The Guardian Of Konoha

His Child

Aki's P.O.V.

I placed a gentle kiss upon the kanji on his forehead.

"Sleep tight..."

I froze, a chuckle escaping me,
'That's probably the first and only time I'll say that to Gaara...
Unless Sadao knocks him out again.'

I scrunched my face up as I contemplated what had happened.

'He took down Gaara in a matter of seconds.
Gaara, who destroyed Lee, who's no easy task either.
Sure, Gaara's state of mind was more easily exploited and weak when taken over by the beast, but Izumi had made Sadao seem pathetic.
Turns out Izumi was just crazy strong and so was Sadao.
If the grunts of the yōsei satsugau-sha are this powerful, then how can I hope to defeat the leader?'

I placed a lily on his bedside table, so the room at least still smelled of my scent as I left.

Naruto's chakra was growing stronger the longer I walked through the forest to find him.

The thought of seeing Naruto again after these few weeks was exhilarating and I couldn't wait to tell him... Most of what happened.

Apparently he's been training with a new sensei.
'Pervy sage.'

'Whoever it is has got a strong presence,' I pondered as the two signals continued to strengthen the closer I came to them.

Finding people by sensing their chakra was still new to me and quite tricky, it was more like a game of hot 'n' cold.

Every few paces I had to stop and probe for the chakra to make sure I was heading in the right direction.

When I came to the tree line of the clearing I was sure they were in, I nestled into the bushes, concealing my presence.

I spotted Naruto, shirtless and training hard and smiled warmly.

Then I looked at his sensei, whose back was to me with red and khaki green kimonos and a mane of messy white hair.

His chakra felt weirdly familiar, not in the way that my mother's chakra would feel familiar. More like how my own chakra would feel familiar, if you get what I mean.

His long, spiky hair drew my interest as I gazed at it, absentmindedly raising a hand to my own shorter, spiky hair.

I wanted to see his face, my curiosity burning,
So I let my concealed chakra spike.

Naruto, bless him, was totally oblivious.
But his more experienced sensei stiffened and turned...

'What?
...
No
...
... It can't be...'

"You there," he rumbled, eye's narrowing,
"Show yourself."

The world seemed to slow down as I took in every inch of the face my mother had described.

And as I reached the long, red lines leading from the corner of his eyes, I snapped.
'It's him. The one who left my mother to die and his son to fend for himself...'

But instead of charging him like I so desperately wanted to, I slowly walked out of the bushes.

The man didn't say anything as he studied my figure.

Naruto smiled and waved, calling my name but I ignored him.

The man was waiting for me to speak, but I merely reached up with a hand to the back of my head, untied my cloth and let it drop to the ground.

"Huh?!!!"
Naruto looked between our faces with a comical expression, his head swinging back and forth.
"You've got his face things Aki-chan!! What's that about?!! What's going on on?!!"