As the sun began to rise high in the sky, Natsumi was already fully awake and pacing the room while her boyfriend laid fast asleep. Her mind wouldn't leave her alone. Every time she shut her eyes she saw horrible times of her past. First it was Rao lying dead in the hospital cot, then it was Yushiro injured staring at her with the look of fear, and finally it was a memory she had gone over in her head one million times, yet she still could not figure it out. When she shut her eyes she saw a young boy. He was tied by chains, his face bloody and bruised, and fatigue and sadness buried within his onyx coloured eyes. But finally there was one sentence the boy said that kept repeating in Natsumi's mind, he said, "Run! Forget me and all you are about to leave behind, never look back Natsumi!" Every time Natsumi went over this memory in her head when she felt close to remembering it, she just... lost it all and had to start all over.

Natsumi leaned in and kissed her boyfriend's cheek before taking off downstairs and to the back yard to visit Rao. A fairly large tombstone sat in the far back of the yard. The tombstone read,

Rao Muni.
1975-2008
Beloved wife of Ryo Muni and a
wonderful mother to Natsumi Hitama.

Natsumi glanced beside Rao's stone and noticed that all this time, Ryo's tombstone had been there too; Natsumi figured they moved him when they put Rao there. His tombstone read,

Ryo Muni.
1964-2000
Beloved husband and a father to
Natsumi Hitama when she was a young girl.

Natsumi sniffled as she wiped away a few stray tears. She had no memory of Ryo being in her life; He died when she was six... she began to live with them at age five... She collapsed in front of Rao's gave and bowed until her forehead hit the grass. She tried to always hide her emotions from everyone, including Yushiro, but she was beaten... she could no longer take the pain that was welding up in her chest. Natsumi screamed loudly; she had no care for who heard it. She screamed until her lungs had no more air left within them. She slowly raised from the ground and turned to look around her; shockingly there was no one in sight, maybe she hadn't yelled as loud as she thought...

Natsumi sighed again as she stood up and hopped over the nearby fence. She folded her arms behind her and strolled through the village acting like she was fine; it's not like she expected to see anyone she knew at dawn, except for maybe Shikamaru...

The village seemed deserted in the morning. Very few people were to be seen, and those who were, were mostly all elderly men and woman couples. Natsumi couldn't care less as to where she ended up on her stroll, or so she thought; when she came to a dead end, Naruto's apartment was in front of her. She sighed as she found herself climbing the steps to his front door. She hesitated at the door before pounding on it three times.

After a couple minutes a drowsy Naruto opened the door and instantly yawned.

"Morning Naruto..." Natsumi said with a pitiful smile.

"Oh, ah... Natsumi, what are you doing here... and so early?" He asked with another yawn.

"C-can I come in? I just need to talk to someone..."

Naruto seemed to catch on that something was wrong and nodded opening the door and moving aside; he looked fully awake now.

Natsumi walked in and looked around; she kinda felt bad for Naruto. His home was basic and small, he lived all alone. His house wasn't even that messy; he didn't own enough belongings to make a mess...

"Sorry it's a little messy... I didn't expect anyone to show up..." He said as he threw his sleeping cap aside.

"It's alright, this isn't even messy. N-Naruto... c-can I ask you for something?" She asked taking a step closer to Naruto.

"Ah... sure?"

Natsumi smiled faintly as she threw herself at Naruto hugging him tightly. He tensed for a second before wrapping his arms around the now crying Natsumi.

"W-what's wrong; I haven't seen you cry since Rao's death..."

"T-that's why I'm crying... I-I miss her... I can't do this anymore... I want her back!" She yelled as she hugged the blonde even tighter.

"I-I'm sorry Natsumi b-but-"

"I know... s-she isn't gonna be coming back... I-if you tell anyone I came here and cried... I'll kill you..."

He laughed. "What about Yushiro?"

"Especially not him!" She yelled as she went to look at Naruto's face.

"H-Huh? But he's your boyfriend?"

"Yeah he is... but I've only cried once in front of him and that was when Rao died... I-I have been holding back all this time because shinobi aren't supposed to show emotion b-but... I-I..."

Naruto sighed as he let his hand rest on Natsumi's cheek forcing her to look at him.

"I know what you're saying... I know what you're feeling..." He smiled.

"Thank you for u-understanding..." She pulled herself out of his arms, "I-I should probably get going though... I am sorry for waking you up and bothering you with my life..." She began to head toward the door.

"B-But Natsumi..." He reached out for her wrist and caught it; he pulled it, she looked back at him confused. "D-don't go..."

"I have to Naruto, Yushiro will be wondering where I went..."

"Pfft, Yushiro... What's so great about that guy anyway? He never speaks and has a serious anger issue." Naruto's grip on her wrist tightened.

"For your information Naruto, Yushiro has saved my life numerous times, and we've known each other since we were born... our parents had us set up to get married before our clans both died."

"So that's why you're with him? Because you have to? There are tons of better guys for you Natsumi, you deserve better!"

"Naruto, you're a great guy, but Yushiro isn't what you all think, he's different around me..."

"But Natsumi, w-what about Sasuke? You two had something going on before you left... What about him?"

"He was mean to me..."

"W-what about..."

"You? You're a great guy Naruto, if Yushiro wasn't in my life I'd say yes... but he is, and I love him..." Natsumi sighed as she began to walk away.

"But... I love you too."

Natsumi stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Naruto, her eyes were wide with confusion.

"You... what?" Natsumi asked slowly.

"I said... I-I love you... as well..."

"Naruto... I-I, I can't be with you..." She looked away at the ground.

Naruto walked closer to her. He lifted her chin and pulled his face to hers capturing her lips in a soft but quick kiss. Her eyes widened as she pulled away and staggered back several feet from Naruto.

"W-what the hell Naruto!" She yelled, tripping over her speech.

His eyes widened like he just realised what he had done. "Oh my god... I-I'm so sorry Natsumi!" He took several steps back.

Natsumi said nothing as she ran out of his house, not even bothering to close his door. She ran and ran until she reached home. She ran back to the yard and fell to her knees screaming loudly again as tears flooded her face. This time she felt strong and warm hands rest upon her shoulders. She turned to the side and saw Yushiro, his eyes full of sadness and understanding.

"I-I'm so sorry Yushiro... b-but I can't do this shinobi shit anymore!" She threw herself into his arms as she began to yell and scream through her tears; he held her tightly on the ground in front of Rao's grave.

Later that night Yushiro found Natsumi standing in the middle of her old bedroom with a blanket wrapped around her fragile body. Her hair was damp as it stuck to her shoulders and back. Her eyes were red and puffy with a hint of fatigue. Yushiro seemed to be unnoticed by her, he followed her gaze to see she was staring at the millions of drawings on her walls. They were all pictures of her and loneliness and, well it was all depressing. Yushiro saw a lifted wooden board in the floor and stepped on it; it squeaked and caused Natsumi's gaze to shift from the walls to him. He smiled as she walked closer pulling her into his arms.

"Y-Yushiro... I-I have a confession..."

"And what would that be?"

"B-before you found me in the yard crying, I went to Naruto's... I-I'm so sorry... I-I didn't expect it... I-I oh I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

Natsumi starred at him confused through her tears. In the years they spent together Natsumi discovered he was able to read minds using the Rinnegan. Usually he respected personal space and stayed out of her mind, but in cases like this she figured he would have just gone ahead and looked into her memories...

"I told you I wouldn't look into your mind unless it was necessary... so, what happened?"

"H-he kissed me... I-I'm so sorry I- tried to stop him b-but...-"

"It's alright... I know you wouldn't do that, okay?"

"Okay..."

"You're such a mess... forget the rules of a shinobi Natsumi... it's tearing you from inside, I can't watch that anymore... you can cry whenever you need." He smiled as he wiped away a few tears.

She laughed. "I don't deserve you Yushiro."

"Of course not... You don't deserve me," Natsumi's face turned to shock, "I belong to you." She let out a breath then laughed.

When Natsumi laid down in bed in the arms of her boyfriend she tried almost anything to pass time. She counted the tiles on her room, listened to the sound of Yushiro's breathing, even practiced letting chakra flow in and out of her hands, but she could no longer escape it, she was going to have to close her eyes and face the mysterious memory eventually.

As her eyes fell shut she thought she would be okay, but then they felt like they had been glued as the memory started again, this time clear as ever and no matter how she struggled, she couldn't open her eyes.

The same boy was still chained to the stone wall, ratty clothes, bloody and bruised face. Natsumi could hear the sound of footsteps, her memory shifted and looked at a staircase and a man walked down with a candle. The man seemed familiar to her as he lifted the candle closer to his face, sure enough, it was that man Binyo, the man that threw her into a bag, the man Yushiro killed to save her. The man smiled evilly as he walked over to the chained boy and slapped him across the face, quite hard. The boy panted as he lifted his head. The candle was brought close to his face, Natsumi could now see his face clearly.

He had beautiful onyx coloured eyes that were filled of lust and anger. His bangs covered his right eye slightly. His hair was raven black and had a long red streak in the bangs. The boy spat on Binyo and said,

"Let her go! She wasn't part of the deal!" He was obviously referring to Natsumi.

"She is just as important as you Hikaru, she ain't going nowhere!" He laughed as he left and headed back up the stairs taking his light with him.

"I-I'm sorry Natsumi... I tried... I'm so sorry for this..." Hikaru's head fell, he looked weak.

"Hikaru! Don't go to sleep!" A younger sounding Natsumi yelled.

The boy looked back up and smiled. His eyes changed to pure white. Next thing Natsumi knew, the projector of her memory fell hitting the ground.

"Run! Forget me and all you are about to leave behind, never look back Natsumi!" The boy looked helpless as tears fell down his face.

The memory ended there, Natsumi screamed loudly jerking and trying to open her eyes to escape the black that she saw. Finally her eyes opened and revealed Yushiro. His eyes were full of concern. Natsumi clinged to Yushiro as she tried to calm her breathing.

"W-what happened?" He asked her sounding majorly concerned.

"A ... m-memory..."

Yushiro turned on a lamp and moved so he could look at Natsumi's eyes. His eyes widened causing Natsumi to panic.

"W-what's wrong?"

"Come here..." He grabbed her wrist and guided her to the bathroom.

He pulled out a cloth and put it under the sink. Natsumi looked at her reflection and gasped. Her eyes were pure white as blood poured from her eyes like tears.

"What the hell is wrong with me!" She yelled.

"Shhh..." Yushiro tried to calm her as he began to clean off the blood from her face after her eyes faded back to scarlet.

After a few minutes of cleaning Natsumi sighed and asked,

"Yushiro, who is Hikaru?"

His eyes widened as he stopped cleaning and starred at her.

"H-how do you know that name?"

"I was having a dream... or maybe more like a memory... A boy who was called Hikaru was chained and told me to run and forget my life... he had the same hair as me... who is he?"

"Y-you shouldn't know that name... y-you shouldn't have even saw that... it was wiped from your mind... h-how is this possible?" He sped through his sentence as he blabbed on to himself.

"Yushiro! There is even more that you haven't told me? After all these years!"

"I-I'm sorry, b-but that was supposed to be completely wiped from your mind."

"I don't care! Who the fuck is Hikaru?"

"H-His name is Hikaru Hitama... h-he is your older brother... he was captured by that group and... saved your life..."

"M-my brother?"

Author's notes: Yet another awesome twist! Muhahahah I'm awesome :P Good? Bad? Review~!

XxSoulNoteWritterxX