[FFML] [Naruto][Nanoha][Fic] Overkill, Chapter 4: Sun and Moon

[aleh at aol.com]

Previous chapters can be found at 
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4131406/1/Overkill .


    The pain of being alone and the sadness of not having anyone to 
support you were things that Naruto knew quite well. Because there was 
someone important to him who shared things with him and helped him 
overcome that pain, Naruto was where he was now.

    But, without the power of magic, without fighting, what could he do? 
And how should he answer those sad eyes?

    A tale of spectacular overkill begins now.

-----------

    Overkill,

    A Naruto Fanfiction,

    By Aleh

    Chapter Four: Sun and Moon

-----------

    Disclaimer: I own none of the series that I've used or referenced 
within this story.

-----------

    As Shiro left the Midoriya in a rush, Joushima Akira and Feng Lianfei 
shared a brief glance. Their rivalry was on hold. They had more 
important things to deal with.

    The Takamachis' young charge had managed to charm them from their 
first meeting with his cheerfulness and simple sincerity. Oh, they 
hadn't been fooled by the mask -- they weren't /that/ naïve -- but it 
hadn't taken them long to understand why he wore it. When they'd found 
out his history, what had happened to make him wear that mask, they'd 
wanted little more than for those false smiles to turn into true ones. 
Their rivalry had started to shift focus from backroom brawls to seeing 
who could elicit more of those precious treasures from their new little 
brother figure.

    That and they'd sworn to do everything in their power to utterly, 
totally /ruin/ the people responsible for what had happened to him... 
but they had their priorities. Helping the poor child came first. 
Fortunately, the Takamachi family and Naruto's friends seemed to have 
that well in hand, but that didn't mean that there wasn't room for the 
two waitresses to contribute.

    With him in the hospital, they'd do their best to help the Takamachi 
family as they tried to support him. They couldn't do much more than 
that beyond visiting him, which they would do as soon as the Midoriya 
closed. For the time being, he needed his family.

    And if either of them ever found out who was responsible for the 
attack on him and Nanoha, they'd... ensure... that the bastard 
regretted it.

-----------

    Fortunately for Naruto, the young girl he'd fallen on was quite 
understanding about the situation. Introducing herself as Yagami 
Hayate, the wheelchair-bound girl helped Naruto back into his own 
chair... although Hayate's giggling didn't help Naruto to calm down.

    Unfortunately for the boy, Ishida-sensei was considerably less amused. 
Naruto would have loved to chat with Hayate, but the doctor had taken 
him aside and started giving him a rather stern lecture about taking 
care of himself. After shaking her head at Naruto's predicament Hayate 
excused herself and moved to leave, Naruto detecting a hint of sadness 
in her eyes.

    Ishida-sensei's lecture was bad enough in a way, but Momoko's reaction 
to hearing what Naruto had tried affected him far more. Crying, she 
begged Naruto not to do something like that again as she told him that 
she didn't know what she'd do if he.... Momoko hadn't completed that 
sentence, instead embracing her surrogate son and sobbing onto his 
shoulder.

    As Naruto resolved to never again try something like what he had and 
to follow the doctor's instructions to the letter, he couldn't help but 
wonder what had given Hayate's eyes that sad, lonely quality. Naruto 
recognized it well, having seen it in the mirror every day for most of 
his life.

    Even when Momoko finally allowed Naruto and Ishida-sensei to calm her 
down and they started discussing his condition and prognosis, Naruto 
couldn't get his mind off of his brief encounter with the blue-eyed 
girl who reminded him so strongly of his past. He was, however, 
startled out of his thoughts when his surrogate mother decided to call 
him on his inattention.

    "Is something bothering you, Naruto-kun?"

    "Those eyes...," he replied. "Hayate-chan's eyes were..."

    Momoko blinked. "Her eyes were...?"

    "... like mine. She's alone, isn't she?"

    Ishida-sensei didn't have to say anything. Her expression was answer 
enough.

-----------

    Not long after Naruto and Momoko left Ishida-sensei's office, Naruto 
still preoccupied by his encounter with Hayate, Kyouya returned to the 
hospital. After a brief conversation, Momoko smiled and excused 
herself, leaving Kyouya and Naruto alone in his room.

    "Naruto-kun," Kyouya began, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

    Naruto nodded. "Mom told me... but how's Nanoha-chan?"

    "Dad's watching over her training... but from what I saw, she was 
coming along at a pretty impressive pace. Yuuno was really amazed at 
how fast she was learning." Kyouya shook his head at that. "But what I 
wanted to talk to you about was your own training."

    "My... training?" Naruto asked, looking down at his cast-clad legs. 
"How can I train with my legs like this?"

    Kyouya chuckled. "There are techniques that you can practice even when 
you can't use your legs, but that's only part of it." His face turned 
serious. "Naruto-kun, I know that I've been helping you refine your 
skills with the style you learned in Konoha, but there's a limit to how 
much I can help you with a style that I don't know myself. As much as I 
hate to admit it, we're rapidly reaching that point. Without knowing 
the style, I can't teach you the parts of it that you don't know. That 
leaves us with two options."

    Naruto was hanging onto Kyouya's every word by that point, thoughts of 
Hayate forced to the back of his mind. With Nanoha learning magic and 
hunting the Jewel Seeds, she'd be constantly getting into dangerous 
situations... but with Naruto's level of ability, he couldn't defeat an 
opponent at the level of the /thing/ that had hurt him. Nanoha had 
managed to take it out almost effortlessly... and without training. 
Nanoha would only be improving from there.

    Naruto wasn't under any illusion that what they'd faced against would 
be the strongest enemy they'd encounter. Nanoha would be risking her 
life, fighting foes that could utterly crush Naruto as he was. Unless 
he got stronger, he wouldn't be able to stand by her, much less protect 
her. Unless he got stronger, he wouldn't even be able to /try/. That 
wasn't something he could allow.

    "Either we can try to create a new style based on what we know of 
yours or I can teach you an entirely new style." Kyouya paused for a 
moment. "In other words, would you like to learn the Mikami Fuwa?"

    It took Naruto all of one second to make his decision.

-----------

    Whatever Naruto had expected his first lesson in the Mikami Fuwa style 
to be on, it wasn't breathing. When he asked, Kyouya admitted that it 
was actually the second traditional lesson of the Mikami Fuwa, not the 
first, but that Naruto couldn't exactly learn to fall properly while 
his legs were in casts.

    Naruto understood that. He didn't understand why breathing was so 
important. Trusting Kyouya, however, he diligently worked on the lesson 
anyway.

    When he started to feel almost like his body was floating on air, he 
started to understand. When Kyouya explained that the feeling was his 
spiritual energy filling him, Naruto smiled and nodded 
enthusiastically, losing his concentration. It took him several minutes 
to recapture the sensation, but Naruto didn't begrudge that time... 
especially after Kyouya told him that many of the advanced techniques 
of the Mikami Fuwa used spiritual energy to push the body beyond what 
would normally be possible.

    Full understanding came when Kyouya started going over the basics of a 
healing meditation that focused spiritual energy to wounds. Naruto 
suspected that it wasn't a technique that was normally taught to new 
students of the Mikami Fuwa so early in their training... which meant 
that Kyouya was teaching it to him in an effort to help him recover. 
When Naruto's brother-figure confirmed his suspicions, Naruto was 
deeply touched.

    As Kyouya called a halt to the session, noticing that Naruto was 
having difficulty continuing, Naruto once again allowed his mind to 
wander. Hayate's eyes once again haunted his thoughts as he let Kyouya 
and Momoko take him to the hospital's cafeteria for lunch.

-----------

    Yagami Hayate stared into her food. She knew that she should eat, that 
she needed to keep her energy up if she wanted to stay healthy. She 
just wasn't able to bring herself to care.

    Her meeting with Ishida-sensei and encounter with that blond-haired 
boy had cheered her up somewhat, but the simple truth of the matter was 
that she was tired of her life. Between the constant loneliness of 
having neither family nor friends for support and the constant struggle 
of daily life while stuck in a wheelchair, Hayate was tired and on the 
verge of giving up. The only reason she hadn't done so yet was that she 
knew that doing so would let down both Ishida-sensei and her uncle.

    Hayate genuinely appreciated everything Ishida-sensei had done for 
her. Her gratitude to her honorary uncle -- the friend of her father's 
who'd been managing her parents' estate -- was also considerable. 
Still, her uncle didn't live in Japan and Ishida-sensei was Hayate's 
doctor, not her family.

    "Hiya, Hayate-chan!"

    Hayate was broken out of her thoughts by the voice of the boy she'd 
run into earlier. "Ah, hello," she replied, matching his smile as she 
looked up and into his warm blue eyes.

    "You don't need to pretend, Hayate-chan," the golden-haired youth 
stated, suddenly serious. "I understand."

    Hayate froze. He couldn't mean what she thought she did, could he? 
"Wha... how?"

    "I'm an orphan," the boy explained. "I grew up without parents or 
siblings... Old Man Hokage was kind enough to support me, but..." He 
shrugged. "I used to pretend that I was happy, that the situation 
didn't bother me. It wasn't true... I guess I just got sick of crying, 
but-" He stopped talking for a moment as he tried wheel himself a bit 
closer only to have his wheelchair turn and bump one of his cast-clad 
legs into of the legs of the table Hayate was sitting at. "Stupid 
wheelchair," he muttered, effectively breaking the moment.

    Hayate couldn't help but giggle at the expression on his face. When he 
slipped into an exaggerated pout, Hayate broke into all-out laughter. 
Realizing what had happened, Hayate's companion soon joined her in 
laughing.

    "Anyway," the golden-haired youth continued after their laughter had 
died down, "I'm Namikaze Naruto. Do you want to be friends?"

    Hayate's thoughts rapidly raced through her head. Not knowing what to 
do, how to respond, she did nothing but stare.

    Increasingly nervous at Hayate's reaction, Naruto started to fidget. 
"Umm... if you don't want to..."

    Hayate shook, horrified at what she'd done. He /understood/ and she'd 
driven him... "No! I do want to! I just didn't know..."

    "It's simple," Naruto gently stated, echoing Nanoha's words to him 
when they'd first met. "Becoming friends is really..."

    Hayate giggled. "Not that," she corrected. "I just didn't know what to 
say."

    Naruto's face returned to the same exaggerated pout he'd used earlier. 
"And I thought that I'd finally have a chance to use the speech 
Nanoha-chan gave me when we first met," he jokingly complained.

    Hayate promptly broke up, her laughter a mix of relief and amusement 
over her new friend's ridiculously corny act. Naruto soon started 
laughing as well, quite aware of what he'd looked like as Nanoha hadn't 
exactly been reluctant to tell him after the first time he'd tried it.

    "So," Naruto tactlessly inquired after they had again calmed down, 
"what are you here for?"

-----------

    Naruto didn't know what to think when Hayate finished. Steadily losing 
the ability to move your legs was one thing, but not knowing /why/... 
Naruto didn't know what to say or what to do.

    On the other hand...

    "Don't worry, Hayate-chan," Naruto reassured her. "I'm sure that if 
anyone can help, it's Ishida-sensei!"

    Hayate giggled despite knowing what Naruto was trying to do. His words 
didn't do much to help her cheer up; she trusted her doctor and had 
told herself the same thing many times. Naruto's blatant overacting, 
however, had worked wonders.

    "And you?" Hayate asked, gesturing in the direction of Naruto's 
cast-bound legs.

    "Ah, I just got into a fight with some sort of monster... although it 
was apparently really the power of some sort of ancient, wish-granting 
magical artifact given physical form."

    Hayate stared at her friend. "If you don't want to tell me..."

    "Oh, no," Naruto insisted. "It really happened. I broke my legs 
pushing Nanoha-chan out of the way when it charged us."

    Not knowing what to say to that, Hayate latched onto one part of it. 
"Nanoha-chan?"

    Naruto smiled brightly at the name and launched into a rather detailed 
description of his first friend, starting with how they first met. 
Hayate quickly found herself overwhelmed by the sheer /strangeness/ of 
the story.

    "Wait... you fell on her? Literally?"

    "Well...," Naruto started to reply, only to be interrupted by someone 
else entering the conversation.

    "Naruto-kun," Kyouya asked, grabbing Naruto from behind and pressing 
his knuckles into his little brother's head, "What are you telling her?"

    "Kyouya-niichan," Naruto lightheartedly complained as Kyouya ground 
his digits into Naruto's skull, "stop that!"

    "Umm," Hayate started.

    "Ah, yes," Kyouya explained. "I'm Takamachi Kyouya." Kyouya smiled at 
Hayate. "My family took Naruto in about a month ago, so I suppose that 
makes me his foster brother." Giving a Hayate a conspiratorial wink, he 
continued, "Honestly, we didn't expect him to become part of the family 
as quickly as he did, but he's already one of us -- we wouldn't know 
what to do without him."

    Touched by his brother's sentiment, Naruto started to tear up. Hayate 
couldn't suppress a laugh at how he looked; Kyouya still hadn't 
released Naruto from his headlock or stopped rubbing his knuckles 
against Naruto's skull and the combination of "touched" and "in pain" 
in Naruto's expression was more than a bit odd.

    "Anyway, Naruto-kun," Kyouya remarked, removing his fist but leaving 
Naruto in a headlock, "Mom's on her way over with lunch. Do you think 
your new friend would like to eat with us?"

    "Yes," Hayate hastily agreed.

    Hayate usually hated hospital food. For one meal, however, she was 
able to enjoy it.

-----------

    Kyouya was extremely surprised when Naruto asked to continue their 
training after they said their goodbyes to Hayate. From what he'd been 
able to tell, Naruto had nearly pushed himself to his limit earlier. 
Kyouya knew fully well just how much spiritual energy his brother had 
used when training. Most of it had been wasted, but Naruto had called 
on more raw power than Miyuki had ever managed to; considering that 
Naruto was a beginner, that effort should have left him drained for 
days.

    It wasn't the amount of power Naruto could call on that surprised 
Kyouya. It wasn't the speed with which Naruto learned. It wasn't even 
Naruto's stamina while training. It was the boy's recovery rate.

    Then again, Kyouya supposed, he should have expected that. Given what 
Naruto had done the previous night...

    After nearly two hours of training that would have left most beginners 
struggling to get out of bed the next morning, Naruto needed a 
forty-five minute break and some food before he was ready to start up 
again. Kyouya found himself hard-pressed to curb his brother's 
enthusiasm but knew that control was more important than anything else 
in what they were doing. Reminding Naruto to calm himself and focus on 
not wasting spiritual energy took a lot of Kyouya's time, but since 
every bit of energy that Naruto didn't waste was one more bit that he 
could /use/, Kyouya felt that it was worth the effort.

    Naruto's second practice session of the day was considerably longer 
than the first, in part because of that fact. Without him using nearly 
as much energy as he could have, the exercises were much less tiring.

    "Hey, Kyouya-niichan," Naruto asked after a while, "how long do you 
think it'll be until I can get out of here?"

    "The hospital, you mean?"

    "Yeah," Naruto answered, vigorously nodding.

    "Well, we're not really sure. If it was just your legs, they'd let you 
go home today... the real delay is because of the blow you took to your 
side. Judging by how much you've already healed, I'd say that they 
/could/ release you now. The real question is whether or not we should 
let them."

    "What do you..." Naruto paused in his question as the room seemed to 
shift in color, almost looking like a negative photo, and Kyouya 
suddenly stopped moving. Naruto's head snapped to face the direction he 
instinctively knew whatever caused the odd event had come from before 
things returned to their normal state.

    Kyouya looked at his little brother, somewhat confused, but more than 
a bit alarmed by Naruto's sudden shift.

    "What was that?" Naruto forcibly inquired, still staring at one of the 
room's walls.

    "What happened?"

    They didn't get their answers until much later, but the event 
effectively ended their training for the day.

-----------

    Feng Lianfei struggled to maintain her smile as she took in the orders 
of the mid-afternoon rush. It seemed like every elementary-school 
student in Uminari had decided to visit the Midoriya as soon as their 
schools let out.

    Then again, judging by the uniforms, it was just most of Nanoha's 
class and a large portion of the other classes and grades at Seishou 
Auxiliary. While most of them had simply signed cards or the like, the 
Midoriya was still busier than usual. Coupled with the Takamachis' 
absence, this left her expending quite a bit of effort to keep up with 
things.

    As she took another set of orders to the kitchen so that Akira and the 
others could start filling them, she noticed a quiet descend on the 
café as the normal chatter that their customers normally produced 
suddenly stopped. Quickly dropping off the orders, the green-haired 
waitress returned to the main area of the Midoriya to investigate.

    She noticed the source of the sudden silence almost instantly. It was 
rather hard to /avoid/ noticing the three people whose entrance into 
the shop had caused the commotion... or lack thereof.

    The heavyset man in the black kimono with grey hakama and a matte 
olive haori would have been noticeable enough even without the fact 
that he was noticeably missing a portion of one of his fingers. The 
scars that crossed his face were difficult to avoid noticing as well. 
His companions, however...

    Highly tattooed, wearing traditional Japanese clothing... could they 
be any less obviously yakuza? Judging by the fact that they weren't 
wearing haori and the way that they were standing relative to their 
leader, they were bodyguards... which made the party's leader fairly 
high-ranking within the yakuza.

    Joy.

    Lianfei did /not/ like the way that the bald one was eying her, either.

    "Welcome to the Midoriya," she greeted them, trying to keep her... 
apprehension... out of her voice. "Might I be able to help you with 
something?"

    "Yes," the group's leader answered. "I was hoping to speak with your 
employers if they would happen to be available."

    Lianfei felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she slightly narrowed 
her eyes. "Would this happen to be about last night's incident?"

    "Yep," the hairless guard confirmed. "So hurry up and get your bosses, 
okay?"

    "Renji," the party's leader warned, holding a hand to prevent his 
guard from stepping forward.

    "I'm afraid that they're unavailable to ones such as you," Midoriya's 
overworked attendant coldly answered. "Should you wish to disagree, I 
would be happy to discuss the matter at your convenience."

    "Hey," the bald gangster objected, "don't be like that. The boss-"

    He didn't get to finish his sentence as Lianfei slipped into a combat 
stance and placed a hand in front of his chest. A moment later a blast 
of spiritual energy threw the gangster through the café's door and into 
the street. "Will any further discussions be necessary?"

    "Kazuo," the boss instructed his other follower, "go outside."

    "Boss?"

    "Tell Renji to go home. I'll deal with him later."

    "Understood."

    It was at that moment that Akira walked into the main area of the 
Midoriya. "What's going on, Ren?"

    Turning towards her fellow waitress, Lianfei made a series of gestures 
with her hands. Akira quickly settled into a combat stance and faced 
the intruder.

    Much to the two shop attendants' confusion, however, the yakuza boss 
promptly kneeled and bowed towards them, pressing his forehead to the 
floor. "Please forgive us for this misunderstanding. I will offer a 
formal apology for my subordinate's rudeness if you wish..."

    Realizing just what he meant, Ren started and dropped her stance. 
"Then last night's events..."

    "Those were..."

    "Oh my. What brings you to Midoriya, Kodama-kun?" Momoko asked as she 
entered the café.

    "Mo... Momoko-sama," the yakuza boss exclaimed, lifting his head 
enough to turn and look at the Takamachi matriarch. "I heard about what 
happened to your children and wanted to offer my condolences, but..."

    Momoko serenely nodded, a cheerful smile gracing her face. "I see. It 
seems that there has been a bit of a misunderstanding, has there not?"

    Kodama nodded furiously, as if trying to placate a god's anger. "Yes. 
One of my bodyguards was unspeakably rude. I had just offered to 
apologize on his behalf..."

    "Oh dear," Momoko answered, holding a hand slightly in front of her 
mouth. "I don't believe that such a thing will be necessary... we are 
old friends, after all."

    "Thank you very much, Momoko-sama!"

    Momoko simply walked to the yakuza boss and offered him one of her 
hands. "I should be the one thanking you," she offered, helping him up. 
"Coming all this way was really gracious of you."

    "Not at all, Momoko-sama," he said as he took Momoko's hand and used 
her support to stand up. "What kind of old friend would I be if I 
didn't come to show my support at a time like this?"

    "Oh, yes," Momoko remarked. "Ren-chan, Akira-chan, this is Taoka 
Kodama, an old friend of mine from the time I spent working with the 
JSDF. Kodama-kun, these are Feng Lianfei and Joushima Akira, friends of 
my family who help out here at the Midoriya."

    "Please treat us kindly," Ren and Akira chimed, bowing.

    "Yes," Kodama replied, bowing as well. "It is good to know that 
Momoko-sama has such loyal friends."

    "I hate to run like this," Akira stated, "but I really need to take 
the cookies out of the oven... if you could excuse me?"

    "O... of course," Kodama stated. "Please. Feel free."

    "Yes, Akira-chan," Momoko agreed. "It would be a shame to waste them."

    As Akira left to return to the kitchen, a pale and shaking Kodama 
turned to Momoko. "You have been training them in the art of... baking 
cookies?"

    "This is a café," Ren offered. "Our employers are not available every 
day; we need to be able to handle the baking when they are not."

    "Yes... I see," Kodama replied, placing a strange emphasis on his 
words. "It is good to know that. It would truly be a tragedy if 
Momoko-sama's talents in baking were lost to our country."

    "Kodama-kun, you flatterer," Momoko objected, blushing. "I am not 
/that/ skilled at cooking."

    Taoka Kodama shook his head firmly. "We of the Yamaguchi-gumi still 
remember how you managed to... thoroughly befriend... us with your 
skills at... baking cookies. As the kumicho, I assure you that every 
bite of your cookies was like a taste of heaven."

    "Oh my, Kodama-kun. I'm not worthy of such praise."

    "We will have to disagree on that," Kodama allowed. "By the way, do 
you have any leads on who was responsible for last night's... events? 
As an old friend, it would be my pleasure to discuss their rudeness 
with the parties involved."

    Momoko smiled brightly. "Thank you, Kodama-kun, but the matter has 
already been resolved."

    Kodama lost a great deal of his nervousness. "I am very much relieved 
to know that."

    "Ren-chan, could you take care of the orders for a bit longer?" Momoko 
asked. "I'm afraid that Kodama-kun and I have much to catch up on."

    "Of course," Ren answered, bowing. "If you'd excuse me."

    As Ren continued to wait the tables, she couldn't help but hear 
snippets of Momoko and Kodama's conversation.

    "... unfortunately, Ren-chan tends to overcook them slightly... she's 
quite talented with crème puffs, though."

    "... crème puffs?"

    "... It is good to see that Nanoha-chan takes after her mother... such 
a friendly child..."

    Kodama's face lost promptly all blood as he started shaking at that.

    By the time he left, clutching a plate of chocolate-chip cookies like 
a lifeline, Taoka Kodama was thoroughly terrified.

-----------

    Nanoha and Shiro returned to the hospital late in the afternoon, Yuuno 
hiding himself in Nanoha's backpack. While Shiro knew that they 
wouldn't be challenged over Yuuno's presence even if he openly rode in 
on Nanoha's shoulder, he also knew that very fact would attract 
attention that they didn't want.

    "Hello, Naruto-kun, Oniisan," Nanoha greeted.

    "Hiya, Nanoha-chan, Uncle Shiro," Naruto enthusiastically replied. 
"How'd your training go?"

    Yuuno promptly climbed onto Nanoha's shoulder. "She... surpassed me," 
he reluctantly admitted.

    "Oh no," Nanoha insisted. "I'm sure that you have much, much more to 
teach me!"

    "Well," Yuuno confessed, "there are areas of magic that I haven't 
started to teach you yet, like healing magic and teleportation, but..."

    "See?"

    Yuuno firmly shook his head. "No... in terms of attacking, defense, 
and binding magic, you're already superior to me. It's really 
impressive!"

    Nanoha blushed for a moment, not really knowing what to say, before 
starting and turning to her hospitalized friend. "More importantly," 
Nanoha blurted out, starting to run her questions and statements 
together as she let everything out in a rush and moved over to Naruto, 
and fussed over his injured side. "Naruto-kun, are you alright? It must 
be lonely to be here like this. Are they feeding you well?"

    Seeing his friend's concern and sudden change of mood, Naruto started. 
"I'm fine, Nanoha-chan, see?" he hastily reassured her, lifting his 
shirt and tearing off the bandages that adorned his side to show Nanoha 
the unblemished skin where he'd been pierced through the previous 
night. "The food's not Mom's cooking, but I've had worse... and I've 
already made a new friend!"

    Shiro and Kyouya exchanged a quick glance at that. Nanoha, however, 
promptly perked up. "A new friend? Really?"

    "Yeah!" Naruto answered. "Her name's Hayate-chan... I think you'll get 
along great!"

    "Thank goodness," Nanoha responded, her eyes tearing up. "I was so 
worried..."

    "Don't worry, Nanoha-chan," the golden-haired boy reassured his 
friend. "I should be out of here pretty soon -- Kyouya-niichan's been 
teaching me this really cool healing technique! See how well it works?"

    Shiro decided to speak up at that. "Umm... Naruto-kun? About that..."

    "Yes, Dad?" Naruto asked, trying out the form of address that Momoko 
had suggested to him earlier in the day and being rewarded with a smile.

    "Those healing meditations don't do much to speed up healing."

    Naruto blinked. "B... but..."

    Shiro shook his head. "Naruto-kun, with what happened to your legs... 
most people wouldn't recover at all. Even if they somehow did, they'd 
be crippled for life. The Mikami Fuwa has some very powerful healing 
techniques, but they're intended to insure that you heal /properly/, 
not /quickly/."

    "But Naruto-kun's already recovered so much!" Nanoha objected.

    "I know," Shiro told her. "It just wasn't the Mikami Fuwa's techniques 
that were responsible. That was... something else." He paused for a 
moment to turn to their extraterrestrial guest. "Yuuno-kun, you said 
that you tried to heal him earlier... could this be a result of that?"

    The ferret-changeling shook his head firmly. "No... the healing spell 
I cast was dispelled when I passed out... I've never heard of it acting 
at all like this."

    "So Naruto-kun's healing is due to something else," Kyouya stated.

    Shiro nodded. "It's likely something unique to him, too," he 
elaborated, deliberately not voicing his suspicions.

    "I see," Yuuno observed. "Should I try to heal him? I mean..."

    Shiro shook his head. "His legs are hardly visible in those casts, but 
they can't come off for a while, anyway. It would probably be for the 
best if you saved your power -- after what happened earlier, I suspect 
that you'll need it."

    Naruto suddenly moved forward, startling Nanoha. "What? What 
happened?" he exclaimed.

    "Another of the Jewel Seeds was activated," Yuuno told him, jumping 
off of Nanoha's shoulder and landing next to Naruto on the hospital bed.

    "Don't worry," Nanoha reassured her friend. "No one was hurt..."

    "Yes, although the Uminari Sengen Jinja needs new torii," Shiro 
answered, referring to the wooden red gates that marked the boundary of 
a Shinto shrine. "You really need to be more careful with that 'Divine 
Buster' of yours, Nanoha."

    "I will, Father," Nanoha returned, embarrassedly scratching the back 
of her head.

    "Your father's right, Nanoha," Yuuno added. "Even if we use barrier 
magic to reduce the collateral damage, being too reckless with your 
magic can be dangerous..."

    Naruto started. "You mean... if it's that dangerous... Nanoha-chan, 
you need to stop! I'll help with--"

    "It's not like that, Naruto-kun," Kyouya corrected. "Yuuno-kun talked 
with us about that earlier. It's like our practice earlier -- you 
remember how tired you were when we were done?"

    Naruto mutely nodded.

    "Yuuno-kun just means that if Nanoha-chan is reckless, she'll wear 
herself out quickly... and if she gets tired in the middle of a 
fight..."

    Naruto again nodded his head. "I see," he said, much more calmly. "But 
still..."

    "That's not entirely true," Yuuno observed.

    "What?" Naruto asked, his eyes narrowing.

    "There are ways to push yourself beyond your normal limits with 
magic," Yuuno explained. "But they can put a lot of strain on your body 
and your Device..."

    "There are similar techniques in the martial arts," Shiro commented.

    "I see," Naruto observed, forcing down his instinctive answer, and 
forced himself to remain calm throughout the remainder of their 
conversation. It wasn't until later, after Nanoha had left to use the 
bathroom, that he made his move.

    "Yuuno-kun," he asked, "I know you're busy teaching Nanoha-chan, but 
when she's at school or in her juku... do you think you could teach me 
how to use magic, too?"

-----------

    Omake: What if Hayate's Uncle Really Was Her Uncle? Part One

    Hayate returned home with a smile on her face. For the first time 
since she'd had to withdraw from school, she had a friend. The world 
suddenly seemed like a much brighter place.

    She couldn't wait to tell her uncle; she knew that he'd be much 
relieved to hear it.

    Hayate knew that her uncle loved her, even if he wasn't the best at 
showing it, and that a number of family obligations kept him from 
staying in Uminari. Besides, while she missed him, even Hayate had to 
admit that her father's older brother wasn't the world's best 
role-model for a young girl.

    With those thoughts in mind, Hayate made a beeline for the phone and 
dialed her uncle.

    "Hello," her uncle grumpily answered.

    "Hello, Uncle Iori," Hayate greeted. "You wouldn't believe what 
happened today..."

-----------

    Omake 2: What if Hayate's Uncle Really Was Her Uncle? Part Two

    Hayate returned home with a smile on her face. For the first time 
since she'd had to withdraw from school, she had a friend. The world 
suddenly seemed like a much brighter place.

    She couldn't wait to tell her uncle; she knew that he'd be much 
relieved to hear it.

    Hayate really regretted that her uncle's work kept him away from 
Uminari, but with the whole Kira mess and his role in the 
investigation, she couldn't blame him for keeping her at an arm's 
length. The sheer /danger/ he was in nearly chilled her to the bone.

    "Hi, Aunt Sachiko," Hayate greeted. "Is Uncle Soichiro in?"

    Later that day, Yagami Light hacked into the records at Seishou 
Auxiliary and discovered a new purpose in life... and, the next day, L 
Lawliet found himself opening a rather strange e-mail attachment that 
most certainly attracted his attention, much to his surprise.

    It wasn't every day that an elementary-school student's records 
captured the attention of the world's greatest detective, but Namikaze 
Naruto's certainly managed it.