The tree was as beautiful as it had been since she was a little girl. Its great size and strength was a symbol that the entire village tried to emulate every day. Even while in the hospital, illness taking a little more of her life every second, she still tried to be strong. Though she knew it was hard.
"Mother, are you awake?" a man's voice called to her from the doorway to her room. She smiled as she saw her son and daughter in law enter. "Yes, I'm awake. It's so good to see you two."
The man and woman smiled as they approached her. "You seem better than yesterday." He said to her.
She nodded. "Yes, and how have you two been?"
"We're good mother. Very good actually."
"That's good to know. I'm happy you both are good, if only I could say the same."
He frowned at hearing that. "Oh come on, you're doing better every day. You'll be home in no time."
She smiled at his words. "Hopefully."
His face became sad as he saw how much hope she had lost. Over the past months she had developed a chakra disease that for most was survivable as most didn't have a large enough chakra pull for the disease to feed off of for very long, but his mother was an exception.
His wife came closer as she spoke. "Well, it's not just us two." The older woman looked to her daughter in law as she finally noticed the bundle in her arms. She gasped as she looked at them in shock. "Is that?"
They nodded as she gave her the tiny boundless. She held it close as she looked at the sleeping infant in her arms. "Ohh, she has our hair." She said as tears of joy began to form. Her son nodded. "And father's eyes."
She looked to him as the purist joy anyone could feel flushed over her face. "She's beautiful. You're the most beautiful thing there is. My little Fuu."
XXX
She layed in her bed in silence as the night began to take hold. Her son and daughter in law had left with little Fuu a few hours ago as they had other things they needed to do, but it was still nice to have seen them. If only she wasn't confined to this hospital she would have seen her granddaughter sooner.
She sighed as sleep eluded her. She didn't know why but something felt off. It was quiet. Too quiet. She didn't hear a single sound outside her room, how curious.
"Well, isn't this a shame? The village's weapon on its deathbed. How unfortunate." She turned to the voice as she noticed a cloaked figure standing by the now open windowsill. "Who are you?" She asked.
"That isn't important. Instead it's my purpose for being here that you should be asking." She didn't like this. She had been a shinobi for most of her life and yet she hadn't noticed him until he allowed her to. Who was he?
"Alright then. Why are you here?" She decided to humor him. If anything, it will buy time.
His face couldn't be seen from the shadows covering his hood though she knew he was staring at her. Then his voice came in a rough and dark tone. "To take the Seven Tails."