Child of the Moon

The Beginnings

Tsukiko arrived home to find Naruto sleeping in a chair, obviously having been waiting up for her. She smiled softly as she quickly changed into dry clothes, then quietly picked up the small boy and carried him to his bed. She tucked him in and gently kissed his forehead before going to her room. She sat on her bed, towel-drying her wet hair, and wondered what had happened.

'I know you're there, whoever you are,' she thought, hoping that whatever influenced her actions would respond.

'I am,' came the response from deep inside her mind.

Tsukiko closed her eyes and felt herself being pulled into the recesses of her mind.

She stood in front of a grown woman whose appearance seemed to share a resemblance to Tsukiko, but instead of her bright green eyes, the woman had red eyes filled with fury and madness.

But even with those mad eyes, her expression was blank, and she twirled a strand of her short blonde hair around one finger as she watched Tsukiko look around her.

"Where am I?"

"Inside your mind," the woman answered. "Where I am."

"Why?"

"That... is something for another time. Suffice to say; I mean you no harm."

She had hesitated, her eyes filling with pain before they returned to their previous expression.

"Who are you?"

"I had many names in life," she said with a shrug. "I don't care what you choose to call me."

"Will you control me again?"

The woman sighed and appeared before Tsukiko, kneeling so she was at eye level with her.

"My intention is to protect your heart so that history will not repeat itself," she said gently as she ran her fingers along Tsukiko's cheek. "There is nothing more important to me."

"Then why did you save those boys?"

She seemed confused as she looked away from Tsukiko, staring into the distance.

"I once knew an Uchiha," she eventually said. "He... was precious to me. Ultimately, I couldn't save him, but I could save those children."

"If it's to save someone, I don't mind if you do it again," Tsukiko said, cupping the woman's face in her hands. "I want to protect my precious people."

"It is the surest way to suffering," the woman said, though her eyes softened. "But you will not be dissuaded. I would not either, and you are someone very precious to me. I only ask that you start training as a ninja so that my strength won't hurt you."

Tsukiko nodded and felt everything pull around her.

"In the morning," the woman said. "Go with Naruto to the Academy, as you always do. But this time, I want you to enrol."

Tsukiko nodded as everything faded, and then she opened her eyes. She looked out her window and stared at the moon for several minutes as the clouds parted to reveal a full, glowing moon. She smiled and curled up in bed.