Shinobi Trigger

"Crono!" A woman's voice rings out.

"Time to wake up!"

Truthfully, I was awake before she was. However, the necessity of keeping my cover, I had to pretend to be a 'normal' teenager, who as a general rule, tended to need more sleep than most other age groups.

The curtains opened.

"OH! Crono! When did you get so big?"

I shrugged.

Also, according to my cover story, I was a mute.

"Oh well. Your friend, whatshername, wanted to meet you at the fair! She seems bigger than I remember, too!"

I shape my hands into an L, then a U, followed by two Cs, and lastly an A.

"Oh! That's right! Lucca! Well, you'd best get going if you want to see all the sights!"

Most would find it strange she couldn't remember her "son's" best friend's name, and think less of her for it.

I would feed those people the business end of my bokken.

You see, she has a disorder called Anterograde amnesia. Basically, she can't form new declarative memories, otherwise known as conscious memories. Basically, she could theoretically learn to play a piano, but she could never remember ever having the lessons. She has it better than some, though. Sometimes, she can go a couple of hours, even up to a day before forgetting. Some with the same affliction can't even finish a sentence before forgetting what's going on.

Nevertheless, to her, even though Lucca has been a huge part of her life for the past decade, she can't remember ever meeting her. To her, just yesterday, her son was seven years old.

And alive.

Her real son died in the same incident that caused her to develop her memory issues, which is why I feign being mute. People would ask questions if the boy who eyewitnesses saw had a heavily injured throat walking around with no issue whatsoever.

Most would think it cruel that I'm using this poor woman's tragedy against her just so I could have an alibi, and I agree. However, I'm a shinobi. I do what I have to, even if I don't like it.

Also, while I realize I am in no way being objective, and I may be telling myself this to assuage my own guilt, aren't I doing her a favor? Without me, she'd be alone. Lucca, who helps take care of her when not messing around with her own inventions or taking care of her OWN mother, would have never had any reason to meet her if it wasn't for my being here. I take care of chores, and help jog her memory during her worse moments. I'm giving her a chance to have a son back. It is I that kisses her on the cheek every morning. It is I that gives her money to live on. And it's not like she'll ever realize I'm not her son. Aren't I helping her far more than I'm hurting her?

I give her a peck on the cheek, and then pull her into a hug before heading out.

Who am I?

I am Naruto Uzumaki, Sixth Hokage. Victor of the Unification War. Some even took to calling me 'the Hurricane Emperor" before I lost it all, save for a few friends and allies.

But no one here knows that.

To them, I am Crono, dutiful mute son.

If they ever think otherwise, it's because I'm not doing my job right.

And I always do it right.

Even if I hate myself for it.

AN: Yes, yet another Sotor Spinoff. No, I'm not planning to have very many more. Just the prequel, sequel, and the sequel to that sequel to go.

Dammit.

Starting off a bit darker than usual, and hopefully this story will be a bit more action oriented, as our protaganist won't be able to do much diplomacy or trickery, his preferred methods of conflict resolution, being handicapped as he is. But don't worry, I don't plan on this being completely devoid of humor.

Psychoman's Encyclopedia aka the Enpsychopedia

BOKKEN: Wooden training sword.