[FFML] [Naruto][Nanoha][Fic] Overkill, Chapter Two

[aleh at aol.com]

    Takamachi Nanoha, who was supposed to be an ordinary third
grader, had her entire life changed by a series of sudden encounters. In
one, she gained a new friend. In another, she was given a red jewel from
which she gained magical powers. Her unexpected encounters had set two
things in motion, which were slowly building in intensity: her
intertwined feelings and the beginning of a legend. As magic first began
to change her ordinary life, everything would change.

    A tale of spectacular overkill begins now.

-----------

    Overkill,

    A Naruto Fanfiction,

    By Aleh

    Chapter Two: A Simple Wish, Part Two

-----------

    Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Mahou Shoujo Lyrical
Nanoha. As Nanoha is a spinoff of Triangle Heart 3, it's worth
mentioning that I don't own ToraHa, either.

-----------

    Naruto's fist clashed with one of the antennae of a formless
creature and, for one moment, the two seemed nearly equal in power. Had
Nanoha been paying attention to the details of her friend's appearance,
she would have noticed that his eyes, normally the color of a brilliant
sapphire, had changed to a ruby shade and his pupils had turned to slits
as he poured everything he had into one desperate attack.

    Unfortunately for Naruto, however, the monster that he was
fighting had two antennae. As one of them defended against his attack
the other came around on the attack. Jabbing at him with surprising
speed, the antenna pierced through his side. As Naruto's attack suddenly
lost its force, the flagellum-like object which had been blocking his
punch whipped forward, striking the boy and once again sending him
flying into a wall. Standing in mute horror, Nanoha couldn't help but
notice the blood that flew from his wound as he was ripped off the
monster's appendage. "No!" she shouted, running to her friend's side.

    "Nanoha... chan...," Naruto panted, struggling to his knees and
using his hands to staunch the flow of blood as his friend approached
him, "... please..."

    Continuing its assault on the person who'd managed to make a
nuisance of itself, the monster followed up on its attack. It was odd,
but as the creature jumped into the air and spun Nanoha couldn't help
but notice that the whisker-like marks on her friend's face had somehow
become considerably more pronounced. Her friend's face showed nothing
but sheer determination as he struggled to continue his hopeless fight
against the /thing/ that had already managed to forever embed itself in
her nightmares despite the injuries he'd already recieved...

    ... and it was all for her sake.

    As the monster started its descent toward her friend, Nanoha
knew what she had to do. Running between her friend and the creature
that was diving towards him, Nanoha swung her staff it it. She knew that
it was probably a futile gesture, that it might not do anything, but she
also knew that she would never have forgiven herself if she hadn't
tried.

    Despite her wishes, Nanoha's gesture was rendered moot as she
felt a sudden impact push her to the side. Hitting the ground with
considerable force, Nanoha heard a sickening crunch just before the
monster landed just past where she'd been standing. As she pushed
herself off the pavement and looked back in horrified shock, Nanoha saw
that Naruto had managed to push her out of the way at the price of not
being able to evade the blow himself. His legs lay behind him in a
mangled mess as he stared at Nanoha with the same pleading gaze he'd
used earlier.

    "Ru... n..."

    Nanoha pulled herself up to her feet as the creature tried to
remove itself from under the debris. She nearly asked Naruto why he was
doing what he was pushing himself so far, why he seemed to have no care
for his own safety, when the answer came to her in a moment of sudden
realization. Naruto didn't seem to be concerned about himself because he
/wasn't/. As long as his sacrifice increased her chances of escaping
unharmed by even a single percent, her friend -- her adoptive brother --
believed that his own life was a small price to pay.

    Nanoha quickly determined that she'd have to disabuse him of
that notion... but first she'd have to deal with the creature that was
responsible for their current situation. Stepping between Naruto and the
creature, Nanoha took determined stance as she pointed her staff at the
creature.

    "Lyrical, Magical," she chanted.

    "Shooting mode," the red jewel at the center of the staff
declared in response to Nanoha's desire, "set up."

    In an instant the circle of metal surrounding the red jewel
reformed into a vaguely rifle-like structure composed of twin prongs
extending from a semi-circular base as the staff's length extended.
Three wings of light appeared from the base of the structure as several
ribbon-like pink circles surrounded the weapon's length.

    "Divine Buster," the magical object stated.

    With that, a beam of pink energy lanced from the jewel, smashing
through the center of the creature and continuing through the walls of a
neighboring building. The creature simply blew up, sending bits of
itself flying with enough force to dent concrete. A nearby telephone
pole fell over as several shards of the creature struck near its base,
barely missing the ferret as it ran towards Nanoha.

    "Protection," the lance-like staff continued as a shield of
energy formed in front of Nanoha, blocking the shrapnel.

    Wiping some sweat off her forehead as she sighed in relief,
Nanoha turned toward her friend. Naruto had passed out at some point,
lying in a pool of his own blood. Nanoha wasn't an expert in such
things, but the steady rise and fall of his chest reassured her. The
rate at which the exit wound on his back was still bleeding, however,
did not... nor did the way in which the puddle of blood was continuing
to grow.

    Nanoha's attention was torn from Naruto's mangled form when the
ferret that had been looking at the scene in a mix of horror and awe
suddenly shouted. "Watch out!"

    Spinning around, Nanoha once again held out her staff. A shield
of energy once again appeared, blocking the antennae of the creature
that Nanoha had just blasted to bits. Staring at the sight, Nanoha
noticed that the monster was literally pulling itself together,
water-like pseudopods helping it to literally gather itself together as
it prepared to attack another time.

    "Eeeehhh?" Nanoha shouted. "What should I do?"

    "You need to seal it," the ferret told her. "If you attack and
seal it correctly, it should change back into a Jewel Seed!"

    "Lyrical, Magical," Nanoha chanted. "Jewel Seed, seal!"

    "Sealing Mode, set up," Nanoha's staff stated, returning to its
previous shape before the head of the staff extended somewhat and three
wings of light formed a narrow Y-shape. As Nanoha swung her staff at the
nearly-reformed creature, several pink ribbons of light extended from
the head of the staff and wrapped around the monster, binding it in
place. The Roman numeral "XXI" appeared on the creature's head as the
magical weapon again spoke up. "Stand by, ready."

    "Lyrical, Magical," Nanoha continued, "Jewel Seed Serial
Twenty-One. Seal!"

    "Sealing," the red sphere replied. With that, the monster
dissolved into a small, diamond-shaped stone.

    "Touch it with Raising Heart," the transformed animal that had
been giving Nanoha instructions encouraged.

    Tired and worried, Nanoha approached the stone and held out her
staff. The Jewel Seed rose into the air and flew towards the center of
her staff's headpiece. As it made contact with the center, the Jewel
Seed disappeared into the red centerpiece with a small ripple of energy.
"Reciept Number Twenty-One," Raising Heart confirmed.

    And, like that, it was over. Nanoha's clothes were surrounded by
a pink glow, vanishing and being replaced with her earlier casual
outfit. Raising Heart changed back into a marble and fell into Nanoha's
palm. The strange fog vanished, leaving Nanoha standing in the middle of
a scene of total devistation. "It's gone?" Nanoha asked.

    "Yes," the ferret agreed. "Thanks to you. Thank you..." And with
that the ferret passed out, the sounds of approaching sirens serving to
highlight the sound of Nanoha crying over her friend's broken form as
she tried in vain to staunch his bleeding.

-----------

    On the way to the Uminari University Hospital, Takamachi Kyouya
stared out the window of the car as he thought about the events of the
past few hours. When his mother had checked on Naruto and found that he
wasn't in his room, he hadn't been too worried. When they had gone to
ask Nanoha if she knew where he was, only to find her missing as well,
they had started looking for them.

    It hadn't been either Nanoha or Naruto's fault that they didn't
know better -- his parents had done their best to shield the two of them
from the harsher realities of the situation. But... Kyouya could only
think of one reason why the Imperial family would ask Takamachi-ke to
take in the boy instead of another family.

    Kyouya didn't doubt for a moment that his family had been told
the truth when they were told that Naruto needed people to teach him
what it was like to be a member of a true family, to teach him the
meaning of friendship, and to help him recover from the rather horrific
abuses he'd already suffered in his short life. He knew from experience
that Naruto wasn't even aware of most of those abuses, either... the boy
hadn't even been aware that his true clan name was Namikaze. Even with
the Takamachi family's efforts Naruto still didn't know so much as his
father's /name/... and didn't understand just why that was a big deal.

    And then there were the signs that Naruto had been /Ignored/...
the horrific state of his training...

    To think that a member of the Imperial family had been treated
worse than most /burakumin/... and all for what? Some sadistic attempt
to create a super-weapon? But even /that/ had been sabotaged... and in
the worst possible way for Naruto.

    For generations Kyouya's family had been among the most skilled
bodyguards and assassins in Japan. Until he had retired to run the
Midoriya with his wife, Kyouya's father had been no exception. The
family's style, the Mikami Fuwa Ryuu, was considered to be one of the
deadliest in Japan. It was said that to a person who'd mastered the
Mikami Fuwa Ryuu's highest technique, Sen, everything before him dropped
to zero... time, distance, and even the user's own fears. While Kyouya
was aware that there was more than a bit of poetic license involved with
that description, the simple fact of the matter was that his father had
once been confronted with a hostage situation in which a rather sadistic
serial killer was holding a gun to the head of a family friend. When the
killer's finger had started to move, Shiro had reacted, drawn his
sword... and sliced the man's hand off before he could pull the trigger.
Shiro had been standing nearly fifty meters away at the time.

    Kyouya's mother had been nearly as deadly.

    There were many loving families that could teach Naruto about
such things. Many of them were martial arts families that could deal
with the issues that Naruto's training and abilities produced.

    None of them could offer Naruto the level of protection that the
Takamachis could. Even the waitresses at the Midoriya were dan-level
martial artists... and they'd taken to putting aside their constant
fights in favor of a not-so-subtle competition over who could more
thoroughly mother Naruto during his visits to the shop.

    In other words, Naruto being sent to their family meant that
Naruto needed protection. Coupled with what Kyouya knew about Naruto's
history, this lead him to one inescapable conclusion: the utter, total
/bastards/ responsible for what had happened to Naruto before the boy
came to live with their family were still out there.

    Kyouya understood why his parents didn't want to tell Nanoha
everything. That didn't mean that he liked their choice.

    When Naruto and Nanoha had turned up missing, Kyouya had felt
that something was wrong. He had intellectually known that it was
probably nothing... but given what /could/ have happened....

    Then came the explosions, the sounds of things falling in the
distance... and the frantic phone call from his mother, letting him know
that Uminari's police chief had come to their house -- personally! -- to
tell them that Naruto and Nanoha had been taken to the hospital....

    On the bright side, even if it was a small one, Nanoha was
apparently uninjured. The police simply hadn't had the heart to tear her
away from Naruto's broken form as she cried about how he'd gotten hurt
that badly /trying to protect her/.

    When he'd heard that little part, Kyouya had instantly decided
to start his little brother's training in the Mikami Fuwa style as soon
as Naruto recovered.

    And he /would/ recover, even if his family had to call in every
single one of the favors they'd accumulated over the years to ensure it.

-----------

    Takamachi Shiro was not in a good mood. When the chaos had
started Shiro had run towards the noise. Even with his conditioning he
hadn't made it before the end, but what he had seen...

    The craters were bad enough. The downed telephone pole, the tree
that had been snapped in two, the cracks in the walls... he'd seen worse
damage, although the two-story building that had been destroyd was
rather spectacular. It was more so considering that Shiro's trained eye
couldn't see any signs of explosives... and /could/ tell that the
building had been hit with some form of directed force.

    No, what had really disturbed Shiro was the blood.

    It wasn't that Shiro hadn't seen plenty of blood in his life.
But... coming across a scene like that, just in time to see the
ambulance speed off...

    Even if Shiro hadn't been searching for his daughter and one of
her friends -- who happened to be /his charge/ -- it would have been
burned into his memory. Since he was doing precisely that, the blood
took on an extremely ominous quality.

    There were times when the experience Shiro had gained as a
professional bodyguard were a curse as well as a blessing. As he took in
the scene Shiro couldn't keep his mind from analyzing the sight, trying
to reconstruct what had happened. To his trained eye, the site
practically screamed of a desperate battle against a far superior
opponent, of sheer determination of a sort that he'd only seen a handful
of times in the past.

    The fact that times he'd seen such a show had almost always
ended with either a rescue or the death of the person giving it did
absolutely nothing to reassure him.

    Shiro was no stranger to losing members of his family. What had
happened to the Fuwa clan ensured that. His familiarity, however, only
served to further his sense of dread.

    When one of the police officers swarming the scene noticed him
and ran up to him, greeting him by name, Shiro's mood had quickly gotten
a whole lot worse as his fears were confirmed. It got somewhat better
with the confirmation that Nanoha was fine, but...

    Shiro had done his best to protect his youngest daughter's
innocence. He knew that Kyouya's had been forever shattered with Albert
Crystela's death, when the so-called Crazy Bomber had tricked one of
Kyouya's friends into giving a teddy-bear that had been packed with
explosives to Shiro's client. It had been a miracle that Shiro had
survived. Given the strength of the blast and how close Shiro had been
to it... he shouldn't have.

    Shiro had been in the hospital for months after that, and he saw
how comforting Albert's daughter, Fiasse, had changed Miyuki. He had
retired to start the Midoriya shortly afterwards.

    Hearing the officer tell him about what they'd found, about how
Nanoha had been crying over Naruto's broken form, had brought back a
number of unpleasant memories.

    Hearing what Nanoha had been saying, however, made Shiro come to
a decision.

    "Uncle Shiro" wouldn't do. "Dad" sounded much better.

-----------

    Takamachi Momoko walked through the emergency room at Uminari
University Hospital with a graceful but determined gait. Tracking her
husband by the sound of his heartbeat, she unerringly found his location
and made her way towards him.

    "Situation?"

    Shiro instantly recognized the short form that his wife was
using. "Attack. Assailants unknown. Objective unknown. Nanoha unhurt.
Naruto..." Shiro trailed off, feeling that their shorthand for situation
reports on the field just wasn't appropriate for the next part.
"Naruto-kun protected her. Nanoha's refusing to leave his side."

    "Injuries?"

    "Severe."

    "Recovery?"

    "Unknown. Waiting for a report."

    "Doctor?"

    "Ishida-sensei."

    Momoko nearly sighed in relief. While Ishida-sensei was best
known as the head of the hospital's neurology department, the woman had
made a career of treating unusual problems, especially ones that needed
to be handled with... discretion.

    Which was, admittedly, just a polite way of saying that
Ishida-sensei drew a second paycheck from the JSDF. She was also one of
the few people in Uminari that had a higher security clearance than
Momoko herself did.

    Considering that Momoko had once been the head of the JSDF's
Ground Staff Office's secretary, that was saying something... although
not as much as it could have since Momoko had left that job shortly
before she married Shiro.

    "Do you think it was Konoha?" Miyuki asked, having caught up
with her mother.

    Shiro shook his head. "I'd have thought that, but the fight
started at a vet's office. Nanoha apparently insisted on bringing a
ferret with her, too."

    Kyouya decided to ask a question at that. "So you think it's the
ferret-changeling's fault?"

    "Nanoha was concerned for it." Shiro sighed, seeming far older
than he actually was in that moment. "We'll just have to wait and see."

    "Where's the ferret now?" Momoko firmly inquired.

    "Unconscious. The police told me that Nanoha wouldn't let it go
after the paramedics took over treating Naruto-kun. They're letting her
keep it for now."

    Miyuki's eyes widened. "Isn't that against hospital policy?"

    "Yeah," Kyouya confirmed, "but they probably made an exception."

    "But..."

    Momoko shook her head. She'd phoned a few of her contacts after
dinner to ask them about ferret-related black-ops projects. The
reactions had been... interesting... but while it was /possible/ that
the police and hospital staff had simply wanted to keep Nanoha
relatively calm and out of the way, it was far more likely that the
questions had made the rounds.

    At that point a blue-haired woman walked into the waiting room
and approached Momoko. "Ah, Momoko-san! It's been a while!"

    What followed was ostensibly a pair of old friends catching up
with each other and reminiscing about old times. Anyone who was familiar
with the codes used by JSDF intelligence agents would have been able to
tell that the actual subject matter was quite different.

    As Ishida-sensei catalogued Naruto's injuries one thought raced
through Momoko's head. "What have my children gotten themselves cought
up in?"

-----------

    Takamachi Miyuki wanted to break something. Whoever or whatever
was responsible for her new little brother's injuries would be ideal,
but she'd settle for a convenient inanimate object. Really, talking
about recipes for /cookies/ at a time like /this/?

    Just as she was about to voice her indignation, however, Kyouya
pointedly grabbed her shoulder and shook his head. Taking the hint,
Miyuki stopped and waited for the rather odd conversation to end. When
her mother politely said her goodbyes and led the family through the
hospital, stoppping at a rather nondescript door, Miyuki couldn't help
but wonder what was going on.

    Then her mother opened the door and ushered her family in.
Everything suddenly made sense to Miyuki, although she had to wonder
where her mother had learned whatever code she'd been using in her
conversation.

    The room was every bit as nondescript as the door had been, a
perfectly ordinary hospital room... if you disregarded two details:
first, the fact that Naruto was lying on the bed, heavily bandaged and
hooked to a rather staggering array of medical equipment and, second,
the fact that Nanoha was sitting next to him, resting her head on his
chest. Miyuki frowned as she realized that her sister had literally
cried herself to sleep.

    "We're clear," Momoko reported to her husband, causing Miyuki to
realize that her mother had actually /checked the room for bugs/. Miyuki
would have expected her father to be able to do something like that, but
her /mother/?

    Kyouya chuckled at the expression on his sister's face. "You
were never told what Uncle Hiroshi does for a living, were you?"

    Miyuki blinked, remembering her mother's somewhat goofy,
fun-loving older brother and wondering what he had to do with anything.

    "He's the JSDF's chief intelligence officer," Kyouya explained.

    Mayuki shook her head as she tried to reconcile two very
different mental images of her mother's family. She'd known that her
mother had come from an old samurai clan, of course, but...

    Miyuki then thought of the only other member of her father's
family that she could really remember and a lot of things started to
make sense.

    In Hong Kong, Mikami Misato sneezed.

    "So," Kyouya asked Momoko, "Naruto-kun's injuries?"

    "They're... extensive," Momoko admitted. "He suffered pretty
extensive bruising across most of his body, four cracked ribs, and two
opposing puncture wounds to his abdomen; if either of them had been even
a millimeter deeper, they would have  punctured his lungs. His legs...
there were at least sixteen separate fractures, several of which were
compound and most of which were both complete and multi-fragmented."

    Kyouya and Miyuki winced. Shiro's frown deepened considerably.

    "The interesting part," Momoko continued, "is that they actually
had to re-break several of the bones in order to set them properly."

    "Naruto's healing is that fast?" Shiro asked.

    "Apparently," Momoko replied, "but there was also some sort of
corrosive toxin in Naruto-kun's system. Either he was poisoned or his
healing ability has a rather strong drawback."

    "Corrosive toxin?" Kyouya inquired.

    "One strong enough to eat through the sutures that Ishida-sensei
tried to use. She took a sample of his blood in for a discreet analysis;
we should have the results in a day or two."

    Shiro nodded. "A JSDF lab?"

    "They have the facilities in the hospital, actually.
Ishida-sensei is going to do the work herself."

    "Good."

    As the conversation continued, Miyuki found herself increasingly
confused. She payed close attention anyway. It was /her brother/ that
they were talking about, after all.

-----------

    When Naruto regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed
was the absence of pain. From what he could remember of what had
happened, he expected to be in quite a bit of it. Then again, he hadn't
really expected to wake up in the first place. Wondering if he was in
the afterlife, he stirred slightly and opened his eyes.

    An object on his chest shook somewhat as his vision was flooded
with light. A weight that Naruto hadn't noticed disappeared from his
chest as his movement disturbed it. Naruto tried to speak, but only
managed to make a croaking sound.

    "Mom, Dad!"

    "Miyuki-neesan?" Naruto thought, trying to bring his eyes into
focus. As his vision cleared, he found his sight filled by his first
friend's concerned gaze. "Na... noha... chan?" he hoarsely murmured.

    Nanoha's eyes teared up. "Naruto, you /idiot/!" she yelled at
him. "/Never/ do that again!" With that, her furor dissipated and she
broke down crying as she again rested her head on his chest. "I thought
I'd lost you," she explained between sobs. "I thought I'd lost you..."

    Not really knowing what to do, Naruto tried to raise a hand to
comfort his friend but quickly found that his arm wouldn't respond.
"I... didn't... want to... lose you... either...," he managed to
whisper.

    "Idiot," Nanoha softly answered. "What do you think would have
happened if you'd died? Wouldn't that have been losing me every bit as
much as if I'd been the one to..." She broke off at that and started
crying again before she managed to get one last request out through her
sobs. "So... please... please don't do that again..."

    Naruto finally managed to lift his arm. Wrapping it around his
friend's back, he held her as closely as he could. He didn't know what
to say, so he just gave her what comfort he could.

    He knew, after all, that he wouldn't hesitate to make the same
choice again.

    Silently watching the scene, the remaining members of the
Takamachi family stood back and watched, knowing that it wasn't their
place to interfere.

-----------

    An hour later Nanoha had fallen asleep and Naruto's throat felt
considerably better. After hearing the story and asking some rather
pointed questions, the Takamichis were satisfied that they knew as much
as they could find out before the ferret regained consciousness.
Exhausted from the night's events, Nanoha had collapsed shortly after,
and Shiro, Miyuki, and Kyouya had excused themselves.

    "Naruto-kun," Momoko asked after checking to make sure that
Nanoha really was asleep, "do you understand why Nanoha was so upset?"

    Naruto blinked, wondering what she meant.

    Seeing the confusion on her son's face, Momoko gently shook her
head. "Nanoha is important to you, isn't she?"

    "Yeah," Naruto quietly agreed, carefully keeping his voice down
in order to not wake the girl who was resting her head against his side.

    "That's part of being someone's friend," Momoko explained.
"Friends are precious, something that you treasure... but, Naruto-kun,
that goes both ways. A true friend treasures you just as you treasure
them."

    The blonde-haired boy could only blink and gaze at his friend.
Even sleeping in the awkward posture that she'd taken, sitting in the
chair by his bed as she rested her head against him, she seemed to take
comfort in the steady rise and fall of his chest.

    "Nanoha truly regards you as a friend, Naruto-kun," Momoko
continued. "Just as she is important to you, you are important to her.
Just as you don't want to see her hurt, she doesn't want to see you like
this. Just as you don't want to lose her, she doesn't want to lose you."
Momoko smiled. "None of the rest of us want to see you hurt either... so
don't be too reckless, okay?"

    Naruto's eyes widened as he took that in. "Mom," he whispered,
overwhelmed by emotion as he started to understand what Momoko meant.

    "That said," Momoko complemented, "I'm very proud of what you
did tonight. What you did was truly worthy of the highest ideals of the
Takamachi family." Momoko frowned in concern. "I just wish you hadn't
gotten so hurt doing it."

    "I'm alright," Naruto encouraged her. "You'll see -- I'll be out
of here in no time."

    Knowing that Naruto had continued fighting despite a /punctured
lung/, that what had happened to Naruto's legs was something that most
people would /never/ recover from, and that the poison in his system was
strong enough to literally eat through surgical sutures, Momoko teared
up. "My poor boy... my poor, brave little boy..."

    And, like that, Naruto had one more female Takamachi to
awkwardly comfort. It didn't last long, but Naruto treasured the moment
all the same as he resolved to do his best to ensure that there would
never be a repeat.

    "Naruto-kun," Momoko asked after she'd straightened up and wiped
her tears away, "do you know why our family's sword style is called the
Mikami Fuwa even though our name is Takamachi?"

    Naruto was rather nonplussed by that, entirely missing what
Momoko had /really/ said. "No," he admitted, "I don't."

    "The Fuwa were a well-established samurai clan with a history
stretching back over eight hundred years," Momoko told him. "For
generations, the Fuwa clan produced some of Japan's most skilled
bodyguards, sharing a sword style with another warrior clan, the
Mikami."

    "The Mikami Fuwa style?"

    "Yes. It is from those two clans that the Mikami Fuwa style
takes its name." Momoko's habitual smile took on a rather sad quality as
she continued. "When I first met Shiro, his family name was Fuwa."

    Naruto briefly started before forcing himself to calm down, not
wanting to disturb Nanoha's peaceful slumber.

    "Somewhat over nine years ago, when I was pregnant with Nanoha,
there was a large reunion of the Mikami and Fuwa families. We were on
our way to attend when I went into labor." Momoko's smile died as she
looked at Naruto. "It was the only reason why we survived. A terrorist
organization bombed the meeting."

    Naruto stared in horror. "Everyone..."

    Momoko shook her head. "There was one survivor... after we
arrived at the hospital, Shiro called ahead to tell everyone what had
happened. Shiro's sister, Misato, decided to join us. She was leaving
the building when the bomb went off."

    "She was the only one who survived?"

    "Yes. After that... Shiro and I went into hiding, changing our
name to Takamachi."

    Naruto frowned. "Why... didn't you want to go after the people
who..."

    Momoko sadly smiled. "Of course we wanted to... but we had
Kyouya, Miyuki, and Nanoha to think about. Before all else, a Fuwa
swordsman protected those that they cared about, those that were
precious to them, and that didn't change when we became the Takamachi."
Momoko paused, taking a moment to clasp Naruto's free hand. "The stories
always tell of people dying to protect those precious to them, but
sometimes, to protect the people you care for, you need to /live/.
Naruto-kun, please remember that."

    Overcome with emotion, Naruto felt tears welling up in his eyes.
"Yes," Naruto promised, smiling as he nodded. "I will."

    "Good," Momoko told him as her smile returned to normal. "I'm
relieved." After pausing for a moment to let Naruto take in what she'd
said, Momoko released Naruto's hand. "By the way," she commented,
"Kyouya wanted to talk to you about something... but that can wait until
the morning. For now, just sleep. The rest will help you recover."

    Momoko moved to walk out. As she opened the door and started to
step through, however, a small fox ran between her legs. "Oh my," she
exclaimed as the fox ran past her and made a beeline for Naruto.
"Kuon-chan, what are you doing here?"

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    A.N.: Yes, I'm using ToraHa to fill in the details. Be afraid.
Be very afraid.

    And yes, Mikami Misato has a certain job. If you think /that's/
bad... wait until you see how I flesh out Alisa and Suzuka. :-)