Naruto : Monsters

I felt Naruto shift as she faced her mother's grave, her back against my own, arms moving in excitement as she resumed telling her the story of our now infamous first D-rank mission.

Around us the cemetery was dark, the sun had set long ago, while above us, the stars glimmered like an ocean of jewels in the night sky. With little light pollution to compete against they shone more brightly than I had ever seen back on my old world. And between the stars sat the moon, a lone island in the middle of the ocean, providing us all the light we needed to see with.

I leaned a little further back into Naruto and stared up at the sky, taking the sight in. Sitting on the ground with our backs to one another, propping each other up by leaning on the others back. Naruto was naturally facing her mother's grave while I got a view of Konoha instead.

It was a rather beautiful sight from up here. The hill towered over everything so there was nothing to block my view and I could see the entire village laid out before me like a painting, thousands of tiny lights blazing from windows pierced the darkness, mirroring the stars that hung above.

I've long lost count of the hours we had spent up here together, Naruto speaking to her mother, telling her about her year while I just sat back against her, quietly listening to her speak.

Like every year, Naruto would start out slow, hesitant and uncertain. For the first few minutes, her conversation came in fits and starts or spoken in near-silent murmurs more often than not, her usual bravado nowhere to be seen. She constantly kept stopping in mid-speech, looking unsure what to say, only to visibly gather up her courage and start up again.

And like every year, I did nothing but watch as she did this, sitting quietly by her side in silent support, knowing this was something she had to do on her own. But as the minutes, then hours passed us by, she steadily began to get over her nerves and started to get really into it, until she ended up chattering non-stop while gesturing all over the place as she tried to emphasize certain points during a story.

She told her everything that had happened throughout the year. From her pranks to the time she spent in the Hyuuga compound, the Genin Exam, her new teammates and our latest missions. She talked about the everyday little misadventure she's been through to the major events of her life.

I stayed silent through most of this, only occasionally interjecting to throw in a comment or two when Naruto had forgotten to mention certain bits of a story or tried to leave out the more embarrassing moments.

She talked about Shikamaru, who she referred to as 'the laziest Genin Konoha had ever seen since Kakashi was promoted to Chuunin'. Though for all that she complained about our resident Nara, she ended her assessment of his character by saying, "He might be the laziest bum around but, well, he ain't so bad when you get to know him."

Kakashi never shied away from the topic of the Kyuubi and even tried to encourage us to do the same. So unlike in the show where Naruto's status as a Jinchuuriki had hung over the team's head like an invisible guillotine, one that they all knew was there but did their best to ignore, Kakashi went out of his way to bring the topic up as often as he could. 

It wasn't exactly smooth sailing at first, nothing like talking about the killer Kaiju that murdered a good chunk of your village and was currently caged inside the body of the little girl standing next to you to kill the mood, but got over it fast. Kakashi's method might have been blunter than I would have preferred but it did eventually help dispel any awkwardness around talking about the Kyuubi and we reached the point you'd often find our team discussing the Kyuubi or the Tailed-beasts in general.

It might have been thanks to the environment that Kakashi created or maybe it was a sign of how much maturity Naruto over the years that she was no longer terrified of rejection, but one day Naruto had straight-up confronted Shikamaru on her status of the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi.

One day, as we finished our daily training session, she stomped up to Shikamaru, looking as if she was heading to war, and cornered him before he could sneak back home. Staring him straight in the eye, she outright asked if her being the Kyuubi's host would be a problem.

Shikamaru, back slouched more than usual due to exhaustion, hair thoroughly soaked with sweat and plastered against his forehead, sent her a tired glare as he drawled out, "If I wrote down every single reason why I hate you, the both of you," he amended, shooting a quick glare at me over Naruto's shoulder.

"I would have a list over two miles wide. And trust me, you being a Jinchuuriki won't be anywhere on it. You could be the reincarnation of the Kyuubi for I care and it still wouldn't make it on the list. Now, will you leave me alone already so I can get some damn rest."

He barely managed to take a single step before he found himself trapped in one of Naruto's bone-breaking hugs.

"This," he wheezed, fighting to breathe, "this is going on the list."

After that Naruto told her mother about our new Sensei, Kakashi.

"He's a dick."

And that was pretty much all she had to say.

I couldn't help but give our grey-haired Sensei a sympathetic wince. Kakashi, my man, I don't know what to tell you but you need to shape up fast and redeem yourself because your reputation is in tatters.

It was a good thing the cemetery was empty because with how loud Naruto was talking we would have bothered a lot of people. With the exception of the grave-keeper, a taciturn man that only nodded in greeting whenever we saw him, the only other people we'd seen were an elderly couple who visited a grave a few levels below, paid their respects to dead relatives before leaving only a quarter of an hour later.

This was how it usually was at this time of year.

Rather it was like this all year round. With the exception of Obon, the traditional time to visit dead relatives, the cemetery was usually empty. However, during the Obon season, the place would get crowded, jam-packed with people as entire families came to visit the dead. So it was a good thing Naruto preferred visiting her mom on Kushina's birthday instead because the experience would have been far more public than either one of us would have preferred otherwise.

Not to mention awkward.

A lot of the recent graves around us were from the victims of the Kyuubi. And while no one would have begrudged her for coming, it would have made the entire experience awkward when we would be surrounded by people mourning their family and loved ones they lost during the Kyuubi attack. So it was better for all involved if we just avoided the cemetery during that time.

But even had that not been the case we would have still have preferred coming now rather than during Obon. It was far more private this way and we ended up having the entire cemetery to ourselves.

"That's when Ji-ji whacked his pipe on Kakashi-Sensei's head." Naruto lifted her hand up before swinging it down, yelling out 'whack' as she did so before she collapsed into giggles. "It was hilarious mom, you should have seen his face. Well, you couldn't really see his face through his mask and all, but I could tell anyway. And...and...and," Naruto trailed off, drifting into silence before a moment later I felt her slumping on my back, "and this is stupid."

"Naruto?" I turned my head to glance behind me.

"This is stupid Hikaru," She muttered, slumping further against me and slipping lower to the ground.

"What is?"

"This." She waved a hand awkwardly before her, "Trying to hold a conversation when I don't even know what she would say. Heck, I don't even know her."

"Hey," I turned around completely and Naruto, who had been leaning against me, dropped into my lap. I scooted around to make sure she was comfortable, "Don't say that now."

"But it's true." She looked up at me, her head nestled in my lap, blue eyes so bright even in the dark, "I don't know her. Hikaru, I don't know my own mom. I wish that I did but I don't, I don't know a single thing about her. Not one thing. What was she like? What did she hate? Would she laugh at my pranks or scold me for them? Was she strict like your dad or was she like Mio-san?"

"God I hope not," I murmured, partly serious and partly to brighten the mood. "I don't think the world could survive if there were two Mios."

My little joke, however, did nothing to cheer her up and Naruto continued staring forlornly at the grave.

When she spoke next, her voice was quiet, and there was a tiredness in it that I never wanted to hear coming from her.

"Sometimes I feel so stupid doing this," she whispered, "talking to someone I don't know. I don't even know if she would have even liked me."

"Now you're just being silly." Brushing away a strand of hair from her face, I stared down at her. "Your mother loved you Naruto."

"But Hikaru," She yelled back, her eyes shining brightly with what may have been tears. "I killed her. If she didn't have me she would still be-"

"Hey," I flicked her on the nose, causing her to wince and crinkle her nose in surprise, "none of that now. 

How many times have we talked about this? Your mother loved you, and nothing is ever going to change that. Not even death. And I know that if she could go back in time and do it all over again, she would still choose to have you, and with her dying breath she'd still tell you this" 

I wrapped my arms loosely around her and lowered my head so that my eye hung over hers, "'Thank you for being born'." I smiled down at the blonde, "And that's a fact."

...

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