War Torn {A Naturo Fanfic}

Page 5

"You remember?" Chiya asked.

I closed my eyes and let out a breath. It wasn't exactly a specific memory, but I remembered restaurants and shops. Children played and fought in the streets. Yugakure was never a particularly civil place. Eventually you were going to get swept up into a fight and when you did you better have known how to deal with it. Something told me I hadn't.

"It was alive, but violent. Yugakure was a place of pride." I told them and continued on, not caring what they had to say about it. I didn't know where I was going, but I felt a pull. I was certainly headed somewhere.

"Etsuko?" The voice didn't come from Maeko or Chiya. I snapped my head around, recognizing the voice. "I always knew you would come back." The old woman said as her face settled into a smile.

"Who is that?" Maeko whispered to me.

"I...that's our grandmother." I answered, gradually realizing it was true. I turned my attention back to her. "I hate to tell you this, but I can't remember a thing. I have very little memory of anything up until three months ago." I told her. She didn't seem surprised.

"Come with me. I know something that may help with that." She gestured for us to follow and we did.

"I still can't believe I had our names right." Maeko whispered to Chiya as we entered one of the less demolished buildings. Our grandmother picked something up and turned around, handing it to me. It was a moderately long and thin sword with a black and purple hilt. I took it from her and memories began flooding back.

At first all I got were flashes of gory images, which I gathered were from the war. I remembered Maeko and Chiya being taken away. Then things got more detailed. Our father had been a high ranking man and was killed in the war. Mother left with a man from Kumogakure-the Village Hidden in the Clouds-and left us with our grandmother. Then I was normal again.

"I remember the war." I stated shakily, having a feeling that wasn't all I would be remembering.

"That's good." Chiya said carefully. That sent me spiraling into another memory, one from before the war.

I was out in the forest, playing with rocks by a stream. "Etsuko!" I looked up, seeing a familiar boy running in my direction. He tripped and cursed as he picked himself up off the ground.

"Hidan, daddy says that's a bad word." I informed him in a childish tone as he sat himself in front of me.

"So?" He questioned and gave me a sly grin. His violet eyes sparkled mischievously.

As I surfaced from the memory I felt myself pale. They had been right all this time. I did know him.

"Are you okay?" Chiya asked.

Well, that threw me into another one.

I walked into a clearing and screamed at the sight I saw. Hidan was bloody and looked like he was half dead. He got up when he saw me thought.

"Hidan, what happened?" I asked, tears welling in my eyes as I ran to him.

"Get used to it Etsuko. It was just a ritual." He informed me in one of his odd moments of normal language. I ignored the fact that he was severely injured, remember his masochism, and hugged him in an attempt to convince myself he really wasn't dead. He cursed at me for doing so, but I didn't care.

That time I seemed to be jarred out of the memory.

"What did you remember?" Maeko asked in poorly contained excitement.

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