Chapter 7: By your side
Hey what what is up everybody! I'm very happy to say that I'm back! :)
The first thing I want to explain to you guys is that I decided to take advantage of the summer vacation by taking a break from writing this fic until school starts once again. But the thing is I underestimated how busy I was gonna be now that I'm in Grade 11. I was born in the Philippines and Philippine schools basically have this whole "K to 12" thing where we basically have additional two more years , Grade 11 and 12, before entering college.
And because of how busy I was I was BARELY able to update this fic whatsoever and for the past few months I was only able to write this chapter bit by bit whenever I have time. So I DEEPLY apologize for the very long wait for this but just know that I won't have a fixed schedule for updates on this fic but know that this fic is not abandoned.
And with that done, here's the chapter! :)
"...I can't...remember them..." Her eyes slowly widened in horror as those words slowly left her mouth as the eerie silence passed by them.
"W-what?!" Naruto said in utter shock.
"I-I can't remember my parents! M-My mother...My father..w-what were they like?!" Kaguya asked herself as she held her head doing her absolute best to find even the faintest memory but there was nothing. She practically couldn't recall anything regarding her parents.
And it was not just her parents, but also everything regarding her childhood and her early adolescent life.
She tried her absolute best, finding any memory that centers on her early years. But it was futile, as she can't recall none. Everything was just a dark fuzzy void.
"It's no use! I can't remember them!" The heiress shouted. "What do I do?! What do I do?! What do I do?!" It was at this point that tears were threatening to pour down from the eyes of the heiress, her heart was pounding from horror and all her mental searching just causes the pain in her head to skyrocket.
Fortunately, she then felt a familiar warmth on her hand..
Even though her sight was a bit blurry since her eyes were now drenched, she could still tell that Naruto was showing a look of guilt and pity as she looked up at him. "N-Naruto-Kun?"
"H-hey, don't cry Kaguya-chan," Naruto tried to cheer her up with a soft smile though still feeling a bit awkward about this. "I..I kinda know understand how you feel,"
The snowy-haired heiress looked at him in confusion as she tries to wipe her leaking tears. "What do you mean?..." And now that she thinks about it, she still has little knowledge about the blond boy sitting in front of her in terms of his family life and that was enough to arouse her curiosity and allowing her to be distracted from her inner turmoil for now.
"Well for one,...my parents died the night I was born," Naruto began while looking up the sky and heard the girl beside him lightly gasp. "And because of that, I can't remember what they looked like or what they sound like whatsoever. I pretty much thought that they just blatantly left me behind for no reason at all,"
As Naruto layed down in the grass with his hands behind his head as he continued. "But no, it wasn't like that at all,"
"How come?" Kaguya asked, urging him to continue.
"It tuns out that they sacrificed themselves to save my life and seal the Nine-tails." Naruto explains as a sad smile marred his face. "Though, when I found out that my dad was the one that made me a Jinchuriki I was really pissed," the blond boy admitted with an embarrassed chuckle as he tries to recall the things he said during that moment.
Kaguya closed her currently agape mouth and asked. "W-wait, how did you know all that if your parents died the night you were born?"
Naruto grinned in response. "I actually met them through their Chakra,"
Ignoring Kaguya's quizzical "Huh?" He continued. "When I first met dad, was pretty much like "Why would you seal the Nine-Tails in your own son? Do you have any idea what I've been through?!" Something like that ehehehe, I pretty much just freaked out" Naruto said with a embarrassed smile while scratching his cheek. He was still a bit embarrassed that the first thing he did to his dad was to punch him and then reducing himself to crying buckets.
Kaguya tried to speak. "Naruto-kun, That must've been hare for you to swallow-" but Naruto cuts her off by raising his hand, telling her to stop.
"Don't worry about it Kaguya-chan, I was over that for a long time now," He said as he beamed her an assuring smile. "And besides, after talking to them,I realized just how much they actually cared and loved me, and that's what's important for all parents!" Naruto concluded with a thumbs up.
"T-That's good to hear...a parent should love their child with all their very being and always protect them," Kaguya stated and Naruto was certain that she was trying to cheer herself up again by letting out her optimistic and joyous side that was buried by her shy and meek exterior.
"But...the fact that I don't have any recollection of my own parents just disheartens me..." Kaguya said as her previous smile began to immediately drop into a deep frown with her eyes now becoming a bit more lidded with misery.
Naruto frowned as well and tried to think of a reason on what might be the cause to Kaguya's memory gap. "Kaguya-chan," he called out.
Once the girl had her attention on him, he continued. "I think you're amnesia..mmnn..How do I put this? Maybe it has something to do from you're sepeation from from you're other self otherwise known as the Ten-tails,"
When the heiress just looked at him quizzically, he elaborated further as he sat up. "What I'm saying is that maybe you're other self had all of your missing memories,"
The Jinchuriki's theory essentially says that when the Ten-tails was separated from Kaguya, so did majority of her memories and thus leaving the snowy-haired heiress with only mere fragments of any recollection from her past.
The statement practically made the girl's eyes widen slightly and was even a bit impressed at the blondes thinking and how it perfectly applies to her situation and she smiled softly only for her to frown again. "But if that was the case, then..we can't do anything about it because..well..she's gone now,"
Naruto at this point was thinking on ways that might be able to bring back the girls memories. "Mmm..We could go to Ino and have her use her mind-justu thing on Kaguya-chan and have her dig deep in her mind to find it more of them," Though after a bit of pondering, Naruto scratched the idea as his theory of Kaguya's other self housing her missing memories came back to his mind. "What a minute, I don't think Ino's Justu even has that kind of feature either."
"Ahhh! There's gotta be a way!" Naruto yelled while running both of his hands throughout his mop of golden locks in frustration.
"Naruto-kun, I-its okay," Kaguya softly assured. "I..I deserve this," the girl decided to continue the moment the blond boy raised his brow. "Maybe..this is fate's way of telling me that this is my punishment and that this is w-what I deserve you know? By making me lose half of my memories."
Naruto's frown deepens ever so slightly as he gave the snowy-haired heiress a stern look. "Stop saying that. It was the Ten-tails that pretty much took half of your memories along with it." But the boy then softly smiled as he stood up.
"But stop beating yourself up. I-If there really is no other way, then you can do now is live with what you have right now and make new memories here in the present with all of us. But, once we do find a way to get your memories back, we'll go for that chance immediately- dattebayo!" Naruto proclaimed, his smile filled with optimism as ever as he offered his hand to the heiress who at the moment was a bit speechless.
He..He was right. If she can't recall the past, then all she can do now is focus on both the present and future with Naruto and make new memories combined with what she has left of her memories. And she will continue to hope for the day where her lost memories will be restored.
Now bearing a soft smile, Kaguya took the boys hand and gently pulled her up. "So stop saying negative stuff okay? Doing that all the time can really put you in a lot of mental stress," Naruto said with a bright smile.
"I'll try," replied the girl and the Jinchuriki understood on how she's still a bit shaken up by this.
"Arigatou Naruto-Kun, your such a nice person," the snow-haired heiress said with a soft smile while wiping a tear off with her finger.
Naruto blushed ever so slightly as he averted her gaze as he awkwardly tries to say something. "W-well right now there's still the slightest chance that you can get your memories back and if that chance does show up, we go for it immediately!"
"Right!" Kaguya nodded, her features now brightened as she dusts off her kimono.
"So, you wanna head back to the Toad Geezer?" Naruto asked while turning around, the gaze of his other eye still fixated at her from the corner of his eye.
The girl was quick to make a small jump in order for her to be right next to the blond boy. "Yes, let's go back to Gamma-chan," she said with a small smirk as she slightly skipped on ahead.
Naruto still couldn't help but sweat drop at Kaguya's nickname for the Toad Sage coupled with an awkward laugh as he trudged along the ground leading downhill and back to the ground.
As Naruto followed the snowy-haired goddess downhill, the memory of Kaguya's sorrow contorted face went back to him and it made him softly clenched his fist as the blond teen has officially makes a resolve to never have Kaguya cry again.
"I'll damn make sure of it- dattebayo!"
And with that resolve forged in his head, Naruto catches up to the heiress and the two once again began chatting casually as they continued their little treck down the mountain. Through their conversations, Kaguya asked Naruto if there were other types of ramen provoking the Jinchuriki's excitement as he explained the vast varieties of ramen as much as his memory could provide.
"Wait.. there's even a ramen topping that has the same name as you?" Kaguya asked a bit surprised to which Naruto responded with a nod.
"Yeah, in fact I was named after that toping intentionally...Though, I think malestorm is a much cooler meaning in my opinion," Naruto said with a shaky smile complete with a sweatdrop. While he is a bit happy that his name is connected to his favorite food, the term 'Fish cake' tends sounds really lame for a name. And he isn't really a fan of silly names.
So when he first discovered the ramen topping as a young lad, his name practically became an ironic joke for everyone to say.
"I agree!" Kaguya nodded with a serious look. "Your name would sound really lame if it's only meaning is 'Fish cake'!"
"P-please don't remind me," Naruto said with his head now lowered with his smile still quivering as Kaguya slightly giggled in amusement.
As the duo can continues their walk downhill, Kaguya decided to ask another question. "How did it feel?" When Naruto gave her a questioning glance, she continued. "Living a life with a beast inside you I mean.."
Kaguya saw blond boy giving her a quizzical look before responding. "Well, let's just say childhood wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for me," he began with a sheepish smile.
"As far as I can remember, everyone either pretends I don't exist and avoid me like the plague, or they treat and abuse me like absolute shit,"
What?! Kaguya was shocked by that her friend was treated so horribly in the past, and a part of her actually wants to give the villagers a piece of her mind by flaring out her power before them, but she wouldn't do that for only her possessed self would do that.
She was free to start anew and she will forever be thankful to whoever deity was stronger than her for this second chance.
"Why? Did you do something wrong?" Questioned Kaguya. When Naruto told her his story, he didn't include his early childhood and the snowy haired heiress doubts that Naruto would do something heinous.
"What? No, never" Naruto replied with a wave from his hands in defense. "It's just that..Mmnn,let's just say someone took control of Kurama and made him go crazy and completely berserk in the middle of the village and as you would expect, a large fat chunk of the village was pretty much wiped,"
Kaguya then asked. "Kurama is the beast inside you right?" After a nod from the blonde boy, she responded with a frown and said. "So then, it's not you're fault! You were barely involved in any of that, there blindly focusing their anger on you!"
Naruto's lips curved ever so slightly as he tried to explain. "You're right that I was barely involved during that day, but you can't really blame the villagers..Many of them lost not only their homes, but also their loved ones. I kinda makes sense for them to take out their anger on the person where the beast lives in ya know,"
"But what you're saying is they judged you for what was living inside you and not even bother to look at Naruto-kun the person!" Kaguya protested, annoyance evident in her delicate face. "If I was the Hokage, I would've give them a piece of my mind! You are Naruto-kun the warrior for your village, not the destroyer of it!"
Fortunately, Naruto calmed down the snow-haired girl by patting her head and ruffled her hair a little. "Kaguya-chan, it's okay because after years of getting their attention with awesome pranks and proving myself to them after saving the village, they now accepted me completely!" He said with a grin. "And back then, while the pranks did sorts made me famous it wasn't in the way I envisioned it, all that was left back then is pretty much the people "giving me respect" part," he ended with a small chuckle.
Still frowning, Kaguya held her friend's hand with two of her hands tightly. "But..it must've been horrible wasn't it?"
Soflty sighing and griping onto her hands in return, Naruto responds. "Yeah..and really painful, I remember...wanting revenge on all of them, to become the animal they feared so much and just be done with it and to just make them all shut up ya know?, during those days I was practically very close to walking a path filled with nothing more than hatred and darkness and become the worst monster this world has ever seen, but...I'm glad I didn't..ehehe sorry for rambling a bit there," the blonde said with a soft chuckle.
Until he suddenly feels Kaguya's body pressed against him along with her slender arms wrapping around his neck and her chin resting on his shoulder.
"Don't apologize," she responded with a slight shook of her head. "I'm glad you told me about this, because it allowed me to get to know you more, and it just made me realize how much of an impact your friends made in your life."
Even though Naruto was currently in a state where his head is practically the same color as the hair of his mother, as he felt two large things press against him, he still managed to respond. "G-Glad I could help,"
Smiling gently, Kaguya tightened her embrace on him. "Those people that I met earlier, were they really just the ones that first accepted you back then?"
"Yeah but not all of them," Naruto responded. "There were some that I had to work hard on gaining there approval, and two of them I ended up having to kick their asses in order to make them realize that I'm not weak," Naruto laughed sheepishly.
The blonde's statement made the snowy haired girl sweatdrop in response accompanied with an awkward laughter. "Um, that good to hear.. I guess?"
Letting go of their embrace but still holding his hand, Kaguya continued. "But don't worry, for I completely accept you Naruto-kun! I'm now officially a member of your roster of friends that will always be by your side!" She said with raw enthusiasm with a cheery grin plastered on her delicate face with her eyes closed.
While it did took a bit of his willpower to not go 'aww' at the sight before him, Naruto grinned back as he patted her head once again. "Well, then in return I am now officially your first friend after centuries of isolation and I promise that I will always be at your side no matter what happens- dattebayo!"
Kaguya's azure eyes slightly widened. She never really thought about it, but Naruto is indeed her first friend after basically being comatose for centuries and as such, the blonde became that much more important to her before she responds with a cheerful nod as the two continues their walk down the mountain with their hands still joined together.