It was snowing lightly on the day that Suzume was instructed to pack up all her belongings and bid farewell to her home. She didn't have much that she needed to take, just her clothes and her collection of books, since the thing that most of her life revolved around, tiny packets of fragrant leaves, were tucked neatly into bulky cases and already placed in one of the carts waiting in front of the building. After she finishes emptying out her closet and bookshelves into her bags, she makes her way down the staircase as slowly as possible.
Suzume runs her fingers along the cedarwood panels, taking in the lingering aroma of tea leaves mixed with pine needles from the roof's thatching with relish. As she made her way to the counter, she recalled her brother's calloused hands steadying her own small chubby ones as they guided her fingers carefully around the handle of a kettle, and somehow managing to keep her from spilling any of the searing hot liquid inside. Her relentless giggling as he glared and half-heartedly attempted to shout some sort of insult at her in between sneezes, only managing to inhale more powdered ginger in the process.
The stools and tables made of imported oakwood have already been sold, but Suzume can still hear the raucous laughter of men that stunk of brine and fish as her sister, Hasuno ("No, you're not coming with me. I can't have you ruining my rep. So you're gonna stay right here this whole afternoon, right?" "But Onee-san-" "I've told you a million times, don't call me that! it's really annoying and kinda weird.") whirls around them, balancing the tray loaded with tea and, whenever her parents were not present, somehow managing to keep up with their fast-paced banter as well. ("Makoto's still around, curse our luck. Heard that he started working for for the folks at Nonaka Oil." "Ah, so Takahashi-san, too, has become attracted to Lady Earth's assets? We'll see how much he enjoys them after he tries to drill her.")
More than that, she would miss the times when the whole family would huddle around the fire pit in the back room during an evening snowstorm. Tarpaulin would be drawn over all the windows and the doors would be fastened shut, keeping out the howling wind and biting frost, while a sparkling white quilt settled over everything outside. Sometimes, Hasuno would tell stories over dinner about strange spirits, impoverished scholars, and corrupt officials while shadows flickered around them and the flames illuminated her face in a golden-red glow. A few months ago, she had launched into a long-winded description of the way a fox youkai seduced a hunter while spinning one of her tales, at which point, her mother clapped her on the head with her steel fan and demanded to know who taught her 10 year old daughter to speak in such an uncouth manner.
Other times, after they finished eating, they would all spread out their futons around the fire pit and lie down, watching the embers from the fire float up to the rafters, except for Akihito, who would sit in lotus position as he recited poetry. Hasuno would poke him in the ribcage every once in a while, trying to get him to stumble over the words, but he would simply roll his eyes and continue on, not in the least bit fazed by her antics. Eventually though, he would come to a sputtering halt, unable to conjure up the following verses from the depths of his memory, and he would bury his face into the wool covering, trying to hide the bright red flush spreading across his cheeks. Then her mother's lilting voice would pick up exactly where he left off, slowly ferrying Suzume's mind off into a deep sleep.
Her brother's agitated calling breaks through her reverie. "Suzume, you better get yourself out here in the next ten seconds, unless you want me to restrain you while Hasuno braids your hair. I'm taking out the hairspray now-"
"Coming!" She hollers back, dashing out of the teahouse and leaping into the carriage where her family was already seated. She was greeted by strong hands closing in around her wrists, keeping them pinned behind her back.
"That was more than ten seconds. I counted."
Hasuno's face broke out into an terrifyingly wide grin as she combed her fingers through Suzume's hair, then suddenly yanked her head back so that she could tie up a few mousy brown locks that had been brushing over her left shoulder blade .
"So, as Akihito was saying, I was planning on doing something fun with your hair today. Maybe a bun on top, then box braids going around it, or…"
Suzume paled, shrinking away as her sister brandished a comb above her. She could already tell that by the end of the ride, her neck would be unbelievably sore. Her mother was somehow already snoring, her head resting on her father's shoulder, but he was still fully awake, watching the scene playing out before him from over his ledger with mild amusement. She directed a pleading look towards him, to no avail.
"One's appearance plays an important role in someone's first impression of a person," he stated firmly.
Hasuno smirked as she yanked the knots out of her younger sister's hair, ignoring the way her father's lips curled in distaste at her teasing. "Really, what would you do without us?"
The caravan began moving, and Suzume cast one final glance at her birthplace - the medley of wooden houses and ice huts built around the sealskin marketplace tents, the camps set up on the glacial ice fishing grounds. The boats, their sides draped in a dappled cloak of moss, lichens, and seaweed, their keels adorned with mussels and barnacles, docked by the coastline. The way the sunlight glinted off of the navy blue waves and caused the ice floes to gleam. It all soon faded away into the distance, swallowed by the horizon.
Needless to say, the path winding through the mountains was extremely treacherous, with the constant risk of an avalanche or branches from the evergreens looming high above them snapping off. The road itself was unpaved, full of cracks, patches of slick ice and snow, and loose rocks that threatened to send the whole caravan careening into a thorny ditch or off the edge of the cliffs. They stayed overnight in several small mining villages along the way. By the fifth day, the whole group was rather worn out.
Akihito was scowling intensely in his corner of the carriage, bracing himself against one wall and looking slightly green in the face. Hasuno let out another exasperated sigh upon her twentieth attempt that day to finish a simple fishtail braid falling apart.
"Hold still, will you? I swear, this is harder than trying to do calligraphy during an earthquake," she groused. Suzume was tremendously relieved when Hasuno huffed once more and finally released her hair, since her scalp was already raw and burning from all of the abuse.
Even her father looked somewhat perturbed as his glasses refused to stay perched on the bridge of his nose, continuously slipping off and forcing him to adjust them.
"Endurance is an invaluable strength," he said, "yet congeniality, at times, can be an even greater one," he added, leveling a quelling look at all three children.
The siblings straightened up and did their best to wipe their countenances of any signs of their discomfort at that. The rest of the journey was completed in utter silence, besides their mother's soft breathing. Much to their envy, she was still dreaming contentedly, despite the way that the carriage jolted violently as it rolled over the rough trail. The carriage wheels began to rotate more slowly as they reached the mouth of a tunnel running through the mountains surrounding Yukigakure, from which the echoes of loud hammering and the shouts of construction workers rang. Suzume's father warily stepped out to speak with the leader of a squad of jounīn that seemed to be guarding the site. After skimming through their papers, Suzume could hear him say something about a new railway line to her father before giving him a curt nod and sending them on their way.
It was only a couple more hours before they reached a different passageway through the mountains, but this one was flooded with vehicles, which caused them to be stuck underground for quite a while, waiting for the traffic to clear. The cart in front of them was stacked with crates of cabbage, the lids clearly tied down poorly with cheap twine, as visible icicles formed on the green leaves that peeked out from within. Another cart, to the left of them, reeked distinctly of manure and was buzzing with flies. Its stench permeated the carriage and did not improve any of the travelers' moods at all.
When they finally made it through the tunnel, Suzume peered out the window at the city. Skyscrapers built predominantly using concrete and coniferous woods towered over them. Thin panels of translucent ice into which intricate flowery designs were engraved stood in place of tarps in shoji windows and doors. Fluorescent lights from within crystalline lanterns seemed to cast a rainbow-hued halo over the streets. They stopped on the northern outcroppings of the village, outside of one of the side gates of the Mizuki Residence.
A swarm of retainers began whipping around them the moment that they stepped out of the carriage, unloading the cart that was stocked with their possessions with stunning efficiency and ushering them up the marble steps towards the great stone doors of the complex. The Mizuki Clan crest was painted over the doors in gold, two broad, swooping brushstrokes that came to a taper at the end, emulating two goldfish circling each other in a lake. A couplet was written on the broad wooden poles framing the entrance.
"looking past the shards the yolk is found / in two hearts entangled one soul dispersed", he read in a faint mumur, his breath condensing into small puffs of steam as it came in contact in with the air. He stared dazedly at the insignia for a couple more minutes until Hasuno lightly punched his arm.
"Come on, let's go. You can space out and be all freaky later if you want, but I'm not waiting for you here all day."
They were guided into a sizable chamber where a woman who looked to be in her sixties sat with her legs crossed on a bearskin rug. It was hard to tell her true age due to all the makeup she was wearing, but the roots of her hair were gray, something that no amount of dye would be able to remedy, and a crooked wooden cane rested by her side. For some reason, Suzume felt like steadying its owner's gait was not its only or main woman's gaze seemed hazy and unfocused, and they seemed to be listening to someone, but nobody in the room was speaking from what she could tell. Remembering her father's instructions, she kept her head bowed, tracing a single woodgrain across the floorboards while trying to make herself appear as small as possible. Her mother's hand slipped into hers, grasping it tightly as her father strode forward.
"Good afternoon, Yume-sama, Aiko-sama, it is an honor to be in your presence today," he announced, bowing deeply.
"Welcome back, Masanobu. It is good to see that you are still so...invested in family matters even after all these years," they responded with a thin smile that didn't quite meet their eyes. They paused for a moment, tilting their head to the right. "Shigenobu-san is not present right now, but he will be at the banquet tonight. He has missed you dearly."
Their demeanor warmed ever so slightly as they turned towards Suzume's older siblings.
"You must be Hasuno and Akihito,"
Their hands were intertwined, and for the first time, in that very moment, she was suddenly struck by how similar the two were. They had the same jet black hair, the same stunning sapphire eyes, and the same pattern of creases formed on their foreheads when deep in thought. They both had an obsession with shrimp stir-fry, a propensity for putting on a tough front, much to her irritation, and were both relatively tall for their age.. They were fraternal twins, but as most people pointed out upon their first encounter, they could have easily passed as identical if not for their sex. She never really paid attention to it before, most likely because she knew them for way too long to consider them as anything but their own individuals, so that their shared characteristics had never seemed that significant to her.
"It's a rare occurrence for our kekkei genkai to be inherited by more than three pairs pair per generation, especially by members of the branch family, and by offspring produced with a civilian, no less," They gave her father a minuscule nod of approval before their attention shifted to Suzume, not even sparing a glance towards her mother, and the temperature within the room seemed to drop several degrees again as their expression became blank.
"We were not informed of a third child." She kept her gaze affixed to the same grain in the floorboards while they studied her face with the same clinical interest reserved for a dissected specimen mounted on a slide.
"You have your mother's eyes," they remarked, the unmistakable venom that tinged their words enough to make her mouth go dry and her palms begin to sweat.
"Thank you," she mustered out, somehow managing to keep herself from trembling under their unwavering scrutiny.
If they were irritated by her reply, the clan head's face certainly did not show it.
"You all may take this rest of this afternoon to settle into your quarters on the fifth floor of the western wing. Training for you two begins at dawn in the central courtyard. Do not be late."
Random Irrelevant Information (RII):
[1] Thanks to RasenShuriken445 for their kind encouragement. I don't really have an aptitude for writing so 1,000 words already requires quite a bit of effort on my part, and even if I do manage to write that much, it's usually not that good (this chapter: case in point). Honestly, I'm just writing this to get a few ideas off my chest. The storyline and characters are based off of the backstory to one of my original works (that will never be completed at the pace I am currently taking it). Also, I am fairly young for this site, I think? So basically, don't expect anything of quality from this story.
[2] I apologize for any grammatical/spelling errors that I didn't notice during editing. Feel free to be as harsh as necessary when critiquing, it's already frustrating enough that I could barely include everything that I wanted to convey in this chapter over the course of a whole week and it's still so poorly written, so I would totally appreciate any advice that you may have.
[3] Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. That much should be clear from how little I know about its universe. (Haven't touched the source material in years)