Naruto : Monsters

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."

...

"A fact, huh?" She responded gruffly back at me but even though she tried to hide it, I could tell she was pleased. "How would you know, you never met her either."

"Of course I know." I straightened up but left my arms where they were wrapped around her. "I don't need to meet her to know exactly what she would say if she was here."

"Oh yeah," she smirked up at me, eyebrows raised in challenge, "then tell me, if she was here what would she say?"

Though she tried to make it sound like a joke, there was an edge to her voice that let me know that she was serious.

Naruto really did expect me to know what Kushina would say.

There it was again, that absolute faith that this girl held for me.

Even though there was no possible way I could have known a thing about Uzumaki Kushina, she would believe every word that I said for no other reason than because I was the one who said it. That was one thing I could never understand, just why did Naruto believe in me, trusted me with every drop of her soul, even when it came to things I had no right knowing?

But even if I didn't understand why she did, I had no intention of ever proving her wrong.

"Well," I began, thinking back to the words she had spoken so long ago to her newborn daughter, "first of all, she'll start off by saying: Naruto, don't be a fussy eater."

Naruto looked gob-smacked, clearing not expecting me to say that, and she stared up at me with bewildered eyes before breaking out in laughter. "She would not!" Naruto guffawed, "Hikaru~, there is no way she would say that! Hahaha."

"Yes, she would." I answered primary, "Now hush and let me finish."

I waited for Naruto to stop her snickering before carrying on.

Clearing my throat, I recited the words as well as I could. "Naruto, don't be a fussy eater. Eat a lot and grow up to be a big girl. Take your bath every day. Go to bed early and sleep well. Make friends, it doesn't matter how many. Just make sure they're real friends, people you can trust. Even a few is enough."

"Got it." She nodded as she slipped her hand into mine and gave it a firm squeeze.

I squeezed back before continuing. "And study your ninjutsu, I never was any good at it, maybe you will be."

Naruto snorted, "Nope."

"Everybody has things they're good at and things they're not, don't feel bad if you can't do it at all." It honestly felt as if Kushina knew exactly how her daughter would have responded even so long ago. "Make sure to listen to the teachers at the Academy. And remember to avoid the three vices of Shinobi. Don't borrow money if you can help it. Save what you earn from missions."

"No worries there Mom, I'm rich." She quipped, watching her mother's grave from where she laid her head on my lap.

"No drinking alcohol until you're twenty. And don't overdo it, you'll ruin your body."

"As if Hikaru would let me," Naruto grumbled.

"Alcohol is evil and drunks are gross," I told her firmly, thinking about the few times Naruto tried to swipe a drink from one of the adults-only for me to stop her. "Now hush and let me finish."

I shut my eyes and took a moment to think of a better way to phrase Kushina's words before speaking. "As for men, well I don't know what to say, but there are only men and women in this world, and you'll want to get a boyfriend someday. Just try not to pick a weird one, try to find someone like your father."

"Sorry Mom, I'm not sure who my dad is," Naruto answered wistfully, as her father's identity is one of the few things that had been hidden from her. However, all signs of wistfulness were soon replaced as she gained a thoughtful look on her face. "But if your taste is like mine then Dad probably was a girly-boy wasn't he?"

"Hey!" I glared down at her, feeling vaguely insulted at that description, even if it did happen to aptly describe Minato. Naruto only snickered in response. "Just shut up and let me finish," I grumbled half-heartedly before resuming.

"And the fourth warning, watch out for Jiraiya-Sensei."

Naruto frowned and glanced up at me. "Who?" But I ignored the question and carried on.

"Naruto you're going to experience a lot of pain and suffering but be sure to remember who you are. Find a goal, find a dream, and don't stop trying until it comes true. There's-There's-There's so much I want to say, to teach you about, I want to stay with you, I love you.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't there to raise you, I wasn't there to love you! I wish I could have stayed with you.

"But most importantly, I want you to know.

"I love you.

"And thank you…

"For letting me be your mother, for letting your Dad be your father.

"Thank you for being our Daughter.

"Thank you."

Having finished conveying the words she wanted to deliver to her daughter since birth, I drifted into silence and gazed at the grave of Uzumaki Kushina.

For a long while, neither of us said a thing.

"Though it was only for a short time, even with everything that happened, they- they still-" I stopped and looked down at their daughter. "Naruto, you were really loved."

There was no greater truth than that.

Naruto nodded, unable to speak as her chin trembled slightly while her eyes shone as the tears they held reflected under the moonlight.

"Yeah," she whispered at last, her voice thick with emotion. "I was, wasn't I?"

As always, Naruto didn't ask how I knew this, only that I spoke the truth.

And so we both remained there, Naruto nestled in my lap while my arms lay wrapped around her, one of her hands in mine, and we looked at the grave of her mother and thought of what might have been.

...

"Bye Mom." Naruto walked backwards, waving to her mother's grave, wooden sandals click-clacking against the stone floor. "I'll see you again next year."

"Goodbye, Kushina-san." I called out over my shoulder, trailing after Naruto, but keeping my eyes firmly rooted on the blonde, "And don't worry, I'll keep an eye on the idiot and make sure she doesn't get in too much trouble."

"Hey!" Naruto shot me a glare, "I'm not an-ahhh!"

The edge of her wooden sandals got tangled up with the hem of her kimono when she spun to face me, throwing her off balance and tripping her. She began to lurch backwards, her arms pin-wheeling furiously in a futile attempt to regain her balance as she dropped to the stone floor.

I managed to snatch Naruto's hand in the last second, holding her up while her head dangled barely a foot off the floor. Quirking an eyebrow down at the blonde, "You were saying?"

"Ah...hahaha," She gave an awkward laugh, rubbed the back of her head with her other hand before shrugging. "Oops?

Rolling my eyes, I lifted her up and set her back down on her own two feet.

"Thanks." She flashed me a smile before turning around and resumed walking, properly this time. And when she didn't let go of my hand, I said nothing, and just allowed her to pull me along.

We had barely taken a couple of steps when I caught sight of another familiar grave just a stone throw away, and couldn't resist giving the top of it a friendly pat. "Nice seeing you again Mito," I said as we walked past it, "I'll see you next year so keep it real and stay awesome."

Naruto, thrown off as she usually was by my casual attitude towards the dead, shot me a bemused look.

"Are you sure you're allowed to do that?" She asked, dubiously, looking pointedly back at Uzumaki Mito's gravestone, "Isn't that, I don't know, disrespectful or something?"

"Nah, Mito's cool." I patted another grave, which just happened to be another Uzumaki. Seriously, there were a lot of them buried here. "Besides, the entire point of a graveyard is to give people a place to rest. So no one will mind if I hanged around a little."

"Dead people, Hikaru." Naruto deadpanned, "It's made to give dead people a place to rest."

"Exactly," I quipped, feeling an ironic smile tugging on my lips. I did die, after all, so technically I had just as much of a right to be here as any of the people buried here. 

Just because I got better didn't revoke my right to own a grave, the living dead had just as much rights to own one as the regular dead did. I mean, zombies can move around like I did but no one ever tried to claim that they didn't belong in a graveyard.

I just applied the same logic to me.

...

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