I do not posses a great memory for insignificant details, I'm afraid. And, even though my knowledge of a simple story could come to mean so fucking much, at the time I was concerned in remembering everything of the world my thoughts strayed to. So write I decided to do, and write I did. Until I couldn't feel my fingertips anymore and the ink mixed with blood. And through rereading my old notes, I've noticed a recurring of a lot of charac- er, people.
The black cook with an irreplaceable phobia of rats. The twin born and raised with a bad temper. The meddlesome puppies. The fearsome woman with the scar and the scorn. The old oak tree bent by destiny. The echo of a young lad stranding a childish boy in his back lids. A star raising teenage girl. And me, of course – yours truly terrified and emotionally compromised little girl, who intended to do what she couldn't in her first move.
Because, after all, this world liked to play God a lot more than my last one, and once the dices start to roll, there is no stopping fate.
.
.
your whole life in sixty seconds
.
.
Hello. If you are reading this, then all else have failed. The best outcome for that is if you came in possession of this notebook through my dying corpse, deciding to, in your free time, break the code this is written into.
In the best possible outcome, you are but an old farmer who stumbled into my decaying body and, while tending to my comatose health the best you could, found the seal on my hipbone in which this is contained by. Curious to the arts of the shinobi, you spent months trying to access your chakra to your hand in order to find out what my seal worked for.
If that is indeed the case, because then you'd have no power to use this words with, I'm sorry to say, sir, that you are an idiot.
You should've killed then burned me, because you are in no way recommended to move a shinobi's body without formal permission – and even then you have to be careful. We are paranoid superpowered people, sir, and that in itself is worrisome.
You should probably do it now anyway, because if not then a search party will find me, and thus, find my notebook. WHICH CANNOT HAPPEN. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to leave them without closure nor do I have no will to live, but if you are reading this then so will them – yeah, maybe you won't voluntary show them, but we are ninja for a reason.
Consider this my last will, if you must. Ease my misery – kill me – and burn my body along of any canine companion in the vicinity (explain later, promise). Do it now and hide this, only after the next rainfall will you open my notebook again, if you must. Please. Trust me.
Alas, if this is actually the best outcome then you will die a few days either way, with no one to share my secrets with. If this is not, then, please, pray for me, because the possibilities of what went wrong are so much fucked up it's not even funny.
I'm truly and deeply sorry for what kind of world it'll be after my notes went to the wrong hands.
If it is the kind and old farmer I'm hoping for, then you must be wondering why in the seven hells would I write a book that dangerous. (All the while looking at my immobile body and calling me a drama queen. Which, by the way, I kind of am.)
The answer, old man, is that, sometimes, you have to take risks. I confess that the idea of someone breaking my language without my help is laughable impossible for me. Portuguese – what this is called, by the way – is a hardass bitch to learn with help, and even then it takes years, but by yourself? Ha ha. Ha.
Well, old man, maybe you sort of gained the right to read everything after your effort. Congratulations.
It still doesn't change the fact that you must finish me off. Do not feel guilty over my murder, for I am in unbearable pain if my hipbone seal responded to anyone but me. You would be doing me a favor, and death does not scare me. You could never heal me enough for recovery (unless you are the Legendary Sucker = improbable). Do it (a quick stab in the heart), and if you are the kind old man I hope for, then I'll do everything I can to help you when the kiss of death steals your last breath.
Anyway, I have bottle this all up, you know? I'm currently four years old, according to my body. I didn't dare to write anything until I had a safeguard to keep this into. Funnily enough, this came into the form of my father leaving home.
I can't say I didn't see it coming.
He started to spend less time into the house, leaving early and arriving late. Us kids didn't mind so much as you probably expect. It was a gradual change, you see, so we had time to adjust. And there was so much to do that we didn't take it to heart once he said the work was keeping him busy. He had people counting on him, and since a young age we were taught to respect that.
Then eventually came the lack of arguing between father and mom. You might think it was a good thing, but it was precisely what tipped mom off. I asked only once how they fell in love, and they both said it was when they first met – they started discussing instantly. By the end of it my father had a hand imprinted in his cheek and a date. (Later that night he told my older sister he asked mom out because she looked hot when mad. Alas, he went to sleep in the couch.)
The both of them are too polar opposites and the only thing in common they have is their love of winning. So when my father simply started agreeing with mom without much fuss she knew something was off.
Then she followed him to work – which you might think of badly, sir, but she is a kunoichi, you know – and saw father laughing and conversing with another.
That same night they had their wildest and angriest row yet and father left. That happened three weeks ago.
I will not write word for word but things left unsaid were screamed at the top of their lungs and old wounds reopened. I don't think they can ever look at each other again without replaying their last discussion in their heads.
(I bet anyone in the vicinity will do the same as well. At least until the dust settles over.)
The next day mom sat all three of us down and explained everything. She said that the way he had laughed with that other woman was enough for her to know, the way his eyes sparked and that open mouthed laugh with the deep chuckle at the end – a dork's laugh, she used to say.
At that moment she knew he was in love with another, and, looking at her, I knew she was in love with him still.
She called him the bravest man she knew. My brother and sister didn't really understand what she meant, but I knew it to be true.
You see, my parents had my sister under only six months of dating and kept together ever since. I believe they grew to love each other but it was hard at the beginning. They were only eighteen, after all, and mom was as much of a kunoichi as father was a civilian.
Then six years later they had my brother and I – twins. They were wonderful raising us, even with the help from the clan. And I'm sure it could have lasted longer, but there are certain things you have to respect.
Loyalty is highly valued in my mom's clan, and mom said that the kind of betrayal father kept doing for our sakes was the worst, because he was betraying himself.
I think she could not stand by while my father destroyed everything he was and so everything she loved. His honesty was one of his strong points, according to mom, and lying to oneself is unforgivable.
All I have to say is that while my father had a lion's heart, my mom had a dog's soul.
He tried to talk with us children a few days later but mom saw him approaching us. What I gathered from the following argument is that she wanted a clean break, so we could get used to not seeing him around as much.
Not that it actually was a real problem because father was rarely home even before their shouting match.
It think it was a excuse so he'd stay away. It saddened me deeply but my father was tiring of us – all of us. I guess it was because he and mom were such contradiction forces, and while opposites attract, sometimes they do not.
I admit that my brother and I are too much of mom's kids. We didn't have the demure personality of our older sister, and I can only wonder how much father put up with because of us.
So that time when they started arguing mom was vicious. That may not have been the right way to do it, but I agree that visiting my brother constantly right now is not the way to go, since he has yet to get used to our father's absence.
Father left, livid, and mom stayed, brokenhearted.*
Nevertheless he took the care to show up when she was not around, when my brother and I were at the park by ourselves. It was awkward, especially when he started to explain himself. It happened pretty much how mom said it did.
Father said that he was sorry and that he never planned to abandon us, how he'd still love and cherish us when he was away.
Father was the first to cry, then my brother, then me.
I can't handle crying people so I just gathered them for a hug and we stayed that way for a long time, father whispering comforting and loving words all the while.
He promised he'd talk to mom to plan a visit schedule or something, along with other adult things.
The really surprising part was what my brother said at the end, just before we went home from the park.
My twin brother said that, once broken, things wouldn't go back the way they were. But we can still love the cracks left behind. So father better be happier the next time we met, with or without mate, or else we'd make him.
(He was only four. It fueled me with such pride and love for the brat. Never mind that he probably learned that lesson from our big sis after his favorite toy broke – and boy, did my brother have a potent voice.)
It was my turn to be deep and wise so I said to him that happiness never comes from betraying oneself. And sometimes changes happen, and it's okay.
(We all pretended we weren't crying again as we said our goodbyes.)
Anyway, before that whole conversation even started though, there was a super awkward pause that nobody knew what to do about. So father did the obvious thing and offered to buy our forgiveness – it wasn't how he said it, but that is the gist of it anyhow.
Now, we children had talked though, and we all agreed after much discussion (my part), yelling (my brother's), and crying (my sister's) that neither of our parents are truly to blame, life just happens. And they deserve to be happy just as much as we do.
So we didn't need to give any forgiveness but he was offering gifts. And we were children.
We said that it was okay and that he didn't need forgiveness but since he already offered presents we wouldn't allow him to take it back, he said that it was fine and he'd meet us again and then we would buy it. (Thinking about it now, it may have been a trick way to assure we'd meet again. Heh.)
We met a couple of days later, together with our mom and sister.
Our older sister asked for a jacket made from shinobi approved material (it'd last longer) and us twins promptly called it lame. Mom turned her head away to hide her snickers but we all knew she was laughing anyway.
My twin asked for – wait for it – lessons in clan techniques. There was a shocked silence and a lot of smugness in my end.
We talked about it beforehand, of course, and I stopped his ideas of buying equally lame toys. Father said anything, so there was a lot of ground to cover.
My brother wanted to be a ninja, and I'd follow him anywhere.
So we talked and decided that early lessons for him would be the best way to go. That way he'd be more prepared to the future and all that.
They sent us kiddies to buy ice cream and I'm pretty sure a roll happened, but my brother got his way. Thank god for that.
Then it was my turn to shock them even more. I asked for my hipbone seal, and a week later I got it.
(It helped that father promised, and he never breaks them. Even now.)
It responds to my chakra alone, and I'm pretty sure the reason for that is because it's a storage seal for inanimate and chackra-less objects within a set volume for usage. Not really dangerous. Or popular.
Since you are already reading this, you might want to know how you – with no shinobi training whatsoever – could use my seal. I don't see any more harm that knowing how it works may cause, certainly not more dangerous than cracking my language entails, so I'll explain it to satiate your over curious mind.
I don't know how much you know and I'm sort of tired so I'll not explain it on the tiniest details, but what you need to know is this: the seal is interconnected to my chakra network and can only unlock with a set sequence of my ying energy.
Now, in the best possible outcome, I've suffered a severe wound in one of my chakra gates, that way my chakra pathway will get fuzzy and it'll concentrate itself in healing and keeping me alive. The sort of wound needed for that is of the nastiest kinds – it'll probably never recover.
Since my chakra went to hell, my seal reset itself so now any chakra could access it – yours, for example.
Which is a shame because my ying sequence is neat.
Yeah, I'm four years old and I can already access ying energy. I'm awesome like that.
Now, speaking honestly, there are a few things I have to admit to. Which is the reason for this journal, because I'm absolutely sure I'll go insane without a way to let all of my demons roam free. At least in ink they can.
I remember living. And when I say that I mean that I remember living before this body. I remember people and history and feelings too complex to be just a dream. I remember sixteen years of it. Most of all, I remember dying.
I remember falling and then hitting a wall of water. I remember hearing the screams from my friend and I remember feeling the rush of wind.
This is the part that gets confusing.
I remember hitting otherwise soft water. I remember stripping bare of everything but my very core. I remember unyielding force. I remember feeling still and then being suffocated. I remember willing myself to push away from everything. I remember crying.
Somewhere along those lines, I discovered much later, I was reborn.
You may call me crazy, but that is what I truly believe that happened.
I think that my limbo lasted less than a moment. I hope that my friend survived. I guessed there'd be no harm in treating this as reality even if it isn't.
I think I'd be a lot more damaged if I was reborn anywhere but right here and right now.
My mother is a brash and temperamental person who loves too fiercely and hates even more so. Without her unconditional love I would have no will to survive those first couple of years.
My brother is as part of me as my past is. We belong together. His beating heart brought me back from panic a lot more times than there is stars in the sky.
My sister is the one who taught me how to live again though, she was the reason behind my sanity.
I could feel that father was unnerved by me as much as he loved me and maybe that is the reason why I never clicked with him as much as my other family members. He was the one who taught me how to read and write though, he was the one who walked me through my grieve (even if he didn't know what it truly were).
I also feel that, of all of my whole family, if I were to one day admit to being another once upon a time, he is the only one who I doubt will still stand by my side.
That is the beauty of my clan, though. It doesn't matter who you are or what you did, treat them with the same loyalty that they give you and they will never leave you behind.
They are loud and boisterous and flippant and the reason for my happiness – each and every one of them.
They were pretty proud when it was discovered that I could use my ying energy as easily as one would their own limbs.
I love it. It was what kept me alive, after all.
The one time that I asked about my birth mom gained a somber look that didn't really suit her face.
I was the first twin to be born, seven minutes before my brother. There was no crying because there was no heartbeat.
Mom said that the one minute when my heart refused to work was the most terrifying sixty seconds of her entire life.
I think this is when my soul somehow sheltered herself in this body, since the one originally here went someplace else.
There is chakra everywhere, y'know, and I don't think this body's first soul was prepared to the all encompassing energy, I think it was too much for her, she wasn't ready. Every night when I pray for my loved ones I also pray for her.
(Thank you, I hope you are happy and at peace wherever you are. I will live for the both of us.)
The crushing chakra that sent her away almost took me too, but I willed my soul (my ying energy, my very core) to expand and stop the fucking hell that was going on.
My mom and father had no qualms in naming me, unlike my siblings.
They had a bet going on in all of our births.
The first time, since a girl was born, my father had the spotlight. Him and my sister are still merciless teased about her overly girly name; Hana. The third time, a boy came and mom won the round, much to her smugness; Kiba. The second time, however, they were in agreement.
After a minute of static silence, they said I roared back to life with a pulse of vivacity.
My name is Inuzuka Taiga, old man. And I have a story of legends to tell.
.
.
Author's Notes: Hi! Thanks for giving me a shot, guys! I'm super excited about this fic because dogs. Enough said. Okay, not only that. But, hey, I've decided to try my hand at a SI fic! Whoop. ANYWAY before I start rambling, there are a few things to take notice in this chapter that are kinda important and I don't know if you realized it so I'm just gonna point it out to save us the trouble (no spoilers tho). You can skip of you want, but please read at least the first one.
.
1: The amazing cover picture was made by lailamon, check her out on deviantart! I also don't own Naruto or anything canon related. I'll just write it here once cuz it's pretty obvious and I don't think it must be repeated in every chapter – besides, I like going right to the chapter and anything worth saying will be put here in the end. I also have only watched Naruto, no Shippuden. I don't really know what will happen when we get there but I pretty much know every spoiler and whatnots that happen tho.
2: The three fist paragraphs are the full summary and the bold line is the translation of the tittle. The rest is indeed the first chapter.
3: I'm Brazilian which means that Portuguese is my mother tongue - please, forgive any mistakes that I might have done and will possibly do. Don't worry though, this fic will be written in English and if there is any Portuguese I'll just translate it somewhere - here on the side notes or in the actual chapter. The tittle is a reference to a Brazilian music called Um Minuto Para O Fim Do Mundo (One Minute To The End Of The World) by CPM22. It's pretty cool and I guess it fits so..
4: This is the first page of her diary and the story will not continue in this format, I just thought it'd be best to start this way as an introductory chapter. The next one will be in the usual form. Also, since this is her diary and her point of view, you can't take it as an absolute truth. Actually, anything in her point of view can't be taken as absolute truth because she's pretty much human (character?) and humans make mistakes. And have opinions too. Mostly.
5: Taiga, in case you don't know, means tiger in Japanese. She's the twin sister of Inuzuka Kiba and there will be repercussions. You can already see a few, like Kiba asking for early training while in canon he was always lazy about it when he was younger. This is just an example and the changes will become obvious in the following chapters.
6: When Taiga says she has a story of legends to tell, she is referring to her old – ours – world, not her possible future. The diary was made specifically so that she could be true to herself, as in not forgetting where she came from. The diary will have her new life in the ninja-verse, of course, but it'll be packed fully of knowledge of this world. Anything and everything.
7: The diary is indeed protected because she isn't dumb enough to write something like that without at least a code. Which is Portuguese because like me she's from Brazil - South America Pride, everyone! There is also the seal on her hipbone, which responds to her ying sequence alone. Her parents allowed it because it's pretty much a harmless seal, not usually used. It doesn't store anything with traces of active chakra (as in explosive tags or anything shinobi related) and there is a specifically set amount of volume it can contain. Also, they don't know what she's writing but they see her with her diary, y'know.
8: This fic is gonna be full of OCs, just so you know. I'm going to write about the Inuzuka clan and the number of human members we know about is actually four (!) so I have a lot of blanks to fill. Eventually, at least.
9: There is an asterisk (*) because the line used is a reference to a Brazilian children's song – Taiga is going to explain it later in her diary (it's not going to be in the fic tho). It's called O Cravo E A Rosa (The Gillyflower And The Rose) and it talks about this two flowers that had a fight underneath a balcony, the (male) gillyflower left, wounded, as did the (female) rose, teared apart. That's pretty much it.
.
I think there is a lot more to say about the Inuzukas in general than what the plot never cared about to portray. Poor Kiba is basically a Naruto that is not Naruto. I'm going to change that. He has a twin sister now and things are going to be different at least for him.
I skipped the baby years because they are kinda boring and angst but from now on things are going to slow down. I'll try my best to fill the cracks left from canon. I also have no idea when I'll update next. Another thing I think we should talk about is the length of this, 3131 words counted as the actual chapter; is it too much? Too little? I don't know if I'll keep this up or not, seeing as I just went with what felt right. What'cha think?
Also review, please? If you are too lazy (because I know I am) then just put a number and send it – from 0 to 10, how do you think this chapter went? For the ones of you blessed by heavens above that don't mind writing more than a number, who do you think are the characters mentioned in the summary? OCs, canon? Also, how do you think Taiga died? Are you a dog person? Hot chocolate, tea or coffee?
