[Light•Joy]
Every little kids all over the world, each of them, dreamed to be the best pokemon trainer ever known. They would sit by the window, look at the stars above, and make wishes of one day achieving the title of Pokemon Master, until their parents knock on the door and told them that it was past their bedtime.
"Theresa, your sisters are all asleep now! You better sleep if you don't want to be late for breakfast." their mother would say.
"Yes, mom!" and so they would reply.
The Nurse Joy of Viridian City gave a smile as she watched all those kids entering and exiting her pokemon center, joy drawn on their faces. She picked up a pokeball and hand it to a young trainer in front of her.
"Here's your eevee. Just give him enough rest and he'll be good as he was born yesterday,"
The trainer took the pokeball and threw it into the air. A happy eevee came out and jump into the arms of his trainer. "Aww... I miss you too, buddy. Come, we'll make sure today that the badge is ours for keeping," the trainer brushed his nose against the pokemon's muzzle.
"Vee!"
The nurse watched them go through the door, into the grand adventure that awaited them outside. She let out a small laugh.
"Truly a busy day today, isn't it chanseys?" the pink haired woman turned to look at all of her pokemon tired out from all the work. They weren't even open for that long, yet some were already returning back to their pokeballs, since not a sign of anyone coming in anytime soon showed itself. The center is empty now. A cup of warm coffee came to the nurse's side as she was checking the computer.
"Oh, thank you, Shine! I thought you would be with the others," she accepted the coffee from one of the chanseys. The pokemon just shook her head. "Umm... mocha. Now I remember why I still have you with me after all these years," she smiled at the pokemon.
"Chansey," was the reply she got, along with a plate of sandwich made just for her.
And that was the everyday's routine of the life of Theresa Joy, the Nurse Joy of Viridian City's pokemon center. She would have never guessed how her life would change in just about half a minute from now.
"Shine, is something wrong?" Theresa saw her pokemon standing frozen on her place, eyes wide. The pokemon answered by pointing at nothing in the air. Theresa considered to take her to one of the medical room, when a strong light appeared out of nowhere on the place Shine pointed earlier.
Theresa shielded her eyes from the intense red light, before opening them to see the light vanishing little by little. It didn't forget to leave a souvenir however. She gasped at what she saw.
A boy, no older than six, lay on the cold hard floor, unconscious. His body didn't move, yet blood continuously seeped out from the wounds and injuries he had all over his body. His hair was soaked in a mixture of the blood and water.
"Everyone, get this boy to the emergency room, fast!"
And thus ended the quiet peaceful morning and began the work of getting the mysterious boy back to health.
[Light•Joy]
Young Naruto woke up to the sounds of water drops falling into a larger body of water. The boy had no idea how, but he found himself in what he would believe to be a sewer. He panicked and jumped to his feet.
"Come..." a deep guttural voice called for him. It was coming from the path in front of him. "Follow my voice. I am not of anything you should fear,"
The boy's sense of fear of being lost took him over and he felt the need to trust the unknown voice. He soon found himself standing before a large gate the size of the Hokage Mountain itself.
"Hello?" he looked in vain for the voice that was suddenly gone.
"Greetings to you, Uzumaki Naruto," someone adressed him from behind the gate's metal bars.
"Who are you? Can you help me?"
A row of rumbling breath came out. The next was a pair of slitted red eyes, followed by a creature fit for the huge gate. It was a red furred fox, larger than any that the boy had heard to be. Its ears were those of bunnies', and it had hands in exchange of its front paws. If foxes were supposed to have only a tail, it owned nine which were gently swaying back and forth behind its body.
Naruto's surprise went away as fast as it came, in favour of asking for help from someone he never met in his life. "Please, I need to get home!" he looked into the large creature's eyes.
"I assure you that you are not going back to that place anytime soon,"
"What? But I need to. They'll think I'm missing!"
"Answer me, Naruto, why do you insist on returning to that place?"
"I can't just leave! Gramps will be worried. If he don't find me anywhere, he'll send those ninjas to look for me,"
"And what will happen once they find you?"
"They'll...they will..." Naruto's voice and head lowered down. A frown unsuited for a child was present on his face. "I don't know," he shook his head with his eyes watery.
"That place was never your home, Naruto, and never will, especially after what happened tonight," the creature placed one of its hand on the bars that were keeping him locked. "I have been watching you, kit. I promise you, you will never have to set your foot there ever again, more so encounter any of the people there. You are free,"
The conversation between the boy and the beast halted for a moment, before the boy adressed the beast whether or not it was what he thought it to be. "You're Kyuubi, aren't you, the reason they all hate me? Why are you doing this for me?" Curiosity was present in his voice, but not as much as the sadness that coated it.
Kyuubi never answered, but it put an almost unnoticeable thin smile on its muzzle. "It is not the time yet for you to know. But do know that there is someone out there who truly do care for you. Enjoy your life, for this is a new beginning," The world around them started to dissolve into nothingness in Naruto's eyes. "Do not panic, little kit. You shall arrive in your new home in just a moment,"
Before he fully disappear, he used the remaining time to ask one last question he might never got another chance to do so. "Will I see you again?"
"In due time," the creature disappeared from his view along with his world.
[Light•]
"What do you mean the hospital is full?" Theresa tightly held the telephone in her hand, giving a glare to the woman on the screen in front.
The woman, Caron Joy, took some time to recover from the ear-shattering shout the nurse gave her. "Like I said, sister. We have no more free room here. I'm sorry but you need to take care of the boy by yourself,"
"What happened there?" Theresa could not believe the hospital could be full, not when she had a seriously injured boy in her care.
"Well, we-" the Viridian's Joy heard someone from behind Caron shouting along the lines of 'doctor' and 'another one' before her sister had her attention on her again. "I'm sorry, but I need to go now. I'll see if we can send anyone over there. Please be patient."
Theresa watched the screen go blank. Nobody could help her at the moment. She needed to take matters into her own hands. "Everyone, how is he do-"
The nurse stopped short between the doorframe at seeing her pokemon gathered on one spot, fear in their eyes. She turned to look at the thing that put them in this state. It was the boy.
Where the cuts and wounds were earlier now was only untouched skin. His hair, earlier in the colour of gold, was red. Heat was radiating out of him, and an aura of the same colour as his hair cloaked his petite body. The aura soon died off and his hair returned to normal. The boy lay there, no sign of injuries except for the dried blood that still remained.
It had been half a day since then.
Theresa saw light in the boy's opening eyes. She immediately held him down so he wouldn't try to stand up. "Don't move. Your body still needs to rest," Watching the boy sleep for the past six hours had caused her voice to come out quieter than usual. She put on a smile so as to let him know he was safe here.
"Here," she held a glass of water in front of him. "After all that happened, you must be quite thirsty," She helped him get up slowly. The boy, hesitantly, took the refreshing water and gulped it down his dry throat.
They sat like that for quite some time. Theresa had the chair she sat on while she had been waiting for him to wake up, and the boy chose the furthest side of his bed from her, a stranger.
The room was unsatisfyingly silent with some occasional noise the objects inside made. Theresa thought it was the right time to ask the one question that was troubling her. "Do you remember anything, anything that happened before waking up here?" The boy however just stayed where he was, mouth closed and muscles tense in case of unknown danger.
"I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but I need to know so we could help you," the nurse stood up and neared the ever-so trembling boy.
She gently touched his hand and raised it up. Her palm soon found its way to his cheek, where water began to slide down once in a while. "You'll be safe here. No one is going to hurt you. So don't be afraid," she carressed his hair and leaned down to give a warming kiss right on his forehead.
"You may want to stay up a little more, so don't sleep to late okay," Theresa walked out of the door after having switched off the light. "Rest well." The door closed.
[•Joy]
Naruto touched the spot where the woman kissed him. His cheeks were red as he felt a new strange sensation running over his body. It was warm and making his heart beat faster, but at the same time calm and reassuring. It was the opposite of what he usually felt.
A light from outside caught his attention and he made his way to the nearest window. A gasp came out at seeing a new sight in a new world unknown. Many things showed themselves to him on the window he sat on. Wonders filled his curious mind, and he smiled a true smile he had been keeping to himself. "Home." he placed his palm on the cold welcoming glass.
[Light•Joy]
"And now I have to trust you to look after my son, after trying to keep him safe from you?"
"For making sure he is safe from the people you whole-heartedly trusted that stabbed you from behind," Kurama calmly gave his reply to the man outside of his sealed cage.
Namikaze Minato, enemy of millions, protector of thousands, friends of many, and father of one he failed to take care of, rubbed his temple in obvious rage.
"I know this would unevitably happen, but I cannot believe Third would ever do that. What of Kakashi, if you do know him?"
"You think he could watch over the boy with he himself being busy constantly replacing himself with other shinobis,"
The fourth hokage again rubbed his temple. "I shouldn't have let him know in the first place. Now I have two children I failed to take care of,"
The constant headache caused by receiving the new of how his son was treated, from the creature whom he had been enemies with, who was now the guardian of said son, could not go away except by escaping his mouth in the form of a sigh. "What do I do now?"
"I would advise nothing,"
Kurama stood up from his lying position in his cage. The seal in the middle glowed red but barely did anything to bother anyone in the proximity. "He has just been through some traumatic experience. For a child, it's a miracle he still has hope in him. We should let him be for a while, to get him used to his new surrounding," the bijuu grinned as he felt a chakra spike coming from Naruto, signaling someone had got him to open himself up. "He seems to be doing nicely at the very moment,"
"I know that infusing my chakra would seem like a second compared to the real time if I were to appear again," the only human in the creature's wake looked up at him. "But how on earth could six years changed you from a beast on loose to this?"
Kurama stopped himself from losing control at being called beast on loose by letting his tails dancing around. He smirked. "Try adding ten more," The expression on the man's face was enough to make him forget his anger and let out a laugh.
"S-sixteen? But... that would mean you... And he's here because..." Kurama nodded knowingly at the questions. The man named Minato regained his composure of the youngest hokage in history after some deep breath.
"What will he do once he found out?"
"Hopefully as calm as yours,"
Namikaze Minato watched his hand turning into golden dust. Kurama too watched the man disappear little by little.
"Looks like my time is up here," Minato gave one last grateful smile before going to have himself completely turned into unguided chakra particles in the air. "Please take care of him well." As he felt himself light and floating, something held him back from leaving.
"You wouldn't think I would let you go easily after what you did, do you?" Kurama showed no sign of fatigue after having given the man some of his chakra. "It would not be fair for the boy to not know the man who had cursed his own son,"
The man moved his hands and fingers around, perhaps feeling a foreign sensation inside of him. Yet he smiled, this time a hopeful one, one which a father would have at the prospect of finally meeting his own son.
"But for now, we wait, and hope the new world welcome him." Kurama and Minato shared a look and watched the flooded floor of the sewer-like place, rippling every now and then, showing images of the world outside.
[The•End]