Chapter 6 – Bad Hair Day

Shuffling around on her bed half-asleep, Naruko felt an odd prickly sensation around her body. She kept changing positions on the bed, hoping to alleviate it, but after several minutes, she decided it was futile and started to get up. Her hair was tangled all around her body and arms, she realized. She heard birds chirping outside across street on the roof in front the window, indicating it was early morning. A few people could be heard here and there too, but she mostly ignored this, as she yawned. Moving over to the edge of the bed, she dangled her legs over and attempted to fix her mass of disordered hair. This wasn't a thing she was used to dealing with, and something seemed a bit off about it… Every time she managed to arrange a group of threads behind her the prickly sensation ran through her body. Naruko paid it no mind, until she had finished untangling the rest of her hair, and shifted it behind her shoulders.

It was then she discovered what was amiss—her hair was seemingly floating behind her in a wavy and swirly forms, almost as if it had a life of its own! She kept trying to brush it down with her hands but it just kept slipping away each time, and she became more and more confused by what was happening. Getting off of the bed, she was very unsteady on her feet, due to her seemingly feather weight body. It was like trying to standup with both feet asleep and she wobbled around trying to gain her balance, as her hair flailed around, mocking her efforts further. Her head was spinning and her sense of orientation was thrown off as she finally topped to the floor on her butt. Dizzy she brought her hands up to her face and attempted to steady herself, shaking her head from side to side, before trying to get back up again. It worked— for all of a few seconds – before she lost her balance again and ran headlong towards the refrigerator. She managed to brace herself with her arms, an instinctive reaction, before she banged against it and fell down again.

Her face was flushed now and her eyebrows were twitching, as she was further confused by an insistent pang. This is what they called clumsiness, wasn't it? She had never experienced it before, but remembered what Ojii-sama had told her. The pang was also bothering her, but she had no idea what it could be. Standing up while leaning on the fridge for balance, she tried again to fix her hair once more. This time bundling it forward, then holding it down for a minute, before twisting it back around behind herself and letting it go. It was no use, she realized, her knee length hair just swirled and waved around again, despite best her efforts.

Giving up, she decided to go to the bathroom and wash her body which she finally realized, wasn't hurting very much at all compared to yesterday. The tingling feeling continued though, as she unsteadily tried to make her way over to the other room. It took a significant amount of effort to just to stay on her feet and she still wobbled precariously while walking, her long hair threatening to throw her balance off with its random movements. Glancing towards the front door to her room, she realized there was someone behind it and reached over to the nearby chair for balance.

A situation like this had happened only twice before, once was when Ojii-sama had sent someone to guide her around the city when she first started living here. The other time… she couldn't remember it for some reason, but felt certain that there had been another occurrence. It was odd, like there was fuzzy part to her memory was missing, but when she tried to recollect it her head started to ache painfully. A knock finally came, causing her to stop thinking about it, the throbbing subsiding quickly.

The door was only a few feet away, so she managed to reach it without too much trouble. When she touched the doorknob though, a zapping sound made her draw her hand back quickly and gasp in a small voice, "Umh." Was there something on the doorknob? No, it was the same one as always, but for some reason when she touched it a sharp pain stung her hand.

The figure behind the door knocked again lightly.

When she touched the doorknob again nothing happened, but she drew her hand away instinctively. Thinking nothing more of it, she unlocked the knob and started to open the door. Her hair decided to take decisive action, and whipped through the crack like air spreading through the room. The person behind the door hopped back in alarm and readied a kunai all in the same motion. Naruko steadied herself a bit holding the doorknob with one hand then opened a gap in the wild flow of hair to peek through. A pleasant scent, much unlike the rest of the trashy surroundings outside the room assailed her nose, "Yuhi-sama?"

The woman blushed lightly as she lowered her kunai and stuffed it back in its holder, "Yes, it's me, Naruko-chan." The mixed expression, she wore earlier when she was waiting outside the door had been replaced by surprise, embarrassment, and now bewilderment at the spectacle before her. It appeared that Naruko's hair was being blown through the opening in the door by a strong gust of wind, but since she didn't feel any disturbance against her own body, she was puzzled.

"I know, I mean is anything wrong? You jumped back when I opened the door", Naruko replied in small voice, while trying to keep her hair from getting in her mouth.

"No… umm… your hair?" she asked hesitantly, clearly surprised she had been recognized immediately by Naruko.

"Oh…" she glanced down and stayed quiet for a few moments. "I don't know it's being kind of—", she sneezed suddenly as some hair tickled her nostril, "—weird today." Gazing back at Kurenai, after rubbing her nose, she asked, "Do you want to come in? It's hard to talk like this."

Kurenai smiled warmly, "If you don't mind."

Naruko opened the door carefully, battling with her hair, which was now wrapped around the rim of the door.

Kurenai giggled a bit, despite herself, as she watched Naruko struggling just to open the door. It was certainly strange watching the hair move around seemingly on its own like that, mainly because it was so unexpected. She initially thought it was some kind of jutsu at first, but watching the hair carefully, it was apparent there was no rhyme or reason to it. When the door was open wide enough for her to go through, she stepped inside, and knelt down to help Naruko free her hair from the door. Successful, she closed the door and turned her attention back to the small girl.

Her earlier anxiety about this meeting had completely dissipated, having been replaced with by a strangely pleasant feeling, as she stared at Naruko. Even now, Kurenai found it difficult to believe this girl harbored the demon fox biju, whom so many people loathed. Though she had not been adamant about it, she did harbor some discontent towards this girl at one point, but now she had begun to wonder if it all had been terribly misplaced. If so, than Naruko has been just as much of a victim as everyone else, from that tragic attack six years ago where so many villagers had been killed. Why was it she just now came to realize something like that?