And The Pain Ends

Taku saw a younger version of herself sitting in the middle of the woods eyes closed. She just sat there cross legged as if she were searching inside herself for something. The younger Taku then spoke up, "Ok, daddy you are in the third tree that way." her finger pointed instantly and she saw a man jump from the tree laughing. He looked young and happy, with blonde spiky hair. "Now mommy your in the first tree top branch right over there." Her small finger pointed again and a beautiful woman, with dark blue hair and violet eyes, jumped from the top branch of the tree the younger Taku had pointed at. Both adults laughed and Taku’s mini me stood up screaming happily, "I did it! I did it mommy aren’t your proud!" The man then handed her a kunai.

"My dear sweet daughter do you know what this is?" The little girl looked the weapon over and saw the seal drawn on it. She smiled as wide as she could knowing her daddy couldn’t trick her.
"This my dear father is just a normal Kunai. Not the kind you use in your Shunsin no Justus (to those of us who don’t know Japanese its body flicker) See daddy the seal isn’t complete on this one its missing pieces."

The man laughed again, "That’s correct my little Takumari. You know you are very smart for your age but the true question is can you complete the seal?" Taku saw the younger version of herself take out some paint from her bag. She finished off the seal and Taku looked down at it memorizing every detail. "Very good my child. Now can you tell me if you have learned your mothers techniques yet?" The little girl smiled and did some hand signs then said sokimi no Justus (for everyone out there I made this up because I don’t have any idea how to speak Japanese other than a few words) Suddenly, storm clouds filled the sky and a shot of lighting shot down to the ground in front of herr younger self as the wind picked up. It was like the world around her had just went completely insane. "Great job kiddo your just as good as your mother at that."

"Alright Takumari, my sweet daughter, and Yondaime, my loving husband, its time to go home for lunch." It was the woman who spoke. The woman who looked so much like herself it was kind of scary. The younger Taku walked up to her and took her hand in one and the man called Yondaime’s hand in the other. They almost looked like a happy family but it seemed there was still something missing.

"Mommy, why did you name me Takumari? Daddy when are you going to teach me the Rasengan?" Yet again they laughed.

Her mother started and answered for them both, "You were named after your great grandmother just like I was named after my great grandmother Hitomi. As for your father teaching you that very dangerous move," She turned to glare at the man she had just called your father, "He better not even try teaching you that until you are accepted into the chunin exams because I will not have you learning such a dangerous technique until your ready and will need to use it."

The younger version of Taku looked down and pouted, "Oh man I was hoping you would give in this time mommy. I still love you anyway though. Lets have Ramen for lunch! Please?" The seemingly happy family walked of into the distance hand in hand very happy indeed. Soon the figures faded from Taku’s vision and the scenery soon followed leaving her in darkness. She slowly woke up in Chouji’s arms. Taku lay there going over every detail of the dream in her mind not wanting to forget a single thing. The version of her in that dream seemed to be about seven or eight and already able to master something like controlling a weather Justus. Taku started thinking about her dream last night. Could this have been what her life was supposed to be, instead of having an abusive step father? The biggest question in her mind though was, if she had lived that life the one she was meant to have would she still have ended up with Chouji? She thought about that question and decided if she wouldn’t have fallen in love with Chouji after living that life she was happy she was sent somewhere else. Even having loving parents like that wouldn’t come close to the love she felt with Chouji. Taku slipped silently out of his arms and walked to her room where she got out the notebook she would now be considering her dream journal. Taku wrote down every single detail of the dream and even drew a picture of the seal she saw on the Kunai. She also wrote down the Justus she had saw her younger self perform wondering if the dream was real. If her dream was real then obviously this Justus would work. Taku would just have to try it out on the next training day.

She walked downstairs to make breakfast. Taku looked through the fridge and decided to make cinnamon apple pancakes. She grabbed all the ingredients and started baking the cinnamon apples. Taku started on the pancake batter too. When the apples were done She chopped them up and threw them into the batter adding a little extra cinnamon in the batter. She then started to fry them on the griddle. Upstairs the smell of the frying pancakes reached Chouji awakening him. He lay in bed thinking, ' what did I do to deserve such a wonderful person in my life.' He then got up and met said person downstairs. "Good morning my love," he said coming behind her and putting his strong arms around her waist.

"Morning Chouji dear. Why don’t you set the table and get out some toppings and pour us some milk. I almost have these finished." He did as he was told and they both sat down to the wonderful breakfast she had made. "I was thinking Chouji why don’t I make a roast for tonight and we can invite everyone over for a party since tonight is Gaara and Temari’s last night in town. What do you think good idea or bad?" He looked at Taku and finished chewing his food before answering.

"I think that is a wonderful idea." After breakfast Taku got out a huge crock pot and put the roast in. She then started to peel and cut carrots and potatoes to put in it. After half an hour of peeling and cutting she put the vegetables in. Finishing off she cut a few slices of onion and put them on top adding flavoring to the dish but in a good place to pick them out in the end. Then she went to the phone and dialed Gaara and Temari’s number at the hotel. It rang three times before Gaara picked up asking what this was about. "Hey Gaara, this is Taku, since this is your last night in town me and Chouji thought it might be a good idea if you guys came over for a party tonight."

"Yea we are definitely in, but anyway did you hear about what happened last night?" After he heard her confused denial he continued, "Someone blew up a shack outside town last night it was old and abandoned so nobody got hurt but it definitely caused a commotion exploding at eleven at night." From the other line Gaara heard her giggles.

"Don’t you understand Gaara? It was Mitsumi. She is the only person who celebrates other countries holidays and yesterday was England’s Guy Fawkes day. It is a holiday about a guy who tried to overthrow the British government by blowing up the parliament building and the king. Most people who celebrate that holiday now just have to blow something up on November the fifth." They both had a good laugh at her absolutely correct assumption. Next Taku called Mitsumi congratulating her on her accomplishment and then finished off by calling everyone else they were inviting that night. After that was done she walked to the living room to tell Chouji the Guy Fawkes day story. Taku finished with, "Of course most people only blow up a can or soda bottle or something. Very few I have heard of ever blow up an actual building." Taku began laughing again and buried her head into Chouji’s shoulder. She could feel his body shaking with a laugh as well. Suddenly, all the laughing stopped and she looked up into his beautiful eyes. They leaned in and she kissed him he licked her lips asking for entrance and she allowed it. They both explored the insides of the others mouth for the first time. Taku felt as if fireworks were going off in her head. It was wonderful, magical, everything she thought it would be. Chouji then started to kiss the side of her lips then moved to her cheek and jawbone then finally headed down the line of her jaw trailing kisses onto her neck. Once he got there he kissed sucked a little and lightly nipped her neck making her moan in response. Taku had never been kissed like this before and she was in heaven. While she and Chouji were giving each other hickeys, The beginnings of a rainstorm came from the outside.
The rain began to patter out a special tune that only it could. Inside the house though Taku and Chouji were completely oblivious to everything outside.

The window began to look like the inside of a waterfall and finally something interrupted the best make out session Taku had ever had in her entire life. A streak of lightning illuminated the entire sky for just a second the now darkened sky and was followed by an extremely loud bang of thunder that startled her to say the least. Taku let out a small scream and jumped into Chouji’s lap from her place beside him on the couch. Soon the windows stopped rattling from the power of the boom. After a few minutes they both realized what had happened and they began laughing. "You know Chouji," Taku said between bursts of laughter, "They say that laughing is the best medicine. It also is the second best for of exercise. Therefore since coming here I have become more powerful and healthier." The laughter in the room didn’t die down for a very long time.

Finally, when the last traces of laughter were gone from her lungs she stood up and walked to the fridge. "Hey Chouji how about some turkey and cheese melts for lunch?" He agreed and she began to cook while he set up the living room for their party that night by moving out all the furniture accept the sound system for music. Meanwhile in the kitchen, Taku grabbed the bread and threw it in the toaster making three sandwiches for Chouji and one for herself. Taku reached up into the cabinet and pulled out some potatoes flour and some seasonings. She cut the potatoes in wedges. After the bread was toasted she threw on the turkey and a few pieces of Swiss cheese then put them in the oven she had already pre heated to 350 degrees. Taku took the potato wedges she had cut and covered them in a mixture of the flour and seasonings she had grabbed. After finishing this she put them in a pan with heated oil. Taku fried up the potato wedges and pulled the sandwiches out of the oven when the meat was heated and the cheese was melted. She then grabbed some ketchup from the fridge and threw everything on the table.

Chouji walked in tired from his work and looked at the table smiling. "Wow, Taku you never cease to amaze me with your cooking skills. You turned a normal snack into a full blown meal." She smiled at him and told him to dig in which he did with gusto. His first bite of the potato wedge had him sitting there with his eyes closed and smiling while slowly chewing which is very odd for Chouji. "I think I have found a brand new favorite food. These are so delicious. Forget potato chips I want to carry these around all the time." This comment of course elicited a new round of laughter. After the two of them were finished eating she checked on the roast, which was slowly cooking to perfection, then she decided to decorate the house for tonight. Taku went up to the attic and found some stringed lights and brought then down she used the string lights to decorate the walls and then she ran out to the store. There she bought a few more CDs, a strobe light, and some streamers along with a large poster board and paint. When she reached home she handed Chouji the streamers, CDs and strobe light. Taku explained to him to put them up but to leave the space on the wall right across the room from the door completely unobstructed. "Why do you want me to leave it so they can see it Taku?"

"Just trust me Chouji," she said, "I have a special surprise for that space." She then grabbed up the photo album she was keeping all the pictures of the couples in, and ran up to her room locking the door and pulling the curtain closed. Taku then pulled out two of the pictures mixed her paints and put on a large t-shirt she didn’t mind ruining, she ran her hand over the brushes she had picked up and chose a rather large one. Slowly, the brush she picked out had laid a base on the canvas and she picked up a small more detail oriented brush. (Yes, I know painting normally takes longer than this but you picked up quick drying paint plus its my story and I can do whatever I wish muahahaha.) Taku began working on very small details her brush making short quick strokes and she used her own knack for accuracy and the ninja speed to quickly finish this. Three hours later the photos had been copied off to the canvas. The picture of Temari and Shikamaru was in the bottom left hand corner (from your perspective.) And the picture of Gaara and Mitsumi was in the bottom right hand corner. The picture of Temari and Shikamaru had them sitting in a field Temari between his legs both stretched out and his arms around her waist. The picture of Gaara and Mitsumi was a different one where they were in the middle of the kiss on her door step. Taku then began working on the words that would reside above the paintings she so painstakingly did. The poster soon said in red lettering with a black outline, "Gaara and Temari return soon we will all miss you!" Taku realized it was an hour before the party time so she ran downstairs with it and hung it up.

Before she could run back up the stairs to get ready for the party Chouji saw the masterpiece she had created. "Oh Taku, I had no idea you could paint like this. Its amazing everyone will absolutely love it. Oh crap its an hour to arrival time. Come on girl lets go get dressed." He said this as he walked up and kissed her again. They both hurried and got dressed. Then she ran back downstairs and set the table serving out the roast that had been slow cooking all day. Taku noticed that while she was hard at work on her painting Chouji had made a wonderful cake that said about the same thing her poster did. Taku giggled and thought to herself, 'great minds think alike.' Soon everyone started to arrive and after they had admired Taku’s poster she ushered them into the kitchen for the food. The two couples were the last to arrive and after seeing her amazing painting both girls ran up and hugged Taku thanking her profusely for such a kind gesture. Taku just smiled and ushered them all into the kitchen to share the meal. Afterwards they all had a piece of cake and went to the living room to play games until her digestion systems had time to recover.

"Ok we are going to play truth or dare with a twist you put every bodies name in a hat and mixed them up. We will draw a name and that person will be the one we ask truth or dare. If you draw your own name you put it back and we will play until everyone gets asked at least twice putting the names back in after everyone has had a turn ok?" They all agreed and the game began with Temari.
She pulled a name out of the hat and ended up getting Naruto’s name. "Okay Naruto truth or dare?" He picked dare and Temari thought about it for a while, "I dare you to go into that closet with Hinata for seven minutes." Both Naruto and Hinata blushed and walked to the closet and closed the door. Everyone then got up to listen through the shut door. It was all quite at first but soon enough everyone heard Hinata’s small voice gasp and begin to moan. That was enough for everyone and they sat back down before calling time on the two in the closet. They both came out clothes rumpled and a tell tale red mark on Hinata’s neck. The game continued on like this for an hour. (I just thought I should put that part in because Hinata is so shy and deserves some pleasure now and then. We just have to push Naruto a bit to get it.) When they had finished the game they went over and turned on the strobe light, sound system, and the string lights while turning off the one that actually illuminated the room. The dancing began at seven and the next five hours were spent dancing barely being able to see and all the couples ended up in a corner making out at least once. At midnight though there was a Knock on the door. It was the neighbors telling them to keep it down. That kind of ruined the mood of the party so everyone thanked Taku and Chouji and left Taku let Temari and Gaara keep the poster since they were leaving early in the morning.

Taku and Chouji decided to leave the cleanup until tomorrow. They both took a quick warm shower and got changed her braids had been in this whole time and she planned to leave them in again tomorrow so the next day her hair would look like it had more volume. She threw on one of Chouji’s t-shirts not really wanting to go back to the mess that was her room get her pajamas. Taku cuddled up to him again face to face and began kissing him. Half an hour later They were both asleep snuggled in each others arms. 'Such a wonderful day.' she thought, 'I wonder what my dreams have in mind for me tonight though.' With that she fell asleep and once again joined Yondaime in her dreams.