the ice queen | hatake kakashi

56; 帰り道

we're almost done aaaa i'm ending this book at chapter 60 (epilogue) i'm crying i don't want it to end but i'm also excited to try venturing into more writing?

p/s: i graduated school and stuff and i only know now that 冬花 is read as fuyuka.. that's EVEN WAY PRETTIER imagine.. but sadly that's not a family name so... imagine if there's a Fuyuhana Fuyuka...

Last night, Nami had the wildest dream when she accidentally slept on the Fuyuhana Constitution.

She was a ghost, and she was somewhere in Konoha. Her eyes could see everything, but nobody noticed her existence. She strolled through the street, trying to find her old apartment. (It was hard considering the last time she went back to Konoha was,,, months before?) After minutes of trying to remember the road, she gave up and decided to stroll along the new Konoha. Truth to be told, it felt odd, it felt like when she had first arrived here. Clueless and lost.

The invincible queen walked towards the reformed Hokage Rock, her eyes softened as she saw Kakashi's face next to Tsunade's. Hastily, she sprinted towards the monument, excited to see the view of the newly rebuilt Konoha. Her steps were brought to a halt when she saw a figure already sitting on top of one of the heads; herself. She moved a step forward, her faded body moving to the side to observe her own counter-part. 

Everything was almost the same, the scar she had gotten from the Shinobi War, those emerald eyes which its intense glare had soften as she aged, the little dimple that only she herself knew where it was if she wasn't smiling. Yet, despite being so similar to herself, the queen couldn't help but feel like she was seeing a whole different version of herself. 

And then, at that moment, her body seemed to become fully human again.

It wasn't one of the weirdest encounter for the queen, considering she has been in much crazier situations, but to see her own self.....

"I didn't know we could make a kage-bunshin without hand seals."

"You didn't. This is.. awkward." Very, very, awkward, if the queen has to give a remark about this. "Actually, I'm lost. I'm new to this place and I ended up walking here. It was surprising to see someone.. look exactly like me here." The other Nami looked like she wasn't buying the queen's little lie, but after a few minutes she seemed to let out a huge sigh. "It's even weirder that I can understand that, in a way. Maybe it's from my shinobi days." 

They both walked along the roads of Konoha, the Ice Queen still trying to familiarise the surroundings once again. The queen still felt at lose, finally realising that while she too had encounter a lot to become queen, Konoha had moved on too, without her. Somehow the thought of that ruined her mood to continue looking around.

"The new Konoha is confusing, I can't deny that. We're almost that remodelling it, really did took some time considering there was the war." The other Nami turned around, looking at the queen with a soft gaze. "You have that scar too, I assume. From yo- I mean, our aunt." They stopped walking, both focusing to look at other inanimate objects instead. 

It didn't took long for both of them to realise it; one left the Shinobi World to become a queen, one stayed to protect the one she loves. 

"Is it.." Both of them apparently talked at the same time, "Worth it?" They smiled at how synchronised they were at that moment. "You first," the other Nami nudged her. "I want to know what happened to the Snow Islands since I last went there." The queen took a deep breath before she began.

"It's beautiful, the snow, the people.. Kōri really helped me a lot, especially ever since I rose to the throne. It's still overwhelming but, I think I've finally fallen in love with the place." She glanced at the window nearby them to notice that the only thing that was differentiating at that moment was their eyes. She gazed at the sapphire blue eyes which she once loathed so long ago. "Although I have to confess; I miss Kakashi. Things haven't been going well with us. How about you?"

"It's.. been a mess. I have to be frank. Rebuilding a fallen village with so few manpower was insane. We had to do so much political stuffs; going to one nation and one village to ask for funds.. but-" Her green eyes shone in adornment. "I guess if it weren't for those trips, we wouldn't be as close as we are now." She pointed to the empty space beside Kakashi's head on the Hokage Rock. "Naruto's going to become Hokage soon, and Kakashi just want him to succeed him without having as much of a headache as possible. Then, we'll live our married life as it should be." 

"Sounds fun."

"I do have dreams about the Snow Islands though. Or nightmares, to be more exact. Like, how I could have saved them, but I chose to save him... And I've always wished I could have seen the land where my family used to live." They both looked at each other, green clashing with blue, questioning their own fate in the path of life.

"You really can't have the best of both worlds, huh? I can't even say which of us have it better. We both sound like we're in a deep, deep pain." The queen threw a pebble across the road. Her thoughts were back to the day she met Kakashi in the prison tower. She could still feel how cold her hands were that day.

"I mean, that is life. You need to sacrifice one thing for you to become happy for the rest of your life." The other Nami made a small snowball. It was nothing majestic, but seeing how her eyes soften seeing her own creation, the queen realised how much the other Nami actually missed home.

Home. 

No matter what happens, you'll surely return home.

Okaeri.

"Maybe.. we can."  She held the other's hand tightly. "It can't be immediately, but it'll happen. Because no matter what, we'll always go home. No matter how long or how hard the road is, we'll always go home." 

"Even if it means no going back?"

"Even if it means so. The Snow Islands is my home, but Konoha is where my heart belongs." Nami noticed that she had started to fade away again. "I hope our encounter ended up being fruitful to you too. I guess this is goodbye." They turned to each other once again, the other Nami holding on to the last bit of the queen. 

"It is. Thank you, and good luck."

"Thank you too, and all the best."