I'm alive. I have some reasons, some excuses as to why I disappeared for a year. But let's get to the point.
I'm going to rewrite Glasswork. I don't like how I had it set up previously (inconsistent and full of exposition), nor do I like how I was planning for it to pan out. My writing style has also changed considerably so it would be awkward if I simply continued as well.
The old chapters have been deleted. The first two chapters of the rewritten version will cover all the plot written in the four chapters written for the previous version. It will also include new scenes and changes so it's not just a complete regurgitation of the previous plot.
I hope you like the new version! Let me know what you guys think of it. [Note: If you've commented on previous chapters of the story, FF might not let you post a new review. You can either post it as anonymous or send me an inbox. Thanks!]
Glasswork
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.
Warning: There will be M/M in future chapters.
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The academy grounds is loud, too loud.
Yamanaka Inokazu finds that he doesn't particularly understand or enjoy the excitement and enthusiasm permeating the academy grounds. The rowdy children, the chattering adults and the groaning instructors. He has his nose in a book, one a little too sophisticated for his age, frowning slightly at the screams, giggles and yells that grate his ears.
"Kazu, you should go make friends." His mother encourages him, one hand on his shoulder and one hand supporting his younger sister.
Baby little Ino squirms slightly, arms stretched for the older brother out of her reach. Kazu reaches up and meets Ino's little chubby hands with his own hand. The tiny hand wraps around his finger and a gurgle of laughter escapes Ino's mouth. He gives his mother a small smile as he pokes Ino in the cheeks slightly.
Maybe he should, make friends that is. But with an offhanded look at the rambunctious children in front of him, Kazu struggles to find the motivation. He gazes up lazily at his mother and takes in the bright smile on her face. His lips part slightly, a string of protest on the tip of his tongue, but he ends up swallowing them in favour of a brief sigh.
He makes his way to the crowd after bidding goodbye to his mother and his sister. He talks to one of the instructors standing to the side and they point him to one of the various lines of waiting children.
Make friends, his mother said, but he doesn't see anyone he wants to talk to.
They all seem ecstatic, a sentiment that Kazu doesn't share. It's almost a year since he started his training into the shinobi arts so this isn't new. His father insists that he shows talent in said arts. Kazu shrugs, indifferent.
He isn't partial to either idea - being a ninja or not being one. But his parents seem perfectly set on him becoming a ninja, as if it is the natural order of things, so he listens. It probably is, given that his father was a clan head. Not the clan head of a noble clan but a clan head nonetheless. And one with a reputation in their own field.
"The Brain, the Mind and the Conscious? What sort of book is that?"
Kazu lowers his book and looks at the girl who approaches him. She's a little taller than him, red hair tied up in two pigtails and a small smile on her face.
"It looks hard," she continues, flitting over next to him and peering at the pages. "Do you understand all this?"
"It's not that hard."
"Hmm…" she loses interest quickly. "I'm Airi. What's your name?"
Airi. No last name given means that it's likely she isn't from a clan family. Clan children always give their last name since, it's a symbol of pride and status.
"Yamanaka Inokazu."
"Huh?" Airi takes a step back and frowns at him. "You're a boy? But you look like a girl!"
He gives her a wry smile. With his long pale blonde hair, big pale emerald eyes, heart shaped face, high cheekbones and thin eyebrows, Kazu is rather used to being mistaken as a girl. "I'm not a girl."
He half expects Airi to lose interest and walk away at that point but to his surprise, she seems intrigued. She doesn't say anything but Kazu shifts uncomfortably under her scrutinising stare.
He is saved, thank the gods, when the instructors demands their attentions and asks them to get in line. Airi gives him a half wave before moving to a line three rows down. She quickly enters a conversation with the girl next to her.
Kazu wonders why she came over in the first place.
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Sorted into their classes, Kazu's other classmates find friends easily. He doesn't. It doesn't bother him much until he remembers his mother's words and he frowns. Alright, maybe it bothers him just a bit.
By the end of the day, however, he decides he'll just have to disappoint his mother. Making friends seems too hard a task for someone who actively avoids social interactions with children his age.
"I'm home." He calls out when he gets home, the front door sliding open with ease. It surprises him that the door isn't locked. His mother should still be at the flower shop with Ino. "Father? Are you home?"
Silence greets him.
Kazu notices two extra pairs of shoes at the genkan. Perhaps they have guests.
"Father?" Kazu calls out again, making his way down the corridor.
He finds them - his father and guests - later. They're in the tea room, tension thick in the hiroma, interrupted by Kazu sliding the door open. There are two men in the room and a boy.
The man that's not his father - looks way older, uglier and has a bandage over his one eye - stares at Kazu with an expression that calls him a mannerless rascal. Kazu knows him as one of the higher ranking officials of the village, he's seen the man standing with the Hokage during celebrations. Kazu's gaze is drawn to the boy in the room. He recognises the boy as part of the clan, Kazu has seen him around.
Kazu's father, Yamanaka Inoichi, looks alarmed from the other side of the room, gaze swapping quickly between Kazu and the other man.
"Sorry for intruding," Kazu finds his voice in the end, stepping back and shutting the shoji. He doesn't realise until he's back in his room and taking deep breaths that he forgot to bow.
He waits for his father to reprimand him but Inoichi doesn't mention it throughout the rest of the day. Kazu knocks on his father's door after dinner, waiting for punishment, but when he brings up the topic, Inoichi shakes his head and doesn't address it.
The topic drops.
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He struggles in his sleep that night, nightmare after nightmare washing over him. He dreams of fire, a tea shop with weird decorations that serves drinks that aren't tea, books and a large library, a metal contraption falling from the sky (how is it up in the first place?), an invisible cage - a large dome that he's stuck inside, and a girl with a sad smile. He's never seen her, but she haunts his dreams.
Tonight, she leaves his dreams with a whisper in the air. A name and a warning, but Kazu doesn't know who it is and what it is for.
He wakes up screaming with his father kneeling next to him. His fingernails dig into Inoichi's palms, fingers trembling and the tips turning white. Inoichi hands him a glass of water and he drinks it in large gulps, blinking the sweat from his eyes and ignoring the burning sensation at the back of his throat.
Inoichi asks what he dreamed about. Kazu hesitates.
A younger him would cry, spill the story to his father about the girl in his dreams and all the things that he sees from her eyes. Of a place where people fly in the sky in a metal bird, a place where technology is so advanced they have mechanical contraptions that can move and think on its own.
On the day Ino was born, the girl showed him how the village would end up in flames, of the monster that would wreak havoc on Konoha. He screamed at his parents to stop her from spouting lies but his parents only told him to calm down and go back to sleep.
"It's just a dream," they said but the comforting smiles turned to weird stares and hushed whispers less than three weeks later.
Kazu demanded an explanation from the girl when Konoha fell to the ground in the Kyuubi attack, she merely laughed and told him there's more to come.
Kazu keeps his dreams to himself since and his parents stops looking at him weirdly. They ask him about the girl in his dreams and he shakes his head and lies through his teeth, feigning ignorance. They believe him and it's almost as if she doesn't exist.
It's been two years since. She never stopped visiting.
Kazu looks up and reassures his father, telling Inoichi that it must be because it was his first day at school that he dreams about his teachers turning into giant plant monsters and spitting tests at him through huge toothed mouths. That brings out a laugh from Inoichi, it was crisp, deep and heartwarming.
It doesn't wipe away the memories of the girl and her words.
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Kazu finds himself helping his mother that weekend at the flower shop. His mother informs him about a special order and he sets off to prepare. It's an order that he's prepared various times. It used to be one bouquet, and then it became two and since a year and a half ago, three.
The bells hanging on the door chime. Kazu turns his gaze from where he is working at the counter to greet his customer. A small smile graces his lips when he sees the disheveled silver hair, lazy gaze and half a wave from Hatake Kakashi. He's a regular at the flower shop, visiting often between his missions.
"Yo, Kazu." Kakashi greets in a lazy drawl.
"Good morning, Kakashi-san. I'll get your order done soon."
Kakashi watches at the boy gets back to working, raising his hands to work on a counter that's almost as tall as him, putting together a bouquet with well practiced skill. He recalls once upon a time when, like many others Kakashi is sure, he mistook the boy for a girl. Kakashi's gaze lingers on the long lashes, the slim fingers and the loose ponytail that hangs over the boy's shoulders. It's longer than he remembers.
"You growing out your hair, Kazu?"
Kazu hums a reply, gaze not leaving the flowers. "Does it look weird?"
"No, not really."
It's quiet as Kazu puts the finishing touches to the bouquet, an accomplished twinkle in his eyes as he ties the ribbon properly. He holds out the bouquets for Kakashi to inspect.
"I really like tou-san's hair," Kazu continues, finger strands of his hair as Kakashi reaches for his wallet. "But I won't grow it that long. Kaa-chan doesn't like it, and it'll get in the way of training."
"You started at the academy?"
Kazu's face brightens at the mention and nods. "It's interesting, but it's easy. I like survival class."
"I didn't."
"Why not? The skills are interesting. We learned how to make a small trap in class the other day. For small animals."
"That's boring."
"Then teach me the interesting stuff, Kakashi-san." Kazu has a mischievous grin on his face. He takes the money from Kakashi and shoves it into the drawer. "Tou-san tells me to wait till they teach us at the academy."
"Maybe you should listen." Kakashi says before making his way out of the flower shop, "don't be too greedy."
Kazu's reply is soft, so soft that Kakashi doesn't quite catch, but he notices the difficult look in Kazu's gaze that puzzles him. It's gone quickly, a sheepish smile in its place, masking whatever was behind those sea green eyes.
"You're right. Sorry."
Kakashi lets out a sigh. "When I'm free, maybe."
Even though in Kakashi's terms, that loosely refers to 'probably never,' the smile on Kazu's face brightens like a thousand suns.
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Kazu doesn't sit alone in class but he barely talks to the people sitting next to him. The two boys fall into conversation quickly and he doesn't interrupt, focusing on the book in front of him instead. It's on the history of the shinobi nations with a large portion dedicated to the founding, history and development of Konoha, boring but informative.
It doesn't take him long before he matches the face to the name the girl told him. Shimura Danzo, the man talking to his father the other day. There isn't much recorded and nothing points to why the girl left him a warning.
Maybe she's just bluffing, but the fiery ruins of the Kyuubi attack remains fresh in his mind.
He's nudged on the side. Kazu turns to the boy sitting next to him but notices the glare from his teacher at the front of classroom. His teacher is clearly unamused at the blatantly lack of attention Kazu is paying.
"Tell me, Inokazu," he points to the diagram on the board, "what technique is this?"
Kazu studies the diagram for a while, a handseal. "It's a Katon technique, as can be told from the Tiger seal. The specific technique is the Karyuudan-no-jutsu, a basic fire release technique."
A few more handseals are added to the diagrams, his teacher pointing at it once more, expecting an answer.
"The Ryuka-no-jutsu, sensei. A C-rank technique."
His teacher concedes and moves on to the next subject, leaving some other students to stare at Kazu in awe. He shares a smile with his seatmate and tries to pay attention to class but it's boring, and things he already knows so Kazu returns to his book.
Back to the blood and the terror that was the prime of the third shinobi war.
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When lunchtime comes around, the others invite him to play at the field. Kazu declines politely and opts, instead, to venture to the sparse area of trees behind the school grounds. It's not a place many students go to, as there are more interesting places in the academy, so it provides Kazu with the peace and quiet that he prefers.
Today, his peace and quiet is interrupted. Soft footsteps alert Kazu to someone nearby but he doesn't catch a glimpse. The figure slips past him, running further into the trees and taking cover behind one of them. Kazu raises an eyebrow in confusion as he pinpoints the tree they're hiding behind and stare at it blankly.
There are more footsteps. Heavier, louder, clumsier and belonging to more than one person. He turns, gaze leaving the tree, to see three boys storming over. He's seen them around the academy, they make a big show of themselves often, but their names escape Kazu.
"Oi, you know where Itachi-sama went?" One of them asks, arrogance laced in his voice, shaking his unruly hair that resembles a lion's mane.
"Uchiha Itachi?" Kazu questions, the back of his mind figuring out the pieces. He keeps his gaze on the boys and shrugs. "No, I haven't seen him. Look somewhere else."
They regard Kazu haughtily but moves on quickly, resuming their search of Uchiha Itachi. The grass shuffle softly after they leave, Uchiha Itachi peeking from behind the tree.
"Are they gone?"
"They're gone."
"Thank you for not telling them," Itachi says, barely a smile gracing his features, aloof.
"No problem," Kazu nods in acknowledgement, eyes turning to stare in the direction where the three other boys went. "Aren't you friends?"
Itachi seems stumped at the question, his expression perplexed.
"Sorry." Kazu offers an apology. "I asked something that I shouldn't." He stands up, dusting the loose dirt from his legs, closing his book and packing up his empty bento. Itachi's gaze drops to the book in Kazu's arms.
"You…"
"Yamanaka Inokazu."
"Inokazu-san, what do you think of…" Itachi trails off, words on his lips that he's unsure if he should utter.
"Just Inokazu is fine, you're the older one." Kazu gives him a small smile, following Itachi's gaze to the book in his arms. "What I think about…war?"
Itachi nods.
Kazu lowers his gaze, struggling to formulate a proper answer. "To be honest, I don't know. I've never seen it, but I know what it does. People fight because there are things they each want to protect. And a war..." Kazu shrugs, "well, it's hard to make everyone happy. Peace comes with a price."
The following pause makes both of them uncomfortable. The afternoon sunlight filters through the leaves in thin rays, A bird chirps on a treetop somewhere. The noisy bustling of students on the other side of the school grounds is almost deafening in their silence.
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School passes without a hitch. Their first survival practice further establishes Kazu as the top of his class - if not his year. His knowledge in herbology and poisons garners him praises, perks of reading and running a florist at home.
Kazu walks straighter when he returns home, a wide smile on his face, recounting the various comments that he received about his performance in his favourite class - arguably the only class he pays attention to. His father gives him a pat on his head, his mother a wide smile and his favourite dish for dinner.
Kakashi merely snorts and continues to insist that it's useless. "I'll show you what real ninja skills are."
Kazu calls him out on the statement, makes him promise, pinky swear.
"It's a thousand needles if you lie, Kakashi-san."
"Audacious brat."
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Uchiha Itachi graduates from the academy, a decision that was apparently made quite a while ago by the higher ups. Kazu brings his first report card home the same day, showing it to both his parents. He's doing fine, more than fine, spectacular even - top of his class, a remark that his teacher makes begrudgingly.
His father takes him out for dinner as a reward and Kazu meets his Shikaku-ojisan and Choza-ojisan for the first time in a long while. Chouza invites them over for his son's birthday, Chouji turns three. Kazu gets swept up in the conversation between the three adults but loses track of it quickly.
They return home late, Inoichi half drunk and swaying in his steps but boasting a pride for his son. Kazu smiles. Surely, recognition, acceptance and acknowledgement from his father is what he wants.
It's what he tells himself.
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They turn down his request to join in kunoichi classes. He doesn't understand why not. He insists, but they don't listen.
"We know where you're coming from, Inokazu-kun," they say. Anyone with eyes that can see can, really. In fact, this particular teacher had mistaken Kazu's gender during their first class. "But it's not just as simple as just putting you in the class."
They kick him out of the office and slam the door. Kazu spends three minutes staring at the hard wood door before he gives up, turns his heels and walk away.
He doesn't bring it up to his parents, but he's under the impression his father hears about it from somewhere. When Kazu asks, once again, for Inoichi to train him in jutsu, Inoichi agrees. He's surprised, pleasantly so, but at the same time confused and suspicious as to why.
Kazu doesn't question it and goes with the flow. And thus, he begins his study into the clan techniques.
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It frustrates him, drives him crazy. There's sweat gathered on his forehead, his face flushing red, panting, determination in his eyes but yielding no results. The green orbs glaze over in exhaustion as he falls against the grass floor, completely spent.
The other night, Inoichi put Kazu through a few aptitude tests meant to determine his compatibility with Yamanaka clan techniques. The results were stellar. It, however, does not translate practically. No matter how pliable, how well he can manipulate it, how readily his mind splits, it's useless if Kazu is unable to project his consciousness outside of his mind.
He hears the disappointment in his father's tone, sees the downcast of his gaze, the slight slip of his smile. And Kazu's frustrated, so frustrated, anger and bitterness swirling, his hands gripped into fists, tugging on the grass on the ground. His other training hasn't been all that smooth, this isn't the first time he's failed, but clan techniques are special. It's different.
"Aren't you trying too hard?"
Kazu groans slightly as he sits up, staring up at none other than Kakashi. Kakashi is towering over him, leaning slightly and staring down at Kazu with his usual lazy, nonchalant expression. Kazu scowls slightly at the silver haired ninja, blowing a raspberry and takes a sip from the water bottle offered.
"You weren't at the flower shop so I asked. Your mother said you've been training." Kakashi says, shoving his now free hands into his pockets and observing the area around Kazu. The grass is impeccable other than the patch where Kazu is sitting on, it's almost immaculate and as untouched as they come. "Are you really training?"
"Not physically." Kazu raises his arms into a lazy stretch. "Tou-san was teaching me clan techniques. No luck so far."
"Wanna learn something else?"
It takes Kazu a moment to comprehend Kakashi's words, to make sure he heard it right. "For real?"
"For real."
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Watching Kakashi fight is breathtaking; the fluidity of his motions, the lack of unnecessary movements, the speed, the agility and the composure. Kazu watches in awe as Kakashi fights against his own clone. He knows it's far from Kakashi's true strength, but even like this, restrained, holding back and using only elementary techniques, it's a stunning display of skills and experience.
It takes Kazu several tries. More than several tries. He spends half the afternoon practicing the handseals and the channeling of his chakra. It's fruitful, at the very least. And he cheers, loud and jubilant, a victorious yell after all his troubles.
It's relaxing, a breath of relief as he finally succeeds in something. He's grinning uncontrollably, an expression and emotion that looks out of place on Kakashi's features that Kazu wears on his face at the moment.
"It's not a bad effort," Kakashi comments as he checks Kazu's transformation, eyebrows raised, slightly impressed. "At least it looks almost perfect appearance-wise."
"I didn't spend the last three hours staring at you for nothing."
The corner of Kakashi's lips turn up, smirking.
They stare at each other, one smirking, one grinning like an idiot.
Kazu dispels the transformation, taking a deep breath, rolling his shoulders. "Alright, next."
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They spend the entire day at the training grounds. Kakashi insists he needs a break away from Kazu by the end of the session. Kazu sticks his tongue out at the comment. It's a childish gesture and Kakashi makes sure to make another comment about it.
The fight starts with Kazu throwing a stray pebble in Kakashi's direction. A mischievous taunt, a promise of retaliation and thirty minutes later, they arrive in front of the Yamanaka estate, Kazu muddy and panting, Kakashi impeccable and bored.
"Teach me the shadow clone technique next time," Kazu says, smiling as they reach the estate gates.
Kakashi hums in reply but doesn't give a definitive answer. He's looking over his shoulder at something Kazu doesn't see, distracted, as he has been since halfway.
"Something wrong?"
"No, I just thought…" Kakashi trails off thoughtfully, pauses. He turns to Kazu and raises a hand to pet him on the head. "It's nothing. Hurry home then before your mother tells me off. I'll check back on you after my mission."
"Okay."
Kazu glances back three steps later. Kakashi is already gone.
A breeze blows, the cold wind carrying the ends of his hair. The leaves in the distance rustle softly. Kazu sighs, the taste of autumn on his tongue.