I've got some damn bad intentions
I got some secrets I forgot to mention
Haven't learned my lesson
After saying goodbye to the girls, and any other person who looked my way, I headed home. I followed the same route that I took to get here and in less than twenty minutes I stood in front of the large house that I should, and would, have to call home.
It was much larger than most of the houses I've seen along the way, in the more nicer houses at the shinobi district (which I concluded after seeing the various ninja coming in and out of the nearby homes and complexes).
I set myself out to figure out more of my "family" history later on tonight, since mother seemed far too unique looking to be a common ninja.
Especially when she gave off an air of the elite around her.
"I'm home!" I yelled out after shucking my sandals off.
"Welcome back." Came the cool tone of my new mother.
I followed her voice until I was in a room that looked much like an office. Stacks of paperwork were piled around as bookcases lined the walls. Tsuki was hunched over a table, scribbling furiously on an already ink ridden sheet of paper.
My eyes wandered around more, taking in the smaller details of the room like escape exits and fire hazards as I waited patiently for her to finish her work.
A sigh came out of her lips before putting the ink brush down. She placed both hands on the table (subconsciously showing that she's without weapons?) before turning to me.
"How was your school work today, Hiroki-kun?" She breathed out. Faint creases along her brow told me she must have brought home her work and it wasn't some agenda she was filling out earlier.
"It was really good. I made two new friends." I started carefully, not wanting to come off as too excited since she looked like she didn't want some kid screaming at her right now.
Even if it was her own.
"I am glad to hear that." She smiled tiredly at me anyway, though her voice hinted that she was silently relieved that her quiet boy was breaking out of his shell. "What are their names?"
"Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura." At the first name, the lilac haired woman widened her eyes incrementally.
It took a bit for her to collect her thoughts, apparently not one to stammer or stutter.
"...They are nice girls." She decided to to say.
If you're voice could go anymore monotone, I'd actually start worrying for you, Mom, I thought, amused at her expense.
I knew that she wouldn't have expected me to befriend two girls, let alone one whose father was the head of T&I. It's why I particularly said Ino's name first, to judge her reaction.
From what I could tell, Mother Dear knew exactly who she was, or at least Inoichi.
"Yeah! They really are! I offered to share some of my lunch by the way." I shyly confessed, pulling off the abashed school child look pretty well if I do say so myself.
"That is fine, Hiroki-kun. Just remember to eat your own lunch."
Just as she was about to dismiss me, I raised my own voice, "Kaa-san, do you mind if I look through our clan records? I want to know more about it since so many of the other kids wear their clan symbols."
At my request, the lilac haired woman darted her eyes around the room, looking for something.
Strange.
"The other kids should be none of your concern when relating to our clan, young man." She bit out, her words terse and reminiscent of the way she spoke that morning.
"If you would truly like to learn about our clan history, ask me again at another time. It's far too late for it, since our clan goes back to quite a few generations. There is still work for me to do as well." She readjusted herself into her seat, picking up the ink brush once more before shifting only her eyes at me.
Pitch black darkness met deep chocolate depths.
"Make sure you eat dinner. Your father stored the leftovers in the fridge."
By the time Dad came home, the sun had already set, I'd eaten dinner and just finished the worksheets Iruka had given to our class as homework.
Mainly just a review sheet that went over the various forms of chakra and its practical uses.
When you've watched people create pocket dimensions and summon giant snakes though, learning the technical aspect of using chakra to dust off dirt was grew to be very boring.
"Welcome back, Tou-san!" I exclaimed as I met Hibiki near the door. The man looked just as tired as Tsuki did, if only a little less frazzled.
"Glad to be back, Hiroki-kun." He answers back. Effortlessly, he wrapped a strong arm around my waist and lifted me as I peeped at the sudden loss of contact from the floor to my feet.
Being a child made heights seem exponentially larger, especially when your father was easily over 190 centimeters tall.
"Put me down! Let me go!" I immediately started pounding my hands on his shoulder after getting over my shock.
"Boys shouldn't scream like that just because they get picked up, son!" His laugh boomed and vibrated through me since I was being held right by his abdomen.
Despite his attempt at liveliness, a frown threatened to ghost over my features. Hearing Hibiki tell me that, as a boy, I shouldn't react to being picked up made me a little upset.
Does screaming at being picked up not make me a boy? Does it make me a girl, then?
Technically, I am a boy, but I still felt that I was- am- a full grown woman.
In my first life, I had been willfully ignorant. I ignored things like feminism and the PoC movement among other ideals that contrasted mine or that I didn't understand. When people had called me out of it, I used my sharp tongue and sharper wits to bite them back harder than they probably deserved.
When I had hurt people's feelings, I knew. I just didn't care.
I mean, I still don't care now I just wanted to remind myself on what kind of person I was before.
Anyways, the main point was that I regret at least not learning more about gender and sexuality and all that because now I'm literally stuck between two genders since my biological sex completely contradicts with my previous one.
When stuck with two decisions, I always liked to weigh the pro and cons of each to help me.
Pros of being a boy: Generally looked upon better in the world, higher pay, and in the Naruto world, have all the cool jutsus and arguably always stronger than their female counterparts.
Cons of being a boy: Faced with other boys who become freakishly strong, sudden and uncontrollable boners, and thrust upon with a sad backstory.
Alright then, boy it is, I thought decidedly after seeing the clear advantages of being a boy in this world.
I can always get stronger, I'm shameless enough that I don't care about unexpected boners and I've already died once.
There, all the cons solved.
Now what does it even mean to be a boy? I already biologically am one. I'm guessing it has to do with mentality.
What do boys think of? Better yet, what do men think about?
Sex, power, and camaraderie, my mind procured.
I already think about those things, well, except for that last one but two out of three is pretty good.
I like sex. Sex is fun.
Power is great, sometimes even better than sex because of the rush and comfort it gives you.
What's another part of being a boy...sexuality? I'm not that ignorant to think that all boys should like girls but I assume that in all of Kishimoto's straight, canon marriages later in the series (which I did check out before falling out of the manga entirely) there was no official gay couple.
I could make it happen, I thought naughtily. I could make everything happen.
Kuroda Hibiki took his son's sudden smile to mean that he was enjoying being carried around by his Dad, just like the good old days. Especially when the boy let out a laughter, despite how maniacal and mastermind-y it had sounded.
It was nice to see his son back to his old spirited self, Hibiki thought.
Word about my time with Sakura and Ino spread around the Academy.
"Ino said he's better looking than Sasuke, if you look close enough."
"No way!"
"He has a heart of gold, that's what Sakura told Mei who told me!"
"Really?"
"Why haven't we noticed him before?"
That was the defining question that stirred the masses of children. Kuroda Hiroki, who must have enrolled the same time as they did, who was the same age and came from the same village, was something like an enigma.
...Or more like a weed, sprouting up randomly where it didn't belong. At least that's what I felt like. In a body that wasn't technically mine and in a world that I very clearly didn't belong in.
But weeds do this funny little thing, where if you allow them to let loose and ignore them because they seem harmless, they end up overrunning your entire garden. Suffocating the other plants and flowers and claiming the dominion theirs.
So I guess I could be accurately described as a weed, in my eyes. Even if the girls kept calling me one of their flower boys or whatever.
It began slowly, with a few of Ino's friends/groupies joining our little lunch sessions. Sakura had been put off a little but I didn't allow that to deter her, always greeting her first when we meet.
I'm almost completely certain she lords that over Ino at any chance she gets.
Then, in complete opposite of what it had been, like a damn finally breaking loose after there were too many pesky holes to fill, a crowd of girls hovered around me during lunch.
Then they hovered around me during class.
And after that they waited for me before school began and waved me off as I left to go home.
It would have been pretty suffocating if not for the fact that I revelled in attention, good or bad.
Or in this case, healthy or obsessively.
I recognized many of the girls from Sasuke's "fanclub" now in my own crowd, having converted them entirely- or at least as much as I could with the Uchiha around- to fawn over me.
As if I was some kind of great deity, it was like being worshipped. Granted, my followers were young girls with the emotional maturity of a rock but followers nonetheless.
And I was grateful for them, I truly was. I never let them forget that.
Constantly I showered the girls with praises and sweet smiles, doing the utmost to prevent myself from coming off as fake.
I built my image around being that shy boy that hid behind his lilac curls who, in actuality, was a sweet, loving boy filled with charm and cuteness.
There were a few, occasional questioning glances from some of the children and adults that wondered about my persona change but I quickly remedied that by flashing a bright smile or chatting them up.
Honestly, it felt as if I was back to being that seventeen year old who snuck into a gentlemen's club meeting and scored a jackpot of perverts wanting to feel up an underage.
I still remembered all the fun I had buying shit with the money they gave me to keep quiet. Oh, the memories.
Then the inevitable day came. It was a Tuesday when I had decided I was, intermittently, bored. Not from the fawning and fandom, but from having to use the same tricks on the same kind of people. So, I decided to set my sights on a new type of game.
One with cropped hair, pale eyes, and a stutter like no other: Hyuuga Hinata.
I already knew about her developing crush on the Kyuubi kid, and I personally didn't want to interfere with that, so I went to her with the intentions of platonic friendship.
The girl was kneeling down by a tree, patting down a mound of dirt beneath her hands. I was able to shake off the fangirls with a smile and went to speak with Hinata.
"Hi, Hinata-san." I greeted with a smile, standing in front of the girl.
She didn't even see me approach her, if the flinch she just did proved anything. Her pale, pearly eyes slowly lifted their way to mines as she stuttered out, "H-hello, Kuroda-san."
"You can call me Hiroki. The other girls already do, so it's fine." I gave a lopsided smile, not overly bright or particularly alluring, I think, but just enough to show the girl that I wasn't here to be mean or anything.
At least, not in the way she's used to.
Hinata nodded her head at my suggestion, blue-black locks bobbing along. It was pretty cute along with her shy personality.
She grew up hot as hell too, I thought passingly.
"Can I join you?" I asked as I motioned the space in front of her. Again, she nodded in response.
I shuffled my way onto my knees until I realized that it probably looked too feminine, mirroring the same posture that Hinata, an heiress, held. So I got off my haunches and then crossed my legs instead, grimacing the whole time.
Finally, after getting myself situated, I looked down at what the girl was doing. The mound of dirt she was packing actually held a few leaves under it, as evidenced by the green tips poking out of the rubble.
"Are you burying leaves?" I asked, poking at the mound.
"Y-yes, I was. Ah, um, it helps with my w-worries."
I raised a brow as she explained herself, wondering what worries meant. I thought she was just engaging in some nihilism towards her country, burying the leaf as some kind of symbol for the Leaf Village.
Then again, Hinata was, or will always be, a "good" girl. Married the main character, even!
"What worries, if you mind me asking?" I looked into her eyes, the ones that were a step lighter than my own hair color. When she realized I was staring at her, her eyes widened even more, giving her a doe-eyed effect.
So cute, I thought offhandedly, Fuck it, I'm gonna make her my girlfriend. Might as well solidify my heterosexuality for dear old Dad.
"N-no, I don't mind at a-all!" She closed her eyes and turned her head side to side wildly.
We were like six, did they even know what a girlfriend is? Oh well, I'll just act as if I don't know. Just wait until you see the look on the fangirls' faces when they find out who my "special somebody" is.
I held back a snigger as Hinata continued.
"My O-otou-sama has high expectations for m-me, so I get a bit worried." She looked away, hands clutching the ground below. "B-but that is fine, since I can always b-bury my worries but I cannot bury my duty. T-that is what Otou-sama s-says."
Wow. Hiashi was hitting his daughter with the hard facts of the world at the tender age of six years and few months.
Admittedly, I agreed somewhat with Hiashi's teachings. There were numerous ways you could bury your worries, like with drinking or drugging. Some duties, like being the President or something equally important isn't something you can put away and ignore, however. But this doesn't account for all things, so Hiashi was only partly correct.
I held my tongue and didn't relay that to Hinata however, instead I grabbed her hand gently with my own before saying, "That's really wise of you to remember. Can I tell you something about me, too?"
The dark haired girl looked at our joined hands before staring up at me with a flushed face, "W-what, Kuroda-san?"
I squeezed her hand, "It's Hiroki." I said quickly. "I, the truth is, Hinata, is that I really like you. I think you're different from the other girls."
The Hyuuga girl passed out at the right time, as a hoard of my fangirls loomed over us and screeched and screamed,
"WHAT?!"
Sasuke looked up towards the loud noise he had heard from the other side of the field they were released into. Seeing the crowd of girls- who once crowded himself on days like these- he knew exactly what the cause of their trigger was.
It all revolved around Kuroda Hiroki now, for them. Everything he did or said was followed with the same kind of focus that was pointed at him just a few days back.
Strange and outlandish was the kind of obsession- or love as they called it- they held for boys like him. If only they used their attentions for actual training or studying.
But then again, the Uchiha didn't really care anyways. None of them factored into his plans so they were as important to him as the passing scenery.
He only knew that he was glad that they were off his back. In fact, he felt slightly indebted to the Kuroda boy for pulling the girls' attention away from the last Uchiha and onto himself.
If it wasn't for the constant mob of girls around him, Sasuke would have approached him earlier and thanked him with a proper "Hn.".
For now, a meaningful nod was all he could offer as they occasionally passed each other in class.
Akamaru was yipping at the crowd of girls that had gathered this morning at the front gates. Kiba hoisted the small pup into his large jacket and began to push through the throng of children to get inside the Academy.
"Hey, move out of the way!"
"Filthy mutt!"
"Where's Hiroki-cchi!"
The ringing between Kiba's ears because of the crowd's screeching didn't go away until he was safely tucked into his desk inside the building.
The small, white puppy leaped out from his jacket and whined as it rubbed the backs of its ears.
"Those girls are the absolute worst!" The Inuzuka complained to his friends, a Nara and Akimichi.
"They were troublesome before, but I think they are even more so now that they've found something new to gush about." Shikamaru agreed lazily from where he was laying his head on the table.
Chouji said something around the smack of his lips, voice muffled by the snacks still in his mouth.
"It's all that Hiroku guy's fault! Or whatever his name was!" Kiba whined out more.
From behind them, a voice spoke, "It's Hiroki. And I deeply apologize for all the ruckus those girls cause everyday. I can't control them anymore than Sasuke did."
Kiba sputtered out, embarrassed from the boy's sudden appearance. Chouji choked on his snacks because of the surprise and even Shikamaru lifted his head to look at the boy.
"I don't have much to offer right now, but perhaps my dessert is okay as apology?" The lilac haired boy dug out a pack of pudding and a few spoons, strangely prepared as if he was expecting to give away his food.
"I don't particularly like sweets, so it's fine if you take it. Sorry again!" And with that final apology, the boy left as quickly and silently as he had come.
The three remaining boys blinked at the three pudding cups.
"Well, I like him already!" Chouji exclaimed, breaking the silence. He reached for one of the cups and spoons and immediately started digging in.
Mmm, vanilla-chocolate swirl.
Inoichi had a nagging feeling of the boy his beloved daughter was spouting nonsense about all week.
When another name other than the Uchiha child left Ino's mouth, the blonde haired man instantly knew something had changed.
Young girls were expected to have crushes and all that, but to go from an absolute obsession from one boy to another was, well, unexpected.
Even more strange was that Tsuki, someone he only had brief meetings with by way of coincidence, came up to and talked to him.
Their conversation went something like this:
"Yamanaka-san, I heard about your daughter's friendship with my son." Tsuki had stopped him after he had dropped off some paperwork to the Hokage's office.
"Ah, yes, my Ino-chan was very taken with your boy. He must have been truly charming." He answered back politely. The lilac woman gave a small smile in turn before nodding her head in agreement and voicing her leave.
The whole encounter was ominous at best and he always felt a little on edge around the Kuroda woman, despite her loyalty to this village.
Now her son is giving him the heebie jeebies and he hasn't even met the boy.
So when he asked his daughter if he could speak with the boy, he is met with a vehement, "No! You'll just embarrass me like usual!"
"What do you mean, as usual, Ino-chan! I just want to meet him!"
"I'll only ask him to walk me home and you talk to him outside, then! And you interrogate him for only five minutes, no more than that!" The smaller blonde screeched before slamming her door at his face.
Five minutes was more than enough, thought the ponytailed man.
"Hello, Yamanaka-san. Ino-chan told me you had wanted to speak with me?" The little blip of a boy asked with hesitance.
Either he truly was the innocent, pure child he made himself out to be, or he wasn't. Inoichi just wanted to find out, for his daughter's sake.
"I heard you were close with many of the girls in the Academy?"
"Ah, not exactly. I know all of their names but I'm afraid they idolize me too much to see me as more than an object of admiration." The boy scratched the back of his head sheepishly, as if the other girls' frenzied feelings were a fault of his own.
Seeing that the boy held humility, obviously not letting the fangirls go to his head but being polite enough not to shoo them away- or as the Uchiha did, disdainfully endure them- Inochi decided he was a decent kid.
"Oh, that's nothing you should worry about. I can certainly see why they idolize you, being so kind and humble to accept a request of an old man wanting to chat."
"You aren't that old Yamanaka-san! I actually think you're pretty cool!"
Not bad, not bad at all.
I waited until Tsuki left the office room to go back in and look through the various books and scrolls.
She had left after getting a message from a hawk that perched on the windowsill of the room, apparently having to rush since it was something of importance.
"Jounin business." Hibiki breathed out after asking him where Tsuki went. Though I could guess that Mom was anything but a regular jounin doing "jounin business".
Hibiki then went out to get some groceries to stock the fridge for this week's food and I took my chance with an empty house all to myself.
Not to masturbate, mind you. It seems I'm still too young to be having those kind of hormones influencing my decisions just yet, and I'm actually pretty thankful for that.
It's kind of freeing to be able to appreciate people for their looks and personality without having the ulterior feelings of lust hidden beneath. But I'll know those kind of worries will crop back up at a later age, and I'll be rightfully amused when, or if, Tsuki and Hibiki give me the talk about the "birds and bees".
A small giggle erupted from my lips as I allowed myself to laugh at my own musings now that I was alone. The sound was airy and high pitched, enough that my gender was ambiguous if you had to go off the sound of my laughter alone.
I was about twenty minutes in of digging through a stack with records of the Kuroda clan- just a bunch of names, birth dates, etc. of people who didn't even have a picture- when I found something that caught my attention.
The dusty manuscript, leather bound and held with slightly rotted twine, read: Kuroda Clan, A Bloody History.
Just as I was about to open the the dirty thing, Tsuki's sharp voice cut in.
"What do you think you are doing, young man?"
I've since learned that she called me Young Man whenever she was irritated, angry, or stressed. It wasn't a name that held much affectionate endearment, but something like a reprimand.
Deciding not to skirt around the topic, I answered, "Kuroda Clan, A Bloody History? What does that mean, Kaa-san?"
I tilted my head to add to my confusion.
"It seems the time to answer your earlier questions from that night has come. Let Kaa-san make some tea, then join me in the living room. I will tell you all about it, then."
After settling in on one side of the couch, snuggled between two throw pillows, Tsuki sat near me with two slightly, steaming mugs of tea.
She handed me mines as she took a sip from hers.
The small bitterness from the green tea was a welcomed warmth. Konoha was already in its autumn months and the days are only getting colder.
"Your right dictates that you should know about our clan and its kekkei genkai."
Oh this has to be good, I thought deviously. I just hoped the kekkei genkai wasn't something thing useless.
"Kekkei genkai?" I repeated, clutching the warm mug between my two hands.
"Kekkei genkai is are bloodline limits that are passed down from generation to generation. They are abilities that cannot be copied and are specific to one's own clan.
For the Kuroda clan, ours is one that has left behind a trail of blood in its wake. Some aspects of it, I am ashamed to be able to use, but you must accept your kekkei genkai or it will consume you."
I listened only half heartedly at her warning, only wanting her to get on with it and tell me what this kickass "bloody" ability I could do and what I could do with it.
I nodded along to pretend I was invested.
She continued with a grim line on her face, "Our specific kekkei genkai deals entirely with blood. Hence the name of that manuscript. Generations ago, and Hiroki-kun I mean generations, the founding member of our clan figured out how to manipulate the water in our blood. This was during a time where chakra and jutsu was not common knowledge. When the five common elements were the only things our ancestors knew how to use and understand.
Our clan has a water affinity because of the founding member, and from there our kekkei genkai branched out towards its later generations. Carried through our blood, we have the power to turn others into these living puppets. One we can bend on our own will alone."
As she continued her explanation my face grew more and more dead panned by the second.
Bloodbending, then. Our kekkei genkai was bloodbending. Like in Avatar: the Last Airbender.
It could have been worse, I guess. Could've been stuck with a shitty animal transformation or a rehashed Sharingan.
Tsuki took my falling face as a sign of my discomfort.
"But our kekkei genkai is not so horrible to take command of a person entirely. They are still fully conscious and have their own consciousness still intact, it is just that their will is no longer their own. It is replaced with ours instead."
She offered a small smile and placed a dainty hand on my knee.
Logically, I knew that it wasn't all that comforting since our victims are essentially watching their bodies twist and move in ways they don't want it to.
I've seen a few episodes of ATLA. I know what kind of damage bloodbending could do.
Tsuki was trying her best, though, in the only way she knew how. Which was to explain that our kekkei genkai didn't take anyone's humanity or anything, which was fine with me.
My own cold, little heart thrummed a little at her display of consoling me.
"We have a water affinity? Don't people from Konoha usually have a fire affinity?" I inquired after she removed her hand from my knee. I missed the warmth, if only a little.
"Hm." She grunted out, eyes darting around as they had before. The lilac haired woman let a sigh out, "Our clan is originally from Kirigakure, The Land Hidden in the Mist. We were taken in as one of the 'war spoils' that Konoha requested after the second war. That is, me and your grandmother. She died before you were born but she really should have been explaining this all to you instead of me." Tsuki mumbled that last bit to herself with a frown.
Damn, I missed my chance in Kiri by a war and half it seems.
"Is Tou-san from here, then?"
"I sure am!" A booming voice resounded from the doorway of the living room. Hibiki was holding three plastic bags of groceries in each hand but was shining a smile at both of us.
"It's nice to see my two favorite people chatting it up, even without me, but could you two help me out away the groceries?"
A simple thing like putting away groceries turned into something like a game, where me and Hibiki raced to see who could put away things faster while Tsuki cheered and egged us on simultaneously.
The Kuroda family was a nice one, I decided. Even if I have to pretend around them, they were good parents and seemed to be decent people.
It was why there was only a small beat of regret in my heart for the future plans I held, which ultimately, didn't really include them.
Please review! This is only the third story I've published but all of your critiques and criticism counts! Thank you for reading!
