Naruto Naruto Genkyouien 23 [END]

[AoMythology]

So Sayoko is the Wizard that did it. That makes more sense than it should.

Poor guy/girl. TvTropes has ruined you...

 

[Daneel Rush]

This is not something I planned years ago or anything, but it kinda makes sense that the last scene I write for Sayumayu (at least for now) involves Naruto and his daughter. It was truly a pleasure to do this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it nearly as much as I enjoyed creating it for you.

Next Time: the remaining scenes of Genkyouien.

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Suiren found her in the usual place. The Higahisyama clan grounds rested near the top of the homonymous mountain, which resulted in some of their buildings being placed at higher heights than others. The Shrine Realm of the once Great Spirit Clan rested on an ascending slope, and Higashiyama Mayuri made it a habit of sitting on the rooftop of the highest building, that belonging to Yurimi.

The mightiest of Time Kitsune was seemingly looking at the sky, but Suiren knew better. While her eyes were on the grey clouds above, Mayuri’s mind was swimming in the murky sea of infinite timelines, looking for snags in the web of world lines; anomalies in the interaction of world lines, bugs in the system which prevented a linear flow of time from past to present to future. There was this weird time loop involving another timeline’s Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, some time ago—Suiren had heard that story from Karen. Mayuri had allowed them a few more loops after the mess at Sorachi Village before restoring their natural flow of time.

That was Mayuri’s self-appointed job: fixing errors in spacetime. When there was an active—and often otherworldly—agent causing the error, she sent Naruto to handle it. It made Suiren wonder, but she guessed she could ask later.

Suiren bowed the moment Mayuri dropped her gaze; the subtlest indicator she had noticed the small girl’s approach.

“Good afternoon, Mayuri-san.”

The white-haired goddess paused a moment after reading the greeting, but said nothing and showed nothing. She had always been good at hiding things, after all.

Suiren had pre-written the things she wanted to ask, so she just revealed the right page in her sketchpad. She did not really need to do this when conversing with Mayuri, but this was an occasion in which she did not want to partake of the intimacy of presenting her thoughts through her world line.

“May I sit next to you?”

Mayuri looked at the small twin-tailed doll for a moment, perhaps wondering why she was using the sketchpad. Soon enough, though, she offered a dainty hand to the young half-kitsune, who nodded with gratitude before sitting down by Mayuri’s left side.

“Shionzaki Aika…was too good…for this world,” Mayuri suddenly said, surprising absolutely nobody. Of course she already knew what Suiren had been up to lately. “For any world. I wish…you could have met her.”

Suiren said nothing. She only looked at the elder Time kitsune’s elegant profile, her porcelain features like nobility itself frozen for eternity.

“I’m sorry…you met such an…unsightly me,” Mayuri continued. “There was a time…I was terrified…of that possibility.”

Mayuri looked down at the girl, who was slightly taken aback by the somber smile she was being offered.

“Love…is a rather fearsome thing. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Yes, Suiren knew her parents had never had that kind of intimate relationship; at least not the degree of physical intimacy her father had with Kizuna’s or Suzuran’s mothers. Then again, Mayuri was simply not into the whole “physicality of affection” thing; perhaps ruling over time and space rendered things like sex uninteresting to her. Suiren was probably similar in that respect. But there was still a question Suiren needed to ask; the conclusion she reached after encountering that other, broken Mayuri in the equally broken world.

“May I ask you a question?” She revealed in the next page.

Once again, Mayuri wondered about the use of the sketchbook. She would not intrude in Suiren’s world line for answers; that was just plain manners. Regardless, the mightiest Time kitsune understood this was important for the girl. That much she saw in her carmine eyes.

“Ask.”

Suiren stopped herself from turning the page. Just like it had cost her to put her feeling into words, it proved difficult to reveal them to this person. It was her utmost wish, which she was utterly afraid of revealing. The Mayuri she had met was a possibility; a result of different events, choices and experiences. A Mayuri she wished had never existed; having never truly hated anything but herself, she was broken instead by love. The Mayuri in front of her, instead, was one who had found meaning, freedom and purpose in…could it really be called love? Yes, perhaps not her own.

Love. It kept coming back to that. That’s why, to find her own meaning, freedom and purpose, Suiren wished…more than anything, right now she wished…

“Can I call you ‘Mother’?”

Mayuri showed no reaction at first. Slowly, she looked down, at her trembling left hand. Then back at the hopeful girl, almost painfully so. Some part of her face trembled, perhaps her lips. Mayuri’s or Suiren’s? Perhaps both. Shrinking her body as if intimidated by the small girl’s pure wish, Mayuri squeezed her eyes shut and slowly, very slowly, shook her head.

Suiren’s eyes did most definitely tremble in sockets moistened by tears unshed. Paper crumpled under clenched fists squeezing too hard. One of those fists tried to reach for the pen, to hastily write a half-hearted apology for her insolence; for expecting too much too quickly, too suddenly; for even hoping they could possibly have that kind of bond—

“I don’t…”

Suiren was pushed back by an invisible force. That which had once being the image of nobility crumpled and became a manifestation of humiliation and self-loathing. When Mayuri dropped her head and lowered herself to bow before the Miracle Lily, all traces of an almighty ruler of time and space broke apart, leaving behind a simple woman struck by the weight of her failures.

“I don’t deserve that…”

Yet, motherhood is not a badge you earn, or an honor you deserve. Yet, giving birth to a child does not really make you a mother. Being a mother, these two knew, means something a lot more complicated, a lot more important and a lot more precious and beautiful.

“I don’t deserve that, but…if you can still…if you can…” Mayuri sobbed. “…a hopeless person like me…”

Suiren turned the sketchpad a few pages and wrote something before putting it aside to cradle her hopeless mother’s head in her tiny hands. Mayuri would read it only later, long after the two exorcized their distant pasts through tears.

A woman who had no idea how to be a mother and the daughter who had lived too long with a hole in her heart that neither all the fatherly love nor an army of aunties and half-sisters could fill.

Their story began, like most stories, with another’s end.

*********************************************

Karen liked Higashiyama Suzuran a lot. She was the usual, run-of-the-mill amazingly beautiful kitsune (an oxymoron if there’s ever been one), whose very existence seemed to be an understated insult to about 95% of the world’s other women. However, unlike the truly untouchable “cool beauties” Karen was acquainted with, like the Silver Lily herself, Suzuran was more like the Fairy of Oblivion, Chachamaru-sama. The False Lily carried herself with a welcoming openness which made it hard for Karen to believe she had once been one of those “cool beauties”.

Parents’ positive influence, Karen guessed.

The lack of an answer after a third knock of the door triggered a nasty twitch of both eyes and grey-tipped black tails. The tall beauty looked down at her younger half-sister with a half-apologetic, half annoyed look.

“I’m really sorry about this,” the older youko said with a tired voice. “My mother’s an idiot.”

Karen laughed weakly. She would never speak of her own mother in such a way, but she could only defer to the adult kitsune in her own residence.

“Heeeeeey, idiot mother, we’re comin’ in. You’ve got a visitor.”

Opening the door, Suzuran invited Karen inside while adjusting her homely yukata over her shoulder and flicking a lock of her long black hair to the side. The Incandescent Lily stepped into perhaps the most fire-inviting room she would ever see in her life. There was, probably, more paper than room in there. The walls were completely covered with drawers and shelves, themselves stuffed to the brim with books and scrolls. Stacks of both also stood like columns of lore all over the eight-tatami floor, some of them having crumbled down instead like fallen ruins of history. There was no trace of a place to sleep or a place to store articles of clothing in that room, except for books and the unbelievably messy desk standing on the very center. And there, surrounded by paper and parchment and ink and her own drool, slept a very beautiful and slovenly woman.

Suzuran gritted her teeth at the audacity.

“…mom,” she insisted, obviously struggling to keep an even voice. “Wake up, Karen-chan’s here to see you.”

“Hmm…munya…”

Karen took a step back. Suzuran was, in fact, vibrating on her spot. That was, most definitely, not a good sign.

“…mm-hmm…silly ‘ruto, we need at least five clones for that position…munya-munya…” the sleeping beauty whispered blissfully to a most annoyed audience.

“Karen-chan, would you be a dear and wait outside for a minute?”

“Yes ma’am,” the half-kitsune immediately replied, already closing the door behind her, which did not muffle any of the violence that ensued inside that room.

“You worthless excuse of a woman, sleeping while everybody else’s hard at work!”

“U-Uwaah! Su-Suzu—”

“And for Inari’s sake, can’t you fix your own obi properly!? You look like a tramp! The really cheap kind!”

“Wah-wah—he-hey, it was a well-deserved rest! Look, I finished a scroll—”

“And you drooled all over it!”

“Damn it!”

“Damn it, she says—I’m gonna kick your ass!”

“Wa-wait—uwaaaah! Why did I have to raise an overly competent daughter!?”

“It’s the duty of all children to surpass their parents! You ass is mine!”

“No, wait; your dad will kill me if we go down the incest route!”

“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU MYSEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLFFF!!!!!”

It was a picture-perfect, smiling Suzuran who invited Karen to go back in some minutes later, leaving her with the matron of the house and a promise of tea and snacks in a while. Unsure of what expression to wear on her face, Karen faced the stunning yet irresponsible celebrity, owner of one of the continents’ largest libraries and overall crazy person. She was now seated most elegantly behind her desk, welcoming Karen with her alluring smile and a dangerously loose kimono while enjoying a smoke with a fancy-looking long pipe.

“Well met, Karen-hime. How may this humble writer be of service to you today?”

“Uhh…it’s really waaaay too late for that, Auntie Yuriyo.”

With that, the Night Lily abandoned all pretense of formality and laughed merrily, throwing away the pipe—and scaring the daylights out of young Karen—to scratch the skin near her eyepatch.

“Man, Suzuran’s a real bitch about work. I’d fire her to get her off my case, but this place would kinda fall apart without her.”

“Uhh, I really don’t think you should say that where other people could hear,” Karen replied while hopelessly looking around for anything like a second seat. This office-slash-bedroom was clearly not meant for a place to welcome visitors.

“Yeah, I never got what those other kids expected to learn, coming here; I’m no erudite. I’m a bard, not a wizard.”

“Uwaaah…”

“Anyway!” Yuriyo continued, stretching like a lazy cat and further threatening to let her ripe breasts slip out her garment. “You’re not the bookworm-type, so I take it you’re not here for ancient lore of the ages.”

“Um, nope.”

“If you’re looking for ultra-epic Void jutsu of ultimate awesomity, I’ll tell you what I’ve told all the others: Sayoko-san didn’t teach me anything like that, try Suzuran or Chachamaru.”

Karen was losing a bit of patience.

“…I can’t use Void jutsu, auntie.”

“You really have to stop calling me that; we’re cousins, you know?”

Karen grinned. “You’re Suzu-nee-san’s mother. That makes you Auntie Yuriyo.”

The half-Void made a comically dejected face.

“Way to make me feel old, girl. I shouldn’t even be close to feeling old!”

“It was probably the war. It left you broken and jaded,” opinionated the half-youko with a joking tone.

“Right, right…” Pretending to look old and weary, the “war veteran” let her eye lose itself in the sea of memories. “Those were harsh times, little lass.”

After laughing at their own lame jokes, Karen explained the reason she was there and the question she wished to ask. Yuriyo chuckled.

“You didn’t come up with that question yourself,” Yuriyo correctly guessed, making Karen laugh nervously. “More like, why come to me of all people for something like that?”

“Umm…” Karen was nervous again. “I didn’t…feel comfortable asking somebody else…”

“Rather,” Yuriyo teased. “You didn’t want to bother Her Invincible Majestry, Hegemon Yuria-sama with such a trifle thing, so you came to pitiful, penniless Yuriyo instead?”

“Wha-no! No! I’d never think such a—wait, you’re penniless?”

“Nah, nah, just messing with ya. We’re doing just fine. But, really, you’re made me recall an interesting thing.”

Teasing Karen with an insufferable “I know something you don’t” smirk, Yuriyo brought out a bottle of some liquor the ignorant half-youkai could not recognize and filled herself a tiny shot.

“It was really the most curious thing, watching your mother breastfeed you.”

Karen felt her weight abandon her body. She was jelly, unstable and unfeeling. Neither cold nor warm, neither full nor void. She just was.

“When Yuria told Sayuri you were hungry, she would take you and sit down on some quiet spot. And she would stare at you the whole time. Just, stare; watch you drink, like she couldn’t make sense of the scene.” She chuckled. “Like she couldn’t believe what she was doing.”

It was a somewhat sad chuckle.

“Yeah, she looked pretty lost. Like she couldn’t believe that little thing was actually born of her. Sometimes she would even shake her head, like, ‘what’s this little thing’s deal?’, it was kinda funny.”

The caramel-colored liquor disappeared down Yuriyo’s throat in a flash. The half-Void made a noise Karen could not identify. She went with “masochistic bliss”.

“And woe to the fool who dared interrupt her observation, I tell you! Even your father was blown away a few times.”

Yuriyo let her heart reach warmly to that girl, hopeful and anguished and angry and dejected. A part of her pondered an old idea; the same that often filled her mind when watching the blossoming “Spiral Children”.

“She wouldn’t take her eyes off you, not for a single moment. She would stare at you, even for hours on end, like you were the most beautiful, most amazing thing in the world.”

Yuriyo watched Karen’s tall yet feeble form, nearly on the verge of falling on its knees, and understood her unvoiced longing and her questions unasked; the wishes she had never shared and which nobody had perceived behind her cheerful veneer. In the girl, Yuriyo saw a little bit of the girl’s father, or at least the troubled child he had once been, and it made her love both the father and the girl even more.

“She’s always close, you know,” she said. “Even if she keeps her distance, she has always kept you within her reach. What comes next is merely speculation.”

Yuriyo poured herself a second shot. She wished she could offer some to the girl, but her father would not approve, and the Night Lily had to agree it was a little too early.

“You are her daughter. You are also Naruto’s daughter. Like Suiren, you were born with a unique, highly specific ability; something that would take decades, if not centuries, for another youkai to develop.”

Karen held her left arm in a defensive posture, somewhat unnerved by the tone Yuriyo was using to speak of the ability she was so proud of.

“I think she just wants you to stay as you are,” Yuriyo then concluded. “She doesn’t want to be an influence on you, so you don’t end up going down the same road.”

The half-Void kitsune stood off her seat, her shapely body a river of sensuality flowing smooth and perfect. The woman capable of turning the simple act of standing up into a sexual fantasy; that was Higashiyama Yuriyo.

“Of course, her mistake lies in assuming that keeping her distance will somehow keep her out of your thoughts,” she then said while approaching the young hybrid. “But children will always look up to their parents.”

Karen dropped her gaze. Certainly, even if her mother had never been much of one, even if they had never had a real conversation and she could count the number of times her mother had directed her words at her with a single hand, Karen had been dazzled by her awesome beauty and majestic power. Karen would think of herself as Higashiyama Sayuri’s daughter, and the thought would fill her with bittersweet pride. Having been born from such an incredible creature, their lack of contact obviously meant she was somehow lacking as a daughter, for how could such a beautiful youko be in the wrong?

“So, now it’s my turn to ask you: what do you want to do?” Yuriyo inquired with an encouraging smile. “Do you want to get closer to that Sayuri?”

Karen shuddered. Such a thing, it was too…

“I’m…I’m scared,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. Yuriyo nodded.

“I know. She can be terrifying,” Yuriyo said with the tone one would use to say “one plus one equals two” or “Yurimi has huge tits”. Reaching around Karen’s neck with her single arm, the Night Lily pushed the tomboyish young girl into an inviting, comforting embrace.

“But you can count on your Auntie Riyo, on Suzuran and on your invincible shishou. We can all help you, if that’s what you want.”

Karen chuckled and nodded in Yuriyo’s chest.

“In exchange you can tell that father of yours that he’s been a terrible friend lately and that his beloved Riyo-chan is mighty pissed at him.”

“Uhh…doesn’t he spend a night every week over here?”

“That’s right! Just one night! I’m not that easily satisfied, let me tell you!”

“………”

A part of Karen thought she should be angry at her father for some reason, but she really could not find it in herself to care. Her thoughts were, as they often were, on the radiant goddess of white flame she called her mother. Untouchable and unreachable, clad in flames and more beautiful than Amaterasu herself; Higashiyama Sayuri was little Karen’s Platonic ideal of power, beauty and femininity. She was not what she wanted to become—because she was still awfully scary!—, but an unachievable goal worth striving for. And for such an amazing youkai to one day look at her with the eyes of a proud mother, Karen would…

“Do you think I can do it?”

“Hmm?”

“…stand by her side?”

Yuriyo chuckled.

“Silly girl.”

Breaking the embrace, Yuriyo drew the other girl’s attention. In the half-Void’s single eye Karen saw unbridled mirth, pride, joy and the overwhelming affection that so deeply unnerved her dearest onee-sama.

“Your father taught me we live in a world where anything is possible.”

***********************************

On the easternmost reaches of Lightning Country, at the top of a cliff with jagged edges violently struck by the waves, Uzumaki Naruto watched the distant horizon, letting the sun kiss his back. It was the rare private time he could devote to his thoughts. But he was not really alone.

“I thought I told you to go ahead without me,” he said to his daughter without looking. Thus he did not see the small twin-tailed lovely’s stubborn pout.

“You don’t tell me what to do.”

“Uhh…I’m kind of your father…?”

Instead of responding to Naruto’s very good point, Kizuna sat down as well, resting her thin back on Naruto’s.

“There. Now you don’t have to see me if you don’t want to.”

His liquid eyes glimmered in a transfixing way. Kizuna could not decipher those eyes; she was too much like her mother, with none of the life experience.

“Kizuna, let me ask you: why did you come along today?”

Naruto felt his daughter stiffen on his back just before she hastily got back on her feet.

“You could have just told me you didn’t want me around,” she said, the fire in her eyes doused by unshed tears. However, she was not allowed to run away, for she was pulled by the wrist and sized by a strong arm wrapped around her waif waist. Kizuna then realized she had been dropped on her father’s lap, and it was her father’s face which filled most of her field of view, the expansive blue of his eyes embracing her and enrapturing her.

“Please answer me. It’s important,” he said, and there was pain in his voice Kizuna realized she was to blame for, and it hurt.

“Y-Yes!” The girl quickly replied in a slightly higher-pitched voice. Her eyes went wide at her own actions. It made her hate him and try to pull away, until her eyes caught his and the weight of guilt made her stop.

“K-Kizuna?” Naruto wondered. He tried to look comforting and encouraging, but his eyes carried that liquid glimmer Kizuna could not understand, yet bothered her so much.

“We-well!” The girl quickly initiated her standard personality protocols. “Of course I had to! Somebody had to be there to make sure those two didn’t get killed!” Her cheeks inflated as she insistently made her case. “What with Karen’s power being so unreliable and all. And Suiren can’t done anything unless she’s set up a territory…Karen would stupidly jump into the fray if I’m not there to stop her, you know!? And Suiren’s just too nice and she can’t say no to anybody, so she would follow along! I have to be there to keep those two idiots out of danger! Hmph!”

She would say no more. Half of the answer was enough. The other half was forbidden content; a thought she was not allowed to linger in. Only disappointment lay on that path. She already got enough deprecation from her mother.

“Iiiiit’s not like I care if something happens to those fools,” she said half-heartedly, her cheeks somewhat inflated. “I just can’t tolerate incompetence. That’s it.”

She was answered with silence. Kizuna fiddled with her baggy ninja clothing all the while keeping her eyes downwards. Eventually the silence got to her and she looked up, hoping to find an explanation for her father’s lack of response on his face. Instead, the visage of his loving smile elicited a thrilling jolt that straightened her spine and made her legs shudder and her toes twitch uncontrollable. Her father was far from the most handsome of men, but it was nonetheless the tidal wave that was his affection which rendered her ecstatic with bliss. To look at his eyes bursting with love and warmth and know that such a deluge of emotion was directed at her and only her filled her with an embarrassing amount of joy.

“Really, it hasn’t changed at all,” he said, softly, and his manly voice made Kizuna’s lips tremble. He then shook his head.

“Nuh-uh,” he corrected himself. “If anything, it has gotten stronger.”

Kizuna’s brain was brought back from cloud nine upon realizing that her father was crying.

“Father…?”

“This feeling!” Naruto gasped out, and it was clear that, in his tears, he was joyous. “This amazing feeling that fills me when I look at you…!”

Kizuna squeaked some meaningless monosyllables when Naruto grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back, as if to get a better look at her. His eyes remained full of unshed tears, but his smile was the dazzling sun that rendered many women weak in the knees, her mother among them.

“Despite all the things I’ve done, all the fights I’ve won, all the jutsu I’ve learned and all the victories I’ve achieved, nothing compares! Nothing compares to the joy I feel every single time I look at you, Kizuna!”

It was admittedly unfair to Suiren, his first child. However, both the circumstances of her conception and birth and the events taking place in parallel impeded Naruto from fully delighting at his fatherhood. Kizuna’s birth was planned, and he was there every step of the way, supporting her mother throughout her pregnancy and bearing with the hormonal havoc a child in the making wreaked on her system. He was the second person who held the newborn Kizuna, and the second to shed tears at the sight of that diminutive baby, the culmination of his life and his love.

“You’re my utmost achievement. My highest triumph. My greatest pride.”

Kizuna could not take this many blows at point-blank. It was too much stimulation, too quickly, too amazing. Her cheeks were about as red as her Sharingan. She knew this would all go straight to her head; she could already feel her nose stretching with unreasonable conceitedness. But she didn’t care. She was in bliss. And when Naruto’s gentle hand stroke one of her luscious twin-tails, sun-colored like his own hair, she purred in delight.

Naruto’s radiant smile was sweet like caramel, soft like silk and ambrosia to one such as Kizuna, starving for attention and affection.

“You give my life meaning.”

A sweet whine echoed in Kizuna’s throat.

“You’re the greatest gift life has given me. You’re a privilege I never deserved. I still can’t believe something so amazing like you came from an idiot like me.” He was laughing, at himself, at the world, at everything and nothing. He laughed because without release he would explode. “But I look at you every day, and I see that my beautiful baby has become a beautiful girl, so smart and talented and so kind and caring…”

He chuckled and shrugged.

“Your mother and I must have done something right, I guess!”

Kizuna squeaked when Naruto seized one more time, hugging her tightly, almost desperately, as if he needed the physical contact even more than she did. Perhaps he acknowledged that his daughter was still at an age in which her parents remained the foundation of her existence. Perhaps he feared the time she would grow past that stage and become a rebellious girl, convinced she could make her own decisions while blind to the fact she was still an ignorant child. Perhaps he simply wished to pour out his feelings to her, boundless and precious that they were. To hide nothing from her, to be the person, the father, Naruto believed his daughter deserved.

“I love you, Kizuna,” he said, softly, because his constricted throat was incapable of greater strength. “If you can only believe one thing your stupid father says, let it be that I love you. I loved you before I even met you. I’ll love you long after you’re here no more.”

“Um,” the beloved daughter uttered in his chest, relishing the impossibly tender hand stroking her head and the arm holding her close like an unrivaled treasure.

“Today, tomorrow, forever. For as long as I live,” Naruto insisted, almost like a mantra. His children were his religion, and Kizuna his goddess. “More than anyone. More than anything. I love you.”

They had needed this. Naruto was the invincible super-dad, but he was not immune to his own emotions. What they saw in that broken world, and the people they met there, rendered this exchange necessary. An affirmation of who they were and what drove them in the peaceful world they lived in.

The wished for the moment to last forever, but alas, it was not to be. They lived in a world full of cherished people beyond each other.

“We gotta go,” Naruto finally said, reluctantly pushing his dearest daughter away and breaking the embrace. “Your mother’s waiting.”

“Um.”

A handkerchief Kizuna never knew her father carried with him—something he started doing the day he became her father—gently wiped tears off her round face. His delicate touch was ticklish on her skin and inside her chest. Everything he did and said was meant to make her feel precious.

“Let’s go,” he said, and Kizuna followed after his back with smaller, hesitant steps. Somehow, she still had to…

“Father.”

Naruto stopped—of course he stopped—and presented her profile to the girl, silently awaiting her next words. Kizuna hated herself. Her siblings saw her as this amazing, ever-confident leader-like figure, yet in the presence of her parents she became a wallflower. Her mother subdued her with her very presence, her stern poise and her demanding instruction. Her father dazed her with his infinite affection. His smiling face made her shrink herself and stand defensively, unable to meet his eyes with her own.

But she was, after all, Uzumaki Naruto’s daughter. Her heart demanded to sing, so she would not stop it.

“I love you too, Father.”

The father blushed. His daughter’s smile was the smile of the woman he had fallen in love with. So the father blushed and scratched his cheek in embarrassment. He was always weak against words of affection.

“I know,” he said, somewhat lamely. Yet Kizuna never really expected anything more, so she eagerly caught up and let her father drop his large, callused hand on her fair blonde hair. For as long as her father’s love meant the world to her, she would revel in it. It was her privilege as a daughter.

But Uzumaki Naruto was Uzumaki Naruto, and thus he would not be satisfied with such a lame punchline.

Holding her daughter’s chin and pulling it to make her look up at him, Naruto showered his favored offspring with his most natural smile, brimming with the joy of a no-longer-lonely child who never really grew up.

“But I love you more,” he declared, and Kizuna was elated to know it was truth.

“Believe it!”

*************************************

Extra Chapter – END

 

[cjl]

Time of endings.

 

[ashprince]

Nice to see a Naruto that's true to himself even though he's stupidly powerful

 

[LOLRAINE]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

 

[KurokamiDG]

Well he did genuinely fall in love with Setsuna so I'm not surprised that she's his most favored child.

That, and she has his name too, so...yeah.

Kinda sad that his family is all dysfunctional and everything though, but with how this whole trip of a fic was it's to be expected I guess.

Also

Yuriyo said with the tone one would use to say “one plus one equals two” or “Yurimi has huge tits”.

...Well she's like her mother in many ways I guess. Kinda hoping that she hasn't gotten out of her master/slave phase with Naruto too, but that's more of a pipedream than anything.

 

[AoMythology]

I've forgotten to ask you before, but how is it possible for a new Voidwalker to be swallowed by the Void and return?

-----

I liked the interactions involving the Spiral Children, especially what happened with Karen. By the way, was Karen's name inspired by fire (Ka as in Katon)?

I would ask if it's written that way, but she is supposed to choose that herself.

 

[Futon Lord]

Wasn't Suzuran adopted? Why is Naruto having sex with her mother...?

 

[KurokamiDG]

Wasn't Suzuran adopted? Why is Naruto having sex with her mother...?

So you're saying that he's not going to be having sex with Yuriyo?

I...somehow doubt that...

 

[Time Shifter]

I got teary-eyed at all the happy emotions this chapter. That was an incredible way to end the Spiral Children's story. Now what are these "other scenes" you speak of?

 

[Futon Lord]

Here's the post I got that from:

What can I say? Sayuri grows into a very beautiful woman. Yuria is already a very beautiful woman, just a little height impaired. And Setsuna is Setsuna. And then there's the others, but those are more political than anything...except for Suzuran, who is adopted. Not that he doesn't love his children born of political arrangement, of course he does.

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.


So basically, Suzuran isn't Naruto's daughter, and he adopted her from Yuriyo, who remains a 'friend'? Uuu, the feeling of NTR...

 

[KurokamiDG]

Here's the post I got that from:

What can I say? Sayuri grows into a very beautiful woman. Yuria is already a very beautiful woman, just a little height impaired. And Setsuna is Setsuna. And then there's the others, but those are more political than anything...except for Suzuran, who is adopted. Not that he doesn't love his children born of political arrangement, of course he does.

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.


So basically, Suzuran isn't Naruto's daughter, and he adopted her from Yuriyo, who remains a 'friend'? Uuu, the feeling of NTR...

Notice that her title is the False Lily. That implies that Naruto and Yuriyo decided to adopt her together, with Naruto serving as her foster father and Yuriyo being the foster mother.

That, and could you really see Yuriyo's daughters being a 'cool beauty' for any length of time? She had to have been like that before the two adopted her. Most likely from the that Void Bitch's clan...Fubuki I think her name was...

So now I ask again...why wouldn't Naruto be having sex with Yuriyo?

 

[LOLRAINE]

So now I ask again...why wouldn't Naruto be having sex with Yuriyo?

I don't even see why anyone should doubt this, the following lines make it absolutely clear that both Naruto and Yuriyo have a relationship:

“In exchange you can tell that father of yours that he’s been a terrible friend lately and that his beloved Riyo-chan is mighty pissed at him.”

“Uhh…doesn’t he spend a night every week over here?”

“That’s right! Just one night! I’m not that easily satisfied, let me tell you!”

 

[l3fty]

This snippet is full of feels.

Suiren and Mayuri moment was a nice parallel to Naruto and Kotonoha.

Political children eh, now that I think about it, pretty much all kitsune clans would find his ability to father children with exact element as their mothers to be of high value.

So Mayuri fixed the loop for Naruto and Sasuke in Reload, nice.

 

[AoMythology]

This snippet is full of feels.

Suiren and Mayuri moment was a nice parallel to Naruto and Kotonoha.

Political children eh, now that I think about it, pretty much all kitsune clans would find his ability to father children with exact element as their mothers to be of high value.

So Mayuri fixed the loop for Naruto and Sasuke in Reload, nice.

Not that nice, since she didn't warn them, if we judge by Reload canon and Word of God. B)

@Futon Lord, Yuriyo sleeping with someone else wouldn't count as NTR, since they are just friends (with benefits) with Naruto. (Even if both of them place huge value on friends.) And why do you think that Suzuran is Yuriyo's? They most likely found a part-Ghost youngling in the Kuromiya clan and adopted her to save her from Fubuki, or with Chachamaru's blessing.

-----

By the way Daneel, would a user of Creation have to step out of Reality and into Chaos and return in order to be able to use the primordial form of Creation? ('Chaos'->'new part of Reality' instead of 'old parts of Reality'->'new form of old parts of Reality')

...Or is it a different thing/test that is needed? Or is it impossible without Aeon Liberation? Or maybe it's something simple even for someone only as good as the Rikudou Sennin?

(Yes, I have a buttload of questions regarding such things.)

 

[Daneel Rush]

Actually, he is not sleeping with Yuriyo, at least not outside of her mating seasons. The key words here are "political children". Taking aside the women he has slept with for child-conceiving purposes, the only woman Naruto cheats with is Sayuri, and that's because saying no to Sayuri leads to BAD THINGS, and it's really not worth the effort that would come with saying no. This of course causes a strain in Naruto's relationship with his wife, but it's a burden they've both learned to live with. There's no such a thing as a a perfect world, but the small, painful things do not make the joy of being together any less worth it.

(One of the subtle truths of Sayumayu is that Sayuri is more of a villain than most of the villains in this setting.)

Naruto spends an evening a week at Yuriyo's due to work obligations, and he because he likes hanging out with her. If anything, Setsuna's more jealous of Yuriyo than of Sayuri or any other woman (and Kizuna hates her): Yuriyo's a very beautiful woman, very close to her man, meaning the possibility of NTR is always at the forefront of her mind when they are together. Sayuri doesn't care about things like courting, romance or marriage; she's Destruction incarnate. The little Sayuri said it: it doesn't matter how many women there are in the harem, she's number one.

Yet Yuriyo's only child thus far remains Suzuran. I'll let you think about that on your own.

 

[Futon Lord]

So Naruto's wife is Setsuna? Kinda shocking! She does not give off 'main heroine' vibes. I'm glad though.

I guess Yuriyo only having one child means...she doesn't have sex much? Wait, Yuriyo doesn't have a single child! Suzuran's adopted.

To the one who keeps asking why Naruto wouldn't have sex with Yuriyo - no reason; at the time I was thinking an adopted child should be an orphan, with both parents dead/missing.

 

[Daneel Rush]

Does what you wrote earlier mean that a Sound/Celestial Kitsune could theoretically reach Trikaya through either System, depending on how he/she trained? And speaking of Sound Kitsune, do the Systems they have access to include Fuuton?

-----

Spoiler

Edit: You were right about the Eight Gates hampering Existence; why is Gai in a wheelchair again? Unless he's still running missions and got hurt in one.

Theoretically, yes. In practice, it's more likely a Sound/Celestial would reach Trikaya through mastery of Song Magic, while a Celestial/Sound would do so through mastery of Kouton.

All Sound kitsune start with Fuuton jutsu before moving to the nuances of language- and sound-based techniques. Song Magic is exclusively the purview of female Sound kitsune. Very Ar tonelico.

Remember that Eight-Gates!Gai was distorting space around him when he moved. That's as Chiton as it gets.

I'm a bit confused now about what happened to Silver-Key timeline Naruto's Yuria. She went 'far enough' into Aeon mastery, so I assumed Aeon Liberation. However, I doubt Naruto's home is currently subjugated by a YURIA existence, or he wouldn't be so cheerful (or maybe he would...).

Every step of the road changes a person, it's just that the last one does so far more dramatically. Sayuri's mindset is already strongly defined by her nature as Shintai of Destruction. The same will happen to Yuria as she reaches deeper into Existence. Sayoko seems to have a lax, lazy personality, but that's what's left after throwing her very self at Oblivion and overcoming it.

And just like reaching for the Aeons changes a person, some people (like Sayuri) are more susceptible to change than others (like Empress Yuria).

I've forgotten to ask you before, but how is it possible for a new Voidwalker to be swallowed by the Void and return?

-----

I liked the interactions involving the Spiral Children, especially what happened with Karen. By the way, was Karen's name inspired by fire (Ka as in Katon)?

Well, it's how Sayoko became a Voidwalker in the first place, so it would make sense for her to be able to do so again. Now, if you mean to ask whether there can be a second Voidwalker alongside Sayoko, then absolutely. But there is certainly a limited number of Shintai that may exist at any given time. The Aeons are matter and energy, so there's a limited (albeit immense) amount of each.

Naruto named both Karen and Suiren, including their kanji. Their respective mothers were not particularly involved in the naming process.

Wasn't Suzuran adopted? Why is Naruto having sex with her mother...?

Yes, Suzuran was adopted. I'd like to narrate that tale one day; it basically replaces the first Shippuden movie (so yes, it involves Shion. Also Shino and Kiba. And succubi. It's kind of a mess).

Before his marriage, Naruto had lots of sex with Suzuran's mother because it was awesome.

Not that nice, since she didn't warn them, if we judge by Reload canon and Word of God.

It's Mayuri. She wouldn't go through the effort of showing up to tell them that their actions have consequences again. If anything, she'd hope it becomes a lesson for them.

By the way Daneel, would a user of Creation have to step out of Reality and into Chaos and return in order to be able to use the primordial form of Creation? ('Chaos'->'new part of Reality' instead of 'old parts of Reality'->'new form of old parts of Reality')

...Or is it a different thing/test that is needed? Or is it impossible without Aeon Liberation? Or maybe it's something simple even for someone only as good as the Rikudou Sennin?

Discussing Aeon Liberation is pointless because it's simply not gonna happen. It's too dangerous and reality-warping. The person closest to that boundary is Sayuri, and Naruto would rather kill his heart and put her down before letting her take that step.

It's fair to assume that there are different paths to mastery. Sayoko can only speak of her own: she jumped into Oblivion and tamed it. It was very hard. Perhaps there are easier ways, but Sayoko only knows hers.

Tamamo no Mae punched things. Many things, all sorts of things, and people too. Many, many times. Through punching things, she subjugated them, and through subjugation, she achieved understanding. After understanding all other things, she looked at the act of punching, and by understanding the punch she understood herself, because she and the punch had become the same thing. And then she realized she understood all Existence and thus became invincible and unsurpassed in this Reality. That was her way. There are definitely others, and Tamamo knew them, because she understood all things. It simply mattered no longer. She liked punching things.

The Sage's Creation of All Things is quite impressive in that it can turn imagination into reality. However, it is not the pinnacle of Creation in that it does not make something out of nothing. It still uses chakra, after all. So at its core it's no different from, let's say, Goukakyuu no Jutsu, it's just more general in scope and immensely more efficient. But there can be better things, as proved by Naruto in the Extra Chapter.

at the time I was thinking an adopted child should be an orphan, with both parents dead/missing.

This is a minor spoiler, but Suzuran's parents were already dead at the time she first met Yuriyo.

 

[LOLRAINE]

You break my heart, Daneel.

 

[Futon Lord]

That clears up the Suzuran confusion. Huh, I wonder who her mother was.

I remember it was said somewhere that because she's an existence user, the empress had a way to cheat, and preserve her mind even as she delved into creation. Did Naruto-timeline Yuria not find this method? Because if she did...well. Contradictions start to appear.
That means Naruto timeline Yuria has internalized existence to a greater extent than the empress. And yet, you say Sayuri is the closest to liberation. So it goes like this:
Empress < Yuria < Sayuri
Contradiction:
We know Yuria is now at a point where she's incapable of looking after her son. However, Sayuri, who has delved even deeper into destruction, clearly still cares for her daughter, and could make contact with her if she wanted to. So Sayuri, who has reached a higher level, is less affected than Yuria. Yet, you say above that Sayuri's more susceptible to the change than Yuria?


Something else that bothers me: Quote:
Yes, Suiren knew her parents had never had that kind of intimate relationship; at least not the degree of physical intimacy her father had with Kizuna’s or Suzuran’s mothers.

The only women Naruto regularly has sex with (outside of mating cycles) are his wife and Sayuri. And yet, when Suiren mentions the women Naruto is with the most often, a dead woman comes to mind before Sayuri. Sayuri can have sex with Naruto whenever she wants (within reason), and yet she isn't abusing this privilege?
Does this mean the influence of destruction upon her personality lowers her sexual desire? After all, sexual desire is born from the need to create offspring, which opposes Sayuri's Aeon of destruction.

Where's Yurie in all this chaos? Still locked away? Has Naruto had sex with her even once? Higashiyama Yurie in heat...I wonder how she'd act.

 

[AoMythology]

Well, it's how Sayoko became a Voidwalker in the first place, so it would make sense for her to be able to do so again. Now, if you mean to ask whether there can be a second Voidwalker alongside Sayoko, then absolutely. But there is certainly a limited number of Shintai that may exist at any given time. The Aeons are matter and energy, so there's a limited (albeit immense) amount of each.

No, what I mean is "how is it even possible?". She actually returned from the Void!

Or is she a broken existence brought back by her own Mushoku Saisei?

The Sage's Creation of All Things is quite impressive in that it can turn imagination into reality. However, it is not the pinnacle of Creation in that it does not make something out of nothing. It still uses chakra, after all. So at its core it's no different from, let's say, Goukakyuu no Jutsu, it's just more general in scope and immensely more efficient. But there can be better things, as proved by Naruto in the Extra Chapter.

My true question is "what does it take to use the primordial form of Creation, as in shaping things from the Chaos outside Reality?". Does it take an action similar to Sayoko's when she became a Voidwalker, the Fourth/Third stage of understanding of the Aeon of Creation, or something else?

 

[Daneel Rush]

@Futon Lord: There is no contradiction. You're simply working with insufficient information and making incorrect assumptions.

More importantly, this is it. I'm done. With the end of Chapter 23 I conclude Genkyouien and complete the foremost objective of Project Sayumayu. It feels like an awfully long introduction, and I guess it was the only way it could have been. It's a huge world, and we were just looking at a single story. There are plenty of other heroes in the Sayumayu setting I couldn't even introduce, and some I only barely brushed. It's a shame, that I am but a mere man, and thus cannot give even my own imagination the devotion it deserves.

In any case, this is it. It was truly a pleasure.

*****************************************
*****************************************

Naturally, it was a small gathering present at the departure of Higashiyama. The foxes of Shionzaki were apparently busy setting up the Great Chorus, or at least that was the excuse. It was clear to anybody who paid attention that in the course of a day a wedge had been driven between Yuri and Utahime. Yurimi, being witness to the two’s negotiations, only knew Utahime looked poised to extract significant concessions from the Spirit clan until the former Matriarch returned from a short break and went back on almost everything. Needless to say, the Songmistress was not very happy about this.

Yurisa was fawning over her daughter while Yurine and Sayuri exchanged a painfull tight hug—neither seemed to mind, though. Kotonoha and Yurimi were a lot more moderate, but their exchange was no less heartfelt. More to the side, away from the Main Gate and closer to the shade of the trees, Yuria had a serious face while talking with Yuriyo and Kurosaki Sayoko. Naruto could not see Sayoko’s face, but he guessed it looked as lazy and bored as usual.

With hands on his hips, Naruto let go a loud sigh. A part of him found it hard to believe it was really time to say goodbye. Sure, a whole bunch of them were staying, but he had already gotten used to having many fox youkai around. What did he do before meeting Sayuri, anyway?

“…ah, right. Ninja.”

“Excuse me?”

Naruto was surprised to find a beauty of thistle-colored hair done in an artful bun and a wavy tail. She wore a yukata in the thin fabric the Great Sound Clan foxes seemed to favor.

“Ah, Aika-chan.” An exchange of smiles was all the greetings they apparently needed. “Just thinking to myself.”

“A penny for your thoughts?”

“Mah, just thinking things will get a bit quieter now.”

Aika tilted her head almost imperceptibly.

“Hmm…yes, Higashiyama has a number of very strong personalities. Now I feel a little self-conscious, if I may make such an admission.”

She did not really look it.

“Nah, nah, it’ll be cool to have you around.” Naruto replied, acting the good host. If anything, it would be a nice change of pace. “So, I guess I gotta make my round of goodbyes.”

“Would you allow me the joy of accompanying you?”

Aika’s overt respectfulness and deference would take a while getting used to, but the warmth of her smile, taken at face value, was like a balsam for the heart. Naruto and his youkai escort moved forward to join the other youkai and humans exchanging some last minute thoughts with each other.

“And remember not to be a bother to Naruto-san and Kotonoha-san,” Yurisa told her little goddess of a daughter, who nodded curtly, like she had done at the end of every sentence from her overly motherly mother.

“And if Naruto tries to assault you at night,” Yuriyo was saying to Yuria at around the same time while making a mock-haymaker. “Just punch him in the face.”

“There! The rude person over there, be quiet!”•Naruto shouted at the half-Void, who playfully poked her tongue out at him. Deciding to try out manners for a change, Naruto chose to move from oldest to youngest. That meant his eyes immediately went to the Third Matriarch of Higashiyama, who was exchanging some last pleasantries with the Hokage and Jiraiya. Yuri caught him staring, and vaguely turned her head in his direction in a despondent gesture of acknowledgement. Naruto’s expression went flat.

“…yeah, not wasting my time on you.”

Paying no mind to the daggers being glared on his back, Naruto went to Yurine’s group.

“Yurine-chan, Yurina-chan,” he greeted, and the two-tailed blonde immediately replied with a very polite bow.

“Onii-sama. One more time, thank you very much for your kindness these past two weeks.”

“Ah, no, no, don’t—” He ducked right before a silver tail struck the back of his head. “—mention it. We’re all friends here, so—” He jumped before another tail could swipe him off his feet. “—we’re totally cool. I’m kinda slow, so I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself too—”

After making a little twirl like a ballerina to dodge a third tail, Yurina and her mother both clapped while uttering “oooh…” in admiration.

“Waaah, onii-chan’s funny!” Sayuri’s tails swung excitedly while her large carmine eyes looked up at Naruto with joy. Naruto, however, had turned his back to the young foxgirls to glare at the tallest woman present.

“Do you mind!?”

Yuri was the perfect picture of calmness, dismissive of the somewhat amused-looking, inquisitive looks of the Hokage and his student. She shrugged.

“Don’t think too much about it; he actually likes the attention,” she said.

“I don’t!” Naruto shouted back. “I really, really don’t! I wouldn’t like it any less if it were Fubuki doin’ it!”

“Um, onii-sama,” Yurina said. Yuri seemingly decided to allow the boy to say his goodbyes undisturbed. “I hope we were not that much of a bother…”

“Nah, nah, don’t be like that!” Naruto insisted. “It was great having you.”

“But…” Yurina uttered despondently, looking over Naruto’s shoulder at the ruined Hidden Village. Naruto sighed.

“Come on, you can’t really blame yourself for that. If anything I should be feeling even worse; Sayuri did most of that—”

“Sayuri’s stwong!”

The boy and the foxgirl stared down at the grinning little nine-tails.

“…yeah, we gotta work on that,” Naruto concluded before turning back to Yurina. “But really, don’t beat yourself over this.”

“I just…” Yurina’s posture made her look smaller. “…I wish I could do something for onii-sama…”

Naruto chuckled nervously. “Your, um, your feelings are enough…?”

“Naruuuuuuu-tooooooo…” A comically haunting voice whispered in his left ear. “Aaaaaaask for her virginityyyyyyyy…”

“Bweeeeeeh!?”

While Yurina became a blushing wreck in front of him, Naruto raised an eyebrow and turned his head to the side.

“…what are you doing, Riyo?”

The girl whose smile was untouched in its charm despite her many scars wriggled her single hand before Naruto’s eyes.

“I am not that amazingly beautiful woman you call Riyoooooooooo~” She said in that silly “ghostly” voice. “I am your coooooonscieeeeennnce—owie!” Yuriyo then rubbed the crown of her head upon Naruto smacking it with his fist. “Damn it, ‘ruto! Be nice to the cripple!”

“You don’t deserve it!” Naruto retorted. “And stop calling yourself that!”

“Aaaaaaanyway!” Yuriyo sauntered to her sister’s side, wrapping Yurina’s shoulders with her arm. “You don’t really have to worry about compensation and stuff like that: he got to ogle at our naked mother all the time—”

“I didn’t! Damn it, Yuriyo!”

“Naruto-kyun!”

GLOMP.

“Why!?” The foolish boy cried out, as if there were need for a reason. Yurine does as Yurine does. Nevertheless, the boy whose head then rested on the amazingly comfortable pillows on Yurine’s chest could only glare weakly at the half-Void.

“Muu…” Sayuri looked up at the hug scene with a bit of a sour mood. Nothing was set on fire, though.

“—and I intend to return his kindness with interest when he goes to the shrine to visit.”

The hungry, sultry look on Yuriyo’s face gave only one possible meaning to her words. While the reactions of the ANBU agents present would remain a mystery forever unknown, at the very least Yurisa and Mayuri seemed a little unnerved by the Night Lily’s innuendo.

“Um, Yuriyo-chan, you do realize everybody can hear you…?”

Yuriyo shrugged—yet another action that looked awkward with her damaged anatomy—and looked utterly unfazed by the thought.

“It’s…not like I plan to be subtle about it,” she said before cupping her hand by the side of her mouth like a half-megaphone.

“Kotonoha!” She shouted. “I like your son and I plan to fuck him in the near future!”

Naruto spat what little saliva had gathered in his mouth. It was mostly sprayed on Yurine’s kimono shirt, though. Yurina had so much blood in her head her legs became wobbly and struggled to hold her weight. Mayuri rolled her eyes while her mother laugher embarrassedly, as if wishing she were any other place but there. She was also covering Sayuri’s ears.

Kotonoha, who had been exchanging final words with Yurimi, pursed her lips in thought for a moment before responding to Yuriyo’s bold statement with a polite bow.

“My child is young and ignorant of the ways to please a woman. I beg of you: please be patient with him and accepting of his lack of technique.”

“Leave it to me!” Yuriyo said, offering a thumbs-up to the swordswoman.

“Ahaha, so this is how a mother embarrasses her son, huh…” A grinning Naruto mused on this new experience. “I never…damn…”

He quicky rubbed his eyes with the side of his hand.

“I never thought I’d have this happen to me…”

Naruto and Kotonoha looked at each other, their smiles full of sweetness and affection.

“Uwah! Too bright!” Yuriyo inched away from the boy ninja. “Damn it, why aren’t you embarrassed!? Why are flowers blooming around you!? Inari in Heaven, if this were an anime the backgrounds would be so fucking pink right now!”

Looking at her boy friend who was a little too not-embarrased to her liking, Yuriyo rethought her strategy.

“Wait! Of course! It’s not the kitsune side I should use for this; it’s the humans!”

Sarutobi Hiruzen groaned a little when the half-Void’s eye fell on him.

“Hokage-sama! I want to hire Naruto for a one-night-long S-rank mission!”

“Wait,” Naruto uttered.

“No, wait, make it ten nights long!”

“Wait!”

The Fourth Matriarch of Higashiyama widened her carmine eyes as if struck by a powerful revelation.

“…why didn’t I think of that!?”

“Waiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!”

“My assistant can explain our rates to you,” Hiruzen replied with the calmness of one long accustomed to the eccentricities of foxkind. Nobody paid any attention to the grinning Jiraiya next to him.

“The old gramps is selling my body!?”

The Third spoke with the solemnity of an old wise man.

“We are ‘shinobi’, Naruto.”

It means “one who endures”.

“What the hell!?”

“Mother.” Yurimi sought her knowledgeable progenitor. “Please dedicate a fraction of the clan’s finances to—”

“Not happening, Yurimi!” It was one of those not-so-rare moments when Naruto’s and Yuri’s thoughts, actions and words mirrored each other’s. Needless to say, the boy and the former Matriarch just as quickly turned their heads away from each other with childish “hmph’s”.

“You have a rather high opinion of yourself, Yuriyo-kun,” the Third then said to the half-Void, who responded with a smile even the old man could not help but find dazzling.

“You can blame your boy for that as well, hmm!”

“Um, mother, you should perhaps let go of onii-sama…?” Yurina pointed out, but the five-tails instead shook both her head and her entire body, effectively rubbing Naruto against her plentiful chest.

“No way~”

“Hawah!”

That was how Yurina ended up as part of the hug herself. Knowing better than to fight against Yurine on this, Naruto and the Day Lily also wrapped the child-like fox-woman and each other with their arms.

“Take care, Yurine-chan, Yurina-chan.”

“Umu.”

“Yes, onii-sama. Please send my regards to Ino-san and Shino-kun.”

“And Kiba-kyun and Akamaru-kun!”

“Ah, um, yes…” Yurina half-heartedly followed. No way around it; most kitsune are really not good with dogs.

Naruto felt a bit bad for both Kiba and Yurine—it was probably unwise to put fox youkai in Kiba’s proximity at the moment, even if Yurine’s wish to be friends with him was sincere.

“Sayuri wants hugs too!”

The threesome grunted when the weight of nine fluffy tails and the girl attached to those fell upon them. Naruto hastily let go of Yurine and her daughter to get a hold of Sayuri’s bum, and the little Kyuubi quickly wrapped her legs around his waist and buried her face in the nape of his neck.

“Right, right, hug for Sayuri.”

“Munyaaan~”

“Isn’t she a little too pampered…?” Yuri muttered disapprovingly.

“You’re the last person in the world who gets to say that!” Naruto shouted before turning to Yurisa and her daughter. The four-tails bowed curtly.

“I thought I could let go of her by now,” she said before pushing her daughter as if presenting her. “Please, take good care of my girl, Naruto-san.”

Mayuri bowed very respectfully; it almost gave the image of a bride-to-be at a marriage interview.

“Sure thing; she’s with family here, so it’s all good.”

“Muu…” The one person (youkai) who was not particularly happy about Mayuri sticking around hummed darkly on Naruto’s neck. It kind of tickled. But it was a wise choice, Kyuubi-san: you are both equally important McGuffins, so it’s better to keep you together.

“Thank you very much for your warm hospitality,” Yurisa said while offering Naruto a warm smile. “I truly hope we can return your kindness one day.”

“Ahaha, we’ll see.” The boy then looked around for a specific youkai. “Where’s Chiyuri…um, san? Gotta thank her for her hard work these past three days.”

It became Yurisa’s turn to laugh, albeit very quietly and modestly, like a true lady.

“Actually…” She teased, pointing with a single finger. All eyes went to a spot some distance away from the group. While the sounds of their exchange could not be picked by human ears, Naruto, Hiruzen and Jiraiya could see Chiyuri talking excitedly to a masked ANBU operative, her long twintails dancing merrily along with her four white-tipped blonde fox tails. Chiyuri’s strong body language clearly displayed her joy, so much that even her interlocutor seemed tense and uncomfortable in comparison. Her right hand waved a small green scroll with Konoha’s symbol on the seal. Eyebrows were raised when she stored the scroll in the depths of her cleavage, but eyes went really wide when Chiyuri glomped her ANBU “friend”, swaying him around like the overly excited owner of a particularly cute puppy. The whole scene was silly in excess, but it brought smiles to people’s faces—also, Yamato-san would be the recipient of a lot of teasing in the following weeks.

Faced with that, Naruto chose to leave Chiyuri with her new friend (?), left Sayuri for Yurine to hold for a while and moved to one he had not been able to converse with very much—they did exchange words during the many meals Naruto shared with the clan, though. Yuriko greeted him with a curt nod. While there was certainly life in her eyes, she was not brimming with energy, and the teasing smirk he remembered on her face was completely gone.

“Hey,” he said very lamely, and Naruto cursed his lack of skill at beginning a conversation.

“Thank you very much for your attentions towards us in the past two weeks. This Higashiyama Yuriko truly appreciates your hospitality.” A flat, entirely diplomatic pair of sentences. A formality at best.

Naruto sighed.

“So, gotta go with the plan, after all,” he muttered with head held low before grinning at the mourning foxgirl.

“I, um, kinda wanted to show this to your sister.”

“Eh…?”

Naruto raised a finger. “Check this out.”

With that, he turned his back to Yuriko and called Jiraya.

“Hey, Ero-Sennin! Get over here!”

“Like hell I will!” The Toad Sage replied. “You ignore me the whole time and all of a sudden you want me to approach you? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

Naruto sighed again.

“Oh, whatever. Oiroke no Jutsu!”

A simple plume of unnaturally white smoke replaced our lovable little idiot into a naked, twin-tailed, elegantly-censored bombshell. Those who had witnessed Naruto’s first original jutsu noticed the sexy transformation had a slightly different appearance.

Those who had met her noticed a slight resemblance to the Sayuri from that other timeline.

“Heeeeey~” The beautiful blonde leaned forward and skillfully pressed her breasts together with her arms. “The cool-looking ojii-san over there~” Not only her appearance and her gestures; even her voice had been enhanced for improved sensuality. Naruto truly learned a lot these past two weeks. “Will you give a lonely girl some company~?”

“YA—HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—bleargh!!!” Jiraiya’s already creepy-looking face further distorted into a rictus of utter agony when his old-pervert leap towards the blonde beauty was interrupted by a kick to the balls.

“And that’s for throwing me down that cliff!” The naked Naruto (?) spat at the man groaning at her feet. “Asshole!”

And then Jiraiya was on fire.

“Mweanie! Bleeeeeeeeeeh!” Sayuri’s cute tongue poked at the fugly toad guy.

“MINE!”

“Eh—geh!” Yuriko blinked and Naruto was no longer in front of her, but on the ground some yards away, tackled by a suddenly very amorous half-Void.

“Wha—wait, Yuriyo—!!!”

But the girl’s ears were deaf to all words.

“Mine-mine-mine-mine-mine! MINE!” She repeated while shaking her face from side to side. “I claim this land in the name of the Yuriyo Kingdom!”

“What the hell do you think I am!?” Naruto retorted the moment he turned back to his authentic appearance. “Get off me!”

Yuriyo pushed herself up with her arm, but still loomed over the slightly peeved boy she now called friend. Her eye gleamed with possibilities.

“Can you combine that with your clone technique?”

“Huh?” Naruto needed a moment to align his thoughts with Yuriyo’s words. “Ah, you mean Harem no Jutsu.”

Yuriyo’s eye gleamed with unshed tears.

“It’s like the gods made you for me!”

Naruto honestly did not know what to say to that. She was smiling, so he guessed it was alright.

“Hey, Naruto: give me your opinion on the idea of putting long, hard objects inside you.”

“Now I really don’t like where this conversation is going!”

And thankfull that was the end of that. Boy and foxgirl rose to their feet and the former checked on the original target of his little stunt—not Jiraiya.

Yuriko…was not exploding in laughter like he expected, but there was certainly a smile of honest amusement on her pretty-if-a-bit-pale face. It was regardless a mission accomplished.

“I have to say, Naruto-kun, that I’m not that easy,” Yuriko then said. “Don’t expect me to fall for you just because you give me a free show.”

“Eeeeh…no, that wasn’t really my intention…”

“But!” The four-tails interrupted him while offering an outstretched hand. “I would not mind starting as friends.”

“Deal!” Naruto replied, eagerly seizing the offered hand and shaking it perhaps too enthusiastically. “Take care, Yuriko-nee-chan. Now you’ve gotta work twice as hard, ya know.”

Yuriko’s eyes widened for a moment, but then she simply sighed in a somewhat defeated manner.

“…yeah, I know.”

Naruto intended to save Yurimi for last, which meant there was only one other person left to say goodbye to, and she stood right behind him. And when his eyes met hers, the entire world around them was tuned out, enraptured as he was by her powerful, beautiful presence. Truly, it was not him who changed the most in the past two weeks; it was not Yuria; it was neither Sayuri nor Mayuri. It was this person in front of him, who had lost so much yet managed to rediscover herself; remake herself into something so mind-numblingly amazing Naruto found it hard to keep his eyes on her, for how could he deserve to lay his eyes on such beauty?

He guessed that, after all, he would not get back at her for burning Yuria’s stuff in Void Fire. He could even claim the person who did that died at Kimimaro’s hand. And besides, Yuria probably deserved it anyway.

“So…take care, ‘ruto,” she said, letting go of the allure and the teasing for a while. This was just plain Yuriyo exchanging some last words with a good friend.

“Aah.”

“And keep those hands off those Sayumayu, alright?” She then warned in a teacher-like voice, finger raised and all. “They’re awfully cute and all, but we both know it would be wrong.”

“I’m gonna hit you! I’m seriously gonna hit yo—oof!”

Naruto had to take a step back when the full weight of Yuriyo’s body pushed itself on him. His arms quicky reached around her slim waist, resting right above the base of her tails, where her back was replaced by a most delicious curve. Her hand pressed the very center of his back and her head hung low, her left cheek pressed against his own. She was taller, so it looked a little awkward.

“…this sucks,” she said, very softly, and only Naruto could have a chance to catch it.

“Huh?”

“This body,” she explained, and her hand roughly clenched the fabric of his blue t-shirt. “I can’t even hug my friend properly.”

Naruto’s smile became just a little bit sad. But it was not a sadness that could not be easily dispelled.

“Then…” He began, placing a bit more strength in his arms. “…I just gotta hold you tighter to make up for that, right?”

Yuriyo seemed surprised for a moment, but apparently came to terms with the fact that Naruto could figure out at least that much.

“Right. So, tighter.”

Naruto obeyed.

“Tighter.”

The boy frowned, but did as told.

“Tighter, Naruto,” Yuriyo whispered. “Until it hurts a little. And it wouldn’t be yet enough.”

Naruto chuckled, seemingly understanding something.

“Do your best, Riyo,” he whispered back. “I’ll be looking forward to the badass eyepatch.”

“Sure thing. Don’t forget to practice everything I taught you.”

“Everything you—wait, you mean kissing?”

They had to let go sooner or later. When they did, Naruto’s hands held to Yuriyo’s for a moment longer.

“See you around,” he said. The two-tails nodded—then again, that would depended on how often he summoned her.

“Take care, Naruto.”

Pronounced as “Naruto”, but meant as “Friend”.

While the half-Void reunited with her mother and sister, Naruto sought the young leader of that kitsune clan. The Silver Lily awaited him with saintly patience and the inexpressive face Naruto was already well accustomed. Even if it rarely smiled, even if her eyes showed little emotion, it was nonetheless a very beautiful face, in an otherworldly way completely different from Yuriyo’s or Setsuna’s.

It was…yes, hard to admit as it was, it could not be denied: Yurimi’s face was her mother’s. The similarity could hardly be more obvious. She would grow to become more and more like Higasiyama Yuri.

Everything started with Sayuri, but the real chaos to his life arrived with this person’s summoning. It was only fair it would end with her as well. He had built bonds with all the lilies to different degrees, but this person was the first inconditional ally. Sayuri was more of an extension of himself, but that would not be the case for much longer—Naruto had seen the White Flame and thus understood Sayuri was just a step away from a path nobody else could follow her to. Yurimi would likely remain herself for a very long time, if not forever.

So, if their bond was so strong, why was it so difficult to speak all of a sudden?

“Um…yeah, so…” He grimaced at his utterly un-smooth start. “So, Yurimi—!”

Unable to say anymore, his lips caught by Yurimi’s as they were, Naruto underwent a rather impressive mental process. It happened in a flash, and for once the result mattered significantly more than the process. He realized that, even if it was hardly the point Yurimi was aiming for, words were in fact completely unneccessary this time. They had already spoken so much, shared so much, lived through so much in these past two weeks, that it made little sense to say anything besides “goodbye” and “see you later”. Everything else could be expressed in better ways. So he held her, and accepted her affection; the kiss was mild, soft and devoid of passion and intensity; it was the satisfaction of a need for physical contact, for closeness and the mixing of their breaths. Rather, it was their hands’ firm hold of each other’s that revealed their feelings more eloquently. Yurimi longed to remain by his side, but accepted that their paths would have to separate for a little while. Her hold was a promise to keep him in her mind and her heart.

In return, Naruto presented her with his gratitude: thank you for answering my random summon. Thank you for being there. Thank you for being you. For standing by my side; for smiling at me; for your love and your friendship; for your loyalty and your devotion. Thank you for intruding in my life and making it a furry mess. Thank you for pushing me into a world vast beyond my wildest dreams.

Thank you for sticking around.

Jiraiya of the Sannin, who despite having taken a kick to the crotch kept his priorities straight, raised his fist triumphantly.

“I should be pissed at him, but, damn it, that’s my godson!”

Naruto promptly pushed the Lily Seed away.

“I’m your WHAT!?”

And suddenly Yurimi was on fire.

“Muu, why evwybody gets chuu-chuu!?”

That’s horrible grammar there, Sayuri-san.

Yurisa hastily dispelled the comedy flames.

“Damn it, Jiraiya!” The Third Hokage made his thoughts fairly clear.

“Kiss now, critical setting revelations later, Master.”

“No, wait, Yurimi; this is kind of importa—hmmmbfffgh!”

Come on, the story’s over, Naruto; don’t think too hard about it. Then again, Yurimi does not need me telling this; she’s perfectly capable of keeping Naruto distracted all by herself…for about one minute and twelve seconds.

Releasing a deep breath upon (reluctantly) letting go of his lips, Yurimi licked her own and split the diminutive string of saliva connecting them.

“My deepest apologies,” she whispered. “This sinful slave is too selfish a woman.”

Naruto rolled his eyes. A part of him was tired of being embarrassed by Yurimi’s fetish.

“…right.” With that, he smiled. Can’t blame him; kissing does feel quite good, especially when there’s actual affection involved. “Thank you.”

Those two words were plenty enough. Yurimi changed her hold on the boy, wrapping her arms around his neck and nuzzling his hair.

“Now, if Master is so kind, please allow me to spend some minutes to fill myself with Master’s manly scent—iyan!”

“Alright, that’s it, we’re leaving!” A long and beautiful silver tail pulled Yurimi off our hero while its owner’s hands flickered through hand seals to invoke the Shrine Gate. While the humans admired the torii of silver light, Yuri hurriedly ushered her relatives towards it.

“Come on, hurry, hurry! We don’t have all day and we’ve been away long enough!”

“Bye, Yuri!” A grinning Naruto shouted in his most lighthearted voice.

“Go die in a ditch somewhere.”

The boy laughed merrily at the seven-tails’ dark retort. Yuriko was the first to step into the Gate, departing after offering a curt nod to the human party. Yurisa squeezed her daughter’s hands one last time and slid a hand over her silver-white hair before bowing to the Hokage and stepping through. Having left a slightly dazed and hypoxic (her hugs are very smothering) Yamato under the care of a bunch of ANBU grinning like loons under their masks, Chiyuri went through the trouble of bowing and shaking the hands of every human present before leaving.

“Goodbye and thank you!” She said. “If, if you need any more assistance, please do not hesitate to—owie!”

“Yes, yes, whatever,” Yuri spat out while tail-slapping her granddaughter into the Gate. “Next!”

“Alright, the amazing Yuriyo-sama will leave now. Don’t miss me too much!”

“Nobody will!” A new voice provided the retort this time. Everybody looked in the village’s direction where Team 10 was assembled. It was the lone girl in that team who had apparently dragged her sensei and teammates to the youkai send-off.

“Ha!” The Half-Void laughed. “Be glad I’m letting you keep the top vixen spot in this town!”

“What the hell kind of girl do you take me for!? Get lost already!”

“Ahaha…” Chouji laughed weakly while Shikamaru mumbled something predictable under his breath. His eyes then caught sight of Kurosaki Sayoko, who offered him a brief nod he cautiously returned. The fox-woman had spoken to the adults of her clan at some point, which probably meant his father would have a bunch of new jutsu to teach him in the near future.

“Tch, really; such a hassle…” he muttered while shaking his head.

While a laughing Yuriyo stepped through the Gate, Yurine and her other daughter stopped in front of it.

“Uh, um, thank you very much for having us!” Yurina said and delivered exactly three bows. Yurine saw that and followed along with some time lag. There was also some bouncing involved.

“I’m totally beating you next time, twintails!” Ino called out to the half-Celestial lily, who blinked in confusion for a moment before responded with a somewhat strained smile.

“Um, I, I’ll do my best not to disappoint you…?”

“Damn it, that humility of yours kinda pisses me off,” Ino grumbled but let her off with a smile. Realizing that they were in good terms after all, Yurina let her own smile relax and waved one last goodbye to Ino and the others before walking into the silver portal. Yurine waved a lot more effusively.

“Bye-bye~”

Yuri turned to her successor, who was however engaged with somebody else.

“…Yurimi.”

“…Tamamo-san.”

Yurimi remained flawlessly untouchable while Yuria rested her weight on her left side and planted her right hand on her hip.

“You sure you guys gonna be okay? I mean, we’re keeping the overpowered lolis.”

“It will be some time until we are attacked by a Kyuubi again,” Yurimi pointed out. “We will handle whatever else that comes at us. Higashiyama is strong. Honestly, Tamamo-san should worry more about herself.”

“Ahaha, it’s fine, it’s fine. I just have to do as I’ve done all this time.”

The short-haired beauty sighed.

“If you try hard enough it will work out somehow…right?”

“Right!” Thumbs-up from the three-tails.

“Yuria…really, stop making me worry. It is not about how hard you work—”

“It’s about how well. I got it.” Yuria offered her right hand. “Take care, Yurimi. Don’t work yourself dead.”

“Rigth back at you,” the younger lily replied, completing the handshake. “Take care of him, Yuria.”

“Nah, Sayuri can take care of that well enough by herself.”

“Rather, it is Sayuri-sama I am worried the most about,” Yurimi admitted.

“Achaa…you might want to ask Mayuri ‘bout that.”

“Perhaps. Goodbye, Tamamo-san.”

“Later, ‘rimi.”

Naruto’s and Yurimi’s eyes locked on each other’s while the Lily Seed walked to the portal. Naruto knew somehow, that she was calculating the right angle and the right moment, and when it arrived she offered him the briefest of smiles, but also the purest and most blissful. The smile only for him and that nobody else was allowed to catch a glimpse of. That was her last gift before disappearing beyond the curtain of silver radiance.

Suddenlt, he felt a deep shadow enveloping him from behind. Naruto thought it amusing and wonderful that the deepest, most powerful darkness could also feel so reliable.

“Have a nice trip, Sayoko-san.”

The gloomy-looking woman only nodded as she walked past him, gently stroking Sayuri’s hair before stepping into the Gate. Well, it wasn’t like he expected anything from that person.

And thus, only Yuri was left. She stared at Naruto, and Naruto returned the stare. There was humor on his face; as for hers…

“…monkey.”

“…fox,” Naruto retorted in an equally mock-spiteful tone.

“Virgin.”

“Hag.”

“Limp dick.”

“Boobs-for-brains.”

“No wonder my daughter was sealed in you; anybody can see you’d be hopeless on your own.”

“Yeah, guess Yondaime did ya a favor,” Naruto teased back. “After failing as a mother so many times somebody hadta spare you the last one.”

Her tails were trembling in threatening irritation, but everybody could also see the twitching corners of her lips. She would not have been able to deny the fact that she was grinning like a child at a candy store.

“Why, you little—uwah!”

A dainty, pale hand—the violet sleeve made it Sayoko’s—reached from beyond the portal and pulled Yuri by her long silver hair. Naruto and the others could still hear some dialogue from the other side while the portal faded away.

“Man, this place hasn’t changed at all—HOLY FLYING—WHAT THE FUCK IS THA—”

The humans on the Konoha side were rattled by a terrible sound which was fortunately cut short by the complete disassembly of the Shrine Gate.

“Was…” the Third Hokage was the first to open his mouth. “…was that cannonfire?”

Yuria was already wiping unshed tears off her eyes. It was really hard for her not to laugh.

“Man, same old Yurie. Definitely not gonna miss that.”

Naruto blinked.

“I…really don’t wanna know.”

“And that, my buddy, is called wisdom,” Yuria replied, heartily patting Naruto’s back. “So, what now?”

Naruto chuckled. “What now, huh..?”

Letting his hands rest in his pockets, Naruto came to terms with the fact that, indeed, they were gone, and life continued. He was not alone anymore. Glacing to the side at Yuria, who silently waited for his input, Naruto decided that his soul could use a break from so many foxes, after all. It wasn’t like they were all gone, anyway. At least one of them would never leave his side.

“Sayuri!” He called, squatting a little and patting his own knees like a dog owner calling his pet.

“Waaai, onii-chan!” Three seconds later, the girl was wrapped around his torso, head resting on his left shoulder and arms locked around his neck. “Munyaa~”

“Well,” Naruto then addressed Yuria. “The village’s not gonna rebuild itself, is it?”

The three-tails nodded and grinned as if she had been just invited to a battle royale.

“Right!”

With that said, Naruto turned around, towards his home, and towards the lineup of youkai waiting for him. Kotonoha, Mayuri and Aika returned his studious gaze with varying degrees of simple curiosity and warm affection. Naruto was, however, coming to terms with a very simple fact.

“Um, mom…”

“Yes?” Kotonoha tilted her head in a manner better suitable to a much younger lady.

“…we’re gonna need a bigger place.”

“Indeed, we are.”

Shrugging with an unmistakable “it will work out somehow” attitude, Naruto took the first step to join the youkai on the way back to the razed village when he was unexpectedly interrupted.

“Naruto?”

In Hiruzen’s voice and expression Naruto found surprise, confusion, and perhaps a bit of wariness. Naruto was somewhat pleased with himself after figuring out that much. “Uzumaki Naruto has grown up a little!” or something like that.

“Aren’t…are you not going to ask? About…”

Watching the Third shoot irritated glances at a guilty-looking Jiraiya told Naruto everything he had to know. He grinned.

“Wel, I’d lie if I said I don’t wanna know…but I’ve asked you a bunch of times already and you never told me, so…I think you’ll just tell me when you can, right?”

The soul is a composite construct composed of all things, material and intangible, that make up a person’s identity: memories, bonds, ideals, ambitions, wishes, talents, knowledge and skills, among others. Naruto lost a portion of that unique thing called “the soul”, surrendered to the merciless flame of Higanbana Sesshouseki. That vague concept of “Uzumaki Naruto’s biological parents” was likely one of the things harmed by the white flames; bonds to which he was not very strongly attached to; ambiguous existences he acknowledged existed by in no way influenced his life, thoughts and actions.

He looked at the woman he now called mother. Perhaps she was not the mother he should have, or even the mother he deserved, but she was the only mother he knew, and the only one he wanted. And he was such a lucky guy that she too wanted to stand by his side. Naruto, the boy with the scarred soul, could only live for the present; the white flames ensured the unknown past lost most of whatever value it may have had. Naruto decided to try out doing even more good things and score some more karma points. Maybe that would allow him to regain that hopeless mistress’ smile.

“Right now I think I want to be with my family.”

He would have to get back to a schedule of missions as a member of Team 7 sooner or later; he had to squeeze the most out of this lull in his shinobi career.

“So!” Naruto then said upon joining the group of ladies and claimed the central position on their way back to the tents. “I’m in the mood for some ramen. Who’s with me?”

Yuria, Mayuri and Kotonoha responded with utterly flat looks, while the lady Aika looked a bit scandalized by the proposal.

“Na-Naruto-kun…so bold!”

“I can see you wagging your tails, you know,” Yuria commented to the side.

“Waaaaai, wamen!”

Wiggle, wiggle.

***********************************

That evening, Naruto and Sayuri took some time for themselves and sought the quietness of the Hokage Monument—what was left of it, that is. He did not sit too close to the edge; it was obvious that was not a very safe place to be at the moment. So he sat relaxedly and let Sayuri curl her tiny body on his lap. His hands roamed the incomparable softness of her nine golden tails.

Past, present and multiple possible futures mingled in Naruto’s mind. He thought of what he had accomplished thus far and of the road he intended to walk in the future. At that moment, a little goddess of time and space, feeble and kinder than anyone else, worked with Shionzaki Aika to move their shared tent next to Kotonoha’s. And the golden princess of fire enjoying the ministrations of his hands right this very moment, so detached from both good and evil and of common rationality, needed to be protected first and foremost from herself.

Naruto had seen the White Flame. Naruto had seen what Sayuri could become. If she willingly chose to become that, he would accept it. But that, he thought, would be just too sad.

“Onii-chan.”

Pulled out of depressing thoughts by her sweet voice, Naruto looked down and found his sight filled with her pristine, radiant face. Like her voice, her eyes carried a subtle question. Could she perhaps feel the somber feeling his thoughts brewed in him? Did she somehow perceive his darkening mood and sought to relieve him of it (at least she had not tried to burn it)? He was used to her closeness, which perhaps explained why he usually paid little attention to her facial features. In her round carmine eyes, her pink lips and rosy cheeks he saw the hints of the peerless beauty who had shed tears for him before leaving him forever. Just like that wonderful, pitiful woman, this little foxgirl looked up at him like he was the most amazing , most precious thing in existence.

Naruto had already decided, and Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word. He would scold her when he had to, but every other time he would always have a smile for her. If she honestly believed him to be the most amazing person, then he would become exactly that.

“Little sister,” he joked in a mild voice, scratching the spot on the back of her ears he knew she liked. Expectedly, the girl smiled blissfully and eased back down on his lap. Naruto already knew: Sayuri was an utterly pure creature who always took his words and actions at face value. She would never doubt him, perhaps because she did not know the concept of falsity. How much longer would she be able to maintain that purity?

He wanted nothing more than her happiness, but what was the happiness she wanted? It clearly involved him, that much he understood, but perhaps it also involved the White Flame.

“Onii-chan, Sayuri doesn’t wanna twain Waiton anymoar,” Sayuri said unexpectedly. She had probably held the thought in her mind for a while; she just happened to remember it at that moment. Was she complaining to him now that the other Sayuri was no longer around?

“Why not?”

“Muu…” One of her tails twitched with irritation. “Sayuri doesn’ think she can do it.”

That was a lie: the other Sayuri could do it, so there was absolutely no reason for this one not to. Naruto knew Sayuri understood what that decision would entail, but he asked nonetheless.

“So you don’t want to master Kakuton?”

“Umm…Sayuri likes burning things. Sayuri’s fire’s alweady the stwongest.”

Naruto sighed. He knew now that Kakuton was only one possible way her powers could manifest. Had Sayuri already chosen a path before he could even have a chance to stir her, educate her a little?

“So…” He continued with some trepidation. “Do you know what you wanna do instead?”

“…Sayuri likes burning things.”

Another sigh. Naruto guessed a proper answer would be expecting too much.

“Onii-chan.”

The nine-tails flipped on his lap to lay face-up, looking at him without mirth or joy.

“Onii-chan, at that time Sayuri was also theh with onii-chan.”

The words struck him at the core, releasing a chilling bolt down the length of his spine as he came to realize that he had been severely underestimating Higashiyama Sayuri.

Weapon of the Soul was a mutual experience, after all. He had spent all that time dwelling on what he had learned upon glimpsing at the White Flame that he did not ponder the simple fact that Sayuri was also there. That the White Flame, while still something greater than her, it was also part of her. That in the same way Naruto had gained an understanding of what Sayuri was and could become, Sayuri too must have seen and experienced something at that moment. And that she had waited until that very moment, the time when they were alone, to voice that simple truth.

What truths had she been exposed to? What could he do for her, now that she knew Destruction?

“Ah you afwaid too, onii-chan?”

It hurt. To be asked such a question, it hurt tremendously. She could not possibly fear the White Flame; that would be like fearing her reflection on the mirror. She was not asking whether he shared her inexistent fear; she asked whether she had become like the others, humans and youkai, similar in their common impression of the unfathomable power that obeyed no denominations such as “Kyuubi”. The power that Kurosaki Sayoko had merely touched and which Yuria longed to reach. The power that stood within the reach of Sayuri’s hand, luring her to claim it and remake herself to its image.

“Sayuri…!”

“Mugyan~!”

Sayuri did not complain when Naruto held her tightly to his own body, although she did squeak in her own unique way. When his hand roamed the softness of her silky hair, she purred in utter delight, thusly melting in his warm embrace.

“Don’t be silly!” He all but gasped. “You just said it, didn’t you? We were there together. We saw the same thing. At that time, we were one, Sayuri…! Were we afraid, Sayuri? Of the White Flame?”

“Nuh-uh.”

It was Destruction, the unraveling of concept, matter and energy. The conversion from living to lifeless, from useful to useless, from meaningful to meaningless. The removal of all probability and all significance. But they did not fear it. Even if The Flame Kindled by the First Motion was terrifying in its all-encompassing magnitude, it was also a part of Sayuri, Sayuri’s past and her possible future; a past certainty and a future possibility. Regardless of what it was and could be, it was Sayuri. Sayuri did not fear herself, and Naruto…

“I love you too much to fear you, silly.”

“Ehehe, munyaa~”

Naruto had made a promise; a solemn oath spanning an entire lifetime. And Uzumaki Naruto does not go back on his word.

“Onii-chan, we’h gonna be togetheh ahways, ne?”

“Yeah.”

In an instant, however, Sayuri’s body tensed and her eyes glowed intensely as she directed the entirety of her attention to the third person who had just arrived. He heard the newcomer take a step back, and she was not even expelling a lot of chakra. The rigidity of her tails, the hint of a snarl on her lips and the predatory glow of her eyes—after all, Naruto realized, some of her innocence had already been lost. It was gone the moment he asked her to join him in a deadly battle against Kuromiya Fubuki. And she was protective of him; that he had figured out already.

“Sayuri, this person is very important to me,” he said softly, petting her to end her alarm. “I would be happy if you guys could get along.”

“…um,” Sayuri uttered, settling down on his lap again. But it was not just Sayuri Naruto had to worry about, right?

He turned his head to look at the newcomer, wearing serenity he did not know he was capable of. But he had sworn to try his hardest, for the sake of two princesses too pure for that world.

“Iruka-sensei.”

The Chuunin and Academy teacher looked at Naruto as if unsure of what to do. It was hard to let go of the fact that the murderer of his parents was curled down on the boy’s lap, glancing at him with lazy eyes.

“Iruka-sensei, she…” Naruto said. “She doesn’t know right from wrong. She doesn’t know about laws or rules. Hell, I know more about manners than she does. She’s really the most selfish person in the world, because she doesn’t know better, and the thing she enjoys the most happens to be burning things.”

“Sayuri wikes fire, even if it’s scawy.” It was perhaps that combination of delight and respect that made her so good at it, genetic elemental affinity notwithstanding.

Iruka had figured out at least that much from what he had heard from others—people who had at least caught a glimpse of the girl in the time since she was released from the seal. Higashiyama Sayuri was as much a child as her appearance suggested.

“I want her to like this place, and its people,” Naruto confessed with a somewhat pained smile. “I want her to love life, the world, and make lots of friends, so that she learns people are more than things she can burn.”

It was a declaration of intent, but it was also a plea.

“Will you help me, Iruka-sensei?”

Just like that humble teacher had once saved him, now he wished for his help to save someone who needed it a lot more.

Iruka released a half-sigh, half-chuckle. Really, Naruto never made things easy for him. And he could tell the little kitsune was no different. She was to show them, in fact.

Naruto gasped when the whiteness surged out of Sayuri’s tenketsu. It was natural to be afraid of the flame, for it would reduce him to ashes of ashes were it to touch him. But Sayuri controlled it, never letting it spread beyond her hair and fur. Her golden colors were replaced with the absolute whiteness of the primordial embodiment of Destruction. White also gleamed in her carmine eyes as they studied Umino Iruka with dire intensity that made the Chuunin draw a kunai and take a defrensive stance in reaction.

“Sa-Sayuri…?” His back leaning as far back as possible with the girl still on his lap, Naruto tried to make sense of the sudden situation. Instead, the white fire disappeared, leaving the adorable golden youko he cherished as his partner.

“I destroyed something important to you,” Sayuri flatly stated. Furthermore, she did it with a perfect pronunciation. Naruto, who had met the White Flame, again wondered what exactly Sayuri had gained from that encounter. How did she learn that? Had she tapped into a “Memory of Destruction” through the omnipotent White Flame?

Her words were not an apology, merely a simple statement of fact. And Umino Iruka realized he pitied her about as much as he feared her and hated her.

“You destroyed something important to everybody here on that night,” he replied with a crooked, dark smile Naruto had never seen on his cherished teacher’s face. After all, the wounds of that evening ran deep.

“Hnn…” Sayuri replied with a Sasuke-like sound. She looked at the ground between Iruka and themselves and then back at the Chuunin, before replying with a sentence Naruto would expect from the likes of Kurosaki Sayoko.

“Everything Destruction takes away, Creation remakes once more.”

Iruka shook his head sadly.

“Nothing will bring my parents back.”

Things like Edo Tensei don’t count. Naruto, however, got exactly what Sayuri meant this time.

“Sayuri means you should try becoming a dad yourself, Iruka-sensei.”

“Eeeh!?”

“Mugya! Mugyuu…” Sayuri pouted after Naruto struck the crown of her head with her knuckles.

“That doesn’t make up for the mess you made that day, idiot.”

Umino Iruka was struck with the pointlessness of being angry at that creature. Anger works because the other party can understand it and feel threatened by one’s emotions. Neither of those things applied to Higashiyama Sayuri. Anger would achieve nothing but an empty, short-lasting self-satisfaction. It was as futile as throwing rocks at a pond when the object of your hatred is the moon.

Sighing one last time and perhaps giving up on something, Iruka closed the few steps separating him from Naruto and sat down by his side.

“Looks like you’ve been through a lot, Naruto.”

“Ha! Tell me about it!”

“No, you tell me about it.”

Prodded by the older ninja’s encouraging smile, Naruto laughed and patted Sayuri’s tails perhaps a little too strongly.

“Mugyah! O-Onii-chan! That doeshn’ feel good.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry, ahaha.” Feeling strangely invigorated—perhaps it was the company—, Naruto grinned mightily and stretched his arms before resuming his kitsune pampering session.

“But we’ve gotta start with introductions, right? Iruka-sensei, this is my partner, Sayuri! As you can see, she’s got nine tails!”

They were golden and beautiful, the brand of a reckless god and the catalyst of this entire story. Even Umino Iruka could admit they were quite something. But Sayuri certainly said it best.

“They’re pwetty!”

Wiggle, wiggle!

************************************

It’s DA END! It’s PWETTY!

*Wiggle, wiggle*

 

[buytbuyt]

So, it wasn't Harem Ending? ::sad::

Yurimi, Yurina, Yurine, Yuri? Mayuri? Yuria?

----------------------------------------------

Feels were had. Closures achieved.

All is right.

Cheers for Daneel Rush. Hip Hip Horay!

 

[dwaite860@yahoo.com]

unbelievable!!!! this has truly been a wondrous ride you have taken us all on and I hope, One Day, to see the next installments in the SayuMayu timeline(s)

 

[LOLRAINE]

Sayuri not winning the Naruto is a travesty. : c