Tender Sea

Chapter 11

Dream

"Just how many people are going to fall victim to this stone?" Naru sighed running her hand through her hair. The long, blonde locks hung down to her waist, shifting slightly as a gentle wind blew through the area. She spared a painful glance at Konoha's ever famous memorial stone where more and more familiar names found themselves carved into.

"Naru-san." The sombre tone didn't belong in his voice and she wondered if she could beat it out of him. No, she reasoned with herself, if that's the case I'll be forced to incapacitate half of our forces, including myself.

"Sometimes I find myself wondering about the future," She said quietly, "A future which many of our comrades would never see. But no matter what, they went down fighting.They gave their lives for us and so shouldn't we do our best to live?" She directed her pained gaze to the man who had cried endlessly for days when they had learnt of the most recent death, "But sometimes it's just so hard, you know?" She felt a few of her own tears slip down.

"He was such a good kid." Though his tears had stopped, she could hear the sorrow in his voice, as he continued to cry without them, "My disciple, he had such a bright future. His whole existence burned brightly." The man clutched a tattered red forehead protector in his bandaged fists. "No teacher should ever outlive his students. No... No father should ever have to outlive his child." She gave the man time to collect himself once more.

"Gai..." Naru trailed off. Of all the names carved into the stone his eyes would always be watching one in particular, 'Rock Lee'.

"I wonder if this is what Kakashi or Kurenai are feeling all the time?" He sighed and watched as clouds began to gather. It would rain soon.

"How's Neji doing?" She asked tentatively. The prodigy Hyuga was somewhat of a ticking time bomb at the moment, though no one could blame him...

"I'd like to say better than me, but I have no idea," Gai confessed, "Neither Tenten nor I have heard from him, though it looks like he's been frequenting the Forest of Death."

"That's not healthy at all." She growled in frustration. She knew she would have to drag him out of his stupor but didn't feel up to it at all. Maybe the best option would be to join him.

"And neither is standing here, day after day," A smooth voice drawled, "Though I'm not really one to speak." Naru felt a comforting arm wrap around her waist and automatically leaned into the new arrival.

"Kakashi..." it seemed Gai had fallen so far he would not even shout at his eternal rival.

"This war has gone on for too long," The silver haired male gritted out, "It's time it finally came to an end, even if I must personally wring the bastard's neck myself! I would gladly tear down every ninja in his army one by one if it meant this would all finally be over." It was unusual for the laidback man to promise such brutality but Naru couldn't help but feel more encouraged. There was despair, almost too much which threatened to suffocate them in their already restless sleeps, but his words kept a small flame of hope lit. No longer flickering or wavering, but burning brightly with the rediscovered resolve.

Reality

The young blonde sat up in her bed, sighing as she ran her small fingers through her too-long hair. Miyu vaguely wondered if it was something about Konoha, like how nostalgic it felt and how dear to her heart the village was, that kept bringing back dreams of the past. The two nights spent in Ame offered nothing but darkness and rest. And, the blonde had yet to decide whether these dreams were good, or bad. This particular memory left her depressed but none the less motivated her towards her goal.

''Morning'' Kurama yawned, jumping off the bed and landing soundlessly on the floor.

"Good morning." Miyu replied. She pushed some chakra into her resistance seals and instantly felt the change. She was on level five now and it felt like she was wading through water. In her previous life she had only managed to hit the sixty-seventh level and this time round she was determined to manage all ninety-nine. "So what's on today's agenda?"