.A Fool's Journey - Arcana I & II. Magician and High Priestess - Family Feud.
She couldn't seem to stop herself.
Using chakra was unlike anything she'd ever experienced—well, maybe besides being reincarnated into what was once a fictional world but that went without saying.
In the darkness of her room, only the faint light of her chakra clinging to her hand kept the shadows from swallowing her whole. She wasn't afraid of the dark—maybe just a little wary of it—but the dim light was comforting to her, barring the heat that boiled in her body and the twinges of pain she received every time she slowly summoned chakra to her hand.
The reason for why it hurt was up to debate as the knowledge Hisoka knew about chakra was relatively limited, something she looked to rectify once she had a slightly better grasp on reading. Saori-sensei hadn't been able to explain the source of her pain and abnormal sensitivity to chakra; she could only say that it could be narrowed down to a problem in the chakra network and that hopefully she would grow out of it.
For the time being, Hisoka settled on the assumption that this body was reacting negatively to chakra because her subconscious mind most likely perceived it as a foreign, invading entity as chakra was absent in her previous world; the pain could be viewed merely as an attempt to deter her from using the energy and the heightened senses she had could be explained in a similar manner.
Yawning softly, she sat up and brought her glowing hand closer to her face. She giggled quietly at the warmth that emanated from it, finding it mildly soothing but not as soothing as her Root stalker's fragrant signature, funnily enough.
Speaking of which… I don't even know his name. Hisoka felt her lips pursing as she pulled herself up and leaned on her crib's bar, letting herself teeter forward precariously. LFSMM was at her side in a millisecond, hands easily plucking her up and laying her back down. Hisoka did her best to hide her flinch of pain as she stuck her hands to the man's wrist, wanting to be closer to his soothing chakra signature for a bit longer—he was always skulking in the shadows, she never had the chance to experience it up close for literally more than half a second.
"Hisoka-hime, please release me." His voice was calm, completely monotonous. "And please abstain from continued use of chakra; the growth of your reserves are slight and prolonged use will result in severe exhaustion."
"Name?" She asked drowsily, only unsticking one of her hands to comfortably flop onto her back. "Name please?"
He grew quiet at that and, from the corner of her eye, she could see his hand twitching and feel his chakra signature jumping in minute uncertainty.
"Hisoka-hime, please release—"
"Name."
"Please relea—"
"Name? Please?" Hisoka knew she was being annoying but persistence seemed to be key when it came to these kind of people.
Instead of answering her like she wanted, he did something else that had her gawking. He took his thumb and index finger, placed them on either side of her wrist and gently squeezed. The stream of chakra she had to her palm was interrupted long enough for LFSMM to lift her hand and place it delicately at her side, leaving her gaping and giving the man ample time to retreat back to his dark corner.
W-What? What did he do to me? She brought her wrist to her face before tentatively channeling chakra to her hand, frowning when the dull, flickering light appeared with only that familiar pain. H-huh?
She let out a large yawn, the strain of prolonged chakra usage catching up to her. The orange-haired girl plopped back in her bed, pulled the covers up to her chin and hugged Ho-oh to her chest, too tired to pursue the issue any longer.
And I didn't even get his name, Ho-oh. The girl pouted before dropping off to sleep, not bothering to see if the bird had any cryptic words to offer this time around. I guess there's always tomorrow.
"She seems to favor using chakra during the night, particularly during the 2200 and 2300 hours."
Danzō grunted softly, tapping his desk as he listened to Hinoe's weekly report. Since the girl's first birthday, it was rather apparent that she had taken a liking to using chakra, albeit in rather rudimentary ways such as sticking her hands to things and creating faint lights—nothing to applaud but acceptable for a one year old with no prior instruction.
He squashed down vague, fuzzy memories of him and Hiruzen doing things similar when they were children, instead letting his mind wonder to why the girl would wait so late to toy with chakra. The most probable answer was that she thought she'd be in trouble—after the incident on her birthday, he had made sure to slowly and clearly explain to the girl not to use chakra unsupervised. He had meant for the girl not to use it unless he personally was supervising but he had neglected to say just that. Knowing her, she probably deemed Hinoe enough supervision...or she just didn't care about his orders.
Despite his initial vexation at the blatant refusal to heed his instructions, he couldn't help but find it amusing that she managed to find a loophole in his words and he couldn't quite stop the corner of his lips from twitching.
Too much like her mother... His mind muttered with a mixture of exasperation and another feeling he'd rather not acknowledge. Chiyome's civilian genes are much too strong for my liking.
"...asked for my name as well."
"What?"
"She asked for my name." He reiterated. "She was persistent but she succumbed to sleep shortly after, allowing me to return to my post."
Again, it wasn't impressive that the girl more or less demanded Hinoe's name... However, Danzō couldn't stop his mind from wandering to that moment when she had said his name for the first time; it wasn't the girl's feats that intrigued him but the awareness and thought that the girl had displayed that took him aback.
He had asked her to say his name and she had replied with such a clearness, sureness and with such a sullen inflection that it made alarm bells sound in the depths of his mind. It was like...she knew something about him, something that no one else should be aware of.
Danzō glared at a spot next to Hinoe's head, oblivious to the way the young man abruptly stopped his report, subconsciously intimidated by the dark glare pointed in his direction. "...Danzō-sama? Have I angered you...?"
He waved a hand, eyes still unfocused. "No. Continue."
"…Yes. Hisoka-hime's chakra reserves have grown by a moderate amount..."
Chakra... yes. The girl had managed to channel chakra to her hands all without prior instruction. There had been cases of some being inherently able to use chakra but it wasn't that; it was what she had used it for.
For a toy. It was to get her toy back from Hiruzen's oldest brat.
The girl knew that channeling chakra to the palm of her hands would have an adhesive effect and stick them to the ball, allowing her to take the object away from a bigger and stronger person. She may not have expected passing out less than five seconds after but she had been aware of the situation, was able to formulate a plan in response and execute it using a rather clever—but still relatively unimpressive—application.
"...eech is developing rapidly. She has made no signs of speaking in English, even with Chiyome-san continuing to speak to her in the language."
...And then there was the alleged English that Chiyome had claimed the girl had blurted. He still didn't really believe the woman but that was because he hadn't witnessed it himself. She had Biwako as a witness and, after knowing the Sarutobi woman for several decades, he could confidently say she was not one to lie but the skepticism remained; he needed more proof to go on other than two excitable women that had just previously been gushing over an infant.
What had Chiyome claimed the girl had said...? Ah, yes...
Hokage. Naruto. How, twice. Why.
She had called out a title and rank, the word for a ramen topping and maelstrom—two words that were of Japanese origin and, thus, didn't actually count—and a word that could be used as an adverb, a noun, a conjunction, an intensifier or in idiomatic expressions. The last word she exclaimed was also an adverb and noun. The rest of what she said was too difficult for Chiyome try and put together, while she claimed to not have ever heard a couple of the words the girl had spouted.
Did the words have some sort of meaning or context? He doubted he'd ever know; it wasn't like he was fluent in the rather mind-boggling and confusing language and Chiyome's knowledge, while broader than his, wasn't exactly enough to pinpoint whatever it was the child was babbling about. It didn't matter much, though, as the girl hadn't uttered a word of English since then and he doubted she would anytime soon.
Perhaps when she got a little older...
I'm giving the girl too much credit. He mentally groused, finally coming out of his thoughts to notice Hinoe had finished his report.
"...ould I do if Hisoka-hime asks for my name again?"
"I give you permission to tell the gir—Hisoka—your code name." He said after a moment of allowing his vision to refocus. "Explain to her not to tell anyone of your presence."
She won't tell. A voice whispered confidently. She hasn't told anyone yet.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he rested his chin on laced fingers, watching Hinoe slink back into the shadows. The girl hadn't told her mother of Hinoe's presence yet, despite the numerous chances she had to do so—there had been moments where he'd seen the girl blatantly staring at the Root operative, with both he and Chiyome in the same vicinity, but she still had shown no indications of wanting to reveal the young man's existence.
Any other child would promptly alert their parents of a foreign entity for any number of reasons—ignorance and fright were the most prominent ones.
Hisoka didn't, almost as if she knew that Hinoe meant her no harm and knew that her mother wasn't supposed to know of Hinoe.
It was moments like those, where the girl showed signs of that very same uncanny awareness that made a bud of hope sprout in his mind, made him want to believe that he had been given a child whose appearance belied a keen intelligence and talent.
…He wanted to believe that he'd finally be able to have something to hold over Hiruzen's head, in the form of a bubbly, orange-haired one year old girl.
"Hinoe."
She blinked up at the masked man with bleary vision, scrubbing at the dried drool on the corner of her mouth from her afternoon nap.
Confusion crossed her round features as she pointed a finger at him. "Hi-no-e? You?"
"Hinoe." He repeated again in affirmation before he melted into the darkest corner of her room. "You must tell no one else of my identity, Hisoka-hime."
"…'kay." The girl replied absently, drowsily as she wondered if her father had ordered the operative to tell her his name.
Really, Papa? If I haven't told anyone after this long, odds are I'm not gonna tell anyone ever. She snorted quietly. That man and his secrets...
Well, it's not like I'm not without secrets myself. She smiled sardonically. Like father, like daughter, right?
Kanji, she decided, was the work of pure, unadulterated evil and should be banished to the deepest depths of oblivion.
She puffed her cheeks up in irritation as she stared at the mess of green finger paint before her, the only legible characters being that for the numbers one, two and three—all of which merely required drawing horizontal lines. Her memory was impressive, yes, but Hisoka severely doubted that her brain had enough room to memorize the thousands of kanji needed for reading.
Why can't everything just be in hiragana? She groaned, slapping her hands down on her paper and sending finger paint flying onto her dress and onto the floor. Oh fiddlesticks!
"What are you doing? Making a mess?"
She yelped involuntarily at the sound of her father's voice despite feeling his bitter chakra approaching. She craned her neck to look up at him as she smiled brightly, wiping her hands off on her paper to clean them but doing nothing more than smearing more on her hands.
Her smile turned sheepish as she looked down at the mess. "Uh-uh, kanji."
"Alone?" He cocked an eyebrow at her excited nod before kneeling down next to her. "You've only written three—and the easiest ones at that. Is this the best you can do?"
"Too hard, Papa!" She whined, slapping her hands down again. "Too hard to 'member 'em all!"
His chakra rumbled with annoyance as he gingerly seated himself down next to her. A sharp flick on the back of her neck made Hisoka jolt in surprise and look up at her father inquisitively. He wasn't looking at her, his attention fastened on getting out a clean sheet of paper and pulling a brush out the folds of his top.
"The only reason this is hard is because you are making it hard." His chakra flared up, traveling to his fingers and then into the brush in his hand. "Listen and observe."
"Do not look at kanji and try to memorize them one-by-one, stroke-by-stroke. You will fail and end up as you are now: confused and utterly hopeless." He ignored her pout and noise of indignation. "Learning kanji can be simplified by learning radicals—smaller parts that make up larger, more complex characters. Here."
Hisoka watched with rapt attention as her father wrote out a series of kanji, mentally noting how pretty his handwriting was in comparison to her mother's.
"Look at these."
猫
He tapped the symbol. "This is the kanji for cat. It is made up of three radicals: animal—"
犭
"—grass—"
艹
"—and rice paddy."
田
She giggled. "How these make cat kanji, Papa?"
He flicked her on her neck once more, making her squeak. "That is not what is important. Instead of memorizing each individual kanji, memorize the radicals. Taking out the foundations will make toppling the overall structure much simpler."
She tilted her head, wondering if her father just made some kind of battlefield comparison with learning kanji, but, ultimately, she understood the point he was trying to make. Hell, she could already feel the process of learning kanji becoming a bit simpler; perhaps using mnemonics would help the process a bit more...?
Her stubby finger traced along the characters thoughtfully before she dipped her hand into her jar of finger paint. A cheeky, dimpled grin covered her face as she began to write, speaking aloud as she went.
"Animal in grass next to rice paddy is cat." She chirped out, triumphant at her sloppy recreation of the character. "...Think I can do it now, Papa! Thank you~!"
"Good." He paused. "Then you shouldn't have any problems memorizing all the one- through three-stoke radicals by the end of this week."
The orange-haired girl blanched, feeling herself about to defy reality and perform an honest-to-goodness Face Fault. She pulled back just in time, snapping her gaze up to Danzō's face so she could properly begin to whine, pout and complain about such a task...but something stopped the words from coming out of her mouth.
It was the gleam in his eye and the way his chakra shook so powerfully, like he was provoking her, daring her to complain and whine about the task he'd given her.
"I…"
He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you have any objections?"
But it wasn't a look of deterrence—in fact, it was the complete opposite. It was one of encouragement—of challenge—to prove to him that she wasn't just some ordinary child.
She wanted to scoff. As if she hadn't already proven her intelligence and talent; she was one years old—walking, talking (practically bilingual at this point), mastered hiragana and katakana and knew how to use and channel chakra!
Did she already mention all this was at the age of one!?
What else did the man want her to prove? What caused him to have such doubt?
you're bad at hiding…being a kid it doesn't matter...you're smart use it…why do you keep trying to hide it…
The reason she often told herself was because she wanted to be selfish; she wanted to lay around and play with toys and recapture the leisure that was absent in her previous adult life. Perhaps, subconsciously, she wanted to block out the fact that she was in Naruto, a once fictional world that had certain dangerous standards and expectations placed on the shoulders of small children.
Yet, she still acknowledged the supernatural elements of the world and was all too eager to embrace them for her own entertainment once she realized of what nature they really were. Even with the knowledge of who her father was and what that possibly meant for her future, Hisoka was unabashedly sloppy, continuing to use her chakra in front of the spy her father had planted to obviously gauge her wit and ability. But she had gotten complacent, sure that because she was little, her father would wait despite her practically flaunting her smarts right in front of him.
In essence, Hisoka wanted to have her cake and completely devour it, too.
This world didn't work like that, however.
Age seemed to have little to no relevance on what expectations this world placed on an individual's shoulders. Children were practically bred for war and trained out of the womb in this world. What was she trying to achieve by clinging to a childish façade that was crumbling the longer she existed?
Eventually, she'd have to put down the finger paint, the toys, the coddling and take up arms, not only because of who her father was but also because of what she wanted to achieve in this life.
That was the whole reason she even wanted another chance at life, wasn't it?
A smirk that made the young girl look uncannily similar to her father slowly formed as she crossed her little arms. "That's it? I can do one, two, three, four and five!"
His lips twitched at the corners, like he wanted to laugh but he managed to remain stoic in the face of her childish conceit. "Really?"
"Yup!" She jabbed a thumb at her chest. "Hisoka is best! Can do easy stuff like this no problem!"
"We'll see." Was the only thing he said but, for the briefest of seconds, Hisoka was sure she could see something like a smile on her father's face.
Chiyome stared down at her daughter quietly, examining the girl behind squinted eyes.
"…Hisoka-chan, do you need any help?"
"Nope." The girl replied distractedly before whispering quietly under her breath, "The fire in her mouth was delayed so it burns."
"What?"
"Don't bother her, Chiyome." Her husband's voice said from behind her. "She's learning."
Chiyome looked over her shoulder at Danzō before looking back down at her daughter's bent head with furrowed eyebrows. "O-oh, I see."
"I made tea."
Her lips curved down softly. "Genmaicha? You know I don't like that kind very much."
He grunted impatiently. "Hōjicha."
"R-really?" Her eyes opened briefly, showing a glimpse of grey. "For me?"
The dark-haired man sent her a flat look before turning to leave, the silent order to follow him left in his wake. Chiyome gave Hisoka one last look before rising to trail after Danzō, ignoring the way her heart panged at the sight of her daughter learning kanji so diligently.
Her second birthday was like the first, except she didn't pass out from using chakra.
The adults congregated together once more but Hisoka noticed that they all kept a furtive eye on the children—well, more of an eye than they had before as, if they had actually been paying attention, none of what happened last year would've transpired. At any rate, she wasn't upset about it, merely miffed that the adults were so self-absorbed that they let some brat hold her ball hostage as if he owned it.
Speaking of a certain brat, Hisoka was rather amused to find that, whenever she approached Taro, he would skitter away with his tail between his legs, taking refuge behind the Akimichi girl named Ine.
Poor little monkey. She mentally mocked, smirking as she messily stuffed some cake into her mouth. That's what you get for taking my ball. Fufufufufu...
A small hand reaching for her cake pulled her from her thoughts and, instinctively, she slapped away the encroaching appendage, narrowing her eyes at the offender. A woeful, teary expression stared back at her and she huffed out a small sigh as she continued shoveling more chocolate cake into her mouth, glaring lightly at the younger boy from the corner of her eye.
Asuma Sarutobi, apparent youngest son of Hiruzen and Biwako Sarutobi.
It was still difficult for Hisoka to acknowledge that she was older than him; images of his future self constantly overlapped with the large-eyed baby in front of her, making a distorted amalgamation of the two persons. Despite that, she could remember vague details about him—he got married to a pretty red-eyed woman, he had a really high bounty over his head, he had a smoking habit and he died in battle.
She sniffed, staring down at him as he once again tried to take some of her cake. At least you got married; I didn't even make it that far.
There was something else about him, too…
Something about him that made her cheeks heat and giddiness and excitement pool in her stomach; there was this urge that made her body and finger twitch, like she just wanted to jab it into someone's face while performing some outrageous pose. She tilted her head to the side, cheeks puffing out as she pondered the curious sensations as she stuffed more of her mother's tasty cake into her mouth. Noticing that Asuma had managed to grab some cake in her short moment of inattention and was in the process of putting it in his mouth, her hand once again lashed out instinctively.
"ORAORAORAORAORA!" She yelled out as she rapidly and repeatedly smacked Asuma's hand, causing him to drop the stolen cake onto the kitchen floor.
He squeaked in confusion, eyes blinking owlishly at her before he reached out towards the soiled food. Again, she smacked his hand, yelling out her battle cry before she pointed sharply at the whimpering boy. "No! No! No! Bad! No take cake! No eating off floor, Asuma!"
Then, she blinked before shaking her head.
As she used her free hand to push down her outstretched arm, flashes of another animated series flickered in from her subconscious. Ah, that was what Asuma reminded her of; a few aspects of Asuma's character was a homage to a particular main character from another well-known series—her favorite one, if the giddy feeling making her limbs jump meant anything. A faint image of the character's face appeared in her head, overlapping with the two already swirling in her mind, creating a hodgepodge of facial features.
My perception of this kid is gonna be messed up. She thought blandly, licking her fingers as she used her free hand to smack away the Sarutobi boy's as it once more reached for her birthday cake. "No cake for Jota— Asuma! I mean, Asuma!"
"Hisoka!" Her mother's voice admonished as she crouched down, removing the delicious plate of cake from Hisoka's grasp and placing it out of the girl's range—next to Asuma's grubby little hands. "Why are you yelling at Asuma-chan? And where did you get all this cake? I already gave you a slice before! Who gave you another?"
The young girl blinked up at her mother, trying to find a response before shrugging her shoulders. She very well couldn't tell her mother that she had practically went on an expedition to retrieve the cake from the island counter in their kitchen. How she managed to get the cake slice along with the accompanying plate onto the ground without any casualties—namely in the form of Asuma—was a complete mystery, even to her but she did know it included some pretty impressive and creative chakra usage, if she had to brag.
Thank goodness none of the adult shinobi came bursting in.
She giggled innocently at her mother's sigh, before her attention went back to Asuma. A pout deeply etched itself on her face as she observed the chocolate icing smeared over his face and the sedated gleam in his eyes. What was once a plate of beautiful, velvety cake was now nothing more than a mess smeared over Asuma's round face and clothes and it made Hisoka send the boy a hard glare.
He merely blinked back in return.
Sensing Biwako's sweet chakra signature before it even made it to the kitchen, Hisoka was not surprised when she heard the cry of dismay from the medic-nin. "Asuma! Look at this mess!" The brown-haired woman let out an exaggerated sigh. "Good thing I was prepared and brought an extra set of clothing for you."
"Hisoka's a mess too." The orange-haired girl watched with wariness at the gleam that appeared in her mother's eyes. "It looks like we'll have to get you into the bath~!"
Biwako's eyes seemed to gleam in the same way as she scooped up her son. "A bath? Asuma seems to need one as well. Would it be too much of a hassle if Hisoka-chan and Asuma shared a bath?"
Alarm entered Hisoka's face as she looked back and forth between the two mothers.
What the hell? Bathe them together!? Were they crazy!? It didn't matter if they were only one and two and technically shouldn't have known about male and female genitals and how inappropriate it was for two people to bath together—barring family or what-have-you— without being romantically involved with each other; Hisoka knew and that was all that mattered.
She flailed around and struggled, hoping her mother would get the gist but, with a deceptively strong hold, her mother was able to keep a grasp over her quite easily. Hisoka could only listen on in dismay as the two mothers giggled and barely hid their squeals of excitement.
"Of course I wouldn't mind, Biwako! Why, I was just thinking the same thing! No need for you to go all the way home when Hisoka-chan and Asuma-chan can just share a bath~!" Stars appeared around her mother's head—genjutsu?—as she cupped a cheek dreamily, still keeping a firm hold on Hisoka's wiggling and whining form. "You know where the bathroom is, yes? Just let me get Hisoka a change of clothes and the camer— Er, I mean, some ribbons for her hair and I'll be right there."
With another whine and waving arms, she was carried off in spite of her struggles. As they departed for her room, she felt her father's bitter, coffee-flavored chakra as well as Torifu's—the Akimichi who was Ine's father—chakra that reminded her of honey-glazed ham.
When the duo came into view, Hisoka desperately held out a hand towards her father, eyes tearing up as she called out to him, "Papa! Help!"
His eyebrow cocked as he watched her and her mother pass by. Shaking his head in disinterest, he took a sip from his steaming cup. "You're filthy. Take a bath." His face remained passive as he took one more sip. "Don't forget to smile."
Betrayal lanced through her heart as she thrashed around a bit more violently. "N-no!"
"Oh, stop it, Hisoka-chan!" Her mother said, patting her on the head. "You act as if you're dying; you usually love bath time."
Yeah, when I'm not sharing it with some little kid who stole my cake. She mentally huffed, crossing her arms together as her mother carried her under one arm. He's the reason this is even happening.
At that moment, a familiar voice whispered in the depths of her mind, bringing a devilish grin onto her face and goading her into doing what she did next.
Ignoring the sharp pricks of pain that filled her body, she summoned the chakra from her stomach and slowly guided it to her hands before reaching out and latching herself onto the wall next to her. A cheeky grin covered her face as she felt her mother jerk to a stop, followed by a cry of astonishment and then exasperation.
"Hisoka!" Her mother rebuked, shifting her grip so that both of her hands were on the orange-haired girl's waist. "W-what…!? Are you sticking yourself to the wall!?"
She snickered in triumph as she felt her mother pulling her, obviously taking care not to injure her fragile baby body. Unfortunately for her mother, the adhesiveness of Hisoka's chakra-covered hands were too much of a match for her—surely the woman would understand Hisoka's plight through such actions and forget about attempting to bathe her and Asuma together.
"Danzō! Your daughter is sticking herself to the wall so she won't have to get in the tub!"
But, gasp, oh no! Her mother had a trump card in the form of a person that was much bigger, stronger and merciless than she!
Hisoka found herself grimacing when she felt her father's chakra signature flare in irritation and, seconds later, the Shimura leader was towering over her with crossed arms and a severe expression on his face. She grinned sheepishly and a little guiltily as she wilted beneath her father's stare but she refused to release her hold she had on the wall—she knew that once she let go, her dignity would be no more.
"Let go of the wall." He said bluntly.
She pursed her lips. "But Papa—"
"Now."
Her lower lip trembled. "Papa—"
"I won't tell you again."
"I don' wanna get in bath with boy!" She blurted out. "Not good!"
There was a pregnant pause.
Above her head, she could see her mother and father exchanging a look.
"Hisoka-chan—" Her mother started slowly.
"Why don't you want to get in the bath with the b—Asuma?" Danzō interrupted.
Her eyes darted around, thinking of a way to explain how she knew about the "birds and the bees" without actually telling him that she knew. She had to draw the line somewhere when it came to all the things she was willing to reveal that she knew—to expose the fact that she knew about intercourse and genitals and how they all fit together would be devastating and cause her parents to question her mental capacity, which meant she'd be sent to the fair-haired mind readers—and that couldn't end well for her.
She bit her bottom lip, looking up at her father's waiting form through her eyelashes before she settled on, "Papa not get in tub with Hisoka."
He made a noise that sounded suspiciously similar to a snort. "That's correct."
"Papa is boy." She said simply, knowing the man would understand because he was Danzō, for goodness' sake.
Another pregnant pause.
Her mother audibly gaped while her father merely blinked.
"Where did you learn about se—"
"Danzō!" Her mother gasped out, both scandalized and horrified at the same time. "Don't say that word around her! She's only two!"
"It'll save us from having to tell her when she's older." He reasoned.
"Are you crazy? Do you even hear what you're saying?"
"Hisoka is to become a shinobi. Learning the basic fundamentals of reproduction wou—"
"Hisoka." Her mother's voice rose in order to drown out her father's words. "Let go of the wall."
"Chiyome, don't you interrupt me wh—"
"Let go of the wall! NOW!"
The orange-haired let the wall go with no more complaints, acutely aware of the agitation and anger her mother exuded, the aggravation and anger of her father emanated and the overall tension that was beginning to settle between the two of them.
Good job, Fool. Her fingers clutched the shoulders of her mother's dress anxiously. I really am bad at hiding things, aren't I?
"Sorry Papa."
"Why?"
"Momma mad at you 'cause of me."
He paused in tucking her in before he picked up Ho-oh and pressed it into her arms. "In time, you'll come to find that your mother is mad at me more often than not for various reasons. You merely hastened the inevitable."
Do not feel sorry.
Her eyes closed as she felt his presence leaving her side. "…I still feel sorry."
He paused again, chakra buzzing with an emotion she couldn't quite pinpoint before closing the door behind himself. Hisoka let out a soft sigh as she cuddled her stuffed toy, doing her best to allow Hinoe's steady, lavender signature soothe the guilt swirling around in her stomach.
For a while, her mother did not smile or laugh as often and her father did not eat dinner with them, either. They slept on different sides of the house and, when one stayed in, the other went out.
Using chakra wasn't so fun anymore and creating mnemonics for remembering kanji was no longer as simple as it had been. The mysterious voice that offered cryptic words of advice fell silent. Her mother and father kept their distance, leaving her with only Hinoe and Ho-oh as her only company.
The confidence that filled her only weeks ago seemed to dissipate in the face of her mother and father's silent feud.
She could only feel as if it were her existence that caused the rift.
"Chiyome."
"…"
"Stop being childish."
"…"
"Your selfishness is disrupting Hisoka's studies."
"…"
"Chiyome, answer me."
Her eyes opened, revealing slits of steely grey. "How many miscarriages have I had over the years, Danzō?"
He cocked an eyebrow, tapping a finger on his crossed arms impatiently. "What bearing does this have on our current conversation?"
"Five." She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "One when I was twenty, another when I was twenty-four. The third when I was twenty-nine. The fourth was at thirty and the fifth when I was thirty-four."
"…And?"
"Failure after failure, Hisoka is the first." She held up a finger, eyes clouding with tears. "She is my first baby to have survived, Danzō. I haven't even gotten to enjoy her yet you already want to train her and take her from me!"
"Hisoka becoming a kunoichi is tradition and an honor."
"I don't care about tradition or honor!" She threw her arms up. "Why is it so hard for you—for everyone—to understand that I don't want my baby to be thrown on a battlefield to die!? I go to Biwako for kami-knows-what reason! I don't know why I think she'd understand me; she's the Hokage's wife and a medic-nin, for goodness' sake! My other friends look at me weirdly and my own husband won't even put an effort in trying to understand his wife!"
"I see my little tangerine walking, talking, speaking words I've never taught to her in English! Witness her passing out from using chakra," She spat out the word, "at the age of one! See her memorizing and writing kanji that most children don't begin to learn until four at age two! Day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year, I see Hisoka get further and further away from me and all I can see is her ending up face down dead in some trench!"
"But that's honor, right? That's where you want your daughter to end up, right?" The woman scoffed, eyes falling back shut as she crossed her arms and turned her head away from him. "Oh but that's right… You weren't even interested in Hisoka until you saw she wasn't as useless as you thought she was. Silly me~!"
He scrubbed at his forehead, hot anger boiling beneath his skin. "Of course you would have such a simplistic view."
"Why? Because I'm a civilian?"
"Yes!" He snapped, eyes narrowing. "Because you are a civilian. You are pampered and ignorant to the structure of shinobi and the sacrifices we make for this village; it is the very same reason why civilians should not have a say in shinobi business during council meetings and—" He paused, eyes glaring down at her. "I don't even know why I'm bothering. Stay angry like you always do before you realize how foolish you are being."
Chiyome stood up as Danzō flickered out of sight, hands clenched into fists at the side of her as she stomped her foot. "Danzō! Danzō! Get back here and talk to me! I'm not finished!"
After realizing that her husband was indeed not coming back, the Shimura matron let out a harsh sob as she dropped back down, face hidden in her hands as she felt the cold chill of loneliness and isolation freeze her body completely.
In the darkness of her room, not even the warmth generated from her chakra nightlight could fight off the cold threatening to swallow her whole as she felt her mother's small plume of chakra shiver and vibrate with sadness.
Don't worry. She told herself as she clutched Ho-oh tightly. May we endure for night as joy cometh in the morning.
"Momma, where Papa?"
Hisoka noticed the way her mother's shoulders tensed, the way she sent a strained smile over her shoulder and the absence of her father's bitter coffee-flavored chakra she had gotten so used to.
"A-ah, Papa's out on a, uh, mission right now." She looked back down at the soapy dishes. "He'll be back eventually."
Her brown eyes dropped down to her plate of scrambled eggs. "Is it… Is it my fault, Momma? That Papa's gone?"
"What? No!" The woman wiped her hands on her apron, moving to sit down next to her daughter's high chair. "Anything that happens between your father and me will never be your fault. Ever." She smiled gently, stroking down an unruly curl. "It's just sometimes we have…disagreements and we say things and—"
"Is it 'cause of shinobi?" Hisoka interrupted. "'Cause I'm supposed to be a shinobi 'cause Papa's family?"
Her mother's eyebrows furrowed, eyes opening briefly to reveal pretty grey eyes. After a moment, she let out a soft sound that was like a combination of both a sigh and laugh. "It's…complicated, my little tangerine." She pressed a kiss to the girl's forehead before rising to her feet. "But…you are much too perceptive and smart for your age. Too much."
Suddenly, she clapped her hands together, a bright smile overtaking her face, though, her signature undulated with waves of stress, sadness and anger. "Let's not worry about all that kind of stuff~! It'll be just me and you for a little while so let's have as much fun as possible while Papa's gone~!"
"A-all right, Momma!" She smiled, doing her best to grasp at happiness despite it doing it best to get away from her clutches.
.
A/N: Arcana I & II - The Magician and High Priestess: Complete.
The themes of the two tarot this chapter is named after are relatively subtle, especially the High Priestess as the thing it represents is somewhat difficult to explain, though, I can say that the Magician and High Priestess are basically two sides of the same coin: action and inaction, conscious and subconscious, masculine and feminine—that kind of thing.
I think I'll explain it now while I'm at it: Ho-oh "speaking" is just representative of Hisoka's innermost thoughts. Actually, Ho-oh could be classified as the High Priestess of this story; she's basically the MC's subconscious mind personified, that voice in the back of your head that gives you advice—basically your intuition. So, as I said before, don't worry about Ho-oh being some important plot device or whatever because she's not.
Yes, I made a blatant reference to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure because I'm obsessed with it and I need help. I do believe I read somewhere (the JJBA wikia) that Asuma was a homage to the main protagonist of Part 3 as they have the same voice actor and the whole "Ora!" thing as well as the "Yare, yare." thing. So there's that.
Danzō and his wife get into a fight and Danzō leaves to blow off some steam. Probably messing around in the Root headquarters. Hanging around Hiruzen, who doesn't mind much because he doesn't want to fill out his mountains of paperwork. Cavorting with Orochimaru. Who knows? The next arcana/arc focuses on Chiyome—MC's mother, if you didn't realize for some reason—and will include her relationship with Danzō and how she views certain things. I think Chiyome is my favorite character at the moment; honestly, I think she has more of an "Earth" mentality than Hisoka does for her view on the shinobi structure and values. P.S. Chiyome has the anime Squinty Eye trope.
Then, after that, we can get to the fun ninja learning stuff with "Papa" Danzō :) LOL at him for suggesting to teach a two year old about the "horizontal mamba" to get it out of the way early.
(I really hope he isn't out of character.)
In regards to the kanji "lesson"—and I use that word loosely—I would not expect it to be right whatsoever so please don't follow it for your own personal lessons. I have very minimal knowledge of kanji and how it works so please don't flame me talking about how I was wrong and butchered a language. I'm sorry. I just wanted a father-daughter bonding moment and it just fit with her growth period, okay!?
Next, once again, thank you to maxizaxi for your insightful review. I also agree that Danzō is one of the more realistic characters—if not the only one—in the Naruto world. Danzō is more often than not crucified for his role in the story, being a main catalyst for many of the tragedies that transpired and a "bad guy" but his willingness to take up the "dirty jobs" of the shinobi world is indeed necessary to the upkeep of Konoha. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it, is the quote that sums up Danzō. Also, thank you for pointing out Nagato's age. I had to go to a previous chapter and correct something regarding the Akatsuki and it encouraged me to look up a timeline for the series, which is confusing as all hell, but was indeed needed.
Thank you, Enbi for your review as well. I especially appreciate more elaboration on Hisoka's personality and possible learning process. It didn't show up that much but she did indeed steal some cake using her chakra (just don't ask how).
Thank you, KlonoaDreams! I'm really glad you like this story~! I love all of yours as well. Danzō indeed would need some sort of miracle to redeem himself but Hisoka would be the one for the job! Or maybe she isn't. Maybe despite her good intentions, things won't end up the way she thinks they will. She is the Fool for a reason. Hopefully, I can explain more about the Shimura clan in later chapters because they—along with another clan that will not be revealed at the moment—confuse me with their absence in canon, though, it could be explained with them not being important or something.
And thank you to all my other reviewers as well. Just because I didn't point you out personally doesn't mean I don't appreciate your comments and encouragement. It makes my little heart pitter-patter~
Okay, I think that's enough with the A/N. I'll see you guys next chapter~!
EDIT: 04/08/2015: A reviewer, The Shameful, pointed out that two of the English words that Hisoka spoke were already Japanese and the last one wasn't really that noteworthy so I went back and edited what it was Hisoka said. I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't noticed it until someone pointed it out. I'm very sorry if it annoyed some.