Once Again (A Naruto Fanfiction) (Sequel to Another Take) (Complete)

Epilogue: Carry On Wayward Son

~On a stormy sea of moving emotion, tossed about, I'm like a ship on the ocean, I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say~

Third Person POV

"Come on Kiya, get up here. You're not that old yet," the large wolf was crouched on the ground as a middle-aged woman attempted to climb on his back. The woman's hair originally appeared brown, but was now lightening. Black marks still covered half her face and her eye was black and useless, but by now she'd adapted to life half-blind.

"You know I've had trouble with my leg ever since that stupid bear attacked me," Kiyomi grumbled, glaring at her leg. It had happened three years ago when Kiyomi was heading out to the small field she had for growing food. The bear had come out of nowhere and attacked her, driven mad by hunger in the dead of winter. Kiyomi had killed it, but not after it broke her leg in four places. She'd had a limp ever since.

"Well, I told you to get Salila to do some healing before we left!"

Kiyomi sighed. "She was deep in the pond and I didn't want to bother trying to get her out." The pond was a spring of crystal clear water that had made them decide to settle here in the first place. It was now the permanent home of Salila, as the snake enjoyed resting in it's depths.

"Of course she was," Fen grumbled. "Fine, here," he stamped a paw on the ground and a small earthen platform rose up enough for Kiyomi to get on his back. "You've got everything and you're sure Shiro doesn't want to come?"

"Well-"

"I'm here, I'm here!" A teenage boy of about sixteen rushed over to the two friends. He had dark hair and strangely gray eyes, along with an ugly scar wound running across his throat. The story behind that scar was about as you'd expect- a few years ago, someone had tried to slit his throat.

That's when Kiyomi had found him, half-dead both from the wound and from trying to climb the mountains in deep winter. Bren was luckily the closest, and had been able to keep them both warm until Seaiga could bring Salila. Shiro had been weak for many months, but was now deemed healthy enough by both Salila and Kiyomi to make the journey.

Where were they going? Back to Konoha of course, for Naruto's inauguration as the Seventh Hokage.

"You took your time," Kiyomi chastised mildly, with no real bite in her words. She would have brought the kid along no matter what.

"About time," Fen growled, lowering himself to the ground again. "Hop on, more rapidly than Kiya if you please. We need to get going or we're going to be late."

Shiro got up with no problems, swinging aboard with all the spryness of youth. "We won't be late, Fen, we trust that you can get us there on time." One of Shiro's many skills was manipulation, be it of people or ancient chakra beasts.

Shiro was an orphan, which made him the perfect candidate to be recruited by Kiya to be the next Watcher. That was the term she'd coined for the person keeping watch over the Elemental Beasts and making sure no one was trying to capture them. Kiyomi was the current Watcher, but she was planning on eventually passing the title on to Shiro. Not until he was a bit older, though.

Fen raced through the mountains, bounding through the trees and over ravines with ease. Despite the years that had passed, the wolf hadn't been touched by time and remained as spry as ever.

Kiya wasn't planning on staying in Konoha for more than a week, because any longer and she'd get worried about the other Elemental Beasts. There weren't many times when they had an incident, but there wasn't any reason to take the risk. It would also be Shiro's first time away from the mountains since his injury and subsequent recovery.