(AN: Alright, just a little bit of background before I start. One of my readers pointed out something to me recently, so I feel I must make mention of it. Specifically, Naruto's reactionary differences between Sakura and Iruka. The reason Naruto is more obviously distraught over Iruka is rather simple actually, in this lil ficlette, Iruka isn't a drinker, not even a social or celebratory one, so seeing him get so completely shit faced really threw Naruto for a loop. Whereas, with Sakura, he's seen the girl cry before. He's seen her cry on a few occasions, so it's nothing new to him that she should be doing so now. Whereas, Iruka never drank, and got all preachy the one time he ever caught Naruto drinking. That said, I now take you to the chapter where we discover just who exactly is in love with Naruto. Also, the format for this chapter is different. Enjoy.
Kage of the Graves:
A Broken Heart Bared
Naruto landed heavily on the ground which, in and of itself, was a very different sensation. He hadn't even really touched the ground since his death, so finding himself plowing into the damp sod beneath him signaled to him that something was up. When he rose to his feet, he found himself aware of his surroundings in only the vaguest of ways. He had been here before yes, but only on one occasion - when the remains of Uchiha Sasuke had been interred into the ground. This was a vastly remote section of the expansive Konoha Graveyard for Shinobi, but… this particular section was for traitors, criminals and sub rosa heroes. Why was he here, he did not know yet, but he was aware of the fact that he was alone again.His spectral friend was no longer there to pester him, so he was left to figure out the differences on his own. For one thing, he was quick to realize that the world had a direct affect on him again - he was painfully aware of the cold drizzle that fell from the skies, and the fog that had seemingly surrounded him at a distance of forty feet had lifted. These things were significant somehow he was sure. Now that he had a better grasp of the environmental effects on his person, he began to take stock of the differences that affected him personally. Gone were the wispy tails that extended from him, as well as the elongated ears and colorful aura that surrounded him. His body, in fact had suffered radical changes. He no longer resembled his mortal appearance, or even his mortal age. He, in fact, seemed to be somewhat older. If Naruto were to hazard a guess, he'd place his newfound age at somewhere in the late thirties - a little over twice his age prior to death. Odd but -
Naruto's head suddenly whipped about, he could hear a sound that was becoming uncomfortably familiar - the sound of a woman sobbing. Quiet footsteps, testament to a lifelong habit of sneaking around, brought him through the muddy earth that seemed the one constant in every graveyard Naruto had ever come across. Instinctually, he knew just where he was headed, though it was such a universal oddity that his mind refused the concept almost as soon as it had reached his conscious mind.
Naruto was walking towards his grave.
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Collapsed into a pit of misery, the lone remaining visitor to the fallen mans grave didn't detect the movement of another person until the person was nearly upon her. Then, as soon as the animal mind registered the intrusion, her body whipped into a flurry of motion. The dark cloak that was little more than ragged stretch of drenched burlap suddenly flew apart from her lithe body - a slim build gone nearly anorexic in the aftermath of a grief ridden three days passed without eating - exposing a flourish of glinting metal a mere half second before a veritable horizontal shower of steel rained upon the area the figure approached from.
There was a shout of surprise and a blur of reactionary motion that seemed too jerky to be from an active Shinobi - too well coordinated and instinctual to be from a civilian. Her voice echoed out amidst the memorials to the dead - full of the hoarse croaking sounds that one's particular timbre picks up when it's sole recent use has been the expression of heart wrenching grief. "Whoever you are, I won't let you hurt him anymore! Can't you see he suffered enough you BASTARDS! Get out of her before I KILL YOU!" She had sounded so strong, she knew, but at the last her voice had broke, returning to the sobs that had predominated it.
Regardless of the weakness of her voice, or the sudden and intense dizziness that gripped her body after such emphatic movement, the woman stood ready to defend the memorial to her unconfused love with every ounce of the formidable strength she possessed. Even now, after three days with no sustenance and scarcely any movement on her part, the madness of her obsession and the absolute righteous fury that gripped her in her deathwatch enabled her to summon the necessary faculties to defeat all previous comers - this one, she was sure, would be no different.
-"Why do you defend this… creature so?"- "eature so?"
A voice, one that seemed to echo on it's own accord, with an overtone that seemed to lack true strength on it's own, but followed just a second behind but a much richer, deeper timbre, reached out to her. It was an odd sound, but she accepted it without pause, answering with a vehemence she was nearly surprised her body still had the ability to bring up.
"What did he ever do to you fucking small minded bastards? All he ever did was his best to get the respect he deserved! He defeated countless threats to this village, completed untold missions without ever compromising his integrity or asking for some kind of thanks! Yet all you could do, ninja and villager alike, was scorn him! You vandalized his apartment, kicked him out of stores, and shunted him to suicidal decoy duties and rear echelon positions so that you wouldn't have to deal with the demon of Konoha."
Her last words were delivered with such sarcastic scorn, it was made obvious that she didn't share such sentiments - it also made it rather plain what she thought of those who did.-----------------
To say he was shocked would be an understatement. Naruto had listened to a rather impassioned speech that summed up much of his life in a short few words. He was intrigued by a number of things, one of them being the fact that he could not recognize the dirty Shinobi - for the unkempt, un-groomed, and uncleanly woman had assaulted him with such skill that she could only be such - at all. The hair, roughly shorn to something that nearly resembled his own previous urchin hair style, was so clotted with mud that he couldn't recognize its color. Her body, so emaciated that what seemed to have been prominent breasts had begun to sag, while an abdomen that still held evidence of careful toning had begun to concave until ribs showed. The two piece struck chords in his memory, but nothing significant as of yet.
Regardless, he was intrigued, and greatly so. The woman seemed to care enough to be so distraught, and so vibrant in her defense at the same time. He had to know more. Although his body was slow to respond at first, his mind having begun to forget exactly how to compensate for such forces as gravity and mass - along with the fact that he could no longer simply phase through solid objects - he was able to gradually work himself closer. By the time he was at a conversational distance to the Kunoichi he had been pinioned by three senbon and suffered a nasty gash from a kunai that had passed perilously close to his kidney.
"You defend him so strongly, woman! You mention his feats and adventures, but it almost sounds as if you care for the wretch the way you're talking. If that were the truth - Hah! - the village would be in an uproar! Whichever clan you belong to would surely scorn you and disown you. It's all fine and dandy to be vigilant in his defense now that he's dead, but I can't imagine anyone, not for even a moment, wanting more than a casual acquaintance with that disgusting monster! He was the Kyuubi no Kitsune after all, and a bigger favor he never did to this village than taking his own life!"
Absently, throughout the entire exchange, he noted that his voice, previously delivered in two, seemed to have gotten into sync. His words had flowed easily, fueled by years of bitterness and receiving such wounding treatment as he had. Sadly, for the mortal body he now seemed to be in possession of anyway, this was a very wrong choice of words.
The attack that followed the cessation of his speech was so sudden, so swift and utterly brutal, that Naruto was nearly handicapped before his body caught up to the frantic signals his brain was sending it. Arms shot up to block a vicious kick, the Kunoichi swinging long lithe legs as they were bo staffs, and it was all Naruto could do for a moment to keep up his defenses. Hook, sword hand, back knuckle, edged plunge, too many attacks for a body that had no conditioning beyond what the brain could give it. Naruto eventually decided on a powerful chakra pulse to knock her back, when he had some breathing room, he held up a hand - panting heavily.
"Peace woman! I was merely making an observation. I didn't mean to raise your ire."
A growl met his words, swiftly followed by the woman's voice. "Be careful how you word your observations concerning the man I love, then."
Naruto had to laugh. The man this girl loved? He could recall no such sentiments being sent his way, had this come about in the short time that had passed? How? He didn't even know the girl, and the only person he'd known to obsess over him in secret had eyes of another color.
"The man you love, hmm? Somehow, I doubt it. No one ever expressed any such thing to him in life, so tell me why you claim it now in his death?"
"I do love him!" It was a cry of pure desperation, followed closely by a sob of unadulterated anguish that was so thick it would have to be sawn apart. Naruto felt inclined to believe her, upon hearing that sound… but it left him confused.
"Wouldn't that be 'did', woman? He's dead after all, and anyway, if that is so… then why did he die alone, feeling as if no one cared a wit for him, hmm?""Because!" More broken sobs interrupted whatever the woman planned to say, but when she continued to speak.. All rage seemed to drain from her and she became quiet, subdued even. It was as if the girl had lost some inner battle. As he watched, she settled down against the ornate tombstone that bore his moniker to resume her silent tears and begin a quiet narration.
"Because I wasn't here… I wasn't in Konoha when he died. I was away on a mission, and it didn't seem like such a major thing, y'know? Naruto was always there, always succeeding, always surviving and surpassing all odds. I thought I had all the time in the world to let him know how I felt, so I just waited and waited to tell him - figuring that I'd know when the time was right…"
"But the time never came right? Why did you wait to tell him? How long did you know, and what started it? Surely there had to be a reason.? He was curious now, and it gripped him. He was starting to recognize the girl, her mannerisms, and her mercurial mood… plus her figure, after all, there were only so many top-heavy, athletic women in his age group.
"It was after he came back from his training trip… I think that's when I first began to realize it, although I may have started caring for him before he left. There was just… something about him that drew me closer, every time we met. I mean, he was always hounding after my friend Sakura, and he never even really seemed to notice me, and I'm pretty sure that was part of my initial attraction to him - I may not look it now, but a lot of guys used to chase me. He was friendly and all, even funny. When I was sad, he'd try and cheer me up, but he never once seemed to even look at me like the other guys did, and I couldn't understand it."
"I began to think about him a lot, at first it was angry thoughts. Stupid little things like 'How dare he ignore me?' and others along the same lines. I tried dressing up for him, a couple of times.. Wearing those god awful oranges he seemed to like." She paused to laugh, a sad sound that still held some mirth, before continuing. "We were on guard duty for a Cloud Country diplomat, and I put on these sexy little outfits hoping to see him looking, just so I could prove to myself that he was just like every other guy. He'd just say I was pretty.. Or even better.. Beautiful… but… he never looked at me how I thought I wanted him to."
"But then, a short while before that mission ended, we were attacked and I took a life for the first time. He was there for me afterward, he held me close and stroked my hair as I cried. He didn't call me weak, or think badly of me, he told me that he knew it was hard and I believed him. I'd watched him effortlessly dispatch several attackers and I fell apart the moment that mans jugular opened up under my kunai… but there he was, the moment he'd made sure the diplomat was okay. He held me as I cried and made me feel safe and secure as no one was ever able to do for me. How could I not love him?"
"After that… after that I started to watch him, how he never seemed to falter under the heavy scrutiny of all the people around him. How he bore up under the constant aggression of the villagers. I knew that I had met the finest man in Konoha, and that he would never disappear. So I was content to wait until the right time to tell him how I felt… and I never got the chance."
"Now, all those times I spent doodling little hearts with Uzumaki Ino have gone to waste… the man I loved and still love… is six feet under and he'll never hear just how terribly I miss him, need him, and wish to join him just so that I can tell him…"
The girl Naruto now knew to be Yamanaka Ino gradually subsided into a heap of tears again, and Naruto faded from the scenery after a time of silence. His mortal body disappeared, and his spectral form came to the forefront once more. Still in a state of shock, Naruto slowly moved over to Ino and placed a gentle kiss to the back of her head before walking away, his mind abuzz with confusion, anger, and depression. He had found love, yes, but it seemed he had destroyed it in roughly the same amount of time. Life, even afterlife it seemed, simply wasn't fair.
-"Are you beginning to see, dobe?"-
-"Yeah…"-
-"Still want me to send you on?"-
-"No…"-
-"Good."-
-"So now what?"-
-"Now, we begin our discussion in earnest."-
Time warped and shifted once again, bringing Naruto back to the present day, still less than twenty four hours after his body had been discovered. It seemed life still had a use for him after all.
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(AN: And the plot thickens,hmm? SO what's going on now? Naruto got a taste of mortality, just long enough to discover that was wrong indeed - he was loved. WHat sjhall be discussed, and how does it afect the future and the month'n a half deadline on Konoha the other ghost mentioned earlier? Oh yeah.. Sub Rose means secret by the way. From Beneath the rose, which was a symbol of secrecy a long time ago.
