"Hey, Toru!" Naruto called to the dragon. Toru mumbled a greeting before turning back to the grave. A couple tears spilled down his cheeks.
"It's been seven years." Toru said quietly, so unlike the mischievous, hyper dragon that he usually was. Naruto put his hand on Toru's scaly shoulder. "I still times where I think she's still alive. I keep expecting her to run into my room, babbling about being banished from Konaha for knocking down a stack of the Hokage's paperwork." He chuckled.
Toru snorted, "Yea, she almost did knock down the guy carrying the papers one time. It took two hours to make her shut up. And she didn't even touch the guy."
They both sat in silence, going over memories of the blue-scaled dragon. When the sun started going down, Naruto stood. "See ya later, Toru, don't stay out too late." Naruto said, walking back toward the village.
When Naruto was gone, Toru finally gave in to his emotions. Tears streamed down his face.
…………………..
Despite what Toru thought, Naruto had jumped into the trees and watched sadly as Toru started sobbing. "Toru…" Shaking away his own tears he headed back to the village.
Toru still missed Tala horribly. Toru would always say that he was fine, that Tala promised she would come back. Despite what he said, Naruto could tell how much Tala's death affected him. His dragon form had slight differences that no one but Naruto noticed.
His scales were slightly duller, his eyes less happy. No matter how much Toru denied it, Naruto could tell. Finally after seven years, he was starting to lose hope. Tala promised they would meet again, but how could she know? How is it possible for her to come back from the dead?
As he pondered these questions, he almost didn't notice when he reached Konaha. After learning who his father was he and Sakura had moved into the Namikaze mansion. Thankfully after the war he became more respected. There were only a few people who still glared at him when he walked down the street. The rest merely ignored him, while some even nodded to him.
Some people had even begged forgiveness when they found out he was the Namikaze heir.
Reaching the mansion he opened the door. A blur of blond hair rammed into him. Bright blue eyes looked up at him. "Daddy!" He chuckled as he hoisted the young girl up to his shoulders.
"Hey Miza, what's going on, and why aren't you in bed?" He asked.
"She refused to even go into her room until you got home." Sakura chuckled, coming from the kitchen. Naruto gave a mock-stern stare to the grinning four-year old in his arms.
"But, daddy, I couldn't go to sleep without saying good night!" Tamiza pouted. Naruto chuckled and planted a kiss on the top of her head.
"Okay, then, good night!" Naruto said cheerfully, carrying his daughter to her room. Miza attempted to fling herself out of her father's arms, only to be caught before she could even hit the ground. Miza stared at her father in surprise, who only grinned and explained, "Ninja reflexes."
Naruto reached the young girl's bed and dropped her on, quickly wrapping her into the covers. He leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead before turning off the light and closing the door, whispering, "Good night."
A small, "Night, love you daddy," was heard before the door clicked shut. Smiling softly, Naruto walked over to Sakura who was in the living room, an amused look on her face.
"We spoil her." Sakura complained with a smile. Naruto grinned in response. "Yeah." He said with a sigh, trailing off. He walked over to a blue couch, sprawling across it.
"What's wrong, you seem out of it." Sakura asked when Naruto started to stare off into La La land.
"Toru." He replied. It only took that one word for Sakura to figure out what was wrong. Toru was a dear friend to both of them and they knew how he had been getting worse and worse as the months went by.
"You remember her promise, right?" Naruto asked, staring into old memories as his eyes took on a vacant look.
"Yeah." She replied, settling on the couch next to him. She rested he head against Naruto's hard chest.
"Toru's finally starting to see the impossibility to her promise. He's losing hope." Naruto sighed. Seeing his friend and comrade like this was killing him. (Hypothetically of course.)
He felt Sakura slowly drifting to sleep, curled up against him. He smiled softly; dealing with a two year old was very exhausting. He laid his head against her shoulder and closed his eyes.
Before he succumbed to sleep he thought, 'Tala, why did you have to leave?'
…………………….
The three chunin stared at each other in disbelief. After they had been briefed on their mission they had quickly retreated. Now the three sat in Kumiko's small apartment.
Finally Kaito broke the silence. "What the hell?" His headband was off, showing shocked brown eyes.
"Why the hell do we need to capture some random shinobi…from Konaha." Kumiko asked.
"Who knows, but…a mission's a mission." Shinichi responded, pushing his chair back as he stood. "We leave in a few hours so we should get ready. Meet you two at the gate in three hours." And with that Shinichi was gone.
"He's right, it's a mission, so we have to complete it." Kumiko said, also getting up. She headed toward a door on the opposite side of the room. Kaito also got up and headed to the door next to Kumiko's.
They both lived in the same apartment due to there not being enough housing in the small village.
Kumiko wandered around her room gathering all the weapons she owned. As she packed she started thinking back about when she and her teammates had joined the small village.
Kaito and Shinichi had found each other after their villages were destroyed. Shinichi and Kaito had families who were killed. The group had created the Hidden Forest village ten years ago, Kaito and Shinichi were the very first students in the village academy, taught by a few ex-shinobi whose villages had been destroyed. Kumiko had been found wandering around exhausted and with a severe case of amnesia about seven years ago. She couldn't remember anything before those seven years and probably never would.
"Alayscali, why does that sound so familiar?" Kumiko pondered, as she sealed her larger weapons into a scroll.
………………….
Toru lay by Tala's grave, pacing restlessly. He finally came to a stop, letting tears drop onto the gravestone. "Tala, where are you?"
A small breeze blew by and a whisper echoed through his mind, startling him out of his thoughts.
'Soon dear brother, soon.'
……………….
Yeah! New chapter! Although I have some bad news. My first year of high school starts in about a week meaning…very slow updates. I'm so sorry! This weekend I'm going to my friends cabin, so there probably won't be a new chapter for a little bit, I'll try to get at least one out before school starts.
So, anyone guess who Tala is? Smiles evilly, remember, not everything is how it appears…trails off mysteriously.