Hello, Hopeless Blue Kiss here, and I would like to thank those who have reviewed. I would also like to thank Byakko Ta once again for editing this chapter. I really had hoped to get more reviews than two but here's hoping this chapter will fair better. So hope you enjoy and will be nice enough to review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto… I don't own the song lyrics either… Three Days Grace has the rights to 'Gone Forever…'

Feels like a hundred years, I
Still can't believe you're gone.
So I'll stay up all night,
With these bloodshot eyes,
While these walls surround me with the story of our life…

Dream Girl

He was…

His mind struggled to conjure up the right word that could wrap around the feeling that blossomed in his chest, to finally come to a halt at the perfect word, 'reluctant.'

He had been reluctant to stop himself from coming to the beach that held such bittersweet memories. He had been reluctant to draw away from that strange, dark-haired boy up on the cliff. And now, he was reluctant to step into the modest, but still beautiful, beach house that was far enough from the beach to create low risks of salty spray peeling the paint, yet close enough to hear the lolling sound of waves at night.

'It's not like it's home any more.' He thought, frowning as he smacked his hand lightly back and forth against the bush next to him. The soft, rustling sound didn't stop him from conjuring up a picture of his family playing in the, now, empty yard from his memory.

BEGIN FLASHBACK

His mother was holding a reluctant Rini in her arms, who seemed insistent in joining the game of 'monsters' her father and brother were playing. The overdone, but terribly funny, roar of the daddy monster as he gnashed his teeth and hunched his back, stumbling towards his giggling son would have been tempting to join in by almost anyone. The ending was always the same: Rini would finally manage to wriggle free, despite a token protest from their mother, before both she and Naruto were pinned down and tickled by their father.

END FLASHBACK

That memory smelled so sweetly of fresh sea air, their mother's prize-winning gardenias, and their fathers' Old Spice. However, just as it halted the boy's hand from whacking at the bush and made him smile truly for what seems like centuries, his face darkened as the memory suddenly decided to invade him further, leaving him, once again, with the view of his home. His azure orbs noted the fact that his mother's gardenias were still trying to thrive, despite the invasion of weeds that, before the accident, his mother would fight to protect her garden from.

BEGIN FLASHBACK

Her children would flank her sides at least thirty minutes each day to help her pull any signs of a weed out of her garden. Both of the twins, of course, would wear something matching, such as a pair of overalls without a shirt and a straw hat, while they ran around without shoes, and occasionally liking to curl their toes around the healthy black soil before their mother shooed them away to put on at least a pair of sandals. Or, they would wear a pair of shirts that might say something cute like, 'I'm the Evil Twin' that would make their mother frown until they both leaned forward to kiss either side of her cheeks. Though their mother was a stickler for detail, they loved her nonetheless.

In the afternoons, wherever they were inside their home, when the sound of their father's car pulling onto the path to their home was noticed, they would let out a cry of excitement and speed towards the driveway. Their fathers' legs weren't safe as soon as he began to get out of the car. Nonetheless, he would make sure the convertible top was up, depending on the weather. His kids would wrap around either of his legs, and he would start a big show of stumbling and wobbling, before swinging each of his legs around so that the twins squealed in delight, their round, little arms hugging harder as they shared grins between each other and their father before their dad shook them off, one after the other, so they plopped happily on the grass giggling.

END FLASHBACK

This time his eyes misted over at the memory as he gave the bush one vehement slap before he walked purposely towards the house. His strides, which seemed to eat away the distance just moments ago, began to slow down as he got to the front-steps and slowly mounted them. Carefully, he opened and closed the door before he began the process of slowly walking up the stairs to the bathroom without disturbing his mother.

He glanced into the mirror in front of the sink, turning on the faucet. His slim fingers hastily combed his windswept hair down into manageable strands as a tongue swiped quickly over slightly cracked lips. It was after the blonde went through the motions of removing the gritty evidence of himself being at the beach and scrubbed his tearstained face clean that he decided it best to approach his mother to let her know he was at least alive.

But even when he wanted to alert his mother to his presence, he wasn't dense enough to run down the stairs. His poor ears did not need to get a lecture about young ladies not doing such things.

His fingers suddenly gravitated towards his lips as he thought of how she would pop him on the mouth sometimes as well, to stress her point, and then, when she saw his eyes widen in surprise and tears, she would draw him into her arms and apologize over and over again. Her fingers would comb quickly through his hair, repeating, 'Mommy loves you and wants to do what is best.'

He jerked his hand away, trying to shake the memory away. That, among other memories, were ones that he would gladly forget. His footsteps were careful and precise as he came closer to where he believed his mother was. His body paused to steel himself against the task ahead; he breathed in deeply before letting it out, trying to relax himself. 'Now count backwards from: 10…9... 8... 7… 6... 5... 4… 3... 2... 1…'

"Mommy, I'm back," he breathed out softly as soon as he came to what remained of the living room. His azure orbs had already taken in the fact that his mother had packed even more boxes than when he had slipped out during the morning. His eyes snapped back to his mother when he noticed that she had been staring too long at him.

His toes dug into the carpet, burying themselves in the soft feel of the fluffy, blue fiber before he felt the strong desire to hop from foot to foot. 'Look away, look away, look away,'he chanted the mantra in his head as those eyes, so like his own, seemed to almost look through him.

And then, just as suddenly as he was ready to turn around and run up the stairs to his room, he heard his mother call him.

"Come here sweetie," she coaxed. Her voice had a bit more life then one would expect. She stiffly opened her arms out to him, as if she had never thought before of welcoming someone into her arms for a hug.

Of course, he obediently came. His body felt, once again, that word of being 'reluctant,' but he set himself silently on autopilot. More then once, he congratulated the fact that he could easily put one foot in front of the other, every time, as he walked woodenly towards his mother, before two arms folded around him. His lips already sought the cheek offered to him to kiss, before resting his head docile-like against her shoulder.

It was as if they were playing 'mother and child'. A stranger walking into the room would have thought their movements forced and almost 'old-fashioned'. Their heads would probably shake sympathetically before they decided to seek company elsewhere, leaving the boy to wait quietly for his mother to speak first.

Naruto flinched, almost invisibly to anyone who was not expecting it, as his mother repeated his dead sister's name over and over again. "Rini, Rini, Rini. You are such a comfort to me ever since… since…" Her mouth could not work out the rest of the words that her brain willingly supplied to her.

"It's alright Mommy," Naruto said automatically, as if he had heard these words repeatedly before. And like a good little actor, he realized his cue and said the three words that he was supposed to supply for his invisible audience's pleasure.

"No, it's not alright Rini… I… hmm… But don't you worry, sweetie. We are almost packed and when we are finished we can finally leave this 'place'," she declared, a bit more spirited. The last word was swimming in scorn of the house and memories that forced her to see her husband smiling warmly to her from the children's door… to see his image and that of her son following around her husband like a shadow, haunting her day and night with no respite… But not anymore. As soon as she got rid of this place, her troubled thoughts could slowly be at rest.

"I can't wait," he forced out. He then pulled his head from her shoulder to show her a strained smile that trembled unstably on his lips, as if it would fall at any moment to lie as shards along with his old life. His heart wanted to scream at her that he did not want to leave. If he left… Naruto would be lost to him forever, as his mother forced the presence of his dead sister onto him. "But m… maybe we can still… possibly… you know I still have money in my piggybank and maybe if we… maybe we can keep the house?" He ventured, aborting and starting new words to voice, an opinion that he knew stood no chance to see its birth cherished and realized.

Naruto's body jerked backwards, and he could not help a small cry as she held him at arms length. His mother's eyes narrowed into a glare, though nothing could hide the feverish gleam in her eyes, and her fingers convulsed tighter on his aching limbs as she gave her child a violent shake.

"We are selling this place, Rini. We have to if we are ever going to start fresh. Don't you want to live a normal life again, Sweetie?" she questioned, her words coming quickly out from her lips, before she gave him another shake to get him to speak and reassure her that what she was doing was right.

"B… but what if I don't want to start fresh? What if I just wa… I'm sorry… you're right." His beginning argument died on his lips, before he quickly mustered a shitty apology.

"Mommy forgives you because now you are being a good girl… You see that Mommy wants only to do what is best for her little Rini," his mother said sweetly pressing the boy's body against her own. She hugged him as closely as she dared without squeezing the life out of him. Her lips moving to kiss his forehead once more, before she began to furiously pet his silky locks, as if her child was an overlarge doll.

"Of course…" Naruto trailed off, forcing his head up some so it wouldn't be smashed against his mother's chest. His eyes were unable to look away from the picture frame yet to be packed away. The image was of his smiling family, staring happily back at him without a care in the world. He could see their smiling faces clearly, before they misted over from the wave of tears collecting in his eyes.

'Define normal…'

To be continued…