The Fox's Son

Chapter 59 - Finished Blade

'491, 492, 493, 494.....' Naruto counted off in his head before he paused in the middle of his push-ups. He saw two little feet stop in front of him and lazily looked up. He greeted by the sight of Rin, smiling down at him before plopping down in front of him, sitting with her legs crossed. Naruto looked at the child for a moment before returning to his push-ups. The child continued to watch the man do push-ups before she finally decided to speak.

"What is Naruto-sama doing?" she asked innocently with her usual smile.

"Training." Naruto answered simply as he continued to push himself down and off from the ground.

"Why?" Rin asked.

Naruto mentally groaned at her question. She was about to do something he had seen before in other children. They would continue asking why until you could no longer answer anything else, and even then, they will continue to ask you why. Entertaining her, Naruto sucked it up and answered her question anyway.

"To get stronger." he answered.

The child stared at him blankly for a moment. "But......" she started slowly as if she were trying to gather her thoughts. "Naruto-sama is already strong. Why get stronger?" she asked in both curiosity and confusion.

Naruto looked up and smiled at the child before shifting from his push up position to an upward, sitting position in front of her. He ran his hand through his red mane. He had taken off his hat and cloak, and set them aside while he worked out, not wanting to mess them up.

"Because Rin......" Naruto started. "People get stronger when they have something or, more importantly, someone they want to protect." he said.

Rin seemed to beam at that. "Ohhhhh......" she said in understanding. "So who does Naruto-sama want to protect?" she asked.

Naruto smiled at her innocent nature as he brought his hand to his chin as if he were thinking about something. "Well, there's one I can tell you about." he said, with his hand still fixed in a thinking position. "She's a little about 3 1/2 feet tall, has long black hair, and wears an orange kimono. She likes picking flowers and a clunk of her hair is tied up into a side ponytail."

The child looked puzzled for a moment before looking down at her orange kimono. She blinked for moment as she began to make the connects and realization crossed her features. Looking up at the red head, Rin smiled before she slowly pointed at herself as if she were uncertain. Naruto's own smile seemed to widen at this and he nodded to her. An ear piercing squeal caused to red head to wince, feeling as if his eardrum were about to explode. He was suddenly glomped by the little bundle of joy.

Naruto lightheartedly laughed as he caught the child. He placed her on the ground as she let out a little giggle. "Come, Rin. Let's get something to eat." he said.

The exuberant girl nodded in excitement as they began to make their toward Ah-Uh, where they kept most of their belongings. When they got there, Naruto set up a small camp as he prepared him and Rin's food. Once he was done, they sat around the fire and began to eat, stories and tales from the mouths of both Rin and Naruto filling the silence as they dined. A few hours later, Naruto was cleaning up camp and putting things away when another squeal reached his ears, startling both him and Ah-Uh from his meal.

"JIJI-CHAN!!!!" Rin squealed as she ran up to an exhausted looking Totosai.

Putting his tiredness on hold, the old swordsmith turned to the little ball of sunshine. As if things were in slow motion, his bug eyes watched as the child bounded up into the air. A leap that would put one of Jiraiya's toads to shame. The old man barely had time to raise his hands up in defense as the child began to descend.