Broken like me

Chance Encounter

It was several months later, after Sigyn had gone to visit Gaara in Suna. She missed him terribly and wished she could run off to see him, especially now. It was late at night and Sigyn lay in Naruto's bed. Depression had struck and he was the only one she could turn to. The Third Hokage was murdered and they had just come back from the funeral.

Sigyn was quietly sobbing into Narutos' pillow. The blond boy tried to remain strong, for both their sakes. Losing the Third Hokage had inflicted such deep, personal wounds in them both. After a minute or so, the blond sat on his bed, next to the girl and placed a gentle hand on her head.

"It'll be ok Sigy." He softly spoke but she didn't reply. "I know he meant a lot to you. He did for me too but," he let out a heavy sigh. "But he wouldn't want us laying in bed all day crying, right?" Sigyn turned to him with red, tear stained eyes and he offered her a soft smile.

Rubbing her eyes and sniffing a couple of times, she replied, "Yeah. You're right." Hugging him tightly, they fell asleep together.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A couple of days later, Sigyn received a letter from Gaara. He offered her his condolences on the death of their Hokage. It appeared news traveled fast. Over the next few months, Sigyn continued to write to Gaara about how things in Konoha were. Currently, the girl wrote about how sad and depressed she was that Naruto left with Jiraiya-sama on a mission. Satori and Kain were still training with their father, but she would visit them from time to time. She wrote to him about her training with Lee and Gai-Sensei, and how despite his injuries, was recovering pretty well.

She wrote to him about how much she hated moving from one teacher to another, because it felt like no one wanted her. That, or, no had time for her. She was upset that her father had yet to return from another black-ops mission and she was getting worried. Gaara would always reply back and tell her that worrying would do her no good. That she should instead, focus on her training. Keeping her mind occupied was a good way to relieve stress.

Gaara would write back to her as often as she would to him. Just like her, he would tell the girl about his experiences back home. He and his siblings were getting along much better now and there was far less animosity between them. The red-head would write to her about what he had planned for when she would visit him again. She would reply with excitement and anticipation, which always placed a smile on the red-heads face.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A couple of days after mailing her most recent letter, Shikamaru had approached the girl. He asked if she wanted to aid in the Sasuke recovery mission. The lazy ninja informed her that Naruto requested her aide because she was well practiced as a medical ninja. Naruto said they might need some healing if they all wanted to come back alive and Shikamaru agreed. Now the problem was convincing the girl to actually join them.

"We really could use your talents Sigy." Shikamaru gave her a stern glance. She knew he was serious.

"It's not like I'm a doctor Shika-kun. There's only so much I can do." Sigy glanced over at Kiba and Choji, who looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Be honest Sigyn. The real reason why you don't want to go, is because this is for Sasuke. Look, I don't care either way but my friends need me." Neji stared straight into her eyes and the girl sighed with slight annoyance.

"Yeah, alright. Is it really such a bad thing that he's gone?" She rolled her eyes at them.

"What is this vendetta that you have against him anyway?" Kiba questioned.

"Look," Shikamaru interjected before the argument could escalate, because with Sigyn's temper, it usually did. Truth is, Shikamaru knew exactly why Sigyn disliked Sasuke and it wasn't just the relentless teasing of Naruto. "We're not going to force you to join us. All I'm saying is, Naruto recommended you. If not for Sasuke, then do it for him."