A/n: I didn't get the reviews but i was close so here you go. 16/17 is good right. But seriously tell me what you think about this.

Chapter 11
Ten Ten

-

The sun's rays shot through the window of his bedroom in his father's estate. He tried to roll to his side to avoid the rays only for it to warm his back to the point of sweating. He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. He hated this ceiling and what it symbolized. The meaning of what his father holds over his head: His life. He had been thinking about how his father was the whole day before, to the point where at night he dreamed about how it was. He woke up a couple of times in a cold sweat. Hell he still felt his clothes stuck to his back with sweat.

He sat up slowly and pushed the sheets away from his body. He sat at the edge of his bed, waiting for the dizziness to pass. Then he unsteadily walked over to dry himself and change into a new shirt. His actions were painfully lethargic, for his muscles felt so weak and they ached with every movement he made. Feeling like some feeble old man, he staggered back to his bed and eased himself back to his lying position, once again staring out of the window, back to that blazing view.

I seriously need to get some blinds…

There was a soft rap on the door and Arashi entered with a tray in hand. "Hey, get up. You have to go meet Gai's team in a half an hour and you will not be late."

Naruto wanted to say that he was not really interested, but his throat was so sore that he decided he should just keep quiet. Arashi placed the food on his desk and went over to his side, taking a seat in the chair that was right next to his bed. Naruto wanted to get up so he wouldn't have to sit in on one his father's conversations about the importance of being a ninja.

"You know, Naruto…"

There was an unexpected change in tone and Naruto stopped. Naruto turned slowly to look back at his father to see that he held a picture in his hand. The same picture he would never show Naruto. Oh how badly he wanted to run over there and snatch it out of the man's hand and run like there was no tomorrow. But his father's voice stopped him before he could

"All those years with her, my feet had never touched the ground."

There was such an affectionate tone to the way he spoke, and yet it held such ruefulness: such a deep sense of sadness that Naruto would have never believed would come out from his own father's voice if he had not heard it himself. Slowly, he took two steps down back towards his bed.

His father continued to stare at the picture he held in his hand carefully, pressing his fingers firmly along the sides of the picture to smooth out any creases. His fingers lingered at the corner of the picture, with a tender look in his eyes and an invisible smile on his face. At that moment, Naruto saw the sides of his father that he had never before been allowed to see, or perhaps had just never stopped long enough to observe. It was the uncloaked vulnerability that he had never bared. It was the unnoticed depths of unwavering love for his wife. And it was the quiet mourning for a love long lost. Naruto felt the pangs of guilt, partly the guilt for being so blind, but mostly for the part that all these pain was caused by him, even if his father had told him otherwise.

Twelve years. No, it was nearly twelve and a half years now. For twelve and a half years, his father had hidden his suffering by playing the bastard father to his son.

And it took Naruto twelve and a half years to realize that because he had chosen to forget, to ignore and to pretend.

Perhaps he was the real bastard here.

"Do you miss Mom?"

"Everyday son, everyday…"

Such stark veracity, unnerving in its simplicity yet exalting in its beauty.

Silence fell between the father and son. It was not the sort of uncomfortable silence in any way, but it was immensely heavy, as Naruto watched how his father continued to gaze at his late wife's picture quietly.

Staring at the back of his father as he vanished out of his bedroom, Naruto became aware, consciously for the first time, how broad and how dependable his father's shoulders were. His father was the one who was carrying the burdens of the family, carrying the past that he could never change and carrying the unspoken sorrow that ran so deep. He shouldered it all.

Naruto realized that he was really such a child at times.

Shaking his head he changed quickly and headed for the door. Maybe he could try to open up with his father instead of expecting it the other way around. Maybe it was his turn to try.


He hated being really early. It meant that he would be standing, in an area for longer than he had to, alone. Which in turn meant that it gave him time to think of things that he didn't want to think or he came up with the excuse of him being to busy to bother with it. Sigh. Oh how he hated being alone. Trying to loosen up but failing Naruto reached back and pulled out his two blades. Raijin… Fuijin…

"A couple days ago Itachi said that these two swords are two of the strongest in existence. And that with him wielding it he could be unstoppable." What was that suppose to mean? It wasn't like he could call on the elements of the blades when ever he felt like it. Hell he hadn't even begun learning how to yet. At the moment they were just two ordinary blades that had legendary names.

He picked up Fuijin and gave it a couple swings.

"And to think that my element is wind." He admired the blue blade before sheathing it and picking up Raijin. "And what it controls, lightning." He eyed the blade that he had just started learning to wield before also sheathing the sword on his lower back.

Everything seemed so complicated at the moment that he didn't know what was up and what was down. And this training with different senseis wasn't helping.

Now he sat here waiting for a team that he knows none of the members or anything about except for their sensei is a psycho path. That's how the life of a shinobi was: surprises everywhere. "I could always tell Itachi that this team couldn't teach him anything either, just like Asuma's. Nah, that wouldn't work, he always seems to tell when I'm lying."Naruto let his forehead rest against his arm as it laid across his bent knee. He heard that this was the last team before he would be given a mission to complete with a team. That meant that team seven on their up coming C rank mission, if by what his dad kept saying was true about him working best with team seven.

So that left him wondering why he was here, he hadn't even met anybody from team Gai before, at least he doesn't think so, and though he was very skilled in taijutsu, he wasn't looking to be a specialist in the field. Why did his father keep grinning when he kept reminding him of this day? So why was it now that Arashi had asked him to go for some kind of test he wanted Naruto to go through? He didn't need any more tests to prove he was a capable genin. For once he could actually say that with confidence, and fully that it was damn well true. And if his father thought he wasn't a capable Genin he would have sent someone else to the mission of Rain.

He heard three thuds signaling the arrival of team Gai. They looked at him confused as if not knowing who he was and stood there not saying a word. He had to admit that the female of the team was beyond beautiful. She even put Haruno to shame with her two buns and happy chestnut eyes, she was a walking super model. He shook his head from studying the beauty when the white eyed version of Teme began to speak to him.

"Avert your eyes before I rip them out." The Hyuuga was the embodiment of stuck up as any other Hyuuga acted he assumed, well except for his little Nee-chan. He shook his head not really caring as he adjusted his black face mask before examining the Teme. He was the spitting image of Hiashi even down to the long sleek ebony locks.

"HOHOHO! I SEE THAT MY YOUTHFUL TEAM HAS MET OUR NEW YOUTHFUL ADITION FOR THIS MONTH." A loud voice rang out as a man with a bowl cut and bushy brows landed next to team Gai.

"GAI-SENSEI SO THIS IS OUR NEW YOUTHFUL COMRADE WITH A WEIRD STYLE OF DRESS!" the look a like of Gai yelled back which caused Naruto to look down at his Orange jumpsuit before looking back at their green spandex.

"You're one to talk." Naruto mumbled.

"ALRIGHT MY YOUTHFUL TEAM! INTRODUCTIONS STARTING WITH YOU LEE!"

"YOSH! I AM ROCK LEE! I LIKE TRAINING AND MY TEAMATES! I HATE UNYOUTHFUL THINGS, AND MY DREAM IS TO PROVE THAT I CAN BE A GOOD NINJIA WITHOUT NINJUTSU!" Lee screamed out while pumping his fist in the air.

"EXCELENT LEE! NOW YOUR TURN NEJI!"

"Hyuuga Neji, any thing else about me you don't need to know." Neji spoke with a glare.

"AND NOW THE FEMALE OF OUR TEAM!"

They all turned to the girl with buns who just stood there looking at Naruto skeptically. Before tilting her head to the side while a grin spread across her face, "I thought it was you Ruto-Chan."

Naruto blinked a couple of times wondering where he heard that name from… wait a minute. That was an old nickname he had before he left on his training trip with Itachi and Kurenai, and the person that called him that was the little girl at the blacksmith shop that his father took him to. Then that means… "Ten-Chan?"

The girl put her hand on her right thigh as she leaned forward and winked. "The one and only." With that she giggled before running up to Naruto and giving him a big hug. "Gah! I missed you Naruto-kun, I thought you were dead."

Naruto chuckled as he spun the girl around. "Nah, just a long training trip."

"So how is Min-Min" Ten-ten asked as she stepped back from the blonde to get a better look at him. "I couldn't recognize you at first with that mask on."

"Well, not many ninja have whisker marks on their face so I wear it for identity reasons. And the old man's fine."

"Excuse me my youthful female teammate, but who may I ask is Min-Min?" Lee asked as he scratched his head.

"Oh that's my nick name for the Four-." Naruto's hand flew over her mouth quickly.

"Heh, that's our little secrete. Heheheheh,"

"WELL SINCE YOU TWO HAVEN'T SEEN EACH OTHER IN WHAT TO ME SEEMS LIKE FOREVER. IT WOULD BE UNYOUTHFUL OF ME TO MAKE US TRAIN. FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK I WILL LET YOU TWO CATCH UP ON OLD TIME! LEE! NEJI! A RACE WE WILL HAVE AROUND KONOHA!"

"HAI! GAI SENSEI!"

Neji glared at Naruto before nodding and following the two.

Naruto shrugged the glare off before he felt an arm wrap around his and a head lay on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Ten-ten with a smile.

"Well shall we go?"


It seemed silly at first and Naruto was not too happy at having to waste his time doing such pointless things with her. But that was when he would remember how old she really was and that childhood for her was probably something too distant, and so, he would accompany her without complaints. And slowly, as he observed her, he noticed how the tiniest of smiles would tug at the corners of her lips, and how glimmers of subdued delectation would appear in her eyes, as she watched those unblemished children, with their beautifully innocent eyes, laugh guilelessly at everything, play their ball games with immense seriousness and squabble over every little inconsequential issue. He had once overheard her saying to herself, "Growing up normal must be nice," and hearing that, he sensed that life must have been harsh on her as a child. So he decided never to voice his displeasure at dawdling the time away like this and learn to take pleasure in the little things in life like she did.

Naruto's smile was always so melancholy, sadness that she knew not where it begun and she knew not where it would end. She never could read his smile, that unfathomable smile that served to hide his guarded thoughts. Her hand went down to squeeze his hand tightly, hoping that he really, really did understand.

"Do you know how stupid I felt when you left to go training and I searched for you for days? Finally I saw Min-Min as he walked out of the Hokage tower. I asked him where you were. He told me you were somewhere special."

"Oh, so now you're complaining," Naruto grunted with a laugh. He allowed a few seconds to pass before he sighed and uncrossed his arms. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, it's just that a lot of things happened on the night before I left. A lot of things that no one planned and I think scared my father."

Ten-Ten eyes looked up with an invisible smile, knowing that expressing his concern verbally was not exactly Naruto's forte. Watching him, a tiny crease appeared between her brows as she frowned slightly. Then she leaned forward and reached out to touch the skin of his neck that wasn't covered by his face mask that was slightly visible from the collar of his orange jacket. "So you still have those whiskers do you?"

Naruto jerked backwards, shocked from the feel of her finger on his neck.

Her touch was so soft…

Damn it, Naruto! Get a grip on yourself! What's wrong with you!

She smiled as she stepped closer to him. He wanted to back up, to run, to do anything but his body just wouldn't respond to any of the commands he was giving it. His heart sped up as she got closer to him. He began to hold his breath as he saw the look in her eyes as she rested her hands on his chest before slowly lowering her head onto his chest. Just above his chest.

"Yep still the same."

God he hoped she couldn't tell his heart was race a mile a minute.

I have officially gone mad, his logical mind told him. But …

"I should head home."

She pulled back looking at the watch on her wrist as she nodded and they began their trek home.

His walk back towards his apartment was a silent one even with the person next to him. He sighed as he looked over to see them with a smile on their face. Why were they following him? He shook his head and decided not to dwell on it and focus more on the awkward yet comfortable silence that was surprisingly between the two. At least they weren't trying to make small talk.

"So what have you been up to these last couple of years?"

Spoke to soon.

He chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "Not much. Training with Itachi with Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu, and taijutsu; and training with Kurenai in Genjutsu and chakra control to the point where I almost can call upon my chakra with out even thinking about it at all. Besides that, not much."

"You call that not much." Ten-Ten said shaking her head.

"Come on Ten-Chan! You had to have a more interesting seven-eight years then me." Naruto said putting his hands behind his head.

"Weird." Naruto turned his head to see that she was looking at him in a calculating manner. He raised his eyebrow signaling for her to explain what she meant. "Well, one minute you're serious then the next you're back to your old self. It's like that mask holds a whole new personality for you."

"It's just a mask," he said seriously. "Just another mask to go on my dusty shelf of masks."

Ten-Ten's eyes saddened as she looked at him. "I've missed you Naruto." He stopped and looked at her skeptically. "I really have." She felt hurt that he didn't think so.

He sighed not knowing what to say to that. He looked to his left deciding he was going to stay at his apartment tonight.

"Hey, I'll talk to you tomorrow, I have a question to ask you about my swords?" he tilted his head to the side as he watched he carefully.

She smiled and nodded hurriedly. "Okay!" she jumped and kissed his cheek before running off.

Naruto slowly raised his hand to his cheek and smiled before heading off to his apartment. Hoping that tomorrow would be just as great as today.


As Naruto wandered the streets, he could not help but wish he was able to see Ten-Ten that morning. He was feeling so much better and he could spend much more time with her now, but it seemed she had her own things to do. Although slightly peeved, he knew that he could always spend time with her after she got back with that Hyuuga. She had her own things to settle with, she had her own team, and it was only right that he allowed her to do whatever she wanted while he was supposed to be meeting Itachi.

Who, by the way, he couldn't find anywhere, he asked everyone, even stooping low enough to ask the king of teme where he was. Of course Sasuke-teme responded with a grunt that he didn't understand. He sighed as he realized he was bored as hell and he was hardly ever bored nowadays.

It was evening when Naruto returned and Ten-Ten was hanging around his father's house waiting for him. He had no idea what she did all day, but it seemed she had not went out.

"Hey Ten-Ten!" he yelled as he came up to her. She looked up quickly to smile at him in way that stated she was… sad. "Everything alright Ten-Ten?" he asked as he made sure he was in her eye sight.

She nodded quickly as she finally made eye contact with him. "Yeah, I'm fine. You said you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Let's go to the back." He grabbed her hand as he led her to the back of his father's estate. The "backyard" was a huge grassy field that was greener then any thing she had seen. She looked at Naruto who just smiled at her. "So you ready to take a look?"

She nodded.

"Well I need to know if I put a seal on these swords, will it cause them any harm." Naruto asked patting the two handles of his weapons.

Ten-Ten raised an eye brow and shook her head. "No, the metal that a katana or any kind of weapon shouldn't be affected any way except for what the seal is meant to do."

"Well you see that's just it." Naruto began to unsheathe his weapons as Ten-Ten tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "These aren't normal katana." With that said he finally pulled the weapons from his sheath and the blue silver blade of Fuijin and the yellow sun blade of Raijin were in view.

"Th-th-Those are Fuijin and Raijin, two of the elemental blades and two of the most legendary blades ever, and two blades that brought my family together."

"Yeah, Ero-Sennin told me that a long time ago that two families that seemed not to get along at all. They were two blacksmithing families and were bitter rivals. Finally the First got fed up with their squabbling and made a deal with them. That who ever brought the best katana to him would be the main blacksmiths of Konoha and the other clan would have to accept this. What the First didn't expect was that the two blacksmiths that were chosen from each clan were actually in love but were forbidden to act on it. The First found out about this hidden love and added another circumstance to the wager. The blacksmith that made the best katana would also be the head of the clan.

"Finally the day came and the two clans stood before the First. First the Shinosuke clan came forward presenting their katana. 'I am Shinosuke Kyone, and I present you the Raijin.' The female blacksmith laid the Raijin in front of the first who examined it carefully, he touched the blade receiving a small shock of electricity and smiled after stated this was a magnificent blade. Next the male blacksmith stepped forward' I am Hikari Matsume, and I present to you the Fuijin." The male blacksmith laid down the Fuijin still in its sheath. The First was confused by this until he came to the blade and unsheathed it. The wind protruded was explosive, almost knocking the First off his feet. When finally the wind died down, the First smiled and stated that the Hikari clan had won. And the first thing Matsume did as clan head was marry his beloved Kyoune."

Naruto looked at Ten Ten who was about in tears. "Those were my great-grandparents." She picked up the katana one by one examining the weapons. "These are remarkable, and defiantly the real deal." She placed the back down and looked at Naruto. "So well-done that if a normal person looked at it and felt it they'd think they were normal blades that were just tinted a bit." She ran her hand across the blade of Fuijin. "If you add seals to this nothing should happen to them." She stood with both blades in hand and handed Naruto the blades back. "They're perfect."

Naruto walked Ten-Ten back to the front of the House. They both just stood there for a moment until Naruto watched as Ten-Ten began to cry. "What's wrong Ten-Ten?"

"Thank you." She said as she clutched on to his arm "Thank you so much."

Naruto smiled sadly as he wiped the tears from her right cheek while resting his hand there. She stopped crying instantly and looked up at Naruto. "Don't cry Ten-Ten." He tugged on his black mask pulling it down to reveal his face which made Ten-Ten gasp in awe. "I don't like it when you cry." He bent down capturing her lips in his. At first, she wasn't sure what to do, but she kissed him back. He couldn't remember the how long they kissed for, only that she pulled away from him and turned from him.

"I'm sorry I can't. I'm seeing someone." Ten-Ten looked at him and began to rub her left arm with her right hand. "I'm sorry if I led you on."

Naruto forced himself not to get mad. He forced himself to fight the urge to clench his fist. He forced himself to smile because he saw that look in her dark eyes, staring at him so intently, begging him to forgive her for the choice she had made. His eyes looked away from her, not willing to be tortured by those eyes of hers.

"Yeah, I understand."


Ten-Ten sat at her window, watching the darkness of Konoha that came with the night. The sky was scattered with an innumerable number of stars, quite different from the sky she had gotten used to seeing in the here in Konoha, where the stars were usually barely visible because of the amount of light pollution. The sky tonight was definitely much more beautiful than Konoha during most nights, but somehow, she much more desired to see the sky how they were before.

The wind was cooling, as comfortable as she had remembered it to be, ever since she met Naruto. It never got too warm, never got too cold. The weather here always remained, more or less, the same. Only till now, did she notice how static Konoha was, now that she had experienced the ever-changing world Naruto made life to be. Before she met Naruto and was forced to deal with the training her parents put her through alone, for an unduly long time, she never noticed, or appreciated, how diverse life was. In the past, she saw the changes, registered them in her head, but never stopped to wonder. She just went back and forth in this life she had made, doing her job faithfully, trying her best to uphold the good name of being a kunoichi.

Uzumaki Naruto.

The name left a dull ache in her heart. She wondered what Naruto was doing now. Perhaps he was training with Itachi. Or perhaps he was sitting at his desk, dutifully working on his seals he was planning to place on his weapons. Or perhaps he was just spending some quality time with his father, who if she remembered correctly was the person he wanted to impress the most. She smiled musingly as she rested her head on her arms that were placed on the ledge of the window. She already missed Naruto's irrational squabbling with Gai and Lee every morning. And his permanent smile that made him look like he was constantly happy. And his eyes that seemed to say that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Sometimes she hated that. She hated how he was so pertinacious about carrying the burden all by himself, even if the burden was not his to bear, even if he was near to collapsing from the weight. She hated how he always blamed everything on himself, always acting like he could handle everything, always acting like he knew everything. And she hated how he always attacked impulsively, always without anything resembling a plan in mind and always with a mindset that it did not matter if he died in battle. So she always had to worry about him.

Those impetuous blue eyes.

She never realized she would miss those eyes so much.

-

Naruto sat in the park where he was attacked at the age of five. The same swing he sat in and ran his fingers up and down the two chains. This is where everything changed, where everything started and ended.

He could still remember the first time he was training in the park with Ten-Ten; he was five and she was six. He was hitting some pepper-filled balls that had Ten-Ten's unsightly drawings scrawled all over it with kunai and shuriken. She had sat on the table, her concentration all riveted on reading her book, The Idiot's Guide to Throwing Kunai,aloud and not realizing for even one moment, that he was hitting the balls all wrong. That time, as they argued over her why he was missing the target so badly, all he wanted to do was to ungentlemanly beat the crap out of her to make her shut up because she was irritating the hell out of him. At that time, she was just like a character that came right out of a nightmare. Never would he had imagined that one day, he would be sitting at this same park alone, mentally picturing her being here and wishing that she was really sitting right beside him once again.