Finding light in a dark world (Naruto fanfiction)

~ Mizuki's feelings and tree climbing ~

*Recap*

“Yes and this is your last battle.” Dad says getting ready to end his life, but a couple of sebon needles beat him to it causing his eyes to widen.

“If only you knew.” I mumble turning away from Haku who was up in the trees not too far from them.

*End Recap*

I slowly walked beside the rest of my teammates as Naruto continues to grumble beside me as we lug Dad to Tazuna’s house. The whole episode with ‘The Masked Ninja’ aka Haku has already passed. Naruto hasn’t stop grumbling about it since then.

“Are we there yet?” I ask rubbing my temple in frustration. Between carrying dad, and Naruto’s groaning my head is killing me. Tazuna turns to me with an annoyed look. “For the last time no. We’ll arrive there when we get there.” He grumbles before shifting dad a little causing me to stagger slightly. I’m not quite sure how I ended up carrying dad with Tazuna. It seems like I always get stuck with the dirty work.

‘You know I don’t think this battle’s over just yet.’ Shiguro mumbles beside me. I sigh just wanting to go crawl under a rock, and forget everything around me. ‘I don’t either. That masked ninja was too suspicious.’ I say hiding my real thoughts. I already know the battle had just begun. ‘Yeah…’ he trails off.

About twenty minutes later we arrive at a slightly shabby looking two story house. It was right next to the water like every other house seemed to be around here. “We’re here.” Tazuna grumbles. We walk towards the house as the door opens revealing a small brunet woman who looked worried. 

She spots dad and waves for us to follow. We walk through a sparsely furnished hallway, and up a set of stairs. She brings us to a room and gestures to put him in there. “What happened?” She finally speaks up after laying out a bed for dad. We set dad down as Tazuna speaks up. “We were attacked by a missing ninja, but we defeated him thankfully.”  He sighs watching as his daughter rummages around for a spare blanket.

“Is everyone else alright?” She asks looking at all of us, and we nod our heads. “Yeah just a little scratched up and tired.” I say speaking for all of us. She nods looking relieved before walking out of the room.

 “Do you really believe that?” I ask looking at Tazuna. He sounded so relieved when he mentioned how we defeated Zabuza that my heart squeezed painfully. He was about to be in for a big surprise as soon as dad wakes up.  He gives me a confused look. “Believe what?” He asks glancing around at everyone. I sigh. “It’s nothing.” I grumble walking out of the room passing Tazuna’s daughter on the way. She was carrying bandages and a pail of water. I head downstairs making my way to the door. I needed to clear my head.

I lean heavily against a tree situated not too far from Tazuna’s house. Shiguro is lying beside me with his eyes closed. He doesn’t say anything which I am thankful for. I guess he knows I need time to think to myself for a bit. There are just too many thoughts running through my head right now.

 I don’t know how the fight with Zabuza is going to go. I’ve already changed so much. What if one of my teammate ends up hurt or even dead? It would be my fault for even existing in this world. I sigh pulling my knees up, and resting my head on them. Just what am I going to do? A tear slides down my cheek as I close my eyes. I couldn’t live with myself if one of them died. I heave a raged breath before tightening my arms around my legs. Then I just won’t let them die. I will fight to keep them alive even if I have to die in the process.

I’m not sure exactly when I fell asleep, but I awake groggily and rub my eyes trying to get the sleepiness out of them. It takes me a second to realize that I’m not laying on the hard bark of the tree but something warm. I freeze in my movements, and my eyes snap open. I look around confirming that I was still outside. The sun was now setting and the house was still in front of me, but then what exactly am I lying on? I turn my head slightly to see a very familiar orange.