "I won't, Uncle. I promise."
Neji's squeezes his shoulder once and then drops his hand. "Then let's go."
That mission is also the first time Ran has to kill someone and it's both more and less then he expected. The spy dies without fanfare and Ran is left holding a bloody fuuma shuriken while his uncle rolls the body into the river.
"We all do what we must, Ranmaru," his uncle tells him evenly. "He did his duty and you did yours. That is all."
Ran nods mutely and he understands, he does, he just wishes duty didn't feel so much like murder.
"Ranmaru, do you ever wonder about the marking on your back?"
Ran glances over to where his mother is peeling potatoes over the sink. She's not looking at him but he senses something different in her tone. He's fifteen.
"Uncle Neji told me when I was little that it was a protective seal my real mother gave me before she died. He said it would keep me safe."
Tenten nods. "That's true." She says nothing else and Ran frowns at her back.
"Is there something more to it than that?"
He sees her hands pause and he almost opens his mouth to question her again when another peel joins the others in the sink.
"No," she answers finally, "Nothing more than that."
He's sixteen when he beats his uncle in a spar for the first time. He's almost horrified when he realizes that his uncle is unconscious, chakra-drained, and that he himself is still feeling a surge of fiery chakra that is just barely under control.
Tenten patches them both up, puts Neji to bed, and reassures Ran. "It was bound to happen, Ran. You are your father's son and Naruto had the greatest chakra reserve anyone had ever seen." She smiles impishly. "Neji has had it coming for years."
That is also the year his mother gives him the forehead protector from her box, the one with the leaf symbol on it. It's a little rough around the edges but it still gleams.
"It was your father's," Tenten tells him. "Your mother wanted you to have it when you were ready."
"Ready?"
"To fight Pain."
He swallows and ties it around his forehead. Tenten smiles at the sight but Ran can't help himself. He has to ask.
"Mother, if…if my father couldn't defeat Pain and he was one of the greatest ninja to ever live, how can I possibly…"
His mother's expression turns solemn. "It's not going to be easy, Ran. And I must apologize, too, that Neji and I can't teach you your father's techniques." Tenten's mouth quirks. "He was truly one of a kind, but where he failed, you will succeed. Do not forget that Pain, too, has grown older and we know how his techniques work. He may be strong but you have something he no longer does."
"What's that?" he whispers. Tenten stands on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
"People who love you," she answers.
In the Fall of this eighteenth year, Ran and his three-man team leave the little house he was raised in and return to the overgrown ruins of Konoha. Looking out over the toppled buildings and the burned and blasted side of the great mountain, Ran feels something rise up within, a great power that has slept and waited for him to arrive, to stand there, right there, and survey his inheritance.
Are you ready for this, boy?
Ran glances over at his uncle and his mother, two warriors from an era long gone, both his family and his teammates. His mother smiles at him, a hard smile ready for combat, and Neji gazes at him, steady as a rock wall to his back. Ran takes a deep breath.
I won't fail them, no matter what.
A great laugh rings through his head, amused and perhaps, challenged.
Then show me what you can do.
And Ran does.
THE END.