Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Overkill ❯ Reactions and Explanations ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Takamachi Nanoha was just supposed to be an ordinary third grader, but a series of events changed everything. What she was given was a red jewel. What she gained were magical powers. The unexpected encounter she was drawn into had been silently set into motion, and she was facing each day as it arrived, handling what came as best she could.

A tale of spectacular overkill begins now.

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Overkill,

A Naruto Fanfiction,

By Aleh

Chapter Three: Reactions and Explanations

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Disclaimer: I own none of the series that I've used or referenced within this story.

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In Takama no Hara Amaterasu Omikami went to look for Taka-mi-musu-bi-no-kami, only to find her staring into a mirror. "Hey, Grandmom," she greeted. "Dad wanted me to tell you that dinner's ready."

"I'll be there in a moment, Ama-chan," Izanagi's mother told her granddaughter. "There is something that I need to take care of."

Amaterasu frowned. "What's that?"

Taka-mi-musu-bi-no-kami simply showed her the mirror and started to explain.

"Oh," Amaterasu responded as her grandmother finished. "Oh my. Would you mind if I helped?"

"Of course not. Just... don't tell my brother quite yet, okay?"

The sun goddess blinked before shuddering at the image that came to mind. "Right. We'll let him find out after we've taken care of the situation -- thoroughly."

"Good. Now to get back to work..."

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Takamachi Miyuki was stunned. She'd dealt with strange things before, of course; her best friend was Kanzaki Nami, a miko who was constantly accompanied by a fox named Kuon. Considering that Kuon was really a kitsune who had once gone into a rage after the death of her human lover and been cursed to become a powerless, normal fox, that meant something... especially since Nami was constantly trying to cure her... err... friend.

Some of the adventures they'd gotten into over the years were quite interesting -- in the Chinese sense. Miyuki still remembered the time they'd flown to that Jusenkyo place. At least they'd managed to warn those wandering martial artists away, even if the waters hadn't worked on poor Kuon.

What had happened to her little brother, however... Miyuki knew that something had healed him. It was the only way to explain his intact lungs... not to mention the bones... and the poison. If it wasn't for that...

Naruto would have died. He should have died.

The monster that they'd fought... the mere thought of it gave her the chills. Maybe Kyouya or Shiro could have done better, but Naruto was stronger and faster than many adults normally. In the sort of situation that he'd been in, the adrenalin rush would have increased his abilities further... and Miyuki's father had told her about the damage he'd seen.

Something like that roaming about the streets was a virtual nightmare, and Miyuki wasn't naïve enough to thing that it was the only one of its kind. She wanted -- needed -- to know more.

Unfortunately, their only source of further information unconscious.

Even lost in her thoughts, however, Miyuki could hardly miss the commotion caused by a fox running through the hospital at full tilt as it made a beeline for Naruto's room. The fact that Nami was chasing after said fox and shouting for it to stop didn't hurt.

"Kuon, please stop! You're not supposed to be... Miyuki-chan? What are you doing here?"

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As Momoko opened the door to Naruto's room and started to step out, a small fox ran between her legs. "Oh my," she exclaimed as the fox ran past her and made a beeline for Naruto. "Kuon-chan, what are you doing here?"

The cursed kitsune ignored Momoko's shout and jumped on Naruto's bed. Grabbing the top of Naruto's covers with her mouth, Kuon promptly pulled the sheets back, exposing the upper portion of Naruto's chest.

"Eeeh?" the boy shouted, "what the?"

Naruto's yelling promptly woke up Nanoha. She started and looked around, her eyes settling on Kuon's form as the fox continued to pull Naruto's sheets back. "Kuon-chan? What..."

As Kuon finished exposing Naruto's bandaged chest, she let go of the sheets and started sniffing around the edges of his injury. Much to Naruto's confusion, Kuon then started licking an exposed patch of skin.

"Oh my," Nami remarked as she entered the room and saw a red glow forming where Kuon was licking. "That really should be purified right away..."

Naruto blinked. "Umm... who are you? What's going on?"

"You are Naruto-kun, right?" Nami asked, bowing. "I'm Kanzaki Nami, one of Miyuki's friends from school. Please treat me kindly."

Naruto blinked again. As Nami started pulling out ofuda, he decided to ask the question again. "Umm... and the fox?"

"It's really not safe to have that much kitsune youki in a human body... Kuon-chan is trying to draw some of it out."

"Kitsune youki?"

"Yes," Nami explained. "Many types of spirits use a kind of power called 'youki'. Naruto-kun seems to be able to use a kitsune's power, but with his injuries the way they were, the amount of power he's using is more than his body can handle. Whatever gave him that power seems to have realized this and pulled back somewhat, but he has been flooded with so much youki that it's actually poisoning him at the same time that it's helping him heal."

Nanoha smiled. "So Kuon-chan is..."

"Trying to help Naruto-kun," Nami agreed. "There's not much she can do with her powers sealed like they are, but if I help as well..."

Nanoha smiled. "Thank you very much!"

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Alisa Bannings stared out her window, contemplating the phone call she'd just received. Naruto-kun being attacked and left in the hospital, his condition... it brought back far too many unpleasant memories, memories that she thought she'd managed to get over. Not forgotten -- she'd never wanted to forget her mother, her smiling face, those happy times -- but...

Alisa's mother, Filicia Draco Lowell, had been, in her own words, the product of a mafia boss, an English waitress, and far too much alcohol. Despite her origins and her distaste for her father's job, Filicia had loved her birth family. Her marriage to the founder of Lowell Financial and her refusal to join the "family business" had strained her relationship with her father, but Alisa's Aunt Tracy hadn't minded.

And then that bastard Blofeld had murdered Tracy Draco on her wedding day as some sort of sick revenge against her new husband. Filicia had been devastated.

But no, Blofeld couldn't be satisfied with that. Alisa's new uncle had tried to protect them, of course. Alisa had to admit that much, at least.

He'd just failed. Alisa couldn't really blame her uncle; he hadn't known that Blofeld had hijacked an orbital laser, of all things, and his efforts had been focused on foiling more... conventional... means of assassination.

And so the remaining Lowell family had gone into hiding and Alisa Lowell became Alisa Bannings. Her father was kept busy with his company, often leaving her alone in a house that, for all its luxury, lacked the feeling of a true home. Alisa's beloved dogs helped somewhat, but they were a poor substitute for a true family.

Nanoha, Suzuka, and, more recently, Naruto helped fill that void in her heart.

With that in mind, Alisa decided to ask for help from the one person she knew who had experience dealing with this sort of thing. Picking up the phone and dialing, she called her uncle.

"Hello, Uncle James? It's Alisa... something happened tonight and I was wondering if you could help..."

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Tsukimura Suzuka petted one of her many kittens, her demeanor showing a calmness that she didn't really feel. Petting it helped her calm down, however, and she really needed to do so. After Kyouya had called their family to tell them what had happened Suzuka's older sister, Shinobu, and their head maid, Noel, had hacked into several spy satellites and the police records.

What they had found had utterly chilled Suzuka. Most of the stuff that her family had come up with over the years couldn't match that scene... well, not precisely, anyway. They'd certainly created larger explosions. But the physical strength that Nanoha's attacker had demonstrated was beyond anything that even Noel was capable of.

Considering that Noel was an android created by her aunt Sakura and could bench-press several metric tons, that was saying something.

No one messed with Suzuka's friends, but... it would be difficult to fight something like that. No... if Shinobu wanted a way to combat something on that level, she'd need serious resources, the sort that the family that her uncle Kyusaku had married into had available. She had no choice but to ask them for help. With that in mind, she picked up her phone and dialed.

"Mishima Heavy Industries."

"Hello, Kyouko-san? It's Suzuka... yes, well, I need to talk to Aunt Akiko about something... no, not that... no, I just need to see if I can get borrow Poison One for a bit..."

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Tsukimura Shinobu sighed. Working on mecha usually helped her to relax, but it wasn't having its usual effect for some reason. Putting down her wrench, she decided that perhaps another approach was in order.

The simple truth of the matter was that she had a problem. Someone had messed with her family. That wasn't something that she could let stand.

Oh, Shinobu knew that Naruto wasn't technically part of her family; she just didn't care. To Shinobu, Kyouya's family was her family. Considering that the two of them planned to marry after they graduated from college (even if they hadn't announced those plans to their families yet), Shinobu even had a point. Even so, the technicalities of the issue didn't matter to her. She loved Kyouya. To attack him was to attack her. To attack his family was to attack hers.

That was all that she cared about on that count, although the fact that both Nanoha and Naruto were friends of Suzuka's didn't exactly lessen her anger.

Creating something that could fight evenly with whoever or whatever had attacked Naruto and Nanoha would be a challenge, but it was one that she could deal with. The problem was that it wouldn't really help; the initial attack was already over. If Shinobu wanted to help her family she needed to find the people responsible. Unfortunately, she didn't know where to start on that; she was an engineer and a scientist, not a spy or a sweeper.

Shinobu didn't like being powerless. She didn't like not knowing who and what she was up against.

She needed help.

But who could she ask? Shinobu knew that Kyouya and his family had plenty of connections to the intelligence community, but Shinobu could hardly use those connections herself and while Kyouya would keep her somewhat informed, she couldn't count on getting the information she needed.

Yet, Shinobu reminded herself, feeling the familiar warmth soothe her heart somewhat without doing anything to reduce her rage.

No, Shinobu needed an independent source. She needed a sweeper. That left thinking of her family's connections, hoping that someone might be able to recommend someone she could trust... and something like this needed someone trustworthy.

Her mother's side of the family was straight out. Shinobu's maternal grandfather had died in a plane crash over Central America with his new wife and their two-year-old son, Ryo, leaving her remaining uncle, Saeba Kyusaku, and Shinobu's mother on their own. Her mother had lost contact with most of her childhood friends before her death, and Shinobu didn't know any of the few she'd stayed in touch with particularly well. Unfortunately, that left her family connections on her mother's side pretty much limited to Uncle Kyusaku and the family he'd married into... and they were in pretty much the same situation she was. Oh, they could hire someone, but she needed someone trustworthy. She was not going to bring added attention to Naruto-kun if she could help it... and while she liked Chairman Mishima on a personal level, the thought of a human who could go toe-to-toe with... whatever that was... was potentially far too tempting to wave in front of the face of the CEO of an arms company.

Besides, the man was far too trusting at times... and knowing Suzuka, she had already asked them for help. The poor girl was too obsessed with brute force solutions at times....

Her father, however... his best friend had been a police officer and Shinobu knew that his children had maintained ties to the underworld. Shinobu wasn't as close to his daughter as she once had been, but they were still friends...

If anyone Shinobu knew would be able to point her in the direction of a trustworthy sweeper, it was Makimura Kaori.

That thought in mind, Shinobu reached for her phone. She had a call to make.

Besides, Kaori's twentieth birthday was coming up. Shinobu would have to get her a nice present...

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In Hong Kong, the Fourth Division Commander of the Hong Kong Intelligence Defense Corps fumed. It had been three weeks -- three weeks -- since her brother had told her about his family's newest houseguest. He'd added that there was more to the story, things that were important enough that he couldn't talk about them over the phone, even in code.

She had requested permission to visit, but her superior was enough of an anally-retentive idiot that he'd simply told her that she had a number of urgent matters to deal with, and that she could worry about vacations when they were taken care of.

Her entire bloody caseload had been stamped "urgent" the next morning. Office scuttlebutt was that her boss had actually had the nerve to publicly speculate about just what sort of "urgent business" a café-owner could have that would require the attention of a Hong Kong intelligence officer.

Just how did a moronic political hack like him get his job, anyway?

Oh, right. "Political reliability" coupled with connections.

It certainly wasn't common sense.

And now she was getting called to his office. Joy.

When she arrived there, however, she was surprised to see Second Division Commander Shen in place of the usual asshole. "Hello, Division Commander Mikami," he greeted. "I regret to inform you that Commander Huang had an unfortunate accident earlier today."

"Accident?"

"Yes. On his way home he apparently tripped on a Chihuahua and fell into a tank of piranhas. I hear that he might have survived had his struggles not disturbed the controls of a nearby crane and dropped a lit neon sign into the water."

Translated, someone had gotten fed up with his screw-ups. No way in hell was that an accident.

"Anyway," Shen continued, "I'm taking over for him for the time being. I came across a rather... interesting... file while going through his cases and wanted an additional opinion. I don't suppose that you could perhaps provide it?"

Nodding, Division Commander Mikami took the file from Shen as he handed it to her, opened it, and promptly froze. Why on Earth would the Hong Kong Intelligence Defense Corps have a file on an eight-year-old Japanese boy?

When she reached the section on his physical abilities, however, she understood. "Is this... real?"

Division Commander Shen nodded. "Yes," he confirmed. "I know that it's possible for a practitioner of your style of martial arts to go beyond what would normally be considered possible, but this..." Commander Shen shrugged. "It's not to be expected of one so young."

"No... the real give-away is the stamina he's displayed. I don't think we've seen the limits of his ability..."

Shen nodded. "Our analysts agree with you."

"I see," the female commander commented before resuming her reading... and again pausing in shock. "He's what?"

"The boy is apparently a member of the Japanese imperial family. We're not sure about the exact relationship, but the Japanese Emperor signed several papers on the boy's behalf, claiming his right to do so as the boy's closest relative in this world."

"Don't you mean closest living relative?"

"The wording was as I said."

"I see."

There were several more surprises as she continued to read, but nothing terribly significant. "I assume that the file was censored somewhat?" she somewhat sarcastically asked as she put down the file.

"The actual names of the persons involved were removed and replaced by codenames," Shen agreed, "as were locations. We're keeping those on a need-to-know basis."

"Anything else?"

"About three hours ago, the subject of that file and one of his friends were attacked. Analysis believes that it was a retrieval attempt by the people responsible for his... condition... prior to his transfer to his current school."

In other words, the bastards who tried to keep him ignorant of his true heritage and raise him as a living weapon tried to get him back. "Any intel on them?"

"Very little. We suspect a rogue faction of the Japanese government, but the Japanese are trying to keep the matter quiet." Shen paused for a moment before handing his colleague several papers. "These are satellite photos of the site of the retrieval attempt."

Looking at them, Division Commander Mikami couldn't help but be chilled. "Casualties?"

"The boy was taken to a hospital in critical condition and his companion was uninjured. No trace was found of the attackers."

"Are we doing anything about this?"

"Officially, this isn't within our jurisdiction and unless we're asked we can't lend support without risking an international incident. Unofficially, the continued existence of such an organization is something that we find... extremely regrettable."

In other words, they'd help in whatever way they could.

"On another note," Shen stated, "I believe that you put in a request for some time off, citing urgent family business?"

"Yes."

"Consider it approved."

Division Commander Mikami blinked before her face lit up into a genuine smile. "Thank you very much."

As she left the office Mikami Misato idly wondered if little Nanoha-chan remembered what her aunt looked like. Misato hadn't seen the girl in years.

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In Naruto's hospital room a ferret stirred, wincing as the movement reminded him of his injuries. Opening his eyes, the ferret glanced around, hoping to find some hint of what had happened.

"Mom, Dad," a voice that the ferret recognized as belonging to the girl to whom he'd given Raising Heart called out, "Mr. Ferret's awake!"

Forcing his head to clear, the ferret spoke up. "That boy... is he alright? I tried to heal him, but I didn't have enough magical power..."

"Magical power, eh?" an unfamiliar man asked. "Well, Naruto-kun is resting right now, but the doctors think he'll make a full recovery."

The ferret let out a relieved sigh. "Good." Pausing for a moment, it started crying. "I'm sorry... I am so sorry for involving you in this..."

An unfamiliar woman spoke up at that. "You were injured and being hunted, were you not? It is only natural for one in such a such a state to call for help. More importantly, why was it that only Nanoha-chan and Naruto-kun could hear your call?"

"Ah," the ferret answered. "I used a method that mages use to communicate... only someone who possesses magical powers would have been able to hear me."

"I see," the unfamiliar man remarked. "You were hoping for a trained magic user, not two untrained children with latent powers, right?"

"Yes," the ferret admitted. "But for someone whose powers were still latent to be able to hear my call, they would have needed to have both considerable potential power and the proper nature to use Raising Heart."

The girl -- Nanoha -- spoke up. "That red jewel-staff-thing, right?"

"Yes. Raising Heart is an Intelligent Device, a tool possesses its own will and that assists its wielder in bringing forth their magical potential. It can convert its user's will into workable spells, so..."

"So only someone who could help you would hear your call, right?"

"Or so I thought," the ferret replied before bowing as deeply as his bandaged and injured form would allow. "I'm very, very sorry..."

"It's alright," Nanoha reassured him, wiping a tear off his face. "We don't blame you..." She paused for a moment before visibly realizing something. "Shouldn't we introduce ourselves?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Takamachi Nanoha, a third-grade elementary student. My family and good friends call me Nanoha."

"I'm Yuuno Scrya. Scrya is a family name so my given name is Yuuno."

"Yuuno-kun, huh? The boy lying on that bed is my little brother, Namikaze Naruto."

Yuuno flinched at the reminder. "I'm so, so sorry... It's my fault that you're..."

Nanoha promptly picked him up and stared into his eyes. "Call me Nanoha," she insisted.

Yuuno looked down, unable to meet Nanoha's gaze.

"You could have healed yourself, couldn't you?" Nanoha asked. "You said that you had some power left, so why did you treat Naruto-kun's wounds before your own?"

Yuuno looked up sharply. "After what he did? His injuries were my fault! I couldn't just..."

Nanoha placed a finger on his mouth, effectively silencing him. "And that's why I told you to call me Nanoha," she explained. "What happened... the only one at fault is that monster."

Yuuno looked down again. "I'm afraid that's my fault as well..."

The man -- Nanoha's father? -- spoke up at that. "What do you mean?"

"The Jewel Seeds are ancient relics of my world. They were originally magical stones that could grant the wishes of those that possess them, but sometimes the manifestations of their power become unstable, like what happened last night. Sometimes they'll turn on the stone's user and devour everything in the area, including the user's spirit. There are also times when people will misuse them and get confused, which can also cause them to run wild."

"You tried to use one?"

Yuuno shook his head. "On my home world, I'm an archaeologist. One day, I discovered something in an old rock formation... I sent a team to claim it and put it in safekeeping, but the ship that was taking it away had some sort of accident. Twenty-one Jewel Seeds were scattered across this world because of that."

Nanoha blinked. "From what you've said so far, it's not really your fault that the Jewel Seeds were scattered here, right?"

"But I was the one who first found them," Yuuno insisted. "I came here thinking that I had to find them all and return them to where they should be, but..."

The man nodded in understanding. "I see. I'm Nanoha's father, Takamachi Shiro, by the way."

"I am Takamachi Momoko, Nanoha's mother," the woman added.

"Thank you," Yuuno told them. "Once my powers return I'll leave to continue searching for the Jewel Seeds on my own, so..."

"I'm afraid that we can't allow that," Shiro replied.

"You... can't allow it?"

"Those Jewel Seeds are dangerous, aren't they?" Nanoha rhetorically inquired. "We can't just ignore that they're out there... How many have you found so far?"

"That was only my second one," Yuuno admitted.

"So there are nineteen more out there... It'd be a problem if I missed my normal school or my juku too often, but I can help any other time..."

"Nanoha!" Shiro objected. "It'll be dangerous..."

"But thanks to Yuuno-kun I have the power to help... and if people are going to keep running into things like last night... I can't just leave that alone! If someone's in need and you have the power to help them, you shouldn't hesitate to help them.... Father, aren't you the one who taught me that?"

Momoko placed a hand on Shiro's arm, promptly deflating his objections. "Dear... Nanoha is right. All we can do is help as best we can...."

Shiro nodded firmly. "Right. At the very least, we can warn people about the Jewel Seeds... get the authorities looking for them..."

"But...," Yuuno objected.

"Oh, we won't tell them about magic or the Jewel Seeds' real origins. Momoko, your brother should be able to help..."

"Yes," Nanoha's mother agreed. "I will speak to him about the matter."

"Given what happened earlier," Shiro continued, "Nanoha's school won't think anything of her missing class tomorrow..." Shiro paused, looking at the clock. "Err... today, that is. Yuuno-kun, could you take the time to teach her as much as you can?"

Yuuno nodded. "Yes."

"And, Yuuno-kun?" Momoko added. "This time heal your own injuries before focusing on Naruto-kun."

Yuuno blinked. "But..."

"Naruto-kun's doctor is trustworthy, but the paramedics saw enough to at least know that he had broken bones," Shiro explained. "We're already going to have a lot of difficulty explaining the speed with which he's recovering. 'It looked worse than it was' only goes so far, after all, and him being relatively uninjured would actually be more suspicious in some ways than what happened. We're trying to avoid drawing attention to Naruto-kun, so..." Shiro shrugged. "Besides, wouldn't it be easier to train Nanoha if your injuries didn't get in the way?"

Yuuno's eyes widened. "Wait... why are you so concerned about drawing attention to Naruto-san?"

Much to Yuuno's surprise, Nanoha promptly broke into tears. Just what had he stumbled into?

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A series of explanations later, Yuuno was more than a bit disturbed. To think that the boy who had so courageously faced off against the rampaging Jewel Seed had been... and his motives....

Yuuno understood Nanoha's tears. He understood them all too well.

Unlike Nanoha, Yuuno had noticed the change in Naruto's eyes and the way the whisker-like marks on his cheeks had deepened during the fight. He hadn't thought too much about those details, not knowing of the boy's origins, but they became rather significant when viewed in conjunction with what he'd learned.

As for what had been done to the boy, whatever strange abilities he possessed... Yuuno couldn't think of any organization short of the Time-Space Administration Bureau who had the ability to investigate that properly. Still, after what Naruto had done, the least Yuuno could do was to give it his best effort, to help in whatever way or ways he could.

"So," Shiro asked, forcibly changing the subject, "you said that you come from another world?"

"Y... yes," Yuuno answered as he was startled out of his train of thought.

"Could you tell us a bit about it?"

Glancing at Nanoha and realizing that Shiro's change of topic had been for her sake, Yuuno nodded. "The world I come from is properly called Midchilda, although most people just call it Mid," he explained. "The capitol, Cranagan, is the home to the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Ground Forces.... It's a nice world overall, some places more than others... I suppose that its largest claim to fame is that it's the home of the ancient Belkan civilization, although it also has a lot of prestigious magical universities, and a lot of the Bureau's facilities..."

"This 'Time-Space Administration Bureau'..."

"It's a sort of combined judiciary and police force that governs the various dimensions... although they also monitor cultural growth and provide disaster relief..."

Shiro frowned. "Then shouldn't they have sent someone after the Jewel Seeds?"

Yuuno shook his head. "There's been a rash of crimes and several major natural disasters... the Bureau's really shorthanded because of that.... Actually, the Saint Church has been saying that it's because the gods are angry about something, but they don't really know what..."

Shiro blinked.

"... and the Bureau doesn't usually become involved with the affairs of un-administrated worlds unless they interfere with dimensional space."

Shiro shook his head. "So you decided to come here."

"Yes."

"About the Jewel Seeds... are they relics of that ancient civilization you mentioned?"

"No... within dimensional space, there are countless worlds. Among them, there was a legendary world with science and technology beyond anything ever seen before or since... but because they were so advanced, they ended up destroying their own world. All that remained were the dangerous relics of that world: the legendary paradise, Al Hazard."

"Like the Jewel Seeds?" Nanoha asked.

"Yes," Yuuno answered, starting to have difficulty staying awake.

Noticing this, Momoko decided to join in the conversation. "We'll talk more tomorrow, okay, Yuuno-kun? For now, just try to rest. You too, Naruto-kun."

Looking at Naruto and seeing his eyes open, Nanoha just blinked before pulling his covers up to his shoulders and moving to the door. "Umm," she stated, "goodnight, Naruto-kun, Yuuno-kun. Sleep well..."

Naruto slept peacefully that night. Yuuno did not.

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Yuuno had recovered enough energy to heal the worst of his wounds by mid-morning. Determined to avoid failing again, to prevent another from being injured by the artefacts he'd discovered, Yuuno had Kyouya take him and Nanoha to a secluded area to start her training.

Naruto, in the meantime, found himself increasingly frustrated by the state of his legs. It wasn't so much the injuries themselves that bothered him -- given how he had gotten them, he didn't regret it for a moment -- it was the infernal contraption that the doctors called a "wheelchair".

He'd seen them before, of course, but actually operating one? It was surprisingly annoying.

When he'd voiced his frustrations, however, Momoko had simply smiled and told him to remember the feeling because it would encourage him to avoid getting hurt so badly in the future. Naruto supposed he could understand her position; there wasn't anything that she could do beyond staying with him and wheeling him around.

That didn't mean that Naruto had to like it. He hated imposing on her in such a manner, needing her to help him move around the hospital. He supposed that he could have moved around somewhat on his own (even if it was a pain)... but Momoko wouldn't let him. It was frustrating. It was irritating. It was smothering. It was... loving and reassuring. Naruto hated it and was grateful for it.

It was almost a relief when Momoko excused herself to go to the bathroom while they were waiting to see Ishida-sensei. Naruto suspected that Momoko was aware of how he was feeling and trying to give him some space. It made him love her all the more... which only added to what he'd been feeling.

Her absence paved the way for an encounter that would change Naruto's life forever.

Several minutes after Momoko left, Naruto tried to stand. It was rather difficult, but he did manage to lift himself out of his chair, ignoring the pain that came from his legs. Unfortunately for his plan, however, one of Ishida-sensei's patients chose that moment to enter the waiting room as her appointment ended.

Startled, Naruto promptly lost his balance and landed in the lap of Ishida-sensei's equally surprised patient. "Eeh?" she remarked as she stared at Naruto's head, his golden hair standing out against the light pink of her sweater.

As she recovered and helped him get up, Naruto couldn't help but notice the way that the twin red and yellow ribbons tied into her chestnut-colored hair helped highlight her eyes... but, more than that, he noticed the loneliness held within the azure orbs.

It mirrored what he'd seen in his own reflection three short weeks before.

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A.N.: If you've guessed who the various people who were phoned were, you're probably right. For those of you familiar with Nanoha... yes, that's Hayate. Yes, I'm evil. I know.

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Omake:

In Thailand, M. Bison looked over a report from one of Shadowloo's many spymasters. "Oh?" he asked. "Why have you brought this to my attention instead of simply acquiring the subject?"

Cringing, the spymaster promptly answered. "When he was attacked, the boy was accompanied by a young girl... she meets the description, Lord Bison."

Bison sat up, suddenly interested. "Brown hair, blue eyes? Generally cheerful demeanor?"

"Yes, Lord Bison."

Suddenly fearful, Bison remembered the moment that had set him on the path of Psycho Power and founding Shadowloo, the overwhelming terror that he had promised himself that he would never feel again, and the young girl he had met in Central America who had nearly... befriended... him. "Do you have a file on the girl?"

"Yes, Lord Bison," the man offered, handing the would-be dictator a file.

Opening it and skimming through, Bison suddenly froze. "Were any of our agents responsible for the attack?"

"No, Lord Bison. The identity of the attackers remains unknown."

Bison felt greatly relieved, but he couldn't show weakness -- not now, not when she was involved. "Good. Order all Shadowloo operatives out of Uminari... no, that might not be enough. Order all Shadowloo operatives to abandon all activity in Japan and retreat beyond its borders. If you recieve any further information pertaining to this case, inform me at once."

"Yes, my lord," the confused spook replied.

As the spymaster left Bison reached for some wine, wondering just who the Hell was stupid enough to mess with Sasaki Momoko's children. Even after all these years, the memory of her smiling face still sent chills down his spine. That moment was forever etched on his memory, eternally haunting his nightmares no matter how much power he obtained, no matter how strong his forces became. No matter what happened, he knew that he'd never forget those words: "Oh my. Where did that detonator go, anyway?"