Curses and Dreams

Moving On

The first year without Kakashi was almost unbearable. Your best friend of almost 16 years, your first love, one of the few constants in your life — gone. And all you had to show for it was a tear-stained letter and a broken heart.

After nearly a year of crying on Kurenai's couch, forgetting to eat, and worrying your parents without so much as a word from Kakashi, you decided that it was time to move on. You couldn't spend your life waiting for him, so you pushed yourself to take your life back. You threw yourself back into training, having more or less completely abandoned it in that year. The feeling of shuriken leaving your hands to hit bullseyes and dodging kunai strikes from your sparring partners ignited a fire in your heart that you thought had burnt out. You were hoping to keep on track and become a Jonin next year, so you worked hard on your fighting abilities and jutsu prowess.

Though your parents were both strictly medical ninjas, you'd never been very adept at it yourself. You were a wind-style chakra user, and had been creating small tornados and riding gusts of wind since you were young. You'd spent years developing a jutsu, the Wind Angel, which created wings made of wind to allow you to speed away or fly out of dangerous situations, and you were working on casting it on your comrades to help pull your squad out of peril. Being able to ride the wind meant you were fast, faster than most. Minato used to joke that you were the only kid in Konoha that could keep up with him, the Yellow Flash.

In addition to training, you started volunteering at the Konoha orphanage. Your parents had tried and failed at changing the Hokage's mind on Naruto's placement, so volunteering gave you an excuse to see the baby, and ensure he was being properly cared for. You were incredibly protective of him, feeling a love for him that you could only imagine was the same as having a little brother. Being an only child, you'd always wanted a younger sibling. Someone you could guide, and train with, and you promised baby Naruto that you would be there for him as much as you could, Danzo and the village elders be damned. You had to be careful to not draw too much attention to your affection for the young Uzumaki though, worried that Danzo would have you banned from the orphanage if the nuns noticed.

You trained hard, and became a Jonin a few months after your seventeenth birthday. You celebrated the accomplishment with your parents and friends, and announced that you were going to join a platoon that focused on peacekeeping between villages. This meant that you'd be gone on longer missions, weeks and months instead of days, and travel to distant lands. Your parents were proud of your growth, excited that you were going on a new adventure. They had worried that you might stay in the village, waiting around for Kakashi. Not that they'd ever confess this worry to you.

Later that night, your mother came to your room. You were getting ready to go on your first mission to the Land of Earth, expecting to be gone for a month or so.

"Are you excited, (Y/n)?" She asked.

"Yes, very excited. I'm ready to see the world." Your (e/c) eyes gleamed with hope, something your mother had missed seeing.

"I'm glad, truly. You know, I signed up to volunteer at the orphanage while you're away," she smiled. "I figured you'd want someone to keep an eye on Naruto."

"Oh mom, thank you," you replied, eyes welling with tears. Truthfully, you'd been worried about that. Your parents were even more wary of Danzo than you were, and had been very concerned about your insistence on being in Naruto's life. You would have never asked her to do this, so the fact that she offered made your heart feel lighter. The people you loved were going to be together, and you felt even more ready to go off on your own, knowing everything was taken care of.