Hello, everybody! I'm sorry for such a big delay, for keeping you waiting…I can't promise there won't be the same in the future but I'll try :) Thank you for your inspiring reviews, that's great you keep reading the story! I hope you'll like it and waiting for your reviews.

My biggest thanks to my beta-reader Phillipa Engles who read the chapter and corrected all my mistakes, I really don't know what I would do without her!

Evil smile this chapter is rather quiet but the next chapter will (remembers about promise not to create spoilers and shuts up). Till the next time!

Chapter 9. The house at the seashore. Part 2.

He was running along the streets of Konoha, towards his house smiling, now knowing why. He felt happy, like some part of him that had always been empty was now full of something good. Naruto sprinted towards the house faster and faster as if he was afraid to be late for something. Catching his breath he leaned to the door to hear them again – the voices of the parents he never knew. He didn't understand why it was so important for him to hear them now; it felt like he needed it…to catch something he couldn't. It really felt strange – he understood it was a dream yet he continued sleeping.

"Naruto, you're home! Daddy, and me have a surprise for you. We are so glad to see you honey!"

Naruto smiled. How good it felt to hear this voice even in a dream. To feel like somebody is waiting for you; is glad to see you. The first voice is soft and gentle, the other one strong and courageous.

"Naruto, you didn't get hurt during your mission, did you? Scars don't suit the future Hokage."

Sudden realizations struck him. The voice was completely familiar to him, he didn't understand when and where he heard it but it was definitely the voice of a person he met in his real life, not dreams! Naruto felt his hands shaking while opening the door of his house and then…he awoke.

This awakening was much more pleasant than the previous one. Naruto hadn't felt any pain in his body and the fog in front of his eyes began to dissipate.

"Hi, kiddo!" he turned his head and saw a cute woman in her middle twenties with red hair who was examining him with interest.

"I'm not a kid!" Naruto growled. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi from the hidden leaf and the future hokage!"

"I see," she raised her brows in artistic wonder. "Nice to meet you, oh great one. I'm Nami, shinobi from hidden mist. Looks like I'm not going to become mizukage – all I have is my medicine talent but it comes up handy sometimes. Like this time."

"Aah," Naruto blushed and started to understand. "You saved me, didn't you?"

"Well, I think the poison disappeared by itself in several days but Arashi went overboard as usual," she smiled. "So I healed you as he asked me to, that's true."

Naruto tried to get up and found it to be a problem.

"You have broken your leg," Nami explained. "The break is rather serious so it would take several months for a common human to heal but with your regeneration you'll be ok in a week maybe even sooner. 'Til that time," she gave him a wooden stick. "Use this."

"Thanks," Naruto took it. "You are very kind."

"Oh, stop it, kiddo, I'll blush," Nami laughed. "Well, have a rest, I'll go check another patient."

"Another patient?" Naruto heart started pounding. "Yondaime, how is he? Is he injured? Is he…"

"He's alright." Nami stopped his panic. "He just decided he can stay up all day and night waiting for you to wake up." Her face became serious. "He has gone through a lot to save ya, kiddo." She entered the room where Arashi was sleeping with Naruto following her and whispered.

"Do you see the burns all over his hands? That happens when somebody uses very powerful jutsus for a long time and isn't perfect at chakra control. Its chakra burns. Looks like your hokage isn't perfect at something."

"Lightning body," Naruto whispered back. "His most frightening jutsu. He must have used it. But his face…looks like these shinobies who captured me were strong – he received several direct hits."

Nami coughed turning her face from Naruto.

"Yes," she finally answered still covering her face with her hands doing her best to suppress laugher. "So cruel."

For the first time Naruto watched Yondaime sleeping and he was surprised. The usual small wrinkles near his eyes relaxed, the features of his face softened and he looked younger than Naruto was used to seeing him.

"I put him into forced sleep," Nami explained. "He won't wake up for some time. He has to rest otherwise these burns won't heal for a long time."

"Are you his friend?" Naruto asked still looking at the sleeping hokage.

"You wanna know the truth?" Nami turned her beautiful face to Naruto. "I don't know anymore. We were good friends in the past but too much happened after that. 13 years is long enough, don't you think so?"

"13 years is a lot," Naruto nodded. "It's a whole eternity!"

"When we met, hidden mist and hidden leaf were partners," Nami explained. "We had a peaceful agreement – your hokage did a lot for this agreement to be signed. Now our villages are at war," she sighed. "Not openly of course but give them just one reason and they would attack each other," she sighed looking at her hands and turning away from Arashi. "The one who could hold together our villages was killed in Kyuubi's assault. I think I still blame Arashi for that."

Naruto growled internally. Here was the Kyuubi again. How many lives had he destroyed?

"It is my fault," he thought again but then Arashi's words flew clearly into his mind.

"You are not kyuubi. You have nothing in common with the monster that almost destroyed our village. You were the one who saved all of us."

At the same moment the tension went away and the blond boy felt better. Also he felt he couldn't agree with Nami.

"Yondaime gave his life to imprison kyuubi!" he shot at her a sharp look.

The red haired amazon returned him the same look and prepared to say something really rude but at the last moment she gave up.

"I know," Nami sighed again. "I know he did everything and even more to save the village but I used to think kages were all mighty. But they are also human," she added lost in her thoughts, looking at Arashi.

"When I become hokage I'll re-establish the peace, I promise," Naruto said sternly, squeezing his fists.

Nami looked at him in surprise.

"Of course you will, kiddo!" she smiled. "You are going to be a great hokage, aren't you?"

"The greatest!" Naruto nodded and turned to look at Arashi again.

"She was the same at your age," Nami whispered in awe looking at his back.

"What?" Uzumaki turned around.

"Oh, nothing," she smiled again, "Just talking to myself like an old hag."

"Do you live here all alone?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Of course not," her smile was playful now. "Iri is with me."

"Iri?" Naruto repeated the name full of thought. "Is this the name of your husband?"

"No," she laughed. "Just a creature with a really bad temper."

"Who in the world do you say has the bad temper?" a strange voice asked at the same moment. "Are you talking about me, ungrateful woman?"

Naruto turned around to the source of the voice and jumped in shock. It was a big mew gull with a snow white body. His eyes almost looked like human eyes in some ways – they shone with wisdom and humor. Finally he turned his head upside down examining Naruto attentively.

The blond shinobi wouldn't be himself if at the same moment he hadn't pointed his finger at the bird and shouted.

"Aah! It's talking!"

At the same moment he felt pain – the bird flew from Nami's shoulder to his own and bit him on his cheek.

"What's that for?" Uzumaki exclaimed trying to shake the bird down. It didn't work.

"For calling me "it", baka. I've lived a much longer life than you can imagine so pay some respect."

"I see," Naruto rubbed his head. It was a day of surprises. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't meant to offend you," he laughed louder. "It's just not an everyday thing to meet a bird who can talk."

It looked like Iri was satisfied by this explanation because he made himself comfortable on Naruto's shoulder and didn't give any sign he was going to leave it anytime soon.

"He's a summoned bird as you have already realized, I think," Nami smiled looking at Iri's half closed eyes.

Naruto nodded.

"Let's go find you some clothes," she told him. "Your hidden leaf appearance can attract too much attention while you are in the territory of hidden mist, the village that is at war with yours. If they find out, you will be killed in an instant."

"Ok", Naruto nodded and followed her.

-----------------------------

Arashi opened his eyes and at the same moment remembered where he was. Nami's house. So everything began to return. Old connections, old places, they came back into his life. Good or bad, it could only be clear to him in time.

He got up quietly and started to examine the house. Naruto and Nami were sleeping peacefully and it was dark outside. So he woke up in the night. Great.

Arashi stopped for a moment near Naruto's bed. Poor kid, he'd had bad times lately and it could have been much worse if those shinobies had taken him where they were planning. Arashi sighed, making the blanket more comfortable on his son's shoulders.

"Isn't it enough already? Why should you have problems again and again, Naruto? Why did anything have to happen to you, my son? Why couldn't we give you a normal family, the one in which you could live happily and not be alone?"

He hadn't any answers so Yondaime just went out of the house. The night met him with millions of stars and the fresh air of the nearby sea.

Arashi walked along the seashore and then turned left, to the place where trees and the stones made a shelter for an old house, hiding it from people's eyes completely. Umi's house, the one where she lived when she just wanted to be alone, far from her village.

For a moment he just stopped in his tracks. The house seemed to hve stayed the same as when he saw it the last time. He stepped closer and touched the wooden wall with his hand, like it was the last thing that gave him a feeling of reality. He hesitated for a moment and then tried to open the door. He was surprised - it wasn't closed.

"Arashi, there you are!" for a moment he had a feeling he was really hearing the voice but it was only his memories, nothing less, nothing more. He exhaled in despair and looked around. There was nothing but the walls. Everything he remembered wasn't here anymore. Maybe it was for the better, he concluded, a sad smile on his lips. It didn't give him a chance to believe everything was the same and nothing changed in his life.

His feet stepped on something and Arashi suddenly stopped. Then he reached his hand and picked up the object, wondering what it could be. Then something flashed under the moon's rays and his heart stopped for a moment. It wasn't big, a shining orb looking like a crystal. Arashi traced with his fingers, the small ledges on the thing's surface marking the sign of Umi's family. Secret jutsu, secret art, the ice crystal that couldn't melt even if you put it into a fire. It could lay here thousands of years and not change a bit. He smiled sadly. Sometimes Umi looked almost like this crystal – so beautiful, indestructible, distant and cold that he could freeze just looking at her. But sometimes things aren't the same if you look into the core. Arashi whispered some words touching the orb and it shone with pure blue light, becoming warm so that it was really pleasant in such a weather – he had already begun to freeze. Blue light reflected into his eyes as he remembered…

---------------

"How is your hand?" Umi asked him while replacing the bandage on his hand. They were sitting near the house.

"Much better, it doesn't hurt at all," Arashi lied. Actually he didn't feel well even after a week of treatment.

"Oh?" Umi's brows raised comically. "You are an awful liar, Arashi, I swear! The bone hasn't healed yet. It's natural that you can't use your hand. You are human. There is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Yes," Arashi sighed. "But…"

"But kages aren't human, are we?" now her smile was sad. "We must always be strong, invincible, the best of the best, right?"

"You tell it like it's a bad thing," Arashi looked at her in surprise. "Why?"

"Because it's a lie," Umi sighed. "I hate lying."

"I.. I don't know what to say," Arashi confessed. "I have never though about it! I just try to do my best, that's all!"

"You are a good hokage," Umi suddenly smiled. "I whish I could feel the same way." She fixed his hand and put on another bandage. "I think it will heal in a week."

"Thank you," Arashi nodded. He got up examining the bandage and the a force of a human body almost bumped into him.

"Wha'?" Arashi caught a hand with kunai several centimeters from his face. His rival was a young man of eighteen with a bunch of raven color hair and piercing ice eyes almost the same as Umi's but they shone in an unfriendly, cold way.

"Taki, stop it!" Umi took the kunai from his hands. "He's our guest and you are trying to kill him! What will he think of us?!"

"Hello, sister" he blushed, his face almost becoming the face of a scolded boy not a man. "I just saw Konoha's head protector and thought he was trying to kill you!"

"I'm sorry!" another girl appeared near the house with a mew gull on her shoulder. She had shining red hair and looked tired. "I tried to stop him but he acted too fast!"

"Didn't something like a peace agreement cross your mind?" Umi's voice souded as if she was really angry. She was so busy that she didn't even notice the appearance of another person. "Apologize, quickly!"

"I won't!" the boy angrily faced her but a moment later lowered his chin. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"That's my little brother," Umi finally managed to give Arashi some explanation.

"I'm Umi's cousin, Nami," the red haired girl smiled then roughly caught the bird from her shoulder and moved it in front of Arashi. "He's Iri."

"Stop holding me this way, it's humiliating!" the bird tried to bite Nami but she laughed and easily caught his beak making him completely defenseless.

"Nice to meet you," Yondaime smiled. "I'm Arashi…"

"Yondaime hokage? Cool!" the girl's smile became even wider.

"That's why you were able to dodge," Taki sighed in a small voice, but Umi managed to hear this.

"Don't be angry at him, Arashi," she said. "He has obvious problems with his spirit, showing it everywhere he shouldn't."

"That's ok," Arashi smiled a little trying to make the situation easier. "You seem very alike."

Nami started coughing desperately trying to his the laughter behind this while Arashi realized what he has just said – he didn't mean it but Umi could understand that she had the same problems with spirit as her brother.

"Err…not completely alike…actually completely not alike…" he stopped at the middle of his sentence not knowing how to continue.

Nami gave up trying not to laugh and laughed openly. Even Taki chuckled.

"He noticed it too, hasn't he, sister? Your temper isn't much better than mine."

A moment later Umi was on her feet watching the laughing boy running away from her.

"I swear I'll kill you, Taki!" she shouted and ran after him.

"Don't make a promise you can't keep!" the boy shouted back a running to the seashore.

"Wait for me!" Nami ran to them.

Arashi watched them in amusement. So that was what it's like – having a family.

A smile appeared on his lips. It felt really good seeing Umi really happy.