Book Three: Silent Angel- Shared Regrets
Dream Realm
I sat in a grove a small distance way from the clearing. I didn't want to be found by anyone. I just needed to think. I'd heard something Sumi said when she was talking to my grandmother.
'They all were broken in some way, shape and form. But as they started to come together they found pieces of themselves they never knew they lost. They still haven't found all of the pieces.'
Sumi's words were in my ears like echoes.
"Bonds of the broken huh?" I let out a shaky breath. My heart stopped momentarily, then started again rapidly. I didn't even realize how quickly I pulled out scratch paper.
It wasn't ready yet. There were still lines missing and words to be changed. It wasn't ready for the Blue Book. This was a rare poem. It had a name before it went in the Blue Book.
Bonds of the Broken
In the darkness we found each other
Lost and alone we had no one
We changed that
Death may divide us physically but...
But the bonds we made while broken
Cannot be destroyed by physical barriers such as Death
Bonds that are made by the broken are in-severable
Those bonds shall not be broken
Those bonds are the things that made us whole again
As they made us a family
I pressed my back against the tree that I sat on. "Where am I going?" I tucked one of my elbow length strands behind my ear. "I'm turning into Sasuke..." I shook my head. " Hmph. I can't have that happen now can I?"
I thought back to the day I had seen my mother and father in a vision at the Memorial Stone. I knew about my father. He was funny when it was time to be funny, he had a bit of a smart ellick attitude. I knew plenty more about him. Whenever I ask anyone about my mom they'd go straight to my father. Well normally, Grandma Tsunade didn't do that.
"I've been so emo lately..." I shoved the scrap paper into my hip pouch. I pulled out a kunai and threw it into the branch I sat on and pulled it out, I repeated this for some time.
"BOO!"
"AAAH!" I fell out of the tree. Or I would have rather in some tendrils hadn't have sprung out and wrapped themselves around my waist. I shook my head. "Fu! What did you do that for!"
"You seemed down and needed a laugh." Fu shrugged as she hung upside down from a branch. "Where's Sumi?" "Where's Cho?" We asked at the same time.
"Tail Meeting." We said.
Fu swung herself up onto the next branch. The tendrils that had sprung out of the tree carried me up to the branch Fu sat on. "So how have you been?" I asked.
"Not sure." Fu shrugged. "I mean things are okay. Some people are weary about Cho but for the most part they've been treating me better."
"That's good." I smiled.
"So how have you been?" There was concern in Fu's pink eyes.
"Okay..."
"Liar."
"I've been just horrible!" I brought my knees to my chest. "I'm learning things about my mother I never knew."
"How's that bad?"
"Almost everything I've learned was from Tsukiko. A complete stranger!" I felt anger rising in me again. "I learned more from a stranger than I have my entire life from people I knew and trusted!"
"Nozomi, maybe it was just hard for them to talk about."
"I know. It's just annoying." I said calming down.
"At least you're learning things." Fu said placing her hand on my shoulder.
"I know it feels like..."
"You were betrayed?"
"Yeah."
"You always seemed to be more open-minded than this."
"I am but my mom's one subject I'm touchy on."
"I wish clean up could have lasted longer." Fu said.
"Yeah, it was kinda fun for you! All I did was restore acre after acre of forest!"
"Your fault." Fu shrugged.
"Touché." I said.
"Well I gotta go. I have dawn training with Shibuki." a light pink blush crossed her face.
"Who?"
"Just a boy I like." Fu giggled. "See I admit it when I like someone."
"I can't admit to something that isn't true." I said stubbornly.
"You. Like. Some. One."
"No. I. Don't."
"Yes. You. Do. You're blushing."
I realized I was.
"Who is it, Nozomi?" Fu asked teasingly.
"I don't know." and that was the honest truth.
Fu and I faded.
Morning
I sat up slowly. Sumi wasn't there. Where does she disappear to?
I walked out to the dining room, only Grandma Tsunade was there picking at some boiled rice. I don't too much of my family any more.
Grandma Tsunade glanced at me and looked away. Guilt crept over me as I sat down across from her. I moved the scrambled eggs I had made around my plate. I was about to say something but I didn't know what to say.
"I'm sorry."
I looked up. I hadn't expected Grandma Tsunade to say anything.
"No. I really over reacted."
"No, you didn't. I just kept repeating the same things to you for years like a broken record." Grandma Tsunade's eyes were filled with more guilt and regret than I felt. "You deserve to know. But the thing is she kept so much from me I can't tell you as much as you would like to know."
"I know I guess I was just being emo. God I was turning into Sasuke!" I shuddered. I noticed Grandma Tsunade flinched. "What?"
"It's just a scary thought is all."
I shrugged. "What are you going to do about the Sanin Showdown?"
"I wish you would stop calling it that."
"It sounds cool!" I protested.
Grandma Tsunade smirked, then she became serious again. "I have to face him."
"I'm not trying to stop you." Our eyes met.
"You're still not going, neither are either of your cousins."
"Since when do we follow anyone's orders but our own?" I raised an eyebrow.
"You're too much like me for your own good." Grandma Tsunade muttered.
I laughed. "Is it true that Grandpa Jiraiya went looking for the Onbaa?"
Grandma Tsunade laughed. "The Baka claimed to have Sumo Wrestled it!"
"Did he really?"
"I don't know if he even found it! But he claimed to have and even wrote a story about it!"
"Found what?" Naruto stood still in his pajamas Kitsune wasn't around his neck. He wasn't even with Naruto. Odd.
"Never mind." Grandma Tsunade said winking at me.
I glanced into her mind and saw the encounter Naruto had with one in her past life. I couldn't help but role on the ground with laughter.
"What's so funny?" Naruto exclaimed. This only caused Grandma Tsunade and I to laugh harder.
