Until You Reach Home
Kabuto didn't know what to make of the situation. In front of him were sixteen children – clones, more to be exact – waiting for him to speak. The Nanadaime Hokage and Sasuke-kun had left shortly after the small humans had been left in his care. Although his face was passive and peaceful around the children, Kabuto was anything but that. He had been one of the leaders of the Fourth Shinobi World War along with Uchiha Obito. The young man he had been was going down a self-destructive path, illuminating the one person who he had thought accepted him – Orochimaru. It was only when Itachi-san had shown him his mistakes and had him accept who he truly was that Kabuto realized where he belonged.
Although the children would yet think of this, there would be a time when the white-haired genetically engineered children would ask the same questions Kabuto had in his youth. Who am I? What am I? What is the path I am on? Why do I go on this path? This time, however, Kabuto wanted to be there for the children when there he only had his loneliness for self-comfort. Perhaps they would also wonder if they deserved this life, for the only life they had known before was as an emotionless shinobi. A tool, a role that Kabuto knew well. Kabuto wanted to heal these children, and to make certain they went down the right path.
He at least had to repay the Nanadaime Hokage somehow. It was he after all who had allowed Kabuto to remain in the village after all the crimes he had committed, never questioning the reason why he had returned, or why he had decided to help during the last night of the war. It was he who had allowed Kabuto to look after the children who had been damaged because of the war itself. After coming home, Kabuto had been confronted with the lack of the building he had grown up with. It had been destroyed during Pain's invasion of Konohagakure, and Kabuto had wistfully stared at the buildings then only made out of wood before Urushi had clasped his arm around his shoulder and nodded to him with a knowing look. The buildings that followed were more spacious than the one Kabuto knew as home, and it had a bigger property thanks to the retired Godaime Hogake. "Now the children can play more than ever, Kabuto." Kabuto had stayed silent at his brother's words, staring at the children who had been orphaned. He wondered how many children whose parents had died because of the war.
Although the Fourth Shinobi World War had been very brief and less massive in scope and civilian casualties, the children of shinobi whose parents had died were among the victims, especially the very young. Although Kabuto firmly believed that there was nothing he could do about the past, self-loathing had gradually eroded him until his brother Urushi had confronted him. Kabuto had told his brother everything. He had almost expected Urushi to pull away and go away and walk into the forest to think, and perhaps even reprimand him, but his brother had only embraced him, catching Kabuto by surprise. "I'm sorry this happened to you, otōtō," he had whispered into Kabuto's ear. The young men had stayed in that positon for a long time until a young child had whined for both of them to come and pick her up. As Kabuto listed to Urushi soothe her, he remembered what he had told Orochimaru and Taka of what his goals were. "I am…no one but Kabuto." My place is here…my home, and that is one part of my past that I do not regret.
It was only then that Kabuto truly realized he was home. As he gave the children there names, Kabuto noted of how none of them reacted to the names they now had. How could they? Kabuto thought as he and Urushi led the silent children to bed. If what they say is true, then most of them have not had bonds to speak of. Kabuto observed as the children watched the other non-clones playing outside, wondering if any of them started to feel genuine emotion. More than a decade after the Fourth Shinobi World War, there were less orphans from both the war and from the nature of life. Still, there were now thirty children in Kabuto's and Urushi's care, and Kabuto wondered how the children would react to the newcomers who looked exactly alike.
It was only when one day all sixteen asked Kabuto if they were allowed to play with the other children that the adult noted of a difference. As the months passed, Kabuto watched with a small serene smile as steadily the identical children were being accepted by the others. "Ryuu-kun, where are you?" There was a small young boy who visibly admired one of the children – his mother and father had died separately of an illness – and followed one of the children name Ryuuji everywhere. It was too soon to say whether the children would become shinobi even if they did have some variant of the Sharingan. For as of right now, as Kabuto heard their individual voices in his mind, the present was good enough.
A year passed, and Kabuto observed of how each of the sixteen children who had previously been emotionless and blank now had their own personalities and interests.
Ryuuji was followed by most of the younger children of the orphanage, thinking of his quietness and reluctance to speak cool and worthy of being their big brother. Hiroki loved to read, and Kabuto never saw him without a book, beneath the shaded tree reading. Akira liked to help to cook, although he was always prone to cutting his fingers with the kitchen knives. Masahiro was prone to anger but also kind and patient to listen to. Kiyoshi was more often than not sitting in a tree, even at night when the children were supposed to be asleep. Kabuto had asked him why he did that, and the boy had replied he loved to look at the sky. Yukio also loved the sky, although he loved the stars and the moon the most. Ken, who loved to draw, was often fascinated by the trees and nature around him, telling Kabuto that the entire world was like a drawing. Ren, the easiest with children, always seemed to allow of the youngest of orphans on his back. Kabuto noted he always smiled most when he was with them. Mitstuhi was more often than not observing the others play and eat. He allowed the world to move without him saying a word.
Then, out of all the others, there was Naota. He was the last of the children to interact and bond with the others, especially when it came to talking about what he was feeling, and it had taken him a very long time to trust Kabuto. But, the young boy had suddenly walked into Kabuto's office one night and asked to see him. He had stated that he had no wishes to be a shinobi. "It is…too violent." Although the children all talked without halting now, there were times when Akira or any of his siblings would speak as they used to when they were nervous or afraid. Such as that time. Naota had declared that he did not wish to be a shinobi. He wanted to become a doctor.
As Kabuto and his brother watched as all the children played or simply watched the world around them. He watched closely at the sixteen children who had come under his care, watching their soft smiles on their faces and hearing them speak.
Are you finally home…my children?