Nine years later

I never thought I'd grow up to live in a house so large, or have a yard so big. After the war and during the rebuild, I placed my home with the other large, expensive houses of other important people to our village. With neighbors on each side, I had to be careful what I did in the front yard, but the back big enough to do whatever I wanted. I could garden, build a stable for my horse, and play with my son and watch him grow up.

I did house wife things most of the day, it was my true calling, I had all the time in the world it seemed. I put a cup into my microwave to heat some water for tea when something caught my eye out the kitchen window. Abandoning the tea, I slipped on my shoes to walk outside, treading grass down as I went. My husband lounged under the oak tree that sat front and center in my yard.

"Shouldn't you be at work?" I asked, standing under the shade with my hands on my hips.

"I should, but that hat messes up my hair," he smirked. His chin length blond locks had remained short since after the war.

"You gonna go with me to the school?" I asked, plopping myself down into the grass between his legs. He put his arms around my middle and leaned me back against his chest as he leaned back into the tree.

"Yeah, he'd love showing me off wouldn't he?" My husband mused. Of course not ever kid had a dad like him. We stayed that way a while longer, enjoying one of the few moments of silence we'd gotten in the past eleven years.

"I never would have imagined we'd be here after all that went down in," I was going to say the other world. A world Id felt so alienated from. He held me a bit tighter and didn't reply.

"Your mom keeps telling me she's gonna kick me out if I burn another meal," I chuckled, I felt my husbands chest vibrate with laughter too. My mother in law had stayed with us, and I didn't suspect she'd be leaving ever again though she always insisted she'd move out of our hair at a later date. At first, she'd offered to care for my son so I could pursue another job, but when I refused, she went back to work at the hospital. She was happy there.

"Time to go," my husband sighed, and I stood up, offering him a hand to help him up. He took it, but never let go as we left home to walk downtown to get our son from school.

Standing in the school yard with the other parents, some waited more patently than others for the final bell to it did, the kids came spilling out the door, all except for my kid. We stood around a few more minutes before we went in after him, still walking hand in hand down the quiet halls, florescent lights buzzing over head. I was a bit nervous, had he done something wrong or had he skipped school?

I knew from parent teacher conferences which class room was his, so I lead the way and pushed open the door.

Sitting on a desk top sat my son, the spitting image of his father. His ice blue eyes reflected his calm nature, which I thanked God he'd gotten from me, and he wore his hair long just like my husband had perviously. He'd gotten his intelligence from both of us, my husband's love of exploding art, and my taste for American styled food. He was both of us and neither of us at the same time. His teacher sat opposite him, at his own desk in front of the chalk board.

"Good afternoon," his teacher greeted. He was someone I knew well, he'd been the first to interrogate me when Id first arrived here, and Deidara's platoon leader. His red hair had dulled in recent years as his glasses got thicker.

"Mm," I returned. My sons fondness of his teacher hadn't carried over to his father and I.

"Deiichi, you haven't done anything I wouldn't, have you?" My husband asked, putting his hands in his pockets with a sly smirk set on his face. My son grinned. He had never done anything to break a rule in his entire life, I couldn't imagine what we were doing here.

"Better," he replied, looking quite fox-like as he put his hair over his shoulders and tied it up.

That worried me even further with my husband's notorious reckless behavior.

"Yes, I'd have to say what he's done is pretty impressive," his teacher spoke after clearing his throat, "I'll cut right to the chase. I decided to write your son a letter of recommendation a few days ago. He's shown a real talent for becoming a ninja, and I think he's ready right this moment to graduate. As of tomorrow your son will be a full fledged shinobi, that is, with your okay."

My eyes widened, I knew my son was talented, but I had no idea he was this talented. The average graduate age was twelve, my son was only ten. Of course he'd be home for a while doing missions inside the village, but I wasn't sure if it was wise to give a ten year old the license to kill.

"I think it's wonderful idea," Deidara laughed a little, " I knew my son was a prodigy, but, I didn't know he was this gifted."

My sons eyes shone with pride, his tiny chest puffed out. My husband looked to me and winked, reminding me that it was him who assigned missions. I felt better then. He wouldn't send our son into anything he couldn't handle.

"Great, this is great," I smiled, first at my husband and then my son. Deiichi grinned from ear to ear and his teacher mumbled something about finishing some paper work. From his desk, instead of pulling papers, he pulled out a shinobi headband on a red sash and gestured for our son to take it. Deiichi nearly jumped out of his skin and burned a hole in the floor he got up so fast to grab it. He tied it quickly around his forehead, ruffling his blonde hair.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Deiichi exclaimed, and then turned around to envelop his father and I in a hug, "thank you guys too!"

"We need to celebrate!" My husband grinned, patting my sons head as I returned his hug.

"Really?" Deiichi asked, pulling away from the hug to look up at his father who nodded.

"We'll go get grandma from the hospital and go out to eat," I interjected, and both of them went along with it. We left the class room and the school, my son proudly sporting his new headwear, walking ahead of us down the street as if he was leading. He was a strong boy, with a will as stubborn as both of his parents. He'd make a good shinobi, and a better man someday.

The hospital wasn't far from the school, in fact after the rebuild, all of the important structures were pretty centralized, so when we arrived, we only had to wait a few minutes for Miku to get off work. I thought she might choke him she hugged her grandson so hard, her greying hair flying behind her as she lifted him up for a quick second. Deiichi choose a barbecue place for us to eat and my husbands right hand man, Daisuke, meeting us there to celebrate, which made me think maybe my husband knew this was coming. I didn't doubt it, he processed a lot of paperwork.

Daisuke had been around a long time, and he'd finally gotten what he wanted, his honor restored as a high ranking official. His hair was silver these days, and he still walked with a limp, but he was just as happy as we were. After finishing our meal, and parting ways with our long time friend, we started home.

"Mom, do you think tomorrow you could teach me how to summon deer?" Deiichi buzzed, his full stomach not enough to weigh down his excitement.

"Well, the scroll I used to sign my contract is lost, but I bet we could track another down," I replied, and he seemed to accept that answer, but quickly moved on.

"Dad do you think you could teach me how to make a bird?" He asked, turning to his father, "when am I gonna get a mouth on my palm?"

Deidara laughed nervous, "probably won't kiddo. I'm not supposed to have it either."

"It's because he stole the thing that made them," Miku scoffed, rolling her eyes.

I could see the questions budding in my sons head, and I felt the same way. My husband had originally told me he'd been born with them, but I suppose this just served as another reminder there were things I didn't want to know about the past, and that was okay.

"When dad wants to share he will, don't pester him," I scolded, and my son again quickly moved on. We arrived home at dark on this lovely June night, and I sat down at our kitchen table with a cold cup of tea. My husbands art littered every flat surface and my art covered our walls. I tried to keep it tasteful, but traditional Japanese houses like this one weren't really our style.

My family dispersed though the large house and left me with a minute alone. I'd come so far in such a short time it seemed, and my son had gone even further. He was so smart and talented, responsible and kind. My god, it seemed like yesterday Id given him life in the middle of a war, but today he'd graduated.

"May," my husbands voice brought me out of my thoughts. He stood in the door way dressed in a T-shirt and some jeans, "you okay?"

"Fine," I responded, nodding.

"I can't decide if your drinking iced tea out of a mug or cold hot tea, but you don't seem fine," he replied, coming across the room to sit next to me. I sighed and wrapped him in a hug, feeling sort of overwhelmed. We sat like that a while, before he pushed something cold Into the palm of my hand. I pulled away slightly and looked at what he'd given me, a smokey white crystal that transitioned to a bright purple. I'd know it anywhere.

"Where'd you find this?" I exclaimed, "I thought it was lost when the house fell down!"

"I searched the rubble. I've been keeping it for a special occasion," he smiled, "did you wanna take your son to meet his grand parents?"

I thought for a second about my parents, I hadn't thought about them or even looked back on them for years. They had to be missing me. I wondered if they thought I'd been abducted or taken into witness protection or something. I'd been glad I moved to vegas that first time, to distance myself from them. It'd prepared me for now.

"Yeah, yeah I do. Do you think we can get back though?" I asked, hesitant.

"I don't see why not. This is home," he responded. I took a few more seconds to think before I nodded.

"Daiichi! Come here for a second!"

The End