Ryo: Naruto's Older Brother | BOOK I

Chapter 27: Festival of Falling >Part I<

Pre-Kyuubi Fact~
Ryo used to love ramen, he would eat it every week with his mom. However after her death, he could never look at ramen the same way. Hence he started avoiding it like the plague.

2 weeks, 4 days later:
Ryo's POV:

"The festival of... What?" Naruto questioned.

"The festival of passing dear brother of mine!" I replied happily. "It's one of Konoha's smaller festivals, but personally it was me and mom's favorite." Naruto paused for a minute, before falling back into step with me.

"And we are going to it... Tonight." He curiosity asked.

I sighed. "That is what I just told you, didn't I? That is, after training."

We both fell silent after that. Which I guess is reasonable, It was 5o'clock in the morning. This time of year was always my favorite. Chunin exams, festivals, and cool weather, so what better then to share it with my little bro? Exactly!

We finally reached training ground 56, which seemed to be our preferred area of training. We silently set up. I brought the targets, and Naruto started training. Naruto continued training with endurance and shadow clones, while I wrote up some seals to use for later accessions.

All in all, we both ended up doing our own thing until lunch came around. That's when an interesting topic of conversation came up..

>lunch time~

I sat under large oak tree on the left side of training ground 56, surprisingly quietly, eating my rice balls.  I silently watched Naruto throw targets at the beat up target I had brought. The rhythmic 'thunk' and 'clinks' almost lured me to sleep. I was so unfocused, that I didn't realize that the 'thunks' and 'clinks' had ceased and footsteps were heading towards me. I didn't even realize my Brother was standing there until he spoke up.

"So Ryo-" he started. I jumped and spun to look at him.

"Dear kami! When the hell did you get there?" He sweatdropped.

"I was always here... Pay more attention next time, sheesh." He pouted.

"Ahah, uh, sorry didn't hear you walk up. I was uh... Meditating, yeah that what I was doing" I explained.

"Of course you were, you definitely weren't asleep." He countered. I pouted, and tossed him a rice ball.

"What do you know... Mr. I know everything. Here's lunch."

"Hm, do you have any ra-..." He froze and glanced at me in worry.

"What?" I questioned.

"Oh nothing... Rice is good." He replied quickly and stuffed his face with the rice. I shot him a strange look. We ate in silence after that. Until however Naruto broke the silence once again.

"So this festival thing, you said before it was your's and mom's favorite, right?" He asked me. I nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, every year we would go down to the booths and get some fried dumplings. Afterwards we would watch the fireworks from our rooftop." I sighed. "Those were the good old days..." I smiled remembering my mothers Crimson hair, how she would get so mad at me if I stayed out too late training.

"Hey Ryo..." Naruto started nervously. I looked at him weirdly. When did my hyperactive brother get this nervous. He's been like this all day... What's going on with him?

"Yes.."

"Can you... Can you tell me about our mom and dad?" He questioned. I looked at him... Seriously... No one told him yet.