AN- Im baaaccckkkk you guys though I left didn't you. Not to worry here is the longest chapter in this story so far hope you guys like it.
Naruko tackled Kakashi. The silver haired man let out a yelp but embraced the little girl tightly. Tears flowed out her eyes no one noticed the gold beginning to swirl.
"Where's Kurama?" Kakashi asked.
"I haven't called him out in awhile. I didn't want him to get hurt because of my temper." She admits looking down.
"You do know that is like punishing him for your mistakes right?" Naruko gives a slow nod. "I have to go home now and rest, doctors orders." Kakashi waves goodbye. As Iruka walked Kakashi back he hoped that Kakashi being back would get Naruko out of her rut.
As said girl returned to the classroom she made a vow to herself. She would be the strongest koniuchi in the world so that no one close to her would die! Almost everyone gasped when the girl returned to the classroom in her kill me orange jumpsuit with a big smile on her face. For some of her friends it was a relief that after months of a depressed Naruko their happy girl was back where she belonged.
-One Year Later (3 years since Naruko was adopted, 2 since Kakakshi woke up )
The nine year old dodged the incoming Kunai with uncanny speed. She watched for the senbon she knew would be coming at her next. Sure enough they flew and with ease she dodged them. Since Kakashi had woken up her attitude still was not what it used to be. The smile she had given in the classroom was now being called the last of the old Naru they would ever see. She didn't care anymore, She had to be strong. So powerful that even kami himself couldn't stand a chance against her. No more of her loved ones would get hurt E.V.E.R.
The training was vigorous and harsh. No praise was given only negative feedback. Her current life consisted of sleep, eat training, school, and later more training. She was unknowingly destroying herself.
TSUNADE'S POV
She had seen this happen to many older shinobi who had participated in the third shinobi war. It was a disease she labeled it called Depression. It was quite common, hell Naruko's father Kakashi had it. Only each person dealt with it so differently. Asuma let it out through smoking, Kakashi through his porn books, Jiraiya by writing said porn books, even she herself had it and her way of dealing with it was gambling. Naruko's way was to train so much that she would almost have internal organ failure from the amount of stress being put on the organs. It was quickly killing Naruko and every day it went on she became more and more estranged from her friends. This had to stop and it had to be soon. Lest Naruko turn out like HIM.
SHIKAMARU'S POV
I walk by the field where Naruko trains every day. I can see her quickly withering away. Every time I watch I try to think of what I can do to help. But Naruko is so into the rut she's created for herself I don't know if I can reach her anymore.
Finally it hit me as I walked by a old graffiti painting she made that had not been washed away yet. She loved to paint and whenever I watched her paint she became so relaxed it was as if she had no cares in the world. That was it! I needed to get her to paint her frustrations away. My brain was now churning with ideas. I decided to confront her before she left the academy tomorrow. Gah this would be so much work but you know what it was gonna be worth it to see that smile again.
Naruko looked out the window as the instructor droned on about the history of the Hidden Leaf this was stupid she could be out there training and getting stronger but she was stuck here listening to the retarted instructor.
"NARUKO!" Naruko growled as an eraser hit the back of her head. "Why does Iwa hate use?" The instructor asked trying to get Naruko to mess up.
"The massacre of 1000 of their shinobi that the fourth hokage Minato Namikaze wrought upon them." Naruko said blandly but secretly enjoying the instructors look of disbelief.
BRIIIIING. The sound interrupted anything the instructor was going to say. Naruko went to go run out the door only for her arm to grabbed and yank her back.
"What the!?" She exclaimed going in for a hook punch to knock out whomever had the gall to keep her from her training. Her fist was caught in a slightly larger palm than her own. She caught sight of who it was and frowned.
"No training today." Shikamaru stated. Naruko gave a sardonic grin.
"Says who?" She sneered.
"Me." He yanked her arm. She was very unwillingly dragged by Shikamaru to a secluded field. She noticed a blank canvas with paints surrounding it.
"What the hell is this shit?" The nine year olds over colorful language said with about as much subtlety as a rampaging bull. Shikamru rolled his eyes.
"Paint what you feel right now."
"How am I supposed to do that? GAH I don't have time for this I could be getting stronger!" She went to go walk away. She gasped when her feet felt as though they were lead stuck in tar covered in cement.
"You're not going anywhere until you paint." If looks could kill Shikamaru would not be dead but in a state of eternal pain from castration. Naruko had learned a bit too much from her homeless years.
"Ass." She spat.
"Vixen." He replied not giving two cares about the insult.
"What in the hell am I supposed to paint you can't paint an emotion!" She screamed.
"Yes you can you've done it before." Naruko grumbled and sat down in her spot in front of the canvas. She gave a death glare to the weights on her feet. She looked around for inspiration and as she looked at the hokage monument it hit. She thought of Kurama who was currently at the Inuzuka compound playing babysitter for the young Inu clans pups. She began to paint. Orange, black, white, some red, and a thousand other variations of those colors found their way onto the canvass. The paint was not applied gently instead done in a mad rush.
"There happy?" She said about four hours later. She stood up with her hands on her hips looking at Shikamaru. Shikamaru looked up from his cloud watching to look at what the girl had created. His eyes almost boggled out of his head. The painting was a two sides of the same coin sort of painting. It had the orange furred and evil Kurama on one side and on the other was Kurama's white furred version. Both side were not the best she had done but impressive. He could almost feel the hate rolling off the orange kitsune demon.
"Happy." He replied. He walked over to her and removed the weights. As soon as they were gone Naruko dashed away. Shikamaru gave a heavy sigh.
The next day the same thing happened and the day after that. Finally on the fourth day Naruko made an attempt to avoid Shika only to be caught by his shadow entrapment technique. And he made her paint another picture. This time it surprised Shikamaru truly and not a good kind of surprise. The painting pictured many Kusa-nin impaled on stakes or dying in great detail. Some of the nin even had entrails hanging out. He quickly let Naruko go and grabbed the painting to add it to the pile he was making.
"Thank you." A voice startled him. He whipped around to face Kakashi.
"For what?" He asked. Kakashi didn't reply and just shunshined away leaving a confused Shikamaru a rare thing indeed.
Once Shika arrived in his room he opened his closet to reveal the other three paintings the first of Kurama, the second a dying flower being rained upon, the third a plush fox lying abandoned in the dirt. He had taken it upon himself to label the feeling each picture displayed. The first was inner demons that waged war inside of your heart. The second displayed despair a flower that was dying and being torn apart by a unforgiving storm. The third painting of the plush fox portrayed a deep feeling of abandonment. The latest picture displayed a feeling so strong he wasn't sure how to properly label it, but the best way to explain it was absolute Abhorrence.
Kakashi watched his small daughter sleep. Her brows furrowed and sweat rolling down her forehead. Her state was his fault. Had he been more careful he would not have gone comatose and then Naruko would not have fallen into depression. His negative thoughts were interrupted by an embrace from behind and a kiss to the nape of his neck. He placed his larger palm over Iruka's.
" 'is not 'er fault" (It's not your fault.) Iruka said sleepily leaning on Kakashi's back. Both men made their way to their own bed. As soon as Iruka's head hit the pillow he was asleep leaving Kakashi to travel back down the same road his daughter was going down unknowingly.
Naruko really was the sunshine of Konoha and without the girl the people close to her were falling into the same pit of despair that she was currently wallowing in. She needed someone to reach out their hand and pull her out of the pit.
"Naruko!" Shikamaru tackled the girl. It had been almost three weeks since he had started kidnapping her after school to paint her frustrations away. The girls emotional state wasn't improving at all. Shikamaru was lazy yes but a extremely good observer of others emotional states and predictor of their inner thoughts. He watched the guilt eat at Kakashi and Iruka, he had watched as Sakura became a conniving fangirl, Ino rude, Choji fatter than ever, and all her other friends slowly collapse upon themselves and the worst was the new girl Karin. She blamed herself the most since it was her that Kakashi had rescued and in the process gotten severely hurt. Why couldn't Naruko see what she was doing! It was like there was a screen in front of her that made it impossible to see five feet in front of her.
"GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!" Naruko screamed switching their positions so she was sitting on top of Shika and at the same time clawing Shikamaru's arm drawing blood. Shikamaru hissed in pain but did not let go of the emotionally hijacked girl.
"NO!" He yelled back switching back so he was on top. "CAN'T YOU SEE THE EFFECT YOU ARE HAVING ON EVERYONE! THEY ARE DESTROYING THEMSELVES IN GUILT OVER YOUR STATE!"
"SO WHAT!" Shikamaru let go and took a step back. Naruko sat fuming on the ground.
"I don't know what happened to you. You are not the Naruko I thought I knew. You are selfish bitch now and I'm done fucking trying to help your depressed ass." He said quietly but with so much venom that Naruko actually balked. Naruko watched his retreating form and something in her switched. She realized she had just chased away the last person who had been attempting to help her. She jumped up and ran up to him and reached out and grabbed his wrist. He yanked his arm out of her grip and whipped around. In one solid motion his hand met with her face.
SLAP! Naruko sat dumbfounded in the grass.
"I told you I'm done so get away." He ran off. Tears threatened to pool out of her eyes. Naruko tried to hold them back but unfortunately the tears won over. In the grass she sat crying everything mocking her. The birds tweets became evil jeers, the chatter of wildlife became cruel laughter, the sunshine mocked her devastated state. She looked back at the canvas. It was to small to portray what she was feeling right now. She gathered the paint supplies and walked over to a huge boulder that was in the middle of the field. She began painting.
She estimated that it had been about six hours wince she stared and she wasn't even done ¼ of the boulder. She had piled so much detail into it that it looked so real that someone might just walk up and start a conversation with the people on the boulder. She left the supplies in a small alcove like space in the boulder and walked home her cheeks still tear stained.
It hit her once again when Shikamaru walked out instead of trapping her like he normally did now and this time when she grabbed him he pushed her hard in the chest and walked away without a word. Once again the evil tears struck again. She dashed out and to the field before anyone could see the tears. She retrieved the paints from the alcove then ran to the nearby brook and filled the cup with water and got to work.
She fell asleep painting. Now a little over half the boulder was covered in paint. Now you could beginning to tell what it was.
The school bell had rang hours ago and Naruko still wasn't at school. Kurama had told Iruka that Naruko was skipping class but when Iruka demanded to know where his brat what Kurama refused to reveal where the girl was. Kurama told him to just let her go this one day he would make sure it did not happen again.
By now Naruko had been painting the rock for am accumulated time of 18 hours and now finally it was done. In the center was her but a dully colored version. In the painting she was facing away from the viewer so you could only see the back of her head but her entire body had thin cracks painted as if she was shattered glass. Around her were her friends and family. But each one had their backs turned except for one. Shikamaru but even he was still show to be abandoning her. His form was walking away from the painted her. The whole picture was so detailed she couldn't believe she had painted it. She also realized that she had painted everyone as she had seen them recently and it struck her. Shikamaru was right! Her eyes widened. She had to fix the mess she had made and quickly before more people fell into sorrow. She knew exactly where to start.
"Please adopt Karin." She pleaded to Kakashi.
"Wha-"
"She thinks I am mad at her since you got hurt when you rescued her but I'm not mad and it would be nice to have a sister!" She rushed out.
"Why would Karin think it's her fault if it's anyone's it is my own for being so careless on my mission?" Naruko felt the guilt claw at her how had she let this go on. She jumped onto Kakashi and gave him a tight hug. He stood in surprise.
"It's not your fault." She didn't know that, that was what Kakashi had needed to hear.
"Okay."
"YAY!"
Now it was Iruka's turn. The academy was ending in a few minutes. She waited none to patiently outside the door and as soon as the bell rung and every student was out she ran to Iruka's room and tackled him in a hug. Iruka tried to speak but could not find words.
"Thank you." She mumbled into his shoulder. "Thank you for loving me even when I'm an insufferable brat." She said as a few tears found their way past the dam she had tried to create. Iruka stared at her.
"You're my daughter. It might not be by blood but neither is Kakashi. A wise man once said family is what you make it. I will always love you even if you were to turn against the leaf." He says and Naruko's tear dam for what seems like the thousandth time in the past few day shattered once more. The whole way home was just like it used to be before Kakashi's mission with the two joking together and playing as they slowly made their way home.
Once home the scent of seasoned steak met the pairs noses. They looked at each other with a competitive grin and raced for the door. They stubled in at the same time with Naruko falling on top of Iruka. Both were dying on a fit of giggles. Kakashi walked in to see what the commotion was. He gave a soft smile. Iruka had been harshly affected by his comatose state. This was the first time he had seen Iruka truly smile since he had woken up.
Naruko was quite pleased with herself. She had made up with her family and began them on the path out of the pit of despair. She knew that the others would be much harder and take much more time but this was a start. She knew that Shikamaru would probably be the hardest to win back since she had treated him so terribly but now for the first time in months she had hope. Hope that things were going to keep getting better after all once you hit rock bottom there's only one way to go. Up.
AN- Holy shoot 3006 words that is a ton for me I hope this makes up for the long break I took. My life had gotten hectic once more but today it finally calmed enough for me to sit for a few hours to type this up hope you guys like it.
SOS out~
