The Moon Always Shines Over Konoha
Chapter 2: Second Chances
It was buzzing and bustling all around me. I held on tight to the last flimsy bits of soothing, blissful sleep, but the noise was too intrusive to ignore.
Bothersome.
I felt warm and cosy, and for a moment pushed what had happened into the farthest corner of my mind, pretending to lounge in my bed at home. I wanted to snuggle into my blanket and grabbed for it, only for my efforts to fail fruitlessly. I just couldn't get a hold of the damned blanket!
My only option was to open my eyes and look where it had slipped to.
Fine, if I can keep the cosiness…
I opened my eyes and was met with a warmly lit room, not at all the hospital room I had expected. The warm sunlight trickled in through a kind of rice paper screen, decorated with water lilies and a flock of geese splashing in a pond. It looked to be quite high in value, even if I had no fixed price in mind. Who would have built his house in an Asian style like that? My gaze trailed to the other side where a rice paper sliding door marked the exit to the hallway, a light breeze carrying the smell of cooked food into my nostrils. Whomever this building belonged to, they certainly had a good cook. The smell was delicious.
As if by an afterthought my stomach started growling. Displeased with my own body, I looked down at myself and the sight of the short, wriggling stumps passing for legs hit me like a slap in the face.
OhnoOhnoOhnoOhno
The crash. The out-of-body-experience. The bright flash. The hospital. The giants.
My yelp of surprise must've been pretty damn loud, because only seconds later the giantess with the curly hair stood in the door frame and looked at me with wide eyes.
"Anata ga me o samashite imasu?"
What?
And before I could process anything, I was lifted up by the giantess.
"Watashi no saiai no akachan, tsuini anata wa megasamete iru!" Something warm and wet hit my cheek, and I only wanted out of the giantess' arms and back to the cosy warmth and-
It slowly dawned on me, that maybe, just maybe, the woman wasn't a giant, but I was actually small! The lack of muscle obedience, the irritating urge to grab for the flowing, chocolate brown waves of hair, the high-pitched wailing I just now realized stemmed from me as well– all of it allowed only for one conclusion to be drawn.
I was a baby once again.
I had been reborn.
Congrats to all the Buddhists, Hindus and all the other religions believing in rebirth! You can place the crown of superiority on your heads and gleefully muse about the fact that you've got it right. But gloating like that wasn't very Buddhist, so maybe just quietly revel at the thought that you've got it right from the start.
"Metcha shiawase! So, totemo shiawase!"
The woman who had brought me into this world was constantly wiping at her eyes, only interrupted by the kisses she placed all over my face. The singsong of the words sounded vaguely familiar.
I couldn't believe it. Reborn. What had I done to deserve that honour? I wasn't even religious.
"I'm too young, there's so much I want to do! I can't be alone forever, I don't want to- to-"
Maybe everything I ever had to do was - ask?
But what about my family? Mom and my brother and all of my friends! There most likely was no way to see them ever again.
A lump settled in my throat, thick tears threatening to quell up. I already missed them.
"I can't be alone forever, I don't want to- to-"
But I wasn't alone, was I? I had my new mother, who as of yet seemed to care for me deeply, judging by the salty, warm tears she was still shedding on my cheeks.
And Mom- my old mother, I resolved, my heart aching with bittersweet loss- had always warned me to be prepared for the big goodbye. "Sometimes it comes without warning. But life is sudden like that. And even if it all seems dull and grey, the change might be for the better! After all, you should always try to make the best out of every situation you find yourself in, my dear."
Maybe Mom was-had been- right. Burying my head in sorrow over a lost life and loved ones would do me absolutely zero good, and neither would it bring me back to them. Most likely.
I had to settle with the situation and make the best of it.
I looked up at my new mother's delicate features, eyes and cheeks reddened from tears, and smiled. She hitched a breath, stopping her constant flow of tears, and a gentle smile played around the corners of her mouth.
"Watashitoisshoni, sukoshidemo, anata wa kikoeru?"
The warm smile fit her new mother's petite features a lot better.
I resolved to never make my new mother cry like that ever again.
The chocolate locks bobbed up and down, when the beautiful woman that was now my mother chuckled at my incredibly impertinent stomach growling quite loudly, breaking the soothing silence between us.
"Ima, anata wa kufukudesu ka?"
What language was she speaking? It sounded distinctly Asian.
My mother exited the room –my room, apparently- and turned to follow the hallway.
Craning my neck to get a better look at everything, I could make out an extensive room, most likely a kind of living room, with a low table and seat cushions draped around it, on the wall behind it a stylized leaf framed by black borders..
If I'd had the ability to do so, I would've facepalmed just now at my own ignorance.
I'd seen the sign already in my new life, back in the hospital.
Well, that would fit the profile, with the rice paper screens, the kind of, yes, kind of familiar language and everything. I would probably have been shocked at the reveal, but being reborn kind of makes everything that usually would've pulled the rug out of under me dull and well, not shocking.
Not even being reincarnated as a child in the Hidden Leaf Village Konohagakure could quite do the trick.
Or maybe I was still in a state of shock and the full force of the revelation would hit me later on, when I least expected it.
In the meantime my new mother had reached the kitchen and sat down in a proper seiza, before pushing her lavender yukata over one shoulder and revealing her bust.
"Ima sugu shokuji o shimashou."
I recoiled at the thought of sucking on someone else's breast. No way in hell was I going to do that!
"Nani ka machigaete iru?" My new mother watched me in concern, brows all scrunched up. She pushed her bust near my mouth, inviting me to feed.
In turn I squeezed my eyes close, refusing to even look at the offending object directly in front of my face. Everything inside me fought against the awkward situation.
Or, not everything.
My traitorous stomach growled again, and after a few more moments of rebellion I postponed thinking about the madness of this situation in favour of stilling the hunger.
Cracking one eye open, I haltingly reached out and began feeding, my cheeks burning hot with embarrassment.
Ten minutes later I was finished and felt warm and kind of sleepy. My new mother had pulled the silky yukata back over her shoulder and held me close to her chest, caressing my cheek with soft hands. "Anata no otousan wa anata ga umaku iku no o mite anshin shimasu."
I fought against the tempting call of sleep, determined to stay awake and think my sudden situation through. First things first: I had apparently died and been reborn in Konohagakure, a place out of a freaking manga that shouldn't even exist in the first place (I was pointedly ignoring the fact that reincarnation in on itself had been a concept of pure fantasy for me for my entire life before I had quite literally experienced it. Could I have been reborn in, say, the Star Wars universe as well? That was an intriguing thought…). That could be good or bad, depending on what my place in this universe was. My life could be boring but safe, if I had been born into a farmer family. I could work in a tea shop if I was a civilian. Considering the evidence I had accumulated so far I either stemmed from a civilian family not short of a bob or two (the rice paper panels were painted quite expertly, and my mother's yukata was adorned by fine silk stitches forming delicate floral patterns in multiple shades of lavender), or I was part of a Shinobi family. The average Chuunin earned enough to entertain a well-decorated apartment, so Jonin and the like must be able to keep houses like the one I'd caught glimpses of on the way to the kitchen.
The distant sound of a door opening and a deep voice yelling "Tadaima!" interrupted my musings and helpfully chased the threads of tiredness away before they could lull me in and pull me under. My mother turned her head and yelled something. A moment later the kitchen door panel slid open and a tall man entered the room. It was the man from the hospital if I wasn't mistaken. His dark hair was somewhat held from falling into his face by a Konoha hitai-ate, its silver plate gleaming in the low sun light as he walked over to us.
The Shinobi life style it was for me, apparently.
My new mother turned towards him and his friendly face lit up as he beamed at us. "Kanojo wa tsuini okite iru?"
My mother nodded excitedly. "Kanojo wa kufukudattanode, watashi ni oshietekudasai!"
I really wanted to understand them now. At that thought, fear shot through me lightning fast. What if I couldn't learn Japanese? I was already twenty years old, and I'd read somewhere that people easily learned new languages until a certain age, mid-teens or something, but had a very hard time memorising the new speech pattern and everything when they'd passed that age. And I had most definitely passed that age. But I physically was a babe again, so maybe I still had that ability?
Hm, only time would tell. Until then I had to try and listen for familiar phrases and put my meagre, anime-based knowledge of Japanese to good use.
"Konichiwa, Tsuki-chan. Watashi wa anata no otousan, Takeo."
Okay, there were a few words I recognized.
The man's name apparently was Takeo, and he was my father. And if I'd understood right, I was called… Tsuki? Or Suki? Something like it, I couldn't really tell. I hadn't been an avid anime watcher per se, only indulging in it as a means of stilling the nostalgic hunger I had felt whenever I thought back to my wonderfully carefree childhood. As such, my knowledge of Japanese was limited to the most basic phrases. But I was sure I'd just now heard the word "Tsukiko" in mention of me again, so I probably was right about it being my given name. Tsukiko… I let that roll around in my mind for a few moments. Yeah, it definitely had a ring to it.
"Dou ka, kanojo o daka sete kudasai."
My mother gave me up to my new father's arms and I – Tsukiko- couldn't contain a smile.
My father was just as gorgeous as my new mother, with long, lush lashes and eyes like bottomless wells. He looked at me lovingly and placed a small kiss on my forehead.
If I got anything from those two in looks, I had to be breathtaking.
"Watashi wa kanojo ga tanjou shita toki ni kurushinde ita koto wa nandemo. Watashi wa hotondo kibou o ushinatte shimatta."
My parents- Takeo and the curly haired beauty I had to catch a name for yet, really seemed to care for me. I wondered idly if they would make me join the academy when I grew up.
My father was a Shinobi, so I was pretty much predisposed to become one eventually. It probably was for the better, because what could be worse than existing in a world where people could spit giant fireballs and jump 15 metres straight up and not develop these skills? I would probably fall over from boredom and jealousy.
My mother hugged my father from behind, whispering something in his ear, and he grinned.
"Zettai ni! Watashi wa watashi no subarashi onanoko nit suite jiman shinakereba naranai nodesu kai?"
He sounded suspiciously like a boasting Naruto, and that thought somehow warmed my heart.
My mother only smiled in return, her hand tracing his neck lightly.
I can settle with this family, I concluded, already feeling the warm tendrils of love and hope tug at my heart.
After some more caressing from my parents, I felt my eyelids begin to droop. Sleep called, and I no longer had the will power to resist it. I let my eyes close and gave in.
Author's Note
So, here's the second chapter. Eh, I like fluff, even though it's not easy to write if the protagonist is an infant and can't do anything besides passively accepting what's happening ;)
Hopefully it's not too much Japanese forced in between, but just in case, I've once again added translations. For what it's worth.
Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing. Do me a favour and review this work, so I know what I can do better/what I'm doing good right now!
Translations:
1. You're awake?
2. My darling baby, finally you're awake!
3. I'm so happy! So, so happy!
4. Stay with me now, little one, you hear?
5. Now now, are you hungry?
6. Let's get you your meal now.
7. Is something wrong?
8. Your father will be relieved to see you doing so well.
9.I'm home!
10. She's finally awake?
11. And she was hungry, let me tell you that!
12. Hello, Tsuki-chan. I'm your father, Takeo.
13. Please, let me hold her, dear.
14. I'm so happy she has recovered from- whatever it was that she suffered from at her birth. I had almost lost hope.
15. Definetly! I have to boast about my wonderful little girl, don't I?
