"Zetsu. . . What are you doing here?" Ruka sits on the ground as she sobbed. "I thought you had forgotten about me. . ." 

"How could we do that? We're here to bring you back to the Akatsuki. Leader and the others are looking for you. We figured you might be here since you didn't meet up with Deidara at the rendezvous point. " Zetsu replies as he stands in front of her. 

"Bring. . .me back?" Ruka frowns. 

"What's wrong? Don't you want to come home?" 

"I. . . This is my home. . ." 

"What? Ruka, the Akatsuki is your home. You said that yourself. What happened to you?" 

"Nothing happened. It is just that. . . I remember being here. I remember everything. . . My team, the times I shared with them, and more importantly, Naruto. He is my light." Ruka smiles within her thoughts. 

"That's not how it works. Sorry, Ruka, but you're coming home where you belong. If you stay with them, you're going to get hurt. You know that. The Akatsuki will protect you." 

"And so can Naruto!" Ruka stands up. "He promised me that. I do not want to go back to the Akatsuki. . . I am happy here." 

"We're not taking no for an answer, child. No. Let's leave her here. . . She needs to think things through. She doesn't know what she wants. We'll come back for you another time. Leader isn't going to happy about this." With that said, Zetsu is gone and out of Ruka's sight. 

Ruka frowns and exits out of the forest with Basil after tearing up Sai's bingo book. "Hey, Ruka, there you are. I've been looking for you." Naruto walks up to her after a long day of training. "Are you okay?" He notices the sad look on her face. 

She doesn't answer him. Instead she runs at him and hugs him tightly, trying her best not to cry. "Naruto. . . Tell me. . . Would you still be there for me if I were to do a bad thing?" 

"Of course I would. Where is this coming from? Did Sai say something to you?" He hugs her back as he strokes her hair to calm her down. 

Ruka shakes her head no. "But if I were to do something bad, would you still be with me? . . ." 

"Of course I would, Ruka. I promise that I'm not going to live you. Why are you asking me this? What's going on?" Naruto pulls away from the hug and looks at Ruka in the eyes. 

Ruks frowns and takes Naruto's hand into hers. "I can feel my brethren in you. . . Which is why I feel as if I have done something terrible." 

"Your brethren?" 

Ruka raises her fingertips and thorns slowly rise up from Naruto's felsh. "I put my seed in you, for reasons I do not know about. . ." 

"You wanted me to be like you." Naruto frowns. "Sakura told me what you tried to do. You didn't want to be alone, so you placed your seed into me and Sasuke to have us become Beta's. I get that you didn't want to be the only Maiden in this world." 

"I am sorry. . ." Ruka frowns, remembering the event. "I. . .did not want to be alone anymore. . ."

"But you're not alone. You have me." Naruto smiles at her. "It doesn't matter what you do, or what you've done. I'm always going to be there for you no matter what. I promise." 

"Arigato, Naruto!" Ruka smiles and hugs him again with a joy of laughter. That night, Naruto fell asleep right after dinner because of the training he did. Ruka watched him sleep while she smiled softly. 

"You placed your seed into me and Sasuke to have us become Beta's." Ruka remembered the conversation that her and Naruto had. 

"Sasuke. . . That is right. I want to get to know the Sasuke I remember. Even though my memories are have not came back to me yet. If only. . ." Ruka thought out loud. 

"I promise that I will protect you, Ruka." She remembers what the younger Sasuke said to her when she was living with him. That is the Sasuke that she wants to remember, but the Sasuke she saw at the hideout was somebody else. 

Somebody she didn't like. 

"Having all of these memories come back so suddenly is starting to bother me. . . It is starting to become troublesome." Ruka sighs and goes outside to the balcony. She pricks her finger with a thorn and summoned Basil. 

"What is your request, Milady?" The fox smiled at her owner. 

"Can you a send a message to Lady Tsunade for me?" 

"Of course." 

"Here." Ruka attaches a note to Basil's leg that said, 

'Lady Tsunade, I have a request to ask of you. I know that it is risky, but this is for Naruto's sake. I would like to revisit the hideout that you sent us to earlier today. There are things I wish to discover about Sasuke, and I want to do this alone. Also. . . I think there is something I should tell you. It is about a Bingo Book.'

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