Light in the Dark

The Final Tales

Akari

The Fourth Great Shinobi War had come to an end. I was now standing in the ruins, going through my head as to what had all happened. All of it was some big puppet show, but two of the people I loved the most had ended it all. We had all lost so much, Neji and Kiba being amongst the casualties. This all felt so surreal.

Sasuke had gone and spoken to the Hokage, with the help of Orochimaru bringing them back. Now he no longer wanted to destroy Konoha, no now he wanted to be Hokage. He wanted to rebuild the village, and fix all of the corruption that laid inside of it.

"Kakashi Sensei, did Obito, did he pass on?" I looked at my Teacher who was leaning against Sakura. His eyes no longer holding the Sharingan.

"Yes, and he told me to apologize again," Kakashi's voice was quiet. I nodded my head. The moment Obito had realized what he was doing, was not the right path, he began to regret every mistake he had made. Including hurting me by pulling Kiba into it all, by killing him to hurt me. It took Naruto's encouragement, but I had forgiven him. Maybe not entirely, but enough.

"Akari!" Naruto yelled, and I looked over to see him standing in front of Dad. Sasuke nodded at me, and released me from his hold. He had been a little protective since the battle, not wanting me to leave his side.

"Dad, hi," I smiled, and he smiled back at the two of us.

"I have something to tell you both!" He grinned happily, "Happy Birthday!"

Naruto and I froze, then looked at each other. Was it really already October 10th? Yeah, yeah I guess it was.

"You've both really grown into exceptional shinobi," Dad looked at me teary eyed, "And I do mean both of you,"

"Yeah, thanks," Naruto smiled, grabbing my hand.

"This is goodbye isn't it?" I frowned, and he nodded his head.

"Our existence is outside the rules of this world, it has to be goodbye," He frowned deeply glancing between the two of us, "I promise to tell Kushina everything I've seen from you two!"

"Tell her not to worry! We are eating properly, thanks to Akari's constant nagging!" Naruto smiled at Dad, trying to break the tension.

"He takes baths too! Sometimes I have to get on him about it, but I make sure he does more than just rinsing off and calling it good!" I added, smiling up at our Dad. Who was slowly fading away again.

"We have loads of friends too! Even if some of them are pains in the ass!" Naruto gushed, "I didn't do as well in my studies, but Akari was awesome Dad you should've seen her!"

"Yeah, and Naruto always respected his teachers! You can ask Kakashi and Lord Third themselves!" Time was slipping away from us, "And I am sure Naruto learned a lot about the prohibitions from that pervert Jiraiya, tell him hi for us okay?!"

"Akari has made some mistakes Dad, but she's awesome, and she has really pulled through a lot of times!" Naruto frowned, "We just turned seventeen today though, so she has a lot more time to keep making up for her mistakes!"

"Naruto is going to be an even greater Hokage than you Dad, I just know it!" My eyes were beginning to water, as I held onto Naruto's hand tighter.