In Sickness And Health ~Shikamaru~

Chapter 10

Reeva's eyes grew wide but her face still seemed... impassive. But a dark, almost carnal expression shrowded her. Whoa, icy. "What do you know about Rei?" She growled lowly. Deep inside me I began to feel something like fear bubble in me. Not fear for this woman, but fear for Reira. Is this really the woman she has been waiting for? This cold and synical woman whose whole body darkens in a frightening way at the mear mention of her?

"Do you have any intention of going back to her?" I asked.

"You didn't answer my question!" Ooh, now she's angry.

I sat down on the cold floor and crossed my legs. Being lazy is hard on the body. "If I tell you what I know about her, go back, and see her. She's waiting for you."

Her eyes softened a little bit. But in the end she nodded and waited for my explanation of her daughter. With a sigh and small pinch in my heart, I launched into everything I knew about Reira.

"She has been living in the leaf villages hospital for three years now with brain damage acquired from an accident, left there by her Father who decided he didn't want to take care of her. Reira has the same eyes as you but black straight hair. Her favorite flower is a daisy and her favorite food is the curry buns the hospital makes."

Reeva's eyes grew wide again. "Not a bad amount of information." She studied me again. "And just how did you come across this information?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"Maybe." Reeva stood and crossed to the book shelf on the far side of the room, pulling down a thick yet small book that I immediately identified as a photo album. Her hand caressed the cover lovingly before she opened it and began to flip through the pages of pictures. "My daughter is very precious to me. I worry about her everyday, how she's doing in that lonely room everyday, if someone goes in to talk to her." Her hand paused over a specific picture, taking it from its place in the book. "I guess every parent want's their child to be happy."

I took a few step closer to her, hoping to access that maternal instinct inside her to possibly end this god forsaken war and get home to my troublesome mom and sister and my drunken ass of a father. And also... An image of Reira the day before I left clouded my mind. Her laying in the grass with her long black hair flayed around her. Her words still hit something strange and foreign inside me. "Because I have you."

Reira was quiet for most of the day after she had said that. But I can't wrap my head around why she would say that. Does she really not mind not seeing her mom if i'm there? What if her mom was there? Would she then be okay not seeing me? For some reason, that thought hurt me.

"Parent's want their children to be safe more than anything though." Reeva continued. The picture she held, from this point I could see, was of a younger Reira, perhaps around twelve with a large smile and an arm around a man with black hair and tired eyes, a man I assumed to be her father.

"So to ensure her safety you leave her at a hospital and wander to a village that's a good three days from her and lead an army to war?"

"Not my shining moment." She retuned the picture and the book and turned to look at me. "I figured someone as strong as Rei could handle anything, even after the accident. She has always been tough, smart. That's what made her a brilliant ninja."

Whoa, whoa. Back up. Ninja? Reira was a ninja?