Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Daughter of Mine ❯ Questions Answered ( Chapter 5 )

Ahhhh...now thats more like it. Well you're lucky I have a kind heart. Thank sonicrider14 for this chapter. So here you go...

 

Quote of the day: “Grief can be a prison, but the bonds of love are not easily broken.”- By Resmiranda from Tales from the House of the Moon,a SessKag FanFic.

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Aiko sat on the swing at the playground kicking her legs back and forth, wondering about the solemn, yet seemingly happy man in the picture.

 

`Was he a criminal, is that why mother doesn't talk about him?'

 

It was true she had never heard her mother speak of him before. She had been teased about it, but never gave it much thought. She took the picture from the kunai pouch to inspect the familiar yet unfamiliar features of the man her mother was smiling so happily with. She wasn't sure, but she had an uneasy feeling about the story behind his absence from her life.

 

`Where are you? WHO are you?'

 

“Aiko!” Sakura called from the house, “It's time for dinner!”

 

Aiko quickly put the picture back in her kunai pouch, and started towards the house. She would ask tonight.

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She sat with her head resting on her hand, stirring around a bowl of ramen with her chopsticks.

 

“Is something wrong Aiko?”

 

“Kaa-san, who's my father?” she asked, trying to study the reaction she would get from her mother.

 

Silence...

 

Aiko was starting to get worried. Was it really that bad? She thought back on what the other kids had teased her about. They had said he was a bad man, that he murdered a lot of people, that he was an no good S- class criminal, part of an organization bent on world domination.

 

When she spoke she could feel her voice shake.

 

“Was he a bad man, Kaa-san? Is that why you won't talk about him?”

 

The tears she was trying so hard to hold back spilled over, falling on the picture that she was secretly holding under the table. Across from her, Sakura got up and walked over to her daughter. Aiko looked at her, tears still in her eyes. She gasped when her mother suddenly wrapped her in a big warm hug.

 

“I don't ever want you to say or think that again, ok. Your father loved you and I very very much. And I'm sure that if anything could have stopped what happened, he would be here right now.” Sakura whispered into her ear, tears now rolling down her cheeks also.

 

“But he's not, Kaa-san. Why?” Aiko whimpered as she buried her face in Sakura's chest.

 

“Because... he died.” she said hesitently, wondering if she was big enough to handle the fact that her father was dead and she would never get to see him.

 

Aiko pulled away from her mother and stared at her with fresh tears in her eyes.

 

“How?”

 

Sakura sighed. She knew she would have to tell her one day, and knew it would be better to tell her now than later.

 

“It was just a month before you born. We were running from...” Sakura wasn't sure what to tell her. She didn't want to say it was Sasuke and Naruto, `cause then she'd hate them for sure. She was ok with Naruto, in fact, he was like a father to her. But she was already starting to dislike her uncle. `Like father like daughter.' she sighed inwardly.

 

“Well, who was it?” she asked impatiently. I mean, this was only the story of her father's demise.

 

“...Some rogue ninja. We had been running for hours and I finally stopped to catch my breath when your father picked me up and put me in a tree. He kissed me goodbye and ran in the other direction, leading the rogue ninja away from me and you. When I heard fighting, I couldn't help myself. Worry took over my better judgement and I ran towards the sound. Distracted by my presence, one of them got him down. Picking him up, they said something that I couldn't hear and he told me he loved me and that he would come for us, before he... before he...”

 

“Before he what, BEFORE HE WHAT!?!?” Aiko shouted frantically, shaking her mother slightly by the shoulders.

 

“Before he jumped off the edge into the river below.” she finished in a shaky hushed voice.

 

Aiko, who had been standing in front of her kneeling mother, fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands, letting out a cry of despair. Sakura wrapped her arms around her shaking daughter and held her close.

 

“Shh, shh, it's ok. He knew I would never leave without him, so he did it to protect us. There's nothing we can do about it now.”

 

Aiko pulled away just enough to look at her mother.

 

“But, but he said he would come back for us...right, so there's still a chance.”

 

Sakura shook her head.

 

“No, he's gone, and there is nothing we can do. But I want you to have something.”

 

She went into her room and came back with a black headband with a scratch across the Hidden Leaf emblem.

 

Aiko gasped when it was placed in her hands.

 

“Was he a rogue ninja too?”

 

“Yes, but he never hurt anyone unless it was necessary.”

 

She looked down at the object in her hands that was the only thing left of her father.

 

“I don't care. As long as he loved us,” she said tying it around her neck “ I'll wear it with pride.”

 

Sakura chuckled as she stood up and ruffled Aiko's hair. She walked into the living room, but turned around.

 

“Oh, by the way, you can keep that picture too.”

 

Aiko smiled and followed her mother into the livingroom.

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Wow I actualy cried writing this. *Sniff Sniff* I hope you enjoyed, I'll try to update later this weekend. Oh, and in the Middle of writing this I had to go to the mall to buy my friend a birthday present and got a Eureka 7 T-shirt on clearance. It was at Hot Topic (Best freakin store in the world). Well anyway and stuff, so....

 

Ja ne!

~PY