"Spoken words"

Thoughts

Chapter 2

I could barely believe that I was in the Naruto world of ninjas, reborn as a child to someone who is the friend of the wife of the Fourth Hokage, Minato, and is the mother of the main character from the manga… Whoa, try wrapping your mind around that!

On the bright side, being an infant wasn't so bad. I can be lazy all day, not worry about chores, abusive foster-parents, school, or any other things. The downside though is that being a baby is filled with mundane monotony. All my body was capable of doing was eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom. Which is a whole other embarrassing story that I would rather not go into, I loathe diaper changes!

My Mother was absolutely, and impossibly, amazing! I never knew my first mother, but this one was better than all of my dreams of what a mother should be like. She showered me with affection, sang to me, read stories of Konoha's elite ninjas, chauffeured me around the village, and even talked to me. Well, I mean she already does that. But she talked to me like as if she knew I could understand her. To her credit, the conversations were mostly led by her (duh), but I tried putting in a grunt or squeal when I deemed it appropriate.

Although if anyone from my previous life were to learn I squealed, I would never hear the end of it.

Tsubasa, my Mother, along with being friends with Kushina, future mother of Naruto, ended up also being friends with other significant people. She was friends with Mebuki Haruno, mother of Sakura, and Mikoto Uchiha, mother of Sasuke. All together, my Mother was friends with the children who are destined to be a part of the infamous Team 7 of Konoha. How this all happened, I will never know! I mean, our parents even arranged play dates for us. Well, Sakura and Sasuke did more playing since they were 6 months and 3 months respectively. I just tended to stare at them in amazement as they got along so well. Sakura really seemed to like me though, she always sat by me. All of this was just too ironic that I could hardly believe that I was not dreaming.

I did also learn that I was born on September 9th, which meant that I would be a month old when… it happens. The Kyuubi was something that I had thought about but had tried to avoid. Even as a child, I was hyper-aware of all things chakra. I knew that it was the energy that every living thing in this world had, and that ninjas used it to fight, but I never imagined being so sensitive to it. I figured that it must be because I never had this before that I am so conscious of the fact that I now have chakra.

This could mean that when the Kyuubi comes to attack, my senses could be overloaded with chakra to the point of being painful. How was I supposed to let my Mother know that this could happen to me?

And would my Mother even be at home? Mom happens to be a medical ninja who is a genius at saving lives, according to her. Even if she is on maternity leave, I doubt she would want to stand by while people are in danger.

Maybe that is what scares me the most.

I know that a lot of people died during the Kyuubi attack, but would my Mother be one of those casualties?

I personally don't see it happening, but it is a fear of mine, and I've only known my Mom for a couple of weeks. But she is pretty badass! She has dragons!

Yep! Dragons!

Tsubasa Morimoto has a summoning contract with the Dragons of Mount Ryuumoto, who just so happen to come around to the house every now and then to see my magnificent self and my Mom. Their names are Sora, her two children Ichigo and Nami, and the Leader once came to see me. His name is Ryuujin.

The dragons I have seen though weren't quite like the ones normally seen the other world, unless you were looking at pictures of Japanese dragons. These dragons didn't have wings! Mom told me that they all have an innate ability to manipulate the wind, or that they basically have at least two chakra elements: Wind Element, and something else, usually Fire or Water. They also have special abilities to speed up the healing of others they deem worthy of their gift. I'm not sure even Mom knows how they are able to do that.

Mom told me that next week we would be going to visit them in their home, meeting all the other dragons who help her out on missions. I'm not sure how that will work out though.

Today is October 9th.

I'm a month old today, and tomorrow is the birth of Naruto Uzumaki. But it is also the day that his parents die, along with many people of Konoha. And tomorrow is also the day of the Kyuubi Attack…

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"And I know that in a month you will have to be watched by Kushina or day care since I will be going on missions again. But don't worry! These will be missions that will be very short, no more than 48 hours, and they will be close to home."

I gave her a small smile. Just imagining Mom in action, healing others and being a badass, doesn't keep me from worrying about her. I had already lost my father before I met him, I didn't want to lose her too.

Wait…?

What was that?

There was enormous blast of air that shook the windows of the house… what could…

Oh, no…

It first reached my infant ears as a low grumbling as one would hear from a waterfall in the distance, but it suddenly grew louder, more intense as it became the roar of a beast. Then a second sound pierced my ears more so than the roar… it was the screams.

Then I felt it, the onslaught of chakra which assaulted my senses. It became painful very quickly to my immature sensor capabilities. For the first time in my month of existence in this world, I cried. I screeched, hoping my Mom would understand. I could barely think though, everything was pain.

I was momentarily aware of Mom hollering something to a dragon that I had not realized she had summoned. There was no time to identify who it was though as our roof started to crumble away.

And suddenly there was a tail penetrating the roof of my home. All of this happened in fractions of a second, but the adrenaline from the pain was kicking in to the point that my adult consciousness could comprehend the events happening around me despite the speed. And the next half second, we were outside, now able to see the Kyuubi, the Nine Tailed Fox in all of its fiery fury, as it decimated Konoha. With simple sweeps of its tails, it demolished buildings, homes, and the lives within, and its powerful claws, it vanquished the lives of the shinobi sworn to protect the village.

"Sora! Where are Kushina and Minato?! How did the Kyuubi get out?!"

Before Sora could answer, another tail made its way towards our position atop a mangled building. We once again moved at what seemed to be the speed of light to a new position and now that we were further away from the Kyuubi, I was able to see that my Mom was the one holding me for dear life. Her visage was that of someone who had the weight of the world on her shoulders, but would fight like hell to defend it. I must have made a sound, because Mom seemed to hear me as she gazed at me with love and determination with just a dash of worry as well.

Who am I kidding? She looked just as scared as I was.

After she was through looking at me, I could see her gaze drift in the direction I knew Sakura's house to be in along with her Mother and Father, Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno. Her parents were civilians, so they would have no way to defend themselves, and their house was too close to the Kyuubi's path of destruction for my liking.

"Sora, get Akina back to Mount Ryuumoto. Keep her there until I come to get her."

What?! No!

Don't take me away from Mom!

"What are you going to do?" the dragon asked the very question I wanted answered.

"I'm going to do my job. Protect people like Mebuki and her family who need help to defend themselves. Then I'll head to the hospital to tend to the wounded. If I don't come to get Akina in 48 hours, you know what to do, right?"

The air around Mom became so heavy and dark that I wished for the thousandth time that I was in my old body so that I could hug her tightly in my arms and never let go. I can't lose her! I just got a new family! I was just beginning to call her "Mom". She can't leave!

"I promise you, friend. I will raise her as my own daughter."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I wailed my heart out, but it did no good as we dissolved from the massacre in a puff of smoke. Now all I could see was mountains and an immense entrance to a cavern ahead of us.

No… no… no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

This can't be it…

It… it just can't be…

My worst fears are becoming reality. How am I meant to go on without my Mom?

"Don't worry, little one. Your mother is a strong shinobi."

With her voice, I focused in on my surroundings. The mountain cavern that I initially had seen appeared to be dark and cold. But now as we walked through the entrance, it was as though a veil were lifted from my eyes. Beyond the entrance to Mount Ryuumoto was an entirely new world around me.

There are hardly any words which can accurately describe the beauty before me, there was nothing like this in the other world. The entrance to this new landscape before me were two mighty hills encrusted with greenery and vines which wrapped themselves around elegant carvings of dragons as they twisted and turned around the rocks of the sheer drops which marked them as gates. Beyond the gates, I could see grand architecture similar to that of traditional Japanese style palaces, but more than 5 times the scale. Everything was enormous in this new place I had found myself in. Surrounding the grounds were vast expanses of hills and forests with mountains in the far distance, and the majestic palace, which I would assume to be the "royal" palace, sat pristinely in the center of this village of dragons.

I had no words to describe this, but I would go for breathtaking.

"This, little one, is Mount Ryuumoto."

Yeah, kind of figured that out on my own.

Sora took me with her towards the main palace which took me by surprise, I didn't think that she was that high in the hierarchy of the dragons. I knew that all summoning creatures had their own system for who's in charge of all those under their domain, kind of like how the toads had a Sage Toad and they had Gamabunta who was the boss. How all the other animals did this, I had no idea, just guesses.

Within the palace, we continued to navigate through the halls which were built for large creatures like the dragons, but were completely oversized for my human self. This went on until we reached an immense chamber that I assumed to be the throne room of some sort. In this chamber was a dragon of gigantic proportions, nearly the size of a "small" building in downtown New York. He had scales of glistening gold which became iridescent in the firelight, dark aurum horns atop his head, ghostly-pale hair which waved gently in an unforeseen wind, and tangerine eyes which could pierce into your soul. This imposing dragon was impressive to say the least, one who seemed like a somewhat familiar dragon.

"My wife, what news do you bring of Tsubasa?"

Hold the phone! Wife!?

"It is nothing good, Ryuujin. The Kyuubi has escaped Kushina's seal and wreaks havoc upon all of Konoha. Tsubasa decided to stay behind and charged me with becoming godmother to her child if anything were to happen to her in battle."

Well that was the first time I was hearing that!

Ryuujin gazed into space as he thought long and hard over the situation at hand. "What else did she say?"

Grimly, Sora replied, "She also said if she did not return within 48 hours of my leaving her, to follow through with my promise and assume she is dead."

"Then all we can do is wait..."

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During the long wait for Mom, I had the opportunity to know Sora a little better, and observe her beauty as well. She was a dragon about two-thirds the size of Ryuujin with similar features to him except that her hair didn't end on her head, but traveled all down her back and to her winding tail. Her coloration was also different in that she resembled the color turquoise which leaned slightly more toward the green shade, her hair was snowy as well, and she had smoldering copper eyes.

It turns out that dragons have another ability that allows them to hide in plain sight, which if this is true here might explain why nobody ever saw dragons in my old world. They have the ability to use their chakra not only for elemental purposes, but also for transformations. And by transformations, I mean into humans. She looked beautiful before as a dragon, but as a human, she was enchanting. She still had her same coloration, but if I could compare her to someone I knew from my old world, I would say that she looks like the anime version of Carla Gugino.

POOF!

"Raiga! What news?"

The messenger didn't want to answer. Anyone could tell from the way he refused to look in anyone's eyes what news he brought, but I didn't want to believe it.

"Tsubasa is…"

Please don't say it.

"She is dead."

No.

"She died trying to defend her friend Mebuki and her family, but they all perished. Also, Kushina and Minato are gone as well. All that remains of them is their son, Naruto Uzumaki, who is now the container for the Kyuubi."

This is all wrong, wrong! Mom is not supposed to die, and neither was Sakura or her family! How could this all have changed? I alerted Sora to my discomfort with this conversation by wailing as loud as I could for the loss of my Mom. I wanted out of there.

However, it was a man who picked me up from my makeshift crib, a man who resembled Hugh Jackman if he had long gold hair and amber eyes. I was so startled that, I ceased crying despite the fat tears rolling down my cheeks.

"With this great loss, Little Akina is the last who would become a summoner to us dragons. We must raise her as one of us, and teach her our ways. As was promised by my wife to Tsubasa, my family shall adopt Akina into our home with love. She is now your newest princess."

Wait, this all going too fast! I-I can't!

"Welcome to the family, little one."

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8 Years Later…

I can honestly say that despite my initial thoughts about living in a chain of forested mountains with dragons for family, my childhood was the best that I could have hoped for in an adopted family or any family rather.

Sora became my second Mom, to the point where I do call her Mom. It took a while for me to heal from the loss of my other Mom, Tsubasa. But with time, I was able to see that I loved my new family as much as I loved Tsubasa, and I refused to give any bit of it up. Ryuujin was the best Dad I could ever have asked for. I never knew either of my fathers, so he was easier for me to come to love. His gentleness around me as a child was endearing and his advice was the greatest. Plus, he was the best partner when it came to pulling pranks on others! Ichigo and Nami were the best older siblings a girl could ask for. Sure they were annoying, but that's in the job description (they even showed it to me).

My childhood was better than I could have imagined after I heard of my Mother's death by the hands of Kyuubi. I had changed a lot as well. My once baby length alabaster-white hair had grown significantly, as was custom for the females of all dragon clans, and it reached the small of my back. I also realized that I looked just like a younger version of my Mother with cobalt eyes instead of Mother's silver. In a way, my appearance was my own silent reminder that while I still miss my Mother very much, I still have her love with me where ever I go. Along with learning that lesson, I learned so much from the dragons themselves. Some of the things I learned will be exciting to show others, which leads me to what is happening now.

Today is the day that I join the Academy.

While my childhood had been spent on Mount Ryuujin, I still had a place in Konoha according to the Third Hokage, the leader of the village after Minato died. Both Mom and Dad decided that I needed to interact with other "human" children my own age, so here I was at the front gates of the Academy, anxious to go in, but also nervous as hell to go in.

As I kept debating with myself, I suddenly was knocked forward by what I imagined was someone who was late, kind of like I was. I stumbled towards the ground, but with my reflexes, I quickly put my hands in front of me and landed in a push-up position.

"Sorry, ya'know!"

No way.

I turned towards the culprit who had bumped me as I stood again. He appeared to be my age, but his goofy grin made him seem younger, like he had no care in the world. Sunbeam colored hair mopped haphazardly on his head and his bangs sat above deep cerulean eyes which sparkled with mischief. Whisker-like birthmarks adorned his bright face as he continued to smile and observe the stranger in front of him: me.

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki! And one day, I'm gonna be the Hokage!"

I was so stunned that I was actually meeting Naruto for the first time that I forgot to react right away. But I quickly remedied that by giving the most encouraging smile I could muster and held out my hand to him.

"Pleased to meet you, Naruto. My name is Akina Morimoto, and I think you will be a great Hokage one day!"

This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!