Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Scream in the Night ❯ Shining Light ( Chapter 4 )

Shining Light

 

The once proud man who not an hour ago stood upon the mountain is now dead. His wife is dead not more than a day before him. His child is now alone in the world not knowing anything about the new burden given to him. The frog and the villagers mourn his passing not truly believing that one as strong an as full of life is now gone. This is truly a sad day for all.

 

A child all alone starts to cry and a seal is now on his stomach where only hours before was the cord attaching him to his mother. A gentle breeze caresses his face and on the wind the words “I love you” are barley heard.

 

“To stop his death I will die sealing you away. I hope from him you can learn not all are to blame for the actions of a few. I give you my son to look over and protect. I hope you will act in my and his mother's stead and watch over him like your own. He may be human, but I see such great potential in him. I have only seen him for a brief time, but from those moments in time will last me an eternity. My love for him and my wife will get me through the pain of doing this. I know the price of using this technique and I don't care as long as my son is safe and living in my stead. I hope that your anger will be soothed and your pain dulled. Mostly I hope that his actions will help to make up for the harm you have done and the lives you have taken these past few nights. I knew my death would come one way or another and I chose to give everything in the hope that you will be a good guardian to him. He is alone now and his path will be hard I hope that you will guide him where I cannot. Treat him well and love him. He is my greatest treasure and I now entrust his care to you.”

Those eyes go blank and the voice falls away. - The last words of the 4th Hokage as he sealed the demon fox Kyuubi inside his own son for the sake of his village.

 

Darkness. It surrounds me. It is all I can see. I knew it would come to this when I made my decision. I just never thought that I would be here. I am here trapped for all of time along side my greatest foe. How sad is that. Days, weeks, months, years all of these terms mean nothing to me in this all encompassing darkness. At least I am not the only one stuck here. Here guarding the cell of the fox hidden deep in the mind of my son.

 

I see that it has finally awoken. Those piercing red eyes cut through the darkness. They shift around looking at their surrounding and miss me completely. I go unseen by all destined to watch and never interact. I stand by and watch for all of eternity, or however long this eternity may last.

The fox has finally given up trying to break the gates. Huh it was so much fun to see the giant fox fail to break the wooden gate held together by a single piece of paper with the word seal written on it. At least it was in the beginning. It got annoying real fast. At least it is quiet now. Huh it seems a little lighter in here. It doesn't seem so dark anymore.

 

This is my reward how ironic that the one thing I wished for the most is my greatest punishment. I wished and prayed that I could watch my son grow up, but this ridiculous. After the fox gave up a while later an “eye hole” I guess opened up. God I hate those villagers right now. He is a child not the damn fox. The proof of that lies behind that gate. To have to watch every day as my son is beaten both physically and mentally. God I am a monster for sealing the fox in him. I never wanted this. I NEVER WANTED THIS!!! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO THE VERY BEING THAT PROTECTS THEM?!!! THOSE MONSTERS!!! I watch what my actions have done to him. I SHOULD HAVE LET THEM ALL DIE! I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN MY SON AND LEFT! They weren't worth the sacrifice of my son. This is my reward to watch my son grow up. This is my punishment to watch my son die little by little day by day. I cannot turn away from this no matter how much I want to. This is my fault so I must watch both my blessing and my curse to watch as my son grows up.

 

I watched as the men came and beat him on his birthday. God, they celebrate my “defeat of the Kyuubi” by beating my son and blaming my death on him. I hate the people in this village more and more. It was on this day that I met him for the first time.

 

A small child walked a path in the dark; water sloshed at his ankles. He continued down a deserted corridor seeing only pipes above his head. He saw his child for the first time that day. He stood there terribly thin and the spitting image of me at his age. He has hair like sunshine and eyes like the clearest of skies. The only difference was the three whisker marks on each cheek that gave him a fox like appearance. He is perfect in every way in my eyes. I can see a little of his mother in him here and there. His hands long and slender are just like hers and the little differences in his appearance.

 

God another level of this curse for I cannot hold him or talk to him. This is torture. He shouldn't be so thin and his eyes hold a knowledge that no child that young should hold. The knowledge that all is not perfect in this world shines in his eyes. For all of this he shines with an inner light of innocence and purity. I praise god for the fact that his hasn't become jaded and cruel for all that has been done to him.

 

Watching him approach the cage scares me to my very soul. I thought she would kill him as he approached her cage. I stand here watching as he learns about why he is hated in this village. I watch him stand there with tears in his eyes showing more courage then anyone I have ever met as he asks who the fox is.

 

“I am the reason they all hate you. I am the great Kyuubi! I almost succeeded in wiping this village off of the face of the earth and was sealed into your stomach by the Fourth Hokage. They fear you and hate you because of me. I am the reason you are all alone and why you get beat. I am stuck with you until the day you die and because of that the villagers will hate you till the day you die. They all blame my actions on you and will do so for the rest of time.” Was how the Kyuubi responded to his question.

 

I stand here and watch him as he takes in this response. I expect him to rage and scream yet all he says is one simple word.

 

“Why?”

I was surprised by this and from the looks of it so was the fox.

 

“Why you ask? Why? Because some people from the village slaughtered my three kits that were not even a week old. My mate had died not long before and they were all I had left in this world and I wished for my revenge. Why do they treat you so? They want revenge for what I took from them and the only way to get it is through you. So you see this is my entire fault that you are alone and hurt. Go now and leave me be.” The fox told Naruto in a quiet voice as if to keep the grief inside.

 

I watch in amazement as instead of doing this he just walks forward. He goes right though the bars and lays down on one of the foxes' paws. I watch in astonishment as all the fox does is watch him before lying down and letting him stay there. Nothing in all of my time has ever scared me more then that initial moment. The fear that went through me was worse then when the Kyuubi attacked the village. I was helpless to do anything had the fox attacked.

 

A few years later and he still comes down here. Most nights he will come and visit the fox and just lay down on one of her paws. It seems like he gives her some kind of peace when he is with her. I watch over the years as he and the fox talk. I watch as she gives to him what I can never give. She comforts him at the end of the day. She is given the chance to care for him. How I wish that was me and his mother. How I wish that it could be my wife holding him so as I watch over them. The one conversation they had one night made me proud as a father and sadder then ever that I can never be with him. One night the fox asked the question that has been on her mind since the beginning.

 

“Why do you come here? Every night you come here even though everything that happens to you is my fault. Why?” She asked with a desperate note in her voice.

 

I watched as he just looked at her with those big blue eyes and said “I don't want you to be alone like I am. I don't like being alone and you are the only one I can be around. I don't blame you for anything. You are the closest thing I have to a family.”

 

His answer cut though my heart like a raiser blade. It hurt that he was so alone in the world then I watched as she just looked at him and then saying nothing just wraps her tails around him to keep him warm and bring him closer. I am jealous of her and grateful at the same time that she can hold him so close. Then as he drifts off to sleep I hear her whisper “Goodnight my kit.” It about tore my heart out that that couldn't be me.

 

I watch as he is taken one day. My worst fears are realized as I watch him be tortured and killed by the very people I gave him up for. I watch the fox as she claws at the cage trying to get to him. I hear her screams as they do horrible things to my son my shining light. I hear her calls to the men doing this and they echo my own pleas to save my son from this.

 

“STOP! STOP! Leave my kit alone! Stop hurting him! No, No not another one of my kit, no not another one. I can't see another one dead. No let me die with you don't leave me alone again. I can't go back to the darkness you are my sunshine that keeps it away! NO!!!! NO!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!! I never wanted my freedom like this, not like this!!!!!” these are the screams that echo through out this cavern as we watch the horrors done to him.

 

I watch from the outside for the first time as I watch my son lay on the ground. A broken and battered Naurto started to talk quietly and with the pain clear in his voice “They know not what they do. They fell pain and anger and have no release for it other then me. They feel hate and resentment that their loved ones are gone and yet you live in some way. You lived on through me. They saw me as nothing more than a vessel for you. They didn't see me because then they would feel shame for harming a real being. I forgive them this because they are in pain. Just like I forgive all you did because you were in pain. There are some truly great people who live there who are precious to me and if one of them got hurt I would never forgive myself. They also care for others in the village and it would hurt them inside if they got hurt. They would feel bad that they couldn't protect them. I have set you free since there is no healing these wounds. You should not have to die with me. Be free and live your life to atone for those you had taken. Live for me since my life was cut down so short. Please don't hurt them. Not even the ones who did this to me. I could have hurt them to get away, but I just couldn't hurt them or allow you to hurt them. It is my fault for not being able to show them that I am separate from you. My dream to become the Hokage was all about showing them that I was me. I wanted them to see me as a human as a person and not just a vessel for you.” His words had become nothing more than just the barest of whispers on smiling lips and that light he was know for left his beautiful eyes. His eyes had always had an inner light to them that made them able to rival the most beautiful of cut gems and the bluest of skies. They were now blank and unfocused and that light lost forever. His smile that could make all others smile even when they didn't want to was gone forever. Their most precious treasure was gone forever.

 

I watch in astonishment as he says these last words to the fox that like me is free for the fist time in twenty years. We have watched all of the crimes done against him and yet he pleads for their lives. Even when dying he shines with an inner light that makes me remember why I protected those fools in the first place. He reminded me why I sealed the fox in him in the first place. He completed my hopes and dreams for the future more then he could ever know. I follow as she picks up my son and runs to the village. I watch as she makes them all terrified. Then I watch as she does her final act as a mother towards Naruto and talks to the village that did this to him.

 

A bright light blinded everybody and in the place of the fox stood a woman with long red hair the color of the fox. She had fox like ears on her head and nine tails. In her arms was the broken body of her angel. She gazed down at his form then looked at the villagers. She then spoke “I cannot keep my promise to him. I cannot live his life for him and I will not let those who did this to him live. I am not an angel like him I cannot forgive them that easily.”

 

With that the five men who had run in fear when the fox cam the ones who had been running from the village died by a stroke of lightning. “I will not punish the rest though for the actions of a few for to kill all of them would make me a hypocrite for I have harmed him as well. I have learned that much at least from him at least. I give you a second chance like that man gave me.”

 

With that she started to glow. She walked toward Tsunade and gave the broken body of Naruto to her. She bent down and gave him a kiss before she started to fade away. “I give you a new future. I give my life for you. You protected me and saved my soul from the darkness. I give you my life and protection from now till eternity my kit. I will heal your wounds and erase the worst of the memories. To erase all of the bad would change you too much and you are perfect as you are. You are an angel who brings light to everybody and tries to bring them from their darkness. You could never abandon a friend to the dark and see the good in almost everybody. Everything that was mine is now yours my power and my strength to protect you in the years to come. If you ever need help I will guide you and will always heal you.”

 

She glares at the villagers “Do not waste this chance see him as a person not a vessel. I am gone from him now except as a memory. I am sorry for what I have done and I wish that in my grief I did not take it out on you. There is nothing I could do to repent except give you this chance.” With one last look at her little boy she vanished.

 

I watch as all of this is happening. My hopes have been realized through my son. He was a light a beacon of hope to all around him. The seal in broken and with it ends my punishment. I pray that my son will no longer be tortured by the very village that I gave my very life for and more importantly the life of my son for. I received the greatest punishment and reward for that. I had to watch my son suffer day in and day out for years. I had to watch his loneliness never able to comfort him and show him my love for him. I had to watch as all around him punished him for things he never did.

 

It was also my greatest reward as a father. My greatest wish was realized. I got to watch as my son persevered through it all and watch every one of his accomplishments. His fights and struggles on this earth have made me prouder then any other father could be. His strength to persevere through it all made me love him more then ever. Never could there be a father more proud of his son. I got to watch his every accomplishment and got to be there to see him pick himself up and fight harder then ever before. I watched him fight people when the odds were against him only to come through in the end all the better for it.

 

It wasn't the fighting that I was most proud of though. I got to see my son grow into somebody people could respect. I saw the looks of admiration and love on the faces of those around him. I watch as he gained the respect of those around him person by person. He found the light and hopes in each person and helped guide them through the darkness. The fox is the best example of this. At first she loved his pain then day by day she grew to love and care for him as her own. I owe her for that. She was able to comfort him when I couldn't for that I will always be eternally grateful towards her.

 

There is only one thing left to do before is leave forever and that is to finally talk to my son once before I move on to watch him with his mother. I will finally get to see her and be able to watch over him along with her. It should be easy to find him from wherever I end up all I have to look for is the brightest shining light.