A.N: This idea is adapted by the book Revolution Is Not A Dinner Party, however the situations, dialogue and personalities/OC characters are strictly from my imagination. And Naruto is from its creator.
[Background information: Communism is when every single person is committed to the government for the benefit of everyone. Food is rationed and market places are a dangerous place to be in because many people are hungry and they'd do anything for themselves and family.]
Blitzkrieg
Summary: Konohagakure is now a communist nation, and nearly everyone is suffering because of it. A rebel group is formed years after; while the storm of the angry people is brewing the government has spies that inform them. They too have a secret weapon, yet to be unleashed upon its own people.
Prologue
The soft strums of the guitar made Ino's ears bounce awake. She had accidently fell asleep next to a cold watermelon stand, it was wooden and small splinters poked out from its holes. The soft plop of snow dropped upon her nose and slid down to her upper lip. She was in the market place and the bustles of human bodies and a few animals rushed and pushed against her when she stood up and stepped forward. She elbowed her way into the other side of the market area. The open market place was stuffed and filled with people and food, the mixed smell of groceries, body odor and sea food made her cover her mouth as her hair stood on end a bit, the feel of heat made her nauseous, but she knew better than to throw up in such a overcrowded area. She could very much be dealt with by a vendor or an older pedestrian. Public spankings for children were things not to play with because the next time they went to school they were relentlessly teased. Even the teacher would cover his or her mouth with a book and utter a giggle or two.
"Meat! Fresh meat right here!!!" People called from all sorts of directions. She swaggered another step forward and came in contact with a harsh fruit seller who cursed at her in Sandionese (the village of the sand language), and shook his fist at her. Automatically she stuck her tongue out and showed her index finger (sign of disrespect in Konoha) wildly like a sailor. He had a dirty color of blonde in his overall brown hair which was short and hair cut right above his eye brows. He was younger than her, but he had the mouth of a gambler.
The feeling of squished squash erupted throughout her body, she lifted her foot and bended her knee like men do when crossing their legs as they sit. She apologized and dizzily moved forward, she only had about 3 hours sleep within her. She was late for being extremely early for the market. She felt her left breast and sighed in relief. Her ration tickets were still with her. Without her food tickets she'd go hungry, probably for 3 more days. And she couldn't afford that; her mother would scold her into next week and pinch her ears as if she were a cranky crab. Just the thought of it made Ino feel her ears. They burned to the touch and she realized that they were undergoing a weather change cold.
The sound of the guitar stole her thoughts; she went in circles before seeing the instrumentalist. He was sitting on the floor with his back to a small store; he looked pretty clean except for his socks. His shirt was a nice dark blue button up shirt and his shorts were white. She closed her eyes and imagined him in a concert with her front row. Then she slowly opened her eyes and saw him switch legs as one knee was up and the other one laid out straight.
The guitarist was very talented as he skillfully played an old Konoha melody on his instrument. She softly closed her eyes again, even though it was dangerous to do so because at anytime anything could happen when desperate people see a woman inattentive to her surroundings. The sun softly glowed upon her eyelids, causing her to see a bright orange. By the time she opened her eyes she wasn't as tired as she was before, the sun had hid again behind the clouds once more, and the man playing the guitar was looking straight at her.
A blush crept over her freckled with dirt face and her blue teal eyes adverted away from the man's onyx eyes. He scratched the side of his neck and continued to look on for awhile, almost analyzing her whole structure, he then looked around taking in the sight. He then looked back down at his guitar and continued playing. Ino then quickly went to her destination, the meat market. She didn't dare cut anyone, fearing her life she didn't push or shove either. Hurt the wrong person and you might lose your limb when people are angry mixed with hungry.
Ino was almost ¾ of a mile away from the guitarist by the time she was three people away from her food. The sky was grey and the clouds looked as if they were going to unleash a river's worth amount of rain upon them. The sun was long gone, for the past 3 days everyday looked almost exactly day before; sometimes if the people were lucky a few strokes of heat would come upon their arm or leg. The school yard children yearned for the sun and sometimes held hands and prayed that it would come out. More often it came out right away. They'd then run around playing in the heat, until they held hands again and prayed for the opposite.
The mud under Ino's bare feet made her shudder, it was cold and wormy. Her hands were numb and her legs underneath her knees were shaking and bare, the color of dirt made her legs tinted into a light brown color. Her hair had locks completely covered in either ash from being too close to the fire place, or dirt from playing or doing housework. Ino loved her hair, she treated it with care as much as she could, even when she had to trade her comb for socks. If her mother skilled it right, it looked just the same. Ino wore a thin "white" dress that looked a size too big for her, under it she wore purple shorts that looked like cut offs, but in truth had been worn out to the point of the thread being undone. Tufts of her banks hung out messily across her grime shaded skin on her forehead as the rest of her hair was tied up in a pony-tail.
She looked around and saw a big, bodily fit young man, really strapping in looks, pushing a rickshaw down the mud filled street. As he passed her, she leaned into the person in front of her as little as possible, one because she wanted to feel his skin against hers—it was mildly warm and fuzzy from the many hairs on his arm, and two because she didn't want to lean too far in on account of the adult might thump her for being too close. It was rude for children who were strangers to be clingy and close, unless they were friends of family, or family.
When it was her turn, she sharply counted her ration tickets, rubbing them thoroughly with her dirt caked slim fingers. The shop-owner didn't look curious at all as to what Ino was doing, but by no means was he allowing Ino to hold up the line. She was only trying to make sure she didn't give him too much, but he still sighed on and on, rolling his eyes and tapping his feet—the sound of it made Ino half unfocused because it made a slosh, slosh sound. He snapped his slim fingers ferociously at her, when she looked at him his face reminded of a tiger—one that looked ready to attack. She knew better than to keep him waiting, she handed him the rations on her tip toes. She quickly looked back to the guitarist as he was looking back at her. She slowly moved her attention back to her food. The man dropped the box of meat down on her thin palms mercilessly. He motioned roughly for her to move on; she turned on her heels and moved along like a rabbit.
The guitarist was now playing an old tune that reminded her suddenly of forests, river rushes, and beaches. His hair though was the thing that made her giggle with her wrist to her mouth. It was like a chicken's butt.
He was much older than she, she of 8 could only stare at him hoping that he wouldn't mind her being so interested. After all he was a teenager probably 13 or so. She waved to him quickly, and he waved back without a smile, but she smiled at him anyway.
"Ino what took you so long?" Ino's mother exhaled as she snatched the box away with a look of desperation lingering in her eyes. Ino never saw her mother take anything away from her with such avarice before. She knew it wasn't because her mother wanted it all for herself or anything.
It was for her father. He was a hard working physician in the city and he walks 3 miles to and from work every day just to put food on the table, maintain the house they live in and made sure they had clothes for winter.
"I fell asleep by accident…" Ino answered meekly, her voice was soft and quiet, her ears waited in expectation to be yelled at or at least pinched. Her mother didn't scold her because she didn't have enough time. She didn't even give her a glaring glance, she just moved with her fast fingers. Ichiro (her mother) was a weaver anyway, so it's understood that she has fast and skillful working fingers. Within minutes the bags of red raw meat was transformed into brown hardened meat. Ino tried not to make a face, because then she would most likely hear it then. So she covered her face with her dress. She liked her mother busy, it meant she didn't have time to correct and pay close attention to Ino's wrong doings.
Not that Ino was a bad child, or made mistakes to a damaging point—she just was a female, and Ichiro found it more than important to let her know the proper etiquettes which a woman should behave like. Ichiro was wearing a tan shirt, a green skirt that came a little past the end of her knees, and an apron over it. When she finished she quickly took off the apron, and set the table with the food on it. It was originally Ino's job to set the table, but Ino proved to be too young and naïve/impatient on wanting to learn where the appropriate dishes go, silverware/chopsticks go.
Ino was a free girl, she loved the wind in her hair if it's warm enough, she loved to sprawl out in the snow with a huge parka and make snow angels, and her favorite dish was orange chicken imported from Hong Kong, China; which also was her favorite place in the world, along with Tokyo.
When dinner came Ino fidgeted in her seat, rubbing the corner of her shorts to prevent herself from pondering aloud what was taking her father so long. Her mother was biting her lips not because she was exhaustedly hungry like Ino—but because she was worried that her husband had run into trouble. Their thoughts were cut short by Ino's father stepping through the door. Ino ran to go hug him and easily knocked him over half way out of the door.
He exaggerated her bear hug with a huge wince. "You got me—"Inoichi wheezed playfully, pretending to be in agonizing pain. He went on his knee like a horse; Ino went on his back and they played horse and rider until Ino's mother cleared her throat loudly. She tapped her foot, waiting to hear his explanation for making her worry and coming back so late. Though she did not verbally say this he could read her well.
"Sorry Ichiro, I had a late patient I had to attend to." He smiled, Ino's eyes widened as she noticed he smiled like a fox whenever he was in trouble with her mother. Ino's mother sighed in relief and confusion. Ichiro tells him almost daily no patient is more important than family; but it's the code of every kind and great physician/Ninja to treat every single patient that needs it.
The baby began to fuss and cry in his seat until his father picked him up.
"Ryo, how are you, huh? How's my little man?" Inoichi cooed bringing his face up close to the baby's, Ino smiled and tried to go on her father's back again, but her mother pulled her away.
"Eat. Now." She said landing Ino on the floor in front of the kitchen table, Ino wanted to rub her butt, but it would show she was weak and she wanted her father to see how much she's grown since they stopped training. Her mother quickly grabbed her father's plate, swept up a big piece of meat with one movement of the chopsticks and perfectly aimed it inside his mouth as he caught it.
"You too, here." She said brushing his body with the plate aggressively—her eyes were dark brown, but in the lighter brown you could see the fire of determination burning through and through, he grinned again. She took her time feeding the baby his mashed rice with vegetables and fruit.
"He's full." Her father intervened childishly when the baby began to cry again; he said this playfully just to state the obvious. She gave him an I-know-that-look. Ino giggled. Her mother turned her attention to her and pointed the chopsticks at her plate. Ino stopped laughing and began to eat. She looked at her green peas without disdain, they were the only things left to an empty plate. She wasn't hungry any more but she didn't like the idea of an empty plate. She began to soccer it across the porcelain plate. Her mother's mouth opened to talk to Ino about playing with her food, but the sound of chop sticks hitting the plate startled her. It was from Ino's father. He had his own plate—a plate of worry plastered across his face.
"Ichiro…where's is your plate?" He said softly, Ino's mother looked him straight in the eyes with confidence. She shifted in her seat, straightened her back and slightly moved her pony tail strands that drifted on her shirt, back and cleared her throat. Ino almost rolled her eyes; in case she did she used the tea kettle to hide her face. After a moment she looked at her mom, thinking of how perfect she is. And beautiful too.
"The family is more important; now please eat quickly so you can rest." She said motioning for him to hurry. Ino felt a ping of disappointment; she wanted to play a bit more with her father. She fought back tears; her father's words changed her thoughts.
"You know that you should be eating very well. Preserving food for us isn't worth going hungry." Inoichi said with a small bit of wisdom lingering in his once playful and bashful voice. Ino stared at her father as if he was a totally different person.
"You know very well that Ino's growing so she has to eat, the baby is as well—and you have to support us, so going without food isn't going to hurt a bit." She rebutted courageously, her father looked almost defeated. She cleared her throat and turned back to Ino.
"Eat that up, your showering today." Her mother's words hit Ino's ears like lithe flower dances.
"Really?" Ino perked up with her eyes at her mother, and then down at her plate, she was beaming as she quickly tossed the green peas in her mouth. Nearly swallowing it she thought of how it has been weeks, almost into months of when her last shower was. Showering was rare in Konoha, even rarer was warm water showers. Every day Ino was able to take warm showers until last year, then it turned cold then it was paced out to every so often.
Ino bit her lip to hide her excitement, her feet pounded the floor, and she turned to her father happily. He wasn't looking at her; he was looking to the side as if he was thinking. Her mother was looking at him and sighed.
"Love, I'm sorry, I'll eat alright. Just stop fretting, and I don't want you worrying either. I'll have you know I've been doing a good job since you picked up more hours." Ichiro beamed pointing her thumb to her torso in delight. Ino thought of her like a teenager, and how once again gorgeous she looked. He turned his head slightly enough to look at her, he smiled a bit. Ino went to go put her plate away and start the stove to heat the water. She skipped back to the table to collect the other plates. She felt like being extra nice to her mother today so she washed the dishes, and came back to enjoy her father's company.
"I heard you went to the market place today, well aren't you all grown up?" Inoichi said patting his lap; Ino went over to sit on it as she smiled up at him. Ichiro undid her French braids and let her hair flow. Ino looked at her father and he was smiling at her mother, Ichiro rolled her eyes, smiling and shaking her head as she went into the kitchen to make sure the water didn't get too hot.
"Yup, and I did really well, I got the meat and came right home." She said proudly, her father nodded. "That's good, really, really good. Say let's surprise your mother. Tomorrow I'm getting off work 3 hours later so I need you to shh alright? Be good, corn is at the market on Thursday which is when I usually get my bonus. Alright so shh, remember?" He said putting his index finger to his mouth when he said "shh". Ino put her index and thumb together and locked her mouth.
Her father smiled like a fox again and they began to chat. A sound came out of the kitchen, like someone remembering something.
Ichiro came out of the kitchen quickly with her hands together; it looked as if she was a child with something to just blurt out."I forgot to tell you, but a huge client came into the shop today. He was wondering if we sold wild roses (scarce in Konoha), he's willing to pay well over a thousand dollars for 30 of them!" She said happily, Inoichi smiled back at her.
{In the courts of the apartment complexes, near the gardens}
The sound of a meaty hand coming against the soft flesh of a child (not Ino) forced the mother of the child to shiver inside. But, she dared not move to show her horror; she turned her face away and griped her fists.
"Apologize, now!" Cried the angry man, as he talked a chunk of spit flew and landed on the red mark that showed the evidence of abuse on the child's face.
"No…" Muttered the child through swollen cheeks, her mother gasped beginning to shake in fear. The child's face had been away to the side, but she looked straight at her assailant.
"I will never apologize!" The child shouted at the more than capable of throwing her in jail man with a bold look of fearlessness. The man grunted in anger, and spit out the tobacco in his mouth, and puffed his cigar one more time furiously. He snapped his fingers and the two men behind him grabbed the child by the arms and lifted her into the air.
The man's name was Harutoshi Gameda, one of the council member's biggest achievers and workers. He moved a step forward to the child, and cupped her chin.
"Say good-bye to your father if you do no apologize now." The man said remarkable with calmness in his tone of voice.
"I don't have a father—so good luck to you on that." The child lied easily, her mother's eyes widened and she froze in shock. The man stopped and thought for a moment, and turned to the mother, who gripped a blue scarf with everything she had.
"Then your mother." He said coldly, the child looked as if he had struck her again, this time with an iron rod.
"I'm sorry." She said loudly, the man looked contempt, he snapped his fingers again.
"The next time you step on my shoes and call me a murderer, be assured that your mother will deal with her upbringing of such an audacious little girl." The man said moving along. The mother dashed to her daughter bringing her to the floor in a hug.
"Sakura what were you thinking? If he had found out that you do have a father? Be careful and respectful no matter what." Her mother said, her words sunk like a ship in quick sand to Sakura's mind.
"I don't know, but when I was younger, there was none of this "NO," thing going on." Itachi muttered loudly as he lay upon the couch in boredom flipping through channels. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his older brother and set down the guitar he was playing. He had a light show of drizzled rain on his shirt; he swung it off of him, showing off his tanned and broad chest. He exhaustedly sat in the chair, thinking about what his older brother had said. Last night a fight erupted from his father and him about Sasuke's future career choice. Sasuke by no means wanted to be a musician like he was good at, nor a farmer that his father him wanted to become, police force…maybe, but definitely not the other two.
"I'm just saying that the belt would have come faster across my face than I could get out the "N" (in "No") or the face to even dare disagree." Itachi said letting the television rest on a cartoon channel. Sasuke had to fight the urge to tell him it was because father knew that Itachi would take after the ANBU like him, but Sasuke would have to either join or find something else. But, he kept quiet; he knew how much Itachi disliked how little voice he had in the family career choice.
"I mean, even mom was behind you; she would've slapped me so hard." Itachi carried on, Sasuke opened his mouth to defend himself, but the sound of the cat coming in through the sliding door stopped him. Ayoko, the cat strolled across the room with luxury.
His father came in from behind the couch; the two boys rose quickly bowed and kept a keen eye on his expression. Sasuke slowly took his eyes off of his father, picking up his guitar, strumming it softly. His father closed his eyes, and listened to Sasuke's playing; Itachi couldn't help but feel a ping of jealousy. If that had been him, without a doubt his father would accuse him of wasting his time—but the second born was doing it, so it was a beautiful use of time.
"Have you reached your decision yet, son?" Fugaku asked opening his eyes and meeting the determined pair of eyes that belonged to Sasuke Uchiha. It had a deep sense of seriousness; in fact it was fearless concentration that bore into Fugaku Uchiha from the eyes of his own son.
Itachi moved uncomfortably in his seat, biting the bottom of his lip.
"No." Sasuke said abruptly, Itachi breathed out he realized he hadn't been breathing. The tense moment passed as Sasuke's father left.
Neji Hyuuga sat under the oak tree deep in thought; he knew moments later that his head would be washed in water. And moments later it did, it was like soothing rain, most likely because it was water from a bucket over his head. His younger cousin Hanabi and he had a previous challenge. That if she could eat more food than him she'd be able to douse him in water, if he ate more than her, she'd leave him alone during his practices except if she had a problem.
Neji had purposefully eaten less than her, she was a young girl and food was scarcer than ever, she'd need it more than him. Neji had always been a small eater; he just didn't eat to fill himself, which was his preference. He ate a diet of vegetables, fruit and rice. Hanabi was a candy eater, whenever her father came back from a trip; she always waited at least 30 minutes before asking for candy.
But, today had been different, when his uncle came in, she only greeted him, asked him about his adventure and thirty minutes was practicing her skills. It didn't take a child prodigy to tell that he was upset; he had a pen in his hand, but hadn't written anything for hours. It teetered back and forth upon his fingers, but he never gripped it to actually write anything. Hinata was at her aunt's house about 3/4ths a mile away for something so that left Neji to take care of Hanabi.
Neji wasn't one to be dismal about not eating; he liked to eat, but if his cousin needed it more he'd be fine with sharing or giving his plate.