I couldn't say why exactly, but the house is tense these days. Ka-san acts mostly the same as ever, and same with Tou-san. But something seems different.
Hideo and Asano don't seem to notice but Ka-san and Tou-san are acting funny with each other. Maybe Tou-san doesn't want to have another baby? Maybe he feels like he never gets any attention with all the new babies? That's how Hideo said he felt.
Hideo's been acting funny to actually. He keeps trying to make a stick grow because Ka-san said he can join me at the academy if he does. It's not working, but Hideo keeps insisting he's getting 'better' or 'closer' each time stares intently at a stick clutched in his hand.
He's putting a lot of work into it.
Asano is fun to play with now because she doesn't mind if I don't want to run around like Hideo does. Also, Hideo stops getting mad at me for laying around when Asano is laying with me. She always wants me to tell her stories and she asks a lot of questions, but she doesn't get upset if I don't answer.
She asks a lot of questions though.
"Why the sky blue, Oni?" Asano asks, with rather convenient timing. Ka-san is taking them to the park. Usually she doesn't leave the house very often, the neighbours don't like her very much, but Asano wanted to come and she's still too little to be left alone. Or maybe it's something about Asano because I'd swear Hideo was allowed to come with me when he was three.
"I'm not sure why the sky is blue. Maybe it's the ocean reflecting on it. Or maybe it's because the Great Sage painted it blue."
"Who the Grape Sage?"
"Great Sage. And he's the guy who invented ninjutsu and chakra."
"In-ve-nt chakaa?"
"Invent chakra," I say slowly. Hideo never needed me to say words slowly, but Asano always does.
"Oh!" Asano chirps, looking excited, "what chakaa?"
"Chakra. Cha-ka-ra. It's ahhh- I'm not sure. Ka-san can tell you better but it's what keeps you alive and let's shinobi do cool things."
"Ka! Ka! What chakaa?" Asano asks, running up to reach their her as she walks with Hideo. Yoko turns and smiles, but it looks wrong.
"Chakra is the lifeforce that every living thing has. It's a mixture of physical and spiritual chakra. Your ka-san has a lot of physical energy, and your Tou-san has lots of spiritual energy, so all of you will be very strong!"
"I strong!" Asano shouts with a smile as Yoko lifts her up. Asano's kinda small. Maybe it's just that I haven't realised how much Hideo's grown since he was three, but she looks pretty small.
"Not yet you aren't," Ka-san says, tickling Asano's stomach lightly. I run up to Hideo, I don't need to watch Ka-san favour Asano any more.
"Are you still working on the stick?" I ask in way of greeting. Of course he's working on the stick. It's a bit silly because neither of us have conscious control of our chakra yet, so even if Hideo did have the ability to make his stick grow with chakra, he wouldn't be able to do it until he could move his chakra on purpose.
"Yeah, I think I've almost got it!" Hideo says with a bright smile. It sounds like great news except for the fact that he's been saying it since a week after he started trying.
"That's great. Now what do you think, is Ka-san going to have a girl or a boy?"
"I dun know? Why?"
"I bet she has a boy."
"Okay? So?"
"So if she has a boy you have to clean my room for a week."
"And if she has a girl?"
"Uh… then I'll?"
"Then you'll clean my room for a week!"
"That's not-"
"It's perfect! I can't wait to find out!"
The worst part was the Hideo was being completely genuine. There was a two out of three chance that the kid was a boy. Since ka-san had already had three kids and two of them were boys, a boy was more likely. That said, Hideo's room was always a mess. It wasn't even that he never cleaned his room - he did, once a week when Ka-san made us, but it immediately got messy again.
Cleaning his room for a week would take all week. (No time for thinking! Or reading! Or naps!)