10 Seeking Comfort

"Happy 20th Birthday my son". Said gently by a beautiful woman while holding a cake on her hand, combined with her ever so present beautiful smile.

"M-mom?" Asked Aron, who now looks like on his late teens while stuttering and shaking at the same time. Base on the sorroundings, it looks like they were back at their home.

He reached his shaking hand in disbelief, eager to touch his mother to prove if she's real. His tears were threatening to fall as his legs lost its strength as he can't even take a step forward.

His mother was still smiling gently at him, so he cannot help but be hopeful and used his remaining strength to take a big step forward and hug the woman in front of him.

He was feeling happy, but when he was about to hug his mother, his expression suddenly froze as his mother was suddenly nowhere to be seen. He was feeling confuse as well as desperate to see and touch his mother once again as he searched for his mother in panic.

He looked around and stopped his gaze at one corner. The sorroundings changed, the room was now all white with cold beds that looks like it belongs to a hospital was now present in the room.

He remembered this place, which is the morgue where his mother was placed at. On one of the beds, there was a corpse that were covered whole by a white blanket. Aron frozed as his expression turn into hopeful one, to a devastated one. His expression was one of disbelief, grief, helplessness and pure sadness.

He just stood there with tears falling from his eyes as his breathing stopped. He took a step back as he shook his head, seemingly trying to convince himself that this is not real. So he turned around and dashed out of the room without confirming the identity of the corpse. He closed his eyes wishing for this to end immediately as his tears continued to fall from his eyes. He ran aimlessly, hoping to escape this nightmare desperately.

He ran and ran while still closing his eyes and he finally came to a stop after some distance. He crouched down as he held his head refusing to believe what he saw earlier. He kept on crying for some time when he suddenly heard some sobbing sounds that belonged to a woman close to where he was.

He raised his head as his face paled at what he saw. In front of him was a woman hugging herself while tightly holding a locket that has his and the woman's picture on it. The woman was bruised black and blue as she continued to cry while holding the locket. Aron was now shaking as more tears fell from his eyes as his heart break when he saw the woman crying alone.

He took a step forward with the intent to hug the woman, but the sorroundings changed yet again as he was now on a bridge with the huge and deep river below. He has a bad feeling about this, and so he looked around just enough to see a figure of a woman walking lifelessly as she faced the river below. Aron hurriedly took off, as he desperately ran, trying to stop the woman from jumping on the river, but he's too late. The woman jumped in the river without any hesitation as though she has enough of her sufferings and chose to die.

Aron stood still as his body shook with much intensity as he looked at his own hands shaking violently. He has no tears to cry anymore as he stood still like he lost his soul.

The sorroundings changed again, as it was replaced by images that shows how ignorant he was to not notice the sufferings of her mother as well as the cry for help of the woman he loved. Various images keep showing up as aron shook his head in denial as his body shook yet again and.

"AAAHHHH!!!" Aron yelled with his childish voice and hurriedly sat up on his bed as he woke up with his heart beating wildly on his chest, his back was soak in cold sweat that stained the sheets of his bed. He put his hands on his young face as he tried to calm his own breathing. His body was still shaking as well his lips that were currently pale.

*Huff*

*Huff*

Still holding his face, aron slowly looked up and inspected his sorroundings.

"*Huff*.... *Huff*.... so... it was a dream... *Huff*". He said as he clenched his fist. His face shows sadness, grief and regret, but after a while, he shook his head as he heavily sighed.

He stood up from his bed and made a simple water release to clean himself as he was soak in his own sweat. After cleaning himself, he dried himself with a clean towel and wore his anbu clothes absentmindedly.

He went out of his room without bothering on shielding himself of the sun rays that were piercing his eyes. He walked silently to the direction where the arena is located while looking down with a dampened mood as he looks like he was contemplating something.

The amazons that were used seeing the eager and confident boy everyday noticed his dampened mood and was confused after seeing him. Aron absentmindedly reached the arena without noticing that he was garnering some attention, he was the only male on the island, thus he got almost all the attention of the amazons, so seeing his current mood now confuses a lot of them.

Lulu noticed his mood and so she approached him and said. "Are you alright? You look like you were going to die anytime". She joked a bit to lighten his mood.

Aron raised his head as she was taller than him, he nodded and said. "I'm fine Lulu, just... just had a nightmare".

Lulu raised a brow, she went silent for a moment as she finally said. "Do you want to do it with me? Come, let's loosen you up". She smiled as she encourages him on her own way.

Aron looked up at her and smiled. 'Why does that sound so wrong?' He thought. He knows what she meant for was a spar.

(A/N: Pervs, she's a young amazon. She has no experience on men yet, so she's innocent.)

Aron did some stretches first before finally facing Lulu, he smiled gratefully at her as he said. "Let's start?"

To which she replied with a battle maniac grin. "Sure".

They then spend the next thirty minutes by warming up as they then became serious after that and fought with pure skills, aron wasn't using any ninjutsus this time as the intent of this spar was to loosen him up and there's no better way to loosen up than a fight with pure skills, in Lulu'a opinion that is.

She wants to make him more focus on their fight to distract him on whatever he was thinking earlier. Lulu, like any amazon, only desired for exciting battles and training. Her whole childhood was spent on training or fighting with her sisters, literally. Thus, the arrival of Aron was a very fresh experience for her and she was much more than eager to be friends with him. He might be a male, but deep inside, she treats him like how she treats and care for her sisters.

They spent nearly an hour sparring with each other before finally taking a break. After a short rest, they then finally joined the morning routine of training with the amazons. Aron, though still felt a bit sad, was now feeling much better after the spar, so he then focused himself on the training, as everyday was a small step for him to become stronger.

Unbeknownst to him, Diana was watching him all this time. She noticed his sullen mood, thus she followed him to the arena, seeing that he was showing signs of being fine, she then smiled slightly and went to train herself.

...

Aron finally finished his training for the day, he spent his training time with the amazons in the mornings and finally did his own training on the afternoons, as well as some sparring sessions with the amazons.

Aron, instead of following the retreating amazons to prepare for dinner, excused himself instead this time as he went in the direction of the beach.

The sun was almost setting as the sky were tint in yellowish orange colors. He went to the beach and sat down on the white sand. He watched the setting sun and listened to the sound of the waves splashing and colliding with each other, as well as feeling the moist breeze in the air. Aron sighed as he continued to contemplate some things when he suddenly sensed some presence behind him.

He looked over his shoulder and saw diana standing there, smiling gently while looking at him. Aron was a bit surprised seeing her here, but he then calmed down as he nodded at her in greetings.

Diana stood infront of him and gestures to the space beside him. Aron knew that she's asking for permission if she could sit beside him so he nodded. Diana was currently wearing a white robe that perfectly hugs her body, she has her hair tied into a pony tail, accompanied by her bracelets of submission on each of her wrists.

She was curently barefooted, freely feeling the somewhat warm white sands by her feet. She slowly sat down and put her hands on the back to support herself as she put her gaze at the setting sun. As they continue to sit in silence, moments passed and diana finally asks. "What's wrong?"

Aron just continued looking at the horizon, his demeanor as well as his aura doesn't really suit his childish body now as he sighed and said. "Just... a nightmare".

Diana raised an eyebrow as she said. "Must be pretty bad for you to get depressed".

Aron nodded as he continued staring at the setting sun.

Diana turned her head to the side where aron was sitting as she asked. "How do you feel?"

Aron was silent for a minute but then finally said after releasing a sigh. "Empty".

Diana's gaze became softer and genlter as she spread her arms wide while looking at Aron.

Seeing her gentle look, aron felt some warmth wash through his chest as he got closer to her, enough for her to reach him and hugged him close to her body.

Half of his face was burried to her chest, but aron calmly closed his eyes and enjoyed the heat that were coming from her body. Diana stroked his head and said in a comforting tone. "It's fine, it's fine... No need to burden yourself, ok? Everythings going to be fine".

Aron closed his eyes, his somewhat deep breathing became stagnant and turned calm. He was feeling tired and wanted to fall asleep in the warm embrace of diana that reminded him of his mother as he then mumbled. "I...miss...you all". Before finally falling asleep.

(A/N: He meant his mother, lisa and his grandparents.)

Diana only smiled gently as she watched the sun completely vanish as darkness consumed the world. She looked down at aron as she gently smiled and gave him a kiss on his cheeks.

She then carried him back to his room to prevent him from catching a cold as she slowly and gently put him on his bed, she stroked his head for a while before smiling gently, as she stood up and left his room and silently closed the door.