Summary: They were both outcasts within their respective worlds. Two halves of a whole. Yin and Yang. He was hated and reviled when he should have been hailed as a hero. She was loved and placed upon a pedestal so that her purity would not be stained.
Warnings: Slight language
"Her name is Kagome."
She isn't in a cage. She's free to leave anytime she chooses. We are merely protecting her.
"We met each other at the abandoned temple in the forest. We met there, at the Goshinboku."
She was free. She didn't belong to anyone. But everyone belonged to her.
"It was easy to see that she wasn't from Konoha. She wasn't from the Land of Fire. She wasn't from here."
Her home was in the stars, the sun and the moon. Her home changed with the turning of the tide.
"She…we…made up a schedule of when we would meet. I had the Academy and she…she had her duty. We never told each other anything important. Anything that could endanger the other."
I was ridiculed. She revered. Neither of us had peace.
"I always knew when she was there. We had a schedule, barely broken."
How could one not know when she was present? The Kyuubi knew when she was there, always. She was a light in the darkness of the world.
"So I knew, when she was days early, that something had happened. So there was no choice but to break the oath. I brought her to you."
Red began to bleed into normally sky blue hues as jagged wounds on soft flesh entered Naruto's mind. She had almost died! Damn the duty bestowed upon her! It was finished, she would not go back, she would be protected, here, in Konoha, in the Land of Fire. Nothing would take her back there. He would make sure of it. Nothing from that place would harm her again. Even if the Well, the Shrine, the Tree and the very Forest would have to be destroyed. He would destroy it, for her.
They would give everything for her.
Everything…
They would do anything for her.
Anything…
Naruto's head snapped up, gore filled thoughts dispersing from his mind as he heard near frantic rustling in the room next door. She was awake. She was alive. Before the Hokage could say a word, he was already gone, inside the other room, where Kagome had been placed after her wounds had been treated.
Author's Note: Thank you everyone for all the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter and it's slightly ambiguous tone!