My Water Lily (Might Gai x OC)

Chapter 57: Time Passes

The house was so quiet now. I hated it. The only sounds that occasionally occurred was when Naruto started crying. He cried a lot which didn't help my health half the time. My sleep schedule was now all over the place. Though, those cries did fill the emptiness of the house, making it no longer quiet.

When the funeral was held for the shinobi who lost their lives during the Nine Tails attack, I could barely hold it together. I truly never thought I would have to see Kushina and Minato's pictures laid out for a funeral. I was wrong.....

Each death seemed to get harder to get over. Sakumo, Daiki, Obito, Rin, and now Minato and Kushina. Not to mention I had no idea if Emiyo Sensei was even alive. All these people who were important to me....gone. I worried I was cursed. Would the others I care for soon meet the same fate....

I no longer took missions and worked at the hospital from time to time since it allowed me to take Naruto with me. I was so scared to ever leave him alone. He was so young.

With not taking missions and relying on my pay at the hospital, I couldn't really afford the house anymore. I sold it and bought an apartment that was close by to most of my friends. I took my belongings along with some furniture from the house to the new apartment so it could feel a bit more like home.

Taking care of a child was so hard....especially for a young teenager who didn't really have any parental figures to help her out. Lord Third occasionally gave me some money to help since he also wanted to help Naruto. I felt pitied and looked down on. I was a jonin was immense power and yet I could barely care for a child. I could barely take care of myself as well now.

Ever since the attack the coughing fits got worse. I always coughed up blood now and it usually happened when I was super stressed out. Which didn't help since I was now always stressed. I had essentially closed myself off from everyone. I hardly talked to my friends, even Kakashi. He couldn't even talk a lot in general with his duty as an anbu. He now had to adjust to having Lord Hiruzen as Hokage again. My friends were constantly on missions too with so many shinobi now deceased along with the village needing to rebuild and get strong again. We couldn't look weak to others. We had to keep going.

Everything felt wrong.

I only left the house for work or for shopping since we needed to eat. Naruto luckily wasn't too much of a picky eater at first, but as time went by he seemed to get pickier by the month.

Daiko didn't mind and usually ate what Naruto would push away or refuse. Luckily Daiko has taking a liking to Naruto, but still wasn't fond of the constant crying that usually happened early in the mornings. I started allowing him to stay out in the woods more often. He shouldn't be cooped up most of the time anyway and all my attention was now on a child.

I will be honest. I love Naruto. He is my younger brother. Every time I look at him though, I just see Minato and Kushina. It was hard some days, but I kept pushing.

His first words ended up being ramen though, which I'm worried about what that says about the future. It was a bit awkward when he said it, but I laughed it off.

"R...ra..." he began to murmur

"What Naruto? What are trying to say?!" I spoke in excitement as I hovered over his form.

"Ramen!" He cheered smiling.

I sweatdroped and then began to laugh hysterically.

"I mean, yeah. Ramen is pretty great," I responded in amusement as I picked him up. "Do I really say that a lot?"

"Ramen!!"

It's been two years since the Nine Tails attacked. Naruto now is two obviously and I'm sixteen, soon to be seventeen in a few months. I still worked at the hospital and could leave Naruto at home with Daiko for small periods of time. I still worried. Daiko is now trained and capable to tending to Naruto, but only to an extent of course. But I needed the money and had no choice.