Yay. I survived being shot last night. Long story short: some idiot shot a paintball onto our windshield when mom and I were driving home from POTC: DMC last night around 1:00 a.m. Flagged a policeman, who told us it was a paintball, which makes sense cause it sounded like a freakin' gunshot. Only God's grace had us being one of the only cars on the road (although, this is a somewhat small town, so it's usually quiet at night, but still... sobs my hometown's going to pot...) and my mom's cool head from hitting anything.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS (WHICH I HIGHLY DOUBT YOU ARE, CONSIDERING I SERIOUSLY DOUBT YOU EVEN HAVE THE ABILITY TO READ) I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND MAKE YOU RECONSIDER YOUR LIFE OPTIONS---PROVIDING YOU STILL HAVE A LIFE AFTER I AM DONE WITH YOU.
I will be avenged...
-.-
Anyways, as always, all credit goes to my wonderful beta-reader Ashen Rose, authoress of the poem. THANKS!
Black wings, dark as night;
Bring forth evils and secret delights.
Hold on tight to those you hold dear,
Make sure you keep them very near.
Vile thoughts are spread on the breeze,
A disease that will last all eternity.
Black feathers darkened with blood,
May bring forth fears in a great torrent of flood.
Hold on tight, don't lose faith,
Not when you're someone else's saving grace.
Lose yourself in the heady heat,
And the breeze will sweep you off your feet.
-----Ashen Rose
Guardian
Perched on her back, Naruto giggled in the sunshine. Finally, after the storm had dissipated, she had decided that it was high time to take him on a picnic. Naruto peered over her shoulder to grin foxily at her, and she smiled back.
Kaida was tired; her body was still growing and needing protection itself—taking care of a toddler, and a boy at that, had forced her to mature at an even faster rate than she had been. It was impossible for her to regret her decision—it was against her nature—but it was an undeniably hard life.
"Oi! Okaa-san! Booerfly!" Naruto frantically tugged on her sleeve and pointed at the fluttering, graceful splash of yellow against the gentle green of the meadow.
Smiling, tired but happy, underneath the shade of a willow tree, watching Naruto chase the butterfly around the field, she could admit that she was at peace. No matter her fate, if she lived or died, so long as Naruto could have memories like these to cherish—then any pain or suffering she had to endure would be worth it.
Naruto, suddenly realizing he was being watched, turned around and started running to her. It was then that the scene, like a film strip caught in the wheel, warped and shifted. Flames licked the edges with shrieking tongues, lapping up the world and sucking all the color and life out of it until Kaida and Naruto were left in a dead world of greys. Starting to suck their own lives, their color, it grew unbearably hot and they were melting...
She opened her eyes slowly, painfully, and looked up at a dank ceiling encrusted with mold. Sitting up warily, fighting a terrible headache that bordered on concussion-level pain and glancing around to make sure that there was no threat, she wondered why Naruto wasn't here with her.
"Naruto? NARUTO!" she screamed, terrified that she had lost him.
Only her echo answered her. Rising to her feet, her heart pounding in her ears, she grimaced as she explored the corridor that twisted and turned but seemed to basically be heading in only one direction. It was like a maze—and she hated mazes. Her world had been devoured, she was the only survivor, and this was the only place left. It gradually darkened, and a wall of pitch-black night soon loomed over her, though she didn't notice that behind her light had begun to filter through the foggy gloom.
"SO THE LITTLE GIRL HAS FINALLY SHOWN HERSELF."
Blue eyes the color of a steel-flecked sea calmly watched the huge fox behind the bars.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT, BRAT?"
She smiled at him, the same smile that she had faced down Sandaime with.
"I? Oh, you would not like what I want," she replied mildly.
"I PROBABLY WON'T, BUT I COULD USE A GOOD LAUGH. BESIDES, YOU ARE ONLY ONE CREATURE, A HUMAN AT THAT. WHAT FATE COULD BE WORSE THAN THIS?" the massive creature gestured.
"If memory serves me rightly, you the Kyuubi were at constant war against the dragons. And you seem to forget," she gave him a lazy smile, "that I was born in the year of the dragon."
She felt a brief hum of power in her veins, a dragon that was much smaller than Kyuubi but several times taller than a man's height coiling behind her, mist enshrouding the two.
She felt Kyuubi recoil, and suddenly screams were echoing in her ears, a rushing sound and everything was going black again...
She woke up.
"Naruto! Naruto! Shh, shh, lah. It's just a nightmare, little one," she held him close as he sobbed, whispering about demons and fire and--
"It's alright," she pulled him into a fierce hug. Glancing out the windows at the drizzle and the piece of duct-tape covering the hole, she sighed again.
What they needed was...
An interlude. Just a chance to rest, in peace, for a little while. Wondering if a clan would take them in, she realized that it was six months today that she had become Naruto's legal guardian. In an effort to reign in her laughter at having him to protect, she lulled him back to sleep, the palm of her hand resting on the seal.
He didn't have nightmares again that night.
After all, who better to fight away the monsters of the night like his okaa-san?
Chewing on a piece of grass and happily splashing his feet in the stream, Naruto waved to her as she busily washed their few items of clothing, enjoying the break from the rain and gloom. Concentrating on the task at hand, she failed to see Naruto's face grow sad and thoughtful as he saw a kingfisher nab a minnow out of the water, the little fish thrashing about in the throes of death by suffocation.
"Okaa-san... what is it like to die?"
She slipped on a rock and fell into the stream, so shocked was she by the question, though she had been expecting and dreading it.
"It is to slip the bonds of the mortal body, Naruto-kun, and to fly," she answered slowly.
"But we dun' have wings," he pointed out, frowning.
She smiled, a little sadly, and shook her head.
"We all have wings. Sometimes we lose them, sometimes they're broken, but we all have them. It is not until after we die that we realize that our souls are our wings, and since we are all born with one soul, so we are born with one wing. It is only by living for others that we eventually find our other wing, so that after we die we can fly."
"But... what if you die too li'l?" he asked quietly.
Tears stung her eyes.
"Then you realize that of us all, only children are born with both wings. And you pierce the rice-paper thin veil between this world and the next to dance among the stars."
He mulled over the reply for a long while.
"Would Yondaime know? He's the Hokage! Would he be able to tell us better?" he asked, growing more excited at his own idea.
Her face fell.
"Naruto... Yondaime-sama... he... he died."
She managed to keep her voice clear, which was a feat, because the Yondaime so beloved...
"But... he's the Hokage! Hokage can't die!" Naruto shouted angrily.
"They are still human, boyo. Still mortal. No... I only wish it were so."
Her sad smile convinced him more than any words ever could.
"Then... Hokage... not... strong?" he struggled to put his emotions into his limited vocabulary.
"No, Naruto-kun—the strongest. Yondaime-sama, he died protecting his village, us, and defeated the—the terrible demon—and saved us all. He is a hero to be respected!"
Resting his chin on his wet knees and surveying the woods around him with iridescent blue eyes, he sighed.
"Everyone loves Yondaime-sama?" he whispered.
"... yes, Naruto-kun. Very much."
A long, thoughtful silence ensued between the two.
"Then I wanna be Hokage. That way, everyone will love me too."
Turning away so he didn't see her crying, she wiped her eyes and came up behind him, face still suspiciously damp. He noticed, but didn't say anything.
"Then I believe in you, and I know that you'll be the best Hokage ever."
'Because... because you need it the most.'
The two headed back at sunset, falling asleep to curses and jeers hurled at them through the walls like rocks through their grimy windows.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can only destroy me.
---owari---