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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.



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Overkill,



A Naruto Fanfiction,



By Aleh



Chapter Two: A Simple Wish, Part Two



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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.



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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 abrilliant 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 asingle 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 ascene 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.



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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.



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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.



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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 awhile!"



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?"



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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 arather 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, aFuwa 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?"



-----------



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



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. :-)



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.



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Overkill,



A Naruto Fanfiction,



By Aleh



Chapter Two: A Simple Wish, Part Two



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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.



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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 abrilliant 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 asingle 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 ascene 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 a long time after that, and he saw how comforting Albert's daughter, Fiasse, had changed Miyuki. He had retired and started working at full-time at 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 awhile!"



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 arepeat.



"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 arather 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, aFuwa 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?"



-----------



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



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. :-)