The Dragon Queen // (Under Revision)

Circle Back To Us

Tsuyoi flicked her wrists, cracking out a white sheet onto the floor. Turning back to the closet, she pulled out pails of clay and scalpels.

"Sit," she commanded, pointing to the floor. Naruto sat, crossing his legs. Tsuyoi turned and walked to her bookshelf, pulling out a dusty book. She carried it back, brushing the dust away, revealing a dark red cover with a golden stripe on the left-hand side. She sat across from him, opening the book to the first page.

She slid the book away from herself, towards him.

"What's this?" He asked, taking it in his hands.

Tsuyoi crossed her arms, straightening. "One of the three orginal Lioditan golem-making instruction manual in existence. We have one, the Council has one, and the other is missing."

Naruto stared blankly.

Tsuyoi rolled her eyes. "It shows you how to make walking rocks."

The light bulb clicked, and his face brightened.

Sakura was right; Naruto is dull.

"Let me explain a little about golems. According to what I've read, one of the founders of my village created the idea of golems and infusing them with reiki. He actually didn't know he was using reiki then; he was living in the Hidden Leaf Village at the time and thought it was chakra."

"Wait! The founders of your village came from Konoha?" Naruto interrupted.

"Yeah. I didn't realize that until I as thinking of it earlier. My memory is making it easier to remember since....you know." The battle with Yowai. "Anyway, their names were Kirotsuchi Yamashita, Fugitsuna Hoshi, and Matsuri Arakawa. Matsuri was my great-grandmother's sister. And my two friends from the village—Takumi and Hiromu— happened to be descended from the other two. The founders started cultivating reiki and created the first forms of it; reiki transfer, harmonious spirit healing, and the Dairokkan."

"If you think about it, Tsuyoi," Naruto said suddenly. Tsuyoi paused and looked up at him. He wasn't looking at her; instead he was rubbing his finger over the frayed end of the book absentmindedly. His eyes were fixed on it his hand. "If you're ancestors really came from Konoha, then it's not so strange that we ended up together like this."

Tsuyoi flushed at his choice of words. Ended up together....

"If we came from the same place... everything is just coming around in a big circle." Naruto went on. As he spoke, his finger traced a small circle on the book cover. "Everything's just a circle....back to us...."

Tsuyoi looked at Naruto in an entire new light. That was really nice...

"But we have to be careful then, too. If everything is going a circle, eventually it'll come back to this point, or one similar to this. If this circle is running through the us, we should be cautious. Our decisions could effect...how the circle will come around next time...right, Tsuyoi?" He lifted his head and met her eyes.

Tsuyoi felt herself flush again. So profound...All she could do was nod.

"So how does this work?" Naruto turned the book around in his hands, squinting furiously. Tsuyoi face-palmed, watching him hold the book upside down as if that would let him receive a message no one else could from the heavens.

"Not like that, genius." Tsuyoi took the book from him, turned it right side up, and handed it to him. Another flash of a face in her mind. The same long-haired youth, with the pale violet eyes, from before when she was talking to Kakashi about wars. Then it was gone. Tsuyoi blinked, pushing her questions aside, then flipped the page of the book. She pointed. "We're going to make three birds. Pay close attention."

********

Hours passed, and before either of them knew it, the sun was setting, orange over the treetops outside. Naruto and Tsuyoi had been working hard since noon, trying and failing to shape the mounds of brown clay into anything that closely resembled a bird. After hours of trial and error, they had made three bald eagles, with a wingspan of about 7 feet across. Tsuyoi used the scalpel to carve a capital H in the center of each golems' chest. Finishing the final stroke, she leaned back, brushing her hair away from her eyes.

"Finally done!" Naruto announced, stretching his arms over his head.

"Yeah," Tsuyoi said, standing up. She glanced outside. We leave tonight. "Let's make this quick."

She opened her hands, splaying her fingers, and aimed them at the three newly-made golems. Reiki crackled around her, her dairokkan markings igniting and burning brightly. She winced as her arms heated up. "Reiki Art! Reiki Transfer Release!" A huge rush of green wind and flames erupted out of her, tossing her hair high over her head.

Move, you idiot! Tsuyoi heard Kurama bark at Naruto, who still stared blankly at her.

"Kokyu Shimasu!"

Green light burst forth from her hands, encasing all three birds. Pain ripped through Tsuyoi's arms, and she clenched her teeth to keep from crying out. After a moment, the bird's wings began to stretch, and their beaks opened. Muscles and feathers began to sprout over the dirt until the eagles looked flesh and blood. The flow of reiki sputtered and then died. Tsuyoi slumped over, rubbing her arms.

Naruto came to her and tried to touch her arms, but yelped and drew his hand away. Visible steam wafted from her skin, with looked otherwise unscathed. Only her dairokkan markings betrayed any sign of injury; they glowed with a pulsing, eerie light.

"Okay, that's done," Tsuyoi joked, wincing at the pain in her arms.

"What did you do?" Naruto's brows furrowed, concerned. His gaze flicked to the three golem birds, made flesh and standing stationary. The H in their chests glowed green among the white feathers. Instead of pupils, the eyes of the birds glowed with an inner green light, similar to the golem in the kitchen downstairs.

"I put reiki into it," Tsuyoi replied, standing shakily to her feet. Stretching out her hand, she fixed her gaze on the bird closest to her. "Oboete," she called. The bird stretched its wings, and launched itself into the air and crossed the room quickly, alighting on her outstretched forearm.

"Your name is Oboete," she told it sternly. The bird bobbed its head once, then flew back to the wall. Repeating this process, she named the second one Tsuki and the third one, the only one Naruto had made, Azayaka. This one was slightly smaller than Oboete and Tsuki, and one of the wings was a mite lower than the other. As it flew its dipped to one side slightly.

"Aw, yours is cute." Tsuyoi rubbed his head affectionately. "I haven't made any golems in a long time."

"Really? Why not?" Naruto asked, reaching across to pat its head.

"So I can hurt myself every time? Yeah right," she answered. "Yamashita have it easier, but Arakawa and Hoshi struggle. Now come on, I need to practice controlling these. We can go to my spot on the roof.

Tsuyoi walked towards the door. Oboete, Tsuki, and Azayaka followed. Naruto started to follow, then paused and swept up Sai's maps. Then he left, closing the door behind him.