Author's Note: Here you go! One more chapter for you guys. I've been thinking about wrapping this up, but I can never find the right time to. Hopefully soon. xD Sorry if I can't get another one up this weekend. I have to juggle studying for tests with writing Fanfic. xD I started writing a Bleach story in third person since I had gotten tips not to do this again. I have tried to make the entries longer recently. Anyway, check my profile for new updates. (I know it sucks right now, I'll try to fix that!) Thx as always. -Sleepy Fox

Chapter 15: Questions and Regret

-Kiku

Dad had passed out again soon after he had woken up. The four of us headed back to Konoha in silence, too scared to face the truth.

"Ninjas die everyday," Ayame said aloud.

"That doesn't make it right to kill someone. Besides, that all happened when wars were going on. Right now there is a time of peace. Ninjas shouldn't be dying right now." And ninjas shouldn't be killing other ninjas either.

"Didn't the Third die when a war wasn't going on?"

"But he wasn't killed by one of his own." Much less a former teammate.

"Just don't worry about it, we'll sort it out when we get back to the village," Mother stated depressively, obviously sad and scared about the whole ordeal.

No one spoke another word until the village came into view.

---LATER

"There it is!" I exclaimed, seeing the big green doors with 'Konoha' written in red paint across them. I ran towards the entrance with Ayame.

"Hey!" one of the gatekeepers called out. I slid to a halt in a mixture of shock and fear. "You're…"

"Ayame and Kiku…" the other one finished, rubbing his eyes as if he was seeing something. "But…when did you two leave the village?" They hadn't even noticed?

"We were…uh…"

"Kotetsu-san, Izumo-san," Mother said from behind me, coming to give Dad to them. "He's out cold but he has a pulse." Their eyes grew big as Kotetsu took him.

"Hokage-sama," they said in unison. "We'll take him to the hospital."

"Thank you…" she told them before passing out herself.

"Hinata-kun!" they both exclaimed.

"Mom!" Ayame called out, rushing to her side. "Mom, mom, come on, get up…" she repeated, shaking her.

"You're going to give her a seizure, Ayame-san," I told her, coming to lift her head up. It felt like a feather in my hand. What? Mom's head shouldn't be this light… If her head is this light…maybe I could… I stretched out both my arms and lifted her entire body effortlessly, to which everyone was amazed. "Let's go," I told them, acting like it was nothing.

"K-Kiki…you're…"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll explain it later."

---LATER

"How did you do that?" Ayame asked, kicking her foot in the water.

I looked around to see if anyone was watching, then I leaned in next to her ear, "If you promise not to tell anyone…" I looked around again. "I met this Demon Fox, his name is Sora.

"Demon Fox?" she asked aloud.

"Shh," I whispered, "Not so loud."

"Oh, sorry."

"It's Dad. He's the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox."

"What?!"

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. But he told me that was the truth and, from the looks of it, that is the truth."

"How do you know that?"

I took a quick look around and pulled a scroll from my pocket. "Look, I found this in Dad's old apartment."

"What is it?"

"I didn't know either. So I brought it to Kakashi-san and he told me it was a teleportation scroll, like the ones found with summons."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Do you want to try it out? He told me how to use one."

"Sure, let's go."

"Alright." I bit my finger, letting the blood seep out, and I spread it to each one of my fingers. Then, grabbing Ayame's arm, I stuck my hand in the center of the scroll. Before I knew it, we were in a strange village.

"Where is this place?" Ayame asked, looking around.

"I'm not exactly sure myself."

"Who are you two?" someone growled from behind us, his claw on my throat.

"Whoa, we come in peace," I told him, sticking my hands up innocently.

"Why are you in this village, and how do you have that scroll?"

"I found it and because we were curious."

"Then you best leave. We don't accept outsiders."

"You're a Demon Fox, right?" Ayame asked abruptly.

"Yeah, what about it, little girl?"

"Well, from our understanding, a Demon Fox is sealed inside our father."

A surprised look appeared on his face. "Inside your father? What is your father's name? Is that how you got that scroll?" What was this? 20 questions?

"Yes and our father is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Oh, then you two must be his daughters."

"Yeah, that's right," I told him, jerking his hand away from my throat. "Show some respect." He looked irritated. "Is there a problem?"

"Yeah, you seem pretty spoiled. Not what I would expect of his daughters." I rolled my eyes at him.

"The only one spoiled around here is you," I mumbled, turning around and crossing my arms, the perfect act of defiance. His claw appeared at my throat again, drawing blood this time.

"Care to say a snotty remark like that again?" I swallowed hard. "You'll be dead so fast your head'll spin."

"Please don't kill her," Ayame pleaded.

"Kouga! Lay off," an authoritative voice announced.

"Kazuma-sama," he said, pulling away.

"Who are you two?" she asked, looking between us and then stopped on me, sizing me up.

"I'm Kiku Uzumaki."

"And I'm Ayame Uzumaki."

"Wait, wait, wait. Uzumaki?"

"Yes," I said slowly. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No, no, no. It's just…Are you Naruto's daughters?"

"Yeah," Ayame replied. "You're a good guesser."

She laughed. "Follow me; I'll get you two some lunch."

-Kyuubi

"Naruto it's not your fault; you lose your mind when all nine tails appear," I rationed, trying to comfort him.

"Yeah, but I actually wanted to kill him, I really felt that way." He drew a circle in the water with his foot and watched as it disappeared. "I shouldn't've let my emotions take me all the way to nine tails in the first place. It was a stupid mistake. But…now he's gone…" A tear dropped from his chin to the water, a small 'splash' echoing through the underground maze of corridors. "How am I going to tell Sakura-chan?" I didn't know what to say. I would've said something like 'just give it to her straight' but I knew that would only make things worse. Silence fell between us. "Kyuubi-kun, what should I do?"

"I don't know."

He sighed and held back his tears, staring at the blank wall as if there was something interesting about it. "I went so far to bring him back to the village…What have I been doing all this time?" *splash* "I went too far this time. What will Sakura think?" *splash* "What will Konoha think?" *splash* Sobs started to come from him and I started to panic, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't just make things worse. "What will Jiraiya think? What will my parents think?" *splash, splash* "God, how bad are things going to get? Two seconds seems so…" *splash* "Minute and small…" *splash* "I can't live with this regret forever. Kyuubi, what am I going to do?"

"Forget about it. Like it never even happened." Wrong answer.

"Forget?! How am I just supposed to forget that I murdered one of my friends, a former teammate?! How am I supposed to forget their faces and all the blood everywhere?! You can't just forget stuff like that!"

"Naruto…" I had warned him about this but he just doesn't listen to me, does he? "I'm sorry. I should've told you straightforward what I was afraid of before you went into battle. But you'll be fine. Time's a healer."

"Time only makes things worse. Look at my relationship with Sasuke. Did time heal that?" Obviously not.

"No."

"See? Oh, what am I going to do?" He got up and started pacing. Is he going to be okay or is he going to have some emotional breakdown that I'll have to help him through? "I've got it. I'll go talk to the Pervy Sage and my parents first. Then we'll see if I can tackle the conversation with Sakura. Alright, ready to go, Kyuubi?"

"Yeah, ready when you are."

"Then let's go."

-Kiku

"Sora, have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on the moon?" I asked, staring at the brightly lit, almost plate-shaped figure in the sky.

"No, but now that you mention it, Kiki-san, I think it might be fun."

"How's that?"

"Well, you could bounce around in zero gravity, and jump thousands of feet into the air. Then, instead of watching the moon at night, you could watch the Earth as it slowly turned around and around."

"Oh…yeah…that would be nice…"

"Kiki-san, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a wildflower?"

"Oh yeah, a lot of times. It would be so peaceful, just waving in the breeze like that. No one expecting anything of you but just to be different; to be yourself…"

"No regrets."

"Yeah…nice." I smiled and turned my head, facing him. "Sora, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue and not an ugly periwinkle. Light blue, like my fur."

"Mine is yellow. But not an ugly bright yellow. A golden yellow, like chrysanthemums."

"A golden yellow…pretty." I smiled at him. "This might seem strange but…what's your favorite number: one or two?"

"Two, of course. One is so lonely, like a single bird flying across the sky, no one else to rely on. No one to share your hopes, your dreams with. All you have is yourself, alone in solitude."

"Yeah…I like two more too," he agreed, beaming at me with his smile that would light up anyone's day. We both laughed. That was when I knew, Sora was going to be more than just a friend. He was going to be my crutch.