Here's the... er... happy chapter. Don't count on too many more of these. Again, all thanks go to Ashen Rose, my wonderful beta-reader who has helped me out tremendously. :)
The dragons are a red herring, 'cause they hardly have any role in this story. At all. Seriously. ---shifts eyes--- Well, a small role, later on. Very small. Still... I likie my dragons.
Guardian
Once, there were dragons in this world.
The other tailed beasts had driven the creatures out, the dragons who had befriended certain clans and protected them; the ones who guided them and protected their Chosen Ones for as long as human memory could reach back (which, dragons will quickly point out, is not very far at all), and even the oldest dragons could barely remember when they had adopted the humans.
But... that was all before Kyuubi came.
The other tailed beasts the dragons could contend against; though they had all come from the same place, to the dragons were given (though they possessed less chakra and strength, they were never godlike, like the tailed beasts) the most wisdom and the ability to speak.
Only the greatest tailed beasts (the Nine, the dragons simply called them) ever turned their hearts towards domination and destruction.
Still, things were not always so grim; once, humans could look into the sky and see the giant dragons wheeling overhead like angelic birds, graceful in flight like the wind itself.
When Kyuubi came, though... all was shattered beyond repair.
No one remembers the dragons now; it is all about the Nine who were, admittedly, always stronger than the winged beings. Yet, for all their lack of chakra-strength and their vulnerability, the one thing that made the dragons feared and respected by all until their annihilation was this:
They were born with hearts to protect.
Few humans were ever given such hearts as dragons—hearts boundless in their loyalty, and fearless in their fierce devotion. It was said once, though humankind has long since forgotten it, that the dragons were the guardians of humankind—to lose them is to lose the best of ourselves.
Once, though, in every thousandth generation is one born like a dragon, with exceptional strength of mind and will.
They are called, quite simply, "Guardians."
Kaida blinked. She had, for a moment, a strange sense of disorientation; a sense of... loss.
As she stood up to fix Naruto breakfast (who, like the true toddler he was, had hit the floor literally running) and stared into empty cupboards.
"Mother Hubbard, spare us a bone?" she asked dryly.
"FOOD!" Naruto shouted happily, bouncing up and down.
Sighing, she grabbed her pouch with its meager funds and took Naruto's hand.
"Shopping?" she asked, amused.
"YAY!" he grinned, hopping excitedly.
Feeling a headache coming on, she took him by the hand and the two headed down the street.
"Let's see... what's left..." she murmured, going over her grocery list mentally, wondering if she could afford the cheap toy that Naruto had been eying wistfully.
"OI! WATCH IT!" Naruto shouted from where he'd wandered to the end of the aisle, rubbing his head as he sat.
Wait a minute...
Naruto?
Sitting on a shopping trip?
To the grocery store?
"Oh, boy," she whispered, body tensing as she half-ran to where he was.
"Naruto-kun, hon, are you ok?" she asked gently, glad to see that there was only a small bump on his head.
"HE RAN IN'U ME!" Naruto pointed to the offender indignantly.
A pale, black-haired boy sat on the ground in a similar fashion as Naruto, and she got a sinking feeling. Black hair, black eyes, dressed in dark colors...
"It's all your fault, dummy, for not looking where you were going," he muttered.
"IS NOT! YOU SHOU'DA BEEN LOOKIN' TOO AND NOT RUNNIN' SO FAST!" he cried angrily.
"IS TOO!"
"IS NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
"IS NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
"IS NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
"And what trouble have you gotten yourself into now, foolish little brother?" a voice asked, exasperated and amused at all once.
Each of the two eight year olds grabbed their younger counterparts, gently prying the tussling toddlers apart, the two little boys now holding a few strands of the other's hair in their chubby fists.
"Sorry about that, my foolish little brother can be a little... troublesome, as the Nara say," the boy apologized sheepishly, a hand going behind his head.
"No, no, it's fine, Naruto can be... ah... Naruto."
"Sounds like him," the brother jerked his head to the embarrassed pale toddler, who was sporting a pout. Naruto, similarly, seemed put-out that his okaa-san was apologizing to the—the—
"TEME!"
"NA-RU-TO!" Kaida gasped, horrified at such language.
The older boy tried not to laugh.
"Very... interesting... vocabulary he's learned," he snickered as she scolded him furiously.
"Righ', aniki, he's such a—such a—dobe!" the little brother chortled.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" the boy clocked the toddler on the head.
"Owie," Little Brother whimpered.
He groaned, rubbing his temples.
"Father will kill me if he finds out you know such language, he'll blame me—wait a minute, where did you learn—that!" the boy demanded.
"From Shisui-nii-san," Little Brother replied proudly.
Big Brother's eye twitched.
"I am going to kill him," he announced calmly—too calmly.
"Aniki's scary," Little Brother hid behind Naruto.
"HAH! SCAREDY-CAT!" Naruto shouted gleefully.
"AM NOT!" Little Brother yelled back indignantly.
"ARE TOO!" "AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
"AM—umf!"
A hand had firmly clasped itself around Little Brother's mouth, muffling his incensed outrage.
"Um... I think we'll be going...?"
"... I am no one you should know."
Blue met black, and for a moment the two understood.
"Sorry about this, bye!" Big Brother called over his shoulder, walking off and berating his little brother repeatedly on the way home.
Smiling to herself and shaking her head, she finished what little shopping she had left. Going to the counter to pay, she was amazed as the scowling shopkeeper told her that the "nice young boy" had already paid it for her.
A little glow of happiness filled her as she told Naruto that yes, he could have the toy this time (it was a stuffed frog) and watching his eyes go wide as saucers.
On the way home, they had to duck several shinobi—just to be on the safe side. They were jounin, ones that she had come to consider friendly acquaintances, but still...
This was the strange reality of their world: rare kindnesses and unbearable hatred.
How did one balance the two?
She shook her head, firmly telling herself that it was useless to think so deep tonight and to just appreciate the gift for what it was—a gift.
But still—who were they?
Black hair... black eyes...
Nara? Hyuuga?
Shrugging it off, she tucked Naruto into bed, reading him his all-time favorite bedtime story (a children's biography of the Yondaime—From Loser to Leader—that she had been given by Sandaime) and soon fell into unconsciousness.
A storm rumbled, beginning to break over the Hokage Mountain...
--owari--