The Shadow of the Hidden Leaf

After setting up some surveillance on where the six-tails had been located, Kizuna felt like she didn't want to train today and decided to head out to one of the places she would hang out while relieving some stress.

After her interaction with the monks on the fire temple, having to take breaks might help her more than overworking herself and she had seen how effective it was to relax from time to time.

While she loves to train and learn more things, she was oddly helpless when it regards to relax herself.

While doing meditation was kinda relaxing, Izumi had continuously told her to get outside for some time and now...

She is currently stuck at the buzzing people walking around while wearing casual clothes.

Her outfit was less revealing than the usual getup she usually wears as she was mostly confused as to what to do.

Most of her life was either training, hanging out with her friends or basically eating foods...

Speaking of which....

She decided to head out to her usual place where she frequently eats. While it is still not time for having a meal, it doesn't hurt to eat there.

'Ramen Ichiraku'

It was a place where Kizuna and Naruto would eat together as her face began to drool at the nostalgia.

Since they were kids, it was the place where they would often hang out and eat together as she had a fond memory of them sharing a single bowl and made her reminisce of how delicious it was.

Even when they had the money to pay for a bowl, the cheapskake Kizuna rarely eats there. Yet, it was like a guilty pleasure for her to sometimes eat as the satistfaction whenever she feel something good about what she did.

So, Kizuna decided to eat there again while secretly looking for other people as she disguise herself before entering.

Ordering her usual bowl, the manager smiled as Kizuna's expectation was slowly rising.

She stared intensely at the bowl she was served with and began eating it delicately like she doesn't even waste a single drop of liquid.

The familiarity was uncanny to the manager as he could see the girl infront of her like she was familiar to the girl who would also do some scouting before eating here.

He knew that Kizuna would always did this whenever she would want to eat here as he saw like a mirror image of the same girl in front of him.

He wanted to ask more but seeing her satisfied face, he decided to ignore the familiarity and continue on with his buisiness.

After ordering 5 bowls did she decide to thank the owner as she walked away. Half-satisfied due to not eating much, she was heading to some places of Konoha and began looking around the place to sight-see.

While she is mostly curious on some stuff the village sells or having a good attractions she could be interested in, most of her time was spent on interacting with villagers like it was a force of habit but she still showed some restraints as to not be recognize much by the villagers.

She was currently dead in the village as she didn't want people to be shocked at her rivival or something so she was mostly been acting more of a role than her usual self.

Then, she spend the rest of the day after talking to the villager and head to a place where she and Naruto would usually hang out.

"....................."

This was the forest where Naruto, Kizuna and Sasuke trained as she can still see the marking of the three of them training and fighting as a small tear was slowly dripping from one of her eyes.

While she really wanted Naruto to know that she is still alive, she was a bit afraid that he would discover the things she did and might hate her for it and...

She was actually scared.

She still kept that dream in her heart that it was still the usual Kizuna whom he recognize but there's also new changes that he might even be scared of her and she was scared to see her like that.

"....... Oh."

There, she saw the usual spot where there's still flowers all around that place and a single patch of grass where there's no plants. It was mostly the place she frequently stood by and relax as this was right on a sunlight, bathing her and the plants around her.

While she frequently had been in a dark place, she usually finds it more to be sleeping on light as she feels more safe and warm.

Jumping into the single spot, she sat down and began to relax herself as she begins to lay down and rest. She felt more at peace with Nature than with people as she slowly began to relaxed all her body and all the stress she had began to fade away.

"Hmn~"

When she felt relaxed, she wants to a hum a bit and was actually shy when people hear her hum. She doesn't like people hear her sing as she felt like she might had sung it bad and would feel embarrassed if people where to hear that.

Then on her shadow, a wolf suddenly manifested as it avoid harming the flowers and began lay down outside of the area where the flowers where.

This was the wolf Kizuna had befriended with in the past as he was always comforted her whenever she was lonely. But he slowly feels more like a comforter than a reliable ally in the couple of years due to how fast Kizuna was growing.

He just suddenly come out from her shadow as it felt more to hear her voice near her than always peeks inside the shadow.

While Kizuna was a bit shy that she had an audience, it seems that her friend wasn't uncomfortable hearing her voice as she decides to continue singing.

At first it was a simple humming, in which it slowly turns to a slow melody in which she began singing as her voice began to mix into the Nature.

The flowers all around her began to dance to the wind as she felt the peace and tranquility of the mother nature itself.

She kinda loves the world she lives in as she wanted to protect those close to her yet....

"Grampa Hokage.... Grandfather...."

Streaks of tears slowly began to pour as she slowly remembers two old men from her memory as the painful moment of her life had happened.

She likes to call the old Hokage Grampa as the old man in the past was the person who had provided care for her and Naruto all these years.

She and Naruto didn't have a family and were orphaned as Naruto was more scared than her. Yet, she also felt the lack of love as she didn't know what it felt like to have a family.

While Danzo was her real grandfather, Lord Hokage provided the love she didn't have and slowly develop the affection of family from him.

Yet...

"Someday I'll die Kizuna, by that time, would you help Naruto when i'm gone?"

It was in the past as the first time she had met the Hokage, he already knew her identity and was afraid that she might be punished for being friendly with Naruto. Yet, he began to care for the young girl and even cared for her well-being as she was helped by him.

Giving a home to sleep in and provided with necessities to live, she actually felt genuine care for the parental care she never had. So, she was mostly thankful for the Hokage and even treated him like her own father-figure.

So, the impact of his death was painful for her than Naruto who never knew that someone had been caring for him all these years. She knew more of the Hokage than him and even know that he had been watching both of them from the shadows.

So, she still favored him over Danzo. Yet, she had some sort of pain from losing his megalomaniac Grandfather.

Sure, Danzo's actions were wrong but he did it for the safety of the village, even if he was branded to be the bad guy.

He was scared that the Uchiha's were going to cause chaos upon the village and even seen the potential of harm when the 9-tails run havoc in the village in the past. So, he knew he had to eliminate them and use their eyes to the betterment of the village.

Yet, once he aquired the power, he began to thirst for the strength and even been enveloped within it.

But once Kizuna had arrived, he still had some sort of control over himself as he began to wrestle between killing her or controlling her.

This is what Kizuna had seen her grandfather in which she had hesitated at that last moment.

Danzo was just a man drunk on power but he still abide to the betterment of the village as he had to commit evil to rid of evil. Yet his methods in the end were wrong.

So, once she saw him dying, he didn't look pained or angry, he was happy and pleased that his daughter had grown up and sad that she had to kill him which would hurt her in the end.

But...

Kizuna wipes those tears away as she noticed something odd.

She slowly felt the Nature energy on her body slowly begining to mix in well with her own chakra as she wasn't overpowered but instead blended together.

The power she slowly began to feel were slowly transmitted to be quite calming yet at the same time powerful and didn't even see that her face had some sort of marks around her like it was tattooed on her face.

She was trying to feel the power in her body as all the trees began to bend to her will. Like, she was actually one with nature.

Trying on controlling the new power she had discovered, while she was still had about remembering sad memories, she was more happy and smiling, playing around the new power she holds.

The punches she began to throw began to cause wind ripples on each strikes, her other physical abilities and stamina are enhance and she even felt like her chakra became stronger than before.

This shocks her as she didn't know why this had happened as she was only resting in the forest and her abilities began to increase.

And so, she began to trained with this new phenomenon while trying not to cause any accident that might lead to a bad end as she studies this new form.

After a bit, she relaxed as she turns off that technique as she felt it would be dangerous if she messes up.

"I....was quite surpise..."

This technique she learned unexpectly was something to researched about and was about to head out when...

"K-kizuna....?"

There....

She hears the familiar voice. The voice she longs to hear.

The childhood friend whom she was hiding from these years and the boy who helped her from the darkness.

The spiky blond hair who always wishes to be the hokage and always smiles radiantly even when he had suffered all these years.

"....... N-naru....to.....?"