Author's Note: Hey guys. Its been such a long time that I often wonder if most of you have stopped reading because I've been so slow updating. If that's that case with some of you, I'm really sorry I let you down, but things have been rather difficult for me here at home. That's a tale for another time though, so I wont bore you with it here in my A/N. I did pretty well last semester of college so I'm feeling pretty upbeat this summer, and also with that in mind I can focus a lot more on writing than studying. Good stuff I know.
I would also like to report that I have finally found a very stable BETA whom I trust very dearly. Meeting this person has helped me with writing in ways I don't think she understands. To me, having a person you can trust and learn from is far more valuable than someone who just agrees with you. For this, I thank her explicitly and hope she continues to help me improve my skills as a writer.
On that note, I think you're ready to start reading, I just hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as it was for me to finally finish it. Please understand that I do not wait this long because I'm lazy, its just that I can't predict the changes I have been facing these past few months (trying to move out hehe). Thanks again for all your support: my authors circle, my BETA, and most of all, the fans.
And for criminy sakes….REVIEW!! hehe
Chapter 12
"I love you moma"
She recalled her daughter's sweet words before hanging up the phone hours ago. It was a long enough time without seeing her smile that made her wish she could hug her baby girl in her arms that very second.
'Stop it, she can't be your little "Cho-chan" forever''
Secretly, she was very grateful that her long time purple haired pseudo-psychotic friend (Anko) had volunteered to watch her daughter for the evening. If only she knew how much, she wondered. She stood from the dark leather chair in her living room, padding quietly down the hallway towards her bedroom. The walls were filed with the many pictures that touched so dearly to her heart, many of which seemed like they were taken just yesterday: Her baby's beautiful sleeping form right after birth, her first steps, the first time at the barber shop (followed by the subsequent photo of her greedily snatching a lollypop from the weary hands of the barber, after one hell of a time). She arrived to her bedroom door and entered, shutting the door quietly behind.
The master bedroom was nothing spectacular, but a woman's touch was still easily tangible for such a modest arrangement. The chamber was cast in a mix of black and burgundy velvet with matching colored drapes. Towards the corner sat a four posted king sized bed, surrounded by two joining nightstands and a dresser, followed by a desk in which all were made from dark red wood. The moon's ghostly rays poured weakly through her balcony glass door, giving the room a dull glow that cast a weak shadow behind the Kunoichi. She glided to her dresser and peered at the full length mirror, taking in her features through weary eyes. She was almost thirty-four years old now, that she knew, but no one would ever think that upon seeing the eye catching curves she kept so well on her stunning frame. She was beautiful, and better yet she wasn't one to flaunt it whorishly as most women her age seemed to enjoy doing (those that could). Her rose-hued faucets appraised her reflection with such scrutiny that paralleled almost any woman. The reaction was always the same every time; annoyance. She was wearing a black spaghetti strap top with a pair of red bicycle shorts, both of which accented quite nicely against her creamy skin. Her sizeable bust clung tightly to the shirt as she followed her inspection down to her curvy hips, the latter being one of her most prideful areas. Although she knew her body was easily passable to someone in their twenties, it didn't stop her from wishing that she at least felt like she was that young. That didn't mean she felt like a grandmother, but she could tell by looking at her younger subordinates that she definitely wasn't getting any younger. Her form turned away from the mirror, done with her semi-approving inspection of her body. She moved quietly, sitting down on the bed beside the night stand. Every time she managed to get a baby sitter she always ended up wasting her night like this, moping around the house with no energy to do anything. It was always likes this, even months before her daughter was born.
'I wonder what he would say if he saw you acting like this?'
She of course knew the answer, but didn't dare voice it out loud. Her last lover wouldn't approve of this depressing moping. Her baby's daddy would tell her to grow up and stop acting like a "troublesome woman," coining the saying from his prized student. A grin began to tug at her lips but faded before fruition. Those admissions of his were true but nonetheless impossible; he was gone.
She needed answers, and she only knew of one place to go when searching for them, the same place she had been going to since it happened. With her mind made up, she sprung from the bed to get ready. She went to her dresser and changed into her white ninja blouse, heading to the door and slipping on her black ninja sandals. She looked back at the living room and gave a single picture on the coffee table a once over, then turned and walked out.
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Many minutes had passed as she neared the training grounds. The night's cool air was truly pleasant, leaving a soft touch to those who were out in the quiet evening. The trees were speechless in their own slumber; the wind barren from their leafy tendrils with the brush below them not whispering a sound. She kept her pace at a soundless journey, moving quietly between tree and thistle abound, never stopping for a moment's hesitation. No one ever enjoyed treading down the sleepless path she followed, but everyone who served in the Konoha had been touched in some way or another by the grisly trail; the way that lead to the end of the track being different for every person. For her, that pain had long been numbed by the countless trips she had made to the sacred ground. It had been almost three years since that day, the day that marked the beginning of her own many leagues to the site; although her heart had mended greatly, some wounds take longer to heal than others. All she knew was that in the years she had come here, it always felt right. It felt safe. She peered up at the heavens, her eyes focusing between the bright diamonds that decorated the night's veil. She recalled a story her mother had once told her when she was just a child. The Kunoichi's orbs scanned further until she found what she was looking for: A lone star in the eastern horizon.
'Could she be right? Could that really be…..'
She suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her senses buzzed on edge, the tell-tale signs of someone being in close proximity with her person. There were many occasions when enemy ninja would prowl around the training grounds late at night, hoping to catch someone off guard who might be resting from their vigorous training, stealing them away unnoticed. The chakra signature she detected didn't feel foreign, but there was no mistaking the fact it could just as easily be a trap. She began moving, her place slowed significantly as she crept towards the source in question. The nightly song of the forest life all but vanished as she proceeded further, an omen she ignored almost completely. Almost. Her hands formed signs in fluid urgency, molding a genjutsu over her presence without missing a beat. The chakra from the genjutsu enveloped her in a shroud of blue, covering her body and making her invisible to the naked eye. Her heartbeat began soaring higher, every step leading to the possibility of a fight; the Kunoichi had not been on a mission in a few years, opting to take care of her daughter over risking leaving her without both her parents. The adrenalin began to pump through her veins, a feeling she both missed and that terrified her. The outer tree line became visible as she neared the edge of the forest, the clearing ahead being her original destination. She picked the closest tree and walked up its trunk, choosing a suitable branch that would support her and offer good observation. Her feet glued tightly to the bark as she pulled a few tiny branches from in front of her, the leaves no longer blocking her vision. With the obstructions out of the way, she peered down at the field. Not too far down the open terrain she spotted the memorial stone. A tall man stood next to it, dressed in black with long spiky blonde hair. It took all of half a second to realize who it was: Naruto.
She quietly released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She kept her genjutsu in place, but the possibility of combat officially vanished. Her stance remained ghostly still as she watched him from the tree branch, though it wouldn't matter if she moved anyway. She noticed his posture seemed very stiff, his fists balled shut with his eyes closed. His lips were set in a grim line, tiny trickles of sweat rolling down his brow as he stood motionless. Kurenai realized why the forest had been so deathly quiet on the way there, it also made sense why feeling his presence made her so jumpy for a fight; he was releasing waves of tension into the surrounding forest, perhaps without even realizing it. His tired eyes opened slowly.
"You can come out now," he said quietly.
Her jaw almost visibly dropped.
'Not possible. He possesses no bloodlines or techniques that can see me, even if I am out of practice. He must be paranoid, calling out randomly-'
"Yuuhi-san," he said politely.
'Damn!'
She jumped from her perch down to the field below, all movement not making the slightest of sound. She whispered "Kai," releasing her genjustu that clouded her presence as she made her way towards the Hunter-nin. Her mind reeled with a hundred and one questions, all assaulting her brain at once. One second later she couldn't wait any longer.
"How did you know I was there?" she questioned.
The blonde turned around to face her, his lips curved in a transparent smile.
"I saw your shadow," he said.
She snorted.
"I'm not buying that. You and I both know a genjustu molded over a person's body doesn't leave a shadow" she said, barely concealing the contempt in her voice.
His dark lined eyes remained upon her, his brittle smile never leaving his lips.
"Perhaps I am lying. Perhaps I detected your presence long before you thought to cast that veil. Perhaps I waited until I knew you weren't an enemy before I finally spoke."
His smile vanished. He turned his back, facing the memorial stone.
"Believe what you will," he said quietly.
She had the courtesy to blush as she pulled the newly inserted foot from her mouth.
Silence reigned for what seemed like hours as she grabbled with the words she wanted to say. As she fumbled for the proper words, he remained motionless beside the memorial stone, his body emulating the stone next to him.
"I wasn't meaning to accuse you of lying, it's just hard to believe-"
"A Genin could see through your genjustu?" he supplied.
She smiled.
"Sorry," she said finally. His back seemed to loosen a tiny fraction of rigidness. He sighed.
"I'm sorry too," he said. "It's way past my bed time. I'm a little on edge."
"Can't sleep?" she asked. The faintest of chuckling broke the dead of the night.
"Yeah"
For a while they both stood in silence, paying their respects without whispering a word. Kurenai took advantage of being behind the blonde to finally get a real look at him; He was a completely different person from teen almost three years ago. The longer she stared, the more she kept running into walls when trying to compare the mental picture of the whinny teenager with the tall statue that stood next to her. His hair had grown out longer, though not long enough to be considered truly feminine. Although his arms and shoulders were concealed by a black fatigue jacket, it didn't hide the muscles she could see bulging in the outlines of the fabric; yet the muscles weren't grossly huge like a body builder would have. There was a very quiet strength she could feel in his presence, something that told her he wasn't necessarily the strongest man in the village, but he could easily do more than any hundred of the strongest men in the country. He wasn't a boy anymore. He was a man. Something was forcibly concealed within his posture she noted, though analyzing people from just looking at their turned back wasn't really her forte. She still felt something dark. Something sad.
"I'm not sure what I should be doing," he said.
Her ears perked as he continued.
"I can't do any missions until I take that stupid test Baa-chan is making for me. After I pass, I may end up on a team again, something I'm not even sure I want"
She took a few steps forward, standing next to him
"Maybe now is the time to relax while you still can," she said.
"I can't, not yet. I just can't sit still and wait like this," he said.
She thought quietly for a solution to his problem. She smiled at her first idea.
"Well, Tsunade-sama likes you a lot… perhaps you could be her assistant and give Shizune-san a few days off"
Silence.
More Silence.
"No…." he said quietly, not quite hiding his mock-loathing. Well, he asked didn't he?
"You could always teach at the Academy. They don't mind the extra help," she said.
He seemed to ponder it for a moment.
"Iruka mentioned that, but I don't know the first thing about teaching. In fact, I sucked at learning, so teaching may not be the best thing to have me doing. Besides, I'm just a Genin," he said, though she didn't miss his jape.
"It's really not that bad," she said. "A while back I taught a few classes at the academy to make some extra money"
"And…." he asked, though definitely interested.
"It was…challenging, to say the least, but they grow on you," she admitted. "For me, seeing those kids everyday was worth the little bit of struggle. It was fulfilling, and it gives you a…" she hunted for the right word.
"A warm feeling. Most of the teachers at the academy could make Jounin or join the ANBU if they really tried, that much is for certain. The money isn't great either, and it can be tricky at times, but I think they don't want to lose that feeling." she said.
She took his silence as understanding, opting not to continue a one-sided conversation. Goosebumps spread over her arms from the chilly air, something that was getting steadily colder as the night drew on.
A tiny glint of something caught her eye, barely visible in the hand at his side. She focused further on the object, but it was too masked against the black fatigues he wore; whatever it was, it was black as sin.
"Do you believe in the after life?" he asked suddenly.
A question like that from the person next to her almost seemed bizarre. Definitely not the same person from before.
"I wonder," She said, looking into the heavens and finding her star.
"Long ago, my mother told me the stars were the spirits of the Hokage and the ninja who served them, burning brighter with the person's sacrifice to their village"
A stray wind whistled down the field, the grass dancing within the serenade.
"When did she tell you this?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper. Her eyes fell do the ground, the memory surfacing faster than she wished.
"I was barely a teenager," she said.
For a flicker of a second she felt something incredibly dark pulse from the blonde, the feeling leaving just as suddenly. Her eyes jumped to his face, but his long spiked hair was covering his expression, his neck bent ever slightly.
"Yuuhi Makoto," he said. His voice was hardened, but soft at the edges. Her eyes widened.
"How did you-"
"I know all their names" he said, "Everyone who fell on that day." His eyes held onto the moon light as he raised his head to look directly at the stone; the weariness in his eyes was almost palpable. Sleep hadn't touched them in a long time she noticed, at least nothing close to what any human being requires.
"When I was little, I quickly learned that being outside on October tenth could be dangerous to my health, but being the stubborn kid I was usually lead me to coming out anyway, getting chased around by most of the villagers who saw me."
"I got away most of the time, depending what ANBU was assigned to watching me," he said.
There was a pause, as if he was trying to remember something. A few seconds later he spoke, his voice deathly quiet.
"I was too slow on my ninth birthday."
His fist twitched, something she noticed subtly.
"Bleeding, I ran for my life towards these training grounds. I had never tried hiding here, so I figured that maybe they would be as unfamiliar with the terrain as well. For once I was right, and soon enough I was alone, exploring the trees and fields." He walked forward, standing inches from the stone.
"A few hours later, I found this place," he said, brushing his palm over a large group of engraved names.
"I started reading this while I waited for the sun to go down, passing the time before I could try to sneak back to my apartment. Many hours passed, and that night I suddenly realized something about this stone, something that even now is still hard to grasp: Hundreds of people had lost their lives on my birthday." The blonde took a full step back and put his hands in his pockets, his gaze remaining glued to the set of names.
"I didn't understand why that happened, but something clicked in my head and I memorized every last one of them until the next night, staying here until I was certain I wouldn't forget."
"Kakashi won't admit it, but I know it was him who found me here, passed out at the base of the monument those years ago. I awoke the next morning in my bed with ramen waiting at the table, still warm." A tiny smile fell into place on the blonde Hunter-nin. He looked over to see her wide-eyed expression, though he was not very surprised.
"I know it's hard to believe that the dobe could memorize even 10 names at that-"
"I never knew they beat you," she said.
He shifted his vision onto her. The blue orbs held no ill favor, yet she could feel the weight of his gaze as he stared back at her, unblinkingly. She felt herself tense as the deadlock drew on, but she wasn't frightened. After what seemed like years, he turned back to look onto the monument.
She was truly confused by what just happened. She didn't feel threatened, but that still felt a bit off to her. Her hand rested on her heart as she drew in a deep breath.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture she had taken early in the week, following the same tradition since her daughter was born. Bending down, she picked up a few stones and set them on the monument base, placing the picture underneath them. She knelt in front of the stone and whispered a tiny prayer, placing a hand on the monument. A few minutes passed and she rose to her feet. She knew the answer to his question.
"To answer your question…" She hesitated.
I…I can't help but think she was right," she said at last.
She turned to the blonde and saw his eyes focused directly onto the photograph. His eyes did not betray any emotions she could see, but something lurked underneath the surface in that neutral expression. He bowed his head.
"I'll leave you now," he said. He turned around and began walking silently into the forest. She stepped quickly in his direction.
"What do you believe?" she voiced over the clearing. The blonde froze in place, pulling his Hunter-nin mask onto his face and latching it on.
"I don't believe there will be a star for me, Yuuhi-san"
A gust of leaves blew over his figure, and moments later, he was gone.
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"After retrieving the item we returned as swift as possible. We suffered no losses, and no collateral damage was incurred during the mission, Hokage-sama."
Three masked ANBU knelt in front of the huge wooden desk of the Hokage. It has been almost twenty minutes of uninterrupted speaking as their leader finished the mission report, the other two waiting quietly behind him.
The Hokage held her face on the heels of her hands as she listened to the ANBU captain conclude the details of their mission. She was ecstatic to be there, as usual. Luckily for her the day was almost over, though dusk continued to linger longer than she wanted. After he finished, minutes passed in silence, everyone waiting for her final word on the matter. Shizune suddenly coughed loudly.
-coughTsunade!cough-
The Hokage was brought out of her reverie. That would make it fifth time today.
"Thank you Captain for the remarkable work you and your squad have accomplished today. The mission was a success, no doubt because of you're superior teamwork and remarkable abilities as shinobi of the Leaf. I am proud of all of you, and am grateful you all came home to us in one piece. Go ahead and take the rest of the day to relax with your families," she said, her voice rolling in golden strands.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama!" all three shouted in unison. She stood from her chair and slammed her palms on the desk.
"Dismissed!" she barked.
Three clouds of smoke burst from the ground, and they were gone.
She slumped back into her chair, blowing out a mushroom-shaped sigh.
Ton Ton farted.
Shizune stomped in front of the desk, glaring at her mentor with the ever present swine in her arms.
"What?"
Shizune's eye twitched.
"You have been using that same line for every person that has come into this office today! All you're doing is changing the ranks depending on who's reporting in!"
"I'll have you know that I mean every word of it!" she shouted back.
Shizune ground her teeth.
"You said that to a team of Genin who cleaned the Academy bathrooms!"
She puzzled that one for a moment while Shizune waited for her response. Instead of answering, she reached from behind her desk and shuffled through the top drawer murderously. She closed that drawer and searched through the next as papers flew out from all angles while she continued her search through the desk's contents. Shizune began backing away slowly, the pig in her arms forgotten on the ground.
"Shizune!"
Her assistant, much to her own surprise, didn't flinch per usual. The guards posted at the door knew the drill the moment she spoke; they exited the room quietly, hoping their movements were not detected.
"…Yes?" said Shizune, who quickly took another step towards the door.
Her boss merely pointed at her drawer, her eyes narrowed at the guilty party.
"Something seems to be missing from my desk"
Her eyes darkened.
"Something…very important to ME, that YOU will now be returning," she emphasized.
Her assistant steeled her resolve, thrusting her chin out.
"No."
Tsunade rose very slowly to her feet.
"You Will give those back to me, or should I take….desperate measures?" she said acidly.
"What kind of desperate measures?" a new voice added.
Shizune quickly turned a very bright shade of red.
They both turned to see the ever tall ever dark and mysterious Hunter-nin Naruto standing at the doorway, Hime-chan standing next to him with a blank expression. He wasn't wearing his mask, which both women were inwardly happy to see. He almost looked as though he was smiling. Barely.
"I-it's nothin-g," Shizune stammered.
The Hokage beamed at the newly entered blonde.
"What brings you here brat? I'm not giving you any missions, so if that's why you're here, I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you," she smiled innocently.
He walked to the front of Shizune and lightly ran his hand to the small of her back. Her embarrassment and bashfulness at that moment would definitely be recorded at some of the highest levels in her entire life, though she didn't exactly try to stop him. He smiled down at her and walked to the desk with his newly acquired bottles he pilfered from her sash, though technically it wasn't stealing. After all, she did take them from Tsunade first.
"Sorry Nee-chan, but I'm going to need these right now."
He motioned Hime-chan to set next to him in the opposite chair in front of the desk as he opened a fresh bottle of sake. He reached into his black military fatigue pants and pulled out two saucers used for the aforementioned alcoholic beverage. He poured one for himself and swallowed it down. He poured another for Tsunade and himself and handed one over to her. As he put the bottle on the desk, he sat down and took a sip from the saucer, this time taking a moment to savor the taste. He peered down at the glass and set it on the desk.
"I'm not sure how to ask this, and something tells me I'm going to kick myself in the ass after words."
She furrowed her brow, gulping down the alcoholic contents and pouring another.
"Just say it. You never used to care when asking stupid questions," she said playfully.
Naruto watched as Hime-chan fiddled with a loose strand on the chair's upholstery.
"I want to teach at the Academy."